#106
“Riyekan.”
The sea, which had been emerald until just a moment ago, was now turning red as if it had been touched by the evening glow. It was an ominous and beautiful color.
“Riyekan, just a moment… Ah!”
“Stand on your tiptoes, Jin-ha.”
“Stop, look at that…”
“Come on. Put strength into the tips of your toes…”
“Riyekan!”
Riyekan, who was kissing Jin-ha’s lower back, couldn’t see the scene outside the window. Jin-ha hurriedly grabbed Riyekan’s hair and pulled him.
“Ouch, my hair is going to be pulled out…”
“Look at that!”
Seeing the color of the sea that didn’t match the morning, Riyekan’s eyes widened and then he smiled.
“Finally, we can leave this island.”
“Leave, you say?”
“Yes. It seems the sea serpent has finally hatched its egg, so after killing the mother, we’ll leave the aftermath to the guys here and return. A retreat is only a day or two, and I was getting bored, so it’s good timing.”
Riyekan quickly put on his clothes. Jin-ha followed him and took out a jewelry box from the drawer and opened it. Considering the time they went to deal with the unicorn, it seemed that jewels were like combat equipment for Riyekan.
“There, the crimson one.”
“Here.”
As Jin-ha took out the crimson earring and held it out, Riyekan bent his waist instead of taking it.
“Put it on for me.”
“Me?”
“Hurry.”
Jin-ha hesitantly took the earring to Riyekan’s ear. Putting an earring into someone else’s earlobe was somehow nerve-wracking. After putting the earring in with trembling hands, Riyekan turned his head and kissed his hand.
“I’ll finish it as quickly as possible and come back.”
“That’s what you should do.”
“Hmm?”
Jin-ha held Riyekan’s cheeks and gently kissed him. And with his lips slightly parted, he said,
“I’m starting to feel lonely now.”
Riyekan, with his eyes wide open, soon smiled softly.
“Jin-ha feeling lonely, I’m looking forward to it.”
“There’s something similar to before.”
“What is it?”
“If you come back injured, I won’t kiss you until your wounds heal.”
“Isn’t that a bit different? Is it because of the mood?”
“It’s because of the mood.”
At Jin-ha’s firm reply, Riyekan chuckled.
“Alright. Then if I come back unharmed, you’ll grant me one request, right?”
“Tell me.”
“When we return to the tower, make a sandcastle in my room.”
Jin-ha hesitated and then frowned. Unfortunately, his sandcastle building skills hadn’t developed at all since childhood. It was the work of a six-year-old child.
After seeing Jin-ha’s crumbling sandcastle and laughing heartily while giving it the bizarre nickname of ‘the last footprint of the ruined ancient kingdom,’ he now wanted a sandcastle made in the tower.
“Another strange request…”
“One every year.”
“…Every year?”
“Yes. If I come back unharmed, you have to make one every year without fail. Next year, and the year after that. And the year after that too.”
It wasn’t just a story about sandcastles. Riyekan was talking about the future with Jin-ha.
Jin-ha looked up at Riyekan blankly for a moment and then barely nodded.
“Understood.”
“Then I look forward to your growth.”
In the end, Riyekan, who had to tease him, waved his hand and left the room. And less than 5 seconds later, the door opened again.
“No going out until the sea serpent is caught. I won’t have the leisure to worry about your safety.”
As soon as those words were finished, a waterspout surged from the sea outside the window. A huge whirlpool was threateningly swelling as if it would reach the clouds.
Even in the urgent situation, Riyekan left only after hearing Jin-ha’s promise to stay.
* * *
Outside, it felt like the end of the world with fierce storms, hail, and flashing lightning. The surprising thing was that the summer palace was intact. The area around the summer palace was peaceful and quiet like a world inside a snow globe. All thanks to the barrier that Riyekan had set up in advance.
“Put your worries aside.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
At Bennis’s words, Jin-ha smiled bitterly. Unlike the time with the unicorn when they took several magicians, this time only Riyekan and Legas had left for the battle. It seemed that among the magicians who came on this trip, only those two could protect themselves in that battlefield.
Riyekan would probably not return injured. A man who had made such a promise would not return injured. He was confident in his reasoning, but his emotions were not so easily controlled.
