Chapter 8: Strange World

[Awakened Gallery]

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[Title: I saw something really strange just now]

I was escaping from Seoul, but I received a text message saying the evacuation order was lifted and I was going home.

But I suddenly looked at the sky.

People’s consciousness is like that, right? When everything else is still and only one thing is moving, your consciousness is drawn to that, right?

I was like that too.

It was just a dark night sky, but something was flying.

It was white, so at first I thought it was an airplane.

When I looked, it was a huge wing.

Something that reminds me of an angel… A really sacred feeling?

I was so distracted the moment I saw it that I almost crashed my car into a streetlight by mistake;

I got out of the car and looked at the sky again, but it was gone, did I see it wrong?

[Comment]

-After the angel, it would have been a goddess LOL
ㄴ For real LOL
ㄴ It was an otherworld opportunity, but you missed it, tsk tsk

―――

The flight in the dark night sky was over. It was very comfortable to be held in the angel’s arms and fly in the sky, but that also came to an end.

Sephie and I set foot on the rooftop of an incredibly tall apartment building.

As I carefully looked around, Sephie, who had folded her wings, pointed to the rooftop door.

“We have arrived.”

There was no particular expression.
I looked at Sephie, who was staring at me, and I also looked back at her and questioned.

“…Is this really okay?”

“What do you mean?”

At my question, the pure white angel.
Sephie’s head tilted. It was the highlight, as if she really didn’t understand, frowning slightly.

“How did we just get here?”

“We flew.”

“…Yes. You know well. And?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. Is there a problem?”

I sighed, looking at Sephie. Sephie blinks at that.

‘We flew in the night sky of Seoul with those pure white wings spread out, will it be okay?’

We promised not to cause a fuss.

In return for that promise, I was able to avoid getting involved in complicated matters.

I can’t be sure, but if I hadn’t left the place immediately after leaving the gate, something annoying would have happened.

‘Peace is the best.’

Gate, Awakened.
Stories that were common in novels before being summoned.

I’m still hesitant.

But to summarize the stories I heard inside the gate, from their point of view, Sephie and I were the ‘boss’ of the gate.

In many novels, the gate was a kind of disaster.

And to solve the disaster, the source of the disaster.

In other words, the boss of the gate had to be defeated.

If they hadn’t accepted my offer, the situation wouldn’t have ended peacefully, and in the end…

Of course, it was unavoidable for them who didn’t know my identity.

Haa, a sigh came out.

At the same time, Sephie’s body flinches.

It was nice to see the appearance that stimulated my longing, which remained in my memory.

‘Come to think of it, Sephie is also very unique.’

Sephie. Angel of Fate.

The youngest of the goddess’s eight angels.

Sephie, who had no expression until just now, lowers her head as if she had committed a mortal sin at my sigh.

It was an overreaction.

Sephie, who was calm even when tearing apart the demon god’s kin, shows a lot of changes in front of me.

Not to the goddess, but to me.

In fact, while coming here, Sephie, who was holding me in her arms, was blushing for some unknown reason.

‘Did Sephie hate being touched?’

I don’t remember.

Even if I stare at her, when our eyes meet, she gets startled and lowers her head.

I had no idea why.

Perhaps, is she upset because I punished her at the gate?

‘I had no intention of killing her spirit to this extent…’

I felt sorry for no reason.
I don’t know the details, but anyway, it was Sephie who wanted to protect me.

I approached Sephie, who lowered her head, and stroked her soft, pure white hair.

Sephie trembles, flinching, as soon as my hand touches.

When I let go of my hand, Sephie raises her head. Our eyes met.

‘…She’s really pretty.’

There was a reason why angels were called the daughters of the goddess. She had a dignified beauty, like a statue carved by an artist.

‘There will be a lot of trouble.’

If she lives in this world with that appearance, there will be many people approaching her, whether she likes it or not.

The fact that I was the only one who could properly deal with that made my head a mess again.

In the end, I mixed the vague emotions into a sigh and let it out, and took a step towards the railing of the rooftop, passing Sephie.

