Chapter 768: Drenching
It was Yerim.
As Park Hayul searched this world for a way to call down lightning, he found water. Beneath the dreamscape stretched an endless sea of sleep. The foundation of this world, laid down by the Mermaid Queen. And Yerim—Yerim’s spirit held the title Heir of the Mermaid Queen.
If it was Yerim, maybe she could use the overwhelming power of the Transcendent supporting the dream world. That was why I sent Yerim to Park Hayul.
So she could make contact with the sleeping sea.
“Yerim!”
I shouted toward her, though I still couldn’t see her. I opened my mouth, but when it came time to explain, I had no idea where to begin. The person holding on to me, I mean…
‘Still, first things first.’
Calm everyone down.
Make this something we could talk through, somehow.
I was about to call out to Yerim again when an embarrassed voice rang across the waves before I could.
“I’m so sorry!”
“…Huh?”
“I managed to drag it out, but I can’t control this at all!!”
Y, Yerim? Everyone turned toward the water. It was too translucent to feel like real water. More like water’s shadow. But there was no mistaking the energy coming off it. Yerim herself still wasn’t visible. Only her voice echoed through the water.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous, but still! Move!”
No one moved, even after she said that. Move where?
“Where exactly are we supposed to move to?”
the Puppeteer said flatly.
Ruuumble—
Everything shook. Water was pouring down not just from every direction, but from the sky itself. Water was surging up from underground too. Flying, running, burrowing beneath the surface—none of it would help. Unless someone had long-distance spatial movement, there was nowhere to escape.
Literally everywhere was water.
“Ah, I can’t hold it anymore! It’s gonna burst!”
Right after Yerim’s final cry, with no way to respond—
Whooosh!
The water swallowed us whole.
It didn’t come from one direction. We weren’t even thrown back. We just sank where we were. Water-aspected magic flooded everything. The lingering heat vanished in an instant, and the lines the Puppeteer had drawn were washed away. The black butterflies that had been endlessly fluttering, the blue willow leaves scattering through the air, all melted out of existence. Even the current wrapped around the Seeker’s Chain dispersed.
A powerful water domain that devoured every skill in play.
“…Kgh!”
I’d instinctively held my breath, but I couldn’t last long. Air burst from me. Even the sound of my coughing was swallowed by the water. Just before I choked, something slid into my mouth. An underwater-use item. Through eyes I barely managed to force open, I saw all kinds of debris drifting past.
Yuhyun was still holding me. The hem of his black coat swayed in the current. My other brother was nowhere in sight. Neither was Peace. Seong Hyunjae, Chief Song, and even the Puppeteer had all been swept somewhere else.
Bubbles rose through the wreckage. Burnt dirt swirled in schools like fish. I looked up at Yuhyun. I couldn’t make myself look below his torso. Even hidden beneath the coat, I couldn’t.
“I tried to find you.”
The memory marble. It—
“…It came to you.”
I’d had to leave with nothing but one new fragment of memory from when I was twenty.
And the twenty-five-year-old version of my brother had come back carrying it.
Even if it was only the body. Even if all that remained was memory.
“You’re my brother.”
His black eyes, impossible to read, looked down at me. Quiet. Steady. Unmoved.
“You don’t need to look for me anymore, hyung.”
“…Han Yuhyun.”
“So go back. Forget the me from before the regression.”
The hand holding me let go. As the current started to drag me away, I grabbed his arm in a panic and clung to him.
“Forget him? Forget what? How am I supposed to—!”
Could I really forget?
“Maybe someday I’d be okay. Maybe someday it would sink into the past and stay buried there. But forgetting? No. I can’t do that!”
Yuhyun’s hand closed around mine.
He wasn’t holding on to me.
He was peeling my hand off his arm, slowly.
“No, hyung.”
“Han Yuhyun!”
“I’m not the brother you knew.”
“You don’t get to decide that by yourself! I’m the one who feels that you are!”
My hand slipped away. I flailed and grabbed for him again, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t reach him. One by one, black butterflies began to emerge through the water.
“The Gardener—that bastard, what the hell is he trying to do?! What did he do to you—!”
Yuhyun drifted farther away, then blurred and disappeared. As I thrashed helplessly in the churning water, another familiar hand caught me.
And pulled.
Below my feet was an endless black drop. Water untouched by light sank into darkness, growing farther and farther away.
