# 89
Jin-ha pushed through the undergrowth, following behind. Young Jin-ha, who had collected many shining fragments, suddenly looked up and wore a startled expression. Where his gaze fell, a blood-covered boy lay collapsed.
The young Jin-ha was shocked, threw away what he had been holding in his hand, and ran toward the bloodied boy, Liri.
Then the scene before his eyes changed.
“…might happen. Still, do you really want to help?”
“Yes, I do.”
His father stood with his arms crossed and one leg ahead of the other, wearing a displeased expression, while Master Senistry had her hand on young Jin-ha’s shoulder, asking something serious. When young Jin-ha nodded firmly, Master Senistry extended her hand toward Jin-ha.
Realizing that her hand was truly directed at him, Jin-ha stepped back hesitantly, but the illusion of the shining fragments that young Jin-ha had collected earlier passed through Jin-ha’s body and settled in Master Senistry’s hand.
“You need to swallow this.”
When young Jin-ha received the shining object and swallowed it, it flickered with light from inside his body before gradually fading. Jin-ha unconsciously placed his hand on his chest.
“Take a deep breath… That’s right…”
Suddenly, the scene before him crumbled, and Liri, who had been covered in blood a moment ago, stopped right in front of him, gasping and panting, holding his knees. In the distance, young Jin-ha shouted for him to hurry up, laughing.
Jin-ha turned around. With each step he took, he saw Liri digging soil under a tree trunk, Liri kicking his feet on an old swing, Liri carefully crossing stepping stones in a stream, and Liri sitting on the beach gazing at the water’s surface.
Why are my memories of that child so abundant?
Jin-ha looked around in confusion.
<It’s okay. You are ——.>
With Master Senistry’s soft voice, Jin-ha was caught in a gust of wind. The wind was so strong that he couldn’t open his eyes. As he staggered back one step, the wind disappeared as if extinguished.
In the next memory that appeared, Master Senistry was holding the hands of young Jin-ha and his father in each of her hands, heading somewhere.
Jin-ha followed behind them as if entranced.
They walked along the path, chatting amicably. Passing through forest paths, climbing over collapsed trees, walking with a dividing wall on their right, they suddenly stopped.
Master Senistry released the hands of the two men she was holding and swiftly cleared away the vines thickly covering the wall.
“That’s…!”
It was a portal. Jin-ha unconsciously ran through their forms to the wall and cleared away the bushes. The portal was still there. However, unlike the activated state in the past memory, it was now deactivated.
Standing in front of the gray, darkened, dead portal, Jin-ha looked around in confusion, not knowing what to do. The past forms that seemed to be guiding him were now gone, and a desolate wind blew from inside the forest.
This is it. This was definitely the portal that his father used when coming and going to Abon.
Jin-ha swallowed dryly and opened his Information Eye while looking at the portal.
[Portal that connected the Abon Kingdom and the United States]
Closed by Senistry Abon.
Currently managed by Knight Sening, directly under the Queen.
Entry prohibited without permission.
Punishment for entry: Revocation of audience rights with the Queen
Jin-ha sighed with a feeling of deflating tension.
These fairies were everywhere. Even if Master Senistry was close to them, wasn’t this excessive?
As the tension subsided, coolness rushed in.
Ignoring the useless content, he looked for other information, but unfortunately, there were few meaningful words left. He could only roughly guess that the United States had gained quite significant benefits through this portal.
“……”
Jin-ha gathered his disappointed feelings.
It wasn’t as much as he had hoped, but he hadn’t come away empty-handed either. “Portal that connected the Abon Kingdom and the United States.” This phrase alone was evidence that the information Cha Ki-young had gathered wasn’t wrong.
Let’s look around the village and forest once more. Perhaps there might be something more to discover with another look.
“It’s gone…?”
However, things didn’t go as planned.
When he went back into the forest, he could no longer see anything. The village was the same. As if the replaying of childhood events had all been just an illusion, only the dilapidated and eerie village scenery remained.
