[Gate Creation]
[keeeeeeeening—]
Crossing the dimensional gate I opened in space, I jumped to Paju in an instant.
Vasiliisa spread out before my eyes.
I poured mana through my body and launched forward—I nearly smashed Vasiliisa’s door.
“Tudor! Tudor!”
“Oh, darling? Perfect timing. How do I look?”
Tudor struck a convincing pose.
Whatever she’d been doing, she wasn’t in her usual witch getup but a sharp suit—with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses in an exaggerated design on her face.
Ugh—when I’m this busy, what exactly are you playing at?
“Stylish. Top-tier. But aren’t the glasses a bit much? Rimless would suit you better. And line up a car. A secure taxi.”
“Secure taxi? Going where? And take a look at Pani, too.”
Tudor pointed toward the café floor where Pani was.
A girl with a great lantern for a head—in a swishy classical maid dress—was waiting tables.
Ah, for crying out loud.
I haven’t worked out the mechanism yet, but Pani is probably the [Predator in the Mountains] fallen from Abyssal rank into a degraded state.
How did the [Predator in the Mountains], once so imperious, end up like that?
“Tudor—are you really allowed to bully her like that? And get me someone who can get to Ansan the fastest. Speed over skill.”
“Who’s bullying who? Pani wanted to wear it.”
With a lantern for a head she couldn’t make expressions, so I had no idea what she felt—but she didn’t look happy.
No, focus.
“Come on! Tudor, I’m in a hurry!”
“Darling, breathe. What’s in Ansan that’s so urgent? Sit.”
“Whew—”
Right. Calm down.
I took a random chair in Vasiliisa and caught my breath.
“Okay. I’m calm. Taxi—fast.”
“Sure. I’ll arrange the car right now, so relax. You flew straight here from Sokcho? Magic? What about Coally?”
Orb—its head a giant monitor—came over and handed me an iced Americano.
“Ah, thanks, Orb. Right—do me a favor and broker the money part for Curtain Call and her friends like we discussed.”
“Broker? What did you order my Coally to do without me?”
“‘My Coally,’ huh? They’re on board. I don’t have cash now, but I’ll raise it. Spot me some credit.”
“Hmmm, fine. I can do that much. Also, darling.”
Tudor smiled sweetly, then leaned on my shoulder and whispered low.
“Mm?”
“Have you been the one warping the space-time continuum lately?”
“Continuum?”
“I never told you, but—”
Her whisper tickled my ear; her voice was sweet enough to make my shoulders twitch.
“I can sense that sort of thing.”
I already knew. I heard it from the Tudor in the last loop—even if that was erased.
Still gripping both my shoulders, she kept whispering.
“Whether you’re rewinding time or stopping it—I don’t know—but this world has more elasticity than you think. You can ignore that because you’re effectively an Abyssal. At our level, though, backlash can make bigger problems. Remember that.”
“...Yeah. Got it. Thanks for the advice.”
And also—please give me a little space—was the gist as I gently eased her back.
“I don’t have to say Gong Isu’s name—you already know. You have that power, but remember where Gong Isu ultimately ended up.”
“I know.”
I met a different-time Gong Isu on the way.
The place the far-future Gong Isu chose was, in the end, that hospital room at Paju Central Hospital again.
Backlash, huh...
I glanced at my left hand holding the cup.
In the last loop, the middle, ring, and little fingers on my left hand were cut off.
Not long ago, I faced the Conqueror—and took injuries that twisted those three fingers completely.
“...”
I put Park Gwangrim on the job, and he called with ominous intel.
And—
No, it isn’t identical this time. I’m moving faster than before—solving more—changing more.
Still makes me uneasy.
I stood and told Tudor:
“I’m going to pop home. Please get that taxi.”
“When will you be back?”
“Within an hour.”
“Hehe, okay. I’ll have it ready.”
“Thanks.”
I set the cup down and headed for the door. I’d open a dimensional gate in a quiet alley and jump to the Famished Manor.
“And darling.”
Tudor’s voice stopped me.
“Yeah?”
“I’m always on your side. If anything goes wrong, come to Vasiliisa—no matter what form you’re in.”
“Aha—great. Nice to have somewhere to go even if I crash and burn.”
With that, I left Vasiliisa.
“I’m home! I really missed you, Mr. Sanghyun!”
“Mr. Sinhwa?”
“I missed your cooking so much! But I’ll be right out again, so no meal needed!”
“Pardon?”
[clatter-clatter-clatter!]
[scrrrraaaape!]
“Hey, Doldol! Achilles! You’re adorable! Aaaagh! Sorry—please don’t come closer!”
My panicked reaction only hyped Doldol and Achilles up; they chased me, and I spent a moment screaming while circling the living room.
Neither of them has anything to do with my phobias per se, but their motifs—the behaviors and looks—poke at them.
“Red! Can you hold them a moment!”
“[scree—eeek!]”
[scrrrraaaape—]
[THU-THU-THU-THOOM!]