Splash!
I was dragged up to the surface. The tops of buildings poked out here and there above the water. Yuhyun carried me to the roof of the nearest one. Maybe because all the water had been pulled out at once, but the sky had already cleared. Beneath the huge moon, light glittered on the water—sunlight or moonlight, I couldn’t tell.
“…Hyung.”
I stared at the flooded world. Far off on another rooftop, I saw Seong Hyunjae and Song Taewon. The Puppeteer had vanished somewhere, and Peace came racing across the surface with his wings spread.
“So it really is the Gardener.”
Maybe it was because I’d just been thoroughly drenched. Maybe there was nothing left in me that could still be shocked.
My voice came out unnervingly calm.
Peace ran up, turned intangible, vaulted the railing, and threw himself at me. I scooped up the tiny monster as he whined. Gentle warmth spread from him, slowly drying my soaked clothes.
“He’s probably not after Seong Hyunjae alone, the way the other Transcendents are, Yuhyun.”
I turned to look at my brother. The same black eyes wavered this time, just faintly.
There was emotion in them now. Clear as day.
“When did you meet him?”
“…”
“Please.”
“…On my birthday.”
My chest, which I’d thought had already taken more than enough hits, lurched all over again.
His birthday.
Then that mountain cabin. The ruined living room. The smashed sofa. The scorched floor.
“So it wasn’t Byeol.”
Yuhyun had been there.
I remembered how unusually downcast Iryn had seemed.
“Iryn.”
–I wasn’t trying to hide it from you, hyung!
Iryn floated over to me, spinning in circles as he spoke.
–But there were two Yuhyuns, so… I mean, there were two of him…
“So you felt him as Yuhyun too.”
–…He felt exactly like Yuhyun. But since you said a part of Yuhyun was inside him, maybe that’s why. If he were really just a body with the same memories, I don’t think he’d feel this identical.
Yuhyun had insisted, right up to the end, that he wasn’t the real one.
Was it really just the effect of the memory marble that belonged to the present Yuhyun? If that weren’t there, then he’d just be—
“Either way. Either way, Yuhyun, you’re the brother I was trying to find—the one from before the regression.”
I met his eyes.
“Not you.”
Different.
They were definitely different.
“I’m going to take my brother back from the Gardener and bring him home.”
I didn’t care what Yuhyun had to say about it.
That was my goal.
The moment I learned I’d lost the brother from before the regression, that became the one thing I could never let go of.
“…I don’t know.”
“Yuhyun.”
“You made up with me, and then… you kept telling me I was okay. You accepted me. You told me it was okay if I was different from him. That it was okay if I wanted a little more. But all of that…”
His confused gaze fixed on me.
“It’s meaningless if you’re not here.”
“I’m right here.”
“You almost died! When the me from before the regression appeared—if that one hadn’t helped you, then you’d already be—!”
“…What?”
Back then, Yuhyun?
“What do you mean…”
Something hit me all at once.
The item in the King of Harmless’s drawer. The one that said I didn’t have much life left. But when I met Young Chaos after Yuhyun’s birthday, he’d said my condition was fine.
“So… on your birthday…”
“The life you had left in the Japan dungeon. He said he used that. And that he wouldn’t be able to do the same thing again.”
Yuhyun, Yuhyun had…
He’d come then.
Which meant the Gardener had already taken him by that point and made it possible for him to move.
Wait.
No way.
‘Did Yuhyun become bound to the Gardener…’
Even if the Gardener had enabled him to move, a bound subordinate still had to enter the contract willingly. There was no way Yuhyun would’ve just obeyed some Transcendent.
Unless—
‘To heal me. For me. Again.’
…Han Yuhyun.
You really… even now…
“I wavered back then too. Because it was true—I wasn’t putting protecting you first. I was happy spending time with you, hyung.”
“If you were happy, then that’s enough!”
“The Chatterbox party was dangerous too. But you were happy, and making up with you, and the time that followed…”
Yuhyun took a step back. Iryn turned into a small flame and returned to his master.
“I really can’t do it without you.”
His voice came out low and quiet. I reached for him in a panic. My fingertips brushed ceremonial robes. Blue willow leaves swept in front of my eyes.
“Just like you said, we’re different. Even if our paths split again.”
What?
“No! That’s not what I meant—!”
I couldn’t catch up to the footsteps that landed lightly atop the willow leaves. Yuhyun was moving away.
