Three Days Until Entry
You're sharp, aren't you.
Three days until the investigation team goes in.
And for those three days, I was the most suspicious-looking kid alive.
I'd stop mid-peel on a tangerine and stare out the window. I'd freeze mid-swing with a wooden sword and just stand there, blank.
Couldn't help it.
Every time I swung that wooden sword, the crack came back to me.
A problem with no answer in sight, and I'd turned it over a hundred times while swinging a blade.
At night I tossed and turned on the sofa. A body that used to drop into dead sleep at any hour was wide awake until two in the morning these past few days.
"Byuri."
Eventually, at the dinner table, Jihyun set down her spoon.
"You've been weird lately."
"…Huh?"
"You keep leaving tangerines. Over and over."
"……"
"And the candy in the drawer hasn't moved in two days. I count them, you know."
…Chills.
There had to be dozens of candies in there at a glance, and she'd been counting them?
I was still rubbing at the goosebumps prickling up my arms when Nayeon nodded along from the side.
"Unnie's right. Something's been off since you came back from that sealed dungeon, hasn't there? Talk to us. We're family."
Family.
Come on. Did she really think dropping that word would make me fold?
"……."
I set down my spoon and let a beat of silence pass.
It wasn't because of the family line. I'd been planning to say it anyway.
This felt too big to keep carrying alone.
"…That reading the investigator mentioned last time. The spike at 3:17 p.m."
"Yeah."
"That was me."
"……"
Silence. Then Nayeon's pupils started to shake.
"You—you touched the equipment back then?!"
"No. That's not it—"
"Then what?! Wait, hold on—you've known since then? Even when the investigator was here?!"
"…Yes."
I fidgeted with my fingers. Nayeon, who'd been staring at me in a daze, let out a sharp yelp and shot to her feet.
"Th-then why are you only saying this now?!"
"Because Master would worry."
"Worrying is what a guild master is for!"
…So that was her role in this guild. Good to know.
Well, the self-appointed Head of Worrying had given clearance, so I might as well finish.
Where to start? Just… in order. All of it.
"That crack… reacts to me. When I get close, the readings spike. When I move away, they settle. The time I went near the perimeter line that day lines up exactly with what the investigator said."
"…It could just be a coincidence, right? How can you be so sure?"
"My body tells me."
I laid a hand over my chest. Right over the place where the white line was etched.
"The spot that broke—it aches when I get near it. Scales with the distance. And the energy coming off that crack… it's the same as my blade. I don't know why. But the reaction is real."
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
The first one to open her mouth was—
"I think I need to go the—"
"No! I won't let you!"
Nayeon, right on cue.
She slammed the table. One unlucky tangerine from the piled heap went tumbling off the edge.
"You said it aches! That means you shouldn't go anywhere near that place!"
"…You're not wrong."
"I'm not, right?! Right?!"
"But in three days, people are going in there."
Nayeon's mouth shut.
"The investigation team doesn't know anything. They're walking in with one unexplained reading and nothing else. What if something happens…?"
"Th-that's for the Association to—"
"What does the Association know? The only person in the world who knows what that crack reacts to is me."
Back when I was a sword, it was the same. Even when I could see something coming, there was nothing I could do.
No mouth to warn anyone. Just watching.
So…
"I spent three years knowing and doing nothing but watch. I don't want to do that anymore."
I looked between the two of them.
"From a distance. I won't cross the perimeter. Just… let me be nearby."
The silence stretched.
"Reporting it to the Association would be the proper move, but."
"And say what? That the guild's youngest member's chest aches so it's dangerous?"
"……."
Without revealing anything about me, that was never going to fly.
"…Alright. Let me lay this out."
This time Jihyun spoke. Her voice had gone completely flat.
"If you go? You could agitate the crack. You could end up on the Association's radar, like the investigator said. And even after taking that risk, nothing might happen at all."
"Yes."
"If you don't go? Whatever goes down inside, nobody knows a thing. You sit at home peeling tangerines."
"…Yes."
"Haa."
