I'm Not the Mastermind

Chapter 6

How much time had passed?

Yujin felt his consciousness drifting, his mind hazy. Faint echoes rang in his ears, and he thought he saw hallucinations before him.

As he moved mana and constructed the massive magic formula, his limbs began to spasm.

While mana exhaustion wasn’t an issue—he was drawing directly from Tiamat’s heart—the strain on his body and mind was overwhelming.

"Are you alright?" Tiamat’s voice broke the silence.@@@@

"...It’s a bit difficult," Yujin admitted.

Normally, he might have hidden his feelings and feigned composure, but he didn’t have the luxury for that now.

Had it not been for Tiamat’s constant words of encouragement and the spiritual connection she used to soothe his mind, he might have collapsed long ago.

Still, he held on.

He had barely managed to inscribe the magic formula on 30% of the visible bones in the chamber. Considering the buried remains yet untouched, there was still a long way to go.

Thankfully, Yujin was an awakener—a superhuman unlike ordinary people who couldn’t survive more than three days without water.

Moreover, Tiamat occasionally took control of his consciousness to allow him to multitask, even enabling him to create water through magic to sustain himself.

And so, Yujin poured more time into inscribing the magic formula.

More time passed.

At some point, the vast chamber was filled with bones covered in dense inscriptions of the formula.

"Haa... Haa..."

Yujin was on the verge of collapse.

How long had it been? He had lost track of time, but Tiamat estimated that several weeks had passed.

For weeks, Yujin had not eaten. His energy needs were replenished by Tiamat’s mana, while water was conjured through water-based magic.

Waste accumulating in his body was broken down by mana, and his fraying mind was forcibly kept alert by Tiamat.

There was no other choice. If he fell asleep mid-inscription, everything he had worked for would unravel, and the mana he had poured in could run wild, leading to catastrophe.

Weeks passed without rest, and Yujin continued inscribing the formula, his eyes unfocused as they stared into space.

His exhausted mind pleaded for respite. It begged him to stop, to rest, to give up.

It whispered: Was there even a reason to fight so hard to stay alive? Why not simply close his eyes and embrace eternal rest?

For a fleeting moment, Yujin, lost in a trance, was tempted by those whispers.

But then...

"Yujin!"

A voice broke through, calling out to him.

It was a voice he had grown familiar with over the weeks—a voice that had become an anchor for his consciousness.

"...Haha, thank you, Tiamat."

"Are you struggling?"

"...Yes, I am. But..."

As Yujin responded to Tiamat, memories began to surface.

He recalled the day he lost his parents.

Back then, he had believed himself to be the most unfortunate person in the world.

After all, to a twelve-year-old child, parents were everything. For Yujin, the day his parents died was the day his entire world crumbled.

But as he continued to live alone in the world, he came to understand something:

He wasn’t special.

Everyone carried their own pain. Some lost their parents, others their children, and still others their loves.

He wasn’t special.

Everyone bore their own burdens and continued living despite them.

That was life.

Life itself was both the greatest blessing and the heaviest responsibility for those who were alive.

To abandon that responsibility was arrogance and cowardice.

And so...

"I’ve already made a contract; there’s no turning back now."

He had to carry on.

Yujin let out a cracked laugh as he muttered to himself.

He had already made a contract with Tiamat, binding their souls together.

If he died, Tiamat would die as well. His life was no longer his alone.

What’s more, breaking the contract could have consequences worse than his current ordeal.

Not that he hadn’t anticipated hardship. He had known it would be difficult.

Responsibility had to be carried, no matter how heavy.

With that resolve, Yujin continued inscribing the formula. The red circuits spread across the buried bones, illuminating them faintly.

With those words, the woman pushed me.

Seated in a chair, I fell backward.

And then, I plummeted.

Endlessly, endlessly downward.

To the depths of the abyss.

As my consciousness dimmed to black...

***

"...Ah."

When I opened my eyes again—

"Yujin! Are you awake?"

“...Tiamat?”

What appeared before me was Tiamat, visible only in her spectral form.

Seeing her face, I realized that everything I had just experienced was a dream.

"...Hmm... What exactly happened?"

"You lost consciousness while your body was being restructured. For quite a long time."

As I muttered while trying to sit up, Tiamat explained. Quite a long time, she said...

"How much time has passed?"

"About a month."

"...That’s not as long as I expected."

I had thought that, by Tiamat’s standards, "a long time" would mean a century or more.

"I was using your standard of time, of course."

"Haha, I didn’t expect such consideration. Well, I must admit, I’m surprised. For someone who’s been unconscious for a whole month, I feel remarkably refreshed."

Indeed, my mind was clearer than ever, and my body felt more energized than it had in my entire life.

"How did things progress?" I asked.

"The restructuring was successful. Try moving around a bit."

"Alright."

I stood up—

Boom!

"..."

The ground shook violently as if it were about to collapse, and the chamber trembled.

"...It seems I’ve become much stronger."

"Strength is just the beginning. Even though your body hasn’t fully transformed into a dragon yet, and your heart isn’t fully integrated, your current abilities already far surpass those of a human."

"...It seems controlling this strength will be a challenge."

Even a slight movement of my hand caused a loud bang as a sonic boom echoed. Watching this, Tiamat reassured me.

"Don’t worry. Once you fully become a dragon, you’ll adapt to your physical abilities instantly."

"So, I’m not a dragon yet?"

"Of course not. A dragon’s core is essential, and your body isn’t complete without the heart. Right now, your physical capabilities are comparable to... let’s say, a fledgling dragon—perhaps a wyvern or drake."

"...Hmm."

Those creatures would be considered catastrophic monsters back on Earth.

Even in the Labyrinth Academy, drakes and wyverns were set up as extremely powerful monsters. Yet, to a dragon, they were mere fledglings.

"The process you just went through was the first stage of restructuring. Once you integrate the heart, the second stage will begin. While the first stage merely involved embedding my bones into your body, the second stage will refine and reshape your form into a truly efficient vessel. The magic formula was designed for this purpose."

"Fascinating..."

I glanced down at Tiamat’s heart in my hand.

"So, what’s next?"

"It’s simple. Swallow my heart."

"...That’s it?"

"That’s it."

Surprisingly anticlimactic. Looking at the heart, I noted how small it seemed for something belonging to such a massive creature—it was only about the size of my fist.

Bringing it to my mouth, I thought for a moment, then...

Gulp.

I swallowed it whole.

Thud!

"Ugh!"

The process of restructuring my body began anew.