Just a mont ago.
I was sitting inside Bimanar, in the private room prepared for .
Sitting in a chair, checking the rewards for my achievent.
But then.
“Where...... the hell is this?”
Right after I finished checking the rewards.
When I ca to, the place I was in......
Was an unknown space, glowing pure white in every direction.
Why I’d suddenly been dragged to a place like this.
There was only one thing I could think of.
{Transcendent beings who toy with fate recognize your existence.}
“The system said it had been protecting us from unknown sothings.”
The mont that protection weakened.
That sothing that recognized my existence dragged here.
Fuck.
Cold sweat ran down my body.
My breathing sped up.
With the enemies I’d t until now.
Their power had been beyond imagination, sure—but it still belonged to the physical realm.
No matter how monstrous their brute strength was.
Even if they could flip the climate of an entire wide region.
It was still a level I could understand.
“This isn’t that.”
I wasn’t wandering around outside.
I’d been safely protected deep inside Bimanar, and it dragged to a place like this anyway.
This......
Was power beyond my comprehension.
And.
{Heh heh...... Now that’s one scary-looking bastard.}
“......!”
At the sudden voice.
I flinched and snapped my head around.
And there.
{What are you doing just standing there like an idiot?}
A beautiful garden that didn’t belong in this pure white space at all.
An East Asian-style pavilion sitting in the middle of it.
{Co over here and sit.}
Inside it sat a withered, tiny old man who looked like he was easily over a hundred.
*****
His face was carved with countless wrinkles, his flesh hung loose, and liver spots were scattered everywhere—an eerie old man.
Wearing what looked like sothing you’d only see in so old period drama, he stared at .
“Is he closer to East Asian......?”
His face looked so old I couldn’t even tell that for sure.
And, after I’d observed him that far.
“......Sothing’s off.”
A strange sense of wrongness seized .
An odd alien feeling that wasn’t there before.
This is...... yeah.
“{Ingredient Identification} isn’t working?”
Even though I kept watching him.
My trait didn’t activate.
Ever since I got this power.
There shouldn’t have been such a thing as an unknown existence in front of .
Even if it was sothing far higher-ranked than .
As long as I could see it with my own eyes, I’d been able to grasp at least part of its nature.
“Who are you?”
{Who are you? What a stupid question.}
But this one wasn’t like that.
How?
{I’m the one who dragged you here.}
Hoorok—
The old man took a sip of tea and continued.
{So, are you going to keep standing there?}
“.......”
{I went through the trouble of preparing good tea, and you won’t even answer. What a rude child.}
According to the system’s explanation.
That being was probably what it called a transcendent being.
Sothing I couldn’t possibly oppose in my current state.
{Co up here.}
“......Uh, um. Yes.”
I had no idea what would happen if I went against it.
So I did as it said.
I climbed up into that unknown pavilion and sat in front of it.
The old man who’d been drinking tea glanced at my face and said,
{Your soul is shaking. You look very tense.}
“.......”
{Well, I understand. This must be sudden for you.}
Just like it said.
I kept my whole body tensed, staring at it without blinking.
But then.
Blink......
“Huh?”
The mont I blinked.
The old man who’d been sitting in front of vanished.
Instead.
The one drinking tea in front of was......
“A...... little girl?”
The complete opposite of the old man from before.
A little girl who looked maybe ten.
{Don’t worry too much. I have no intention of harming you.}
A tone far too weighty to co from a child’s mouth.
The girl was naturally continuing the story the old man had been telling.
A being with a completely different appearance and voice.
At first I thought soone else had appeared.
There had been multiple lords among those Belsnickel things, after all.
But.
“It’s different from the lords.”
Instinctively.
I could tell the old man and this girl were the sa being.
“......You said you don’t intend to harm .”
I kept my guard up.
And took the teacup it offered , opening my mouth.
“Then why did you bring to a space like this?”
It says it won’t harm , but.
I couldn’t bring myself to trust that so easily.
To begin with, it wouldn’t have dragged here for no reason, just because it was bored.
{Don’t be so irritated. I didn’t want to do sothing this annoying either. And besides.}
At my question.
It frowned like it was annoyed, stared straight into my face, and said,
{Whew...... No matter how I look, I can’t see even a speck of talent.}
“What?”
{I didn’t want to drag you here either. Even if the situation can’t be helped...... to think this is the only option. Tch. All I can do is sigh.}
A sudden scolding dumped on out of nowhere.
It was already infuriating enough to get kidnapped and dragged here, and now I was getting insulted without even knowing why.
{I don’t like it, but it can’t be helped.}
“......?”
{You asked why I called you here? The answer is simple.}
With a smooth motion.
A gaunt-looking middle-aged man pointed at my face and said,
{To help you.}
*****
{I don’t like it, but I intend to help you. So stop being on guard.}
“......?”
That—what do you call it.
Even if you say that.
“Like hell I’d believe you.”
It’s the one that kidnapped and dragged to this space.
That alone was terrifying enough.
Hoorok......
{You’re lucky. In a dangerous ti, there happened to be a being nearby who could help you.}
At so point, the being’s appearance had changed again.
First, an old man who looked over a hundred.
Then, a ten-year-old little girl.
And now, a young man with a face so handso it made you jealous just looking at it.
“This isn’t a normal existence.”
A being whose outer form kept changing.
And the way it accepted that constant change like it {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was nothing made it feel even more grotesque.
If I just trusted it because it told to.
There wasn’t a bigger sucker than that.
No matter how overwhelmingly powerful it was.
