# Chapter 49
‘Hmm…’
Ko Eungyo held onto the small detector he was about to hand to Lee Seungwoo. Lee Seungwoo, who had been about to take it and go down the cliff, turned back with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“On second thought, I’m not sure if I should send you down alone. How about we go down together?”
Would Lee Seungwoo have used something like a gate detector before? Though he looked mature, Lee Seungwoo was a freshly graduated college student. And that general education class—the students’ level had been embarrassingly terrible.
He didn’t think Lee Seungwoo would be particularly exceptional…
As he looked Lee Seungwoo up and down with slightly suspicious eyes, Lee Seungwoo smiled brightly and grabbed Ko Eungyo’s wrist, which was still holding the detector.
“Sure. Let’s do that.”
“Alright, then…”
Before he could finish speaking, his body was suddenly lifted and his perspective changed. Something firm and secure supported his bottom as it rose into the air. It seemed to be a hand.
“…Seungwoo?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“What are you doing…”
Out of nowhere, he was picked up and carried.
‘Hey, you could have given me a piggyback ride instead!’
“Going down now.”
A polite announcement came, as if from an elevator. Ko Eungyo, who was about to protest, had no choice but to close his mouth.
Soon, the two of them were floating. Lee Seungwoo was descending slowly, stepping through the air as if going down stairs.
“…Couldn’t you have just held my hand instead?”
“What if you dislocated your shoulder?”
Lee Seungwoo whispered calmly in his ear. Perhaps because it was a winter seaside, the air was quite chilly, but strangely, his cheeks felt hot. Ko Eungyo mumbled in protest.
“Or you could have given me a piggyback…”
“I’ll do that next time.”
“You promised.”
Though his tone was polite, he was subtly doing as he pleased. Ko Eungyo had known this already, but Lee Seungwoo was really quite brazen.
What was the point of complaining now?
Silently, he let himself be carried in Lee Seungwoo’s arms as he examined the cliff. The key was to find any peculiarities on the cliff as they descended. He tried hard not to look at the empty space beneath his feet, but as he observed the cliff, the bottomless sea naturally came into view.
‘…Do I have acrophobia?’
When he was Jang Iju, he hadn’t had it, but it seemed Ko Eungyo had a mild fear of heights. As he looked down, his body trembled slightly and goosebumps rose all over. Without realizing it, he clung a bit closer to Lee Seungwoo. In response, Lee Seungwoo adjusted his hold, lifting him slightly.
“Are you cold?”
Debating whether to admit his fear of heights, he chose to simply agree with Lee Seungwoo’s suggestion.
“…A little.”
“Should I hold you tighter?”
Lee Seungwoo asked teasingly. He glanced at his Esper with a dumbfounded look, then pressed his face against Lee Seungwoo’s chest.
“Just go down quickly.”
“…”
Somehow hearing the muttered words, Lee Seungwoo abruptly moved downward.
Like falling.
He had felt this sensation somewhere before. Just as he was about to recall when that was, the sound of the wind rushing past his ears stopped.
Beep, beep, beep, beep-
The detector, which had stopped signaling, beeped once more. Lee Seungwoo didn’t announce they had arrived, but Ko Eungyo could roughly guess that this was where the gate was about to form.
“It really is picking up a signal.”
Lee Seungwoo muttered in a tone that could have been either positive or negative.
Ko Eungyo felt elated to his core. Filled with excitement, he stared intently at where the detector was responding.
Surprisingly, at the very bottom of the cliff, there was quite a spacious area. It was too small to be called a cave, yet too large to be just a simple hole.
He felt he needed to examine this place more closely.
Ko Eungyo flailed his limbs and spoke rapidly.
“Put me down, please.”
“What if you slip?”
Was he planning to carry him around the entire time? No way.
“I’ll be fine.”
When he said this firmly, Lee Seungwoo reluctantly set Ko Eungyo down from his arms.
Though he had expected the ground to be slippery from the constant waves, the rock surface was surprisingly rough. He hurriedly began walking toward the direction of the signal, holding the detector high.
Lee Seungwoo followed slowly behind Ko Eungyo, sauntering along.
