Chương 111: S.05 Time to Fly 07(03)

Scene 04. After washing up completely in the bathroom, Ji-young was coming into her own room. As if a storm had passed through once, the room lay in disarray. Shoving empty ramyeon bowls and sprawled-out game pads and joysticks aside with her foot, Ji-young wrapped her wet hair in a towel. With her hair bundled up under the towel, Ji-young began to tidy the things that cluttered her room one by one. She stacked the empty ramyeon bowls and hung the wireless control pads and joysticks on the charging dock.

She tucked the powered-off game console deep into the cupboard and piled the opened game titles on top of it. As Ji-young busied herself tidying alone, a hand abruptly reached in and helped her along. Ji-young whipped her head to the side with startled eyes. Chae-rim: I'll help. Chae-rim, who had slipped inside at some point, lent Ji-young a hand. Ji-young twitched the corner of her mouth and stole a glance outside. Ji-young: Is Yeon-su asleep? Chae-rim: She's not much of a drinker.

Just from how she slipped off after a few glasses.... Probably out cold till the dead of night. Ji-young: Everyone's a lightweight, huh. Well. Chae-rim: And so, the Oldest. There's something I dare to say. Chae-rim, helping Ji-young's hands, lowered her voice a touch further. Chae-rim: I will guard the Oldest's side to the very end. Ji-young: Hm? Where's this coming from all of a sudd — Chae-rim: Even if you have to go outside, I will remain in the Oldest's shadow to the end. Even if the Oldest doesn't know it.

Having caught the meaning carried in Chae-rim's voice, Ji-young faltered mid-motion while clearing away the last of the ramyeon broth. Chae-rim: I wanted to ask your permission. The place I hold is one that cannot stay blind to everything you've endured since the Oldest came in feigning intoxication. Catching on to Chae-rim's meaning, Ji-young grumbled lightly, half in jest, as she went on tidying the ramyeon broth. Ji-young: Ha, honestly. Seems Hee-jin sis set the Incantation Guard rather sloppily.

Chae-rim: She didn't set it at all. She likely only pretended to, on purpose. As if to let me alone know, without the Oldest knowing. In letting me find out, she must have meant for me to do my part, so the Oldest would come to no harm. Ji-young nodded without a word. Chae-rim: At first, when the Oldest was being subjected to it, I agonized over whether to force my way in and stop it. I kept pacing in front of the reception room door. Ji-young: If you had, you'd have been addicted right along with me....

Chae-rim: That, I wasn't worried about. But after hearing the two of you talk, I chose not to. Because I came to see that you were both in pain. Ji-young let out a small sigh. Chae-rim: The words — that she was sorry for pushing you forward instead of holding you back — those were what stopped me. Ji-young: You really did hear it all. How embarrassing. Chae-rim: And so I decided to understand the Strategist's resolve.

Even the cruelty she'll inflict on the Oldest in the course of it — I mean to understand all of it. Ji-young: You're the only one who knows, right? Chae-rim: Yes. Ji-young: Honestly, Hee-jin sis, doing what no one even asked — Ji-young and Chae-rim came to the end of all the tidying. While Chae-rim lowered her knees and wiped down Ji-young's room with a hand rag, Ji-young stacked the ramyeon bowls together. Unlike the grumble in her voice, Ji-young let out a small sigh, as if a little reassured.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Ji-young: It's probably because of So-hui. After wiping down the whole floor, Chae-rim pushed the rag aside as if to put it away and settled back into a proper sitting posture. Ji-young, too, plopped down onto the floor and carried on in a level voice. Ji-young: Neither I nor Hee-jin sis is someone So-hui can see. So Chae-rim's eyes will be needed too.

Hee-jin sis can't control every situation on her own — to look after me, she'd have needed So-hui's foresight. Chae-rim: I anticipated that as well. Ji-young: Aw, truth is I meant to leave you with Yeon-hui and head out. The moment I step outside, Yeon-hui's going to open her eyes. Chae-rim: But no matter that the Executive Secretary is my friend, my post is Captain of the Guard Corps. I'm the one who, together with the Secret Agent, takes full charge of the Oldest's person.

The Secret Agent will have been given the Secret Agent's role, so I believe it's my turn to be given mine. Ji-young let out a small sigh. Ji-young: All right. Then — an order feels off, so — Pulling the towel from her head and slinging it around her neck, Ji-young steadied her slumped body into an upright seat and gently stroked the knee of Chae-rim, who knelt before her. Not letting the smile slip from her lips, Ji-young said quietly to Chae-rim. Ji-young: I'm counting on you. Scene 05.

Yu-seok, his two hands folded in respect and silent, was offering his courtesy to someone who draped a blazing shimmer of heat over their shoulders. The temperature was rather scorching. Beads of sweat formed, yet he did not take off his outer coat. Holding the respectful posture without easing it, he sent his voice toward the presence standing before him. Yu-seok: I'll say it again: that body is not a vessel. It might serve as a fuse, at most. Enough. The corner of Yu-seok's mouth twitched.

All around, things stretched and clung and burned as if ablaze. Holding black smoke and black flame, it scattered a damp, clammy heat. Strangely, the presence standing rigid before Yu-seok seemed not the least bit hot, simply standing there whole and at ease. The firmly shut door flew open, and someone with a face screwed up in a deep scowl came in with a grumbling huff of irritation. Seong-hyeon: Ah-ni, SSibal, what's with the boil — Seong-hyeon's words went no further.

