The Offer

“You’re awake.”
Blue eyes stared at me.
A good physique, a handsome man with strong features… The Regressor, Yeon Taeseon, was looking at me.
I immediately screamed.
“Piyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”
“Be quiet.”
Would you be calm if you were me?
Do you think I wouldn’t scream?
I was forced to kiss a crazy guy in my dream, and when I woke up, I was held in the hands of a strange man?!
‘Sion! Where is Sion! I miss you! Jiye!’
Even though I sobbed, Yeon Taeseon didn’t care.
To add fuel to the fire, a system window popped up.

[The Administrator is disappointed and looks forward to the next time.]
[Instead, he says he will give a gift for your effort.]
[Brand Key: Myth]
[A key that can remove the brand carved by the Administrator. It is used by touching the target with the brand. 2 uses.]
‘Don’t give it to me nowwwwwwwwww!’
A small key appeared on my neck, sparkling.
As expected, Yeon Taeseon’s finger touched my neck.
“You’ve met the Administrator? Good.”
‘What’s so good about ittttttttttt!’
Why is the night so long?
I continued to scream and lamented today.
I missed Sion.
I missed my contractors.
“Let’s get straight to the point.”
Whether I screamed or not, Yeon Taeseon didn’t bat an eye and just said what he had to say.
“Make a contract with me, Silent Calamity.”
“Pikkuk.”
That was a hiccup.
No, did he come here to make a contract with me?
Now?
In the middle of the night?
Thanks to that, I didn’t have to ki… the Administrator, so that’s a relief!
“Otherwise, I’ll tear your incarnation to pieces right here.”
…No, scratch that.
It wasn’t a relief at all.
‘Let me kiss him instead!’
But I didn’t want my body to be torn apart, so I tentatively offered a contract to Yeon Taeseon.
I did it even though I knew it wouldn’t work.

[Warning! This is a Regressor!]
[A huge amount of coins is expected to be consumed upon contract.]
[Do you want to make a contract?]
[Coins consumed: 100 million]
‘Would I?!’
My entire fortune was around 50,000 at best.
Would I do something that would cost 100 million coins!!
I shook my head desperately and cried, meaning no.
“You don’t want to? I can’t help it then.”
And then, this guy actually grabbed one of my tentacles as if he was going to tear it off and pulled it!
“Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiik!”
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
Sion always stroked me gently, and Jiye brought me cake every day!
‘Why do I have to be treated like this!

I was a Constellation.
I was a Constellation.
I was a Constellation.
I was not a body to be torn apart by a mere human without a contract Constellation in a place like this.
‘I don’t want to!’
Poof!
It was at that moment.
I felt my body not listening to me, and my vision turned white.
When I came to my senses, I was looking up at the Regressor, Yeon Taeseon, and…
He had his hand on my chest.
“…”
“…”
I slapped him.
SLAP──!

“Pervert.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Trash.”
“I said I’m sorry.”
“Filthy bastard.”
“…”
After a refreshing slap echoed.
I was huddled in a corner of the rooftop, sniffling under my veil.
Every time I spoke, trash was created in the air and fell.
It was a relief that a ‘pervert’ didn’t fall.
The Regressor, Yeon Taeseon, sat on the rooftop railing five steps away from me, holding his swollen cheek, and was glancing at me, who had lost all dignity as a Constellation.
“I didn’t expect the incarnation to be able to turn into a human.”
“…”
“And I certainly didn’t expect it to be female.”
“f*cking trash.”
“Listen. Constellations are usually genderless or androgynous. It’s rare for them to have a clearly defined gender like you.”
“Non-combustible trash.”
“I should just stop talking.”
I sniffled and chewed on the words I had just heard.
Androgynous or genderless?
‘The Administrator was definitely a man.’
I didn’t know the basis for it, but the information ‘the Administrator is a man’ was inputted in my head.
This information probably wasn’t wrong.
Is it because he’s an Administrator, not a Constellation?
So he asked me to ki…?

