Just a moment ago.
I was sitting inside Bimanar, in the private room prepared for me.
Sitting in a chair, checking the rewards for my achievement.
But then.
“Where...... the hell is this?”
Right after I finished checking the rewards.
When I came to, the place I was in......
Was an unknown space, glowing pure white in every direction.
Why I’d suddenly been dragged to a place like this.
There was only one thing I could think of.
{Transcendent beings who toy with fate recognize your existence.}
“The system said it had been protecting us from unknown somethings.”
The moment that protection weakened.
That something that recognized my existence dragged me here.
Fuck.
Cold sweat ran down my body.
My breathing sped up.
With the enemies I’d met until now.
Their power had been beyond imagination, sure—but it still belonged to the physical realm.
No matter how monstrous their brute strength was.
Even if they could flip the climate of an entire wide region.
It was still a level I could understand.
“This isn’t that.”
I wasn’t wandering around outside.
I’d been safely protected deep inside Bimanar, and it dragged me to a place like this anyway.
This......
Was power beyond my comprehension.
And.
{Heh heh...... Now that’s one scary-looking bastard.}
“......!”
At the sudden voice.
I flinched and snapped my head around.
And there.
{What are you doing just standing there like an idiot?}
A beautiful garden that didn’t belong in this pure white space at all.
An East Asian-style pavilion sitting in the middle of it.
{Come over here and sit.}
Inside it sat a withered, tiny old man who looked like he was easily over a hundred.
*****
His face was carved with countless wrinkles, his flesh hung loose, and liver spots were scattered everywhere—an eerie old man.
Wearing what looked like something you’d only see in some old period drama, he stared at me.
“Is he closer to East Asian......?”
His face looked so old I couldn’t even tell that for sure.
And, after I’d observed him that far.
“......Something’s off.”
A strange sense of wrongness seized me.
An odd alien feeling that wasn’t there before.
This is...... yeah.
“{Ingredient Identification} isn’t working?”
Even though I kept watching him.
My trait didn’t activate.
Ever since I got this power.
There shouldn’t have been such a thing as an unknown existence in front of me.
Even if it was something far higher-ranked than me.
As long as I could see it with my own eyes, I’d been able to grasp at least part of its nature.
“Who are you?”
{Who are you? What a stupid question.}
But this one wasn’t like that.
How?
{I’m the one who dragged you here.}
Hoorok—
The old man took a sip of tea and continued.
{So, are you going to keep standing there?}
“.......”
{I went through the trouble of preparing good tea, and you won’t even answer. What a rude child.}
According to the system’s explanation.
That being was probably what it called a transcendent being.
Something I couldn’t possibly oppose in my current state.
{Come up here.}
“......Uh, um. Yes.”
I had no idea what would happen if I went against it.
So I did as it said.
I climbed up into that unknown pavilion and sat in front of it.
The old man who’d been drinking tea glanced at my face and said,
{Your soul is shaking. You look very tense.}
“.......”
{Well, I understand. This must be sudden for you.}
Just like it said.
I kept my whole body tensed, staring at it without blinking.
But then.
Blink......
“Huh?”
The moment I blinked.
The old man who’d been sitting in front of me vanished.
Instead.
The one drinking tea in front of me was......
“A...... little girl?”
The complete opposite of the old man from before.
A little girl who looked maybe ten.
{Don’t worry too much. I have no intention of harming you.}
A tone far too weighty to come from a child’s mouth.
The girl was naturally continuing the story the old man had been telling.
A being with a completely different appearance and voice.
At first I thought someone else had appeared.
There had been multiple lords among those Belsnickel things, after all.
But.
“It’s different from the lords.”
Instinctively.
I could tell the old man and this girl were the same being.
“......You said you don’t intend to harm me.”
I kept my guard up.
And took the teacup it offered me, opening my mouth.
“Then why did you bring me to a space like this?”
It says it won’t harm me, but.
I couldn’t bring myself to trust that so easily.
To begin with, it wouldn’t have dragged me here for no reason, just because it was bored.
{Don’t be so irritated. I didn’t want to do something this annoying either. And besides.}
At my question.
It frowned like it was annoyed, stared straight into my face, and said,
{Whew...... No matter how I look, I can’t see even a speck of talent.}
“What?”
{I didn’t want to drag you here either. Even if the situation can’t be helped...... to think this is the only option. Tch. All I can do is sigh.}
A sudden scolding dumped on me out of nowhere.
It was already infuriating enough to get kidnapped and dragged here, and now I was getting insulted without even knowing why.
{I don’t like it, but it can’t be helped.}
“......?”
{You asked why I called you here? The answer is simple.}
With a smooth motion.
A gaunt-looking middle-aged man pointed at my face and said,
{To help you.}
*****
{I don’t like it, but I intend to help you. So stop being on guard.}
“......?”
That—what do you call it.
Even if you say that.
“Like hell I’d believe you.”
It’s the one that kidnapped me and dragged me to this space.
That alone was terrifying enough.
Hoorok......
{You’re lucky. In a dangerous time, there happened to be a being nearby who could help you.}
At some point, the being’s appearance had changed again.
First, an old man who looked over a hundred.
Then, a ten-year-old little girl.
And now, a young man with a face so handsome it made you jealous just looking at it.
“This isn’t a normal existence.”
A being whose outer form kept changing.
And the way it accepted that constant change like it {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was nothing made it feel even more grotesque.
If I just trusted it because it told me to.
There wasn’t a bigger sucker than that.
No matter how overwhelmingly powerful it was.
