— Take it. No question. Yu Ji-hyeok.
After hearing my full account, Belluna spoke with a flatness that was rare for her.
The fact that she had a cell phone in the first place. The fact that the number she'd offhandedly given me really was hers. The fact that she'd picked up almost the instant it rang. The fact that, instead of some children's-cartoon theme song, an old-fashioned opera had played as her ringback tone—all of it was unexpected, but the most unexpected thing of all was the way she reacted once she'd heard me out.
— That boy's foreshadowings haven't even hit twenty in total up to now, but every single one of them landed precisely. Hideously precisely. He even predicted something over a hundred years out and got it right. And the few who turned down his offers spent the rest of their lives weeping tears of blood over it.
She advised me almost like she was warning me, her voice grave, and that gave me real reason to think it over.
If it had been some ordinary item, I might have just taken her word for it and accepted.
But…
— So what was it he said he'd make for you, exactly? I only know of about six clear cases, and even those were all different items. Let me see… a sword, a bell, a mirror, a banner, an arrowhead, and a hammer and chisel, I think.
"A coffin."
Then,
— …Ah, a gon1? Like a long staff, a cudgel? Oh, or do you mean a gwa? That's unusual. That's a truly, truly ancient weapon. Does anyone even use that anymore?
"You didn't mishear. You heard me right. A coffin. A coffin. The kind that holds a dead body."
— …….
Belluna said nothing.
Just in case, I glanced over at the Smith of Yado, who was still standing there blankly without a word.
"There isn't some other kind of 'coffin' I'm not aware of, is there?"
"It's the coffin you're thinking of. If you accept my offer, what I'll make for you is the coffin—the box humans use to hold the bodies of their dead."
"…So what you're telling me, in summary," I said, easing the phone away from my ear, "is this. You've foreseen an item I'll absolutely need, and you intend to make it for me. And Belluna's advice is that if I refuse, I'll need it badly enough that I'll be weeping tears of blood over the refusal someday. Am I tracking?"
"I didn't realize she thought that highly of me, but, roughly, yes."
"And that item is a coffin."
"Yes."
He nodded and added,
"If you're thinking of asking me when it'll be used or what for, save your breath. All I can dimly perceive is the fact that you'll need a coffin someday. Beyond that, I know nothing."
After a long silence, Belluna spoke again in an unusually composed voice.
— …In the event of your death, where would you like to be buried? A mountain? An open field? Somewhere sunny? Or shall we just hand you off to your loved ones?
"Don't say creepy things like that, please."
— Well, I don't know if this helps, but it may not be a coffin for you specifically. And let's be honest, Yu Ji-hyeok, you're human, so you're going to die eventually anyway, right? Consider it prearranging your funeral. The Smith of Yado, crafting your coffin? How lavish is that? All you need now is a set of mourning clothes.
"Belluna, I asked you to stop with the creepy stuff. I'm not letting it show, but I'm genuinely rattled right now."
— Oh? I didn't realize you were so sensitive. Well, then, for poor anxious, fragile-hearted Yu Ji-hyeok, let me try giving you something a bit more constructive.
She swallowed a small giggle.
— If I were you, I'd take his offer. I'd pay any price he named to get that item out of him. And on top of that, you've already paid him, so what have you got to lose? For other people, this is an item the Smith of Yado has foretold that they paid for with their entire lives. One thing's certain: you'll never come out of it at a loss.
[I'm of the same mind.]
Sbeungali whispered quietly.
The voice of the one who'd always cackled and mocked me from the sidelines now came out grave.
[Take it, Yu Ji-hyeok. Yours truly doesn't put much stock in superstition. But… just as that wind spirit on the other end of your call said… I can't shake the feeling that if you turn this man's offer down, you'll be torn to pieces someday.]
"…Torn to pieces?"
[Figuratively speaking.]
He muttered.
[Or possibly literally.]
Belluna, and now Sbeungali on top of her—two separate entities were both telling me to accept.
I tamped down the unease and nodded.
It was my consent.
"This one will take a little time. The arms you ordered didn't even take a full week, but this… expect it to take longer than the last batch."
I'd opened my mouth to answer, but instead I just nodded silently.
"Then I'll be off. Do you need me to walk you through the weapons separately?"
He gestured toward the arms laid out in the corner of the dorm room.
"All made to your specifications. One sword, one spear, one dagger. Each suited to its weapon's purpose, capable of severing mana and cutting through its source, and durable enough that even an earth dragon stamping on them wouldn't leave a scratch. Average humans could use them their entire lives with plenty to spare. The bow turned out as you requested. …And the additional commission, the polearm, the same. Do you have anything more to ask?"
