The Monarch's Three-Day Return
The journey back was smooth.
Avoiding the burning soldiers scattered across the entire Demon Realm was impossible, of course.
At most they came in battalion or regiment size.
I even spotted division-level forces exceeding ten thousand, but my widely spread senses picked them up early and I simply steered clear.
—You’ve been lucky.
“It’s the result of all my hard work, you know?”
My head was pounding from having to sensitively detect the overflowing fire energy everywhere.
The biggest incident of the trip had been snapping back at the Goddess’s carefree comment.
On the third day.
I arrived near the entrance a little earlier than the promised time.
—But you intend to go like that?
“Ah. That’s a bit much, yeah.”
My clothes had melted away long ago.
I always packed spare outfits for every Gate raid, but since anything worn in the Land of Fire would burn up in under ten seconds, I hadn’t bothered bringing any.
“Good thing I learned something for exactly this kind of situation.”
Shadow Dominion
A coat woven from Polar Night wrapped around my entire body.
It was a little trick I’d picked up back in the Tower’s tutorial.
I hadn’t needed it for a while, but it had been a long time since I last shaped it into proper clothing.
—You still remember that.
“How could I forget something you taught me, Goddess?”
I approached the gate with the Polar Night coat fluttering behind me.
“There’s no wind… so why is the coat fluttering…?”
“Are you unharmed, Savior of Paris?”
“All limbs present and accounted for.”
If something had been destroyed and then regenerated back to normal, it counted as unharmed, right?
—Do you know of the Ship of Theseus?
“How would you even know about that, Goddess?”
—How could I not know a tale connected to Olympus?
Is a ship that has been repaired so many times that none of its original materials remain still considered the same vessel?
It was the famous paradox derived from the ‘Ship of Theseus.’
She was being rather harsh with her words.
Comparing a regenerating body to the Ship of Theseus felt a bit much, didn’t it?
—Heh. It was merely a jest.
To think the dignified Goddess who had been so solemn when we first formed our contract would fall this far.
If she had only been influenced by my ever-serious nature, she wouldn’t have turned out like this.
Jiyoung, you noooootorious corrupter!
It was you who led the Goddess down the path of depravity!
Click—
The random thoughts floating through my head vanished the moment the door opened.
“You really returned on the exact third day.”
“A promise is a promise.”
My belongings, which I had left in the vehicle before entering, were still there untouched.
***
Vrrr—
The moment I retrieved my luggage, my phone began vibrating.
Incoming Call
William Rockefeller
The instant I pressed accept, a deep, refined baritone filled my ear.
“You’re safe.”
“Do I really have to hear a man’s voice the second I pick up my phone?”
“If you prefer, I can put Ellen on the line.”
“I’ll generously let it slide this once.”
He must have been burning with anxiety.
He was probably confirming I was alive while also checking the results of my trip into the Demon Realm.
Saying I had entered the Demon Realm for no reason would have sounded strange, so I told him I had gone to harvest some essence and shared what I had learned about the Land of Fire.
“An enemy force organized in legions. That’s valuable information.”
“You didn’t know?”
“The Land of Fire is a place where simply entering is an ordeal. Information is as scarce as it is for the Frozen Sea.”
The Frozen Sea was a Demon Realm that had formed in Antarctica.
Approaching it was so difficult that exploration teams were almost never formed.
“Comparing it to the Frozen Sea feels a bit extreme.”
“Only someone like you could come and go from that inferno so easily.”
“Oh. Being acknowledged by the Guild Master of the Rockefeller Guild feels pretty good.”
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
Why wouldn’t he accept my sincerity?
Sniffle.
I also casually mentioned that the Land of Fire would not expand any further.
“Then it’s time to invest in Seattle.”
“There could still be variables, you know?”
“It wasn’t just anyone. It was you who made that bold claim.”
Good heavens.
What was this world coming to?
The man whose veins supposedly flowed with gold instead of blood was placing unconditional trust in me.
“Did you eat something bad?”
“I believe in you because I’ve seen your track record. Why are you so full of suspicion?”
For some reason it felt like we had been in this exact same situation not long ago.
Was this déjà vu?
“Could you send your private jet?”
“It’s already waiting at the airport.”
“What if I hadn’t come out today?”
