HRB 93

When the two finished their conversation-not-conversation and went outside the room, Ketron and Laila were sitting in different places. Eddie felt a flush of embarrassment, but inwardly, he was relieved that Ketron and Laila weren’t getting along.

After the two people naturally paid and left, Eddie was left alone with Ketron.

Eddie, who had unintentionally revealed that his relationship with Ketron was unusual these days, sat blankly with a completely drained expression. Ketron approached Eddie and asked, “What did you talk about with Augustine?”

At those words, Eddie, who had been blank-faced, suddenly looked up.

“Huh? Didn’t you hear?”

“Augustine doesn’t like that.”

They had deliberately moved their conversation to avoid being overheard, so it was understandable that Augustine wouldn’t like someone eavesdropping using extraordinary physical abilities.

Of course, Ketron eavesdropping wouldn’t immediately alert Augustine, but it seemed to be a matter of faith.

However, Ketron, who had no idea what Eddie was talking about with someone else, looked a little anxious.

He probably spent the entire time waiting outside, agonizing over whether to abandon his faith and everything else, or to uphold his loyalty to his old friend, trusting that Augustine wouldn’t harm Eddie.

Eddie chuckled, seeing Ketron not even trying to hide his jealousy.

Ketron being jealous of Augustine of all people. How amused Augustine would be if he knew.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

“If it wasn’t a big deal, you could just tell me.”

“Um…”

But honestly, he was embarrassed to say. How could he explain that he had blurted out that he kissed Ketron, without realizing Augustine was talking about something else? Eddie hesitated and replied briefly, “It’s a secret.”

Of course, considering Augustine’s personality, he would find out soon enough, but for now, Eddie kept it a secret.

Seeing Ketron’s shocked face, Eddie playfully stroked his cheek, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while. But as soon as the customers had all left and the inn became quiet, Ketron kissed him, and Eddie was once again helplessly drawn in.

It wasn’t until after the morning rush that Eddie belatedly realized he hadn’t asked Augustine about the identity story.

“Ugh, Eddie, you idiot.”

He was so surprised and embarrassed that the fact that he kissed Ketron was found out that he completely forgot about that important story. He was dumbfounded by his own stupidity, feeling a lingering sense of regret.

Eddie smacked his lips, still feeling the regret, but told himself that Augustine, being a regular, would come again soon, and he could ask him then.

However, Eddie never got the chance to ask Augustine about what he had noticed.

That evening, a welcome guest finally arrived at Eddie’s Inn.

***

An old man was walking down the street with a young man. The old man’s back was bent, but his steps were surprisingly energetic and spirited for someone of his age.

“What old man walks like that?”

The young man following behind noticed and scolded him, and the old man’s pace noticeably slowed. Now he was practically crawling like a turtle.

“Now you’re too slow.”

“Haa, that Suha is so impudent. I don’t know what rhythm to dance to.”

“Why don’t you dance to a medium rhythm?”

The old man scolded, but the other man nonchalantly slipped out of the conversation. The old man glared. That was the problem with long-time companions. They knew each other too well, so attacks didn’t feel like attacks.

It was a cold winter street, but they were dressed warmly, and the person walking next to him was a skilled Magician, so he didn’t feel the cold much. Watching his white breath puff out, the old man, walking towards the central square, opened his mouth.

“It’s been a while.”

“You’ve been too distant.”

“I can’t help it, I’ve been busy.”

“You’ve been busy, but you’ve also been feeling guilty, haven’t you? You stick someone in a place like that and make them work, so you feel guilty and can’t visit often, and that builds up, so you feel even more guilty and can’t visit even more.”

“Whose side are you on, anyway?”

Shouldn’t you always be on my side? The old man whined like a child. The behavior didn’t match his current appearance at all. But the young man didn’t even snort.

After bickering for a while, the two arrived at their destination: an inn located in the capital’s central square.

〈Eddie’s Inn〉

The name written on the neat sign was too uninspired.

“……”

The old man and the young man, looking at the inn’s sign with a nostalgic gaze, walked inside.

The inn seemed to have just closed for the day, and the interior was being cleaned.

A man, looking somewhat depressed, was sweeping the floor. Without looking up, he said to the customers who had entered, “We’re closed.”

“We’re not here to stay.”

At the young man’s words, the man who seemed to be a clerk looked up.

