Chapter 831: Companions (3)
Sigma’s body, which had been floating in the air, slowly righted itself. He tilted his head and looked at the Puppeteer, Moon Hyunah, and Hwang Rim.
“Did he die again?”
“No. The current you has been cut off from Seong Hyunjae.”
The Puppeteer briefly explained the situation.
“This place is a domain created in a rift outside spacetime, so it isn’t affected by the outside. I used that to sever the Gardener’s contract as well.”
“Then does that mean Dal’s problem is all solved?”
Moon Hyunah asked, plainly struggling a little to follow. The Puppeteer gave a short shake of his head.
“Once he leaves the rift, the connection will return. The Gardener’s contract will also try to find its original owner. But he cannot remain here forever, either. Once the Gardener’s garden is fully rooted in the dream world, the rift will disappear as well.”
“…Before, you asked me to take Dal in. So he could settle in our world as someone separate from Seong Hyunjae.”
“Yes. I did.”
“Then you can explain the details now, can’t you?”
Moon Hyunah’s gaze fixed squarely on the Puppeteer. It was not realistic to say that Sigma could become an independent being simply because she accepted him. Of course there had to be something more to it. The Puppeteer slowly opened his mouth.
“A person is the result of innate nature with time added on top.”
“Time? You mean experience?”
“Something close to it. Everyone is born different, but there are rare cases of extreme similarity. Newborn identical twins are identical in every way. But they are not given perfectly identical time. Unless they are machines, they cannot fall asleep and grow hungry at exactly the same moments. Once they begin crawling, walking, and running, they diverge even further. On the same rainy day, one child might fall into a muddy puddle, get laughed at, and grow to hate the rain, while another might be praised for looking adorable in a raincoat and grow to like it. What they were born with may be the same, so they may grow similarly, but they can never be completely identical.”
One by one, each person’s own time accumulated. Through that, likes and dislikes formed, and each person’s temperament and behavior changed.
“Even if something is a clone of a completely identical being, the moment it begins to live, it starts moving toward becoming a different existence. In the end, there is no perfect copy. They become different people. But Sigma was a static being.”
Separated from the flow of time, unable to accumulate anything.
“He remained alone at a standstill while Seong Hyunjae, who was the same being, accumulated an immense amount of time. If Seong Hyunjae had been an ordinary being who had lived merely a few decades, Sigma would not have been greatly affected by him either. He could have immediately walked a new path as a different existence.”
“But Seong Hyunjae lived a long time across several worlds… and Dal can’t withstand that time?”
“Yes. Sigma was a relatively early version of Seong Hyunjae, and ultimately only a very small portion of Seong Hyunjae’s life. For a similar reason, it is impossible to create a clone of a transcendent. Their full time and power cannot be copied, and if only a piece is cut away, it cannot become an independent existence. It is absorbed back into the main body.”
Seong Hyunjae’s existence was far too vast for Sigma to move forward as an independent being. That was why he could not remain awake at the same time as Seong Hyunjae.
“For Sigma to become an independent existence, he needs two things. The first is a place. An axis that will acknowledge him as someone who belonged to one world and lived there.”
“That would be me.”
“Yes. You saw Sigma’s beginning, and you also have a connection to Seong Hyunjae.”
Of the people who had met Sigma in the Japanese dungeon, Moon Hyunah was the most suitable axis.
“The other thing is time. The time Sigma was unable to accumulate.”
The Puppeteer turned his head and looked at Sigma. Sigma was looking around, as if the scenery he stood in was unfamiliar. Then his eyes met the Puppeteer’s. The Puppeteer smiled.
“That time is with me.”
All the time from Sigma leaving his world until he reached this place.
“I opened my eyes beside you, took my first breath beside you, and walked alongside you all this way. All the time you could not have accumulated inside me.”
And now.
“I’ll give it back to you.”
If Sigma took the time the Puppeteer had accumulated, with Moon Hyunah as his axis, he could become an independent existence who had lived in Moon Hyunah’s world.
“All the other relationships binding you here will be cut away, and new ones will be built. Your free time will become longer than the time you were bound by the contract, and the time you belonged to Moon Hyunah’s world will become longer than the time you were part of Seong Hyunjae.”
And so the Puppeteer’s child would—
“From now on, live as yourself.”
