Chapter 708: Ruins (2)
The other senior department heads had already carved out positions for themselves in their respective organizations.
Hong Yehwa, for example, was in the middle of the process to become the Ruby Mage Tower master, Song Cheongi was busy going back and forth between Topaz and the Mage Tower Association, and Zhuge Soso was directly under the Deputy Strategist of the Murim Alliance.
Oh Sehun and Kang Daesan had both been in the Discipline Committee, and their skills had been near the top of their year. It would not have been strange at all if they had landed even higher-ranking posts than that.
So why were they hauling sacks around at a construction site?
Oh Sehun seemed to catch the meaning underneath my question too, but there was no way that senior was going to answer it obediently.
With the polished social instincts of a former Discipline Committee captain, Oh Sehun deflected it smoothly.
“You seem to have guessed already, but this isn’t what we usually do. Still, every now and then, doing something like this is a nice change of pace.”
“I see.”
“And Hyeseong treats people well. If you keep showing your face here, you can build friendly ties too. It’s hard to find a better place than this.”
I glanced discreetly at Ahn Jeongmi. She seemed to mostly agree.
Well, Hyeseong was not some mom-and-pop corner shop. They had probably looked into those two as well.
Naturally, they would already know the two had been in the Discipline Committee last year.
Then there’s no need to dig any deeper.
If they had already talked things over among themselves, it would look strange for me, an outsider, to keep pressing them with suspicion.
They were definitely hiding something, but that did not automatically mean it was something bad.
My guess was that the reason they could not speak openly was—
I deliberately tossed out a single word, almost like I was muttering to myself.
“...Restrictions?”
“...”
Oh Sehun neither confirmed nor denied it. There was only that same smile.
Kang Daesan, on the other hand, flinched for the briefest instant before their face hardened.
So my guess had landed at least partly right.
That was enough for now, so I dipped my head.
“I think I’ve held you up long enough, Seniors. I’ll come find you later.”
“Sure. Let’s make time and sit down properly.”
Oh Sehun waved and said he hoped our request went well.
Leaving the two seniors behind as they resumed work, we started moving again ourselves.
And at last, we entered the ruins.
Just as I had felt from the outside, the interior was extremely futuristic too.
The walls, the corridors, the doors—everything was made of mechanical structures.
Some parts had apparently even been restored, because they were operating with faint mechanical noise despite how much time had passed.
Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in seemed to be quietly taking in the surroundings, then tilted her head.
“...?”
“Feels familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“What does it remind you of?”
Seo Ye-in and mirror image Seo Ye-in looked at each other.
They seemed to think for a bit, then slowly leaned to one side.
“Memory...”
Almost there.Then they seemed to think a little longer and slowly leaned the other way.
Memory...“Fuzzy.”
Then both of them stared right at me.
“Answer.”
Please reveal.But I only put on an “Oh Sehun smile” and shook my head.
“If I tell you already, that takes all the fun out of it.”
“Tell me.”
“Think a little harder.”
Then I kept walking behind Ahn Jeongmi’s lead.
As we moved deeper through the futuristic corridors filled with all sorts of mechanisms, the second clue appeared.
It was a large robot arm.
Judging by the debris scattered around it, it had probably been torn off during a fight with the exploration team.
That jogged their memory again. The two Seo Ye-ins stared down at it.
“Interesting...”
Interesting...But apparently it was still too hazy, because they started tugging at my sleeve.
“Answer now.”
It’s time to tell us.I answered with another “Oh Sehun smile.”
“A little more. If you still can’t remember after that, I’ll tell you.”
But not long after, that became unnecessary.
Just as we were nearly at the puzzle room, the third clue—and the answer—appeared.
The wreckage of a giant robot.
It had been smashed to pieces and was strewn all over the place, but a few things were still obvious.
It was missing one arm.
It looked strangely rabbit-like.
And finally, there was a clock-shaped ornament attached to its chest.
Only then did a little exclamation mark seem to pop over Seo Ye-in’s head.
“Earth Eater.”
“Got it.”
The robot in front of us looked very similar to the one it had ridden.
The level looked much lower, and it did not seem like it could mount a pocket watch, but still.
The interior looked very similar as well—to [No.336] [Rabbit Room] and [No.207] [Rabbit Tower].
The same went for [No.307] [Rabbit Center].
Because of the sub quest conditions, I had not been able to bring Seo Ye-in along for that one, though.
Putting all those points together, it was obvious these ruins had been left behind by the clock rabbits.
Of course, I had also heard bits and pieces about their history.
Apparently they used to be a pretty big deal.
With time magic, artifacts, and outstanding technology, they had once made up one axis of power.
But now they had not just declined completely—the rabbits themselves were almost endangered.
The trigger had been the appearance of a new trait.
[Time Resistance].
Before that, if they used a pocket watch or cast [Time Freeze], they could attack one-sidedly no matter how strong the opponent was.
But once resistance appeared, that stopped being possible, and it became a pure contest of force against force.
Dark Dragon Lord was different. Even if his time skills got blocked, his base specs were absurd enough that he could still beat everything down with non-elemental magic.
And if push came to shove, he could always just cast it on himself.
The clock rabbits, on the other hand, were not especially powerful even while piloting robots, so they were gradually pushed back in their struggle against competing powers.
In the end, they disappeared into the back pages of history.
Even so, they’re absolutely worth studying.
