# 42
* * *
Four days passed quickly.
If Section Chief Nam hadn’t helped with paperwork and purchases, Jin-ha might not have been able to complete the preparations on his own.
The dozens of LP records acquired by buying out an entire jazz café whose owner collected records, along with various snacks and meal kits ordered from stores, made up one load. Of course, he also brought plenty of the artifacts that Riyekan had specially requested.
He went to the craftsman who usually made artifacts for Jin-ha to ask for help, and the craftsman, saying it was perfect timing, opened his experimental storage. Most items were ingenious but strange or useless. When Jin-ha looked at them with dissatisfaction, the craftsman laughed it off, saying that if “that’s the request,” then these items would be appreciated.
Though he didn’t understand, not knowing Riyekan’s taste, Jin-ha accepted everything for now. While he was at it, he also bought a few items he needed himself.
Jin-ha entered the portal, pulling a cart loaded with layers of piled-up goods.
“Officer!”
“We missed you!”
The young mages who had gathered in a crowd welcomed him with both hands raised high. The children, who were always so full of energy and brightness that it was overwhelming, now appeared tired and haggard. Not just the children, but even Seo Ji-seop, an S-class Hunter, looked the same.
“What happened? Were you mistreated?”
Though he thought nothing major could have happened in just the few days he was gone, distrust of the people from this world welled up, making him uneasy. Who knows what might have happened? Seo Ji-seop waved his hand in response to Jin-ha’s surprised question.
“No, it’s not like that. Since everyone living in the tower is in this state, not just us, it’s hard to say we’re being particularly mistreated.”
“What do you mean?”
“Go to the Master, Jin-ha. Please. I’ll check the supplies.”
It seemed something had happened to Riyekan.
Jin-ha pointed to the association staff entering in a line behind him and said:
“I’ve brought various items, including perishable food, so I’d appreciate it if you could organize them. And…”
Just as he was hurriedly continuing, wanting to at least give a rough explanation of what he had brought:
“Mr. Lee Jin-ha!”
Legas, who had rushed over hastily, pulled him urgently.
“Wait, my luggage…!”
“There’s no time for that.”
When Jin-ha turned around in confusion, Seo Ji-seop holding the cart handle waved his hand airily.
“The items Riyekan asked to be brought are over there.”
“That’s less important than Mr. Lee Jin-ha meeting the Master.”
Legas gave Jin-ha no time to catch his breath, practically dragging him toward the tower. The young man who had greeted him with a picture-perfect smile when he last came to this world was now in a state of extreme urgency.
“What exactly is going on?”
“The Master…”
Legas bit his lip.
The second floor of the tower looked completely different from last time. While the basic scenery hadn’t changed, overall it lacked vitality and there was less movement. Above all, there were no mages in sight, making it eerily quiet everywhere. Jin-ha, following Legas who was moving almost at a run, habitually activated his Information Eye.
An enormous amount of information was piled up like the leaves of a massive thicket, but the flow of magic that formed the core was vivid among them. Under Legas’s feet as he ran down the broken corridor, magic was forming a unique pattern. Each time that uniquely patterned magic touched the ground, the floor appeared a few steps ahead.
No, it seemed the corridor actually existed all along, but was usually hidden and only revealed itself temporarily when it reacted with magic.
“Mr. Lee Jin-ha!”
Legas, who had arrived at the birdcage, called him urgently. Jin-ha deactivated his Information Eye and ran to the birdcage. As soon as he arrived, the birdcage was lifted upward with a whoosh.
“What exactly is the problem? I need to know to deal with it.”
“The Master hasn’t eaten or slept for four days now.”
Legas, with a dismal expression, reported with trembling lips.
“It’s my fault. If I had known this would happen, I would have hidden the very fact that envoys were coming. We could have just stashed the envoys away in some corner and sent them back after a month or two.”
Isn’t that an abuse of authority? It seemed too harsh to point this out given Legas’s intense self-blame. Jin-ha finally realized that the current situation wasn’t simply a request to resolve Riyekan’s poor condition due to his obsessive habit.
Clearly, there was a more intimate problem intertwined with his deteriorating state.
“Does Riyekan dislike envoys…?”
“It’s not such a simple problem!”
