Chapter 204 - Black Dragon (3)

3

“Ahhh. Somehow, I thought this would happen.”

By the time the sound of the waves had grown familiar and soothing, the Black Dragon leader stretched, looking refreshed.

“Well, deep down, I expected we might end up like this someday.”

“Oh, you did?”

“Yes. The moment I see someone's face, I can size them up. How close we can get, and how to get close to them. My instincts haven't been wrong since I turned twenty-five.”

“That's pretty amazing.”

“It's all a product of experience.”

She snorted.

“After enough rounds of getting your hopes up and being disappointed, you get a rough idea of how much staying power people have. Oh, right. I'll keep using your epithet instead of your real name in front of the others. You don't mind, do you?”

“I don't mind... Uh, why?”

“Why else? It would be embarrassing if you were the only one calling me by my real name in public.”

She said that quite smoothly for someone whose face showed no embarrassment whatsoever.

“Try not to call me [Senior], either. It gives me goosebumps on the back of my neck. I absolutely hate flaunting relationships in front of other people.”

“Well, sure. You have a point... But isn't using different names only when we're alone even more embarrassing...?”

“A difference in philosophy. Good, we've already found something to disagree about.”

She nodded, then took something out with her [Item Storage] skill.

A cube studded with little round dots. A die, that staple of gambling dens the world over.

She also brought out paper and a pen.

“Mr. Kim Gongja.”

She looked at me with solemn eyes.

“Wh-what is it? You're scaring me.”

“You will now sign a [Friendship Contract] with me.”

“... What?”

A what contract?

“I've always believed that every relationship between people should be put in writing.”

She was utterly unapologetic.

“Humans make mistakes. Whether you've lost it after staying up all night or your brain's turned to mush after twenty straight days of work, sooner or later you're bound to slip up. No, even if everything seems fine, little feelings accumulate over five or ten years and eventually become a problem.”

“Uh...”

“A contract is absolutely necessary, if only to prevent precisely those unfortunate incidents. It's essential if you want a healthy, wholesome relationship.”

What was she talking about?

Seriously, what was she talking about?

“Of course, every [promise] must be made by mutual agreement. Neither of us can force the other. For the first clause of our contract, I'd like to write, [In the event of a disagreement, roll a die and follow the wishes of whoever rolls the higher number].”

“...”

“What do you think?”

“I see.”

The attendant spirit, who had been silent until now, picked his nose.

“I get it, Zombie. You've made friends with a real handful...”

I was flustered.

In all my not-so-short life, I'd never met anyone like this.

“Uh, uh. Hmm. I guess that sounds okay?”

“Think seriously!”

She snapped at me.

Whyyy?

“People who don't know any better think friendship means being completely honest without questioning or examining anything, but it absolutely doesn't. That kind of relationship is only possible when your personalities happen to mesh. If you really want to maintain a relationship, you have to use your head! Yes, your damn head. Friendship only works if you put that head of yours to work!”

“Y-you're right, but do we really need a contract...?”

“It's convenient. If someone breaks the contract, we can stop being friends right away.”

What? I was confused.

Everything I'd ever understood about friendship was being shaken to its foundations.

“A wishy-washy attitude only gets you a wishy-washy relationship. Kim Gongja, if we're going to start something, we need to lay a solid foundation from the beginning. Either agree to the clause or give me a properly reasoned objection.”

“...”

I racked my brains, even drawing on capacity I didn't normally use.

As a result, our [Friendship Contract] began with a truly historic opening sentence.

+

[Friendship Contract]

This contract is entered into at the request of Anastasia Zelensky (hereinafter A), with the consent of Kim Gongja (hereinafter C).

A does not trust the shelf life of human emotions and is convinced that only a diligent attitude and an industrious intellect can place the relationship between the two parties on firm ground. Accordingly, A and C pledge as follows.

