Layer Lord! "Honey, Don't Go."
That brief moment felt like it was just Kim Yang and me alone in the room. Like a scene from a movie where time itself had frozen. But if I had to guess the genre, it'd be suspense thriller.
"What?"
Even I thought it was a dumb question, but the situation was bewildering enough to warrant it.
"Don't go, honey."
Her hand gripped mine tightly, trembling faintly with refusal to let go.
"……."
At first, I thought Kim Yang was riding the momentum from the movie, messing with me. But her expression, her touch—everything was too vivid, too real for a mere prank.
"W-Wait, does that mean you and Kim Yang were actually married!?"
"Stop saying stupid things!"
Renea pouted, puffing out her cheeks as she scolded me for being dense. But now wasn't the time to worry about the old lady.
"Don't go, great hero. I'm right here."
"Just stay with me, honey. Please. I'll be good."
"……."
I could feel the stares from everyone around us. Even as I tried to pry them off, their grip was surprisingly strong.
"I didn't expect it to be this bad."
I'd seen Namgoong Haryeong agonizing over Cel's aftereffects. But that had resolved easily once she met Jessica, so I'd brushed it off lightly. Now that I was the one in the thick of it, though, it was disorienting.
Even in the midst of this, the grandma—had she lost it to dementia?—kept tugging at my clothes firmly.
"Boss, this lady's stomach is starting to rumble."
"Does this whole mess feel lighthearted to you?"
"Hm? It's just movie hangover, right? It'll pass soon enough."
"Well……."
True enough.
"Don't go, great hero. Stay with me."
"Please, honey. Don't vanish from my sight."
"……."
A throbbing headache hit alongside their pleas—not quite pleas—and fragments of the past suddenly reared their head.
"Where do you think you're going, Sword Custodian?"
A title now faded to haze. Her commanding tone had questioned me, unmoving as I was.
"Do not leave us."
As if she'd already seen me—who hadn't even stirred—depart. Her thorny paranoia had always bound me tight.
"Boss?"
Renea's voice scattered the eternally snow-swept view outside the window like mist. I startled, quickly turning to her with a forced casual smile.
"Yes? Did you call me?"
"Did seeing them cling to you disgust you that much? Your face has gone from pale to ghostly white."
"Ah……."
I hurriedly touched my face. No different from usual, yet my skin felt chillingly cold.
"It's 'cause I haven't had a smoke. Two hours no-smoking for the movie."
"I thought it was because you hated Kim Yang and Baek Yeonhwa."
Did her voice reach the ears of those two, swayed by Cel? The tight grip on my hand loosened. They jumped back in alarm.
"W-What, what is this!?"
"Kyaaah!? Gr-Great hero! It wasn't me! This concubine isn't the type to restrain her husband!"
I hadn't thought the movie hangover would last long anyway.
"Snapped out of it? Here's my card—get your own food, the three of you. I gotta head out."
"H-Huh?"
"You're leaving?"
"Boss-?!"
Voices called after me from behind. But I didn't look back.
I didn't want to stay there anymore. It wasn't Kim Yang or Baek Yeonhwa's fault.
"Sword Custodian."
That fleeting emotion I'd felt. I wanted to flee from it—
I might have hurt them, but my steps quickened just a bit.
* * *
"You look awful."
"Yeah, my buddy who's raking in cash said he'd buy drinks, but he drags me to some cheap izakaya."
I shot back at Yu Ye-na across from me, playing it cool. Sweat trickled despite not running much—I blamed it on stamina, fooling myself.
I took a big swig of the beer that came out right away.
"Phew—hits the spot."
"……."
She plucked a skewer without getting a speck on her lips, her gaze fixed on me the whole time—still elegantly graceful.
"You'll poke your eye out like that."
"Yeah."
What was that supposed to mean? Puzzled by the vague reply, I looked up, and she added curtly,
"If you don't wanna explain, I won't ask."
"……Tch. Mind if I step out for a smoke?"
"You promised not to when you're with me."
"That was—."
I started to say it was back then, but shut up. Yu Ye-na knew my weakness.
That's why she'd picked this cheap izakaya we used to hit during hunter training camp. Her elegant skewer-munching was unchanged.
"So, what's up? Something about the 7th Floor, right?"
The echoing voice trying to resurface got buried under the crowd's rowdy cheers. Good choice of spot, nostalgia aside.
