It happened when I was ten years old.
On a day when rain poured from the sky as though a hole had opened in it, my mother, who had said she would be back soon, never returned.
It was a difficult time.
If she had not spoken to me then, I probably would have stopped trusting people altogether.
“Are you new here?”
“……”
“You look like you are having a hard time. Do you want some help? If you do what I tell you, you will feel better in no time... Hate her.”
“What?”
“Hate your mother. If you want to live here, that is what you have to do.”
“……What the hell? If you are going to mess with me, get lost! I am not in the mood.”
I buried my face in my knees, and Yoo Soyoung, pouting her lips, handed me something before scampering away.
“If you are bored, at least read this. It will help pass the time~”
It was an old, battered notebook.
One with an embarrassingly childish title written across it.
The Story of the Princess and the Hero Who Defeated the Demon King.
Written by Lea (Yoo Soyoung)♡
“Who would read something like this?”
At first, I shoved it aside and ignored it.
“How childish. What did she even write in here?”
But it did not take long before I picked it up.
I had grown exhausted from waiting without knowing when it would end, from clinging to something vague that I could not bring myself to let go of.
And so I read Yoo Soyoung’s story.
I still did not know what I had found so entertaining about a simplistic tale of good triumphing over evil written by a ten-year-old child.
Sitting on a hill with a clear view of the orphanage entrance and reading that notebook became part of my daily routine. When even that began to bore me, I started drawing.
“Woooow! You drew my story? You are really good at this. You are like a genius! A genius!”
“……”
“Do you want to work together? I will write the stories, and you can draw the pictures. What do you think?”
The emptiness left by one person was gradually filled by the traces of another.
“My name is Yoo Soyoung. My baptismal name is Lea. Let us be friends!”
“……I am Lee Dohyeon.”
“Doyeon?”
“No. Hyeon. Lee Dohyeon.”
I began living again.
Just as she had advised, I hated my mother and lived on with stubborn strength, as though determined to prove something.
Someday, we would create something extraordinary together.
She began dreaming of becoming a writer, and I of becoming an artist.
Eighteen years passed that way.
To each other, we became closer and more dependable than anyone else.
……And yet.
She disappeared.
On the day we had eaten samgyeopsal and shared a bottle of soju, she left behind only a message saying that she was going into the novel.
At first, I thought it was merely some small act of escapism.
But one day passed, then two, then nearly an entire week, and Yoo Soyoung still did not return.
No trace of her could be found, as though she had simply evaporated.
It was around the time even the police had given up on the investigation.
BUZZZZ.
A suspicious message arrived.
[010-1234-4885]
Your friend failed to achieve the final objective ■■.
Now it is your turn.
Would you like to enter the novel to save your friend? [Y/N]
……4885?
I did not deliberate for long.
I accepted without asking a single question.
If our positions had been reversed and I had disappeared, Yoo Soyoung would have done the same without hesitation.
The novel will begin anew.
Remember only these two things: survival and a satisfying progression.
Do that, and at the end of your long journey, you will obtain what you desire.
And that was how I possessed a character inside the novel [Epic of Salvation].
***
I slept for six hours straight as soon as I returned.
Rather than feeling pleased about finally getting a good night’s sleep, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth.
[Time remaining: 5 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes.]
My precious time.
I should have set an alarm……
I resolved to limit myself to four hours of sleep from now on and climbed out of the soft bed.
After showering and filling my stomach with something simple, I sat down at the desk out of habit and organized my thoughts about what had happened the previous day.
The biggest gain was discovering another way to extend my remaining time.
Even if I failed a quest, knowing that I could prolong my life by eliminating scourges gave me a fallback option and eased some of the pressure.
“And Baek Sayoung.”
I had met him unexpectedly and ended up deceiving him, but I still believed it had been the best choice.
As much as possible, I intended to let events follow the course of the original story.
If I wanted the information I possessed to retain its value, I would have to continue doing so.
Fortunately, before Park Hayul awakened Manifestation, he was practically an extra all the way through his fourth and final year.
That gave me an opportunity.
I planned to remain quiet, focus primarily on quests, and work toward my ultimate reason for entering this world: finding Yoo Soyoung.
“Well, if I follow the original plot, I should eventually find a lead.”
I was not in a hurry.
The mysterious number, 4885.
Just as its message had said, the novel had begun anew, and it seemed this would be a long journey whose end I could not yet see.
“So there are three days left?”
I picked up a sheet of paper lying on the desk.
