HRB 82

A few months since the possession. So many things had happened in that time that it felt like years had passed, but in reality, it was only half a year.

In that time, Eddie had experienced things that a ‘normal character’ would hardly ever go through.

He met the Hero, found the convenience store he used to run in his previous life underground, began to question Eddie’s identity, and learned about Part 2.

Eddie always had this thought in the back of his mind.

What exactly is Eddie’s identity?

The face he meets in the mirror every morning. Brilliant silver hair, and a stunningly handsome face that he thought could earn millions if he became an actor when he first saw it.

A face that was so different from the Lee Jeong-hoon he had seen for nearly thirty years, a complete stranger.

A being whose lived time and space were all different. No memories, and the only benefit of the possession was the attached convenience store.

Of course, he admitted that the convenience store was a much better benefit than some paltry memories. Thanks to it, the inn had grown so large.

But as time passed and he realized that this character ‘Eddie’ was no ordinary person, Eddie began to feel a little anxious.

What if Gerold finds out that I pushed out the original Eddie and took over his body?

In the beginning, he was nervous that he wouldn’t seem like the original Eddie. Strangely enough, Gerold never said a word about it, so he wondered if it was because of his strong loyalty… Even though he didn’t fully understand, he brushed it off because there was no other answer, though he felt uneasy.

He had thought about asking Gerold about Eddie’s identity several times, knowing that Gerold’s absolute loyalty was to ‘Eddie,’ but he swallowed the words back down each time.

Because Gerold’s loyalty was to Eddie. Not to Lee Jeong-hoon, who had entered Eddie’s body.

It was bitter, but the thought of deceiving him weighed heavily on his heart, and even when he was doing well, a chill would run down his spine.

If Gerold found out that someone had entered the body of his loyal master, wouldn’t he try to exorcise him, given his personality?

He vividly remembered imagining amulets stuck to his head and being exorcised by the shaman Gerold, and then sighing deeply.

Even while having such thoughts, he continued to endure, thinking that he shouldn’t be impatient and ruin things.

He held onto the faint hope that someday he would find out through the natural course of events.

But Ebon…

Even before hearing the name, the moment Eddie realized he knew Ebon’s name, Eddie involuntarily wondered, ‘Why?’

Why is E’s name Ebon?

Why that name of all names? Could it be a simple coincidence? It’s not a unique name, and it’s quite common, so maybe it’s not that surprising.

But Eddie’s instincts were screaming that it wasn’t a simple coincidence.

For some reason, he felt that if he checked this problematic gift from Ebon, he would find the answer, so Eddie hurried upstairs. Right now, checking this felt more important than any other problem plaguing him.

“…”

Alone in the room, Eddie took a small, deep breath and took out the square box from his chest.

Leaning against the wall, Eddie exhaled and opened the box. With a click, the box opened, and Eddie took out the object inside.

The object inside the box was a small wooden box.

At first glance, it looked like an ornament, but Eddie soon realized it was a music box.

It seemed to be the type where the object inside would rotate and play music when the lid was opened. Eddie opened the lid without hesitation.

Then, a very familiar melody played, and the inside of the music box was revealed.

“…?”

Eddie’s eyes gradually widened.

Inside the music box, there was a cute boy doll with silver hair and purple eyes that looked like it was modeled after Eddie’s childhood, smiling sweetly in the center, and several objects were spinning around it, making sounds.

The gift itself was cute. No one would be upset to receive it.

However, that sound. That music.

Those dolls spinning around Eddie.

They were things Eddie knew very well.

No, to be exact, not Eddie, but Lee Jeong-hoon.

“…Huuh.”

Eddie’s hand holding the music box trembled. Afraid he would drop it if he held it any longer, Eddie placed the music box on the floor.

The music box, having found a solid support, no longer trembled and continued to spin with the music.

Eddie’s mind was also spinning, becoming a mess.

“Honey, Jeong-hoon is watching that again without eating.”

As a child, Jeong-hoon, like all his peers, loved the cartoons on public broadcasting that aired at 6 PM.

It was often at the same time as dinner, so when his mom and dad called him to eat, he had to run to the table, but young Jeong-hoon’s heart was burning.

His favorite Pocket Monster was on TV right now!

