Two months. Not two days, not two weeks—he had completely gone without eating or drinking for that long.
"Yes?"
I completely misunderstood! Earlier, I thought soone had fallen into the pool, but now I see—the real concern was that he might starve to death.
"How can a person go sixty days like that? Ah, then I should at least buy you so porridge—no, wait. The hospital. We need to go to the hospital first."
"It's okay."
"Y, you're really going to die at this rate! Kim Giryeo-ssi!"
Hearing the hoowner's words, a whirlwind of thoughts rushed through the visitor's mind. Before the shock could even fade, Seonwoo Yeon instinctively moved her body. Believing the alien's life might be in danger, she strained and struggled to pull him out of the water.
"My body's been modified, so I'm fine."
Splash.
So this must be what it feels like for an elephant suddenly caught while happily rolling in the mud. But if he stayed silent out of sheer annoyance, he'd soon end up in a hospital bed.
"!!!.!!!!"
"Ah, even though you're Awakened, your hearing isn't all that great, huh...?"
The alien in the mansion finally spoke after a long silence. To be precise, he opened his mouth to stop the human, who had mistaken him for being in danger.
***
About ten minutes after the aquatic alien was pulled out of the swimming pool.
"Why is there no hair dryer in such a spacious house?"
If they were an ordinary human, drying off properly after swimming would be essential to avoid catching a cold. But Seonwoo Yeon, despite being a psychic capable of manipulating the air, had no idea how to generate warm air. As a result, the fidgeted helplessly—though fortunately, she was searching for a hair dryer inside the residence of her acquaintance. Thanks to the alien's insistence, a trip to the hospital had been avoided.
"Um, I went ahead and took a few towels out of the drawer..."
Moreover, the weather happens to be mild and pleasant at the mont.
"Just stay still in the chair. It will dry out quickly."
Seonwoo Yeon gave up relying on tools and imdiately began using her innate abilities.
Swish.
As the visitor manipulated the flow of air, the other person's skin gradually began to dry.
"Isn't the wind too strong?"
But for now, she had at least managed to get this far... the question was, how on earth was she supposed to handle what ca next?
"If... if you're cold, please let know right away."
The visitor fidgeted with their gaze. Judging by this nervous behavior, the atmosphere in the mansion's living room was far from pleasant. For a half-corpse mage to fall silent and remain still... Kim Giryeo's presence was, at first, intimidating. Yet the next emotion that arose was a faint sense of worry and concern.
I pulled him out of cold water, but sohow his complexion looks even worse now.
It would've been better if he'd at least lost his temper and told her to get out. But ever since canceling the hospital visit, the alien hadn't uttered a single word. He simply sat there, eyes closed beneath those thick monolids, breathing quietly.
"Are you okay?"
A mont later, unable to bear the silence any longer, Seonwoo Yeon finally spoke up—and at last, the blond man, who had remained wordless until now, showed a faint reaction.
"Hunter Seonwoo Yeon, do you happen to know?"
"What do you an?"
It was a rather strange topic for an opening line.
"There are three kinds of miracles in the world that, even if the formula is correct, can never be activated..."
"Yes?"
"As for what these three great mysteries of the skill system are..."
"Yes."
"The first is splitting a planet in half, the second is reversing ti, and the last one is most likely resurrection."
"Hmm."
"And it seems that all three of these impossibilities share the sa underlying cause—but I won't go into the details, since I think it might startle you, Seonwoo Yeon-ssi."
"I, I see."
By now, most of the moisture had dried. So Seonwoo Yeon placed the damp towels into the laundry basket and finally began a serious conversation.
"Kim Giryeo-ssi, it seems you were really shaken by what happened last ti."
He keeps spouting nonsense, or slumping in his chair like a corpse. In fact, seen him like that, anyone would naturally start to have doubts.
"It's not to the point of being shocked."
But she didn't expect such a quick denial.
"I just didn't know what to do, that's all."
