Chapter 50 – Try Calling Me Noona

Episode 2.

The City of Moonlight was a lawless place where the white moonlight was always illuminating.

It was a gate which was predominantly finicky rather than being difficult due to strong monsters.

In V. AGE, it was referred to as, “An erosion gate.”

If by chance, no one cleared this gate, the white moonlight would engulf the city as time went by.

First, it was Jeonju.

Next, Seoul.

The space that the gate gradually eroded would then pierce through dimensions, emerging into South Korea.

Then, It would be the entire world. 

An erosion gate posed that kind of danger, and it was often classified as an A-Rank gate due to its tricky conditions.

Such a gate appeared right before the students of the Hero Academy, and it was not looking good for them that a difficult A-Rank gate had formed.

I asked Seolha about a clear “condition” to see if it was nearby.

“Seolha. Do you see anything that’s striking? Be it a flower, or something similar of sorts?”

“…No. More importantly, do you really think there would be flowers in a city like this? Aren’t you too stupid?”

“You can just say no, why’re you trying to pick a fight?” 

What’s with her temper?

I don’t know if Seolha had a big temper or not, but she snapped at me.

It looked like she was anxious that she had fallen into the gate and didn’t like the fact that we were the ones by her side.

When I heard that she didn’t sense anything nearby, I was disappointed. 

“There are no flowers within the vicinity…”

Sadly, is this area a bust?

With Seolha, we could find the clear condition, a flower, without walking too much.

However, without luck in V. AGE episode 2, even if you were a character who got the hidden piece at the start, it would not be easy to clear.

I lifted my clothes, which were drooping down more and more, and walked to the shade. 

Observing my actions carefully, Hayeon was convinced as she said to me, “Sijoon…! You’re getting smaller! Wait a sec. I think I’m also getting smaller…” 

Hayeon touched her chest, firmly believing that it had become smaller.

She looked a bit pathetic.

I’m pretty sure that was always small.

I almost burst out laughing, but I regained my composure and spoke to her as if I was making a conjecture.

“This is my guess, but I think our bodies are getting younger. Especially when that moonlight shines on us.”

“T-That’s…right! We’re getting smaller!” 

Hayeon reacted fiercely, shouting that we were indeed growing smaller.

Seolha, on the other hand, was unsure as she checked her chest.

Episode 2: The Curse of Moonlight.

It boasted quite the hard difficulty due to the growing juvenescent curse.

If the moonlight kept beaming down on a person, they would grow younger and younger to an infant, then a fetus, and ultimately, would vanish without any shape or form.

According to your mana quantity, there was a difference in the speed at which you grew younger.

If your mana was low, the age reversing process got faster.

If your mana was high, the age reversing process got slower.

Would I have activated the blue stone for no reason?

Had my blue stone magic not been level 3, I would’ve been an elementary student by now.

Currently, my body is that of a middle schooler.

Finding the flower to clear the gate was top priority before I got any younger and the other students got hit by “those things”.

However…

“Why’re you staring at me like that?”

“W-When…was I staring? Aren’t you too full of yourself?”

Feigning ignorance, Seolha asserted that she had not been looking at me.

Her face was a little flushed.

And unlike how she looked at me when she first met me, the hostility from her misandrist eyes had faded.

In that situation, anxiety crossed my mind.

No way, it’s not what I’m thinking, is it…?

As if nothing had happened, Seolha cleared her throat and moved away.

If it was what I was thinking, I wanted to take back my intent on picking her up.

“No way… It can’t be what I’m thinking…”

“What?”

“Nothing, Hayeon… You don’t have to know…”

Hayeon burst out laughing when she heard my changed voice, saying it reminded her of the past.

It made me wonder if my party members were too relaxed. 

You two can only afford to relax now…

When I recalled “those things” that would appear later, I shut my eyes.

Just thinking about them made me nauseous.

I decided to wipe their appearance from my head.

When are they gonna show up… Disgusting shitty game based on luck.

I blamed V. AGE’s system on the inside.

We roamed around the City of Moonlight with Lee Seolha as our radar.

 ***

As time passed by, even Hayeon and Seolha’s bodies underwent significant changes. 

In such a situation, Hayeon cried out in despair.

“This…This is a dream…”

She didn’t look like she changed much in my eyes, but Hayeon appeared devastated.

If you took away a dog’s one remaining meal, wouldn’t they make that kind of expression? 

But rather than Hayeon, the one who was more devastated was me. 

“There’s no time, guys.”

I said to them with a voice which hadn’t hit puberty yet.

No matter how much I searched for it, the moonflower wasn’t in Seolha’s radar.

That was the core required to clear this gate, and it was the source of the moonlight that made us grow younger.

Hayeon, who had turned into a middle-schooler, stroked my head.

“Why, this brat! You should be calling me, Noona1!”

