1.
"I know it was bold of me, but I took the liberty of handling Brother-in-law's incident."
After the squabble had been broken up, we gathered at the table. The Flame Emperor had a shiner. I had a bump protruding from my head. Master hit me good while scolding me…
"These incidents have to be snuffed out early on or buried the very moment they happen. The latter is usually preferable, but the timing wasn't good in this case. There wasn't any political drama happening, and Brother-in-law's concert had been scheduled for 10 days later."
Raviel deftly picked up a cockle with her chopsticks and ate it. Swish, click. Raviel was using chopsticks here.
This sight existed.
'So pretty.'
Oh, I was grateful for the invention of chopsticks. The chopsticks were probably grateful to be used by Raviel. Indubitably so. Though, the way she called the Flame Emperor bastard [Brother-in-law] made my insides twist.
"…Boyfriend."
"Yes?"
"Don't look at me so heatedly."
Raviel spoke like she was troubled.
"Turn away. Or lower your head. I'm speaking with your parents right now. I don't want to do something embarrassing in front of your mother and father."
"All right…"
I obediently lowered my head and ate the food… What? This cockle dish. It's really fucking good! Bae Hu-ryeong had made this? Was Bae Hu-ryeong actually a good chef? My worldview was being shaken…
"Ah, but please don't say 'brother-in-law.' That guy doesn't deserve to be called that by you, Raviel. Please just call him a dog."
"Hey, brat. You've become quite the punk while I was gone, huh?"
"Hmm."
Master slowly took a sip of her drink.
"It's a little embarrassing, really. Miss Raviel, I would understand if you had acted on Gongja's behalf, but as you know, Gongja and Sooha's relationship is not good. Did you need to help Sooha with your family's power?"
"I didn't," Raviel said calmly. "I just wanted to show it to Mother and Father."
"Show it? What do you mean?"
"You two probably underestimate the strength of our love. You may think that it's just a passing amusement for the daughter of a chaebol family, making nice memories for our school days and gaining life experience. Whether with good intentions or bad, that's how you view us."
Raviel's voice trickled over the dining table.
"But I am serious. I will sincerely take you in as my new family. There are some in my household who are against my choice of partner, but I will crush all resistance. I took care of this incident to show you my skills and my resolve."
"..."
"Please allow the two of us to marry. Mother, Father."
Master smiled wryly.
"…I see that a very generous child has grown close to my son. I thank you. It is strange to see my son be loved like this, but it means raising him was worth it."
Master.
"Oh, wow. Then are we in-laws with a chaebol family? Kyaah, I don't have to work as a singer anymore. I'm done with it. Hey, Sister-in-law! There are some singers going to China these days. Can you get our group to…"
"Sooha. If you cause another incident, we'll erase you from the family tree. Our relationship as parent and child will be severed."
"Huh?"
"No. That will not suffice. Find the person you assaulted and bow your head. Get on your knees until you are forgiven. I will not accept you as my kin until you apologize."
"M-Mom?!"
I quietly looked down the table.
"..."
A home.
Parents.
Things I did not have.
Raviel went back after officially getting permission to marry me. We had set a date for the wedding. Bae Hu-ryeong said, "Kuhaha! I'll need to fit my son for a suit! It's happening a lot faster than I thought!" and laughed.
"..."
Master and Bae Hu-ryeong worked as writers. After Raviel went back, the house became quiet and the sound of two people working softly spread through the quiet living room.
Master wrote with a pencil. With a cup of coffee by her side, Master thought for long periods of time and occasionally wrote a few words down on her manuscript. Her side profile was tranquilly in thought.
Bae Hu-ryeong wrote with a typewriter. Tap, tap. The rhythm of the keys clicking quietly filled the room. When he wrote, Bae Hu-ryeong frowned, his face resembling an angry sea otter. Sometimes, he would go to the kitchen and make himself a cocktail.
"..."
A quiet world.
'Why?'
Even when it was the next morning and I was on my way to school, I couldn't wrap my head around it at all.
'Why is this the Constellation Killer's trauma?'
Students in uniforms passed by me on the way to school. They were all faces that I had seen somewhere; somehow, I was familiar with them.
"Good morning, sunbae!"
Among them were students who bowed their heads politely as soon as they saw me. Top buttons loose, too-tight pants, shortened skirts. Students who looked somewhat delinquent bowed to me.
