Chapter 140
Tap, tap, tap, tap....
I looked up at the sky while my fingers drummed against my smartphone screen.
If you studied it closely, you could see a vast barrier stretched across the night sky like a net cast over the heavens.
Han Jin-hwan had put it there.
Without his permission, nobody could go in or out of the barrier.
"Sss... hoo...."
I drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
It felt like the fatigue was draining right out of my body, which was nice.
Of course, that was just my imagination.
I didn't get tired in the first place. My SP was basically infinite.
I had a body that didn't even need sleep.
If I really wanted to sleep, I probably could....
But tonight, I was staying up.
With everything that had happened during the day, I hadn't been able to properly pat Saessak.
The World Tree sapling feels satisfied by the manager's warm touch.
Saessak in the screen shivered all over.
Its branches and dozens of leaves swayed as if brushed by a passing wind.
It looked pleased.
Watching Saessak made a smile spread across my own face without me even noticing.
Hoo. This was why I grew the World Tree.
Tap, tap, tap....
As I kept tapping the screen, Saessak sent me a message.
The sapling feels a gaze full of curiosity.
A gaze...?
I lifted my head from the smartphone.
"Oh?"
Smirnov.
The Russian bastard was walking toward me.
As expressionless as ever.
He wasn't alone.
A man in a suit was walking beside him.
If memory served me right....
The man had been with Smirnov during the day, too.
He'd been crying and snotting all over the place, I think?
The sapling reports that the manager's memory is correct.
Ah, right.
I had honestly been unsure.
The polished look he had now was so different from what I'd seen during the day.
Then again....
Compared to the version of him that was leaking tears and snot everywhere, anybody would look different.
And come to think of it, if he'd been with Smirnov during the day and was still with him now....
Was he a translator?
"Good evening. Baek Do-woon."
The man in the suit bowed from the waist.
He spoke Korean fluently, so as I expected, he seemed to be the translator.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
I watched him while tapping at the screen.
"I'm terribly sorry to visit so late at night. I am Pavel Bogorise, a translator."
He was extremely polite.
Someone that courteous could leave a favorable first impression on anyone.
And the fact that he seemed genuinely sorry for arriving so late felt sincere, too.
But....
I couldn't exactly look at him warmly.
Smirnov.
It was because of what that bastard had done earlier today.
"Uh, Baek Do-woon?"
"And you are... good evening?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm not doing well. Thanks to the bastard standing next to you staring at me."
"Ah...."
Bogorise let out a short, awkward sigh.
Probably the events from earlier that day were flashing through his head.
Maybe it was a side effect of the black sphere he'd used.
According to Tae-cheon, who had been sprawled out on the bed like a dead battery, Smirnov had suddenly flown into a rage and attacked.
I couldn't just take it at face value that he had suddenly gotten angry for no reason....
But the fact that Smirnov had attacked first was beyond dispute.
Bogorise lowered his head.
Hm?
"I'm truly sorry for what happened during the day."
"Hoo... are you his father or something?"
"Pardon?"
"Why are you apologizing to me? That bastard should apologize directly to Tae-cheon."
"Ah, that is...."
Bogorise trailed off.
His eyes drifted away in obvious discomfort.
His mouth opened and closed a few times.
Tsk.
There was no way Smirnov, that arrogant bastard, was going to apologize.
Situations like this always made the people underneath the top suffer for it.
"You must have it rough."
"...I apologize."
When Bogorise apologized again, for some reason Kim Tae-seok's face flickered in my mind.
Even though the two of them looked nothing alike.
I guess it was because they shared the same basic trait: suffering under a boss who made life miserable.
Maybe if I introduced them, they'd get along well.
They could probably spend all night drinking and venting about the people above them.
"So."
"Yes?"
"You didn't come here just to apologize. What did you come to see me about?"
"Ah...."
Bogorise nodded and turned to Smirnov.
The two exchanged a brief conversation.
After they finished, Bogorise looked back at me.
"From this point on, what I say is what Smirnov is saying."
