By Zephyria 
‘Did I hear that wrong?’
Kim Si-baek tilted his head and blinked his penlight as he had been taught.
He soon found the neighborhood residents who had been swept into the Id Portal. They were three elderly people. Supporting them as they climbed a hill road that seemed to rise endlessly for a couple of hours, the scenery changed. A building that looked like a school appeared. Before Moon Sung-hee could ask, one of the elderly men clapped his hands.
“That, that Young-gil’s place was said to be likely the host, right? This is the school Young-gil’s son attends.”
“Sir, was the school on a hill?”
“How could the kids get to school if it were this high up? The school is down there. There aren’t many children nearby, so the school is far.”
“……Then the child must be the host of the portal.”
Moon Sung-hee clicked her tongue in pity.
As they cleared the magical beasts and entered the playground, the chilly winter scenery—similar to reality—turned warmly bright. The temperature became warm like a spring day, and the sunlight grew higher. Since the school was perceived positively, this place likely wasn’t the deepest point.
From the playground centered around the school, five paths branched out. The five paths, lacking any distinct characteristics, were identical in appearance. Excluding the hill road they had just climbed, there were four directions to explore. According to the elderly people, no such paths existed at the actual school.
The luck-based measuring device, which relied on a 30 percent chance, was malfunctioning again.
‘Four directions…… there won’t be enough time to explore them one by one. What should I do?’
Just as Moon Sung-hee’s thoughts were leaning toward splitting the attack squad in two, with her and Kim Si-baek each leading a search before reuniting, Kim Si-baek—who had not interfered much in the Id Portal strategy due to his lack of experience—spoke up for the first time.
“Which of these paths leads from the school to the house?”
The elderly people pointed out the location. Estimating roughly with a map, the father and son’s house was to the north of the school.
“If it’s the path to the north…… it’s that way.”
Moon Sung-hee also peered in the direction Kim Si-baek pointed. If one were to look for the north, that path was correct, but no matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem particularly different from the other paths.
“Why do you think the house is the deepest point of the portal?”
Kim Si-baek rubbed his chin with a contemplative look in his eyes.
“I can’t be certain, but if a young child opens an Id Portal without moving to a specific place or having their environment change, aren’t there usually two causes? Bullying at school, or domestic abuse.”
“……That’s true. That’s why I hoped the child wasn’t the host.”
“But the school is not the deepest point. Rather, since it’s perceived as a positive image, the school was probably a breathing hole for that child. Then there’s a high possibility that the remaining house is the deepest point where the core is located.”
Moon Sung-hee had made a similar guess. She simply hadn’t been able to rule out other possibilities.
“The main culprit of the domestic abuse is the father. It’s hard to ignore the possibility that the child strongly perceives the father, rather than the house, as the center. If the father is the deepest point, I don’t think it would be a house they’d want to flee from. Unlike a house that doesn’t move, a father can chase you.”
Her opinion was valid, but Kim Si-baek thought of the eight-year-old child and the dog that had been tied up in a filthy doghouse. The dog, perhaps due to its gentle nature, didn’t bark once even though strangers were loitering in front of the house, and it was limping.
A violent father, a young child, and a dog. Could an eight-year-old child have thought of fleeing the house, leaving behind a dog that was exposed to the same violence from the father?
“…….”
It was an uncertain matter. However, the child seemed too young to have firmly decided to flee together, and perhaps too young to even think of fleeing alone.
At least, Kim Si-baek’s eight-year-old self was like that. He had never once thought of abandoning his younger sibling in front of his father and running away.
“Then I’ll head toward the house alone. Why don’t you search the other areas, Raid Leader?”
“Will you be alright alone?”
“Hunting magical beasts is no problem. I’ll contact you once I find the deepest point.”
Unlike a field where the grades are somewhat consistent, his tone was quite calm, guaranteeing that he would not be in danger even in an Id Portal where magical beasts of various grades poured out randomly. It was as if it were so obvious that there was no need to boast arrogantly.