"Did you sleep well last night?"
"…The Four Demon Lords?"
They were none other than the members of the Demonic Sect.
A middle school student who looked just like Demon Lord Wolyeong tilted his head.
"Four Demon Lords? Who's that? We're the Four Heavenly Kings of Shinseo Middle School, Sunbae."
"What the…"
Were the Four Demon Lords the strongest fighters at this world's school? And was I their leader? Then, that meant that the top delinquent of this school and the student council president, who was from a chaebol family, were dating.
This was insane.
"Excuse me. You all… Why do you go around acting like thugs? You should stop. Study instead. No, you don't even have to study. Please just disband the gang or whatever."
"We're being good these days! Sunbae, didn't you tell us to restrain ourselves while you date the Queen? We've been doing that! Because of you, we can't even play with our errand boy anymore!"
"Not that, but… Nevermind. The Four Heavenly Kings, right? Did you call Raviel 'the Queen'? This is nuts."
"P-please stop speaking so politely, sunbae! It's scary!"
Things continued to drive me nuts when I entered the classroom.
"Attention! Bow to our teacher!"
The Black Dragon Master was our class president. Her clothes were neat. Her entire air showed that she was a model student.
"All right. President, take the kids' phones."
"Yes!"
"Those of you who hide your phones. If I catch you, you die. Hmm? Get it?"
And the Venomous Snake was our homeroom teacher. With an appearance that looked indistinguishable from a teacher or gangster, the Venomous Snake put on airs behind the lectern. He was holding a switch in one hand.
'I'm going to go mad.'
The Black Dragon Master went around the classroom holding a storage box. The students voluntarily or reluctantly put in their cell phones. And these weren't smartphones but folding phones. If not, slide phones.
"..."
And the Black Dragon Master just walked by me when she came to my seat.
Quietly, without a word.
'Huh?'
Looking around, I was the only student whom the Black Dragon Master passed over silently. The Count (※She was a classmate!) and the Crusader (※Also a classmate!) both obediently coughed up their phones.
"Uh. Hey… Class President?"
It was an unfamiliar way to address her. The Black Dragon Master heard my voice and turned around. Her calm, subdued eyes stared back at me.
"…What is it?"
"You didn't take my phone. Here."
I stood up and put my cell phone in the box. I felt very uncomfortable using casual language with the Black Dragon Master. I wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable. The Black Dragon Master looked at me with a surprised expression.
"…That's right. Princess Pyeonggang could reform the foolish Ondal."[1]
"Huh?"
"Mm, it's nothing. Forget it."
The Black Dragon Master shook her head lightly and walked to the front row.
At the lectern, the Venomous Snake was snickering.
"Heh. The day has come when Kim Gongja willingly gives up his cell phone. Everyone, take a good look! You don't need nagging or corporal punishment to fix someone. With love, people change on their own. You all should find someone too when you get to college."
The Crusader raised her hand upright.
"Teacher, Kim Gongja says he will go to Seoul National University. He spoke to me very earnestly."
"Oh, how odd. He told me he was going to Oxford."
The Count grinned.
"The student council president is going to study abroad. I heard that he would follow her to the ends of the earth."
"Well. That means that his safety school is Seoul National University and his reach school is Oxford. As expected of Kim Gongja. His eyes are on a different level than ours…"
The students giggled. The Crusader and the Count were likely the ones who controlled the class atmosphere, and among them, the Count smirked.
"President, be careful. You're going to lose out as the top student in class."
"…No need to meddle," the Black Dragon Master replied brusquely.
I felt peculiar because though they were wearing school uniforms, they were all faces I recognized.
No.
Not everyone.
"..."
Back row. The window seat.
The student I came across by the stairs to the rooftop yesterday was sitting there. That student was quietly writing something down in his notebook.
'He's in the same class as me.'
The wind blew from the window.
The curtains swayed.
The child's body was small enough to be hidden behind the curtains. So, the student's image was repeatedly hidden by and visible between the curtains. The thin curtain was like a partition that separated the child away from the rest of the classroom.
"Ah. Hello, everyone…?"
Then, someone entered the classroom.
"First period is math… Right?"
"Yes, teacher."
"T-then I'll start the class…"
It was the Alchemist.
'I'm not even surprised anymore.'
