TCF 705

Rosalyn’s mind became as complicated as knotted threads.

“Choi Han, who is this person? No, what does he mean by that?”

Unfortunately, Choi Han was in no state to answer Rosalyn’s question.

“…Is this an illusion as well?”

‘Team leader Lee Soo Hyuk. Why would this person suddenly appear here? Was this not an illusion based on my past from two years ago? And what else did he say? Cale-nim is a ghost and is here? He’s standing right next to me?’

– Mm.

Lee Soo Hyuk seemed worn out, as he had a tired smile on his face. He looked at Choi Han and the two people he did not recognize as if he was in an awkward position.

Of course, he could see Cale, who was fine but was a ghost for everybody else, relaxedly sitting on a chair with his legs crossed.

Cale started speaking and Lee Soo Hyuk soon followed.

– Cale says he expected this reaction. He doesn’t like to drag things out, so he wants you to listen carefully.

Rosalyn suddenly had a thought.

‘That sounds like young master Cale.’

Lee Soo Hyuk spoke slowly, but in a low voice that made it hard to miss anything he said.

– ‘I planned on keeping my promise with the children and leave after five minutes the first time I entered the temple.’

Lee Soo Hyuk was looking at what seemed to be nothing with a disgruntled expression before he shook his head and continued.

– ‘However, I planned on not telling anybody and going to the end on my own to take care of everything after that. I am in here because I couldn’t leave the temple for some reason.’

Huuuuu.

He sighed and continued speaking.

– Is what he wants me to tell you.

Rosalyn subconsciously made a comment.

“It sounds too much like one of young master Cale’s plan.”

– He is nodding his head while saying, ‘As expected of Miss Rosalyn.’ Oh and little Han, he is telling you not to bring the children here.

Choi Han looked toward the empty space, to be more specific, toward the chair by the table that Lee Soo Hyuk kept looking at every so often.

“…Cale-nim is here?”

– Little Han, Cale is currently smiling with one corner of his lips twisted up.

Shhhhh.

An oddly shaking pair of green eyes shoved themselves in front of the cintamani at that moment.

“Who are you?”

– ‘Clopeh, move away.’ Is what he wants me to tell you.

“Haaaaa.”

Lee Soo Hyuk sighed.

– I shouldn’t have agreed to do this. Cale, this is quite the hassle.

“Then, who are you?”

Rosalyn asked Lee Soo Hyuk, but Choi Han answered. He made eye contact with Lee Soo Hyuk before he responded and Lee Soo Hyuk had slightly nodded his head.

“You know that the test Cale-nim took was about despair, right? That test was going into a terrible situation in another world and overcoming that despair.”

Lee Soo Hyuk observed Choi Han with an odd gaze. Cale was looking at Choi Han as well.

“This person is one of the people we met from that world.”

Choi Han gestured with his hand toward Lee Soo Hyuk before pointing to the cintamani.

“This orb is a cintamani that we got after defeating one of the unranked monsters, the Electric Eel. It allows us to communicate with them.”

Rosalyn immediately had questions, but did not ask anything after seeing the look on Choi Han’s face. They had a mountain of other more pressing issues right now.

Lee Soo Hyuk suddenly started to speak.

– For your information, this cintamani was brought here by Cale himself. It is the only thing that has not been ghostfied. Hmm? What did you say, Cale?

Lee Soo Hyuk seemed to be listening for a moment.

– Ah, ah.

He continued to speak with quite the awkward expression, as if he now understood it.

– He wants me to tell you that it was given by the mother**ing God of Death, which he believes is the reason it was able to overcome the illusion created by the even greater mother**er, the sealed god.

Rosalyn said her thoughts once again.

“That’s definitely young master Cale.”

This word choice was definitely Cale’s.

There were a few people around her who would call gods mother**ers, but this tone… This was definitely the tone frequently used by young master Cale.

She then asked something that suddenly came to her mind.

“Then was it really the White Star who took the shield power?”

– Ah, that-

The moment Lee Soo Hyuk looked at Rosalyn and was about to speak…

– Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

An alarm went off inside the cintamani. Lee Soo Hyuk immediately stood up. They could then see the view inside the cintamani.

“Hmm?”

The cintamani screen had been covered by Lee Soo Hyuk’s body such that they had not been able to see anything else.

‘Huh?’

Choi Han rubbed his eyes with his hand.

‘T, the Dark Tiger?’

