Chapter 210
Tension filled the gymnasium.
Yuki, who had been watching my movements intently with hardened eyes, finally stepped forward.
At the same time, a crisp bell sound rang out.
~♪
“Hold on a second.”
As I raised my hand, Yuki’s body, which had just begun to move, came to an abrupt halt.
She nearly lost her balance and looked like she was about to fall, but she skillfully regained her footing and stood with a dissatisfied expression, glaring at me.
Hmm… Sorry?
Actually, I’m not sorry at all.
“Oh, w-whoa?!”
But Da-eun wasn’t as fortunate.
Having been in motion even before Yuki stepped forward, and lacking Yuki’s physical coordination, Da-eun failed to stabilize herself after the sudden halt.
“Ugh!”
In the end, she wobbled back and forth and fell flat on the ground.
“…Pfft.”
The way she fell looked just like a bucket of water spilling everywhere.
I raised my hand to cover my mouth, but I couldn’t completely stifle the laughter that escaped.
At the same time, Da-eun’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“…You’re laughing? Someone fell, and you’re laughing…?!”
“Well, isn’t this great? You wanted to see Kana laugh. Now that your wish has been granted, isn’t it fine?”
“…That’s true. But…! I didn’t want to make her laugh with slapstick comedy!”
“But you made her laugh, right?”
“…Argh!”
As Yuki approached and poked Da-eun’s back repeatedly, Da-eun barked back in frustration while still sprawled on the floor.
If falling was so embarrassing, why wasn’t she getting up?
I’ll never understand Da-eun’s thought process.
Ignoring the two who were bickering playfully, I pulled out my phone from my pocket.
“Since it’s come to this, why not steer your career in that direction? You seem to have a knack for it.”
“Don’t talk carelessly about things that don’t concern you! And how would Yuki even know if I have talent?”
“…What are you saying?”
“Yuki’s terrible at acting.”
“….”
“So bad that it’s unbearable to watch.”
“…Directors don’t necessarily have great acting skills themselves.”
“Even so, I doubt anyone’s worse than you.”
“That’s it. Get up. I’ll make sure you can’t keep flapping that mouth of yours.”
“Nope. I’ll only fight if it’s arm wrestling~”
…This is a joke, right?
In any case, I just hoped their antics wouldn’t spill over to me.
I shrugged my shoulders and answered the phone call that had interrupted the sparring session.
“Yeah.”
-“…Why did you take so long to answer? Don’t tell me you were going to say something ridiculous like thinking it was a phishing scam again?”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
To be honest, this call was less welcome than phishing.
Listening to Edel’s voice on the other end of the call, I thought as much.
“Why did you call?”
-“Do we have to wait for something to happen before we can call each other?”
“…Ugh.”
…This was, honestly, extremely disgusting.
Earlier, I couldn’t suppress my laughter, but this time, I couldn’t hold back the nausea welling up inside.
Even if it matched her tone, the delivery was just…
“I’d prefer it if you never did that again.”
-“I regret it too, so shut up.”
She grumbled as if lamenting her own actions.
-“Why did I do something so foolish when I knew I wouldn’t get a good reaction?”
“I know why.”
-“What?”
“You’ve lived so long that your brain’s gone weird.”
Well, she is technically a god, so I suppose she’s different from humans.
But considering she’s lived thousands—no, maybe tens of thousands—of years, it wouldn’t be surprising if her mind occasionally went off track.
Although I had been taken off guard earlier, I could understand where she was coming from.
“I can understand you.”
Yep. Because I’m magnanimous.
-“…Who’s magnanimous?”
“Me.”
-“What magnanimity does a flat-chested brat have? Oh, wait, it must be because there’s nothing protruding, so it’s wide?”
“….”
-“Why aren’t you saying anything? Did that sting?”
“I’m not bothered.”
I wasn’t hoping for anything to grow bigger anyway, so there’s no way I’d be hurt by that.
But where on Earth did she pick up that kind of language?
-“Where else? As a game developer, I need to be somewhat familiar with internet culture.”
“You’re not a game developer. You just tricked people into thinking this was a game. Fraudster.”
-“I refined it and presented it, so that makes me a developer.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
-“Yes, it does.”
“…Immature. Aren’t you embarrassed to be arguing like this at your age?”
-“When you can’t refute the message, attacking the messenger is the norm.”
Edel and I stood our ground without backing down.
This was a battle of pride.
Having come this far, there was no way I could back out now.
…Or so I thought.
Feeling something odd, I turned around and froze.
“….”
“….”
Da-eun and Yuki had stopped their bickering at some point and were now staring at me.
They both had warm smiles on their faces, almost glowing.
“…What? What is it?”
“Oh, nothing at all.”
“Good luck.”
Still wearing their warm smiles, Da-eun spoke kindly, and Yuki waved her practice sword like a cheering baton.
Seeing the two of them made my face inexplicably heat up, and I quickly turned away.
Yeah, what’s the point of arguing with Edel?
As I said earlier, I should be the bigger person and let it go.
