─If. If I were to go...
The first phrase sank low. That alone was enough. With that single phrase, the audience’s dissatisfaction melted away like snow.
Soon, his soft timbre enveloped the concert hall in the distance.
One phrase, then two. As the lyrics slowly continued, the inside grew silent. The space, as if emptied out, was filled only with his voice.
─Because I’m like a fool, because all I can do is look at you, perhaps it’s...
With his eyes closed, he murmured the lyrics as if savoring them. There were no astonishing high notes or flashy techniques. Only the atmosphere of his voice—heavy yet delicate, sweet yet restrained—that absurd timbre enchanted the listeners in an instant.
“...What is with his voice?”
Chae Nayun muttered blankly. Genuine goosebumps rose along her arms. Her eyes were filled with Kim Hajin. His voice, coming right before her and scattering apart, shone so vividly it felt as if she could touch it by reaching out.
─Because I’m afraid of the farewell waiting after our meeting, of the sorrowful days...
The final phrase was the crowning touch. A cold falsetto that placed the final mark on the atmosphere that had grown hot enough to melt. The song ended, but the audience remained dazed for a moment, as if they had just awakened from a dream.
Soon, they applauded.
But Chae Nayun did nothing and simply stayed still.
The old song, which no one in this concert hall had ever heard before, had been completed so breathtakingly by Kim Hajin that the gentle lyrics still lingered by her ears.
“Thank you.”
Kim Hajin bowed his head with a shy smile.
At that moment, his eyes met Rachel’s. Rachel’s eyes were damp with an inexplicable sorrow. Well, this song is sad.
He smiled lightly.
But Chae Nayun was right behind Rachel as well. The moment he found Chae Nayun, the smile on his lips disappeared, and feeling somehow uncomfortable, he turned around.
Before long, a notification arrived on his smartwatch.
Its contents were as follows.
[SP increases by 98!]
[Luck bonus activated! You acquire an additional 15% SP!]
End
The singing contest ended, and while the lingering resonance of the music still remained softly, the rankings were announced.
Kim Hajin of Veritas Class was neither first nor second, but fourth.
Both his song choice and voice had been good, but in the end, the standard for “singing well” still lay in high notes.
But if one were to consider buzz, perhaps Kim Hajin would be first. Videos of Kim Hajin’s performance were already being uploaded one after another onto the cadets’ SNS.
“...Ah~ It feels like I watched a concert for the first time in a while.”
“Right. Hey. Who did you vote for?”
“I voted for Kim Hajin, Nayli, and Jin Harim. Wow, but Kim Hajin was unexpected. I heard he goes outside a lot. Did he learn at karaoke?”
And now.
Rachel was sitting in the audience seats, letting the voices of the cadets pass by her ears. All sorts of complicated thoughts repeatedly rose and sank in her mind, so she needed some time to sort them out.
Kim Hajin had clearly put on a good stage today. Nothing she had worried about happened, such as him confessing to her while singing. She had been dreaming of such a nightmare several times a day and had barely been able to sleep lately, so it was truly a relief.
However, Rachel couldn’t help but be bothered by his song choice. The voice that had contained clear and honest emotions, and those lyrics about wanting to approach but being too afraid of being rejected, so he would simply remain where he was.
It was a meaningful song.
Perhaps he had noticed that I was distancing myself.
Well, I have been avoiding him far too blatantly lately. There’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed...
Feeling somehow apologetic, a small sigh slipped through Rachel’s teeth.
“What are you doing here?”
“...?”
A sharp voice cut through her thoughts. Rachel slowly turned her head in that direction.
Chae Nayun was there. Pointing toward the exit with her thumb, Chae Nayun said,
“Aren’t you leaving?”
Only then did the surrounding scenery enter Rachel’s eyes. The concert hall was already empty.
“Ah.”
Rachel hurriedly stood up and walked toward the exit. Chae Nayun stared at her back with strange eyes, then followed after her.
