Chapter 50

Chapter 50 : Even Artisans Are Selective About Their Tools (1)

Pan sat comfortably in a relatively quiet area of the immigration hall and crooked a finger at me.

With my face full of displeasure, I sat at the edge of the long chair.

“From the moment you brought that bird out of the archive, this was inevitable.”

I folded my arms and quietly listened to Pan’s confession. Let us see how far he goes.

“That is a relic Sek left behind.”

“One minute you say I resemble Sek, and now this. You are really killing me.”

“That is one thing, and this is another.”

Pan stared into the air, setting the mood with a distant and bittersweet expression, as though recalling some old memory.

What a damn performance.

“Long ago, Sek traveled through all five domains of the Surface World. Geographically, the Forest’s Domain and the Underworld touched most closely, so the forest was his first visit.”

It seemed he was talking about when Pering had been about Konu’s size. Sek’s visits to each domain, which led a long-standing hostile relationship into peace.

“Was it a journey, or was it an intentional visit?”

“I heard it was a journey, but it was not without intent.”

“He must have been someone who cared about efficiency.”

“You may be the only person who could describe Sek that way.”

Pan rummaged in an inner pocket, took out a piece of paper, and held it out.

The tightly rolled black parchment looked important at a glance, so I received it carefully.

Pan continued saying what he wanted to say, as though telling me to examine it on my own.

“Sek left something behind whenever he stopped by each domain. In the forest, he left that bird.”

Pan jerked his chin toward the crow-tit perched on my shoulder, bobbing its head.

So he had openly said he would leave it there, and that was why the state of the Record Archive had been plastered thick with Red Threads.

They had seen that and left it alone because it was Sek’s trace.

I shrugged, uncrossed my arms, and untied the cord wrapped around the parchment.

“And he told us the next place.”

Three whales were drawn on the parchment.

The largest main domain, the second whale where Blue Etel stayed, and the third whale, where a red flame was drawn.

“He left an unextinguished fire in the sky.”

This was not some tracking game, so I had no idea what any of this was supposed to be.

In other words, the system seemed to intend to find every trace Sek had left behind and throw them at me.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for it to roll me around like this, steadily creating Field Quests and even Epic Quests.

‘What is this, I am inheriting his power or something?’

I rubbed my face and let out a deep sigh.

I had to visit the third whale too.

I strongly suspected that the flame would be the production method needed to complete the Phantasmal Species.

---

They said the third whale required Etel’s permission.

After leaving only those words behind, Pan skipped off to the Spring with Ariti, and I remained in the sky as an abandoned Underfolk.

Ah, fortunately, he had taken the heavy Ice Blue Ore and the gifts for the four little brats, saying he would deliver them, so my luggage was light.

“Why are you trying to go there?”

“I heard that an unextinguished flame is there. Ah, this.”

I handed Etel the picture of the full view of Sky’s Domain that Pan had given me.

Etel received it and looked at it for a long while before wearing a faint smile.

Not a sneer, but a smile that looked like it had some kind of story behind it? I stared blankly at Etel for a moment, then shook my head.

Surely that man Sek had done something when he visited the sky.

“Pan gave you this…… how interesting.”

Etel rose from her seat, grabbed the long curtain hanging over one wall of the Ruler’s office, and swept it aside in one motion.

A huge mural was painted on the wall hidden by the curtain.

A red flower blooming in a snowstorm-swept snowfield, a winged person plucking it, another being watching them, a blue meteor falling from the sky, and a bird.

I could not take my eyes off that bird, which looked as though it might burst into flame at any moment.

A phoenix? A firebird? Whatever it was, I felt a sense of pressure from the sight of it beating those great wings as though it would melt the snow-covered plain.

“It is a legend passed down in Sky’s Domain. When we migrated long ago, we tore out the entire wall and carried it with us.”

In other words, it was a very old ruin.

Etel continued.

“There is also a legend that the members of the sky gained wings because of that firebird. In the beginning, it was a bird that saved us from destruction, and we regarded the flame it left behind as sacred. The hottest flower blooming in the coldest place. Thus, a longing beyond reach.”

Etel’s tone as she looked at the mural made it sound like an old legend that no longer existed. As I listened quietly, I realized something.

These were people who had even torn out an entire mural and migrated with it.

Had they moved the seed of the flame?

“So that was why you said you did not know.”

“That is right. We lost that ember.”

“So we are back at square one…….”

I let out a sigh, feeling a little empty, then tilted my head. On the map Pan had given me, the mark had clearly been on the third whale.

“That is what I believed. Until Sek came.”

“I did not know you knew each other.”

“Not especially. We merely knew of each other. As he said, I will open the third domain to you.”

“Oh…….”

Since I had to go one way or another, Etel’s support was welcome.

“However, I cannot guarantee you will return alive after going there.”

“…….”

Her following words left me deflated at once.

I had suspected the third whale had not been chosen for no reason.

No matter how unextinguished the ember was, it would have been difficult to preserve it somewhere people passed through frequently. Besides, if it had been in such a place, there was no way there would not have been even a single rumor.

As long as it was not some absolute-zero domain or anything like that.

Even as I tried to think positively, the outlook only grew darker.

“Even I do not know its exact form. The previous Ruler likely knew, but it has been forgotten.”

