Chapter 173: The Tiger’s Plea

#173

“You bit a person and now you come here saying where is where?! Did you come to bite my arm off this time?!”

The tiger, who had come here with hope, curled its tail at the fierce scolding. But it still stubbornly sat in that spot, refusing to leave.

“I told you not to come here anymore! I clearly warned you that scary things would come!”

The tiger blinked its eyes and twitched its nose, wanting to say something. But its fierce mouth never opened.

“Go! Get out! Don’t ever come back! If you come again, you’ll be in big trouble with me! Do you want to get hit with rocks again?!”

Eomdongi’s hand, as big as a cauldron lid, picked up a stone that was lying in the yard. He hurled the stone toward the tiger’s feet.

[I won’t do it again. Don’t chase me away…! Don’t do that, Eomdong!]

Dokyeom heard someone’s trembling voice.

[I won’t bring any more people. That was the only time. I won’t do it again. So don’t do this, Eomdong.]

“Go! A tiger can’t live with people! Go far away and live hidden!”

It seemed time in this world had already passed several days since the tiger first brought a person. From here, everything would begin.

All of this was the wish of the ‘Authority’ who desired to change this tragedy. The reason Ellen, who had entered first, had been thrown back several times during his attempts to conquer this gate was that the direction the ‘Authority’ wanted differed from the direction they tried to solve.

A gate without a fixed boss meant that. One of two. Or one of many. Or both.

It meant that someone nominated as a candidate could become the boss, depending on the flow of the story. And here, the ‘boss’ the ‘Authority’ wanted was one that wouldn’t harm its ideal.

Of course, this too could change. This ‘Authority’ was a being with a self, one that could change its mind anytime depending on the story’s flow.

But what it ultimately wanted would not change.

Thud, thud-thud-

The stone flew through the air, grazing the tiger’s vicinity and falling. The tiger finally backed away hesitantly, letting out a sorrowful sound before turning and disappearing.

Until its back faded into the darkness, Eomdongi stood with his eyes wide, holding the stone high. Only after silence fell did he put down the stone and slump onto the snow-covered ground.

“…It’s because I’m useless… It’s because I’m weak… So you understand.”

The man sat there motionless for a long while, then finally rose weakly and picked up a broom from the yard. He erased the tiger’s footprints, swept the yard, and gathered the thrown stones, spending time outside until his nose turned red.

Dokyeom watched Eomdongi’s hunched back, then closed the door and crawled back under the blanket. Even as he worried uselessly whether the thatched ceiling might collapse from the snow, sleep came without a sound.

He thought he heard someone open the paper door and come in.

***

The sound of wind circling through the clouds brushed past his ears. It was the sound of moist wind blowing between high valleys, more clear than a heavy gust like a snowball.

Waterfalls crashed against his ears, and the cries of black monsters flying through the sky echoed through the mountains. Dokyeom’s blurry vision scanned the rapidly passing scenery without missing a detail.

It was a world full of towering stone mountains. The black beasts nested and lived on the peaks and in the caves of those mountains.

His vision paused briefly on one spot. Inside a pitch-black cave, there was a huge nest.

Familiar shapes squirmed faintly inside. People, exhausted, leaned against the cave walls, gasping for breath in the dark cave. They looked like they had just cooled down from sweat, no, barely escaped danger and hid.

Someone spat curses as they breathed roughly, and someone else lay on the ground, moaning in pain.

[Seriously… I almost died…]

[Instead of complaining, chew on something. We can only stay here for a few hours at most.]

Pale-faced hunters each held a piece of dried meat and began to chew. Their eyes were sharp as knives, and every action was full of tension.

There, Dokyeom found a man standing alone at the cave entrance. His black hair was now damp and drooping with moisture, as if wet.

It was Taeseongyeon, unchanged from the last time he saw him.

The sleeves of his white shirt were charred as if burned. His dirt-covered clothes were hardly intact either. But unlike the others, he showed no signs of fatigue.

Even though this was a nest of black dragons.

