23 – It’s Difficult to Have a Younger Sister Return (5)
Among the people he met after returning to Earth, she was the strongest.
But that was all.
If he couldn’t have what he wanted, he would slash until he could have it.
That was always his way.
Leaving Klaus, who was scattered as dust under the moonlight, behind.
Yeo-ul headed towards the staircase hidden by illusionary magic.
* * *
Dimly lit lights, floating white dust.
Yeo-ul, descending the stairs, found a long corridor and a door at the end.
Is his younger sister, Ye-woon, on the other side?
When he thought of that, for some reason, one side of his chest itched.
A momentary impulse, hesitation in his heart, causing harm to his sister alone.
Yeo-ul was able to turn everything, whatever happened to Ye-woon, into nothing.
That’s why he had no worries.
That’s what he should do.
Why is his body hesitating so much?
Yeo-ul stood in front of the door.
Open the door. He only gave the simple instruction for one movement, but his body didn’t listen well.
He struggles while holding onto the doorknob.
If Ye-woon is on the other side.
If she looks the same as she did in the transparent magic.
Then how should he act?
An unexpected farewell and a reunion after a week.
The tender time that should have been, was ruined and destroyed by his mistake.
Something unknown still pressed heavily on his heart.
At that moment.
The door in front of him made a loud noise and shook violently.
The door panel fell off.
“……?”
He came face to face with Ryeowoon, who had an expression of surprise.
Apart from a slight crease in his clothes, Ryeowoon looked unharmed and perfectly fine.
Yeoul felt the weight of something pressing on his chest lighten as he saw Ryeowoon in such a state.
And Ryeowoon, who noticed Yeoul’s appearance.
Without any hesitation, she immediately jumped into his arms.
A small creature nestled against him.
“Oppa… It’s Oppa, right…?”
As she asked, Ryeowoon slightly raised her body, looking at his black and round forehead.
Yeoul felt his chest ease for the first time in a while.
“…Yeah.”
“Where did you go… I was worried….”
He felt his chest getting moist.
Ryeowoon sobbed quietly.
“I told you to go out, what if you didn’t come back for a week, you idiot….”
“…I’m sorry.”
Yeoul felt like he should say that, and lightly hugged her, placing his hands on her forehead and back of her head.
His hands naturally started to stroke her hair. Then Ryeowoon started sobbing even louder.
“It’s not your fault, Oppa… I’m sorry….”
“……”
“I told you to go out and got angry and annoyed and threw a tantrum… You must have been really confused, and I didn’t even realize it…”
“……”
“I’m sorry… So please don’t go anywhere, Oppa… It’s my fault, so please come back home…”
Mm-hmm…
Crying and tightly hugging Yeorin, who is breaking down. Yeorin’s clothes are crumpled in her hands.
“Do you understand…?”
“…Yes.”
Tap, tap. Yeorin lightly taps her back.
“I missed you so much, oppa…”
She murmurs softly.
Her brother, who disappeared during their childhood and whose memory is vague. Her parents who suddenly passed away in an accident. Yeorin, who was left alone to silently guard the once bustling and spacious house.
Her brother finally returns. The strangeness felt after the joy of their reunion. The intensity of emotions. The mistake of a moment. Tenderness, longing.
Yeorin, who couldn’t empathize with the emotions she felt, let alone guess them, but in this moment, he did his best to comfort her.
* * *
How long had they been hugging?
With all her strength, Yeorin clings to Yeorin, sobbing, throwing a tantrum until her legs give out.
Her crying stops. Silently, Yeorin, who had slipped out of his arms, sits huddled in the corner of the room where she had been trapped.
Yeorin tries to sit a little further away, but her younger sister grabs onto the hem of her clothes with her fingers, causing Yeorin to sit right beside her.
“……”
Sniffle. In the small room, only the sound of Yeorin’s sniffling echoes.
No one says a word, just an awkward silence fills the air.
Yeorin has been holding back her words, afraid that she might say something that would hurt Yeorin, just like before.
Yeorin…
In her mind, she is deeply troubled.
Why did I act like that?
Like a little child, throwing a fit and snuggling in her brother’s embrace.
