By Zephyria 
“Hyung. Can I come in?”
Tae-un peeked his head through the gap in the door. He considered giving him the news immediately, but swallowed the words, fearing it might be premature excitement. After all, there was a chance that even for Nasluik, it might be impossible.
Instead, he only conveyed the information that time in the two worlds had become synchronized.
“……That’s quite a strange thing.”
While responding nonchalantly, Tae-un tightly clenched his fist.
‘……Chaos did this.’
Chaos had promised to return Kim Si-baek from the Great Cataclysm ‘certainly on the 7777th day.’ To achieve this, it had twisted the flow of time that had previously been identical.
Chaos had anticipated it from the start. That 7777 days alone would not be enough to get Kim Si-baek back. In reality, it probably wasn’t just three times, but even more……
Tae-un’s gloomy train of thought was interrupted by Gloiuken’s voice.
“It’s only been four months since I last saw him, but for some reason, Lord Biyendwe seems to have grown a bit.”
[Death and Beauty’s eyes sparkle.]
“Huh? I’ve been seeing him all the time, so he looks the same to me.”
A delighted Biyendwe fluttered up and pecked Kim Si-baek’s head irritably. Seeing the unchanging scenery of daily life even as people visited to bring Kim Si-baek back, Tae-un gathered his scattered thoughts. Feigning composure, he let the corners of his mouth lift into a loose smile.
“Maybe he’s just hit puberty and has ‘eighth-grader syndrome’?”
“What is this ‘eighth-grader syndrome’?”
Starting with an explanation of eighth-grader syndrome, the conversation circled back to the time Kim Si-baek had spent on Earth. Since the atmosphere had softened considerably even with his involvement, Tae-un was finally able to ask what he had been curious about.
He pointed toward Nasluik, who was snacking on otherworldly sweets while complaining that they didn’t taste very good.
“Hyung. How did it happen that people started regarding you as a father, even though your mother and sister are both perfectly alive?”
“Ah, well, about that.”
What had made Tae-un nervous was the suspicion that Suapshekh, the siblings’ mother, might have been Kim Si-baek’s former lover, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. Suapshekh, a nomad, had given birth to Nasluik—a mixed blood of a mermaid—in the desert, but because it was a premature birth and there was no sea nearby, she struggled. It happened that Kim Si-baek, an acquaintance of hers, brought seawater, and Nasluik, who barely survived, came to regard him as a savior and a father figure.
Relieved, Tae-un made a slightly more generous proposal to Nasluik. It wasn’t exactly a proposal that considered the other party’s feelings.
“Since you barely had any interaction with your biological father, you filled that role for him, right?”
“Well, yeah. The sea was too far away.”
“Then I’m fine with it too.”
“Huh? With what?”
“It’s okay if that person calls me ‘stepmother.’”
“…….”
Kim Si-baek stared at Tae-un, feeling his mind go blank, but Tae-un only wore an innocent expression as if wondering what the problem was.
Gloiuken, coming to her senses late, grabbed her younger sibling by the mouth just as he was about to unleash a torrent of curses. Lightly pinning the struggling Nasluik down with her strength, she nodded seriously.
“I think I understand why His Excellency called you cute.”
Kim Si-baek couldn’t bring himself to confess to the nodding Gloiuken that he hadn’t meant ‘cute’ in that sense.
Once the hunters left, the usually bustling lodging became eerily quiet. The only people remaining were a few mages and officials from the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency. They steadily prepared to install the barriers that would open the path from the individuality field, through northern Gyeonggi-do, and into Seoul.
Meanwhile, in mak slecht, where various races coexist, there are differences in average height by race. Thus, the ceilings of buildings used by multiple races, such as temples or public institutions, were high.
Gloiuken, who had rarely felt any discomfort due to her tall stature in mak slecht, found the relatively low ceilings of Earth’s buildings suffocating. Tonight, Nasluik joined Gloiuken, who usually spent her time in the training grounds or open spaces outside the lodging if she had no specific business.
