After obtaining the Stake of Time, the player—Kang Hanbyeol and his party—has two possible courses of action.
One is to leave through the Gate that appears before them, hand the Stake of Time over to So Hyeyul, who is waiting outside, and bring the Temple of Time episode to a close.
And the other is…
‘To stay in the Gate after the Stake of Time’s effect has vanished and farm it.’
All the monsters that had existed within the Temple of Time had already perished.
The boss monster who would have been waiting on the throne in the audience chamber—the Foolish King—was no exception.
Which meant that their magic stones and other spoils were scattered all throughout the temple.
There was no way we could pass up a bonus time where we could sweep them all up without having to fight for them.
Moreover, there was also one special artifact that could only be obtained at this moment.
‘In my previous life, when I first encountered this episode, I left the Gate as soon as I got the Stake of Time. Back then, after even going through the regression ending, I was too excited by the thought that I’d finally defeated that hidden boss. So later, I regretted it like crazy, thinking I’d kicked away the chance with my own two feet….’
As an aside, there were an awful lot of people who missed the bonus time, just like I had in my previous life.
Enough that you could often find posts on gaming communities where they lamented it.
‘Honestly, after the mission complete notification pops up, and it feels like everything’s over, and a Gate even appears right in front of you, wouldn’t you just absentmindedly head outside?’
Anyway.
Leaving the Gate behind, Kang Hanbyeol and I left the Secret Garden to farm the loot.
Sure enough.
“Wow, what kind of windfall is this? Seriously, if it weren’t for you, Gyeonu, I would’ve just left through the Gate without taking any of this. What a relief.”
“Right?”
In various rooms and corridors.
We were able to find magic stones, spellstones, jewels, and monster byproducts scattered everywhere.
Occasionally, we also found artifacts that weren’t of any use to us, but looked like they’d fetch money if sold at the Market.
“The Chairwoman said that aside from the Stake of Time, all the loot we get from the temple is ours to do with as we like, right? Ah, this is great. My Pocket is filling up, and so is my heart. I’m glad I emptied my Pocket before entering the Gate, just in case. Oh, this dagger’s pretty nice. I’ll add it to my collection and store it in my safe. Gyeonu, can I take this? Ah, and this shield too.”
“Sure, take them. Then next… should we check out the audience chamber?”
“That was the room with the boss monster, right? Sounds good. I wonder what’s in there. I’m looking forward to it.”
Our Pockets grew heavy.
Our bodies became heavier along with them, but we didn’t care at all.
If anything, we enjoyed the increased weight.
Meanwhile, after stripping clean every place there was to strip, we headed to the audience chamber located in the deepest part of the Temple of Time.
“Gyeonu, I’m opening it?”
“Yeah, please.”
Originally, two Rank 3 monsters should have been guarding the door to the audience chamber.
But in front of the door, only magic stones remained, proving that they had once existed there.
After picking up the magic stones, we opened the door and entered the audience chamber.
Like all the places we had passed through, the audience chamber carried an atmosphere that suggested a long time had passed.
“Gyeonu, I’ll search over there.”
“Got it. I’ll leave that side to you. I’ll take a look elsewhere.”
Kang Hanbyeol walked to the left.
I walked in the opposite direction, to the right, and searched the surroundings.
When I spread out my detection net, I was able to find magic stones, spellstones, and jewels used as catalysts without much difficulty.
As I did, I approached the enormous throne.
‘It should be somewhere around here….’
In the game, if you obtained the Stake of Time and went to the Foolish King’s audience chamber, you could find an artifact near the throne that was treated as one of a kind, just like the Stake of Time.
I thoroughly searched around the throne to find that artifact.
At last, behind the throne.
‘Found it.’
I was able to find an artifact shaped like a compass, hidden in the shadow of the throne.
The Soul Compass.
In the game, it was an artifact with the setting that the Foolish King, who had seized eternal life through the Stake of Time, still could not shake off his fear of death, and so created it to constantly confirm that his soul existed on this shore.
As befitted that setting, its effect was…
‘It found the owner of an object. Through fragments of the owner’s soul residing in that object, such as their mana, memories, emotions, or thoughts.’
In the game, it was mainly used to figure out where and from which monster certain loot dropped.