"How was the movie?"
"Hey."
"Water park?"
"Hey."
I glared irritably, and Yu Ye-na's lips twitched up. She was enjoying the teasing.
"Ahem, about that Cyber City incident. The 6th Floor got temporarily sealed off."
"Yeah."
The Tower elevator suddenly couldn't reach the 6th. That's when we got help from the Blue Dragon.
"Figured out how. And it's the 7th Floor sealing itself."
"You can tell me?"
"Need something from you first."
I set down my beer hand, figuring I should hear it sober-ish. Yu Ye-na glanced at my fingertips and continued.
"Learned it through Axis. There's an entity called the Tower's Owner."
"The…… Tower's Owner?"
The tower piercing high, linking worlds. Once a monstrosity and calamity, now symbol of stability, peace, harmony. Hard to swallow that it had an owner managing it.
But Yu Ye-na's unchanging poker face had the power to make even the surreal believable.
"Layers can be locked for a period via deals with the Tower's Owner."
"Deals? For what?"
"Money."
"Money? Out of nowhere?"
"Sigh."
Yu Ye-na sighed in shared frustration, explaining further.
"The Tower's Owner doesn't manage every layer directly. Each has an existence called the Layer Lord."
"Chosen by the Owner—just one per layer. Only the Layer Lord can deal with the Owner for that floor."
The sudden info dump was simple, but heavy.
"So the 6th Floor's Layer Lord dealt with Axis—."
"And demanded money to seal the Tower temporarily."
What a materialistic Layer Lord. Yu Ye-na took a sip, building her buzz.
"Whether Layer Lords can seal at will, or if there are conditions, special powers—we don't know yet. But—."
"But?"
"They got a huge payout. Tracking funds in Cyber City, but Axis wiped it clean."
AI earning its keep. Then a sudden doubt hit.
"Hold up. So every floor has a Layer Lord?"
"Exactly. And we don't know who."
"……."
"Makes it a mess. Tower Management Bureau my ass—they manage jack."
Her self-mocking laugh carried bitterness at the Association's farce.
"Can't hunt Layer Lords across the vast world with no leads. So we're focusing on the 6th Floor's faint clues."
"Then why me—."
"The 7th Floor surely has one too."
Someone continually dealing with the Tower's Owner to block us from below.
"Need any info. That's why I'm here."
"Ha."
What kinda day was it? I'd kept drinking unwittingly; the glass was empty. I smacked my lips, ordered another, then answered.
"Just learned about Layer Lords, but…… yeah, someone I suspect. No, am sure of."
7th Floor's Layer Lord. Only one came to mind.
The empire of ice and iron, Eisenric. Its sole absolute monarch.
Queen who massacred giants, rules all lands.
"Sword Custodian."
"Could you call us by name, just once?"
Gazing at the blizzard outside, murmuring lowly as that day. I uttered her name.
"Empress Penrina."
* * *
Seated on the throne, the red-haired Empress Penrina gazed out the window, chin propped.
The fierce blizzard. Same view always, yet a faint smile played on her lips.
Even as her Grand General reported.
"As Your Majesty commanded, tribute operations are halted. Exactly six months from now, the Tower elevator will resume normally."
Grand General Yorjan bowed slightly forward, finishing his report.
Silence filled the audience chamber. After a long moment, Penrina—still facing the window—spoke.
"Grand General."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"We quite like snowy days."
"……."
"That snow, devouring everything—it is most pleasing."
Finally turning to meet Yorjan's eyes.
"Do you know why?"
"I do not."
"Good. If you did, we'd have to kill you and rip out the Sword Custodian's tongue."
Rare good mood; Penrina exhaled long, slumping into the throne.
"Half a year…… quite a long time to tend the cage anew."
"I shall capture swiftly."
"Indeed. Must pay for abusing the Laws at will."
Gruesome words, yet she hummed like a tune.
"Shall I sever the legs?"
Even to her son, Yorjan proposed without hesitation.
"That would slow the Sword Custodian's steps to us."
Penrina replied amused.
"Then the arms?"
"Plan to make us sip tea brewed from legs?"
Tapping the armrest, she shrugged.
Truth was, the answer was set.
"Pluck out one eye."
"……."
"One of us suffices for the world he sees; two is excess."
Yorjan merely placed fist to chest, bowing deeper at the firm decree.
"As Your Majesty wills."