133
“This is me, isn’t it?”
“I’m here too!”
It was Yeon Ji-ho’s house made of pixels. While Yeon Ji-ho was too surprised to say anything, a character suddenly popped out in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. It was Ishkur.
“Hello!”
Yeon Ji-ho’s head, which had been fixed on the laptop screen, suddenly lifted to look at the actual floor-to-ceiling window in his house. Isquis, who was next to him, couldn’t resist going to the empty window and waving his hand. Of course, nothing could be grabbed.
But the character in the laptop was different. One of the characters that had been sticking to Yeon Ji-ho detached and started wandering in front of the window. As if that character was really Isquis.
“Sorry, but I’m not in the actual space. My character is still in front of Yggdrasil!”
“Who are you?”
Yeon Ji-ho asked sharply, not even thinking about typing in the chat anymore. Then Ishkur’s character’s face changed to a round smiling face. A large speech bubble also appeared above his head.
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”
“…Ji-ho, what does this mean?”
“He’s laughing. Mocking us.”
When Yeon Ji-ho answered Set’s question with a frown, Ishkur’s laughter stopped abruptly. Instead, Ishkur said:
“I wasn’t mocking you!”
“I was just laughing”
“You’re really too much -3-”
Yeon Ji-ho only felt more disgusted by this unpleasant conversation. Ishkur was speaking as if looking down from the position of an absolute being, and Yeon Ji-ho felt like he was being played in the palm of his hand.
“Let me greet you again, Ji-ho.”
“I am the author of , no, the storm god Ishkur.”
At that moment, Yeon Ji-ho realized. He hadn’t really thought of him as just a “devoted reader” when he called him. He had summoned Yeon Ji-ho, the protagonist of another novel, here.
The character Ishkur was jumping up and down so much it was dizzying. Thinking he would keep jumping if he didn’t respond to the greeting, Yeon Ji-ho tapped the keyboard.
“Why did you call us here?”
Meanwhile, the character Isquis who had been in front of the window came running back to his original position. When Yeon Ji-ho glanced up, the real Isquis was also returning.
“Well…”
“Because you, Ji-ho, found the ending.”
Isquis’s jumping stopped. It was then that the character Isquis, who had been looking to the side, directly faced Yeon Ji-ho through the screen.
“For a novel to end, the protagonist must awaken and reclaim happiness with their own hands, right?”
“You, Ji-ho, succeeded in that”
“Better than Hadad!”
Ishkur’s character finished speaking and jumped briefly. It seemed to mean he was happy.
“Do you have a wish, Ji-ho?”
“I’ll grant you anything. I can even bestow a blessing on your child!”
The eyes of the character Ishkur sparkled quite a bit. He seemed very excited about the wish Yeon Ji-ho would make.
A wish.
At that absurd yet fascinating proposal, everyone looking at the screen in the laptop momentarily stopped moving. Then, at some point, a gulping sound that couldn’t be attributed to anyone clearly echoed in their ears. Yeon Ji-ho turned his head back.
“He’s telling me to make a wish…?”
Yeon Ji-ho asked them, wondering if there was any useful information to be gained, but there was no answer. Only Apophis, who had been quietly watching the chat, said one thing.
“Ji-ho. In our world, there isn’t even a god called ‘Ishkur’. Maybe he’s a forgotten god… but at least I’ve never heard of him.”
“…Is that so? Then who’s the main god of Asterra?”
Before Yeon Ji-ho finished speaking, a small notification sound came from the laptop, causing everyone to look at the screen. There, Ishkur was chattering alone.
“I, Ishkur, am not some ‘forgotten god’!”
“How dare you, a human, think you can understand the world of gods?”
Ishkur’s tone had changed. At the same time, Ishkur’s character looked somewhat angry with his eyebrows raised sharply. Yeon Ji-ho, who had hesitated, began to chat again by moving his fingers.
Although he knew that Ishkur could hear everything they were saying out loud, it seemed a bit strange to talk alone to someone who wasn’t here.
“The world of gods?”
There was no need to ask a detailed question. As soon as Yeon Ji-ho wrote that, Ishkur started chattering on his own.
“Every ‘story’ created by a god becomes a ‘myth’, and that soon becomes a ‘world’.”
“So, the world you’re living in is also some god’s ‘world within a story’.”
