Chapter 779: Culprit (3)
“Uh, shouldn’t we help?”
At Moon Hyunah’s comment, Sigma looked at her as if to ask, Why? There wasn’t the slightest doubt in his eyes that the Puppeteer might be pushed back. One of the subordinates closing in at high speed faltered and looked at Sigma.
“…A pseudo-Root? Why?”
The subordinate beside them stopped as well, tilting their head.
“Similar, but a little different.”
The feather-winged one examined their opponent with keen eyesight, while the scale-winged one read magic and heat signatures. While the two subordinates hesitated, the color of the Puppeteer’s eyes changed.
A vivid blue.
The surface of the lake beneath the subordinates’ feet rippled.
Shaaa—
Water shot upward in hair-thin streams. Tens of thousands of watery threads swallowed the sky in an instant. Before the subordinates could even react, a net of water spread wide, catching the light and glittering sharp as blades.
“Merfolk… was it? Control was always his specialty.”
Sigma spoke as if searching his memory. The Puppeteer’s outstretched hand snapped back. At the same time, the net cinched tight all at once.
“Ghk!”
The feather-winged one wrapped their wings around themself and let out a short groan. Razor-edged water sliced into the feathers. The scaled one, on the other hand, curled their entire body into a ball like an armadillo and deflected the water completely.
But.
Splash!
Both had folded their wings, so they plunged straight into the lake. The instant the two subordinates hit the water, the Puppeteer vanished as well.
“It’s over.”
Sigma murmured. Once flying types were dragged underwater, those two had no chance. Not long after, the Puppeteer surfaced. The water slid off his body and fell like rain, and his blue eyes returned to their original color.
“Now, then.”
The Puppeteer disappeared for a blink and reappeared behind the three of them, perched on the glass railing. Moon Hyunah flinched and turned around. No matter the reason, she had kidnapped someone else’s kid, an actual kid, so facing the guardian was awkward.
“Let’s hear the excuse. That guy told me to at least listen to your side. So this is what he meant.”
“Yujin did? Figures he caught on.”
Moon Hyunah gave him an embarrassed smile.
“First of all, I’m sorry. You trusted us with your precious son, and I failed that trust.”
“Who are you calling his son? If anything, I’m old enough to be his father.”
Sigma cut in, displeased.
“But from my position, I had no choice but to prioritize our world.”
“It’s not as if I didn’t see it coming.”
The Puppeteer let out a short sigh and tugged lightly with his fingertips. The open parasol wrapped itself in threads, snapped shut, and went flying toward Hwang Rim, who had been slowly trying to edge away. Crunch. The parasol stabbed into the ground right in front of his nose, and Hwang Rim beamed as he raised both hands in surrender.
“Still, Moon Hyunah, I thought you weren’t the kind of person who would sell off someone unconscious.”
“Mm, true. That’s why I waited until Sigma woke up.”
“What are you planning to do now?”
“I told Sigma we needed to save our world.”
“And?”
“You’ll have to hear the rest from him.”
From the person himself. The Puppeteer’s gaze shifted to Sigma, who stood beside Moon Hyunah. But instead of asking Sigma’s opinion, he said,
“Go back to sleep. It’s dangerous for you to stay awake.”
He was telling him to step back. Sigma refused at once.
“No.”
“The distance is considerable, but we don’t know when the Gardener’s subordinates will catch up.”
“I’ve decided to help Moon Hyunah.”
The Puppeteer’s brow tightened at Sigma’s words. Under that accusing stare, Moon Hyunah looked away, though she still spoke up.
“Come on. Even if you’re treating him like a kid, you should at least hear him out.”
“I lack experience, but I am not young.”
“Moon Hyunah. How did you convince him?”
“I didn’t convince him. I only told him where I stood.”
That was all she had done—told him. Sigma was the one who had listened, thought, and made his decision. The Puppeteer sighed again and looked back at Sigma.
“You have no reason to try to protect this world.”
“You intend to make me a person of this place, don’t you? Then it’s only natural I protect my world.”
“Not yet.”
“Before that, Moon Hyunah—Lambda—already invited me. She told me that if I had nowhere to go, I could come with her. She even said she would take responsibility for the C-rank and that he should come too. Before you asked Moon Hyunah to be my guardian, I had already been invited.”
