Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 93

“What even is this place? And why is that professor acting like that?”

When I said we should talk, Juwan demanded an explanation first. Seems Professor Ban dragged him here without saying anything.

“Can you hold this for a moment?”

“What is it?”

“An orb that lets only the two of us communicate. There might be listening devices.”

I pressed the ‘Promise Orb’ into Juwan’s hand. That same item Gyeon Junhwi and I used before—I bought one too. In this novel, you always have to live with a mindset of preventing frustration plots.

“The truth is…”

Having prevented eavesdropping, I sequentially conveyed all the facts.

There’s a species called research-obsessed professors inhabiting the academy, Professor Ban looks especially dangerous even among research lunatics, I already messed up, once they mark you they never let go, so since I’m marked I opened a faculty advisor auction, and in the process I got to use this place as a free sample, and so on.

Juwan seemed surprised at news of a new species, but after confirming the facts, he turned his gaze toward the glass window.

“This view is seriously no joke…”

Outside the glass window, the sunset is glowing.

There are even clouds layered beneath us.

“Right… It’s spectacular.”

This was a backdrop created for our Juwan.

The sunset is orange, our Juwan is orange too.

They’re both even close to crimson orange, creating an optical illusion where Juwan seems to blend into part of the sky.

An angel I already thought might be one is even floating above clouds, making it almost strange that he lacks wings. Truly a bewitching sight.

Our soft squishy baby Juwan really is the best.

What will I do when he grows up later… Our baby is this pretty… If he matures I’ll really cry…

While I’m suffering alone, Juwan looked my way and frowned slightly as he approached.

“You don’t look well, are you okay? Do you have a fever?”

He places his hand on my forehead like always, but the sensation is so unfamiliar I startle in shock.

When I hastily grab Juwan’s hand and check with both eyes, his palm is covered in wounds.

There must be at least twenty small cuts.

“You! What happened to your hand?”

“Just… I trained a bit too hard.”

“What kind of training did you do to be like this?”

“Haha…”

Juwan laughs weakly while pulling his hand back to hide it.

Then he turns his gaze back outside the glass window… but he’s not really admiring the sunset. That’s him looking outside because he doesn’t want to meet my eyes.

“I need to work hard to at least catch up. This time… I was the only one who couldn’t perform properly.”

“Why couldn’t you perform?”

“If I’d been just a bit stronger, you wouldn’t have overexerted yourself and collapsed. Park Rahee wouldn’t have ended up like that either.”

Right, no matter how bewitching he is, now isn’t the time for me to admire Juwan’s beauty. Because my baby has been repeating depressed mode and insane training mode continuously since the practical.

‘Juwan, you’re a genius too!!!’

The black flame whip Yeom Juwan revealed this time is also amazing. He compressed hundreds of tiny flames until they became black flames, then organically connected them to move flexibly like a whip.

But Juwan is wearing a bittersweet smile.

“…I’m far from catching up. I at least have to work hard.”

In any other class, Juwan would be praised as a possessor of insane talent, a genius of the ages. The problem is that our class has three out-of-spec monsters.

Ki Hyeonmin, 7th-cycle regressor.

Han Boram, a cheat character who can do anything with ‘curse’ attached.

Yeon Sora, a fraudster copying level 99 Juwan.

Among these, Ki Hyeonmin and Han Boram existed in the original too, and even then, those two were stronger than Juwan. But Juwan never once blamed himself or became depressed.

Therefore, I thought Yeon Sora was the problem.

Our Juwan isn’t the personality type to grow gloomy weighing himself against others… but Yeon Sora is a fraudster and uses the same category of skills, making them perfect for comparison, so maybe something like sibling rivalry was at work.

But that wasn’t it.

While hospitalized, I discovered something strange while talking with Boram.

— Rahee ending up like that is because of me…! I-I should have held tight in the safety barrier…! If, if I’d been stronger than the bug… N-no, if Junhwi had brought a stronger barrier… If, if Yeom Juwan had looked after Rahee as much as Sora…

What Han Boram was sobbing about was somehow strange. At first I thought she was sad because Park Rahee, her first friend in life, ended up like that, but that speech pattern was oddly familiar.

