Chapter 710: Ruins (4)
The next morning.
The moment I woke up, I was greeted by a very strange sight.
Naturally, the one responsible was Seo Ye-in.
What’s with her being up first for once?
If we were talking about something exciting like the entertainment district or vacation, sure.
But all we were doing today was finishing the puzzle.
Normally, she would have sprawled there and slept forever until somebody woke her up.
She’s not even using Kim Ho pillow, either.
For some reason, she had left a slight distance between us instead of leaning against me.
Instead of a pillow, she was hugging Treasure No. 3, the tiger plushie.
And she looks wrecked.
There were dark circles under her eyes, and her whole face looked drained with fatigue.
Being sleepy was her default state, sure, but I had never seen her look like this before.
So I decided to ask the thing I was most curious about first.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“Stayed up all night...”
“You mean you didn’t sleep at all?”
“Yeah...”
“What is the reason?”
Did she eat something weird last night?
It wasn’t like she’d had coffee or anything.
Seo Ye-in stared at me for a few seconds, then quietly hid behind the tiger plushie.
“...”
“I can’t know unless you tell me.”
When I said that and took the plush away, she covered her face with the pot instead.
“...”
“What’s going on? Did something start bothering you?”
“...Yeah.”
“Since when?”
“...Yesterday.”
“That was sudden. You couldn’t even tell me?”
“...Not right now.”
That was probably why she had stayed up all night too.
I had a rough guess, but it looked like she wanted to think through it on her own first.
So for now, I decided not to pry any further.
A moment later, I shifted the subject a little.
“Then what about today?”
“Sleepy...”
“That’s what I’m saying. Can you even do the puzzle?”
“Not sure...”
“If it’s really too much, then just take the day off.”
It wasn’t like Meteor Dragon or the pocket watch was so urgent that we had to force it.
It might be better to take it slow and manage her condition.
But with the pot still upside down on her head, Seo Ye-in shook it.
“...Proceed.”
“You sure?”
“It’ll be over soon.”
“There really isn’t much left. All right, then let’s get ready.”
Before long, just like the previous day, we met Ahn Jeongmi and the other Hyeseong employees in front of the lodging.
Then we climbed into the back seat of the off-road vehicle.
“You could at least catch a little sleep on the way.”
I suggested it, but unlike usual, Seo Ye-in just kept alternating looks between my shoulder and my lap.
Then she quietly edged farther away and leaned her head against the opposite window.
Ahn Jeongmi seemed to pick up on the strange atmosphere too.
“Mr. Kim Ho, did something happen overnight? The young lady looks particularly exhausted today.”
“She says she stayed up all night. I don’t know the details, but apparently something started bothering her.”
“Something... bothering her, you say?”
Ahn Jeongmi’s expression turned deeply mysterious.
Her face was practically spelling out: That sloth of a person... bothered? Enough to stay up all night? What in the world could it be?
But maybe she figured there was no way Seo Ye-in would tell her if she would not even tell me, because she let the curiosity go and said,
“In any case, I hope she doesn’t push herself too hard.”
“I’ll keep an eye on her. If it looks like it’ll interfere with the request, I’ll call it.”
“I leave it to you.”
*****
Even after we arrived at the ruins, Seo Ye-in’s strange behavior continued.
Yesterday, when I found puzzle pieces and handed them to her, she took them one by one—slowly, sure, but steadily—and fitted them in.
Now she was watching me with all her nerves wound tight.
She kept trying to maintain a fixed distance, and whenever our hands brushed while I handed her a piece, her body would go stiff for an instant.
She’s in worse shape than I thought.
I had been planning to leave her alone if possible, but she looked like she was taking this harder than expected.
Even the pace of the request had slowed way down.
So I decided to ask her outright.
“That thing that’s bothering you.”
“...?”
“Is it about me, by any chance?”
“...No.”
Seo Ye-in shook her head from side to side.
But judging from how she could barely meet my eyes, that was pretty much the answer.
“If it were about something else, there’d be no reason for you to keep avoiding me like this.”
“...That is not so.”
“Why are you talking like Go Hyeonwoo?”
“...It is your imagination.”
So I stepped closer and asked again.
“If I did something wrong, tell me. Stuff like this should get cleared up right away.”
“...There is nothing.”
“Really? Absolutely nothing?”
“...Really truly nothing.”
“Then is it the other way around? Did you do something to me?”
“...”
Seo Ye-in silently focused on the puzzle again.
Which was basically an answer all by itself.
I grabbed her by the shoulder and said, in my best Go Hyeonwoo tone,
“Miss Seo, I urge you to confess at once and seek the light. What exactly have you done to me?”
“...I did not.”
“From the circumstances, it seems to have happened while I was asleep.”
“...I still have not.”
“‘Still’? So you did try.”
“...”
Seo Ye-in’s shoulders shrank.
Which meant I was getting warmer.
Then, in the next instant, one word flashed through my mind.
“A kiss?”
“...!”
“A kiss on the lips?”
“...!!!”
Her gray pupils widened as far as they could go.
A faint blush spread across her pale face too.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen her get embarrassed before.
“But if you said you tried, that means you never actually did it.”
“...Challenge failed.”
“How many times did you try?”
“...A lot.”
“And that’s what the worrying was about too?”
“...Yeah.”
Why she kept failing to kiss me, and why she kept trying anyway.
Apparently she didn’t know either.
So I smiled and opened my arms.
“Come here for a second.”
“...?”
Seo Ye-in looked at me with eyes full of equal parts caution and hesitation.