───────────────
Date: Monday, March 2
Time / Location: 9:00 a.m., Sosurim Hall
You have been assigned to Year 2, Class A for the 2022 academic year.
───────────────
The life-or-death warm-up was over.
For the sake of the next quest, I now had to head to the main stage.
“This is going to be tight.”
I walked over to the bookshelf and selected the books I needed.
Comprehensive Guide to One-Star Fire Release Arts
Comprehensive Guide to One-Star Water Release Arts
.
.
Sorcery arts.
They were the foundation of Park Hayul’s method of Manifestation and the essence of Eastern supernatural arts that had earned his family the illustrious title of ‘Origin.’
There would be too many eyes on me at Taehak for me to use weapon Manifestation freely, so I needed to learn them in advance.
“Looks like I really am going to start shooting fire from my hands.”
Well, the more weapons I had, the better.
I had already enjoyed playing King Arthur once, so for the remaining four days, I intended to use Reading as intensively as possible and become Merlin as well.
***
The human brain was an organ of limitless potential.
The previous four days had been a process of testing and proving that fact.
I suffered headaches that felt as though my overheated synapses were burning, yet I kept forcing new information into my mind until I reached the absolute limit, again and again.
As a result, I raised my comprehension of the Fire, Water, Wood, and Wind attributes into the eighty-percent range, and Earth and Metal into the twenty-percent range.
It was far from perfect, but the results were satisfactory enough.
Before I knew it, the morning of my departure for Taehak had arrived.
[Time remaining: 1 day, 3 hours, 19 minutes.]
When I entered the underground parking garage, a neatly dressed man in a suit bowed to me.
“Young Master. My name is Choi Jincheol.”
He was the first person from the Origin Sorcerer Family I had met, but I was not flustered.
I had received a message the night before saying he would be waiting for me, and I was confident I could behave like Park Hayul.
So when Secretary Choi opened the rear door of a black luxury sedan, I climbed in as though it were only natural and tossed out a curt remark.
“Drive properly. If the car jolts around like last time, I will get out halfway there.”
“Pardon?”
“Why? Are you not confident?”
“No, that is not it. It is just that today is actually my first time serving you, Young Master……”
……Ah. Really?
“That is strange. You look familiar. Then perhaps we met at the main residence?”
“That is unlikely as well. I was assigned as your personal secretary only a week ago.”
“……Let us go.”
“……Yes.”
Trying not to show my embarrassment, I calmly crossed one leg over the other.
VROOOOM.
The car departed for Taehak carrying a heavy load of discomfort and awkwardness.
Whether it was simply his personality or someone had warned him to avoid unnecessary conversation with Park Hayul, Secretary Choi drove in silence.
I had nothing to lose from that, so I followed his lead.
After about thirty minutes with silence as our only companion, a rather fascinating sight appeared beyond the window.
“Ah.”
For a moment, I was so captivated that I even forgot about my dwindling time.
A broad avenue stretched straight ahead like a runway, lined on either side by statues of great historical figures standing as though they were guarding it.
Behind them rose buildings that were both refined and archaic in design, stirring an indescribable feeling within me.
I felt the tension that had gone slack inside me draw taut again.
“From here, I will walk.”
***
In my imagination, Taehak had been something of a stern and rugged training institution.
A den of dragons and tigers where the finest professors and most gifted students gathered, a battlefield forever embroiled in competition and intrigue.
That was certainly how I had pictured it……
Yet seeing it realized in reality felt rather different from what I had expected.
“Hey, I heard Lee Taekjin is in charge of Class B this year.”
“Seriously? The Class B kids are screwed. How are they supposed to survive a whole year under that psycho?”
Idle conversations no different from those at any ordinary university drifted through the air—
“You are dating Kim Siyoung, right?”
“Are you insane? Who told you that?”
“Me, you bastard. I saw the two of you holding hands in Myeongdong and making a whole show of it. Are you still going to deny it?”
And youthful gossip from people in their twenties traveled on the spring breeze.
After the long winter break, smiles bloomed across the faces of students reunited with one another.
I walked alone across the expansive campus.
The only person among them who did not share that mood.
“The real thing is better than the design.”
It was not that I felt lonely or isolated.
I was too busy looking around at everything, and there was simply too great a difference between their circumstances and mine.
They were genuine university students.
I was an outsider nearing thirty with a terminal time limit.
After walking for about twenty minutes past buildings with octagonal roofs, I arrived before a towering seven-story structure.
Sosurim Hall.
