ABFR 21

Chapter 21

It was just as I was about to gape at him in utter disbelief. Railey was about to toss the lunchbox carelessly into the back seat, but my hand forcibly stopped him. When I tried to take the lunchbox back, saying that one would be punished by heaven for treating food carelessly, he clicked his tongue irritably.

“It is suspicious that you are trying so desperately to eat something made by someone other than me.”

“Do you want to claim ownership of my stomach too?”

“If we are being precise, should not your stomach be the one that owns me?”

“Stop saying weird things. Anyway, don’t throw this away.”

When he tried to take my lunchbox from me again with another strange remark, I clenched my teeth and growled. Only then did Railey back down.

He was strangely obedient compared to usual, which made me suspicious, but I guessed he was putting more importance on making sure I ate three meals a day than on making me eat food he had prepared himself.

Are you Korean or something? Is it because I call you Kim Railey so often?

“It would be better to let you eat what you want. You do not take good care of your meals.”

I gave him a slightly displeased glance, but I decided to take advantage of the opportunity before the subject changed.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m not even a hospital employee, and they gave it to me out of kindness. It would be wasteful and rude to leave it behind and throw it away.”

“Since you will be staying at my residence for the time being, there will be no need to worry about whether you are eating properly for a while. Besides, if that is your concern, I can simply take you home and prepare something good for you. Then there should be no problem with picking up someone else’s lunchbox as a snack.”

“Why do I have to go to your house?”

“We do not know what might happen.”

“That……”

Trying to keep me locked up in his house and under his control was one of Railey’s favorite schemes, so I had instinctively argued back. But when he put it that way, he had a point.

It had been less than a day since the Gate appeared, and there was no guarantee that something similar would not happen again. According to my settings, there should still be some time before the second Gate appeared, but I had not explained any of that to Railey yet. And there was no guarantee that everything would proceed exactly according to my settings, either.

It was better to be cautious than to put myself in danger because of some unnecessary confidence. There probably was no safer option than staying with Railey.

I sat there sulkily with my arms crossed, and only when the car was about to start did I speak.

“Railey.”

“Yes.”

Railey answered casually.

“Is this the ‘detailed explanation’ you mentioned earlier?”

“Mm-hm.”

I answered hesitantly, then let out a deep sigh and tilted my head back.

“What would you think if I told you that this world seems to have been swallowed up by my novel? What if I told you that the things that happened today, the things that happened to the people involved today in the past, and perhaps many things that might happen in the future, all originated from my novel and its settings?”

At my cautious question, Railey answered immediately, without even a moment’s hesitation.

“That is hardly surprising.”

“Fuck.”

“It is not as though this is the first time.”

“Thaaat’s true.”

But still. It wasn’t supposed to happen twice. How many times was I supposed to go through something like this?

I finally grabbed at my hair and knocked my head lightly against the window, only for Railey to stop me. This time, I was pulled slightly toward the driver’s seat. I moved my lips hesitantly before finally managing to speak.

“You know the setting for the next novel I told you about? The superhero story that begins when college freshmen wearing red and blue varsity jackets become Red and Blue.”

“Come to think of it, the two people I pulled out earlier were dressed exactly like that.”

Without needing a long explanation, Railey immediately understood. Just like the people who had one connection after another to the world inside the book, he accepted this fantastic and ridiculous situation with the casual reaction of a man who had literally torn through a novel and appeared in the real world.

To be honest, Railey seemed to accept it faster than I did.

Maybe because he was the one who had actually crossed between worlds.

“So? Who was the person you said we needed to find?”

“There’s the kid you were carrying earlier…and one more person.”

“You mean that child.”

Railey repeated it in a strangely quiet voice, as though turning the words over in his mind. I glanced at his profile before sighing and continuing.

“As you probably guessed after seeing that kid, both of the people we were looking for are ability users. According to the setting, they have either experienced or are going to experience some pretty bad things. Neither of them is in a stable enough environment to make their own choices according to their own will. So if they end up facing problems, oppression…or something sad because of something related to my settings, I wanted to resolve it before it happened.”

I stopped speaking and rubbed the space between my brows, feeling a little depressed.

“But…as you know, I completely failed to resolve anything. And honestly, because I realized what was happening too late, there wasn’t much I could do anyway… Still, I thought maybe I could get involved in what happens from now on, at least as much as I can prepare for it…”

“That is not your fault.”

I assumed that was simply another defense of me, born from his usual blind devotion, obsession, and absolute loyalty.

So I instinctively started to say, “But…” and raised my head, ready to criticize myself for reacting too late and everything else.

Then I happened to see his reflection in the window.

Beneath his silver hair, an unusually deep blue-violet gaze had become razor-sharp. His delicate features were so perfect that he could have been mistaken for a doll or a sculpture, and beneath his lips was a tiny mole set against skin so flawless it seemed unreal.

When he was being sarcastic or smiling, there was a certain sensuality about him. He looked exactly like a man from a novel, to the point that he could easily devour me—me, who had possessed the body of the insolent count who was supposed to be his master.

