S30 Taboo
Dreaming.
——Atonement.
A profoundly unpleasant dream.
——Atonement.
Everything is turning toward worse, worse, worse.
——Atonement.
I want to change it. I try to change it, but every action I take only leads the situation further into ruin.
Like being pulled into an endless swamp.
The more I struggle, the deeper I sink.
And my entire body is dragged into the swamp, until finally...
I jolt awake.
Seems I was dreaming.
A dream of unbearable, unrelenting despair.
Opening my eyes, I first see an unfamiliar ceiling.
Staring blankly at it, I sense movement nearby.
"Shun! You're awake!?!"
Looking toward the voice, I see Katia seated beside me.
Her expression—like her voice—was a jumble of frustration, fatigue, and relief.
"Are you alright?"
"Ah, yeah. I'm fine."
Pushed by Katia's urgent tone, I answered reflexively.
"Thank goodness. I was starting to think you wouldn't wake up, even with healing magic."
She had been casting healing magic continuously since I fell unconscious.
No wonder her face looked worn.
Just as that thought formed, Katia began to cry uncontrollably.
"Wha—? Wait!?"
"Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness..."
I stood frozen, unsure how to respond to her tears.
"I'm fine. See? Nothing wrong. Right?"
I knew it was a poor attempt at comfort, but better than nothing. I tried to sound cheerful.
Physically, there was no discomfort.
No injuries. No pain anywhere.
Slight fatigue, perhaps from waking, but otherwise perfectly healthy.
…physically.
"Are you really alright? You look unwell."
Katarina, unusually concerned.
She might as well be crying. Apparently, I was in worse condition than I realized.
I remember thrashing in my sleep.
Not waking despite receiving healing magic. Thrashing violently. No wonder she’s worried.
"Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit thirsty, maybe?"
Sweat soaked through my clothes. The fabric clung to my skin.
I’d lost a significant amount of fluid. My throat was dry.
"Oh. I’ll get some water and a cup."
Katarina stood immediately and hurried out, her steps quick.
Watching his back fade away, I sank deeply into the bed,无力.
In the corner of my vision—no, in the corner of my mind—a set of characters floated.
The same sensation as when I had performed an鉴定.
Since earlier, those characters had exuded an unpleasant presence.
Just focusing on them made me feel ill.
Yet unlike during鉴定, I could not erase them.
There, written plainly: Taboo.
I forced myself to focus on the malevolent character, suppressing nausea.
Then, the Taboo menu appeared.
『Taboo Menu
System Overview
Detailed Description of System Components
Update History
Point Summary
Reincarnation History
Special Item n% I = W』
"Ugh!"
The mere act of opening the menu triggered violent nausea.
An overwhelming sense of concentrated malice—visceral, grotesque, as if thrust directly into view.
A chill rises unbidden, overriding thought and emotion.
An instinctive urge to close the menu violently overwhelms, yet I suppress it with effort.
Suppressing nausea, I open the system overview.
『System Overview
Pre-activation Status
MA Energy
Post-activation Status』
The moment it opens, another wave of nausea strikes.
As if voices emerged from the text itself.
——Repent.
A thought thrust like a curse.
I consciously ignore it, though it provokes nausea and discomfort.
The contradiction: ignoring it while still aware.
Yet I must. Otherwise, I would lose my mind.
Honestly, I do not wish to see any more.
But I must.
I must verify whether the dream I saw moments ago was genuine or false.
The dream I witnessed was a story without salvation.
Not seen from another’s perspective, but presented as a bird’s-eye view of the world’s past.
A mere hunch, but that was not the same as this Taboo.
Perhaps someone showed it to me.
For now, set aside the intentions of that someone.
Regardless, I must verify.
I rebuke my trembling body and proceed through each entry in sequence.
System offline, MA energy, system online.
There, nearly verbatim to the dream I saw, was recorded.
System offline: a planet nearly indistinguishable from Earth.
