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Translator: Seven
1.
We headed to the heart of the World of Dreams.
-Ahaha! Come on, worship this Empress!
Behind us, the succubus, who was still imitating the Lady of Golden Silk, swung her whip, but we tried to ignore her as we passed by. No one in our party wanted to get involved with something like that.
After walking for a while, we arrived before a strange scene.
Firstly, the sky above our heads became very strange.
“The moon… has eyes, My Lord.”
“I know.”
Blink.
The moon blinked. As the Hungry Ghost said, the full moon had eyes. Red eyes. The moon’s red eyes looked down at us.
“It’s a bit strange, but the eyes are beautiful. It makes me want to look at them all the time.”
For some reason, my heart was pounding.
The Hungry Ghost’s expression changed slightly when she saw my reaction.
“Uh. Um. I think it might be influencing My Lord’s subconscious. Perhaps it might have copied the Lady’s eyes….” (TL: The Lady being the wife of the Lord.)
“Huh? Is that so?”
Now that I thought about it, they did look like Raviel’s eyes.
I couldn’t believe it had almost stolen my heart just by using her eyes. As expected of my Duke. From her head to her toes, there was no part of her that wasn’t alluring.
The next scene we encountered was from the Hungry Ghost.
“Mm.”
Beneath the Red Eyed Moon, fields of yellow wheat stretched.
In the fields of wheat, farmers toiled with bent waists.
“…….”
The Hungry Ghost’ expression became noticeably stiff.
I immediately realized what this was a copy of.
“This is Estelle’s Village.”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
The village that had been devastated by the Aegim Empire and the Allied Forces.
The fields of wheat that the child I saw in the Hungry Ghost’s trauma used to play in.
-Spirit! Spirit!
Something lay among the yellow wheat.
A giant beast.
The blue furred beast, a wolf to be precise, opened its eyes to look at the approaching children.
-We have a present for you!
-We picked only the pretty ones to make it!
The village children lifted the flower wreath they made for the wolf.
However, the wolf’s head was too big for the wreath to fit. The children were unsure of what to do for a while before finally settling for hanging the wreath around the wolf’s ear. And so, the wolf suddenly obtained a flower earring.
-Grrng.
Apparently satisfied, the wolf carried the children on her back.
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The wind blew, shaking the wheat in the fields, and carrying the children’s laughter.
The sound of the laughter filled the wind with happiness.
“That beast is…….”
“My dream.”
The Hungry Ghost murmured.
“If I hadn’t eaten Estelle. So if I hadn’t become human and continued being a beast… this might have happened. Then, I wouldn’t have been revered as a saint, nor would I have been cursed as a witch after becoming Estelle. And the village wouldn’t have been destroyed by fire.”
The Hungry Ghost’s voice was calm.
“It’s foolish.”
She quietly gripped the hilt of her sword.
“If I hadn’t devoured a human, I wouldn’t have been able to understand the human heart. I’m a part of a race who only understands the prey we consume and digest. If I hadn’t eaten Estelle, I wouldn’t have gained human desires. The scene out there is filled with contradictions.”
The Hungry Ghost began to walk to the wheat fields.
The wolf, who was still carrying the children, stopped.
They had a silent confrontation.
The doppelganger looked at her copy with cold eyes.
“Break.”
She drew her sword and slashed out.
As soon as it was cut by the Hungry Ghost’s sword, the wolf melted into pink paint.
Even the children who were smilingly riding on its back, the farmers working in the wheat fields, and the village in the background melted away in an instant.
“……hoo.”
The only thing that was left was the Hungry Ghost standing beneath the red moon.
The Hungry Ghost slowly turned her head and looked at me.
“Let us be on our way, My Lord.”
“……you’re firm. Nevertheless, that scene probably depicted your happiness.”
“With all due respect, my life is not so light that I would be interested in such contradictory delusions. My memories of devouring Estelle’s flesh and drinking her blood are still clear in my mind, so how can I dream about anything else?”
