Dark skies. Storm clouds devouring the world. Rain falling in a steady drizzle. Water mist rising from the ground. A pit turned into a quagmire. Rain boots sinking into the mud.
In the midst of some monsoon, a child was running. She was drawing closer to someone. Chasing a familiar back.
Squelch, squelch—a world buried beneath the cold onslaught of rain. A distance that felt all too far. Short, ever-so-short strides and ground that kept swallowing her feet.
And yet, without giving up, she finally reached the end and grasped someone's hand.
As both of their steps came to a halt at the same time, the child lifted her head with a trembling heart. She gazed intently into someone's eyes.
‘She,’ too, faced the child.
Then, the child was suddenly seized by fear.
What would she say to me?
Would she let go of this hand?
Would she leave me alone?
To the frightened child, she put on a serene smile. She let the child hear a gentle voice.
—……Silbi.
The name ‘Silbi.’
Overcome with happiness, the child buried herself in her mother’s embrace. The overwhelming warmth heated her heart. She tried not to cry, but in the end, she wept.
—Don’t cry~ Why are you crying, my dear? Everything will be alright.
The fierce rain could no longer torment the child and her mother. Thanks to the umbrella held above the two of them.
The two of them were now, forever together—...
—He is coming. So, it will be alright.
‘That person.’
At those words from her mother, Silbia opened her eyes wide.
* * *
Kwaaaaah—!
A tempest was raging upon the sea.
Waves writhing like dragons. The boat shaking like mad was on the verge of capsizing. Since the engine had been smashed long ago, they had resorted to steering with ‘Psychokinesis.’
“Professor——! At this rate we’re going to dieee——!”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Aaaack——! I’m going to become a water ghost, eok!”
Ipeurin, who had been tossed by the waves, grabbed me.
Thud—.
An especially massive impact hammered the boat. To avoid being swept away, she wrapped her arms tightly around my waist.
“……Keup, k-kurk—”
Thus, there were times when even a mage was useless. Especially when it came to natural disasters imbued with ‘mana,’ like now. The dense mana within the convection disrupted the manifestation of magic, and the boundless mana of the sea disassembled spells.
Even in this world where knights and mages ran rampant, ‘Mother Nature,’ which humans dared not oppose, existed…….
“Hey! Over here! Dekyulrein!”
Then, with a thunderous shout, a massive ship approached from afar.
Boooooo—! The ship’s horn blared, deafening their ears.
“You alright?!”
“Are you okay?!”
The voices of a knight and a mage descended from the ship.
I lifted the boat with Psychokinesis. I hauled it up and placed it on the vessel’s deck.
Thud—!
For this simple action, a massive 500 mana was consumed in one go.
“Woooooark—!”
Ipeurin’s shriek. Then knights and mages ran up to support us.
“You alright?! Dekyulrein!”
“……Is that Rojerio.”
“Yeah!”
Pink hair visible even in the darkness and fog.
I tidied my hair soaked with water and looked around.
“Delrik.”
“Yes! Professor. It’s Delrik. I’m glad you’re safe!”
There were about twenty knights, including Delrik.
Rojerio spoke.
“Let’s get inside first…… But is she okay?”
“Who?”
“There. That cicada clinging to you.”
“…….”
Belatedly, I looked down at my waist. Ipeurin was stuck to me tightly like a cicada.
Her lips and face had turned blue, her whole body trembling.
“How long were you out there in the sea?”
I thought back on today. It had been raining since before we set sail from the western coast, and we had wandered lost due to the fog and storm…….
“About a day—”
“What?! You were tossed around like this for a whole day? The kid’s gonna die!”
* * *
Rattle—
A cabin inside the ship. One of the escort knights carefully set down a teacup.
Green tea with hot steam rising in curls. Ipeurin, wrapped in a blanket, quickly cupped the teacup with both hands.
Her body was cold, but her face was hot.
“Oh~ You must be worried about your disciple.”
Rojerio muttered teasingly. I glared at her, and Ipeurin asked back with a slightly blank face.
……Huh? Worried?
Her voice was completely hoarse and barely audible.
“Yeah. Just now, this professor was looking at you with what kind of eyes— mmmph.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Mmmph-! Mmm-mmph!”
I sealed Rojerio’s mouth with ‘Duct Tape.’ I warned the flailing Rojerio.
“Next time, I’ll block your nose too.”
“……Mmm.”
I peeled the duct tape off. Rojerio rubbed her lips and spoke.
“Whew. I save you and this is what I get. Anyway, the weather’s really something today, right? It’s weird. This is definitely the West Sea, but why’s the magical disaster so bad?”
“Is this vessel holding up?”
“Ah, of course. Who do you think made it? Even if the world split in two, my ship won’t break.”
