TL/ED – Miso
Dark Night, of course, I already knew she wasn’t in her right mind before eting her.
But I hadn’t expected it to be to this extent.
“Y-Yes?”
“I said I’ll give you 700,000. Can you not understand simple words?”
As Piercing Blood stamred at her completely unimaginable answer, a murderous aura imdiately seeped into her voice.
“You seed like soone who wanted a fair price, so I doubled it. But what more are you trying to demand? You seem way too greedy. Don’t you know where you are right now?”
It wasn’t just mild irritation, hatred surged up imdiately.
As Piercing Blood stood flustered at the drastic emotional shift, so sudden it was hard to believe she’d been calmly conversing just monts ago, I stepped forward.
“Dark Night nim. I apologize, but may I say a word?”
To redirect her fury, I spoke as politely as I could. At the very least, to shift the target of her anger onto .
“Ah, right. You’re called Undercurrent, yes? Nice to et you.”
But Dark Night didn’t get angry at .
Like so lunatic (which she truly was), she instantly changed her deanor again and greeted in a gentle tone.
“I’m Dark Night. How old are you? You still look young.”
That question ca up thanks to the mask I was wearing. It seed she hadn’t heard anything from Decay.
“I’m not sure, but I think I’m in my early twenties. I was abandoned as a child, so I don’t know my exact age.”
“Abandoned? By your parents?”
Joy crept into Dark Night’s voice at those words.
“I see, that’s a sad story. Could you possibly take off your mask?”
“I’m sorry. It’s related to the Burden.”
“Hmm, I see. Then it can’t be helped.”
Dark Night accepted it lightly and kindly gave her permission.
“So, what did you want to say? I’ll listen, go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
I didn’t understand why, but from the recent exchange, I could tell one thing, Dark Night had suddenly taken a strong liking to .
I didn’t know the reason, but either way, this was an opportunity. One I absolutely couldn’t miss.
“From what Piercing Blood nim explained to , if I were to beco your…”
I paused briefly, choosing my words. Picking the word that would win over the listener most effectively.
It’s what I’ve done my entire life. Like water flowing, the one word distilled from all the prior conversation left my lips.
“…‘family’, I heard I could receive many things.”
“Ahaha, Piercing Blood explained it well!”
Fortunately, I had picked the right answer.
Dark Night clapped her hands together with an even brighter expression.
“That’s right. If you beco my family, you can be freed from that hellish Burden. Forever.”
“Wow, that’s truly astonishing.”
I nodded in admiration.
Of course, I didn’t believe her. Even if such a thing were possible, the price would surely be a life more horrific than the Burden.
“My heart wants to make all of you my family, but, haah… it’s realistically difficult.”
“…”
“So I gather only the children who really need help and adopt them. Even if they’re a bit lacking in quality. But…”
Her voice turned sultry.
“You… you look really good.”
“Thank you. May I ask what you found appealing about ?”
“You’re big.”
It wasn’t sexual harassnt. She was talking about my World.
“My World needs a lot of large families, you see.”
“…Why is that?”
“Hm, what should I do? That’s a Secret Affair only the family knows, you know…?”
That sticky gaze could be felt even beyond the window.
How laughable. I smiled lightly and knelt down.
“If you can resolve my Burden, I would even give my life. I still have things to do in the Material Realm, so I can’t do it right away, but after that, I will surely beco a mber of your family.”
“Really? Let tell you one thing, I’m not a patient person.”
“One week. Please wait just that long.”
“Can I hear what it is you’re trying to do?”
“Revenge.”
I clenched my teeth. I conveyed the intense emotion with my words.
“Before I’m freed from the Burden, while it still remains, I want to face the root cause and eliminate it myself. Please, just wait a little.”
“Haah, if you beco my family, none of that would matter…”
Dark Night slowly added, as if there was no helping it, shaking her head from side to side.
“Normally, I don’t accommodate conditions like this. But I really like you. Yes, I really do. So I’ll make an exception this once.”
