Even without it—”
Bang.
The shotgun shell hurtled straight toward the bastard’s head.
* * *
Meanwhile, Chae Nayun was sitting on a bench near the Eiffel Tower, their appointed meeting place.
She had long since given up on trying to find the ballroom. It was already almost seven in the evening, the time they had agreed on, yet Yu Yeonha and Kim Suho hadn’t contacted her at all, as if they were off doing who knew what.
“...Tsk.”
It wasn’t that she was worried about them. And yet, for some reason, her heart felt unsettled. She didn’t even know what was making her feel that way, so Chae Nayun was killing time by playing a game.
[Level-Up Monster]
It was an RPG that had been released not long ago. Since it wasn’t based on virtual reality, it was well suited to playing on a smartwatch. But it just wasn’t fun. At first, she thought she had found it fairly interesting, but even while she was playing, the thought kept coming back to her. Just what on earth were they doing at the ball that they still hadn’t contacted her?
“...Where do the police keep going?”
The constant sound of sirens made it impossible to concentrate.
In the end, Chae Nayun turned off the game and checked her messenger. There was still no word.
“Haa.”
She felt upset. But why did she have to feel this upset? Just as Chae Nayun let out a sigh in pointless irritation—
Someone sat down beside her.
Chae Nayun turned her head that way.
“...What are you doing here?”
It was Kim Hajin. But his face was deathly pale, cold sweat running down his body, and he looked completely exhausted.
“Are you sick?”
Chae Nayun asked out of courtesy. Kim Hajin silently turned his gaze toward her.
“...What, dude? At least answer me.”
“My body’s kind of stiff.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean... my body won’t move.”
Kim Hajin gave a faint laugh. Then, without warning, he closed his eyes and leaned toward Chae Nayun.
“Whoa!”
Chae Nayun recoiled in horror, afraid that sweaty lump might touch her, and he collapsed onto the bench.
“Hey, hey! What the hell are you doing? What kind of cheap trick—”
“Miss Nayun. You’re here.”
Just then, Yun Hanhyeon appeared with his girlfriend.
His expression was quite serious.
“Oh, Club President. Why are you so late?”
“So you didn’t know after all. There’s been an incident. Apparently, Kim Suho and Yu Yeonha are being questioned right now.”
“Huh?”
Chae Nayun’s mouth fell slightly open. Just what the hell happened while I wasn’t there?
“Ah. It’s nothing major. No one was hurt, and their identities are clear, so they’ll be released soon.”
After saying that, Yun Hanhyeon glanced at the bench. There, the exhausted Kim Hajin was breathing faintly.
“...But who is this?”
“I don’t know either. He suddenly showed up and just collapsed.”
“Hmm.”
Yun Hanhyeon approached and placed a hand on his forehead.
It was quite hot.
“Honey. Can you take a look at him?”
“...Honey?”
Chae Nayun’s face twisted in complete disgust. As Yun Hanhyeon smiled awkwardly, the “honey” who had been standing right beside him stepped forward.
“I introduced her before we came, didn’t I? She’s my girlfriend. Natasha.”
“Ah... yes, well. You have a pretty name.”
* * *
My father’s face appeared faintly. My father, with black hair where a few gray strands showed through.
It was his face from eight years ago, or perhaps even longer than that.
The once-in-a-lifetime trial and task every high school senior of South Korean nationality had to undergo: the College Scholastic Ability Test.
It was the day I had royally screwed it up.
Maybe I had sensed it even before taking the exam. After all, I had gone out of my way to stop my mother and father from insisting they would come pick me up when the test was over.
Mom and Dad had said they understood and gone back home.
But when the CSAT actually ended, and I staggered across the field of a school I had never visited before and stood in front of the gate—
—Hajin.
My father was looking at me with a smile. In front of the car I had been riding in since I was ten, my father, who had somehow grown old, was looking at me.
The reason tears burst out the moment I saw him was probably because I felt sorry.
My father, who had never comforted a crying son before, simply patted my back and said just one thing.
