NOVEL NEXT Chapter 120 - The Color of the Star in Your Heart★ (2)
「Law creation: Souls that belonged to all places – life and death, past and future – forget fighting and war and live in happy memories.」
* * *
My head hurts.
I remember being sucked into a hole under the World Tree.
Chilling black energy had enveloped my body.
I felt like my body was floating because I was so tired.
‘Where… is this…?’
Black energies undulated and wrapped around my body like waves. It felt like sinking into dark water.
And a hard sensation felt on my buttocks.
A smooth sensation, hard like stone.
‘A chair…?’
The hard chair was shaking periodically. A mechanical rhythm like a heavy vehicle moving.
I must be inside a large vehicle or machine.
Thud—
Thud—
The sound of a train passing by is heard. Listening carefully, I can hear people coughing or rustling about holding something.
‘Is it an ether train?’
My body was stiff from the black waves, and I couldn’t open my eyes.
So I listened carefully to what people were saying.
‘It seems like everyone is holding something and talking…’
Two adult men are chatting casually.
Both of their voices were cracked with fatigue.
“Have you tried the game that just opened?”
“Ah, the quality of foreign games these days is no joke, right? Like the story and quality are all insane levels. Now that my standards are higher, I can’t play domestic games anymore.”
“That’s sick. Do you have the energy to play games after work? I’m still putting them in my library and putting it off.”
“You’ll probably just browse video sites in that time. You dopamine addict.”
“Hehe… Actually, the last time I watched a movie or played a game I bought all the way through was last year. These days there are a lot of summary broadcasts… After watching those, I lose motivation.”
“You’re crazy with the self-spoilers. Why buy them if you don’t play them yourself? Anyway, try it yourself. I’m telling you it’s at a level where domestic games won’t even register.”
The man who had been browsing video sites rebutted the words of the gaming enthusiast man.
“Among domestic games,
“That’s just a mobile game that sells characters. Only people who turn off their sense of gameplay and spend money on data fragments play it.”
“You mean like how you spent 1.5 million won trying to collect soccer player decks?”
“What I do is fine because it’s a god-tier game.”
Something.
I can’t fully understand what they’re saying, but.
It made me feel frustrated.
So I tried to clench my fist and get up.
At that moment.
A clear woman’s voice was heard from a speaker far away.
-The next station is Hapjeong, Hapjeong Station.
-The doors will open on the right.
As soon as the announcement ended, someone nudged my elbow.
“Clara.”
Poke poke
It was a female student with an indifferent voice.
“Wake up.”
Poke poke
She soon whispered quietly in my ear.
“Do you want to get isekai reincarnated sleeping like that?”
“…?!”
Memories flashed by in an instant.
A rainy street.
A closing front gate after being turned away.
A hand extended to me.
-I’m so glad to meet you!
My eyes snapped open from the sudden chill.
I got up with a shout.
“…Not twice—☆”
“That’s sick, twice? Is this a regression story?”
“…Eh?”
A female student with black straight hair tied up, holding a phone in one hand. She made a creeped out expression looking at me.
“Wow, did you just say ‘Eh?’ with your own mouth? You even tilted your head while saying it. That’s so sick. Are you a manga protagonist?”
“…Senior Selma.”
Hearing my words, Senior Selma went ‘Ugh’ and made a face.
“You’re crazy, have you been watching too many webtoons? It’s cringe so call me like you used to.”
“…Selma unni.”
Senior Selma giggled and pulled my arm. Her palm was hot, probably from gripping her phone tightly.
“Let’s go home.”
“…Home?”
“Yeah. The place where you go ‘Tadaima, okaeri’.”
“…”
Her analogies were all strange.
We exited the subway like that and passed through the station. Numerous office workers and crowds were walking around.
‘There are a lot of people.’
On the way to the street after tapping our cards. The savory smell of bread from the bakery in front of the station and the scent of junk food tickled my nose.
Numerous vehicles pass by with angry beeping sounds. Under the evening glow, lit brake lights were engraving a red Milky Way.
Beyond the street where red starlight twinkled, we entered a narrow alley and climbed up for quite a while. There was a long stairway going up there.
