I Killed the Player of the Academy-Side Story 4 ༺ Side Story – Familiar (4) ༻

→ Side Story – Familiar (4) ←

I was the happiest man in the world.

Working a decent job, I was trusted by everyone in the village and even had myself a beautiful wife.

Park Sirin.

A beautiful and kind-hearted wife.

Plus, she was an intelligent mage. She was rich, smart, pretty and sexy… Everyday was a joyful day.

It was at the Academy that I met her. At the Merkarva Academy that nurtured knights and mages, we met as peers, became close and quit the Academy to get married.

Although we had yet to carry out a proper wedding ceremony, we were basically already married as a pair of young male and female living under one roof.

[Korin, do you want some potatoes?]

“Hmm…”

Was there… someone else at the Academy?

For some reason, I had trouble remembering my days at the Academy even though it should be quite recent.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

My wifey was back after finishing an experiment from a workshop we built inside the house.

“I was thinking about the Academy.”

“………Why?”

“You know… It’s where we met each other.”

“It’s not that important, is it? Now is what’s important.”

It felt like she wanted to avoid speaking about the Academy. Although I couldn’t understand why, I didn’t linger on the topic because there was no reason to talk about something my wifey didn’t want to talk about.

[Korin-dongsaeeeeeeng~!]

But a doubt about why those memories weren’t so clear remained in a corner of my mind.

“Oh right. I have to go to the town hall for a bit.”

“Why?”

“There is a Village Youth Meeting.”

“………”

Her face quickly turned stiff. Her dark and hazy eyes went out of focus as she looked straight through me.

“You’re lying.”

“Honey?”

“Which bitch is it this time?”

“You’re over-thinking things. Why would I cheat on you?”

“I didn’t say you would be ‘cheating’ though? Why; is that what you were thinking about? They said there will be a lot of bitches coming over this time. Is that why you’re going?”

She was definitely over-thinking things.

The agenda for this meeting was about reinforcing the fences around the fields and paddies of our village. Of course there would be some young women there as well, because a small village like ours always lacked manpower and both men and women had to work together.

“Are you trying to drive me crazy, oppa?”

“………”

There was no end to it whenever Sirin started her series of doubts.

She was such a lovely wife who whole-heartedly loved me but… this was her only downside. She was way too skeptical and became jealous way too easily.

“I know you are trying to meet up with other bitches again, so why bother lying?”

Ehew. I guess I wouldn’t be able to go to the youth meeting today.

“W, wait! What are you— uhp?!”

………

“S, stop… I told you to stop…!”

……

“P, please… L, let me take a breath…”

…

“Ahtt… Oppa, I love you…”

Mission success.

As it was said, the rod was the best cure for yanderes.

****

“Haha. You look like you are enjoying yourself lately.”

Oengus, the Danann of Love, laughed upon seeing the gloss on Sirin’s skin.

“As expected of the next Sun, a normal Yin is nowhere near enough to deal with it.”

“Be quiet.”

Park Sirin was spending a better newly-wed life than she had expected. Her beloved oppa was loyal to his family; he loved his wife and his affectionate actions were over-the-top even.

[Are you trying to drive me crazy, oppa?]

It was her fault that she couldn’t dismiss her doubt.

Despite finally laying her hands on her love, Sirin still obsessed over him, was skeptical and constantly observant.

She was the wrong one. Korin wasn’t someone who would cheat on his wife.

Naturally, his remarks were still flirtatious and he would unconsciously attract women but… there was no way that someone as kind-hearted as him would do anything adulterous.

Even so, she was still anxious.

It felt ominous. He still didn’t feel like hers, and it felt like he could slip past her fingers whenever she wasn’t looking.

“That is how it always will be for love gained through trickery. You will constantly remain uneasy.”

“Just shut up.”

As reward for her trial, she gained the cooperation of Oengus. Together, they added in fake memories and brainwashed him.

