Dark Fantasy Normalized

1 – Normalization of Dark Fantasy (2)

Instead of trying to preserve a life of walking on eggshells, it’s better to let go of everything and start from scratch.

When I decided to leave, I was deeply troubled.

It was the grief felt by my original self, which is undeniably a part of me.

-Am I giving up?

-Is it okay if no one in the family recognizes me?

-Even if I can’t wash away my mother’s disgrace?

It was an emotion I couldn’t understand, having updated my ego to a modern version.

Family? Why are those people my family?

Blood ties make a family? That’s such an outdated trend. In our industry these days, we interpret it a bit differently.

And my mother’s disgrace? What disgrace?

Disgrace is when you mess around and ruin an innocent girl’s life.

The more I thought about it, the less reason I had to cling to this place, craving love and recognition.

After making up my mind, my resolve to leave home became even firmer.

And it’s not like I’m starting from scratch; after all, I’m the illegitimate child of a noble family.

Even a dog at a seodang recites poetry after three years, and this illegitimate child spent over a decade in a noble family.

I wasn’t loved enough to receive formal education, but I learned things by watching over shoulders.

Magic?

Isn’t my very existence, aware of my past life, the most mysterious magic of all?

Swordsmanship?

The sages said the pen is mightier than the sword.

I can read and write a bit. If that’s not swordsmanship, then what is?

Disregarding an illegitimate child?

Try having another one. I’ll show you properly. The one who’s been hit knows best where it hurts.

If there are grades among illegitimate children, I would be a high-class B-grade illegitimate child.

With such pride and confidence, I mark my attendance here today as well.

Leaving the Vendel mansion and heading to the city center, I arrived at the Hayeren City Library—

a separate building far from the main library.

*

The entry pass for the annex was much easier to obtain than the one for the main building, so people like me mainly used it.

Here, people like me didn’t mean illegitimate children, but rather, students with a shining passion for knowledge despite difficult circumstances.

“…”

The old librarian at the entrance desk glanced at me sideways, then resumed his work.

Despite appearances, he’s quite a kind person. If I tell him what book I’m looking for, he’ll bring it right away.

I don’t mind that he stands up and politely greets other members of the Vendel family with a smile. True friendship doesn’t care about status.

I headed straight into the forest of bookshelves.

“Let’s see…”

The books stored in this annex were those deemed unsuitable for storage in the main building.

Primarily, books that fell short in terms of quality and content.

And, books dealing with knowledge considered trivial.

I took an interest in that trivial knowledge as a shift in perspective.

The basic principle of making a living is to aim for the blue ocean.

If I mastered the knowledge that no one cared about because it was trivial, wouldn’t there come a day when it would shine?

Again, the miracle of Bitcoin?

With such opportunistic thinking, I headed to the very back of the library today.

It is a magical space where sunlight entering through the window takes shape through the dust.

I have never seen anyone else here besides myself.

Even the librarian barely manages this place.

Shouldn’t a librarian love all books?

“?”

Oh. But there was a visitor today.

A rare silver hair.

A rare chocolate-colored skin.

And-

‘Pointy ears?’

An elf.

A dark elf, no less.

The tall woman, who seemed to be in her late 170s, was undoubtedly a dark elf.

I suddenly felt an instinctive discomfort.

This happens occasionally.

Should I call it an ingrained perception or a prejudice etched into my instincts?

These things clash with my rationality.

Whenever that happens, I suppress them with reason.

This time it was quite easy.

Because the interest my reason felt was much greater than the discomfort my instincts felt.

A dark elf.

That dark elf.

It was the first time I saw a different race directly after being transported to the fantasy world.

“I’m a fan. Can I have your autograph?”

I felt an urge to speak, as if I had met a celebrity, but I held back.

Why would I talk to someone who is leaning against the bookshelf, engrossed in reading?

Step.

Step.

Carefully, I passed by the dark elf and headed to the spot where the book I had noticed yesterday was placed.

Where was it?

Ah, here it is.

{The Being Called Cat}

Actually, this book has little to do with the Blue Ocean strategy.

Just curiosity.

The treatment of cats described in a book I read once was quite peculiar.

The book said that cats were spiritual beings and evil monsters.

Spiritual beings, I can understand, but monsters?

What did the cat do? What could it do?

I can’t just read books to figure out how to make a living.

Sometimes, I need to refresh myself like this.

I immediately went to my usual spot under the window, laid out my seat, and opened the book.

*

About 30 minutes into reading.

“?”

The dark elf was standing right in front of me.

