* * *
‘What the hell? Where is it?’
He frantically scanned the room, but the divine beast’s egg was nowhere in sight.
It wasn’t in his hands, nor was it in his pockets.
‘Don’t tell me… the inventory?’
Hurriedly, he checked his inventory. But there was no egg-shaped icon anywhere.
‘Damn it, where did it go?!’
He wanted to shout, but he couldn’t afford to make any noise.
If anyone was nearby and heard him, it would be a disaster.
Resisting the urge to scream, he ruffled his hair in frustration—when suddenly, he noticed something floating in midair.
The egg.
But it had shrunk significantly in size.
Carefully, he reached out toward it.
Just as his fingers were about to touch it, the egg suddenly darted backward.
‘Wait—!’
He lunged forward, but the egg swerved aside as if taunting him.
“…Ah.”
There was no doubt.
That thing had a will of its own.
Anything with “divine” in its name was bound to be irritating, after all.
Sighing, he pushed his bangs back from his face.
The quest completion message hadn’t popped up yet, which meant he had to properly secure the egg before leaving.
“…Stay still, will you?”
He mumbled under his breath.
In response, the egg suddenly flipped upside down and shook itself from side to side.
It was as if he could hear a cheeky little voice saying, ‘Nope! Why should I?’
“…Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Was this really a divine beast’s egg?
If it already had such a nasty personality, what kind of creature would it hatch into?
“Hah… Haa…”
For the next hour, he chased it around the room.
But no matter what he did, the damned egg refused to be caught.
Checking his pocket watch, he cursed under his breath.
He had already wasted too much time.
Not only did he need to make it to the academic conference on time, but he had also spent far too long in this supposedly abandoned building.
Finally, he turned back to the floating egg.
Gazing at the mischievous thing, he sighed and spoke.
“…Fine. What do you want? What will it take?”
Talking to an egg wasn’t exactly something he wanted to do, but he had no other choice.
He was about to give up when suddenly, something whispered in his ears.
[Be gentle with me.]
It wasn’t human speech.
Yet, he understood it perfectly.
‘…Be gentle with you?’
The sheer audacity left him speechless.
Did it have no shame?
But that was just his personal opinion.
After a brief hesitation, he reached out both hands toward the egg.
“…Sorry for trying to force you. Will you come to me now?”
Then, after hesitating for a moment, the egg fluttered and settled on my hand.
The warmth it carried seeped into my palm, spreading through my body.
[Quest Complete!]
Finally, the quest completion message popped up.
I hurriedly sent a chat message.
[Give me the reward. A hint.]
What kind of incredible reward were they planning to give that they had to label it as ‘Hint’ in bold?
The quest itself had already been questionable, but now even the rewards were starting to feel half-hearted…
Was it just my imagination?
‘Feels like they’re getting lazier and lazier. It’s pissing me off.’
Soon, a new system window appeared.
[Hint :: Holy Sword]
“…….”
Are you kidding me?
The so-called hint was just two words—Holy Sword.
‘But the Holy Sword…’
Since the main storyline of the novel ‘From transmigration to Hero’ revolved around the Demon King’s defeat, of course, there was a Holy Sword episode.
In the novel, the owner of the Holy Sword was Kim Minsoo, and obtaining it was the moment that marked his true transformation into a hero.
‘Considering how important that moment was, he did get the Holy Sword pretty easily.’
He just followed Noah’s guidance, and there it was.
That was it.
Sure, there were some traps to get through along the way, but as a price for acquiring the Holy Sword?
It was ridiculously cheap.
As a reader, watching the still-inexperienced Kim Minsoo pull off a one-man show was entertaining, though.
‘But if the Holy Sword is appearing here…’
It meant it was going to be used.
‘Does this mean the Demon King really will be resurrected?’
I swallowed dryly. The prophecy I heard during the Awakening Ceremony resurfaced in my mind.
[Right now, the seed of disaster lies hidden in this place.]
[The disaster shall awaken the oldest evil.]
[This is an unchangeable and absolute fate—repeating, preordained.]
[Nothing can alter it!]
The oldest evil.
No matter how I looked at it, that could only mean the Demon King.
‘So it wasn’t just bluffing?’
Well, it was an oracle from an ancient god.
It wouldn’t all be lies.
I just wanted to believe it wasn’t true.
“……”
At the time, I had been so fixated on the phrase seed of disaster that I overlooked the rest.
