How to get on the protagonist’s flower path

The trickster was now sinking without even struggling.

I quickly swam over and grabbed him before he went under. His eyes were already somewhat glazed.

I realized that he had been underwater for quite a while. He must have consumed a lot of oxygen in his panic.

I gritted my teeth. He can’t die! If you die here, what will happen to this world? What about my family?!

There was no choice. I desperately kissed him.

Mouth to mouth, my warm breath poured into him.

After a moment, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a large hand that had begun to develop some calluses.

Seeing that he seemed to regain consciousness, I immediately broke the kiss. He was looking at me with clear eyes. Upon seeing me, he seemed relieved and managed a weak smile. He relaxed his whole body and leaned against me.

Get a grip! I hugged him tightly and started swimming toward the surface.

Finally, I saw the shining sun.

“Puhah—!”

As I burst through the surface, holding the limp trickster in my arms, everyone looked at us in shock.

I spoke to my bewildered friends with a dazed expression.

“Yuhan can’t swim! He swallowed water!”

It was too far to swim directly to the beach with the trickster. I shouted to Choi Soo-jung.

“Soo-jung! Get him to the beach right now!”

“Got it!”

Soo-jung seemed very surprised and quickly moved everyone to the beach.

The trickster was unconscious.

Shin Ba-ran, with a serious expression on his face, brought a doctor.

“He’s breathing, but he’s unconscious…”

I anxiously led the doctor over to the trickster.

The doctor checked him over and started performing emergency treatment.

Before long, the trickster suddenly coughed up water and regained consciousness.

“Cough, cough!”

“Yuhan, are you awake?”

When he saw me, he mumbled, “Is this heaven…?”

Then he closed his eyes again.

“Stay awake!”

Of course, the doctor interrupted him before he could fall asleep again.

Fortunately, the trickster quickly regained consciousness, and after examining him once more, the doctor concluded that there were no major issues and left.

Even so, our worries didn’t stop.

“Are you okay? Is there anywhere that feels uncomfortable?”

When I asked anxiously, the trickster nodded.

“I’m fine. More importantly… everyone can go and have fun.”

Just in case, he decided to rest for a while under the parasol.

I stayed close to the trickster.

He wouldn’t really be in bad shape, would he? He can’t die.

My concern for the trickster was intertwined with various factors, but… personally, I thought it wouldn’t leave a good taste in my mouth either. After all, it had been quite some time since we had formed this connection.

“… You were swimming just fine, though?”

At that moment, Nayu-ri’s small voice chilled the atmosphere around us.

She was looking at the trickster with a darker expression than his own. His face quickly turned serious.

“What’s going on with you lately? It’s like your personality has changed all of a sudden.”

“… The truth is, I have partial memories—”

Just as the trickster was about to say something, Nayu-ri turned her head.

“Forget it. It’s probably just another one of your fancy, polished excuses.”

What should I do?

Unable to handle the chilling atmosphere, I rolled my eyes around. Everyone else sat in silence, carefully observing the situation.

The silence was suddenly broken by Choi Su-jeong. She clapped her hands and said, “Nyahaa! You two can talk about your stuff later! So, how should we have fun with the beer bottles in the sea~?”

Then, Lee Ha-na raised her hand.

“Let’s put on tubes or life jackets.”

“Sounds good~!”

Min Jae-yoon chimed in, “It seems safer to wear both…!”

And so, the trickster ended up entering the water wrapped in tubes and a life jacket like armor.

He looked extremely dissatisfied, but everyone turned a blind eye. Of course, I did too. Safety first!

Meanwhile, Lee Ha-na pondered alone for a moment and then created a slide that looked like it belonged in a water park made of ice.

“How about this?”

“Wow!”

“Impressive!”

“Awesome, senior! This beauty…!”

Amid the shower of compliments, Lee Ha-na became shy but continued to make various play equipment.

We enjoyed playing on the completed rides, relishing the cold sensation of the ice against our skin. As we gained some height, the scenery became even more vivid in our eyes.

As the trickster climbed up, he stumbled and almost fell, but Lee Ha-na caught him.

“Yuhan! Are you okay?”

“I’m weak…”

“…”

The trickster’s weakness didn’t end there.

Next, Choi Su-jeong created waves with her wind magic. Everyone was swept away on their tubes by the waves.

Su-jeong intermittently made huge waves, laughing at our soaked appearances.

I saw Su-jeong grabbing the trickster as he was helplessly being carried away.

