Chapter 880

"After Luma created me, he seemed to stop studying souls and began focusing on reversing time.

There might still be records of his earlier research on Gilandre Hill...

But that's about all I remember now."

If that was true, then it meant Yuder absolutely had to visit Gilandre Hill someday—once Luma’s former laboratory.

‘Of course, that won’t be easy right now...’

Luma had researched not just time reversal, but even the relationship between the body and soul.

What had he gone through? What had he wanted?

The way his work overlapped with the mysteries facing Yuder now felt like more than coincidence.

‘I started by trying to understand how I was able to return by reversing time...

Then I encountered the white-gloved hand of Kishiar, and that brought me here.

According to Inon, Luma might have followed the reverse order in his research.’

Either way, it wasn’t something he could resolve just by thinking about it now.

Yuder stopped himself and decided to take care of what he needed to do first.

He got up and suddenly knelt on the floor. Inon looked completely startled.

“What the—? What are you doing? Are you crazy?!”

“I said I’d bow and thank you once I was better.

Thank you, Inon. I mean—brother.”

“I didn’t mean that literally! Get up!

What are you doing, throwing yourself on the ground right after getting your limbs reattached?!

Don’t embarrass me—get up! Hey!”

Inon swore and yanked on Yuder’s arm.

He was the one who had said it first, yet now that Yuder was actually doing it, he hated it.

It was kind of absurd—but also very Inon-like.

“Then how am I supposed to show my thanks?”

“Just do it normally! Use words! Good ones!”

“Hard being your little brother, huh.”

“I’m the one suffering here, you little shit!”

Despite his earlier leniency, Inon grabbed both of Yuder’s cheeks and stretched them.

It didn’t hurt at all, but Yuder faked some pain for Inon’s sake.

Watching the vivid, flushed expression on Inon’s face, Yuder felt a small wave of relief.

Inon had just been calmly discussing Luma and spirits as if it had nothing to do with him—

but his usual blank expression had felt a little off, subtly bothering Yuder.

‘Maybe it was just because I know how sensitive Inon gets whenever Luma comes up,

so that calmness felt unusually eerie.’

Still, if stretching one cheek could break that stoic mask and bring him back to his lively self,

it was a small price to pay.

“...Um, Apothecary? Yuder? I brought lemons, but I heard some intense noises inside...

Can I come in?”

While Inon was still tugging Yuder’s cheek, Gakein’s voice came through the wind barrier Yuder had put up.

Still holding Yuder’s face, Inon grumbled and yelled, “Come in!”

Gakein carefully opened the door and peeked his head in.

Seeing Yuder’s stretched face, he blinked a few times—not in shock, but in relief.

“Whew, thank goodness. I thought something happened again. Looks like it’s nothing.

Here, please enjoy, Apothecary.”

On a pretty porcelain plate, Gakein had arranged lemon slices—skin-on and fanned out—with a fork stuck in.

Inon looked at him like he was seeing him in a new light.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“You’re... not bad. Your name was Gakein, right?”

“Yes.”

“I wish this idiot had half your tact.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but don’t say that.

I actually like that Yuder’s not like me.

Everyone has different strengths, don’t they?”

Gakein scratched the back of his head and smiled kindly.

Inon clicked his tongue, let go of Yuder’s cheek, and picked up the fork.

“Thanks. But I’m not done talking to this bastard yet.”

“Ah, I see. I’ll wait outside, then.”

After Gakein left, Inon crunched into a lemon slice and muttered,

“...That one’s sharp, but lacking in confidence.”

“He’s a lot better now than he used to be.”

“Him? I guess...

Still, I get why you keep him close.

People like that tend to break early.”

Most people would think Gakein, the good-natured one, was patiently dealing with Yuder’s gruffness.

But Inon said the opposite.

Not just because he knew Yuder had lived longer—but because he could see through appearances.

He could discern lies from truth, the nature of someone’s essence.

So he saw their relationship more clearly.

They were close comrades and friends from recruitment,

but also, as Awakeners, Yuder was someone guiding Gakein—who was still immature and overly altruistic.

Kanna had trained with Yuder and grown too,

but Gakein had a much stronger desire to improve, less confidence, and a tendency to sacrifice himself.

People like that needed a strong leader to follow in order to feel secure and truly grow.

That’s why Yuder made an effort to lead him in a way that Gakein could always follow without getting lost.

And though it wasn’t outwardly obvious, Gakein implicitly leaned on Yuder like a senior or mentor.

Yuder smiled faintly and replied.

“That was true before. But not anymore.”

“So that kid’s like me—or your damn Captain.”

Inon caught it right away from Yuder’s tone: Gakein was someone from his previous life too.

He turned his gaze toward the closed door.

“By the way, did you already know what was going to happen this time?”

“Yes and no.”

He’d known there would be internal conflict within the Star of Nagran,

but in his previous life, it had happened later—and the rest of it?

The events and outcomes had changed drastically.

Yuder thought about the things that changed, the things he failed to stop, and the fact that he was still alive now.

When he’d seen three rifts hanging in the sky after Hosanra died, it had felt completely hopeless.

He couldn’t think of anything else—just that everything was headed for disaster.

“Even now...

It might be like a brief reprieve before the next failure.”

The rifts had decreased from three to one,

but an abnormal rift had still occurred.

If two had opened in such a short time, experience said that another disaster would likely hit the south soon.

An earthquake and tsunami, like they’d anticipated with Kishiar—or something else entirely.

After explaining that, Yuder looked at the floor and continued.

“But strangely... after waking up and seeing everyone again on my way here,

I don’t feel as hopeless as I did before.”

“......”

“Well, sure... the weird white-glove dream and the Captain’s recovery still weigh on me,

but the way I felt looking at the rift then, and how I feel now... it’s different. Quite a bit different.”

He muttered and exhaled softly.

“Maybe I’m being too relaxed just because no one died...

Or maybe it’s not my body that’s hurt—maybe it’s my mind.”

“...If you’ve realized there’s no point in despairing in advance, that’s great.

What are you stressing over? Didn’t you already make preparations?”

Inon grumbled and shoved a lemon slice into Yuder’s mouth.

“Your Captain’s not dead. His insides aren’t destroyed. He’ll recover somehow.

Eat this.

And if you meet that white glove in another dream or wherever,

just ask it everything next time.

That’s the most certain thing you can do.”

“You heard it said not to come near...”

“Yeah, but you said you don’t know how you got there in the first place, right?”

Inon smirked as Yuder couldn’t respond.

“Then you might go again.

If there’s a link between the rift stuff and those dreams,

then it’s even more likely.

Though I’ll lose my damn mind if {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} you get nearly killed again to do it.

But you weren’t half-dead the first time you went, right?”

“......”

“If you see it—ask.

Didn’t it answer everything you asked last time?”

“...That’s not exactly easy to... urk.”

Before he could finish, another lemon slice got shoved in his mouth.

Yuder squinted and grimaced as the sourness bit into his nose.

Inon laughed loudly.

“Hey, come on! Better to think that way than sulk around!

You’re lucky I kept you alive—you keep babbling nonsense, and this is your punishment.”