Chapter 233: My Legion (3)

After I woke up from

All Life,

I stayed under Ja Su-Jeong’s care. She wasn’t the viscountess of a kingdom nor the goddess who used her

All Life,

but a simple student from Shinseo Middle School who lived in the world of

The Story of the City of Ascension: Side Story.

“Miss Ja Su-Jeong, you’re really good at cooking.”

“Yes. It’s the exact recipe I followed before.”

Ja Su-Jeong slowly put down her tray while Uburka helped her and served the

banchan

for dinner. She looked down at the table. “Have you achieved your goal, Mr. Gong-Ja?”

I was paralyzed for a moment.

“What?”

“Did you get what you wanted?”

Her voice sounded like a dandelion leaf falling to the ground. If I didn’t pay attention, the summer wind would easily carry it away.

“I’m a little worried about the way you feel right now,” she said quietly.

“You’re worried about me?”

“Yes, I’m your host, of course I’m worried. But, in addition to that, I’m also very curious about you.”

“Let me help you move the dishes first.”

We cleared the table, then carefully arranged the soup bowls and grilled fish on the tray. A bowl of

jiggae

[1]

was in the center, with seasoned bean sprouts and peeled cucumbers to the left. The

gyeranjjim

[2] was placed behind them.

As the food that would soon disappear into our stomachs was laid out on the table, my arm brushed by Ja Su-Jeong’s multiple times.

She said, “You wanted to meet the original version of myself. That’s what I heard, Mr. Gong-Ja.”

“Yes.”

“Did you get what you wanted?”

That was the question she had asked me earlier, but there was a secret layer under it.

“You wanted to be successful even if I had to kill you. Did you get what you wanted?”

After a brief silence, I said, “Yes, my initial goal was to meet the Tower master face to face since I won’t be able to meet her even if I make it to the top floor of the Tower. If I put it that way, then yes, I really achieved my goal. I learned a lot about the Tower.”

“I see.”

The student smiling faintly in front of me wasn’t an expressive noble from a kingdom, but I knew that faint smile meant she was really happy.

“You did a great job. It wasn’t easy, but you did it. You must have been through a lot, Mr. Gong-Ja.”

Ja Su-Jeong held my hands.

This is...

Feeling her warmth around my hands made my heart feel heavy.

This is who you are.

She cared for everyone, praised them when they did a good job, and became saddened when others went through tough times. It was just that she went to extreme lengths to do this.

[May luck be with you.]

In her eyes, all the humans in the universe were children. When a child went outside, their guardians often told them “Be careful of cars and motorcycles!” out of fear that the child would wander off onto a dangerous road.

The guardians’ hearts pounded with anxiety while their child was away, but when they came back, the guardians wrapped their arms around their child, telling them “well done” and “good job.” The child had come back safely, so that was all that mattered.

[May luck be with you.]

“Please be careful.”

[May luck be with you.]

“Look out for the motorcycles

[3]

on the way back.”

[May luck be with you.]

“Don’t let misfortune consume you when you climb the Tower.”

[May luck be with you.]

“Please come back safely.“

Amethyst was a goddess who wanted to be everyone’s guardian. With a smile, I looked at the avatar of that goddess standing before me. “Do you want me to show you what I got from meeting the Tower master?”

Ja Su-Jeong nodded. “If you wish.”

She was pretty much telling me to do whatever I wanted. I was now quite experienced when it came to interpreting the goddess’ words.

“Well then, please follow me for a moment. I need to show you something.”

“

Ah,

wait.” Amethyst pointed to the table. “Before that, please eat first. If you don’t eat on time, it’ll be bad for your health, Mr. Gong-Ja.”

This could also be translated to “eat before you do anything.” I smiled bitterly and obeyed the goddess’ command.

***

The place I headed to was the old

hanok

’s backyard, where the warehouse with the sleeping ghosts was. I took one careful step at a time and opened the door to the warehouse.

“I never thought I would come back to this ghost lair.”

I held onto the doorknob as I checked the inside of the warehouse. Fortunately, there was no strange festival of ghosts or anything that would drastically deteriorate the sanity of whoever was watching. The interior was quiet. Just a bunch of junk was peacefully taking in the dust.

“I-Is there no one here anymore?”

Something clung to my foot.

Meow!

“

Eeeeek

!”

“That’s Meowy. Don’t be too surprised, Mr. Gong-Ja.”

Ja Su-Jeong bent down and skillfully picked up the dog doll clinging to my foot.

Even as it got carried away, the dog doll kept meowing, reminding itself of its existential problem. I tried my best not to approach it.

“

Hmm.

Is this one dead? Is it like a vengeful ghost possessing the doll?”