His heart beat wildly. Even drinking the hot tea that Bennis had brewed did not ease his anxiety. He felt sorry for Bennis, who had come to see him, but it was hard to just sit still.
“I need to take a look around the mansion for a moment.”
“What? But…”
“If I stay still, my mind won’t calm down. It’s better to do something.”
Bennis didn’t seem to understand Jin-ha, who was worried about the great magician. No matter how strong a being was, it wasn’t a reaction to show when worrying about a person. It seemed like it was all because Legas had deified Riyekan too much. Maybe it was Legas who had left Riyekan’s personality behind.
Jin-ha stood up with rational suspicion. Then, Bennis hurriedly put the cookies, caramel, and candy he had taken out as snacks with the tea into a bag and handed it to Jin-ha.
“Then at least take this with you.”
“It’s okay.”
“You barely ate lunch. Here, take it and eat. It might make you feel a little better.”
“…Did you mix any sedatives into the cookies?”
At Jin-ha’s suspicious question, Bennis was startled and stepped back.
“What? No, I didn’t! I just thought you might feel better if you eat something sweet…! Sedatives? If I did something absurd like that, I’d be struck by lightning by the Master!”
Speaking of lightning, Jin-ha recalled the time when magicians in the tower were attacked by Riyekan for their unnecessary words. Could it be that the rumor had spread?
“No, if you don’t need it, I’ll just eat it myself. But really, it’s not that kind of thing…”
“Bennis, I didn’t mean to alarm you. I’m sorry. I was just… a bit sharp.”
Jin-ha apologized to the flustered Bennis and put the snack bag into his jacket pocket. This action was really unlike him. Normally, he would have accepted it first, even if suspicious, and then stored it without eating or checked it through the information panel. To ask if he had put in any drugs, he was being too emotional.
It was all because of Riyekan.
Even during the time with the unicorn, he was worried, but the depth of the relationship had changed, and so had the level of anxiety.
“I’ll be back.”
Jin-ha decided that he needed to do something, anything, to distract his mind. That way, he might be able to stop worrying.
* * *
Jin-ha slowly walked through the inside of the palace. The study where the bookshelves had collapsed and the books were old and crumbling, the kitchen that was dirty and filthy, and the rooms where the servants had used, which were old and empty, were all neatly repaired. Bennis and the other magicians had fixed everything, painted the walls, and brought in new furniture.
Since he had already looked around the mansion when Riyekan left to subjugate the unicorn, it was better to have new information. Jin-ha read the traces of magic left by the magicians, the furniture, tapestries, curtains, and other information, and thoroughly examined everything from the first floor to the third floor.
After examining all the way up to the room on the third floor, Jin-ha was about to go down the stairs when he was suddenly captivated by the sight of magical lights flashing beyond the window.
Inside there, Riyekan would be fighting the sea serpent.
A fierce and difficult fight.
Suddenly, his chest tightened, and he couldn’t breathe well.
‘Run away, Jin-ha!’
Recalling his father’s back as he shouted to escape while hugging his dead mother’s body, Jin-ha unconsciously grabbed the windowsill.
And at the same time, he realized why he was particularly worried about Riyekan.
On Earth, he had a certain amount of power. Behind Jin-ha was the association, and if he made a request to the association, even impossible things could be made possible to some extent. In fact, even the unreasonable demands made by Cha Ki-young could have been neatly resolved if he had spoken to the association.
Thanks to that, Jin-ha didn’t mind even if Cha Ki-young caused trouble. Setting aside the fact that the guy was very pathetic, he could handle the accidents somehow.
But it wasn’t like that here. What Riyekan did were things that Jin-ha couldn’t resolve with his power. Jumping off cliffs, catching unicorns, killing the mother sea serpent and taming the baby were things that Jin-ha couldn’t do, and he couldn’t help even if a problem arose.
That powerlessness was painful for Jin-ha.
“I need a powerful artifact.”
The artifacts he had now were quite high-end, but most of them were only useful for briefly dealing with enemies and then escaping. Anyway, he wasn’t a combat hunter, and in combat situations, it was better to avoid fighting and find the monster’s weakness from behind, so it was a natural choice.
But to be by Riyekan’s side, it seemed that wouldn’t be enough. He needed a more powerful artifact that would help in combat. Precisely, more power.
Just then, something fell beside him with a thud. Startled, Jin-ha reflexively dodged.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
