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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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The Succubus Queen.
She quietly observed the scene she had created.
Many people’s dreams were mixing, their boundaries crumbling.
This meant the perfect dream world she envisioned was one step closer.
Honestly, she was anxious when she was kidnapping people and collecting their desires and vital energy.
Could she really do it? Was such an absurd thing possible?
But every time she doubted herself, the power she obtained by chance answered.
Of course, it was possible.
The most important thing in this world was someone’s strong desire, and she was a being who performed miracles using that as fuel.
She was skeptical every time this power showed her something, but now, it seemed she could put her doubts aside.
She had successfully connected the dreams of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people based on the desires of just a few hundred.
The fact that she, who should have perished long ago, was still alive, and that she was on the verge of achieving her dream, was all thanks to this power.
‘Authority.’ This power, which introduced itself as such, wasn’t something she could fully control yet, but it was already helping her greatly.
“It’s finally done.”
Once the dreams were completely mixed and started functioning as a new world, there would be no more danger for the other children, no more loss of control.
Just as she thought that—
-Abnormal contact detected.-
-Confirmation complete. Transfer of a portion of Authority initiated.-
She heard words that she couldn’t ignore.
A portion of her Authority was rapidly being taken away.
And at the same time, the fusion of the dream world slowed down noticeably.
What was going on?
She hurriedly examined all the dreams to understand the situation.
And she found the cause in one of the dreams.
It was the dream of one of those she was manipulating with Authority, twisting their dreams to slowly drain their mental strength.
There, a boy was standing while holding the dream’s owner in his arms.
The irregular who had regained consciousness in the dream world.
He easily took away the Authority, something she couldn’t completely subdue even after years of practice, as if it were his own.
Her instincts sent her a warning.
She couldn’t lose this power yet.
She had to capture him before she lost more of her Authority.
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I reached out.
The black sphere surrounding my sister resisted as my hand approached her.
Having found an owner and having adapted to this world, it seemed intent on eliminating me for its owner’s sake.
I knew what it was the moment I saw it.
A part of the Creator’s Authority, the same as the void residing in my heart.
I didn’t know why it was here protecting my sister, but it was clearly not a situation I could ignore.
My outstretched hand touched the squirming black sphere.
I see.
It was twisting my sister’s dream.
It was replaying the scenes I had just witnessed and slightly twisting them with each repetition, leading them into a negative direction.
There wasn’t much difference now, but if it continued, the distorted dream would eventually erase the original one, even the happy memories.
“I won’t let you.”
The void, no, the Authority in my heart reacted to my will and stirred.
I felt a pain squeezing my heart, but it wasn’t unbearable.
The amount of Authority in my heart and the amount surrounding my sister were almost the same, but I didn’t feel like I would lose.
“I haven’t seen everything that happened in the past yet, but this isn’t right.”
I was certain.
I would definitely regret it if something happened to my sister here.
A sharp pain shot through my hand as it made contact, but the Authority surrounding my sister seemed surprised and started examining me.
It was about to attack me, but the moment it recognized who I was, it lowered its guard and approached me like a puppy recognizing its owner.
Look at it changing its attitude all of a sudden…
It flowed into me.
Both Devil’s Touch and Black Shadow, the foreign substances in my body, resisted slightly, as if annoyed by the intrusion of another foreign substance, but it ignored them while forcibly pushing through as it headed towards my heart.
My sister’s emotions and nightmares that were contained within the Authority flowed into me.
The feeling of frustration and resentment towards me, who pushed her away, yet the inability to let go.
The guilt of not being able to repay what she had received from Mother.
The regret of why she bullied me and kept her distance when we were close in the past as children.
After all the emotions were transmitted, the void in my heart merged with the new void and began to regain its original form.
A hand. It was still hazy, but it was definitely the shape of a hand.
The two lumps of void merged and formed a small hand reaching out to grasp something, and the hand instinctively grabbed my heart, as if it were its own.