“I think you’re having some very blasphemous thoughts right now.”
I thought I heard the voice of a woman-crazy Administrator from somewhere, but I ignored it.
For a moment, the night wind separated us.
When my sniffling subsided, Yeon Taeseon opened his mouth.
“So, what are you going to do? Constellation.”
“…”
“Make a contract with me. I need you.”
At the insolent Regressor’s words, which came in with a hook as soon as I calmed down, I begged the Administrator.
‘Please give me just one more veil.’
It’s still hard to talk to people with just one.
Just one more.
So I can curse him out properly.
I heard a voice saying it was impossible from somewhere.
I cursed the Administrator for being incompetent.
After a long silence, I was the first to speak.
“…Why?”
Black eyes turned to me.
“You’re a Regressor.”
Those eyes widened slightly, then settled as if in understanding.
“You were a Constellation. You would know.”
“Why did you… abandon your previous contracted Constellation?”
Why did you abandon him and come to me?
As if guessing the unsaid words, Yeon Taeseon crossed his arms and sighed deeply.
“Don’t you know?”
“…”
“My Constellation, ‘Returning Hourglass’, was annihilated. After making me regress.”
Ah, right.
I forgot.
But I learned the Constellation’s name for the first time.
‘If it’s Returning Hourglass, is it that?’
I suddenly remembered the fragment item I had obtained from the dungeon.
So that was a Constellation’s fragment.
A deep sadness remained in his voice.
But he was not consumed by that sadness, and soon turned to me with a firm face.
My body flinched, but it wasn’t a gaze I could avoid.
So I gathered the energy of the veil and answered.
“No.”
“What?”
His thick eyebrows rose as if in disapproval.
Scaryyyyyyy.
“It’s a chance to have a Regressor as a contractor, and you’re saying no?”
“No. You tried to tear me apart.”
“…”
Yeon Taeseon was silent for a while, either because he had nothing to say, or because he didn’t expect a Constellation to be so petty.
Then, unable to find a way to persuade me, he sighed deeply and looked up at the night sky.
After the appearance of the Constellations, a dense, Milky Way-like array of stars was visible even in Seoul.
It was very beautiful, but I didn’t care whether that damn Regressor was fondly reminiscing about the past or not.
“A Constellation War will soon break out.”
“It has nothing to do with me.”
“I think it will. You’ll be attacked too, as long as you’re a Constellation.”
Ah, no.
No no no.
I don’t want to hear the Regressor’s regression secret that I can’t handle.
But whether I covered my ears or not, his story continued.
“‘The Crow’ couldn’t contain his greed and started hunting Constellations. Many Constellations were annihilated and their power was absorbed. ‘The Crow’ soon began to covet the Administrator’s position. It must have been a desire to have this world in his hands.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“You have to know. So my Constellation not only gave up all of his unique power, ‘time’, but also annihilated his existence to turn back ‘The Crow’s’ power to the original timeline and revive all the Constellations.”
“Doesn’t causality work? Is it okay to talk about the future like this?”
“As long as you’re here, it’s a future that no longer exists.”
My mouth fell shut.
A future that no longer exists, to the point that even causality overlooks it?
Because I exist?
Am I… that important of an existence?
‘Someone like me?’
Me, who was dragged to the royal palace without a single rebuttal and had my head chopped off?
What’s so special?
My hands clenched.
I was sick of being a special existence now.
Whether it was positive or negative.
But it seems the world won’t leave me alone.
“You are the first and last variable that did not exist in the previous timeline. So I need to make a contract with you, regain my strength, and make the Constellation descend…”
Poof!
I returned to my jellyfish form.
It was a polite expression of refusal.
“Calamity, listen to me!”
“Pikku!”
Ah, it’s much better to be a jellyfish.
I stuck my tongue out at Yeon Taeseon once, then flew towards the sparkling association building in the distance.
“I can’t do it without you!”
It’s not that I’m unwilling to make a contract with him when he’s begging like that.
The fact that he tried to tear me apart, and his arrogance, are all things that can be forgiven if I close my eyes.
I also understand that he’s desperate, facing a big event like a Constellation War.
But….

[Warning! This is a Regressor!]
[A huge amount of coins is expected to be consumed upon contract.]
[Do you want to make a contract?]
[Coins consumed: 100 million]
‘It’s realistically impossible!’
Are you going to collect 100 million coins and offer it as a contract fee?
Otherwise, shut up!
I shed tears and returned to Sion.
I missed my fluffy bed.

In conclusion.
I didn’t return to my bed but was trapped in a small cage for monsters.
“So… Pion, why did you go outside?”
“Piiiiiiiiiiiiik!”
I just sobbed in front of the troubled Sion and the kindly asking Jiye.
No, did I know that the association building had a dome-shaped monster detection device?