Chill
Chill
The icy night breeze grazed my cheek. A shudder ran through me as the cold seeped into my skin.
The park outside the banquet hall, where Baek A-rin had led me.
The sun had long since vanished, leaving the atmosphere dark and dim. The only light sources nearby were the streetlamps and the luminous stones embedded in the walking path.
'It's already night.'
I'd been so busy being dragged around that I hadn't noticed the time passing. How many hours had already gone by?
My plan to just say hello and leave had been utterly wrecked.
Baek A-rin held onto my sleeve as we strolled along the park trail. It was the same park we had crossed when we first entered.
"Ahh, this feels great. Now I can finally breathe."
While I trembled from the cold, Baek A-rin stretched her chest out wide and murmured with satisfaction.
"They turned the heating up way too much inside. My clothes were practically damp with sweat. Weren't you hot, Ha-yul? The heat was making my head spin."
She even flapped the fabric around her chest to emphasize her discomfort.
I was startled by her posture for a moment, but considering her constitution, it made sense that she would be hot.
Truthfully, I'd also found the banquet hall stuffy. I hadn't realized it, but my whole body had been running warm.
I only noticed now, thanks to my body temperature cooling down under the chill air outside.
Personally, I prefer warm places, so I didn't mind, but Baek A-rin was a different case.
Her body is specially adapted to accept water energy and cold energy through the manifestation of the Azure Sea.
An interior that felt muggy, like a boiler room cranked to the max, would have been uncomfortable for her in many ways.
Grumbling, Baek A-rin sat me down on a bench along the path. Then she settled her own weight right beside me on the same bench.
A streetlamp beside the bench pushed back the darkness. Its soft warmth and the quiet hum of its workings created a tranquil mood.
It was the kind of bench and streetlamp setup you'd find in those moody aesthetic photos circulating online.
'Hoo...'
It hadn't been long since we came outside. Ten minutes at most, maybe.
I thought that was plenty of time for the night breeze to cool down my heated body, but Baek A-rin clearly didn't agree; she was still fanning her clothes.
[Is it that ho...?]
"Yes. I've got so much built-up heat, I feel like I'm going to melt..."
With a rare note of frailty in her voice, Baek A-rin slumped back against the bench.
Was it really that hot inside? I mean, it was warm enough to make me feel toasty, but I didn't know if it was bad enough to affect a cold-energy user like Baek A-rin that much.
I'd never possessed the Azure Sea, so I couldn't know. The closest comparison would probably be the Calamity Flame.
Since possessing the Calamity Flame attunes you to fire energy, users generally run a bit warm.
That's why Hong Yeon-hwa's embrace is especially warm... Seriously, what's wrong with me lately.
I quickly shook my head, cutting off the thought before it veered any further into strange territory.
My head was still a little fuzzy, but I managed to sever that bizarre train of thought.
After patting my cheeks a few times, I operated my smartwatch. A question I'd forgotten about in the wake of that thought resurfaced.
[Where did Ms. Hong Yeon-hwa go?]
"Yeon-hwa couldn't come because she's dealing with the strain of the Calamity Flame. It looked like it would last a few days."
[Ah]
The side effects of the Calamity Flame. I knew about them because I'd heard Hong Yeon-hwa groaning ever since the last day in the Tower.
I nodded at Baek A-rin's answer and thought to myself.
'Are the side effects that severe?'
I rummaged through my memories of the original work.
From the 1st Iteration to the 12th Iteration.
In the early parts of each iteration, the butterfly effects the player could cause weren't large. At most, it was limited to planting seeds that would later whip up a massive storm.
The first Tower entry in particular happens so early that it's difficult for the player to cause any major incidents.
Because of that, the early parts generally played out the same across iterations, and Hong Yeon-hwa underwent the transformation of the Calamity Flame in every single one.
It wasn't a major event.
Aside from the already formidable Calamity Flame's output growing even more outrageously volatile, it wasn't an event worth paying much attention to.
'...Will she be okay?'
As I thought about her, worry arose.
I'd repeatedly asked Hong Yeon-hwa if she was okay back in the Tower when she seemed unwell, but she'd only replied that there was no problem.
Since she really only seemed like her condition was a bit low, I'd accepted that... but did the side effects get so bad she couldn't even make it to the after-party?
I definitely didn't know how Hong Yeon-hwa overcame the side effects in the original story.
It could just be summarized as: after the first Tower entry, when you met Hong Yeon-hwa, she had gone through the transformation of the Calamity Flame and gotten stronger.
I never knew how difficult that process was.
[Is Ms. Hong Yeon-hwa okay?]
"She says she's fine... but the side effects seem especially bad this time; her condition didn't seem good."
Baek A-rin answered, shaking her head as she rested her arm on the back of the bench.
My budding concern deepened at her words.
A memory from the 11th Iteration suddenly came to mind.
