Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: Portal (1)
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I immediately made an appointment with her.
I scheduled it for the soonest possible date and adjusted my existing plans accordingly. Schu wanted to meet me as soon as possible, too.
She seemed desperate to relay something to Yoon.
Don't you have Yoon's contact info?
When I asked, Schu replied:
[Schu Diamond: He won't reply to my messages. Even the other science club members have a hard time approaching Senior Yoon.]
Is that so?
He definitely had that creepy side due to issues with his brain. But personally, I thought Choi Yoon had better social skills than Jonathan Kudo.
Better than John Mullen was a given, of course.
I figured he'd at least reply if contacted.
But I didn't push it. Schu seemed uncomfortable about Yoon. Anyway, we'd meet tomorrow, so I could pass the message along then.
I even considered suggesting we invite Yoon along. But then an unexpected person was added to the appointment, and I didn't voice the idea.
Schu's father.
She asked if it was okay to bring him as a reference.
[Schu Diamond: He's the one who went through the portal incident, so he might have the story you're dying to hear.]
[Me: It would be an honor.]
Simon Diamond, who had entered a portal and only emerged after a long time, turned out to be Schu's father.
He was the one who'd gone through the most relevant portal incident in my case. Maybe hearing his story would reveal something.
I lay down on the bed, trying to calm my racing heart.
I hadn't really cared why I'd popped out of a portal back then, not until I started remembering my past.
But now I was desperately curious how it had happened. Because I knew things would have turned out so differently if I'd returned sooner.
Nole wouldn't have died, and You wouldn't have been ruined.
And why had Kyle opened his eyes right around the time I returned.
Kyle.
Do you remember what happened back then?
I probed the presence of the one whose boiling hatred I could feel if I focused. Now I understood why I'd always sensed these emotions whenever I'd faced Kyle before.
Hatred and betrayal on the verge of exploding. Rage.
He constantly poured hostility at me, but I never showed him any emotion in return.
Because I didn't trust myself to only pour out negative feelings. Of course, I resented and hated him, too. Kyle had taken the lives of those who followed me and made decisions that drove everything to ruin.
But even so...
I couldn't risk showing emotion, because there was no guarantee longing wouldn't mix in.
I didn't have the skill to filter it out, so I chose to quietly suppress my feelings.
"I can never let it show until I die."
I covered my eyes with my forearm and muttered pathetically to myself.
"Better to die than let it show."
I'd already felt like dying of shame for so blatantly showing emotion in the arena. I couldn't afford any more humiliation.
From now on, I really had to act refined.
Even I couldn't understand feeling longing after all that.
Feeling the burning emotions of my old comrade, I drifted off to sleep.
***
"Schu!"
My senior, whom I hadn't seen in ages, looked exactly the same.
"Long time no see. How have you been?"
Schu turned her head.
A faint smile appeared on her lips when she spotted me.
It was the first time I'd seen her smile.
I'd only ever seen her with that inscrutable expression. But the smile suited her effortlessly. A light, quiet smile that wasn't shy—it felt just like her.
"Hilde."
My senior, who had been peering into a claw machine, approached me.
"Long time no see. Your hair's gotten a lot longer."
"Yeah. I just let it grow without cutting it..."
I was thinking of getting it permed like before.
Or rather, it was more laziness than actual deliberation.
I grabbed the ends of my hair, which stuck out unevenly every time, and looked down at my petite senior.
"Does it look messy?"
"No. I always thought even that awkward length suited you well. Did you get layers?"
"No. I think it's just because I always cut it sloppily myself."
"It suits you. Looks like you got layers on purpose."
Schu gave me her cool compliment without changing expression, then turned.
My senior was wearing a flashy anorak today as well.
She pointed to the claw machine.
"Dad went to put our name down for a table. Let's play this while we wait for him to come back."
"Huh?!"
Why'd he go put our name down himself?
I was totally flustered.
"If you'd told me, I could've gone! Especially since I already owe you so much.... I'll go now."
"No. We came early and went shopping first. He'll be back soon after putting our number in."
Schu replied nonchalantly and walked over to the claw machine.
"You good at claw machines?"
Not bad.
I loved all kinds of games, so I flitted between various machines, grabbing all sorts of plushies.
It felt great to play mindlessly like this after so long.
The problem was, playing so mindlessly led me to grab way too many. Before I knew it, Schu and I were hugging massive two-sided octopus plushies piled high in our arms.
People glanced at us curiously or chuckled as they passed.
Should I hand some out?
As I pondered, someone suddenly rushed up and pointed at me accusingly.
"Hey, you!"
I blinked, snatching the green-and-red octopus plush that was slipping from my arms.
