Chapter 57
Chapter 57
[S-So you’re on the train right now? Your seat… did you, get one?]
“Yeah. There was one standing ticket.”
The next day’s high-speed train. Nari managed to claim a spot and sat on a fold-down auxiliary seat between cars. Scenery rushed past the window.
Jeong Suho’s voice came through the handset in her hand. He had nagged her with worry when he heard she was going to Busan alone, then he muttered.
Since it was her first time going there in ten years, she felt uneasy about using a rift between dimensions and had chosen public transportation instead. That seemed to deepen his concern.
[If you have to stand that whole time, your legs will hurt….]
“The auxiliary seat was free. I grabbed it, so don’t worry.”
[Th-Thank goodness. You didn’t use illusion arts to get it, right?]
“…”
[Why aren’t you answering, Nari….]
“No! I don’t steal other people’s seats.”
Of course, she had cast Perception Interference on the seat between cars so others wouldn’t notice it easily. Nari cleared her throat, deciding there was no need to mention that.
[You’re going to see Aunt Hana… right. I-Is Ihyun not going with you?]
“Yeah, I had some time this round. I figured I’d go pay a visit. Kang Ihyun can’t go, his parents are at a state funeral.”
[I-I wanted to go too. I still h-haven’t finished things here, so I can’t head down. Could you pass along my regards… for me?]
“Sure. It’s my first time going to Mom’s columbarium too. I got the gifts you sent, I’ll leave them there.”
[O-Okay! Next year let’s d-definitely go down together. I want to pay my respects too!]
His voice brightened with a smile. Ever since visiting the Wargod, Jeong Suho had called often.
Things must’ve improved a bit, because about an hour of calls a day seemed to be allowed. After asking whether she had packed properly and what she’d done about lodging, he suddenly brought something up.
[S-So this time you’re, going to that temple?]
“What temple?”
[You know, the one you went to a lot with your mom. It was big. It was built not long ago. And there was that… scary-looking guy. Don’t you remember?]
“...Huh?”
[W-We went there a lot. When we were little.]
Nari searched her memories for a moment. She had nothing like that. Her mom had almost never taken her all the way down to Busan in the first place.
“...I don’t know. I don’t remember anything?”
[R-Really? Try going there. It was an incredibly pink… temple in a village.]
“Mm… okay. I’ll try to find it.”
He said he’d look up the temple’s name himself and get back to her. Saying it was about time to hang up, he let out an unhappy sigh, then the call clicked off.
“Pink village?”
Nothing came to mind. Nari leaned back against the seat and stared out the window.
“Why does it feel like there’s a hole in my childhood memories…?”
She had wondered the same thing while she’d been with the Lord of Chaos. Nari twirled the end of her tied hair around one finger. The Lord of Chaos stayed silent.
Nari didn’t try to dig anything out of him either. She put in her earbuds and closed her eyes. After a few hours of napping like that, the train arrived at Busan Station.
* * *
[You packed everything, right? The Lord of Chaos looks at you.]
“Let’s see. Flowers, and… the headstone plate, and I brought a photo, and the model of the cake Mom liked….”
In front of the columbarium, Nari checked her belongings, gripped the bouquet tight, and pulled her cap low. Around her, people in black dabbed at tears or smiled at reunions.
She had chosen the latest possible slot, when there would be as few people as possible, but the columbarium was still crowded. A sudden wave of dizziness came over her. Nari slipped the prescribed medicine into her mouth.
As her heart settled little by little, she winced and pressed her chest.
“…No one will notice. Right?”
[Yup. No one will notice, the Lord of Chaos says, and he pats your head.]
Buoyed by his words, Nari took a few deep breaths, then opened her eyes and stepped inside.
Midnight was near. The deeper she went, the fewer people there were. Thinking that was a relief, Nari headed for a spot in the farthest corner.
Her mother’s niche was on the bottommost row where no sunlight reached. She had chosen the lowest row because she probably couldn’t reach the top.
More than anything, back then she had been too self-conscious. She had wanted her mother’s place to draw as little attention as possible.
“Mom might not like that.”
Still, until “that incident,” her mom had been a beloved hero. And this was her only daughter visiting for the first time in ten years.
‘I’m sorry. I bought expensive flowers though, so please forgive me.’
She steadied her faint regret, fidgeted with the lush white bouquet, and moved on.
“…I am sorry. No one’s coming again this year. But….”
Right then, a man in a suit was placing a small white potted plant in the niche that should’ve been empty in this hidden corner.
For a moment she thought it was her dad, but he was at least ten centimeters taller. When the man stepped back, it became clear that it was indeed her mother’s resting place.
“Who are you?”
He turned to Nari's voice. Sharp eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses. He looked like he was in his early to mid-thirties.
A stranger was touching her mom’s space. Already on edge, Nari’s voice dropped low.
The man blinked wide a couple of times. Then he spoke in a surprised tone.
“Are you Miss… Shin Bitnari?”
“Yes, but I asked who you were first. Who are you to be putting flowers in my mother’s place?”
