29. Item Presentation (8)
White Castle, the royal aide's office.
Through a phone call, Oranha, the representative of the Elf King, received a report that the mission had been completed.
—I made sure Baek Yuseol would carry the Soul Orb on his person. Unless some variable arises, he will keep it with him for the next month.
At Zeliel's voice coming from the receiver, the corners of Oranha's lips slowly rose.
"So that is the case. Well done. I shall grant what I promised very soon."
—Thank you. Thanks to you, I've had a very enjoyable experience.
"You may go."
Click.
After ending the call, Oranha laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them.
Things were going more smoothly than expected.
If Baek Yuseol kept the Soul Orb on him for a full month, the fact that he was a 'Spirit Slayer' would soon be exposed.
Now all that remained…
was to present that certain proof to Kkotseorin.
In that case, he would need a 'stage' for it.
And there would also be a need to fill the audience he planned to invite onto that stage with anticipation.
"I will be stepping out for a while, so do not tidy anything away."
After giving that brief instruction to his secretary, Oranha headed deep into the foothills of the Primordial Mountain Range.
This was a place where the flow of mana was completely cut off, making even phone calls impossible, so unless one came in person, it was impossible to convey any message at all.
A small ancient castle hidden by the grass.
That old castle, which at times looked like a tree, a rock, or even a waterfall, was used solely for the purpose of Kkotseorin's secluded life.
He entered the old castle and climbed the spiral staircase all the way to the top.
The knight guarding Kkotseorin's life of seclusion bowed at the sight of Oranha, then stepped aside.
Clearing his throat, he knocked.
"…What is it?"
Then Kkotseorin's voice came from within.
Merely hearing that voice made quiet waves ripple through one's chest.
"Your Majesty. It is your aide, Oranha. I have come because there is something urgent I must tell you."
"Ah… is that you, Oranha?"
The voice that had sounded distant gradually came closer, and at last stopped right against the door.
Beyond this thin wall, Kkotseorin was breathing just on the other side.
"What is it?"
"Your Majesty, I too am aware that there is a certain criminal you have been searching for since long ago."
"Ah… I see."
"And today, I believe… I may have found that criminal."
"…Wait. What do you mean by that?"
Kkotseorin's voice turned urgent.
"Who is it? Quickly—please, tell me at once!"
"Please calm yourself, Your Majesty. I have not yet secured material proof. But it is all right. I have made him carry the 'Soul Orb.'"
...
If he was carrying the Soul Orb, then it could now truly be said with certainty.
One month later, the truth or falsehood of it would be revealed without fail.
And if Oranha, whom Kkotseorin trusted, had personally come to speak of this matter, then it meant the matter was surely certain.
"One month. Please wait exactly one month. On that day, I will offer up to you the detestable Spirit Slayer."
"…All right."
A voice that sounded as if it was being pressed down and tightly restrained with force.
Because he had listened to Kkotseorin's voice for so long, Oranha could tell.
'You're wavering.'
He could feel that emotional turbulence all the way out here.
The fact that those ironclad emotions were shaking meant…
that a gap was opening wide.
And slipping into that gap would be very easy.
"Thank you… truly, thank you, Oranha. I didn't know you had been thinking of me to such an extent…"
"What concerns Your Majesty concerns me as well. When it comes to anything related to you, I am prepared to stake my very soul."
"If you had not been here, I truly don't know what would have become of me…"
Exactly as expected.
Hearing Kkotseorin's trembling voice, Oranha slowly lifted the corners of his lips.
Winning Kkotseorin's heart was still a distant and difficult road…
but by offering up that Spirit Slayer, he would at least be able to fasten the first button.
After class ended, Flame returned to the S-Class classroom and once more replayed the magic screen she had borrowed from her friend.
She watched it again, and again, and again, and no matter how many times she watched it, that was unmistakably a presentation filled with knowledge from Earth.
As she quietly watched it, several students drifted in and out of the S-Class classroom.
And then, after waiting a while—
"Hwaaam…"
At last, the Baek Yuseol she had been waiting for appeared.
He had long since gotten into the habit of naturally sitting in the seat beside Flame to rest, and this time too, the moment he sat down, he started to lie down and go to sleep—only to pause with a slight look of hesitation on his face.
He had discovered what video Flame was watching.
A brief silence.
The mere fact that Baek Yuseol was giving off such an awkward atmosphere made the doubt inside Flame grow larger and larger.
"Uh… so you're watching that."
In the end, the one who spoke first was Baek Yuseol.
He scratched his cheek for a moment, then asked awkwardly,
"Mm, well… what do you think of that presentation?"
How should she answer?
Flame thought for a moment, then gave an utterly ordinary reply.
"It's cool."
It was her last struggle to give him no clue, no hint at all about what she was really thinking.
As expected, Baek Yuseol seemed to find the answer unsatisfying, because he scratched his cheek again and asked once more,
"Do you like it?"
…What?
Because it was such a strange question, she narrowed her eyes.
"Why are you asking that?"
"Uh… just, well, mm. You always liked that kind of thing."
"What are you talking about? Why would I like something like…"
Flame hurried to play dumb,
but in that instant she froze and shut her mouth.
'…Like this kind of thing?'
It was true.
She really had liked the presentations given by the CEO of that Half-Eaten Apple company.
But…
ever since being reborn in this world, she had never once brought up Earth.
