Chapter 338

"So it really is you, young master."

Shin Woo-seok arrived where we were as quickly as he'd said on the phone. Opening the door of the car he'd driven up in himself, he spoke in that same courteous voice as before.

"You'll be busy — get in first and we can talk on the way."

At his words, the three of us climbed straight into the car.

The odd thing was that no one sat in the passenger seat.

Lee Yu-na, tucked between us in the back, was pretending to be perfectly fine while holding tight to a fistful of my sleeve and one of Han Su-yeong's.

Su-yeong and I settled into our seats without a word, playing along like we hadn't noticed a thing.

"How's the clan head?"

"I don't know what to tell you. She's shut out everyone attending her — me, Miss Seo-ryeong, all of her closest aides…."

He answered from the driver's seat, sounding genuinely at a loss.

Then he politely handed me a phone.

"For now, use this — it'll have to do in a pinch. I'll have something proper prepared for you later. It's the model you used to use, young master — I mean, young clan head."

I took the phone and, first thing, called Jin Ye-seul while I asked him:

"Who else have you gotten word out to?"

"For starters, per your instructions, I reached out to the Ten Powerhouses, and we got hold of Ms. Horie Yuzuki of Thunderbolt's Hammer. Word should spread through the Ten Powerhouses shortly. And Professor Alice Blesbuck — the one who used to be in charge of you — is also staying at Thunderbolt's Hammer at the moment, so I imagine she'll have heard by now."

…As expected, Ye-seul didn't pick up.

But if Alice Blesbuck knew, she'd surely reach out to Jin Ye-jeong, and Ye-seul would naturally hear through her.

Next I tried Choi Hyun-woo, but all I got back was a mechanical voice telling me the number didn't exist.

I hadn't expected anything, so I moved on and called Ivan.

The line was picked up almost before the first ring had ended.

— ~~~~?

Fluent foreign speech caught me off guard for a second, but I gathered myself right away and spoke.

"Ivan. It's me. Yu Ji-hyeok."

— …….

Contrary to what I'd expected, he didn't say a word.

A moment later, he only asked back, quietly.

— …Is that really you, Ji-hyeok? Is this really you?

"Yeah, it's me. Su-yeong's here with me too."

— Hold on, so this is — how in the world….

Ivan let out a long, deep breath.

Then, in that same quiet voice, he asked again.

— Where are you right now.

"On the way to World Tree territory."

— Then don't you dare move a step until I get there.

With that, the line cut off with a sharp click.

I was thrown, wondering when he'd become the kind of guy who talked like that, when Lee Yu-na piped up from beside me.

"Ah, I forgot to mention — Ivan's also gotten kind of a lot more short-fused."

"This seems more than kind of."

"Right — kind of a lot."

…By the look of things, my reunion with Ivan was shaping up to be its own kind of trouble.

Come to think of it, Ivan Hunt — just like Lee Ye-eun — had led his family and thrown himself into all kinds of public dealings; after Ye-eun, he was the most skilled among us at politics and at handling people.

He was such an easygoing type, always ready with a friendly, good-natured laugh, that I'd let myself forget it — but a guy pulling a crumbling family back together and running it was never going to be as mild and yielding as he looked.

"Ah."

Just then, the phone buzzed in my hand.

The moment I saw the name on the screen, I lifted it to my ear.

"Yes, Ms. Evangelline."

— …….

From the other end came nothing but a quiet breath.

Click.

I lowered the phone with a what was that look, and immediately the phone rang again.

This time it was a video call.

"Ms. Evangelline?"

My face was showing on the screen, but on her side, nothing came through at all.

— …So you really are alive. I was starting to think that Yuzuki girl must've had a strange dream.

It had been a long time since I'd heard her voice.

She spoke in an extremely rough, gravelly voice, letting out a sigh as she muttered.