After spending a ridiculous amount of mana and through several grand magic spells, when she heard the word, ‘honey’ from him at last, the shock and joy was so immense that Sirin had fainted for about 3 seconds.

The following week was the sweetest she could ever imagine – it was a life straight out of her dreams.

“Oppa is slowly regaining his memories.”

But as if trying to mark an end to this deceitful relationship, Korin was slowly waking up from his hypnosis.

“That is natural. If not for his divinity being emptied out due to the fight against Valtazar, no poison would have ever worked on him in the first place.”

“…”

“Don’t you know better yourself? The Sun has already reached a status that you cannot reach.”

“I am still stronger than…”

“I told you, did I not? From the moment you got here.”

Sirin had arrived in this world when the fight against the Frost Giant was about to begin in the north.

Korin Lork was still the same retarded idiot, and fool over-immersed in a game, who was running around left and right trying to save the world.

[I can help him…]

Unfortunately, she arrived right before the war was about to end.

According to her original plan, she had to remain in Mag Mell for at least a year to recover the mana she had used during the inter-dimensional travel but… the final battle had begun way ahead of schedule.

[Well, your help won’t make any difference.]

[What?]

Hearing the derisive remark of Nuada, the Danann of the Sun, Sirin turned towards him with a sharp gaze, but he continued as if talking to a little child.

[Why do you think you weren’t chosen by Lia Fail despite your strength?]

[Even if you happen to recover all your power, do you think you can still guarantee a win against Tates Valtazar, or Korin Lork?]

[You will definitely fail. Even if you could overwhelm them through force, in the end, you won’t be able to overcome the martial art and karma they possess.]

[……]

The Danann of Light, Lugh, said the same thing as the Danann of the Sun.

And now, even the Danann of Love was saying with certainty in his voice.

“What if we recast the hypnosis… when he wakes up…”

“Impossible. After recovering his divinity, the Sun will definitely confront you. Well, in terms of sheer strength, you are definitely above Korin Lork since he still hasn’t done his coronation.”

“Then…”

“But do you think you can beat him? Do you really?”

“…”

Sirin couldn’t reply, because she couldn’t defeat even the weakened Tates Valtazar. Despite having the upper hand in strength and having stats that would have allowed her to demolish him in-game, she still allowed him to approach her.

“What even is that ‘martial art’ and ‘karma’?”

“I can’t say it for sure either but… they are ethereal things that bloom in a battlefield. You will only be able to keep him here for a short period of time. Before long, the next King of Gods will awaken.”

“…I know.”

Korin was slowly regaining his memories despite them being sealed by a Transcendent Spell. He was clearly not the same as the Korin she knew from the last iteration.

And upon retrieving his memories, he would realize who she was.

Then he would look at her with hatred and disgust… just like before.

[You… just chose the easy way out.]

The same eyes of cold fury… that he showed her upon realizing the comfortable life she had lived at the cost of monopolizing everything; even lives.

“If I just have a little bit of time… I can somehow deal with all of them. Those NPC bitches…”

Sirin now knew that this world wasn’t a fake one. She found out the truth behind the players’ roles and Heroic Legend of Arhan, but even then, she still resorted to calling them ‘NPC’s.

One reason was because she feared that if she acknowledged them as people just like her, she might not be able to pull off the deed.

In addition, acknowledging that would also be the same as acknowledging her past of killing countless people in the last iteration, and doing so, she would never be able to approach Korin; she would never be understood or loved by him.

Despite knowing it was a method of self-justification, it was unavoidable. This world had to be fake, and the people she killed had to be NPCs. They had to be fragments of data that could be erased and recovered at ease.

Oengus sympathetically watched the self-paradoxical and pitiful girl thinking to herself. Knowing love and depending on someone for the first time in her life, she wanted to confess her love but couldn’t until the very end due to the body she was forced into.

But now, it was too late for her to simply confess and achieve true love.

“Young girl.”

“…What?”

