Shriveled?
Shriveled?
After taking turns hitting the punch machine, we decided to take a short break.
It felt a bit soon to rest after just a few rounds, but we'd already spent a while wandering around anyway.
"The fireworks are starting soon. We should find a spot to watch, and we'll need snacks while we wait, so it's better to go now."
I nodded at Ellia's explanation; going separately later would mess up the timing.
We each took care of personal matters and set a place and time to meet again.
[Seo-yul, you make sure to follow the grown-ups closely. Don't let go of their hands.]
I also had to use the restroom, so I had no choice but to send Seo-yul off with them.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason. I had another matter to attend to.
"...Yes."
Seo-yul pouted, squeezing my hand tight, but eventually let go with a reluctant face, as if she knew it couldn't be helped.
Seeing her dislike even a short separation, I felt a pang of guilt for not spending enough time with her...
"Alright, come here."
Seo-yul, still pouting, trotted over to Ellia, who had her arms open. Standing beside them, Yeon-hwa clenched her fist in frustration.
"...I heard fairies are also influenced by spirit affinity, right?"
"Ahaha, that's what I've heard."
Ellia, holding hands with Seo-yul, replied with an awkward smile.
"Okay then, let's all get ready and meet back here."
And so everyone dispersed for a while.
"Master?"
But Master didn't leave. She stayed right there. When I tilted my head in curiosity, she carefully tidied my hair and stared intently in one direction.
"Why don't you go together?"
A sudden question. Once I sensed where Master was looking, a soft sigh escaped me.
[It's okay. I'm just going to say a quick hello and come right back.]
When I shook my head, Master's eyes clouded with worry. But a moment later, as if remembering we were in Siyoram, the worry in her eyes lessened.
"It's safe here... and the distance is short... Very well, come back safely."
'......'
I felt a little sulky at being looked at like a problem child, but in the end, it was all my own karma, so I couldn't blame anyone.
[I'll be right back.]
—I planted a soft smack of a kiss.
"Ah."
Anyway, no sense wasting time. I pressed my lips to the back of Master's hand, then turned and walked away quickly.
.
.
.
My destination was a cafe right nearby.
It wasn't a particularly special place among the many cafes in Siyoram. Its only small distinction was a little balcony jutting out from the top floor.
—Woom...
I stepped onto the balcony and released the perception-obstruction magic.
Thanks to the ongoing Birth Festival, the cafe was busier than usual, but there were only a few people on the top-floor terrace.
"......"
"......"
There were two people already there, to be exact.
At the far end of the terrace, overlooking an avenue thronged with festival crowds.
As I approached, Lee Ji-yeon, who had been staring down at her coffee cup, glanced over at me.
Her posture was rigid. I'd always felt a firm presence from her, solid like a rock, but this was different.
Usually, her firmness was grounded in confidence. Now, her body was stiff with tension.
Considering Lee Ji-yeon's past, it wasn't strange at all.
In the first place, she had changed so quickly lately. The Lee Ji-yeon I knew from Siyoram was accustomed to that shrunken-down, wimpy state.
I returned Lee Ji-yeon's greeting and calmly stroked my necklace.
[...Good evening.]
The moment I sensed the faint presence emanating from right in front of her, I understood.
Across from Lee Ji-yeon sat a woman who had been gazing down at the avenue with her legs crossed; she turned her head toward me.
"Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you."
She uncrossed her legs, dipped her head softly, and rose from her seat.
Darkness was descending. The lanterns installed on the terrace cast elongated shadows.
A tall woman, someone I'd grown accustomed to perceiving after spending considerable time in this world.
Brown hair cascaded past her shoulders, and her face and features were so chiseled they looked carved from stone. Not a single trace of emotion leaked through.
Eyes of a murky, unfathomable green looked down at me.
"I am called Lee Ji-ah, the head of the Taesan family."
[Yes, my name is Lee Ha-yul.]
The head of Taesan, and Lee Ji-yeon's birth mother. She dipped her head again in acknowledgment of my greeting.