That was right. What more could surprise me when the Four Demon Lords became the Four Heavenly Kings and the Flame Emperor became my brother?
Furthermore, Preta and the Golden Silk formed an idol group with the Flame Emperor and sang together. The Alchemist being my math teacher? That was nothing. Sure, why not…
The day seemed to pass in an instant.
"It's Gongja-hyung!"
"Gongja-hyung! Let's play together!"
When I left the cafeteria at lunchtime, a bunch of middle school children swarmed me. The 10th floor. They were the children I had seen in the hide-and-seek game at the Hellfire Residence.
"..."
"All you do is study these days! Come play with us!"
"Let's play soccer!"
The children, who had been tortured to death when they had done no wrong, had become middle school students and were smiling brightly.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
"…All right. Let's play together."
On the campus where the junior high and high schools neighbored each other, I played with the children.
An old security guard stood at the school gate. It was Namgung Un, the Murim Lord.
I take gym classes in the afternoon, so I saw the elementary school students as they were dismissed from beyond the school gate. They were the apostles of [The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness]. The elementary school students walked in twos and threes, holding hands as they passed under the ginkgo trees.
"..."
I didn't know.
I really couldn't tell why.
My last class was over, but I didn't leave to go home. I sat on a bench on the school grounds and blankly watched as the students left.
'Everyone is alive.'
In this world, Bae Hu-ryeong wasn't a ghost. He was alive. I couldn't imagine what kind of novel he was writing, but… he was alive and had a job as a writer.
Master was alive.
The children of the mansion were alive.
His personality was still trash, but the Flame Emperor was alive too. He lived as someone who whined to his parents and was scolded by them. Preta. Even the Golden Silk.
The students who had left campus just now had familiar faces among them. The Hunters who had attacked the Librarian and were eaten by tentacle monsters as an example. Even the Hunters whose names I did not know were alive, and they passed by me on their way home.
'This is Lefanta Aegim's trauma?'
Wasn't it a gentle, easygoing life?
Wasn't it a happy construct?
What part of this world resembled hell?
"Here you are, Boyfriend."
I turned my head.
Raviel was standing behind me with a smile.
"Raviel…"
"You look like you're thinking. I was worried something happened because you didn't answer your phone. It's not good to needlessly make your lover worry."
"Ah."
I hurriedly pulled out my phone and turned it on. I had forgotten to power it on again when I got it back after school.
"I'm sorry. That's… I'm just a little upset…"
"What has shaken my boyfriend's heart? If possible, I want nothing in the world to make your heart quiver but myself."
I tilted my head back a little. Raviel lowered her head. With the back of the bench between us, we shared a breath for a moment.
"Raviel."
"Mm."
"Do you know the name of my parents?"
Raviel blinked.
"Of course."
"Can you tell me now?"
"Mother's family name is So, and her given name is Baekhyang."
And.
"Your father's family name is ■, and his first name is ■■."
"..."
A silent sound.
When Raviel said Bae Hu-ryeong's name, her voice was smothered by white noise.
'Ah.'
It was obvious.
After all, I didn't know Bae Hu-ryeong's real name.
If this was a dream… I couldn't learn something I did not already know.
'Of course.'
Today. During break time.
I took a look at the attendance book on the lectern in the classroom.
I wanted to check if the names of the Black Dragon Master or the Crusader were written on there.
However.
+
Attendance number 1. Kim Gongja.
Attendance number 2. ■■■
Attendance number 3. ■■
Attendance number 4. ■■■
Attendance number 5. ■■■
+
Most of the names were not written on there.
I tried to learn the names, but I couldn't.
It was like someone had scribbled it over in black ink.
"…Raviel. This may sound weird, but I feel anxious. Raviel, you're the young lady of a chaebol family. Logically, there's no way that you would spend your school days with someone like me at a school like this."
"Your words are making me anxious as well. What are you talking about?"
"Maybe. Maybe, this is all…"
Brrrr.
My phone vibrated.
+
One Message.
Sender: ■■
+
An ominous feeling came over me.
"Sorry, Raviel. Just a moment."
I opened my phone.
Soon, letters appeared on the screen.
Compared to a smartphone, the screen was cramped.
+
The one who murdered me was you.
Don't forget.
You killed me.
+
My whole body stiffened.
The air seemed to freeze.
Then.
"Kyaaaah!"
A scream tore through the schoolyard.