A Quick Re...union
A Quick Re...union
"I was worried because your injuries looked severe, but now... there's not a single wound on you, son-in-law."
[Y-yes... Thank you for your concern... I'm fine now...]
"That's a relief. But your current state—is it some kind of aftereffect?"
[Yes... a minor aftereffect. I'll be back to normal soon...]
"I see... that's fortunate."
[Yeees...]
I couldn't bring myself to lift my head. Under that calmly assessing gaze, there was no way I could show my face with any composure.
Hong Jin-seon. Yeon-hwa's biological father and my, my... father-in-law.
I'd never met him in person before.
Not until that bizarre encounter in the Reverse Side.
'I was a little more presentable back then...'
I was a wreck, injured all over, and we couldn't even have a proper conversation because the situation was so urgent. But at least I hadn't shown myself in such an embarrassing state.
If anything, I probably looked decent, didn't I? I showed a strong front to the head of a family that values martial prowess...
- Yeon-hwa... could you put me down now?
Now, things were different.
I was cradled in Yeon-hwa's arms, leaning back against her. Wonderfully soft and comfortable, but at the moment, deeply mortifying.
A shame I'd nearly forgotten lately churned through my guts...
I sent her a covert Sound Transmission, but no answer came. Instead, Yeon-hwa's hand gently stroked my stomach.
"My daughter, it seems to me your son-in-law's expression is asking to be put down."
"Not at all. Do you know how much Ha-yul loves being held by me? And right now, he absolutely cannot be left alone."
Hong Jin-seon's supportive interjection was cut off at once.
"Isn't that right?"
[Yes.]
I affirmed it on reflex. Hong Yeon-hwa smiled brightly and patted my stomach softly.
Under that touch, my mind went drowsy and slack again. The vibrations reaching inside my belly made my eyelids grow heavier...
"Hah..."
[Ah.]
Hong Jin-seon's sigh of amazement snapped me back to alertness.
I subtly activated Observation. It showed Hong Jin-seon standing there with his mouth hanging open as if he couldn't believe his eyes.
"I'd heard about it beforehand, and I'm seeing it with my own eyes now, but... I still can't believe it. Is she really my daughter?"
"Why does everyone say that the moment they see me? What did I ever do?"
"The family's behavior correction class reports should still be on file. Do you want to take a look?"
"What? Why would you even keep those?"
"Is there any reason to throw them away? We have plenty of storage."
At Hong Jin-seon's words, Yeon-hwa pouted and tightened her arms around me.
"...Fine. But I heard you went into that... Reverse Side? How did that happen?"
"I don't know. I just went into a nearby dungeon and was killing any monsters I saw, when suddenly the ground split and I fell into this place called the Reverse Side."
Seeing Hong Jin-seon's puzzled look, a question mark rose in my mind too.
Entering the Reverse Side. Specifically, suddenly falling into it rather than entering through a gate.
There was precedent.
Senior Daera had suddenly fallen into the Reverse Side from inside a rampaging dungeon.
Hong Jin-seon's case might have been similar.
'But.'
His wasn't a natural occurrence.
I vividly remembered the traces carved into space at that time. The traces of a 'slash.'
'Someone made it artificially.'
No natural phenomenon. Someone interfered with space and created a path between the Reverse Side and the dungeon.
Considering that clue and the alarm that rang in my head, I could roughly guess who.
"My son-in-law was there. And the bastard I'd been looking for was there too."
"That bastard...? Ah, Hong Yeon-jun? That br— hm! That bastard was there?"
"...Yes."
"Then where is he now?"
"He got away."
"What?"
The conversation continued even while I drifted into a brief reverie.
Yeon-hwa's eyes went wide.
"You let him get away? Why?"
Hong Jin-seon folded his arms and stayed silent for a moment.
"...He had some strange trick. And I wasn't in normal condition to begin with. At least that's a small excuse."
As he muttered that, Hong Jin-seon's gaze landed on me.