“Didn’t you say you’d be back in three days?”
I scratched my cheek lightly with my right hand.
Had William Rockefeller always been the type to show this much trust?
It didn’t match the image I remembered from before my regression at all, to the point that it left me feeling confused.
“Your next destination is Germany, I assume?”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“Someone’s been loudly announcing the establishment of the Yeokcheon Guild’s European branch, after all.”
This was exactly why I couldn’t like a sharp-witted business partner.
“I still have one more thing to take care of. I also need to look after the guild members.”
“Then I suppose we’ll meet once more. Safe travels.”
***
Look at him hanging up like clockwork.
Before heading to Germany, there was one person I needed to meet.
Amelia.
The representative of the Raiden Company and the person who had commercialized spatial transportation in my previous life.
It was time to check whether the blue-chip stock I had bought early was growing well.
* * *
The atmosphere at the Raiden Company hadn’t changed much from a few months ago.
“All the investment money was used for research.”
A woman with disheveled short hair and striking blue eyes.
Amelia looked at me with sunken, exhausted eyes.
“Your smoky makeup is pretty heavy.”
“Huh? These are dark circles.”
Oh dear.
The shading was so dark that if she claimed it was intentional makeup, I would have believed her—but they were actually dark circles.
A truly magnificent specimen of a shut-in.
Her skin, in contrast to the dark circles beneath her eyes, was deathly pale.
No, at this point ‘pallid’ was the more accurate description.
“How long has it been since you last saw sunlight?”
“Ughhh. It’s only been a month.”
“Let’s get you some fresh air first.”
“Just a little more research and I’ll have a breakthrough…!”
I cut Amelia off mid-sentence and threw the window wide open.
Sunlight poured through the gap, illuminating her pale skin.
“Kyaaaack! The light is killing meeee!”
She wasn’t even a vampire.
I stared directly at Amelia’s face.
“What’s not working out?”
“It feels a bit awkward to talk about problems in front of my investor.”
“Checking on difficulties is also part of my rights, you know.”
“Umm. The truth is… I succeeded in identifying dimensional structure based on the Shrink data, right?”
Amelia scratched her head vigorously as she explained the progress.
The project was advancing through four stages:
1) Dimensional structure identification.
2) Setting a Wormhole at designated coordinates.
3) Inanimate object transport.
4) Organic life transport.
She had already cleared up to stage three.
“Though the cost-efficiency during transport is terrible.”
“Does it cost a lot?”
“About a hundred dollars per hundred grams.”
That would be roughly 150,000 won in Korean currency.
If it cost a little over a million won per kilogram… moving a single household appliance would require tens of millions of won.
When you put it that way, it sounded insanely expensive, didn’t it?
But it meant real-time delivery of goods to anywhere on Earth where a Wormhole had been installed.
***
If the research results became known, the impact would be enormous.
“That’s incredible.”
“But living organisms don’t work.”
The final and most crucial stage of the Wormhole project.
When a living creature entered the dimensional gate, it would burst apart like something put in a microwave.
Amelia handed me a tablet.
“This is a recording of the incident.”
Two split screens.
Each of the two separated laboratories had a Wormhole Device installed.
A hamster entered one of the Wormholes.
Stage 1 Emitter activating. 3, 2, 1.
Stage 2 Emitter activating. Now!
A flash of green light, and the hamster vanished.
Almost simultaneously, something was transmitted into the Wormhole in the other laboratory.
However.
I wasn’t sure if that thing could still be called a hamster.
When flesh and bone scattered in every direction until its original shape was unrecognizable, it could no longer be defined as ‘alive.’
“Haa… haaa. It worked with objects, so why doesn’t it work with living things?”
“Were there no problems during inanimate transport?”
“It was fine up to the maximum capacity of 500 kilograms.”
“Even that alone is revolutionary enough.”
“No! Our goal is to let people cross space like Mister Yu!”
A chilling gleam flashed in Amelia’s previously cloudy eyes.
She wasn’t even a match for me in terms of combat ability.
Yet her obsession with her research subject was so intense that even I—who had taken one step into the realm of transcendence—felt myself shrinking back.
“If you announce just the object-transfer function, you’ll be able to attract even more investment.”
“We already have enough. That’s exactly why I can’t release an unfinished product!”