“Half of the reason I am cooperating with you is curiosity, but the other half is sympathy.”

“…”

Sirin’s eyes turned sharp. She had more than enough power to eradicate Oengus, who was but a leftover fragment of a god, but despite knowing that, Oengus did not stop his advice on her love.

Because he was the Danann of Love, a man who had formerly thrown away everything for love, he did not stop.

“This is a process. Do not consider this the conclusion. Your love is impure, obsessive, and will not be understood by anyone.

“The reason I am supporting your plan that will surely come to an end is because I consider this a process, not an outcome.

“In order to lead to the final outcome, what you need is not restrictiveness or hypnosis. For your love to bear fruit and receive the true acknowledgement of your loved one, you must endure through this ordeal.

“Young girl Sirin, you young child. Do not think love is that easy to obtain.

“Endure through the pain it brings and approach him with honesty. No matter how unlikely of a possibility it may seem, the love at the end of that tunnel will be incomparably greater than what was achieved by deceiving yourself.

“Child. Go for an honest love.”

“………”

Sirin could not say a single thing back to Oengus. It was so clear from the honesty she could feel from his voice and his gaze… that he was truly speaking for her sake.

But was it not already too late?

What could she do now…? Undo the hypnosis and be honest?

What if he rejected her? What if he looked at her with the same eyes of hatred and anger?

Sirin knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle that.

3 years of unrequited love.

15 years of obsession.

She couldn’t possibly throw away with her own hands what she had finally obtained at the end of all that.

Even if others might hate her, loathe her, or consider her a lunatic for killing every woman approaching Korin,

She could not possibly give up on her love.

It wasn’t even a possibility for her.

The end, however, came near.

She had to make a choice.

****

“Cough…!”

Korin suddenly coughed out a heap of blood and collapsed. Seeing that, Sirin ran up to her in fright.

“O, oppa!”

What was going on all of a sudden? Why? He hadn’t yet fully recovered his divinity though!

“Cough, cough…! Uweeeek…!”

The amount of blood he was coughing out was definitely abnormal. It was so much that any normal human would have died already.

“W, why… What’s going on?”

Sirin carried him with trembling hands. She brought him to her laboratory, laid him down and poured an elixir down his mouth.

However, Korin didn’t get any better, and she could see him getting worse and worse in real time.

“Oppa. Oppa…! N, no…!”

Her mind froze.

The God of Magic who was always rational and cold when using magic, could never keep her calm whenever something concerned Korin.

She was frightened.

What if oppa died just like this? What if he were to leave my side forever?

She imagined the future she feared the most; a horrendous future where her love didn’t even exist.

“C, calm down. There has to be a reason. I can just… find it myself.”

Calming herself down, she started looking for the cause. She used her magic eyes to analyze Korin’s body and look for irregular changes and movements in mana.

– Rip! Rip!

She ripped apart his clothes and found letters – Rune letters.

“This…”

At the start, she hadn’t cared too much about them. At a glance, the Rune letters just looked like faint tattoos, and using tattoos to reinforce the body was quite common, so Sirin didn’t bother analyzing it until now.

She didn’t have the time to do so either.

But now that his mana was boiling around the letters, Sirin assumed that this must be the reason behind him coughing out blood.

Although she wasn’t specialized in Rune spells, she did have some knowledge of it from when she had studied in order to fight Fermack and Tates.

Using that knowledge, she immediately began analyzing the Rune letters engraved on Korin’s body.

[I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.]

[I do not perceive spirits.]

[I will save the world.]

Duty, Restriction and Pledge.

I see… Sirin thought to herself. Now it made sense how he was able to defeat Tates Valtazar in the body of a side character called Korin Lork. It was all thanks to his Precepts.

Precepts gave more power the more you practiced them. It was a contract with the world itself, which granted great powers in exchange for a possible retribution when failing to abide by it.

Korin was facing retribution for going against the Precept, and it didn’t take long for Sirin to realize that it was because of her.