“No time to waste. Just say what you need to say. If you don’t have anything, I’m hanging up.”
-“You’re not busy. I bet you’re just lazing around doing nothing.”
“…I’m hanging up.”
After the call ended, Edel immediately called back.
Of course, the caller was Edel again.
As soon as I answered, Edel spoke as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
-“Did you really hang up? Are you crazy or what?”
“You heard me say I’d hang up if there’s nothing important.”
She was the one who ignored the warning, so why was she complaining to me?
-“So prickly.”
Edel let out a quiet sigh and finally got to the point.
Considering how long ago the call started, it was ridiculous that she was only now talking about what mattered.
I barely stopped myself from sighing.
-“You know that thing you brought me last time?”
“That thing?”
It wasn’t difficult to figure out what she was talking about.
After all, I’d only ever given Edel one thing.
“The cube, right?”
-“Yes, that one.”
“Why bring it up now? Did you find something?”
-“Well, you could say I did, or you could say I didn’t.”
“…It’s either one or the other. What’s with the indecisiveness?”
-“I did find something, but it wasn’t a major discovery.”
Edel then began unpacking her findings one by one.
As it turned out, the incident on Jeju Island had indeed been caused by the cube.
The bizarre weather was due to the forced disruption of the flow caused by the cube separating dimensions.
As suspected, the cube was created by Dimensional Creatures, meaning it came from outside the dimension.
Listening to Edel’s findings, I nodded.
“…That’s it?”
In the end, she didn’t reveal anything beyond confirming my previous thoughts.
Sure, there’s a difference between speculation and proven truth.
But honestly, was this worth calling me so confidently about?
“This could’ve been a text message.”
-“Wow, people these days really are scared of phone calls.”
“You said that last time too.”
-“I know.”
“Thought you might’ve forgotten.”
-“Can I ask what you were about to say before ‘forgotten’?”
“No big deal. Why? Feeling guilty?”
-“…Fine. Never mind.”
Edel, clearly understanding the nuance in my words, gave up.
-“Who was it that threatened to hang up if I changed the subject? Anyway, if it was just that, I wouldn’t have called.”
From the way she spoke, it seemed there was something important after all.
Just as I adjusted my posture, Edel spoke in a serious tone.
-“About how the cube separates dimensions—it’s remarkably similar to how we create worlds. Of course, it’s not without its instability, but…”
“…?”
The content was as serious as her voice.
Unfortunately, her words didn’t really strike a chord with me.
“And why does that matter?”
When she said “we,” she was likely referring to herself and the other administrators or gods.
If that’s the case, isn’t it natural that such knowledge wouldn’t be exclusive to just them?
From what Edel had told me before, Dimensional Creatures weren’t mindless either.
So it wouldn’t be strange if they’d studied Edel’s methods during their conflicts and learned from them.
Know your enemy and know yourself, after all.
That same logic likely applied to them as well.
But it seemed Edel didn’t agree with my line of thinking.
-“Knowing something and being able to do it are completely different. Do you think creating a world is an easy feat?”
“Hmm… I guess not.”
-“At the very least, it means they have something equivalent to the authority we possess. Otherwise, imitating us to this extent would be impossible.”
…The mood suddenly grew heavy.
It was definitely a weighty topic, not one that could be casually texted about.
It’s not like texting about it would be impossible, but it wouldn’t convey the same gravity.
“Do you think we can handle this?”
-“We’ve decided to strengthen our defenses. We realized just building sturdier walls isn’t enough.”
“So basically, there’s no perfect solution.”
-“Exactly.”
Her acknowledgment was surprisingly straightforward.
For someone who had been so insistent about trivial matters earlier, why was she so quick to admit this?
“So, what am I supposed to do?”
Clearly, this wasn’t all she had to say, so she might as well spill everything now.
With that implication in my tone, Edel replied.
-“Nothing, for now. If anything, just focus on improving your skills.”
“This is really it?”
-“Like I said, I just wanted to check in and hear the voice of a comrade in the same boat. Do we really need a specific reason to call each other?”
“…Did you eat something bad?”
At this point, even I was starting to worry.
Her behavior was clearly different from usual. As my tone softened, Edel let out a dry laugh.
-“If you have time to worry about useless things, you’d better focus on honing your skills. You’re still far from being ready.”
“I’m already working on it.”
Unlike Da-eun and Yuki, who could significantly improve just by sparring, I didn’t have as many means to gain experience.
I answered Edel’s remark curtly.
-“And…”
Edel seemed about to say something but hesitated.
-“…Never mind. It’s not something I need to say.”
“…What is it?”
-“I’ll hang up now. I’m busy.”
With that, the call ended.
“…?”
What was that…?
She made it seem like she was about to say something important, only to dodge it and end the call.
If her intention was to provoke my curiosity, then she’d succeeded marvelously.
But what I felt from Edel’s voice wasn’t that.
“….”
Suppressing the vague unease that crept into my chest, I stared at the now-ended call screen.
—
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