I nodded.
“Right. You’re right.”
We continued our journey.
Along the way, we encountered the dreams of the cult members and the dreams of Uburka. The Uburka in the World of Dreams crushed me while shouting ‘Ugor!’. It seemed that since Uburka was also in contact with the Dream Demons, his dreams were being reflected in the World of Dreams.
“Is the core of the world still far away?”
“No. We’re almost there.”
The Hungry Ghost kicked the Uburka to the side and pointed ahead.
“I can feel a presence similar to a Constellation over there.”
A place surrounded by an iron fence topped with barbed wire.
A Dream Demon was sitting in front of the iron fence.
The Dream Demon tilted her head to the side with a ‘heh’.
-You really managed to maintain your sanity in this place. How strange.
This succubus had a familiar face.
She looked much smaller and weaker than I knew, but it was still easy to tell who she was.
“Black Dragon Master?”
-Mhm. That’s what it’s called. This human.
She looked around seven or eight years old.
The Black Dragon Master, who looked much younger now, stood up.
-We don’t naturally have our own faces. So I’ll borrow the face of an animal so that we can talk. This child is the only one you can talk to calmly, even though you seem to value them.
“What do you mean?”
-I mean you won’t easily get caught up in your emotions. It’s simple.
The Dream Demon looked over my shoulder.
At Yoo Soo-ha, the Hungry Ghost, the Lady of Golden Silk, the Four Demon Lords, and the cult members that were following me.
-There are a lot of guests, but I have no tea to serve. Sorry. But I hope you can understand my situation. Why did you bring so many troops to a shabby place like this with nothing to plunder?
“It is you, not us, that are trying to plunder. Don’t you think? You are crossing the ocean to invade.”
-It is natural for wild beasts to become ferocious at the scent of blood.
“In that sense, it is also natural for the strong to beat up the weak, so it would be smarter for you to listen to me.”
-How scary.
“Would you like me to scare you more?”
Rumble.
I approached the Dream Demon with the army behind me.
“I think you are looking down on me because physical force doesn’t work well here…”
-Hmph. And so?
“If conversation won’t work on you, then I’ll have no choice but to use another method.”
-How interesting.
The young succubus smiled.
-I’d appreciate it if you could tell me what that is.
“I have a skill that allows me to bring the dead back to life. I will kill you all and bring you back.”
I summoned the [Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation] card.
The gold card glittered above my hand.
“Those who are killed by me are forced to obey my orders after being revived. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to subjugate all of the Dream Demons.”
-…….
“Do you think it’s a bluff?”
I looked right into the eyes of the succubus in front of me.
I had already wiped out the [Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness] before.
I didn’t have any problem doing it again.
The smile disappeared from the corners of the Dream Demon’s lips.
-……No. I don’t doubt your sincerity. Because you, Death King, are a scary person.
The succubus looked me in the eyes and shook her head.
-I just find it regrettable.
“Regrettable? What are you talking about?”
-Exactly that, it’s not from me, but the original feel of this animal’s body. After all, the way you are trying to persuade us is also with the logic of force.
Suddenly.
We heard gunshots from the other side of the fence.
“My Lord!”
“Young Cult Master!”
The Hungry Ghost and the Four Demon Lords surrounded me in an instant. But there was nothing wrong with me. It also didn’t seem like the Hungry Ghost or the Four Demon Lords were injured either.
The succubus giggled at our actions.
-Don’t worry. By your definition, this is also a dream.
Gunshots continued to ring out from behind the fence.
When I looked in that direction, I saw a man and a child running.
Like they were being chased by someone.
-How deep the mark a single experience can leave on you is. The more I learn, the more surprised I get.
The man kept looking back.
But he kept covering the child with his body, as if he didn’t want the child to look behind them.
The bearded man whispered to the child.
-Don’t ever look back. Do you understand?
