[There is nothing to be sad about.]
As I looked at Minerva who had turned into a stone statue, I heard her voice.
[After all, if it’s long, it’s long, if it’s short, after a short time, didn’t you and your real woman meet like this? It was a must have.]
At her words, I looked at the statue once more.
I don’t know what 300 years would be like for Minerva, but at least for me, it was a long, long time.
What could I possibly say to her who was more confused than me?
“Ji-hyuk.”
Then Sooyoung grabbed my wrist.
She fixed Milited’s half-flowing crystal into my hand and held it, then looked at me.
“Come on, let’s go back.”
She, too, looked at Minerva, who had turned into a stone statue, with slightly red eyes, and said.
“But if we are late, then Minerva would have no meaning to accept such a choice. So… .”
“… … !”
Laune, who was hanging from her shoulder, also sobbed loudly as if in agreement.
After staring at them for a moment, I also nodded slightly.
“okay. so be it.”
I picked up the pendant with those words.
While holding Milited’s crystal in his hand, he fixed the pendant and the pendant started to tremble.
“Hold on tight, both of you.”
Actually, there was no need to say that.
It was because Sooyoung and even Laune were clinging to my body.
Gradually, light began to leak out of the pendant, and the light at that time gradually began to surround us.
A notification pops up in front of my eyes like that time again.
[I feel a strange wave of power!]
[The ‘Traveler’s Guide Stone’, which has regained its original shape, suggests the direction of the road you want to take.]
[I can feel the attraction by a strange force… … .]
[Due to the continued use of the ‘guide stone of the travel seat’, you can only vaguely notice the end of the road you are going to go.]
[You head to the future 256 years in the future.]
“… what? Wait, what? 250 years later?”
“uh? what? What do you mean 250 years?”
At the notification window that appeared in front of me, I muttered blankly without realizing it.
Han Soo-young looked at me in surprise as if I was talking to myself.
That was then.
“… … .”
“yes?”
Laune, who was hanging from my shoulder, suddenly snapped and brought her face to my cheek.
Then, with his own roots, he stroked my face with his own roots, and when I turned my eyes away, as always, he was staring at me with his eyes and expression unsure of what he was thinking.
It was when I got a creepy feeling and tried to grab him.
“… … !!!”
“What, hey! Laune!!!”
Laune, who evaded my hand with a surprisingly agile movement, jumped and jumped off into the distance.
He tried to reach for the guy who was going out of the ring of light, but he couldn’t.
The place where Laune was already and where we were was a different world.
“If you ever did.”
In the meantime, Sbangali muttered in a strangely calm voice.
“Why was Ariman so cooperative?”
Sbangali let out a small sigh.
“Didn’t you say that there were exactly two people earlier? This body and Minerva are parasitic, half-absorbed by you, Yoo Ji-hyuk. It can also be seen as a so-called part of you.”
But not this guy.
A snapping sound rang out.
“Mandragora made by me… What you call Laune has long since escaped my shadow and has even become a subject and object that is nothing more than a spirit. Obviously, that guy should have counted as one person.”
Before exclaiming to him, ‘Why didn’t you say that before?’, he recognized what I was going to say and responded back one step at a time.
“What did you mean?”
Sbengali said in a cold, sober voice.
“You have to go back. If you’re going to say something like that, I’ll go back in time by catching another seven-echo bell again, don’t do it at all. It’s because I’m going to explode.”
He chuckled and burst out laughing.
“You guys are all mediocre, but the biggest problem is taking care of useless things and trying to take them with you. That’s stupid.”
useless thing.
Hearing those words, my teeth were sharp.
“Sbangali, you bastard in a situation like this… !?”
For a moment, I had no choice but to stop talking.
Sbengali.
It was only then that he realized that his voice was coming through his ears, not his head.
“Look at that.”
A snapping sound rang out.
When I turned my head to look at it, the vine that had fallen outside the ring of light squirmed, creating eyes and mouths.
It was Sbengali.
“How stupid and dull have you noticed now that this body fell off when it exploded? Yes?”
“you… now. How… .”
“Stupid.”