Back in the 11th Iteration, when I'd ransacked the Calamity Flame Family's records, there was a note that a small number of Calamity Flame users had died from the side effects.
That stoked my unease.
"Don't worry too much. She might seem reckless, but she knows where the line is. If she feels like she's truly in danger handling it alone, she'll call in someone from the family to resolve it."
Seeing my expression, Baek A-rin added an explanation, as if to tell me not to worry.
But even with that, my worry didn't fade. Baek A-rin smiled wryly and continued.
"If you're really that worried, go visit her. I'm sure she'd be happy... to..."
Her sentence suddenly crumbled. She couldn't finish and her words scattered into the air. Baek A-rin blinked.
"Hmm... Hmm?"
'?'
Then she let out a strange hum. She seemed to be mulling something over.
I waited for a moment, wondering what it was.
Baek A-rin, who had been lost in thought for a while, finally wore a smile.
A mischievous smile tinged with playfulness.
"Ha-yul."
[Yes?]
And then she addressed me.
When I nodded, she continued with that mischievous smile.
"Shall we take a picture together?"
As if it were some important secret, she whispered it, even though there was no one else around.
'All of a sudden?'
It was out of the blue, but I nodded for now. Since she'd stopped mid-sentence, I figured she had some kind of idea.
.
.
.
[Why are we taking it like thi...?]
"Because just taking one normally would be boring. Everyone poses like this when they take pictures."
My shoulders twitched from the breath tickling my ear. Even though I was harmonizing my senses, it still happened.
If it had been with my senses amplified like in the Tower, I would have jumped right out of my seat.
In the data my spatial perception was relaying, Baek A-rin and I were sitting on the bench. She was pressed up against my side with her arm draped over my shoulder.
A moment ago, when I'd asked why we needed to take a photo, Baek A-rin had answered like this.
- I'm going to send it to Yeon-hwa.
Her explanation was as follows.
Since Hong Yeon-hwa couldn't participate in the after-party because of her condition, she'd asked Baek A-rin to keep an eye on me.
I inwardly nodded at the explanation. It was true that Baek A-rin had seemed oddly attentive toward me since I'd arrived, and this backstory made that clear.
While I was feeling a strange gratitude toward Hong Yeon-hwa for worrying about me despite her own poor state,
I had nodded at Baek A-rin's suggestion to send a photo, to show that she was looking after me well.
"Okay, I'm taking it~"
At Baek A-rin's signal, I straightened my posture.
- Click!
A hologram appeared from the smartwatch attached to Baek A-rin's arm.
The camera's signature alarm rang out, and the hologram captured Baek A-rin and me.
"Done!"
Baek A-rin relaxed her pose and operated her smartwatch. It looked like she was sending the photo to Hong Yeon-hwa.
- Ding!
A moment later, an alert sounded. The photo seemed to have been sent successfully.
'Should we start heading back soon?'
We'd taken the photo, and the heat in my body had subsided quite a bit. My head felt cooler, making it easier to think.
Now that my condition had improved, I was just getting up with the intention of going back when—
- Ding!
- Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Baek A-rin's smartwatch went off like crazy. Startled by the sudden barrage of notifications, I turned my head.
"Ahahaha!"
Never mind me, Baek A-rin burst into clear laughter, as if she found something absolutely hilarious. The sound was so loud it spread in all directions.
[Ms. Baek A-ri...?]
"Euugh... ah. Yes, it's nothing. Yeon-hwa was just thanking me for sending the photo."
Baek A-rin wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.
I had my doubts that someone would send that many messages just to say thank you, but if she said so, I couldn't really argue. I could look at the message history if I pressed the matter, but I firmly suppressed my curiosity for the sake of privacy.
I nodded with a vaguely unsettled feeling.
'What's this...'
I didn't know what it was, but Baek A-rin looked immensely pleased. The fact that she was still giggling at the hologram was proof.
It was an attitude rarely shown by the normally gentle Baek A-rin.
That's how people are. A person can't show the exact same face every single time. You can't just divide people into neat categories.
Because people aren't NPCs with fixed, programmed settings.
The Baek A-rin from the 1st Iteration, who stood by the player's side until the very end in a crumbling world.
The Baek A-rin from the 8th Iteration, who stabbed the player in the back to kill him.
The Baek A-rin who hates the heat and likes weird old-fashioned candy.
Knowledge that was nothing more than a game. A world that matched that game's knowledge.
Me, possessing abilities written as a game character's stats.
'......'
Maybe because it was nighttime, all sorts of thoughts were popping into my head. This was probably what they called the late-night feels.
It was a complicated mix of sentiments.
* * *
- Ding!
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Baek A-rin
●●●●●○○○○○(50/100)
｢Affection｣ ｢Doubt｣ ｢Confusion｣
[Conditions for releasing ｢Curse of Silence｣ have not been met]
[Conditions for releasing ｢Curse of Solitude｣ have not been met]