“Peace!”
“No.”
The command rang out, sharp and forceful. Peace, who had been about to leap from my arms and shift into his adult form, froze. In Yuhyun’s hand was the mark of ownership. And layered over it came a fierce pressure. Not just taming, but the domination of a stronger being with the same attribute. Peace flattened himself in displeasure, but he obeyed.
At this moment, the leader he was bound to follow was Han Yuhyun.
“Even if we split paths, that doesn’t mean we’re severed! To begin with, I—”
“I’ll look into the Gardener too. I know how to find where it is.”
Cutting me off, Yuhyun turned away. His eyes flicked briefly toward the glittering water.
“Park Yerim should be more than enough to protect you, hyung.”
That was the end of it. Before I could stop him, before I could say one more word, he was gone. He ran across the water and vanished from sight in an instant.
My chest felt packed solid.
–Kyaaang.
Peace circled restlessly, not knowing what to do. I let out a long sigh.
“…Don’t worry, Peace. Siblings fight. That’s normal, apparently.”
This had gone very differently from what I expected, but I didn’t have time to sit here feeling sorry for myself.
I had to clash with him. And then actually talk.
To both of them.
“So this Gardener thing thought it could mess with somebody else’s brother.”
So what if it was a Transcendent. Just wait.
With Peace in my arms, I stepped up onto the railing. Off in the distance, I saw Chief Song gathering things from the rooftop, probably trying to build a raft, while Seong Hyunjae stood around looking entirely too relaxed. Seong Hyunjae signaled to me from afar.
Asking if I was okay.
I gave him a rough nod.
‘The Puppeteer looks like he’s trying to stop Yuhyun… but for now, it should be okay.’
Because Yuhyun had gone to Yuhyun.
Now that his goal was the same, he’d join forces, and even the Puppeteer wouldn’t be able to do much about it. Seong Hyunjae’s neck was in more danger than anything else.
“Yerim, are you okay?”
I tried calling out, but there was no answer. Since I’d only heard her voice, maybe she’d been controlling the water from inside a dream within the dream. Maybe she was still with Park Hayul. If Yerim could get proper control over this power, dealing with bound subordinates might not be hard for her either.
For now, I had Peace lower his back for me, climbed on, and headed toward Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song.
“Brothers fight.”
That was the first thing Seong Hyunjae said when he saw me, in that usual carefree tone. As I jumped down from Peace’s back onto the rooftop, he strode over and looked down at me.
“Wandering around alone like this is dangerous.”
“I’ve got Peace. And if it comes down to it, Chief Song will crack you over the back of the head.”
To the current Seong Hyunjae, I was useful in all kinds of ways. My skills, for one. And in front of Yuhyun, I’d make a handy hostage too.
Still.
“I’m going to have to use the Sesung Guildmaster as bait.”
Yuhyun would show up to kill Seong Hyunjae. I had to meet him first if I wanted any chance of doing anything.
“A very favorable setting for fishing.”
“Then lend me the back of your neck for the hook. Your collar works too.”
And if I dunked him in the water a few times, maybe Yuhyun would come running. Using electricity while fishing was illegal, but—
“…Are you all right?”
Chief Song stepped toward me and quietly put a little space between me and Seong Hyunjae.
“I’m fine. Like Mr. Seong said, brothers fight. More importantly, Chief Song. About the Gardener.”
“Yes. I remember.”
Chief Song. The Transcendent who had helped plant the seed of the Eclipse in our world. In the end, that meant Chief Song was involved too.
“The white bird is still nowhere to be found, but the Gardener’s gotten closer.”
Not that I had absolutely no idea where the white bird might be, either.
Anyway, even if the Gardener hadn’t been tied to Yuhyun, I’d still have had business with it because of Chief Song. We were bound to cross paths eventually. Maybe I should thank it for bringing my brother to me.
“As for the Gardener—”
I swept my gaze around. He had to be nearby.
“Hey, youngest son. Where are you? Get out here right now before I add you to my family registry.”
“You looked like only your mouth was floating when I saw you earlier.”
The Puppeteer slid into view.
Knew it. He had to be here somewhere. There was no way he’d leave Seong Hyunjae’s side when he had to protect Sigma.
“Tell me everything you know about the Gardener.”
Your kid and my kid are both caught up in this, so we’re cooperating.
