#107
Although it was clearly a voice I was hearing for the first time, it somehow sounded vaguely familiar, easing my tension.
I wondered if it might be Nine, but judging by the very soft and calm voice, it didn’t seem to be, so I couldn’t pretend to know.
Are you curious about who I am? I’m Bi–. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time.
‘What?’
The woman seemed to know what I was thinking. I couldn’t hear the name, but given that she said she had been wanting to meet me for a long time, I thought I could assume she was at least showing a friendly attitude towards me.
It’s been hard, hasn’t it? You’ve done well.
The woman spoke as if she had been watching me for a very long time. Hearing her words of comfort, as if she knew how I had been doing all this time, suddenly made me feel choked up.
Does she know how difficult and anxious I’ve been?
‘Could it be… ???’
Judging by the way she spoke, it was unlikely to be Nine, and given that she couldn’t reveal her identity, I thought it might be ???.
If it’s ???, would she know where Nine has gone?
It’s been such a long time. Now…
Just as I was about to ask if she was indeed ???, the woman started to say something. I was wondering if she was going to give me a solution to this situation when suddenly an angry voice was heard.
What’s this all of a sudden! Why, why is this…!
What’s happening? I couldn’t tell since I could only hear the voice, but it seemed something had happened to the woman. It seemed like she was about to say something important, but her words were suddenly cut off, which worried me.
Oh, no! Wait…!
Then there was a crackling noise, and with a final screaming voice, the woman disappeared.
At the same time, my memory was cut off.
***
The world crumbled.
It was as if the whole world had become a giant sinkhole. Even the luxurious and comfortable building broke into pieces and fell downwards.
But even in the midst of this, Shin Haejun did not let go of Lee Jaeha’s body that he was holding tightly in his arms. As an S-class esper, he was confident he could survive somehow if there was a ground, but Lee Jaeha’s fragile body would obviously be crushed if it even slightly brushed against building debris.
For now, he had to use his power as efficiently as possible, not knowing what would happen. Because of this, instead of randomly adjusting gravity now, he planned to use his power just before hitting the ground to eliminate fall damage.
Of course, if the world was so broken that there was no ground… well, in that case, it might be better for them to die together.
More precisely, including Hyun Dowoon who was holding Lee Jaeha’s other hand, the three of them together.
‘He’s fainted…’
It would have been stranger if he was conscious while falling like this. Shin Haejun held Lee Jaeha’s body, which had fainted after briefly struggling in his arms, even tighter.
[Active skill ‘Path of Truth’ is being used.]
The moment Lee Jaeha fainted, energy was drained from his body. It was a feeling he had experienced before, but it was so sudden that he couldn’t help but be surprised. Shin Haejun struggled not to stagger, thinking that if all his energy disappeared, they might die from the impact.
“…Ugh.”
Hyun Dowoon also let out a short groan and held Lee Jaeha tighter. Then he opened his eyes wide and shouted.
“Wait, Shin Haejun esper… Lee Jaeha-ssi’s phone!”
Even while falling, Lee Jaeha was still tightly holding onto his phone. Because of this, a brilliant light was shining through his fingers.
Phew, that was close! We need to stop this first to talk!
Along with the voice heard earlier, an emoticon popped up above the phone.
Shin Haejun also agreed that this situation needed to be stopped. But common sense told him that he couldn’t change the entire crumbling world, and he didn’t think that emoticon could do anything either.
The one fortunate thing was that, unlike last time, it seemed all the skills had been activated. Although power was consumed, it seemed the activation was successful because the recovery through Guiding was much greater.
“What do you want us to do!”
Shin Haejun shouted loudly. He felt his nerves being sharply frayed.
I can solve it!
The moment it said that, surprisingly, the world that was falling downwards defied gravity and shot up towards the sky. Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon, who were about to tense their bodies in surprise, realized that they couldn’t exert any strength in their bodies at all. More precisely, their bodies didn’t move as if they were fixed in place.
They reversed time along exactly the same path they had fallen. And the place they returned to was the room in the building that had recovered its original state.
The phenomenon stopped when time rewound to the point where Lee Jaeha was sleeping on the bed. Shin Haejun, who had returned to the bed, tightly gripped Lee Jaeha’s hand and stiffened his body.