“So the fact that we are back at square one has not changed after all.”

I rubbed the nape of my neck and made a plan.

Because surely they would not have left a relic in a place meant to kill someone. Perhaps there had been another path rather than the Normal Route.

Most decisively, it was a Gigantic Phantasmal Species, which meant a Ruling Phantasmal Species lived there too.

I was still wondering whether it might be better to ask the Phantasmal Species directly when the office door flew open.

Hwipone barged in with snow piled on top of his already pure white hair, and without paying much attention to the fact that I was there, he strode over and embraced Etel.

“Oh…….”

Lovers?

I nodded and briefly averted my eyes while examining the map I had received from Etel more closely.

“Ahem.”

“Ah, why is he here again?”

“Him? This is Riwin.”

“That is right. I am Riwin.”

I echoed Etel’s words and teased the bewildered Hwipone.

Hwipone released the arms he had wrapped around Etel, hardened his face, and strode toward me. Then he frowned and snatched the map I had been looking at.

“What is this now? You, why are you looking at a map of our Sky’s Domain?”

“I would like you to know first that the map is mine.”

“What?”

Hwipone whipped his head toward Etel in question, and when Etel nodded, he looked as though the world had collapsed.

I took the map back from Hwipone’s hand and shrugged.

“It is fortunate the two of you are acquainted.”

“We are not!”

“He says we are not.”

As though she had no interest in our opinions, Etel removed the necklace hanging around her neck and handed it to Hwipone.

“Sister, why are you giving this to me?”

“You have to go there.”

“Again?”

“And Riwin as well.”

This time, Hwipone’s head whipped toward me.

If he was calling her Sister, were they relatives? And judging by “again,” it seemed he had experience already.

I equipped a business smile for Hwipone, who would make a fine guide, and appreciated Etel’s consideration.

“With this much support, it is enough. I suppose I should be grateful.”

“……It would be better to think of it as Sek’s consideration.”

I expressed my gratitude again at Etel’s correction, then dragged the fuming Hwipone outside.

The moment we came out of the office, Hwipone shook off the thick layer of snow still piled on his head.

Without any of the childish grumbling he had shown in front of Etel, he glared at me with a cold and frosty expression, just like when we had first met.

This was probably his true face.

“You do not have to go if you do not want to. Just explain that place to me instead.”

“Ha, you……”

“Ah, is that necklace an entry token, by any chance? I would be grateful if you gave that to me too.”

“What? No. I refuse.”

“Then are you coming with me?”

“Ha, this is why they say ignorance makes you brave.”

Hwipone thoroughly mussed his hair, placed the necklace he had received firmly around his own neck, and tucked it inside his clothes.

“I will hear why you are trying to go there later. It looks like you need a basic explanation, so follow me.”

“A basic explanation?”

“That place…… is where you die with your eyes open.”

After leaving those brutal words behind, Hwipone walked down the corridor first, telling me to follow or not as I pleased.

I thought to myself.

Of course. There is no way that system bastard would let me have it easy.

---

The place Hwipone chose was, unexpectedly, a tavern.

It was full of the warmth of noisy people, and because everyone gathered there was busy saying whatever they wanted to say, no one paid attention to our conversation in the corner.

“So the reason you were absent throughout the negotiations was because you had just come back from there?”

“I had only just arrived. Why exactly do I have to be dragged there again?”

Hwipone was downing strong liquor one cup after another, his entire posture declaring that he had no intention of leaving immediately.

Of course, the way he kept boasting that he held his liquor quite well, yet still explained the Third Domain while perfectly coherent, felt like another occupational disease.

“No one can go there easily. To begin with, it is impossible without Sister’s permission, but there are always exceptions, so we set up a barrier altogether. And this lock……”

Hwipone took out the necklace Etel had given him and stared at it, then sighed again.

“If your destination is a place that even requires this, then I want to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Do you have two lives?”

Hwipone held out two straightened fingers.

I watched Hwipone, carried away by the mood, and drank the beer that had been brought for me.

“I have only one life, but would you understand if I said this is a problem I cannot avoid?”

“You are talking bullshit. Woof, woof.”

Hwipone let my words pass in one ear and out the other, then began grumbling through his explanation of the Third Domain again.

First of all, it was a place where blizzards raged all day.

It was an island sunk in a storm where icy particles became snow and whipped about, incomparable to the intermittent blizzards in the place where Blue Etel stayed.

If that were all, it would be fine, but there were things that came out there.

Fragments that had failed to become Phantasmal Species, masses those fragments had clumped into, and monsters that bewitched people by bursting into tears.

In that place, where the pure white snowfield and blizzards even cut off visibility, one would face monsters rushing in endlessly, unable to sleep or eat, tormented by the cold until eventually turning back.

“Me? I can go in and out up to this point without trouble.”

Hwipone pointed at the necklace and grinned.

I shook my head and thought it might be easier than expected.

Because Phantasmal Species were not much of a threat to me.

The bigger problem was finding the ember amid the cold, the blizzard, and losing my sense of direction.

“Since you go there so often, have you ever seen a flame, by any chance?”

“A fire?”

“A flower that blooms hottest in the coldest place. An unextinguished ember.”

“Well. Treasure hunting is not my specialty.”

As expected, it seemed better to go alone.