Chapter 830 |
Kra-kra-kra-BOOM–!
Explosions tore down the waterway. The dense trees were shoved back in an instant, and the view ahead opened wide. Chief Song sprinted toward the path that appeared. I clung to his shoulder in my Delroux juvenile form. Hayul was still perched on my head, shrunk down to fit my current size.
– Hyung, we’re almost there! Straight ahead, just keep going!
In a forest where I couldn’t find the path, much less tell which way was which, Park Hayul had turned into a pretty solid navigation system. Well, not solid, exactly. Decent enough. For a navigation system, he talked way too much. Noisy brat.
“Hold on tight.”
– Don’t worry!
Chief Song ran at full speed along the route Seong Hyunjae opened for us. Roots burst up, branches and vines lashed out, but with Seong Hyunjae’s Battle Precognition shared through me, Chief Song dodged every attack with something close to perfection. He barely even slowed down.
– Mr. Seong Hyunjae! We’re almost there, so don’t overdo it!
Instead of answering, Seong Hyunjae beat his wings in one sweeping motion. His body plunged until it nearly grazed the ground, both wings taking on a razor-sharp cutting edge. Shhk—
‘Even so, it took more than a day.’
Simply getting out of the garden hadn’t been easy. In that time, the garden’s territory had expanded even further, and the Gardener had been twisting space around without rhyme or reason. Flying straight across was impossible. We had no choice but to follow Park Hayul’s directions and work our way through it like a maze.
– I had no idea a garden without bugs could be this creepy! Though I guess it’s still better than one with bugs.
– There’s one huge bug right here.
– Oh, right! Aaah, more vines! I’m so sick of vines~.
– I hated them from the start.
– Rookie sounded so disappointed when he asked why you hated tentacles so much, so I said I was fine with them! But now I hate them too!
Yeah, anyone would hate them after going through this. Animal-type, plant-type, whatever. Though usually the animal-type ones were a little more horrifying.
Clatter, clatter. Golden chains shattered into fragments and embedded themselves all over the ground. Electricity snapped, and shredded plants shot upward along with clods of dirt. Up ahead, a familiar building came into view. The concrete structures I had been so sick of looked unbelievably, desperately welcome.
– Guess I’m just built for city life.
– I feel like I’ve gotten enough forest bathing to last me a lifetime!
Chief Song kicked off the ground hard. At long last, we reached the edge of the garden. Seong Hyunjae slowed and fell back behind us, while Chief Song pushed ahead. Explosions roared at our backs. Black asphalt. Broken paving blocks. Glass windows reflecting light. The scenery that had once seemed bleak and lifeless now looked like heaven itself.
“Hayul!”
I jumped down from Chief Song’s shoulder and shifted back into human form as I shouted. As though he had been waiting for my signal, Park Hayul poured out items in a rush. Seong Hyunjae escaped the garden as well. But the garden, the plants, were still chasing after us.
“Throw them!”
– Yes, hyung!
Bomb-type items surged into the air in a crowd. I pulled out my spear. Black fire swept across the bombs thrown toward the garden. A moment later, kra-kra-BOOM—
Flames erupted with a deafening blast. Only for a moment, but the wave of garden growth stopped.
“I can use items too, so let’s take turns resting.”
We had made it out of the garden, but that didn’t mean this was over. The Gardener was continuing to expand his territory. Park Hayul was fighting back, but he was outmatched. So we had to help him hold on.
We had to protect the place where my people would come to find me.
– Yujin-hyung! You can do it! You have Hayul!
“Cut down on the nonsense. Please.”
“Drink.”
At some point, Seong Hyunjae had gone to a convenience store and brought back sports drinks, which he handed to me and Chief Song. Candy was pressed into my hand too. I did need to get some sugar in me. In that brief moment, the garden was already writhing toward us again.
“Can’t we drop a nuke on it or something?”
– That’s just a bomb without magic power. It might look like it does a ton of damage at first, but it’d recover way faster than it would from even a small magic bomb.
“Hayul, you almost sounded like a quasi-transcendent just now.”
– I’ve been studying a lot!