After some consideration, Moon Sung-hee accepted his suggestion.
[It is a good mindset to want to save the child who is the host. If you rescue the child safely, you might meet someone you miss?]
[Quest 11]
[Clear the Id Portal.]
[Time remaining: 24 hours 00 minutes]
Kim Si-baek frowned at the quest that appeared long after it was determined that the child was the host. Setting aside the ambiguous phrasing, what did the host of an Id Portal he happened to enter have to do with someone he missed?
‘The only person I miss is Un.’
He didn’t know what kind of trick the system was trying to play again.
A magical beast suddenly surged up, tearing through the ground and opening its giant maw, but its body was sliced in half and its core shattered by a single strike of Kim Si-baek’s sword. Before the blood could even drip from the blade, Kim Si-baek slashed horizontally across the top.
He stepped aside to avoid the fluids pouring from the two magical beasts that had been severed at once. Countless corpses of magical beasts with destroyed cores lay scattered across the ground.
In the child’s nightmare, the road to the house became steeper and rougher as he progressed. The journey was not yet over.
“If I were to become the host of an Id Portal, would the core be my father, or my younger sibling?”
[Death and Beauty trembles its wings, telling him not to say such ominous things.]
Biyendwe spoke with disgust, but it was true that various thoughts were swirling confusingly as he walked through the Id Portal of a child who shared a similar pain.
Would it be the father, who was so cruel yet whose death was so hollow? Or the sibling he failed to save?
[Death and Beauty recalls that it has hardly ever heard stories about its apostle’s mother.]
“……Ah, my mother. Memories of my mother wouldn’t become a core.”
[Death and Beauty asks if it’s true that she abandoned her apostle.]
“That is true.”
Leaping onto the crown of a magical beast and plunging his sword down, Kim Si-baek murmured as if talking to himself.
“When I was young, I heard the neighbors whispering, but I didn’t really understand. But reflecting on it after growing up, I don’t think my mother gave birth to us brothers because she wanted to.”
It is not uncommon for a man with a decent build and a handsome face to subtly deceive a girl who has nowhere to go and no one to rely on. He suspected his father had forcibly dragged his mother into the house and tied her down that way. Using the children—specifically, Kim Si-baek, who was in her womb at the time—as a pretext.
As a husband and as a human being, he must have been horrific.
Despite that, the mother gave her own kind of affection to him and his sibling, who were unwanted children, and strove to be a mother. The reason she endured several years by the father’s side must have been because of her young children. It was just that her affection could not ultimately overcome the fear and hatred toward the man who was her husband.
“If she hadn’t fled, the one who died might have been my mother. Leaving must have been an inevitable choice.”
As he grew older and came to understand his mother’s choice, he quietly hoped that in the remainder of her life—having fled twice, once from her hometown and once from her husband—the word ‘flight’ would no longer exist.
After clearing the swarm of magical beasts and landing lightly on the ground, Kim Si-baek laughed softly to refresh the sunken atmosphere.
“My mother gave birth to me when she was very young…… if she were alive now, she would be close to seventy. Now, I’ve become older than my mother.”
[Death and Beauty pats him, telling him not to worry because its apostle still looks like he’s at a fresh age.]
“Fresh…… no, who did you learn such words from?”
[Death and Beauty guesses that since the sky is darkening, they must be getting closer to the deepest point.]
Kim Si-baek sighed at Biyendwe, who suddenly began to play dumb. Who else could it be? It was obvious.
‘Our Un is perfect in every way…… but I think he’s too bad for children’s education……’
Acknowledging a single truth was as painful as chewing and swallowing poison.
After eating one more lunch box and advancing for a while longer, killing magical beasts for exercise, Kim Si-baek stopped. After checking his surroundings, he took out the wireless communication device for the Id Portal.
“Raid Leader, this is Kim Si-baek. I have found the Portal Keeper.”