Chapter 47
Baby Dinosaur Rex (2)
“Is that really what you should be saying right now?!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Jude swung his bone without pause.
Lee Shin’s mind briefly went blank.
To an outside observer, the scene would have looked like a gag from a slapstick cartoon. A tiny skeleton was striking the head of an enormous dinosaur. If that wasn’t comedy, what was?
“You want to sleep forever without ever waking up? That’s the same as saying you want to die! How could you say something like that, you idiot?!”
Rex had silently endured the beating, but apparently it hurt more than expected. After rubbing his head, he glared at Jude and growled.
“Stop… that.”
“Stop, my foot!”
“You don’t… know what I’ve been through. And yet…”
Jude appeared to have struck a nerve.
However—
“No matter what you’ve been through, you’re not allowed to do that!”
Jude refused to be intimidated.
“No one is!”
Clang!
Jude leaped again and struck Rex on the head.
This time, Rex didn’t remain still.
The dinosaur’s eyes widened as he twisted his body. A moment later, his tail lashed out like a whip and shattered Jude’s body.
A sound resembling an explosion echoed across the grasslands.
It was the first time Lee Shin had seen one of the dinosaurs of the Vast but Indolent World move so aggressively.
Weren’t these creatures normally reluctant to shift even slightly from where they lay?
They might have been indolent, but their innate strength had not diminished.
A dragon was still a dragon!
However…
“You don’t know Jude, either.”
Jude was no pushover.
“You don’t know how Jude lived.”
His shattered body reassembled in an instant. As soon as the skeleton regained his original form, he charged again and struck Rex on the head.
Clang!
The cheerful sound rang out like a comical sound effect.
“We don’t know anything about each other.”
“…”
“But even so, some things are right and some things are wrong.”
Jude clacked his teeth together.
“You know it’s wrong too, Rex!”
“I…”
“That’s why you told Jude before leaving! If sleeping forever was truly all you wanted, and you believed it was unquestionably the right path, you would have gone into hibernation without any lingering regrets!”
Jude glared at Rex.
“The same goes for everyone.”
“If none of you truly care about this land, why do you grow tiny, beautiful flowers instead of nothing but grass? Why does no one eat the flowers after they bloom? Why do you all quietly watch whenever butterflies flutter around them? If your dream is to sleep forever, then what meaning could those little flowers, butterflies, birdsongs, and fragrances possibly have?”
Rex could not answer.
Neither could any of the other dinosaurs present.
Then—
「Rex’s world was once part of the Perfect World ruled by the Master of Eternity. Its inhabitants were blessed beings promised inexhaustible abundance and eternal prosperity.」
A status window appeared before Lee Shin.
「It seemed as though that blessing would last forever.」
「Until their defect was discovered.」
At the same time, scenes from the past flashed before his eyes.
「The druids who possessed the qualifications to become masters of life were born incapable of killing.
The inhabitants of this world, born as dragons—one of the great races—possessed souls that were innately incapable of harming another living being.
They could not kill even a single butterfly.
The Master of Eternity was a god who pursued a “Perfect World,” and the great Creator judged them to be “imperfect beings.”
Their master stopped visiting the beautiful flowers, the bountiful vegetation, and the gardens they had prepared for their Creator.
Instead, the Master of Eternity spoke:
“You do not have to do anything.”
“There is nothing you need to do.”
“You were born wrong.”
Those words brought them a despair beyond anything that could be compared to abandonment by a parent or lover.
The dinosaurs lost their purpose in life.
There was a time when they tried to prove their usefulness. They participated in wars waged throughout the World of Stars, dragging their immense bodies onto battlefields in hopes of receiving even a single glance from their Creator.
But the inhabitants of this land could do nothing.
Even when their precious brethren died beside them, they could only stand and watch.
They could not avenge those who bled to death, nor could they demonstrate the countless gifts with which they had been born.
All they could do was make flowers bloom over the graves of the departed.
When the dinosaurs realized that their Creator’s words had not been wrong, they discarded the wings that once allowed them to soar through the heavens.
Instead, they curled up against the lowest reaches of the earth and began waiting for winter.
Having lost their reason for existing, the dinosaurs said:
“We would rather sleep forever.”
“We want to remain trapped in a dream from which we will never awaken.”
Yet there was only one reason they had not done so.
“Perhaps someone will come looking for us, despite what we are.”
“Perhaps someone like that exists somewhere…”
Driven by lingering hopes from a past they themselves had forgotten, the wingless dinosaurs remain lost in their indolence, wandering as they drag their immense bodies across the earth.
Amid plants that merely grow larger and larger…
They continue to nurture tiny flowers.」
The story of this world—a story Lee Shin had never known—was finally revealed.
「[★Blue Star★]: You want to know why I treated them so harshly?」
「[★Blue Star★]: Because it was rational.」
Blue Star answered without a trace of concern.
「[★Blue Star★]: I’m responsible for far too many worlds, Lee Shin. To approach perfection, I ultimately have no choice but to cut away imperfection.」
「[★Blue Star★]: That’s what it means to reach the summit of the World of Stars.」
Reaching the summit.
Just as she had said, Blue Star and Lee Shin stood in vastly different positions.
Lee Shin had once been human and was merely a novice who had only recently become a lower god.
Naturally, their very ways of thinking were different.
「[★Blue Star★]: I had to preserve my identity as a god.」
Lee Shin contemplated Blue Star’s answer for a moment.