She had always been like that until now, and she would continue to be that way in the future.
Because the fact that she was a person from another world was a secret she would have to carry with her for life.
'Then how does he know…?'
Especially when she had never spoken to Baek Yuseol about Earth even once.
Thump, thump.
As Flame's heart gradually began to beat faster, the threads of thought in her mind spread in every direction.
Since no magic that could see through another person's heart existed in this world,
there was only one possible answer.
'Baek Yuseol has already met me before.'
If he really had met her already, then it would not have been in the past.
'…He must've met the future me.'
Why had that possibility never occurred to her until now?
'Baek Yuseol was an extra in the original romance fantasy, but returned after turning back time.'
Between that simple, direct proposition—
'Before Baek Yuseol turned back time, Flame herself was also already included in the story of the original romance fantasy.'
—she had failed to insert that fact at all.
In other words, the point at which Baek Yuseol first regressed was already after Flame's existence had transmigrated into this world.
Only then did all the little questions that had remained unresolved finally begin to untangle.
'Why did Baek Yuseol, whose name didn't even appear in the original romance fantasy, suddenly show up and regress?'
He had seen the future me.
He had known about me from the very beginning.
But… even so, that still did not completely erase her doubt.
'How did he find out my secret…?'
Even if Baek Yuseol had met the future her,
there was no way she would have spoken easily about Earth.
…Unless there was only one possibility.
'Did I… tell him myself…?'
The fact that she had come from Earth, that she was a transmigrator, was a secret she had to carry to the grave.
She had sworn to herself that even if someone appeared whom she trusted enough to entrust her back to them, this one secret she would never tell.
But—
what if, just hypothetically,
there appeared someone precious enough that she wanted to pour out everything to them?
If there was someone with whom she wanted to share the secret she had kept buried all this time, someone from whom she wanted comfort…
then perhaps, only to that person, she might have told it.
'I'm actually from another world.'
And if that precious person…
had been Baek Yuseol,
then the current situation made sense.
'No, that's too much of a leap.'
Flame lowered her gaze slightly and tried not to meet Baek Yuseol's eyes as she asked,
"…Ahjussi."
"Yeah."
"We… have known each other for a very long time, right? I mean, from before entering this school this year… right?"
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Something like that."
Correct.
As her thoughts became more and more certain, Flame's chest burned hot.
She hid her excitement as much as possible and forced out the question.
"…Then what kind of relationship did we have back then?"
The most important question.
And the evidence that would blow certainty into her thoughts.
If Baek Yuseol gave her a clear answer here…
"We weren't anything to each other."
"…Huh?"
What did he just say?
Flame lifted her head and, without realizing it, met Baek Yuseol's eyes as she asked back in a dazed voice,
"We… weren't anything to each other?"
"Ugh… well."
But the moment she saw his bitter smile, she understood instinctively.
'A lie.'
For some reason, Baek Yuseol was lying right now.
'Why?'
He knows all of my secrets already.
If he could reproduce so perfectly a presentation by a company that existed on Earth, then I must have talked to him often—and in detail—about all my secrets and the things I like.
…There's even a good chance I told him the fact that I was someone who had transmigrated into a romance fantasy.
Then—
if we had truly been precious to each other in the past,
why not tell me that now?
Why didn't he?
To begin with—
'Why did Baek Yuseol even regress…?'
At first, she had thought it was simply because he loved Eizel.
But after time passed, it was clearly not a problem that simple.
Eizel, Hong Biyeon, Alterisha, Hae Wonryang, Ma Yuseong, and others…
He had interfered with all kinds of key figures and changed them drastically, and that would have an immense effect on the future.
Because she knew very well how miserably and ruinously those people ended up in the original romance fantasy, she could see that clearly.
'If there was another reason he regressed…'
From the very first time they met, Baek Yuseol had shown a lot of interest in her.
It began with him trying to interfere in her choice of staff, and after that he had done many things to catch her eye.
Eventually she had gone to him and pressed him about his secrets, but—
'Let's each keep fifty percent of our secrets.'
He had drawn a line and pushed her away so she couldn't come any closer to him.
Come to think of it, there had once been a time when she had asked him, 'Ahjussi, do you have someone you like?'
And he had replied, 'No.'
At the time, she had casually asked because she assumed Baek Yuseol liked Eizel, but if he had understood that question with a different meaning and had answered that way in order to keep his distance from her…
then—
'Wait.'
A cold chill ran down Flame's spine.
She already knew that Baek Yuseol had done a lot for her.
But if he was trying this hard to deliberately keep a distance from her… that could only mean there was a reason why he absolutely had to.
'…What happens to future me?'
Only then did she finally understand, at least to some extent, how this whole situation was moving.
The reason Baek Yuseol kept building a wall in this relationship and refused to let them grow closer than a certain point.
'All of it… is for my sake?'
I don't remember anything about him at all,
and yet he remembers so much about me, misses so much about me, and is forcing himself to endure while deliberately keeping his distance.
Once she thought of it that way, all the strength drained from her body, and a laugh escaped from her lips.
"Hah, haha."
"What? What is it?"
"…It's nothing. I just feel really sorry."
After saying that, Flame hurriedly left her seat.
Because she no longer had the confidence to keep looking at his face.
"Ah—hey! Wait!"
Baek Yuseol stared blankly after her as she ran out of the classroom.
"What the hell was that…?"
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