Turning Point (2)
His vision went black. It was proof that he'd cleared the mission without issue, but Yun-seok couldn't hide his inner disappointment.
In the end, it was all for nothing...
Why had Elle chosen him as her contractor? He'd challenged the 14th-floor mission to uncover that reason. Only then could he truly determine if she was someone he could trust.
But in the end, he'd come away empty-handed. No, if anything, the questions had only multiplied.
Well, it was probably my own failing...
Kanna had told him: if doubts ever arose, he should undergo this trial. They would vanish, she'd said.
But they hadn't. Of course, she probably wasn't lying. Whatever the original scenario had been, it surely hadn't been designed to wrap up in just twelve days. If things had played out normally, he might have unraveled the tangled truths connecting Elle, Rick Gersey, and himself.
But there was no point dwelling on it now. No path forward.
Still, what the hell was that?
Yun-seok shook off the regret and shifted his focus to something new: the message that had appeared at the end.
The Tower of Heaven has begun to take notice of you.
A special reward just for you will be granted.
It was a first for Yun-seok, and it clearly wasn't the usual fare. Unfamiliar, but not necessarily bad...
How grand a reward were they planning? His blackened vision showed no signs yet.
About a minute passed like that—or so it felt.
Whoosh!
Without warning, color flooded back into his sight.
Where... is this?
It definitely wasn't the waiting room. Figuring out his surroundings took a moment, though. He couldn't turn his head to look around—his body wouldn't move.
It wasn't frozen like stone. He just couldn't control it.
...?
His body, his gaze—they moved on their own. It felt like peeking at someone else's monitor while they played a first-person game... but that didn't explain everything. The sounds, the smells, the sensations, the sour churn in his stomach, even the muscle aches with every arm movement—it all felt like his body.
Bumpy ride... so it's a carriage.
Yun-seok quickly pieced together the visual cues. A carriage sealed off from the outside. Delicate white wrists bound in chains. The Trejan cultist's emblem etched on the floor.
Sparse info, but enough for a guess.
Am I... inside Elle?
The embroidered pattern on her sleeve felt familiar too. If memory served, it was the outfit Elle had worn during the 8th-floor mission.
A mirror would confirm it, but Yun-seok was already all but certain.
If it's Elle, then the timing has to be then.
Pinning down the moment was easy. It had to be when the heretics kidnapped her en route to the port with Kanna and Wellington's group.
Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded wildly. Fear, anxiety, madness—it was overwhelming. For Yun-seok, who'd grown distant from such emotions, it felt utterly alien.
No doubt, these were Elle's feelings.
Can't read thoughts, but emotions come through, huh.
He focused harder on what he could see. It was all he could do.
Then, commotion from outside. The carriage halted abruptly, silence falling. The door swung open, revealing a blood-soaked, wounded man.
"Thank goodness. You're safe. Let's go back. To where the High Priest awaits."
With that, the scene shifted. The shattered carriage lay abandoned in the woods.
"What happened to Sister Kanna...?"
"No idea, but they're coming. We leave now."
Fragmented scenes followed. Fleeing, always fleeing, until they reached a quiet rural village. Three years of daily life there.
But the inevitable farewell came.
"Mister! Mister...!"
"Elle! Wait! I swear, I'll come save you!"
Elle was dragged away before Rick's eyes. Imprisoned in the holy site, she endured years expanding her mortal vessel. Agonizing pain, creeping despair. She clung to warm, fulfilling memories with Rick to survive.
But...
"Did Trejan truly say that?"
"Yes..."
"Useless wench."
As a shamaness, Elle begged the god for forgiveness as they wished—but was refused. Enraged, the heretics corrupted her soul and threw her into the battlefield.
No foe could stand against Elle's imperfect divinity. Her rage manifested, destroying all.
Until one mercenary blocked her.
"Sorry I'm late. I'll save you."
Rick offered himself as sacrifice, purifying her soul.
"Why... for someone like me...?"
"Protecting a little kid like you? That's what adults do."
Elle clutched his corpse. He'd died wishing her to escape and live for herself...
"But what I wanted... wasn't this."
She lacked the confidence. Her sole reason for enduring hell was gone. Elle surrendered to reality, despaired at the world, and awaited the end.
And then.
"A rare special guest."
The Tower appeared. Unlike when Yun-seok was drawn in, a robed figure greeted her at the door.
