# 48
* * *
Since Riyekan was busy plotting, Jin-ha just had his meal and immediately returned to his room. This was after promising to meet again at lunchtime tomorrow.
Throughout his return to the annex, escorted by Legas, confused imagination dominated his mind.
As soon as the door closed behind him upon returning to the annex, Jin-ha rushed to the pile of stacked boxes. The children had started organizing them since yesterday, but there were still plenty of boxes stacked up due to the sheer volume. He rummaged through the lower boxes for quite some time before finally finding what he was looking for.
It was a mirror.
“…”
After setting the mirror against the wall, he slowly activated his Information Eye. Numerous branches of light extended from his body. It was tremendous, like a great tree that had survived hundreds of years.
The Information Eye could read many things, but it came with various restrictions and conditions.
For example, the reason he could only read limited information from Riyekan and Legas was because their magical power quantity and control were vastly superior to Jin-ha’s.
In the case of monsters, there were limitations on the level Jin-ha could read information from. He could easily read weaknesses up to A-class, but for S-class, he could only read a few characteristics, not penetrate their weaknesses. That’s why for S-class monsters, he had to infer weaknesses by considering their appearance and living environment.
Gates, perhaps because they were merely “phenomena” without will, actually had too much information. When checking information on gates, he had to filter out unnecessary information and select what was needed. The same applied to portals. Yes, just like how the portal to this world had information such as “The Fairy Queen is great!” or “The Fairy Queen likes caramel!” written on it.
“When was the last time I organized this…”
Jin-ha sighed deeply.
When it came to checking himself, there was even more information than with gates, yet the information he wanted was often missing. Especially information from before he was seven was practically non-existent. As if some prohibition had been placed on it.
At least recent information was easy to read from the records, but conversely, there was too much of it, which was problematic. Jin-ha speculated that because it was about himself, everything was recorded and readable without consideration of authority.
His actions, meal menus, likes and dislikes about everything around him, and so on spread branches randomly, making him dizzy.
Jin-ha took a deep breath and began to erase the information without numbers, one by one.
* * *
“Found it…!”
By the time Jin-ha, who had been sitting motionless staring into the mirror, finally found what he wanted, the sun was already setting. He couldn’t take his trembling eyes off that information while holding the mirror.
[ Lee Jin-ha ]
Riyekan’s lost soul fragment (27/34)
The same, no, more informative text as the stone’s information he saw in the hut was inscribed on him too, thanks to Jin-ha’s level of information comprehension.
It was an indication that the fragment of Riyekan’s soul, which should be inside Riyekan’s body, was contained within Jin-ha’s body. Though he didn’t know why a soul fragment that wasn’t his own was inside his body, the meaning of this phrase was clear.
At some point, Riyekan’s soul had been shattered.
It was hard to imagine what could cause such a thing. Either there had been a shocking event that split his soul into “soul fragments” visible to the Information Eye, or perhaps such things were possible for mages in this world. In any case, it had happened, and the soul fragments had scattered everywhere, seeping into all sorts of places. Yes, into stones, brooms, sheep, and inside Lee Jin-ha.
The deficient soul created a lack that made Riyekan feel intense desire, and the desire transformed into obsession. That’s why Riyekan became obsessed with stones, couldn’t separate himself from brooms, and spent time hugging sheep.
As he stayed close to them, the soul fragments were drawn to their owner by a stronger gravitational pull and seeped back into him, and objects that no longer contained soul fragments ceased to interest Riyekan and were moved to Legas’s hut.
This was clearly the nature of Riyekan’s habit of obsessing over objects for two to three months to a year. It wasn’t a disease or habit, but the result of an incomplete soul struggling to fill its deficiency.
“…Good heavens…”
Jin-ha sat down with a low moan.
This meant two things.
First, the kindness and obsession Riyekan currently had for Jin-ha were fake, maintained only as long as soul fragments remained in him. Seven soul fragments had already returned to their owner. When the remaining 27 returned and Riyekan’s soul became complete, Jin-ha would be in the same position as the sheep or stone.
