LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 84
I felt like I had just overeaten to the point of food rising in my throat while riding an endless roller coaster that spun 360 degrees.
That was the impression Kim Il-shin had after finally completing the dimensional travel and planting his feet on the ground.
To put it simply, it was painfully dizzying.
Even Kim Il-shin had a hard time regaining his senses.
Considering he had mentally prepared himself in advance and had an extremely trained sense, it was only natural that the condition of the other two was painfully obvious.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Uh, sis… Are you okay? Ugh!”
At least it was fortunate that both of them were on empty stomachs.
If they had already eaten… it would have been even worse.
“I thought I was going to die…”
“…Ugh.”
After several minutes had passed, Hazuki finally mumbled weakly once she started to regain her composure.
Hanarine was still on the verge of passing out.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Y-Yeah…?”
She still didn’t look okay, so I decided to wait a bit longer.
Fortunately, aside from dizziness, both of them seemed fine.
“Where… are we…?”
Finally having a moment to catch her breath, Hazuki asked as she looked around.
The expression on her face, which had been darting around, grew increasingly serious.
“…I’ve never heard of a place like this on Earth. Did we enter a rift?”
Hazuki’s deduction was reasonable.
A barren landscape with only grains of sand visible to the horizon and a dark red sky dotted with large and small celestial bodies.
There were no signs of life to be seen,
and while it was a sight that would be impossible on Earth, it wasn’t surprising within a rift.
After all, rifts were corridors leading to spaces beyond ordinary understanding.
“It’s similar, but different.”
“Then…”
Just as Kim Il-shin was about to begin explaining, Hanarine, who had been lying on the ground beside them, muttered,
“Ugh… What on earth is happening?”
“Are you okay…?”
“No… My vision is weird. There are two moons in the sky…”
In fact, there were originally two moons here.
Anyway, it seemed Hanarine was ready to listen to the story now.
Kim Il-shin slowly explained what had happened since he opened the shop door.
He had met the leader of the Heavenly Exchange Church, who used a divine artifact called Jin Sakyeong, and how the three of them became entangled with it and ended up here.
“There was something like that at our doorstep…?”
“Seems so.”
“How did it break through the Protector? It was set up in three layers… Was it not magic-based?”
Hanarine immediately realized that the leader’s ability was not ordinary.
Since the foundation of his ability was something even Kim Il-shin didn’t fully understand, it couldn’t have been blocked by regular measures.
“The leader… Is your body alright?”
“I’m fine.”
They seemed more surprised by the fact that they had met the leader than anything else.
It was puzzling that they weren’t worried even after hearing about the Jin Sakyeong.
They had every reason to be anxious since I hadn’t mentioned yet that there was still a way to return.
Just then, Hanarine asked,
“So what are we going to do now?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Huh? We have to get out of here. There must be a way.”
She looked at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
It was a relaxed expression that stemmed from unwavering trust in Kim Il-shin.
Hanarine couldn’t fathom that he might have dragged them into dimensional travel without any plan.
If it really had been unavoidable, he would have sacrificed only himself. Kim Il-shin was the type of person she knew would do that.
The trust she placed in him. Feeling the weight of that trust, Kim Il-shin spoke sincerely.
“…Thank you.”
“Take good care of it. So what do we do?”
“Just a moment.”
Kim Il-shin looked up at the sky.
Among the satellites that seemed close enough to drop down, there was a cluster of stars forming a long band.
Connecting the lines between them revealed a horseshoe shape.
It was the guiding star of this world.
“If we follow that star, we should be fine. It’s the horseshoe shape.”
“Ah… That one. It looks like a toilet seat cover.”
“…Right. If we follow it, we’ll see where people live. Once we arrive there, we’ll learn how to return.”
It would be easier to understand by seeing it directly than explaining it in words.
“There shouldn’t be any dangers until we arrive. The only problem is that there’s no food or water, but it shouldn’t take too long, so no worries.”
As he finished speaking, Hazuki, who had been quietly listening, shook herself off and stood up.
“Then let’s get going. It looks like there’s nothing we can do here.”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that…? Is there something on my face…? I checked earlier, and it was all clear…”
She abruptly turned her head and pulled out a mirror from her bag to check her face.
Kim Il-shin looked at her with a sour expression.
‘…What is going on?’
He couldn’t quite understand Hazuki’s reaction, which displayed no curiosity toward him.
He had expected several questions to come flying in after explaining everything.
It was natural to wonder about the source of unknown information and to be cautious about the situation, discovering discrepancies and warning themselves in the worst-case scenario.
He thought she might at least ask how he knew about the Jin Sakyeong.
Unlike Hanarine, Hazuki didn’t know anything about Kim Il-shin’s past.
So he had been considering revealing parts of his past to her.
After all, Hazuki was an important person to him, and he trusted her.
