Kkonnim (1)
Kkonnim (1)
Siyoram Central District.
From early morning, the square surrounding the Tower of Growth bustled with people.
Naturally, it was all for a tower entry.
Just as naturally, the gazes of cadets, faculty, and the Siyoram residents who had come to watch converged on Lee Ha-yul and those around him.
"......"
"Ha-yul, you said you're meeting the Tower Master today, right?"
"Yes, I'll see them today."
Of course, Lee Ha-yul and the others paid the attention no mind.
They were either the sort who never cared about being stared at in the first place, had grown completely used to it by now, or were too busy fussing over Lee Ha-yul to spare a thought for anyone's stares.
"The Tower Master of Growth... I remember them being described quite a bit in the history books, among the Tower Masters."
"Mm..."
He had already told them he'd be meeting the Tower Master of Growth during this tower entry.
They were surprised, yes, but since it wasn't an incomprehensible situation, they accepted it easily enough.
"Dear, are you really sure you'll be okay?"
Even so, right up until the moment of entry, they couldn't swallow their worry and anxiety.
"Yes, I'm okay."
Lee Ha-yul nodded calmly. But the concern Ellia and the others felt didn't diminish.
"Are you really not going to tell us anything right now?"
Because they'd noticed for the past few days that Lee Ha-yul's condition was somewhat peculiar.
It was a state unlike anything before, to the point where even the Lee Ha-yul experts couldn't effectively soothe him.
"I'm sorry. I still don't have a clear grasp on it myself. I promise to tell you everything once I'm back."
"...I understand. I'll be waiting, so you absolutely must tell us, okay?"
In the end, they couldn't force him to explain the circumstances. If he was acting like this even after revealing most of his secrets, it had to be something truly difficult to speak about.
Swallowing a sigh, Ellia pressed a kiss to the bridge of Lee Ha-yul's nose and stepped back.
"Don't get hurt."
"If it feels dangerous, use the Tower Master as bait and run."
"If things get strange, should I just break the Tower and come out?"
"...Hehe, I'll be back."
- Mwah, mwah, mwah.
Along with the affectionate kisses came teasing words of worry.
Lee Ha-yul finally dropped his calm facade, a small smile blooming on his lips.
.
.
.
When you enter the Tower of Growth, your consciousness usually blurs and only clears once you arrive at the proper destination.
It didn't blur this time.
Lee Ha-yul closed his eyes, breathed out softly, and operated the Authority of Space and Observation.
He was floating in a pitch-black, cosmos-like void.
A familiar place. It was where he'd foolishly tested the Five Ends and clashed with the 8th Iteration, shattering space and plunging downward.
Considering the Tower of Harmonization was similar, the interiors of the Towers apparently all looked much the same.
- ...Gently.
As he assessed his surroundings, a certain current coiled softly around him.
A gentle will. Lee Ha-yul's eyebrow twitched, and when he didn't resist, the current carefully drew him forward.
The background slid past. Within the renewed range of his observation, he sensed countless strata densely studded like stars.
The Tower of Harmonization's strata could be counted on two hands, but the Tower of Growth possessed so many he couldn't estimate them with his hands, feet, or even his eyes.
'Didn't they say most of those are strata for raising monsters used as an army corps and producing supplies? And they make use of them for cadet trials on the side.'
Once an invasion begins, needing an army is a given.
Especially against the Undead army corps with its disgusting numbers, having your own army corps is essential.
They must have also prepared places to produce supplies in anticipation of the world's food production crashing due to the war and the Authority of Bitter Cold.
...Of course, even before such thorough countermeasures could be fully utilized, Lee Ha-yul slammed into the enemy head-on and drove away the Dead and Bitter Cold.
Unlike last time, Lee Ha-yul, who had been leisurely examining the strata, wore a complicated expression.
The response had been prepared to this extent.
Even if Lee Ha-yul had fled, Bitter Cold and the Dead would have been blocked by our side's Tower Masters.
'Still, slamming into them really was the right call.'
If it had come to that, the restrictions our Tower Masters had placed would have crumbled, and a full-scale invasion by the Tower Masters and their army corps would have followed.
He'd earned a mountain of awe and fear from strangers, and no small amount of worry and scolding from those close to him. But slamming into them was still the right call. If he'd lost, it would've been a dog's death, but since he won anyway, wasn't that good enough?
'......'
The stray thoughts he'd been forcing himself to dwell on were cut off cleanly.
A jolt of belated realization hit him, but thankfully he didn't need to agonize any longer.
The current guiding his body ceased.
A pitch-black sphere came into view ahead. Even in this cosmos-dark place, its color was exceptionally dense and deep.
A single person's presence could be felt within it.
- Hoooh...
Lee Ha-yul pressed a hand to his chest and exhaled deeply.
This was the Tower Master of Growth, the one he had wanted to meet for any reason at all since coming to this world. He was now face to face with the moment he'd so long awaited.
His heart was truly a mess, but he'd been steeling his resolve for several days now.
Lee Ha-yul, glaring with eyes that could barely see, stretched out his leg. His body, surging forward, plunged into the sphere with a splash.