"Any wishes?"
"In his next life... I hope he lives for himself. Without any duties, just as he wants..."
The figure opened the Tower's door as Elle spoke her wish like one entranced. A benevolent smile curved his lips.
"If wished earnestly, it shall be granted."
* * *
Returning to the 14th-floor waiting room.
Please prepare for your next duel.
As Elle entered the Tower, light flashed within. When she came to, the familiar waiting room filled her view.
Yun-seok blankly raised his hand, flexing it. Feeling his body respond brought it home—he was back.
"Hoo..."
He steadied his breath, sorting through the emotions that had weighed on his chest moments ago. Then he opened the drawer at the statue's base. Only gear plundered from Miller lay inside—no other changes.
As he'd suspected.
So that was the reward.
No elixir for stats, no rare gear, no trump-card skill.
Yet Yun-seok had no complaints. He'd seen what Elle saw, felt what she felt. Even her wish to the robed figure at the Tower's entrance.
And it resolved every doubt.
Who'd have thought "you" hid such a trap...
A contractor's first aspiration: the manager's deepest lifetime wish.
—Unrivaled under heaven. Grow stronger, ever stronger, until none can match you. That is all I ask of you.
The Heavenly Demon had hoped her contractor would fulfill that wish in her stead.
So Elle assumed the same. She thought it stemmed from a desire to escape her oppressed past, manifesting as aspiration.
But no.
—I ask nothing of you. Live freely, without duty.
It wasn't her own wish for freedom becoming Elle's aspiration.
Simply...
—...Because it's you. Because I've waited for you.
From the start, her sole aspiration was for Yun-seok to live freely. As she'd said entering the Tower—for his next life, at least.
Reincarnation...
Hard to believe, yet hard to dismiss. Otherwise, her aspiration at contracting would've named someone else, not "you."
That's why we look alike...
Growing up modern, Yun-seok knew religions and myths. Reincarnation: a soul reborn in a new body, memories wiped. Karma, fate, saviors—details varied, but the core was that. Looks weren't mentioned, but whatever.
What now?
Rick Gersey as his past life. He still felt dazed. Surreal. Rick was Rick; he was himself. He felt fondness for Elle, but not the devotion to give everything.
It weighed on him. Elle saw them as one.
If only she'd wanted something else...
Her constant goodwill and devotion had always been too much, breeding suspicion and unease. Now knowing why, he could trust her fully.
But separately, her every act would guilt him henceforth.
I'm not him.
Yun-seok sighed. He had no idea how to face her now.
After agonizing, he decided.
The Liberation Witch calls to you.
Will you respond?
He'd meet her directly.
* * *
"Y-you came...?"
Elle greeted him the moment he arrived at the cabin. Stammering voice, trembling legs from nerves, lips touched, cheek scratched, hands fidgeting from head to here to there.
One glance told him: she was more tense than ever.
It eased Yun-seok's own tension, ironically.
"S-sorry. For not warning you... But I thought it'd be better this way. For you."
Expecting anger? Even apologizing, she shivered like a rain-soaked kitten.
Deflating despite himself, Yun-seok sat in the empty spot. She'd prepared everything— the tea he'd liked last time poured. Though it'd gone cold long ago, needing time to steel herself.
"I understand your intentions in making that choice, so no need to act so remorseful."
"Yes..."
"But I am me. In simple terms, don't expect anything else. Understood?"
"...Yes, of course. How could I ask for more here?"
She seemed more downcast than before, but Yun-seok let it slide. Drawing the line cleared the burden.
He sipped his tea and asked, "One thing I'd like to know. If your apology is sincere, can you answer honestly?"
"Anything. What is there to hide now?"
"Did you pass the final trial? Is that why you summoned me to this Tower—as your wish?"
Listening rigidly, Elle shook her head hastily at the misunderstanding.
"No. Of course not. If so, I wouldn't have wished that. Why do you ask?"
"Thinking back, it seemed like you knew I'd be summoned here. Ah..."
Yun-seok trailed off, realizing mid-sentence. A needless question with more thought.
"Foresight. You saw it that way."
Elle smiled faintly, nodding. An unimaginable span of time for her, yet she wore it lightly.
The burden toward her resurfaced, but...
Separate matters.
"C-can I call you 'Mister' just once?"
"No."
No way. Rick or not. Not till he hit forty, at least.