Then he sent her a message.
「[Lee Shin]: I can understand that.」
「[★Blue Star★]: …」
「[Lee Shin]: You chose your own path.」
Not every being could be the same.
「[Lee Shin]: I intend to follow my own path.」
Everyone simply walked the path they had chosen.
And Lee Shin had a path of his own.
「[★Blue Star★]: Hmph. I’ll be cheering for you. I sincerely mean that.」
「[Lee Shin]: Thank you.」
「[★Blue Star★]: As your friend, I should warn you about one thing.」
A warning?
Lee Shin waited for her next message.
Blue Star continued.
「[★Blue Star★]: It’ll be difficult to contact me for a while. Something is about to happen.」
「[Lee Shin]: It must be urgent.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Rather than urgent… it’s unavoidable. Anyway, being unable to contact me is the least of it. You may find yourself dealing with many troublesome matters from now on.」
「[Lee Shin]: Troublesome matters?」
「[★Blue Star★]: The moment I’m gone, all the gnats that have been waiting for an opportunity will swarm around you.」
「[Lee Shin]: …」
Blue Star ended their private conversation with those words.
Gnats.
Lee Shin pondered the word for a long time.
Who had she been referring to?
***
“Everyone! Jude loves all of you!”
“Jude loves the green grass growing here, and Jude loves the beautiful flowers and the warm sunlight! Jude loves winters filled with white snow too, but Jude doesn’t want to lose the chance to talk and play with all of you! So please, for Jude’s sake, try to enjoy your lives!”
After hearing Rex’s story, Jude traveled throughout the Vast but Indolent World repeating those words.
When Lee Shin asked why he was doing it, Jude answered,
“You can overcome any hardship if you have friends!”
“…”
“Jude learned that because of a friend too.”
“…”
“Jude wants everyone else to know it.”
Jude was remarkably passionate.
Watching him reminded Lee Shin of Eve, who continued evangelizing despite being rejected every single time.
She often became dejected, but she never gave up.
Perhaps all of Lee Shin’s believers resembled one another.
However—
“That’s… enough.”
Things rarely went smoothly.
“We’re going… to hibernate.”
“But…”
“And we will… never wake up again.”
They stood in the vast grasslands.
The largest and oldest of the dinosaurs lying there spoke in a resolute voice.
“…We received… a promise. A promise of eternal dreams.”
“…?”
“They said we could dream whatever we wished… forever, without pain. And there was no… price we had to pay…”
The old dinosaur spoke weakly, as though he no longer possessed any lingering attachment to the world.
Something about his words struck Lee Shin as strange.
Dream whatever they want forever?
He felt as though he had heard something like that before.
At that moment—
「Warning.」
A status window appeared.
「A demon has entered your world.」
A demon.
The moment Lee Shin saw that word, a memory from the past returned to him.
A cabin filled with pink smoke.
An old man and two children sleeping inside it…
Santiago.
He, too, had once been trapped in an eternal dream.
「[Dream’s Temptation] has arrived.」
「TIP: A dream demon has entered your world!」
「TIP: Souls who long to escape reality cannot resist a dream demon’s temptation! You must make them choose their reality instead of a sweet dream!」
「TIP: Just as you did before.」
Lee Shin’s suspicions were correct.
Santiago was doing well now, but this was the demon that had once turned him into a [Dreamer] and imprisoned him within an eternal dream.
The dream demon that had caused turmoil in the small world had returned.
So this is one of the gnats Blue Star warned me about.
Lee Shin simply hadn’t expected one to appear so quickly.
It seemed Blue Star’s protection had helped him far more than he had realized.
Then—
「A demon has appeared!」
The world suddenly froze.
『Hmm. So you’re that talkative god who used to be human?』
The world had stopped, drained into shades of gray.
At its center, a woman with a translucent body abruptly appeared.
She had violet hair and violet eyes.
Two horns protruded from her head.
『How curious. No matter how lowborn Legion was… there’s no way he should have been so completely helpless against an insignificant god like you. Perhaps destiny truly does exist.』
Standing in the middle of the vast grasslands, the woman looked up at the sky.
『Well, petty tricks like yours won’t work on me.』
More precisely, she was looking at Lee Shin.
『You’ve already interfered with me once in that pathetic little dwarven world, haven’t you? You stole my Santiago and forced all those dwarves—who could have been happy inside their dreams—to throw themselves back into harsh reality.』
『…』
『I truly despise you.』
The woman placed a hand against her cheek and giggled.
『I don’t know how you managed to befriend the Master of Eternity—that eccentric old monster—but it seems her influence no longer extends to you. Well, she has always been an unpredictable god.』
『…』
『You’re finished now, you presumptuous lower god.』
Snap!
The woman snapped her fingers.
Demons began appearing all around her like mushrooms after rainfall.
Every one of them radiated an ominous aura.
There appeared to be several dozen of them.
『A mere god born from humanity dares to interfere with me, Lilith? I’ll teach you just how sweet—and how terrifying—a dream can be.』
The woman—the dream demon Lilith—burst into a sinister laugh.
Lilith probably didn’t know.
「A demon’s presence can be felt nearby.」
「Your soul shines brilliantly.」
She didn’t know why the demon Legion had been defeated so helplessly.
「You are the natural enemy of demons.」
She didn’t know why Blue Star hadn’t been particularly worried about Lee Shin.
「The conditions for activating the skill [True Justice] have been fulfilled.」