Sbengali made a squeaking sound and made a loud noise again.
“Did you forget that you continued to hand over power to me, knowingly or unknowingly? I could free myself from your influence any time I wanted to.”
He just mumbled that he didn’t, and he continued to speak calmly in a terrifying voice, as always.
“… Let Minerva hear the details. It’s because we’ve already talked to each other.”
“What kind of bullshit is that, hey!”
“Can’t you remember what I said earlier?”
Sbangali sighed and muttered.
“I told you, don’t even try to get useless things.”
He frowned and rolled his eyes.
Laune was staring at his eyes and mouth that appeared right next to him with a sullen expression.
“Is it an intuition as a spirit, or is it a sixth sense? This guy told me I’m sure he’ll be a stumbling block when your guy goes back. And if that happens, I already said that I would stay and survive 300 years.”
Raune, startled, rushed to him as if he was saying such a thing and struggled with his roots, but Svengali continued talking without paying attention.
“But how is this guy going to survive 300 years on his own? This fearless thing swore that 300 years was nothing, but probably within a few years it will die and die or be eaten by someone. So, shouldn’t at least one guardian remain with us?”
For a moment, I remembered the time when I first met Milited and fought a battle.
Belluna, who did not possess the ring at that time, had entered through the barrier, and she said that she had received it from Laune.
However, Laune, who had fallen into this age like me, was obviously wearing her own ring around her neck.
The ring did not match the number.
Laune who handed the ring to Belluna.
no way.
no way… .
“Then see you in 300 years. When that time comes, I will follow my energy in moderation so that I can find it.”
Sbangali disappeared with those words.
Laune was looking at me without saying a word.
Around his neck were the ring I gave him and my scales.
“… … .”
He waved his hand to me without a word.
As always, he had an expression that didn’t know what he was thinking.
Just like it has been since the first time we met.
As always.
[You feel a strange light enveloping you… .]
Soon, a bright light fell all over the place.
* * *
The first thing that caught my eye was the dark interior.
Sooyoung, who was next to him, was fumbling around in a slumped posture.
Having been able to see in the dark because of Henir’s shadow or dragon blood, I could easily recognize that we were in the place where we started, that is, inside the barrier we had prepared to fight Milited.
“Sooyoung, here.”
When she reached out her hand, she carefully grabbed it.
While waiting for her to get used to the darkness, she spoke quietly to Minerva to hear the details.
“… Now explain, Minerva.”
[Even the original woman does not know the details.]
She spoke to me in a quiet voice.
[I don’t know if you know, but the only being that could hear that little Mandragora’s voice was the same spirit or Svengalli, the creator of that spirit. The only thing she heard from Sbangali was that if something unexpected came up, she said as if passing by, she would wait 300 years like the old woman did.]
“… … .”
[Sbengali, along with that gnome, the spirit named Graune was also something he thought about and decided by himself. To wait 300 years for you. so… .]
“I know, Minerva. I know it well.”
I nodded.
“So, let’s go see each other again as soon as possible.”
[okay.]
Minerva smiled a little, as if relieved.
[Like I did with my wife. Yes, that’s it.]
“Hey, Jihyuk… .”
Sooyoung, whose eyes had gotten used to the darkness to some extent, opened her mouth carefully.
She was still looking around while talking to me.
“Is something strange?”
“Yeah, I guess I’m a little out of time.”
“yes… … .”
She nodded.
If the original plan had followed, we would have had to arrive in a time frame right after we flew into the past.
Clearly, the time period is messed up.
“The question is, how far off is the time… .”
As the traces of fighting Milited remain within the barrier now, it was not a return to the past.
After looking around for a while, I could see that this place was closed and abandoned.
After we disappeared, it was clear that the rest of the party had left this place undestroyed.
“Let’s go outside first.”
“how? to break it? I don’t think I can use space-based magic here.”
It was not possible to break the barrier as easily as it was a place prepared for the purpose of imprisoning Milited.
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Of course, I could do it if I put my mind to it, but I didn’t have to take my strength away.
I glanced at my feet, and she nodded as if she understood now.