The evidence that I had become a woman from a man, my swollen chest, slightly touched the cold wall of the railing.

I was a little surprised that the coolness reached my skin, so I lowered my head and saw that my clothes were unfamiliar.

A slightly baggy outerwear, a tank top that exposed my shoulders.
I was wearing short pants that covered half of my thighs.

‘Hmm. It’s unfamiliar.’

There were no clothes like this in another world.
I felt that armor was more comfortable.

Swish.

The hair that sways in the wind tickles my cheek.
I grabbed it with my fingers and rubbed it. Pasasak, the sound of rubbing sand brushed my ears.

I blinked a few times, then smiled and raised my head. Now I felt it a little.

I did come back, something like that.

It was time to turn my consciousness.
From ‘me’ to the world.

I put the vast world in my eyes.

The stars that should be in the dark night sky were all shining below the sky.

Even after the night is over.
There are places where the lights do not go out even when dawn comes.

City of Blazing Lights.
It was the charm of the city.

‘Really, Seoul?’

The world I lived in before I became a hero, before I was summoned.

Seoul, the capital of Korea.
Did I really return there?

Suddenly, when I turned my gaze, there was a skyscraper that seemed to reach the sky. The exterior of the building was dark, so the top was mixed with the night sky.

Baek Ji-a said, an organization that manages awakened ones and gates.

‘Awakened Association.’

She said that the headquarters of the association was in Seoul. I was momentarily lost in the overwhelming presence that overwhelmed all other buildings, and I was convinced.

‘…It’s not the world I knew.’

It was clear.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then put the world in my eyes again.

Sometimes you have to accept it positively rather than unconditionally deny it. Once upon a time, I didn’t know that and wandered.

I turned my head.

When I turned around, Sephie was looking at me with her hands politely gathered on her stomach.

I approached her and said.

“Sephie.”

“Yes.”

Still a calm answer.
However, there will definitely be things that have not changed.

Because the angel in front of me was also like that.

I couldn’t control my twitching lips, and I smiled coolly to match the atmosphere of the cool wind and said.

“From now on, call me Yujin.”

“…Yu, Jin?”

“Yes.”

“Yujin, Yujin… I understand.”

Yujin.
Lost, and I thought I would never be called again.

That name, I want to get it back.

I felt unusually good.
I spoke to Sephie, who still looked bewildered.

“So, where do we go now?”

“Yes?”

“Didn’t you say you had something to explain when we left the gate? Oh, there are no people around here.”

“What… Ah, did you mean that?”

She tilted her head.
Then Sephie’s face turned a little red, but I still couldn’t figure out why.

I tried to ignore the somewhat strange reaction and asked.

“What did you think I meant?”

“No. It’s nothing. There’s no need to go anywhere else anymore. We’ve already arrived.”

Sephie muttered so and turned around. As if to make way, her body turned to the side, and in front of her was the large door of the rooftop.

“Let’s go in.”

“Huh?”

“This is, Ashi… No.”

Sephie, who said Ashi, my name in another world, closed her mouth.

When her lips, which were mumbling as if chewing something, opened again.

“This is where I and Yujin… w, will, will live together.”

“…What?”

I heard words that made me doubt my ears. I asked back without realizing it, but Sephie just blushed because she was embarrassed to stutter.

After leaving the gate, Sephie took me to a high-rise apartment.

This is where I’ll live?

I opened the rooftop door and entered the apartment, and of course I had that question.

But I didn’t leave it as a question.
Because there was a target to ask directly next to me.

Sephie carefully watched the number of floors of the apartment marked on the wall every time she went down the stairs. I followed Sephie down the stairs and asked.

“…Did you prepare it?”

“No. Most of it is her arrangement. She told me to find the number 4301 after entering this interior.”

The ‘her’ that came out of Sephie’s mouth is a word that means the goddess.

I nodded.

4301.

I pulled out the memory located at the very bottom of countless memories. It was how to read that number.

The first two digits are the floor number of the apartment, and the last two digits are probably the number of the unit.