—It’s all right.
...Is he really all right?
The voice overlapping with my father’s was unmistakably Chae Nayun’s.
My eyes snapped open.
“Oh, he is fine. He just opened his eyes. What the? He’s crying.”
Chae Nayun giggled and pointed at the corners of my eyes. I raised a hand and touched them. Sure enough, they were wet.
“Were you in that much pain? What, did you come down with some disease?”
“......”
Chae Nayun annoyed me, so I glared at her. Was it because of the dream? I felt awful.
“What? Why?”
“...You, just come out.”
Thankfully, Kim Suho pulled Chae Nayun away from my side.
I lifted my head and looked out the window. Outside, it had already grown dark.
“Are you all right?”
A Western woman looked down at me and asked. She was probably Yun Hanhyeon’s girlfriend.
“Yes. I’m all right, but...”
“It was mild exhaustion.”
I nodded. That made sense. I had used two strokes of the Stigma’s magic power all at once, and then run like mad all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Saying I was taking a route with few people, I had really dashed this way and that, making a complete mess of things.
“More importantly, where is this?”
“A room. The room assigned to Mr. Kim Hajin and Mr. Kim Suho.”
The woman’s voice was gentle and warm, naturally inspiring trust.
...This is why you shouldn’t judge people by appearances.
“That mansion we were supposed to stay at?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s already ten at night. As for dinner, they said they’ll serve it if we ask. What would you like to do?”
Ten at night.
Fortunately, I had woken up before the incident happened.
“No. I’m fine without food.”
The woman smiled and nodded.
“Then I’ll be going now. Miss Nayun, you should come with me.”
“Huh? Why me?”
“This is a men’s room.”
The woman gathered up the thermometer and ice pack, then left, taking Chae Nayun with her.
Only then did I have the leisure to look around.
It was a fairly spacious room, filled with antique-looking furniture, and there were two beds. So I had ended up sharing a room with Kim Suho.
“Is your body feeling better?”
Kim Suho asked. I turned my gaze from the room to him. A faint smile rested on his lips.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“That’s a relief.”
“......”
It was awkward.
I was about to lie down on the bed without any further conversation, when the chaos from today suddenly came to mind.
But before asking in haste, I had to calm myself down. I was the one who had brought down the castle. As a suspect, I needed to be prudent.
I deliberately picked up the smartwatch on the shelf beside the bed. Then I searched for the article myself and checked it.
[Djinn Appears at Castle Near Paris; Cube Cadet Present at the Scene...]
Perhaps because a Cube cadet had been involved, the news from Paris had spread quickly, as expected.
I read the article carefully from the beginning.
Thank heavens, although there were injured people, there were no serious injuries or deaths. Reading a little further, I saw that the collapse of part of the castle was also being attributed to the Djinn.
Nice.
On top of that, since there were no other descriptions, Jane must have escaped safely without being caught.
For now, I swallowed the sigh of relief rising from deep within me.
“Hey.”
“Hmm?”
I displayed the article so Kim Suho could see it and expressed a measured curiosity.
“Ah, that?”
Kim Suho took the bait at once.
“I can’t tell you the details, but nothing major happened. The Djinn ran away before the Heroes arrived too.”
“Mmm. That’s good.”
After that, silence settled over us. Perhaps his hands were idle, because Kim Suho peeled an apple nearby and handed it to me. I accepted it and ate without saying anything.
Crunch, crunch.
Tick, tick.
The room was filled with the sound of me chewing the apple and the noise of the wall clock.
A bleak wind brushed against the window.
The awkward atmosphere was quite uncomfortable, so I looked out the window. In the sky, now and then embroidered with the hoot of an owl, the moon had been swallowed by clouds.
The current time was 10:15 p.m.
In just two hours, “that incident” would begin.
“...Hmm.”
But it seemed Kim Suho had no intention of leaving the chair beside my bed. Feeling uneasy about it, I kept glancing at him. Then I noticed a faint scar carved into his cheek. It was probably from when he had stopped Yun Seungah.