The Dark Tiger was wagging its tail while looking at the cintamani. The moment Choi Han thought he made eye contact with the Tiger… The tiger started to smile.

‘That smile… Those actions… The way he is waving his front paw around…’

“No way-!”

The Tiger shook his head to tell Choi Han not to say anything else.

Choi Han could not say anything. He shouted internally instead.

‘Is that his highness?!’

Choi Han had seen both the regular Dark Tiger and the Alberu possessed Dark Tiger that he was about ninety percent certain that this was Alberu right now.

– Little Han, why are you suddenly clutching your head? Do you have a headache?

Lee Soo Hyuk warmly asked but Choi Han had not heard him.

At that moment…

Click.

They heard a door open and someone else walked in.

– It looks like we need to make a tag.

Lee Soo Hyuk headed toward the door with a happy look on his face.

– I leave the rest to you. It’s time for me to go.

He waved toward the cintamani.

– Little Han, it was nice seeing you again after so long. Nice to meet the two of you as well. Cale, see you later.

Although he was saying goodbye in a relaxed manner, he had already pulled out his sword.

Clopeh and Rosalyn’s eyes clouded over after seeing the sword. The blade was clean and looked sharp, but there were lots of dents on the handle.

The mood around the man they were looking at changed the moment he pulled out his sword. It felt so sharp that even getting around him would give them cuts.

But they could not look at him for a long time. The person who sat down where Lee Soo Hyuk had been sitting started speaking.

– Kim Rok Soo, tagged in. I am twenty years old. I will continue delivering Cale Henituse’s messages.

He then slightly nodded his head to Choi Han to greet him.

Rosalyn looked at Kim Rok Soo and thought that this person had an extremely similar yet oddly different vibe from young master Cale.

– Pfft.

Kim Rok Soo suddenly laughed.

– Ah, please excuse me. Cale Henituse keeps laughing so I ended up laughing as well.

– Boom, boom.

The Black Tiger with a lion’s mane stomped on the ground a few times with his front paw. They could feel that he did not like this situation without him saying anything.

However, all of them were too focused on something else to pay him any attention. Everybody other than Cale, who was looking at Alberu, who had a high quality gun on his side that Park Jin Tae brought over after claiming that he picked it up on his way with a disrespectful gaze.

– I will deliver Cale Henituse’s words if you explain the situation over there.

Choi Han thought for a moment and responded to Kim Rok Soo.

“We went to rescue the children one by one when we noticed that the Man Eating Tree was white.”

He reported things one by one to the ghostfied Cale who should be listening to them.

He talked about how the person who turned the tree white was someone who was wearing a mask, that they believed it was the White Star, how he took the shield power but they didn’t know why, etc.

Choi Han explained everything they had experienced and everything he had thought about, and once he was done sharing everything… Choi Han, who was looking into the empty air, could hear Kim Rok Soo’s voice.

– The real White Star is currently sealed and imprisoned by Cale Henituse.

“Hmm?”

“What did you say?”

Clopeh and Rosalyn’s eyes opened wide at this new information. They knew that Cale had fought against and defeated the White Star, but they had not known about where and how he had been imprisoned.

“Are you saying that young master Cale has sealed the White Star and is carrying him around right now?”

– He says yes.

Kim Rok Soo continued speaking in a business-like tone.

– Cale Henituse says that he is also able to communicate with crown prince Alberu Crossman, who is outside the temple right now.

How was that possible? Choi Han wanted to ask that, but Kim Rok Soo continued speaking so quickly that he had no time to do so.

– According to the crown prince, the God of Death’s priestess shared with him the message, ‘Do not stop the god’s game.’

“Miss Cage……?”

“Game?”

The group showed different reactions.

However, they all stared into the cintamani after hearing what came next.

– Cale Henituse believes that the god or the god’s puppet is currently acting as the White Star.

They subconsciously turned toward the empty chair.

It was where Cale was supposedly sitting right now. Kim Rok Soo chuckled after seeing something and continued in a serious tone.

On that point, Choi Han should know this already, but… In this test, there is a starting point to overcome the despair or sadness. I guess you can call it the goal.

In the sealed god’s test that Cale had experienced… The goal was to overcome his despair and continue moving forward, and the starting point of that… The goal was to take down the first unranked monster, the Electric Eel.

“…That means.”

Choi Han quietly mumbled almost as if he was gasping.

“…My goal, no… Our goal is…?”

– We would not be in the same illusion if it was based on each person’s despair or sadness. However, we are all in the same illusion. That means that the goal has to be something that every person who is participating in the test wishes for.