In a safe world, with a new name and a new life. Sigma blinked. He looked slightly taken aback. The Puppeteer reached out and ruffled his hair a little roughly. Sigma leaned back, telling him not to.
“That is how matters stand, so I’ll be in your care, Miss Moon Hyunah.”
“Uh… sorry.”
“Yes?”
“I mean, I’ve decided to go back.”
Moon Hyunah let out a faint sigh and continued.
“Once Dal receives that time or whatever it is, he can go to our world, right? I’ll handle the formalities for him. But I can’t guarantee anything after that. I have to go help. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do, but still.”
Moon Hyunah recalled the situation right before the Puppeteer had dragged her here. The Gardener, and the garden.
“Still, I have to go to Mister first. To Han Yujin. These days, being S-rank isn’t even enough to hand out a business card, but still.”
Moon Hyunah had never thought of herself as particularly strong. That had been true before she awakened as S-rank, and it remained true after. She was always being knocked around by one thing or another, and walking the path she wanted was never easy.
After transcendents began intervening in earnest, even her confidence as an S-rank Hunter had taken damage. In battles where she had always stood at the front, there were only a handful of things she could do. Even if she swung her spear with all her strength, in the end it was only support. She had not despaired over that fact, but every so often a corner of her chest grew awkwardly tight.
Even so.
“Even if all I can do is stand beside him and say one word, that it’ll be all right. I have to be there. I want to be there.”
Moon Hyunah smiled without a sound.
“Anyway, I like Mister. Yerim too, of course, and I want Chief Song to be safe. Seong Hyunjae too, preferably. I’m still a little awkward with Mister’s little brother, though. Not that Han Yuhyun would care as long as he has Mister.”
Even if she could not be much help, she wanted to stay with them until the very end if possible. She thought she should.
“You don’t have to worry about him. An S-rank will be welcomed no matter where he lands, and I’ll ask our guild to look after him too. Or I can ask Sesung to cooperate.”
“…Yes. As long as Sigma settles safely, nothing else matters. But as I told you, Miss Moon Hyunah, your world is no longer in danger.”
“You said the Gardener’s garden would protect it, right? But Mister might even drive off the Gardener.”
“The Gardener is an existence that cannot be killed.”
Moon Hyunah’s eyes widened.
“Is he immortal?”
“No. It’s simply that no transcendent has ever been able to break the Gardener’s shell. Not even he himself can do anything about that immutable body. It is not merely hard. The Gardener is an unchanging existence.”
Being broken was also change. But the Gardener was a transcendent who remained the same forever.
“To defeat the Gardener, one would have to erase that immutability itself. The essential nature of an exceedingly old transcendent. Since the contract binding Sigma would also vanish if the Gardener disappeared, I attempted it as well, but once I learned that fact, I gave up.”
“…Then all the more reason I need to meet Mister and tell him that.”
“Even so, there will likely be no method. Instead, the world will be protected. Just as you wanted.”
Han Yujin would be bound to the garden along with his flame. The pseudo-origin and the Lunar Eclipse would be as well. If they were abandoned, the rest of the people and the world would become safe and peaceful. Moon Hyunah spoke, looking a little embarrassed.
“I did declare pretty confidently to Mister that I’d prioritize the world. But you can’t split things up that neatly. Not me, and not the others either. Once we go back, everyone will step forward.”
A pleasant light filled Moon Hyunah’s eyes.
“They’ll say we should go save Mister, and even if there isn’t a clear answer, everyone will put their heads together. It doesn’t end just because we’re safe now. We’ll look for a better direction. A better path.”
“If it’s about our Jinnie, I’d want to step up too.”
Hwang Rim nodded as he spoke.
“It’d be boring if he disappeared. No fun at all.”
“Mr. Puppeteer, can’t we leave that thing here?”
“That’s harsh, noona~.”
“Mister already has enough weight in his life with Seong Hyunjae alone, but strange things keep sticking to him.”
Moon Hyunah clicked her tongue and gestured at Hwang Rim to get lost, while the Puppeteer quietly watched her. Unlike hers, his world was narrow, and he had no desire to expand it. There was only one thing the Puppeteer wanted.
So as long as Moon Hyunah agreed to cooperate, whatever happened afterward did not matter.
“Time here does not match the outside. The longer the rift remains isolated, the greater the gap will become, so let us prepare to leave, Sigma.”
“I still don’t remember this place properly. Where it is. It feels familiar, but strange.”
