Chapter 83 - How to Escape From Being a Troublemaker (13)
“It turns out that I hate being lonely more than being in a bad environment.”
“…”
I answered the silent Choi Garam with a still smiling face.
“Yet the person in front of me is telling me outright that she will make me lonely again.”
“Nahyun, that’s…”
Right. I’m not a child. I won’t make a fuss.
“I know. Because the GAH filter is that important. It’s a masterpiece that staked Aunt’s entire career, and it’s a keepsake from Mom. For you to complete it, I would be annoying. So, I won’t be childish anymore.”
But I can cut ties with the person who neglects me.
“There is something more important than me. Just go. I’m fine now.”
“But you…!”
“As you said, I’m a particularly mature child. Don’t worry.”
That’s why, I don’t need you. Go away.
“Rather, come to me after you finish all your tasks. Otherwise I’ll never see you again.”
I hated anyone who made me realize again that Mom valued that filter more than me, and anyone who valued that filter more than me.
But I still like you.
“I will accept it when everything is finished.”
So, maybe, as time goes by and all these feelings fade away, I might be able to laugh with you calmly.
I left the room with those words. I didn’t really want to know what kind of expression Choi Garam was making.
“Haa…”
I totally ruined it. I sighed and looked up at the sky.
Now there was only one way left.
***
Anyway, you idiot, you should have at least asked her to pay for the orphanage’s operating expenses! You dealt with it emotionally unnecessarily.
I cursed at my past self.
Still, the after-sales service was solid. The hunters safely took me back to the orphanage.
“Thank you!”
I went into an orphanage.
The entrance is guarded by a hunter. So, I have to go to the dog hole. I never imagined that I would appreciate the needlessly porous walls of this orphanage.
I widened the hole further, glancing at the heads of the hunters sticking out from the wall facing outside. Dirt was all over my body.
At that moment, a hunter turned to look at me.
“…!”
Did I get caught? My body stiffened.
However, he just tilted his head and said one word.
“Play with dirt in moderation~”
It seemed that the hole wasn’t visible because it was covered by a tree.
“Phew…”
I breathed a sigh of relief and watched the hunters chatting among themselves, then slowly lowered myself into the hole.
As soon as I got out of the wall, I jumped into a back alley where there were no hunters.
My heart was pounding uncontrollably. I’m afraid of getting caught, afraid of something going wrong, I’m scared, so…
Many emotions were intertwined.
I walked carefully down the alley and ran in front of the wall I had noticed earlier.
I looked around, yet my surroundings was quiet and there was no one there. After hunters were deployed around the orphanage, criminals stopped gathering around the orphanage. So there were relatively few people passing around this wall.
I looked at the wall and recalled the novel. Recite a spell.
“The one who made the tower, the first creature that one made,”
I have nothing, and there’s only one thing I can offer to the Black Libra.
“The one who defines and changes the world, the one who is fairer than anyone else,”
Even as I recite the incantation without hesitation, another me is questioning myself in the back of my mind.
Is that really possible?
In fact, this isn’t really a novel, it’s like a parallel world, and the human being I am is fundamentally different from the main character of the novel, so isn’t the deal going through?
“I ask the Black Libra to make a deal.”
The moment I shook my head to try to get rid of the negative thoughts, darkness swallowed me up.
And before I knew it, I was standing in a vast, dark space.
I saw a door in front of me. Two large stone statues glared at me and stamped their feet.
“What to bet! What to take?”
“Those who are worthless, go back! What is worthless will be thrown away!”
I took a deep breath.
“I came to do business with you—!”
“What is mine?”
“Getting Gemini off the leash!”
Then a sweet laugh was heard from inside the door. The stone statue stood tall and stopped moving.
“Let her in.”
Then the door opened on both sides by itself.
Inside the door was a woman with a red veil covering her face. At first glance, only the silhouette of a woman holding a pipe was reflected in the veil. I swallowed dry saliva.
“How dare you, the little girl, say that you can solve my biggest problem?”
It’s the Black Libra.
The master of Libra who can exchange anything of value for anything.
A being that can warp time and space, and even partially control gates and towers, if the price is right.
This is a being that should never be made an enemy.
I opened my mouth, trying to calm my pounding heart.
“Yes. I can distinguish ‘Gemini’. I can break the leash of Heaven’s protection on them.”
“What is the basis?”
“Because I’m the soul of the second world.”
At my words, the Black Libra seemed to pause her hand holding the pipe for a moment and then thrust her body forward.
“What do you want in return for saving Gemini?”
A cool atmosphere surrounded the woman.
She was smiling and looking at me as if she was interested. It was a smile that seemed to be looking down on a lowly creature struggling.
I have to do well. I chose my words carefully.
