Chapter 1: The Devil's Contract

Chapter 1: The Devil’s Contract

A maniac in beauty. A five-dimensional upgraded being. With a selfish gene that captures both beauty and acting ability. A winner of trophies.

Selena, the protagonist of all these descriptions, looked down at the bottom of the cliff, breathing hard.

“Or, we can skip this scene.”

The manager whined in his voice, looking down from the side at the bottom of the cliff simultaneously.

Selena shook her head with a smile. She felt like she was burning with tension, but she did not want to show it.

“I have to work hard to win the trophies this year.”

Trophies for acting worldwide are not given for free.

“Oh. But, sister. They say there were a lot of accidents here, and they have not found a single missing person.”

“Where did you hear those strange rumors?”

“Oh, come on. It’s real. The Director got stuck in such a strange place for no reason!”

“On the contrary, it will be a big hit if the shoot ends well.”

“But, we should not have any accident!”

“I know, I know. But don’t you smoke often?”

The manager seemed as if he would start crying. It was difficult to understand who was comforting whom.

“Let’s start filming!”

“Yes!”

Selena relaxed with a deep breath and rearranged her expression.

She has done a couple of tests with all the safeguards before. But this was scary. And she was tense.

“Start!”

And when she is tense, accidents always happen.

“Miss Selena!”

“Hold!”

It happened in a flash.

There was a gust of wind. Very unexpected. A safety device was pulled out of the rapid wind. The body of Selena, which lost its balance, flew into the air.

There was no time for her to scream. Her body from the cliff began to fall sharply down the cliff. Selena fainted at the moment. It was rather fortunate.

***

“Hah……”

Selena’s whole body felt sore, twisted, and cold.

‘Of course, diving into the sea from the cliff would be painful and cold.

Selena opened her eyes slowly, thoughtlessly.

She could feel the touch of the hard stone behind her back.

‘Did I not die….?’

She blinked her eyes while laying down, trying to focus on the blurry sight before her.

Trees with a heap of snow on them came into view.

…Mountain? Forest?’

She was confused. A forest should not have been here since she jumped into the sea from a cliff with no tree. Moreover, the raw and biting wind dug into her thin clothes when it must have been summer…

‘Have I been hurt so badly that I can’t even recognize my surroundings?’

However, the location was never suitable.

She forced herself to raise her body. She was in better shape than she thought.

“Oh, it’s this good?”

She could sit up easily.

As she sat up and looked around, she could see a scene that was more incomprehensible. All she could see was just trees, leaves, stones, and mountains. There was no other way. She was just lying on a pile of snowy leaves.

“…..What? Where? Why? Hidden camera?”

If there was a hidden camera, she would have known beforehand.

Now that she was a skilled actor, she could tell what happened just by depicting the atmosphere in the set.

But today, there was a serious shooting scene. Furthermore, there could not be such suspicious hidden cameras planned because they were illegal for a great actress like her.

“Then….am I dreaming?”

However, it was too realistic to be a dream. The cold wind that was hitting her skin, the coldness of the snow that was permeating her shoes, and some monster that was running towards her.

… Monster?’

It was a monster.

‘It wouldn’t be coming here to greet me, right?’

But a monster was a monster. It was as tall as a five-story building. It had a structure like that of a crocodile with split skin all over its body.

“Grrrrrr!”

The sharp claws on the hoofed feet raised by the monster flew towards Selena. Of course, it didn’t warn me by saying, “I’m attacking now”.

Boong-!

“Wha-what is this!”

She rolled her body instinctively.

The job of an actor is, after all, a fight between mental and etiquette. All kinds of martial arts and sports that have been mastered for physical strength have been shown.

Boom!

Just before the sharp claws fell, she managed to roll herself away. However, the monster was not someone who wanted to stop.

“Ha!”

Although she was trained for some physical activity, she had a different sense from the actual performance. A second attack was unavoidable. Selena closed her eyes tightly.

Suddenly, there was a gust of wind. Instead of the splitting pain, the terrifying sound of leather tearing penetrated her ears.

“-?!”

Selena opened her eyes, surprised. She could see the night sky with three moons gleaming. The dark blue sky was divided into a sharp silver.

“Garrrrrr!”

The grotesque screams of the monster resounded. It was so loud and terrible to the point where one’s shoulders would cringe by themselves.

She could not get up as she had sprained herself when she tried to roll away on the hillside a little while ago. Selena raised her head, looking back at the monster. It was struggling, with traces of thick green blood everywhere.

Then, she noticed, in front of her was a man with his cloak fluttering in the wind.

