It went without saying, but the moment two more Outer Gods entered, the space of the music box could no longer endure and began to collapse. Even the banging noise could no longer be heard. The sky was torn apart by pale white hands and fluttered in tatters, while the floor transformed into a sea and melted away.
In two minutes—one, if it was short—the place where Ian sat would probably vanish as well. Since it was a dream, it would not affect reality, but it was true that the time had been shortened by quite a lot.
It did not particularly matter. He had nothing more to ask in the first place, so there was nothing to regret about it ending quickly.
‘Once I return to reality, I should start by drawing up a plan to catch and kill Irene.’
Thinking that, Ian stroked the hair of the girl in his arms. The Lord of the Outer Sea let out a moan, as if pleased.
“Hee……”
She looked like a young child, but when he thought about how what lay inside that skin was at least older than Earth, it put him in a rather strange mood.
Still, she probably was not acting with malicious intent, so Ian let it pass and spent the remaining time conversing with the three Outer Gods. His gaze turned toward Leah, who was sitting beside him.
“What were you doing that made you fight her?”
“There wasn’t any grand reason. That child barged into my domain as she pleased, so I dealt with her as an example.”
Leah answered while crossing her legs. Because of her translucent negligee, almost all of her lower body, including her underwear, was plainly exposed.
“Whether intentional or not, the first example needs to be dealt with harshly, after all. I caught her on the spot and tormented her for about a year by human standards.”
“……”
“After that, well, it was obvious. I kept tearing off her limbs without rest for a year, so the things that had invaded all ran away on their own. If even one had remained, I would have killed that child too, so wasn’t that fortunate?”
“……Waaah.”
Terry shed tears in fat drops. The transparent teardrops evaporated and vanished the instant they fell to the floor.
It was a pitiful thing, but there was no need to bother weighing right and wrong over something that had already passed. If that led to an argument, it would only be troublesome. To begin with, judging by how Terry was not refuting it that strongly, she seemed to be aware that she bore some fault as well.
Or not.
“But, darling. There’s one thing I want to ask.”
As soon as his conversation with Leah ended, the Lord of the Outer Sea spoke to him. When Ian naturally shifted his gaze, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her whole body against him.
“Why don’t you call me by a name? The white freak is Leah, and the loser is Terry. Then what about me? What are you going to call me?”
“……Both of those names were given to me by them. I didn’t make them up.”
“Oh, really? Hmm…… Then you name me yourself!”
“……Me?”
“Yeah!”
She smiled brightly and rubbed her cheek against the nape of Ian’s neck. Leah and Terry’s gazes naturally turned murderous, but Ian calmly let out a low hum.
It was a suggestion he had never expected. But it was not such a difficult request. Without thinking too hard, he immediately blurted out whatever names came to mind.
“Poppy.”
“No!”
“Chundeok, or Chunbae.”
“I really hate those!”
“Your name is Chunsik now.”
“Aren’t you going to take this seriously?”
Chomp.
She bit the nape of Ian’s neck fairly hard. Since it was a dream, there was no pain, but he could still feel the pressure of her teeth and the sensation of blood flowing.
It was not a very pleasant feeling, so Ian pushed the Lord of the Outer Sea away and let out a deep sigh.
“Then just go with ‘Rose.’ Your eye color is similar to a rose.”
“……Rose?”
She repeated the name Ian had spoken—“Rose, Rose……”—and savored it for a moment before soon smiling brightly and nodding.
“Rose! I like it! From now on, my name is Rose!”
The Lord of the Outer Sea—no, Rose—continued chanting her new name as she circled around Ian.
Even in the meantime, the world was collapsing in real time, and now the only place remaining was the bed where Ian sat. Even that bed had begun to sink into the sea.
Gurgle.
As his feet submerged into the sea, things that looked like red eyeballs clung densely to his ankles with a bizarre sound. Resembling single-celled organisms, they gnawed away at everything they came into contact with, whether organic or inorganic, including the bed.
Ian was no exception. His submerged ankles evaporated in less than a second, leaving only blood dripping down.
Fortunately, there was no pain.
There was almost no sensation either, so if he had not swished his legs, he would not have known his ankles were gone.
‘Plankton, huh.’
Ian immediately realized that those eyeball-like creatures were an aggregate of plankton living in the Outer Sea.
It seemed that since the subject of the dream was the grimoire itself, the spells written in the grimoire had been manifested along with it. Looking closely, he could also see familiar creatures swimming deep within the sea.