Only one difference: a creature known as a dragon, absent from Earth, was recorded.
The text carried a rigid tone, listing facts without emotional inflection.
Yet as my eyes followed the words, a thought struck me—like a blow.
—Redemption.
Pushing it aside, I continued reading.
The discovery of MA energy, a previously unknown form of energy by humanity, and the beginning of its utilization.
Unaware that this energy was the life force of the stars themselves, and that its use would drastically shorten the star's lifespan.
And that it had touched the dragon's most sensitive nerve, nearly leading to humanity's annihilation.
It was the goddess Syriell who protected humanity from the dragon's hand.
Yet the dragon, having abandoned humanity along with the star, departed.
With MA energy nearing depletion, the countdown to the star's collapse had begun.
Humanity, having forgotten the debt of salvation, attempted to resurrect the star by sacrificing the goddess Syriell.
This enraged the Administrator Gurielidistidies.
He activated the system to save the goddess Syriell.
To reconcile the goddess Syriell's wish and the prolongation of her life—two objectives that could not coexist.
By the time she reached this point, Katia returned with a cup and a vessel of water.
"Shun!? Your face is completely pale!?"
Was my complexion really that bad?
Katia rushed over, set down the cup and water vessel, then placed her hand on my forehead and cast a healing spell.
This was a mental affliction. Healing magic meant for the body would not help.
Yet Katia’s concern soothed my frayed mind.
"Thank you. I feel a little better."
I spoke from the heart, but Katia did not seem convinced. She looked at me with worry.
Sweat from sleep mixed with cold sweat had made my thirst worse than before.
I reached for the cup she had placed.
But before I could lift it, Katia seized the cup, poured water into it, and brought it to my lips.
This was the expected course. I was to drink from it.
It was slightly embarrassing, though I wasn’t ill—something like that.
“T-That’s fine… I can drink it myself.”
“No, no, you can’t!”
Overpowered by Katia’s insistence, I let her pour it into my mouth.
Cold water flowed down my dry throat.
I emptied the first cup in an instant. Katia immediately prepared the second, as if sensing I still needed more.
I finished the second cup. Only then did I allow myself to breathe.
Even as I drank, I reviewed the Taboo menu.
Mostly matched the dream’s content.
Missing were the mention of Potimas and the account of the dragon stealing MA energy—gaps in the Taboo’s details.
Yet it was nearly identical to the dream.
Close system overview.
I wanted to review other menus, but I lacked the energy.
Opening other menus briefly, I found the system's detailed descriptions packed with text to the point of being unbearable to read.
Reading through every single character would be exhausting under normal circumstances. And with each character draining my mental capacity, it seemed impossible to finish quickly.
Giving up, I turned to the next update log. That one was no better—equally dense with text.
At that point, my willpower had completely drained.
Close the Taboo menu.
Even after closing, the words of the Taboo remained in the corner of my mind.
And so did the thoughts seeping out from it.
It was less intense than when the menu was open, but the thought of this continuing indefinitely made me uneasy.
A deep breath. I rose from the bed.
"Shun, you should rest a little longer."
"No. I have to go."
A commotion has been coming from downstairs since just now.
Seems this place is on the second floor of the building.
I stepped out of the room as if guided by something, then descended the stairs.
Katia followed behind me.
At the bottom of the stairs stood the person I had seen just before losing consciousness.
"Can you tell me the details of that matter?"
The white-haired girl turned at the sound of my voice.
Multiple eyes fixed directly on me.
The eyes that killed Julius-sama.
Taboo LV10
Information Disclosure (not limited to just that)
The information deliberately omitted was intentionally left out by D-sama for greater enjoyment. The phrasing is crafted to suggest humanity is fundamentally flawed. It delivers a psychological assault—simply reading the text induces guilt, relentlessly. If such a state persisted constantly, even the mild-mannered Shiro would snap. Details on the remaining items will follow in time.
Shun's dream
A dream shown by someone?