Chapter 8
“Why am I supposed to hang around with you?”
“You will be accompanying me. Since you have already eaten, shall we go to a café first? You said you would spend time with me from the evening, so I announced that the dessert shop would open in the evening. I also finished the baking preparations before I came out.”
“Can you really run a shop like that……?”
In the end, I had no choice but to start walking because of his urging. But since I had already eaten plenty, it would be difficult to properly eat anything at the café. I had originally planned to slowly drink a cup of coffee there just to kill some time.
Besides, weren’t things between us pretty bad yesterday? I secretly watched his expression, but Railey spoke to me gently. His voice was so sweet that it was hard to believe he had been so terrifying yesterday.
“Have a caffeine-free drink. With cake.”
That was how he always was. Once, he had been a character I had created from head to toe, but in the end, I could never understand what Railey Craha was thinking.
I had no idea what he suspected about me, what he thought was wrong, or why he had stopped believing what I said. Even now, it was the same.
I answered vaguely.
“I don’t want it. I’m full……”
“Then at least have some sugar with ice cream.”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“What do you mean?”
Railey asked gently. I lowered my gaze for a moment, then raised my head with my eyebrows bent downward.
“Yesterday, you kept picking fights with me, and today you’re suddenly being nice.”
“Yesterday?”
He frowned irritably, showing his teeth as he smiled. Railey Craha answered slowly.
“The person who picked a fight yesterday was you, A Jin.”
I stared at him for a moment, then shoved his shoulder hard. I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
Railey did not follow me for a while, but eventually he started walking after me. Because of the difference in our height and leg length, he quickly caught up.
“A Jin.”
“Don’t call me A Jin.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going home to write. I talked with my doctor and figured out the personality of the White character too.”
“Is that important right now? Don’t lie.”
He clearly did not believe me at all. Without even looking back, I answered irritably.
“Then what is important? Work is important, obviously. It’s a great story about an ultra-elite doctor from a wealthy family who secluded himself to heal his emotional wounds after losing his fiancée in a tragic incident, then gained supernatural powers and devoted himself to humanity while constantly thinking about the fiancée he couldn’t save. So don’t bother me when things are finally going well for once. Go away.”
“A Jin.”
“I told you not to call me A Jin.”
“Master.”
That finally made me angry.
“Don’t call me Master! That’s what you used to call me in that world, and you’re not my butler anymore……”
I snapped irritably and tried to turn around, but before I could even properly turn, Railey grabbed my shoulder roughly and forcibly pushed me against the wall.
He looked down at me menacingly, his violet eyes shining like a madman, and coldly spat out,
“Then what should I call you?”
The pressure was completely different from when I had been pushed against a wall like this in that world.
I had to sharply tilt my head up just to see his face. I was trapped threateningly by a man whose body beneath his suit was filled with combat-trained muscles.
My body instinctively shrank back, but I gritted my teeth.
“Are you planning to threaten me with force? Again? You damn bastard……”
“No matter what you call me, I have no intention of letting you……”
But at that moment, a deafening explosion interrupted Railey’s words, and the ground shook violently.
My body staggered, and Railey immediately grabbed my waist and pulled me into his arms. He pushed me toward the safer side of the wall and instantly went on alert.
The people walking along the street also screamed loudly and began running around desperately, looking for somewhere safe.
“W-what is that? An earthquake?”
“No. The ground isn’t what is shaking.”
I grabbed Railey’s arm in confusion and looked around. Suddenly, Railey said something I couldn’t understand.
The polite speech that had disappeared for a moment had somehow returned to its proper place. He quickly scanned the surroundings and frowned.
The shaking was weaker than the first tremor, but the ground was still trembling slightly.
“See? The ground is shaking.”
“No. This is the atmosphere……”
“The atmosphere?”
“What is this?”
He muttered coldly.
This was the first time I had seen Railey Craha in combat mode since I had met him in that world four years ago.
He lifted his elegant, beautiful face and took a deep breath of the air.
“I smell blood.”
“What? What are you……”
“I’ll go check it out. Stay somewhere safe and don’t move.”
“Hey, wait!”
Railey immediately tried to leave, but he was forced to stop when I grabbed his sleeve.
He turned around in confusion.
Among the noisy crowd running away in every direction without even knowing where they were going, I looked up at Railey.
In the world of the book, he had been a terrifying contract killer who could freely control lightning. But his ability was rooted in the magical foundation of that world.
That was why I had heard that after coming to this world, he could no longer use his ability.
Of course, even judging only by his physical abilities, he was probably incomparable to an ordinary human.
But Railey Craha had originally been someone whose main weapon was lightning.
There was a clear difference between someone who had never possessed an ability and someone whose ability had suddenly disappeared.
He would still be safe in most situations, but he could no longer be safe in every situation.
That thought made me anxious.