It was also occasionally useful during Brilliant Cafe requests, when tracking people who had been kidnapped or whose whereabouts were unknown, or when pursuing villains.
So if I had this, then maybe…
‘I might be able to change the Chairwoman’s mind.’
Even if the Stake of Time was destroyed, there was no guarantee that So Hyeyul would give up on her wish.
Rather, considering her personality, there was a high chance that she would try to revive her younger brother somehow.
Even if it meant completely abandoning humanity and righteousness, and being thoroughly defined as a villain—she would, without fail.
If that happened, I had no way of predicting what she would do next.
The future might lead in a bad direction, toward another destruction.
That was why I needed the Soul Compass.
Because…
‘Hanbyeol is the reincarnation of the younger brother the Chairwoman is trying to revive.’
Incredibly, that was the truth.
It was the truth revealed in So Hyeyul’s episode when she was defeated by Kang Hanbyeol and his party and met her death.
As Kang Hanbyeol mourned while killing her, she overlapped him with her younger brother and finally realized it.
The fact that he was her younger brother’s reincarnation, and the reason her wish had failed.
「So Hyeyul」
―…I see. So that’s what it was. It was you. You, you were….
By this point, So Hyeyul had suspected Kang Hanbyeol to be a special existence chosen by the World Tree.
And since that very person was her younger brother’s reincarnation, the past had not been altered.
After all, the souls of the past and the present could not exist at the same time.
Because if her younger brother’s death was denied, Kang Hanbyeol’s reincarnation would also be denied.
‘That’s why the World Tree split the world at the moment the Chairwoman altered the past to save Hanbyeol. Into a world where the Chairwoman’s younger brother survived without dying, and the existing world where the Chairwoman’s younger brother died and was reincarnated as Kang Hanbyeol.’
However, after realizing the truth, So Hyeyul chose not to tell Kang Hanbyeol and kept it in her heart alone.
So that he would not be troubled.
Wishing only for his happiness, she turned into particles of mana and vanished.
「So Hyeyul」
―I’m sorry. And thank you. You… live happily for a long, long time.
Of course, because it was described entirely from So Hyeyul’s perspective.
There was room to dismiss the truth she realized as nothing more than a misconception.
But as if the game was aware of that, it had prepared another device.
After clearing So Hyeyul’s episode, if you visited the Chairwoman’s office before the second semester of third year began, you could discover a keepsake of her younger brother.
And if you tried to find the owner of that keepsake through the Soul Compass…
[The Soul Compass is activating.]
[The needle is moving.]
[Round and round and round and round….]
[The needle stops.]
[The needle points to Kang Hanbyeol.]
It directly confirmed the kill with messages like the above.
‘When I cleared So Hyeyul’s episode, when I later happened to visit her office and discovered the keepsake, and when I completed the whole story, started the game over from the beginning, and discovered the Soul Compass. It was truly one shock after another after another.’
Then, at some point, I couldn’t help but think this.
What if So Hyeyul had learned of the Soul Compass’s existence before carrying out her wish, and through it, discovered that her younger brother’s reincarnation was Kang Hanbyeol?
Then perhaps So Hyeyul’s episode would never have occurred in the first place, and the situation where she died or brought about destruction would never have come.
Furthermore, she might have become a completely trustworthy ally.
Unfortunately, hypotheticals were meaningless.
The game had not accounted for it.
‘But in this world, which isn’t a game, it’s different.’
I checked the artifact’s information.
I gripped the Soul Compass tightly.
It was then that Kang Hanbyeol approached.
“What’s that? It looks like a compass.”
“It was lying near the throne. I’d have to appraise it to know for sure, but doesn’t it seem kind of extraordinary?”
“Hmm… Give it here. If it’s a tool that can be handled by hand, I should be able to appraise it.”
“…True. Here.”
Resonance Hands, which allowed him to become proficient to the level of a master with any tool that could be handled by hand.
Some of the loot we had already collected from the Temple of Time had already been appraised through Kang Hanbyeol’s Gift.
So there was no reason not to trust him.
I obediently handed over the Soul Compass.
“Hmm….”
Kang Hanbyeol held the Soul Compass in his hand.
He closed his eyes to focus his mind.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and said,
“It seems to be a detection-type artifact that finds the owner of an object. I thought it probably wasn’t a weapon, but that’s still a shame.”