“I said, we don’t have time! At this rate, I’m going to turn into a baby!”

“Aww, is that so?”

Rather than being concerned with the gravity of this situation, Hayeon seemed to find my younger appearance cuter and began to stroke my head. 

A situation where we didn’t know what happened to the other students.

Even so, I looked at Seolha who had the mindset of a hero.

You, at least, would be thinking of the other students…

So you’re not…?

She was giving Hayeon a side glance as she bit her nail.

She looked somewhat antsy.

Her eyes were on my head.

This is a mess. 

I spoke to Seolha to bring back her focus.

“Lee Seolha! Is there anything you can catch with your senses?”

“Uh… Uhh…? T-There…might or might not be something…”

What did she mean there might or might not be something?

I decided to ask her what she caught onto with her senses. 

“Is that a flower or person?”

“B-Both…? People are surrounding a flower. There’s also something like a big caterpillar.”

The identity of something crawling around.

Since they have a human-like appearance, they do appear to be people. 

They’re surrounding a flower…

In any case, it sounded like we had to encounter those disgusting things.

Regardless, I couldn’t shoot a gun in my current state, so Hayeon would have to protect me.

”That aside, can you stop hugging me? When you know an enemy could appear any moment now.”

“It’s okay. You have me~”

It seemed like Hayeon believed in her abilities, with my smaller self in her embrace, she walked forward little by little.

But why was Seolha looking at her with such an envious expression?

Did she not view boys as men?

It was hard for me to understand what her type was as it had not been revealed in V. AGE. 

With my short legs, I followed Seolha and walked towards where the flower was.

Seeing Seolha keep glancing my way was really scary to me.

We passed through the shade between the collapsed buildings, and a vast space opened before us.

It was a space where there was no place to hide from the moonlight, and figures similar to people were standing guard by the flower.

With a slightly younger voice, Hayeon dubiously asked, “What’s that…?”

“It’s…not human.”

They were not human, but they were creatures that used to be human.

The gate served as a link between dimensions. When those dimensions were almost destroyed, or when the world underwent a pre-destruction phase, life was lost there, and a gate was formed so that life would be obtained in another world.

It was a theory about the V. AGE’s gate.

I said to them in a serious tone, “From what I can see, if we destroy that flower receiving the moonlight, then the gate will be cleared.”

“How do you know that?”

“You can tell it’s important just by looking at it.”

“Aha…”

To indicate she understood, Hayeon exclaimed in awe as she stroked my head.

She kept doing the thing I told her not to do.

There were human-like creatures guarding the flower, which was receiving direct moonlight.

That was more than enough for me to explain that it was the core to clear the gate.

I looked at those creatures protecting the white flower.

Honestly speaking, those things are weaker than Hayeon…

By Hayeon’s standards and not mine, they could be dealt with easily.

Since Hayeon of all people possessed the talent to be S-Rank, if I asked her to do so, she could easily slay the four creatures protecting the flower.

This was what they looked like: they were as tall as I was right now. There was also one human-like creature that was crawling around. However, they didn’t have the pupils of a human being, and their waist was bent like a hunchback.

They were the last beings left in this world.

No.

They were beings who ate humans so that they wouldn’t get younger.

People who fell from the gate were as good as dinner to them.

It was clear that the other creatures that were not protecting the flower were threatening the students.

I decided to make a request to Hayeon. 

“Hayeon. Can you slay those things and destroy that flower?”

“Hm…? So you’re asking me for a favor~ Noona can do that much for you~”

She giggled as if in a good mood.

Just why would she be the Noona?

Hayeon dashed out in order to take care of them. 

“Kerruek! Krreuk!!” 

Having forgotten their language, they growled when they saw Hayeon.

While she made a swift work of them, I told her not to get hit by too much moonlight, and then relaxed my mind.

It is a bit late, but…

As long as people who turned too young did not disappear, they could return to their original selves after a few days.

I also appeared a little young right now, but once time passed, I’d be back to my original self. 

It’ll be nice if people don’t die. 

As I was praying at that moment for no one to be killed from being ambushed by those cannibals…

“H-Hey…”

Lee Seolha.

She shoved her flushed face at me. 

A beauty with navy-blue hair and a cool look.

Because her clothes became bigger, I could see glimpses of her undergarments through the gap between the clothes from where I was sitting.

Feeling uneasy, I asked her, “W-What…is it…?”

Just looking at her, I could tell she was not her usual self.

In normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have even spoken to me first, and would look at me in disgust.

However, the current Seolha, appeared to be at a loss on what to do.

I don’t know if she forgot how I originally looked, but she said to me with a dangerous glint in her eyes, “T-Try…calling me Noona.”

I was appalled by her words.

Footnotes:

1Noona: It can literally mean older sister. But its usage can be extended beyond blood relationships. For instance, colleagues, friends, or even lovers.