Chapter 769: Adrift (1)
“And explain your goal while you’re at it.”
I’d expected as much, but the Puppeteer was clearly hiding a lot more than I’d thought. Standing atop the railing, the Puppeteer looked down at me.
“Well, look at that. You’re trying to interrogate me.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything from the start? If you really did it to protect Sigma, there was no reason to keep it secret. At least I would’ve tried to help.”
Maybe Seong Hyunjae would’ve been cautious, but not me. Yerim, too. Ms. Hyunah as well. And Chief Song wasn’t the kind of person who abandoned someone who needed help.
“Were you planning to kill me?”
Seong Hyunjae spoke up out of nowhere.
“If Han Yujin hadn’t acted first, that is.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
The Puppeteer looked unimpressed. I didn’t understand what Seong Hyunjae meant either.
“Uh, Mr. Seong Hyunjae. The Puppeteer made a contract with me to protect you, remember? Even now, they’re saying you need to stay safe to protect Sigma.”
“They used me as bait to bind the Gardener’s subordinate.”
“…It does look like Yuhyun was trying to kill you, but still. Didn’t they protect you then too?”
Not kill him. The opposite. After a brief silence, as if sorting through his thoughts, Seong Hyunjae spoke again.
“The one the Gardener’s subordinate was chasing was Sigma. Unlike me, Sigma is asleep, which means once their location is discovered, they can be taken easily enough. And yet the Puppeteer came here. That would mean Sigma’s protection is flawless.”
“Uh… I guess so?”
“If Sigma fell asleep because of the existence they share with me, then the moment I die, Sigma would awaken. And at the same time, their location would be exposed. Sigma, unlike their puppet, seems unable to grow. In other words, they’re weaker than the Gardener’s subordinate.”
Th–that made sense, didn’t it? At Seong Hyunjae’s words, the Puppeteer let out a short sigh.
“Because that child’s time has been frozen the whole while. Still exactly the same as when they met you.”
Just as Sigma had been back then. Even at SS-rank, with the differences in ranking systems, Sigma had only been a little stronger than an S-rank in our world. Compared to Yuhyun before the regression… Sigma was definitely weaker.
“So you planned to use me as bait, deal with the Gardener’s subordinate, then bring Sigma here. And to use me as bait, you needed to prove that Sigma’s location would only be revealed if I died. Is Hwang Rim with Sigma?”
“Hwang Rim?”
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen Hwang Rim once since the Puppeteer appeared. At Seong Hyunjae’s explanation, the Puppeteer looked utterly fed up.
“He really is not cute at all. Doesn’t he creep you out?”
“So Hwang Rim really is with Sigma?”
At my question, the Puppeteer nodded.
“If Sigma’s location got exposed, they’d need to run immediately. I found a new shelter and taught Hwang Rim how to get there. No matter who showed up, Sigma would be able to escape safely at least once.”
Then in the end…
“If I hadn’t killed the Sesung Guildmaster.”
“I would have. It would’ve drawn in the Gardener’s subordinate and thrown the attention of the other transcendents onto him too. Worked out perfectly.”
For a second, I was speechless. They said there wasn’t a single person in the world you could trust, and wow, apparently they were right.
“You told me I had to protect Seong Hyunjae!”
I lunged for the Puppeteer’s collar, but they slipped away lightly. Perched on the railing, they spun around like they were dancing.
“I couldn’t let him die more than once. And he couldn’t die too early either. Still, I counted the contract as a success, didn’t I?”
“You said Sigma would be in danger if anything happened to Seong Hyunjae!”
“That’s true right now.”
Right now? Oh. Once Sigma was recognized as an independent being and joined our world, it wouldn’t matter anymore.
“Seong Hyunjae could get taken before Sigma is separated!”
“He can hold out that much. Calm down and unclench your face, baby. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Though that sharp-eyed brat figured it out anyway.”
The Puppeteer waved a hand lazily as they spoke. Calm down? Unclench my face? Was that supposed to help?
“Seong Hyunjae didn’t even do anything to you, and you’re shamelessly talking about throwing an innocent person into a death trap–”
“Because Sigma matters most to me.”
Tap, tap. The Puppeteer’s footsteps rang brightly against the railing as they dodged me. Their long hair swayed through those weightless, playful movements.
“What happens to the rest of the world doesn’t matter to me. I only need to protect what matters to me.”
“No, but still!”
“And what if I lose my child trying to take care of people I don’t even care about?”
Eyes curved with the thinnest trace of a smile looked down at me. It felt like the Puppeteer was asking me a question.