“What are you going to do if you go? You may be tougher than an ordinary person, but you can’t use lightning anymore. Didn’t some kind of explosion happen? What can you even do there?”
“Of course, that is true, but at the very least, I need to know which direction is dangerous so I can evacuate you……”
As he answered calmly, he suddenly frowned.
He looked down at his gloved hand with an expression of confusion for a moment, then stretched his arm as far away from me as possible.
I watched him suspiciously, wondering what he was doing.
Then Railey muttered in a cold voice,
“Why has it returned?”
At that moment, bright blue lightning suddenly flashed violently in his hand.
I was so shocked that I tried to step backward, but my foot caught on a stone. I barely managed to keep my balance by grabbing onto his arm.
I stared blankly at his hand and stammered,
“You bastard, you still had your ability! Of all the things you could lie about, you lied about that……”
“Unfortunately, this time I truly did not. It seems to have returned ‘now.’”
Railey answered with complete calm.
He looked at his gloved hand for a moment as if deep in thought, then clicked his tongue.
“It would be better to finish this conversation after I return. I will call you after I determine what the problem is. Then we can discuss how to move and where to meet.”
“Ah, okay…… Where should I stay, then?”
“You may have to move alone if something happens, so for now, stay in my car. You have a driver’s license, don’t you?”
“I do, but I’ve had a license for seven years without actually driving.”
Railey was silent for a while after hearing that.
“Somehow, it will work out.”
“I feel like my life will somehow end because of that. Anyway, fine. I’ll look up the order of the accelerator and brake pedals on the internet.”
“You must not confuse those two.”
“That’s why I said I’d look it up.”
He still didn’t seem to trust me, but Railey had no choice. He immediately took me to where his car was parked.
His car was parked in a nearby paid parking lot. He drove it out, parked it temporarily in an alley, and I got into the driver’s seat and locked the doors.
Railey immediately took off to investigate the situation.
I had never seen anyone move like that in my real world.
Through the car window, I could see countless people desperately fleeing down the alley. Their faces looked just as frantic and desperate as people in movies.
Once again, I suddenly lost my sense of reality.
Four years ago……
I had suddenly possessed a character in a world inside a book, and then returned.
Anyone hearing that would think it was completely unrealistic.
Even I thought so.
And that was exactly the problem.
Everything I had experienced in that world felt like a dream.
Once I thought of it that way, my current life began to feel like a dream too.
It became difficult to find motivation for anything.
I spent countless days wondering whether this was a dream or reality.
I gave up on waiting for Railey Craha.
Little by little, I gave up on my own life too.
I simply lived however I wanted until, two years ago, something happened that hit me hard enough to finally bring me back to my senses.
My life was still a complete mess, but it had taken me two years just to recover this much.
And then, as if everything had been arranged perfectly, Railey Craha appeared.
It was something that made no sense in reality.
Thinking about it, someone who had been very close to me in the world inside the book had once said something.
After hearing about my final decision, that person told me that I would have several tasks to deal with.
First, would Railey Craha really be able to safely come out into my world?
Second, would I be able to stay by Railey Craha’s side until that moment?
Third, even if everything went well, would Railey Craha be able to adapt to my world?
Fourth, would I be able to properly take care of Railey Craha’s body, which was not that of an ordinary human?
And then there was one final question, the most important one of all……
I stared blankly through the car window.
Then, belatedly, I realized that I first needed to find out exactly what kind of accident had happened.
I hurriedly opened a portal search window and was about to type something like ‘Sinchon explosion accident.’
But all the article titles looked strange.
Gate.
Portal.
Monsters.
Gangnam live updates.
Sinchon.
Monster.
National Assembly Building heavily damaged.
Evacuation……
What was this?
I entered one of the major news sites and blankly refreshed the newly uploaded articles.
The new reports had already completely pushed the celebrity news off the front page.
One headline caught my eye.
‘Jamsil Collapse.’
What the hell was this?
I sat there stupidly for a moment before slowly clicking on the news that was currently becoming the hottest story.
News reports with timestamps like ‘15 seconds ago’ and ‘1 minute ago’ were pouring in one after another.
Most of them reported that unidentified portals had opened, strange monsters were pouring out, and the number of dead and injured was increasing beyond what could even be counted.
“No way.”
I muttered blankly.
Four years ago, someone who understood me in the world inside the book had once asked me gently,
‘Then think about it this way. What if you, too, are a character appearing in someone else’s novel?’
Once again……
Even now……
Maybe from the very beginning……
Was I inside a novel?
“No fucking way.”
The moment I unconsciously cursed, my phone began vibrating loudly.
It was Railey’s call.
I hurriedly swiped the screen and brought the phone to my ear.
I had to confirm the truth from Railey.
I didn’t believe it could be true.
Suddenly, I remembered the setting for my new novel that I had just sent to my editor before dawn.
I felt a chill run down my spine.