The pale white hands descending from the sky were also in the midst of altering everything they touched. Then, with a splash, they plunged into the sea and cruelly tore apart the creatures of the Outer Sea. Red droplets of blood burst inside the black seawater, only to fade before he could even register them.
“It’s time to say farewell.”
Leah spoke. She was holding on to a hand that had descended from the sky as though it were a lifeline, and she gave Ian a faint smile. It was a smile without a single trace of falsehood.
“It was brief, but I was glad to meet you. I hope we can meet again if another opportunity arises.”
“Yeah, if there’s an opportunity.”
After hearing his answer, Leah departed while maintaining her smile. The pale white hands that had filled the sky vanished along with her.
In their place, hyacinth petals poured down like rain. The petals drifting along the current drove away the sea’s distinctive fishy stench.
“Tch.”
But soon, following Rose’s gesture, they were all torn apart. A swirling current ground the water’s surface like a blender, and creatures rising from the depths of the sea chewed and swallowed the shredded petals.
“Still pulling this shit right to the very end. She really is a gloomy bitch.”
She said that with an irritated expression, then whipped around to look at Ian and smiled brightly.
“Take care, darling! I’m always watching, so don’t you dare cheat on me! If you do, then even I don’t know what I’ll do!”
“……”
“I love you!”
She did not wait for an answer. Rose ran straight toward Ian, kissed him on the cheek, and then vanished along with the seawater. Thanks to that, the only things left in the space were the pitch-black darkness reminiscent of the universe and Terry.
Even though she was now alone with Ian, far from being happy, she murmured gloomily.
“It was our long-awaited first meeting…… but all they did was get in the way……”
“There’ll be another chance next time. Don’t hate the two of them too much.”
“Hiiing…… okay……”
Terry answered obediently, then looked at Ian and waved one hand.
“N-next time, let’s meet with just the two of us. I’ll prepare properly then.”
“Can I look forward to it?”
Ian asked with a small laugh. She nodded vigorously.
“Yeah! Look forward to it!”
Those were her last words. The moment a black cloak that appeared by tearing through space wrapped around her body, nothing remained in the space anymore. Only Ian was left, floating alone.
It felt as if he had come to the deep abyss of the sea, and also as if he had been thrown into outer space by himself. Whatever it was, he was certainly alone now. With a faint smile, he closed his eyes.
It was time to wake from the dream.
*
3:20 in the afternoon. Only after roughly three hours had passed since he fell into his nap did Ian open his eyes. He stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then sat up while holding his throbbing head with one hand. The nature of the pain was a little different for it to simply be because he had slept too long.
It was probably a side effect of having met three Outer Gods. Though it had been a dream, it was a dream world created through mystery. It was not strange that it had strained his mind and body.
“Phew……”
He threw off the blanket, got up, and looked down at the floor.
Three grimoires lay tangled together in harmony on the cold marble floor.
The music box was, of course, smashed. It did not look reusable.
He had not expected anything, so there was no disappointment. He picked up the grimoires, set them down on the table, went out to the living room, and gulped down a mouthful of water. As he did, he thought.
‘With this, it’s as good as proven that the Hermit’s Shackles also doesn’t see me as a toy or pet. I can use the spells written in the Book of Contract a little more actively.’
He tossed the empty cup roughly into the sink, sat down on the sofa in the living room, and rubbed his eyelids with his hand.
Amelia had apparently woken up long ago and gone into her room, as she was nowhere in sight. He had no intention of monitoring her every move, so he did not bother going to look for her.
She would manage well enough. As long as she had not gone outside the house or been kidnapped, it did not particularly matter.
‘Come to think of it, I never got Amelia’s contact information either. I should ask her once this evening.’
Thinking that, Ian quietly gazed out the window.
The yard was sparsely covered in green grass. Sunlight fell slantwise over it, then vanished again as it was blocked by clouds.
The moment a petty ghost standing blankly at the second-floor window of the empty house across the street met his eyes, it was startled and kept bowing at the waist.
“……”
He stared at the retreating back of the ghost as it scurried away, then smiled faintly and picked up the hefty revolver lying on the table.
Click.
When he opened the cylinder, he felt the cold temperature peculiar to empty metal. Ian spun the empty cylinder once and leaned back against the sofa.
Now, his rest was over.
It was about time to return to his main job.