A goal that we all might have.

That was simple.

– Everybody wants to get rid of the illusion, and in order to do that, the existence that created the illusion… You need to get rid of the temple or the sealed god, the owner of the temple.

Kim Rok Soo asked a question.

No, it was a question from Cale Henituse.

– Getting out of this place, out of this despair, and stopping the sealed god. Although the reason for it may be different, isn’t that all of our goals?

All of them showed their agreement through silence.

Cale, Choi Han, Rosalyn, and even Clopeh.

They had experienced different sadness and despair in their lives. However, with all of them taking this test together…

Although the reasons for it were different, their goals were the same.

– According to Cale Henituse… When taking a test and overcoming it… There is a law that prevents even the gods from meddling in the test.

The moment Cale defeated the despair the sealed god brought down on him… The God of Despair had to let Cale go without being able to hold him back.

That was a law of the test.

This should be similar to that.

“Because of that-”

Rosalyn started speaking.

“Our fundamental shared goal could be the sealed god. We need to catch that god.”

In order to do that-

“Either the god or something that would allow us to reach the god needs to be in here.”

If their goal, the foundation that is causing this despair, is not here, then it could not be called a test.

This all meant that the sealed god or this temple existed somewhere in this illusion.

– That’s right.

Kim Rok Soo seemed to be looking at nothing as he continued speaking.

– For your reference, Cale Henituse believes that the chances of this hypothesis being correct are high because the White Star came in here sealed.

He and the White Star… Although the directions of their goals are different, it all comes back to meeting or defeating the sealed god.

The White Star’s goal was to meet the sealed god and to do whatever he could to become a god.

Cale needed to meet the sealed god to seal him forever.

Basically, both wanted to meet and go against the sealed god.

They were both scared or worried that their despair would become reality if they didn’t.

Cale and the White Star. They both needed to take care of the sealed god in order to overcome the despair or sadness in their hearts and to make sure it does not come to fruition.

“I guess we should see the person acting differently from the past and against our expectations to be a god or a god’s puppet.”

– That’s right.

Rosalyn nodded her head a few times as if she was organizing her thoughts as she made herself accept the situation. It was similar for Choi Han.

“But you see…”

However, one person… Clopeh Sekka shoved his face toward the cintamani again.

“Does the fact that young master Cale-nim passed the test in your world mean that he was able to overcome your despair?”

Hmm?

Kim Rok Soo blankly stared at Clopeh’s face that was shoved in front of the cintamani and nodded his head.

– That’s right.

“Is young master Cale-nim a hero?”

Kim Rok Soo flinched at this next question that came almost immediately and gently responded.

– That is correct. Cale Henituse is a hero.

“As I expected!”

-……?

Kim Rok Soo looked confused but Clopeh tightly clenched his hand that was holding the table.

“As expected, the true legend can surpass time and space. Even the gods cannot do anything about it.”

His green eyes were sparkling. Kim Rok Soo slowly moved away from the cintamani feeling iffy. Clopeh did not seem to care about it at all.

“Hoo hoo. Even a god will not be able to take away what belongs to a hero. We must block it.”

The twenty years old Kim Rok Soo spoke almost in a sigh while looking at the mumbling Clopeh.

– …He’s even worse than Mr. Joo Ho-Shik.

“Ahem.”

Rosalyn gently pushed Clopeh back and stood in front of Kim Rok Soo.

“Can you tell us what direction young master Cale is thinking of doing things? I don’t know whether it is the sealed god or something else, but it sounds like the White Star in this illusion is trying to take young master Cale’s powers.”

– This is what Cale said.

Kim Rok Soo flinched while looking at one corner of Cale’s mouth going up.

Cale’s eyes were sparkling for a different reason than Clopeh.

“Yes, please tell us.”

– To say it exactly as he said it… ‘It will be difficult for Miss Rosalyn as a mage, and I’m not sure about Mary. The other two.’

Kim Rok Soo pointed at Choi Han and Clopeh.

– ‘You two take my ancient powers.’

“Excuse me?”

As Choi Han’s eyes opened in shock… Clopeh’s body started shaking.

– …You want me to tell them exactly as you said it?

Kim Rok Soo looked at Cale and Clopeh back and forth as if he saw something odd before continuing to speak.

– ‘Choi Han, you’ll be able to do it easily.’

Kim Rok Soo caught his breath before continuing to speak with an expression that looked very similar to Cale’s.