Outside the concert hall, it was already ten at night. Darkness filled the air.
Rachel trudged along with a face full of worries. Chae Nayun glanced sideways at her while joining the group that had been waiting for her.
Shin Jonghak raised his hand with a tired face.
“Chae Nayun. Where are you going? ...Haaam.”
“I’m going home.”
Chae Nayun answered shortly and looked around.
“But where did he go?”
“Who?”
“...Kim Hajin.”
Yoo Yeonha answered that question.
“That person went over there, toward the church.”
“The church?”
“Yeah.”
There were religious facilities inside Cube as well. They included Catholic churches, Protestant churches, Buddhist temples, and the like. Among them, Protestantism was especially influential, and there were many devout believers among the cadets who had set becoming a pastor as their future path.
“Why would he suddenly go to church?”
“I don’t really know either... Why? Are you bothered?”
“Bothered, my ass...”
Chae Nayun replied indifferently, but kept glancing toward Rachel. She was walking toward the dormitory.
For reference, the church was located on the exact opposite side from the dormitory.
“If there’s nothing to do, I’m going to sleep. ...Haaam.”
Shin Jonghak yawned so wide his mouth looked like it might split. Since he had performed in three events today—soccer, dungeon speedrun, and duel—he seemed quite exhausted.
Chae Nayun waved her hand. I don’t really need you anyway.
“Yeah. Sure. You go in and please get some sleep.”
“...Hmm.”
Watching Chae Nayun’s strangely irritable appearance meaningfully, Yoo Yeonha asked,
“Nayun, what are you going to do?”
“Nothing. I’m just gonna go home, play some games, then sleep.”
“Mmm... You’re not going to the church, right?”
“Why, why would I go there? I’ve never believed in a religion in my life.”
Chae Nayun grumbled with an uncomfortable expression.
* * *
I sat down on a pew. The wood creaked as it took in my body.
I quietly stared at the sign of the cross before my eyes. Dark light flowed in from beyond the stained glass on the side. I turned my gaze that way. Late in the evening, the colorful sacred painting engraved into the glass was still within the darkness.
This place was God’s resting place.
A holy ground of confession, where one confessed and atoned for old sins.
Sitting alone in such a wide chapel and reflecting upon myself, an inexplicable reverence and sanctity wrapped around my entire body...
“...or so I thought. Well, there’s nothing special.”
I scratched the back of my neck. There was no grand reason why I had come to the church. It was just that, in movies and the like, when the protagonist was troubled, didn’t he go to a church or a cathedral? They would suddenly gain enlightenment or the direction of their life, flash! Like lightning striking.
“Haaam.”
But that was, after all, only something that happened in movies. Or maybe it was because I wasn’t the protagonist, but an extra. It was so quiet that it only made me sleepy for no reason.
After letting out a big yawn, I looked at my smartwatch again.
[You may have to kill people.]
[However, the rewards are certain to be just as great.]
[You need not worry about your identity being guaranteed either. Until a probationary mercenary of the Jeronimo Mercenary Corps becomes a full-fledged mercenary, and even after becoming one if they so desire, their secrets will be thoroughly maintained.]
This was the reply to the message I had sent: “If I work there, do they pay a lot of money—”
Honestly, I didn’t really need money right now, so why had I brought up money? I was just playing along. After all, the only way that inarticulate leader knew how to win someone over was with money.
“A mercenary, huh...”
In principle, anyone could become a mercenary. It was possible to hold another job as well. I had heard it wasn’t uncommon for Heroes short on money to secretly work as mercenaries.
Among Cube graduates, probably around fifty to a hundred, and among the cadets who failed to graduate, nearly half would likely end up in the mercenary field.
Perhaps it wasn’t a bad choice for me either.
The Chameleon Troupe took part in many major incidents, such as the artifact争夺戦 and the conquest of the Tower of Dimension. Therefore, if I joined the Chameleon Troupe, I at least wouldn’t have to worry about straying from the main story.
