Chapter 226
The wound on the back of his neck.
The moment he heard those words, his hand was already reflexively touching the painful spot on the back of his neck.
Hastur's burning mark.
Evidence that he could use his power,
And a symbol that he had come under his sphere of influence.
To defeat villain Yurik who had existed in past cycles, Hastur's power was absolutely necessary.
Since there was only one person in the story who could oppose him,
He, as a supporting character and extra who didn't take up much weight in the plot, had to find a way to help from outside the story.
Therefore, Hastur's power to interfere with this world and modify roles and scripts even a little was truly a power suited to him.
...Of course, this was before he realized that the story didn't end even if he killed Yurik. "You said the wound is being drawn?"
"It's not bleeding, but it looks like a scab has formed after being wounded."
"There's no way Yesung would have something like that on his body- Ugh! It's real! Yesung, this keeps getting bigger. It looks exactly like a wound that's healing without properly recovering after being scratched by a poisonous scorpion!"
Tika, who had come next to Shan to look at the back of his neck, was disgusted again.
Since there was no mirror yet, he couldn't see it directly. Damn.
"Is it really getting bigger?"
"It's growing. At this rate it might go down to his back. Ah, it stopped! It just stopped here!"
Tika poked a corner of the back of his neck.
From the moment she said it had 'stopped,' he felt no more pain.
He thought for a moment, then slowly stood up from his spot.
"Oh, Yesung. Can you walk now? Are you okay? Really?"
"Tika is right. It would be better to rest a little more..."
"No. You two probably didn't hear it earlier, but that monster said this area was its territory. So I think it would be better to get away as quickly as possible."
If he met another Mi-Go, he couldn't guarantee whose hands his head would end up in.
He refused to have his skin peeled off again this time.
The two seemed to recall the Mi-Go as their expressions hardened completely and they nodded.
"Then that wound on your neck..."
"It's no problem for walking. I'm fine."
When he spoke stubbornly, Tika finally nodded.
Still, his vision was spinning and a terrible headache was tormenting him, so Shan and she supported him from both sides.
When they escaped from the forest, Tika said she would get their luggage first and come right back, then ran off.
Watching her quickly disappear, Shan carefully asked.
"Yesung, by any chance, is that wound... that? Is it because of one of the 'powers' you told us about in the desert? Did you have no choice but to use your power because of us?"
[Shan was genuinely worried about him. If he thought that this man who seemed to have lived eating porridge mixed with sand had just thrown himself for their sake, the self-loathing would be unbearable. He found his past self hateful for believing that everything would be roughly solved just by going to him...]
"Ah."
When they had talked in the desert,
He had been curious about what power he possessed. Whether it was the same as Anutara's, or something different.
He had told him that he had power obtained through 'some kind of deal' and said he couldn't use it carelessly.
Looking at the description behind Shan, it seemed this had been bothering him all along.
"It's true that the wound is related to my power. But it wasn't because of you two - when encountering Mi-Go, I had to do this. The timing was just moved up."
"Does it hurt more the more you use the power?"
"Mm, this isn't entirely my own power. It's power borrowed from a very frightening being. That wound earlier could be said to be evidence that the being gave me power."
"But why does it grow?"
"The more I use it, the bigger the evidence becomes. Think of it as me becoming more influenced by the frightening being."
"Then, then what happens?"
"...I would no longer be myself, right? I wouldn't die, but I might want to die instead."
"What?"
Shan's face became a mess of confusion and bewilderment.
But what he had said was the truth.
The more he used Hastur's power,
And the greater the influence of the story he set, the bigger the mark became,
And he would become more influenced as Hastur's 'ghostwriter' rather than the supporting character 'him' who existed in this novel.
If he forgot his duty as an insignificant supporting character and arbitrarily changed the story,
Wouldn't he become his faithful 'ghostwriter' and fall to the level of his complete minion and a 'Courtier in Yellow'?
In that respect, the painfully agonizing mark system was somewhat helpful.
Each time he used it, he could receive a warning that this power wasn't free.
"You're... joking, right?"
"I don't joke about things like this."
"After all, it's because we wandered around alone that Yesung was affected."
In the distance, Tika was running toward them carrying luggage on her back and in both hands, panting heavily.
Watching that sight, he smiled while being supported by Shan.
"It wasn't such a desperate feeling. Just, someone once asked me to pity others."
"Really? Who exactly? ...Are you saying that if there hadn't been that request, you wouldn't have saved us?"
"Well. Of course I would have tried to save you."
He would have saved them if he had seen them, but if he hadn't been able to, he didn't think he would have been very sad.
Was that a strange thought?
When Tika approached them and handed over the luggage, he glanced at Shan, who seemed somewhat disappointed for some reason.
