Chapter 51: 51: The oracle’s fascination
Harley’s mind was in turmoil as he struggled to comprehend everything that was happening at the moment, even if it wasn’t too much.
Staring at the woman in front of him carefully now, he knew that there was no way in hell that the person standing in front of him was a human.
Her body was impossibly exaggerated in its divine, otherworldly beauty. She was tall and statuesque, with an hourglass figure pushed to extreme proportions — a dramatically narrow waist that flared into wide, voluptuous hips and long, endlessly graceful legs that showed through the slit of her dress.
The mounds on her chest were full and prominently curved, straining subtly against the translucent fabric that clung to her like liquid starlight. Her skin glowed with a soft, pearlescent luminescence, shimmering and semi-transparent at the edges, as if her entire form was woven from a myriad of tiny starlights. Even blindfolded, her face was strikingly beautiful: high, sharp cheekbones, full plush lips curved into a gentle yet playful smile, and a delicate jawline that gave her an almost sculpted perfection. Her long, flowing hair cascaded like rivers of liquid silver and gold, drifting weightlessly around her as though suspended in water, with strands that faintly glowed and occasionally dissolved into sparkling motes of light. The blindfold itself was made of the same flowing, ethereal material as her robes, wrapping elegantly around her head and trailing down her shoulders. Every movement she made sent gentle ripples through her form, making her appear both impossibly solid and on the verge of dissolving into pure energy.
"Huh?" Harley frowned as he felt something oddly warm flowing down his cheeks.
He touched his face to see that it was blood!
"ARGHHHH!" He clutched both of his eyes as a striking pain assaulted them all of a sudden.
"Oh my, you’re bold looking at me with such eyes. I couldn’t help but want to harm you a bit." A gentle smile played on her lips and she walked closer to Harley.
Harley’s breath was ragged. He kept his eyes closed this time. His entire body was vibrating. All of his instincts were screaming at him to jump out of the way, but he couldn’t.
*Gasp!*
Harley flinched when a soft, warm hand touched his face. He recognized this; it was the woman who had rubbed his neck earlier.
Then, he felt her face brush against his as she got close to his ear.
"Don’t you worry, I can’t actually hurt you. After all, you achieved something that I deemed impossible. But at the end... You’re a puppet." She whispered into his ear, her voice containing a sincere worry in it.
"Stop." Harley spoke, finding the confidence.
"Stop calling me that. I’m no one’s puppet." He spoke, opening his eyes to see the Oracle right in front of his face.
Their noses almost touched, but he didn’t move back a bit, proceeding to stare at her with murderous intent.
He wouldn’t let anyone call him a puppet. He was no one’s puppet. He was his own person. After all, everything that he had accomplished in the first trial was so that he could be strong enough to do whatever he wanted.
"Ah... N—no one has spoken to me like that. Not since Valerie. I like this." She smiled, turning around and proceeding to walk away from him.
Harley looked elsewhere, distracting himself from looking at her hypnotic figure.
"It would be a lot to take in, but you should have known by now. You don’t have a heart..." She spoke, letting out a sigh while looking at him.
"Once you return to earth and awaken the story granted to you by the Harvest, a lot of ’you’ would be gone. You’ll learn more about who you are and what you are." The woman said, sitting on nothing but air.
"You are nothing but a consciousness inputted into a body that had been destroyed." At that moment, her smile widened.
"Harlequin, you know what this world is."
The young man in front of her frowned, staring at her with a raised brow.
"What do you mean? You’ve said it before that the world is all too similar to a book you’ve read." She smiled and at that moment Harley’s face fell.
"H—How long have you been watching me?" He asked, gritting his teeth.
Even in the face of an unpredictable entity like the Oracle, Harley couldn’t help but be on his guard.
Why did she call him a puppet?
Why had she been watching him?
And what did she mean that he knew a lot about the world from a book? That wasn’t possi—
"Wait... Are you serious?" He asked once more with a confused expression on his face.
"Two questions huh? Let me answer them carefully." She giggled subtly.
"Yes, I have been watching you since you were born. And second... Yes. The world is indeed what you know it to be." She replied, making Harley’s expression turn grim.
