Side Story Chapter 14 – Close and Familiar…

The chaos subsided, and people began to scatter.

In the aftermath of the storm of confusion, the remnants of screams and despair remained.

Yet, people did not stop there and set out to find another god.

Each shining with a more urgent and desperate gaze than before.

They probably still had no thoughts of letting go of their inner wishes.

Nevertheless, the path still hadn’t opened.

[It doesn’t seem like the path is going to open.]

‘Right.’

Only the endless crowd was visible as before.

“When are those whores going to arrive?!”

“It seems they are late due to the handover.”

“Next time, let’s rotate in 2 shifts of 6.”

“That sounds good.”

Moreover, the succubi Ayeon had summoned still hadn’t arrived.

Seeing that waiting had made everyone quite anxious.

Hyeji, who had been biting her lip, suddenly began to move.

“Everyone, step aside. I’ll clear it all away.”

This time Hyeji was trying to push through even with civilians mixed in.

I felt bad yet grateful that she was so worried about my condition.

But I decided to step up here.

“I’ll go.”

“Shinwoo, are you sure?”

In this space, since a god was present, it wouldn’t be strange for anything to happen.

One could suddenly face an unexpected crisis.

There was also a possibility of being swept up by the aftermath of a wish.

“I’m fine. Besides, it’s my problem anyway. There’s still time.”

Of course, the heroines wouldn’t be facing a crisis.

But there’s always a chance, a what-if scenario, in everything.

Above all, they are more precious to me than anything else in the world.

Isn’t it absurd to push such beloved ones into unknown variables?

So, I thought I was the most suitable for this.

I had long since become accustomed to pain.

Even if I did really face a crisis, it wouldn’t be a problem.

If worse comes to worst, I could just revert the crisis through regression.

“Master, be careful!”

“If it seems dangerous, call for me.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon.”

I moved toward the crowd, ignoring their worried gazes.

The dense barrier of humanity made it hard to see through the scattered people.

It was so thick that it was practically impossible to discern anything.

Neither the appearance of the god they surrounded nor who was making wishes.

All I could do was look at the people nearby.

While I was contemplating how to disperse the crowd.

I suddenly discovered two unique characteristics that only they possessed.

First, they weren’t alone; each pair was made up of two men and women.

[Indeed, pure love hasn’t died.]

‘That’s a bit surprising. There are so many…’

They looked as if couples or married couples had come on a trip together.

It might not seem that special at first glance, but…

If every single one formed a pair without exception, that’s a different story.

Not a single certain gender was abundant; there were equal numbers of both.

And if there were that many pairs like that, it was even more striking.

The second characteristic was that the paired couples belonged to two categories.

Though there were men and women with similar ages.

There were also many cases with a drastic age gap.

At first glance, merely being lovers seemed inadequate; the relationship was more fitting for parent and child.

No matter how much one tried to turn a blind eye to it, it was a bit excessive.

At that moment, a woman’s voice pleading to the god echoed.

“P-Please, God! Grant us a miracle!”

―At any time.

The god answered the wish with an absurdly easy response.

I didn’t know what was happening right now, but…

At the very least, I could clearly see that a miracle had occurred.

Unlike the light reply, it was a heavy miracle.

This was evident as the people surrounding it began to cheer.

“Th-That kid! The seizures have stopped!”

“And that’s not all! The teeth aligned perfectly!”

“My bottom teeth went inside my top teeth…!”

“I’m not… drooling…?”

Then their cheers suddenly came to a halt.

The sharp sound of something lightly puncturing skin.

At that moment, a woman’s distant scream burst forth.

It was two sounds that were utterly out of place in a moment akin to a miracle.

– Thud.

“Ahhhhh!”

“B-Baby! Are you okay?! Why did you stab her suddenly?!”

From the context, it seemed the so-called god had performed a miracle and then suddenly stabbed someone.

If the price of the miracle that healed their bodies was remarkably cheap…

It seemed that the male voice rebuking the god couldn’t accept that either.

He was probably the boyfriend or husband of the woman who got stabbed.

“What the hell is this?!”

―Look for yourself.

“……Huh…?”

Even that pair of men and women fell silent at the god’s calm words.

As they strained to hear what had happened.

A trembling voice quietly pierced through the silence.

“Th-The blood… has stopped…?”

And through the narrow gap of silence, the cheers of the people surged.

As if they had witnessed the reappearance of the god they served.

An overwhelming wave of awe crashed down, almost deafening me.

But I couldn’t get swept up; I could only let out a sigh.

The problems they had—seizures and misaligned teeth.

