“I’m a little worried I might be the only one working comfortably,”
Madojin said, facing the camera.
Behind him, snowflakes were drifting down. Even so, the Purification Priests continued laboring in raincoats to restore the contaminated zone.
Madojin’s task was simple. All he had to do was review piles of paperwork that documented each zone’s progress by date, digitize them, and store them in the proper folders.
Perhaps because it was easy, he figured this wouldn’t get much screen time. Still, he maintained a deliberately sincere expression for the camera.
“Ah, I forgot to save again!”
Jeong Noeul sat next to him. Despite being the youngest of the group, he was struggling with the computer.
“I-I don’t really use computers much, so….”
The cameramen focused in on this unexpected side of him.
“What do I do, Dojin hyung? Should I start over?”
To this, Madojin shook his head.
“There should be an autosaved file.”
“Really? Oh thank god….”
Madojin took over Noeul’s mouse and began moving it. The dynamic of Madojin helping as Jeong Noeul stumbled through things continued on camera.
‘…Why though.’
Madojin thought to himself.
‘If he was going to make a double, he could’ve made it more perfect.’
Because Madojin knew—this Jeong Noeul beside him wasn’t real. A double created using Abrilah’s Crown. A magically constructed imitation that was floundering just like the real one would.
‘Maybe its imperfection is what makes it perfect.’
He thought that as he glanced at Noeul beaming over a recovered file.
Outside the window.
The real Jeong Noeul was probably heading into the sinkhole within the mountain ridge to inspect the true state of the contaminated zone. For ordinary people—or even Purification Priests and Constellation contractors—contact with the source of magic corruption would be dangerous. But…
‘Noeul will be fine.’
Madojin nodded.
Knowing that Jeong Noeul was Abrilah’s reincarnation, he could understand why Noeul would want to see the heart of the contamination for himself.
After all, Madojin had also once tried to pick up the pieces of his own mistakes.
And since Noeul left behind a flawless double, there was no need for blame.
He’d even apologized beforehand.
“D-Dojin hyung, what do I do with this? The computer’s not gonna blow up, right?”
Jeong Noeul leaned toward Madojin with a whisper.
Madojin just stared at him blankly and sighed.
‘Even so… he’s really bad at this.’
Did the double really need to be this realistic?
Madojin shook his head slowly.
“…I really started practicing cooking seriously after CYB. I think I’ve finally caught up with Iro now.”
I was saying this sheepishly toward the camera.
To be precise, the fake me was.
Han Iro, chatting beside me, didn’t realize the one next to him wasn’t real. It was a bit sad seeing how hard he tried to justify his position from the body-swapping incident back then.
I gave a hollow laugh and turned to look at Jeong Noeul beside me.
“So… no one over there can tell anything’s off, huh?”
“Yup!”
Jeong Noeul answered cheerfully.
During the shoot, everything had suddenly gone dark in front of me, and I’d wondered what was going on. It turned out Jeong Noeul had used Abrilah’s Crown to split my body.
When I came to, something that looked exactly like me was smoothly continuing the shoot. And the real me—unnoticed by anyone except Noeul—was standing off to the side.
The fake Ryu Eunyul and Han Iro were cheerfully cooking for the Purification Priests.
The real me and Noeul watched them, completely unseen.
‘Unbelievable…’
I scratched my neck.
“So, why did you make me like this again?”
I nudged Noeul in the back.
“That hole in the mountain ridge.”
He pointed past the tent, toward the contaminated zone.
“I’m planning to go inside and try to identify the root cause of the contamination. With Abrilah’s Crown, I might be able to purify it. Not completely, of course, not while everyone’s still working. But maybe I can help in some way.”
He smiled as he said it.
“But it felt a little lonely doing something that cool all by myself. So I wanted you to come with me.”
“So basically, you’re scared to go alone and dragged me along?”
I teased, and Noeul chuckled, brushing his hair back.
“That’s not it. It’s just…”
Before he could finish, a hand touched my back.
<…You were never going alone.>
“Ah… you came too, huh.”
The Star stood behind me with a mischievous grin.
<Indeed. The reincarnation of Abrilah asked me for help. Summoning a double is quite a high-level spell, so I was impressed at how comfortably he wielded the power.>
He rested a hand on Noeul’s shoulder.
I glanced between the real Star behind me and the fake Star standing cross-armed with the staff.
Looks like he’d left behind a decoy, too.