With this many people, they must have managed to catch and kill just one. Coming up here and taking over a nest was itself worthy of applause.

But to find the ‘Authority’, they needed to repeat this at least dozens of times. What Taeseongyeon had to search through all these nests to find was the ‘egg’ containing the ‘Authority’.

Even as everyone lay down to rest, Taeseongyeon simply stared down at the distant valley without expression.

Dokyeom also looked at him blankly. At his scarred forearms, at his face that seemed tired even if others didn’t notice. At every part of the valley his gaze touched.

Then suddenly, he felt a sense of wonder.

It felt like he had seen this before. A sense of deja vu that he had stood like this, looking at him blankly.

‘Where have I seen this?’

As he was tracing back through his memories, a white world appeared before Dokyeom’s eyes as he held his throbbing head. A silver world where light fluttered and empty sand waves crashed around, with moonlight so cold it stung.

In that empty world, Dokyeom was looking down at somewhere, no, at someone. A distant being seated on a huge throne. He didn’t know who it was, but Dokyeom instinctively realized it was someone he must not confront.

So he just watched. Silently, from afar, he blankly looked down at the silver-haired man who seemed asleep, his eyes closed and chin resting on his hand.

Clouds rushed in like a torrent, blocking the moonlight, and rain filled the world. The man opened his mouth when everything became murky.

‘I told you not to come today.’

His voice, dignified and resonant, was hoarse. That tired voice ached with longing. Dokyeom was now facing him eye to eye. Standing before him, infinitely large, he gazed endlessly into those eyes that seemed to have the sun embedded in them.

‘…I said I would come.’

‘Hmm… I’m not in a good mood today.’

‘…Why not?’

‘That thing went wild.’

‘Then kill it. You said you can with your power. It’s a monster anyway.’

He let out a low laugh from his throat. That languid laugh was pleasant to hear. It was a moment of rain falling on his tedious world. It was also the only time one could glimpse emotion in his dry demeanor. His throat felt parched. His stomach churned, and his eyes stung in response.

The world felt like a precipice. Because both of them were vast beings that had to remain in one place.

‘If you do something against reason, the balance of the world collapses. That’s why I don’t kill that thing, and it doesn’t kill me. And you, who deceive the eyes of your brothers and steal glances at the world.’

‘…If everything becomes futile. What will you do then?’

A quietly burning gaze held Dokyeom for a long time. Could he see this form? Even though it was nothing but formless air, he was the one who always made eye contact first.

‘Tell me more. What do you mean by futile.’

‘There is someone who wants to summon that thing. You won’t be able to stop him, and eventually you’ll have to leave this place. Because he seeks to break the balance of the world you desire.’

‘That’s troubling.’

The man didn’t believe those words. He always did that. With his chin resting on his hand, he always stayed in that spot as if glued, brushing off the gentle words as nonsense. Even though he had never once spoken a lie.

‘When that time comes… I’ll let you know. If I no longer come to you… then find me. By then, you too will sense the world going awry. I’ll tell you exactly what I saw and felt.’

You will find me.

The silver world where the rain spread faded away. Instead of the world blurred as if by fog, the man in front of him appeared. Taeseongyeon.

The moment the silver eyes that had been looking into the distance slowly closed and opened, Dokyeom felt as if he had met Taeseongyeon’s gaze.

It wasn’t an illusion. Taeseongyeon’s eyes held Dokyeom without a single deviation. Those unwavering eyes seemed to curve slightly.

‘Dokyeom.’

‘…’

‘I told you to stop that habit of peeking.’

Taeseongyeon whispered silently. And then-

Kiaaaaah-

‘!’

The piercing scream of a monster tore through the world. Dokyeom quickly turned around. A pitch-black dragon, its mouth wide open like a house, was flying swiftly toward the cave.

[Guild Master!-]

Someone shouted and quickly leaped, gripping a weapon. The other hunters sprawled on the ground did the same.

But it was too late.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

Before they could do anything, the monster thrust its head into the cave and crushed the outer wall with its huge beak. Boulders fell and dust flew.

Nothing was visible or audible.

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