"Understood."
Once I nodded, he said at once,
"Do you know it?"
No, that was actually the question Smirnov had asked, translated by Bogorise.
Do you know it, huh....
If someone suddenly asked me that, what was I supposed to say?
Tap, tap....
While I kept tapping the screen, I asked back,
"Know what?"
"Sky."
"Sky? That is...."
It was the word Tae-cheon had attached to his own nickname.
Back when quite a few people had started calling Tae-cheon a knight.
He had asked that if they were going to call him a knight, they put the word Sky in front of it.
I had no idea why he'd picked that particular word.
"Lee Tae-cheon...."
Smirnov muttered Tae-cheon's name.
He pronounced it clearly enough for me to catch it.
Which was probably why Bogorise didn't bother translating that part.
"He refused my offer."
He?
Smirnov probably hadn't said it like that.
That bastard, that punk, or something along those lines was surely softened into something more polite by Bogorise.
The man's tone when he said it was vicious.
Anyway....
"Tae-cheon refused your offer?"
"Yes. He refused my offer to become my knight."
"Oh...."
You little shit?
So all this time you'd been staring at Tae-cheon and showing up over and over because you wanted to recruit him?
No wonder he couldn't say that in front of other people.
Wait.
Was that why Miller kept showing up around Do-hee, too?
"So? What does refusing your offer have to do with Sky?"
"That was the reason for the refusal."
"The reason for the refusal?"
"Yes."
After answering that, Smirnov closed his mouth.
I looked at Bogorise.
I still couldn't make sense of what the hell he was talking about.
How could Sky be a reason for refusal?
"Hmm.... Lee Tae-cheon said this when he refused."
Hm, hm!
Bogorise cleared his throat.
For a moment, he looked like an actor gathering himself before a performance.
Don't tell me....
Was he trying to imitate Tae-cheon?
No, why would he bother imitating him when he could just relay the words?
Was this some kind of occupational habit?
"I already have a master."
"...Pardon?"
Did I hear that wrong?
He had what?
Bogorise's Tae-cheon imitation didn't stop there.
"I am a knight. The Knight of the Sky. Naturally, my master is the sky."
"...."
"Ahem, ahem! That is what Lee Tae-cheon said."
What are you even talking about, old man?
Did Tae-cheon really say that?
Huh.
Had Tae-cheon's chuunibyo not healed yet?
How was I supposed to explain this to Do-hee?
No, for Tae-cheon's honor, should I keep my mouth shut?
If I said a word, I was going to get that cold, sharp look from Do-hee.
The sapling asks the manager what chuunibyo means.
It says it has never heard of that disease before.
Ah....
You don't need to know that, Saessak.
It'll hurt you if you do.
Tae-cheon.
"So Smirnov asked him who Sky was, but...."
"He didn't tell him."
"That's right."
That was the same answer he'd given me.
Curious, I'd asked what the sky was, but all he did was grin at me with a foolish-looking face.
"Who exactly is Sky?"
"I don't know."
"...You don't know?"
Bogorise's tone changed.
It wasn't his question anymore. It was Smirnov's.
"That's right."
"You said he was your close friend."
"Does being friends mean I have to know everything about them?"
Just as there were things I hadn't told Tae-cheon,
there were things Tae-cheon hadn't told me.
Do-hee was the same.
Family. Friends.
That didn't mean you had to lay everything bare.
I didn't expect that, either.
....
Smirnov shut his mouth.
It looked like he had expected me to know who Sky was.
Apparently he hadn't anticipated that I wouldn't.
Whether he liked it or not.
I sorted the situation out in my head.
So....
That bastard attacked Tae-cheon because he refused his recruitment offer.
He used giantification because he got rejected?
What an absolute disaster of a person.
No, wait....
This was bad.
Tae-cheon had been right all along?
There really was no way Tae-cheon had done anything wrong....
Then my course of action was decided.
The sapling looks at the manager with a sense of surely not...
I pointed at Smirnov's right foot.