“Why do you switch between formal and informal speech?”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
Ko Eungyo looked up when Lee Seungwoo suddenly spoke, but the other just shook his head like someone without much sense. He didn’t understand why Lee Seungwoo had said anything if he was just going to brush it off. He turned his head away indifferently.
At that moment, the detector’s beeping signal cut off again.
“Hmm.”
‘This seems to be the right place…’
Ko Eungyo, staring intently at the small cave at the bottom of the cliff, was about to call Lee Seungwoo. But Lee Seungwoo was so close that there was no need to shout.
“I think there’s a gate in that cave.”
Lee Seungwoo peered inside the cave and then turned to Ko Eungyo, speaking carefully.
“But there’s no signal being detected.”
“It seems to be blocked for some reason. Could you… break down a part of the cave with your ability?”
Lee Seungwoo nodded willingly and answered.
“Yes.”
As he replied, wind blew from behind. It was the wind he had summoned. Lee Seungwoo seemed to be gauging how much force to use, assessing the destructive power.
“This isn’t some cultural heritage site, is it?”
Lee Seungwoo joked before using his power.
“I don’t think so.”
“How strong should I make it?”
Suddenly, Ko Eungyo wanted to test how powerful Lee Seungwoo’s ability was. As he stared at Lee Seungwoo, the other blinked and gazed back at Ko Eungyo.
“Maximum output.”
Lee Seungwoo’s eyes curved slightly.
To prevent Ko Eungyo from being swept away by the wind, Lee Seungwoo held him from behind. Knowing from experience that when an S-class Esper, especially a high-ranking elemental type, used their power, the resulting phenomenon was akin to a natural disaster, he cooperated with Lee Seungwoo without resistance.
The blowing wind gradually became ominous, and water droplets splashed.
Water droplets?
He narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction the wind was coming from, then gasped and grabbed Lee Seungwoo’s arm, shaking it.
“Are you trying to demolish the hotel?”
He never imagined he’d see a hurricane off the coast of Jeju Island. Lee Seungwoo grumbled unhappily into his ear, “You said maximum output,” but readily dispersed his power.
“Just do it normally, normally.”
The moment Ko Eungyo finished speaking, a strong wind blew from behind his head. The wind was so powerful that his hair whipped wildly and he could barely open his eyes. The wind grew even stronger, becoming a gale that hit the cave wall.
He had expected at least a booming sound or dust falling from the rocks. But surprisingly, the wind disappeared without making a sound.
It had been absorbed…
Lee Seungwoo, looking at the cave wall with amazement, said:
“There really does seem to be something beyond this.”
Ko Eungyo, his eyes shining, carefully stepped inside the cave. Lee Seungwoo followed closely behind.
They soon reached the cave wall where the wind had been absorbed.
“Let’s tap it lightly.”
“Hmm… I’ll do it.”
Originally, he had planned to have Lee Seungwoo do it. To the naked eye, the cave wall looked just like any other, but it might not actually be a cave wall at all. The entrance to a gate was unstable like an organism, so it could still be holding the destructive power that Lee Seungwoo had released earlier. This meant that if someone with a fragile constitution like Ko Eungyo touched it, they could be torn apart in an instant.
With Ko Eungyo’s consent, Lee Seungwoo’s arm stretched out from behind. His hand lightly knocked on the cave wall.
There was a hollow sound.
“It seems hollow inside.”
“Hmm…”
It might be a phenomenon unrelated to the gate. Curiosity welled up. Ko Eungyo instructed his Esper again.
“Try hitting it a bit harder.”
“Okay.”
Lee Seungwoo, with the same gesture as before, lightly clenched his fist and knocked on the cave wall. However, unlike before, the sound was not light.
Thump, thump.
“It’s quite solid.”
Lee Seungwoo said with wonder. Then he turned to Ko Eungyo. It was a gesture seeking permission.
Ko Eungyo nodded slightly.
“Harder.”
“Yes.”
Lee Seungwoo knocked on the cave wall again… The sound couldn’t be thought of as coming from a fist hitting a wall at all. With a thunderous boom, fragments of rock dropped from the cave ceiling.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