“No, Mr. Gong-Ja. Meowy is just a child who is forever thinking about who it is. That is all,” Ja Su-Jeong said softly, hugging the doll. “Meowy thinks that it should never stop thinking about this.”

“Why?”

The dog doll jumped up and down.

Nyaa! Meow, meow! Nyaaaaa!

Ja Su-Jeong nodded. “Meowy says that if it stops worrying, the world will end.”

I see.

No, I didn’t actually see anything, but anyway...

“So this doll is alive, yes?”

“Of course. Meowy is alive and will live on. If it dies, it’ll be when the world ends,” she answered.

It was clearly the most dangerous dog... cat... dog doll that sounded like a cat...

Ah, forget it.

I summoned the Skill Card right in front of Meowy.

Whoosh!

Earthbone Dragon’s Skull

Class: SSS+

Effect: You can store memories of the living in a Box.

This Box can only be destroyed by you, the person who possesses the Skill. As long as the Box is not destroyed, you can create a vessel carrying the same memories over and over again.

This new vessel can travel around the universe, form new memories, and update those in the Box. Of course, they need your permission to do so. Even if the vessel perishes, the Box will not take any damage.

Grant the privilege of immortality to those around you.

※The memories of the perished being cannot be updated in the Box.

※The Skill has been copied from the Master of All Life.

“Miss Su-Jeong.”

Ja Su-Jeong tilted her head. “Yes?”

The dog doll wiggled in her arms.

Meowwwwww.

It sounded like Meowy was yawning. The doll was supposed to be an apocalypse-level doll, so why was it cute?

“I can give a vessel to that doll.”

Ja Su-Jeong paused. She still looked calm, but the color of her eyes became a little darker. Carefully and quietly, she looked at my Skill Card.

“When you say that—”

“I can give these children actual bodies. What do you think, Miss Su-Jeong? Would you please trust me and allow me to use my Skill on these children?”

Ja Su-Jeong thought for a while. The student from Year 3 Class A of Shinseo Middle School wasn’t a noble of a kingdom nor the Sun Queen’s mistress. She simply held onto the goddess’ mercy.

She bowed. “I’m very, very grateful for the offer, but I think this should be the children’s decision.”

I knew it.

“I would be happy if these children could have bodies of their own and live a little more freely than they do now, but they may think differently.”

When the layers of a noble, hero, and the Tower master were peeled off one by one, the person in front of me became fully exposed.

“If possible, I want these children to make their own decisions.”

I nodded. “Yes. I want that too.”

Although I wasn’t sure whether the strange beings gathered in the ghost warehouse were really alive, I went around asking them questions. One of the ghosts was the mirror that made me feel as if an invisible force was holding me by the nape when I looked at it.

“

Uh...

”

As I was looking in the mirror from afar, I felt long fingers gripping the back of my neck. It wasn’t an illusion since I could really feel every inch of those fingers quite vividly. I tried to get rid of them using my aura, but it didn’t work.

I held out my Skill Card in front of the mirror. “If you wish, I can give you a body—”

The fingers paused.

“Of course, there are some conditions. First, your memories will be stored in a Box, which will become my property. When your physical body dies and you want to recreate it, you will need my permission to do so since I own the Box.”

The fingers pressed harder.

“But I have no intention of exploiting this! Really! I’m not the type of guy to create something like a joint army of monsters and ghosts to conquer the universe—”

The fingers pressed much harder than before.

“Miss Su-Jeong, help! This idiot has no sense of humor!”

Save me! No one would let a ghost kill Confucius, right?!

“You have good communication skills, Mr. Gong-Ja,” Ja Su-Jeong said. She seemed impressed despite her blank face. “Other than me, this is the first time anyone has ever talked to the mirror like that. You’re doing great.”

“No, don’t just praise me from afar! Please help me. I feel like I’m about to die!”

Ja Su-Jeong walked up to the mirror and stroked its surface. “Mirror, from what I’ve seen, Mr. Gong-Ja is a very kind person.”

As soon as she started speaking, the mysterious fingers around my neck disappeared.

“You think he looks like a phony prince? No, he’s very upright and is strong enough not to give up on his uprightness. What? You know how old he is, yet it creeps you out because he sounds like a boomer? Well, yes, I can see why you’d think that way...”

What the heck was that freaking mirror gossiping about?

“But he’s not the type to exploit you. You’ll have a physical body that will belong only to you. The decision to recreate or destroy it will be entirely up to you. You can trust Mr. Gong-Ja on this.”

The mirror trembled.

“Really? Do I favor Mr. Gong-Ja? Unfortunately, I don’t do favoritism. Honestly, I would have to say I favor all of you.”