“I want to issue citizenship to the teacher and all the children at the orphanage where I live and move them to a safe zone.”
This is what I most desperately desire at the moment.
I just hope that ‘saving Gemini’ is judged to have enough value to make my wish come true.
“Hmm. Alright. Make your wish on a scale.”
When Black Libra clapped her hands, the shadow of a huge scale appeared on the wall.
Beep, thump!
The sound of something huge falling down in the empty air was heard, and the balance’s shadow tilted sharply to one side.
She laughed softly.
“Goodness, you have change left. Tell me one more wish.”
“Then…”
I think about how I was kidnapped. I think about how the children were almost sold.
This world is too dirty a place for us young and weak people to live in.
“Please make sure that the teacher and all the children at my orphanage never get involved with criminal groups.”
So I hope you guys are safe.
“Alright. But you’re an exception. The soul from the second world always brings storms.”
When Black Libra moved the pipe, the balance moved. The balance is now completely horizontal.
“Well, that only applies if you really come from another world.”
She chuckled and leaned back against the backrest again, blowing out smoke.
Cold air surrounded me.
As if asking how dare I be here.
Despite the cold energy surrounding me, I tried to stand upright and not lose.
“Everything will come true if you pay the price you offer. But if you can’t, you know what I’ll take, right?”
I nodded at those words.
“I know.”
Nevertheless, I’m here.
Because the things I fear are incomparable to having something taken away by Black Libra.
I like those who love me. I like those I love.
And it’s scary to lose loved ones and become lonely.
“Alright, that’s good then. Come out, Gemini.”
So I decided that if I couldn’t save them, it would be better to die here.
I chewed my lips.
I heard giggling laughter. It was the sound of children laughing. Light footsteps were heard. It was the sound of two children walking.
“Hello!”
“Hello, hello!”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you!”
The voices of the two children, Gemini, overlap. Gemini spun around in a circle around me and made a fuss.
“Goodness!”
“My goodness!”
“It’s real,”
“It’s real!”
At those words, Black Libra rested her chin and spoke.
“Hmm? So you’re really a soul from another world? Good for you, Gemini.”
“Mmhm.”
“Mmhm!”
Gemini each held one of my hands and said,
“Find—”
“—the truth!”
A magic circle emerged from the hand connected to Gemini. Then my mouth started moving of its own accord.
“The nickname of the beginning is the hand that builds the tower.”
Gemini jumped up and down at my words.
“You’re right!”
“That’s correct!”
Either way, my mouth was out of control and spewed out words.
“The original true names were Lev on the left hand, and Rito on the right.”
“Yeah!”
“Great!”
“Next?”
“Next?”
“The end of Heaven’s covenant has come, and the hands that were one become two again.”
Then, black magic bloomed for Lev on my left, and white magic bloomed for Rito on my right.
“And so the promise of the person who built the tower ends here.”
There was no sound. But it seemed like there was a sound of something breaking.
The moment I felt that, Gemini’s faces lit up.
“At last!”
“Finally!”
“There are two of us!”
What’s changed?
Even after the swirling black and white magic subsided, nothing much changed on the outside.
Gemini left me like that and circled around me. They were jumping around, smiling brightly and spinning faster and faster, trapping me in their arms and shouting.
“This is great!”
“Right! Now it’s like—”
“—we can go around separately!”
That’s great.
But I heard that Gemini, as described in the novel, always sticks together.
Is this really a meaningful act? I was so dumbfounded that I burst out laughing.
Black Libra laughed when she saw such us and said.
“Fufu, you paid the right price, soul of the other world.”
I suddenly raised my head and looked up at the black scale. She declared in a soft voice.
“The contract has been concluded. Everything will come true.”
I succeeded in saving everyone.
And the space became blurred.
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye!”
When I came to my senses, I was standing in front of the wall with the pattern again.
I looked around in a dazed mood and ran back to the orphanage.
I’ll find out tomorrow if I really did it, or if it was just a midday dream created by a desperate wish.
But fortunately, Black Libra’s promise came true.
***
The next day, it was a government official who came to our orphanage.
They had the audacity to say that the decision had been made to give citizenship to all of us. However, adoption became difficult, so they decided to move us to a safe area instead.
As they said that, they kept looking at me.
It’s Black Libra. I realized it all at once.
They said they had purchased a suitable building and urged us to pack up within a week.
The children and teacher were bewildered, but more than that, they were happy. I grinned as I watched the children packing their bags with joy.
So we safely moved to a safe zone.
And on the day when I moved to a safe zone and realized that this situation wasn’t a dream but reality, Fox came to me and asked.
“What on earth did you use?”
I shrugged my shoulders slyly.
“Dunno?”