“Thank you. I’ll be sure to rember there won’t be a second ti.”
“I like how quick you are on the uptake too. You… right, I’ll make you my Elder Brother.”
“…”
It took a trendous amount of effort to keep my expression from twisting.
At those words, one of the marionettes sitting next to her suddenly stood up in surprise.
“Ah, Dark Night nim. Making him a second-degree relative so suddenly…”
“Why?”
“That’s, there are those who are waiting…”
“Hm. I see. Should I be the one who cares about that?”
“…”
Apparently, even when turned into marionettes, so of them still retained bits of their consciousness.
“Piercing Blood, the World-Sealing Pill will be given to Undercurrent after he becos my Elder Brother. At 700,000, you have no complaints, right?”
“Y-Yes! Th-Thank you very much!”
Piercing Blood, quick on the uptake, imdiately bowed low.
“Then now, go. Finish that revenge of yours as soon as possible. If it really doesn’t seem doable, you can even ask for help. I’ll take care of it within a day. Of course, I’ll still let you deliver the final blow yourself.”
“Yes. I sincerely thank you for taking my circumstances into consideration.”
“No need to thank . We’re going to be family soon, after all.”
Dark Night accepted my thanks with satisfaction, then stopped just as I was about to leave, as if she had rembered sothing.
“Ah, right. Co to think of it, I forgot to ask.”
“Ask what, exactly?”
“Is there, by any chance, a friend of yours who’s on a similar level? Even if not quite to your degree, I think it would help if there’s soone.”
I was about to say no, then suddenly, sothing flashed through my mind.
I nodded cautiously.
“Yes. There are a few, but…”
“Really? Then could you ask them if they’d be willing to beco family?”
“Yes. But I don’t think it’ll be easy to persuade them. People from the Lower Tier seem to have strange preconceptions about you, Dark Night nim. I’ve heard such things myself.”
“Tsk, those bug-like creatures always spreading weird rumors.”
Piercing Blood, who had beco one of those bug-like creatures, lowered his gaze.
“So if you could perhaps explain the part about the Burden you ntioned earlier, I think I could use that to persuade them. Just saying the Burden disappears likely won’t be convincing enough.”
“Hm, I suppose that much is fine.”
It seed this didn’t count as a Secret Affair of the family, as Dark Night responded without much care.
“It’s simple. If you beco my family, your Worlds will also beco Puppets.”
“…?”
What was that supposed to an?
“You an… my World would beco a Puppet as well? But wouldn’t that an I receive the Puppet’s Burden?”
“That’s not how it works. I take on all my family’s Burdens.”
“Excuse ?”
“Just as I said. I receive all your Burdens. Even now, thousands of Burdens are wrapped around my body.”
So.
In exchange for turning into a Puppet, the original Puppet, Dark Night, bears all the Burdens.
“Of course, in return, you won’t be able to use the Puppet World. If I allow it, you can use a small portion of it from within, but then you’ll have to bear the Burden from the Puppet too. It’s difficult, so I don’t force it.”
“I-I see.”
The risk of being unable to use one’s World ant nothing compared to the rit of not receiving a Burden.
If everything she said was true, then Dark Night was practically a saint.
Not that I believed it.
“Then why do you go out of your way to make Fallen into family? You must be taking on that much more Burden by making them family…”
“Wanting to grow one’s family is human instinct, isn’t it? Of course, it’s not like I gain absolutely nothing from it. There’s a little bit of benefit for .”
Dark Night replied with a light laugh.
“Actually, my World is on the smaller side. Being in the Upper Tier, it’s still bigger than most of the Lower Tier, but when amazing children like you show up, it’s hard to get a look at what kind of World you have.”
“But Dark Night nim, your World reaches places that take a month of travel.”
“That’s because my family is connected there.”
It took a mont to understand those words.
“…!!!”
And the mont I did, chills ran down my entire body.