Jeong-hoon, as well as his older brother, Jeong-han, loved the cartoon so much that their father would give up the TV news for that time and turn on the cartoon that his two brothers liked.

However, Jeong-hoon often forgot to chew his food and stared blankly at the cartoon where his favorite characters were active, so he was often scolded by his parents.

Yes, even if it wasn’t just that, as he got older, he also liked robot cartoons, cartoons with Digital Monsters, and in the shows with action squads, he liked Black the most… As he got older, he became less and less interested, but what young Jeong-hoon liked most were those programs on TV.

And now, the characters spinning around the boy who looked like Eddie were all the things Jeong-hoon loved as a child.

Yellow Electric Rat, Action Squad Black, Mars Hero Moon Guard…

All of them were full of Jeong-hoon’s memories.

Coincidentally, they were exactly like the dolls and models in the memory box that Jeong-hoon had until he became an adult.

Every time his mom tried to throw them away, he desperately stopped her, saying, ‘Absolutely not!’ and managed to keep them until the end of his twenties.

He stubbornly endured his mom’s disapproving gaze, who would say, “When are you going to grow up?” and managed to keep them.

If this was a gift that Lee Jeong-hoon had received, he would have been genuinely happy and said, “Wow, you remembered this?”

But now, Eddie felt his heart pounding so hard it hurt. Of course, that was due to an emotion far from happiness.

“Eddie went to where you lived when you were little to make that.”

Ebon went to where Eddie lived when he was little to make this, probably because there were things that looked exactly like these there. To make a gift that Eddie would like, he wanted to make a music box made of things that Eddie liked when he was little.

Why are these in the place where Eddie lived when he was little?

These are the things I liked.

Why did Eddie and I like the same things?

No, that’s not the problem, how could these things be in the place where Eddie lived?

This is a goddamn fantasy world.

〈The Hero Doesn’t Hide His Power Too Well〉 was a classic, traditional fantasy novel. There wasn’t even a status window, let alone possession or regression. There was no element for a modern person to intervene in.

But why is there a Yellow Electric Rat here? Does that make sense? Why is Action Squad Black here?

And Ebon, who gave this to me, why that name of all names?

That is, that name is…

The name of a character that Eddie, no, Lee Jeong-hoon, created himself as a child.

A thief character who handles everything secretly and is never caught.

“Hyung, I drew a thief again! This time, he has shurikens too?”

When he showed the paper thief character to Jeong-han, he looked at it for a moment and smiled.

“You drew it well. Is it Ebon again this time?”

Jeong-hoon nodded with a bright face at those words.

“Yeah! He’s very kind, but he becomes very scary when he goes on a mission!”

“Of course, of course, and he’s righteous.”

“Of course! Ebon is super strong. And he’s never caught by the enemy!”

Jeong-hoon looked at the picture of Ebon he had drawn with a proud face. It was a picture of the character, who was a patchwork of the characteristics of thief characters he had seen in cartoons and games, throwing shurikens with flashy action.

It was a crude drawing, but it was distinctive enough to be easily recognizable. Black eyes, black hair, a mask covering his face, and so on.

“Ebon will protect me no matter what!”

“But Ebon has to hide. Wouldn’t it be better for someone else to protect you normally? Someone who can always be by your side.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“That’s right.” Jeong-hoon thought Jeong-han’s words were quite valid and fell into contemplation. Jeong-han, who was watching his younger brother struggling to make a decision, smiled and suggested.

“What about a Swordsman?”

“They’re too common and boring.”

At the time, he was obsessed with action squads, so he didn’t like characters who used swords. When Jeong-hoon’s reaction was lukewarm, Jeong-han thought for a moment and then suggested.

“Then how about a sorcery?”

Eddie swept back his bangs, which were dripping with cold sweat. The silver hair that had been swept up and then fell down obscured Eddie’s vision.

When he looked at the full-length mirror next to him, he saw Eddie’s face, which he had always admired every time he saw it from the first day until now.

His face, pale and bloodless, was soaked with fear and doubt.

Even in that moment when his heart felt like it was about to explode, the music box that Ebon had gifted him continued to spin.

The theme song of the cartoon that Lee Jeong-hoon loved was constantly playing from the music box.