Letter of Recommendation (11)

Sophia was trembling, her face ashen as if she were about to faint. Had I pushed her too hard? Now that I’d cracked the whip, it was time to offer a carrot. I moved next to Sophia and proposed a definite ‘reward.’

“You just have to go and get tortured for a few hours. Well… your flesh might get torn, and your insides might spill out. But. I guarantee you won’t die. You can come back with your body intact. Really.”

“U, uh… B, but still…”

“If you endure it well and come back.”

I took a step away from Sophia, speaking with an air of generosity.

“I’ll set you free.”

An enticing offer.

“W, wha, at…?”

“I’ll give you a solid identity, a huge amount of money, and even hire someone to protect you, so you can live in luxury. You can build the home of your dreams, and I’ll make it so you can eat delicious food for the rest of your life. And of course, I’ll change your gender back.”

“B, back to being a man…?”

“This is a world where, if you have money, humans enslave other humans. You said you wanted to become a Great Demon, right? You can do that even with a human body.”

But it was an offer she couldn’t easily accept.

“Instead, you swear to obey my orders absolutely until then. A good girl? Forget that crap. If I tell you to kill yourself, you kill yourself, and if I tell you to slit your wrists, you slit them.”

“Ugh…”

“You cut open your belly, cut off your arms and legs, and even if your intestines spill out, you don’t lose your smile and keep acting grateful until the end. Please, thank me for cooking you. Say it was an honor to be cooked by me. You have to die in happiness until that faint consciousness fades away.”

“I, if I die…”

“Don’t worry. You’re not really going to die. I swear in the name of God, no, in the name of the Demon King.”

Sophia agonized, her face pale. She pondered for dozens of minutes, seriously considering this turning point in her life.

And the result was.

“Wha, what do I have to do…?”

A hesitant acceptance.

“…What do you have to do?”

Sophia’s body flinched.

She wasn’t sure.

I chuckled in disbelief. It seemed she hadn’t fully understood what I’d said.

This wasn’t a simple story.

I had declared that I would repeat near-death situations to wear down her mind and instill extreme obedience, even welcoming death, and she was asking what she had to do? That was a question that a sane person couldn’t possibly ask.

I formed a Blade Forest with my Mana, creating a sharp earth sword.

-Kwaaaaak!!

I immediately approached and grabbed her by the collar.

“Ke, keheuk?!”

Sophia was in pain. What courage did she have to nod her head when she was suffering so much from just this? I held the earth sword to Sophia’s right arm and opened my mouth.

“Listen carefully, since you nodded, I’m going to put a knife to your body without hesitation.”

“Kkeu, kkeueup… L, let me go…”

“Let you go? You might have to smile with your intestines spilling out soon, and you’re already like this?”

I used telekinesis to suspend her in the air.

Sophia, dangling in the air, struggled with a painful expression. She even pissed herself, screaming and leaking water from every hole.

“P, please, stop. I’m sorry. Save, save me. I, I won’t do it again… Heueuk…”

Sophia begged, shedding tears. Every time her body creaked, the earth sword that had pierced her arm dug deeper.

Tears already, and we haven’t even started yet. I’m not an easy mark, would I just give you that much reward? I need to get an equivalent price to make it worthwhile, right?

“Haa…”

-Pook!

I let out a cold breath and pulled out the sword.

As the sword was pulled out, the telekinesis was released.

Sophia fell to the floor as she was, bleeding and convulsing.

“Kkeueuk… Kkeuheup…”

“Sophia, listen carefully. This is just the beginning. For the next three days, I’m going to torture you day and night so that you can become an excellent cooking ingredient.”

“P, please, stop…”

“…Are you listening?”

Chwaak! I shook the blood off the sword and prepared a final warning.

I squatted down in front of Sophia. I grabbed Sophia’s terrified hair and met her trembling eyes. Her eyes were filled with fear. Only fear was there.

“I’ll say it again. You can enjoy all kinds of wealth and glory by being tortured for just a few days…”

“Heugeuk, heueup…”

“Or you can be locked up here for the rest of your life, wearing the dog collar of a good girl.”