No matter if it was a being that could imprison me in this space forever.
I couldn’t just roll over here.
“I—”
How could I trust you.
I opened my mouth to say that.
“......Wait.”
But, right then.
The instant I opened my mouth to speak, I felt......
One strange sensation.
“You are.”
Through that sensation.
I realized one fact.
“You’re seriously...... saying you’ll help me.”
A sensation that felt familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
A strangely clean, plain feeling on the tip of my tongue.
{Ho...... I thought I’d have to waste time persuading you.}
This being was favorably disposed toward me.
That realization—no.
{Good. Looks like you’re not a complete idiot.}
That......
I could taste.
*****
“......What is this?”
At first, I thought the being had hypnotized me.
If it could drag me into a place like this, it might be able to control my mind too.
But......
My instincts were telling me.
“This is my sense.”
This realization I’d just felt.
Came from my own senses.
“For some reason, it’s favorably disposed toward me.”
The sensation was so unfamiliar it felt alien.
But once I understood that fact.
This pure white space.
And this garden and pavilion sitting inside it like a wrong note.
Didn’t feel purely terrifying anymore.
“May I ask one question?”
{Go ahead.}
“You said you intend to help me.”
Once I realized the other side wasn’t hostile.
I could throw away my caution and ask a little more comfortably.
“I don’t even know who you are. Why are you trying to help me?”
It had definitely said this.
—To think this is the only option.
I didn’t know the details, but it had some kind of goal.
And I was an “option” for it.
I wanted to know what that goal was, but.
{Hmph. I told you to ask a question, but.}
It took a sip of tea.
And said with a flat expression,
{I never said I’d answer it.}
“.......”
Well.
That’s true, I guess.
“Is it something you can’t answer?”
{Yes.}
“Then can you at least tell me why you can’t answer?”
{No.}
“......Then at least tell me who you are.”
{No.}
“Then at least a name.”
{I don’t want to.}
.......
This bastard......
I could tell it was favorably disposed toward me.
But it looked like it had no intention of telling me anything beyond that.
“Then at least tell me what I should call you. I can’t keep calling you ‘you.’”
{Hmph. That point has merit.}
It rubbed its chin and thought for a moment.
Then opened its mouth quietly.
{Mirinae.}
“......?”
{Call me Mirinae.}
Mirinae.
This probably wasn’t its real name either.
“Understood, Mirinae. Then...... why did you call me here?”
It says it’ll help me.
But it won’t tell me who it is, or why it’s helping me.
Then what was the point of calling me here in the first place?
{I told you. To help you. More precisely...... to protect you.}
“......?”
Protect me?
“Protect me from what?”
{The outside beings.}
......Outside?
It was a sudden word.
But there was something I could connect it to.
[Transcendent beings who toy with fate recognize your existence.]
The very thing the system had mentioned.
I instinctively realized.
“What it’s trying to say now.......”
Was connected to what I’d been so curious about.
The structure of this world.
{It seems this world was originally completely cut off from the outside.}
“Was it?”
{But...... about a year ago by this land’s time, the wall that protected this world collapsed, and its existence became known to the outside.}
If the curtain broke, that meant.
The line dividing outside and inside disappeared.
“The day of destruction.”
It meant the day when the things outside.
Could enter the inside.
{And anyone who took even a small look into this land would have noticed. In this land...... there is no “protector.”}
“.......”
{A weak world with no protector....... the best possible condition for outside beings to covet.}
At that.
I clenched my teeth.
“A protector.”
That thing I’d had to feel unfair about over and over.
The fact that Earth had no powerful being protecting it.
And.
That meant.
This destruction we were experiencing was happening because of that.
“Why did the wall of this land collapse?”
I threw the next question while clenching my fist tight.
For some reason, it was favorably disposed toward me.
And it clearly knew things I didn’t.
Then.
“I need to learn everything I can from it.”
With that thought, I asked.
And unexpectedly, it answered my question without much resistance.
{I don’t know why the wall collapsed either. I didn’t witness that moment myself. But.......}
“But?”
{A world’s outer wall does not collapse for no reason. There must be a reason.}
At least.
It meant this destruction didn’t happen by accident.
I asked the next question immediately.
“After that wall collapsed, all kinds of bizarre beings have been flowing into this world.”
{Of course.}
“I understand those are beings from other worlds. Are those what you call the outside beings?”
It said it brought me here to protect me from outside beings.
So I’d thought it meant those monsters.
But.
{No. Those are nothing more than things that flowed in. They are different from the outside beings.}
“Then what are the ones you mean?”
{......Hmph.}
At my question.
It had changed into the form of a beautiful noblewoman wearing an elegant palace gown, and frowned.
Seeing that expression, I asked,
“......Don’t tell me this is also something you can’t answer.”
{No. It’s not that. It isn’t difficult to tell you.}
“Then why are you holding back.”
{It isn’t difficult to tell you...... but it may fall short to explain it with words.}
She hesitated for a moment.
Then gestured to me and said,
{Come here. Closer.}
“......?”
{Hurry.}
At her gesture.
I felt confused, but I still shuffled closer to her.
Then she sat me in her lap and said,
{Like I said, it’s hard to explain with words. So.......}
She held me from behind.
Her hand moved toward my eyes.
{See it for yourself.}
Her fingers were chillingly cold as they covered my vision.
And through the gaps between those fingers......
“Huh?”
The pure white world collapsed.
As the white wall broke apart.
What appeared beyond it was.
“Darkness.”
An endlessly wide darkness.
Endless void filled my vision.
