Chapter 94

Suddenly summoned and unable to leave the village, the users fell into chaos. The village entrance became packed with a throng of players murmuring among themselves, and those waiting for an explanation about the sudden enforcement received a notice from the game administration.

The fourth-generation terrorist situation seemed far worse than expected. Striking with sudden guerrilla-style attacks, they left no trace or information behind. Normally, data leaves some kind of trail when you log in online, but their information wasn’t just overwritten or erased—it was as if it never existed in the first place. The more the perpetrators couldn’t be identified, the greater the damage, so the central government issued a firm statement: close any area where direct damage could occur.

Eternal Tale followed the government’s directive, only opening villages designated as safe zones.

For a while, people quietly read the notice. But soon, complaints and jeers poured out. Players were angry they were trapped in a village with no way to move between towns.

But as if anticipating such discontent, a structure appeared before everyone, and a warp opened. It connected to the other villages.

Though temporary, the new warp system—something that hadn’t existed in Eternal Tale before—excited the players, who began rushing to try it out. Even the throngs at the Ratteon village entrance quickly dispersed, leaving empty streets behind.

Thanks to the warp, Blaine and Theo, trapped in Lucilvania, could return to Ratteon. The dusty ground and the salty breeze felt unexpectedly comforting.

The two wandered down familiar paths as if seeing them for the first time. Just two days away made the journey home feel refreshingly different.

Arriving in front of his house with Blaine, Theo climbed the steps and opened the front door without looking back. A rush of cold indoor air greeted him—familiar and sharp. Theo inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly, and relaxed, realizing Blaine hadn’t followed close behind.

Blaine was standing below the steps, looking up at him. When their eyes met, he curved his eyes into a crescent and smiled.

“Hyung, then I’ll head home.”

Theo, staring blankly at Blaine waving his hand in excitement as he turned away, almost reached out to stop him. But Blaine had already turned his back and was walking away.

Watching Blaine’s retreating figure, Theo placed a hand on his chest. His heart fluttered. Why did he feel like he wanted to stop him from leaving? Why was there a pang of regret? Half of it felt irritating, and half of it felt oddly weightless.

Once Blaine turned the corner out of view, his shoulders and even his wolf ears drooped. He wanted to stay together. He turned because he couldn’t throw a tantrum in this situation, but he hoped Theo might hold him back or at least stay with him. Yet Theo didn’t. It left him feeling disappointed and forlorn.

Shuffling along the not-so-long path, repeatedly glancing back, Blaine’s device chimed with a whisper notification.

『Where are you?』

『Weren’t you going home?』

It was a familiar voice. Blaine tilted his head, then quickly called out the name of the sender.

“Theo, hyung?”

『Where are you?』

Theo sounded angry. Blaine shrank his shoulders in confusion and stammered a reply.

“Theo, I’m on my way home…?”

『What? Why are you taking half a day to get to a house that’s not even far away?』

“Theo, hyung?”

Blaine instinctively looked around. Theo wasn’t there, yet he felt like someone was watching him, scolding him. Blaine hurried along as if being chased.

When they arrived in front of the house, an unexpected person was waiting. Theo, his face dark with anger. Seeing Blaine appear late, he strode over and examined him.

“Nothing happened, right?”

“Uh? Nothing…”

“Then why are you so late? It doesn’t even take five minutes from there to here.”

“Just…”

“Just what? Why are you wandering the streets? What if something happens to you while you’re alone?”

It was a verbal barrage. Blaine, being hit from all sides by the endless scolding, collected himself and shook his head in protest.

“H-Hey, I wasn’t wandering, I was just walking a bit slowly… But, hyung, why are you here…?”

“…Just.”

His response was ‘just’ too. Blaine thought he’d get scolded for saying ‘just’ while Theo also answered ‘just,’ and he opened his mouth to argue, but the trailing words kept coming.

“I couldn’t leave you alone… I thought maybe we’d be together, so I came via a shortcut to catch up—but you’re not there.”

“…”

Blaine couldn’t respond or react. He couldn’t even close his slightly open mouth and just stared blankly at Theo. Maybe it was his imagination, or maybe it was the sunset, but Theo’s face looked flushed.

The two retraced their steps along the sunset-lit path back to Theo’s house. The short walk that didn’t even take five minutes felt incredibly long, and the two said nothing.

