The mont the al began.
I realized why Gong Isu had balked at the dinner invitation.
“Ah, this is really good.”
“Really?”
“No lie. First ti I’ve eaten this—what a spread.”
Saying that, he—
Hm...
touched the food with his left hand—
[Left Hand of the Destroyer God]
Pachuzuzuzuz!!
In an instant the food disintegrated and was absorbed through the tips of Gong Isu’s fingers.
“Can you... taste it?”
“Kid, that’s rude. I know the way I ingest things can look alien—but I taste everything. Sweet yet salty—and the chew’s alive. Excellent flavor. Best I’ve had in a while.”
That was his verdict on pork jowl barbecue lacquered with a sweet sauce.
He’d said Chinese-style, and sure enough, proper Chinese dishes were laid out.
Sweet-and-sour pork done a bit differently from the usual.
“Wow, the dumplings are amazing.”
They prepared three kinds of dim sum... and a very greasy stir-fried noodle dish clearly ant for Jang Hyundeok.
Spicy eggplant that perfus the air. A stir-fry using smoked duck... even I’ve never seen this one.
Ah, this has so unusual spices too.
But Chinese food, huh...
“It’s just an imitation. Honestly, I thought Gwangrim might co today.”
Sounds like while Park Gwangrim was staying here, he promised “next ti I’ll make this and that.”
“Ah, I see. Park Gwangrim will be in the hospital for a while—but if he’s coming, I’ll let you know in advance.”
“Understood.”
While I talked with Heo Sanghyun—Jang Hyundeok spoke to Gong Isu.
“Um... Wizard’s senior...?”
“Gong Isu. When I worked as a fixer, I used the na Bubble Head.”
“Aha, so you’re a fixer senior! Then, that head—”
For an Ob or a Pani, head and body are connected.
So you could try to claim he’d sohow jamd a mask on—but Gong Isu’s head isn’t like that.
Above a body with no head—right now a large cara floats.
“Um—what’s the structure? Why is it floating?”
‘Good—sothing I wanted to ask too, and he asked it for .’
Dealing with soone oblivious is never easy.
In that sense, Jang Hyundeok is top tier.
Well, how about it, Gong Isu!
“My head? Watch. I can do this, too.”
Whirrr—
The cara hovering where his head would be spins.
“Neat, right?”
“Yes! Really neat!”
“Give so of those noodles.”
“Ah, here! I’ll dish so out for you.”
“Thanks.”
Is that it? That’s it?
“Neat, right?” “Yes!”—the end?
I finally opened my mouth and asked.
“Senior, what ability is that and how did you do it? It doesn’t feel like magic.”
“Yeah, it’s not magic. Oh—these pine mushrooms are excellent.”
“Thank you. Wild matsutake—gift from soone I know.”
“Ahh—makes sense.”
Hyeolhu sent truly incredible matsutake.
No, that’s not the point—
“If it’s not magic, then what is it?”
“You’ll find out with ti.”
“How much ti?”
“That depends on your choices.”
“Ugh—I hate kōan answers.”
“It’s not a kōan—hm, can you explain here how you learned magic?”
Mm. Nothing I can say.
“Huh?! Did the Wizard learn differently from ?”
“Ah? Hm... no. Similar to you.”
“Who taught you? Did you have a master too?”
Nnrgh...
I’ll just say sothing and move on.
“Mm—there’s so lunatic out there, and that crazy bastard forced to learn magic. As a side effect my body got weaker—”
“Ah, so it really is similar to .”
“...”
“So did the Wizard also, like you did to , put sothing into your body?”
“Put what in?”
Gong Isu reacts to the weird part.
“Ah, I get it. You drilled a hole in his head? Are you out of your mind?”
“Ah, no, our Wizard is a bit out of his mind, but the hole in my head—well, that was an accident—”
“He’s defending you—Kid, say sothing.”
Ah, I’m going to lose it.
After we finished eating, Jang Hyundeok said he had an appointnt and stepped out.
While Heo Sanghyun cleaned the kitchen—
Gong Isu and I set to work restoring the wrecked interior.
“Told you. Simple.”
“Honestly, it is impressive.”
Thanks to Gong Isu, the building’s big sections were fixed in no ti.
Of course, the living room still had mountains of trash, fixtures dumped from the second floor, and the remains of smashed furniture.
“Guys, tidy up, please.”
I let out a short sigh and asked the necromantic golems to handle the cleanup.
“Ah, collect all those secretions.”
Strange fluids emitting a bluish glow were splashed everywhere in the manor.
The [Hounds of Tindalos]’ secretions.
“Kid, handle that carefully.”
“You heard him? Carefullyyy—”
Those secretions are a hazardous substance cataloged at Paju Central Hospital as [IPE-1786-4].
“There are lots of sealing-flask jars in the basent—put it in those. You and you. Go bring them all up.”
Kkiririririk—
‘If you drink it, you can get an ability.’
Strictly speaking, you lose your human body and beco a monster called a [Denizen of Tindalos].
Naturally, I have no desire to end up like that.
But for —soone who has to solve problems related to dinsional travel—it’ll be key research material.
Pow—click!
Gong Isu shoots the necromantic golems with his cara-head.
“Can you make prints too?”
“No. This head is just for high-precision observation and data analysis.”
“So the head’s form changes the ability?”
“Right. But I can only change it a set number of tis per day.”
“From what I can tell, the material composing that head itself is unusual.”
“Why would you—? Ah, I see—this is sothing the of now already told you, isn’t it?”
That peculiar word choice only ti travelers use.
“So future Kim Sinhwa already knew?”