— Do you have any idea what happened after you disappeared like that? The time, the money, the manpower it took just to clean up after the mess… I don't think any bill I could hand you would be enough.

At the sharp bite in her scolding, I couldn't help the sheepish expression that crossed my face without thinking.

And no wonder — in my current position, I wouldn't have had a defense even if I'd had ten mouths to speak with.

"I've got no excuse. I never dreamed something like that would happen either."

— That's how it always goes with people. But you were so sure of yourself, I figured there wouldn't be that big of a variable to worry about.

She let out another sigh, languid and thick.

— At worst I'd only been thinking maybe everyone on scene would get wiped out.

At the weight sitting under her words, my head dipped on its own and my voice turned respectful.

"…I'm truly sorry, Ms. Evangelline. It must have put you in a very hard spot on my account."

— After a disaster like that, hard spot barely covers it. I was nearly kicked out of my seat among the Ten Powerhouses. If things had gone any further, I might have been held accountable and made to pay a heavy price….!

She broke off there with a small ahem and cleared her throat.

For a moment there was a faint rustle, followed by the sound of her gulping down water.

The soft sound of a spell being cast.

Beside me, Su-yeong and Yu-na murmured, almost explaining — a spell to make one's voice sound nice.

Apparently they were right, because in the next moment a voice came through that was smoother and more pleasant than the one from a second ago beyond any comparison.

— Well… all of that's beside the point now that you and that Han Su-yeong girl have made it back safely.

Evangelline said it and let out another sigh.

A sigh with a different weight to it than the rough one she'd let out earlier.

— Which means what's left on the record, in the end, is that we took down one of the Seven Calamities. You can hold your head high on this one — thanks to your plan, we've knocked out two Seven Calamities already.

"Ah… yes. Thank you."

— Mmm. …So stop looking so down, all right?

She cleared her throat a couple more times after that.

Feeling the awkwardness for reasons I couldn't quite pin down, I gave her a small smile and asked:

"But why aren't you showing your face?"

— My hair's a mess.

She answered as if it were nothing.

— I didn't want you seeing me looking so unkempt, so I've got a finger over the lens. Why — got a problem with that?

At the joke that felt so unlike her, I burst out laughing and shot back:

"Come on — a problem, really? Honestly, someone like you could have messy hair and no one would mind."

— …Do you even hear yourself right now?

She said it as if she couldn't believe I'd let that come out, but a small snort of laughter still slipped past.

— Anyway. I've got my own things to wrap up on this end, so I'll come see you in person once I'm done. Now that you and that girl are alive, I've got a few words to say to those idiots… and I've been keeping a very careful tab of what you owe me, so brace yourself.

"I told you, I don't really have money."

— Then I'll just take it out of you in something other than money.

A moment later, she said in a careful voice:

— …In the meantime, make sure to get things in order around you too. From the look of it, your friends have never been through anything like this, and they took a huge hit mentally.

At advice I couldn't brush off, I found myself nodding before I knew it.

"…Yes. I'll do that. I'll be waiting."

— All right. Take care, then.

Before she hung up, Evangelline let out a small laugh.

— And next time I come see you I'll be nice and freshly washed, so don't sit there worrying about whether I smell.

"…What, are you two really that close? Since when have you been that close?"

After the call ended, Su-yeong asked from beside me in a flat voice, but the instant our eyes met I waved a hand at her, brushing it off as nothing.

"Ehh — from when I asked her about the ring. That was the first time I actually met her… I think there was also what Mr. Lee Myung-jun said about me, so she took a bit of a liking to me. And on top of that, Ms. Evangelline's popular as a hero for being generous with her fans in the first place."

She gave a small nod, as if she'd take that answer for now.

Just then, Shin Woo-seok, hands on the wheel, cleared his throat quietly.

"We're almost there."

Just as he'd said, we crossed the border of the territory before long, and he drove us in as far as the road went, deeper than a car should normally have been able to reach.

"This is as far as the car can go."