I popped the candy into my mouth and set fire to the plants. When I saw the black flames blazing, I missed Yuhyun. Both of them.
“Nothing beats burning a forest down.”
Rumble—
Dark clouds began gathering overhead. The thunder Park Hayul had summoned flickered through the clouds. Soon, rain began to fall, one drop, then another. Seong Hyunjae tossed a parasol to Chief Song and gestured for me to go stand with him. His faded hair grew damp.
“I’ll take the first shift. You two rest.”
“You sure you’ll be all right?”
“Battles that continue for days are nothing unusual. And if it comes down to it, I can eat the lunch box Han Yujin packed for me.”
Lunch box? Oh, the World Tree’s magic stone. I was worried, of course, but Seong Hyunjae had to keep handling his own power. If, by some miracle, he succeeded, then he could shake off both the Crescent Moon’s contract and the Gardener’s contract and return to our world with us.
The only problem was that the odds of success were practically nonexistent.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“…If it feels dangerous, call us immediately.”
Chief Song spoke while holding up the parasol. Seong Hyunjae smiled instead of answering. Beneath the black sky, lightning crashed.
Another day passed in the blink of an eye. Since Chief Song lacked wide-area firepower, he held back the garden together with me. He cut down the plants creeping in, and I hurled flames and bombs from behind him. The garden was devouring Park Hayul’s territory from every direction, but just by pushing back the section where we stood, we could slow the overall rate of invasion.
Even so, the dream world kept shrinking.
– America was completely taken over just now.
Park Hayul sounded a little gloomy.
– I moved all the items from there, though.
“Hold out as long as you can. Still no word from Rookie?”
– No. It’ll be hard until one side’s territory has fully taken hold.
“What happens to you if your territory gets completely taken?”
– I become a powerless, pitiful little flower~.
So he wouldn’t disappear completely, at least. Did I need to take him with me?
Another day passed, and then another. Or maybe it had been three days instead of two. The sky was packed with dark clouds, and it was hard to feel the passage of time. There was no news. No sign. Only an endless, blind wait.
“If you have time to pack lunch boxes, get a little more sleep!”
“This is exactly when you need to eat properly.”
“I agree with that much. Especially you, Mr. Han. You need to eat properly.”
– He’s right, he’s right!
“Seriously. It does taste good, though.”
Even in all that hopelessness, there were still things to laugh about. Chief Song swung his long glaive. Thud-thud-thud. The burned vines were cut away. There wasn’t much left of Park Hayul’s territory now. Only a small piece of East Asia remained. Still, nothing new happened. There was no answer and no path forward.
“It’s definitely hopeless, so why don’t I feel that bad?”
I said it looking like an absolute mess. Despite all the nagging for him to go inside and rest, Seong Hyunjae had brought over a chair and sat near us. Apparently, that was enough.
“We still don’t have a way out.”
“That is true for me as well.”
Chief Song smiled faintly.
“The odds of me returning safely are likely quite low.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure you get back anyway.”
We would hold out and wait, and keep waiting.
– Hyung!
That was when Park Hayul shouted. Seong Hyunjae rose from his seat. I felt it too.
– It’s our world, but it’s not a dream! This is real!
Through Park Hayul’s bewildered voice, another voice reached us.
– Daddy!
The Gardener is coming.
A tremor ran through the world. The Puppeteer looked down at Sigma, held in his arms. His child, who had remained frozen forever without a path of his own, now unable to sustain even life itself.
“Get ready.”
At the Puppeteer’s clipped command, Hwang Rim rolled his shoulders.
“Your face is pretty similar, but I guess I really do care more about personality than looks. Our Jin is obsessed with his little brother too, sure, but he was still sweet to me. Soft and squishy and gentle~. Inside and out.”
The Puppeteer’s gaze turned cold. Hwang Rim sighed, then spoke again.
“Could I get a kind explanation, please? Even if I’m being dragged all over the place on a leash, I should at least know the bare minimum of what’s going on.”
Hwang Rim lifted his head and looked at the sky. As one who was also bound, he could feel the Gardener’s movements.
“We still have a little time. Are you really not going to tell Jin and the others?”