Shortly after, Hyun Dowoon rushed into the room. Then the emoticon spoke with a confident expression.
Ha ha ha! Did it work?
They couldn’t understand at all how this had happened. After thoroughly examining Lee Jaeha, who was sleeping soundly on the bed, Hyun Dowoon muttered with a frustrated face.
“If you had this much power, it would have been better if you had prevented it from collapsing in the first place so that Jaeha-ssi wouldn’t be scared.”
It seemed he was still bothered by Lee Jaeha being surprised and scared. Hearing Hyun Dowoon’s quiet criticism, the emoticon grumbled a lot.
If I could have done that, I would have done it already! This is the power of the skill! You complain even when I help, Yeonsoo-nim is too precious!
At the mention of the skill’s power, Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon thought of the ‘Path of Truth’ skill. Like last time, it seemed that this skill was responsible for summoning the emoticon and sending power.
If this assumption was true, it was clearly an amazing skill. Not only did it use up all the power of two S-class espers, but even though it only reversed a short time, it couldn’t have been easy to change the entire world.
“You mentioned Yeonsoo last time too, is that referring to Jaeha hyung?”
That’s not the important thing. Do you know how much risk I took to appear just now? Yeonsoo-nim almost disappeared!
The emoticon chattered in an extremely excited voice. The faces of the two who were certain that Yeonsoo was Lee Jaeha hardened.
“I could have saved hyung by adjusting gravity before he died. There’s no way hyung would die.”
Shin Haejun muttered grumpily. Just imagining Lee Jaeha dying made him feel very bad. However, the emoticon spun around a couple of times as if perplexed and then calmly exclaimed.
What are you talking about? I’m saying he almost disappeared, not died! If I hadn’t appeared, he would have chosen the path of disappearing!
Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s faces turned cold. The emoticon’s words didn’t sound simple. It seemed that Lee Jaeha himself was about to make a bad choice. Recently, his condition had been very good, and he seemed to be making efforts in his own way, but Lee Jaeha was a person suffering from depression. That made it even more worrying.
On the other hand, they also felt somewhat perplexed and angry. It was puzzling why Lee Jaeha, who had seemed fine until now, suddenly tried to make such an extreme choice, and they were also angry at themselves for not noticing that he had such an option in his mind.
??? keeps interfering… This won’t do. You guys need to help me.
“What do we need to help with?”
Hyun Dowoon looked exasperated, but he seemed willing to listen to what it had to say. Shin Haejun glared at the emoticon with a displeased face.
Can’t you properly secure Yeonsoo-nim’s heart? If he settles with you two for sure, he won’t think about leaving.
“What? Jaeha hyung is thinking of leaving?”
Shin Haejun, startled, shouted sharply while tightly hugging Lee Jaeha. It was an utterly unbelievable statement.
Lee Jaeha clearly liked being with the two of them. What Shin Haejun had been worrying about was which one of them Lee Jaeha would choose.
If it had been before, he could have been certain that Lee Jaeha would choose him, but after greatly disappointing him in the dungeon, Lee Jaeha had started to open his heart to Hyun Dowoon as well. It was so obvious that it made him anxious, but since it was largely his own fault, he couldn’t do anything and was just leaving the situation as it was.
Because of this, he had planned to pursue Lee Jaeha more actively after changing the situation so that his life wouldn’t be threatened, but if Lee Jaeha decided to leave before he had the chance, he would lose even that opportunity.
That’s right! If he leaves, we’ll never be able to meet Yeonsoo-nim again!
“No matter where he goes, we can just catch him again.”
Hyun Dowoon said, glaring at the emoticon with an unpleasant look. Like Shin Haejun, Hyun Dowoon had also staked everything on Lee Jaeha. He had no intention of letting him go easily if he decided to leave.
You’re so stupid! How are you going to catch him if he leaves this world? If you don’t catch him before he goes, it’s over!
“Leave this world…?”
Shin Haejun tightened his lips at the emoticon’s words. He wasn’t sure if such a thing was possible, but given that this arbitrary emoticon had appeared, it seemed ridiculous to argue about how absurd those words were.
Yes, I’m saying Yeonsoo-nim is not a person of this world!
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
