༺ Omens creep in, little by little… ༻
“Hey, Hyun-a.”
The boy-the girl standing in front of me glared at me with contempt.
‘Why is she mad? Shouldn’t I be the one upset?’
After all, I had never imagined she had hidden her true gender for over six years.
I was far more shocked than she should be.
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
“What do you mean?”
“Stop speaking nonsense, and release your skill, you bastard.”
I looked into her status window.
Name: Lee Hyun-a
Level: 17 (1st Stage Awakener)
Status: Anxious
[Strength: 7] [Stamina: 3] [Agility: 4] [Magic: 0] [Luck: 31]
(Remaining attribute points are 0.)
Skills:
Illusion (B), Nightmare (S), Strong Hit (C)
Why didn’t I realize that Illusion could also change her face and voice?
Normally, I wouldn’t have been so concerned, but the message [An additional error has been added to the world.] had popped up in front of me.
The message had appeared when she activated [Nightmare]. She wouldn’t know, but I had seen this message once before.
It was when I had regressed.
At that time, the message was accompanied by Seo-ah recalling her memories.
That message likely wasn’t due to Ha-eun, as Hyun-a was clearly showing signs of recalling her memories.
Therefore, I spoke to her casually.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Seriously, let’s stop this charade. I’m sure you have things you want to ask me too, so we should help each other out.”
“…”
Seemingly disliking my proposal, she remained silent.
Admittedly, I was a bit upset that I had been fooled by her [Illusion], but now wasn’t the time.
“I guess I should thank you since I was able to survive because of you.”
“…?”
“I should still express my gratitude, even to someone who has avoided us for so long. We have to talk, though.”
“That’s true. I should apologize for that.”
“I guess you remembered everything? You don’t plan to lie to us anymore?”
“I know what I have to do.”
With those words, Hyun-a’s body began to change. The features that I had written off as manly turned feminine, and his black hair elongated and turned blue.
Her features were now unmistakably those of a woman.
“This is my true form. Are you satisfied?”
“I’ve seen it earlier today, so I’m not really surprised. You’re quite pretty, so why on earth are you wearing that shitty disguise?”
“I hate myself.”
“What in the Chunnibyo are you saying? I got goosebumps thinking you were actually Ha-eun.”
“You don’t have to worry about it because it’s my own problem.”
As Lee Hyun-a continued to distance herself, I couldn’t help but get frustrated.
Or was I being too harsh by comparing her to Ha-eun?
“Let’s talk it over and be honest with each other.”
“How can I trust that you’ll tell me the truth?” She asked.
“You have that little trust in me? After all we’ve been through?”
“…”
“Fuck. If you have that little faith in me, what am I supposed to do?”
“I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to believe me or not.”
“What’s even the point of something like that?”
“It means a lot to me.”
‘What’s wrong with her? If she remembers everything that happened six years into the future, I thought she would at least be able to trust me. If she lies no matter what I ask her, what would even be the point of this conversation?’
“Fine, but I’ll be telling the truth no matter what.” I added.
“…”
The basic principle behind trust was to show the other person that you trusted them. It may sound contradictory, but for that reason, I declared I would only tell the truth.
Even after that, I wasn’t sure whether she would tell me the truth or not.
“Ask me anything you want.”
“Is Seo-ah all right?”
“Not a bad question. Even though she’s a bit hurt, there are lots of healing skills being cast on her. I just checked up on her.”
I was worried she might’ve been exposed to magi, but Seo-ah and Ha-eun were both in relatively good condition.
I had also informed the chairman that I had cleared the dungeon and brought several healing artifacts to help them.
Ha-eun was currently guarding the unconscious Seo-ah, but I couldn’t let my guard down.
I didn’t know what would happen next, but I told Ha-eun to make a ton of noise if Seo-ah was in danger, so it should be all right.
It would also take some time for that bastard who killed me to set up a plan.
“Let me ask you something then. Why did you lie about your time? Does it have such meaning to you?”
“It’s the source of my trauma.”
“Your trauma? Nevermind, let’s just move on.”
Even if I didn’t know where or why her trauma originated, it was clear that she wouldn’t want to discuss it, so there was no point in talking about it.
“I only have one question for you. What are these memories in my mind? Do you know something?”
“Well, that’s quite easy to answer. Those memories are from a future six years from the present.”
“I see.”
“I didn’t think you’d accept it that easily.”
“There’s really no other explanation besides that. Does everyone remember besides me?”
“Everyone except Ha-eun, but I have no clue how to make her remember.”
“And the reason why the future is slowly changing is because of your actions, correct?”
“That’s right.”
Upon hearing my answer, Hyun-a looked somewhat satisfied, having received an answer to her query.
“Let me ask another question. How on earth can you absorb magi? Who are you, really?”
“I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Sigh… Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, we can move on.”
“…”
Truthfully, I was the most interested in that answer, but it seemed clear she didn’t have much interest in responding.
It wasn’t like I was in the mood to interrogate her about it either.
‘It’s not like I’m in a position to ask.’
Everything that had occurred within the dungeon was my fault.
Because of my poor judgment, everyone was put in danger.
It was only because of Lee Hyun-a that we managed to escape the danger, so I elected to move on.
“Still… Thank you. Those events will never occur, but because of you, I have some semblance of hope.” She said.
“Wow, I’ve never heard you say ‘thank you’ before,” I replied.
“I’m not a good enough person for you to risk your life for me. You might hate me even more in the future.
“What kind of nonsense is that? I’ve never once thought you were a kind person.”
“Then why?”
“I just do as I please. Don’t tell me you thought I did it for you?”
“You’re wasting your kindness on someone like me. You shouldn’t place your trust in me; if you found out the truth, you would be disgusted.” She said.
What a pessimist.
She was just spouting nonsense I wouldn’t need to remember, so I only pretended to listen.
“I don’t really care about that, but are you planning on maintaining that disguise?”
“I have to. You’re the only one who knows that I’m a girl. You aren’t planning on telling anybody, are you?”
“Not particularly. It’s your right to do as you please.”
Because I ran out of questions to ask her, I began to think to myself instead.
I wondered if Ha-eun and Seo-ah would agree with my sentiment.
‘Well, I’m sure Ha-eun would.’
“Let’s go to Seo-ah. I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone with just Ha-eun.”
“All right.”
I didn’t know whether she was comforted by the fact that I stopped asking questions or because we could check up on Seo-ah, but her expression seemed much more serene.
Before I could tell Hyun-a to reactivate her illusion before we left, we were caught.
-Tap!
“Master?!”
I could hear someone landing softly, accompanied by a familiar voice.
“Ha-eun? Why are you here?”
Even though I had told her to stay by Seo-ah’s side, Ha-eun had teleported to me.
“Uh… Who is that girl?”
Ha-eun, who had teleported here in a rush, was temporarily dumbfounded by the blue-haired girl beside me.
For some reason, she had a strange expression as she looked at me.
“I’ll tell you later, but why did you come here? Didn’t I tell you to keep guard next to Seo-ah?”
“Th-That, Seo-ah was…”
Ha-eun, with an odd expression on her face, confided in me what had happened with Seo-ah.
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