Chapter 121 – Palace Maid (14)
Deok-sun!
I hadn’t been paying attention only to Deok-chun all this time. Not often, but I hadn’t ignored Deok-sun completely either.
I’d asked her to arrange a quiet meeting with Deok-chun, talked with her while waiting for the thief to come kidnap Deok-chun…
But her speech, gestures—everything was localized so perfectly that I’d thought she was a native. What kind of adaptability was this?
(Think of it as a good experience.)
“Ghn…”
A good experience.
The senior was right. Until now, in dream worlds based on “works,” the patient had always been the protagonist.
I got blindsided!
Kim Eun-jung had possessed Angelina Chimac, the protagonist of the romance fantasy novel I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Count’s Family. A woman who ruined multiple nations on her own—undeniably a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms!
Mao Zhai had also been the protagonist of the martial arts novel Is This Heavenly Demon for Real?. He failed to become the Heavenly Demon’s disciple due to his own lack of ability, but befitting a protagonist’s body, he’d been born with the Heaven-and-Earth Yin-Yang Physique…!
(Enough with the digression.)
“Excuse me!”
“Hm? Were you calling me?”
“Yes. Have you seen Deok-sun?”
“Deok-sun?”
Out of roughly five hundred palace maids, there was no reason for officials or guards to know individual names—except that the palace maids in the historical drama Palace Maid Deok-chun were special.
It was like they were modern women working at a major corporation called “Royal Palace Co., Ltd.” With excellent employee benefits!
Historical accuracy, my foot—
(Stop complaining and hurry up and find her. Soccer’s over.)
“Already…?!”
“Hm?”
“Sorry. Deok-sun is…?”
“Ah, right. If you mean that lively palace maid, I saw her heading to the stream to do laundry.”
“Thank you!”
I was dumbfounded by just how much faster time was flowing.
How serious was this situation?
Every hour of mine was costing me a full day of my lifespan. If it kept going, wouldn’t thirty minutes equal a whole day?
(There she is. And she’s about to die.)
“No—!”
Pop!
Considering how much real-world time I’d already lost—worth more than money—if the patient died here, the loss would be catastrophic.
Why is she collapsed?!
Kiiik—!
The Sword Demon swung its two pairs of arms toward Deok-sun, who lay fallen near the stream. In a few seconds, her slender body would be sliced apart as easily as tofu!
I couldn’t allow that.
Pop!
I slit my wrist with a blade, soaked it in blood, and leapt at the creature.
Don’t be too late!
The Sword Demon, fixated on killing her as if she were its mortal enemy, didn’t pay me any attention at all.
Clang!
My ambush from behind made it surrender its neck without resistance.
Kiiik—?
(These idiots. Are those two pairs of arms and four treasured blades just for decoration? Like you, they rely on their bodies and have terrible skill.)
Sorry about that!
Kiiik!
I swung my blade—its blood not yet dry—at the Sword Demon aiming for my back.
“……”
“Surprised?”
The reason these things were dangerous was that close combat itself didn’t work.
Fight them with a sword, and the sword gets cut.
Stab with a spear, and the shaft gets cut.
Block with a shield, and the shield gets cut.
Axes, clubs, maces…
How were you supposed to fight something that sliced through everything so easily?
Skin as hard as thick iron plates, stealthy movement without a single footstep, and terrifying speed—everything about them was broken.
That won’t work anymore.
The conditions were the same.
Both of us had built our own “worlds” around our bodies, ignoring the laws of reality and creating independent rules.
The difference?
Their worlds were mass-produced—identical like factory goods, with few variables.
Mine allowed for countless applications.
Bang!
I knocked away its remaining arm and drove a side kick into its abdomen.
“……”
Its vocal cords must have been destroyed—it didn’t scream. But when its waist, reduced to nothing but bone and skin like a famine victim’s, bent at a right angle, its expression twisted.
Then—
(Finish it quickly. Basketball’s started.)
Got it.
As its upper body tilted forward with its waist folded—
Slash!
I swiftly severed the head the creature had practically offered up for cutting.
Cleanup complete.
“Isn’t that timing perfect? Like it was planned.”
I said it jokingly as I helped Deok-sun—who couldn’t stand on her own—to her feet.
But it wasn’t a joke. Not at all.
If I’d arrived even one second later—
(Does Nam Hae-soo come to mind?)
Yes.
After Nam Hae-soo died, he transformed into a Sword Demon and went on a rampage of indiscriminate slaughter. Then he died once more in the dream—and died again in reality.
The cause? The mechanism?
Still unknown.
If it were a witch, maybe she’d know…
Before, I’d been wary because she could enter dreams like me.
Now I was wary because she wasn’t showing up at all.
(Don’t overthink it. Do you think there’s only one way for humans to be born? Sword Demons are probably the same.)
The process by which Sword Demons were born.
I wanted to seriously discuss it with the senior—the expert in this field—but right now, the priority was the patient who had almost become one.
“Timing…?”
“Are you unharmed?”
I’d already checked her body. If even a little had grazed her, she would’ve lost a limb like the Crown Prince.
“H-how…?”
“You seem to be all right.”
She seemed to understand even the word timing that I’d spoken without thinking.
At this point, she was definitely a modern person!
The Olympics were urgent, but I didn’t want to stay long in this unknown crisis where Sword Demons were pouring out in droves.
(Basketball’s already almost over.)
…The speed at which real-world time was passing was far too fast.
“Ms. Yoon So-ra.”
“Huh?! How do you know my name—don’t tell me, you’re dead too?!”
“I know you’re confused, but this isn’t reality. This is a dream world based on the historical drama Palace Maid Deok-chun. It’s your dream.”