When we had gone up the stairs for a while, Senior Selma grumbled.
“Ugh, I’m going to get calves like dumbbells from commuting here. They say you need to be careful of your stamina and hemorrhoids to be a writer, right. Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about that.”
“Is being a writer still your dream?”
“Right? I even entered a contest this time.”
“How did it go?”
Senior Selma held up three fingers with a confident expression.
“3rd place?”
“72 chapters total, 333 views so far, 33 favorites.”
Somehow I could immediately tell that wasn’t a high enough score to make such a confident expression.
“…”
“B-But this time I improved a lot. If I just prepare properly and write, I can aim for the rankings now.”
“…I see.”
“Once I complete my magnum opus…
“…I see☆”
We climbed the stairs like that and stood in front of a shabby villa room. And Senior Selma entered the passcode and went in.
“I’m home.”
“I’m home.”
I saw a single room that looked like it would be full if four people lay down.
Senior Nina, who had been intently looking at something there, greeted us with a bright smile. What she was holding in her hand was a stiff piece of paper.
“Welcome home~ Uhihi… Clara! Selma! Look at this~ Ta-da!”
“Huh? What is it? Did you pass the baking certification? That’s sick.”
“Congratulations.”
“Right~ I’m now a woman with qualifications~ Uhihi.”
Senior Frida, who was drawing in the living room, had a bitter smile.
“Welcome home… I’ve been hearing that story for the hundredth time now…”
“Uhihi…”
Senior Selma tossed down the bag she was carrying and said:
“Ah, Frida. I heard you took a mock practical exam at the art academy this time?”
“…Yeah.”
“How did it go?”
“…Ahaha.”
Senior Frida made a show of wiping her glasses fidgeting.
“Hii…”
“…Don’t tell me you’re going to grow a mustache and join the army later.”
“Uu…”
“Agh, stop being so dramatic. Clara’s watching and copying you.”
“Uhihi… Clara’s been Frida’s shadow since long ago~”
After chattering for a while, the seniors eventually looked this way.
“Clara, why are you standing like that?”
“Come sit here and talk with us!”
Somehow a familiar single room.
But inside are the people I love.
That scene was so warm…
It made me feel like I might cry.
-Lara!!
So I answered with a big smile to keep tears from flowing.
“Yes!”
-Lara, wake up—!!
-Clara!!
-[Spiral]—!!
-Senior!!
* * *
“Wake up!! Why are you just standing there?!”
“…Mo …ther. Grand… mother… are all alive…”
The black swamp slowly rising.
Those who touched even a little of it lost their reason.
Like that, everyone was sinking.
There was nowhere to escape, blocked off by translucent barriers.
A female student who had been fleeing to the hill where
“Ah…”
The academy city was collapsing and sinking.
It was disappearing into black spray.
-This world is actually nine dimensions…
-We are in endless fighting…
-The war between the Empire, Principality, and Republic…
-We are actually no different from sacrificial offerings…
Echoes whispering ‘facts that shouldn’t be known’ have been reverberating, and students were repeatedly being enchanted by them and entering the black swamp.
‘If this life is actually false… and we suffer eternally…’
Is there… meaning in living?
If it’s a painless end…
If it’s an end where everyone falls asleep together.
Wouldn’t that be… not bad?
“…”
The student who had slumped down staggered towards the black swamp.
“…”
And as she reached out her hand.
Just as she was about to enter.
“Stop.”
“Huh?”
When she turned around, an imposing black helmet was approaching.
The female student screamed shrilly and stepped back.
“Eek?!”
“You’ve been enchanted. Child.”
“What?!”
A fist wrapped in a solid gauntlet fell on the female student’s head. A clear ringing sound echoed as if striking a bell.
Clang—!
“Gah…?!”
The female student fainted. And Helina silently slung the female student over her shoulder and looked at the black swamp.
“…”
It was full of students floating around entranced by dreams.
But she couldn’t go and fish them out herself. The living would lose their minds, enchanted just by touching that black abyss.
So as Helina resolutely turned to leave, Kara’s angry voice followed from behind. She was running over leading numerous dwarves.
