episode_0035

#7

Someone said this.

Happiness has one face, but misfortune is born with ten thousand faces.

It would be said that while many unfortunate circumstances are created for different reasons, happiness is a feeling of fullness that everyone feels in a similar form.

Although it is not certain whether that statement is true or false, at least Girl A thought that it was true.

Girl A, who lost her biological mother to a monster, was raised by her mother who neglected her and had an affair.

When I was so hungry that my stomach clock didn’t even ring because I had been starving all day, my father threw me some cold bread that he had found somewhere as a charity.

Although it was obvious abuse, Girl A did not even know about it and just gratefully accepted a piece of bread.

His attitude, which was more like raising an animal than a daughter, actually stemmed from the fact that Girl A was an illegitimate child born from his wife’s affair.

As an adult, throwing a piece of bread to each of the girl A’s biological father was his last act of mercy and a small amount of duty.

However, even the small good deeds of his father did not last long.

A’s biological father, who had become unemployed after the factory closed due to management difficulties, sold the house he had barely managed to secure and tried to make a fortune by playing the lottery and investing in stocks, but it was a wrong decision.

A’s biological father blew all the money he had saved and ended up on the streets. After that, he started drinking every day and started beating A indiscriminately to vent his frustration and stress about the world.

How could a body that is not yet fully mature be able to handle the overwhelming violence wielded by a healthy, adult male?

Miss A’s body, which was already weakened by severe hunger, deteriorated to the point where she was on the verge of death.

In that dense and dense misery, as if the world were denying her, Girl A thought.

Wouldn’t it be better to die than to live?

It would be better for someone useful to breathe in this world than for someone as useless as you to breathe in it.

like that….

A voice of salvation was heard in the ears of girl A, who was falling endlessly into a dark, dark, deep abyss of emotions.

‘Don’t you want to be happy?’

‘yes….’

And girl A grabbed his hand.

#8

“I can’t believe I feel such a huge monster’s energy coming from this little girl… .”

He looked about the same height as me, but he seemed lighter than me.

Considering how frail and fragile my body was, it was a truly absurd body type.

If you take off your clothes, you’ll probably only see your bare ribs.

The abuse must have been so severe that there was no place on her body that wasn’t covered in scars and wounds.

Despite this, the girl addicted to the happy virus just smiled as if she was happy.

“… Oh my god.”

Sister Winter did not add anything after this short statement.

It must have been that shocking.

I stood in her place and approached the girl possessed by the monster.

It seemed like he had cut his hair roughly himself, so the shape of his hair was crooked and irregular.

I took out the alchemical tools from my bag and tried to extract the mystery she was keeping.

Even though I had seen many people addicted to the happy virus while passing through the slums, I insisted on extracting the mystery from this girl because the strange aura I felt from this girl was much stronger than others.

I felt a vibration more intense than any monster presence I’ve ever seen.

So, is the mystery this girl holds the true nature of the Happy Virus?

However, as for the main body, it didn’t feel like a nuclear… that is, a mysterious crystal that the Happy Virus had imitated.

However, it was certain that it was one of the giant fragments that had split off from the main body.

So, if we replace the mystery that serves as the compass’s indicator with this, we will be able to track more accurately.

With that thought in mind, I held the mystery extraction tool in both hands and slowly began to thrust it into the heart of the girl who was lying on the dirty slum floor and laughing.

“Ha, Heaven!! What the hell are you doing!!”

“Please be quiet. I need to concentrate.”

Of course, I understand why Sister Winter is so surprised.

Because it would look like I was sticking scissors into people’s hearts.

This is what alchemy is all about.

Creating a new material with completely different properties by synthesizing existing materials.

And, although this mysterious breaker I created has the shape of a pair of scissors, it does not affect the physical structure of the human body in the least.

Because it is a new substance that was created that way in the first place.

That is, what these scissors interfere with is not the material world, but conceptual existence.

More precisely, it spoke of the rules that mystery enforces to change the world.

I named it Mystery Breaker as I pleased.

