It wasn’t that he’d seen it wrong.
It was real.
What was it?
A trick? An illusion?
It was neither.
These... no, everything in the spirit world truly had no shadow.
Except for Su-ho himself, and the things that had branched off from him.
Su-ho lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
A blazing sun.
There was light—so how could there be no shadows?
Just then, an excited farr ca up to Su-ho and asked.
“What are you? How the hell did you do that? How can only you have a shadow?”
“That’s what I want to ask. Why don’t you have shadows? Is everyone here like this?”
“What the... hey, don’t tell .”
The farr wore a look like he couldn’t understand, then his eyes suddenly went wide as if sothing had occurred to him.
“Y-you... don’t tell ... you’re an outworlder?”
“An outworlder?”
An outworlder.
It wasn’t a word he’d never heard.
Outworld... aning anyone who ca from a world other than the one they lived in was called an outworlder.
Su-ho’s brow furrowed.
'From the natives’ point of view, I really am an outworlder.'
But then what were these people?
What kind of people were they, to toss around a word like outworlder as casually as common sense?
Su-ho nodded.
“Yes, well. If you an outworlder, I’m an outworlder. I ca all the way to the spirit world to find the Shadow Lord... and since we’re on that subject, do you happen to know where the Shadow Lord is?”
That was the mont.
At Su-ho’s answer, everyone’s eyes bulged like they’d seen a ghost, and their mouths slowly fell open.
“My god....”
“So he really was an outworlder....”
“R-right! If you think about it, it makes sense. If you weren’t an outworlder, how could you have a shadow?”
Among the startled people, one of them pulled themself together and said,
“Th-this isn’t the ti for this! Hurry and bring that gentleman to the village!”
“Yeah, this isn’t the ti—hurry and bring him with us!”
“My god, to think a day like this would really co to us!”
Overwheld with emotion, they quickly showed Su-ho proper respect.
“Outworlder-nim, what should we call you?”
At their question, Su-ho hesitated briefly, then answered honestly.
“My na is An Su-ho, but you can call comfortably.”
“An Su-ho... ooh, as expected, even your na is mysterious. It really sounds like an outworlder’s na. Then, may we call you Mr. An?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Then, Mr. An—if you would allow it, we’d like to escort you to our village. There are quite a few things we want to tell you. Would you permit us to accompany you?”
Unlike their initial attitude, they’d beco extrely attentive.
They weren’t being aggressive, and since Su-ho knew almost nothing about the spirit world, he figured there was no harm in going with them.
'And if it’s a trap, I can just kill them all.'
He wasn’t worried.
Even if he wanted to lose, he had a body that absolutely must not lose.
“All right.”
“Thank you...! Then we’ll escort you right away.”
The farrs picked up their farm tools and began walking quickly in front.
Su-ho followed them on foot instead of riding Cheolma.
As they walked, other farrs joined up, and once they heard what Su-ho was, they all made faces like the farrs up front and reacted the sa way.
“Ooh, an outworlder...!”
“Finally, even for us...!”
“My god, how can this be...!”
The reactions were all the sa.
Which made it all the more strange.
'This place is way too different from what I thought it would be.'
He’d thought the spirit world where the Shadow Lord was would be a world with the moon hanging overhead, filled with darkness and pitch black.
But the spirit world he’d co to through Guiyeong didn’t have so much as a glimpse of the Shadow Lord, and instead it was swarming with typical foreigners... aning, people closer to Europeans or Aricans than Asians. And they were busy tossing around the word outworlder and being shocked.
'Even after I told them my na, they called “An”—is Su-ho hard to pronounce for them?'
That felt foreign, too.
Anyway, after following these oddly familiar yet alien people for a long ti, Su-ho finally saw a small village where the farrs lived.
Honestly, it was closer to a tiny hamlet than a village, but since they called it a village, he just went with it.
“This way, please.”
“Before we go any further, may I ask where we’re going?”
“We’re going to the village chief’s house. What we want to tell you is a pretty important matter, so we need the village’s highest elder, the chief.”
“I understand.”
They walked for a while longer, and the chief’s house ca into view.
In the anti, more people had gathered.
When they arrived, the crowd packed in near the chief’s house, and the farr who’d been leading went inside to find the chief.
Not long after, the chief ca running out in his socks.
“An outworlder has co!”
Since they’d called him the highest elder, Su-ho had expected a very old man, but he was a middle-aged man with less white hair than Su-ho had imagined.
The chief spotted Su-ho, imdiately looked down at Su-ho’s shadow, and started marveling just like the others.
“My god... to think a being with a shadow would appear...! You said we should call you Mr. An, yes? Co inside for now, Mr. An. I have so many things I want to tell you.”
“Yes. All right.”
He went inside.
The inside of the house was exactly what you’d see in a small village in a fantasy ga—typical, ordinary rural housing.
Su-ho sat in the chair the chief offered him. The chief sat across from him, and the first farrs who’d co with him lined up behind and beside the chief.
The ones who’d joined later waited outside the house.
The chief greeted him properly.
“Nice to et you. I am Owen, the village chief of Namuel Village.”
“I’m An Su-ho.”
“An Su-ho... it truly is an otherworldly na. May I ask where you ca from?”
“I ca from a place called Korea on Earth. Do you happen to know it?”
“Haha, not at all! I don’t know where Korea on Earth is, but since it’s unfamiliar, you must truly be an outworlder!”
