Chapter 146

The car they were in left the city and headed for the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province. As they left the bustling downtown, Lyches, who was deeply engrossed in the magic of cotton candy, opened her eyes wide and looked at the fields, farms, and small forests spread out everywhere.

“There are forests here too?”

“Of course.”

There were parks in the city, but they were inevitably artificial, so it seemed she had thought there were no ordinary forests. The Raptor, which had been driving them on the road, finally stopped near a resort area with many pensions.

“…”

Jun-sang first stopped the car at an intersection, checked the map with the missing police unit’s location once more, and then began to drive again at a slightly slower speed than before.

After driving a little further, a modern-looking train station painted in a blue color appeared. Perhaps because it was a famous tourist destination, despite the cold weather, there were quite a few people coming and going. Jun-sang briefly parked in front of the station and checked the map again. He then drove further into the area dense with pensions and stopped the car when he saw a group of police officers moving busily together.

It was a natural sight, given that an entire police riot unit had vanished without a trace. It seemed impossible to proceed any further. Jun-sang turned the car around and stopped in a deserted area.

“Get out.”

“Yes.”

As Henes and Lyches got out, Jun-sang put the car in his inventory and summoned Mong-mong. Mong-mong possessed a superior keen-eye ability than Jun-sang, so even if there was a Dark Seed user that Jun-sang failed to detect, Mong-mong would be able to find them immediately.

With all preparations complete, Jun-sang and Henes began walking along the road, pretending to be tourists. It was a famous place for team-building retreats, but perhaps because it wasn’t the right season, there were more families than students. He found out there was an “O-color Starlight Festival” at a nearby arboretum, which explained why there were so many people. Jun-sang made a mental note of it and then, near where the police were gathered, took out his cloak and put it on, speaking to Henes.

“Henes.”

Henes, who saw Jun-sang take out his cloak, gently stroked his face and said quietly, “Please be careful.”

“I will.”

Jun-sang lightly patted Henes’s head and reverse-summoned her. Lyches, who had been watching from the side, grumbled, “Anyone would think you were going to be apart for a hundred years.”

But as soon as she met Jun-sang’s gaze, she flinched and quickly covered her mouth with both hands.

“You go in too.”

“What? But…”

Lyches protested, but as Jun-sang executed the reverse summon, she immediately vanished.

With Henes and Lyches reverse-summoned, Jun-sang, accompanied only by Mong-mong, quietly entered the forest. It was not difficult to find the site where the incident had occurred. Soon after entering the forest, he found a pension that had been torn up and shattered as if it had been hit by a bomb.

Jun-sang had Mong-mong wait nearby and then entered the shattered pension while concealing himself. Inside, officials in chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear suits were conducting various investigations. He hadn’t noticed from the outside, but once inside, he saw blood splattered everywhere. There were no body parts to be seen, but with that much blood spatter, it would be impossible for anyone to have survived.

“…”

Jun-sang examined the pillars of the broken pension. The pillars had traces of being cut clean by something sharp, and such marks were left all over the shattered pension. Carefully avoiding bumping into the busy people, Jun-sang examined the scene and soon came to a few conclusions.

First, the perpetrator this time did not seem to have been a giant like the monster flower from last time. Of course, he considered the possibility that it might have used a method of burrowing underground, but the wreckage of the shattered pension suggested that this was unlikely. The method of attack was presumed to be cutting with something sharp. Considering the characteristics of Dark Seed users, it was presumed to be the use of a mutated body part rather than a weapon like a sword. The traces of structures being sliced from a considerable distance also made it easy to tell that the attack range was quite substantial.

Jun-sang confirmed this much and left the crime scene, moving back to the forest where Mong-mong was waiting. It was no longer a place that Jun-sang, who was not trained in professional investigative techniques, could investigate. He decided to stay nearby and use the information that Im Seo-yoon would summarize and send him.

As Jun-sang exited the forest, he put his cloak and boots back into his inventory and then re-summoned Henes and Lyches. Henes, relieved to see that Jun-sang was fine, came to him and hugged him. But Lyches was angry at the fact that she had been reverse-summoned.

“How could you do that!”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been speaking respectfully and calling you… I mean, ‘Master’… and you just reverse-summon me without warning…”

“So?”