“No, Senior Comrade Helina!! Why do you keep knocking people out and abandoning them repeatedly?! Shouldn’t we save everyone?!”
“Hiss— Just save those who aren’t enchanted, that’s all.”
“Aish, why is your ideology so extreme! Move aside!”
“Hiss…”
Kara shoved Helina aside and approached the swamp with an old tailor dwarf. And she swung her flag and shouted.
“[Revolutionary Comrade]—! [Flag of Revolution]—!”
Numerous dwarf-shaped dolls that appeared around pulled out students floating in the swamp. And a wave that flowed like a navy blue wave gave strength to the shopkeeper dwarves.
“Ohhh!! So this is Kara’s technique I’ve only heard about!!”
The old tailor flexed both arms, then bravely entered the black swamp and began rescue operations. And the kind-spoken baker dwarf followed behind him.
“Haha… To think I who’ve only baked bread all my life would be doing rescue work.”
Those with bodies made of steel were unaffected even when touching the black swamp. So the shopkeeper dwarves were rescuing students.
In the sky, [Nameless Hawk] was flying around helping with the rescue.
“Peeep—! A little more to the right!”
“Where? Here?”
Helina quietly muttered even seeing that sight.
“At this rate, it’s too late.”
“…That’s true.”
Kara couldn’t refute those words.
“…”
No matter how much she led the dwarves in rescue operations, they could only conduct rescue activities near
Helina spoke looking beyond the horizon.
“If we could borrow the power of
“The problem is that’s not easy.”
The horizon full of black swamp was crawling with numerous dragons and chaos insects.
Swoosh—!!
Grooaar—!!
There was little they could do even with these small and feeble dwarves and herself. Even Helina, a [Unique Ether] ability user, couldn’t face them without a foothold.
“…”
There was no… way.
They were too small in this overwhelming disaster.
“…”
Small?
Then…
We just need to get bigger.
“…”
-Once upon a time, when dwarves and giants were one…
‘The mountain giants were huge enough to block out the sky. But the giants after that were only as big as trees. Not big enough to block the sky.’
She gripped the flag tightly.
A faint energy was spreading from there.
‘The reason they were able to defeat the Emperor of the giant Empire and the Beast Gods.’
Grip—
‘The steel giants commanded by [Rider of Rebellion] disappeared one day.’
One piece of forbidden knowledge flashed through Kara’s mind again.
“…!”
-Once upon a time, when dwarves and giants were one…
The steel giants commanded by [Rider of Rebellion]… had not disappeared. The answer was what her adoptive father had told her every night.
Kara suddenly burst out laughing.
“Pfft… Hahaha… What, there is a way.”
“…”
Kara looked at Helina.
“Haha… Do you know? Once upon a time… dwarves and giants were one.”
“…”
Helina looked at Kara laughing incredulously. In her pupils, she saw navy blue waves starting to surge.
And she raised the flag.
Dong—
Dong—
Dong—
Navy blue waves undulate.
Between the black swamps, the dwarves began to raise their heads.
They looked at the one who had always treated them kindly.
“Kara?”
“Student Kara?”
“Miss Kara?”
Kara spoke looking at the dwarves conducting rescue operations.
“I’ll show you. The sight of small and diminutive dwarf comrades… saving the academy city—!”
Navy blue waves undulated and spread to various parts of the swamp.
At the highest point of
“…Skadi.”
“I’m busy right now.”
“…You’ll regret it if you don’t listen.”
“What on earth are you…”
Maya forcibly held the telescope up to Skadi’s eyes as she was moving busily holding a phone.
“Wait! What are you… doing…”
Skadi’s mouth fell open at the sight visible outside the student council room window. And she dropped the phone she was holding.
A giant wall was approaching beyond the horizon.
Boom—!
Boom—!
Boom—!
It was approaching, trampling numerous chaos insects and dragons.
“What… is that?”
Eventually what came into Skadi’s view was…
Boom—!
Hundreds of steel giants at least 20 meters tall were approaching. Gleaming navy blue, they were surging forward like waves.