He said it quietly as he brought the car to a smooth stop.

And even without him saying so, all of us could tell.

Because right in front of us, the branches of the World Tree had risen up into an enormous wall.

I finally understood exactly what he'd meant when he said no one could get anywhere near Lee Ye-eun.

"But you, young clan head… you should be able to get inside."

"Yeah, looks that way."

He slowly turned to look back at us, and his eyes held even more worry for someone than I remembered seeing in them before.

"I'm counting on you."

I answered with a small nod instead of words and stepped out of the car.

But I didn't head straight for the wall of World Tree branches.

There was somewhere I needed to stop by first.

"…Young clan head?"

"Sorry, Woo-seok. There's a place I need to stop by first."

I told Shin Woo-seok and the others, who were looking at me with confused expressions, that I'd be right back, and launched off.

Toward the two who, for three hundred years, had done nothing but wait for me.

[…Over there, then.]

Following Minerva's cue, I headed for one of the World Tree roots — each nearly the size of a skyscraper — spread out across the area.

There were barriers and walls set up around the root to keep people out, but by now those wouldn't slow me down for even a moment.

"Whew."

The closer I got to the root, the more I could feel a strangely alien energy prickling against my skin.

The overwhelmingly pure energy of the World Tree itself.

And, hidden inside it, unmistakable — the scent unique to a Seven Calamity.

"……"

According to what the world at large knew, the Seven Calamity Sbeungali had been sealed away inside the World Tree by the Tree's shrine maiden, and only after a long span of time had he been freed by Lee Jae-jun, who'd borne a grudge against the clan.

After being freed, he'd been driven off in World Tree territory by me and Lee Ye-eun, and later, when I'd absorbed even the fragment of himself he'd hidden away for his own resurrection, he'd effectively met a complete death.

At some point after that, Lee Ye-eun and I had caught on that his seal hadn't quite fully disappeared, and that the Association had been looking to turn it to their own ends — so we'd purified the remnants of the seal and the last of the Calamity's energy along with it.

Yes.

At that time, Lee Ye-eun had said something to me that had stuck with me.

'Oddly enough, there was a section of the seal that was quietly rotting away.'

Almost as if a parasitic plant had settled in and was slowly siphoning off the tree's nourishment.

And from the moment Nidhogg had died at my hand, there was only one being left who could feed off the World Tree as a parasite.

Sbeungali.

Back then, I'd only assumed he was drawing off the World Tree's energy for the sake of his own resurrection.

"Who the hell could've predicted this."

Beneath the enormous World Tree root.

Standing right where the seal had once been, I muttered quietly to myself, almost like I was talking out loud.

"That a Seven Calamity from the future had quietly parked himself next to the seal, siphoning off nourishment to hold out."

"…Now this — this really is a voice I haven't heard in a long time."

It was that awful voice, like something scraping down against metal with all its weight.

"What am I supposed to make of you being more than a month late?"

Sbeungali, who'd been fully assimilated into the World Tree, squirmed and formed a pair of eyes and a mouth, and opened it in that same insufferable voice.

I gave a faint smile at the sight and held out a hand toward him.

"You waited three hundred years, and now you can't wait one more month?"

"Hah — that shameless face doesn't leave any doubt."

He snorted as if he found me unbelievable and let out a sharp click.

"Care to try that line on someone other than me — maybe on that little one over there?"

Snickering, Sbeungali stretched roots out and began seeping into me bit by bit.

I could feel his power and his presence slowly filling me up inside.

A sense of completeness I couldn't quite put into words drew a small, drowsy sigh out of me before I could stop it, and I slowly turned my head.

"Rauné."

There stood Rauné — slightly bigger now than before we'd parted — staring blankly at me.

"……"

I slowly dropped to one knee and opened both arms toward it, and it broke into a scampering run at me.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late — ow!"

With a bright smack, it swung a root and hit me across the cheek.

