Bjorn Yandel the Barbarian

Auril Gabis, who was smiling kindly and hitting the bone, was unable to control his expression at those words and was just smiling awkwardly with his mouth, so this exchange was a complete defeat for Baekho Lee until the end.

“Well then, I guess it would be best to end today’s meeting here.”

“I… Sir? I have something to ask you….”

“It’s late today. Someday, when I have the chance, I’ll ask you the question I wanted to ask today.”

“···Does this mean we can meet again?”

“Of course, you are a model student, so I am always watching you.”

“Is that so···?”

GM seemed to feel less regretful at the mention of another opportunity, and Auril Gavis, who was smiling warmly at GM, led us into the cave.

After walking for about a minute, a spacious common area appeared.

“and····”

“How many are there?”

As soon as they arrived at the common area, everyone let out a gasp. He couldn’t help it. The walls of the common area were so wide that it looked like they could play soccer. The dimensional stone tablets were neatly lined up. At a glance, there seemed to be hundreds of them.

“You guys… hmm, this sounds good…”

Within, Auril Gavis pointed with his finger to the dimensional stone we were to use.

“Excuse me… Do you happen to know where this leads?”

“Hmm, I would like to leave it for later fun, but since you seem too anxious, I will tell you, if you take this ride, you will go to that place first.”

“When you first mentioned that place… are you referring to the place where the magic circle was broken?”

“That’s right…”

GM looks relieved after learning the destination. But is this the same as not being able to spit on a smiling face? ‘Strangely enough, he always answers my questions well.’

I think maybe GM was aiming for that. It seems like a useless thing to me. No matter how much you laugh and chatter in front of me, this gloomy old man will spit at you with a smiling face behind your back.

Shh …

“You damned unlucky old man.”

As if he didn’t want to stay in one space anymore, he entered the portal first.

“I’ll go next. Baekho-kun might get into trouble in the meantime.”

The second is the doomsday guy, the third is Aures… After that, Jaina and GM also went through the portal, and soon, only Aureel and Gavis were left.

‘There’s no need to act anymore’

As I stopped in front of the portal with that thought, Auril Gavis stared at me intently.

“Why would you want to go quickly?”

Let’s talk about it in a grumbling manner. This time, Auril Gabis smiles kindly again.

“Haha, no way. You’re talking as if I’ve ever given you a hint? I just looked at you because you seemed to have something to say to me.”

“······”

“That’s not like you. If you have something to say, say it quickly.”

I said I would never tell you anything I didn’t want to answer, but I looked around and opened my mouth politely, referring to GM.

“Sir, I have just one question to ask you.”

“It seems like you always ask me something when you see me.”

“Because you have so many secrets, sir.”

“Hehehe… Tell me. What are you trying to ask?”

“What kind of place is this?”

Auril Gavis looked a little surprised at my question.

“Why are you curious about that? There must be other important questions.”

“I’ve asked other important questions several times already, but I never got a proper answer.”

When I grumbled that I decided not to turn on the water tap anymore, Auril Gavis suddenly burst out laughing.

“···What? Haha! Hahaha! Ahahahaha!”

···Are you a crazy old man? What part of this is funny? It’s something I can’t understand at all, but the fact that this old man’s mood is good is a positive aspect.

“Ahahaha… I’m sorry. I suddenly remembered an old memory.”

“Old memories···?”

“Anyway, there have been a lot of things I feel sorry for you lately, so I’ll answer your questions.”

“Oh, thank you so much for that.”

“Don’t be sarcastic”

“yes····”

Since he was an old man who finally felt like answering, I decided not to bother him any more and just wait quietly. After all, this question seemed important.

[This is somewhere outside the walls.]Somewhere outside the walls. [A place with great significance to me.]A place with great significance to Auril Gavis.

Even this place has a very similar structure to the first floor crystal cave. What kind of place is this?

“Would you like to take a walk?”

As my doubts grew, Auriel Gavis suggested that we go for a walk, and I readily nodded.

And as I was following Auril Gavis, who had started to move ahead, he suddenly spoke something like a Zen question.

“The lie that we want to believe is the truth and the truth that we want to believe is the lie.”

“yes···?”

“If you had to choose between these two, which would you choose?”

I wondered why he was suddenly asking me this, but I thought carefully that this old man wouldn’t be talking nonsense.

Come to think of it, I’ve seen a similar theme balance game on the Internet in the past. Curry that tastes like shit. Curry-flavored shit.

Oh, of course, there were parts that were clearly different from the content of the previous question and answer session. But that made it easier to choose.

“I am the latter.”

“Is it better to believe the truth is a lie?”

“But it’s true.”

“Hmm, I see······”

Auril Gavis responded ambiguously to my answer and did not say anything more. I answered him sincerely.

“We’ve arrived.”

The place where Auril Gavis stopped was in front of the stone gate blocking the cave passage. The stone gate seemed to have something magical about it, so it opened automatically as soon as he raised his hand.

and····

“···?”

A space with a completely unexpected structure unfolded before my eyes. A space reminiscent of space. A straight staircase stretched out upward.

“Be careful not to fall when you come up.”

As always, Grandpa walked up the stairs without any explanation and I followed him while silently looking around.

And how much time had passed? I could tell even as I continued to trudge up the stairs.

You brought me here to show me that thing that is on the altar at the top of those stairs.

“What is that···?”

“If you go and see, you will know right away.”

I wondered what this was, but the moment I reached the top of the stairs, I could see what this object floating above the altar, surrounded by a thin film, was.

“Fragment of the record···”

There are hundreds, not just one, floating around in the air.

“Did you collect all of this yourself?”

