Chapter 84: A Terminal Case
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 84: A Terminal Case
Following Naek's gaze, I turned my head and saw a woman with exceptionally pale skin walking toward us.
Dressed simply in a white blouse and jeans, she looked even thinner than Kkotbi. Her platinum-blonde hair made her delicate features stand out even more.
Drawing the eyes of everyone in the pub, she turned her weary blue eyes toward us and offered a faint smile.
“Domi and Naek, right?”
She was none other than Eva.
“Whoa, Eva-unni, you’re a foreigner?” Naek asked in surprise. I stared at her, just as shocked.
Her exotic features clearly marked her as a Westerner.
Noticing our stares, Eva brushed back a strand of hair and smiled.
“My father is British. My mother is Korean, and since my father loves Korea so much, I have Korean citizenship, so I'm not technically a foreigner. Come to think of it, I’ve never mentioned this to you two.”
“Then is Eva-hyung blonde too?” For some reason, the image of a tanned, blonde man flashed through my mind.
“No, Eva-oppa has black hair. We’re fraternal twins, so we don’t look alike at all.”
Even though she said they didn’t look alike, I suspected Eva-hyung was probably just as good-looking as his sister.
Thinking about it, between him and Seo-ho, there were quite a few handsome people around me.
When I glanced at Baeksan, he had an indifferent expression.
From his reaction, it seemed Eva didn't know about him either.
“Unni, sit down!”
“Thank you.”
With an air of elegance in her every move, she sat down next to Naek.
She looked back and forth between us, then covered her mouth with her hand and let out a small laugh.
She gave off the distinct impression of a well-bred noble lady.
The kind who might hide behind a fan and giggle, "hohoho."
“So, what were you talking about? It seems I interrupted your conversation.”
“Oh, right! Domi’s love life!”
“I told you, it’s not about me.”
Even though it is.
“Domi’s love life? That’s unexpected.”
For some reason, her calling it “unexpected” hurt.
Seeing my crestfallen expression, Eva looked flustered and quickly waved her hands, adding an explanation.
“Ah, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that you seem a bit dense when it comes to others’ romantic interest in you. That’s all I meant.”
“Well, I can’t deny that. Is it that obvious?”
“It is. Very. I’ve seen it myself.”
But all she’s seen is the game. How could she tell I was dense just from that?
“Well, there are those two, after all.” As if reading my mind, she explained with a gentle smile in her eyes.
Those two?
‘Don't tell me she means Ahyu and Seol-hyang.’
Eva might be more perceptive than I thought. She must have seen through Ahyu’s gender from the start. Still, it would’ve been nice if she’d given me a heads-up. …Then again, it would have been rude of her to say anything, since it wasn’t her business.
“What? What is it? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?”
Thankfully, only Eva was exceptionally sharp; Naek was in the same boat as me. I felt a sense of peace. I hoped Naek would stay this way forever.
“Enough about me. Let’s talk about you, noona. What was it about Eva-hyung?”
“Ah, um, right. I did come here today to vent a little.”
She let out a long sigh.
“Ah, sorry for sighing.”
It seemed she was incredibly frustrated about the situation with her brother.
“...Actually, before I say anything, I know this isn't the right kind of thing to talk about in a place like this. It's not polite to ruin such a nice get-together.”
“Unni, what is it?”
As she began to speak more seriously, both of us grew puzzled.
We’d known Eva for about three years.
It was rare for the usually composed woman to show this much emotion, so hearing her talk like this at our first meeting was concerning.
“Go on, tell us. We might not be strangers, but since this is the first time we're meeting face-to-face, it might be easier to talk about some things.”
Most worries feel lighter once you share them with someone.
If what she wanted to talk about was difficult to tell people close to her, then it might actually be easier to tell us, who she only knew through a game.
After all, even if we were close in the game, there was no telling how much we’d see each other in real life.
So, we waited quietly for her to speak. After a long hesitation, Eva finally opened her mouth.
“...I'm telling you both this beforehand, but please don't get too serious, okay? This was always going to happen, and it's not a big deal to me anymore.”
“Okay.”
Naek and I nodded at the same time. Finally, as if she’d made up her mind, she spoke, her voice full of apology.
“I’ve been diagnosed as terminally ill.”
And those words were far more shocking than we could have imagined.
Her skin, so pale it looked bloodless.
Her body, though covered by clothes, was clearly thinner than average.
And the dark circles under her eyes, seemingly hidden by makeup, were definitely those of someone who was sick.
As the atmosphere froze for a moment, Eva, as if expecting it, smoothed her hair.
Then, as if it were truly nothing, she spoke to us.
“Honestly, this was supposed to happen a long time ago, so it's just a matter of course for me. I thought about hiding it if I could, but our relationship isn't that shallow, is it? I felt it was only polite to tell you before I go.”
With that, she wore a truly apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry for ruining the mood. This is why I didn’t want to say anything.”
“...It's because it's this kind of occasion that you could tell us.”
I looked at Eva with a serious expression.
“Thank you for telling us. I would have been more hurt if you had left without saying anything. So please, don’t be sorry.”
Hearing my words, she gave a gentle smile.
“You’re a warm person in real life, just like in the game, Domi.”
I was glad if mere words like these could be considered warm.
Because in the face of her terminal diagnosis, there was nothing I could do.