And above all... “killing Chae Jinyoon” would also be possible without much trouble. No matter how much he was a third-generation chaebol, he had been in a coma for no less than five years. His security should be getting lax by now.
“...Whew.”
Still, the fact that I would have to kill people weighed on my mind.
The Chameleon Troupe would probably kill a great many people.
The difference between the Chameleon Troupe and the Devil’s Society was only that the Chameleon Troupe disliked “unnecessary” slaughter. In the sense that they also killed people and plundered wealth, they were no different.
Then could I really commit all of those crimes?
A question mark followed that point. This world was no longer inside a novel...
As I closed my eyes and pondered, I sensed the creak of a door opening.
I slowly opened my eyes.
Footsteps continued slowly, and before long, someone sat down in the seat beside me.
“Were you Christian?”
The voice rang like an echo.
I glanced to the side, chuckled, and asked,
“...No. What about you?”
“Hmm...”
Kim Suho answered while keeping his gaze on the cross.
“No. I’m not either.”
Unlike his words, Kim Suho’s eyes as he looked at the cross were immersed in a bit of reminiscence.
“For someone saying that, your gaze looks strangely meaningful.”
“Ah, did I look that way?”
“Yeah. You looked like a super devout believer just now. Like you were about to become the pope.”
“Pfft. It’s not like that... I was just reminded of the past.”
The past, huh. Kim Suho’s past certainly had something special about it.
I smiled faintly.
“Did you go to church in the past?”
“No. Well, I did go to something similar.”
“What was it? Catholicism?”
Kim Suho shook his head.
“Buddhism?”
This time, he smiled without answering. It meant no.
“Mormonism? Zoroastrianism? Hinduism? Islam? Greek Orthodoxy? Confucianism? Taoism?”
“Hahaha. No, no. None of them. And I didn’t believe in it that faithfully either.”
At Kim Suho’s words, I casually tossed out a remark as if it were nothing.
“If it’s none of them, then what, is it a religion from another world?”
“...”
In that instant, Kim Suho’s face visibly stiffened. I had just thrown a small stone into his heart, but I merely pretended not to know and wore a faint smile.
“...What are you talking about?”
Soon, Kim Suho smiled and shook his head, but then looked at me again with newly serious eyes.
“But, Hajin.”
And with unmistakable remorse and reminiscence in his voice, he asked,
“Do you think another world exists? You know. Like The Lord of the Rings or something.”
Tolkien died in 1973. Since Outcall occurred right around then, Tolkien’s works held their firm place even in my world.
I did not meet Kim Suho’s gaze, instead looking at the cross before us.
Long ago. The execution ground where the son of God had been nailed to death entered my pupils.
“...Outcall happened fifty years ago. Without making it grand by considering all of Earth’s history, even if you only think of it as ‘A.D.,’ it means that for 1,970 years, there were no monsters or mana or anything of the sort in this world.”
I turned my gaze back to Kim Suho.
“In that case, rather than thinking those monsters suddenly appeared on Earth, it’s more reasonable to think that beings that originally existed in another world crossed over due to some incident.”
“...”
Kim Suho said nothing.
What was he thinking right now?
In truth, if one thought about it, Kim Suho could be said to be in a similar position as me. However, he had come here at a young enough age and had another family, so he likely did not have to feel as much loneliness as I did. He only occasionally missed the family he had there...
Kim Suho’s lips moved slowly.
“Then you...”
“It’s part of the ‘Otherworld Theory’ written by Dr. Zers.”
I shrugged and cut off his words.
Kim Suho, who had flinched in surprise and stopped speaking, smiled awkwardly for no reason.
“...Ah, is that also one of the theories trying to explain Outcall?”
“Yeah. People are criticizing it for being absurd, but I think it’s pretty convincing. To begin with, Outcall itself is an absurd story. The moment you try to explain something absurd logically, errors crop up.”
“I guess that’s true.”
