31 – Teacher (1)

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a certain street. Unlike Solucio, the streets of the city are surrounded by tall concrete buildings. A dull city indistinguishable from dust. Anyone who walks here for a few minutes will get a sore throat. There was a lot of dust due to neglect of cleaning, and the dirt showed no signs of being cleaned. Dirty begets dirt. A city where all low, insignificant, and light things gather.

In such a city, someone was walking with me by the hand.

Her hands were tanned brown, and her hair was down to her shoulders. Her hands were full of calluses, giving her an idea of her life. Still, she was a person with a very bright smile.

“Hey! Today is finally the day when the next volume of ‘The Snow Butterfly’ comes out! Let’s go quickly!”

“Where’s the crazy b*tch who leaves it at 6am…”

“Here it is!”

The girl who introduced me to the world I came to live in, the girl who no longer exists, the reason my heart was frosted because I couldn’t see her dying, my dearest friend. My destroyer who taught me human affection. It was difficult to recognize the friend’s face because it was drawn directly with black marker, like graffiti on a famous painting.

“Let’s go quickly and wait! We have to win first place!”

Since the dead man was holding my hand, I immediately realized that this world was a dream.

I’ve been able to sleep at best, but my life is very difficult to have dreams like this.

I took her hand and held her chin, leading me to my hand.

“Sage. Why are you doing this to me?”

Why in her guise, she pranks me with her and the city she walked.

Looking like a friend of mine who heard my words, he smiled and turned around. I murmured softly with a little regret and pain.

“Did you catch it?”

The forest of buildings in the city that used to fill my sight disappeared, and a void of nothing filled this place. This is the view from the Tower of the Sage.

“How did you know? Very few people notice a sense of incongruity in their dreams.”

Where did the sage throw away the authoritative tone of that time? Only the mischievous girl’s voice remained. The image of the friend who was dragging my hand earlier disappeared, and only his voice remained.

“I don’t dream of dead people.”

I don’t dream of dead people. If I dreamed of such things one by one, my dreams in my previous life would be filled with new people every day. Every day would have been a gloomy weather. Remember, live with resentment, but never dream in your dreams. If your heart hurts even during rest, write it. Because sleep is unpleasant, I tried not to have such a dream and lived my life. Whether my efforts were rewarded or if the spirits of the dead had compassion on me, the dead stopped appearing in my dreams.

Come to think of it, it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve had a dream. I couldn’t sleep, so of course. In the meantime, dreaming that I want to dream also worked as a dream. Of course, I didn’t want to dream of such a dream. I didn’t want to dream in the first place. Because dreams are forgotten, distorted, and unattainable. Because it fades like a person’s memory.

“And if you wanted to play a prank, you should have changed your voice. If you wanted to give her a happy memory that would soon turn into sadness, you should not have covered her face.”

“Sorry, I meant to give you a present. I was short of it.”

Furthermore, the scene was reproduced, but the voice and face were not reproduced. How can you not notice it?

“Why are you here?”

I asked bluntly. My REM sleep, which was happy until I had a dream, was ruined. I was offended. So, whether it be a wise man or a nabal, I will grumble and treat my opponent. Even if she is the only one who can grant my wish, I will expose my irritation that my happiness has been hindered.

Unfortunately, my irritation was not so effective, the sage’s tone was flat.

“Um… Nothing special, I came here because I was just worried that you might have given up on the ordeal.”

Give up? It was a question. Where is the reason for me to give up the ordeal?

“You searched for me to sleep, but now you know how to sleep, right? It takes a lot of cooperation, of course.”

“Don’t worry. There’s no reason to give up on the ordeal.”

Is it truly a human life to be helped by someone every time you sleep? No way. I’m sorry to Lillia and Innis, so I can’t ask them to sleep with me every day. It’s better to pass the ordeal as soon as possible and sleep soundly on my own.

After I answered that, the sage said refreshingly, as if relieved.

“Then you’re lucky. You must pass the ordeal and meet me.”

“…Yes?”

What is this again? If you pass, you will pass. Of course you will pass the ordeal. However, it is my free will, but I feel a sense of resistance when others impose such obligations.

“If I absolutely have to meet the wise man, shouldn’t I just ignore all the remaining trials and then face you right away?”

“I’d love to…But I can’t.”

“Yes? Why not? It’s a trial you made, and a great praise you made, so can’t you just ignore it?”

I asked like a question. It was rude even when I thought about it, but I guess I was a little annoyed that my sleep was disturbed after a long time. You can apologize later

“I don’t think it’s rude, it’s my fault… Well… The prank I played at the beginning was also a bit problematic… I hope you like it, so I’m sorry.”

I read these crazy thoughts. A wise man, one who knows all knowledge. That knowledge seems to include the idle thoughts of people like me.

“It’s not about reading your thoughts. I guess what you’re thinking by looking at your expression, tone of voice, actions, and what you’ve done so far. It’s a skill that I naturally forged after meeting many people. By the way, I also have a trial system. I can’t touch it.”

What are you talking about again? Can’t touch You made it yourself, but you can’t touch it yourself? How messed up the system is. Are you still wise? If there is a problem, I need to solve it.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m sorry, but I’m a wise man. Also, I didn’t create the trial system.”

I heard a more absurd sound. If you don’t weave the trials, who will weave them?

“Contrary to popular belief, I am not reclusive. I was deliberately isolated from the world by someone. I left a way for them to meet me during that quarantine, but the person who contained me did not touch it. As a result, the process of meeting me has become very complicated and difficult.”

“Wow.”