“…”

Lyches puffed out her cheeks at Jun-sang’s seemingly bored response. Henes, unable to watch them anymore, said cautiously, “Jun-sang. Instead of doing that, you should explain the reason…”

“…”

Jun-sang looked annoyed, but he didn’t ignore Henes’s words. “I needed to stay hidden, and you’re too conspicuous.”

Lyches immediately retorted, “But I’m invisible to other people!”

“Just because you’re invisible to people doesn’t mean you’re invisible to other things.”

“What do you mean…”

Since it was difficult to explain with words alone, Jun-sang took out his phone from the cabinet and said to Lyches, “Okay, hide yourself. But don’t move.”

“Fine.”

Lyches seemed to take it as a challenge and quickly hid herself from Jun-sang’s sight. Jun-sang was slightly surprised as Lyches instantly vanished from view, but he quickly looked at his phone. As expected, a very clear picture of a pouting Lyches appeared on the screen.

Jun-sang took a photo and said to Lyches, “Okay. Come and look.”

“…”

Lyches, still with a sullen expression, reappeared and looked at the phone Jun-sang was holding out, her eyes widening in surprise.

“W-what… what happened?”

Jun-sang explained simply, “This isn’t a living being, so it can record what’s around it as it is, regardless of perception.”

“Ah…”

“Unless you can use invisibility magic, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I see.”

Of course, Lyches could use invisibility magic. But that was only in the Fairy Realm where her power was not restricted. Here, the limit was a vague outline created by illusion magic. With this explanation, she had no choice but to accept it. Although that didn’t mean she had nothing to say.

“Y-you could have explained it to me beforehand.”

But again, Jun-sang was merciless. “It’s a hassle.”

“Ugh…”

Henes quietly smiled as she watched them bicker, and quickly wiped the smile from her face when Jun-sang turned around.

“It looks like this will take some time, so let’s find a place to stay first.”

“Okay.”

In the past, he would have had to go to a lot of places to find an available room for a same-day stay, but now he could find available rooms in real-time on his phone. Jun-sang, having his phone out, quickly found and booked a room, then took out the Raptor.

“Got a room. Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

He had booked a double room, but unlike the hotel he stayed at with Seo-yoon’s help, it would be quite troublesome if they checked Henes’s identity. So, he had to reverse-summon her near the entrance and then re-summon her inside.

Henes looked a bit nostalgic, perhaps recalling the time they had been wandering from inn to inn, but Lyches, who was watching the process from the side, looked at Henes with sympathy.

“You really went through a lot, didn’t you?”

“Did I?”

Lyches thought for a moment, then said to Jun-sang, who was bringing the boxes of fruit he had put in the cargo area inside. “Hey… can I ask you for a favor?”

“What?”

Lyches hesitated for a moment and then said, “I’d like to use the Spirit Gate for a bit.”

“Reason?”

It would be impossible here, but if she went back to the Fairy Realm through the Spirit Gate, her restricted powers would be fully restored. She was treated as a nuisance by Jun-sang right now, but in the Fairy Realm, she was practically a god. Jun-sang thought that she might be able to find a way to free herself from the pet collar if she went back there.

Lyches knew what Jun-sang was thinking, so she quickly explained. “So… um, there’s an item that lets me use invisibility magic. If I bring that, I won’t have to be reverse-summoned every time we move around.”

“There’s such a thing?”

Well, she was a ten-thousand-year-old Fairy Queen with a magic level of 99, so it would be stranger if she didn’t have such an item. Jun-sang nodded and asked again, “What’s the price?”

“Price?”

Lyches had only made the suggestion because she felt sorry for Henes having to be reverse-summoned and summoned repeatedly, and she herself didn’t like having to go through that process.

“Oh, well… I don’t really need anything in return…”

But Jun-sang opened one of the boxes he had brought in and handed her a small one. “For one item with invisibility magic, I’ll give you one of these boxes.”

“What’s in this?”

“This box contains 25 chocolate bars.”

“…”

Lyches froze. For her, who had bent her pride and uttered the word “Master” for just one chocolate bar, the thought of getting 25 at once was unbelievable.