Auril Gavis nodded indifferently to my question, and as he stretched out his hand into the air, one of the fragments of stone that had been floating around like the Milky Way, slowly orbiting, was slowly pulled toward me.

“Would you like to read it?”

I nodded and silently read the ancient text written on the stone fragment. The only problem was…

“An evil spirit from another world… How do you read this?”

There are things that cannot be interpreted.

“This isn’t just an ancient language, it’s just a pattern···”

“You don’t have to interpret it. It’s like a person’s name.”

Well, then let’s move on for now… It didn’t take long to read all the remaining fragments. It was really short.

“The evil spirit from another world, ‘————’, lost three of his companions and finally realized the path he must take····”

···Huh? No, wait a minute·

“Is this by any chance ‘————’?”

I asked while looking to the side in a hurry, but Auriel Gavis only smiled softly and did not answer.

“······”

Nimiral·

Fragment of the Record Stone A fragment of the ‘Record Stone’ that records all time from the past to the present and the future.

I know the power of this ‘record’ better than anyone else. I’ve experienced it once. My heart races! The past that I went to through the fragments of the record.

From then on, I tried everything to change the future where one person dies, but I never succeeded. The stories written on the stone record are eventually completed.

Of course, there were tricks like Amelia’s that used ‘deception’····

‘That trick won’t work this time.’

What would I do in the first place? I am not an innocent ten-year-old kid.

It’s impossible to trick my colleagues into pretending to be dead. And I don’t even know when that will be. Thump-! Three people… ‘Three people…’

[Dungeon and Stone] It’s common for companions to die, but why does this small number feel so big and hopeless? My heart is pounding!

My heart is already pounding, but my head is cold and I think to myself, who are those three people? Or rather, who would it be better if they were?

At that time, even thoughts that should never be had as a leader of a group quickly crossed my mind.

“Knowing the ending can’t help but be painful.”

Auril Gavis, who had given me the biggest worry in my life, nodded as if he understood me. At that sight, blood rushed to my head.

“···what?”

I felt like swinging my fist right now and smashing it into that old man’s face, but…

“······”

I had to endure it. If I punched you here, it would only harm me. So, that’s why···

“when····”

I ask him, gritting my teeth so hard that my body starts to tremble.

“Do you know when…? When the things written here will happen…?”

“I don’t know. If the record stone was intact, then maybe. It’s hard to guess the period based on just the fallen fragments.”

“What? So you’re saying there’s nothing you can do to help me?” At that moment, something like a thread snapped from my head, and Auriel Gavis continued speaking.

“But looking at the way it is recorded on the record stone, this is also clearly an incident.”

In simple terms, it means that instead of dying one by one over a long period of time, resulting in a total of three people, three people die during one ‘incident’.

Soon I asked him through gritted teeth:

“···Can you tell me who those three are?”

I thought about asking a question hundreds or thousands of times for a moment. This old man answered easily, as if he knew my worries.

“I don’t know”

‘I don’t know’ without any excuse or explanation. But somehow, I was angry at those words, but at the same time relieved. If those names had come out, I would have gone crazy.

“You seem to have complicated feelings. Are your colleagues that important to you?”

“···Don’t scratch it. It’s really the limit right now.·”

“If that’s the case, then”

Even Gavis, who had shown superhuman patience and was able to say nothing more, said nothing more and a period of silence followed. Thump-!

Even though quite some time had passed, my heart was still pounding and the strength in my toes showed no sign of letting up. But…

‘Information·’But I regained some sense of reason·

“Elderly·”

“I guess you’ve come to your senses a little bit.”

Well, isn’t it true that things that have been ‘recorded’ are things that I can’t do anything about right away?

“Why on earth did you show this to me, sir?”

I decided that it was important to find out this first. Since this old man, whose specialty and hobby is playing around with people, wouldn’t have shown me this for no reason.

“That’s why… To be honest, it’s more like a whim. If you had just left earlier, and I hadn’t asked where this place was, I wouldn’t have had anything to show you.”

“······”

“But you look like you can’t believe it?”

Of course, that’s not something I’d believe. Even if I hadn’t left first and had spoken to her, I think there must have been some dark ulterior motive behind showing her this. But…

“No matter how I look at it, you are an electronic one.”

“···?” “You said the latter earlier, but that’s just because you want to be that kind of person. You’re the former.”

At first I wondered what he was trying to say, but soon I understood. It was an extension of the Zen question and answer we had earlier. A lie that I wanted to believe was true. And a truth that I wanted to believe was a lie.

“You wish my words ‘capricious’ were false, but it is the absolute truth.”

It sounded like a forced logic to blur the issue, but there was nothing sharp enough to refute it. But I was still trying to find some distance.

“Of course, I am not disappointed in you. If you ask this question to a hundred people, everyone will choose ‘truth’, but when you actually face that situation, the situation is reversed.

“······”

“Isn’t that right, Bjorn Yandell… or rather, Lee Hansoo?”

Shit, I have nothing to say because of that. Let’s just give up on trying to beat this old man with words.

“···I understand. You’re saying that I just started talking for no reason and that this is what happened, and that I didn’t have any intentions?”

As he spoke with resignation, Auril Gavis looked up at the fragments of records spread out in the sky like the Milky Way with lonely eyes.

“I don’t know what you think of me, but I’m not a monster. And like Baekho-kun said, I’m not omnipotent either…”

“······”

“I am just an ordinary human being who struggles, worries, and suffers for just one thing. Just like you.”

Well, I’m sorry for being so serious, but no matter how much I say that, you just look like a crazy old man to me. I guess it’s not necessary to break the mold.

“···While I’m here, can I also see other things?” “My colleagues will be waiting outside. Is that okay?”

“···What about my colleagues·”

They just need to be ‘accompanying’

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it”