But for Blaine, that long stretch, the usual unspoken distance between them, and Theo’s silent profile painted by the sunset—it was just… nice. Really nice.

The inter-village warp system made travel convenient, but not every player was satisfied. During their trip from Ratteon to Lucilvania, Blaine overheard multiple complaints from passing players.

“Those incompetent bastards can’t even catch a few terrorists, so they shut the game down. Idiots, just idiots.”

“Why blame the government? Those guys are just 3rd- and 4th-gen puppets anyway. Poor shrimps who couldn’t resist the pressure from the rich.”

“Ugh, those people… whining about wanting to live long while holding onto their money, then provoking the terrorists, and now scared because they’re the ones dying? Hateful thoughts keep bubbling up.”

Blaine instinctively lowered his head and hunched his shoulders at the passing strangers’ conversations. Theo patted him, telling him not to worry, but it wasn’t easy given Blaine’s personality. He had to endure listening to these complaints all the way to the guild house.

Once inside the guild, the topic seemed to carry over. As the two entered the central hall, Father’s grumbling voice reached them first.

“Hey, with all these rich folks about to get my members killed, what’s there to see? I’d have pressured the government too.”

Father, tapping the table with a displeased look while sitting with a few guild members, noticed Theo and Blaine and gestured for them to take a seat.

The two approached the table without any noticeable reaction, and the guild members, noticing them late, glanced at Blaine as they asked if anything had happened on the way. There was no way Blaine hadn’t heard the stories drifting in while they walked, and everyone knew his mental fortitude wasn’t strong enough to just brush it off.

Theo answered for Blaine that nothing had happened and took a seat, and Holanghee, watching them sit from the side, propped her chin on her hand and spoke.

“I kind of agree. If this had targeted the second generation, it would have been even worse.”

Bastard Kid nodded in agreement.

“Right. And besides, it’s not like the entire fourth generation objected to the bioethics law. Just some greedy ones.”

The mood lightened considerably. Theo, noticing Blaine’s visibly more relaxed expression, looked to Father and Holanghee and asked,

“What about Noquia? I don’t see her.”

“She went to Rakvana with Marco.”

Father replied.

“From the morning? Warp’s convenient, huh.”

“Yeah, it is.”

As soon as Father’s nonchalant reply ended, Holanghee cut in.

“By the way, nothing happened in Ratteon, right?”

“Huh? What could have happened?”

“Well, when you were in Lucilvania, you had been with Blaine for two days. But in Ratteon, Sweetie would have been alone.”

“I was with him.”

“? Really?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t leave him alone. Especially since he doesn’t always listen.”

It sounded like Blaine had ignored Theo’s instruction to go home and had camped out in front of Theo’s house. Father and Holanghee burst into laughter, and Blaine, embarrassed, tucked his lips in and lowered his head.

While they were chatting about this and that, Mastar approached Father. He bowed slightly and whispered something, and Father turned to glance toward the entrance.

At their behavior, the other guild members seated at the table also followed Father’s gaze toward the entrance. A single unfamiliar user was standing there. Everyone looked at the stranger with puzzled expressions, then turned back to Father. In his place, Mastar spoke up.

“They want to join the guild.”

At the long table in the central hall, only Father and the applicant were seated. The atmosphere was solemn, like an interview, but the applicant kept smiling with an overly friendly face.

Smiling without reason could mean someone was genuinely good-natured—but it could also come off as suspicious. Still, Father seemed to take a liking to them. She looked oddly taken with that friendly smile.

“Your name?”

As Father asked with clear interest, the other replied, “Daize. I’m 26,” even adding their age.

Father looked even more pleased, but she quickly masked her expression and asked another question.

“And why do you want to join our guild?”

At that, Daize shifted their gaze. They looked toward someone.

Everyone followed their line of sight.

They were staring straight at Theo and Blaine.

It wasn’t clear which of the two they were looking at. Everyone alternated their gazes between Theo, Blaine, and Daize, then looked to Father as if for an answer—but Father was just as lost.

“Um…?”

Unable to hold back her curiosity, Father called Daize again. Only then did Daize look back at her, smile, and point at Blaine.

“I kind of developed a crush on that person.”

An awkward silence fell.

Everyone’s eyes slowly moved between Daize and Blaine, but in the end, they landed on Theo. Theo stood there with his usual indifferent expression, not reacting at all.

In the middle of that, Daize stood up and walked right up to Blaine, adding cheerfully, “I want to get to know you!”