Chapter 76
There was a saying that life was a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy when seen from afar.
Usually, this saying was interpreted to mean that up close it was painful, but from afar it was seen as part of a flow.
In my case, however, I tended to focus on a slightly different aspect.
A tragedy when seen up close.
What I was trying to say was a bit simpler than the original interpretation.
Tragedy, unlike happiness, tended to feel excessively long to the person experiencing it, and had the quality of being impossible to shake off even if one tried.
A tragedy seen up close.
Unlike comedy, it tended to cling distinctly to one's life, following them forever.
Therefore, this cruel scene unfolding before me as well.
No matter what comedy this man with these memories writes, thinking he could never escape this tragedy, I was passing through these memories when,
[Die... Die.]
The man who killed his family with his own hands suddenly looked at me.
Gripping a sword, he started rushing at me quickly.
I thought it was a simple illusion, but it seemed to be a somewhat contradictory real illusion.
So I blew the man away far with shadows and approached the heart.
[I-If only I had died instead.]
[Please give me a chance to turn back time... If you do, I'll give you everything I have.]
[Tran... Parin.]
As I got closer, the man's sobbing gradually grew louder.
Perhaps because that sound was quite bizarre, Daisy in my arms clung tightly to me while making "myeong" sounds and started looking around nervously.
Thinking she might be scared, I was moving my feet when, the black heart's beating became rough and started creating many men crying tears of blood around it.
Seeing this, I told Daisy to burn those guys, then quickly moved my feet and advanced towards the black heart.
As I was advancing like that, I saw a scene of people wearing black robes approaching him and speaking to him.
[We can recreate the dream you desire.]
[Of course, you'll never be able to die and will suffer eternally.]
[But you'll be able to get Tran and Parin back. Isn't that a pretty good condition for you?]
...The moment I saw this, I could understand the general context.
A man who killed all his family to survive, constantly regretting it, it seemed he had been tempted by black mages and become like this.
It's not a particularly special story in this world, but.
Seeing this, several questions arose.
For example, the black mages I've seen would choose an extremely simple method like kidnapping rather than trying to make a “contract” like this.
The point of insisting on making a contract was strange.
The fact that black mages coincidentally came when he was wallowing in despair seems too contrived.
And the reason why the murderers made the man kill his family.
It was also somewhat incomprehensible that he regretted it so much despite readily killing them when told to do so.
So thinking this situation itself was quite strange, I was wondering about it when suddenly one speculation arose.
The thought that perhaps those murderers might have been black mages.
If so, I can understand both the reason for making a contract rather than kidnapping, and the reason for making him kill his family.
As researchers of negative emotions, they could certainly do such things...
Wait, negative emotions?
At the words “negative emotions,” my mind started spinning quickly.
Looking at the old man... no, the black heart that had completely become a demon race, I came up with one hypothesis.
Perhaps demon race was something that could be created by humans.
[Huu-uk, huk.]
The miserable sobbing voice of the old man is heard from inside the black heart.
As I approached hearing those sounds, the black heart desperately tried to push me away by making reddish-black thorns protrude from its body.
[Please forgive this unworthy father.]
[If only you could be happy through this pain...]
[I'll pay any sacrifice.]
A voice that sounded like it had given up everything was heard.
Hearing those sounds, I frowned and paused for a moment.
Then I brushed away all the thorns with my hands and calmly said, "To be honest, I don't understand the pain you're feeling at all, no, I don't even want to understand it."
It was a cruel thing to say, but as the saying went, it was a comedy when seen from afar.
Because when it was not my business but a third party's, it felt like a simple incident rather than a tragedy.
"I can't know your name, what your family looked like, and furthermore, why you made such a choice."
It was difficult enough to accept my own close tragedies, let alone accepting others' tragedies was nearly impossible.
So I had no intention of touching his misfortune, but…
"But I'll take revenge for you. That's something I'm good at."
