15 - Marquis Maron
Episode 15
I couldn't fall asleep that night.
Thinking I might have insomnia, I got out of bed and wandered around the room, eventually spotting the shadow of a bug that had flown in through the window in the early hours of the morning.
Back in Seoul, I would have freaked out and sprayed enough insecticide to cause suffocation at the sight of even a tiny bathroom bug, but after coming to Maron Keep, I had become unbelievably tolerant of them.
Yeah, you guys are just trying to make a living too.
You just look a little creepy, right? And creepiness is just a human standard anyway. I bet I'm terrifying to them. Imagine a monster as big as a building roaring and spraying toxic gas.
Let's see. What kind of bug friend is it?
A firefly, maybe? A ladybug, or… maybe a moth? As long as it's not a mosquito.
Since I couldn't sleep anyway, I figured it was a good opportunity. I went to open the window and let my bug friend out, glancing at it as I approached the sill.
Then I froze.
What… is that? Why is it so hairy? I guess it's a moth, but aren't moths only about the size of a finger joint? Are moths different in a fantasy world?
The fluffy, mottled moth was as big as two of my hands spread side by side. If I had seen it from a distance, I would have thought it was a bird.
Suddenly, I remembered the stories my seniors told about seeing Tinkerbell while on guard duty in the army.
Is that you?! Is it you?!
I heard it was green, but why is it brown! Even if I try to be as open-minded as the Buddha, you're a bit much. How did you even get in here with that big body?
My heart pounded every time the moth moved slightly. I couldn't even open the window because I was backing away. I thought it would be better to go sleep in another room, even if it was a little cold.
What should I do? I'm so scared.
I'd rather have a mosquito. This is too much. Save me, Doraji.
Then the moth fluttered its huge wings and flew into the air.
Towards my face.
Ah.
In that moment, I was more scared than when I fell into the ravine in a cage. My heart felt like it was going to stop. I instinctively put my hand out and squeezed out a groan.
I felt something rush out of me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them, but the moth was gone.
Huh?
The moth had disappeared.
Instead, a black curtain was spread out in front of me. It was a curtain of black Magical Energy, rippling softly like a wave.
It was spread out like a shield, about 1 meter wide and 2 meters high, as if protecting me, and the moth had fallen to the floor without being able to pass through it.
"Huh?"
I guess I can do all sorts of things now.
That was all I could think. I knew I had gained some kind of fantastical ability, but it was absurd that it had been activated while trying to avoid a moth.
The moth regained its senses and flew up again. I kept backing away, dodging here and there. The curtain of Magical Energy fluttered like a wizard's cloak, protecting me whenever the moth approached.
Iyah, iyah!
I started to get excited. I moved it around, eventually wrapping the moth up in Magical Energy like a bundle.
Then I threw open the window and sent it flying into the distant night sky.
"Goodbye, Tinkerbell."
One thing I overlooked was that opening the window also allowed other bugs to come in.
The sun rose. Another day at Maron Keep began. I rubbed my bleary eyes, having wrestled with bugs all night, and went outside.
Now that I had decided to bring civilization to Maron Keep, I could no longer tolerate laziness. I was a 21st-century graduate student with the Korean speed patch perfectly installed.
"I have a confession to make."
"What is it?"
"I leveled up."
Doraji and Reikart looked at me, wondering what I was talking about. It seemed better to show them than to explain it, so I took them to the edge of the Contaminated Zone.
"Watch carefully."
There was a spider with patterns on it. Before it was contaminated, it probably had bright colors.
The contaminated, dead spider didn't spin webs or hunt. It just moved aimlessly in the same spot.
I crouched down in front of the spider and carefully brought my fingertip to it.
"Are you crazy! Now you're even trying to purify bugs!"
"No, just watch."
Dark Magical Energy flowed from my hand.
Doraji and Reikart gasped and simultaneously held their breath. They didn't move, their eyes fixed on my fingertip.
Black, thick Magical Energy spread like ink, enveloping the spider and then seeping into it. I, who had always only absorbed Magical Energy from the surroundings, was now injecting Magical Energy into a living creature.
The spider turned pitch black.
The colorful patterns disappeared, replaced by a black sheen. Its shell thickened like that of a crustacean, and long fangs grew in its mouth.
Soon, the spider began to move quickly. It climbed up a high branch and began to spin a web. It was a black thread with a silvery sheen.
I heard the sound of Doraji collapsing.
"You really were a Demon King..."
No, I'm not.
"And I didn't even know..."
That's not it.
"You said you felt the Magical Energy building up in your body every time you ate it. You could only purify it little by little at a time because you were digesting it. But last night, a bug came into my room, and when I tried to get rid of it, I unknowingly released Magical Energy, and it became like this..."
"It became like this?"
"Yeah. It changed like this."
Reikart, who was more rational than Doraji, who was still in shock, asked, "Is it possible with bears or wolves?"
"In theory."
"What about people?"
"Why would I do it to people? It's creepy."
"Do it."
Scratch what I said about being rational.
Reikart held out his hand to me.
"Do it to me. It might be better than an animal. There won't be anything dangerous for you either. I might be able to move around in the Contaminated Zone without worrying about dying like that spider. If that happens, I can go out and buy groceries..."
"Are you crazy?"
"I'm crazy!"
My fairy and I shouted at the same time. He was telling me to experiment on him and turn him into a demon!
"Isn't it a good idea?"
"No, it's not!"
"She said no!"
Even if we're crazy about the taste of civilization, that's too much! Becoming a demon just to go grocery shopping! Is this a protest because I won't build a road?
I, who had always begged to hold hands, slapped his hand away like a bug and stood up.
"No. I'm never doing it. People are creepy. Let's catch a bear instead."
"Where are you going to find a bear?"
"There are wolves and wild boars."
While Reikart and I were having an uncompromising argument, Doraji, who had belatedly come to her senses, pointed out the flaw.
"If we demonize the tainted like this, wouldn't those people... come back to life without dying?"
"......"
"If they come back to life like that spider and move around freely in the Contaminated Zone..."
They would come back to life with amnesia and become Half-human Half-demons.
I sighed and glanced at Reikart.
My guess was this.
Hayley in the original story lived alone in Maron Keep for a long time. She must have had the ability to absorb Magical Energy like me.
However, Hayley didn't use that ability to decorate her house like I did, but instead gathered Magical Energy to turn people into demons.
The most representative victim was Reikart.
He must have become a Demon King-level Half-human Half-demon after being covered in all the Magical Energy left in her body as a reward for killing Hayley.
At this point, I was also suspicious of the identities of the demons who were in charge of being disposable villains in the original story.
Maybe Hayley only picked the strongest and most vicious of the tainted and demonized them. That's why they jumped out of the cradle and into the world after she died and became known as demons. I don't know the detailed method of how she did it, but it seemed like a plausible guess.
Reikart said, his eyes shining, "Dryad is right. Maybe this could be a way to save people."