“...Take care of yourself.”
“Huh?”
Kim Suho looked puzzled. I pointed at the scar on his cheek.
“You’re the protagonist. You can’t get badly hurt.”
Kim Suho was the protagonist. The protagonist I had personally created. And yet today, he had recklessly charged at Yun Seungah. In other words, he had nearly been killed by her.
Yun Seungah’s killing intent back then had been genuine. If the Djinn had appeared just a little later, Kim Suho might have had some part of his body badly cut.
Of course, I understood the principles behind his actions. Kim Suho was the protagonist who walked the path of “good.”
But at this rate, I couldn’t help doubting.
Could a protagonist who tried to do only good finish this story? Could he overcome this endlessly tangled and twisted crisis with justice alone?
And...
Could he send me back home?
“What protagonist? There’s no such thing.”
Kim Suho shook his head. There were probably many people who had mocked him with those words. I remembered too.
—Does he think he’s some kind of protagonist?
It was something Shin Jonghak often said as well.
“...Is that so?”
“Yeah. If I’m the protagonist, then you’re the protagonist too. No, everyone in the world is a protagonist.”
The protagonist said so.
Words the protagonist had probably spoken without much thought somehow came across as meaningful to me. I silently chewed them over.
“...But you know.”
Kim Suho, who had been looking steadily at me, cautiously began speaking. However, only his lips moved, and no words came out. Seeing him get needlessly nervous, it seemed this was probably the main point.
“Yeah. What? Say it.”
“...I saw the report you wrote about Chae Nayun too. You wrote it a little harshly.”
For the record, the report I wrote about Chae Nayun was judged an “A-minus report.” My pointing out of her weaknesses had been accurate, but the scathing criticism telling her to give up the bow was too presumptuous, so it was an A-minus rather than an A-plus.
“It wasn’t harsh. Chae Nayun isn’t a born archer. She has to put down the bow and pick up a sword.”
“...Anyway. Is that why you’re making that bet with Chae Nayun?”
“Yeah. If I win, I’ll make her give up the bow. We agreed to do anything, after all.”
At my firm answer, Kim Suho’s expression stiffened for a moment.
“Still, it’s the path she chose for herself. I don’t think it’s right for someone else to push her into giving up.”
His words were gentle but firm.
He looked at me, and I looked at him. His eyes shone brightly with a will of his own.
He was different from me.
But being different didn’t mean he was wrong.
“...Then. Even if that path is clearly a dead end, you’re saying I should cheer her on and comfort her to the end? Like you?”
“No, that’s not—”
I didn’t give him a chance to argue. I continued speaking.
“Just saying nice things like you do isn’t always the answer. What if, even if she goes all the way, even if she keeps trying endlessly, it turns out to be a dead end in the end? What if she tries until the very, very end, only to find that all waiting for her is an even greater despair than now? At that time. Will you take responsibility?”
Kim Suho let out a sigh. There was plenty of heat in that breath. Soon, he retorted in a lowered voice, as if angry.
“Then how exactly can you be so sure Chae Nayun’s talent isn’t in the bow? Are you going around saying things like that because you can take responsibility?”
From Kim Suho’s perspective, it was an obvious question. To Chae Nayun, who had lived her entire life holding a bow, some complete stranger had suddenly appeared and demanded that she put it down.
But from my perspective, it made me angry.
Chae Nayun was a character I had created with affection.
Her face, her personality, even her trivial hobbies and painful traumas—I had described them all. Of course, there were a few things that had changed here, but still.
“...I’ve thought about it far more than you have. I’ve watched her for far longer.”
At least in this world, even if the protagonist was Kim Suho, there was no one who knew Chae Nayun better than I did.
“So I know far better than you.”
“...What?”
A strange light flickered in Kim Suho’s pupils as he stared at me.
Just as we were silently staring at each other—
Thud.
A faint presence sounded from beyond the door, and Kim Suho and I felt it at the same time.