– ‘Clopeh, you’ll get to create a legend with your own hands. Doesn’t that sound great? I will allow it. Take the hero’s powers and create a path to become a legend at least in this illusion. What do you think? Do you like it?’

“Keke.”

Clopeh’s body was shaking.

“I knew it, I knew it! It was a great idea to come along!”

Clopeh quickly calmed down before a calm yet concerned smile appeared on his face as he responded.

He talked toward the chair where he couldn’t see anyone but knew that Cale was sitting there.

“I will make sure to create a legend in this place. Kekeke.”

He then moved back and laughed like a crazy bastard by himself. Rosalyn finally realized that Clopeh was a crazy person.

– ‘Ah, also. Share it nicely with Toonka. You need to maintain balance.’ Is what he said.

Uhh-

Kim Rok Soo flinched once more before sighing and continuing. He repeated Cale’s words word for word to the others.

– ‘These are your tasks from here.’

The expressions on the faces of the others changed.

– ‘Starting with the fake White Star. Find him and destroy him. Simple, right?’

Kim Rok Soo continued in a stoic expression.

– That is what he said.

– Pfft.

The Dark Tiger in the back was wagging his tail and laughing.

Kim Rok Soo was silent for a moment before sharing his thoughts.

– Are you sure this is a test? It sounds more like a hunt for the sealed god.

Kim Rok Soo tapped on the table with his index finger as he spoke.

– …I don’t think this is the picture the sealed god had on his mind. I guess the chances of it going as the sealed god planned were high if this cintamani did not exist. You would not have been able to chat with each other.

Kim Rok Soo thought of a few terrible situations.

– Mm, the sealed god could have pretended to be Cale Henituse who ended up in the White Star’s body. Or he could have pretended to be Cale Henituse himself.

The mood started to get tense.

– Then all of you would not have been able to fight properly and Cale Henituse would have had to watch everything as a ghost. There would have been a lot of dangerous situations.

Everybody became silent. They must have all been thinking about something as they were frowning without showing any signs of letting up.

Mm.

Kim Rok Soo hesitated for a moment before starting to speak again.

– ‘Well, who the hell cares?’

He then added on.

– Is what Cale Henituse said.

Kim Rok Soo shrugged his shoulders.

– Ah! He also asks if you’ve located Toonka.

Kim Rok Soo then scratched his cheek.

– He says that guy is the biggest problem.

* * *

“Hehe. I’ve finally arrived.”

A lion’s mane-like hair fluttered in the wind.

“The leader of the non-mage faction that has yet to show itself in the world stealthily infiltrates the Roan Kingdom and says that he has arrived.”

A man with blond hair and blue eyes smiled brightly but his eyes were cold. He was hiding a sharp smile as he tilted his head.

“I’m not sure how to analyze that comment.”

The wind that blew through the prison window fluttered Toonka’s messy hair. Toonka laughed out loud.

“Stealthily?! I moved openly and proudly! Kahahahahah!”

‘…He thinks climbing the northeast walls in the middle of the night is moving openly and proudly?’

“And I arrived nicely! I didn’t kill anybody and only destroyed a few things, so I did as best I could for my close friend! Hahahaha!”

Hmm?

The blond haired man’s eyes clouded over.

“Close friend?”

“Yes. My close friend Cale! Kahahaha! I’ve become much nicer! It’s nice to see you like this, crown prince!”

‘What is up with this crazy bastard?’

Alberu Crossman, the Roan Kingdom’s crown prince, barely held himself from saying that out loud. He then thought to himself again.

‘Cale? Who is that guy? Who is he that the leader of the non-mage faction would sneak into the Roan Kingdom to see him? Is something going on in the Roan Kingdom that I do not know about?’

Alberu Crossman, who had taken a long time to figure out Toonka’s identity after capturing him, frowned, causing wrinkles on his forehead.

– Your highness.

Alberu Crossman heard a voice outside the prison door coming from someone hiding in the shadows.

It was the voice of a thankful person who usually did not speak but always advised Alberu in the right direction.

– I have something urgent to tell you, so ask a mage to help.

The Dark Elf, Tasha. His aunt’s voice echoed in his mind.

– I need to leave urgently to find someone. It is a child I care a lot about.

She sounded extremely concerned.

– That child apparently left to find someone named Cale. Is it okay if I leave for a bit?

Only

Alberu’s mouth opened.

“…Cale again?”

‘Who is that person?’

—