Sigma spoke as he walked over the soft grass.
“It will be all right now. Your time is continuing to flow.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Once you receive my time—”
“Then what about you?”
Sigma spun around and faced the Puppeteer. Moon Hyunah and Hwang Rim also looked at them. The Puppeteer hesitated briefly before answering.
“I will lose my power as a transcendent. I may not be able to maintain a human form. And… I belong to you. Apart from losing my power, if you come to possess the result of existing alone in that world for a long time, I will disappear.”
The Puppeteer was Sigma’s doll. He had been born as the result of Sigma keeping and maintaining him over a long period. But if Sigma changed into an existence who had lived in Moon Hyunah’s world, then naturally, the Sigma who had created the Puppeteer would disappear.
The cause would vanish, and so the Puppeteer, who was the result, would vanish as well.
“Then I refuse.”
Sigma said it lightly. The Puppeteer’s brow furrowed.
“You can’t stay with me anyway. If you don’t become an independent existence now, you’ll keep sleeping because of Seong Hyunjae, or you’ll fall into the Gardener’s hands.”
“Didn’t you say it would be enough for Moon Hyunah to accept me?”
“If Miss Moon Hyunah helps, getting you into that world may be possible, but the Gardener’s contract! And if Seong Hyunjae returns to his world, you’ll fall asleep again, so you won’t have any chance to accumulate your own time.”
After thinking for a moment, Sigma spoke again.
“Then we kill the Gardener and drive Seong Hyunjae out.”
“…What?”
“That’s the answer!”
Moon Hyunah burst out laughing. Sigma said proudly,
“I will not take your time.”
“This is not the time to act spoiled—”
“I already have it.”
At the unexpected words, the Puppeteer flinched.
“What do you mean…”
“I cannot properly perceive the time that has passed. But I know. I do not fully remember you either, but I know the fact that you were always beside me. I remember your beginning too.”
A very long time ago, though to Sigma it felt like yesterday.
“Your hair was short, and your body was smaller. Your face was a little different too. I did not feel your hair growing longer, or your body growing, or your face changing, but I knew.”
Hair that had once been short enough to expose the nape of his neck was, at some point, touching his shoulders. Then it passed his shoulders, covered his back, and swayed around his waist. Each time, Sigma could tell that time he could not feel had passed.
Sigma’s time had stopped. But the changes in the one who remained always at his side, the one who belonged to him, brought a faint dissonance to Sigma.
“It must have been around when your hair covered your back. My time was not completely stopped. Faintly, I remembered, perceived, and accepted my time with you.”
The flowing of time, though it broke off in fragments and did not connect properly. To Sigma, the moments he had shared with the Puppeteer were unmistakably connected.
“I also remember, to some extent, the things you did.”
“That’s… because I connected your memories with mine and maintained them.”
“That is not the only reason. There are definitely memories you did not see while you were away.”
He had felt a little empty and lonely. He had once tried to prepare dinner by himself. He had also thought about the Puppeteer. Without any particular thought, he had plucked a flower and torn off its petals.
“You have already given me time, and I feel that filling in a little more time in Moon Hyunah’s world will be enough. So we need only remove the Gardener and drive Seong Hyunjae away for a few years, or hit him in the head and put him in a vegetative state.”
“…I already…”
The Puppeteer looked at his child, standing there with his arms folded confidently. The one he had thought would remain forever as he was in the beginning, never able to grow, had somehow grown before he knew it. In the rift of time he himself had given as a gift.
It felt strange. A ticklish feeling, unfamiliar and thrilling. But he could not remain buried in that sensation for long.
“But there is no way to deal with the Gardener. And behind him, Crescent Moon is also holding the line.”
Realistically, giving Sigma his time was still the only way to protect him. Sigma turned to look at Moon Hyunah.
“That is what he says, Moon Hyunah.”
“Hm? Me?”
“Did you not agree to protect the world together with me? There is a C-rank in that world as well.”
“Uh, that’s true, but.”
“What should we do?”
Moon Hyunah looked between Sigma and the Puppeteer in bewilderment.
“So, first of all… to drive off the Gardener. You said he couldn’t be killed, but can he be captured?”
“If the garden, which is the Gardener’s domain, is pushed back and another transcendent’s domain—the dream world—takes root, the Gardener will be unable to exert much power.”