I glared fiercely, as if I would gouge out her eyeballs.

There was no right to refuse.

I held the knife to my left arm and smiled coldly.

“Are you worried it’ll be boring? It’s okay. Instead of having restrictions on your actions, I’ll grant you whatever you want. I’ll guarantee your safety too. You can’t die no matter what you do until you say you want to die. But, you can’t go back to being a man. Just know that.”

Either way, it was an unreasonable condition, but there was no suitable way for Sophia. If she stubbornly refused to choose either, she would have her neck cut off by me in anger.

So choose.

“Choose.”

Whether to endure the pain and live as an individual. Or to become a dog and live as a slave for the rest of your life.

“I’ll give you 3 seconds.”

There was no time to worry.

There was no mercy.

“3 seconds…”

I held the earth sword to her neck. Pshyuk, a blood vessel burst. Sophia trembled and mumbled. She had to answer. She was afraid of either way and couldn’t decide easily.

“2 seconds…”

A countdown to death. Her terrified eyes shook violently. Even while she was worrying like this, the knife was getting closer and closer, creating a salty blood droplet. Her skin was gradually splitting. It was a crack that would create the impending death.

Like that.

1 second was approaching.

“One――”

At that time.

“I, I’ll do it…”

Just before I cut her throat. After seeing a considerable amount of blood, Sophia’s mouth opened.

“What?”

“S, spend it here…”

“You’re going to be locked up here for the rest of your life?”

“Heueuk, heueup… Yehe, heup, heuk…”

Sophia was a coward.

I withdrew the sword. The earth sword disappeared into dust as I let go. I got up from my seat and used Reconstruction. Sophia’s messed-up body returned to normal.

Sophia crawled into a corner, covered her head, and trembled so pitifully.

Looking at that miserable sight, I said.

“No regrets?”

“Yes, yes. I, I’ll live nicely. I, I’ll listen well… I, I won’t talk back.”

“….”

Hyperventilation. Confusion symptoms recurred. Sophia buried her face between her knees and trembled pathologically. There was no reason in the broken words.

Just because she didn’t want to be hurt, because she wanted to live.

So it was a scream-like word that she spat out.

I didn’t demand an answer. Words without reason are like babbling, like talking to a wall. Dialogue, in general, originates from the noise that occurs when reason and reason collide. If not, it will only end as a one-off story.

But Sophia’s reason, which had already been shattered, didn’t even show any crumbs to pick up.

“Haa….”

Sometimes. Very rarely. I feel sympathy for Sophia. Who am I to make Sophia atone? Do I have the right to do that? But even if I close my eyes and worry for hours, the result doesn’t change.

The only moment when the reason of a magician and the reason of a human being coincide. It’s like agreeing to a mere vow to live as a human, so. Because I like that so much. I become more hesitant to pick up the knife.

“….”

…What am I doing.

Back again.

Even if Sophia hadn’t been pregnant, her mind would have collapsed if I had left her in this state. She was on the verge of going crazy just from getting her arm cut, so I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if she was dissected alive.

This is the plan I came up with in that situation.

I become Sophia, and Sophia becomes me, and we act as each other. It won’t hurt to act as me, so she’ll do well. That’s what I believe.

In fact, it didn’t matter if she couldn’t do it. To get a recommendation letter, only Sophia―that is, I―had to do well.

“Sophia.”

“Heu, hi, hik. I, I was wrong. P, please.”

“….”

I passed the sobbing Sophia and headed to the living room.

‘I need blood.’

I prepared to draw a magic circle. The material was blood. My blood, which is more abundant in Mana than any other paint.

“Keuk.”

-Chwaak! I created a sharp dagger and cut off my thumb. A finger fell off, and blood splattered. I bit my lip tightly and endured the pain.

I picked up my thumb. I used the severed finger as a brush and drew a large circle. It was a magic circle to create a body.

‘First of all, the body that I will possess.’

I filled in geometric patterns and drew a blood magic circle. If I ran out of blood, I would cut off other fingers. Index finger, middle finger, ring finger, little finger. When all five fingers were cut off like that, I would recreate them with Reconstruction and cut them off again.