I hadn't seen it coming at all, and the sting brought a reflexive prickle of tears to my eyes.

Come on, hitting someone across the face the moment we're reunited — I was thinking that when —

"……!!!"

Right after slapping me, Rauné threw itself at me and clung on tight.

Its little body was shaking, fine tremors running through it without letup.

"……"

I just wrapped my arms around it in silence.

Around Rauné's neck hung a chain with no ring on it — only a single scale.

"I'm sorry."

I patted its back and apologized, but Rauné shook its head as if refusing to accept it. I spoke to it again, this time putting the whole of my heart into it.

"I'm sorry."

…And so I kept saying those words to it, over and over, until Rauné was satisfied.

Until it accepted the apology, just — over and over.

Even without laying a hand on the enormous wall, I could feel how powerful the energy running through it was.

It was set to reject any outside contact or interference, and given how strictly the World Tree ran on chain of command, it took no effort to see that no one was going to break through this wall and get inside.

That included me, if I'm being honest.

Strictly speaking, in terms of my standing as a World Tree, I was still ranked below her.

Only in terms of that particular standing, of course.

"Sbeungali — is there a way to make it work?"

[Three hundred years apart and the very first thing you do when we meet again is put me to work?]

He let out another click and one of those unpleasant chuckles.

[Did you think this body of mine went undetected for three hundred years by simple good fortune?]

His confidence wasn't for nothing.

The wall of massive branches began to writhe in a heartbeat, opening up enough space for one person to pass through comfortably.

"Oh."

I muttered in open admiration.

"Now you're finally getting useful."

[…And this is who this body of mine held out and waited for, through all those long years?]

I left his baffled muttering behind and stepped straight through toward the inside.

Hidden inside the wall was the building Lee Ye-eun used as both her quarters and her office.

I'd been there any number of times, so I opened the door without thinking about it — and then froze in place.

The inside of the building was crammed with televisions.

On air

Due to the abnormal weather that has struck northern Africa….

On air

The vanguard party of the multinational guild 'Post Next' has, tragically, been wiped out at the Iron Wire Tower….

Breaking

Ten Powerhouses member Evangelline Loengreen, who had declared her retirement, has abruptly called a press conference….

On air

A large-scale colony has been discovered in the Pacific….

The news pouring out of each of the televisions was building itself into a harmony grating past anything you'd want to hear.

What in the world had happened to Lee Ye-eun.

What on earth had the people around her been doing while she got this far — the questions kept piling up in my head, when —

Breaking

Breaking news.

For some reason I couldn't say why.

Out of countless televisions, countless voices, only this one came through with perfect clarity.

Breaking

Reports coming in that the unidentified pyramid located inside the restricted zone has suddenly collapsed.

A ding rang out, a bright notification chime that couldn't have suited this place less.

The notification window that followed had something on it I couldn't make sense of.

System

Quest 'The Fifth Evil' has been completed.

One of the Seven Calamities has been killed.

The sins of the slain Seven Calamity will be borne by whichever of its killers holds the highest kill contribution…….

Kill contribution #1: Yu Ji-hyeok

As a penalty for killing a Seven Calamity, your karma value increases by 100.

Due to the hidden characteristic 'Stranger,' the penalty for killing a Seven Calamity is nullified.

A fragment of Venus's essence leaves a trace deep inside your body, on part of your soul.

"…What?"

What.

What on earth had just happened.

I was just about to let that perfectly natural question out loud when —

"Who's there?!!"

A voice rang out of the dark room, sharp and edged with irritation.

"How on earth did you get in here…!?"

Right after, uneven footsteps came trudging toward me, and the owner of the voice stepped into view from inside the room.

"…Huh?"

Finally spotting me, the owner of the voice trailed off with her mouth hanging open, and murmured:

"…Ji-hyeok?"

And unsurprisingly, the owner of that voice was none other than Lee Ye-eun.