“Then the garden… if it’s a garden, would it burn well?”
“It is a transcendent’s domain, so it can be destroyed by another transcendent’s domain. But the master of the dream world is only around the level of a semi-transcendent.”
Transcendents. Domains. The dream world. Moon Hyunah recalled the information she knew. Park Hayul’s power was insufficient. But if Park Hayul became a proper transcendent…
“…About that time. Could you give it to Park Hayul? That kid listens to Mister pretty well these days, so if we turn him into a transcendent, I think he’d fight the Gardener. Ah, and if you stop being a transcendent, Mr. Puppeteer, couldn’t you also come to our world with Sigma?”
“That may be possible. He belongs to me, so I think it would work.”
Moon Hyunah and Sigma turned to look at the Puppeteer at the same time.
“That seems like a decent method. If necessary, you can come to my place. Not my family home, but my personal residence. It has plenty of rooms, and it’s so empty that three or four extra people would be no problem.”
“Oh, noona. Then—”
“One wild boar that crawled down from the mountains is already too many. I want to kick my little brother out too.”
“Maybe I really should move into Mister’s house.”
“Mister? Ah, you said you had several siblings, didn’t you?”
“Not that side. I have another brother named Song Taewon.”
“What kind of insane nonsense is that?”
“No.”
The Puppeteer’s voice poured cold water over the atmosphere, which had grown excited at the sense that they had found a method.
“The reason I can give Sigma my time is because we belong to each other. If I simply pass on a transcendent’s power, the recipient will not be able to withstand it.”
“Mm. Right. You’re a transcendent too, Mr. Puppeteer. Can’t you step in directly?”
“I do not have a domain in the dream world. I am weaker than the Gardener to begin with, and on top of that, I am under restrictions from crossing worlds and bound by a contract. It is impossible.”
Silence fell. A domain. One more thing surfaced in Moon Hyunah’s mind. But—
– Chirp!
At that moment, a white ball of fluff dropped onto Sigma’s head. Sigma reflexively caught the baby bird.
“What is this?”
“Chirp?”
“How!”
The Puppeteer glared at Chirp in alarm.
“This is a place not even transcendents can invade.”
– Chirp, chirp!
“His name is Chirp. He’s one of Mister’s baby monsters. I heard he moves through space.”
“Simple spatial movement cannot burrow into this place. Before that, the coordinates… on top of Sigma’s head…?”
– Chirp!
“It seems to have something it wants to say.”
Chirp’s tiny wing smacked Sigma’s hand. Sigma studied Chirp closely.
“Speak.”
– Chirp, chirp!
“What is it saying?”
With a loud, energetic chirp, Chirp disappeared. Then, soon after, he appeared again.
– Kkyuk!
Together with a wheat-colored ball of fur. Han Byeol let out a startled noise and stared down at Sigma’s head with round eyes, then patted it with her front paws.
– Pyui!
– Chirp!
“…Now there is one more.”
“Byeol?”
– Yeah!
Han Byeol threw both front paws high into the air. Unable to endure the bushy tail hitting his head any longer, Sigma grabbed Han Byeol and lifted her up. After seeing Sigma’s face, Han Byeol’s mouth fell open.
– Same as Ppit!
– Chirp!
“Hold on, Chirp. What do you think you’re doing, bringing Byeol here! Without saying anything!”
Of course he would not have said anything before coming. He could not communicate with words. Amid Moon Hyunah and the Puppeteer’s bewilderment, Han Byeol calmly transformed into human form. At the vaguely familiar face, Sigma narrowed his eyes. Han Byeol grabbed Sigma’s hair and tried to put it in her mouth.
“This one resembles the C-rank.”
“That’s Mister’s child. She’s his youngest.”
“…The C-rank got married? I did not know he had a child this big.”
“He didn’t get married, but how should I put it.”
“Jinnie self-reproduces. He has three kids with a pure body. Ah, cancel that. The purity part is still unconfirmed.”
Moon Hyunah grabbed Hwang Rim by the back of the neck and flung him away, saying there was a child listening.
“You keep that mouth of yours sealed shut. More importantly, Chirp, hurry up and take Byeol back!”
– Chirp, chirp, chirp!
The baby bird flapped earnestly and said something. Hearing it, Han Byeol tilted her head.
“Chirp says Byeol is Byeol.”
“Huh?”
“A sparkling star.”
–TL Notes–
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