Inside the Distorted Revenge (1)

Under the golden shell, the small garnet shattered.

【Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah…】

A sound like a broken, spring-wound music box echoed.
It reached the ears, rewound, played in reverse, played normally again, and then reversed once more.
Noise filled the blackboard-scratching voice, and for a moment, every human who heard it covered their ears.
Some of the faint-hearted even foamed at the mouth and fainted.
The Nate Guild’s shelter was no different.
“As long as they’re not dead, just leave them for now.”
After giving a curt reply to the urgent message, I once again looked at the single eye within the pile of wings.
Where the small jewel-like eye had been pierced and disappeared, the gold crumbled away, revealing a black space.
A space just barely big enough for one person to pass through.
And the place where the last wing I had taken should have been attached.
‘It’s a loophole.’
A back door, so to speak.
In truth, entering the heart of that Distorted Revenge should be more complicated.
It would involve finding the contractors of The Crow’s Ruins scattered across the world, extracting their souls, and drawing out starlight from them…
In any case, it was a task for which we had neither the preparation nor the time.
However, by tearing off a Brand in the past, a gap had been created.
“How do you know this?”

• Just say I’m competent.

When the regressor provides a bit of information, I deduce the rest.
It was something magicians, who developed future formulas with fragments of the past, had always done.

• You know what will happen if you go in, right?

“How could I not know?”
Yeon Taeseon stared at the hole that was no longer collapsing.
Inside was a pitch-black darkness without a single point of light.
Countless more hardships would surely await inside.
And he only had one life.
“If I die….”

• I’m starting to think I should tell our contractors to stop raising death flags.

It was a way of saying she didn’t want to hear it.
Why did these contractors of mine love dying so much?
It would be nice if they could be like Jiye, bravely announcing to the world that they are alive.

• If you have something to say to me, say it when you come back alive. It’s not like you’re some character saying, ‘I’m going to confess to her when I get back’…

“If I come back and confess, will you accept?”

• Get in line.

Who does he think he is, trying to get a free pass?
A short banter took place in front of the pitch-black hole.
Yeon Taeseon laughed as if in disbelief, and I captured that face in my eyes.
“I’ll get in line when I get back.”

• Okay.

And then Yeon Taeseon stepped into the black space…
Ting.
“……?”

• What? What’s going on?

He couldn’t enter the space.
As if a transparent film existed, Yeon Taeseon’s foot could not enter the black space.
I quickly looked with the Sun’s Eye.
There was no problem.
I put more power into my eyes.
I saw dead starlight.
To break through that, human strength wouldn’t be enough.

• Taeseon.

“What is this….”

• I think I have to go.

“…….”
I felt sorry for the regressor who had run all the way there, but…
Dead starlight is difficult to handle with a human body.
It was like being teleported a thousand meters into the deep sea, naked.
Yeon Taeseon hesitated for a good while.
“Can’t we go together?”

• As if that would work.

“This is something I have to do.”
The regressor, who had walked a long path, whispered in a desperate voice.
As if realizing the opportunity he was about to grasp with his own hands was actually behind glass, unreachable from the start.
“I have the right to see the future.”
It was regrettable, but I, watching from the ground, also had something to say.

• And I have the right to grant the future.

The regressor, Yeon Taeseon, had suffered a lot.
He had only rested a little after his regression, and not long ago he went into a holy relic and came back after experiencing what was practically a second regression.
In the very first world, he witnessed a completely ruined world.
It was time for him to rest.
Time to entrust it to someone else and rest.
‘And I am this guy’s contract Constellation.’
I had to take responsibility.
That’s what a contract is.
Although the formal contract had no detailed clauses and not much compulsion to take responsibility.
I decided to think of it lightly.

• I want to save the world too. In the previous world, I died before I could even try to save it.

And it was a world where I questioned if it was even worth saving.
There was so much malice in that small world that it was a relief to have had my neck cut off and died.
Click.
A high heel struck the ground.
Simultaneously, my vision inverted.
My gaze, which had been looking up at the sky, was now directed at the pitch-black hole right in front of me, and Yeon Taeseon, who had been staring blankly at the hole, was moved back under the open sky.
I had swapped our coordinate settings.
“Wait there quietly, regressor.”