“At first, the prince suggested I bring you along, so I didn’t just ask the Star…”
<I couldn’t possibly keep such fun to myself. You’re my contractor, after all. It’s your right to receive my grace. With my power, even you can enjoy the overwhelming scenery ahead.>
“How generous. Thanks so much, Kim Star.”
I sighed.
Then turned my eyes to the contaminated land.
‘That’s the only part that looks the same.’
Even with the Star’s vision overlaying the world, the red miasma from the contamination remained vividly visible—just as it had before I received his vision.
‘That means…’
This terrain, corrupted by the Gate, must be the part of the planet where the damage has become visible to the human eye.
The world was already thoroughly tainted. Purifying only what was visible—what good was that?
I found myself wondering.
Still, that didn’t mean we could look away.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I started walking.
Then the Star pulled me back by the neck.
<You plan to walk there?>
He had already spread his ashen wings.
“How else would we get there? Of course we’re flying.”
Jeong Noeul was already gliding with Abrilah’s Crown.
“You guys really don’t take my fear of heights seriously, huh…?”
I growled, grinding my teeth.
I’d even chosen a windowless airplane seat to avoid seeing outside.
<Helping one’s contractor face their fears is part of a Constellation’s duty.>
The Star smiled gently.
God, that smug face made me want to punch him.
“What do you think, Eunyul hyung?”
Noeul shrugged, siding with the Star.
That smile of his made me want to punch him too.
I clung to the Star’s leg as we descended into the red-misted terrain.
The depth was immeasurable. It felt like slipping into a massive sinkhole.
The deeper we went, the denser the red haze became.
If the Star hadn’t protected me with a mana-made shield, I might’ve died already.
The crimson mist slithered through the soil, pulsing like veins.
It felt less like we were inside the ground and more like we were inside a living creature. Clumps of glowing red energy beat like organs. Lines extended from them like arteries. We were like foreign bodies invading a host.
Tap.
We finally reached the bottom, and what met us was a massive sphere embedded deep underground.
“…Looks like Muddorok’s heart.”
I muttered instinctively.
It reminded me of the heart I saw deep in the East Sea near Incheon’s Coastal Wharf.
Only this time, it was buried in earth instead of water.
The giant red sphere pulsed, spreading its miasma outward.
<Incorrect. That is no mere demon’s heart.>
The Star said, arms crossed.
<That is an organ of the planet.>
“…An organ of the planet?”
Jeong Noeul adjusted Abrilah’s Crown and asked.
<Yes. Ley lines and water veins are like the life force flowing from the organs buried within the planet. The contamination from the Gate is essentially… the process of injecting demonic energy into the Earth to convert its ecosystem into one suited for demons.>
“So basically… they’re terraforming the planet to make it hospitable for demons?”
I asked, and the Star nodded.
Like terraforming.
That was the term for making an alien planet suitable for human habitation. The Gate was the demons’ invasion route. The magic it leaked altered Earth to mimic Hell.
‘So the Demon God is like a conquest-hungry warlord expanding his territory.’
I stepped forward.
Wanting to get a better look at Earth’s corrupted “organ.”
This massive, undulating sphere.
If this was one of many scattered deep inside the Earth, then they were part of what made up the planet itself.
“If this really is Earth’s organ… how do we purify it?”
I asked, turning to the Star.<You just have to watch.>
He smiled, then looked to Noeul.
<Isn’t that right, reincarnation of Abrilah?>
“That’s right.”
Jeong Noeul smiled and stepped closer to me.
“I didn’t bring Eunyul hyung because I needed him to do something.”
He reached out toward the planet’s organ.
“I brought you because I wanted you to watch me. That’s why the Star brought you too, right?”
Light began to emanate from his hand.
“The prince always used to watch over me before…. But now that he’s far away, I feel kind of empty. Sure, he’s still watching from afar, and we can still talk, even if it’s inconvenient… but sometimes, I just feel hollow.”
So—he murmured.
“I guess I’m still far from being an adult. I can’t feel at ease unless someone’s nearby, watching over me.”
Like a kid at kindergarten, scanning the crowd for their mom’s eyes.
“So stay close. Watch me. Watch me finish this job properly.”
As he finished speaking, the light from Noeul’s hand began to seep into the Earth’s organ.
But then came the problem.
[Connection established.]
[Bearer of the Cursed Grail welcomes you.]
“Bearer of the Cursed Grail…? Why’s that guy here…?”
I looked up at the Star.
<It’s not actually here.>
The Star answered with a blank face.
<What’s here is just the tail poking out of the earth. The head lies much deeper.>
Little Pink Starfish 
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