"I apologize for imposing while you were in the middle of enjoying the festivities with your companions. I happened to be walking with my daughter and caught sight of you from afar. I did not mean to cause you concern."
[I didn't feel any discomfort. I had also heard from Senior Lee Ji-yeon that you were visiting and was planning to pay my respects later.]
I actually had the question of how she recognized me through the perception obstruction, but I swallowed it for now.
I could easily see through that level of obstruction myself. It wouldn't be strange for Lee Ji-ah to have similar means.
"I am grateful for your kind words."
Lee Ji-ah nodded at my reply and took a sip of her coffee.
Pitch-black coffee... but it was way darker than normal coffee. It wasn't dark brown; it was purely black.
I discreetly scanned its composition and sensed a bitter lump of liquid with not a shred of sugar in it.
To perceive her holding that in her mouth and gulping it down felt very awkward.
'...Does she have a broken sense of taste, too?'
I could just swallow it because my sense of taste is wrecked, but I couldn't imagine a person with intact taste buds savoring and swallowing that.
Was it just a matter of personal preference after all?
I sat down across from Lee Ji-ah, in the empty seat next to Lee Ji-yeon, for a short conversation.
Sitting beside Lee Ji-yeon made me feel even more acutely how stiff she was.
Totally cowed, reduced to less than a wimp.
I'd seen this in the original story too, but... was her relationship with her parents, with Lee Ji-ah, really that awkward? Enough to be this rigid with tension?
I don't really know. In truth, Lee Ji-yeon wasn't the type to babble about her family in the original, either. I just heard they had a distant relationship, and that's how it seemed in the original.
'...I don't like it.'
Seeing Lee Ji-yeon like this unsettled me.
I let out a deep sigh and listened closely.
'The sounds...'
The small, ambient noises were barely audible.
The festival was in full swing outside. It was dark, but the energy hadn't faded.
Countless presences should have been stirring, yet somehow, all those presences were being crushed down on this terrace.
It was all the influence of the person sitting across from me.
Just the faintly wafting remnants of her contained presence were enough to grind down all the small noises around us.
'Did Taesan have this kind of effect...?'
The head of Taesan, Lee Ji-ah, had naturally manifested the unique ability Taesan.
And naturally, a position like the head of one of the Three Great Families couldn't be reached with a mere middling unique ability.
'She's the same type as Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin.'
But even among them, Lee Ji-ah was special. She was the strongest of all the heads of Taesan in history, stronger than the heads of the Calamity Flame and Azure Sea families in the same generation.
Lee Ji-ah's Taesan was described as unique.
Like Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame and Baek A-rin's Azure Sea, it was treated as an unprecedented level across the family's entire history.
That became a major cause for Lee Ji-yeon's inferiority complex and self-hatred, but... anyway.
"Since you have a prior engagement, I will keep my greeting brief."
Lee Ji-ah, after sipping her coffee, set the cup down on the table.
"Last time, my daughter received a great debt of gratitude from you. I wished to meet you in person and express my thanks."
Last time... she probably means the incident with the Twin-headed Poison Dragon in China.
[It was less a debt and more mutual assistance. I wouldn't have come through safely without Senior Lee Ji-yeon, either.]
"Nevertheless, my daughter returned alive thanks to you, Lee Ha-yul."
Lee Ji-ah nodded.
"I have faced a living Twin-headed Poison Dragon myself."
[Ah.]
"The official position classified that entity as a 3rd-Rank Alpha, but the consensus was that its effective lethality exceeded that rank. I felt the same."
At the time the Twin-headed Poison Dragon appeared, Lee Ji-ah was already the head of Taesan. She participated in the Twin-headed Poison Dragon Subjugation Battle, stood at the vanguard, and was the hero who earned the greatest merit.
"Having faced it personally, I know how powerful and vicious that monster was. Even as an incomplete undead, the notion that my daughter and her unit—having been the first to catch its attention—would have returned alive was exceedingly slim."
—Flinc.
Under Lee Ji-ah's emotionless gaze, Lee Ji-yeon's shoulders gave a minute tremble. She didn't deny the statement that without me, surviving would have been difficult.