And the very dangerous illness that wouldn’t stop bleeding.

All of those pointed to one truth.

All these bastards here were nothing but incest dwellers.

‘……Even real blood-related incest dwellers, huh?’

[Blood-related incest is truly courage-emboldened pure love.]

‘I’ve never seen the value of courage be this trashy…’

It was, after all, a genetic and societal taboo of familial relations.

Even in a world severely disturbed by the existence of hunters.

As if those insane incest dwellers weren’t bad enough.

Now a god had descended for those bastards.

Moreover, wasn’t there a slight abnormality in the age group earlier?

A pair that seemed to be the same age were actually siblings.

And there were those that had a significant age gap, truly parent-child relationships.

In the meantime, should I even compliment the fact that they paired off as man and woman?

Besides, a dad being with his daughter through incest…

Honestly, I could not comprehend this at all.

It was so devastating it felt like I might just lose my mind.

‘…….Did that dad really lay hands on his daughter? Is he really insane?’

[It’s not laying hands on his daughter, it’s on the young days of his wife.]

‘You’re married, and you’re going wild, huh?’

I was grateful that I hadn’t let the heroines come here.

Meanwhile, didn’t they have any plans to hide their identity as incest dwellers?

A man in front had made a rather blatant request to the god.

“Please let me become true lovers with my younger sister!”

Just the word true lovers seemed to delight him to no end.

It was a voice filled with overwhelming anticipation.

In contrast, the god merely responded calmly.

―I cannot grant that.

“……W-What…?”

Not being allowed.

In an instant, the hope in the man’s voice faded away.

Instead, the embers of his emotions began to flare up, inflating into raging flames of anger.

“Why can’t I be lovers with my younger sister?!”

Even if one could excuse the denial of a wish.

It was undoubtedly rude to address a god like that.

And just as the flames of rage were about to grow larger.

―You are already family, akin to being married, aren’t you?

“Ah.”

The god’s calm voice extinguished those flames in an instant.

Yet the nature of the fire seemed to remain, as the anger inevitably shifted.

From the man who originally possessed it, toward the god of incest he faced.

―Do you think it’s permissible to merely downgrade family to lovers!!!!!!!

An overwhelming roar pierced through the crowd and rang in my ears.

As if the god had been quietly speaking all along was nothing but a lie.

And before the true wrath of the god, the only posture for weak humans was one.

“I-I didn’t realize! I’m sorry!”

―Remember this.

Apparently pleased, the god immediately subdued his anger and continued speaking.

But this time, it wasn’t in a calm voice.

It was a voice that brimmed with benevolence, fitting for a god.

―The shared genetic sequence between you siblings is the most beautiful wedding ring.

Then the incest dwellers embraced each other, as if they had realized something.

And before they could stop their tears, they hurried toward the nearby hotel.

―Now, reproduce and prosper to spread your genes! That is the price I desire!

With a voice slightly elevated, brimming with expectations for the future.

Thanks to that, the path had unintentionally opened.

It was quite a horrid spectacle for me, but…

I had no intention of punishing that god and the incest dwellers.

After all, there was no reason to take time to confront those bastards.

In cold terms, they were customers using the succubi’s hotel.

In the end, they were a kind of guest who would be filling Ayeon’s wallet.

Statistically speaking, they might even contribute to birth rates.

Compared to hunters, one could argue they were better in that respect.

And after all, they were still just others.

Of course, it would be very difficult for them to be accepted socially.

But if they were the type to care about that, they wouldn’t be committing incest in the first place.

Moreover, any genetic issues would be dealt with by the god of incest.

It would be extremely difficult to stop those who were like a runaway train.

It would do more harm than good to poke at them now.

So it would be much better to just turn a blind eye and move on.

Above all, as long as they aren’t in my house, that would be enough.

[Well, watching someone else’s house burning, swimming, fighting, and seeing incest is the most fun, they say.]

‘……I should be arguing against this, but I can’t even find the words, f*ck.’

Anyway, without delaying any longer, I decided to move on.

“Shinwoo, what on earth happened here?”

“Everyone suddenly rushed to the hotel, sucking and blowing, you know?!”

“No wonder it seemed like the god of pure love descended here.”

“But there was something close yet familiar about it.”

“……Let’s just hurry up and go…”

With even faster footsteps than before.

It was a compensation for the wasted time.

And at the same time, a progress toward a better future.

An escape from this sh*tty moment as quickly as possible.

[A paradise doesn’t exist where you flee.]

‘There’s hell everywhere I go…’

[Ah.]

Even if I ran away, it didn’t feel like things would be much different.