~Chapter 129~
One step, two steps.
With each step I took, white lines spread out like branches along the path I had just walked.
“……”
It felt like I was walking as if entranced.
The black ground and the white sky. The point where the two met stretched wide, like a horizon.
It wasn’t so much beautiful as it was frightening.
No matter where I ran, something would find me here.
While walking, I bumped into something on my forehead.
It was a sentence that stood still in the air, unlike the others.
[I’ll be there soon.]
……A message meant for someone.
In that moment, I swallowed a heavy breath.
It wasn’t hard to figure out who the message was from.
‘……How are you coming here?’
And where exactly is this place that you’re coming to?
For a brief moment, a ripple of something stirred in my heart, but I bit my lip.
‘I just need to live alone and be fine.’
Why didn’t I know something so obvious?
But at the same time, a sense of relief swept over me. It was a strange, contradictory feeling.
Feeling frustrated, I tapped the floating sentence with my finger, and for some reason, I felt a warm energy.
They say that if a sentence doesn’t touch the ground, its owner meets death.
Does that mean Ricardo is……
Could he be wandering this place, just like me?
Strangely, in that moment, a tiny flicker of hope arose.
Maybe, just like how I stumbled upon his message, Ricardo could one day find me.
That kind of hope.
‘……Then what should I say to him?’
Knowing Ricardo’s personality, it’s clear that no matter what I say, he won’t listen.
He’ll find me somehow, no matter what.
After thinking for a while, I spoke.
“If it doesn’t work, just go back. Look for me a little and….”
No. That’s too much……
After much thought, I opened my mouth.
It wasn’t anything special.
Just something simple I wanted to say once I was ready.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t reach him.’
Before I knew it, the white line that had been following my footsteps was ahead of me.
It looked like it wanted to lead me somewhere.
“Arkan, is this the right path…?”
But the rest of my words didn’t come out.
He wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
It was as if he had never been here. Only silence filled the air.
‘……Does this mean I’m supposed to go alone from here?’
He had always acted on his own, so I believed he’d show up again when the time was right.
I walked on for a long time.
Until I could no longer see the countless words falling from the sky.
“……!”
Finally, what appeared in front of me was the World Tree.
The very same World Tree where Ailins had been sealed.
The one I had seen before was decayed and broken.
I had revived it, but it wasn’t fully restored.
If the World Tree had truly grown properly, it would have been a magnificent tree. If it had color, it would have looked even more perfect.
‘Why……’
Around the branches of the World Tree, thin light threads were tangled, with transparent droplets swirling around them.
They moved in a steady, rhythmic pace.
But there was one droplet moving unusually fast.
Was it because it was smaller than the others?
Just as it was about to fall behind another droplet, the droplet grew larger as it stuck to a leaf.
With the increase in size, the droplet’s speed slowed down.
“……Ha.”
That’s when I realized what the light threads were.
The time threads Arkan had mentioned. The flowing timelines.
‘This means I just touched it.’
Time had slowed, and then suddenly it felt like everything fast-forwarded. I understood the future I had seen completely.
Now, I got it.
It was clear that Seiren was trying to overlap my world with Ricardo’s world.
Otherwise, there would be no reason to control the speed of time like this.
If time’s flow was the problem, there was no need to worry about my world at all.
‘……It wasn’t just self-consciousness.’
He intended to send me back to my original world.
……But why?
The Orphen Kingdom couldn’t seize Ailins, that was already in the past.
And Ailins was dead.
It was then that I heard a voice.
“Ah, finally, we meet.”
A laughing voice came from behind the World Tree, and Seiren appeared, waving his hand lightly at me.
“Not easy to follow me, huh?”
With a teasing tone, he walked toward me, sitting down with his back against the World Tree’s trunk. Then, as if meeting an old friend, he patted the spot next to him.
He did it with an oddly consistent motion.
“It must have been tiring, sit down.”
“…….”
“Oh, don’t refuse.”
Is he in his right mind right now?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He tilted his head, completely confused by my expression.
The confusion only grew.
“We don’t have much to do, let’s just chat.”
“If you have something to say, say it. I’m all ears.”
“Ah, you want to stand and listen?”
He gave up and made a surrender gesture.
“I can tell you were planning to observe me and then do something. You should give up. It’s easier that way.”
“Haha.”
“Or do you plan on making us all fail together by throwing water at us?”
If I had the chance, I would love to do that.
He stopped smiling for a moment and stretched. He seemed like he was about to take a nap.
‘He said he had nothing else to do.’
Which meant his goal was probably accomplished.
It was probably about controlling time.
“By the way, do you also buy immortality through a contract like the Magic Tower Lord?”
“Ah, now you want to listen? Well, good choice! We have all the time here, so might as well talk.”
Seiren smiled warmly and tilted his head.
“Look at this.”
Then he showed me his wristwatch.
“See? It’s really stopped, right?”
He pointed to the stopped wristwatch, mimicking the ticking sound.
Tick, tick.
I followed his sound, tapping my finger on the back of my hand.
“……Does that mean only your time is stopped, not the contract?”
“Something like that.”
“You said you have all the time, so you could explain it in more detail.”
He nodded.
“I got time by dying.”
“……”
“It wasn’t easy to get, so I decided to use it wisely.”
Seiren touched his forehead.
Tap, tap.
Then, his fingers fell from his face, tapping on his knee at regular intervals.
I turned my gaze back to the droplets swirling along the light threads.
My world and Ricardo’s world weren’t that close yet. Obviously, the remaining time was still uncertain.
He stood up.
“After dying and coming back to life, it really feels like I’ve become a god. No, it’s more like I’m no longer afraid of anything.”
“……You don’t seem afraid of anything.”
“If you died and came back to life, what would you do first?”
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“See? That’s why I couldn’t see you.”
Seiren pressed his tongue against his cheek.
The carefree smile he had vanished, and he was back to the Seiren I knew.
“I’ve thought about it many times. Ah, what didn’t I expect? I’ve gotten anxious and wondered what I missed.”
“What’s the conclusion?”
“Why bother talking too much? The fact that we’re here, talking, is the most important thing.”
Again.
Tap, tap.
He crossed his arms and tapped his fingers.
‘……This isn’t just a misunderstanding.’
I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like he was counting the time.
In this place where everything had stopped.