A long time ago—or, to Sigma’s senses, only a few days ago—someone had held out a hand to him. Someone had promised to wait. At the confidence in Sigma’s voice, the Puppeteer’s gaze sank heavily.
“Yes. You told me that. That’s part of why I brought you here. It was an invitation extended at a time before this world had even formed a proper civilization, so it could accept you too, even though you’re S-rank or higher.”
The stronger a being from another world was, the harder it was for them to pierce through the force protecting a world. That was why Crescent Moon had erased Seong Hyunjae’s memories and sent him, unawakened, into a world before the appearance of Awakened people.
“But it’s still a place you’ve barely set foot in. A world where the number of people you know barely exceeds one hand.”
“I was a Guard.”
Sigma’s lips curved into a round line.
“I became one without really knowing what I was doing, but at first, Solemnise probably only meant to flatter and leash a naive strongman. Gradually, however, they treated me as Sigma.”
Sigma had accepted his place and moved to protect the city. He had not done anything extraordinary. He had simply fulfilled his responsibilities as a Guard. He prepared for monster appearances, minimized civilian casualties, trained the Guards under him, and actively stood at the front lines of battle. Those basic actions alone had been special enough.
“Solemnise was a good city to live in, that’s for sure. From Lambda’s memories, it changed completely after Sigma was replaced. Yujin grumbled that he suffered because of you, though.”
“That was the C-rank’s fault. No Guard wanders around at night unregistered and without nighttime travel permission unless they’re a criminal. There are even people who occasionally kidnap lower-ranked Guards and sell them to Achates, so he was subject to immediate arrest.”
On top of that, Han Yujin had been carrying high-grade weapons.
“Of course, I was curious as well. I was bored then.”
It had been a mechanically repetitive life. Sigma quietly searched his memory.
“Though the memories were erased, I suspect I did something similar in the world before that. Work as a Guard was so familiar to me that it quickly became dull.”
“For all his complaining, this world’s Seong Hyunjae was pretty diligent about protecting the world too. Even while saying he was bored to death.”
It hadn’t felt as if he was doing it purely for the world, not at all, but his actions had been those of a guardian. Moon Hyunah reached out and rested an arm over Sigma’s shoulder.
“Sigma, you probably didn’t even have that subconscious goal of breaking free from Crescent Moon. Maybe this is who you were from the start.”
“I don’t know. I only thought it was something I should do. Not as a duty.”
Sigma tilted his head slightly. It was difficult to explain precisely. It was simply—
“I think I wanted to.”
He had no special feelings for the people he saved and protected. Even when the Guards grew attached to him and gradually came to follow him, it had not moved him much. At most, he had considered it natural—a thought some might call arrogant.
Because that was the sort of being he was.
Sigma looked straight at the Puppeteer. The long black hair swayed in the sea breeze.
“This is me. I can’t explain it. I don’t understand it very well myself. I have no memories, either. But I was not persuaded. Nor is this a sacrifice.”
The Puppeteer’s eyes twisted slightly. It looked like a smile and like tears at the same time.
“…It hasn’t been long since your time started moving again. And you’re already trying to grow up.”
“It is true that my time only recently began to flow. But I can feel that your hair has grown longer.”
The only change in time that had stood still. The Puppeteer smiled.
“They say no parent can win against their child.”
“I was born far earlier than you.”
“Even so, once the conditions are met, I’m going to cut you away from Seong Hyunjae and send you to the other world.”
His desire to protect Sigma had not changed.
“Because that is what I want to do, too.”
“Then I’ll just say that, if it comes down to it, we can tie up Sigma and Seong Hyunjae and offer them both.”
Moon Hyunah spoke while gauging the Puppeteer’s reaction. The Puppeteer sighed and shook his head.
“You really are trustworthy when it comes to things like this, Moon Hyunah. Fine. But if I succeed, you take him in without a word.”
“Yes. But if Crescent Moon destroys the Root and our world collapses from the fallout, wouldn’t all that effort be pointless anyway?”
“There is a way around that. It’s a secret, though.”
Now that things had come to this, he could not reveal every card in his hand.
“So, Moon Hyunah. Do you have a plan? Your opponent is a Transcendent. We don’t know when they’ll force their way into the dream world.”
“If I had a concrete plan, I would’ve told you before kidnapping Sigma and asked for your cooperation.”