“So, the Worlds connected through your family. In other words…”
“Oh? Looks like you figured it out.”
She acknowledged it as if it were nothing.
“That’s right. My family are indeed Puppets, but in the end, they’re my Puppets. It’s not a different World with the sa na, it’s just one World.”
“…The size of the original Fallen’s World, that’s what it amounts to.”
“Right. That’s why I like it when they’re big. It makes my World that much larger.”
This was, if I had to compare it, it was a massive pyramid sche.
A pyramid sche with Dark Night at the top.
She devours Fallen and spawns offspring called family.
The offspring beco her. Though they are called family, and possess different mories, appearances, and even genders, in the end, they are re doppelgängers bound to the sa Puppet World.
If she spreads those around, then wherever, whenever, it becos Dark Night’s World.
This is no longer an issue of size or scale. The more Fallen Dark Night devours, the more the world is covered by Puppets, and eventually, the entire Material Realm will be placed under the Puppet.
Dark Night grinned thickly. That’s how it felt.
“Ah, was I not supposed to say this?”
“…Even if it’s the family’s Secret Affairs, I will soon beco family, so I think there is no problem.”
“Mm, right. Then I’m counting on you to persuade them.”
So this is the Upper Tier.
This is what the Crimson Circle really is.
It went beyond disgust, it was terrifying.
But even more terrifying than that was the final thing Dark Night said.
“I’ll be waiting, oppa.”
*
Once they exited Dark Night’s palace and confird the surveillance was gone, Piercing Blood imdiately asked with a puzzled expression.
“Wh-What the hell? Why didn’t you attack?”
“Like I said, I couldn’t. If I’d shown even the slightest sign of hostility, we would’ve been the first to die.”
I rubbed my neck. Just monts ago, a thread had been wrapped around it.
Even though I had pushed my current sense to its absolute limits, I couldn’t see anything anymore. As I let out a small sigh of relief, a tightness returned to my chest.
It was that Burden I had once told Dersia about.
“Ugh…”
“What’s wrong?!”
“…It’s nothing.”
I need to resolve this unknown Burden quickly too.
After calming down a little and explaining in detail, Piercing Blood now wore an expression of disbelief.
“So, the mont we stood before her, we were already in a state of death?”
“Not exactly. We’re alive right now, aren’t we?”
“If the enemy holds the power of life and death, that ans we’re dead. We just survived thanks to the enemy’s rcy. Did you at least find a way to resolve this?”
“No.”
It was a hopeless answer.
To be honest, I didn’t even know when that thread had been wrapped around .
Even if I had known, whether I could’ve prevented it is a different matter.
The possibility of assassination was practically blocked.
“…Then.”
Piercing Blood now looked utterly despairing and clutched his head.
“So we have to give up…”
“?”
“To be honest, if everything you said is true, I can’t even see a way forward. How can we possibly stand against sothing like that? We were chasing a hopeless dream…”
“No, what were you even listening to say just now?”
As I snapped back in disbelief, Piercing Blood flinched.
“Didn’t you just say there’s no way?”
“I said it’s difficult. And…”
I glanced briefly toward the Manganji Kingdom, where Dark Night resided.
“I did find a way, sohow. She told everything herself.”
“…Is that true?”
“It’s a bit off to say I can ‘kill’ her, but… let’s call it a breakthrough.”
All Worlds possess a Burden.
And that Burden depends on the nature of the World.
As soone of the Deep Sea, I received imnse pressure. Wihwa, who had been dreaming daydreams, couldn’t distinguish between reality and dream.
Then what of the Puppet World, which infinitely replicates itself to expand its domain?
“But I need to verify a few things.”
“Verify?”
“Yes.”
The Upper Tier really was full of absurd monsters.
But I already knew that, ever since I t Decay and Lump.
Resolve was the only elent I possessed in sufficient amounts.
“She said a week…”
The ti I had promised Dark Night.
Within that ti, either Dark Night or I, one of us would die.
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