She tilted her upper body sideways.

What was she doing? She was aligning her eyes with the book.

“The being called…cat? There’s a book like this?”

She wasn’t talking to me.

A monologue. A natural monologue that I could understand at once.

The woman naturally sat next to me.

Peek. She leaned her head to peek at the contents of the book I was reading.

Blink. She turned her head and stared at my eyes.

What. What are you doing?

I looked into her eyes, conveying my confusion.

It was at that moment our eyes met.

“…!”

She jumped up in surprise.

Like a cat, springing away.

Then she took a step back and said to me,

“Can you see me?”

Uh, I’m not blind, I’m an illegitimate child.

She was a strange woman I didn’t want to get involved with.

I turned my gaze back to the book as if nothing had happened.

“…?”

She tilted her head.

“Was it my imagination?”

Thud.

She sat back down next to me.

I read the book, and she read me reading the book.

An uncomfortable reading resumed.

‘What is this situation.’

Go away. Please.

Before long, the dark elf lost interest in the book.

She lost interest in the book and directed all her attention to me.

“Interesting.”

Her long fingers hovered around my face.

Playing with my hair, tapping my cheek, rubbing my skin.

This woman is a mysterious race called a dark elf.

A beauty so captivating that controlling my gaze is a struggle.

Considering all that, it’s a situation that makes my head quite warm.

But right now, I’m surprisingly calm.

The subtle atmosphere in the woman’s actions.

Her gesture, full of curiosity, was like observing an animal.

Perhaps this is how breeders evaluate horse pedigrees?

“Skin like white jade. Shiny hair. Above all, these blue eyes. Isn’t this a noble?”

＜They are the ones who live for their own pride.＞

Another voice came from the book hanging on the woman’s waist.

“A noble reading such a book? Oh my, how funny. What’s the matter? Could it be that she recognizes the charm of a cat?”

＜Isn’t she interested in cat hunting?＞

“That’s too much. How can you say such a thing?”

＜If not, why would a noble read such a book?＞

“…”

Unable to come up with a rebuttal, the woman just moved her hands around in displeasure.

Anyway, it’s embarrassing.

Flowing silver long hair. A purple robe that seems transparent yet doesn’t reveal the inside.

Silver eyes reminiscent of mercury.

No expression could suit her better than mysterious.

But judging by her actions-

‘Is she crazy?’

The way she acted as if she were invisible left no other interpretation.

‘But, what should I do about this?’

This woman. She doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving.

Those eyes staring right through me. They seem determined to pierce through.

It seems like I’m at a crossroads.

Should I speak up now?

Or should I pretend not to know until the end?

“Excuse me…”

This is the former.

For some reason, this woman needs to know that her invisible person play has gone wrong.

Before she makes a bigger mistake than playing the game of evaluating b*stards.

“I can see you…”

“Huh? Can you see it? What? What?”

The woman, her eyes sparkling, buried her head in the book.

“What do you mean, ‘what can you see’…”

Tap, tap.

With the tip of my finger, I gently touched her forearm.

“You, over there, can see it.”

“Eek!”

The woman jumped up in surprise.

Her two hands, lost and clinging tightly to her body, were adorable.

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[Resisted]

[Resistance Target: Cognitive Decline]

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▶Another Tale◀

This is another story.

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[The Great Hero Radola Vendel]

[Hayeren is her hometown and the city where her descendants settled]

[Knights from all over the continent visited Hayeren to gain insight]

[Under the name of Vendel, Hayeren prospered, and it seemed that glory would last forever]

[But everything changed with her visit]

[The Black Witch of the Western Forest]

[The Vendel mansion, which held a long history of glory, became a ruin]

[Clatter] [Clatter]

[In what was once the head of the family’s office, a black cat played with a dull sphere]

[It was once a great vessel containing the soul of a brave knight, but now it was the skull of the head of the Vendel family, reduced to mere bones]

[The black witch picked up the cat and held it in her arms]

[With a bored expression, she stroked the cat and looked over Hayeren beyond the collapsed wall]

[It was as if she was looking at an ancient city that had disappeared into the annals of history]

[Vines that had broken through the ground covered everything in the city]

[Even humans]

[They wandered the streets aimlessly]

[Where a head should have been, a giant fruit mimicking a human face had bloomed]

[Ka-ga-kak, ka-ga-kak, ka-ga-kak]

[The sound of thorny vines climbing up the vocal cords echoed through the city]

[A nameless city in the western continent]

[People now call it the Black Witch’s Garden]

▶Destiny 5: The Promised Price

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