Daily Life of A Caretaker-Chapter 165: Arc 6: Drama In Life - 13

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Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

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"Speech"

Arc 6: Drama In Life - 13

I scratch the back of my head, offering an awkward smile. I hadn't expected the Heart of Eldritch to manifest midway through me having sex with Blake and Elizabeth, and especially not nearing the second hour. The sudden surge of incomprehensible, ecstatic energy had both of them spiraling into a madness of pleasure that threatened to unravel their minds entirely. If it weren't for me using Boundary Manipulation at the last second, they likely would've ended up brain-dead, consumed by the sensory overload alone.

Now, with Blake and Elizabeth completely out of commission, likely for the rest of the day, possibly even tomorrow, it seems I'll be dealing with Shirahoshi and Paimon for the time being. Well... more Shirahoshi than Paimon. She claims her new life's goal: to devour the entire Candy Kingdom. I suspect whatever unstable substance was used to construct the Candy Kingdom must've triggered something deep and irrational inside Paimon's already questionable brain.

I glance to my right.

Paimon lies sprawled out on the couch, unconscious. Or rather, knocked out cold. That part's on me, I got tired of her relentless nagging about "just one more trip" to the Candy Kingdom, especially after she and Shirahoshi finally made it into the living room. Of course, before allowing them entry, I made sure Blake and Elizabeth were fully dressed.

"Look, Jin-sama!" Shirahoshi's voice echoed from outside, sparkling with excitement. She stood under the filtered, shimmering light of the boundary-tinged sky, her massive form framed in glowing pastel winds. Her arms waved energetically, each motion sending her long, silken hair swirling behind her like liquid moonlight.

With delicate care, she brought her hands together, fingers trembling with focus, her lips whispering an incantation through pursed lips. Her expression was taut with determination, cheeks puffed, brow furrowed, and then, with a soft pop, tiny sentient snowmen emerged from the ground. Each one blinked its frosty eyes, their twig-like arms waving in cheerful, jerky spasms as if welcoming me into some whimsical arctic ritual.

"I finally figured out how to make these little guys!" Shirahoshi giggled, floating slightly off the ground, her tail swaying like a great ribbon of joy. "Aren't they adorable?" She beamed at me, glowing with childlike pride, while the snowmen began marching in a slow circle around her tail like a cult of miniature frost golems ready to worship the sun.

I step through the front door and snap my fingers behind me, a silent command woven into the fabric of reality through Boundary Manipulation. The effect settles instantly: Paimon will remain unconscious for the rest of the day, her dreams sealed off beneath layers of suspended time and sugared inertia. The door clicks shut behind me.

Cold air bites at my skin the moment I step outside. Snow crunches beneath my shoes, though the texture feels oddly brittle, like walking on crystallized thoughts rather than frozen water. The log house now rests at the edge of the Ice Kingdom, relocated recently through a quiet shift using Boundary Manipulation. It was a subtle change, but one that brought a visible lightness to Shirahoshi's presence. She always seemed happier here, freer, as if the snow itself responded to her spirit.

"That's good, Shirahoshi." I say, watching her float a few feet off the ground, still surrounded by the gleaming frost of her own creation. "Do you plan to stick around here, or are you thinking of visiting anywhere else today?"

I tread carefully, trying not to step on any of the tiny sentient snowmen still wobbling around her tail, each one brimming with harmless cheer. But the moment I draw closer, something inside me shifts. A ripple. A heartbeat, deep and strange. The Heart of Eldritch has awakened once more.

A pulse of invisible force radiates outward.

The snowmen freeze mid-motion, their eyes flickering like glitching stars... and then, without sound or warning, they collapse inward. In their place: scattered copper coins, warm and old, their surfaces etched with symbols no kingdom in this world has ever minted.

"Eh?" Shirahoshi blinks in surprise, her expression momentarily blank. Then her lips push into a small pout, and she stares at me, half-confused, half-accusatory, like a child whose toys were just turned into lunch money.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to." I offered, my voice as half-hearted as the apology itself. I wasn't in the mood to argue, and truthfully, I had no explanation for why the Heart of Eldritch decided to disapprove of Shirahoshi's tiny, frosty creations. It just... acted. As it often does. I've stopped expecting logic from it.

"Back to my question. Are you planning to stay here, or do you want to check out some of the other places we haven't explored yet?"

Shirahoshi raised both hands to her cheeks, squishing them slightly as her face melted into an exaggerated expression of deep thought. Her eyes crossed, lips puckered, and her long tail gave a thoughtful swish in the snow behind her. After a few seconds of dramatic silence, she declared: "Nope! I think I'll play with the snow more."

I shrugged, accepting the answer without resistance. "That's fine with me."

There was no rush. Not anymore.

After all, we've got all the time in the world.

Literally.

"All right, you have fun with the snow. I'll keep watch over everything around us." I told Shirahoshi, who nodded eagerly before drifting further from the log house. Her attention quickly turned inward, channeling her focus as she began shaping the snow through the Art of Fridjitzu, something she had taken to with surprising speed. Faster than Blake, even. But her path diverged from the rigid mold of an ice ninja. She wasn't interested in stealth or battle. She was crafting something else entirely. Something personal. frёewebηovel.cѳm

I was just beginning to settle in, prepared to enjoy the serene rhythm of snow and silence... when the River of Time surged again.

Unbidden. Uncontrolled.