[Shan felt strange. Perhaps he had been relying on him too much. Indeed, Anutara's teacher was a teacher.]
What was this description about? He really didn't understand the hearts of young people.
After meeting the Mi-Go, Shan and Tika became very well-behaved.
They never went far from him, and always stayed within his sight.
Thanks to this, they could go a little farther and faster.
It was thanks to the two's free time being completely eliminated.
He was comfortable and liked it, but it was somewhat unpleasant to see the two become dispirited.
Moreover, unlike the old days when Shan had been friendly, he now only circled around him.
He wanted to ask the reason, but somehow felt reluctant to do so, and after postponing it for a day or two... several months had already passed.
About 8 months since they had changed direction and altered their route to escape the Mi-Go territory.
Before their eyes was a vast ocean.
*
"Th, this is."
"It's called the ocean. By the way, seawater isn't the same as rain or lake water, it's incredibly..."
"Ptui, ptui ptui! My tongue hurts! What is this! It's like drinking a bowl of sweat!"
"...I was trying to tell you to be careful because it's salty."
Tika was indeed the type whose body moved before her mind.
The ocean hadn't changed from what he remembered, which was strangely reassuring.
Blue, deep water, waves that rolled in and out at regular intervals, white foam.
Humid, salty-smelling air and a coolly blowing wind.
"Can I go in? Is it okay? There's nothing dangerous here?"
"If it's just putting your feet in."
"Wow! Shan! Yesung said it's okay! You come here too! It's the ocean, this is the ocean! It's incredibly vast and huge and you can't see the end!"
Tika's laughter rang out high and clear.
Shan hesitated, looked at him once, then put down his luggage and ran to Tika.
The sea breeze scattered their dark blonde hair mixed with sparse brown strands.
Shan and Tika, who ran along the shoreline without caring about the coming and going waves, looked pure.
They moved away against the backdrop of fluttering clothes and sky as clear as the ocean,
And somehow looked like a scene that would never exist again in this world, so he stood there dazed.
'Ah, no.'
He had other things to do and didn't have time to be distracted elsewhere.
Like the two, he lifted his clothes that came to his ankles and carefully put his feet in the seawater.
As expected, the water wasn't as cold as the air.
After walking for 8 months and becoming certain that the temperature was gradually getting lower,
He had hoped that perhaps, but indeed it was as expected.
'It would take some time for ice to freeze here. How many years would it take?'
The planet made of gas, dust, and heat had been slowly cooling since its birth.
During Yurik's time, something like an ice age had come once,
And after the ice age ended, the climate seemed to be stabilizing considerably overall.
But that didn't mean it was exactly the same as the climate he knew.
The sky was still mild, and the air was warm as if it had permeated his skin.
It was an environment unsuitable for another god he knew would descend to this planet.
Even if the result of coming here was definite,
The important thing was when they would come.
'I was too hasty. It would have been fine to play around in Shambhala and come leisurely with Yurik.'
What should he do now?
He squatted down in that spot and fell into thought.
He couldn't return to Shambhala like this. Yurik would already be furious, and he didn't want to see that face.
And if he was going to go, Shan and Tika would have to return together too,
But even if he somehow got by, there was no guarantee that Yurik wouldn't take out his anger on the two as well.
He didn't want the two to suffer because of him, so while he was thinking blankly about what to do next.
"Yesung! The ocean is so wonderful, this is my first time seeing such big water. I really love the ocean-!"
"Is that so? Take your time playing."
"Can't we live here forever-? I'll be good from now on-!"
Tika shouted loudly from afar.
She was exactly like a child who had come to an amusement park for the first time and was struggling because she didn't want to go home at closing time.
He couldn't hide the laugh that leaked out and was about to say 'You need to make sense,'
...Wait a minute.
Wasn't this quite a good opinion?
The two wouldn't have to go home,
He could wait here until the weather got cold,
And he could avoid Yurik too.
This was completely killing three birds with one stone.
While he was thinking this way and that, the soaking wet Tika and Shan came running.
"Can't we live here? I want to live looking at the ocean every day."
"Make sense. Yesung must have a goal to go somewhere other than here. This is a midpoint."
"No, that's good."
"What?"
"What?"
"Living here, I mean. I think it's a good idea. It doesn't seem bad."
"Suddenly? Why?"
"That's really sudden. Here? Seriously?"
Shan and Tika's blue eyes widened in exactly the same way.
Well, so.
"I think I miscalculated the dates a bit. I thought it would be good to stay here for a while."
"What? How wrong were you?"
"I don't know exactly, but about ten..."
"Ten years? That's not much?"
"Ten million years."
"?"
"About ten million years."
"?"
The two stood with expressions of stopped thinking.
After what felt like 100 years of a few minutes, Shan quietly said.
"People without time concepts like Anutara, I really hate them..."