“W-wait! If you preface it by saying I’m confused, that explanation isn’t convincing at all—”
“You’re not dead yet. You’re just dying—”
Kiiik!
Kiiik!
Were they refusing to give me the time to calmly persuade the patient?
From across the stream, Sword Demons came charging toward us at high speed.
(Junior. Want to fight?)
Are you insane?!
“Excuse me!”
“What?! Kyaa—?!”
I wrapped my left arm tightly around the patient’s waist and ran in the opposite direction.
“……”
“……”
The Sword Demon horde advanced silently, sliding over the ground like skates on ice, their expressions vacant.
If there had only been around ten of them, I wouldn’t have turned my back and fled so decisively.
“Why are there so many of them?!”
“Ah—it hurts!”
“Better a bit of pain than having your waist cleanly cut off by those monsters!”
“…You said this was a dream.”
“If you die here, the you lying in a hospital bed in reality will die too.”
The royal palace was out of the question. If we fled there—where everyone was busy with repairs—it would turn into a horrific massacre. Even if this dream would disappear soon, I had a conscience.
“A hospital?!”
“Is there a problem?”
“How badly am I injured, and how much has the hospital bill reached so far?”
“…You’ve adapted quickly.”
Her acceptance speed was practically light-speed.
This was my first time seeing a patient like this.
“Please tell me.”
“Think about that later. For now, focus on waking up from the dream—”
“It’s important to me. There’s no way my parents would pay my hospital bills. How badly was I hurt by the stalker?”
“…You weren’t injured. I stopped it before that happened.”
Kiiik!
Kiiik!
The number of Sword Demons chasing us increased rapidly.
“Help—!”
“Ah—?!”
Naturally, hell unfolded everywhere we ran. I felt sorry for the citizens of this country who were caught up in it—but I couldn’t stop.
(Basketball’s over.)
Senior! Please read the patient’s memories!
(You don’t have the leisure to persuade her while listening to my commentary, do you?)
“……”
I couldn’t refute the senior’s sarcastic remark.
“It’s all debt, isn’t it? Are you the one paying my hospital bills for me?”
“Listen carefully.”
“Yes.”
“After you became a vegetable, your parents left you at home for nearly a hundred days. It’s true that I’m the one protecting you now, after you were rescued in an extremely unstable state where being alive was nothing short of a miracle.”
“…So you’re saying I should wake up and pay off my debt?”
“You don’t have to repay it with money. You just need to cooperate with the doctor taking care of you for a few days.”
“Human experimentation…?”
“Turn around. Does this look like a situation for jokes?”
“……”
The path we had passed through had been ravaged into ruins, shredded by hundreds of Sword Demons.
Kiiik—!
Kiiik—!
“Ghk!”
I barely evaded a surprise attack from a Sword Demon that sprang out from the front.
Proof that Sword Demons were appearing all over the dream world.
What was their objective?
(The baseball quarterfinal just ended. This is similar to the Thousand-Li Net used by martial artists. We’ll be surrounded soon.)
I can see that myself!
As coincidences piled up, they became inevitability. The Sword Demons showed intense hostility toward me—an unwelcome intruder in this world.
Kiiik!
Kiiik—!
And for some reason, they were also targeting the patient, the very owner of this dream.
“Ms. Yoon So-ra?”
“……”
“Ms. Yoon So-ra…!”
“…Ah! S-sorry. Even in a situation this urgent, I suddenly got sleepy…”
“Get a hold of yourself! If you fall asleep now, you’ll never wake up!”
Why isn’t she waking up?!
Yoon So-ra wasn’t denying reality—she was facing it properly. And yet, there was no sign of her awakening.
(…You’re really frustrating.)
Please help me!
(Next time, don’t just predict the dream world. Think about why the patient turned away from reality and escaped into a dream in the first place.)
Yes! I’ll take all the lectures later—just help me now!
(Parents.)
Thank you!
“Ms. Yoon So-ra. Don’t be afraid of reality. Forget parents who neglect their daughter because they’re addicted to a virtual reality game.”
“…How can I forget?”
Had I struck a nerve with the senior’s help? Her voice trembled.
(The baseball game’s over.)
“I guarantee it—as someone without parents.”
“Pardon?”
“They passed away when I was young. After that, I barely survived in a one-room place like a storage shed, working part-time at a convenience store, and I graduated high school this year.”
“…I graduated this year too.”
“I know. Your aptitude is doctor. You were working part-time at a café near a university when you were attacked by a stalker, right?”
“So you looked into me…”
“Yes. To rescue you from the dream world.”
Stop.
For the first time, I slowly reduced my speed.
“……”
“……”
The horde of Sword Demons that had perfectly surrounded us approached in silence, as if pronouncing a death sentence.
From the mountains, rivers, lakes, villages, forests, and fields—
This wasn’t just an encirclement.
For once, the senior was wrong. Sword Demons were everywhere my eyes could reach. With their sharp arms, they were slicing everything in this world apart like paper.
“Kang Moon-soo?”
“Yes.”
“You’re calm. I can’t believe we’re the same age.”
“It’s not something to brag about, but I’ve suffered far more than you and accumulated a wide range of experiences.”
“…What is life like without parents?”
(Heading to the track stadium. Get ready to be screwed.)
Don’t worry. I’m about to be slaughtered by thousands—no, tens of thousands—of Sword Demons before the event even starts.
“I was too busy to realize I was unhappy.”
“Ah…”
Swoosh—
I released my hold on her waist and took a fighting stance. Even if I was going to die here, I had no intention of dying quietly.
My life is very expensive.
“Kang Moon-soo.”
“Yes.”
“I think I’ll come to like you even more from now on.”
“What? That’s—!”
As I was about to tell her that absolutely couldn’t happen, the world shattered
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