Lee Ji-ah, who had been staring at Lee Ji-yeon without a flicker of expression, straightened her gaze and dipped her head again.
"Be that as it may, the fact remains that you, Lee Ha-yul, are the benefactor who saved my daughter's life."
[...Both then and afterward, I received a great deal of help from Senior Lee Ji-yeon. I am equally grateful.]
"Yes, but our debt is far heavier, and we have not yet repaid it in full. Please do not make our family into ingrates who cannot repay a benefactor. If you ever need assistance, please speak to my daughter at any time."
Lee Ji-ah steadfastly emphasized the debt and conveyed her thanks, even at my response. I felt a bit awkward and bowed my head.
'What is that presence?'
A normal reaction, yet that ill-boding, alien presence was separate from it all.
That presence bothered me. I had to meticulously adjust my necklace to make sure nothing strange slipped out, and I had to keep my mind and body in check so I wouldn't inadvertently project hostility.
It was alien and ominous. Instinctive rejection welled up inside me.
'......'
I don't know what it is. But I've felt something similar before. Not in the distant past.
"If I may, there is one thing I would like to say."
[Huh? Yes.]
Lee Ji-ah, who had been savoring her coffee, abruptly spoke up.
I tilted my head for a moment in surprise, then nodded.
At that, Lee Ji-ah softly set down her coffee cup. Her murky green eyes seemed to swallow my reflection.
Her gaze was strange somehow. She was looking at me, but it didn't feel like she was looking at me.
"Lee Ha-yul, death lingers close to you."
[Excuse me?]
"I am not speaking of a mere consumption of your allotted lifespan."
I tilted my head, more bewildered than before.
Death is close to me.
Even at first hearing, it wasn't a positive statement. I steadied my face, which almost stiffened on its own.
Normally, I would have just scoffed and let it go in one ear and out the other, but the source—the messenger herself—was a big deal: Lee Ji-ah, who wielded the strongest Taesan in her family's history.
Taesan is a unique ability that governs the earth, the foundation of life, and beyond that, life and death itself.
Lee Ji-ah, standing at its peak, was particularly adept at handling and perceiving life and death.
That alien, ill-boding presence bothered me, but someone like that was telling me that death was near.
"It is not simply that death approaches; it is as if you walk toward death, unable to allow yourself to avoid it."
—That curse is gnawing away at your life, Lee Ha-yul.
Considering it alongside my curse, this wasn't a matter I could just brush off.
I kept my mouth shut and calmly stroked the Confession Necklace.
[What do you—]
"Mother, you are out of line."
Then it happened.
Just as I was about to operate the necklace, Lee Ji-yeon, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth.
—...! ...? ...!
And at the same moment, sound rushed in. All kinds of noise, including the laughter of people enjoying the festival, spilled onto the terrace.
The presence that had been grinding down all sound was scattered in an instant. The presence pushing away the silence that had hung over the terrace was blooming right next to me.
"Death is near him? Such words are extremely rude to utter to a living person. And on top of that, saying he cannot avoid it, that he walks toward death of his own accord... No matter how much you permitted speech, I find it hard to listen to such discourteous words."
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been rigidly staring only at her coffee, raised her head.
"Did you not say so yourself, Mother? That absolute estimation of life and death is impossible. That even if death is glimpsed, it is not unavoidable. How can the very person who said such things judge another's death so carelessly and speak of it?"
Gone was the shrunken, tiptoeing attitude. Lee Ji-yeon looked Lee Ji-ah squarely in the eye.
Murky green eyes met bright green ones.
"It is not absolute, so it can be avoided. With enough effort, it can be overcome. That is what I was taught."
"......"
"In this world where even one's natural lifespan can be extended after birth, I was not taught by someone who pronounces that a child cannot escape death."
Lee Ji-yeon's fluent stream of words cut off for a moment.
I was bewildered, watching Lee Ji-yeon suddenly launch herself at Lee Ji-ah as if she'd floored the gas pedal after acting like a total wimp.
And Lee Ji-ah, who had been utterly emotionless ever since we met, had her eyes open wide.