Pointing fingers everywhere while listing complaints was obviously cosmic grasshopper behavior.

So when I asked Boram, she said she’d seen hallucinations of being trapped in a dark place, where an inner voice kept chattering. Moreover, Boram thought the grasshopper’s voice was her own voice.

Anyway, the important fact is this.

‘The grasshoppers had yet another ability!’

A type of negative effect that makes humans negative. When grasshoppers have a freak-out flash, you hear an inner voice doubting yourself and blaming others.

‘This… isn’t even in the realm of insects anymore.’

Honestly, at this point I’m thinking grasshoppers are better than humans. Even if the mastermind exterminated all humans and released only grasshoppers into the world, I’d be at the level of going ‘That makes sense.’

Anyway. Han Boram experienced the grasshopper just once and became seriously corrupted, taking quite a while to detoxify.

Only then did I realize a very important fact.

How many times did our Juwan have to endure the grasshoppers’ freak-out flashes?

The awakening test. The movie theater. Field Training.

A full three times.

The awakening test would be the same as the original so it’s not my fault, but the movie theater and Field Training were clearly butterfly effects caused by me.

Because I dragged Park Rahee around with me, Yeom Juwan who stuck close to me became the grasshopper target.

Our Juwan is a child who absolutely never blames others even until the moment of death, so he only pointed fingers at himself, only blamed himself, only whipped himself while devoting himself to training.

And I… had absolutely no idea.

‘I’m really… disqualified as a Devoted Reader.’

But regretting and feeling depressed comes later.

There’s only one thing to do right now.

I need to neutralize the grasshoppers’ negative effect!

“Juwan.”

“What?”

Even when I call, Juwan doesn’t look this way.

My heart stings.

“You, did the grasshopp—”

Clunk—

I couldn’t finish the sentence.

Because something cold is felt in my heart area. This is definitely mana energy…

‘Is it Ha Seonwoo?’

Ha Seonwoo can use language tracking skills. Maybe he set tracking on ‘grasshopper’ and it activated. If so, what I say for the next 10 seconds will be recorded and transmitted there.

‘But the sensation is different from before?’

Ha Seonwoo’s language tracking skill definitely felt like handcuffs being put on, but now it feels like suffocating my heart by wrapping it in a plastic bag.

For now, let’s refrain from important talk while this sensation persists.

“Grasshopper?”

“Have you ever eaten fried grasshoppers?”

“There’s such a thing?”

“I think I heard they’re made into powder like flour. I heard insects surprisingly have a lot of dietary fiber.”

I executed a parade of random words, and only after 2 minutes did the strange energy in my heart disappear.

Better not use the word grasshopper going forward.

“Rahee… Bug…”

Good, there’s no alert for this one.

Only then could I continue the important conversation with Juwan. But from one corner of my brain, an ominous cry is heard.

At this point in time, how many people recognize the importance of the word ‘grasshopper’?

Me, Ha Seonwoo, Park Rahee, and… the mastermind.

* * *

As Yeon Sora guessed, Yeom Juwan was suffering from nightmares.

The stage of the dream was always the same.

A cliff that could collapse at any moment.

The endless abyss spread before it.

But the voice heard from within wasn’t Yeom Juwan’s voice.

— This parasite bastard, his stomach sure is disgustingly tough. I heard other brats die quick if you feed them spoiled stuff, so why’s this one fine?

— Still, don’t hit him. If there’s even one bruise mark on his body, we’ll get reported. Today we got warned again to raise the brats well since they could become Awakened.

— How could this thing be an Awakened? No, if they’re gonna do that, at least the country should pay for meals. Why do we have to pay for a parasite with not a drop of shared blood from our wallets…

Before even turning five. After his mother passed away, memories from living in the household where his stepfather remarried.

The cruel words buried long ago vividly revived.

