Chapter 43: The first night without each other

“Damn it! Even if it’s like that, tearing up my resignation letter right in front of me without even reading it is too much!”

As soon as Sihyun handed in his resignation letter, Dojin gave him a flick on the forehead and kicked him out of the Master’s Room.

He was sure this method would allow him to escape the guild.

‘This can’t be happening… My first plan, meticulously crafted by my brilliant mind, turned into toilet paper!’

Dojin’s reaction to receiving the resignation letter was sharp as a knife.

–“I’ll pretend I didn’t see that resignation letter. And I know you cherish your sister, but closing the guild is no joke. This is a special situation, so your sister will surely understand.”

“If Luna were a normal girl, she would definitely understand, but the problem is she isn’t…”

Luna is quiet and obedient.

However, there is one crucial prerequisite: Sihyun must be by Luna’s side.

Without Sihyun, Luna would undoubtedly revert to an empty, hollow state of destruction in an instant.

“I was the one who taught Luna emotions. I have to take responsibility to prevent her from becoming like that.”

For now, the strategy of submitting his resignation and escaping the guild as an outsider had failed.

‘Was this damned guild a place where you couldn’t even quit at will?’

Perhaps he had unknowingly signed a s*ave contract instead of an employment contract.

But Sihyun wasn’t one to give up here.

“Hahahaha… Yes, I am Yoon Sihyun. The man who doesn’t know how to give up.”

>Plan A: Resignation Submission (Failure)

Sihyun rose from his spot and immediately moved on to the next plan.

[Guild Escape Plan B: Feigning Illness]

“Aargh! D-Dojin, Uncle! My stomach suddenly hurts so much, I think I need to go to the hospital! M-My appendix might have burst!”

Sihyun stormed back into the Master’s Room and immediately collapsed onto the floor.

Sihyun clutched his left side and began rolling around.

‘If Uncle has a human heart, he won’t be able to ignore a patient collapsed right in front of him!’

However.

“Have you forgotten that our guild has a separate medical ward? There are many highly competent doctors there, so make sure to go. And just to add, the appendix is on the right side, not the left. If you’re going to act, do your research properly and come back.”

Dojin immediately saw through Sihyun’s act.

“Nooooo~~ Uncle! I really need to go!”

“Do you want another flick on the forehead?”

“……On second thought, I think it was just a sudden urge to poop. Well then, goodbye.”

>Plan B: Feigning Illness (Failure)

[Guild Escape Plan C: Jumping Down]

“Since only the entrance is blocked by an iron gate anyway, I should be able to get out if I jump from the second floor.”

His leg might break, but what did it matter?

A broken leg was much cheaper than the world ending.

‘And world destruction aside, do you think I’d just stand by and watch my princess be sad?!’

–“Sihyun… come quickly…”

The silver-haired girl who stared at him every morning, promising to wait, came to mind.

‘I absolutely cannot tolerate Luna’s golden eyes being stained with sadness!’

Sihyun immediately ran up to the second floor.

However, he searched through all the offices and even the restrooms on the second floor, but every possible exit was blocked by iron doors.

“Th-The third floor, maybe somehow…!”

However, not only the third and fourth floors, but all the way up to the tenth floor, every place a person could exit was completely blocked.

“I seriously tried to make it work up to the fifth floor, but blocking it all the way to the tenth floor is just too much, Uncle!”

Han Dojin was that kind of man.

A man who gets things done when he says he will. And a man who prepares very thoroughly once he decides to do something.

His thorough preparedness utterly crushed the plan of a certain lunatic (?) who was thinking of jumping out of the guild to go home.

>Plan C: Jumping Down (Miserable Failure)

“Not yet… I still have 12 plans left!”

****

A long time passed, but Sihyun was still trapped in the guild.

“G-General Yi Sun-sin, I apologize… Your descendant has been miserably defeated even with 12 ships…”

From senselessly breaking down iron doors to escaping via pipes from the 11th floor, and so on.

He attempted numerous escape attempts, but all of them failed.

“Too much time has passed. I didn’t think it would take this long.”

Looking out the window, the sun was slowly setting.

‘If only I could use the beginner’s package, I could have hidden in the restroom and used Shadow Movement to go home…!’

Ding!

[☆System Update: Synchronization is 73% complete.☆]

The update was still a long way from completion.

At the very earliest, synchronization wouldn’t be complete until tomorrow.

“At first, I liked that it didn’t change even at night… but who knew it would come back as a butterfly effect like this.”

Ding.

[Huuueeeeng… Sihyun-nim… I’m sorry. If only I hadn’t initiated the update… I’m truly a useless notification window…]

The notification window flickered faintly, doing its best to convey its apologetic feelings.

“How is that your fault? You just wanted to show me better functions quickly, didn’t you? Don’t blame yourself so much.”

[S-Sihyun-nim is truly kind even in this situation… Hehehe.]

“This situation… it’s certainly a bit of an emergency. It’s like my future has already been decided, preventing me from going home.”

[……Don’t think too deeply, Sihyun-nim. Luna will definitely be fine.]

He really hoped so.

‘If Luna remembers what she’s learned so far, then maybe…’

Sihyun had taught Luna many things.

Among them were ‘how to wait’ and ‘that he would always return to Luna.’

These two were also included.

Perhaps Luna truly would wait patiently for about a day.

‘Yes. Luna has changed a lot from the beginning. The frequency of her showing anxiety has noticeably decreased compared to when she first started understanding emotions… and recently, she’s been sleeping a lot.’

Sihyun hoped Luna would fall into a deep sleep while waiting for him.

