“Ha………….”
As soon as I got home, Jin disappeared, and I immediately collapsed onto my bed.
Actually, even when Jin didn’t disappear, I had been lying down as soon as I got home these days, but today, I really felt like I had to lie down.
[Is this about a love problem this time?]
The moment I lay down, Sahin appeared and asked, sitting on a chair with his legs crossed.
I just nodded while lying down.
Although it wasn’t exactly about the half-blood issue, I had received a confession after all, so it was a love problem.
[Could it be because of that sunflower earlier?]
[How did you know?]
[You looked troubled from then on.]
Even though Sahin was hiding in my shadow, he somehow perfectly sensed my mood.
[That human, he was sincere.]
Red, unusually serious, took Do Ihyun’s side.
Judging by his expression, he seemed deeply moved by the confession lines.
Maybe that’s what being a world’s commander means.
Do they really bend their arms inward?
Red flew over to me, eyes sparkling brightly, fluttering his tiny wings as he spoke.
[Right now, I like that human more than my lord’s lover!]
[Why? The half-blood’s confession wasn’t bad… no, it was similar to Do Ihyun’s.]
The half-blood had poured out his true feelings in great detail with all his heart, while Do Ihyun confessed plainly—that was the only difference.
[No, my lord said it himself. The sun is up high, and we can’t reach it. It means he loves our lord that much.]
[Hmm……….. That’s probably not what he meant.]
At that moment, Vishap, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, poked Red and flew in front of me.
[What matters most is the lord’s feelings! Can’t you tell just by looking? The lord is completely head over heels for that black-haired human with the blue light!]
Head over heels, really.
Feeling embarrassed, I rolled around on the bed and covered my face.
[See? It’s obvious.]
I heard Bishap’s confident voice as he looked at me like that.
[A confession received while already having a lover is invalid. It’s best for your mind and body to treat it as if it never happened.]
Sahin watched the two dragons with a “can’t help them” expression, then stood up from the chair and grabbed Red and Vishap’s tails, pulling them toward himself.
He then gave firm advice.
[Have you ever been through a situation like this?]
Suddenly, I became curious about love history in society.
Since it was my first time with love, everything was new and difficult, but Sahin didn’t seem that way.
Sahin listened to my question and answered calmly.
[I’ve been through it a lot. I was somewhat popular.]
[Ah, I see. Well, you are good-looking.]
I was about to ask about the kinds of relationships he’d had, but a thought came to me too late, and I shut my mouth.
‘Did I kill all of Sahin’s ex-girlfriends?’
Commanders were souls that could only be summoned by killing monsters.
Usually, killing a boss monster meant killing other monsters in that dungeon as well.
It had been the same when I first met Sahin.
I didn’t know how many dark elves I had killed in the dungeon.
Of course, they were monsters attacking us, so it was unavoidable, but thinking about the monsters I had bonded with, like Sahin, made me feel guilty.
Sahin, who looked puzzled at my sudden solemnity, spoke firmly again.
[It’s best to forget about this quickly. Shake it off.]
“That’s right, I have to shake it off………….”
Following society’s advice, I tried to shake off my restless feelings and closed my eyes.
For some reason, I didn’t think I would fall asleep easily tonight.
***
‘Today is the day.’
Several days had passed since Do Ihyun confessed to me.
During that time, I had discussed one thing with the half-blood.
When to tell my friends about the future that Kang Yedam had revealed.
I couldn’t hide it forever.
The more people who knew about the future, the better we could prevent any possible bad outcomes in advance.
Maybe a solution that hadn’t come up when we put our heads together could come from my friends’ ideas.
I looked up and checked the clock on the wall.
I still had to sit through this period and one more before lunchtime.
I had planned to buy bread at the convenience store during lunch and go to the rooftop to talk, but I was itching to speak sooner.
[Leg.]
I must have been shaking my leg without realizing it.
The half-blood wrote ‘Leg’ on my desk with a mechanical pencil and pointed at my trembling leg with its tip.
“Ah.”
I stopped shaking my leg and checked the clock again.
There were about five minutes left before break time.
[Want to go to the rooftop after class?]
Noticing how eager I was to talk, the half-blood suggested skipping class.
‘Ah, I may not be good at studying, but I’m a model student who follows the rules.’
I nodded, signaling my agreement.
Making a circle with his thumb and index finger, the half-blood wrote a note and flipped it back and forth. The note said to go to the rooftop after class.