We fell silent for a while. The quiet wasn’t uncomfortable. But then I suddenly grew curious, so I broke it first.
“Oh, right. Hey. Are you making good use of Mistilteinn?”
“Of course. Like you said, I’ve been going around outside lately, beating up monsters. It feels like I’m getting sturdier somehow.”
“Pfft. Yeah? Then let’s go look for something even better later. Oh, more importantly, you still don’t have an agent, right? I’ll introduce you to one.”
Kim Suho has to become stronger.
At a faster pace than he is now, and far stronger than his destined fate. Because perhaps Kim Suho is my only means of dealing with uncertain dangers.
My goal is to end the main story. But the one who ends the main story doesn’t necessarily have to be me.
Even if I were to die along the way, if Kim Suho continued writing the main story…
Kim Suho cut off my thoughts.
“An agent, sure… but would there really be anything better than Mistilteinn?”
“Who knows? The world is wide, and there are plenty of relics.”
With that answer, I rose from my seat.
I’d stayed quite a while, and I felt like I’d thought things through enough.
“I’m going.”
“Ah, yeah. I’ll stay a little longer before I leave.”
“Sure.”
Leaving Kim Suho behind, I stepped out of the church.
* * *
“Whew…”
Three in the morning. It had already been three hours since Friday had turned into Saturday.
[Victory]
Looking at the letters floating before my eyes, I let out a sigh of relief. I really almost lost this time. If the random enhancement value had been just 3% lower, I probably would have.
—Wow. You really are good, bro. This was seriously my ultimate sure-kill strategy.
Jjajangman sent me a message.
—Yeah. I almost lost. You’ve gotten crazy good lately;; In a few more months, I don’t think I’ll be able to beat you.
I couldn’t sleep, so I put on the helmet to play a game, and since Jjajangman happened to be there, we were already on our seventh match.
—LOL I have been improving pretty fast lately lol
For some reason, Jjajangman and I had gotten close lately, and we were comfortably acting like older and younger brothers. Maybe because online, I could act my real age of twenty-six.
—By the way, you’re logged in pretty late today.
I brought it up casually.
The current time was three in the morning. We’d already played seven matches in a row, and I was starting to get sleepy.
—Ah. Something kind of happened today… so I can’t really sleep lol
—What happened?
—Well, it’s not really something worth spilling my guts over... lol
Aha. This, this—just looking at him, I could tell it was a relationship problem. Well, he was still at the age where he ate school lunches. Half of life was probably romance, and the other half was friends.
I was a little jealous. Some people were racking their brains over problems like whether or not to kill someone, whether or not to return home.
—What is it? Tell me. I’m eight years older than you, you know.
—No, well. It’s not anything big.... You know, bro. What do you call that?
—Call what?
—When you don’t want to let someone else have it, but it’s not really something you want for yourself either.
Aha. I learned one more thing. This bastard was popular.
—A chicken rib.
—Ah. Right. That. That’s exactly the situation right now lol
—If you’re bringing up chicken ribs, does that mean you’re on the receiving end?
—Ahem. Well, I haven’t exactly been the one giving things away that often~
He was especially cheeky today. I chuckled and continued chatting.
—But why the sudden chicken rib?
—No reason. It’s just been on my mind lately for some reason.
—The chicken rib? You’re worried about the chicken rib?
—Yeah lol;; a little.
—Oh, really? But why all of a sudden? There must be a reason.
This was getting interesting.
—It’s just, well. She sang at the talent show today, you know? It kinda felt like she was aiming it at me.
—Oh...
Appealing through a song, huh. The girl seemed pretty proactive. Or maybe this kid was incredibly good-looking.
—If it’s to that extent, shouldn’t you just accept her?
—Nah. I still don’t think that’s right.
—Why? Keep that up and someone else will snatch her away. You might regret it later.
This came from my own experience. I was twenty-six too, so I had dating experience, and I’d heard plenty of “so-and-so likes you—” stuff