Sniffling, throwing tantrums…
And even saying that she missed him…!
Of course, she missed her brother that much.
She even wondered if her mistake would mean that she would never see her brother again. But then she was kidnapped by an infuriating elf and found out that the purpose of the kidnapping was her brother.
Anger, anxiety, fear… All these emotions were swirling around in her head.
It was more than enough for her to act that way.
But it was possible….
Still, it was something embarrassing.
Ryeoun raised her head, which had been buried between Lyoul’s knees, and glanced briefly at the person sitting next to her.
Yeo-ul, who had been looking into the empty space, with a piece of her dress caught in his hand.
As she looked at his longer hair, slender jawline, and the subtly dangerous atmosphere emanating from him, she suddenly realized that he had become an adult.
At that moment, Yeo-ul felt Ryeoun’s gaze, and he turned his head slightly to look at her.
Their eyes met, and as he stared at her intently, he blinked softly.
Ryeoun couldn’t seem to take her eyes off his eyes.
“……”
Was her brother always like this?
She gazed blankly at her brother.
“Do you have something to say?”
Yeo-ul, who had been counting the number of her eyelashes or something, said.
Her brother’s low, cold voice pierced her eardrums. Ryeoun snapped back to her senses.
She quickly turned her head and exclaimed, “Ah, it’s nothing…!”
What was she staring at? Somehow, she felt her face growing hot.
“Well, should we go now?”
She tried to grab her own knees and stand up, overcome with embarrassment.
“Just a moment.”
Yeo-ul stopped her and took something out of his pocket.
“Do you know what this is?”
It was a round object, resembling a crystal sphere.
Just a glass bead, she was about to reply when she felt the magic contained in that object.
From Noble mtl dot com
It wasn’t an ordinary item. She struggled to recall the identity of the object that looked oddly familiar.
And then.
“Ah, I remember…!”
A few days ago, she had heard about it during a class that she considered useless.
A new means of communication invented with the magical technology revolution.
Although it didn’t have various functions like a smartphone, it used magic instead of electricity and didn’t require a separate base station, ensuring strong security as no logs were left behind.
It was said to be used only in specific areas that required high security due to its high production cost.
It was a closed bidirectional magical engineering communication device called Tele-Obra.
Although the explanation was somewhat refined, it looked and functioned exactly like the communication crystals that commonly appear in fantasy novels.
“I see.”
“I heard this is quite expensive…. Where did you get it?”
Klaus turned into dust and the old-fashioned clothing he left behind.
Inside, Yeoru discovered this sparkling bead, suspecting that it was not an ordinary object, she decided to keep it for now.
“I found it.”
Yeoru said simply, knowing that it would be too long to say more.
“Ah, you found it….”
Yeoru looked at him with a worried expression.
“But where does it connect to….”
Usually, Tele-Obra works when two devices communicate with each other. Since one device was here, it meant that somewhere there must be another device that pairs with it.
Curiosity piqued, Yeoru infused the Tele-Obra with mana.
This is how it’s supposed to operate….
The Tele-Obra absorbed a small amount of mana. However, it remained silent, failing to activate as she had expected.
Once the inside of the crystal glimmered, it projected a scene from somewhere else.
* * *
“When are you planning to contact me….”
The woman murmured softly.
It had been about an hour since she received the message that Yeoru had arrived.
Considering the amount of power she invested, she should have received confirmation that he had been captured.
But there was still no contact.
In her opinion, he was a person worth capturing and studying.
Even if she was ruthless, she did not undertake such endeavors simply for the sake of revenge.
Achieving such strength without mana, there was probably….
She had a suspicion in mind.
If she managed to capture and study him, she might obtain clues about the ‘it’ that was considered as an enigma.
That was why she even sent her subordinate Klaus, whom she valued, on this mission. She believed Klaus would be able to subdue him, even if it was a little excessive.
However, what on earth was he doing?
Could it be that things were not going well? At that moment, when she felt a cold sweat, a signal arrived on the Tele-Obra that she tightly grasped in her hand.
“Why are you so late, ah…?”
Reflected in her angry eyes was not the familiar face of Klaus.
It was So-yeoul, the one she had commanded to bring him.