46. Old Tale (14)
After finishing dinner with Isaac Morf, Baek Seolgi was immediately guided by Aide Wilhelm to the finest lodging, reserved for the knight commander alone.
“Ah… I remember him.”
The rigid yet kind face of Wilhelm from her childhood came back to Eizel.
Though he had been strict and frightening to everyone else, to her alone he had been warm…
Aide Wilhelm.
Right now, however, he was looking at Baek Seolgi with a cold, frosty expression.
“…This is the place.”
Baek Seolgi had been granted special treatment by Grand Duke Isaac Morf and allowed to use a private room, and Wilhelm did not seem to like that in the slightest.
After all, the deeply loyal Wilhelm had protested it so fiercely to Isaac that he had even raised his voice.
“Yes. It’s a nice room. I’ll make good use of it.”
And regardless of that, Baek Seolgi answered in an utterly calm tone.
It was undeniably irritating, but there were times when that my-way attitude of his—paying no attention at all no matter what the other person said—felt oddly enviable.
“I warn you. Do not place the young lady in danger. I will not forgive you.”
After throwing out that cold warning, Wilhelm disappeared.
Left alone, Baek Seolgi quietly stared in the direction Wilhelm had gone, then turned back and let out a long sigh.
“Huu…”
That was the first crack they had ever seen from Baek Seolgi, who was always so relaxed and unhurried.
Eizel and Flame were slightly taken aback.
Baek Seolgi slowly staggered toward the bed, flopped down onto it, and tossed aside his mask.
At last, his face was revealed.
“…Just as expected.”
“Yeah.”
It was unmistakably Baek Yuseol.
And yet, for some reason, he looked no different at all from how he appeared ten years later.
Almost as if he were someone who did not age.
What exactly was going on?
Just as the confusion filling Eizel and Flame’s minds was starting to overwhelm them, Baek Yuseol muttered to himself.
“The rules of time travel…”
At that instant, it felt as though time itself had stopped.
The two girls froze, their pupils wide.
“What…?”
What had they just heard?
It wasn’t even as if he had said some especially difficult words, and yet it was hard to interpret them, as though their minds had stopped functioning properly.
“Time travel…?”
Eizel shut her eyes tightly and organized her thoughts for a moment.
Right.
It wasn’t as though it was entirely unexpected.
He was someone who had rewound time thousands of times.
If he put his mind to it, then perhaps traveling backward through time itself would have been entirely possible for him.
“Then this Ahjussi…”
“Yes. He’s probably the Baek Yuseol we know from ten years in the future.”
His youthful appearance gave it away, and on closer inspection, though he had altered his looks a little, the clothes he was wearing were still Stella’s school uniform.
The Terriphon hanging at his waist—
and even the first-year Stella pocket watch hidden inside his coat.
They did not know how he had done it, nor why, but Baek Yuseol had deliberately returned to the past ten years earlier and personally inserted himself into Eizel’s past.
No way…
Flame thought.
That Ahjussi must remember what’s going to happen from here too.
The story in which Eizel uses Silver Age November’s Relic to uncover the truth about Isaac Morf.
But once the story ends, she would clearly be utterly ruined in both body and mind…
Would Baek Yuseol really sit still and let that happen?
He always tried desperately, somehow, to prevent the people around him from becoming unhappy.
Whether they were evil or good, it made no difference.
That had always been the case.
And if it was still the same now…
then perhaps he had taken the dangerous path of time travel precisely in order to stop even this horrifying worst-case story, the one no one had believed could be stopped.
“But how?”
The ending of this incident had already been decided.
No matter how much it was Baek Yuseol, he could not freely change the past.
If Isaac Morf survived here without betraying anyone, then Eizel would surely become happy.
But…
if that happened, the original world would completely collapse.
“There’s absolutely no way.”
Flame looked at Baek Yuseol with conflicted eyes.
He was blankly gazing at the constellations beyond the window.
What in the world was he thinking about?
At moments like this, telepathy would have been awfully convenient.
“Sigh. Whatever.”
After saying that, Baek Yuseol flopped onto his side and closed his eyes.
The night deepened.