The mirror twinkled.

Ja Su-Jeong turned to me and said, “Yes, Mirror says it’ll accept your offer, but it’ll need its own butler, someone who will be around it at all moments and be in charge of wiping it. The butler must be a dark-haired young man wearing Victorian-style clothes and a monocle.

“And, if possible, Mirror would like the butler to have a strong British accent when speaking in English. It would be better if the butler has an interesting background, like the second son of a fallen marquisate.”

I... see. Yes, I definitely understand what’s going on.

“If we go up the Tower a little, there are two part-time workers at a cafe that can shame all men with their looks. One has silver hair, the other black hair. Making them wear butler cosplay is a bit exaggerated though. How about we make do with a barista outfit? I’ll treat you using the mirror in the cafe.[4]”

Wait a minute. Why in the world was I desperately trying to convince a mirror that gave people high blood pressure? Shouldn’t I have the upper hand in this negotiation?

I did have one reason for doing this. One by one, I was going to reduce the number of lives that the Tower master was responsible for. The first step would be helping out Ja Su-Jeong, one of the Tower master’s avatars, by reviving the mysterious beings in her ghost warehouse.

Because that’s the only way to beat the Tower master.

As I was reflecting on my resolve, Ja Su-Jeong told me, “Mirror says it’ll generously accept your offer, Mr. Gong-Ja.”

After that, I collected the mysterious beings one by one into the

Earthbone Dragon’s Skull.

The Box was small and pitch-black. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I had to do. Following my instincts, I swallowed it.

The Box then melted in my mouth, traveled down to my esophagus, and then dropped into my stomach. It was as if it never existed in the first place.

My heart became a little darker.

“

Earthbone Dragon’s Skull.

”

Bright light flashed in front of me.

[Activating the Skill.]

The light slowly faded, and there stood a mirror that looked no different from before. Well, actually, it was standing on its own legs.

“Those are legs,” I said.

“Yes, those are legs,” Ja Su-Jeong answered calmly. “Maybe that’s what Mirror used to look like originally.”

The four-legged mirror excitedly ran around the warehouse. Even the greatest poet in the universe would describe it as a cockroach since it crawled around so energetically.

“Still, that’s—”

“Thank you, Mr. Gong-Ja,” Ja Su-Jeong said sincerely. “You really are a good person.”

I gave all the other beings in the warehouse physical bodies. As a result, we now had a poodle that meowed, a painter who worked on a portrait within a portrait, a mythological red dragon that was fortunately only the size of a fifteen centimeter figurine, and many more strange creatures.

—What the fuck? What an absolute mess,

the Guardian said.

“Let’s be optimistic. Doesn’t this remind you of

chimimoryo

[5] or

hyakki yagyo

[6] in a way?”

—If curry tastes like poop, does that mean it’s still curry? No matter what you call it, it’s shit. Stop saying dumb stuff.

“I don’t know how my life got so complicated, but I think I know exactly when it started. It was when I met you, Mr. Sword Emperor. Because of you, all the wackos, ghosts, and all sorts of things in the universe are attracted to me.”

—Gong-Ja, if your life took a ten-degree turn when we met, my life took a one hundred-degree turn. So, if both of our lives are gonna be flipped upside down anyway, let’s put thirty-six degrees between us. Shiny, you think so too, right?

[Shiny points out that spinning around at your every movement feels like being on a roller coaster.]

—Shiny...

I shook my head.

“

Monster Legion Reincarnation.

”

[Activating the Skill.]

Now that I had taken care of some of the lives that the Tower master’s avatar had been carrying, it was time to finish my work.

“Yes, Master.”

Preta was wearing a skull mask to partly cover her face. She had once been known as Estelle and even been worshiped. In the past, she had once been feared as a Demon King.

Now, as my vassal, she went down on her knee.

“Preta.”

“Yes.”

“Live.”

Preta looked up and met my eyes. “I killed a lot of people.”

“I know.”

“I’m a sinner.”

“You are.”

“Is it okay for someone like me to live?”

I nodded. “Live. Live and take your life into your own hands.”

Preta was silent.

“I’ll be with you. You may feel like you’re going to crumble while being on your own. When the time comes, I’ll carry you.”

Silence fell. Slowly, very slowly, Preta said with a quivering voice, “Yes, I'll live.”

That was how it all started.

1. Korean stew.

image.

☜

2. Korean steamed egg.

image

☜

3. Motorcycles and pedestrians often use the same road if the alley is too small. ☜

4. Perhaps Mirror can use other mirrors to travel around? ☜

5. The Chinese term refers to the monsters of rivers and mountains. ☜

6. Referring to the Japanese night parade of demons. ☜