He stood on solid ground.
The sphere was a single stratum.
'......'
Observed information densely filled his head.
A gray sky, neither bright nor dim. Upon the narrow stretch of earth, temple pillars in a dry architectural style and stone flooring stretched out.
Between the paving stones, agapanthus flowers were poking their heads up.
Lee Ha-yul swallowed hard and raised his head.
A woman sat upon the jade throne placed starkly in the center of the stratum.
Violet hair flowed softly like silk, and eyes as clear as amethysts held a bright, intelligent light.
Even through her thin clothing, a voluptuous silhouette was distinctly visible.
The unfamiliar woman was... no, not unfamiliar.
She was the woman he had seen in the portrait hung in the Siyoram mansion's study.
In her active days, she was a superhuman called the Silent Mage; now, she was the figure known as Siyoram's Headmaster and the Tower Master of Growth.
'Neriel Claidia.'
【For the first time, I show... my face, and offer... greetings.】
A strange voice resonated. A peculiar voice similar to, yet different from, Word Command.
Neriel rose quietly to her feet. Her rippling hair cascaded down, veiling her back.
【The Tower Master of Growth, Neriel Claidia, presents... her respects to the Savior.】
She let out a small breath, gauged Lee Ha-yul's expression, placed both hands on her stomach, and bowed courteously at the waist.
This would be profoundly shocking to people of the outside world.
Even among other Tower Masters, none is her superior—so would the Tower Master of Growth and Headmaster of Siyoram truly greet anyone with such deep deference?
【To come meet you in person... properly escorting... it is only natural... yet to this day... I could not... offer my greeting... so for that rudeness... I apolo—】
[I... I...]
Suddenly, a threadbare voice, tiny as an ant's, layered beneath.
It was a volume that would be buried in the quiet Neriel's voice, but to her tensed ears, it drove itself deeply, deeply in.
Neriel, trembling faintly, stopped the words she'd been pushing out with such effort.
[I...]
Just as she was agonizing over whether to raise her head, the voice, smaller still, reached her.
Neriel, having deliberated carefully, cautiously straightened her back and saw Lee Ha-yul with his head bowed deeply.
Lee Ha-yul had never once considered himself to have a good head on his shoulders.
His thinking speed was absurdly fast. With the Authority of Knowledge, his memory was beyond discussion, and he had confidence his mind worked well when it came to fighting.
But if asked whether he was smart, he'd shake his head.
And so he didn't jump to conclusions recklessly.
It was only speculation. Once he confirmed it in person, something would be different. He'd soothed his doubts in that way and waited.
[Th-This...]
Crush! His fist clenched fiercely. The tremor that quivered even his shoulders shook Neriel's eyes along with it.
『...Gu─』
[You, it's you...!]
The voice suddenly grew louder. Neriel flinched and shut her mouth.
[Back then, back then...! The car...! The person who almost got hit...!]
Long ago.
After finding a part-time job at a convenience store that at least kept me fed, I was trudging back to my goshiwon from a hard day's work
when a mad cargo truck suddenly swerved onto the sidewalk.
I was close. Horrified, I naturally tried to run.
But just then, a woman caught my eye.
Maybe because she was in the path of the truck, or maybe just because she was incredibly beautiful, she stuck in my memory.
Long brown hair, a body with unmistakably feminine curves. A gentle aura that she carried.
Her hair color was different. Her eyes too were brown, not purple.
[It... is you...!]
Neriel and that woman looked exactly the same. My memory from that time isn't as vivid as Observation, but when I compared them through analysis, they were identical, practically the same person.
- In the end, we stopped our indiscriminate observation and sent a sort of terminal directly into that world
- To be precise, the Tower Master of Space temporarily connected them, and only the Tower Master of Growth, who excels in the Incarnation Art, could send a terminal
So the Tower Master of Knowledge, Ariel, had explained.
Because the Five Tower Masters were restricted from moving freely, the Tower Master of Growth had sent a terminal via Incarnation Art to find Lee Ha-yul.
The woman Lee Ha-yul saved looked exactly like Neriel.
When I holed up in my room with the insurance money, a user with the nickname 'Agapanthus' had reached out to me first.
Agapanthus flowers that were placed in the Vice Headmaster's office, blooming in the mansion's garden, and arranged in a vase in the study.
Kkonnim.
[Th- this...!]
Starting from her tightly clenched hand, her whole body trembled. A dark, inscrutable emotion surged up from deep inside.
[I... I thought... we were friends, hic...!]
Why had she reached out first? I didn't know. So at first, I put up my thorns and answered mechanically.
▶Agapanthus: Did you sleep well last night?
▶Agapanthus: Please don't skip meals, for your health.
▶Agapanthus: Open your windows regularly, too
But Agapanthus, Kkonnim, kept talking to me.
Deep down, I liked that attention and concern.
Even though I was a worthless shut-in parasite without a leg, with a wrecked body, a useless brain, and a mind that amounted to nothing—I liked that someone showed me care and worry.
Even though I didn't know their face or even their voice, I liked that someone beyond the screen gave me this much attention.