If he returned home as quickly as possible as soon as the lockdown was lifted in the morning, he might even arrive before Luna woke up.

If he could do that, he could reassure Luna as if nothing had happened.

‘Don’t think only negatively; let’s try to think a little positively too. It seems impossible to leave anyway.’

He had truly tried everything he could.

He had filmed 12 episodes of an escape drama that one couldn’t watch without tears, but in the end, all of them failed to be a hit.

‘I guess I have no talent for escaping anywhere. I just feel like I’ve wasted all my stamina.’

Rolling around all day from morning to evening made him feel quite fatigued.

“I’ve been exercising regularly lately, so I was confident in my stamina, but maybe I overdid it today?”

[Of course! You’ve been running around all day trying to escape! You even have dark circles under your eyes!]

“Haha, well, you’re the only one who worries about me. Thanks always.”

Sihyun raised his right hand and lightly brushed the empty space where the notification window floated.

[R-Really…? I thought Sihyun-nim hated me…]

“Me? Why would you think that— No, I guess you’d think that. Everything you’ve done to me has been pretty extreme.”

Summoning him right into the middle of Bosingak, where a destruction-level entity was wreaking havoc.

Casually throwing him into the Underworld of Eclipse, which was currently in the midst of a full-blown tragedy.

Even just counting the major incidents, these were situations where ten lives wouldn’t have been enough.

“Among them, the biggest incident was probably turning the novel itself into reality. At first, I honestly thought I was seeing things because I read too many web novels.”

[B-But the reason reality became like this is—]

Sihyun already knew what the notification window was going to say.

Because whenever he asked about why the novel became reality, the notification window always gave the same answer.

“Are you going to say it’s because I wanted it to happen~ or because I earnestly wished for it~ again? No matter what you say, I never did. I told you, I won’t get angry, so it’s okay to be honest now.”

[Ughhhh… Sihyun-nim, you’re really going to regret saying this to me later… Hmph!]

The notification window, as if truly wronged, started bouncing up and down, moving its message window.

“Oh dear~ As if you would? If I really regret it, I’ll grant you one wish. And stop moving, it’s distracting—”

At that moment, the notification window suddenly came right up to Sihyun’s face and began to sparkle.

[R-R-Really…? S-S-Sihyun-nim, a man shouldn’t go back on his word, right…? You really, really p-promised to grant my wish…?]

Sihyun found the notification window’s sudden stuttering behavior strange.

‘I just said it as a joke, but it’s taking it too seriously, isn’t it? If I back out now and say it was a joke, it really might cry ‘hueeeeng’ all day long.’

Did the notification window earnestly desire something from him?

He was already granting its request to save the world, so he wondered what else it could be so earnestly wishing for.

Sihyun gently pushed the intensely sparkling notification window away and asked.

“What kind of wish is it? Seeing you suddenly so excited makes me want to know.”

[E-E-Excited?! I-I’ve never been like that!]

“Alright, alright, I get it. Can you tell me what it is? Your reaction is making me die of curiosity.”

The notification window seemed to ponder for a moment, then displayed a message.

[▚▜ Sihyun ▚▜▙▞ if you ▟▧▨uld▒▒……]

The characters were broken in places, so he couldn’t understand what it was saying at all.

“Notification window, honestly, I can’t read what you’re saying.”

[……It seems there’s a slight error because the system is still updating. Hehehe…]

“You and I are both suffering because of this update. It’s a shame, I was curious.”

[It’s nothing special… I just wished that Sihyun-nim would finish the story of destruction safely without getting hurt. Ehehehe…]

The notification window flickered as if with some regret.

But Sihyun already sensed that the last message wasn’t the notification window’s true intention.

‘It probably couldn’t convey it properly due to some restriction. It must have been disappointed that it couldn’t tell me, so it changed it to a wish about worrying about me.’

Sihyun didn’t know what the notification window’s true wish was, but he decided that if he ever heard it properly, he would do his best to grant it.

“The conversation went off on a tangent for a bit, but anyway, I don’t dislike you. At first, I did resent you a bit, but everything you did was for my sake.”

Sihyun lay down in his spot and faced the notification window.

“So, let’s keep doing well together. Partner.”

[P-Partner…?]

“In a world where a novel has become reality, what else would you be if not my partner, sharing all secrets with me?”

[I’m Sihyun-nim’s o-only precious existence…? His one-of-a-kind (唯一無二) partner… Khikhikhih…]

He hadn’t said “precious” or “one-of-a-kind,” but Sihyun decided to let it slide.

‘It seems happy, so there’s no need to disturb it.’

****

When Sihyun, exhausted, momentarily fell asleep, the notification window quietly watched him from nearby.

[I am… Sihyun-nim’s one and only existence… a special existence that cannot be compared to anyone else… Hehehe.]

One-of-a-kind (唯一無二).

A phrase used to refer to something that is truly unique, the only one in the world.

The notification window continued to repeat that meaning to itself, drawing closer to Sihyun.

Dark brown hair and long eyelashes.

Elegant eyes and a high nose bridge.

He was like a ‘trap,’ a man with a charm that made one fall for him even while knowing it was dangerous.

[Sihyun-nim, if you don’t keep your promise… to grant my wish… I’ll hate you… You really must keep it this time, okay? Khikh…]

The notification window chuckled softly, wishing for ‘that day’ when he would grant its wish to arrive quickly.

****

And at the same time.

In a quiet room, a small shadow rose from the bed.

Beautiful silver hair shining.

A girl with golden eyes that shone even brighter in the darkness.

“Si… hyun…… Where are you…?”

Luna awoke from her sleep.