Wouldn’t you sacrifice someone else for the thing most precious to you?
Would you really be fine losing what matters most because you chose to protect others?
I thought of Yuhyun. It felt like frost had formed inside my chest.
“…Even so.”
“Hey. Kid. I’m not like you.”
Before I knew it, the Puppeteer’s hand was on my head, pressing lightly as if patting me down. I slapped it away and frowned.
“This and that, it’s all the same.”
The Puppeteer looked from Seong Hyunjae to Song Taewon in turn.
“I’m not talking about good and evil, or social contracts, or universal values. People all have lines they can’t cross. I decided that even if the whole world burns down and everything around me has to be offered up, my child comes first. That’s who I am.”
“…I’d choose my brother too.”
“I’d still survive. Sigma would be fine too. But you wouldn’t, would you?”
I…
“If you acted the way I do, guilt would crush you to death. And then your brother would end up on the road to the underworld right alongside you.”
…Would it?
Even after deciding I had to put myself first, I still kept wondering whether that was really the right thing to do.
“You sound so sure of yourself that it makes me wonder if I’m the one who’s lacking. I mean, I really do care about Yuhyun, but…”
“That’s what happens when you clash with other people. You get shaken. Even someone who ran full speed ahead, convinced they were on the right path, will stop at least once and wonder if they really are. It’d be stranger if people stayed exactly the same from beginning to end. That would mean they were never affected by anything around them.”
I guess that was normal. To keep colliding with things as you lived, to keep worrying, wavering, changing.
“Compared to me, you’re still basically a baby just learning how to walk, but you’ve still lived as yourself for all this time. It’s fine to waver. Just don’t get swept away.”
“You’re being surprisingly thoughtful.”
“Well, yeah. It’d be a problem if you suddenly went, Ah, I should only care about my brother from now on! and decided to throw Seong Hyunjae away. Especially when the Gardener’s subordinate happens to be your brother.”
Did they really have to be that blunt?
I looked away from the Puppeteer and turned to Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song. I thought of the people who weren’t here too. Every one of them was different. What they wanted was different, and the way they chose to pursue it was different too.
“Anyway, don’t even think about touching Mr. Seong Hyunjae.”
“I already did everything I needed to.”
The goal of using him as bait had been achieved, sure, but I still couldn’t trust the Puppeteer completely. They’d said it themselves—they’d do anything to protect Sigma. We might be moving together for now because our enemies were the same, but that didn’t mean I could let my guard down.
“If I get my brother back from the Gardener, Sigma will be safe too, right? Is there any way to cancel the subordinate contract?”
“There are about three. Mutual agreement between both parties. The death of one of the contractors. Or nullification by an even greater power. Depending on the subordinate contract, the master may also be able to cancel it unilaterally.”
So either the Gardener and Yuhyun had a nice talk and agreed to quit, or I killed the Gardener, or… wait.
“Yuhyun… it’s hard to say he’s even alive right now.”
“In your brother’s case, the contract may extend even to his body after death. Normally death ends it, but I’d call this a special case.”
“How strong is the Gardener?”
“Strong enough that the third method isn’t realistic.”
I’d guessed as much after hearing the Gardener was tied up with White Bird, but still.
“One of the oldest transcendents out there. Just like the name suggests, the Gardener has a vast garden. In a way, the goal is similar to Crescent Moon’s. The Gardener wants to obtain the power of creation.”
“The power of the Source.”
“Though it doesn’t seem like the Gardener intends to erase the Source. The Gardener wants to create a world personally. Since touching the Source itself is difficult, the target became Seong Hyunjae, who is a pseudo-Source, and Sigma, who is connected to him and can be considered the starting point.”
I turned to Seong Hyunjae.
“So that’s why White Bird joined hands with the Gardener? Thinking that if all else failed, it’d still be better for the Gardener to take Seong Hyunjae than for Crescent Moon to.”
“I don’t know the details, but probably. It wouldn’t have been a bad contract for the Gardener either. Even if the eclipse–”
Chief Song Taewon, who had been listening quietly, reacted faintly.
“Even if the moon were swallowed, whatever remained would have belonged to the Gardener. There would have been room for research. And if the eclipse failed, the Gardener would gain a chance to acquire both Sigma and Seong Hyunjae.”
“So there were restrictions in that contract as well.”
Seong Hyunjae took over, his gaze settling on Chief Song.
“Restrictions such as being unable to speak of me or lay a hand on me before the eclipse failed. There seemed to have been no movement at all before the regression.”
“Yeah. Hwang Rim must’ve fallen into the Gardener’s hands after the regression.”