But Railey was a man from a novel in a completely different sense from being the ideal romantic male lead.

If his world had continued according to its original course without interference from an outsider like me, Railey Craha would have been a villain who sought to bring an entire world and era to an end.

And his true nature was connected much more closely to definite violence and darkness than to love or romance.

That was why, for that one moment when Railey stared coldly out the window with eyes that seemed sunk deep into shadow and darkness, an ominous atmosphere seemed to swirl uncontrollably around him.

His beautifully sculpted features suddenly looked like proof of something inhuman, something cold and lifeless, something murderous.

His unnaturally colored hair and unusually vivid eyes seemed to transform into flint that could spark anger, cruelty, and violence in the darkness.

And so, without thinking, I swung my hand and smacked him hard on the shoulder.

Only then did Railey’s eyes roll toward me.

I know you’re not supposed to hit someone who’s driving. But he’s not the kind of guy who would even flinch if I hit him, so it’s fine.

“Hey, you… Why are you so angry? When you look like that, it literally feels like you could destroy the world or suddenly go completely evil, so I’d rather you didn’t give off that kind of atmosphere.”

“Do I look angry?”

“Why do you always answer a question with another question…?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“……”

Whether I shut my mouth and narrowed my eyes or not, Railey seemed pleased with whatever part of our pointless exchange involved catching onto my words. His expression relaxed slightly, and the faintest hint of a smile slipped between his lips.

“It is nothing. I simply remembered, after a long time, that fear toward someone who might possess qualities greater than one’s own, yet is still young and powerless enough to be easily controlled, exists. And the hatred and contempt born from that fear. The senseless violence that is then directed back at that person precisely because of it.”

Only after his eyes softened slightly did he calmly recite it, as though he were talking about someone else’s affairs.

“The fact that such things being commonplace in the world is, in itself, the true nature of humanity. I foolishly remembered that after a long time.”

“……”

The child Railey had carried in was probably Yellow.

According to the setting, it would still take some time before his parents gave up on him. So although I couldn’t prevent his ability from exploding, I wanted to at least stop his parents from treating him cruelly.

I had been thinking about making that plan now.

But he was right.

The ability had already been used right in front of us. Within the next few weeks, or perhaps even just a few days, his parents would abandon him.

Could I really say that the negative feelings that formed the foundation for that decision had not already begun?

Railey had been at the scene. He might have witnessed every trace of fear directed toward that child by his parents, along with the uncomfortable looks that followed.

There was a good chance that some kind of action or attitude had already been directed at the child.

In fact, it might not have been just his parents. Everyone who had been there might have looked at him that way.

Just like how everyone in the world had immediately looked at Park Hee-gyeom—the student who had frozen the streets in the middle of Sinchon, Blue—with fearful and resentful eyes, while posting rows of curses against him.

I hadn’t seen the scene myself. I wasn’t good at looking at cruel or heartless things in the real world, so I hadn’t gone looking for pictures of it either.

But just from the extent of the damage I had heard about, it sounded like something close to a disaster. And since many people had probably actually been injured or killed because of it, perhaps it couldn’t be helped from the perspective of those who had suffered.

In Railey’s original world, there was a concept called “demi-humans,” or “humanoid races.”

It was a general term for beings who could use elemental abilities without magic, or beings who seemed to be a combination of animals or plants and humans.

There were various circumstances surrounding them, but essentially, they were no different from humans. They were ordinary people, different only in ways comparable to differences in ethnicity or race.

Yet in that world, demi-humans and humanoid races were not treated as human.

The people of that continent easily rejected those they considered outsiders. It was an age created by a civilization built upon the exploitation and deception of life, a civilization that had accumulated sacrilege upon sacrilege.

Railey had been the most famous demi-human wanted by authorities in that world—or, more accurately, the most infamous.

And he had simply swallowed every aspect of that life without complaint and continued living.

Except for one time, when he said something to me.

He said he had never thought of himself as having lived a miserable life, but after meeting me, for the first time, he had wondered if perhaps his life really had been miserable.

So perhaps that child had reminded him of his own childhood from long ago, something even he might have forgotten after living without thinking about it for so long.

I kept my mouth tightly shut and stared at him. Then I slowly reached out and placed my palm against the shoulder I had just punched.

I considered patting him, but I missed the timing.

In the end, I just left my hand there awkwardly.

Honestly, I didn’t know how I was supposed to comfort him, or whether it was even right to comfort him carelessly.

And at this clumsy gesture that was neither one thing nor another, the man who should have been a villain in a novel, yet had astonishingly decided to wander outside the novel’s world in pursuit of something called love—a thing he had never expected to have in his life—couldn’t seem to hold back his laughter.

“Are you calling that comforting me? I heard that four years have passed while I was away, but every aspect of your behavior is still exactly the same.”

It would have been perfect if he had just not said that.

“Someone is trying to show you goodwill, and you still have to be sarcastic?”

“You are answering a question with a question.”

“……”

Sometimes, the urge I felt to hit this bastard was definitely not my problem.

Give me back my precious, wasted affection.