Chapter 206 - Easter Egg (2)

“I see. There was a minor misunderstanding.”

Raviel nodded after hearing my desperate explanation.

We were in a fast-food restaurant.

I would have preferred a café, but the era of the [side story] was still stuck in the past. It would be a long time before cafés began springing up all over the country. Unfortunately, there were few places we could simply walk into and have a conversation.

“Of course. There is no chance you would turn your attention to another while you have me. News that the universe had abandoned the laws of physics would be more plausible. To think someone of my caliber briefly let her emotions get the better of her.”

“No, I’m just so relieved you believe me...”

Honestly, I’d thought my world was falling apart.

“Hmm. From what I saw, the Black Dragon leader is a capable person. Even had she been born in the empire, she would have achieved great success as a noble. Forming a true friendship with such a person was a wise decision. You are blessed in the people you meet. Though, of course...”

Raviel glanced sideways through the restaurant’s front window.

“I certainly did not expect you to return having taken a goblin as your child.”

Outside the window, Uburka stood with his arms folded and his back to us. Despite the enormous hobgoblin standing in the middle of a modern city, the passersby seemed to notice nothing particularly strange. Some were startled by his tremendous size, but no one recognized him as a hobgoblin.

“Do you think someone cast perception-altering magic on us?”

“Probably.”

CLINK

Raviel swirled her glass of cola, and the ice cubes inside knocked together.

“The attire I am wearing is quite foreign to this place. It ought to stand out. Yet while many people steal glances at my face, none pay attention to my clothes.”

Raviel was wearing a dress from the empire. Even so, the employee who had seen us earlier hadn’t reacted to her clothes at all. Though Raviel’s otherworldly beauty had certainly made their eyes tremble.

“The conclusion is clear. In their eyes, we are all wearing ordinary clothing.”

“Altering perception on a worldwide scale... That’s overkill.”

“It must mean the being accommodating you is that omnipotent. You have a talent for winning the affection of those in power, Gongja.”

“Haha.”

A quick look around showed that every customer in the restaurant was sneaking glances at Raviel. Did the perception alteration apply to our clothes but not our looks? Had smartphones already been developed in this era, they might have secretly taken pictures of us.

“Then bring over the child you regard as your son.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Even if he is not your biological child, he is someone to whom you have bound yourself in your heart. Who knows? Perhaps he will win my heart as well and be acknowledged as a member of House Ivansia.”

It was rare for Raviel to extend goodwill to others. I hurried to fetch Uburka before Her Grace could change her mind.

“...”

Uburka sat with his left buttock on one chair and his right on another. Still keeping his arms folded, he looked down at Raviel, who was much shorter than he was.

“...”

The silence continued.

What was this?

Why was I, the one stuck between them, the most nervous?

“... Silver hair that toys with the moon, and red eyes that mock the crape myrtle.”

In the end, Uburka spoke first.

“Now that I see you, your appearance reminds me of someone from the tales passed down to us. Uger. Are you Raviel Ivansia?”

“Oh? Contrary to your appearance, you recite poetry.”

“I merely recalled what Father told me.”

“Does Gongja go around talking about me in your world as well?”

“Father created five tales to be passed down. The fourth is the story of you, Raviel Ivansia. Silver Lily. The moon whose heart was stolen by a mirror. No Earth Spiritfolk could fail to know you, even if they tried.”

“Hmm.”

The corners of Raviel’s lips rose. She seemed to be in an even better mood. Holding the slender straw, she slowly stirred her cola in circles.

“I hear you are a constellation.”

“Ugor.”

“I, too, was once a constellation. Though I did not become one willingly, the fact that the world revolved around me was not entirely unpleasant. Your stature is on an entirely different plane from that of ordinary humans. Do you truly have not a shred of doubt about honoring Gongja as your father?”

“A foolish question. Even when the Earth Spiritfolk were still immature beasts, Father already sought to fulfill his duty as a parent. Bonds do not arise when we match our stature to one another, but when we cast it aside.”

“Do you not care about your own dignity?”

“Uger. Dignity comes from worthiness. Father is worthy. On the contrary, I do not know who other than Father could be worthy of being honored by us Earth Spiritfolk.”

“Hmm.”

Raviel nodded once.

As the person who shared her love, I could tell that was a sure sign she was pleased.

More importantly, why did this brat Uburka act like a little kid with me, only to turn into a mature adult in front of Raviel? Was he discriminating against his own father? It hurt. It really hurt. This was why raising a son was no use at all.

“How did you first meet Gongja...?”

“Ugor, when the great war with the Slime Empire broke out...”

Soon, the two began chatting warmly. Leaving me out entirely.

A wave of sadness washed over me as my wife and child shut me out together. Was this the sorrow of a father left living alone while his family was away...?

‘Huh?’

With nowhere else to look, I was watching the scenery through the window when a passerby’s profile suddenly caught my eye. The sight gave me an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

“...?”

What first caught my attention was the passerby’s clothing. A Sinseo Middle and High School uniform. Specifically, the middle school uniform.

Some of the people who had bullied Kim Yul had been middle school students, both boys and girls. I figured that was probably why my gaze had lingered for a moment.

‘That kid never appeared in the videos.’

What was this sense of déjà vu?

I enhanced my eyesight with aura and took a closer look. One oddity after another began to stand out.