Slurp—
The sound of Ipeurin sipping from her teacup.
I looked out the ship’s window. The ‘Island of the Voice’ was visible in silhouette.
“At this rate, we can’t even get inside.”
“……Strange.”
I thought quietly.
Of course, ‘the Voice’ wasn’t a quest with a strictly fixed order. It could change at any time, and since this world was no longer a game, it was true that it could twist depending on variables…….
“It needs to accept living humans in order to flourish.”
Demons parasitize humans to live. In a world without humans, demons do not exist either. Probably, in a world inhabited only by demons, they would be humans, not demons.
Therefore, the reason the Voice seeks to ‘accept’ humans is simple.
Because humans must spread its power throughout the world.
“That’s what I’m saying. I know a thing or two about demons too, but is this one just stupid?”
“No. The Voice is clever.”
The Three Elements of Demons—Existence, Phenomenon, Concept.
The Voice is one that has realized those three. It would have to be exceedingly cunning…….
“What if—”
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“It has already obtained what it wants.”
“What it wants?”
“Yes.”
Then, what was ‘the thing it wants’?
“What it wants…… what is it?”
Rojerio asked, and Ipeurin also glanced at me as if curious.
“It’s neither grand nor holy. Demons are such beings by nature.”
Thus, its goal was probably—
“For its power to spread across the continent. To exist as a demon.”
“……But? You’re saying it already got that?”
“It may have already acquired that ‘catalyst.’”
“Catalyst?”
A name vaguely surfaced, then settled as certainty.
“……Silbia.”
Rojerio’s face went breathless, and Ipeurin scratched out a deflating sound.
Hieeeek…….
What a strange sound.
* * *
Meanwhile, the ‘Mental Strength Test’ developed by Dekyulrein was quite intense.
It was partly because many famous adventurers had participated, but also because the test itself was realistic and vast enough to be mysterious.
“Wow. Ria, is this really the subconscious~?”
Dekyulrein’s test was literally an ‘expedition.’ There were villages, NPCs, currency, dungeons, and of course, test participants could meet each other, and even treasures.
Of course, obtaining treasure here didn’t mean they could take it outside.
“I know, right~.”
Ria thought it was amazing too.
Indeed, the fact that this world was not a game—at least, that it was no longer one—could be felt viscerally at times like this.
Events that hadn’t been imagined at all, that couldn’t have been seen even in scenarios, suddenly popping out of nowhere.
“It’s just like reality.”
“Right?~ Ah, I see a village over there.”
Ganesya pointed beyond the horizon. Ria looked at the map in her hand too.
“Yes. That’s right.”
“Then shall we go eat? Aren’t you hungry?”
“Yes. Let’s eat.”
It really was strange. She was actually hungry right now, and eating here gave her a sense of fullness.
Even though this was surely nothing more than the world of the subconscious.
“Hey.”
A slick voice coiled from behind. A tone that was somehow unpleasant, somehow made one sigh.
Ganesya and Ria turned around with stiffened faces.
“Keheheh. Why’re you glaring?”
It was Jakar, smirking.
The two were on full guard, but Jakar spoke without care.
“I’m in a good mood right now~? I don’t think I need to go all the way to ‘the Voice.’”
“……What’re you talking about~?”
“Ah~ I’m talking about this place. It’s a little weird. No, very weird.”
Jakar’s tone suddenly hardened with seriousness.
“……Weird?”
“Yeah. A weird feeling. I kept feeling it. So, I said I’d quit the test.”
Jakar pointed to the bracelet on his wrist. It was the transmitter he had worn since before the test began. Ganesya clicked her tongue.
“If you’re going to quit, just quit~ Why’d you come back in and make a fuss?”
“Ah, shut up and listen to me, you stupid redhead.”
“……Huh. This—”
A vein bulged on Ganesya’s forehead. Ria held her back as she tried to step toward him.
“Let’s hear him out first.”
“Anyway! I went out and came back!”
Jakar pulled something from his pocket.
The two flinched thinking it might be a weapon, but it was merely a leaf.
Jakar spoke with a wide grin.
“This was in my grasp.”
“……What’re you talking about? Say it properly.”
“Ah, so. Listen carefully. I’m only saying this once. This thing here.”
Jakar put the leaf in his mouth. With his large teeth, he chewed it crunchingly.
“I got this inside here.”
“……?”
“What I’m saying is.”
Jakar bent his knee and grabbed a handful of dirt.
“Things obtained inside here can be taken outside too. Meaning, they exist outside as well.”
Ria’s eyes grew larger as she understood his meaning, and Ganesya’s arrogant face twisted.
“Of course, I don’t know how this happened either. But one thing’s for sure.”
