Do you know the one thing you must never do in a horror movie?
It’s genre drift. After spending all that time building a terrifying atmosphere, if the movie’s genre suddenly turns into comedy, people are bound to recoil in horror.
For a recent example, there was a certain unfortunate clown who went from a man-eating monster to a retail investor sunk in the stock market. The circumstances were a bit different, but in any case, no one is scared of that clown anymore, are they? Anyway, it’s something like that.
Usually, this kind of drift leaves nothing but scathing reviews.
Just like how, in web novels, things like “pretending to be pure romance and then veering into harem,” “being a harem story and then veering into pure romance,” or “turning a pure romance into netorare” go beyond taboos and become offenses that must be eradicated.
If a chilling horror story suddenly turned into a comedy that did nothing but make you laugh, the audience would personally try to teach the film director what true horror was. They’d probably be smiling brightly while they did it.
The current situation was no different.
“Senior, Senior. Look over here, Seniooooor.”
“……”
Third-period P.E.
The field, where a joint class for the first and second years was taking place, was crawling with students. It wasn’t as though every class from both years was having P.E. at the same time, so it wasn’t enough to fill the entire field, but even so, there were quite a lot of them. Ian sat in a chair and silently watched them.
The students, who looked like ordinary humans, were each and every one of them an anomaly and a Mystery. Or perhaps they had originally been human, only to have their memories manipulated and become victims, wanderers, bound to this world. Personally, Ian thought that possibility was higher.
Every action had a purpose. There was no way something that had entered the school would manipulate memories for no reason, simply to cause confusion. Mysteries were not that kind to humans.
‘If your memories are manipulated so you can no longer distinguish truth from falsehood. If you come to accept every memory exactly as it is.’
Then you would be bound to this space just like that, and end up living like them.
“……Hoo.”
Forcibly ignoring the Master of the Outer Sea clinging to him at his side, Ian let out a long breath. In this space where all four seasons coexisted, a faint puff of white mist escaped his lips.
“……Hey, Ian.”
As he did, Lee Seo-a quietly spoke to him. Dressed in her gym uniform and bundled up tightly from head to toe, she looked at the Master of the Outer Sea glued right beside Ian.
“Is that, by any chance, what I think it is……?”
“……I’m not exactly sure what you’re thinking, but it’ll be easier if you just let it slide. That’s what I’m doing.”
“……But.”
“At the very least, she won’t harm us.”
Ian looked back at the Master of the Outer Sea.
“She’s capable of that much discernment.”
“Of course, Senior.”
She beamed and rubbed her cheek against Ian’s shoulder like a cat. He thought he could faintly hear a purring sound.
“I don’t do anything you dislike, Senior. Never. No matter what happens.”
“……”
“Of course, I might get annoyed. I might hate something beside you so much that I want to kill it. But unless you specifically want me to, there won’t be any blood on my hands.”
“……Hoo, thanks. Though I’m not sure if that’s the right way to put it.”
“Instead of thanking me, couldn’t you tell me you love me?”
“That still seems a little difficult.”
“Tch.”
She puffed out her cheeks and hugged Ian’s arm tightly like a doll.
“Eheheh. This is so nice…… I want to cut off just one arm and keep hugging it forever……”
“That sounds exactly like something I’d hate.”
“That’s why I’m not doing it, right?”
“……”
It was such a sound argument that he had nothing to say. Ian tried to slip his arm out, but when he felt her strength gradually increasing, he gave up.
“……More importantly, how long are you planning to keep up that act?”
He still remembered his first encounter with the Master of the Outer Sea.
Yohan General Hospital. When she first revealed herself through the Watcher’s Eye, they had not communicated separately, but her pressure had been conveyed to him in its entirety.
The sensation of his entire body being crushed by water pressure. The feeling of water seeping into his respiratory tract, then transforming into insects that gnawed at every cell—he could not forget it even if he wanted to.
However, all of that had only been a temporary phenomenon. The Master of the Outer Sea had not actually done anything in particular. She had merely peered at Ian through a small peephole, giggled, and disappeared.
It was only after that that they had anything resembling a proper conversation.
“When you first appeared as Pygmalion’s statue, I’m pretty sure you didn’t speak like this.”
About a month ago, the Master of the Outer Sea had once forced an incomplete descent through Pygmalion’s statue.
At the time, her way of speaking had been far too casual for an Outer God, and she had not used polite speech at all. Naturally, she had not called him “Senior” either.
Maybe it would have been different before, but now that her identity had already been exposed, there was no reason for her to keep up the underclassman act.
“Mm…… First of all, this really isn’t how I usually talk! Honestly, keeping it up is annoying!”
The Master of the Outer Sea admitted it readily. Stroking Ian’s fingers, she answered in a bright voice.
“But I can’t help it. In order to keep staying in this space, I have to remain faithful to my assigned role.”
“……”
“If the act breaks even a little, this space will go boom and explode, you know? Ah, look over there.”
She pointed somewhere in the sky. The sky there was warped as though glass had shattered.
“When I argued with that damn bitch earlier, it broke like that because I didn’t maintain my character. It couldn’t endure my rank.”
“……Unbelievable. Then can’t you just disappear? Why come here and cause trouble?”
“Eeh, no. Who knows when another chance like this will come? Spaces that can withstand my consciousness are rare, you knowww.”
The Master of the Outer Sea dragged out the end of her sentence, brought Ian’s hand to her mouth, and bit it lightly. When Ian frowned at the throbbing pain, she smiled bashfully and licked the teeth marks with her tongue.
“Mmm…… Salty. Ehehe.”
“……If you’re just going to keep messing around, I’m leaving.”