It cracked open within my vision like glass shattering across existence. Infinite futures spilled through the fractures, overlapping, kaleidoscopic, maddening in their detail. They screamed across my awareness all at once: possible outcomes, forgotten timelines, aborted realities. My mind flexed against the strain.

I snapped my fingers.

Reality obeyed.

A massive gap opened beside Shirahoshi, its edges glimmering with the mirrored hue of space folded inward. It moved with predatory precision, swallowing her gently but swiftly, depositing her safely back inside the log house. The door sealed with a soft hum behind her.

Then I spoke the command, words heavy with layered meaning, each syllable grinding against the fabric of existence:

"Releasing the zeroth type restriction... deploying the dimensional interferencing imaginary magic circle... connecting to the inherent Boundary..."

My mind flared with structured clarity.

"Tsukuyomi Unit, activation."

The Tsukuyomi Unit surged from my mindscape, blooming outward like a divine thought made manifest. It snapped into place with quiet finality, erecting an absolute defense around the log house, a seamless barrier of refracted time and will.

Inside that space, time was safe. Isolated. Untouchable.

The timestream, so easily bent and broken elsewhere, now flowed with perfect calm within those walls.

Outside, though?

Outside, time had become a storm. And I was the only anchor left standing in it.

I withdrew Ichimonji and the One Holy Spear from my mindscape, their godlike forms humming with dormant power in each hand. But under the influence of the Heart of Eldritch, they pulsed, resonating with a strange, mutual awareness. And then, without a word or gesture, they merged.

The transformation was neither violent nor dramatic. It was inevitable.

My left palm now bore the inked mark of Ichimonji, its sharp strokes coiling like ancient calligraphy. My right palm was branded with a blackened cross, constantly weeping tendrils of obsidian smoke that slithered across my skin like living scripture.

Despite their fusion, I still retained full access to their original forms, latent and waiting within me, like memories sealed behind velvet curtains. But this new configuration, shaped by the Heart of Eldritch's will, had awakened something different, a synthesis of old power and new potential. Something neither divine nor profane, but else.

Raising my left hand, I extended my index finger and began to write in the air.

"Concealment."

Each stroke hung in space like radiant ink suspended in water, my fingertip a brush, the air itself my parchment. As I finished, I flicked the word backward with a casual motion.

The word expanded, taking form and weight, absorbing meaning from the act of writing itself. It flowed behind me, wrapping around the log house and seamlessly merging with the Tsukuyomi Unit already protecting it. Layer upon layer. Concept upon concept. The structure was now untraceable, its very existence cloaked not just in magic, but in a narrative that no longer wished to be told.

Then came the shift in atmosphere, an ache in the bones of reality itself.

I raised my right hand.

A mountain-sized cross of eldritch energy erupted skyward, jagged and incandescent, dragging streaks of unnatural color across the firmament as it rose. It slammed into the fracture I had sensed, a crack in the sky, delicate but growing, like a wound festering at the edge of existence.

Whatever was on the other side—whatever thing had tried to pass through—was obliterated in the blast. Not killed. Erased. Its presence was shredded, its concept rejected by the world like a bad line of code crashing the system.

The crack hissed, trembled, and then sealed itself, not because it was fixed, but because other entities had taken notice.

And I stood beneath the empty sky, hand still raised, watching.

I clenched my right hand into a fist.

In the instant that followed, the sky erupted, a blooming explosion of eldritch force detonated high above, casting jagged shadows across the entire Land of Ooo. It was as if the firmament itself had screamed and split wide open, spilling its fractured silence across all corners of the world.

Everything began to shift.

Mountains twisted into impossible geometries. Forests flickered between seasons like panicked memories. The oceans rumbled as if remembering names they were never meant to speak.

And yet—my ground remained untouched. The land beneath my feet, and the log house wrapped in the Tsukuyomi Unit and Concealment, remained still, preserved, as if this spot alone was rejected by whatever force now sought to rewrite the rules.

Then—

I wasn't alone anymore.

The air thickened. Not from pressure, not from magic—something worse. Recognition.

She stood before me as if she'd always been there.

Makima.

Her red hair swayed in the windless air. Her yellow eyes with red rings in them, radiant and cruel, pinned me in place—not with force, but with presence. A predator disguised as a saint. A devil in the shape of control.

She smiled at me. Warmly. Like an old friend. Like a lie.

"Hello, Jin. Miss me?"

She tilted her head slightly, as if mimicking curiosity, but her eyes never blinked. They searched mine, reading more than words, more than thoughts—she was looking straight into the architecture of my being.

"I didn't expect such a grand entrance." I paused, then let out a quiet sigh. "...And yes, I do miss you."

I didn't lie. I couldn't.

That photo she sent me had lingered like a ghost in my thoughts. A reminder. A whisper. No doubt Makima did something to it.

Makima's smile deepened, just enough to be disarming. Her presence, though soft on the surface, always felt like something vast and patient just beneath the skin of the world. "I'm glad to hear that." Her gaze drifted momentarily toward the log house behind me. She didn't stare—just a flicker of acknowledgment. Enough to remind me that nothing escaped her notice. "I see you have a new group to take care of." Her voice was sweet and conversational. But there was a weight in it, like lead wrapped in silk. "I'm sure we have a lot to catch up on... since we last saw each other."

And just like that, I am back to smiling again. Even if it's somewhat awkward.