Was his name Sebastian? It seemed to be that man. The old man, who had been receiving reports about everything, knew the situation of the inn well and smiled kindly. Instead of the old man, the young man asked Sebastian, “Where’s Eddie?”

“Ah, the boss is on the second floor right now.”

Sebastian, belatedly realizing that they were the boss’s guests, replied hastily.

Before he realized it, he hadn’t noticed, but the clothes and behavior of the young man and the old man seemed unusual, so Sebastian asked with a slightly nervous tone, “Who should I say is here?”

The young man glanced at the old man. The old man didn’t add anything. Realizing that he was being told to handle it himself, the young man cleared his throat and said, “Tell him his brother is here.”

And, after hesitating for a moment, the young man added one more thing.

“Where is Gerold?”

***

Eddie was lying in bed, looking at the Music box.

Someone once said that first-generation immigrants to foreign countries were destined to suffer from homesickness for the rest of their lives.

People who couldn’t share memories with anyone in a place where the language and culture were different were bound to be lonely, and no matter how hard they studied the language of that country, it would never be the same as their native language.

Thanks to his fairly perfect language patch, he avoided the latter problem, but Eddie had no choice but to realize soon after being possessed into this world.

That he was in a similar situation to those first-generation immigrants.

He couldn’t share any childhood memories with anyone, and he couldn’t chat about his favorite comics or dramas in this distant foreign country, no, this isolated world.

In such a world, discovering his own memories, of all things, was something unfamiliar yet nostalgic.

Ebon, who had brought this Music box, was also a medium that reminded him of his memories with his older brother the moment he saw it, and every time that happened, Eddie was tormented by the fact that the poignant memories of the past, which he thought he had buried deep inside, kept resurfacing.

But even so, looking at the Music box filled with his favorite things wasn’t entirely unpleasant, so Eddie made it a routine to listen to the theme song playing from the Music box until one track was over, like a ritual before going to bed every time he finished work.

That day, Eddie was lying in bed, blankly listening to the Music box, when he heard a cautious knock on his door.

“Eddie.”

It was Sebastian. Eddie jumped up from his bed, opened the door, and saw Sebastian with his still-depressed face.

“Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“You have a guest.”

A guest?

Eddie couldn’t think of anyone who would visit him except for Ebon, so Eddie tilted his head, and Sebastian added, “He said to tell you it’s your brother.”

Eddie’s body froze.

Brother? …Eddie’s?

Only then did Eddie realize that this was the “welcome guest” that Ebon had mentioned.

“Oh, okay, thanks!”

Eddie hurried down to the first floor.

His heart was pounding. Dopamine was surging through his body as he realized that the moment had come to solve the long-standing mystery of “Eddie,” and his steps quickened as he went down the stairs.

When Eddie arrived on the first floor, there was an old man and a young man standing there. The old man looked old enough to have a bent back, and it was hard to even guess what his relationship was with the man next to him. The two didn’t look alike at all, so they couldn’t be related by blood.

No, the young man, on the other hand, had something that made Eddie flinch as soon as he saw his face.

Something, subtly… he looked like Gerold.

That was the kind of person he was.

Judging by his age, the man who was supposed to be Eddie’s “brother” was clearly the younger one. But no matter how he looked at it, he looked more like Gerold than Eddie.

Could that old man be…?

But even the old man didn’t seem to have any similarities with Eddie. Aside from his face, which was so wrinkled that it was hard to tell if he looked like Eddie, even in this fantasy world, could brothers have such a big age difference?

Feeling confused, Eddie stopped halfway down the stairs without realizing it. Then, the old man, hearing the sound of footsteps, looked up the stairs and smiled with a happy face.

“It’s been a while.”

Eddie didn’t know how to react and hesitated, but the old man smiled brightly with his wrinkled face and said, “Pakirius.”

Eddie almost tripped for a moment.

Pakirius.

It was strange, but why was the old man calling Eddie by that name, which sounded like a person’s name to anyone?

‘Pak…!’

But the moment he realized that the name was very similar to the one that Ebon had tried to say several times but stopped, Eddie instinctively realized that it was “Eddie’s” real name.

And at the same time, he thought.

Couldn’t his real name just be Eddie?

“Pakirius!”

Eddie squeezed his eyes shut as he watched the old man approach, calling out that name again as if he was truly happy, as if the pronunciation was exactly right.

What is it with that Pachycephalosaurus-like name?