Chapter 253: 253

Chapter 253

Hyukjin flinched.

“The Endless Sky?”

“Yes. Do you know it?”

Natalie tilted her head slightly to the left. Her mystical silver hair cascaded like water.

“Could you tell me a little about the Endless Sky?”

“Why?”

“I’m a bit curious.”

There was no need to tell her that the Demon King said he would be waiting there, and he didn’t need to explain the nitty gritty of his circumstances.

“You said the reason a race as strong as you guys left the Endless Sky is because you’re a peace-loving race. A human like me can’t understand it at all.”

Natalie glanced warily around. Her silver hair sparkled, bringing light to the dark ocean depths. There was nothing nearby.

Her way of speech changed a little.

“That’s what I’m saying. I can’t understand it, either. It’s so darn frustrating.”

Her previously stately expression morphed into a mischievous scowl.

‘She’s young.’

It was as if she were done acting, and this was her true self. Hyukjin didn’t know what kind of race the whalekin were, but he got the feeling that Natalie was a child.

“This is something the adults of our race decided. It’s frustrating as all hell. We can’t even use our strength because of the stupid vow they made, and now, even going up to breathe is scary because of the fruit flies up there. Tch, it makes me mad.”

As she complained, Hyukjin felt intense mana in her voice. She wasn’t trying to discharge mana; it was simply infused in her voice.

‘Seriously?’

It was his first time experiencing a force this immense, but simultaneously unaggressive.

‘I think she’s stronger than a Fire Giant.’

At least a Fire Giant had strength he could see. The power it possessed was violent and aggressive, the kind of power that wanted to crush everything it could see.

But this girl’s power was something else entirely. It gave off the same feeling as the darkness pervading the depths of the Sea of Clouds. It was something fathomless, something heavy and impossibly deep.

‘If I’m right, she’s just a young whalekin… yet she’s this strong?’

Then how strong were the fully-grown adults? He couldn’t even imagine.

‘And how strong are the waterdrakes that took over the Endless Sky?’

His head was a mess of thoughts. Hyukjin decided to figure out one thing at a time.

“What do you mean by not being able to use your strength because of a vow?”

“Our adults are weak cowards.”

“…”

“The adults are strong, but they didn’t fight. They could’ve sent those pathetic waterdrakes packing with a few good whacks.”

Waterdrakes came to the Endless Sky. The whalekin didn’t want to fight them, so they made a vow and fled. That was Hyukjin’s understanding of the situation.

“Did they make the vow with the waterdrakes?”

“Those jerks don’t have the authority to make vows with anyone.” Natalie covered her mouth and laughed. “Hoho. This oppa doesn’t know about the waterdrakes, does he?”

“…”

Her character now was worlds apart from how she was at first. Somehow, Hyukjin didn’t really like hearing “oppa” from her. The girl in front of him didn’t feel at all like a younger sibling. It was true she had a mystical appearance and was a whalekin child, but… it was like a warrior bulging with muscles was calling him oppa.

“Our adults made a vow between each other. A promise to leave the Endless Sky, and to love peace. That is why we cannot kill.”

Hyukjin got the gist of what the whalekin girl Natalie was saying. He also realized what Natalie wanted to hear.

‘I just need to scratch her itch a bit.’

So he said this:

“By human standards, that’s not loving peace, but cowardice.”

“Right?”

Natalie’s face was bright with vigor. Her swaying silver hair glittered more radiantly. 

“It’s my first time meeting someone who thinks the same as me.” She tucked back her silver hair. “Nice to meet you. I’m Natalie.”

She extended a hand, and Hyukjin took it. They both shook.

“I think of peace as something you can only protect when you have strength,” he said.

“The whalekin are strong.”

“Strength you can’t use isn’t strength. If I were to pull out a knife right now and try to harm you, would you be able to protect yourself?”

Hyukjin looked Natalie directly in the eyes, and she met his gaze. The one who averted her eyes first was Natalie.

“I could… run away.”

“No.” She couldn’t. He had already confirmed that earlier. “A race as strong as yours should be able to make Steel Wyverns submit with no problem. And yet, you were deeply wounded by a Steel Wyvern, and weren’t even able to escape.”

“That’s…”

He could tell even without analyzing the situation with Observer’s Eye. The answer was clear when he matched all the puzzle pieces together.

“Your people once possessed great strength, and there was no need to run.” At least in the Endless Sky. “But your people actually aren’t capable of fleeing.”

They were strong, but they weren’t fast. That was okay, since they had no natural enemies. They only ever needed to move with unconcerned, ponderous grace.

“…”

“That’s why if I were to attack you, you wouldn’t be able to escape from me, Natalie.”

Natalie had nothing to say. That was because Hyukjin was exactly right.

“In addition, the vow your elders made became chains that bind you. Otherwise, there’s no way you would have been injured by the likes of a Steel Wyvern.” Hyukjin pinpointed the exact reason Natalie was injured by a Steel Wyvern. “Because if you were to take an attack from them in your original form, they would be injured.”

It was simple. If you threw an egg at a boulder, the egg would crack. The boulder would just get a little dirty. The boulder in this analogy was the whalekin, and the egg, the wyverns.

“Your vow, the vow to not do harm to others, is restricting your abilities to the greatest degree.”

The whalekin undertook damage to themselves to prevent the egg from cracking.

‘How can there be a race with such an utterly stupid setting?’

Natalie blinked.

“You’re a human, right?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you had a true name.”

“I don’t have a true name. Actually, I don’t even know what that is.”

“Huh? You don’t know what a true name is?” Natalie looked left and right a few times before opening her mouth. “A true name is — — —-.”