After a while, we escaped through Henir’s shadow, and we couldn’t help but be stunned by the sudden warmth we felt.
“… hot.”
Gulping, she muttered as she swallowed a small saliva.
It wasn’t cold before we fell into the past, but at least it wasn’t this hot.
There was a moment when I was worried that the time might have deviated a lot more than I expected.
“What are these flowers?”
In one corner, flowers were clustered together.
It wasn’t something that naturally bloomed, but something someone brought.
Its appearance was like a wreath dedicated to the spirit of the dead.
No, it was a wreath, no matter who looked at it.
“… … .”
“… … .”
Me and Sooyoung couldn’t say anything at that sight.
There were even gimbap that I liked, one of the daggers that I had not been able to retrieve, and a staff that seemed to belong to Sooyoung.
“Sooyoung, do you have a cell phone?”
“It was broken and threw it away… .”
“It’s a big deal, so do I.”
There was no means of contacting everyone right now, including cell phones.
It was around the time that I began to think that the situation might be more serious than I thought.
[Who is coming?]
I was startled for a moment by Minerva’s words, and without realizing it, I grabbed Sooyoung’s hand and hid.
By the time we thought about why we were hiding, our bodies had already moved on their own.
As soon as even Sooyoung noticed someone coming, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the point of hiding.
So the two of us hid ourselves and waited for someone to walk here.
Woman.
small body stature.
light brown hair.
“It’s Yuna.”
That someone was none other than a reason.
I looked carefully at her approaching slowly.
Fortunately, she looked not much different from the Yuuna in my memory.
It was at the time when I was breathing a small sigh of relief, because at least a few years had passed and it didn’t seem like a situation I couldn’t laugh at at all.
“Sorry, are you late?”
Saying that, Lee Yu-na carefully put down the flower she was holding.
Then he took out a lunch box from the bag he was holding in his other hand.
“The tuna kimbap and sandwich that Jihyuk liked you. And I made some chicken that Sooyoung liked and brought it home.”
Saying so, she skillfully cleared away the food that had been laid out, and put down the food she had brought.
Then I simply started cleaning and tidying up the surroundings.
“… … .”
“… … .”
For some reason, Sooyoung and I held our breaths without even thinking of going in front of her.
Maybe it was because she looked so pious.
“… It has already been a month.”
After tidying up her surroundings to some extent, Lee Yu-na muttered as she crouched down in front of the flowers and objects.
“There are people who still don’t believe it, but there are people who are slowly accepting it. It will be… .”
She let out a small sigh.
“Even after all the clan of the World Tree and the Ten Rivers came out, I couldn’t find a single trace… .”
sigh once more.
She was still crouching down with a pitiful look on her eyes.
“me too… I don’t want to believe You two, so… .”
sniff
She shook her body a little.
“… Would it have been different if I had been a little stronger?”
Suddenly, large tears welled up in both of Lee Yu-na’s eyes.
“Jihyuk said you said, ‘I’m important when fighting the Seven Evils. i need it But I really… Actually, I can’t do anything… therefore… .”
“Ugh,” she snorted loudly.
She was holding her knees with both hands and rubbed her eyes with one hand.
“I, a little… If only I had been a little stronger. If so… perhaps… .”
She mumbled so much that it was hard to understand as she went back, and eventually she burst into tears.
She looked so pathetic that she buried her head between her knees and started crying, but Sooyoung, who was right next to her, said, ‘What should I do… .’
“Jihyuk… swimming… please answer me… please… .”
I couldn’t stay still.
Sooyoung, who made eye contact with me, nodded slightly and then got up from her seat with a determined expression on her face. I followed her and got up too.
As we walked a few steps closer, she was sobbing that she didn’t seem to notice at all.
“It’s Yuna.”
“The reason.”
When she called her name almost at the same time, her crying face froze for a moment.
“… … .”
The crying stopped, so we called her name one more time.
“Yuna, it’s me. swimming.”
“Hey, Yuuna.”
Her body began to tremble thinly at our call.
And slowly.
Very slowly, her head began to lift… .
“Hey, hey hey ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!”
When our eyes met, Yuuna let out a shriek and sat down.