No—actually, to be fair, it wasn’t so much that I overlooked it as…
‘I was too overwhelmed to think about anything else.’
How could I have predicted something like that happening at the Awakening Ceremony?
Back then, my only concern was whether the oracle would provoke Raizen.
‘…This is bad.’
If everything in that oracle was a predetermined fate, did that mean Raizen really was destined to become the seed of disaster?
‘But he’s improved so much.’
Was I still not enough to change things?
Then again, considering he laughed when he heard that my body in the original world had died…
‘Ugh, no. Let’s not think about that.’
It’s exhausting.
I blinked a few times, my eyes feeling sore.
My mind started to drift into a haze.
If I stayed like this any longer, it felt like I might just stand here forever…
At that moment, the divine beast’s egg, which had been resting quietly in my hands, wriggled.
Startled, I looked down, and it started moving even more vigorously.
It looked like it might fall, so I carefully cupped it in both hands.
“Alright, alright. I won’t think about bad things.”
As if it understood, the egg immediately calmed down.
I couldn’t help but let out a small, incredulous laugh.
‘What are you, really?’
One moment, it demanded kindness outright, and now it was looking after me?
I tapped the egg lightly with my finger.
Just then, a quest window popped up in front of me.
[Divine Beast’s Egg Incubation 1
- Infuse it with as much Divine Power as possible.
- Reward: ??? ]
‘So now you’re not even bothering to say ‘This is a quest’ anymore?’
Even if I wrote this with my feet, I’d show more effort than this.
“Hah…”
I couldn’t help but sigh.
‘So, I can take this egg with me, huh?’
Which meant…
No one else knew about the divine beast’s egg being here?
I glanced around the mysterious space once more. It was barren—too empty.
If this sealed-off building had been meant to conceal an underground space and the divine beast’s egg, it wouldn’t have been left this deserted.
‘They would’ve at least stationed some guards.’
I didn’t see any tools for awakening the egg, either.
But that didn’t mean all my questions were answered.
‘Still… how could they not know about the divine beast’s egg?’
The egg radiated an incredibly strong Divine Power.
The fact that no one in the Royal Academy—full of elite talents—had sensed it was strange.
Especially since even I, from quite a distance away, had managed to find it.
‘Unless someone deliberately arranged it so only I could sense it…’
It felt like everything had been meticulously staged.
And on top of that, the moment I touched the egg, my memories returned.
‘All I did was come into contact with it, so why did my memories come back?’
There was something—something I couldn’t grasp yet.
That much, I was certain of.
I figured I should leave for now, so I stepped out of the room.
But as I started to walk away, an inexplicable feeling nagged at me—like I was leaving something important behind.
On impulse, I turned back.
That was when I noticed the magic circle engraved on the door.
“…?”
Originally drawn in plain black, the magic circle was now faintly glowing.
A silver-tinged blue light.
‘That’s… my Divine Power.’
Before I realized it, my hand was reaching out toward the magic circle again.
And the moment my fingers touched it—
[I hate you.]
“…Ugh!”
It wasn’t just a voice ringing in my head—it was as if the words were piercing through me.
A sharp pain jolted through my body, and instinctively, I tried to yank my hand away.
But I couldn’t.
It was as if my hand had been forcefully glued in place.
[My hatred shall become a curse, feeding on your soul. That curse will do whatever it takes to strip you of the love you so desperately long for.]
The voice continued.
[Only true love can free you from this curse. This is my absolute ■■.]
As soon as the voice faded, my hand was released.
I collapsed onto the floor.
“Urk…!”
The pain was too much—I gagged, my stomach twisting.
My whole body felt frozen, aching with an eerie chill.
It took a while before I could pull myself together.
When I finally lifted my gaze back to the door, the glow of my Divine Power had disappeared from the magic circle.
“Hah…”
Seriously, what else was I going to go through?
Running a hand through my damp hair, I replayed the voice in my mind.
‘It was… familiar.’
I knew that voice.
But I couldn’t remember whose it was.
Only one thing was certain—whoever it belonged to, they had always been warm to me.
But that voice had been so cold.
So desolate.
It was the kind of voice you’d expect from a child abandoned by their parents.
It was terrifying.
And unbearably heartbreaking.
‘That was… a curse, wasn’t it?’
A curse that would leech onto someone’s soul, fueled by hatred.
And its purpose—was to strip them of love.
I didn’t fully understand it.
But one thing came to mind.
‘This… sounds just like Raizen’s curse.’
* * *