Maybe she should’ve been thankful, but every matter related to her mom had brought only bad experiences. Nari hugged the bouquet tight.
At her guarded tone, the man looked flustered, then cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry. This is our first time meeting in person. It’s a pleasure. Miss Shin Bitnari. I’m an Awakener who serves as both the owner of this columbarium and the guild master of Mago. My name is Ah Nan.”
He closed the distance in an instant, stopped in front of her, and held out a business card. Mago, one of the Four Great Guilds that guarded the coastline facing the East Sea. The guild master’s emblem was engraved in intaglio.
[Now that you mention it, this columbarium belongs to Mago, the Lord of Chaos says, looking around.]
‘...Huh, you’re right.’
She hadn’t cared back then. It was the only place willing to accept her mother’s remains. Who had time to worry about the owner. It looked like a sizable columbarium, so she had handed them over on the spot, but she’d never imagined it belonged to Mago.
“Okay, so why is the guild master of Mago bringing flowers to my mom.”
Nari narrowed her eyes on Nan. His expression grew stranger by the second.
Ah Nan, as he’d introduced himself, pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses and let out a long sigh.
“Did your mother never tell you anything about me?”
“No.”
“…I see. No wonder you never came. Miss Hana, you really put me to the test every time….”
Frowning, the man who’d called himself Nan took off his glasses and pressed his brow. He muttered about how she was too much even after death, and the fact she did not tell her daughter anything. Then he put his glasses back on and smoothed his face into a poker expression.
“I’ll introduce myself again. I’m Nan, owner of this place and guild master of Mago.”
“And?”
“And I’m the man your mother personally appointed as your godfather.”
“…What?”
* * *
Sitting on the office sofa at the columbarium, Nari stared at the bottom of the contract held in both hands. It was her mother’s handwritten signature.
“Appointing Awakener Ah Nan as Shin Bitnari’s godfather.”
Party A, Kang Hana.
Party B, Ah Nan.
Beneath the line appointing a godfather were the words Party A Kang Hana and Party B Ah Nan. Next to them were heavy, stamped seals.
Nari read through the contract line by line, then her jaw dropped. It was full of things she’d never seen, and her mother’s seal was stamped on it.
‘This isn’t forged, is it?!’
[Hmm… hold on, the Lord of Chaos says, scanning the contract.]
[No! It’s the real deal! the Lord of Chaos says, making the face of someone watching a morning soap opera.]
Godfather, in modern use often a man at the top of his field, but at its root the word meant a male guardian who took on a parental role if the child’s parents were gone.
‘This man is my godfather…?’
In an instant she had two dads. Nari looked back and forth between the contract and the man in front of her.
She had heard of him when Kang Ihyun realized Nari knew nothing about the Wargod and gave her a crash course on the Four Great Guilds.
Ah Nan. Guild master of Mago and an A-rank Awakener of the class “Defrocked Monk.” Notable details…
Twenty years ago, a former gangster who had ruled Busan. (Now retired from crime.)
Nari’s expression turned grim again. Of all things, a former criminal was one-sidedly claiming a connection to her mom.
‘...A gangster? What is this…? Did Mom crush his organization? Did she take hush money? Or did she save him?’
Wearing a grave look, she imagined scenarios that might link her mom to a gangster, then decided to ask Nan directly.
“Excuse me. What kind of relationship did you have with my mom that she signed a contract like this?”
Nan hesitated. He propped his chin and thought for a while, then stared off into the distance.
“I understand why you’d wonder. To start off, about twenty years ago… Miss Kang Hana…”
“Yes?”
“…hunted me.”
“You, my mom?!”
The revelation exploded out of nowhere. Nari yelped, then remembered they were in a columbarium and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Nan didn’t react. He only rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand. Seeing that, Nari hissed in a whisper.
“No, no, no, that makes no sense doesn’t it?! My mom wasn’t like that, okay? I was there back then, and she was close with my dad. How could that be an affair?”
“Even now, when it rains… the right shoulder that your mother’s blade pierced still throbs.”
“You meant that kind of hunting?!”
“Yes. The scar’s still there. Would you like to see it?”
Nan, who had been kneading his right shoulder, started to loosen his tie as if to show her right away.
“No thanks!!”
Horrified, Nari put the contract down and waved both hands.
“Sigh… I was completely destroyed by your mother….”
“Could you not say it like that!”
Flustered by this truly self-possessed man she’d never met before, Nari couldn’t hide her dismay. Nan closed his eyes and spoke dreamily.
“When I was at my worst… Miss Kang Hana heard my mother’s worries. She came to find me and personally put a knife into my right shoulder. After that I turned over a new leaf.”
He squeezed his eyes shut as if recalling a beautiful past. Nari stared, aghast.
To talk about being stabbed in the shoulder with such a romantic expression, he clearly wasn’t ordinary.
“Anyway, after taking your mother’s blade, I became a new man. Miss Kang Hana became the benefactor of my mother and me. Becoming your godfather was simply repaying that kindness.”