“I see. Then it doesn’t seem like it’ll be very useful to either you or me.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
Kang Hanbyeol returned the Soul Compass.
After receiving it, I soon made a nonchalant suggestion.
“Then… Hanbyeol, how about we give this to the Chairwoman? I feel bad toward her, so I think we should at least give her something in return. This seems like a special artifact too, so wouldn’t it be enough to draw the Chairwoman’s interest? We’ll say that the item stored in the Foolish King’s Secret Garden wasn’t the Stake of Time, but this.”
“Hey, that’s lying…. What a headache. I don’t know anything about this. You handle the excuses yourself.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
* * *
After Kang Hanbyeol and I took everything we needed from the Temple of Time, we left the Gate.
Outside, So Hyeyul, who had been standing guard, was waiting for us.
She welcomed us.
“You did well, Student Hanbyeol and Student Gyeonu. Neither of you are hurt anywhere, are you?”
So Hyeyul asked about our condition in a gentle tone, as if she had been worried.
At the same time, her yellow gaze contained a subtle expectation.
After exchanging formalities with her, I decided to get to the point.
I took out the Gate Key from my Pocket, which had temporarily lost its power and turned translucent.
“First, I’m sorry, Chairwoman. We did open the door to the Secret Garden with the key, but because of that, they said the Gate’s rank will drop by one level from now on. From Green Grade to Yellow Grade.”
“Ah… It’s all right. There are occasionally Gates like that, so I had expected it to some extent. You don’t have to feel unnecessarily sorry. More importantly… what happened after you entered the Secret Garden?”
As if she no longer had any business with the Gate Key I had returned.
So Hyeyul only showed brief interest before turning her gaze back to me.
That gaze seemed to urge me to hurry up and hand over the Stake of Time.
Then, when I put my hand into my Pocket, her yellow eyes shone.
But unfortunately.
“This was what was inside the Secret Garden.”
“Pardon? This is… a compass? What is this? Was there… no stake?”
“…No.”
What I handed to So Hyeyul was not the Stake of Time, but the Soul Compass.
Receiving an artifact different from what she had expected, she was visibly shaken.
Her face hardened in an instant, and her voice grew cold.
“That can’t be right. How strange…. According to the information I gathered, there should have been a stake there. Are you certain you searched thoroughly?”
“Yes. We were flustered at first too. Just in case, we searched hard, but that was the only thing there. In the first place, the artifact guarded by the hidden boss monster of the Secret Garden was that compass. Right, Hanbyeol?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah… that’s right….”
“…”
So Hyeyul sent us a suspicious look.
It felt as though her gaze might pierce right through us.
Even so, I pretended to be as calm as possible so that she would not see through my true thoughts.
At the same time, I had expected this.
That she would not be completely fooled by my lie.
‘But that doesn’t matter.’
The fact that the Stake of Time had been destroyed did not change.
It could never be obtained again.
In other words, So Hyeyul had no way to prove my lie.
Moreover, as someone who had to remain Chairwoman until she fulfilled her wish, she could not reveal her true colors and had no choice but to quietly back down.
Sure enough, she did not interrogate us deeply.
She changed the subject.
“So what is this compass? Do you know anything about it?”
“The appraisal wasn’t exact, but… it seems to be an artifact that finds the whereabouts of a soul.”
“The whereabouts of a soul?”
“Yes. The soul of the owner of an object. In theory, wouldn’t it even be able to find where the soul of a dead person is?”
“…”
“It’s a shame that it wasn’t the stake, but please take it and check. You never know.”
“…Yes, I’ll do that.”
Though she seemed reluctant, So Hyeyul ultimately accepted the Soul Compass.
Then she turned her back to us.
“It’s late, so let’s head back. I’ll escort you outside the Academic Affairs Building. Both of you, follow me.”
It was an order to leave.
Not wanting to get on her bad side any further, Kang Hanbyeol and I followed her.
Meanwhile, I prayed inwardly.
‘I really hope this works out….’
I had done everything I could.
Would So Hyeyul still turn into our enemy in order to fulfill her wish?
Or would she use the Soul Compass to uncover the relationship between her younger brother and Kang Hanbyeol, and establish herself as our ally?
Which of the two she chose was entirely up to her.
As for me, I sincerely hoped that her decision would not bring her into conflict with us.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss