Chapter Text
“Your Majesty.”
King Henry quirks an eyebrow as he glances at the courier. The courier is sweating and panting, clearly exerting tons of effort to get to the King in time. “I have something urgent to report.”
“Speak,” King Henry nods.
The courier hesitates as he thinks of ways to soften the impact of his words before he squeezes his eyes shut and sighs. “The Guild has reported signs of movement in the Dead Zone.”
The king’s posture stiffens as his memory of several years ago comes back to mind. Of a battlefield wrought with blood and blade. Of too many common people felled and of the great reign of a peerless queen toppled.
“To what extent?” the King sighs wearily as he reaches up to massage his brow.
“We’ve observed patterns identical to the incident years ago,” the courier answers tactfully.
There is another moment of silence ensuing his words. King Henry peels his eyes away from the oil-painting portrait of the late Queen Rebecca and imbues his gaze with steel and resolve. “Dress me in my armor and bring the finest of the guild. We go into the Dead Zone immediately.”
“Yes, your majesty.”
***
Click! Click! Click!
Where is Hajin headed? Rachel tails her classmate under the cover of Nicneven, her Dark Attribute Elemental Spirit. They continue going up the stairs until they reach the top floor, and Rachel watches silently as Hajin approaches the locked doors that will lead to the roof.
Does he have something to do on the roof? Rachel peeks behind the wall. Being a restricted area, the doors aren’t open outside of special inspection times, so unless he has a key…
Rachel’s mental musings die a quick and violent death when Hajin pulls out an ordinary hammer from god knows where.
He’s…going to smash the door down? Rachel blinks furiously, as if blinking will somehow magically change the hammer that Hajin is holding. Well, it’s not that Hajin could bring other weapons, as Clancey Islet prohibited visitors from bringing in weapons. So if Rachel really thought about it, on a logical standpoint, it made sense that Hajin had a hammer because this would be the best he could manage. But still, bashing down a door made of magic-iron alloy with a simple hardware store hammer? That was practically impossible—
BAM!
Rachel unconsciously falls onto her knees in shock as Hajin obliterates not just the wall but the entire wall with just his hammer. Hajin whistles a little tune to himself as he playfully tosses the hammer up and catches it over and over again.
“How could an ordinary hammer do that…?” Rachel whispers. However, her thoughts are interrupted at the sound of explosions and screams of the people emanating from the theater hall.
The said theater hall is indeed a mess, with much of the architecture cracked and demolished, tables overturned, bodies strewn about, and plumes of smoke and dust hanging in the air. Upon the stage where Zelen once made his pompous and grandiose display, the Leten Corporation’s CEO is rendered impotent when he’s held in the air by his neck.
The offender? Nade, the Djinn affiliated with Wicked. He holds Zelen in the air absent-mindedly as all of his attention is focused on the White Crystal in his other hand. “So this is that famous white crystal, huh? Don’t mind if I do—”
A second later, the stage groans as a plume of dust and debris goes up in an explosion. As the dust clears, a Korean hero stands up and dusts off his jacket. He shakes off his hand before curling his fingers into a fist. “Well…not only did you dodge my attack…”
The smoke clears to reveal that Nade separated himself into eight clones.
“But you’ve got yourself one really annoying ability too,” the hero finishes. He rolls his shoulders back and imposes himself with an intimidating posture. “I’m the elite hero Jin Shangchen. Fight me fair and square—”
Nade and his clones dash into different directions, paralyzing Jin Shangchen with the choice of which clone to chase. “Are you running away?! You coward! …Which way do I even go…?”
“Get back!”
Nayun curses colorfully as she backpedals. Suho is already in action, pulling out Mistilteinn and extending his mana blade to cut through the throat of a monster that was rampaging around the theater.
“What’s going on?!” Nayun ducks under and away from some other person flailing about as they try to evacuate. “On top of the Djinns, there are monsters here too!”
“Yo, less talk more do!” Yeonghan yelps as he sidesteps a lunging reptile before coating his fist with amber mana and driving it into its hide. He hisses and hops back, shaking his hand. “Fuck, it would be great if I had my gloves.”
“Yeonha, Nayun,” Suho nods to the other Cadets. “Yeonghan and I can handle the monsters. Make sure to get everyone evacuated.”
“...Fine,” Yeonha nods begrudgingly, as she finds agreeing with Suho distasteful despite the situation. Suho rotates his wrist as he spins his mana blade, letting the light of his magical power draw in the attention of the rampaging monsters.
“You sure you can handle this alone, swordsman?” the Imoogi rumbles as it arranges itself on a more secure and strategic position over the back of Suho’s neck.
“I can handle it,” Suho nods, taking a moment to place a hand on his chest pocket to make sure that Evandel is safely there. “Hajin’s probably doing something important, I’ll just focus on things that I can do right now.”
Already, the Mayhem has spread out of Clancey Islet’s resort, sending the resortscape into chaos with sirens wailing unabashedly. Hajin surveys the situation from his perch on the rooftop, utilizing his ‘Clairvoyance’ on the clones scurrying about.
Just like the original story, Nade duplicated himself eight times and ran off, Hajin leans forward with a leg on the roof’s edge. One hero is heading east in pursuit of a clone that doesn’t have the crystal. Jain Verina, disguised as a Djinn, is following another one of Nade’s clones, but that clone is also a dud. Then, there is the ‘Boss’ of the Chameleon Troupe chasing another clone north, and that should be the one with the white crystal, according to the original novel settings.
Hajin turns his attention to ‘Boss’ just as she gets ambushed by a motley group of Djinns with their weapons poised. ‘Boss’ casually raises her hand as rivulets of violet mana converge together into a point at her outstretched fingers. It glows bright hot, mimicking the formation of a star before it violently implodes in on itself and becomes a black hole.
This magical construct hovers and trails lazily forward. Hajin watches as the first Djinn laughs mockingly and charges with reckless abandon, but that would be its undoing. His arm collapses in on itself as if being crushed by gravity, and the rest of his body flows before he gets absorbed in the black hole. The other Djinns are unable to escape as tendrils of violet magical power lash out and drag them into the black hole.
Nade’s clone is similarly destroyed brutally, and Hajin shudders.
I know I created her, but what a brutal ability, Hajin soothes his hands over the goosebumps prickling on his skin. Yet, Hajin’s thoughts turn to surprise when he realizes that even the clone ‘Boss’ chased didn't possess the White Crystal.
Wait…don’t tell me the story was changed again!
Hajin quickly conjures his laptop and flicks it open. However, there is no notification from the Co-Author or the Deviant Author that there was a deliberate change on their part. Which meant that this change in circumstances could only be attributed to shifting variables or, more crudely, the Butterfly Effect.
“Hajin-ssi?”
“...Rachel-ssi?”
Hajin blinks in surprise when Rachel reveals herself. The princess tucks her hair behind her ear, wincing as the cold wind bites into her skin and billows her dress. “I…Hajin-ssi, what are you seeing?”
Should I tell her? Hajin contemplates before deciding to go with honesty. After all, Clancey Islet is British turf, and since Rachel is Princess of the United Kingdom, she may have knowledge and access to resources that Hajin doesn’t. “Djinns invaded Clancey Islet and managed to steal the White Crystal.”
“I—,” Rachel wants to ask about how Hajin either knew or anticipated this happening. However, she decides to keep her questions quiet in favor of the crisis at hand. “Have you located where the White Crystal currently is?”
“Give me a moment,” Hajin murmurs as he activates his ‘Clairvoyance’ and surveys all over the entirety of Clancey Islet. To Rachel, it seems that Hajin’s eyes are flicking in all directions at a high speed, before they zero in on something in the distance. “There.”
Rachel turns her attention to where Hajin points, squinting her eyes as if she’ll be able to perceive what Hajin is seeing. But she doesn’t have the same eyesight as Hajin, and Rachel simply presses her lips together.
“Can you guide the direction there?” Rachel asks.
“Uh, yeah,” Hajin nods.
“Then that’ll have to be enough,” Rachel raises her hand close to her chest. The wind begins to pick up, coalescing into a green-tinted cyclone in the cradle of her fingertips. “Elphane!”
Hajin yelps when the wind practically picks him up. His arms flail disgracefully as he tries to find his balance while the Elemental Spirit looms over Rachel’s figure like a wrathful guardian. Even if her hair is being whipped and her dress is billowing in this tempest, she still exudes elegance and poise.
And then, they’re off.
“They’re headed southeast!” Hajin hollers over the howl of the wind. Rachel gives Hajin a nod of acknowledgement before they’re shooting in that direction, setting their sights on a white car booking it down the road. The distance between the airborne Cube Cadets and the car is closed in half a minute, and Rachel lands a step in front of the car. When her high heels click delicately against the pavement, the wind that carries her explodes outward, throwing the car back and sending it careening off the road and into the grass.
Hajin huffs as he barely manages to catch himself. Pressing a hand against his Stigma, he conjures the knock-off lightsaber that he pilfered from the Djinn Siduous back at Paris and tosses it to Rachel.
“Here.”
“What is this?” Rachel blinks in confusion as she looks over the mechanical hilt.
“It’s a magic sword,” Hajin answers. “You’ll be able to use it better than I.”
Rachel presses her lips together, again wanting to ask Hajin how he had such a thing under his possession. And yet again, Rachel silences her questions because there are more crucial things at hand. Of course, Hajin doesn’t really know how effectively Rachel will be able to utilize this ‘lightsaber.’ After all, the capabilities of this weapon varied greatly depending on the mana capacity of its wielder. It would be more effective in the hands of someone like Chae Nayun with her Gift ‘Mana Ocean’, but Chae Nayun had no interest in wielding swords, did she?
Other prospective wielders would be Suho and Rachel, but Hajin couldn’t tell how much magical power or mana capacity Rachel had since she gained Enlightenment much earlier than her original counterpart.
“What lunatic just…?” the Djinn curses out as he kicks the car door off its hinges. He climbs out, hand pressed to his bloody forehead as he clutches the suitcase with the White Crystal.
Rachel manages to intuitively grasp the basics of her loaned weapon. With an electronic shoom! a dazzling blue light emanates from her lightsaber, and she points it at the Djinn. “I advise you to surrender now and return the White Crystal that you’ve stolen.”
The Djinn clicks his tongue as he unsteadily brings himself onto his two feet. “Do you really think I’d get scared from two kids waving around a glow stick?”
Hajin moves to pull his Desert Eagle from his Stigma, but an impending sense of danger paralyzes him. Perhaps it’s something in the atmosphere, the way their surroundings are deathly quiet, or the eerie movement of the wind, but it’s something Rachel feels too, by the way her posture is suddenly wound up.
One moment, the Djinn is standing there snarling at Rachel and Hajin, in the next moment, there is an explosion as something slammed into the Djinn. The cloud of dust dissipates to reveal a man standing over the Djinn, with his hand completely covering the face of the Djinn, whose body is slack in unconsciousness.
“I thought I saw something moving over here,” the man rumbles, letting the Djinn’s body drop gracelessly on the earth. “Turns out it was a little fly.”
The man turns, and dread pools in Hajin’s gut. Because this man is none other than the violent Seat of Red, Cheok Jungyeong of the Chameleon Troupe.
Of all the times for him to show up, Hajin curses as he pools his Aether into a lasso and lashes out to quickly grab the suitcase containing the White Crystal and secure it.
Cheok Jungyeong doesn’t even move to grab it. His lips quirk into an amused smirk as he cocks an eyebrow. “You’d better drop it now while I’m still asking nicely.”
Instead, Rachel steps forward, half-shielding Hajin and levels her blade at the man. “Who are you?”
“Well, my name isn’t something you need to know, little lass,” Cheok Jungyeong clicks his tongue. He pauses before seriously looking at Rachel. “Ah, you’re her! First Year Rank 3 Cube Cadet.”
Rachel stiffens at Cheok Jungyeong, revealing her affiliation with Cube, but Cheok Jungyeong laughs casually as if he didn’t notice her wariness. “Man, your fight with that Rank 1 kid was pretty impressive. Never expected someone delicate-looking like you would pack that much of a punch.”
His laughter, words, and praise are bright and open. However, his aura becomes menacing, and his expression turns into that of a predator that is going to enjoy the hunt to come. “I wanna see how long you’d hold up.”
Credit to Rachel, she doesn’t hesitate or waste a second.
“Titania!”
A tower of flames geyser from behind Rachel as the Elemental Spirit unfolds its wings in all of their glory. The air warps and shimmers from the sheer heat of the flames exuded, and Rachel levels her blade, posture tense and ready to spring at a moment’s notice.
Cheok Jungyeong grins as he cocks back his arm, his core lowered and legs bent to shoot forward. However, his wild expression melts into disappointment as he tilts his head to listen to his communication device. “Oh, come on! Seriously, Boss? Why are you raining on my parade like this?”
Rachel and Hajin stare at Cheok Jungyeong as he more or less…throws a tantrum about not getting the fight that he was gearing up for.
“Who cares if she’s the Princess!” Cheok Jungyeong groans. “I can handle all of them if they come after me!”
He goes back and forth with ‘Boss’ on the other side of his comms for at least a minute before he rolls his eyes exaggeratedly.
“Well, whatever,” Cheok Jungyeong sighs. “Guess I’m letting you off the hook since Boss said this heist is a bust. You’re lucky today, but keep an eye out if we ever cross paths again, even Boss won’t stop me from getting a good fight.”
Casually, Cheok Jungyeong performs a two-finger salute and saunters off jauntily. Hajin and Rachel can only watch him go, and until he disappears in the distance, Rachel sighs as her tense shoulders drop.
“Are you alright?” Rachel asks as Titania slowly fades away into embers.
“I’m alright,” Hajin shakes his head. He remembers, with a start, that he’s holding the suitcase with the White Crystal and quickly hands it over. “Here.”
“Ah, thank you,” Rachel smiles tiredly, before sighing and muttering under her breath. “Of course, Zelen and Leten Corporation didn’t do everything in their power to put rigorous safeguards in place…”
Hajin awkwardly coughs into his fist. “Uh…shall we head back, Rachel-ssi?”
“Right!” Rachel nods, clearing her throat and smoothing down her dress into something semi-respectable. “Let’s make our return.”
***
“Wow…what a way for another outing to get ruined,” Yeonghan groans dramatically as he sprawls over the park bench. “First the Seoul Museum Incident, then the scammer in Paris, and now this! Is this Travel Club cursed or something?”
Yeonha wrinkles her nose in disgust at Yeonghan’s antics and scoots a bit away from him. However, she does have to give Yeonghan credit for his comments. Each time the Travel Club went out on a trip, there was always something that went wrong.
“What do you think, Yeonha?” Yeonghan asks.
“I’d say that believing in that sort of superstition would be foolish,” Yeonha answers. “But I will admit that there is a pattern of disasters.”
“Yeonghan! Yeonha!”
Suho runs over, chest rising and falling quickly as he pants. “Have you guys seen Hajin? Or Rachel?”
So you were preoccupied that you lost track of him? Yeonha narrows her eyes at Suho. Truly a scumbag.
“Huh? Rachel was here, too?” Yeonghan perks up.
“I talked with some of the security guards back there,” Suho juts a thumb over his shoulder to a group of men dressed in suits, furiously talking with each other. “I asked them if they knew where Hajin was, but they also mentioned Rachel being missing, too.”
“We gotta find her!” Yeonghan shoots to his feet. “Ah shit, wouldn’t a Princess going missing being a national disaster?!”
Now that Yeonha had given it some more thought, Yeonghan was right. If it weren’t the White Crystal they were after but Rachel, the Princess of the United Kingdom, the British government would stop at nothing, even relinquishing Clancey Islet if the circumstances devolved into a hostage situation.
He’s a lot smarter than I give him credit for, Yeonha looks at Yeonghan in a new light while Yeonghan sneezes at the same time.
“Is someone talking about me?” Yeonghan mutters under his breath in a daze. However, the loud revving of a motorcycle gathers everyone’s attention, and they look to see a motorcycle pulling up to the emergency relief stations situated in front of the resort.
“Huh? Wait, is that—”
“It’s the Princess!”
“It’s Princess Rachel!”
“Hajin’s there too!”
“Are you alright?!”
Hajin pulls up to the sidewalk smoothly as if he had ridden a motorcycle a thousand times before. He helps Rachel pull off the helmet and neatly parks the motorcycle just as a mob of security guards rushes in and surrounds the princess in worry.
“Oh, that’s a relief,” Yeonghan sighs as he places a hand over his quickly beating heart. “Both Rachel and Hajin are alright…Suho?”
Suho isn’t there anymore as he’s already rushing by Hajin’s side, fussing over him and asking if he’s okay.
Yeonha presses her lips together and shakes her head in disappointment at the sight. “What use is worrying about it right now when you could’ve prevented it earlier?”
“What’s that?” Yeonghan blinks in confusion.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about.”