I saw through the door.
The figure whose face had turned bright red as she vanished in a fluster was... Chae Nayun.
I didn’t know since when, but she must have been eavesdropping.
One of the qualities of a marksman: concealment.
She’d learned that one thing needlessly well.
End
Chae Nayun slammed the door shut and leapt onto her bed.
At first, she really hadn’t thought much of it. She had only been planning to share a late-night snack. But when she was about to knock, the topic of conversation between the two turned out to be rather interesting, so she ended up listening in just a little...
—I’ve thought about her far more than you have. I’ve watched her for much longer. So I know her far better than you do.
She had never heard such direct words before. There weren’t many men with the nerve to approach her in the first place, and above all, Chae Nayun had blocked off any such situation from the very start.
“Is he seriously insane?”
Kim Hajin’s words still lingered vividly in her ears.
Should she wash her ears out? Or should she have opened the door, walked in, and smacked him once? Chae Nayun pounded the bed and bounced around in place.
“Ugh, what is it...”
And Chae Nayun’s fit of madness even woke Yoo Yeonha, who had been sleeping peacefully.
“Nayun... what on earth are you doing?”
“H-Huh?”
Chae Nayun flinched.
Yoo Yeonha glared at Chae Nayun through half-open eyes. Why was that woman beating up an innocent blanket again?
“What illness is acting up this time?”
“N-Nothing.”
Chae Nayun couldn’t bring herself to tell Yoo Yeonha what she had just experienced. For Chae Nayun, confiding in someone about something personal was unthinkable.
“...Then hurry up and sleep. I’m exhausted right now.”
After mumbling that, Yoo Yeonha collapsed back onto her bed.
“Y-Yeah. Sleep well. I-I should get some sleep too~”
Chae Nayun also buried herself in bed.
Right. It didn’t matter. After all, she had only overheard it. Whatever Kim Hajin’s intentions had been in saying those words, she could just ignore him.
Thinking that, Chae Nayun pulled the blanket up to her forehead.
But sleep wouldn’t come at all.
He’d thought about her a lot. He’d watched her for a long time...
Fragments of those words floated around in her head.
Watched me for a long time? What has he been watching? Is he a stalker? No. If he were a stalker, there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed by now.
She was fairly confident in the sensitivity of a marksman’s senses. Weren’t the conditions for being a stalker things like secretly taking photos or following someone late at night...?
Kyaaaaaaak—
At that moment, a piercing scream rang out from somewhere. At the sudden shriek, Chae Nayun’s eyes flew open and she shot upright.
“What the— ah, aaah!”
Yoo Yeonha, likewise startled, tried to get up in a hurry, only to trip over her blanket and fall off the bed. With both hands planted on the floor, she glared resentfully at Chae Nayun.
“Chae Nayuuun! You seriously!”
“No! It wasn’t me this time.”
“Then what was it!”
“Outside.”
Chae Nayun turned on the light first. Soon, the hallway lights came on as well, and the sound of footsteps and voices began to ring out noisily. Only then did Yoo Yeonha realize the seriousness of the situation.
“Was that... really a scream just now?”
“Yeah. Hurry up and get up. Let’s go check too.”
Chae Nayun threw on her outerwear first.
* * *
As soon as the scream rang out, Kim Suho rushed outside. I hurriedly tried to follow after him as well, but I stopped when I discovered something.
A pure-white handgun placed on the shelf—a Desert Eagle. It seemed someone had set aside the one I hadn’t been able to store inside the Stigma because I lacked magic power.
“...”
The shape of that handgun struck me with an extraordinary inspiration.
“With this... no, no.”
I quickly shook it off—or rather, tried to shake it off—but no matter how I thought about it, it was worth trying.
Suddenly, Kim Suho’s words came back to me.
—If I’m the protagonist, then you’re a protagonist too.
Uncertainty.
Until now, I had feared it and tried not to interfere with the story as much as possible.
And yet, even without thinking too deeply about it, something like that uncertainty...