Hwia answered, “I fought another me.”
“I see. After all those tea parties with the clan advisor… and you even have an alter form… When did the Viper virus get to you?”
Hwia waved her hands quickly, uncharacteristically flustered. “No, no! I really did fight another version of myself.”
Sylvia eyed her with doubt and crossed her arms. “Elaborate.”
Whether because Hwia was too kind or because she was too shocked by being suspected of having the Viper virus, she quickly explained the fight from that time. Kim Yul, whom the two coincidentally ran into in the garden, joined in on the explanation.
“Hwia was split in two back then. The bad Hwia and the good Hwia,” Kim Yul explained.
“Are you a slime?” Sylvia asked Hwia.
Kim Yul, who had recently begun to regain his emotions, wasn’t as kind as Hwia; he fired a rubber band at Sylvia.
After getting stung, Sylvia gritted her teeth. “Ouch! What are you doing?!”
“Chief Steward, I don’t care if you insult me, but do not insult my old comrade. That tests my patience.”
“Fine. Clan Shadow, I’m just asking out of curiosity. Who backstabbed this old comrade you respect so much?”
Kim Yul looked away. “Really, ‘slime?’ Stop using vague words that make it hard to distinguish whether it’s a small fry monster or a strong foe that needs magic and fire to beat. Clear words lead to a clear mind. As the head steward, you’re here to make sure the clan is neat and organized. You need to be more conscious of that.”
“You just changed the subject, didn’t you?” Sylvia said.
Kim Yul cleared his throat and began flipping through his diary. “Hm, anyhow. There are two kinds of holy grounds. One is the holy ground that someone creates, like this one or the Constellation Murderer’s. There are also the ones that are just ‘born.’”
“Oh.”
“The Spire Mount Realm, Hwia’s world, was one of the born holy grounds. Everything there came from Hwia’s body. The whole mountain range across the continent was created from the decaying corpse of a huge dragon.”
“Huh.”
“That dragon was also said to be one of Hwia’s true forms, so the long fight against herself had left only two of Hwia. I was summoned by the weaker, kinder Hwia to fight the stronger, more evil Hwia.”
Hwia folded her wings as if they were her arms.
“In short, it was a process of rebirth and the fight that ultimately chose what Hwia would be. You could say that Hwia went through the same change that the patriarch did when he overcame the trials starting from the seventy-first floor to become a complete Constellation.”
Kim Yul then told a long story about how he broke the evil Hwia’s wings one by one and forged them into his own power. The story also included how he had changed the Spire Mountain Realm and made more and more people follow his and Hwia’s lead.
“It’s the kind of story that would suit to be a twenty-four episode animation that aired in the morning after cutting out the cruel parts,” Hwia said, looking nostalgic.
Kim Yul tilted his head. “Is that so? I think it’s the kind of story that would sell about a hundred thousand copies if it were made into an SRPG.”
Sylvia looked fed up but made no comments about the claims of the pair with loose screws.
Kim Yul asked, “Well, that’s all there is to the story. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
“So, you were dodging the question earlier, right?”
A moment passed while rubber band bullets flew and the garden trowel’s mud balls dotted the air.
“Start working! It’s almost mealtime.”
“Fiiiiine. What has become of my life…” Sylvia grumbled.
Like that, the three of them began tending the garden. Hwia fluttered about, hanging up and collecting the sunset. Meanwhile, Kim Yul wrapped his long pruning shears in his aura and trimmed a protruding rock.
Sylvia squatted and used her trowel in the soil, muttering, “Ah, really… I also want to fight myself. Since I’m the unlucky Sylvia, the lucky Sylvia should defeat me and absorb me. On second thought, that would be annoying. If anyone will absorb anyone, it should be me, taking all the luck of my other half and becoming a true lucky charm. Hmm…”
Sylvia paused. Was she feeling sorry for herself? No. She was looking at a small marigold, its roots poking out a bit.
“Phew. She cried too much yesterday… What is she, a frog? Come to think of it, she was a frog once. Tsk.” Sylvia scooped soil with her trowel and covered the roots, grumbling, ”Patriarch. Patriarch, please return soon. How long will you stay up there, leaving the flowers like this?”
Of course, no one answered her. Hwia and Kim Yul were too far away. Regardless, Sylvia kept covering the marigold roots and patting the flower.
“Or maybe you’re already here? You’re like a ghost. Maybe you’re hiding there with your invisibility skill… Phew. If you’re there, please shake the carrot flower over there…. What the heck!”
Sylvia jumped in surprise. A sudden gust of wind had shaken the carrot flower.
“Why the hell did it actually sway…? Are you really there?”
The sudden breeze[2] while talking about Kim Gong-Ja triggered the siren within Sylvia’s head that Raviel had planted. Sylvia calmed her racing heart with difficulty.
“There is no way he can be here, though.”
Sylvia scratched the back of her head. She continued grumbling.
“Darn it. You’re the one who put me in this mess, but, well... this isn’t bad. Not too bad. Whenever I see that Mr. Kim Pollock’s life force is draining, I think I’m better off, but still.”
There was no response.
“I’m not the only one you put into this mess.”
Silence.
“There are many others. So come back quickly. Come on.”
[One of the Nine Keys has been forged.]
[All the residents from the eighty-first to the ninetieth floors are thinking of you.]
[The ninety-first floor has been cleared.]
The Tower’s announcement didn’t reach Sylvia’s ears. What she heard instead was Hwia’s voice calling for her.
“Lady Sylvia, shall we go have lunch?”
“Ah, yes.” Sylvia stood up after one last look at the marigold’s roots she neatly covered up. She stretched. “What’s for lunch today?”
“We’re eating out today. Let’s go to Cafe Planetarium.”
“Okay. Understood. Now then.”
Sylvia snapped her fingers. Thanks to the power given to the Death King Clan vassals, a staircase appeared, leading to a lower floor tied to the holy ground.
“I guess it’s time to eat some salad while I look at the annoying hamster[3].”
Sylvia, Hwia, and Kim Yul walked down the staircase. Following behind them was the one who had heard the Tower’s announcement.
[Entering the ninety-second floor.]
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1. Made from the roasted crust of rice that is created at the bottom of a stone pot after cooking rice. ☜
2. The raw is 라비엘 보고 놀란 가슴 김공자 보고 놀란다고. It's the author's version of a Korean idiom 자라 보고 놀란 마음 솥뚜껑 보고 놀란다. It's about how when something terrified you so much, even similar stuff can also scare you. ☜
3. Hamustra ☜
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Translator's Thoughts