TMBIPYMEN Chapter 13

"Of course."

"I told you. I can only tell you that after you know more about me."

Though he smiled with a relaxed attitude, Layla sensed a wall around him—stronger and higher than ever before.

A wall so solid it seemed nothing could penetrate it. The kind that inspired resignation just by looking at it...

Layla gazed quietly past his shoulder, her brow furrowed. A dark wisp of smoke seemed to dart past mockingly, but when she shook her head and looked again, it was just her imagination.

Yustar said, "Let's sleep now. We've paid the lodging fee fair and square."

"Fair and square?"

Yustar, who had plopped onto the bed preparing to lie down, turned to look at her.

"What's wrong?"

Layla wore an expression that said are you serious?

"Aren't you going to report Mrs. Nolren to the security force?"

Yustar fell into thought for a moment.

"I don't see any particular need to do so."

"She dumped that woman's body in the well! Like garbage! If Mrs. Nolren had just reported it, they might have caught the man who killed her, but she didn't. Because of that, that woman..."

She was suffering. Layla thought. Some ghosts harm humans purely out of malice, but there were definitely others who didn't.

The pain of being alive can be escaped through death, but when pain and death are linked together, it becomes a shackle that can't be escaped no matter what.

'They say people who do bad things go to hell when they die. But that's not entirely true, Layla.'

Layla recalled what her mother had told her. She hadn't understood it well at the time, but now she knew exactly what it meant. You could fall into hell even without committing any wrongdoing. A hell experienced eternally in a state neither living nor dead.

"Mrs. Nolren is guilty too. She needs to pay for her crimes."

Yustar turned his body toward Layla.

"Of course that's justice. But there's no particular need to do so. What was here has disappeared and won't appear again. Even if we report Mrs. Nolren, would that woman's body still be intact? I don't know for sure, but I'd guess only bones remain, in my opinion. You can't do anything with that. Finding the man who killed her would be impossible too."

"You think it's meaningless, don't you?"

"That's not what I... No, you're right. You might be correct. Yes, Layla. I think it's a meaningless task. Something we don't need to involve ourselves in."

Layla said, "It's not just the living who matter. Sometimes... sometimes, I think we need to act justly for the dead as well. That's what I think."

"Even though the dead won't be grateful for such things?"

"Yes, even so."

Taut silence filled the dimly darkened room completely. What would happen if this stillness kept swelling until it burst? Layla wondered.

Would the inn itself shatter? Would the worn wooden floors, the moldy rafters, and even the mirror covered in murky grease all break apart and fly away?

There were times like that when I was young. Layla was lost in old memories for a moment before coming to her senses. Yustar was still staring at her intently.

As if he didn't understand, yet with a hint of interest. Could this be the first time in his life he'd heard such words? That seemed absurd, but to Layla, it felt vividly real, like an undeniable truth.

"I don't want to conflict with you, Layla."

Layla blinked silently.

Even in that brief instant, Yustar didn't take his eyes off her. As if he thought staring at her like that would suddenly make her change her mind...

No. Layla thought. Not this time.

'I don't want to defy him.'

In her mind, another voice spoke—hers and yet not hers...

Finally, Yustar raised both hands and shook his head.

"All right, we'll do as you say. When morning breaks tomorrow, I'll go to the security force and tell them to investigate the dried-up well. Will that do?"

"You have to tell them about Mrs. Nolren too."

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Yustar's mouth.

"The security guards won't find any evidence against Mrs. Nolren in the end. But you still insist we must do it?"

Layla nodded firmly.

"Yes, we must. Even if they find nothing in the end, even if nothing changes, it's the right thing to do."

"I understand. Now we really must sleep. We need stamina to use the portal. So lie down, Layla."

She waited until Yustar turned off the light again, and when the surroundings became completely dark, she walked back to the bed and lay down. Then, staring at the ceiling while lying flat on her back, she measured the darkness before her eyes for quite some time.

Early the next morning, Mrs. Nolren, who had been dozing at the table, looked as if she'd seen a ghost when Layla and Yustar came downstairs perfectly fine.

"You mean... really nothing happened in there?"

Yustar said, "Something did happen. However, what was there has now disappeared. It won't appear again."

Mrs. Nolren's eyes widened in disbelief, and her coarse lips fell open.

"By Kiron, thank you! Good heavens, you really were knights of Tentinella! I thought you might just be lying to get a free room!"