But right now, Hazuki was following him without any questions.
Kim Il-shin asked Hazuki, who was busily brushing off the dust from her clothes and hair.
“Don’t you have any questions?”
“Huh? Oh, is there dust left on my back? I can’t see it here…”
“No, I mean, isn’t it strange that I know this place so well?”
When he asked that, Hanarine, who was next to him, took a step back.
She had caught on to what Kim Il-shin was trying to say.
Though it was a bit disappointing that their secret was slipping away, he thought Hazuki also deserved to know.
“What do you mean?”
However, Hazuki’s subsequent reaction was something neither expected.
“You’re Il-shin, right?”
“Huh?”
“Yes?”
Kim Il-shin, not understanding Hazuki’s response, asked again.
“Um… What I mean is, isn’t it strange that I know things I shouldn’t?”
“…Why does that matter? You’re Il-shin.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what I said…? You’re Il-shin, so…”
The conversation was completely out of sync.
Hazuki was tilting her head in confusion, as if she just couldn’t grasp why Kim Il-shin was acting this way.
‘…Ah.’
After repeating the back-and-forth a few more times, Kim Il-shin began to understand Hazuki a little better.
Hazuki didn’t even have the concept of doubting or questioning Kim Il-shin in her head.
Since he had continued the conversation on the premise that she would have questions, they just couldn’t connect.
“I think she’s a bit strange…”
Perhaps thinking the same, Hanarine had quietly approached and whispered.
Though she partially agreed,
‘…But she’s kind-hearted.’
It was difficult to understand how to interpret this, but he decided to view it as a sort of trust.
“…Thank you for believing in me.”
The depth of that trust felt almost overwhelming.
While Hanarine’s belief came from affection, Hazuki’s seemed to stem from something completely different.
“Yes…!”
Hazuki responded cheerfully.
But that was good enough since it made Kim Il-shin feel thankful.
The phrase “Thank you for believing in me” was something Hazuki couldn’t comprehend.
To her, trust was something natural.
In her eyes, Kim Il-shin was the goal of her life, her teacher, the object of her affection, and a god.
Doubting or questioning such an existence was absurd.
“Shall we set off now?”
“…Yeah. Let’s do that.”
The moment to reveal secrets seemed to have passed.
Promising to share it later, Kim Il-shin began to walk.
*
“How long will it take to return?”
Hazuki asked as she checked the guiding star in the sky. It had been about three hours since they set off.
“It will probably take a while. From our perspective, at least two months are needed.”
“Our perspective?”
“The flow of time differs in each dimension. Time passes more slowly here than in the original dimension we were in. A week here is only about a day over there.”
That was why Kim Il-shin had come here so willingly.
If the flow of time had been reversed, he would have desperately sought a way to counter the Jin Sakyeong.
“So if a month passes here, only about five days would have gone by over there?”
“That’s right.”
“Phew. That’s a relief.”
“Is it because of your family?”
“Yes. If I leave for too long without contact, everyone will worry. It would also make things hard to manage.”
Kim Il-shin nodded as if he understood and shifted his weight slightly.
He adjusted his hold on Hanarine, who was snug against his back.
She had started to struggle after an hour, and by the two-hour mark, she was on the verge of exhaustion, so he had picked her up.
She hadn’t been sleeping well lately due to inventing attack-type magical tools and had even thrown up, so it was no surprise this happened.
“Zzzz…”
Right now, she was sleeping with her mouth open.
“You really do sleep well. I don’t think you’d even notice if something went in your mouth.”
“Why not stick a finger in there?”
“…Is that really okay?”
Hazuki asked with a small laugh.
“I doubt even an hour has passed back there, right?”
“That wouldn’t be the case. There was time spent during the dimensional travel. At least a day or two must have passed. It could be more.”
The flow of dimensional travel was unpredictable, so he had no way of knowing how much time had passed in the original dimension.
“Yet it probably won’t exceed ten days.”
“…Will it be okay? I hear the expedition is gearing up soon. Sending you here at this time… it feels so coincidental…”
“We’ll be fine.”
He said it with unwavering confidence, but Kim Il-shin also felt a twinge of anxiety.
Because while they were here, he couldn’t know what was happening in the original dimension or how to deal with it.
In that sense, it was fortunate they had come together.
They would greatly reduce the time it took to return.
‘If we’re not careful, it might take several years.’
But if everything went according to plan, matching the timing wouldn’t be difficult.
If things went awry, there might be some shortcuts available, though they weren’t appealing since he would gain next to nothing.
‘I also prepared some measures in advance.’
Having a thorough understanding of the leader’s plans, Kim Il-shin’s preparations could very well bear significant fruits.
‘Aside from that, there wouldn’t be any other options.’
Kim Il-shin began to reminisce about that moment.