Han Jibin and Ji Kanghan nodded in agreement as they turned around. Yeon Ha-yeon and Eun Bada wrote a reply and passed it to us.
[oo]
A brief reply.
Since Eun Bada usually didn’t respond like this, it must have been Yeon Ha-yeon who wrote it.
As soon as class ended, we headed to the rooftop.
Maybe because we hadn’t been using it much recently, some students who usually didn’t come to the rooftop were sitting around, chatting.
‘Shinse-na?’
Looking closely, it was Shin Sena’s group.
As soon as Shin Sena noticed us entering, she stood up abruptly, dusted off her skirt, and said primly,
“Hmph, hmph. Should we go to the convenience store?”
I’d heard she had switched to another guy after following the half-blood around and then hearing that I was dating him.
‘Her new boyfriend was probably Yeon Hyeong-gwang, right?’
I remembered Yeon Hyeong-gwang complaining with a weary expression about how Shin Sena kept chasing after him.
He was the type who rarely talked like that about girls who liked him.
How did Shin Sena manage to make even Yeon Hyeong-gwang surrender?
‘No annoying troubles for me, so I’m fine.’
Thanks to Shin Sena giving up quickly, we were spared pointless power struggles.
As soon as Shin Sena’s group left, we headed to the spot on the rooftop where we usually sat and hung out.
It was a corner of the rooftop with several chairs placed upside down on desks.
We lifted the chairs, placed them properly, and sat split between the desks and chairs as usual.
“Are you hungry?”
Yeon Ha-yeon took a lollipop out of his pocket and handed one to each of us.
The flavor was, as expected, yogurt.
We enjoyed the summer sunlight while sucking on the lollipops.
After spending some time like this, I planned to bring up the topic slowly.
Since it was still break time and the school was noisy, I thought it would be better to wait until class started and it got quieter.
Ding dong ding dong—
The class bell rang, and the school, which had been noisy like a marketplace, suddenly quieted down.
Exchanging glances with the half-blood, I hesitated but cautiously started talking.
“Do you believe in regression?”
Nervously, I blurted out the wrong line.
I had meant to ask if they believed in regression since they knew I was possessed, but it came out like I was trying to convert them.
Like I was trying to recruit them for some religion, the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon just blinked their eyes.
“Regression means going back in time from the future, right?!”
Fortunately, the silence didn’t last long.
Han Jibin shouted with sparkling eyes, as if saying, ‘I know what regression is!’
“That’s right, that’s right.”
I gave Han Jibin a thankful look and told them what Kang Yedam had told me.
If these guys learned about the future too, that would make eight people in total who knew.
‘That’s quite a lot.’
If eight people put their heads together, maybe they could find a way to change the future if I failed the quest.
Since Kang Yedam had experienced everything, he would know best, and the others were all high-ranking and smart kids too.
After I finished, my friends’ reactions varied.
“They all die……..”
Yeon Ha-yeon seemed deeply shocked, muttering only, ‘They all die.’ Then he clapped his hands once and shouted cheerfully,
“We just have to find a solution!”
When had he been so gloomy about the fact that everyone dies?
This was more like the Yeon Ha-yeon I knew.
Of course, although everyone would come back to life at the cost of me disappearing, thinking only about the resurrection didn’t make me feel positive.
Ka.
When I mentioned that I would disappear, he jumped in surprise and grabbed my hand tightly, saying no way.
“Has the quest made any progress? Just in case, we should make several plans.”
Eun Bada, being a planner, asked about the quest’s progress and suggested making multiple plans.
“……As long as we can somehow succeed in the quest.”
Ji Kanghan’s attitude was ambiguous—whether he was as positive as Yeon Ha-yeon or just didn’t take the situation too seriously, I couldn’t tell.
“Dana will………… disappear?”
Han Jibin unexpectedly didn’t say it brightly but worried about my disappearance.
“The future can be changed. I will never disappear.”
When Han Jibin said that, it made me speak confidently instead.
I looked around at the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon and said,
“That’s why you all have to help. To change the future.”
Seeing my determined expression, the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon nodded solemnly together.
“This is a bit awkward to say it’s thanks to you, but……”
Then Han Jibin cautiously brought up something.
“Because of what happened, we found out Dana’s true identity, which ended up helping a lot. Of course, that doesn’t mean Chun Yeonju did a good job.”
Now that I thought about it, it was because of Chun Yeonju that my friends knew my identity.
Thinking back on that made my teeth grit.