In contrast to his sister, who showed no sign of being cold despite the freezing winter weather, Nasluik sniffled even while wrapped head-to-toe in winter enchantments.
“The magic here is too pathetic. How can anyone live in a place this stifling without even flying cars? When I’m stressed, racing through the air at a precarious altitude in a flying car is the best.”
“Even if this world’s magic were far more developed than our hometown’s, wouldn’t you still have complained? This is the place His Excellency wishes to stay.”
“…….”
Struck by the truth, Nasluik bit her lip hard before firing off a rapid succession of words.
“His Excellency said he wanted to return after spending some time here, but what if that ‘some time’ becomes a lifetime? What if he says he wants to stay on Earth forever?”
“Do you wish to remain by His Excellency’s side?”
“He is the one who has protected me since the moment I was born.”
“His Excellency has spent his entire life striving through adversity. Given his age, it is time for him to lay down his heavy burdens and rest.”
“But His Excellency’s place of rest doesn’t necessarily have to be Earth, does it?”
“Deciding where to rest depends on His Excellency’s will, does it not?”
Gloiuken crossed her arms with a calm expression.
“My dear sibling, think about it. You are a mage who has devoted your life to the pursuit of magic. Unlike this place, which is full of complaints and dissatisfaction, in mak slecht, you can continue your magic research to your heart’s content. Do you truly believe you can fully exert your skills here, where both materials and academic achievements are so low? Furthermore, even if you achieved results that transcended the limitations of the environment, who here would recognize that achievement?”
“……Then are you saying you’ll go back alone and leave His Excellency behind?”
“What I have devoted my life to is faith.”
Gloiuken smiled faintly, ruffling the hair of her sulking sibling.
“Do you think I wouldn’t be sad at the thought of potentially parting with His Excellency? However, before I am a human named Gloiuken, I am a grand warrior serving the god of death and beauty. You may place your own prosperity on the scales of judgment and agonize over it, but I cannot.”
“…….”
“In mak slecht, there are many believers for whom I must pave the way. That is my duty and my glory. I am proud to be a grand warrior serving the god.”
“…….”
“If I, who am far younger than His Excellency, abandon the duty I have claimed for myself, by what right could I face him?”
Nasluik pouted at her resolve to uphold her convictions even if it meant an eternal farewell to the teacher she revered. He felt ashamed of his own wavering confusion compared to his sister’s firm determination.
Patting her sibling with a gentle smile, Gloiuken asked Biyendwe, who had been sitting silently on her crown for a while.
“Lord Biyendwe surely understands my thoughts as well, right?”
“…….”
“Lord Biyendwe?”
After remaining silent with his beak shut for a long time, Biyendwe suddenly let out a loud squawk and fluttered away.
“I want to stay with Si-baek forever!”
Watching the baby crow disappear into the distant darkness, Nasluik muttered the words that Gloiuken, who served him, couldn’t bring herself to say.
“Still a kid, a total kid……”
Walking down the quiet hallway, Tae-un sank into thought. Old stories that reminded him of Kim Si-baek’s past lingered in his ears. Until recently, he might not have been able to bear the fact that Kim Si-baek missed and thought of others, but now it was fine.
Tae-un buried his face in his palm and took a deep breath. The sound of Kim Si-baek’s heart, engraved there, seeped inside him.
Though the original plan had changed, the gift for Kim Si-baek—the hunt in the individuality field to raise his reputation—had been a reasonable success.
The purpose of this joint raid was twofold. One was Kim Si-baek’s reputation, and the other was a magical tool strong enough to withstand an attack from kun. The byproduct of the magical beast that Gu Yeong-min intended to hatch was meant to be the material for creating it.
The hatching failed, but there was an unexpected result: Gloiuken.
He would need to analyze the footage together to be sure, but from the conversations he overheard, he guessed that Gloiuken would be a tanker capable of enduring kun’s attacks. If so, they would be able to defeat kun without any problems.
Once Seoul was reclaimed and the massive threat known as kun was gone, after that……