I feel like I’m just shocked by coming here, but I can’t help it. People are amazed when they know something they don’t know. Someone said that knowledge is similar to resolution. The blurry world until I knew it—I didn’t even know it was blurry—became clearer.

I thought that a wise man made trials because he was simply a bad Simbo, a hikikomori spirit, and an extremely introverted person, so he had human avoidance. I found out that something like this happened. This is surprising.

“Didn’t you know? Ah… I guess it’s not as far as you read.”

As he grasps my memories, it was natural for the sage to know that the world I was possessed by was the story of a novel. Is there no shock that you are a character in a novel? I have a lot of questions, but the most important story is separate, so I endured it.

“So? Why should I complete the ordeal?”

“I’m going to tell you now. The story of my seclusion and the reason you have to visit me are in some way connected.”

After the wise man’s words, soft light, like a group of blue fireflies, rushed in and pointed to one place. I turned my gaze there.

“The existence that isolated me from the world is the demon king. I and the hero risked our lives on the other side of the world to defeat the demon king.”

There were hands that were putting their palms together. It’s the devil It is the devil that makes up my body.

A group of blue lights flew in a circle above the demon. When a line drawing a circle was created, the content to fill the inside was created.

It was a video depicting a battle of something.

A woman wearing a robe and a woman holding a sword are facing each other, something black that seems to extend endlessly.

I could only describe it as ‘something’. As I said before, knowledge is resolution, but my knowledge was too insignificant to describe that. No matter how much I looked at that something, I couldn’t figure out what it was.

No, if you look closely, it doesn’t even look black. It looks more like a mixture of red, gray, and brown rather than black. Isn’t it, is it also black? There is noise in the field of vision. Mosaic seems to be applied only to it. It is like a mosaic in a pictorial technique, and it is also like a mosaic in the meaning of actual use.

I stared at that ‘something’ again. Is not it. Is that ‘something’ right? To imply ‘something’ in the language, that is a little more meaningful. Oh that’s dangerous A headache comes. That is black, red, blue, green, yellow, all colors, the color of nothing, color and achromatic, infinite and nothing, my blood, my body, my rust, a mass that spreads to rust me, destruction comes, ruin. This is coming, the destruction is coming, the destruction is coming, the destruction is coming, the destruction is coming. The ruin that all deserve to worship comes, my friend, my companion, my essence. Come, I will bless you. Come, I will bless you. Come, I will bless you. Come, I will bless you. Come, I will bless you. Come, I will bless you… Mother.

It was dangerous. Just looking at what has been reproduced goes wrong in the mind. My head turned around and I almost felt a sense of kinship with it. I don’t like having friends with people like that.

Is that the devil?

“As the name proves, the Demon King was not an easy opponent. In the end, I succeeded in killing him… But the result was painful. The hero died, and I was isolated from the world like this by his final struggle. I If I hadn’t taken action in advance, I would have died here alone.”

Even a three-year-old will understand that you are not an easy opponent, even if you don’t have to say it. Just by looking at it, the brain turns into a mess like crushed pudding.

“Even the demon lord went away after taking emergency measures like me. He planted seeds to become demon lords in some demons. Those who worship or use the devil who swallowed the demon lord’s seeds are also gradually contaminated by the demon lord. Gone.”

Then it must be the demons or their worshipers who have the seeds of the demon lord who touched the trial system. Even the sage is isolated from the world and cannot touch it.

“I’ve been giving orders to reduce and weaken them through trials… But the limits are too clear. The resurrection of the demon king is just around the corner.”

“That’s a big deal.”

“Yes, that’s a big deal.”

The sage muttered in a voice that sounded like pity.

“It’s going to be a big deal for you too. I’m the only candidate for the Demon King.”

**

At that moment, I woke up. Judging that I had enough rest through a long sleep, my body pulled me up from the other side of my unconsciousness and threw me into reality. Demon king candidate? I? What is this…

The sudden arrival of knowledge sat like lead on my heart. The ribs seemed to be bent, and it seemed as if the bones were poking through the lungs. His rough breath proved this.

“Heo… Heo…!”

So, did you mean that the body of the demon that was transferred to me was a demon that was swallowing the devil’s seed? So I became a candidate with the qualities of a demon king?

“Whoa…”

I will turn.

This is why the sage came. Because it’s a trial challenger that needs to be dealt with the best. Because he is a challenger who must pass the ordeal. We must uproot the seed of this devil. Yes that’s how it should be

Is this how the hero in mythology feels? Poor ones who suddenly received a revelation one day and shouldered a huge responsibility. I didn’t think much of it when I read it, but now that I’m in that position, I feel pretty dirty. Even so, they were overcome with a sense of justice and wanted to go on a journey. What I had was not a sense of justice, but resentment.

“What’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream?”

Lilia asked, tickling her bangs. I looked around and saw Innis sleeping next to me like a bird, breathing softly and lightly. Their efforts for my comfortable sleep came to mind.

“No… Well, it’s nothing. How many hours did I sleep?”

“A full day. I had to kiss you a few more times while you were sleeping. It took quite a bit of magic.”

“I see… Thank you.”

“Whoops, thank you more. Isn’t it common that I put so much effort into this?”

Lilia said that with a bashful laugh. Stroking my hair several times. Her fingers ran over her forehead bodrahi. Remnants of body heat seeped into my skin.

“Thank you to death…”

“Don’t die.”

The night air was cold, but the people were warm. I don’t know, but when the demon king descends, many people will die and get hurt. A lot of people who loved people would be assrazed.

“That’s what it says.”

One more reason to pass the sage’s ordeal.

You have to be a person.

For myself, for others.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like