Ch.160Desolate wind

The newly appointed vice-captain Seo-rin had to endure a heavier workload than usual. She had to sort through documents delivered without fail every day and assign missions after assessing the capabilities of the members.

Her training time decreased, and so did her sleep. Seo-rin realized that Karnok, who had appeared to be loafing around all day, was actually an exceptionally capable person.

Snap-!

“Ah…”

Having failed to control her strength, the quill pen in her hand broke. Seo-rin stood up from her seat with a sigh. If a mission had been assigned to her directly, her body might have suffered, but at least her mind would have been at ease.

However, no missions were currently being assigned to the vice-captain or captain-level members. There were several complex reasons, but the biggest one was the war. Since they were personnel who could be deployed as elite forces in case of emergency, they had been placed on standby.

The lower-ranking members were still being assigned missions. Seo-rin genuinely envied her friends.

It was when Seo-rin, unable to bear her stifling feelings, had opened the window wide to catch the night breeze that her sensitive energy perception detected someone approaching the office.

Knock knock-

[Seo-rin? Are you in there?]

The voice that followed the knocking sound was very familiar. It was Karnok’s voice. Seo-rin turned around and answered.

“It’s open. Please come in.”

Click-

As soon as Seo-rin gave permission, Karnok opened the door and stepped inside.

“What brings you here?”

“Is the work manageable?”

Seo-rin frowned and sighed at Karnok’s question. It was manageable. However, the question was how long her patience would last. Seo-rin shrugged and shook her head.

“I’m not sure.”

“It seems manageable for now. That’s good then.”

Karnok looked around the office and sat down in a suitable spot. Though it had been only a few days since he had handed over his office, all the furniture decorating the interior had been changed.

The chairs, desk, coat rack, and shelves were all quite low. This was because they were all dwarf-made furniture.

Karnok, sitting in a chair and tapping on the table, said:

“His Majesty has summoned you. He wants to see you right away.”

Seo-rin tilted her head at Karnok’s words. Who would believe that he had come to find her at such a late hour to tell her about the Emperor’s summons? But Karnok’s face was utterly serious. It wasn’t a joke.

“Right now? At this late hour?”

“Yes.”

Seo-rin immediately rose from her seat. Then Karnok asked:

“Aren’t you going to ask why?”

“Would you tell me if I asked?”

“…Come to think of it, it might be better for you to go see for yourself than for me to explain.”

They were heading to the Imperial Palace. She couldn’t bring weapons. Seo-rin, wearing only a coat, left all the swords she usually carried in the office. There was no worry about theft. The Fire Dragon Sword, Ice Dragon Sword, and Muramasa forged from the scales of the Starlight Dragon were deeply connected to Seo-rin.

If anyone were to touch them, there would be an immediate reaction.

“Let’s go.”

Seo-rin left the office with Karnok.

In the late evening hours, no members were wandering around the Blue Wing headquarters. There was a faint presence felt from the training grounds, but that was all.

Only the footsteps of the two people echoed through the empty headquarters building.

Throughout their journey from the Blue Wing headquarters to the Imperial Palace, the two did not converse. To begin with, Seo-rin was usually not talkative. When Karnok said nothing, Seo-rin had no choice but to maintain silence as well.

Karnok finally spoke when they arrived in front of the Imperial Palace.

“We’ve arrived. This is as far as I go.”

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Only you were summoned by His Majesty. And I’ve already seen it, so I don’t need to see it again.”

“Seen it…? What is His Majesty going to show me?”

Karnok answered Seo-rin’s question with a smile. As if to say, if she was curious, she should go in and find out for herself. Eventually, Seo-rin approached the entrance of the Imperial Palace alone.

There, the old man she had met previously was waiting for her.

“It’s been a while, Lord Seo-rin.”

He was the figure who assisted the Emperor by his side. Seo-rin naturally gauged the balance of power between them. Though his appearance was elderly, his physical condition was not at all like that. Though he covered his entire body with a pitch-black uniform, the muscles that were faintly visible indicated that his physical prime had not yet ended.

‘Half…?’

The conditions were equal. Both she and the old man were swordsmen, but neither had swords at the moment. In the current state, it would be at best a draw. What if they had swords?

It wasn’t easy to predict. When Seo-rin didn’t respond for a while, the old man chuckled softly.

“What are you so curious about?”

“…Nothing.”

“What you’re imagining probably won’t happen. As long as you belong to the Empire… Anyway, His Majesty is waiting. Let’s hurry.”