The hand gripping my heart felt more ticklish than painful. It was a strangely nostalgic sensation.
-Mine.
The void, which I initially found incredibly repulsive, now seemed a bit… pitiful.
I could vaguely sense what the void, now a more defined hand, wanted to do.
You want to protect me.
The noise was a barrier to protect me, and you tried to prevent it from dispersing.
You thought I would break down if I knew what lay beyond it, what the truth was.
“Well, let’s set that aside for now. We have a fire to put out.”
After absorbing all the Authority, I gently lifted my sister, who was slowly descending from the air.
It was a strange feeling.
I felt strangely resentful and sorry towards her.
But at the same time, I felt regretful and wanted to forgive her.
I thought it was because the emotions from the dream still lingered within me, but it didn’t seem like that.
I felt a bit dizzy.
Even when Kang So-hyun and I felt separate, I was dizzy, but now, it felt like there were two of me.
“Noona.”
She didn’t answer. Was she still asleep?
I wanted to respond to her emotions that flowed into me with the Authority, but was it okay to talk to her while she was asleep?
Well, whatever.
I would convey them before these feelings faded. And I could just tell her again when the opportunity arose.
Originally, I wasn’t planning to get deeply involved with her.
At first, I thought I couldn’t just cut her off because we were biologically related, but even after realizing that we weren’t blood-related, that feeling had faded.
But if my assumption was correct, if she had acted as my older sister since I was very young in memories I don’t remember, if all these emotions she harbored were directed at me…
Then she was undeniably my sister, my family.
It was a twisted relationship, but even so, just as you didn’t completely give up on me…
The noise faded again.
The hand desperately tried to hold on to the disappearing noise, but when I thought it was okay, the hand hesitantly showed me the memory.
A similar scene to now. My sister was in my arms.
But she was dying, with blood trickling from her lips.
-I’m sorry, So-hyun.
What did you have to be sorry for?
Was she crazy, apologizing to the one who drove her to her death?
-I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I guess I can’t be like Mom.
She closed her eyes.
Instead of attacking me with her last remaining magical power, she burned herself and perished.
It was so hot that I should have let go, but I foolishly held onto her, who was now a ball of fire, despite her not being my sister.
The heat that penetrated even the magical barrier burned my palm, and I just foolishly held on until she turned to ashes and scattered.
I opened my eyes.
The hand, unable to endure it any longer, forcefully grabbed the noise and blocked the memory.
“You don’t have to be like Mother.”
It was an answer I avoided before while thinking it wasn’t my place to give it, but now, I knew it was my problem.
“You don’t have to force yourself to do anything for me.”
So, I would answer.
“I want to forgive you someday, and I want to be forgiven by you as well.”
That was what the ‘me’ in my sister’s memory wished for, what I wished for now, and what I couldn’t achieve in the memories beyond the noise.
Ah, the ending felt a bit lacking.
“I love you, Noona.”
Hmm, was that too much?
I should probably leave that part out when I actually tell her about this later on.
Her face seemed a bit red. She was asleep, right?
“…Noona?”
There was no answer. She wasn’t moving, so she must be asleep.
“…Ah, but I don’t have time, so I’ll have to do the next one after I leave here.”
I felt like I was being ejected.
It was time to go to another dream.
“…I’ll try to approach you sooner when I wake up.”
The moment I said that, my body was ejected.
So, I didn’t hear it.
“…Mom, what should I do?”
She, who had been awake since the middle, muttered that with a flushed face.
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I thought I would be thrown back into the empty space again.
Well, I was, until just now.
As I was drifting while wondering whose dream I would enter next, I felt something forcibly twisting the flow.
Devil’s Touch and the hand in my heart tried to resist, but I deliberately stopped them subtly.
I wanted to see the culprit’s face, and I had a strange confidence.
A confidence that I could break through any trap they set.
I was forcibly pulled into someone’s dream, and my hazy consciousness returned.