It was a good thing my pockets were deep.
Any normal investor hearing those words would have burst into tears.
Amelia was an outstanding technician, but she was completely hopeless when it came to running a company.
—You’re acting like you didn’t already know.
“I really didn’t know about this part.”
I had only known the fragmentary fact that the Raiden Company had developed the Wormhole.
“Have you thought of any countermeasures?”
“At first I approached it with fractal theory, but it failed. After that…”
Stop.
S…t…a…y…….
My mistake.
I wouldn’t understand even if I listened.
This damn mouth of mine was the problem.
It was a Pandora’s box that should never be opened.
And the lid was already rattling.
My survival instinct, sensing danger, moved my lips on its own.
“Have you tried putting a shield on the living organisms?”
“I did. The result was the same.”
“Did the shield take any damage?”
“No. Only the hamster inside turned into mush again.”
***
“Any other methods you’ve tried?”
“As you know, Investor, there are many different mechanisms for spatial movement skills.”
Shrink, which folds space to move.
Blink, which momentarily disassembles and reconstructs the body.
Warp, which moves to designated spatial coordinates.
All sorts of spatial movement theories poured out.
Sorry.
I didn’t understand even half of that.
I’m a liberal arts student! I know absolutely nothing about scientific talk.
—Yet you use complicated magic just fine.
I ground my teeth at Nyx’s whisper.
That was only possible because I devoured the essences and the theories got engraved directly into my brain.
I was used to rearranging mana, but that didn’t mean I understood and used all the theories.
If I had to define it, it was in the realm of ‘intuition.’
“So anyway. According to an ancient tome discovered inside the Tower, dimensional alignment…”
“Director Amelia.”
“Yes?”
“So the problem is that living things that cross the Wormhole turn into pizza dough, correct?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“Even when you put up a shield, there are no signs of external damage.”
“Yeeeees. That’s why I’m going crazy.”
“What if the problem is internal?”
When something is thrown into outer space, the forces acting inside the body try to radiate outward and—boom—it explodes, right?
At my additional explanation, a spark of insight lit up in Amelia’s eyes.
“All living things contain mana. So when they’re forced through the gap between spaces, they can’t endure it!”
“It’s only a hypothesis. A hypothesis. Not certain.”
“What kind of drugs did you take to come up with that?”
“Who are you calling a junkie?”
If she really thought I came up with it while on drugs, then she was the one with the problem.
I had simply taken the idea Amelia had used to solve the final stage of the Wormhole in my previous life and presented it in a plausible way.
“Wait a moment. I’ll run an experiment right away.”
“You already have a countermeasure?”
“Well. According to that theory, inanimate objects don’t contain mana, so they’re fine, right?”
“Correct.”
“If the item gets destroyed during transmission, then your idea is correct. If not, we’re back to square one.”
Her ability to change perspectives was truly fast.
For someone with liberal arts sensibilities like me, it was a speed that was hard to keep up with.
Amelia headed to the laboratory, even humming a tune.
“Please watch from the monitoring room, Investor.”
She should at least tell me where it is.
Fortunately, a nearby employee guided me to the location.
On the CCTV screen, a disheveled Amelia was shown struggling to carry a single sword.
—Her tenacity alone is truly remarkable.
“If she were any more remarkable, she might have caught a person.”
—I know a child who possesses tenacity and obsession comparable to that girl.
“Who? I’d better stay far away from them.”
Sigh.
Just imagine if there were two Amelias.
That would be horrifying.
Instead of answering, the Goddess simply stared at me intently.
***
Her silence suggested she couldn’t immediately think of who it was.
—Commencing the 193rd Wormhole activation experiment!
Amelia’s voice rang out loudly through the speaker.
She sounded like a ghost that had died because it couldn’t run an experiment.
Stage 1 Emitter activating. 3, 2, 1.
Stage 2 Emitter activating. Now!
A green flash.
The sword placed on the Wormhole machine disappeared.
So far, exactly as she had described.
Amelia, who had run to the opposite laboratory, checked the Wormhole device.
“Haha… hahaha! It worked! It worked!!”
The sword had been torn into dozens of pieces.
Having found the answer, Amelia grabbed the broken hilt and swung it wildly through the air.
Hmm.
If it was helpful, then that was good enough.
Right?