Moon Hyunah spoke with shameless confidence. If she had a surefire solution, there would have been no need to take this roundabout route. Because there wasn’t one, Moon Hyunah, Han Yujin, and Seong Hyunjae were all throwing themselves at the problem head-on.
“First, I’ll stand with Sigma as the last resort.”
If both Han Yujin and Seong Hyunjae failed, someone needed to take responsibility for the end.
“Even that won’t be easy. The Gardener’s subordinates are stronger than expected. Once the system finishes applying to the others, they’ll become difficult to handle too.”
“Running away won’t be too hard.”
“Come to think of it, you did get all the way here. How did you get out?”
“One moment.”
Moon Hyunah closed her eyes. A moment later, she collapsed limply, and Sigma caught her on reflex.
“Lambda?”
And then—
“The Goblin King has arrived~ Where are we going this time? Hi, Boss Kim’s Mister, who looks exactly like another Mister Kim!”
Yun Yun popped out, and Moon Hyunah opened her eyes again too. She smiled at the Puppeteer.
“We have plenty of people willing to help on our side.”
“From your world. Right, you were the only one still connected.”
“Yes. And my sponsors are people deeply tied to this world. Mari and Marisa.”
The dream that had been swapped with Park Hayul’s, and the leader who had awakened Park Hayul’s skill and guided him to make his dream real.
“Marisa was born S-rank, but because her Awakening came late, her physical grade is low. Instead, her mental abilities were always her specialty, and they rose even higher. On top of that, she gained Crescent Moon’s power through a contract.”
Marisa had agreed to help Moon Hyunah as promised. Unlike Han Yujin, Moon Hyunah was someone who would choose the world at the very end.
“Wasn’t the Goblin King Han Yujin’s person?”
“Yep! I like Boss Kim! But I’m a king.”
Yun Yun threw her shoulders back proudly.
“Boss Kim has people he has to protect, and I have goblins I have to protect. Boss Kim wants to protect our world too, so I’ll help him—but I’ll help the red-haired Mister Kim too!”
After declaring this confidently, Yun Yun tilted her head.
“Do you think Boss Kim will hate that?”
“Yujin would never. He understands better than anyone what it means to want to protect someone. Even if our paths seem different, the end is the same. It’d be best if we all reached the same place together.”
If everyone could arrive together.
“With Marisa’s support, we can use me as the axis and pull a larger number of Awakened into the dream more stably. With Yun Yun alone, escaping should be easy enough.”
“There’s no limit on skill uses in dreams! You can just wake up, fall asleep again, and use it all over!”
“We’re also trying to connect with Park Hayul, the master of the dream.”
“Not bad.”
The Puppeteer nodded. If they could move over extremely long distances without limit, even the Gardener’s powerful subordinates would have trouble catching them.
“Then I’ll let Director Han know.”
Moon Hyunah turned on the phone she had kept powered off.
Seong Hyunjae still had not moved a muscle. Chief Song strained to turn his head and look at me. Liette leaped up from the river, but she could not move easily. She crouched low, reading the situation.
“…Yuhyun.”
“I don’t want to kill Chief Song Taewon. He’s useful to the world hyung will stay in.”
If we wanted to keep the Awakened in Korea from running wild, having Chief Song around was definitely better.
“But for now, I’m going to use him as a hostage.”
Chief Song’s back twitched.
“Han Yujin, don’t concern yourself with me. I’m already… khh.”
The sword piercing Chief Song’s arm began to melt, and the smell of burning flesh spread through the air. Yuhyun’s eyes were empty. If I kept refusing, he would kill Chief Song without hesitation and capture Liette next.
I slowly set Seong Hyunjae down. Then I straightened and stood.
“Come here, Yuhyun.”
Not me. You.
You were the one who left.
Yuhyun paused for a moment, then stepped onto the butterfly and walked toward me. Like a staircase, it descended lower and lower until he set foot on the melted, hardened ground. I looked up at my younger brother, who was taller than I remembered.
“Use the item that erases memories. But I’m not going to cooperate.”
Even if everything inside my head vanished, I would not erase my brother of my own will. Yuhyun’s eyes trembled faintly. But my brother took out the item.
A small red jewel, like a pomegranate seed.
–TL Notes–
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