“Even if they knew in advance, the result would be the same.”
“No, it wouldn’t. They had a chance to stop the summoning of the World Tree-species transcendent altogether, and they might have been able to capture the tree without killing it completely. Besides, Jin is in contact with other transcendents, too. They would’ve tried to find a way to stop him from that side.”
If only they had known the Gardener’s identity ahead of time. If only they had been told that he was the bug who had supposedly died long ago, and that he was keeping the World Tree-species transcendents in check. Hwang Rim lowered his gaze and met the Puppeteer’s eyes.
“Would that have messed up your plan? Not that I know exactly what you’re trying to do.”
The Puppeteer had guessed that if the Gardener continued to be obstructed, he would create a path using the World Tree-species transcendent as a sacrifice and descend in person. That was why he had protected the pseudo-Origin and helped Han Yujin.
“My goal has been one thing from the beginning, and it has never changed.”
“Protecting him?”
“For this child to become an independent being and take root safely in his own world. That was why, at first, I tried to use you to steal away the pseudo-Origin and the Crescent Moon.”
There was very little the Puppeteer could do. Still, he had thought that if he could get those two into his hands, he might be able to negotiate the terms of a contract with the Gardener.
“But there was no way the pseudo-Origin would come over that easily, and it was far too dangerous.”
“That guy isn’t easy to deal with either. Even if you caught him, he’d never agree to a contract or anything like that.”
Throughout Chatterbox’s banquet and the wager between the Unfilial Children and the Filial Duty Addicts, the Puppeteer had searched for an opening. One tiny opening through which he could rescue his child. But it wasn’t easy. Just when finding a method seemed nearly impossible, the dream world appeared. A new stage where transcendents, including the Puppeteer, could intervene directly.
“If the garden descends here, the world inside that place will be perfectly protected.”
“…The garden? The whole thing is coming down?”
“The Gardener’s own combat ability is weak. He simply cannot be killed. So he has no choice but to bring his territory itself.”
The existence of the Gardener’s subordinate, Han Yuhyun before the regression, had been unexpected even for the Puppeteer. But Han Yuhyun had failed to obtain Sigma, and in the end, he had returned to Han Yujin’s arms. Having lost his hands and feet, all that remained was for the Gardener to come down in person.
“The territories will collide soon. There will be a movement of power much like a clash between worlds.”
One was, though made by a transcendent, based on the original world. The other was a garden cultivated over an inconceivably long time.
“If I use that distortion, I can make my child into an independent existence.”
“Let’s say that’s more or less true. Why not tell Han Yujin now, at least?”
Hwang Rim looked at the Puppeteer and Sigma, who had fallen into a deathlike state.
“Jin is definitely going to try to protect you too. So you can just come clean.”
He wants to protect someone precious to him. If that was the goal, Han Yujin would not stand in his way. He would undoubtedly struggle to find some method to save everyone, Sigma included. The Puppeteer knew that too. A faint bitterness touched his lips.
“There are restrictions regarding the Gardener’s identity, so I can’t give him the details anyway. And you seem awfully fond of Han Yujin.”
“Obviously?”
Hwang Rim laughed and went on.
“When someone is that unusual, you either like them or you hate them. It has to be one of the two~. Though it’s less Han Yujin himself and more Han Yujin when he’s holding Han Yuhyun close. S-Ranks might be drunk on how great they are, but there’s always bound to be some innate insecurity. Even if it’s only a little. Because they’re different.”
They were human, and then overnight, they became beings set apart from ordinary humans. Lower-rank Hunters were not all that different from everyone else, and there were enough mid-rank Hunters for them to form a society of their own. Even up through A-Rank, there were enough of them to have some sense of belonging.
But S-Ranks were exceedingly rare, and there was little camaraderie between them. If anything, hostility was common. They had gone from being buried among billions of people to standing abruptly alone. Of course, S-Ranks had the strength to survive even if they were the last person left in the world. That was why they stood proudly above others and kept moving forward, but as social creatures, a faint loneliness still remained.
“But when I look at our Jin, he gives me this sense of security, like, oh, I guess it’s okay to be different~. An F-Rank treats a born S-Rank like he’s that ordinary. And Han Yuhyun is particularly inhuman even by S-Rank standards, so it hits even harder.”