"Could you explain it more clearly?"
"Ahn Yoonsoung, to put it taphorically, is an exceptionally rare talent."
Seonwoo Yeon sat down on the nearby sofa to hear his voice more clearly. For a while, the hoowner continued to speak.
"More precisely, he's an irreplaceable talent. After all, he was the first friend I ever made—in both my past and present lives."
"Ah..."
"Honestly, in my last life, I've never interacted with anyone this personally."
"That's right."
"So, I guess I don't really know what to do when I lose soone precious to ."
A calm tone. Simple choice of words. Hearing this, Seonwoo Yeon's brows curved into an arch. anwhile, the hoowner, maintaining his composed deanor, brought up yet another unexpected story.
"Are Italian sports cars really that good?"
At first, he ntioned the car he'd locked eyes with in the outdoor parking lot of the [Faith] guild. Then, the alien went on to think of rice, bags, and next, accessories made of platinum or gold.
"Or was it simply the satisfaction of using sothing more expensive than others—sothing so important it could even be a person to kill?"
Seonwoo Yeon responded to this.
"I'm not really sure about that, but..."
Using as direct an expression as possible was an extra precaution. After all, if he recklessly used taphors, the alien would be in trouble.
"At least the motives of the killers who went after Hunter Ahn Yoonsoung were fairly common."
"Really?"
"On this planet, the value of currency isn't the sa across all countries. So, with 100 million won in Korean money, there are regions where you wouldn't have to work for a lifeti. Lately, many nations have been struggling with low-paid hitn."
The long-haired woman took a deep breath.
"Even if soone offered a trillion won, I would never harm another person."
"Hmm."
"But there are truly all kinds of people in the world. Perhaps that's exactly why a situation like this happened."
As the visitor finished speaking, a brief silence fell. The awkwardness of being unexpectedly faced with it in soone else's ho was more painful than expected. So Seonwoo Yeon spoke up once more to break the quiet.
"By the way, the last ti I saw you, you were completely expressionless, so honestly, I thought you were fine..."
In a way, maybe even before coming to this place, he had been wanting to ask this question all along.
"Of course, my emotions were adjusted out of necessity."
As Kim Giryeo began to answer, Seonwoo Yeon assud a posture of attentive listening.
"Anyway, because of this incident, I've undergone a rejuvenation that wasn't in my fate."
"Yes?"
"If an old soul suddenly gets angry like a young person in their pri, what else could it be if not rejuvenation?"
"Rejuvenation?"
"I never thought that at my age I'd behave so immaturely. My goodness. To punish a criminal more harshly just because I couldn't control my emotions..."
After all, a living being's heart isn't made of tin; in a way, it was only natural.
"So that's why I kept saying private punishnt isn't allowed."
For reference, in the past, he would have already lashed out like this without holding back. But ironically, even Seonwoo Yeon was ultimately still within the bounds of being a living creature.
"I've made the criminals pay their own price, so why do I still feel uneasy?"
"That makes sense."
"Should we at least go back and beat those we've locked up in prison?"
"No."
Seonwoo Yeon hid her own thoughts and just nodded along for now. Riding the awkward atmosphere, the rest of the conversation sohow continued.
"Ahn Yoonsoung was truly the friend I liked the most."
_ _
"How does an Awakened one end up dying like this..."
There was no particular expression, but judging from the pessimistic tone, the alien seed to be in a rather gloomy state.
"By the way, I just suddenly beca curious. When soone like you, Seonwoo Yeon, faces a tough situation, how do you get through it?"
It was a series of surprising things.
"Hmm."
She never thought a creature as remarkable and rational as them, capable of controlling their emotions with magic, would seek advice.
"For now, the proper way is to just leave it to ti."
Fortunately, it wasn't a difficult topic. So Seonwoo Yeon calmly adjusted her posture and began to explain.
"No matter how difficult things get, if you just grit your teeth and bear it, you'll make it through in the end."