It seemed ‘I’ existed in this dream, but something felt strange.
The bastard in front of me was strange.
Why his dream, of all people?
“…I didn’t expect this day to come. Kang So-hyun.”
He had a handsome face. His appearance was slightly enhanced compared to his real-life counterpart.
He was originally tall and well-built, so he already looked decent, but the childish face on his large body was unpleasant.
And on top of that, he was wearing all sorts of flashy equipment, and on his head, he wore something like a circlet that heroes in RPG games often wore.
Next to him was a nun… or rather, a succubus disguised as a nun. She was crying while emitting an intense demonic energy disguised as holy power.
He wiped her tears and looked at me.
“I tried to forgive you. I thought you must have your reasons. Even when you betrayed Yoo-hak…! Even when you put our party in danger and brainwashed Joo-ri and Yoon-ha, treating them like toys…!”
As I was wondering how much longer this idiot would ramble, my mouth started moving on its own.
“Well, it was somewhat entertaining. Watching your little friendship games.”
My voice sounded strangely greasy. This bastard saw me like this? This was pissing me off.
I understood now.
So far, I had only seen organized memories, but dreams didn’t just project past events as they were.
This was probably the content of his dream.
A fantasy where I was the villain, and he was the hero who overcame me.
The owner of the dream was none other than Jae-hee. Woo Jae-hee, the tank of Cheon Yoo-hak’s party, the man who dreamed of becoming a harem king.
I was wondering what kind of dream he would have, and it was certainly an environment where succubi could thrive.
A guy whose dream was a harem.
No, but seriously? This bastard really thought of me like this?
It’s not true, right? This was a dream manipulated by those succubi, Jae-hee.
“I thought you were someone I had to overcome someday, but not like this…!”
Ah, so this bastard was planning to surpass me someday?
Our figures appeared in the sky.
The hero, Woo Jae-hee, and me with pale skin and a black robe, making me look like a demon king.
Joo-ri and Oh Yoon-ha (or rather, the low-ranking succubi disguised as them), with horns growing out of their heads, approached me and clung to my arms.
Hey, hey, stop it.
Stop the NTR…!
“If they were happy…! I tried to endure it, but seeing them like this, you’re still treating them like toys! I won’t stand for it anymore! Kang So-hyun!”
The hero, Woo Jae-hee, cried out.
“How pathetic. What can you do? You’re not even Cheon Yoo-hak. Fine. If you want to die so badly, I’ll play with you, you fool.”
The demon king, Kang So-hyun, scoffed and mocked him.
…What the hell was this scene?
“I swear on this sword! You filthy brainwashing bastard who defiled the essence of true harem! I will defeat you and become the Harem King…!”
“Then come at me, hero of the new era…!”
You weren’t even a swordsman, so why were you acting like one in your dream, you bastard…!
I was going to lose my mind…!
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T/N – Okay, I know the last bit was funny and all, but I have a new theory now that my old one has now been confirmed.
What if the tragedy of the past So-hyun was orchestrated by none other than the Creator themselves, the so-called author friend of the MC. Based on the MC’s mindset at the beginning of this novel, he seems to be the type to aim for a happy ending, something the Creator vehemently opposes for some reason. So he planned this tragedy from the start to distort past So-hyun while he was young and vulnerable, twisting his goal from ‘aiming for a happy ending’ to ‘go back to the original world by any means necessary’. This resulted in So-hyun becoming a villain and using the people around him as tools, making the world much more miserable that how it turned out in the original story.
Think about it, the MC did not get any warning about the Succubus Queen despite the Creator’s clear interference. Which means the MC’s warning has clear limitations, either not covering events not in the original story or not detecting something the Creator planted in advance (as is the case with the Succubus Queen), likely both. The tragedy with So-hyun’s Mother was probably pre-planned by the Creator, aiming to capitalize on the MC’s past trauma (which is a dick move for a so-called friend).
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