"What kind of scam is this?!"
"Dad."
Schu craned her neck.
"Don't embarrass me."
Daughter's boy...
We soon headed to the restaurant, each carrying bags stuffed with the two-sided octopuses.
At the bustling taco joint, we didn't discuss anything major. We just exchanged introductions.
Unlike his daughter, Simon Diamond had a rough, roguish vibe. He looked surprisingly young, like a well-dressed thug or someone in entertainment. But despite his aggressive speech, he seemed oddly timid.
Schu's calm and boldness must come from her mother.
Separately, her flashy, kitschy tastes seemed inherited from her father.
The real talk began after we moved to a spacious franchise cafe.
"First, can we start with the message for Senior Yoon?"
I nodded.
"Of course."
"You'll probably think it's pretty occult stuff."
She handed a straw to the man slouched beside her—who looked more like an uncle or cousin than a father—and continued.
"Portals have felt strangely unstable since the Reclamation War."
I stared at her blankly.
"Why do you think that?"
"The air feels different. Right before a portal opens, the air around it shimmers weirdly. I've been feeling it occasionally all over Center Core."
...For real?
I couldn't hide my inner thoughts from showing on my face.
Simon, slurping an Americano through the straw his daughter gave him, let out an irritated "Hah."
"If you weren't gonna believe us, you shouldn't have come!"
"Please explain more. I know nothing about portals...."
"Yeah. I'll explain more."
Schu replied calmly, then turned to Simon.
"And Dad. Hilde's my first junior. Be nice to him."
It worked like a charm.
Simon immediately dropped his aggressive attitude. Less because he liked me and more because he couldn't say no to his precious daughter.
Anyway, Simon clamped his mouth shut and leaned against the wall.
Satisfied, Schu continued her explanation.
"I don't know the principles well, but portals sometimes open without any machines installed. Cases where we can't figure out the cause. It happens rarely, but it does."
"Ah, I've heard about that."
Yoon had mentioned it. Sometimes cracks form in space, opening portals that connect inside and outside the core. That's why creatures appear inside the core sometimes.
When I explained what I'd heard, Schu nodded.
She fiddled with her cup of taro bubble tea as she added,
"Right. And when those spatial cracks form, the nearby air changes subtly. The air vibrates faintly. I can feel it, Dad can feel it. They say most portal incident survivors can sense those signs."
"That's fascinating. And you've been feeling it frequently inside Center Core lately?"
"Yeah. Pretty often."
Schu sucked up a bubble, then subtly furrowed her brow.
"I don't know why. It didn't used to happen this much. I kept putting off saying anything because I didn't know how to explain it, but now I feel like I have to."
"You're saying it started after the Reclamation War?"
"Yeah. But weirdly, the creature outbreak frequency inside the core hasn't changed much. That's part of why I delayed mentioning it."
This doesn't feel good.
Because it didn't seem like coincidence. The timing was too perfect. As I listened to Schu, Sequoia's voice echoing "Success!" rang in my head.
But separately, I could understand why Schu hadn't said anything until now.
It really was pretty occult.
Anyway, I nodded to show I understood.
"I'll pass it on to Yoon exactly as is."
"Thanks."
Schu dipped her head slightly in thanks.
Simon watched our conversation sullenly, a cake fork in his mouth. Even his sitting posture looked delinquent somehow.
I pushed a nearby cake plate toward him.
"Have some."
"You know,"
Simon addressed me without even glancing at the cake.
I replied politely.
"Yes."
"You forgot everything that happened inside the portal, too?"
"Pardon?"
I didn't quite get the question.
"Inside the portal?"
Portals have an inside?
Ah, maybe that dizzy feeling, the shimmering vision, the flashing lights could be called the inside. I felt those disorienting sensations before popping out somewhere else.
But I had no memory of entering a portal, either.
I straightforwardly admitted I had no recollection.
"Do you remember being inside the portal, sir?"
"You've got some nerve asking that. With that look on your face like portals don't even have an inside."
Simon snorted and glared at me delinquently.
As soon as Schu turned her head, he straightened up and unfolded his arms.
I smiled wryly, acknowledging his point.
"Yes. I didn't know portals had an inside. I thought it was just like a doorframe."
"That's what everyone says. But I wandered inside and came out."
I hadn't thought much of it until then.
I'd just been listening like it was an interesting story. Half my brain was already planning to contact Yoon and Ye-hyeon the moment we parted.
Until Simon Diamond said something bizarre.
"I wandered through a black-and-white ruin. Met a woman, too."
Huh?
"A beautiful, unfortunate woman who kept failing to die."
Cecil?
An old name flashed through my mind.