The Puppeteer nodded. Right, because if Seong Hyunjae had been exposed too early… huh?
“But from White Bird’s perspective, wouldn’t it have been better to expose Crescent Moon’s plan as soon as possible? There had to be plenty of transcendents who opposed the idea of creating a new Source. And since White Bird could see the future in the first place, sabotaging the plan ahead of time should’ve been easy.”
The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Why would White Bird just sit back and let Seong Hyunjae get closer and closer to becoming a full moon? It wasn’t like Crescent Moon was impossible to deal with—White Bird wasn’t alone. There was the Gardener too, and if Senior had known, there was no way Senior would’ve stayed still either. Hell, White Bird could’ve just hidden away the very first Seong Hyunjae from the start.
At my words, the Puppeteer shrugged.
“Future-sight types are like that. Maybe they saw a future where trying to stop it made something even worse happen.”
“…You think?”
“I hear you can’t try to understand future-seeing brats with normal common sense.”
Seriously, what on earth had White Bird seen to act like this?
Anyway, the conclusion was clear.
“If I want my brother back, the only answer is killing the Gardener.”
“Wouldn’t an exchange also be possible?”
“Are you seriously saying you’d go to the Gardener in my place, Mr. Seong Hyunjae?”
Hand over a pseudo-Source in exchange for my brother. Yeah, the Gardener would probably say, Sure. Might even throw in a bonus and call it an excellent deal.
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
“All four people here.”
…All four? Seong Hyunjae continued.
“If we manage to suppress the subordinate safely, then compared to a subordinate that can no longer be used, another transcendent, the eclipse, and the nurturer would be far more tempting. Needless to say, I’d be the prize at the top.”
“The Gardener does want the eclipse back too. Even if the Gardener helped plant it, it’s not easy to touch while the ego remains intact. And the nurturer would make a fairly decent experiment subject too.”
“Then I’ll meet the Gardener myself.”
Chief Song, who had stayed silent until now, finally spoke.
No, wait a second.
“Whatever you’re thinking, absolutely not!”
“If Hunter Park Yerim learns to use that power properly, she’ll be able to subdue Hunter Han Yuhyun.”
“Then the Gardener will make contact. What was it—Rookie said there’s also a way for a transcendent to descend directly as an incarnation instead of sending a subordinate. There are limits to sending subordinates, so there’s a good chance the Gardener will show up by shaving off some of their own power, like Chatterbox did.”
“Or use Hunter Han Yuhyun as a hostage.”
Chief Song’s voice remained calm.
“Han Yujin will not be able to endure that. Not after seeing that he is not simply a corpse, but something that moves.”
“…”
“And given the way Hunter Han Yuhyun is acting now, he may demand that you use yourself as a hostage and abandon Hunter Seong Hyunjae.”
“I’ll stop that somehow.”
“And this is my issue as well.”
Chief Song lowered his gaze to his own hand. A black shadow wavered faintly over it.
“Han Yujin. I cannot forgive myself. So I need to know.”
“…Chief Song.”
“I know… that many people care about me. I have also learned that simply shielding and protecting them is not the only way to care for them. In the Chinese dungeon, I saw the people who remembered me after losing me. And here, I saw the faces of those trying to protect me.”
And beyond that, the joy of protecting others and accomplishing something with your own hands. Protecting people was one way to keep them safe. But being protected was one way too.
“But I am not there yet.”
Even though his voice was calm, there was regret in it. If this was something Chief Song needed in order to understand himself, then I couldn’t stop him.
“Still, don’t do anything rash like offering an exchange. Talk to the Gardener first. Got it?”
“Yes. I will.”
We’d catch Yuhyun and make contact with the Gardener. And beyond that, there were still the other subordinates, and Crescent Moon too. I looked out over the gently spread water.
First, we had to find Yerim.
“Ms. Hyunah should be with Yerim. …Somewhere in here.”
How far had the water even risen? Even with this much water flooding everything, the building was still in relatively good shape. This definitely wasn’t ordinary water.
“This water absorbs skills and mana. Or maybe washes them away is a better way to put it.”
“Yes. I felt it when I got swept up.”
“It does it even at a distance. That’s why I can only move myself around. That magical beast won’t be able to stay in the air for long either. And as for those two, that goes without saying.”
The Puppeteer looked at Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song. Neither of them had movement skills. Of course, neither did I.
“…Making a raft would probably be better than swimming. We’ve got cars, but no boats.”
I’d already used up the fighter jet earlier.
In the end, I started gathering materials with Chief Song’s help. This time, Seong Hyunjae cooperated too.