Before following the old man, Seo-rin looked back at Karnok, who was standing at a distance. He was standing on the straight road in front of the Imperial Palace, waving his hand. As if to say he would wait until she returned from her business.

Only then did Seo-rin follow behind the old man.

The place where Seo-rin was guided was inside the large Imperial Palace. Passing through the elaborately decorated entrance, they walked along the corridor for quite some time. Throughout the walk following the old man, Seo-rin did not encounter anyone else.

The place where the old man stopped was in front of a room located in the middle of a wide corridor. Unlike other places they had passed, it seemed like an entire floor existed just for this one room.

The old man who had stopped lightly knocked on the large door.

Knock knock-

[Let them in.]

A voice was heard from inside as soon as he knocked. As Seo-rin looked up at the old man, he opened the door and gestured inside. It seemed that she would be entering alone this time as well.

Seo-rin promptly stepped inside.

The room was very dark. There was no lighting to illuminate the surroundings. The Emperor was standing in the middle of the dark room, waiting for Seo-rin.

“It’s been a while.”

Seo-rin immediately bowed her head and knelt down.

“I am in the presence of the master of the Empire.”

“Didn’t I tell you before? I dislike unnecessary formalities. This isn’t an official occasion, so there’s no need for that.”

Seo-rin recalled what Karnok had told her. The first thing he had said before meeting the Emperor. He had told her to listen well and not to defy the Emperor’s words.

Seo-rin immediately stood up and held her head high.

The Emperor looked at Seo-rin as if finding her behavior amusing. His lips curved gently, and his eyes formed semicircles. Seo-rin looked at the Emperor’s face with indifference.

“Your growth is remarkably fast. When I saw you before, you were a low-ranking knight…”

“I worked hard for it.”

“Yes. It must be the result of your efforts. Indeed…”

The Emperor trailed off and slowly began to walk. The surrounding wind responded to his movements. It wasn’t a phenomenon caused by mana, but a special power possessed only by the Emperor.

“First of all, congratulations on becoming the vice-captain of Blue Wing. In normal times, I would have held a grand inauguration ceremony for you. But the timing isn’t very good right now.”

“That’s fine. You can hold it later.”

“…Sometimes I forget your origins.”

The Emperor’s pace quickened. He headed toward a large bookcase filled with numerous books.

“People need to acquire knowledge befitting their position. That’s why I called you here. You have risen to the position of vice-captain of Blue Wing, and you need to know the secrets that come with that position.”

It was the moment when the Emperor’s hand touched the bookcase. With a click, the large bookcase began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred, and started to split open from left to right.

The Emperor said:

“You need to know. The reason why reincarnators are coming to this world, the secret of this world.”

As the large bookcase split open from left to right, another hidden room behind it was revealed. The Emperor walked into the new room as if familiar with it. Inside the room was a large loom.

But it wasn’t an ordinary loom. The thread was flowing from empty space, and the thread extending below was gleaming with a golden light.

“That’s…”

“Seo-rin. Have you ever read a storybook?”

“Yes, a few while learning to read…”

“Did you read to the end?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what kind of storybook you read, but it surely had a beginning and an end. Then what happens after the story ends? Do you know?”

“No. That’s…”

“A story with a period at the end is over. It doesn’t continue anymore; it stops. This world is no different. The world was created, and the protagonist began a journey. But when the journey ended and the period was placed, the story of this world ended.”

The Emperor said this as he approached the loom. Then he picked up a thread that looked the oldest. At the end of the single thread, numerous threads were tied together, extending downward.

“Of course, the world didn’t want that. It rejected its own end. It wanted to continue the story that had stopped. So what it found was reincarnators. It needed protagonists to carry on the play.”

The Emperor pulled on the thread he was holding. Then, hundreds of threads below it were pulled up. Many of them were broken, but most were extending longer.

“It turned its eyes elsewhere. There were many places where stories had ended. It reached out and gathered them, little by little. It brought in thin threads and wound them here. So that the story could continue, so that new stories could be born.”

The Emperor’s tone gradually changed. But Seo-rin didn’t notice. She just blankly stared at the golden threads descending from the sky.

“The role of Blue Wing is control. To suppress protagonists from other worlds so that the story doesn’t go astray, so that it flows as the world wants. The reason you grew stronger so quickly is because the world wanted it. It needed a new character, although a different soul was mixed in unexpectedly in the middle…”

After pouring out the long story, the Emperor frowned and ran his hand through his hair. Then, looking up at the sky, he muttered a small curse.

“Crazy little bastard…”