“Well, I suppose that’s that. So—may I hear what you wanted to tell ?”
“Ah, yes! Then to get to the point... I heard you’re looking for the Shadow Lord.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“May I ask why?”
“I ca because of a quest.”
“A quest?”
“How do I explain this... do you know about the system or players?”
At the words system and players, everyone looked at each other’s faces.
Then their gaze gathered on Su-ho again.
They looked like they had no idea.
“It’s the first we’ve heard of it.”
“Yeah, well. That can happen. In my world it’s about as common sense as the word outworlder is to you. Anyway, I ca to et the Shadow Lord because of a quest. And even aside from the quest, I’ve put in effort for a very long ti to et the Shadow Lord.”
“Ohhh, I see... but is a quest really that important?”
“Yes. It’s important. If I had to compare it, a quest is like a mission suddenly given by an unknown existence. In my world, people aren’t absolutely forced to do it, but most people carry them out. And one of the quests I received ended up being connected to the Shadow Lord here, so I’m trying to et him.”
“Ohhh, I see... To be honest, I don’t understand all of it, but I can tell you’re no ordinary person. But listen... that thing called a quest—could it ever tell you to kill the Shadow Lord?”
All of a sudden?
Of course it could.
But from Owen’s expression and tone, Su-ho could feel the sheer bluntness of his desire.
So he asked plainly.
“Do you want the Shadow Lord dead?”
“To be honest, yes.”
“Why?”
“How old do you think I look?”
Owen suddenly asked about his apparent age.
Su-ho glanced at him and answered lightly.
“You look like you’re in your forties or fifties.”
“Haha, I thought so? But I’m 151 this year.”
“What?”
“Not just . All these friends behind are over a hundred, too. Not just us—everyone in the village is.”
“What are you....”
“Ah, you don’t have to misunderstand. I don’t know how it is on Earth or in Korea, but at least in our world, the average human lifespan doesn’t even reach eighty.”
“Then why is everyone’s age so high? And why do you all look so healthy?”
“Because of the Shadow Lord.”
“Because of the Shadow Lord?”
“Yes. Before I tell you about the Shadow Lord... Mr. An, what do you think a shadow is?”
“A shadow is... just a shadow, isn’t it?”
At that answer, Owen shook his head.
“A shadow is a soul.”
“A soul?”
“More precisely, the soul of an existence. Whether it’s a living thing or a non-living thing, in order to fully have its own presence, it needs a shadow. Only then can it change and live with the flow of ti. But we have no shadows. So we live through eternal ti with bodies that are nothing but shells, unable to grow # Nоvеlight # old or even die.”
Owen pointed at the warm sun beyond the window and said,
“If you don’t believe , would you wait just half a day? In this world, the sun does not set. It is a world of eternal polar day. Because after all the shadows in this world passed into that being’s hands, even ti itself in this world ca to a stop.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It is. We are the living proof. That’s why we don’t call him by so grand na like Shadow Lord. We call him the Demon King.”
“......!”
Demon King.
Su-ho had never expected the Shadow Lord would be called that in this spirit world.
At the na, grander than he’d imagined, Su-ho’s eyes widened.
Owen continued.
“Do you know why we’ve been waiting for an outworlder like you, Mr. An?”
“Why?”
“Because soone who isn’t an existence of this world won’t be cursed by the Demon King, and will have a shadow. That’s right. We cannot kill the Demon King. Because after our shadows were stolen, no existence has been able to strike the Demon King.”
“So you need a shadow to harm the Shadow Lo—no, the Demon King?”
“Yes. That’s what it’s like for empty shells without shadows. In fact, for the first dozen or so years, we tried quite a lot....”
Owen shook his head.
“It wasn’t a matter of lacking absolute power or anything like that. We couldn’t even touch him.”
At that, Su-ho’s eyes narrowed.
“Isn’t it possible you just don’t know? What if it’s not a matter of having a shadow, but that you simply didn’t have power beyond the Demon King, so you couldn’t strike him?”
“Haha, you might think that, Mr. An, but absolutely not. The reason is very clear.”
“What reason?”
“Because the Demon King told us so.”
“The Demon King?”
“Yes. And the Demon King said this as well. If we want to kill him, we should use the outworlders who would co soday. He said that was the only way for us to escape this eternal hell.”
“What the....”
In that mont, Su-ho’s eyes narrowed again.
“Wait. You said outworlders—have there been other outworlders besides ?”
“Yes. There have been a few.”
“What happened to them?”
“They all died.”
“They died?”
“Yes. Outworlders appeared randomly all over the world, but we all made the sa promise. If an outworlder appears, ask why they ca, and beg them to kill the Demon King. Ah, of course, it’s fine if you refuse. We can’t threaten you or anything. Just as we couldn’t harm the Demon King who has a shadow, we can’t harm outworlders who have shadows, either.”
“Then....”
As Owen continued, he pointed to a mountain outside the window.
It was the highest mountain hanging beneath the sun, and Owen said as he pointed at it,
“The Demon King is at the top of that mountain. We don’t know what that quest is, but if there cos a ti when you must kill the Demon King... please, we beg you. Please free us from this hell.”
When he finished, he rose from his seat.
Then he and the farrs standing behind him bowed deeply until the tops of their heads showed.
At the sa ti, all the villagers outside the chief’s house bowed toward Su-ho.
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