Instinctively shutting the door fast, Seong-hyeon conjured a sheet of white paper from her empty hand and sent it flying at Yu-seok. Yu-seok, who had been showing his respectful courtesy, merely glanced back; even seeing the white paper Seong-hyeon had thrown, he did not so much as flinch. Before the sheet could even reach Yu-seok, the white paper, blocked by the tremendous heat pouring off him, burned away in an instant without leaving so much as a trace. Seong-hyeon stepped forward again to pry Yu-seok loose.

She strained with all her might to drag Yu-seok away. Yeon-jin, her eyes drawn over in black, paid Seong-hyeon no mind and watched only Yu-seok. She stood radiating an immense heat from her body, as if she would burn the whole interior of her office to nothing. Trying to pull Yu-seok away from such a Yeon-jin, Seong-hyeon sought to corner him, but for all the exhausting fury of Seong-hyeon's dancing movements, her white paper burned away in an instant without ever reaching Yu-seok's body.

Yu-seok straightened the waist he had respectfully bent and slowly turned around. Toward Seong-hyeon's onrushing dance, Yu-seok carefully eased out a foot as if pushing it forward, lightly scattered a passage of the 태극무(Tae-geuk-mu_Taegeuk Dance), and bored into Seong-hyeon's dance. Between the thin, flowing curves of Seong-hyeon, Yu-seok cut in like a straight line tracing a small circle, in an instant, then shoved Seong-hyeon lightly with his shoulder and pushed her off-balance body a little more.

The moment Seong-hyeon tipped, Yu-seok stretched out his rough hand with all his force, seized the slender nape of Seong-hyeon's neck, and drove her clean down into the floor. Feeling the great shock from the small of her back up to her head, Seong-hyeon momentarily lost consciousness, slackening without so much as resisting, undone by a single strike of Yu-seok's hand. As if it were nothing, Yu-seok raised his body, looked at the black-eyed Yeon-jin who still watched him, and once more draped on his courtesy.

Yu-seok: That vessel, they say, has a separate task to be entrusted with later. So for this time, stay in the place we'll newly prepare for you and bide your time for the days ahead. At the respectful voice, the blazing Yeon-jin slowly nodded. Yu-seok: Then, I'll leave the rest to you. Scene 06_01. Ji-young, a towel draped around her neck, tidied the bedding still in her clingy workout clothes. The stillness of deepening night pressed in toward Ji-young's room.

It was quiet enough that the snoring of Yeon-su, fallen into a deep sleep across the way, drifted over faintly. Chae-rim, who had brought the ramyeon bowls away, had settled, as always, near the eaves of Ji-young's quarters, seeming to survey the grounds. Sitting cross-legged on the tidied 보료(Bo-ryo_cushioned mat), Ji-young drew over her vanity and, meaning to put on a light face mask, peered intently at herself before sleep. Hee-jin: The Oldest. Ji-young: Yes.

In keeping with Hee-jin's small voice, Ji-young's voice was not loud either. Toward Ji-young, ready for bed in comfortable clothes, Hee-jin moved with soundless steps and bowed deep at the waist. Having come inside, Hee-jin stood still and watched Ji-young tidy up. Ji-young: Did the meeting go well? Hee-jin: Yes. Ji-young: But you really were awful too, sis. At Ji-young's laughing little jab, Hee-jin nodded with only the corner of her mouth raised, as if she knew exactly what was meant.

Only then did she bring her standing body inside, set a cushion on the heated floor of Ji-young's quarters, and lower herself calmly onto it. Hee-jin's attire wasn't uncomfortable either. As Ji-young patted on light skincare before the mask, she stole a glance at Hee-jin. Ji-young: Putting such a burden on Chae-rim. Hee-jin: I do feel sorry about it. I've already conveyed my apology to her directly, in fact. Ji-young: I heard. Hee-jin gave a light nod.

As if to turn the talk for a moment, Hee-jin straightened her waist slightly and shared with Ji-young what had been discussed. Hee-jin: This weekend, the two of them looked set to enter the Headquarters. In the silence that followed, as if she'd finished applying the skincare items beside her, she gathered the opened caps and tucked them one by one into the inner drawer of the vanity. Hee-jin: As the Oldest must already feel, you are addicted to my whispers. Just one more Incantation, and it all ends.

As I was told, and as I intended, I've prepared everything and bided my time from early on. Letting out a brief sigh, Ji-young listened to Hee-jin's words. Hee-jin: Only, I don't know whether it's right, whether that's the only path. So, I wish to ask once more. Hee-jin stilled her own voice for a moment. After a short spell of deliberation, Hee-jin asked Ji-young. Hee-jin: Are you truly certain you'll be all right? Ji-young's boldness, taking it so lightly, felt pitiable today of all days.

Ji-young: Honestly, there was a time I wavered for a long while over whether it was right too. Maybe not as long as the Strategist. But once my mother and the Former Bishop walked the path laid before them in the end, I became certain. Ah. They believed. They did it because they believed. I, too, have to believe. Hee-jin: I was afraid. So for a moment I couldn't trust myself. But, yes. I too came to know, watching the Former Bishop step back.

That what's to be trusted is the four butterflies, and everyone here who serves them, and myself. Ji-young: The Strategist has never, not for a single moment, failed to believe in herself. Of course you believed. It's because you believe that you agonize. Though it's less agonizing than something closer to the lingering attachment anyone holds, being human. So I've steeled myself. The Strategist, all of us, without ever letting it show. It'll just flow along naturally. That's how they put it.

That when the moment comes, the path is something you realize only after you've walked it. Something you understand only after looking back. Something you know only after it's passed. Hee-jin nodded without a word. Ji-young: After the final Incantation, what happens? At Ji-young's question, Hee-jin stared intently at Ji-young's bracelet. Hee-jin: Without the Original Relic, you cannot return to your true form. With the Black Wire alone, you will never be able to fully recover yourself.