“That’s right. I would have really resented you if you hadn’t told us, unni.” Naek said, taking Eva’s hands with a serious look on her face.
“Losing someone without knowing… it’s just too hard.”
As she spoke, it sounded as if she was speaking from experience.
According to Baeksan, Naek was a returnee.
Had she lost someone in another dimension?
Hearing the sorrow in her voice, Eva let out a small laugh.
“I’m glad I came today. I feel much lighter.”
A terminal illness? What kind of disease could it be?
In this day and age, most illnesses can be cured by healing-type hunters or returnees.
For her to have a terminal illness in an era where deaths from disease have plummeted…
‘Come to think of it, Seol-hyang said she called a Saintess for me back then.’
Could a Saintess cure Eva’s illness?
I knew it would be an imposition on Seol-hyang, but I couldn’t just stand by while an acquaintance was terminally ill.
“You both look curious about what kind of illness it is.”
Just as I resolved to ask Seol-hyang about this, Eva spoke up.
It was true; in modern society, most diseases were curable. I was curious what kind of terminal illness she could have.
“Naek and Ha-chan, you’re either returnees or deeply connected to them, aren’t you?”
The words that came out of her mouth made both of us freeze.
I wasn’t a returnee, but thanks to Baeksan, I had a body like one.
And for her to have noticed that meant…
“I have a natural talent for sensing things. I’m a returnee, too. A Spirit Mage from Gihangjeon.”
At that moment, her eyes naturally turned toward Baeksan.
Her expression was as if she could see someone standing there.
A Spirit Mage.
A profession that deals with spirits, just as the name implies.
Baeksan was a spirit body.
This meant she could be seeing him right now.
“Damn it, something troublesome has shown up.”
Baeksan’s eyes contorted, and a murderous aura began to seep from him.
He was clearly wary of Eva.
As if sensing his hostility, Eva frowned slightly and looked away.
“I can’t see what’s attached to you very well, Domi. I don’t know if it’s an evil spirit, but its aura is so strong that if I weren’t terminally ill, I would have run away immediately. To be honest, when I first came in, its presence was so overwhelming that I could barely see anything else in here.”
Is that why she called Naek when she came in?
It seemed she couldn’t see Baeksan’s form clearly.
“For three guild members to gather and all be returnees… what a strange coincidence.”
As she chuckled, a dazed Naek slowly rubbed her arms.
“...I’ve got goosebumps now. What is going on? Are returnees this common? I only returned recently, so I don’t really know.”
“I’m not sure either. I’ve reached a point where not much surprises me anymore, but I was quite shocked when I first met you two.”
I couldn’t help but scratch my cheek.
According to Baeksan, this was purely the result of someone’s intention.
For these two, it must seem like a truly unbelievable coincidence.
“Well, I’m something like a returnee myself. Maybe we were all drawn to each other without realizing it?”
I couldn’t exactly explain the truth, so I just fudged my way through it.
If these two were to meet Ahyu, IKnowit, and Kkotbi, they would never think it was a coincidence. But with just the three of us, it was still plausible.
“Anyway, since you’re both returnees, you should be able to understand my explanation of my illness.”
Returning to the main topic, Eva began to speak.
“It’s less of an illness and more… I’m here, but at the same time, I’m not.”
“Huh?”
As Naek and I both looked on in confusion, she calmly continued her explanation.
“My body is still caught up in a dimensional shift. To be precise, you could say my physical body has been swallowed by a rift in that other dimension.”
At that moment, her hand turned translucent.
It passed right through the table, a sight I had seen many times with Baeksan.
A spirit body.
A state without a physical form.
“I’m a spirit body. I’ve been materializing a physical form with my brother’s help, but that’s reached its limit. A while ago, the connection between my spirit and my body was almost completely severed, so now I’m effectively on borrowed time.”
“Doesn’t that mean it’ll be solved if you get your body back?” Naek asked the most obvious question, but Eva slowly shook her head.
“I was originally supposed to die, trapped with my body in that dimensional rift, but I barely managed to escape using my power as a Spirit Mage. To get my body back, we’d have to force open the rift itself and pull it out. But right now, it’s impossible to even find where my body is.”
Hearing that, I recalled what I knew about dimensional shifts.
Dimensional shifts often occurred like natural disasters, but causing one intentionally was incredibly difficult.
That’s because the prerequisite for a dimensional shift is to have the exact coordinates of both the origin and destination dimensions, which is practically impossible.
Even between the Earth and the Moon, there is a vast distance of pitch-black darkness.
Now, what if you considered the entire universe, beyond just the Earth, Moon, and solar system?
No matter what coordinates you picked, you would almost always end up in the endless, pitch-black void between the distant stars.
Similarly, countless rifts exist between dimensions. You could try to pinpoint coordinates for a hundred or a thousand days, but it would be nearly impossible to target a specific dimension.
However, there is one exception: when a returnee returns.
From the moment they are caught in a dimensional shift, returnees can know the coordinates of both Earth and the dimension they were swept into.
Of course, it’s up to the individual to recognize those coordinates.
In any case, you need coordinates to make a round trip.
Even so, the reality is that most returnees never make it back and end up dying, but this is the process through which they can return.
‘But if Eva’s body is trapped in a dimensional rift…’
That meant her body was essentially drifting endlessly through the vastness of space.
Could such a body ever be found?
Maybe someday.
If you ignored the fact that the odds were astronomically low.