His chest felt tight and his heart ached. To think that on the very day he acknowledged his feelings, he would learn that the other’s actions were all fake.
Still, it wasn’t as painful as he had thought. The fact that even if Riyekan’s actions were fake, they weren’t driven by a malicious intention to play with him provided some relief. A falsehood was better than deception.
Then, a chilling doubt crossed his mind. Could his own feelings also be fake, caused by the gravitational pull of Riyekan’s soul fragments trying to return to their owner?
If the strange familiarity he felt when first meeting that man was due to these soul fragments…
Jin-ha, lost in thought for a moment, soon shook his head. If this emotion were a fake caused by Riyekan’s soul fragments, it should have gradually faded after the day they first met. As more soul fragments returned to Riyekan, their power and influence should have weakened.
This feeling was certainly neither fake nor illusion.
Jin-ha slowly took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. There was still one truth remaining.
“…”
Second, when Riyekan’s soul shattered, Lee Jin-ha had been in this land.
Riyekan’s soul was 73/100.
The soul fragments of Riyekan that Jin-ha possessed were 27/34.
If Riyekan took everything Jin-ha had, his soul would be complete. This meant that what Jin-ha had were the last soul fragments he had lost. All other soul fragments had scattered and seeped within this world, but what reason would there be for what Jin-ha possessed to cross worlds? Even if they had crossed, why would 34 soul fragments not scatter across worlds but only seep into Jin-ha alone?
So Jin-ha was convinced. Not only was he present in this land when Riyekan’s soul shattered, but he was probably quite close to Riyekan.
* * *
Due to this unexpected truth, Jin-ha’s head ached so much that he couldn’t even eat dinner. Even after lying in bed, he couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
And he woke up at dawn, before the moon had set. He had slept less than three hours.
“…Either my mother was from the other world, or she wasn’t my birth mother… It must be one of the two.”
The more likely possibility was that his mother wasn’t his birth mother. His mother had been friends with Mrs. Cha since childhood, she said. Mrs. Cha’s parents, that is, Cha Ki-young’s grandparents, were local dignitaries in Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do, and he had sometimes visited and stayed at their house when he was young. There was no doubt that his mother had lived there.
Good heavens.
Jin-ha, confused by the secret of his birth that he’d discovered long after becoming an adult, rubbed his face dry. He was dumbfounded that while running around trying to solve the suspicion that his father might be from the other world, an even greater suspicion had emerged.
Jin-ha got up from his bed, feeling stuffy. Suddenly, the thought of the sheep crossed his mind, and he felt that stroking something soft and fluffy might improve his mood.
He also wanted to ask the sheep, which supposedly escaped its cozy pen every day to freely roam the garden, its secret to living freely without being intimidated even after being involved in Riyekan’s obsession and then abandoned.
Jin-ha shook his head with a bitter smile and went out for a walk.
On the blue meadow where starlight poured down faintly, there was a shed where the sheep lived. He was walking up the grass field, quiet with even the insects asleep.
“Ah, ouch…! Sorry. I’m sorry… Stop…”
Meeeh—!
The irritated bleating of the sheep continued. Wondering what was happening, Jin-ha ran over and discovered a boy sitting on the ground and a sheep repeatedly headbutting him. As the sheep stepped back three or four paces and charged forward to headbutt, the boy rolled limply on the ground.
Jin-ha hurried his steps and blocked between them. Fortunately, the sheep stopped scratching the ground with its front hooves upon seeing Jin-ha and clung to his leg.
“Are you alright?”
“…Yes… Thank you…”
Even his answer lacked any strength. The boy, who rose his body limply, swept back his long purple hair that had fallen forward and looked up at Jin-ha.
It was an unfamiliar face with unfamiliar attire. All mages of the Noon Moon Tower wore brooches with a design resembling overlapping sun and moon, but he had none.
Jin-ha sensed that this boy was a member of the delegation Legas had mentioned. In other words, he was one of the causes that had shaken Riyekan. If he had known they would meet like this, he should have asked what the story was.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
