I Wish You Were Never Reborn

Yeonha Kim woke up in the morning, gasping for breath. Did she leave the TV in the common room on? Master would scold her for wasting electricity.

She crawled out of bed and peeked through the bottom of her window curtains.

Master and a few others were in a circle, warming up for morning exercise.

Callum was by Master’s side. Yeonha didn’t like his human form much. His other form had bigger muscles. It was a shame to hide them.

Bishop was there, too. His muscles... were much better-- even compared to Callum.

Where was Shay? She finally did the paperwork for joining ❴The Kingdom❵, so she should have been out there too. But maybe she was skipping out on exercise like she did. Or Empress. Yes. That must have been the reason.

Yeonha crawled back into bed. She didn’t need to sleep like a human. She didn’t even know how to sleep. But resting was nice.

“Ah.”

Yeonha opened her eyes. Since when did her window look into the courtyard?

She hopped out of bed. She did a big stretch and let out a big, lazy yawn.

She walked to the window and pulled back the curtains-- the basic ones installed when the building was first conjured.

Courtyard.

Her window was supposed to look outside the building, not in. She closed the curtains. Master would be worried if he found out. Maybe the problem would go away on its own?

It wasn’t morning anymore. How much time had passed? She looked back at her bed-- ah, no. She had to things to do. She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

It was almost time for Shay to get back from school. That was good. There was much less cleaning to do when she was around.

--not that she’d be sad if Shay really left. Yeonha didn’t have any emotions. That was a human thing.

She put on her favorite maid outfit and walked to the common room. The other day, Empress brought home a VHS tape with episodes of one of the newer Korean dramas.

The series was about a lazy robot maid who fell in love with a vampire prince. It was so stupid. But the theme song was really good.

Shay got home halfway through the first episode.

Yeonha explained the plot and talked about how dumb it was.

Shay agreed.

Yes. P-erfect.

Yeonha liked Shay. She hoped that she’d stay with ❴The Kingdom❵ for a long time.

After the second episode, Shay suggested they start cleaning. Master wanted to go out for Taiwanese food in the evening.

Yeonha didn’t usually get invited out to eat with Master, but she didn’t hate the idea. Ah. Shay was probably the one who suggested it.

Yes.

She reached forward, placing her hand on the human girl’s shoulders.

“...Don’t die.”

Shay returned a smile, showing her teeth.

“You’re saying you like having me around, so you want me to live a long, healthy life?”

Yeonha gasped with surprise. Could Shay read minds? Was she going to become the next Merlin? Master said he didn’t like one of the current two. Maybe Shay was her replacement.

“Ah?”

Yeonha opened her eyes as Master entered the common room. The couch was so comfortable...

“It’s time to go,” he said. “Change into civilian attire.”

“Nn.”

Yeonha went back to her room.

There was a big hole in the wall with nothing in it besides swirling mana and fragments of ideas. It was an appropriate place to put a wardrobe.

She closed her eyes, concentrated... and thought of Bishop.

...Why Bishop?

Hm. She needed to dress up like a normal human-- and she always liked the way Bishop looked.

After the dresser was put together, she opened the top drawer and picked out some clothes.

None of the conjured items fit her, though... so Yeonha thought of Bishop's sister. Raia’s clothes fit her a bit better.

After changing, she walked back out. Master was waiting for her on the walkway.

“Try again,” he said.

“...Mmm.”

Yeonha went back and thought of Shay. Why didn’t she do that earlier?

Denim jeans. They were a little tight. She looked at her butt in the mirror. She had a superhuman butt. Nice.

Then, she put on a shirt and one of Bishop’s hoodies. It was the most comfortable thing she’d ever worn. She was a little worried Master wouldn’t approve, since the oversized sleeves hung over her hands. When he saw her, though, he gave her a nod of approval.

Success.

Shay looked at her strangely, though. She grabbed at the empty front of her sleeves and flopped them around. “Does this belong to who I think it belongs to?”

Was she pointing it out because they were temporary clothes? Yeonha didn’t need enchanted clothes like Master because she was-- in modern terms, a superheroine with powers of invulnerability and extraordinary sex appeal. So conjuring whatever she wanted to wear should have been fine.

Master raised his head, sampling the scents in the air. “Return it afterward.”

Yeonha pulled her collar forward, putting her nose to the fabric of her hoodie. Oh. She didn’t make a copy.

She needed to return it, after.

They went out for soup. Master drove. Yeonha sat in the back with Shay and talked about riddles. Ṣafiyya would have enjoyed those, but she was only awake during the evenings.

Yeonha didn’t need to eat food like a human-- but she liked watching Shay interact with Master. She made funny faces.