“You felt that anxiety too?”
“For me, it was more like, who the hell am I supposed to be~? I’m a twisted seed, after all. You can tell just from my skill. No identity.”
Hwang Rim had changed the moment Han Yujin turned back time. He had probably been an entirely different person originally. Or perhaps he had not existed at all. He definitely had memories from childhood. His connection with Cho Hwawoon had also stretched back a long way.
And yet, he was Hwang Rim, while at the same time not Hwang Rim.
“But there’s no answer to agonizing over that, and nothing changes anyway. My dad does annoy me a little, though. He went around scattering seeds all excitedly, and then instead of taking responsibility, he loaned me out as a slave to someone else’s household. Since my dad is like that, I decided I might as well live happily and casually too♡”
Of course, I do try not to create anything I’ll have to take responsibility for, Hwang Rim added with a wink. The Puppeteer’s eyes grew even colder. Hwang Rim ignored him and proudly stroked his own chin.
“I may not be enough for ‘a bug father and a tiger son,’ but I’d say I’m at least a jackal son, right? If Dad had only been a dog, I could’ve been a tiger too~. I turned out pretty well, considering I grew up under a dad worse than a dog, don’t you think? At this point, maybe Mr. Civil Servant will allow me to call him big brother.”
“…”
“So Jin is fascinating and fun and cute, which puts him on the good side! I’m not saying I don’t have the thought that if I coax him well, he might love me too, but poking at him is more entertaining. If not for his terrifying little brother and older-brother types, I’d love to really play with him.”
The Puppeteer let Hwang Rim’s nonsense pass in one ear and looked up at the sky. He could faintly hear the screams of World Trees. The world, the dream, slowly began to warp as the garden’s invasion began.
An eerie distortion. Asphalt cracked, and shoots sprouted through it. Pop, pop, pop. Tiny wildflowers bloomed. The dream and the garden mixed together, and between them, small gaps belonging nowhere appeared and vanished again and again.
Dark, small, silent gaps. The Puppeteer watched the rapidly flickering spaces.
A single instant.
“Use your skill!”
Hwang Rim activated his ability. Rootless Nameless Seed. The skill he had told Han Yujin about was only a partial effect of that ability. A seed whose form was unfixed because it had no foundation of its own. A power that could, for a single instant, perfectly copy the existential origin of the target taken as its root.
The complicated activation requirements had already been completed. There was a restriction that the target’s existence value had to be SSS-Rank or lower, but Sigma, who had remained stopped even within time comparable to that of a transcendent, met the condition.
Sigma’s existence became two.
The Gardener’s contract faltered. The moment two identical beings existed, it lost its way and wandered. Once Hwang Rim released his skill, it would find its original owner again. But right before the skill, which could be maintained only for a very brief time, came undone—
Shaaaaa—
The Puppeteer’s territory settled into the crack of the twisted world. A territory between territories, belonging nowhere. A place where even the constraints of space and time had vanished, torn open by a massive distortion. Just before stepping into it, the Puppeteer reached out.
“Huh?”
His hand caught Moon Hyunah as she was being thrown out of the dream world. Immediately after, the four of them entered the Puppeteer’s territory.
“…What the hell?”
Bewildered, Moon Hyunah looked at the Puppeteer, Sigma, and Hwang Rim. Instead of answering, the Puppeteer looked down at Sigma.
“With this, the Gardener’s contract is gone. It has likely transferred to Seong Hyunjae, who is close to an identical existence.”
“…I don’t understand a single thing you just said. And where are we?”
“This is where I opened my eyes.”
Sigma could not remember how many worlds he had wandered through before arriving here. It was an abandoned cabin in a quiet forest somewhere unknown.
“More precisely, it is a reconstruction.”
After passing through countless worlds over a long, long time, the doll had taken his first breath here. Across time that had piled up little by little, the tiniest scraps of an origin had gathered and gathered until they became a new life that could move on its own.
And then, at last.
“…This place.”
Sigma opened his eyes.
–TL Notes–
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