But in the end, she came closer and fell right into my arms.
Holding her like that, I kept talking.
“I think it’s a good thing, honestly. The fact that you’re taking our relationship more seriously. It means things have progressed that much.”
“...Yeah.”
“I get why you want to figure it out quickly, but I hope you won’t push yourself too hard. Rushing it won’t make the answer come any faster.”
“...True.”
“There’s no time limit on this. So try taking it a little easier. At your usual pace.”
“...Okay.”
“Then shall we finish the puzzle now?”
But still in my arms, Seo Ye-in said,
“...Sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“I got sleepy...”
“All of a sudden?”
“I have to sleep...”
She had spent the whole night forcing herself awake because she was full of worry and embarrassment, but now that those were gone—
apparently overwhelming drowsiness was crashing down on her all at once.
I couldn’t exactly force her to stay awake, so I decided on drastic measures.
“Then sleep on my back. We’ll finish the rest.”
“Thank you...”
A moment later, Seo Ye-in climbed onto my back and rested her chin on my shoulder.
And less than three seconds later, I could hear soft, even breathing.
Out cold already.
Leaving that thought behind, I looked over at Fast-Luckless.
The reason I had said we’d finish it was because she was here.
“Didn’t you stay up all night too?”
—I did indeed.
“Why are you talking like Go Hyeonwoo too? Aren’t you sleepy?”
—I can endure it.
“This skill really is a scam, now that I think about it. The owner crashes out flat, and it just moves around on its own.”
—Full auto-farming.
We started fitting the puzzle together while simultaneously talking behind Seo Ye-in’s back and praising the mirror image.
And while we were doing that, a thought came to mind.
Feels like something’s going to happen today or tomorrow.
If I put together Oh Sehun and Kang Daesan’s original affiliation, the fact that they were trying not to reveal their identities, and the way they reacted to the word “constraint”—
There’s a high chance they came here because of an oracle.
And if that oracle was really going to come true, then something was definitely going to happen around here.
Ahn Jeongmi had already mentioned the current situation around Hyeseong too, so the odds were high that it would be an enemy raid.
If I wanted to avoid getting dragged in, the best move would be to leave.
After finishing the puzzle early.
Or even right now.
But was pursuing safety alone really the right answer?
I thought back to the dream I’d had on the train before arriving at Hyeseong.
The one where I borrowed and used the skills of the S-ranks I had raised in my inner world.
There was no way something that powerful would be handed to me for free.
I’ll have to progress the main quest.
And probably drive the completion rate up as high as possible too.
Which meant I needed to get more actively involved in whatever happened.
Of course, if the danger was too overwhelming to control, then avoiding it would be the right call.
But I had a few reasons to trust the situation.
Hyeseong isn’t stupid.
They had to be doing everything they could to prepare for a raid too.
Just from the forces I’d seen on the way in and out, they were by no means weak.
And the [Oracle] is worth trusting too.
There was no guarantee it would match reality with 100% perfection, but its margin of error was not huge either.
Meaning something absurd was unlikely to happen—like the cult leader showing up in person, or a fighter on that level suddenly popping out.
If that were on the table, the oracle would have been different from the start.
If just Oh Sehun and Kang Daesan weren’t enough to handle it, they would have increased the headcount.
Or sent someone even stronger in their place.
In other words—
This is something the seniors can resolve on their own level.
Of course, I couldn’t blindly trust the oracle, and I definitely couldn’t just rely on them and call it a day.
Even if the outcome was set, the process could still change in any number of ways.
Like how many casualties each side took.
And depending on how much influence I had over that, the main quest completion rate would probably change too.
So I decided to remain at the ruins until the raid actually happened.
First things first, finish the puzzle.
*****
Around the same time,
excavation work was once again in full swing near the ruins.
Beard Guy came out of a pit again while catching his breath, then drove his shovel into the ground.
THUNK!
Just as he had several times before, Scrawny Guy walked up and casually murmured,
“Just give the signal whenever you’re ready. How about your side?”
“Same.”
“Then let’s begin.”
The two men split apart again, just as they always had.
The difference this time was that instead of resuming work, they simply left the site and disappeared.
Not long after, the laborers and Hyeseong employees had no choice but to stiffen and look around.
“...What?”
“What the hell is this?”
A thick fog was settling in from all directions.
It was nearly afternoon, and the weather had been fairly clear, yet here came fog.
And not even ordinary fog—it was dark and murky, tinged with a faint blood-red cast that made it feel all the more ominous.
Someone spoke in a clipped voice.
“Large-scale magic.”
SSSSSSSHK—
As if to confirm that was exactly what it was, presences began closing in from every direction.
Then men in blood-red martial robes burst out of the fog.
“Cut them all down!”
At the command of the one who appeared to be their leader, the blood-robed men swung their swords without mercy.
Whether the target was a Hyeseong employee or a laborer—
SHWAAK!
But something was strange.
Not a single person ran.
They all held their ground, and their expressions were so calm they bordered on indifferent.
As if they had been waiting for this.
In the next moment, one of the laborers swung a tool straight into an incoming blade.
CLANG!
“!”
The rebound was so strong that the blood-robed man was forced backward instead.
As the same thing started happening all over the site, the battle hit a lull almost as soon as it began.
The laborers, looking more relieved than anything, began pulling out their own equipment from their inventories.
At the same time, one of the Hyeseong employees adjusted his suit and stepped forward.
Then, wearing a confident smile, he spoke.
“Did you think we wouldn’t be prepared? If so, then I’d have to say you’ve underestimated Hyeseong far too much.”