Baek Seolgi had trespassed into Morfran Forest, but solely because he had saved Lady Eizel, Isaac had chosen him and made him, of all things, an escort knight.
“That Ahjussi really protected you a lot, huh?”
Watching Baek Yuseol face the knights in the Blue Mane Knight Order’s training grounds, Flame asked teasingly.
But Eizel shook her head with a serious expression.
“I don’t really remember… I barely had any contact with him after that day.”
“…Really?”
That was strange too.
Flame had thought that if it was Baek Yuseol, then he would absolutely have kept the words he had spoken.
Or perhaps even Baek Yuseol had failed, and that was why the future had been completed the way it had.
“And yet! Someone like you, a drifter of unknown identity, taking that man’s place…! His Grace may have acknowledged you, but we cannot!”
Thunk!
Just as expected, Baek Yuseol was challenged to a duel by one of the knights.
Of course, he seemed inclined to refuse at first, thinking there was no need to fight.
But in the end, he fell for the provocation.
And with a personality like his, there was no way he would deliberately lose after accepting a challenge.
Thud! Thud-thud! Smack!
“Urk! Aagh! Ack! Kgh!”
Baek Yuseol beat the knight down one-sidedly.
As though trying to vent all the stress he had built up, he hit him with remarkable enthusiasm.
Without using even a single spell.
“Do you think that’s his actual strength?”
To beat down a 5-Class mage so one-sidedly, he would have to possess power far beyond that.
Probably at least 6-Class…
or maybe even 7-Class.
Perhaps even higher.
“Who knows. Just because he regressed thousands of times doesn’t mean he should be able to come back with his original abilities too…”
“That’s true.”
But it wasn’t really something they needed to dwell on that deeply.
Baek Yuseol wasn’t an evil man, and if he was someone running all over the place trying to save the world, then surely the more power he had, the better.
That evening.
As expected, Baek Yuseol was summoned by Grand Duke Isaac Morf.
After all, he had brutally beaten one of the knights on his very first day in the order.
They had assumed he would be reprimanded.
But unexpectedly, Isaac barely scolded him at all, and instead brought up something else.
“I summoned you because I wish to take you with me on tomorrow’s schedule.”
Isaac handed Baek Yuseol a document.
Watching from behind in secret, Eizel’s pupils shook wildly.
“That’s…!”
The seal of the Adolevit royal family.
From here on, that incident was about to begin.
Eizel bit her lip as hard as she could.
If only she could feel pain, then perhaps she could have endured this moment—but with a ghostly body, she could feel no pain, and no blood would come.
“Calm down. Baek Yuseol is… standing beside your father.”
“…Yes.”
To be honest, even Flame—who trusted Baek Yuseol without limit—thought this incident was absolutely impossible.
Still, in order to reassure Eizel, she had no choice but to say it.
“They’re claiming the magical beast in Morfran Forest is nearing the time when it will awaken. From a magical perspective, it isn’t wrong. I understood that much. But…”
The more the conversation continued, the more Eizel’s memory slowly began returning in fragments.
“W-Wait…”
Her father’s death.
But where had he died again?
Morfran Forest.
It had definitely been there.
She had always believed that in that forest, after turning into one of the Dark Folk and betraying the magical world, he had resisted the Adolevit royal knights and met his death.
Which meant that the destination of this trip into the past was now right in front of them—
so why couldn’t she calm down?
“Eizel, Eizel!”
Flame grabbed Eizel’s trembling hand.
No warmth passed between them, but she already knew that the mere fact of having someone beside you like this could do a great deal to steady the heart.
“Calm down.”
“…Thank you.”
She looked at Baek Yuseol’s back.
He was wearing a mask right now, so she could not see his expression, but judging from the atmosphere, he seemed to be seriously thinking through the situation.
There, in that place—
what choice would Baek Yuseol make?
Would he stand by and watch her father’s death?
For the sake of the future world, that would undoubtedly be the correct judgment, but…
“Trust him.”
That Ahjussi has always done the right thing up until now, and not once has he ever walked the wrong path. Has there ever been a single time you were unhappy because he got involved?
Eizel shook her head.
“Then it’ll be the same this time too. Calm down, and wait quietly.”
Even if the truth waiting at the end of that waiting was a cruel one.