More clattering.
Thanks to Red swooping in to help, I hurried down into the basement.
“Phew.”
With a short sigh, I swept up everything worth taking from the basement—then reached mana toward the big door in the corner.
“Open up. Let’s make a deal.”
[skreeeeak—]
Metal scraped in the basement dark—and twined with it, an unreal laugh pressed into my ear.
“An amusing proposition. What sort of deal?”
A human voice sounded from within a pitch-black ward. Along with it, the [One Who Laughs] slowly revealed himself.
As always, he wore Cheongho’s shape.
“...”
He looked even more vivid than before—more alive than Cheongho had been in life—and I was speechless for a moment.
“Ha. Come to think of it, I’m in no position to lecture Tudor.”
Orb, Pani—Tudor shelters odd beings.
But I raise mountains of surreal monsters myself—and this one is the strongest, most terrible of them all.
At my stray comment, the [One Who Laughs], wearing Cheongho’s face, scowled.
“What are you babbling about?”
“Nothing. Back to the point. Take a trip to Buyeo.”
“...You’re letting me out?”
Cheongho’s face flickered with surprise.
“Yeah. Get some air, run some schemes, make a friend or two.”
“Have you finally lost your mind?”
“Obviously I’m not letting all of you out. I’ll loan you a necromantic golem—split off a single page and ride that.”
“The objective? And you mean to bind that one page with chains upon chains, right? In that state—in a necromantic golem, not even a human—I can’t perform complex work.”
From his perspective it was outrageous—provocative, even—but his answer came back plainly positive.
‘Makes sense. I’ve been feeding him such good meals.’
Call it confinement, but this hasn’t been a bad stretch for the [One Who Laughs].
I’ve kept shoveling him items tainted by [Abyssal] influences—ostensibly to scrub impurities and miasma—but those very impurities and miasma are rich nutrients for him.
Lately he’s shown me a degree of favor—enough to attempt this plan.
“Go stir things a bit and come back.”
He adopted a thinking pose using Cheongho’s shadow—arms folded, brow furrowed.
“‘Stir,’ and that’s all?”
“That’s all.”
I glanced at my left hand again. I intend to reduce risk factors as much as possible.
“What do I get?”
You want a reward now? The gall on this guy.
“Don’t like going out?”
“I do. But that’s a separate issue. You aren’t my servant, are you? If you say so, I could move—but—”
“Right. If I don’t bind this as a proper contract, I can’t rest easy.”
To keep him from running wild, I’d need to bind him with a magical contract like I did to Ihasa.
And a contract forced one-sidedly won’t hold. Proper compensation is required.
I showed him the [Avatar Stone] I’d made from the [Great Source]’s power.
“This.”
“Made from an Abyssal being’s residual influence. But the concentration is too low. Can’t you give me one of your other avatar stones?”
By “other avatar stones,” he meant—
The five stones wrought from Pani—that is, the [Predator in the Mountains]’s power.
Things so potent I can’t fully control them yet.
They might share the name [Avatar Stone], but this crude one made from the mana I extracted from Lee Seonbin isn’t even in the same concentration class.
“Forget it.”
Trying to be nice and he wants to liquidate my entire household?
[kekekeke— hahahaha— ahahahahaha—]
The [One Who Laughs] let out a burst of unreal laughter, then—moving Cheongho’s hand to point at the [Avatar Stone] of the [Great Source]—said:
“I accept.”
“Good. Then let’s begin.”
I summoned a necromantic golem on the spot and drafted a very—very—veeeeeery long contract.
Long enough that the [One Who Laughs] snapped, “Enough! Do you lack the concept of [Trust] in that head of yours?!”—so I think we’re covered.
Only after all of the above did I make it to Ansan.
It’s “Ansan,” but we’re far from the city proper—
Practically at Surisan’s doorstep.
“Where? Here good? You really don’t want me to wait?”
The secure taxi driver’s gravelly voice.
In the rearview I could see the tight creases at his eyes—and scars even more striking.
“Yes. Here is fine. Get home safe.”
“Gwahaha—will do. You stay safe too!”
He laughed big and rolled out.
Once the taxi was gone, I tried calling Park Gwangrim again—just to test.
But it just rang and rang.
No answer.
“Haah—”
A sigh.
Textbook horror progression.
No helping it. Cloaking myself with a stealth spell, I walked on.
“That it.”
Under a gloomy sky with a foreboding air, I looked out over a wide spread of chain-link fence.
‘This is the orphanage?’
If it really was, then that ominous fence would be its outer wall.
“Not a military facility?”
The fence stretched long enough to seem like it wrapped the whole mountain.
At the top, razor-wire was braided along the length. And...
[Caution! High Voltage]
High voltage was running through it.
“Hyundeok, you grew up in quite the place, didn’t you?”
If I’d known, I would’ve come sooner. Shame.
Soon I reached what I assumed was the front gate.
A battered metal plate was bolted there, its paint peeling, with the following words:
[House of Healing]
