Chapter 398: Side Story, Dream Flower (21)

I put pasta noodles in a pot and tenderloin on the frying pan, making steak and carbonara sauce while looking at recipes on the Internet.

Medium roasted tenderloin topped with sauce and vegetables. I decorated the carbonara similarly.

Thinking it would be disappointing to eat only Western food, I cooked rice and made a stew out of boiled pork neck and kimchi.

I could feed ten adults until their stomachs burst with the amount I made, but I gave them all to Rachel, who didn't decline my offer.

"Thank you."

She did her best to adhere to dining etiquettes, but she ate more and more haphazardly as time went on.

Her eyes and movements grew bigger with each bite. She was cute, especially since she resembled Evandel.

While she ate, I looked out the window and got lost in my thoughts.

The spatiotemporal background of this stage was Korea in 2018.

We currently stayed in a two-room house that I set up when I was a writer. It had a security deposit of 20,000 and a monthly rent of 600, and the password for its door lock was my birthday.

I missed this mana-independent and monster-free world.

How did the Hall embody this, though? How did it know about 'my' existence, and why did Rachel choose this stage...

"Whoa~"

A sigh of satisfaction awakened me from my deep trance.

I looked at my watch, finding out only seven minutes had passed since she began eating. However, she left nothing but an empty bowl on the table.

"Are you okay now?"

Seemingly coming back to her senses, Rachel lowered her head, then answered with a serious yet refreshed expression.

"... Yes."

"How was it?"

"It was..."

Her eyes lit up for a moment. Unknowingly licking her lips, she answered in a trembling voice.

"That was the first time in my entire life I ate something so delicious..."

I laughed.

That was made possible partly thanks to the Dwarf's Dexterity, but the old saying that 'hunger is the best sauce' existed for a reason.

"I'm glad."

"You must have practiced and learned cooking for decades or so."

"I didn't. Anyway, I'll continue to cook for you until this stage is over."

Rachel looked at me and the empty plates on the table in amazement, feeling quite touched and seemingly undergoing drastic emotional changes.

But she soon calmed down.

"... Hajin."

Her tone was serious. I waited silently, thinking of what was coming.

Silently, she stared at me while seemingly contemplating.

"I have a lot of questions I want to ask."

Rachel sighed softly.

Why I killed James Finley, why I suddenly showed up to help her, and why I was so mean to her back then...

But she decided to simply wait until I told her the answers to those myself.

Instead, Rachel asked an entirely different question.

"Where is this world?"

It stabbed my weakness. I laughed bitterly.

* * *

The next day, I walked down the street with Rachel early in the morning, our destination the scene of the most recent zombie murder.

It was time we found out this stage's clear condition, which was the most crucial key to our victory.

"... We can't go in."

The crime scene wasn't that far from my house, but as seen in the movie, yellow tapes surrounded it. Cops and forensic teams scattered within that perimeter.

We snooped around from a reasonable distance.

"Oh, wait. I see traces." Rachel closed her eyes and stretched out her index finger, summoning a small spirit that looked like a drop of water.

Whooo-

She blew on it to send it out, causing it to glide to the field like a dandelion seed. It stayed on the ground for a while, then returned to Rachel.

"What did you do?"

"I communicated with the spirits of the ground."

"Oh~."

It seemed to be a similar ability to Psychometry.

"..."

With her eyes still closed, she let the spirit land on her finger.

Quietly, I waited for her to integrate the new intel into her memory, but I soon felt gazes watching us from an unidentified location.

I was wary of their sources being an enemy, but they didn't feel malevolent. Rather, it seemed quite in favor of us.

"Oh."

I quickly realized what was drawing attention to us.

The person next to me shone brighter than anyone on this street, her incomparable beauty attracting people's attention just by breathing. Rachel always did stand out even if she wasn't doing anything.

Even the officers inside the police line couldn't help but glance in our direction.

"I figured it out." She said proudly. "It's a magic ritual related to the undead-"

"Wait."

I gave the hat I was wearing to Rachel. The gesture made her eyes widen, and her head tilt.

"I think you should be the one wearing it. People here are mostly Asians."

I could barely wear it due to its small size, but it fitted Rachel almost perfectly.

"Well, let's give it a bit of a hip-hop style."

I slightly twisted its brim to make it look a little more fashionable.

"It suits you. Might be a bit too big, though."

The thoughtless compliment made Rachel, half-buried in the hat, smile faintly, her lips drawing a fine arc.

My heart pounded for a moment, but I didn't show it.

"Ahem. Let's go to someplace else first where you can tell me the rest."

* * *

Rachel's spirit told me in detail what happened on the ground that day.

The event called 'Zombie Murder' was the work of a shaman society that worshiped the undead.

"Perhaps this stage's clear condition is to stop them."

"I think so too, but..."

She looked at me with slight discomfort.

"You can speak freely, just like before."

I pondered the meaning of 'just like before' for a moment.

Maybe she was talking about when she only knew me as Xtra.

"What? I was forced to do that to avoid revealing my identity at the time. In all honesty, I felt bad for being so rude to you."

"You say you're forced to, but you seemed to be having fun." She pouted.

Scratching the back of my neck, I avoided her gaze, but I soon felt challenged upon noticing her sullen look.