I looked over each of the weapons he'd brought once and shook my head.
"No, this is enough."
"…Then I'll come find you when the new piece is done. Regarding your one remaining favor, please decide as soon as you reasonably can."
He left me with one last line before he burned away into the air like a spark.
"Owing a one-sided debt sits poorly with me."
Even after he was gone, I couldn't move for a while.
Slumping into a chair, I turned the conversation we'd just had over and over, picking through it for meaning. I knew the exercise was pointless, but I couldn't stop myself.
A coffin.
For what, exactly?
"Hm?"
Something tapped my shoulder—carefully, deliberately.
"……."
Rauné.
It was staring up at me with its usual unreadable expression.
Then, as if showing off, it bent its roots and struck a pose, flexing the way a person would flex their muscles.
Since it was a plant and not an animal, there shouldn't have been any muscles to flex in the first place.
"Yeah, thanks."
I ruffled its leaves with a light pat.
Then I pulled one of the rings out and held it out to it.
"……?"
Rauné stared up at me as if to ask what on earth this was.
"It's for you."
"……!"
The ring I'd handed it had simple wards of protection and defense, an effect to maintain its condition, stealth, and—most importantly—a spell engraved into it that would summon me. I'd been thinking about getting this thing for it forever, and only now was I finally able to hand it over.
If, for some unavoidable reason, this little thing—with no real means of protecting itself—ended up left alone, and if anything ever happened to it…
"You like it?"
"……!!!"
Rauné nodded violently.
It raised the ring I'd given it high above its head with both hands.
The ring caught the light of the fluorescent bulb and shone with particular brilliance.
I caught myself smiling at the sight when—
"…You."
A small voice called for me.
It was unmistakably hesitant, weighted with second-guessing.
When I turned my head, Minerva was looking back at me with a strangely resolved expression.
"Prophecy is much like the fin of a fish beneath the water. What gleams through is never the thing itself, and even if you seize hold of its true form, it vanishes from your grasp on the spot."
I couldn't quite parse what she meant, but I could at least tell she was trying to console me.
"This Minerva stands at your side."
She took my hand and placed it against her chest.
I could feel her heartbeat.
It moved at the same tempo as mine, beat for beat.
Her heart was my heart, and my death was her death.
We both knew it perfectly well.
"Your Minerva is right here."
She whispered it quietly.
I nodded without a word.
Even that seemed to be enough of an answer for her, because she let go of my hand and took a step back.
"So do not fret too greatly."
She gave me a smile—an awkward one, but a smile—as if trying to put me at ease.
I didn't say anything in return.
Instead, I held out to her the polearm the Smith of Yado had delivered—the one I'd commissioned for her—along with the ring I'd had made for her share.
She'd expected the polearm, but the ring caught her off-guard, and she stared at me wide-eyed.
"Th-this is…"
Cradling the polearm carefully against her chest, she received the ring in both hands and turned it over.
It was a far cry from the woman who, mere moments before, had been delivering those mortifying lines with perfect gravity.
"A-A token of vow, is it not…?"
She murmured quietly.
"……!"
Rauné, who normally bristled at Minerva for reasons of its own, was watching her with unmistakable approval just now.
Around its neck, one of my scales and the ring it had just received hung side by side like a necklace.
[A word.]
Just then, someone broke in with a tone of mild incredulity.
[What about me?]
Sbeungali.
He pressed me.
[Minerva gets a polearm and a ring; my doppelgänger gets a ring. Me? Where's mine?]
"Uh…"
Pressed by him, I glanced around the room, then picked up the half-empty bottle of mineral water from the table. I waggled it side to side, asking with the gesture whether this would do.
[…….]
Sbeungali didn't say a word.
For a creature who usually ran his mouth nonstop, the response was unexpected.
"…Hello?"
— Hello? Ye-seul? Is that you?
Jin Ye-seul tilted her head lazily and shifted her grip on the phone.
Even though it had been ages since her brother had called, she didn't feel much of anything about it.
She'd changed her number outright, and her only thought was how on earth he'd tracked it down.
— I'm… sorry for calling like this. But there's something I really had to tell you.
Jin Ye-seul's younger brother, Jin Ye-jun, spoke gingerly, afraid of catching her on the wrong side of her mood. The memory of his fingernails being torn out at the roots over the matter of a notebook he'd shredded hadn't faded from his head.
She'd softened considerably of late, and out of what little family was left to him, she was the only one who showed him even the faintest trace of sibling affection. That was why Jin Ye-jun couldn't bring himself to give up on her.