"I stopped by to visit him in the infirmary, and also because I had questions. But once I got here, other questions came to mind."
Hong Jin-seon adjusted his posture.
"Son-in-law, may I ask you something?"
[Yes, Hong Jin-seon.]
I also adjusted my posture in Hong Yeon-hwa's embrace.
I had a rough idea of what the question would be.
'The Tower Master of Purgatory.'
More precisely, the Tower Master of Purgatory who descended using Hong Yeon-jun as a vessel.
From Hong Jin-seon's perspective, not knowing the full story, he would have seen a bizarre entity possessing his younger brother's body.
And I had acted like I was on familiar terms with that thing.
'Should I... tell him the circumstances?'
I hadn't decided yet. So I waited with complicated feelings for Hong Jin-seon to speak.
"Son-in-law, have you manifested Taesan and Azure Sea?"
His mouth opened. At that soft, deliberate question, my mind went blank for a second.
...
[Taesan...? Azure Sea...? What do you mean?]
The Confession Necklace responded with a reply I had stored in my head like a preset shortcut.
My senses returned. I tilted my head, projecting innocence for now.
[I haven't manifested Taesan or Azure Sea.]
My Confession Necklace carries the true intent of my thoughts in its words.
So I had to be careful with my choice of words.
I had not 'yet' manifested Azure Sea and Taesan. It felt like I probably would someday, but what I'd used so far was imitation through Homogenization.
They hadn't taken root in me like Calamity Flame...
"...Ha-yul."
"Hm?"
That was when Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been quietly listening, reached up with a complicated expression and gently kneaded my cheek.
"When we found you on the battlefield, you were openly using both of them."
"Oh."
[Ah.]
Ah.
.
.
.
While walking through the corridor,
many people, though startled by my shrunken appearance, still offered me greetings.
Association personnel, mages dispatched from the Magic Council, a small number of administrators sent from the Observation Unit.
Superhumans who had entered under the Association Mobilization Order.
And...
"Greetings! Lee Ha-yul! I'm Lee Seung-cheol, a member of Amak's unit, dispatched to follow Miss Lee Ji-yeon!"
...
"Ah, I'm Baek Yu-na, dispatched from the Azure Wave division. It's a pleasure to meet you."
...
"Young master, are you well? Ah, I'm Hong Yeon-cheol of the Purification Unit. I greeted you during the last break."
[Yes, hello...]
Personnel from the Three Great Families were greeting me with suspiciously formal deference.
'They all saw.'
My expression soured on its own.
An official announcement hadn't been made yet, and most people still didn't know.
But the troops of the Three Great Families who had broken through the battlefield to rescue me—they had definitely seen.
They were keeping quiet and sworn to secrecy for now, but they definitely knew...
"Wow, you're pretty popular, huh?"
"Please don't tease me..."
"Who's teasing? Being popular is good."
Professor Liana, who had been watching the whole scene from start to finish while carrying me in her arms, chuckled softly as she toyed with my earlobe.
...Professor Liana probably knew exactly why they were acting that way too.
But she said nothing about it and just showered me with affection.
Unable to even pout at that, I quietly buried my face in Professor Liana's chest.
- Thump... thump... thump...
Hearing the heartbeat thudding within the soft flesh that cradled my face calmed my mind and body.
Breathing in the milky scent that filled my nose, I soothed my heart.
'...Well, it was bound to come out eventually.'
If I had stopped at imitation through Homogenization, there was a chance it wouldn't have been found out.
But if it went beyond imitation and took root in me as an Innate Talent, then considering the battles ahead, exposure was inevitable.
Especially Azure Sea—I had to obtain it as an Innate Talent to lift Baek A-rin's curse.
It was an unavoidable outcome. It wasn't like I was despairing into her chest...
- It's a very surprising and serious matter, but given the son-in-law's condition, it's nothing to rush a decision over. Don't worry needlessly, and rest easy.