“Ah, aaah! Don’t go! That bastard is already watching from the teachers’ office!”
The “bastard” she was talking about was naturally the Reconstruction of All Things.
Ian slightly turned his head, glanced sideways at the pure-white figure with its face pressed flat against the teachers’ office window, then looked forward again.
“……These things are gods?”
“A god who is benevolent to only one person is surprisingly in demand!”
“Be quiet.”
“Okaaay.”
When he thought about it, a Mystery known as a school ghost story was bound to be powerful. Not only did such stories exist in Korea and Japan, but this one had built up decades’ worth of fear and fame…… In fact, it would have been stranger if it were weak.
Even so, it was strange that it was maintaining its form just fine while containing the consciousnesses of Outer Gods, two of them at that. No matter how much the two gods were restraining themselves, there was no way a mere Mystery could endure it.
“That’s because it isn’t a mere Mystery.”
Having read Ian’s thoughts, the Master of the Outer Sea smiled slyly and crossed her arms. Ian looked back at her.
“……I figured it was something like that. Did you find something out?”
“If you kiss me with tongue for five minutes, touch my ears while whispering that you love me, and finally bite the nape of my neck hard enough to draw blood, I’ll tell you.”
“I’m going to the Reconstruction of All Things. Lee Seo-a, let’s go.”
“Aaaaaah!”
The Master of the Outer Sea sprang up and clung to Ian’s pants as he stood.
“This space was created by an Outer God!”
“……What?”
“To be precise, it’s a space created by a grimoire written by an Outer God!”
At the completely unexpected answer, Ian’s face hardened. The Master of the Outer Sea giggled as she looked at his expression.
“Ah, your face is cute.”
“……”
“Surprised? Of course you are. You killed one Outer God, and now another Outer God suddenly appeared.”
“……Killed one Outer God? What are you talking about?”
Lee Seo-a, who had been quietly listening to the two of them, frowned and asked. Ian stared at her for a moment in thought, then told her about what had happened before the regression.
If it had been anyone else, he would not have told them. But Lee Seo-a was one of the very few people who knew that both of the grimoires Ian possessed belonged to Outer Gods.
Naturally, she would know at least a few of the things Outer Gods could do. And that regression was one of them.
Even the grimoires appearing in the Cthulhu Mythos were recorded with extremely dangerous magic. If that was the case, there was no way a grimoire actually written by a real Outer God would be more ordinary than those. Naturally, it would be far more dangerous than anything from the Cthulhu side.
Perhaps Lee Seo-a had usually thought along those lines as well, because she did not react much to the regression.
Instead, she showed interest in something else.
“……I understand that an Outer God dealt with another Outer God. I also understand that the world’s timeline changed in the process. I don’t really understand the part about an Outer God helping Earth, but I’ll accept it for now.”
“……”
“So, if the regression happened that way. Are you a regressor now? If every time you die, an Outer God can alter the world’s timeline. Then—”
“It really is true that the lifeforms of Earth are foolish. Do you think that would be possible? You insignificant creature?”
The Master of the Outer Sea cut Lee Seo-a off and muttered with an expressionless face.
“Even for an Outer God, touching a timeline is difficult. To begin with, the only one capable of that is that damn bitch.”
“……Is that so?”
“You’re speaking rather casually.”
“……Is that so, ma’am?”
“Tsk. If you weren’t Senior’s acquaintance, I would have stuffed knowledge of the Outer Sea into your head and toyed with you……”
Grumbling like that, the Master of the Outer Sea slipped neatly into Ian’s arms and sat there. Ian tried to push her away, but her physical weight was so tremendous that she did not budge. It was like she was an elephant.
“We call it regression, but in truth, it’s not really that. The universe continued to flow as it was, and only Earth moved backward.”
“……”
“And once a timeline has been tampered with, it cannot be manipulated any further. If someone ignores that and does it anyway, not only Earth but even the Outer God will be annihilated.”
“……Ah.”
“It’s really annoying and unpleasant for me to say this, but the Reconstruction of All Things made many sacrifices for my husband. That bitch’s current condition probably isn’t normal either. It’s obvious from the way her magic has restrictions placed on it.”
“Hmph,” she snorted, lifting her head slightly to look up at Ian.
“If you had called me back then, we’d be laughing happily at the beach by now. What a shame.”
“……I’m very glad I didn’t call you.”
As Ian said that, he looked back at the Reconstruction of All Things.
She was still pressed against the teachers’ office, looking down at Ian.
An expressionless face, just as when they had first met. However, Ian knew better than anyone that the face was that way simply because she had difficulty making expressions. So he was the first to send her a faint smile.
As if imitating that smile, the Reconstruction of All Things smiled awkwardly and waved her hand.
“Look here.”
At that very moment, the Master of the Outer Sea forcibly turned Ian’s head toward herself.
“The one beside you right now is me, Senior. Focus on me.”
“……Oof.”
“When you look closely, your favoritism is truly severe. If you dote too much on one side, the other won’t be able to endure it. Please be careful. Before I really gobble you up. A god’s patience is very different from a human’s, you know?”
“……I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ian smiled bitterly and stroked the Master of the Outer Sea’s head. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his touch.
“Mmm…… Anyway, to finish what I was saying, this space was created when an Outer God’s grimoire took root here. It had just reached the rank where it could create a grimoire, so it sent one down to Earth.”
“Why Earth, of all places?”
“Probably because it observed my incomplete descent. Or perhaps it was drawn by your aura, Senior. Just as I was.”
“……Huh.”
“I don’t really know the name of the Outer God, but one thing does come to mind.”
She smiled wickedly and tapped her lips with her finger.
“In your language, it would be something like loser? Yes. It’s the one most similar to that.”