But Jun-sang, seeing Lyches’s lack of response, wondered if he had offered too little and made another proposal. “You don’t like it? I’ll give you one more box, then.”

“Gasp!”

One more box? That meant fifty! But when she still didn’t agree, Jun-sang said again, “You don’t want it? If you don’t…”

He was about to say that he could give her the whole thing, but Lyches quickly snapped out of her daze and answered in a fluster, “O-okay! Two boxes of chocolate bars! No going back on your word!”

“Of course.”

Anyway, two boxes of chocolate bars were nothing compared to the value of an invisibility item. Wasn’t it an item whose price at an auction would be unimaginable? Lyches seemed to place little value on it, but that was only possible for a fairy who had a vague concept of buying and selling.

“You’re not planning to run away to the Fairy Realm, are you?”

Lyches pouted at Jun-sang’s words and replied, “If you keep treating me so badly, I might think about it, but not right now.”

“Why?”

“Honestly, going back isn’t fun… I’ve come all this way, and it feels wrong to just go back… Anyway, that’s why.”

“…”

To be more precise, unlike the fairies who always treated her like a god, bickering with Jun-sang and Henes was a new and enjoyable experience. And since she had come all this way, another reason was that it would be good to enjoy more of the culture of this other world before she left.

But Jun-sang, unaware of her true intentions, looked at her with suspicion. Lyches shrieked, “I’m not going to run away! I, Lyches, swear to my Master that I will not run away without permission! Happy?”

“…”

She was surprised herself that the word “Master,” which had been so difficult for her to say at first, now came out so easily.

He thought it was strange to say “running away” with permission, but Jun-sang also found it difficult to continue looking at her with suspicion after she had said that. In any case, there was only one proper Spirit Gate on this Earth, the one Jun-sang possessed, so if she showed any signs of running, he could just close the gate and reverse-summon her.

“Alright. I’ll believe you.”

“Tch…”

Lyches pouted and immediately contacted Cella, her former chief aide.

“Cella?”

Cella had been spending every waking moment managing and overseeing the Fairy Realm’s affairs on behalf of the new Queen, the wolf girl Rysis. She was startled when she received the former Queen’s call and stood at attention, replying, “Y-Your Majesty?”

Lyches swallowed a wry smile and replied, “Not anymore. So just call me Lyches.” Of course, her words were not taken to heart.

“Your Majesty! You’re safe! Tell me! The rescue operation will begin immediately…”

Cella began speaking as if she had been waiting, but Lyches quickly cut her off. “It’s fine. I’ll be staying here for a while, so just know that.”

“Your Majesty!”

Cella couldn’t help but raise her voice, but Lyches calmly declared with an air of indifference, “I told you, I’m not the Queen anymore.”

“…”

Cella was disappointed by Lyches’s declaration. Although Rysis had become the new Queen, she had hoped that Lyches would return and reclaim the throne as soon as she was freed from the confinement of that devilish Jun-sang.

But Lyches shattered that hope and continued her explanation. “Anyway, the reason I called… There’s a small drawer next to my bed in my room. In there, you’ll find two sets of small earrings with red jewels. Find those and send them through the Spirit Gate.”

“Earrings… Your Majesty?”

“Yes. Silver earrings with red jewels. It’s been a long time, so my memory’s a bit hazy, but they should be there.”

In the end, Cella could only reply in a resigned voice, “Understood. I’ll contact you again once I find them.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Jun-sang, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, realized anew that the fairies’ value was far greater than he had thought. He had considered trading in fairy dust, fairy stones, or fairy liquor, but he hadn’t anticipated that they could be a source for hard-to-find items like this.

After all, what was the reason he couldn’t attempt to enhance the items he used most often? It was because if the enhancement failed and a crucial option disappeared, it would immediately lead to a huge loss in combat power. But if he could secure a large number of items in this way, he could try a wider variety of things.

Jun-sang cautiously asked Lyches, “Did you… make that yourself?”

Lyches replied as if it were obvious, “Yes. I made it as a test when I was studying magic, but it should be quite useful.”

“…”

Jun-sang put his hands on his hips and felt the illusion that this former Fairy Queen, who was puffing out her chest and showing off, was suddenly radiating a brilliance more dazzling than gold.