No matter if it was a being that could imprison in this space forever.
I couldn’t just roll over here.
“I—”
How could I trust you.
I opened my mouth to say that.
“......Wait.”
But, right then.
The instant I opened my mouth to speak, I felt......
One strange sensation.
“You are.”
Through that sensation.
I realized one fact.
“You’re seriously...... saying you’ll help .”
A sensation that felt familiar and unfamiliar at the sa ti.
A strangely clean, plain feeling on the tip of my tongue.
{Ho...... I thought I’d have to waste ti persuading you.}
This being was favorably disposed toward .
That realization—no.
{Good. Looks like you’re not a complete idiot.}
That......
I could taste.
*****
“......What is this?”
At first, I thought the being had hypnotized .
If it could drag into a place like this, it might be able to control my mind too.
But......
My instincts were telling .
“This is my sense.”
This realization I’d just felt.
Ca from my own senses.
“For so reason, it’s favorably disposed toward .”
The sensation was so unfamiliar it felt alien.
But once I understood that fact.
This pure white space.
And this garden and pavilion sitting inside it like a wrong note.
Didn’t feel purely terrifying anymore.
“May I ask one question?”
{Go ahead.}
“You said you intend to help .”
Once I realized the other side wasn’t hostile.
I could throw away my caution and ask a little more comfortably.
“I don’t even know who you are. Why are you trying to help ?”
It had definitely said this.
—To think this is the only option.
I didn’t know the details, but it had so kind of goal.
And I was an “option” for it.
I wanted to know what that goal was, but.
{Hmph. I told you to ask a question, but.}
It took a sip of tea.
And said with a flat expression,
{I never said I’d answer it.}
“.......”
Well.
That’s true, I guess.
“Is it sothing you can’t answer?”
{Yes.}
“Then can you at least tell why you can’t answer?”
{No.}
“......Then at least tell who you are.”
{No.}
“Then at least a na.”
{I don’t want to.}
.......
This bastard......
I could tell it was favorably disposed toward .
But it looked like it had no intention of telling anything beyond that.
“Then at least tell what I should call you. I can’t keep calling you ‘you.’”
{Hmph. That point has rit.}
It rubbed its chin and thought for a mont.
Then opened its mouth quietly.
{Mirinae.}
“......?”
{Call Mirinae.}
Mirinae.
This probably wasn’t its real na either.
“Understood, Mirinae. Then...... why did you call here?”
It says it’ll help .
But it won’t tell who it is, or why it’s helping .
Then what was the point of calling here in the first place?
{I told you. To help you. More precisely...... to protect you.}
“......?”
Protect ?
“Protect from what?”
{The outside beings.}
......Outside?
It was a sudden word.
But there was sothing I could connect it to.
[Transcendent beings who toy with fate recognize your existence.]
The very thing the system had ntioned.
I instinctively realized.
“What it’s trying to say now.......”
Was connected to what I’d been so curious about.
The structure of this world.
{It seems this world was originally completely cut off from the outside.}
“Was it?”
{But...... about a year ago by this land’s ti, the wall that protected this world collapsed, and its existence beca known to the outside.}
If the curtain broke, that ant.
The line dividing outside and inside disappeared.
“The day of destruction.”
It ant the day when the things outside.
Could enter the inside.
{And anyone who took even a small look into this land would have noticed. In this land...... there is no “protector.”}
“.......”
{A weak world with no protector....... the best possible condition for outside beings to covet.}
At that.
I clenched my teeth.
“A protector.”
That thing I’d had to feel unfair about over and over.
The fact that Earth had no powerful being protecting it.
And.
That ant.
This destruction we were experiencing was happening because of that.
“Why did the wall of this land collapse?”
I threw the next question while clenching my fist tight.
For so reason, it was favorably disposed toward .
And it clearly knew things I didn’t.
Then.
“I need to learn everything I can from it.”
With that thought, I asked.
And unexpectedly, it answered my question without much resistance.
{I don’t know why the wall collapsed either. I didn’t witness that mont myself. But.......}
“But?”
{A world’s outer wall does not collapse for no reason. There must be a reason.}
At least.
It ant this destruction didn’t happen by accident.
I asked the next question imdiately.
“After that wall collapsed, all kinds of bizarre beings have been flowing into this world.”
{Of course.}
“I understand those are beings from other worlds. Are those what you call the outside beings?”
It said it brought here to protect from outside beings.
So I’d thought it ant those monsters.
But.
{No. Those are nothing more than things that flowed in. They are different from the outside beings.}
“Then what are the ones you an?”
{......Hmph.}
At my question.
It had changed into the form of a beautiful noblewoman wearing an elegant palace gown, and frowned.
Seeing that expression, I asked,
“......Don’t tell this is also sothing you can’t answer.”
{No. It’s not that. It isn’t difficult to tell you.}
“Then why are you holding back.”
{It isn’t difficult to tell you...... but it may fall short to explain it with words.}
She hesitated for a mont.
Then gestured to and said,
{Co here. Closer.}
“......?”
{Hurry.}
At her gesture.
I felt confused, but I still shuffled closer to her.
Then she sat in her lap and said,
{Like I said, it’s hard to explain with words. So.......}
She held from behind.
Her hand moved toward my eyes.
{See it for yourself.}
Her fingers were chillingly cold as they covered my vision.
And through the gaps between those fingers......
“Huh?”
The pure white world collapsed.
As the white wall broke apart.
What appeared beyond it was.
“Darkness.”
An endlessly wide darkness.
Endless void filled my vision.
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