The name was taken from a treasure from a cartoon or animation I had seen before.

The roles seem a bit similar?

A tumor made up of mystery connected to the laws and providence of the world. And a pair of scissors to cut mystery were placed on the umbilical cord connecting them.

I carefully pulled the handle, causing the two blades of the Mystery Breaker to engage each other.

Snip!

Along with the refreshing cutting sensation felt at my fingertips, I felt the mystery that had been twisting the laws of the world being cut away.

And then I transferred the lump into an empty flask, completing the extraction process.

Now we just need to refine this and insert it into the compass.

“Ugh, ummm… .”

The girl’s face, which had been smiling happily all along, slowly began to distort.

It was evidence that I was waking up from my sweet dream and returning to reality.

It was a natural phenomenon, as the mystery that had ruled her had been cut out of the world.

The shackles that bound her legs as she fell from the swamp of happiness into the endless abyss were released, and she returned to the world like a balloon flying into the sky.

Her eyelids fluttered, then she opened them.

The color of his eyes was light brown.

When the girl, addicted to the poison of happiness, returned to the dark and dreary ashen world, these were the first words she uttered.

“Ah… .”

A brief sigh.

Longing, regret, sorrow, sadness, impatience, anger, pain, fear, dread. A variety of emotions that are difficult to compress into one word were coagulated and vomited out with warm breath.

Her face slowly distorted.

Her pale brown eyes, immersed in emptiness, took in the clear, piercing summer sky. And then, her eyes began to soak with moisture, sparkling.

“Why… . Why… . You woke me up.”

“… … .”

“I, I… . I wanted to stay there… . forever… .”

“You were… hit by a monster. Of course you had to save it.”

“Whether it was a monster or something… it didn’t matter. To me, reality was more weird.”

“… … .”

I couldn’t do anything as she stammered out her resentful words.

It was so weird that it had to be removed?

If that’s the case, then I, who am no better than a half-monster, am a contradiction.

It was easy to guess what kind of life that child had lived without even asking, and it was not unreasonable to turn away from that overwhelming reality and covet the beautiful virtual reality that the happy virus offered.

I think I would feel the same way right now.

If the environment were like this… .

But ironically, instead of feeling guilty and bowing my head in front of her who had thrown me into the cold reality, I felt a boiling desire for the monster that was eating her up.

A monster that makes people happy. Maybe, at times, it can be a really good monster.

Even a girl struggling in this swampy life is addicted to the drug called happiness.

While I was feeling that strange emotion and cooling down, Sister Winter came over and opened her mouth.

“You know better than anyone. Not everyone can be happy.”

“… So? So, a bottom-tier person like me… can’t even dream happy dreams… .”

Rather than being angry, it was a mutter closer to resignation.

Her heart must have been so torn and worn away that she couldn’t even properly express her anger, and it had already turned to ash.

Winter Sister hesitated for a while, then spoke softly to her.

Holding her rough hand.

“… Of course, even if I were to tell you to cheer up, it would be nothing more than hypocrisy and useless. But… . I want to say this.”

For the first time, the girl made eye contact.

“It’s good to hope and expect happiness without any price, but it’s hard…, it’s really hard, but it’s more valuable to fight and achieve it.”

“… Who are you fighting against?”

“Everything that blocks your happiness. Even if it is your parents, friends, or even the world.”

“… … .”

“Even if I can’t win?”

“If you can’t win right away, then avoiding it for a while is one way. But that doesn’t mean you can run away from reality. That means running away forever.”

“What is that… . In the end, it means I can run away. So then… .”

“What I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to be here. The world is big. And, it might be kinder than you think.”

“… … .”

For the first time, life came to her dull, locked eyes.

What Sister Winter wants to say.

I think I know it vaguely.

If Sister Winter were to take her in and help her right away, it might help her mentally in the short term. However, Sister Winter seemed to want to change her a little more fundamentally.

To give the girl, who was tired of the dark world and escaped to a happy dream, the courage to face the world.

After all, the driving force that moves people is courage and hope.