Since I figured out why Sephie was checking the floors as she went down the stairs, I passed Sephie and walked in front.

‘Hmm.’

Only the footsteps that kept hitting the stairs rang out silently. Before I knew it, I had reached the 44th floor, right above the 43rd floor.

I didn’t take the elevator.
Because I had something to think about.

That thought was that the goddess didn’t just send me here.

‘She was a woman who kept her word.’

I realized it later, but the most trustworthy of the gods I met in another world was the goddess who summoned me.

Even when I was first summoned, I made a contract.

When everything is over, I will return obediently, and in return, the goddess will give me a reasonable reward.

From Sephie protecting me.
The fact that this apartment is where I will live meant that this was also included in the scope of the reward.

‘Because I didn’t live in an apartment like this.’

The highest floor was 63.
That meant, roughly speaking, it was incredibly expensive.

‘I’m a little excited?’

I tried my best to suppress the corners of my mouth from going up for no reason, and finally set foot on the 43rd floor.

The hallway that lights up when it faces me and Sephie.

I and Sephie were momentarily embarrassed by the sudden turning on of the lights as we went down the stairs, but now we were used to it.

It wasn’t difficult to find the door with 4301 written on it.

I was staring blankly at the closed front door, and an unfamiliar device was installed above the handle.

“Fingerprint, huh?”

Just in case, I stretched out my index finger and matched my fingerprint inside the square box. And when I looked at the front, there was also a machine that recognized the iris. It was at my eye level. The machine recognized my eyes.

Then two unique machine alerts sounded. Next, I heard the sound of the door lock opening.

“Oh.”

I opened the door.
I grabbed the handle, turned it, and pulled, and it opened easily.

Leaving Sephie behind, I carefully stepped inside the front door.

There were no shoes.

A little, feeling like a thief, I took off my shoes. When I stepped on the hallway with my socks on, the coolness tickled the soles of my feet.

I heard the sound of the door closing behind me.
It was dark around.
I easily found the switch and lit up the surroundings.

It was the living room.
It was incredibly spacious.

Everything was familiar, but when I actually saw it, unfamiliar objects came into view.

None of them were mine.
To be precise, things that weren’t mine.

There is a very large sofa and a huge TV.

Next to the air conditioner in the corner, the scenery of the world came into view.

I, who stretched my arms out to the side, had four wide windows standing in a row.

I was a little embarrassed by the warm feeling that was rising from within.

‘What is this feeling?’

I couldn’t figure it out.
It was difficult to digest the questions that came to mind.

My heart swelled.

My head was complicated.

Various thoughts rose like bubbles, burst, and disappeared.

When I was quietly looking around with my mouth closed.

“Yujin, nim.”

In the meantime, Sephie called me and I turned around.

“Why?”

“I will tell you her message.”

It was a sudden statement.
The goddess has something to tell me?

Well, it would be more strange if there wasn’t.

But because it was so sudden, I couldn’t understand it for a moment and just blinked my eyes.

Despite my attitude, Sephie slowly opened her mouth. As I listened to the words that came out, I opened my eyes wide.

Because, the words that came out of Sephie’s mouth.

“She is waiting for you.”

It was the words that the goddess who sent me here was waiting for me.

My mind was a little hazy.

But it was quickly awakened by the sharpened senses.

“It’s been a while.”

I heard a warm voice tickling my ears.

“I’ve been waiting. Hero.”

Hero.

A magical word that I’ve heard so many times that it makes me tremble every time I hear it.

“You must have a lot of questions. I also felt a little uncomfortable about saying goodbye unilaterally.”

Who is calling me that?

“So, Hero.”

At least, in the world I returned to, there is no one to call me that except for Sephie.

“Open your eyes.”

I opened my eyes.

There she was.
The goddess, who sank her brilliant blonde hair under the lake that reflected the sky, was smiling at me.

Facing her was.

‘She told me to bring you here and have you use the item called a capsule.’

According to Sephie’s words.

It was after I closed my eyes in a machine called a capsule, which is mainly used for virtual reality games in this world.

“Hello. Hero.”

The goddess greeted.