Lee Gitae (4)
Lia received Magic Circuit Healing from Roimdel and headed back to where Grace was waiting.
By the time she returned to the imperial healing chamber, the sun had already begun to sink toward the horizon.
“Lia unni!”
Sophia rose from her chair and greeted her warmly. Alberte and Carlos were there as well, standing beside her.
“So everyone was here.”
When Lia took the bead out from her embrace, all three of their gazes snapped to it at once.
“That is……”
Alberte narrowed his eyes and asked, “Is that……”
“Magic Circuit Healing. Chief Mage Roimdel gave it to me.”
At Lia’s answer, Alberte’s expression stiffened.
“Lia, don’t tell me……”
“Yes. I’m going to try.”
Lia answered firmly.
“But that’s something no one has succeeded at for hundreds of years……”
Alberte hurriedly continued, but Lia cut in, “I know. Chief Roimdel said the same thing, and so did Lord Arkanus. But we can’t just sit here and wait.”
Lia stepped up to the treatment bed where Grace lay. His face was still pale, his breathing quiet and shallow.
“Tower Lord gave his life for us. Now it’s our turn to do something for Tower Lord.”
Sophia’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded.
“I…… I want to help too, Lia unni.”
“Me too.”
Carlos stepped forward as well.
“Then let’s all do this together. Just like Tower Lord taught us.”
Alberte let out a long breath. “......All right. But be careful. Healing magic isn’t the same as ordinary fusion magic.”
Lia carefully held the bead in both hands. A faint green glow warmed her palms.
Become one with life……
Arkanus’s words came back to her.
Achieve perfect resonance……
But she still couldn’t understand exactly what that meant.
How was she supposed to become one with life? How was she supposed to achieve perfect resonance?
Lia drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Then, slowly, she began to raise her mana.
Her mana seeped little by little into the bead.
Crackle—
The pale green light flowed out from the bead and stretched toward Grace.
“Ugh……!”
But in the next instant, Lia’s body swayed violently.
“Lia!”
Alberte rushed to catch her.
“I’m fine…… I can keep going.”
Lia clenched her teeth and focused again.
The green mana tried to enter Grace’s body, only to slam into an invisible barrier and bounce back.
Crackle—
“Ghk……!”
The rebound force surged up through Lia’s hand. Blood began to flow from her fingers.
“Lia! Stop!”
Carlos shouted in alarm.
“Not yet…… not yet.”
And yet Lia refused to give up.
Why isn’t it working? The mana is definitely flowing……
Then Alberte’s voice came to her.
“Lia, mana alone isn’t enough. Chief Roimdel said it himself, didn’t he? You have to achieve perfect resonance.”
“What…… what does that even mean?”
Lia asked with a pained expression.
“......”
“......”
No one could answer her question.
Perfect resonance…… what is that?
Then Lia suddenly remembered something Grace often said.
Fusion wasn’t about merely mixing mana. It was about two different properties becoming one. You had to understand the essence of each property, and let them harmonize.
Resonance…… isn’t that basically no different from fusion?
She closed her eyes again. But this time, she didn’t raise her mana.
Instead, she called up her memories.
The time she had first met Grace, back when he was mocked as a third-rate mage.
And yet Grace never gave up. He shocked everyone by creating fusion magic.
When the magic tower was in danger, Grace never tried to bear everything alone.
He solved problems together with his disciples and comrades.
When the Dimensional Rift opened, Grace didn’t run.
For the empire, for the people, and for his disciples, he had risked his life.
I can’t just stand by and watch when I can do something.
Grace’s words surfaced in her mind.
That’s all there is to it.
Such a simple reason. Such a pure heart. Grace had staked everything on it.
Tears spilled from Lia’s eyes.
“Tower Lord……”
She gripped Grace’s hand tightly.
“I know. I know how lonely you were. How hard it was for you. But even so, you still fought for us.”
Lia’s voice trembled.
“So…… now it’s our turn to fight for you. You’re not alone, Tower Lord. We’re here with you.”
At that moment—
Whoooosh—
The green light flowing from the bead suddenly flared brighter.
“This is……!”
Alberte cried out in astonishment.
This time, the green mana was not repelled. It began to seep into Grace’s body.
“Unni……! It’s working!”
Sophia cheered.
But Lia couldn’t answer. Her consciousness was following the mana, sinking into Grace’s inner world.
Darkness.
Lia drifted through endless darkness.
“Tower Lord……! Where are you!”
she shouted.
Far away, a faint light appeared. Lia ran toward it.
As she drew closer, a figure slowly came into view.
“Tower Lord!”
It was Grace. No, it was Grace wearing the face of Lee Gitae.
He was hunched over in front of a computer in a cramped room.
“Tower Lord……?”
Lia approached cautiously.
But he didn’t react. He only stared blankly at the screen.
“Why…… why do you look so sad?”
Lia looked at his face.
That empty gaze. The slumped shoulders. The body curled inward on itself.
He was alone……
Lia realized it then.
Grace…… no, Lee Gitae had been alone his whole life. Cut off from the world, trapped in a narrow room.
“You’re not alone anymore.”