After circling the entire island once and still not believing it, Jin-ha went through the forest one more time before finally accepting the situation. It seemed this magic was a one-time event that ended after seeing everything once.
“Damn…”
If I had known this would happen, I would have observed more carefully.
The sun was already setting. Jin-ha, feeling tired, was looking for a place to rest when he found a small hut.
When he opened the door and entered, a musty, dusty smell and a strange herbal scent wafted strongly. Bundles of herbs were hanging upside down from the ceiling in rows, and cabinets standing against every wall were filled with bottles containing unknown powders or liquids. It seemed this was an herbalist’s hut.
He dusted off a chair in the corner and sat down, observing the herbs hanging from the ceiling that were effective for simple ailments like upset stomach, fever, and headache, when he suddenly recalled what Bennis had said earlier in the day.
“Did he say he was frying chicken for dinner…?”
As Jin-ha got up to leave, his foot caught on something, and he almost fell. He barely managed to grab a nearby table to regain his balance and avoid falling, but the table tipped over instead.
As a result, the dried herbs on the table scattered and crumbled on the floor.
“Ugh…!”
Jin-ha groaned as he bent down to set the table upright and smelled an unpleasant odor. His head spun and he felt short of breath.
What kind of herb is this?
Jin-ha fumbled along the wall and went outside the hut. Breathing fresh air improved his condition somewhat, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back inside the hut. It was a hut that hadn’t been used for a long time anyway. He could just tell Bennis what had happened when he returned.
Jin-ha gave up on cleaning and organized his thoughts as he headed back to the palace.
Although today’s experiences were all strange and nonsensical, they didn’t feel fake.
In his childhood, he had saved a boy named Liri on this island and had quite an enjoyable time with that child. Then they parted ways and he left for Earth.
What he needed to resolve his questions was clear.
“I need to find Liri.”
He planned to ask Riyekan for help with this.
As he turned his gaze, he could see the sea darkening between the trees. Moonlight twinkled on the water.
Just like Riyekan’s eyes.
***
The battle between the narwhals and the mage had been ongoing for three days. Even from the window of Jin-ha’s room, their fighting forms could be vaguely seen far out at sea, but with the continuous display of all sorts of unknown magic, it was impossible to tell which side was winning or losing.
While most large monster species lived independently, narwhals lived in family groups. They were already formidable monsters just by their size, but they also formed groups and even used magic.
The horn of a narwhal was an excellent magical conductor, and each individual had its own unique attribute, allowing them to use different magic. When fighting, they even cooperated considering the characteristics of their attributes. For example, while a narwhal with telekinetic attributes held an enemy, a narwhal with wind attributes would slice its neck.
Fortunately, they were too large to approach the shore; if they had been smaller, they might have become humanity’s greatest enemy.
Since Riyekan had gone out to deal with such monsters, worry kept flooding in even when Jin-ha tried not to think about it. Every time he saw the flashing lights of magic beyond the sea, his heart pounded.
“I’m telling you, it’s unnecessary worry.”
Bennis sighed deeply and shook his head. He pushed a freshly brewed cup of tea toward Jin-ha and sat down across from him.
“Here, have a cup of warm tea.”
Jin-ha reluctantly picked up the teacup and was a bit surprised by the deep aroma, which was better than he expected.
“Hmm, you brew tea very well.”
“When you spend your life as an apprentice from childhood to this age, everyone gets at least this good.”
Bennis spoke in a boastful tone, but the content of his words was self-deprecating, unlike his tone. When Jin-ha became flustered, wondering if it was rude to praise a mage for being good at such menial tasks, Bennis laughed heartily.
“Hahaha! It’s just a joke.”
“…Such self-deprecating jokes aren’t good.”
“Well, would I make such jokes if my situation was truly bad? Once I’m officially assigned to the Sea Serpent research, I’ll become a formal mage, so it’s a joke I won’t be able to make anymore. I should make the most of it now.”
Jin-ha shook his head at the playful boy full of mischief.
“Are all mages this playful?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so…”
Bennis tilted his head, then asked with sparkling eyes.
“Does the Master play a lot of pranks?”
“Umm…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