“Mm—yeah. The future Kim Sinhwa I t after leaving Paju Central Hospital knew. I stole this from the [Veil-Rending One]. It’s a tal that can store specific data. Idian calls it the [Wise tal].”
“I see. Hm...”
But sothing’s off.
Not the head—Gong Isu’s concept of ti is off.
Gong Isu who was at Paju Central Hospital (call him Gong-One) traveled to the future to check who I was.
But now that I’ve learned info about Gong Isu’s head—
then Gong Isu who resus ti travel and ets for the first ti in the future (Gong-Two—whatever point he ets future )...
will face a future Kim Sinhwa who already knows about his head.
Uh—doesn’t that cause a ti paradox?
Didn’t the future just change based on what I learned now?
aning the first future Kim Sinhwa Gong-Two t—
is the version of who has already t the Gong Isu standing before now (call him Gong-Three)?
What am I even saying?
It’s not that I’m confused—the premises conflict.
So it’s bogus.
A contradiction.
‘Then why did the Gong Isu who holed up again in Paju Central Hospital say the future disappeared?’
I couldn’t hold back and posed the question to the Gong Isu in front of —
“So there are futures that change through ti travel, and futures that don’t?”
“It matters to , not to you. Not an important premise for you. Let it go.”
“What is this, seriously?”
As I grumbled, Gong Isu made the sound of adjusting a cara lens, then spoke.
“Mm, this is sothing I heard from Kim Sinhwa.”
“Future ?”
“Yeah. Future Kim Sinhwa. He said your madness operates in a sowhat contrived way, right?”
That’s true.
By the ga’s rules, the madness in my head should be determined wholly at random.
But judging by everything so far—it hasn’t been.
I’ve even suspected the delirium’s manifestation is orchestrated in parts.
The most obvious case: the fear-of-13.
Back then my mind stat was low, with no alternate persona—yet I could sohow avoid the number 13 in daily life.
At the ti things were chaotic, so I figured I handled it well—but really?
Why did it manifest in the single most dangerous mont, just because I found thirteen statues?
Isn’t that odd?
You could say thirteen people popping up on a road by chance could have triggered it.
“There’s a manager, right?”
Gong Isu tapped his head—well, the cara.
“No point breaking your head over rules and laws. Let it go.”
“Let it go?”
He set a hand on my shoulder and leaned in to whisper in my ear.
“Rules and exceptions—they’re all whatever he wants. The mont you’re sure a rule exists, he’ll shove an exception at you and drop you into a trap.”
Suddenly—
I pictured the pleased expression of so supra-real thing up high—and felt a hard-to-na disgust.
“Alright. Then let’s have a more serious talk.”
Once we’d wrapped up the manor cleanup—we headed down to the basent.
“You said you’d never seen Jang Hyundeok in that state.”
“Yeah.”
“What state did you see?”
“Which point in ti should I use as the reference?”
Ah, that’s tricky too.
“I should’ve asked this first. Which iteration are you?”
Gong Isu looked at silently for a mont, then said:
“Counting from when I t Kim Sinhwa—I turned ti back three tis.”
He t future Kim Sinhwa—did sothing—
for so reason went back to the past and changed the future.
Then he t a new Kim Sinhwa—did sothing—
back to the past again. And one more ti.
This is the third.
“Why did you return? You treated Sanghyun like it was your first ti seeing him. Did sothing happen after? What did you want to change?”
“The most recent Kim Sinhwa I t—”
Gong Isu slowly turned his gaze—no, his lens—at an odd angle and spoke languidly.
“Was the Kim Sinhwa who tried to escape this world with a thing called the golden hairpin, right after he half-destroyed Gyeonggi Province.”
“Pardon?”
“He definitely erased Paju, and Incheon turned into the sea.”
Gong Isu chuckled low for a mont and went on.
“The biggest problem was that the Great Bulwark collapsed.”
“After causing enough trouble to blow away Incheon and the Great Bulwark—was I alive?”
“Yeah. Not in one piece. After that, in a strangely modified magic wheelchair, for about half a year? We ran around together doing all sorts of things. Mouthy as ever—”
Gong Isu snickered, like he kind of missed it.
Catching the nuance in his voice and tone, I asked carefully:
“He died, didn’t he?”
Looks like the future Kim Sinhwa who was with Gong Isu lived about half a year and died.
“Right. That mask’s side effects are severe. I’d advise you not to use it if you can help it.”
I don’t intend to lean on it anyway.
The [Mask of Nine Lives] can pull the wearer back from death—but the side effects match the power.
“You don’t look surprised.”
“I figured as much.”
“How?”
“The dog.”
“The dog?”
“Yeah. If future Kim Sinhwa were fine, he wouldn’t have needed to ask present to take the dog off him, right?”
And I wouldn’t have just handed over the [Night Veil Wing Cloak].
“Smart. So—you see which future I ca to change?”
“Unfortunate. I thought I might get help—”
Now I see why the thing behind the ssage window sneered.
This Gong Isu ca here to stop from using the golden hairpin.
“Wait—whatever you’re imagining—I plan to use a different thod—so don’t prep attack spells. I can see them.”
He said that, but I didn’t take down the constructed rite before asking:
“A different thod?”
“You’ll do it even if I tell you not to, right? Because you’re a tenacious, horrific piece of trash.”
“Hm.”
“I’m here to teach you how to use the golden hairpin ‘properly.’”
Finally, sothing I like to hear.
“Before you use the golden hairpin, there’s a procedure you must follow. Skipping it is what caused the problem.”
“What is it?”
Gong Isu stepped close—voice laden with aning.
“You summon an abyssal entity.”
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