Hong Jin-seon had said that to me. Like Yeon-hwa's mother, Choi Ji-yeon, he was a good person.
Since someone like that had said so, things would be fine later too.
Surely they would.
'It wasn't like the 3rd Iteration had any danger of assassination attempts either.'
In the 3rd Iteration, my Unique Ability had been exposed and the factional situation turned into a complete mess. But it wasn't a life-threatening crisis where someone would come for my neck.
In reality, they were busy gathering among themselves, having meetings day and night.
The reason the 3rd Iteration ended was because I tried to escape those troublesome fights for a moment and ran into a 2nd-Rank Monster by surprise in a bad situation.
So nothing bad was going to happen to me either.
It had to be that way...
"Pff..."
"Ahaha, that tickles."
I let out a long breath and lifted my head. Professor Liana patted my back with a chuckle as I discreetly shifted my Observation.
There was someone else accompanying us besides Professor Liana.
"...Junior Disciple, do you like it that much?"
[Yes.]
Senior Daera was staring at me with an extremely peculiar expression. For some reason, her gaze toward me had been growing increasingly lukewarm lately.
"Ahem! Anyway, it's a relief those bastards were captured..."
[That's right. I had no strength left either and was forced to let them go, so I'm relieved.]
Senior Daera changed the subject, and I nodded in agreement.
"Those bastards" referred to the ones who had been following Hong Yeon-jun.
Senior Daera had been dealing with them, but when the situation turned to chaos with the appearance of Tower Master of Purgatory and the 10th Iteration, they apparently bolted.
I had no strength left at the time either and had no choice but to let them go.
But they were caught.
From what I heard, they were swept up by the Reverse Side Rampage, hurled onto the battlefield, and then captured by the Association Subjugation Force that detected them.
I figured they probably wouldn't make it out of the Reverse Side, so I had expected this outcome in a vague way. But I didn't expect them to actually get caught. I thought they'd slip through a gap in the front lines and escape, but it seems they were caught easily—maybe thanks to how thoroughly Senior Daera had roasted them with her lightning.
'Whatever the reason, it's a good result.'
We might be able to interrogate them and extract information.
So Professor Liana came as my guardian, and Senior Daera as a directly involved party, to go see the bastards together.
We walked on and arrived at the underground detention facility.
Following the guidance of an Association staff member who had been waiting, we entered the area where the solitary confinement cells were.
'Hm.'
The cells were fairly large, with a transparent structure that let people outside see in. However, a separate function prevented those inside from seeing out.
Each of the bastards had been thrown into a separate cell, bound in all manner of restraint devices.
"Professor, just a moment."
I slipped out of Professor Liana's arms and floated in the air with magic.
This time, Professor Liana didn't try to stop me.
Still, perhaps worried, she released a flurry of upper spirits behind me.
The upper spirits in human form beamed at me and waved.
I waved back, then flew forward with magic and stopped in front of one cell.
At my small signal, the Association staff member nodded carefully and manipulated the Magic Tool.
Just then, light flickered across the transparent wall.
The prisoner inside could now see this side.
The tightly bound bastard lifted his head.
It was definitely Est, the wanted criminal who had fired arrows and magic at me.
He looked like something you'd automatically call a wreck.
[It's been a while... or not really. Are you glad to see me anyway?]
"......"
[I told you to just surrender back then, didn't I.]
His lips, which looked like he hadn't had water in a while, moved roughly and cracked.
Just as I was leaning in to listen to what he might say,
the guy, Est, immediately threw his head down as if to smash it into the floor.
"Please, just spare my life. There was a reason I couldn't surrender back then. I'll explain everything obediently. I'm not presumptuous enough to ask for my freedom, either. If you just let me live, I'll work like a dog under your orders."
[?]
[Dumbfounded.]
For someone with dried, cracked lips, he had an incredibly glib tongue.
My expression crumpled at the sudden, rapid-fire declaration.