He still believed his older sister, Jin Ye-jeong, was dead, and the thought that if he gave up on Ye-seul too, she might truly be left with no one weighed on him.
"Mm, what is it?"
If it had been their parents, she'd have hung up at once, but a call from her younger brother was a different matter.
Jin Ye-seul kept her voice as gentle as she could.
— That guy came by the house again.
Some of the tension drained out of his voice at her soft reply, and Jin Ye-jun answered without trembling.
"That guy"—her eyes narrowed faintly at the phrase. Then she lifted her gaze and stared straight ahead.
"Just ignore him."
— I tried. But this time things are a little different. He looks like he's really made up his mind…
Jin Ye-jun sighed lightly as he went on.
— He came by formally to greet Mom and Dad. Dad just shrugged it off like, "Go ahead and try if you can"—he won't stand in the way. Mom, though, she was thrilled. I haven't seen her smile like that in forever. The moment she heard he was coming, she broke out the wine she'd been saving—a forty-million-won bottle! She didn't even crack that open when our older sister became the youngest professor in her field, but she opened it for him!
Jin Ye-jun, venting with rare anger, flinched and quickly apologized.
But contrary to his worry, Jin Ye-seul looked as though this level of grievance no longer fazed her in the slightest.
She'd reconnected with her older sister Jin Ye-jeong—in a different form than before, but a connection all the same.
And through that process, she'd come to feel a thread of guilt toward her younger brother Jin Ye-jun as well, along with the bond of blood.
And more than anything—
Yu Ji-hyeok had a younger sister too.
"……."
Out of the people in his circle, she was the only one with a younger sibling.
And from the few times he'd brought it up, it was easy to tell how dearly he treasured and loved his sister.
If, in that context, he ever saw her treating her own older sister or younger brother callously—if that, in turn, soured his impression of her by even a fraction…
'Ugh.'
The thought alone made her skin crawl.
Genuinely grateful that she actually cared for Jin Ye-jun, she gave her head a small shake.
— Anyway… he's got formal approval from Mom and Dad now, so I figured he'd come trying to pull something on you too. So I wanted to give you a heads-up. He's been all chummy with me, too. And like, you're at the Academy right now. The fact that he's even bringing up marriage with someone in your situation, he's got to be unhinged.
"…So, you called because you were worried about me?"
— Yeah… I'm sorry for digging up your number without permission. I won't do it again.
Jin Ye-jun squirmed, shrinking at having essentially run a background check on his own sister.
Jin Ye-seul answered flatly, as though it didn't matter.
"No, it's fine. I'll call you later."
At her answer, Jin Ye-jun's voice picked up slightly as he asked her if she meant it.
She told him she meant it, in the same dry tone that could just as easily have come off as bored.
"Oh, and Ye-jun."
— Yeah.
"Thanks for the heads-up. Unfortunately, you're a bit late."
— What?
"Would've been nice if you'd called a little earlier."
At that, Jin Ye-jun let out a small curse.
The corner of her eye twitched, and she ended the call with a quick "talk later."
Sitting across from her, a man let out a soft laugh.
"Sounds like he really cares about you, Ye-seul."
"Hardly as much as you do, I'm sure."
Jin Ye-seul leveled a gaze at the man as she said it.
Lee Eun-gyeong.
Guild master of the Hunter guild Anti-After2, and her former fiancé.
The man whose femur she'd crushed with a single kick less than a year into their engagement, ending the whole arrangement just as naturally.
"Ha…"
Watching him smile easily, Jin Ye-seul took a quiet sip of her coffee.
The reason she was sitting here meeting a man who'd shown up out of nowhere demanding to see her was simple.
His name was on the blacklist of those targeting Yu Ji-hyeok.
And the names on that list were tied to Milited's Children.
That was all.
"You've gotten really pretty. I almost can't bear to look at you."
The man slid into casual speech, putting on the air of an old friend, and Jin Ye-seul studied him in turn.
Objectively, he had a decent face on him and a tall, well-built frame.
He wore the particular blend of confidence and arrogance that belonged to those who'd succeeded big while still young.
Add the way he kept showily flashing this and that artifact at her, and the tendrils of mana he kept extending in her direction, trying to surreptitiously feel out where she stood.
'Wonder if I'll make it in time.'
She let out a small sigh, remembering Yu Ji-hyeok's text—he had something to hand off, and could she try not to be too late.
In her head, the man called Lee Eun-gyeong already had a full set of iron needles driven into his skull.
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