Since burning black mages was something we could agree on, I reached my hand into the black heart, grabbed what I expected to be beads, and spoke while tearing them out.
...To be honest, I didn't know if my words would reach the old man or not.
Moreover, even if they reached him, I thought it was meaningless words as someone fallen into despair probably wouldn't listen to me.
Nevertheless, I thought they were words that needed to be said, so I finished speaking and pushed the beads into my mouth.
The moment they touched my mouth, massive power started surging through my body.
It couldn't compare to the beads I ate in the Golden Castle, but it contained enough enormous power to say I had clearly grown stronger.
Not bad.
To be honest, it didn't taste good, but I was somewhat satisfied with the fact that I had grown.
Suddenly, everything that made up the shadow city started falling apart like puzzle pieces.
It seemed everything was collapsing because the core maintaining it had disappeared, so I was pondering what to do when suddenly, I noticed one method flashing through my mind.
Can't I just dominate this shadow city?
...It looked like a high difficulty, but there didn’t seem to be any other way.
With that judgment, I immediately drew up mana and started scattering it throughout the city, dominating the shadows.
The resistance wa much fiercer than expected.
Probably because this shadow was not an ordinary shadow, but black magic composed of the unique demonic energy of demon race.
The moment my mana mixed with Daisy's power touched it, it seemed to have a rejection reaction and tried to push me away.
Smiling slightly at that resistance, I decided to do as I always do and decided to push in more power.
I strongly manifested power while trampling the demonic energies remaining in the shadow city.
Whoosh!
If I were to dominate this huge shadow city alone, it would have taken a lot of time.
Fortunately, I had the sun spirit Daisy by my side.
Daisy, who could strangely cause great damage to black magic and demon race, like a predator roughly devouring prey, started purifying all the surrounding demonic energies and dominating everything.
"...Amazing."
As I quickly dominated the surroundings like that, Siren, watching this, admired and said to me, "I've never seen anyone dominate mana this quickly before."
It was somewhat gratifying to receive praise from Siren of all people.
I smiled slightly, then focused my mind again and started reconnecting the shadow city that was fragmenting.
As I said before, there was intense resistance, but most of them quieted down when trampled with force, so as I was absorbing everything and spreading out, one huge mass was deeply embedded and not allowing my invasion.
Thinking it would take some time because its size was bigger than expected, suddenly that huge mass stopped moving, then started falling down and coming to be directly absorbed by me.
What's this?
I didn't understand, but since dominating the shadow city was urgent, I decided not to think deeply about it and started quickly capturing the surrounding shadows.
Although it was an incredibly outrageous act because the port city's size was too large…
It was possible to dominate faster than expected, so just before the shadow city collapsed, I succeeded in dominating the entire shadow city.
...That was tough.
As I felt my breath coming out roughly and collapsed on the floor, Ruen urgently approached and wiped my forehead with the hem of her clothes.
The problem was that when she wiped my forehead, Ruen's clothes were lifted up and I could see her lower abdomen, but…
If I don't say anything.
Thinking it could pass without anyone knowing, I wasn't showing any reaction, but Ruen seemed to have noticed this fact midway through, because after wiping my forehead, she was slowly moving away from me with a bright red face.
...I thought maybe I should say something and moved my lips, but thinking it would be better to just stay quiet, I pretended not to know and took a deep breath.
Anyway, what's important is that this shadow city has become mine.
I was blankly looking at this, then wondering if I could return it to its original state, I waved my hand.
The devastated shadow city was restored to its original form and changed into the appearance of a splendid port city.
Seeing this, I wondered if it was possible to change it to “the form I want”, so I tried to create the form of a modern city pursuing efficiency, but it seemed it would take longer than expected, so I gave up midway and shook my head.
Let's do it later.
Thinking I had no strength at all to do this because I was tired, I was lying on the floor when Siren, who had been detecting something, made a calm expression and brought up one thing to me.
"I found Liana."