"Good thing we weren't."

"Indeed! I was bracing myself to clean up another corpse this morning."

Mrs. Nolren showed a much more talkative and frivolous attitude compared to when they first met. That room where Layla and Yustar had stayed—what had been there must have been quite a burden to her.

If only you hadn't abandoned that woman like that. Layla thought. No, she tried to say... But before she could step forward, Yustar naturally blocked Layla with a gesture.

"Well then, we'll be going now."

"Yes, yes. Thank you, will you?"

"Don't mention it."

Yustar placed his hand on Layla's shoulder. The early morning wind blew. The fishy smell from the river and various other odors... Layla watched for a moment as Yustar's hair, tied high, swayed.

"Why did you stop me?"

"There's no need for us to expose the lady's wrongdoing with our own mouths. That's the security guards' job."

"How is that any different?"

Layla asked in a murmur. With her hood up and her head slightly lowered, her face couldn't be seen.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but I'd like you to know I'm not that vicious."

Layla, who had been silent for a moment, sighed.

"I didn't think you were that bad."

"Then I'm relieved. That looks like the security force building over there. Let's just briefly tell them what we need to and leave."

Once they left the village and entered a sparsely populated road, Layla felt her mind become considerably clearer. There was no noise except for the sound of Yustar's footsteps beside her.

Only the sound of wind shaking branches, occasional rustling, or birds flying. The silence she'd heard all her life—and therefore a silence more familiar than perfect stillness—filled all sides like a soft cushion.

Layla spoke as if something had just occurred to her.

"Long ago, a certain king locked his wife in a room with cushions on all sides."

Her voice sounded much clearer and more distinct than in the village.

Yustar asked, "Why would he do such a thing?"

"Because she hated the king very much. So the king thought she might bash her head somewhere and die."

"That's a rather gruesome story."

Layla made an expression that said I suppose so.

"Mother lamented that if that woman—the queen, I mean—had been a witch, she wouldn't have fallen in love with such a person."

"Surely you don't think that was love, Layla?"

Layla's red eyes took on an emotionless light.

"No. But isn't all love like that in some way? It confines the other person. Even if it's not an obsessive prison with cushions on all sides."

Yustar tilted his head and smiled broadly.

"Well, there could be love where both parties don't feel confined."

"How? In the end, falling in love means..."

Layla's lips moved as she thought, as if the words wouldn't come easily. Then with an ambiguous expression, she said this:

"It means thinking continuously about only one person."

"I don't have anyone I love yet, but if such a person appears in my life, I don't think I'd consider it confinement. It's unknown, Layla. You might become that way too."

That was the end of it. The two of them had perspectives too different to have a deep conversation about love to begin with. Setting aside the fact that they'd only known each other for three or four days.

"Ha, we've finally arrived. Good thing we got here before it was too late."

At Yustar's words, Layla looked ahead. But there was nothing before her eyes. There was an open circular clearing, but it was small. Beyond it was even a cliff.

"There's nothing here?"

"Ah, the portal here isn't an object. This place, this location itself is the portal. Actually, we're already inside the portal's boundary. The branch office has probably already been notified that we'll be traveling."

Layla's eyes blinked in bewilderment. This space itself is a portal? Did that mean if she stepped on grass of a different color, she'd float up into the air? And be transported somewhere else?

Ridiculous. She thought. Though she'd never actually seen one, Layla knew to some extent what portals were.

Mainly rocks with magic circles carved in them, or still objects... She'd read in books that such things were used as portals.

"If this is a portal, then... what do we do now?"

Yustar looked at Layla with a grin, as if asking don't you know yet?

"We have to jump off. Obviously."

At the same time, Yustar wrapped his arm around Layla's waist and dashed in an instant toward the nearby cliff.

The moment his foot touched the cliff's edge, Layla looked down at the dizzying depths below and held her breath. She could see pitch-black rocks standing straight up like giant needles.

I'm going to die. Layla squeezed her eyes shut without even managing to scream. Before she could even exhale, she'd surely crash into the rocks and her whole body would be smashed to pieces.

But that didn't happen.

A high, sharp beep sounded in her ears. At the same time, nausea surged, and the moment Layla clutched her stomach, a thick, unfamiliar voice spoke.

"Lord Yustar! How many times have I told you that portal's connection is unstable!"