“Ah…”

Because of me?

Is it because he’s with me?

Was him staying with me… going against the Precept?

How could that be? What kind of nonsense was that?

Sirin was shocked.

It felt like the world was declaring to her that she could never end up together with him, and it was ever so painful and frightening.

“Cough…!”

“O, oppa…”

Please don’t be sick. Please don’t cough out blood. Please, don’t die.

“H, hold on for a bit. I, I will find a way to get you better.”

What exactly was the problem? What was wrong with the Precepts that he was coughing out so much blood?

[I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.]

Ah.

Don’t tell me…

Precepts… worked based on one’s cognition.

If for example not eating dog meat was set as one’s Precept, they would fail the Precept not when they ate dog meat, but the moment they were aware of it.

Most contract-based spells followed the same principle, and the person in question couldn’t be punished for something they did not even perceive.

In this case with the Precept of not disregarding the misfortune of the good, it would be broken the moment Korin-oppa perceived that the people he considered good were becoming unhappy.

Which could only refer to…

‘Those damn NPC bitches…!’

Marie Dunareff.

Arden sisters.

And all the other sluts making moves on oppa!

‘Wait, that means…’

If I were to kill them, would that mean oppa was breaking the Precept altogether?

A shocking hypothesis budded in her mind as her lips began to tremble. Her original plan was to wipe out all the bugs around Korin to put her hands on him. If they were all gone, after all, all that would be left next to Korin was going to be herself.

But even that appeared impossible.

It seemed… that Korin would die if she were to kill them all.

‘Even then…!’

For a moment Sirin thought she would rather have his corpse if he would never be on her side alive, but the moment she realized what she was thinking, she felt disgusted by herself.

What meaning would there be to a dead corpse; when that piece of flesh would neither whisper words of love or gaze at her with even hatred…?

With tears flowing down her cheeks, Sirin tightly held onto his hands.

And was frightened by his hands that were as cold as that of a corpse.

“Ah…”

Ahhh… Why? Why was it so hard for me to lay my hands on my loved one?

I had been holding back for 18 years.

I had to cross worlds to find my love!

[Child. Go for an honest love.]

That was when her mind suddenly recalled the advice from the god that gave her a helping hand. She never saw herself following that piece of advice but…

“…Sirin.”

“U, un… I’m here, oppa. Oppa… Please, wake up…”

“It’s okay.”

Korin smiled as he looked at the pale countenance on Sirin’s face and laid his hand on her head.

“You’re ringing my head. Don’t cry.”

As always, this guy was always worried about other people even when he himself was close to death. He didn’t even have the power to stand up and yet was patting and consoling her.

What a stupid, foolishly gentle-hearted person was this…? He should be concerned for his own body and not other people.

“……”

Stupid idiot. Son of a bitch.

But because that was the kind of person she had fallen for;

Park Sirin had no other choice.

****

“………”

Standing at the entrance of Merkarva Academy, Korin looked at his two friends sleeping nonchalantly in peace.

“Hmm nyaa…”

“Five more minutes…”

Jaeger and Lark. They appeared to be having the dream of their lives despite sleeping on the cold hard ground of early morning.

“………”

However, Korin Lork couldn’t be as peaceful as them.

[Honey.]

He could still remember it.

A flood of memories was taking over his consciousness.

The memories of him sweetly whispering love; the memories of having his hands full of a certain part of the body, and how he played around with the body of a fainted lady like a toy…

“…Wait, hold the fuck up.”

What was with my ‘first experiences’ happening when I’m unconscious?

“More importantly, he’s a girl?!”

It was a shocking turnaround of the boy whom he had been thinking of as homosexual, who was also his ex-wife with whom he had whispered love and slept together albeit for a week…

“Fuck… What’s going on.”

With his mind full of confusion and chaos.

“Haaaaah….”

All he could do was heave out a deep sigh from within.