The arm swinging the sword at the monster was not the only one. The mixture of swords that cut through the air reflected the moonlight as they sparkled silver.

Every time the swords glittered, the monster was dismembered. Eventually, it collapsed. The man swung the sword silently, shaking off the foreign substance and turning around.

A mysterious man who carved a monster into a meatball.

He can’t be an actor. That feeling never comes with acting. That was a real monster, and this man really seemed powerful.

The man, who smashed the being, approached Selena bit by bit. She could not say anything as she was intimidated by an unbelievable situation a while ago.

Selena struggled to pull up her sedentary body. Her legs were shaking with shock. The man who was slowly approaching her opened his mouth.

” ******?”

She could not understand any of the man’s words.

“….Pardon?”

She had a bad feeling. There were all kinds of stories in the world. Many of them were about a dimensional shift.

Chills ran down through her spine. A place and weather that does not add up, a monster that’s still unbelievable, and the man in front of her eyes.

…No way! Dimensional shift?’

No way, all these do not explain anything.

Moreover, there is no one in the world who looked like him. White skin like the moon and grayish hair and eyes. It was a mysterious color that could not be produced with dyeing and lenses.

Clothes worn by the man, who was neither Korean nor foreign, were likely to appear in a medieval fantasy.

“! ****

More importantly, Selena has been to every corner of the world because of her career. But the language, in which the man spoke, wasn’t of any country she knew.

This confirmed the doubt.

This was a different world.

She got goosebumps all over her forearms and neck.

‘Dimensional shift was a real thing?!’

She thought this was only possible in novels and films.

‘In fiction, language patches were automatic when

dimensionally shifted……’

Since it wasn’t like that, this was not a fiction. She really was transferred to a world completely separated from hers.

“Oh my, this is crazy….”

She clasped her hands around her flustered head. What was she going to do? Now that she has moved to another dimension, should she shatter all her aspirations?

The man quietly watched Selena, lifting his hand towards her.

….Does he want to hold my hand?’

He saved her life, but still, she was suspicious of his intentions. It was better to just listen to him quietly because she did not know how many more monsters were still lurking in the shadows.

Selena hesitated to reach out to him. The man took a metal ring out of his pocket and put it on the wrist of Selena. A slender metal bracelet was tightened to fit a slender forearm.

“What the hell…..”

Selena looked down at her wrist and muttered casually.

“….. Eh?!!”

She uttered out awkwardly.

“Wha-what is this?!”

Every word she uttered popped out into a strange language. As she looked up at the man reflexively, he lifted his head in a flimsy way.

“It is working.”

“Uhh!”

She could hear all the words of the man. Selena pointed at him, only repeating, “Uhh!” like a mute woman.

The man shook his head lightly.

“Is the connoisseur not working?”

“No, ha, uhh!”

“No, it is not working anymore.”

“Uhh, ha, wake up!”

“I have confirmed that it works properly, so you don’t have to repeat the same thing twice.”

Only then did she come to her senses after hearing the man’s cold voice. Now that she has moved to another dimension, there might be tools that can help in the interpretations. She asked with a straight face.

“Where are we? Who am I?”

The man shifted his gaze at Selena and asked instead of answering

“Do you know where this is?”

“…..No. I don’t.”

“I think you can answer your second question.”

“….. That’s true.”

The man kept his mouth shut, watching her. The arrogance of skipping even a single question made her laugh.

“Based on the circumstances, I guess you are a human being from a different world.”

“I suppose so.”

The man was not very surprised at the dimensional shift. The fact that he calmly fitted an interpreter on her wrist showed that he was familiar with this situation.

“By any chance, are there a lot of people who crossover between worlds?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Oh….. It’s the first time I have ever.”

She still could not believe that she was talking about a dimensional shift with the nuance of “A good harvest of strawberries every year” with a person from some other world.

“Every few years, we find a body or some skeleton, but it’s the first time that someone is alive.”

“Ha-haha…..”

“That was a very creepy explanation.’

Only

Selena laughed nervously.

The man might have finished the beast, but he started cleaning up the mess by wiping the dirt away from the monster, with an air of indifference as if one had forgotten that Selena was present.

She wondered if there was any other beast like this, but she had to stay close to the man until she assured her safety. Selena approached him in a gentle manner, wearing an “actress” smile that he can’t refuse even if he wants to.

“So, do you… fight monsters here?”

The man giggled. But this dropped the ambient temperature further.

‘He looks scary when he laughs.’

The man revealed his identity with a sneer as if he was being sarcastic.

“I am the master of the North, the leader of the Renbird family, and the Duke of the Arkline Kingdom, the Kalcion Renbird.”

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