"Make sure that right foot gets a good polish."
"Pardon?"
Bogorise asked back.
He must not have heard me properly.
The sapling advises the manager to stop.
Ha, not a chance!
"Tell him that. Tell him to polish that right foot nice and well."
"What are you talking about?"
"That bastard's right foot is mine now."
"....?"
He tilted his head.
He'd heard me, but he hadn't understood.
Was my wording really that hard?
"Tell him to keep it in good condition because I'm coming to collect it someday."
"Crazy...."
He muttered the insult under his breath.
That was all, and Bogorise didn't translate it.
Smirnov looked at him.
He seemed to be wondering why the translation wasn't coming.
"D-did you just tell me to say that to him?"
"Why not? Isn't that why you came?"
"Are you insane? Do you want to die?"
"No-"
"This is Smirnov, Smirnov! Emperor Smirnov!"
"Emperor or whatever. That bastard put his hands on my family. Did he think he could just spread out his legs and live comfortably after that? If he really thought so, then he's made a terribly stupid mistake."
Bogorise, who had been standing there with his mouth hanging open, snorted with laughter.
My words seemed so absurd and ridiculous to him that he couldn't help it.
Ha. This punk is laughing?
Did he think I was joking?
"Crazy bastard...! If I relay that, you'll die!"
"Will I? Doesn't feel that way to me."
As I said that, I looked at Smirnov.
The bastard was scowling.
He probably couldn't believe that the translator he'd brought was refusing to translate and just babbling away at me instead.
Smirnov....
"Do you really think that bastard will dare to use his power?"
I pointed at the night sky.
At the sky embroidered with Han Jin-hwan's barrier.
"If Smirnov uses giantification again this time, it won't end as a simple misunderstanding."
....
Bogorise fell silent.
He must have judged that I was right.
After a moment he turned and spoke to Smirnov.
But....
Smirnov merely nodded with a blank expression.
He glanced at me for a few seconds, then simply turned and left.
There wasn't the slightest trace of emotional disturbance.
Meaning Bogorise had not translated my words properly to Smirnov.
"No, if he does that, he won't polish his right foot properly...."
The sapling gives the manager a narrow-eyed look.
Narrow-eyed?
The sapling scolds the manager for being foolish.
It reports that the current manager cannot handle that giant.
"Well... that's true."
Between Smirnov and me, the difference in power was glaring enough to be embarrassing.
Like Saessak said, it had been a foolish thing to blurt out whatever came to mind because I got swept up in my feelings.
The sapling advises that if something like this happens again, the manager should endure it.
It says one foolish act is enough.
"But...."
The sapling asks what "but" is supposed to mean.
"You're here, aren't you?"
The sapling does not understand the manager's words.
It expresses confusion.
"If it comes to a fight, you'll be with me, so I figured it'd be fine."
Huh, blank?
That was the first time Saessak had sent me an empty message window.
The sapling is speechless at the manager's foolishness.
Hmm....
Was it really that ridiculous?
The sapling hands the manager a pebble nearby.
A pebble?
Why a pebble all of a sudden...?
I looked down at the smartphone I had been tapping.
The white light that always appeared whenever Saessak summoned something burst out again.
And then....
Fwish!
A pebble shot out of the smartphone at high speed.
Crack!
With the sound of something breaking, everything went black for an instant.
The pebble that had flown out of the screen had hit me right in the forehead.
It didn't hurt, really.
If I had to describe it, it was like getting a finger-flick as punishment in a game.
"Saessak, what are you doing...?"
The sapling has made its decision.
It warns that whenever the manager says something stupid from now on, it will throw a pebble.
It says this is a loving love tap.
"What do you mean, stupid? I was being serious-"
Fwish, crack!
That sound of something breaking rang out again.
This time, even though I spun the screen around quickly, I still got hit in the forehead.
"A curveball with this level of control...?"
The sapling boasts that this was a curveball it had honed with long practice.
Don't brag about honing it on me.
I'll get hurt, you know....