It had all been a delusion.
Agapanthus, Kkonnim, Neriel had approached me with an agenda.
That was disappointing, but I could accept it.
[You... deceived me...]
But how was I supposed to accept that the person I'd risked my life to save was actually an incarnation of Neriel?
A coincidence?
I wanted to believe that, I really did, but terrible suspicions kept sprouting inside me.
I wanted to trust Kkonnim, the one I'd secretly thought of as my only friend, but a seething sense of betrayal welled up.
Because these gloomy feelings mixed together, disrupted my cool-headed thinking, and kept shoving terrible conclusions at me, I had been deliberately looking away until now.
But now that I had met her in person and Observed her, I knew.
That woman was a body made by Neriel through Incarnation Art, and the someone who had approached me under the nickname Agapanthus was also Neriel.
Neriel bit her lip hard and lowered her head.
At that, Lee Ha-yul clenched his teeth.
"...Ugh..."
His head knew that Neriel bore an even stronger Curse of Silence than his own, but her continued silence felt utterly cruel.
"Urgh..."
He recalled the Vice Headmaster's advice that even with a Tower Master, you couldn't know their true feelings without talking, but right now he didn't want to talk.
"U, Uwaaahhh...!"
『...?!』
A sound she never imagined pierced the ears of Neriel, whose eyes were tightly shut.
A crying voice thick with sorrow and sadness.
She snapped her head up and saw Lee Ha-yul crying, tears streaming down his face.
The Curse of Silence, though weakened, activated. It felt as if a blade were gouging his throat, a tearing pain flaring up, but Lee Ha-yul cried out loud anyway, sobbing.
Betrayal, sorrow.
He could have spat curses at those gloomy feelings or thrown a punch, but Lee Ha-yul couldn't do it.
Because she was the Tower Master of Growth who had helped him wholeheartedly.
More than anything, because she was Kkonnim.
Perhaps she had deliberately approached Lee Ha-yul and even arranged for him to be hit by the truck.
While showing deep kindness to a shut-in Lee Ha-yul, maybe she had mocked him inside.
But she was undeniably someone who had worried about him and cared for him, so he couldn't curse or hit her.
The sorrow that couldn't become a weapon fell drop by drop as thick tears.
"Hic, sniff! Uh...! Uwaaah...!"
『S-Savior...!?』
Startled by Lee Ha-yul's unexpected violent sobbing, Neriel rushed forward.
"No...! Don't come...!"
[I don't hate it]
[I'm sad]
Whoosh! Twelve wings unfurled behind Lee Ha-yul's back as he rubbed his eyes with both hands.
Six were Sky Wing Feathers, six were Fairy Wings.
One was an artifact that long surpassed the highest grade; the other was an Innate Talent manifesting the rank of a Fairy King.
Weapons that could tear through almost any defense without a trace rushed at Neriel all at once.
Neriel clenched her teeth and braced herself for the attacks that would tear her apart.
- Flutter flutter!
『?』
The wings, swung fiercely, struck Neriel. But it was a feeble flutter, carrying not the slightest shock, let alone any injury.
"Go away... I hate you, uh..."
[Don't go]
[I don't hate you]
Lee Ha-yul kept shaking his head, continuously rubbing away the streaming tears with his hands.
Flutter flutter. The twelve wings struck Neriel wildly. But the wings trying hard to push her away were too weak; she didn't budge an inch.
I hate you. Go away.
At those words that stabbed deep into her chest, Neriel's eyes wavered.
But she didn't back away.
Because not the words, but the inner thoughts the necklace spat out were different.
If she took those words at face value and simply left, it would truly be the end.
『...I'm sorry』
In the end, Neriel stepped closer little by little, enduring the pathetically weak wingbeats.
The light wings couldn't stop her approach at all, and at last she pulled Lee Ha-yul into her embrace.
"I said no... don't come..."
[I don't dislike it]
[Hug me]
Contrary to the necklace's voice, Lee Ha-yul flailed his arms and legs.
His clenched fists thumped lightly against Neriel, but again they held not a speck of force. If he'd meant it, he could have easily broken free.
『For everything, I'm sorry...』
At her strained apology, the flailing wings and body trembled.
『I... can explain everything... Just... please give me a little time to explain...』
"Sniff..."
[Relieved]
I'm sorry. I can explain.
At that one precious phrase he'd wanted to hear, Lee Ha-yul's struggling in her arms stopped.
With large tears still clinging to his eyes, Lee Ha-yul sniffled.
Relieved, Neriel carefully wiped his tears away. Fortunately, Lee Ha-yul accepted her touch docilely.
After his tears were dried, Lee Ha-yul blinked his reddened eyes once, then wrapped his arms around Neriel's waist and buried his face in her embrace.
Kkonnim's embrace, Neriel's embrace, was profoundly comfortable. Her hands stroking his head and back, soothing him, were nothing but gentle.
"Sniff."
The ugly imaginings born from his gloomy feelings melted away.
As if their earlier flailing had never happened, the wings gently wrapped around Neriel.
* * *