He couldn’t hear it. The System had interfered. True names were something he had heard of very early on—Senia had asked him if he had a true name. Hyukjin believed this was a mystery that would be resolved in due time.

“When I looked you in the eyes earlier, I averted my gaze.”

“You did.”

“That’s because I’m a whalekin. And also because it’s not polite to stare directly at someone for too long.”

Once again, Natalie stared piercingly into Hyukjin’s eyes.

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“But it’s mostly because I felt darkness and stigmata from you.”

“…”

He couldn’t understand exactly what she meant. Why were darkness and stigmata being brought up out of nowhere? But he needed to change the topic—Hyukjin couldn’t direct the conversation if it veered off into things he didn’t know, and he had to author the scenario, leading it into a story the Guardians would love.

“It looks to me that you guys made a vow to yourselves in order to leave the Endless Sky.”

“That’s right. I’m told that in order to leave our home, in order to break the setting of our race that says we must live in the Endless Sky, we needed to make a vow.”

The whalekin weren’t supposed to leave the Endless Sky. But when the waterdrakes appeared, the whalekin left the Endless Sky to escape them. And in order to do so, they required another setting, a vow.

* * *

Translator – Lei

Proofreader – Ash

* * *

“Don’t you want to return to the Endless Sky?”

“Of course I do.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m hungry right now.”

“You’re hungry?”

“The adults apparently didn’t know because they’d never left the Endless Sky before. Turns out that place is full of mana.”

“Do you subsist on mana?”

It was his first time hearing of a lifeform that consumed mana to survive. It was a more fascinating concept than living off morning dew.

It was Natalie who seemed surprised. “Yes. What else would you eat, other than mana?”

“…”

He didn’t show it, but even the unflappable Kim Hyukjin was astonished. What else would you eat? The whole origin and concept of her species was totally different.

“You can’t eat mana here?”

“There’s not much mana worth eating here. I’m so hungry I could die.”

“How long has it been since you’ve had mana to eat?”

“Mm. Hard to say since I haven’t kept count. Maybe, oh, 200 years? Ah. I’m so hungry. The mana of the Endless Sky I ate a long time ago was so tasty.”

Hyukjin was a little more shocked. He thought back to what Natalie said earlier.

“This oppa doesn’t know about the waterdrakes, does he?”

A whale that had lived for over 200 years—the exact number, she couldn’t remember—called him oppa. Hyukjin was able to put a finger on the strange feeling he’d gotten earlier. It was like a wrinkly great-great grandmother calling him oppa. There was no way it wouldn’t feel odd.

‘But what she calls me isn’t important.’

Awkward was awkward, and business was business. He was a content creator whose only job was to advance and direct the scenario well.

“If there was a way to break the vow, would you return to the Endless Sky?”

“Of course!”

Settings had to be broken with settings. He got a hold on a small lead.

“Is there any way I could meet the adults of your people?”

“Whalekin always whalecome guests.”

They sure were a carefree race. Even reduced to such a sorry state, this race that had no choice but to accept damage to themselves for fear of breaking the egg were still welcoming guests like idiots.

‘If I had bad intentions…’

He could hunt this mighty race with ease. If he thought of them as monsters, that is. But it didn’t seem like that possibility even occurred to them. They were simply gracefully aloof creatures, and that’s why they were eking out a dangerous and precarious life.

‘I’d bet they don’t even think about why it would be dangerous to invite guests amongst their midst.’

Their way of thinking was completely different from humans to begin with.

“Let’s go.”

Natalie took his hand. His feet lifted and slowly drifted with the weightlessness of being in outer space.

“Ah!” Natalie let go. “What… was that?”

Hyukjin breathed an unconscious sigh. He knew exactly why Natalie suddenly let go of him.

(What’s this brat doing, touching a married man’s hand without permission?)

Now’s not the time for this, Isabel.

(You don’t have to be holding hands to get around.)

As she said that, Hyukjin was amazed by himself. In the past, when Isabel was acting out with ridiculous jealousy like this, he felt a bit annoyed. He had to hide his annoyance and go through the tiresome motions of coaxing her.

‘Why… don’t I feel irritated?’

He didn’t feel annoyed. In fact, he felt a bit happy. Isabel’s jealousy wasn’t all that unpleasant anymore.

‘This is crazy.’

Anyway, work was work.

Please don’t interfere, Isabel. It takes a lot of energy for me to move around here. It’s better if Natalie tows me along.

(I know, but still…) Isabel groused, but soon relented. (Okay. It can’t be helped. Work is work.)

From that, Hyukjin realized something else.

‘Natalie might just be a whalekin child… but I definitely felt unprecedented strength from her.’

Isabel made a creature of such power yelp and back off. Just how strong was Isabel, really? He truly couldn’t wait until the day she was completely unsealed, the day when she could appear with her full, true self.

(Husband. You were thinking about me just now, right?)

He didn’t respond. Isabel laughed happily.

(Hehe, makes sense. I’m kinda super pretty, aren’t I? Hohohoho!)

And with that, Isabel was happy again.

“I think you can hold my hand again.”

“That surprised me. It felt like something sharp was swallowing me up.”

“I apologize. Such a thing exists in the abyss that is us humans.”

Natalie nodded.

“I think I’ve heard about it before. They called it the darkness dragon.” Natalie took Hyukjin’s hand again. “Relax your body. I’m going to start swimming.”

She resumed her slow kicking, and after some time, Hyukjin was able to see many sleeping people.

Everyone was silver-haired. Dozens of people shining faintly silver were floating around in the Sea of Clouds. It was a fascinating sight.

He heard a notice.

[The quest ‘Homecoming of the Whalekin’ has been generated.]

The quest window popped up.

____

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