But cruel voices weren’t all he heard.

— Kyaaaah! How can you be so pretty! Aren’t our Sora and Juwan a total princess and prince set?

— Not a prince but a knight! Our Juwan is so gallant!

— This… needs to be recorded on video!

A new family.

The first warmth he’d ever felt in life.

Words that make you choke up just hearing them.

But… even in that place overflowing with love, Yeom Juwan’s heart wasn’t entirely at ease.

— Hehe! Today I specially! Bought a birthday cake in ‘large’ size!!!

— Oooh! Now that’s four spoons per person?

— Tsk tsk, but we can’t neglect the basics! Everyone fill up on one bowl of oatmeal first before eating! If you eat on an empty stomach, even this precious cake will feel empty, you know?

True poverty is felt keenly even by children.

Yeon Sora’s household was incomparably poorer than his adoptive parents’ household, and they had no blood relation to Yeom Juwan even on paper.

Though he was still too young to recognize concepts like ‘poverty’ and ‘blood relation,’ Yeom Juwan instinctively sensed his own crisis.

— Wow, Juwan nursed Sora again? He’s better than Dad?

— How can such a little one be so dependable!

When he cared for the fragile Yeon Sora and received praise, he felt relief inside.

The abyss mocked that heart.

— Was that really an action for Yeon Sora’s sake? You needed a roof so you used Sora, didn’t you?

— Once a parasite, forever a parasite.

— You just changed hosts, didn’t you?

He couldn’t refute it.

He liked Yeon Sora, and she was so frail he couldn’t help but look after her.

But… if asked whether there was no calculation at all inside, he couldn’t answer with a definite no either.

The abyss mocked such a Yeom Juwan even more fiercely.

— Yeon Sora is calamity-class, right? What should you do? Aren’t you useless now?

— If Yeon Sora dies, will those people still accept you?

— Can a parasite survive when the host dies?

He hadn’t looked after Yeon Sora to gain recognition from her family. But if asked whether he’d never worried about such a future… he couldn’t answer.

‘I’m… a hypocrite.’

Holding such thoughts, Yeom Juwan devoted himself to training. He had to become stronger.

To protect? To survive? For recognition?

He didn’t know the exact reason himself. But moving his body made distracting thoughts disappear, bringing relief.

— Wow, you’re something else? You just did 300 flame condensations in one day?

When he received Min Dorim’s special training and heard such praise…

He held hope.

There was talent within himself too.

But that talent was ultimately trivial.

The crisis faced in this Field Training.

Han Boram who disassembled monsters into finger-sized pieces.

Yeon Sora who burned an entire zone.

Ki Hyeonmin who single-handedly closed an Outbreak.

Before them, he himself was merely a parasite.

When Yeon Sora suffered another seizure and collapsed, his heart sank. He couldn’t breathe.

But was that really… because he worried for a precious friend? Maybe he was making different calculations?

‘Hypocrite…’

Yeom Juwan despised himself like that.

So he devoted himself even more to training.

He avoided Yeon Sora because he couldn’t bear to meet her eyes.

But now he could no longer avoid her.

“A voice exactly like mine kept cursing people around me. Seong Hayul is annoying, Han Boram’s skills are gory…”

Left alone together in this place, in this space where he couldn’t escape, Yeon Sora was talking about the strange darkness she’d experienced.

“Boram went through something similar, how about you?”

Her eyes looked straight at him.

But…

“……”

He couldn’t bring himself to speak. Because he couldn’t let such an ugly self be discovered…

Yeon Sora’s direct gaze seemed to see through the truth.

Somehow… extremely… sad-looking eyes.

“That promise we made before. The promise that we wouldn’t hide anything between us.”

All the blood flowing in his body turned ice cold.

But Yeon Sora said something unexpected.

“Let’s cancel that. How can a person live without hiding things from another person? Let’s hide what’s hard to say and needs hiding, and speak when the time comes.”

Having finished speaking, she raised her pinky finger.

“Instead, let’s make a new promise.”