Lia laid a hand on his shoulder.
“We’re here. I’m here, your disciples are here, your comrades are here…… everyone is with you, Tower Lord.”
In that instant, Lee Gitae’s form began to blur.
And it changed into Grace.
“Lia……?”
Grace slowly lifted his head and looked at her.
“Yes! It’s me, Tower Lord!”
Lia cried as she threw her arms around him.
“Please come back. Please…… come back to us.”
***
I had to wake up.
I had to wake up.
There were people waiting for me. People I had been with. My disciples, my comrades.
But I couldn’t wake.
My body wouldn’t move. The shattered mana circuits bound me like shackles.
I have to get up……
I still had the will. I could hear Lia’s voice. But something was keeping me trapped in the darkness.
Fear.
If I woke up, I might fail again. I might not be able to protect my disciples.
Just like Lee Gitae, I might collapse all over again.
In the end, am I really any different from the Lee Gitae who used to rot away in that tiny rented room?
In the darkness, fragments of the past kept surfacing one after another.
The day I failed a convenience-store job interview. The interviewer’s cold stare.
“You don’t have much experience, do you? Not for your age.”
I remembered bowing my head without giving any answer at all.
Work news, wedding news, promotion news filling the group chat with my college classmates.
I remembered saying nothing between them, until I finally left the chatroom altogether.
My mother’s call.
“Son, are you okay?”
I lied and said I was fine, but I wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine.
Those fears kept me from waking.
It was safe here.
If I stayed in the darkness, there would be no more failure and no more pain. Just like Lee Gitae had lived.
Safe……
The darkness was warm.
No one judged me. No one was disappointed in me. No one expected anything of me.
And I didn’t disappoint anyone, either. I didn’t betray anyone’s hopes.
Because there had never been any hopes to betray in the first place.
If I stay here…… if I just stay like this……
If I woke up, I would have to fight again. The Dimensional Rift, the monsters, the crisis waiting out there.
And I might fail again.
I might not be able to protect my disciples. I might lose my comrades. The magic tower might fall.
And then I would have to feel that pain all over again.
Helplessness, self-reproach, the crushing weight of failure.
If I stay here…… none of that will happen.
The darkness wrapped around me. Softly, gently. Like a mother’s arms.
Just a little longer…… let’s stay here a little longer.
Time didn’t pass. There was no pain. No responsibility.
It was safe.
But at the same time—
It’s empty……
There was nothing here. No achievement, no joy, no connection.
That was the life Lee Gitae had lived. Safe, but empty. Unhurt, but never happy.
Then, from within the darkness, I heard a voice.
“Tower Lord.”
It was Lia’s voice.
“I know how frightened you are.”
The voice drew closer.
“You’re afraid you’ll fail, afraid you’ll be hurt again, worried that you won’t be able to protect us, aren’t you?”
Lia’s hand broke through the darkness and took mine.
It was warm.
“I was like that too.”
Lia’s voice continued.
“When I first became a mage, I was always scared. I couldn’t even handle first-circle magic properly, so my classmates laughed at me. I heard the same things over and over again—no talent, wrong fit, not cut out for it……”
Lia’s shape gradually began to emerge in the darkness.
“So I thought about giving up too. I thought maybe I should quit the path of magic and live a normal life instead. That seemed safer. I wouldn’t have to fail, and I wouldn’t have to be laughed at.”
Lia tightened her grip on my hand.
“But then I met Tower Lord. You embraced someone like me. And you made me your special advisor. Me, a mage who was only first-circle……”
Tears fell from her eyes.
“You taught me that it was okay to be afraid. That it was okay to fail. What mattered was not giving up. And that I wasn’t alone.”
The darkness began to brighten little by little.
“You taught me that, Tower Lord. So now it’s my turn to tell you.”
Lia smiled as she went on.
“It’s okay to be afraid. You’re not alone. We’re here with you, the disciples are here, and our comrades are here too. You don’t have to carry everything by yourself, Tower Lord. We’re stronger now too.”
“Lia……”
“If you’re not alone…… then it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to fall. We can just take each other’s hands and walk again.”
She squeezed my hand tighter.
“So please…… come back. Come back to us. You taught us this, Tower Lord. Fusion means doing it together. It becomes stronger when we do it together. You’re not alone, Tower Lord. Now…… all of us are together.”
Those words struck straight into my chest.
At Lia’s voice, the darkness began to recede little by little.
That’s right…… I’m not alone anymore.
Lee Gitae had been alone. But Grace was different.
There were people who had fought alongside me. People who had laughed together, cried together, and won together.
There were people I would fight beside. Comrades to stand with me, disciples to rise again with me.
Fusion……
It wasn’t just about magic. It was the fusion of person and person. The fusion of will and will.
If I wasn’t alone, failure wasn’t the end. If we were together, I could rise again.
That was when it happened.
Faint mana began to flow through the shattered circuits.
The healing mana Lia had sent and the mana left inside me met, and resonated.
Whoooosh—
The green light grew stronger and stronger.
The shattered mana circuits began to knit together, little by little.
Crackle—
Slowly. Carefully. As if stitching torn thread back together one strand at a time.