They had lost the power struggle, but the clock rabbits’ technology was still extraordinary even by modern standards.
Whether it was time-related fields or robotics, even a tiny fragment of it would be worth an astronomical amount.
That was exactly why Hyeseong was investing so aggressively in exploring and excavating the place.
Which is how we ended up with work to do too.
Next time I ran into Earth Eater, I ought to thank it.
With that thought in mind, I kept walking, and at last we reached the place where the puzzle was.
A modest room, neither especially large nor small.
On the wall was a rabbit holding a pocket watch and a carrot, so blatantly suggestive it might as well have been telling us exactly what to reference.
A spotlight shone down on the center, where palm-sized puzzle pieces were piled high into a little mountain.
Just eyeballing it, there had to be hundreds.
To make things worse, this did not look like the kind of puzzle you laid flat on the floor like usual. It looked like the kind you had to stack upward in three dimensions.
No wonder the exploration team wanted nothing to do with it.
A puzzle with hundreds of pieces would already take forever even in 2D, and this one was 3D.
Seo Ye-in had already visibly lost all motivation.
She turned her head slightly and looked at Ahn Jeongmi.
“...Help.”
“I’m sorry, miss. By policy, we can’t get involved.”
“...Secret help.”
Hidden help.“That is the Chairman’s order. I hope you understand.”
The old man might be a fool for his granddaughter, but he drew the line very cleanly when it came to business.
Then again, even if it was work for Hyeseong, this was still officially an outside request. If they just had other people do it for us, what would be the point?
Even so, when Seo Ye-in kept staring at her, Ahn Jeongmi politely bowed and said,
“We’ll wait outside so as not to disturb you. Please let us know when you’re finished.”
Then Ahn Jeongmi left the room with the other Hyeseong employees.
They had come along to provide protection, but they did not need to stay right on top of us. This was a fairly contained space, so it was enough for them to stand guard and watch for anyone coming in.
Left behind like that, Seo Ye-in looked at me, and I gave her a bright smile.
“Then shall we get started?”
“Motivation lost...”
Too many...“That’s exactly why they handed it to us, right? If it were easy, they would’ve done it themselves.”
“Reasonable...”
“The faster we finish, the faster we can go play. Otherwise we live here all week and head straight back to school from the ruins.”
“No way...”
“In other words, we don’t have a choice.”
“Sadness...”
The two Seo Ye-ins crouched in front of the mountain of puzzle pieces with extremely reluctant expressions.
And with another bright smile, I said,
“Let’s work our way up from the legs first.”
“...All right.”
“And there’s good news too.”
“What is it.”
“I’ve done this puzzle before.”
Several times, in fact.
I gave instructions to the Seo Ye-ins, who had become a little more interested.
“I’ll pick the pieces. You two just fit them together.”
“Confirmed.”
Confirmed.In general, the hardest part of a puzzle—the part that took the most time—was figuring out which piece went where.
But I already knew all of that by heart.
So this would be finished far faster than expected.
Before long, I started tearing through the mountain of pieces.
Every now and then, I spotted one and tossed it toward Seo Ye-in.
“This one goes in the leg. This too. Another leg piece. This one too. And this.”
“Confirmed.”
Very confirmed.“Continuing confirmation.”
It was not hard at all to fit together whatever I handed them, so Seo Ye-in and Fast-Luckless stacked the pieces efficiently.
Before long, the rabbit’s legs were done and the lower body was taking shape.
The problem was that there were simply too many pieces.
Thanks to me, they had less thinking to do, but that did not change the fact that they still had to repeat the same thing hundreds of times.
“...”
Seo Ye-in’s movements gradually slowed. Her crouching posture collapsed into a seated sprawl, and eventually she half-flopped onto the floor altogether.
Like that, she accepted the pieces I handed her and lazily waved an arm to set them on the puzzle.
So I said,
“Shall we find our motivation again?”
“Not happening...”
Seo Ye-in answered while rolling around in a field of puzzle pieces.
Fast-Luckless was not much different.
This was not the kind of thing brute force would solve, so I decided to negotiate instead.
“Want to take a break? Go out and get some air?”
“...”
Seo Ye-in stared up at the ceiling for a long while, then stared directly at me for another long while.
Then she slowly pushed herself up and gestured at me.
“Come here.”
“Why?”
“Come here.”
When I stepped closer as requested, she pointed at her own cheek.
“Kiss.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Kiss.”
“And what changes if I do?”
“Feel better.”
“And you’ll get your motivation back too?”
Nod.We kissed all the time anyway, so if it brought her motivation back, it was not exactly a losing deal.
So I leaned down and lightly kissed Seo Ye-in on the cheek.
“...”
“Feeling better?”
Nod.“One more.”
“Why today, of all days?”
“One more.”
“All right then.”
Just as I was leaning in again, thinking maybe this was simply one of those days, Seo Ye-in turned her head slightly, probably trying to look at me directly.
So instead of her cheek, my lips landed near the corner of her mouth.
“...?”
“You can’t move like that. Now I messed up.”
I scolded her lightly, but no answer came back.
Seo Ye-in only stared in a daze, her eyes opened just a little wider, as if lost in thought.
After a long moment, she tilted her head and said,
“...It was different.”
“Different from what?”
“From a kiss.”
“How was it different?”
“...It was different.”
Those gray eyes dropped to my lips.