Flame swallowed the rest of those words and comforted Eizel.
For a brief moment, it crossed her mind that this comfort itself might only become poison, but she forcibly shook the thought away.
…Somehow, it’ll work out.
She wanted to believe that.
Morning broke.
“Ah, fuck, I’m exhausted.”
The more influential knights each had their own one-man tent, and since I was getting roughly the same sort of treatment, I had managed to sleep relatively comfortably.
And yet, even though I hadn’t even stood night watch, somehow none of the fatigue had lifted at all.
When I cracked open the flap of my tent and stepped outside, I saw Morf’s dignified knights, wearing their uniforms impeccably, coming out of their own one-man tents just like me.
Isn’t the one-man setup kind of bad?
What if someone attacks at night?
Wouldn’t that be tactically disadvantageous?
The military I know always has the officers all sleeping clustered together in the central tent.
Then again, maybe modern armies and aristocratic society aren’t exactly the same.
“Mr. Kim, long time no see.”
“…Report to your position.”
I casually greeted a nearby knight as I wandered over, but all I got back was a cold response.
No one welcomed me.
Though it was still early morning, the entire knight order had already assembled in the clearing at the center of the forest.
Apparently they had been preparing for this operation for over a month already.
I was basically an uninvited guest who had barged in just one day before it started.
I wouldn’t even be participating in the operation properly.
I didn’t have any assigned role either.
I had no idea what Isaac was thinking by insisting that I accompany them.
He must have his reasons.
He was a wise man.
More importantly… how did this go again…?
The ten-years-ago episode of Eizel wasn’t properly recorded even in the Jikbakguri Glasses, so I have no idea what happens next… or what the truth actually is.
“From this moment, we will begin the departure ceremony.”
Before heading out, apparently the person at the very top comes out and gives a speech.
I don’t know if that’s always how it works, but judging from how often scenes like this show up in fantasy novels with medieval settings, maybe it’s accurate enough.
The expedition commander was Isaac Morf.
That was only how it appeared on the surface, but since he was still the lord of this territory, it seemed they had decided to put him at the front.
Though honestly, did the word “surface” even matter?
This operation was being carried out in complete secrecy, without informing the outside world of anything at all.
Did they really need to go that far?
During the operation meeting, the old men from the Mage Association had given the excuse that ordinary civilians might panic, so they intended to carry it out quietly and announce it only once the subjugation succeeded…
The explanation sounded plausible, but it still felt as though they were hiding something.
The departure ceremony itself was brief, reflecting Isaac’s personality.
The Morf Grand Ducal House.
The Adolevit royal family.
The highest authorities of the magical world had all gathered to hunt a single magical beast: the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit.
But the opponent was a 9-risk beast.
…It’s probably at least on the level of Black Belize, the Pirate King I met before.
Back then, the Adolevit royal family hadn’t managed to properly prepare their forces, which was why they had been helpless.
But if they had actually come fully prepared then, they probably would have had a good chance.
Hong Si-hwa Adolevit.
She was a woman who had never failed once in her life, so she would surely succeed in this mission as well.
Even in the original game, you occasionally heard stories of 9-risk beasts being defeated, so it wasn’t some completely impossible fantasy.
The Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit isn’t the issue.
Why Isaac Morf betrays the magical world and turns his back on it—
that’s the real problem.
…That was what I thought.
Until the knight order, composed of the finest elites,
was utterly crushed, helplessly,
by the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit that had been released from its seal.
“Ah…”
White flames billowed through the sky.
A downpour of white fire was striking the world.
The forest had already burned to ash and vanished.
The terrain had been overturned so completely the maps would need to be redrawn from scratch.
Most of the magical knights we had thought were the finest elites were dead, collapsed on the ground.
And in the middle of it all—
a fox beast with an enormous body and five tails roared toward the heavens.
“Kiiiiieeeeh—!!!”
With a single kick it scattered despair.
Every time it roared, death spread like a plague.
That existence…
was calamity itself.
Only then did I begin to dimly grasp the hidden truth buried in the shadows of the past.
The expedition led by Hong Si-hwa had forcibly broken the seal of the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit…
but failed to defeat it and suffered defeat.
That was the true history.