Pat-pat—Jakar dusted the sand from his grasp. Hazy dust scattered in the wind.
“Dekyulrein. That crazy bastard created a world.”
“……A magical space.”
Ria muttered blankly. Ganesya and Jakar looked at her at the same time.
“If that’s true, Dekyulrein created not a world, but a magical space.”
“……Is that even possible?”
Ganesya asked. Ria thought blankly.
Soon, she shook her head.
“……I don’t know.”
The creation of a magical space.
Wasn’t it impossible unless one was an archmage?
Of course, Dekyulrein’s elemental attributes were fire and earth. Fundamental elements that comprised ‘the ground,’ but still…….
“Anyway. I’m going to take what I need to save my sister and go back.”
“There’s such a thing here?”
Ganesya crossed her arms. Jakar nodded.
“Yeah. I heard there’s an elixir auction in that central city.”
“……Elixir?”
Elixir. That cliché naming brought only one person to Ria’s mind.
Yulli.
The only, and trite, panacea that could heal her.
“No way.”
“What ‘no way,’ you brat. Hah~ Did I tell you for nothing? Hey. If you’ve got your eyes on the elixir……”
Swish—Jakar drew a longsword, and Ganesya kicked it with her foot.
“Where do you think you’re pointing that sword? You wanna die, you son of a bitch?”
“……I tell you something good and you flip out.”
Jakar pouted. However, it wasn’t that bad a look.
“Then I’ll be going first. You guys too, treasure what you obtained here. If this gets out, there’ll be bloodshed, got it?”
Rather, seeming happy at the thought of saving his sister, he grinned widely and hummed a tune—lala-lala, ta-ta-ta—as he passed them.
Ganesya glared at his retreating figure.
“……You~ You’re trying to start a fight with a lie, aren’t you?”
“If you think it’s a lie, try going out and coming back~ Ah~ Even if I hadn’t told you, once you went out and came back, you’d all be fighting like mad trying to steal each other’s treasures anyway~”
Click—!
Then, a sound like the power going off was heard. At the same time, everything went pitch black. Jakar, Ganesya, and Ria blinked blankly.
“……What the hell is happening?!”
The moment Jakar cursed belatedly.
Tung—!
Adventurers including Jakar and Ganesya were expelled from the ‘testing ground.’
No, they had returned to the original world.
“……?”
A theater on the western coast.
The seats of the place where Dekyulrein had recommended the ‘Mental Strength Test.’
Inside, hundreds of adventurers looked at each other noisily and with bewildered eyes.
“What the hell, hey! What’s going on!”
Jakar, who had immediately jumped up, pointed at Deurenteu and glared fiercely. At that tremendous killing intent, Deurenteu flinched and trembled.
“Why all of a sudden—”
“The test is over. No, there’s no need to see it.”
A cold voice descended from the stage of the theater.
Ria looked up there.
“Any complaints?”
Dekyulrein, staring at Jakar while soaked all over.
The magic professor who created the magical space.
Whether he knew that fact or not, he spoke nonchalantly.
“Let’s disperse. Due to the natural disaster caused by ‘the Voice,’ even if you pass the test, entering itself will be impossible…….”
* * *
……Right now, I am quite bewildered.
“Ah, forget about that Voice. Could I perhaps, uh, retake the test…….”
Because of the attitude the adventurers were showing.
They were holding onto me with endlessly humble postures. They had no intention of leaving the theater.
“The test?”
“Yes. I’m talking about that Mental Strength Test.”
“……Why that.”
I furrowed my brow. But there was no time for this. I needed to return to the Academy right now and think of countermeasures against the Voice—
“Professor, Professor~ Look at this, look~”
Then, a cheerful voice approached lightly.
The Yuren princess, Maho, handed over some object.
“It’s gold.”
It was gold. Bright, gleaming ore of pure gold.
Maho spoke.
“Yes, yes~ An adventurer obtained this inside the test~”
“……Inside the test.”
“Yes, yes~ The test you gave, Professor~ The items inside became ‘real’ like this~?”
“…….”
For a moment, while I was trying to gauge the meaning of those ambiguous words.
Someone grabbed my sleeve.
It was Ria of the Red Garnet Adventurer Party.
“It’s a magical space.”
“…….”
I looked down at the kid silently.
The young kid resembling Yuara had a determined, round-faced expression.
“That testing machine.”
The kid pointed to the cylindrical ‘magitech brainwave detector’ placed above the theater.
“With that, you personally created it.”
Words claiming that I had created something, even though I had never created anything of the sort.
Anyway, muttering so, the kid looked up at me with a stiff expression.
———At that moment.
A quest notification floated in the air.
A very clear sentence was etched upon my retina.
[Independent Quest: Game Designer Gim Ujin]