"Ti."
"It's strange, isn't it? But speaking of ti—were you serious earlier when you said to leave it alone for ten years?"
"Why? Could it have sounded a bit too much for soone from Earth?"
"Very much so. We even have a saying that the landscape changes in ten years."
But keeping this lighthearted atmosphere is difficult, given the seriousness of the matter...
"Hunter Kim Giryeo, no, Kim Giryeo-ssi."
Once a nickna sticks, it's hard to get rid of right. It was around the ti the man on the single-seater chair nodded along with that sentence.
"But no matter how I think about it, ten years still seems far too long."
"I know. You just pointed that out three seconds ago."
"To be precise, what I ant was that it would be a waste for Kim Giryeo to struggle throughout such a long ti."
The hoowner fell silent.
"Stress gave rise to people like with supernatural abilities, but I've also heard that mutations aren't always beneficial to our bodies."
What followed was the sincere concern of the governnt officials.
"So, I have a suggestion..."
_ _
"What were your hobbies, Kim Giryeo?"
Judging roughly by the context, it seems that the ntioned "Kim Giryeo" isn't the original owner of the body.
"Reading? Cooking?"
At first, they were curious about the alien's na, and now they were asking what a creature that lived in the sea did for leisure. The certain mage, wearing human skin, soon reacted to the actions of the primitive mage.
"Reading."
"The answer was brief."
"So you enjoyed reading books."
"Because I was a scholar."
"Then from now on, it would be good to pass the ti by habitually doing what you enjoy."
"Hmm."
"This is half from my own experience, but when going through a tunnel of suffering..."
_ _
"Even for a really trivial topic, you need at least one thing to focus on."
If you give it ti and simply follow the habits ingrained in your body, things will get better. When Seonwoo Yeon said this, one of the magic scholars nodded.
"Then, would going to the ocean perhaps help with this situation?"
"Yes?"
However, agreeing with a claim and blindly following it were two different things.
"If I had to pick a hobby, it would be reading books. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be going to the ocean."
A wish to see the ocean. Honestly, it was probably the last thing a local resident living right by the coast would say.
"The coastline is visible right when you stick your neck out of the house, so it strange that he still finds the surrounding environnt fascinating even while living in a place like this?"
But before Seonwoo Yeon could voice any doubts, Kim Giryeo added an explanation. Although he had moved here quite a while ago, he hadn't explored the area much due to his busy work schedule.
"Aha."
In that case, saying he wanted to see the sea made perfect sense. Besides, it was a quiet weekend, so there was no reason a single unemployed person and a governnt official couldn't walk along the sandy beach.
***
"It doesn't feel like we've been talking for that long, but it's already ti for dinner."
The cries of seagulls weren't heard. A little later, the alien and the governnt official from the mansion went out to the nearby coastline.
"It's still far from the vacation season. Around this ti, there aren't really any people out and about..."
Although the sun had set and a chilly air still lingered, what's a little walk when soone who's gone through sothing sad wants it?
"Quiet and nice."
In front of Seonwoo Yeon lay the sea bathed in sunset hues. Periodically, the sounds of the ocean reached her ears, giving a calm order to the uneasy corner of her mind. Indeed, it was very different from the sea she had seen filtered once through a TV screen.
Step, step, step.
Seonwoo Yeon enjoyed the natural white noise that the coastline brought.
Thut.
But shortly after, during this peaceful mont, a mysterious noise intruded, and her previously closed eyes snapped open.
"Hmm?"
The mont she looked straight ahead, she saw a blonde man walking toward the sea. Startled, Seonwoo Yeon moved her legs.
"Gasp. Wait a mont! Don't go in there!"
She grabbed the hem of her companion's clothes and urgently stopped him.
"It's fine. Even if I fall into the water, I won't die and can breathe magically. You saw perfectly fine in the pool earlier, right?"
But at first, she was sure her shout was out of concern for drowning.
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