-Ng.
I realized after hearing the child’s voice.
That it was a young Black Dragon Master.
The man and child alike had stains on their bodies and clothes like they hadn’t washed for a long time. Muddy water had soaked the bottom of their clothes and hardened. With heavy steps, the man and child continued running away.
「When I was seven years old.」
I remembered the story the Black Dragon Master told me in the past.
「In the outside world, my father died in a civil war.」
There was a narrow opening in the iron fence.
The man pushed the child through the opening first.
The gunshots were coming closer and closer.
「I was running away with my parents, but I think soldiers were chasing us. My father stayed behind.」
The child screamed as she fell through the opening in the fence.
-Dad! Dad…….
-Don’t look back! Go first! Dad will follow you!
The man pushed the child again. The child continued to scream, but she listened to her father’s words and moved her feet.
「I really continued to run without looking back」
After that, the man disappeared from the Black Dragon Master’s memory.
However, at the end, I heard something fall behind the Black Dragon Master.
Following that sound, the iron fence disappeared.
“…….”
I could guess what that sound was.
The man probably tried to climb over the fence topped with barbed wire after sending the child away.
Then he was struck by a bullet, died instantly, and fell to the ground.
That sound was probably the last thing the Black Dragon Master remembered.
-No matter how strong you are, you can’t undo the irreversible.
The succubus spoke in a calm tone.
-Therefore, the best policy is to prevent the situation in advance. You have to constantly prepare for the worst. That’s what this original body thought. Every time it meets someone, it has the habit of imagining that person’s death. It’s pitiful.
“You don’t have to tell me that, I know.”
-Huh. Then do you know this original body has prevented eight abductions and assassinations against you?
“…What?”
I looked at the Dream Demon in surprise.
-You’ve grown very quickly. So it’s natural for a lot of people to be interested in you. The original body prevented and destroyed as much of it as possible, but the Tower contains spies from all over the world.
“…….”
-If you’re not strong enough, you can’t even protect your life and the lives of those around you.
Crack.
The moon in the sky above the World of Dreams cracked.
Then the red moon shattered into countless pieces.
-Death King. Since you are the stronger person, I will lower my head for now. I will order those who are sailing across the ocean to return. But you can’t stay on the continent overlooking the seven races forever, can you?
The ground beneath us became soft before turning into a pink sea.
Splash, splash-
Pieces of the moon fell into the sea one after the other.
-You have only suppressed us for now. We haven’t truly been convinced by you. That is what coercion by force is.
A tsunami started from the place where the moon fell.
The moment the wave hit us, the succubus’ shape also began to melt.
-I’ll see you next time. Death King.
And the World of Dreams collapsed.
2.
“—Death King? Are you okay, Junior?”
I suddenly regained consciousness.
The Black Dragon Master was looking at me with an anxious expression.
“Senior?”
“That’s good. The light in your eyes is back.”
I looked around.
We weren’t in the jungle scene of Uburka’s dream.
Instead, I was lying in the square of the port town.
“The Dream Demons…….”
“They suddenly left the dream right after you talked to the deer. What happened? Did you successfully persuade them, or did you?”
“For now, it was a success.”
As if to prove my words, the people laying in the town square began to wake up one after the other.
Perhaps because they were just waking up from their dreams, their movements were sluggish, but fortunately, their lives didn’t seem to be in danger.
“Hah….”
The Black Dragon Master let out a long sigh of relief.
“Good job. I don’t care how you did it….”
“Senior.”
I grabbed the Black Dragon Master’s wrist.
The Black Dragon Master tilted her head to the side as she looked at me.
“I have something to tell you.”
“…why do you look so serious all of a sudden?”
“Because I am serious.”
A strange silence passed between us for a moment.
I gathered my breath.
Then, I looked straight into the Black Dragon Master’s eyes and opened my mouth.
“Senior. I… am a regressor.”