After reading the chat, Yeon Ji-ho pondered Ishkur’s words carefully. Then he tapped the keyboard again.
“So this world isn’t your story, Ishkur?”
“…”
At the wave of dots that followed, Yeon Ji-ho gently tapped the bottom of the laptop with his index finger. He felt like he was getting a clue.
“But how can you intervene? Where’s the owner of this world?”
“That was a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“You reading my novel, Ji-ho.”
Yeon Ji-ho recalled when he first read “The Star of Hadad”. Was there anything different? But nothing particularly came to mind. Like other novels, it was floating in the monthly recommended books section, so he clicked on it, and bought it because the introduction and reviews seemed interesting.
As Yeon Ji-ho was considering whether to bring the tablet he had put in the bedroom and open the book again, Ishkur’s speech bubbles appeared one after another.
“That’s a platform only gods can enter, how did you get in?”
“At first, I was so surprised!”
“The final villain, Set Gorgon, should have died there…”
At the mention of Set’s death listed through Ishkur’s speech bubbles, Yeon Ji-ho’s face hardened. Perhaps Set’s death was something Ishkur had instigated. No, even the fact that Hadad and Set had become so opposed and hated each other might have been…
But Ishkur’s character was just smiling blankly with a face that seemed to know nothing.
Who was it that said, if a god has the ability to prevent evil but lacks the will, then he is evil?
When Yeon Ji-ho didn’t say anything while clenching his fist, Set, who was next to him, slowly patted his shoulder. Only then could Yeon Ji-ho somewhat calm his boiling anger.
“Anyway, because the characters got entangled with each other, I took over the copyright of this novel. The god of this place should have been more particular. It was really hard to take it, you know?”
“Who’s the god of this place?”
“That’s…”
Ishkur’s speech bubble didn’t appear for a long time after that. It was only after several minutes that he spoke again.
“Never mind that, so what’s your wish?”
“By the way, other people’s wishes don’t count! Only you, the protagonist ‘Ji-ho’, can make a wish.”
Yeon Ji-ho felt like Ishkur was somehow evading the question, but he didn’t press the issue. He didn’t think Ishkur would answer even if he asked further.
Faced with the sudden return to the topic of wishes, Yeon Ji-ho pondered for a moment. Those who had been watching the conversation from the side took the opportunity to speak up one by one.
“Money! Ask for money, Ji-ho! If you just let me invest a little, I’ll turn that money into ten times, no, a hundred times more!”
“No, what’s important about money? Ji-ho, how about getting wings?! It’s really convenient if you can fly around!”
“…A wish? Something delicious?”
Hearing what the three people beside him said, Yeon Ji-ho laughed softly. Then finally, his gaze naturally turned to Set. He was curious about what Set’s wish would be.
Set, who received the gaze, cleared his throat softly. He looked at Yeon Ji-ho’s protruding belly and said:
“I wish… for our family to be happy forever.”
The word ‘family’ that came out of Set’s mouth brought a heavy emotion for some reason. Even Yeon Ji-ho was tempted when he heard that wish. Lifelong happiness promised by a god. What could be a greater wish than that?
After hearing everyone’s opinions, Yeon Ji-ho fidgeted with his hands together for a moment, thinking. Then finally, with a determined face, he brought his fingers to the keyboard.
“My wish is”
“For the god to no longer interfere with our fate.”
Those who were looking at the screen together from the side inhaled one by one after reading Yeon Ji-ho’s wish. It was too audacious for a wish to be told to a god who would grant it.
However, the god, who was expected to be displeased with Yeon Ji-ho’s wish, started jumping up and down again for some reason. At the same time, the character’s face changed back to a smiling expression with a ‘^ ^’ shape.
“That’s a very interesting wish!”
“Alright, I’ll definitely write this scene in the ending”
The god seemed very satisfied with Yeon Ji-ho’s wish. Not expecting him to like his wish so much, Yeon Ji-ho only showed a bewildered expression.
“I’ve received your wish”
“Then goodbye now, Ji-ho”
Ishkur’s character, who left a brief farewell to Yeon Ji-ho, immediately turned around and approached the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. Then suddenly the character disappeared. As if he had gone out through the window.
It was then.
Rattle, slam! The floor-to-ceiling window in the living room that had been still suddenly opened by itself and then quickly closed again. As if someone invisible had been there.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