Back when he was on earth, he was a cripple who was a scholar. However, when it came to expertise in various fields, all he knew was how to do, not what to do.
He couldn’t do much because he was unnaturally frail and weak. Due to this he was alone most of the time as he held no societal value. That was when he found the world of novels.
And the one he read before he came to this world was called... Something peculiar, but he couldn’t remember the name for now.
"To think I would really be in the world of that book." He sighed, not knowing whether to scream or to be happy to be in a world where wonders were real.
"It’s been a long time. I have forgotten most of what happened." He spoke, and that was when she spoke again.
"Don’t worry, you would glimpse at the fate of this world once you’re out of here again." She stood up, waving her hands in the air.
As she did that, a bunch of these brownish papers appeared in front of him.
[You have inherited a story.]
[Story integration failed due to lack of an anchor.]
[You have gotten a second face, The Draft]
[All rewards can’t be given without connection to your story]
[...]
"Wh—what the hell is all this?" He asked, moving the scripts aside to look at the Oracle once more.
"The world is an unfair place, Harlequin. But it’s most especially unfair to you. Over the time you would spend in this world, you would find yourself in life or death situations almost every time, as the Harvest would seek to destroy you." She spoke, vanishing from her position immediately.
Harley stood frozen in the empty space, his chest still heaving from the whirlwind of revelations. The Oracle had vanished without a trace, leaving only the faint shimmer of dissolving motes of light where she had been standing moments ago. The brownish papers floated lazily around him before fading into nothingness, their cryptic messages echoing in his mind like a bad dream he couldn’t shake.
He clenched his fists, jaw tight.
—You’re a Puppet
—Just a living Consciousness.
—The world seeks to destroy you
The words gnawed at him, fueling a quiet rage that refused to die.
Then, without warning, he felt warm arms slide around his waist from behind, pulling him into a gentle yet firm embrace. A soft, impossibly real body pressed against his back—full curves molding to him, the same pearlescent glow brushing his skin like warm silk. Her long, weightless hair cascaded over his shoulder, carrying the faint scent of a gentle night breeze, like distant blooming flowers. Her breath tickled the shell of his ear.
Harley tensed, every muscle locking up. "You... you’re still here?"
A soft, melodic chuckle vibrated against him. "Did you really think I would leave you like that, little Harlequin? Not when you’re so close to breaking free."
Her voice was tender now, laced with encouragement rather than teasing. One of her hands slowly traced up his chest, resting over where his heart should have been beating. "Keep trying. Keep fighting. You’ve already done the impossible once. Don’t stop now. Freedom is ugly, painful... but it’s yours if you reach for it hard enough."
Harley swallowed hard, the warmth of her body against his making it strangely difficult to stay angry. He could feel every exaggerated curve of her, the impossible perfection that should have felt alien but instead felt... grounding. For the first time in this maddening encounter, he didn’t pull away.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke, his voice low and rough.
"Tell me... for the last time. What am I?"
The Oracle didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she tightened her hug just a fraction, her lips brushing the sensitive skin right behind his ear. Her voice dropped to the softest whisper, intimate and secret, meant only for him.
She spoke the truth then—clear, undeniable, and devastating in its simplicity.
Harley’s eyes snapped open wide. His entire body went rigid as the words sank in, a cold shiver racing down his spine despite the warmth still enveloping him from behind. What she had said hit like a hammer straight to his core.
For several long seconds, he simply stood there, breathing shallow, processing.
The Oracle’s arms lingered a moment longer, giving him one final gentle squeeze. Then, just as suddenly as she had appeared, her form began to dissolve—warmth fading, curves turning back into sparkling motes of light that drifted away like fireflies in the dark.
"Remember what I said," her fading voice echoed softly in the emptiness. "Keep trying... Harlequin."
And then she was truly gone.
Harley remained standing alone in the void, the weight of her final whisper pressing down on him heavier than any physical burden. His hands trembled slightly at his sides.
*DOOM!*
Just then, a white door appeared right in front of him. On it was the same black arc that he had seen right before going into the first trial.
Looking at it in silence, it opened as he willed it. And slowly, he walked... preparing his mind for going back to the real world.