1. All promises are valid only upon the agreement of both parties.

2. All promises may be annulled upon the agreement of both parties.

3. However, promises may be established or annulled only on the weekend of the relevant week (Saturday or Sunday).

4. In the event of a disagreement between the two parties, they shall roll a die and follow the opinion of whoever rolls the higher number.

Name: Anastasia Zelensky (Seal)

Name: Kim Gongja (Seal)

+

I stared down at the contract in a daze.

Was this truly the best we could do?

“...”

“What are you doing? Hurry up and stamp it.”

She urged me on.

A little scary.

“I don't actually have a personal seal...”

“You have fingers. Use a fingerprint.”

“Right...”

I stamped it.

As I left a red thumbprint, I thought, 'Still, isn't it a huge relief she didn't suggest writing it in blood?'

In those thirty minutes, I had come to understand the Black Dragon leader's personality in exquisite detail.

“Good.”

She examined the contract with a satisfied expression.

“Not bad for a start. Well, even with this, we'll hit a rough patch in year two or year six. Nothing to be done about that. I'll have to do my part.”

“We'll still hit a rough patch after all this...?”

“Kim Gongja,” she murmured.

“Don't underestimate human fickleness. These hairless beasts turn into different people after just six months.”

It was a declaration delivered with tremendous conviction.

“Father! Father's companion!”

Having signed the first friendship contract of my life, I heard a familiar voice. My son Uburka was running toward the docks.

“Where did the two of you disappear to? I've been looking for ages.”

“Oh, sorry. I just had something to discuss with Ana—”

Before I could finish with “Senior Anastasia,” the Black Dragon leader's boot slammed onto my foot.

“Urrghhhkk!”

Pain shot up my leg to my throat and burst out in a spectacular scream.

Clearly, this wasn't her first time stepping on someone's foot.

“... Th-the Black Dragon leader. We had something to discuss.”

“Yes, something only the Death King and I could share.”

She smiled softly.

“Your father and I have a rather special relationship.”

Uburka stopped dead.

“A s-special relationship?”

“Yes. You could say we're one of a kind to each other.”

“One of a kind...?”

“How embarrassing. What am I saying in front of the child? Anyway, we're finished talking. What brings you here?”

“The villagers... have all awakened... It seems the problem has mostly been resolved... I came looking for you... to report that...”

In the middle of his muttering, Uburka abruptly looked at me.

His eyes gleamed terrifyingly.

[The constellation ‘Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father’ demands an explanation from you!]

No.

You've got it wrong, you idiot.

Forget explanations! She's just using me to reject you!

“Father, is what she just said true...?”

“Death King, did I say anything that wasn't true?”

My son and my dear friend looked at me side by side.

Not even in my countless repeated deaths had I faced a situation like this.

A father's love, supporting his son's romance, or friendship, respecting my friend's feelings?

“... Son.”

“Speak, Father.”

“The Black Dragon leader here and your father...”

I swallowed.

“... Do indeed have a special relationship.”

Uburka's face twisted.

Silence.

The hobgoblin's thick lips quivered, and his long eyelids trembled violently.

“I really hate you, Father!”

Delivering a line reserved for adolescent boys, Uburka ran off into the distance. His aura-powered flight was lightness art in its purest form. Leaving only great fat tears behind, he vanished beyond the horizon.

It was the moment his first love in hundreds of years shattered to pieces.

[The constellation ‘Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father’ suffers a grievous emotional wound.]

[The constellation ‘Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father’ grows more distrustful of humans.]

Ah, ahhh...

I despaired.

“No, Uburka. My son. From birth until death, your father holds only one person in his heart... How could you misunderstand like that...? You should have understood what I meant, even if I said it badly...”

“Thank you.”

The instant Uburka disappeared, the Black Dragon leader became impassive.

With a graceful sweep of the back of her hand, she brushed aside her hair.

“Thanks to you, I've shaken off that troublesome child. I'll ask you again whenever someone annoying latches onto me, Kim Gongja.”

“Aren't you using your supposed friend a little too freely...?”