“Yuhan is getting further away!”

“I’ve got him~.”

“…”

After playing in the sea for a while, as the sun began to set in the west, we decided to play beach volleyball.

Somehow, everyone ended up using their skills, turning the beach into a chaotic scene. The trickster, being physically the weakest, was hit by the ball and fell down.

“Yuhan!!!”

In the end, the trickster became the referee.

Despite all that, the ball remained intact. Later, when I checked the manual, it said it was for awakened ones only.

“Still, it was fun, right?”

After a moment of silence, the trickster replied, “…Yeah.”

By evening, we all had a barbecue together.

I chewed on the well-grilled meat that Park Si-woo made. Occasionally, I handed a few pieces of meat to the trickster.

Normally, Nayu-ri would come over to me while keeping an eye on the trickster, but today she seemed different.

She looked deep in thought, occasionally spacing out while adjusting the fire and even accidentally burning the meat.

Seeing her in such a complicated state of mind, the trickster made a strange expression. I decided to ignore it and said brightly, “How about we do a courage test tomorrow?”

At my words, Shin Ba-ran stiffened, and Min Jae-yoon’s face lit up.

“Do we really have to…?”

“Courage test…! I’ll look for a haunted spot!”

In the meantime, Lee Ha-na, glancing at Nayu-ri, spoke up.

“Scuba diving.”

“That’s right! We decided to go scuba diving too!”

Hearing this, the trickster smiled and said, “Scuba diving, huh? That’s great. It just so happens that the place we’re going to tomorrow is similar to diving.”

“Diving?”

I asked, and the trickster nodded.

“I’ll start the briefing after we finish eating.”

So, after we devoured all the meat, we listened to the trickster explain the dungeon inside the gate where we’d be exploring tomorrow, all while roasting marshmallows and sweet potatoes over the campfire.

“It sounds simple! Right, Yu-ri?”

“Yeah? …Yeah.”

A sense of unease began to creep in.

Normally, Nayu-ri would have thrown in a comment or two, but today she just silently watched the trickster as he conducted the briefing.

A crack was slowly starting to show itself.

***

The next day.

“Is this the right place?”

“Yeah.”

We walked along the sea route, heading toward a rocky cliff where waves were crashing violently.

The trickster asked Choi Su-jeong for help, and she used her wind magic to move us between the cliffs to a certain space.

Looking down at the uniquely shaped stone path created by nature, I couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.

The sight of light streaming down between the dark cliffs was beautiful.

As we walked, the trickster said, “If we walk a bit further, there’s a cave. Inside that cave, there’s a passage leading to the gate, and within it, there’s a stationary dungeon, specifically an item dungeon.”

“But is our gear enough for this?”

When Nayu-ri asked, the trickster simply replied, “Yeah. It’s not a frontal assault mob, so it’ll be fine.”

We were wearing simple gear over our swimsuits and had pockets as well.

Today’s gate exploration was part of our Gate Treasure Exploration Club activities.

Rule number three of the Gate Treasure Exploration Club: Any by-products from the exploration must be entrusted to the manager before distribution.

It seemed that the trickster intended to maintain this rule going forward.

“Let’s go.”

He said confidently. At his signal, we jumped into the gate, which resembled the surface of water.

The cold sensation of water penetrated my entire body, and a scenery reminiscent of the sea unfolded before my eyes.

“You don’t need to hold your breath.”

At the trickster’s words, I cautiously inhaled.

As he said, it was indeed a sea where we could breathe.

I didn’t feel like I was swimming underwater. Rather, it felt like being in a state of weightlessness; I wondered if this was what it would feel like to float in space.

As I briefly stumbled while trying to get my bearings, the trickster gently supported my body.

“You’ll need some tips. I’ll help you.”

He was wearing a somewhat smug smile, which annoyed me. I hid my urge to grumble and took his hand.

By the time everyone had roughly grasped how to move, the trickster said, “Let’s get moving!”

We began to step forward, observing our surroundings.

***

A young man with pointed ears spoke gently.

“Are you really planning to eliminate them?”

In response, a young man with tiger-like ears growled, “The fewer dangers, the better.”

At this, the young man with pointed ears chuckled and replied, “Well, I agree with Yul-han’s opinion… It’s better to use what can be utilized rather than eliminate everything just because it’s a danger, right?”

“So? Are we going back?”

As the young man with tiger ears growled, the young man with pointed ears lightly shook his head.

“No, that’s not…