How did she change expressions so fast and so often? Didn’t her face muscles get tired? Humans got tired so easily.

There were a few new expressions that Yeonha had never seen before. She committed them to memory. She liked to practice manipulating her face muscles in front of a mirror.

Later that evening, Bastion came to report to Master.

He got to Elysium at almost 8 PM-- just around Master’s second-dinner. So, obviously, Master kicked him out.

Bastion came to her to complain. He said he shouldn’t have been blamed because Archangel’s freeways were heavily congested on weekday evenings.

His complaint made him sound very human-- which he wasn’t. Bastion was a lot like her. He didn’t have human skin. He didn’t need to sleep or eat. He shouldn’t have had emotions, either.

He said he lamented not being able to make proper human expressions (due to the lack of skin.) It sounded like he regretted dying. That wasn’t something he could help, though.

Yeonha helped him out. She got a marker and drew angry eyebrows on his face. That made him look serious and intimidating.

Then, it was time for him to leave. Yeonha did a final sweep of the building, checking that the formations were working and for any unsealed rifts in the time-space continuum.

Ṣafiyya gave her a riddle-- the answer was a coconut. Raia scolded her for working so hard even after hours.

Master was arguing with Heidi in the courtyard. He said he wanted ‘snake plants’ grown around the complex, but Heidi said they weren’t appropriate to grow in a place with children. They were poisonous.

Shay was peacefully studying one of her schoolbooks at the courtyard table.

Everyone Yeonha met or saw was part of her family. But... some were different than others.

Ṣafiyya was immortal. She couldn’t die like an ordinary human.

But Shay-- even if she was going to live as long as possible, she was still going to die eventually.

Bastion made up for that problem by having a lot of friends. He said that as long as he remembered their deeds and actions, their memories would remain as ‘eternal as he.’

Heidi was the opposite. She avoided making close friends. She said it hurt a lot when they died.

Yeonha wasn't like them. She had Master and their bond would last for at least an eternity.

She had many caretakers before him... but Master was the nicest. Instead of using her powers to hide himself away as the Final Boss, he transformed the ⟦Dungeon⟧ into a safe haven for... regular people.

Usually, ⟦Dungeons⟧ accrued mana and power by attracting powerful adventurers and brutally murdering them with traps and summoned monsters. But the passive mana they got every day from people living there normally was steady and consistent.

Also, Master charged rent money. And that money let him do things that made him more money. She was the secret to his true power.

Master was very strong. All her previous caretakers were, but Master was different.

He liked helping people.

...That was true for her previous caretakers too. They took care of their harem and anyone they wanted to keep safe.

But Master helped... basically anyone. If they generated enough passive mana, he let them stay (almost) for free. And if they didn’t feel like they belonged in wherever they came from, he made sure they knew Elysium was their new safe haven.

(Master said it was because they’d help in case they ever got attacked-- but there were a lot of refugees that looked really weak. Then, Master said it was because they were political hostages. That made a little more sense.)

But maybe he just liked helping people?

Master gave her a physical body. He gave Raia and Bishop new bodies, too, since their old ones had so many problems.

Master gave her a family. Bastion, too-- he didn’t fit in anywhere until he came to ❴The Kingdom❵.

Yeonha liked Master. She liked having a family and looking forward to seeing them every day.

But besides her and Master (and Heidi and Bastion. And probably Empress)... everyone else was going to die.

Yeonha went back to her room. She walked through the bathroom door-- though she hadn’t defined a destination, and she found herself on the roof.

She sat down on the gravel and looked up at the night sky. Master said the sky made him feel melancholy. It was dim and dark-- nothing like the bright star map of their previous world.

Master had given her so much: eyes to see, a body that could eat food and sleep... sleep. But in the past, she’d never worried about losing things she grew to like.

She heard the crunch of footsteps on gravel as someone approached.

“...How?” she whispered. No one but her and Master could manipulate the ⌈Sigilla⌋.

“If no one else can reach you,” Bishop said, “I still can. It’s my thing.”

He sat down beside her. The evening breeze ruffled his soft blue hair. He still had his shirt on, though, so minus 5 points.

Yeonha wasn’t sure how to react. But... she... didn’t dislike it.

So... she copied the way Shay looked at Master. Yes. That was appropriate.

Bishop took off his dark glasses, looking at her with his glowing eyes. And... he gave her a hug.

“Ah.”

“Is this okay?” Bishop asked, “You looked like you needed it.”

Yeonha found herself smiling... not just copying something she practiced. And she wrapped her arms around Bishop’s back.

She wasn’t supposed to have any emotions. She wasn’t human.

Maybe something was wrong with her.

Or... maybe what she was feeling was a gift from Master, too.