The smell of blood vibrated. I completed the magic circle with hollow eyes. Now I had to cut off a part of my body… An arm would be fine.

I took a step away from the magic circle and formed a Mana Forest. I created the blade I used when I cut off Sophia’s tail. It was a blade that was easy to cut tough, hard things.

-Kwaddeuk…

I put the blade on my left arm and started sawing.

“Kkeueuk, keup…! Heugeut…”

My left arm was being cut off based on my elbow. When my left arm was half cut off and tattered like that, I tied a thread of Mana and cut it off in one go. A huge amount of blood flowed. I cauterized the wound with fire and stopped the bleeding. I could do Reconstruction later.

“Huu….”

I put the severed left arm in the middle of the magic circle.

Now a new body would grow from that left arm.

A body without consciousness, only a shell.

“Haa… Huu….”

The body I was trying to create was two.

Sophia’s body with the same abilities as me, and Yujin’s body with all Mana circuits blocked.

The reason why I cut off the Mana circuit was a kind of insurance to prevent the reversal of the master-slave relationship. We had to go into opposite bodies, right?

I knelt in front of the magic circle and gathered all the Mana in my body and injected it into the magic circle. The magic circle gradually glowed blue. It was the beginning of creation.

“Creation, start.”

-Uuuuuung!

The entire laboratory began to shake. A lot of dust fell from the ceiling, and soon the closet and decorations fell off in large numbers, creating a mess. Kung, kwajik, jjaenggeurang. The laboratory was being destroyed and turned into a mess.

“Kkeuheueup…”

I squinted one eye and looked at the body that was gradually being completed.

I had almost finished. It wasn’t difficult. This was just an extension of Reconstruction. It was the first time I had recreated everything from the internal organs to the muscles and cells, but there was no problem because the theory was perfect.

And so.

When two unconscious bodies were created on the blood-stained living room floor.

“Haa―”

I collapsed and wiped away the flowing sweat.

‘It’s a complete mess…’

The messy laboratory.

I frowned and approached the shell body.

I touched the forehead of the newly created body. It was warm. It was definitely alive, but it wasn’t alive. There was no soul or consciousness. It was literally a shell. It was creepy to look at.

‘That’s why I didn’t want to make it…’

Whether it was a copy ego or a spare body―I felt uncomfortable touching something that had escaped from being human. Still, if I had to choose, it was better to create a body. I wouldn’t say it felt like creating life. It felt like creating a corpse.

Therefore, from this point on, it was better to put aside the assumption that I would get a recommendation letter from another noble. The water had already been spilled. Let’s try to the end. It had to be Bridonia.

“Haaaa….”

I prepared to move my consciousness.

‘Ah….’

-Pajik, pajijik. It felt like the world was disappearing. My consciousness was splitting. I endured the terrible sensation of the world collapsing and counted the remaining time. About 10 seconds. My consciousness would be transferred in 10 seconds.

9 seconds. The world turned white.

…7 seconds. I couldn’t hear anything.

……4 seconds. All, senses. Disappea.ara.ring.

1 second.

ㅤㅤThe world

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ returns.

………

……

…

Synchronization.

Complete.

“…Haa.”

I opened my eyes and moved my hands and feet. It moved normally. It felt awkward because my body was smaller, but there was nothing wrong with my senses.

When I looked ahead, I saw myself collapsed. It was a body that only had a shell left after I moved my consciousness. I dragged my original body to the corner and deployed a protection spell. If someone messed with my body and I couldn’t go back, my life would be over.

“A, a―”

When I did a vocalization test, the same voice as Sophia came out. I snapped my fingers to create a mirror fragment.

‘The appearance is the same… and I can use magic as usual…’

It was perfect.

But.

“…Who, who are you?!”

Sophia, who came out of the bedroom after hearing the commotion, pointed her finger with a terrified face. A girl who looked exactly like herself. Moreover, there were two Yujins lying on the floor. It was truly a bizarre scene.

I answered in a calm voice.

“It’s me, Yujin.”