First, the hair.

‘Blond.’

It wasn’t dyed, but a natural hair color. The long blond hair swayed with every step. I wondered if the passerby was a foreigner, but that seemed unlikely given the Sinseo Middle and High uniform.

‘A dirty uniform and... a briefcase?’

The passerby wasn’t carrying a schoolbag, but walked holding a briefcase of the sort an office worker might carry, deferentially clasped in both hands. It was terribly old and worn. All the leather had peeled off its corners. It was practically fit for the scrap heap.

The last thing I noticed was...

‘Those steps are consistent.’

There was no variation in the stride. That fact accounted for half of my inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

‘The length and speed of each step stay exactly the same.’

That would be difficult without considerable training in controlling one’s movements. Yet the passerby showed no trace of aura, nor even any sign of ordinary exercise. If anything, the passerby’s body was overwhelmingly frail compared to others of the same age.

The passerby slowly passed in front of the fast-food restaurant’s window. And for an instant, our eyes met.

“...”

Time seemed to slow.

No, it wasn’t my time that had slowed.

The passerby was utterly expressionless. That expression suited the face, as though it had been worn since birth. And that expressionless face possessed perfectly sculpted features.

The eyes.

They were endlessly clear.

The world was in midsummer. Yet those eyes mingled neither with the sweltering heat spreading through the streets nor with the irritable sighs of other people. Within them was a clarity that permitted not the slightest impurity.

HOOOONK

A horn sounded somewhere. At the crossing, the traffic light blinked.

Even the time of the three-way intersection, where the red light turned yellow, had nothing to do with the passerby’s eyes. She was walking through a different time.

The same rhythm. Precisely identical strides. Some absolute sameness walked past the world, apart from it.

The act of [walking] should, by its very nature, prove that one belonged to this world.

But not for this passerby. A human could reject the world again and again through their gait alone. Once with one step. Twice with two steps. Three steps. Four steps...

Endlessly.

“Gongja?”

At some point, I had risen from my seat without realizing it.

“What is the matter?”

“I’m sorry.”

Raviel and Uburka had stopped talking and were looking at me.

“Please wait here. I need to go somewhere for a moment.”

Even as I apologized to them, I kept my eyes on the passerby’s retreating back.

“I’ll leave a trail of aura, so you can follow if anything happens. Uburka should be able to catch up easily.”

“Father?”

“My son, guard Raviel for me.”

With that, I hurried out of the fast-food restaurant.

‘Where did she go?’

The passerby was crossing the street. Though the light had only just turned green, it was already blinking, urging people to hurry.

HOOOONK

There were few people about at midday in midsummer. The passerby was the only person making her way across the crossing. Though the light was still green, the drivers ignored the signal. Cars passed in front of her and behind her.

‘When? Where did I see her?’

I followed.

‘When I attended Sinseo High?’

The passerby walked down an alley.

‘No. I couldn’t have forgotten a student who walked like that. If I’d seen her even once, I would definitely remember.’

The roadside trees cast blue shadows across the pavement.

‘I’ve certainly never seen that face before. So why...?’

The summer sunlight blazed white.

The boundary between shade and sunlight was stark. When the passerby stepped into the shade, she seemed to retreat from the season, receding like a mirage.

BZZZZZZ

The cicadas sang.

‘Who are you?’

Abruptly, the passerby stopped in the middle of the shade. I had no choice but to stop as well.

“...”

The passerby slowly turned around.

I felt an invisible pull.

Even in that brief moment as she turned, time slowed. My breathing stopped, and my thoughts accelerated. Fragments of memory drifted through that slowed time.

[“I want to know how a Tower is built.”]

Before we entered the thirty-fifth floor, the Paladin had asked.

[“You just have to live the life of the unhappiest person in that world.”]

The Princess’s voice had answered.

[“There is a master who built the Towers.”]

[“That master lives the life of the unhappiest person in each world in their place.”]

[“A world with a Tower is somewhere the master has already lived and passed through. A world without a Tower is somewhere the master has not yet visited.”]

When the passerby had turned halfway around, the tip of my nose tingled. A certain scent drifted toward me. A scent I knew.

[“I’m going to school a little early today.”]

Kim Yul.

[“I need to go to the animal enclosure and feed the rabbits.”]

The smell of old feed piled up in one corner of a shed.

[“Anyway, there’s no animal care club anymore. The middle school class presidents take turns looking after the enclosure... But you can’t expect middle school kids to stick diligently to a job like this, can you? The security guard and me.”]

[“And a kid from the middle school.”]

[“The three of us do most of the feeding.”]

A Tower had been built in our world.

If what the Princess said was true, that meant the Tower’s master had once [lived] in our world as well. Living the life of its unhappiest person in their place.

Then someone judged to be even unhappier than Kim Yul must have been here.

[“Kim Gongja.”]

For some reason, a remark the class president had snapped at me flashed through my mind.

[“Sinseo Middle and High’s two great outcasts, or whatever—you were the one who gave them that name, snickering away.”]

The passerby looked at me.

I stood beneath the summer. She stood in the shade.

There was a distance.

There was a gulf.

Only the boisterous cries of the cicadas filled the space between us.

“Who are you?”

An emotionless resonance.

Only when the passerby parted her lips did I finally understand the source of my déjà vu. It was a voice that only I had ever heard in the Tower.