A signboard bearing its name in vigorous, almost wildly brushed calligraphy gave off a faint glow.
This was where today’s start-of-term ceremony would be held.
After checking the directory, I went up to the third floor.
I turned right and continued down the hallway until I reached it.
Year 2, Class A.
The main class of [Epic of Salvation], and the class to which I had been assigned.
Apparently everyone had already gathered, because it was noisy even from the entrance.
I could not bring myself to walk in immediately and stopped for a moment.
Whatever else I might say, I was about to meet characters I had personally drawn.
It would have been a lie to claim I felt nothing at all.
But just as with Baek Sayoung, I had no intention of getting any closer to them than necessary.
“I will just quietly observe the atmosphere.”
After steeling myself, I opened the door.
SLIDE.
Fortunately, only a few people looked my way.
A handful glanced at me, but they quickly lost interest.
Either they did not recognize me or simply did not care.
As expected.
Satisfied, I smiled and moved toward the back of the room, where it would be easier to observe everyone.
I claimed a seat in the corner, thinking I had blended in perfectly.
At least, until I heard someone call out.
“Excuse me. The person who just went up there?”
Was she talking about me?
The unexpected development startled me, but I quickly pretended otherwise and glanced around.
“Come back down here, please.”
The soft, melodious voice came from near the front of the classroom.
It belonged to a woman who was looking down as she wrote something.
For a split second, I thought she might be a professor, but she was far too young—and far too strikingly beautiful.
She was a female student with long, straight black hair, and a fitted uniform that suited her exceptionally well.
“Excuse me?”
Realizing I had been standing there blankly, I approached her.
Surely it was nothing important……
STEP, STEP.
As the distance between us narrowed, the girl’s face grew clearer.
Her elegant features harmonized with her pale skin, while the slight upward tilt of her eyes made her resemble a famous actress known for her catlike appearance.
It was our first meeting, yet her face was unmistakably familiar.
Extremely familiar.
“Joo Arin?”
It would have been stranger if I had failed to recognize her after drawing her hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times.
I was almost certain.
She was one of the three main heroines of [Epic of Salvation], born to the Guardian Joo Family, one of the prestigious families that held tremendous influence over the Republic of Korea.
Noble enough to be proud, proud enough to be aloof, and prickly enough for that very sharpness to become part of her charm.
……So why was someone like her calling Park Hayul over?
The two of them had hardly any connection worth mentioning.
Slightly tense, I stopped in front of her.
“Take one of these.”
Joo Arin kept her gaze fixed on the stack of documents and pointed toward one side of the desk.
There was a white basket there, filled with round objects about the size of a five-hundred-won coin.
Engraved on each one was a three-legged crow, the Samjogo.
The symbol of Taehak, the finest educational institution in the world.
I immediately knew what the object was.
“A GripTok.”
It was a type of connection device.
Once attached to the back of a phone, the state-of-the-art magitech device linked the phone with Taehak’s system and provided access to a variety of functions.
Of course.
She had merely called me over to hand one out.
I gave a faint chuckle and picked one up.
Then Joo Arin asked,
“What is your name?”
“Park Hayul.”
“One moment. Park…… Ha……”
She flipped through the document in front of her to mark that I had received one.
But had distributing GripToks been Joo Arin’s responsibility?
She was not the type to volunteer for unimportant tasks, so I was wondering about it when—
“Yul? Park Hayul?!”
She suddenly raised her head and stared straight at me.
“……”
“……”
The moment she heard my name, her expression seemed to stiffen.
Her crimson eyes trembled faintly.
……What?
I tried to decipher what it meant, but I could not.
This was the first time I had ever seen her in person.
“Pant, pant... Arin, I am sorry! I am late, right?”
The strange standoff ended quickly.
Another female student came running over and called out to Joo Arin.
“Yes, you are late. Very late.”
“Hehe, thank you for covering for me. Go on inside. I will take over now.”
“It is fine. I already started, so I will finish.”
“No, really. Go! Hurry!”
Unable to withstand the girl’s insistence, Joo Arin finally stepped away.
I naturally drifted out of the conversation as well.
The ending had left me with an unpleasant sense of uncertainty, so I looked back at Joo Arin.
She was gazing out the window as though nothing had happened.
Well……
It was probably because this was our first meeting that I had become unnecessarily tense.
Surely it did not mean anything significant.
After clearing away those thoughts, I returned to the quiet seat at the back.
I had already ended up exchanging words with one of them, so it was time to identify the rest of the main cast.
[Activating the trait ‘Acute Senses.’]