Legas shouted abruptly, then glanced at the front of the birdcage and took a deep breath. As soon as he returned to his usual calm demeanor, the birdcage door opened with a thud.
“Night…?”
Jin-ha couldn’t help but murmur under his breath at the scene beyond the door. It had been morning until they were outside the tower. But now only pitch-black darkness spread before his eyes.
The sounds of wind and waves roared violently in the darkness.
“What on earth…”
In front of his idol’s room, Legas, wearing a mask-like smile, said:
“This is the Master’s room as it truly is.”
“What do you mean by ‘truly’?”
“Since the Master ascended to his position, this room has mostly been night. Sometimes it was dawn, sometimes evening, and occasionally daytime when he was holding a sheep, but more often it was night.”
Conversely, it had always been daytime when Jin-ha visited.
Since it had been daytime in the room when he visited during the day, Jin-ha had naturally assumed that the outside time applied equally.
“The weather… it’s worse than when I came yesterday.”
With a dark expression, Legas stepped aside to let Jin-ha leave the birdcage. Simultaneously, lightning struck with a crash, briefly illuminating the outside with a cool light before darkness returned.
Jin-ha, filled with confusion, looked at the darkness for a moment before asking:
“…It wasn’t like this when I first visited, was it?”
“Why do you think that is?”
Because he met Lee Jin-ha.
That’s what Legas was saying.
‘Come save me again.’
Saying that, Riyekan had sent Jin-ha back to Earth. So casually letting go of someone whose absence caused problems in every aspect.
Jin-ha, who had been angry, had thought it was only natural, but now seeing the influence of a troubled Riyekan with his own eyes, he realized it wasn’t such a simple matter.
Suddenly, the contract he had made with Riyekan before his abrupt departure to Earth felt heavy.
“You can solve this situation, Mr. Lee Jin-ha.”
Looking directly at Jin-ha, Legas continued:
“No, it would be more accurate to say that no one but you can solve it.”
With a bitter smile, Legas pushed Jin-ha’s back, saying “please.” As Jin-ha, pushed into the pitch-black darkness, turned around, the birdcage door closed with a clang.
After staring blankly at the birdcage door for a moment, Jin-ha hunched his shoulders at the cold wind brushing his neck and turned back toward the darkness.
He understood the meaning of the darkness filling the room and the harsh weather. He also understood what he was being asked to do.
But could he really solve this problem? Solving this problem meant being able to drive away the depressed atmosphere and empty silence felt while climbing the tower, as well as all the darkness here.
‘Enough.’
Driving away numerous confusions with a deep breath, Jin-ha began to walk.
‘First, I need to find Riyekan.’
Though uncertain, recalling his experiences so far, things might work out somehow just by standing in front of Riyekan.
Jin-ha began walking between bookshelves, tracing his memory.
The pitch-black darkness was faintly illuminated by pale moonlight. An indescribable bleakness surrounded him as occasional flashes of lightning brightened the surroundings before darkness returned.
He lost his way. Even when he activated his Information Eye, only information about objects appeared, without showing the path to Riyekan. This was because it wasn’t a place deliberately made as a maze, but a place that had become a maze as things were scattered about.
After wandering like that for nearly an hour, Jin-ha discovered a familiar bundle of blankets in a place he hadn’t expected at all.
At the end of a long corridor formed by bookshelves, where the path was blocked by a desk, Riyekan was curled up.
As if dead.
“…Riyekan.”
Alarmed, Jin-ha ran over and dug through the blankets. Seeing bare feet and purple hair sticking out from the blanket, his heart pounded ominously. Jin-ha desperately pushed his hand through the tightly wrapped blankets, struggling to unwrap them.
“Ah…!”
A fierce grip seized his wrist. Jin-ha reflexively tried to pull his hand away, but the other party didn’t release their tightly clenched hand. The body temperature gripping his wrist was burning hot. Jin-ha sat down on the floor, inhaling with a trembling breath. His heart nearly dropped from shock.
“Riyekan, are you alright?”
The man’s sharp nose bridge touched his palm. Beneath the nose bridge that brushed up his palm, he felt a breath that seemed to be panting. The sensation of a straight cheek followed, and eyelashes fluttered, tickling his fingers.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