Jihyun took off her glasses and pressed her fingers hard into the sockets of her eyes. When she did that, it meant the math was done.
"The Association just posted a subcontract for outer support on entry day. Supply assist. Same as last time—work outside the perimeter line."
"Jihyun?! Don't tell me you're taking it?!"
"Conditionally."
Jihyun raised her fingers one by one.
"One. No approaching the perimeter. No wandering around like last time and spiking the readings."
"Yes."
"Two. The moment you sense anything, you say so immediately. No deciding alone, no moving alone."
"Yes."
"Three. If I say pull out, you pull out. No questions."
"…Yes. I promise."
"Hoo… That's enough for me. Senior?"
Nayeon sat there with her cheeks puffed out for a long moment, then finally deflated with a sigh.
"…Four. You stay glued to my side. Three-meter radius."
"……Yes."
There was no room to negotiate in those eyes. Three meters was a landslide victory as far as I was concerned.
Jihyun filed the subcontract application right there at the table. And she didn't forget to tack on one last remark.
"For the record, the daily rate this time is pretty solid… not that that's the important part, but still."
"It is important. Rent doesn't pay itself."
"…I like that we speak the same language."
"Hey?! That makes it sound like I'm the one who doesn't!"
Wasn't she, though?
"Master is a genuinely good person. She just doesn't worry about the future."
"Wow. How does a brand-new ego sword understand her senior better than the senior does?"
"…This is bullying! Do you know how hard I work on a regular basis… um."
Faced with actually naming what she worked hard at on a regular basis, Nayeon sank into deep contemplation.
Faced with this deeply reliable image of a guild master, Jihyun sighed and answered for her.
"Atmosphere maintenance, I suppose."
"That better not be a fancy way of saying freeloading…"
"Oh my. You're sharp, aren't you."
"Hey!"
And so our guild was headed back to that mountainside again.
Was this the right call?
Well.
It'd be fine… right?
That night.
Long after everyone else had fallen asleep, I was wide awake again.
Might as well, since I was up—over to the computer. Three cushions stacked with practiced ease, slap slap slap.
Come to think of it, that Dango kid had been quiet these past few days too. We used to trade nonsense at least once every two days.
And right as I thought it, the chat window lit up.
DangoOnTour.
Online.
Okay, that was basically telepathy.
Guess the quiet spell had been weighing on them too. The exclamation marks were running at double the usual rate.
"……"
A cherished blade… well. I did have one.
I glanced down. Then gave a small shake of the head.
I was a gentleman.
Nobody could like me in this state…!
The way the messages were pouring in, their interest had clearly locked onto me and they were thrilled about it.
How did I meet it…
What was I supposed to say? I awakened and turned into a sword, lol?
…Last time they'd gone on about letting a sword go and gotten all depressed. Was this about that?
Felt wrong to dig, so I just sent a "yep."
They could put it however they wanted—I had a pretty good idea.
"……"
A reinvestigation of a sealed dungeon…?
My fingers stopped over the keyboard.
Come on. The investigator had said it wasn't just this one.
How many sealed dungeons were there nationwide? Reinvestigations would be rolling out all over…
What were the odds this person would end up investigating the exact same place as me.
"……"
I froze mid-reach for my cup.
That area.
That area…?
The online light went dark.
I sat in front of the blackened screen for a long time.
"Hmm."
How many sealed dungeons were there in this city again?
Three or four?
They'd said reinvestigations were going out all over, so the odds of this person landing on A-7 were one in a few at best.
Probability said it shouldn't be.
So why was my spine crawling like this.
Like the white line on my chest was itching for no reason.
From the living room came the sound of Jihyun shifting in her sleep, murmuring something.
On the desk, the entry-day supply list was already taped up. Under the materials list, someone had written Boiled Eggs X—probably the scars of a war with Nayeon.
"…Haa."
Well.
Honestly, no real reason to dread it. Meeting a gallery buddy offline wasn't exactly my idea of a good time, but it didn't make me want to run either.
If we did cross paths, well—I'd just have to say hello nicely.