• Lee Seonbaek!

“You’d better hope the world isn’t destroyed by the time I get back.”
In front of the dead starlight, which felt as repulsive as countless crawling spiders, the hem of my pristine white dress still fluttered.
With a rustling sound, I cut the connected communication.
“A Constellation saves the world, I suppose.”
It wasn’t bad.
Perhaps because I was unjustly beheaded for killing the Hero, the thought of becoming the Hero this time to defeat a monstrous villain…
It actually felt pretty good.
“[Transfer].”
Finally, after transferring all rights to the magic currently being executed to the magically-inclined Daisy and Baek Jiye.
I took a step forward.

[Warning! Intervention: Forced Coin Consumption]
[All Coins will be consumed.]
[The Administrator will accompany you into ‘Distorted Revenge’.]

Simultaneously, nothing could be seen in my vision, which was stained black.

Blink.
Under the strong light, my eyelids fluttered shut without me realizing.
Blink, blink….
Only after blinking a few more times did my vision clear.
The pale yellow sky was impressive.
I was lying in a field.
“…….”
Yes, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be easy.
There was no time to be dazed.
Finding the core immediately inside the holy relic was because I had forcibly activated the power of the pre-regression, spectral Han Siyoon.
Now, I had entered this place alone.
My hard-won contract was useless; I couldn’t expect to use Yeon Taeseon’s abilities.
“It’s been a while since I was alone.”

[The Administrator is present!]

A blue window floated before my eyes as if throwing a tantrum.
It looked so much like it was angry, asking how I could be so reckless, that I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Then what other way was there?”

[You could have received help from The Seventeenth Love!]

“You wanted me to get help from that eccentric? Hmm, eccentric or not, I wouldn’t want to do that.”
Above all.
“I’m the most capable one here.”
So it was right for me to step up.
The highest-ranking Constellation, the strongest magician on this planet called Earth, the one with power just below the Administrator.
The more one has to lose, the more desperate one becomes.
“So, what should I do here….”
I stood up from the field.
My back felt heavy, and when I looked behind me, a pair of pure white wings was there.
“Hahaha!”
“Groschula, wait up!”
From far across the field, the sound of children’s laughter could be heard.
Watching them quietly, I saw that they too, though small, had wings like mine.
“It’s the Emperor’s execution!”
“You idiot, he’s not the Emperor anymore!”
“Traitor! Traitor!”
The children laughed as they ran towards a white palace visible in the distance.
Looking up at the sky, I soon saw white dots.
The adult celestials were also heading towards the palace.
“Execution?”

[It must be related to The Crow’s Ruins.]

“I suppose so. But Emperor?”
The Crow’s Ruins had looked young.
He didn’t fit with words like ‘Emperor’ or ‘traitor’.
Of course, it wasn’t that young kings didn’t exist, but anyway, ‘treason’ was an even more unfitting image.

[It would be best to go and see first.]

“Alright.”
Of course, this new body part called wings was more complex and difficult than I thought, so it took a while just to prepare to spread my wings and fly.
When I tried to use flight magic, the system stopped me, saying it would be too conspicuous.
Hmm, that’s true.
After staggering through the pale yellow sky like a fly, I arrived at the palace, where the atmosphere was already incredibly heated.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Execution! Execution, execution!”
In a bad way.
It was a sight that made one frown instinctively.
Children and adults alike, wearing red flower crowns, were watching a single person placed on an execution platform set up in front of the pure white palace.
The face of the person who raised his head was familiar.
The Crow’s Ruins.
Unlike his appearance as a Constellation full of venomous energy, his eyes now held no light.
The feathers on his wings had all been plucked out, and the flesh was laid bare, dripping with blood.
“Sinner, Spesha, listen.”
A celestial being who had unfurled a white scroll in the air spoke.
“The traitor brought a demon into this sacred land and schemed to bring about corruption.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“The traitor used the demon to flay the bones and flesh of children and eat them.”
“I didn’t do it.”
“In that process, the traitor chewed up and ate the future crown prince.”
“Someone, please….”
The small voice was buried under the curses of the square.