“Really, what are you talking about?”

She smiled brightly.

“I use you freely because you're my friend.”

It was the third time I'd seen that smile.

And probably a face I would see countless times from now on.

4

There is an epilogue to tell.

“You were wrong.”

“...”

The seven-year-old version of Senior Anastasia stared at me.

The Dream World.

The settlers on the new continent who had fallen asleep had now all awakened. The sailors who had crossed the sea had also returned safely, apart from a few unfortunate victims. Though the Black Dragon leader and I had needed to spend Civilization Points to make that happen.

“I came back to tell you that.”

With the incident resolved, today I had entered the Dream World once again.

“... I don't know what you mean by wrong.”

The little succubus answered curtly.

Behind the dream demon stretched the same wire fence as before.

Broken barbed wire and a worn-out fence.

The lingering traces of a civil war.

The race of dreams lived as parasites in those scars.

“When we first met, you told me Senior Anastasia imagines people's deaths whenever she meets them. That prevention is best, and so she seeks unlimited power to prepare and take precautions endlessly.”

“That's right.”

“But I've become her one exception.”

Gunshots rang out.

“You saw it yourselves, so you should know.”

A man was running toward the fence, holding a child's hand.

It was like a broken videotape replaying the same section over and over.

In that world of broken footage, I spoke quietly.

“You can understand Senior Anastasia, but you can't change her. It's a natural limitation. Your race lives only in the trauma of a past that's already gone.”

“...”

“I subdued you by force. You backed down because you weren't as strong as me. But if that makes you think the relationships we form in the world beyond here are governed solely by force, you're mistaken.”

“What are you trying to tell us?”

“Don't get cocky, you little punks.”

I sent red aura blooming out in every direction.

The pink-stained world deepened a shade.

The dream demon flinched, drawing in its shoulders.

“You can say whatever you like. Attach plausible-sounding words like [power] and [logic], and it looks as if you can cut the world to suit yourselves. But the world isn't thin enough to be snipped apart by your scissors.”

“...”

“By your definition, what under this sky isn't power?”

I charged the edge of my hand with aura.

“Subduing someone is power. Persuading someone is power, too. By that reasoning, sharing the burden of someone's past and walking beside them is also a kind of power. You're competent enough to replay people's dreams, and utterly incompetent beyond that.”

“We...”

“Can never change Senior Anastasia. I did. You're less capable than me, weaker than me, and ultimately, you've lost.”

I swung my hand.

Aura cleaved the space.

The fence broke, instantly turning into pink foam and disappearing.

The father and daughter trying to escape through the narrow exit melted away as well.

“Try to be a little more capable by the time I arrive in the next era.”

“...”

“I'm giving you hundreds of years. If you're still repeating the same behavior, well. I'll have no choice but to turn back time and wipe you out for real.”

It was simple.

The dream demons would merely be added to my hundred ghosts.

I rose to leave.

“Even so, how many can there be?”

The dream demon glared at me.

“One? Two? Could there be ten? Twenty? Could there be a hundred? Even if there were, they would be less than a handful of dust in the world you live in. What meaning is there in that?”

I snorted.

“If you're so worried about numbers, why don't you lend a hand?”

“...”

I spread my aura, severing my surroundings from the Dream World.

Master could probably cleave this place in a single strike, but that level was still beyond me.

For now, the best I could do was make room to move.

[Quest Clear!]

And my best had worked in this stage, too.

Just before leaving the Dream World, I looked at the dream demon.

The little Black Dragon leader was biting her lip in evident frustration.

“I look forward to our next meeting.”

'I declare the stage cleared.'

As I murmured inwardly, bright light enveloped my vision.

[Stage Clear!]

[The thirty-fifth-floor stage has been cleared.]

[Rewards will be calculated after entering the thirty-sixth floor.]

[Chained floor progression in progress—you will be forcibly transported to the thirty-sixth floor!]

To where my dear friend was waiting.