Honestly, I didn't feel comfortable talking so formally since just looking at Rachel reminded me of Evandel.

"Then I'll do just that."

"... Huh?"

"I'll speak casually."

She didn't seem to expect I'd take her up on her offer, considering how baffled she looked. Nevertheless, she agreed with me.

"That would be ideal, but if it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to-"

"It's okay. Anyway, we'll have to figure out where they are now."

"I-I guess."

"Any ideas?"

"Well, I have one..."

Rachel summoned the spirit that looked like a drop of water again.

"It'll guide us there."

"That's great."

I took out the mask I had prepared and put it on.

The gas mask looked too cheap, so I made a new one while she was eating.

"What's that?" Rachel asked, looking at me.

"It's a mask."

"... That's not what I meant."

Rachel's eyes narrowed, seemingly wondering if I thought of her like an idiot. Stretching out her hand, she touched it.

For a second, I grew as stiff as a stone.

She always did things that put a lot of pressure on my heart.

"What is this pattern?"

"... Lotus."

Many of the equipment given to me by the Secret Tower were related to lotus flowers, so I decided to intentionally engrave it on my new mask as well.

"... Lotus?"

Rachel mumbled, her expression a bit strange. She seemed to be recalling a memory she wasn't even sure existed.

"What?"

"Nothing. I think I've seen it somewhere... Was it just my imagination?"

Rachel gave up as she put on the hat and gas mask, both of which I used before.

"Here." I handed her a smartphone.

"Our watches don't work here. We'll have to communicate through this."

"Oh, okay."

She fiddled with the Apple iPhone.

"Hmm..."

She blinked in amazement, clearly absorbed in exploring it. After a while, she turned her attention to me.

"Are you going to use a phone too?"

"Oh, I'll probably just use the watch. I already linked it."

"Linked it?"

"Yeah. You can do it with the certificate. I linked my smartphone and smartwatch since I have quite a few public points left."

"..."

Rachel held out her hand without saying a word. She didn't know what linking was, so she gestured as if saying, 'Give it to me.'

With a gentle smile, I handed her my smartphone.

"It's different from mine."

"Yeah. This is a Samsung Galaxy."

"Oh..."

Rachel tapped away on its screen, not quite sure how it worked. All she did was press on the icons that looked pretty to her.

"Huh?"

I closed my eyes for a moment, but her shoulders trembled at the same time.

Wondering what was wrong, I turned my attention to her.

I didn't know what happened, but her eyes glared piercingly at my phone's screen.

Growing anxious, I took it from her hand and checked it, finding the gallery linked to my watch open.

My heart sank, thinking she saw Evandel's photos.

"Why is my picture... in there?"

"Huh?"

Luckily, she didn't know how to flip through the pictures in the gallery, so she only saw a photo of her.

I sighed in relief but later realized this situation wasn't something to be at ease about.

"Give it back."

Rachel reached for my phone, but I bent away from her and blocked her hands.

"Hajin." She stretched out her arms, both of her cheeks already slightly red. I wasn't certain if it was because of shame or shyness, though.

"... Yes?"

"G-Give it to me."

"... Give what?"

"My picture was there."

"Oh, let me provide an explanation." I began talking to her with more formality and respect again, but she didn't care. She just ran to grab my device again.

We didn't have much height difference, which meant she could easily reach it even if I were to keep it above my head.

"Wait. I can explain."

"I don't need one. I just want to take a look. I might've just hallucinated."

"No, you can't. It's my phone."

"... But it looked like a picture of me."

"As I said, let me explain—"

"Come on, give it-!"

"Wait!"

* * *

Two hours later.

Following the spirit's directions, we arrived at Bukhansan Mountain.

We were in a bit of an awkward situation due to the argument we had been having for a while.

"..."

"..."

Rachel guided me silently under the bleak night sky, and I followed just as wordlessly.

"I think it's somewhere around here... Hmm." She said, peeking into my eyes.

I thought I was going to die of embarrassment, but I answered without showing it.

"... Is that so?"

Borrowing the spirit's power only provided her with the secret society's approximate location.

Hence, although it could guide us to the Bukhansan Mountain, it couldn't reveal where they were hiding specifically.

"Um..."

We kept walking through the mountain road. As the full moon's dim light descended, owls cried eerily around us.

Rustle-

"So, uhh..." Rachel uttered, gently kicking the dead leaves in her path.

I scratched my collarbone, waiting for her to continue.

Sighing deeply, she glanced at me, then looked up at the sky.

"... I'm just saying this just in case."

I listened quietly, thinking it might be about her photo again. Should I just sincerely apologize, or should I just explain that I wasn't a stalker of hers?

Well, saying sorry wouldn't hurt.

"I... I still can't accept anyone's feelings or give mine to others. I'm in no position to do that."

"... Huh?"

"I won't be able to reciprocate those feelings for a little while, maybe for the rest of my life."

She was acting strange.

I looked at Rachel, clearly showing how absurd I thought she sounded. Unfortunately, she refused to look me in the eyes.

"... So—"

I didn't know if I should consider myself lucky, but a presence made her stop talking.

"Who goes there?!"

The road flipped over with a huge shout.

Rumble—!

A huge pile of dirt soared up, obscuring the night sky, and hit us with the force of a landslide.