The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 123

“The village has a food warehouse. According to the previous raid records, everything inside is safe to eat. We’ll sneak some food and water out of there, then hide near the temple.”

“What about you, Noona?”

“I’ll come with you to the warehouse. I need to refill my backpack and move some oil while we’re there.”

“…I don’t know about the other stuff, but I can definitely help carry the oil.”

“R-right! We’ll work hard!”

According to the records, the temple where the Guardian Tree stood wasn’t very far from the food warehouse.

Of course, that was by giant standards.

For tiny people like us, it would probably take more than ten minutes just to walk one way.

So having four people instead of one would certainly help.

Still, making them owe me a favor and then asking for information afterward wasn’t exactly a bad deal either.

But seeing the determined expressions on their faces, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.

I nodded and led the way.

Getting through the village without being noticed by the giants wasn’t difficult.

To be more accurate…

It would’ve been harder to get noticed.

“I think their bellies stick out so much they can’t even see below them.”

“So that’s why you said we’d get stepped on if we didn’t keep moving quickly, right, Noona?”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

That was exactly it.

The giants were so round and plump that unless they knelt down or sat on the ground, they simply couldn’t see something as small as us beneath them.

If there had been a large group of people, they might have noticed.

But there were only four of us.

We didn’t even earn a glance.

That didn’t mean everything was safe, though.

“I-is it because there are so many flowers…? Th-th-there seem to be… q-quite a lot of bugs too…”

Every time flower petals fluttered or the buzzing of wings drifted over—

Park Minseok flinched.

To avoid getting crushed beneath the giants’ enormous feet, we were sticking to the edge of the village.

Unfortunately, that was also where the flowerbeds were.

Rustling sounds came constantly from the plants around us.

I’d sprayed insect repellent earlier, but the can was small.

I wasn’t even sure how effective it would be.

Han Yeonwoo and Nam Woojin tried not to show it, but they were both tense.

Honestly…

So was I.

The four of us shuffled awkwardly along.

Suddenly—

“Aaaah! A tick!”

“N-no, idiot! That’s an aphid, not a tick!”

“Sniff… They’re both bugs! That’s not the important part…! It’s freaking huge…!”

“…”

Covering his face with both hands, Park Minseok let out a pitiful whimper and bolted forward.

Whether it was a tick or an aphid…

I had absolutely no desire to confirm it with my own eyes.

I immediately ran after him.

Nam Woojin and Han Yeonwoo followed close behind.

It had taken us about an hour to reach the village.

Finding the food warehouse while avoiding danger took another two hours.

Fortunately, we located the temple along the way as well.

It was about ten minutes from the warehouse.

The moment we finally got inside…

All four of us collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion.

Physically, I was fine.

Mentally…

Not so much.

Sure, I could defeat a giant aphid, giant bee, or giant ant if I had to.

They were disgusting, but manageable.

The real problem was that bugs inside Gates weren’t easy to kill.

Just as I’d explained earlier, they were classified as monsters.

With insect-type monsters, killing one usually caused dozens—sometimes hundreds—more to swarm in.

If even a little of their bodily fluid got on you…

They’d chase you to the ends of the earth.

Protecting these three while fighting hundreds of giant insects?

That would’ve been impossible.

Things would’ve been so much easier if Yeon Dogyeong were here.

We wouldn’t even have needed to search for oil or make our way to the temple.

He could’ve simply started fires everywhere.

Besides…

He hated bugs more than anyone.

He probably would’ve worked twice as hard.

Thinking that even a nuisance could sometimes be useful, I let out a sigh and looked around.

“There’s a lot of smoked meat… dried fruit too. And cheese.”

Thankfully, the cheese smelled sweet instead of pungent.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have gone near it.

Around twenty enormous jars were lined up against the wall.

Since everything was sized for giants, there weren’t any ladders or platforms we could use.

Fortunately, the rough surfaces made climbing easy enough.

The jars were filled with clean water, alcohol, oil, and other supplies.

Since the three of them had left all their belongings outside, I refilled the empty water bottles I’d given them earlier.

Then I folded the waterproof tarp from my backpack several times, reinforced it with duct tape, and turned it into makeshift water bags.

The tarp was so large that I managed to make five bags, each about the size of something you could comfortably carry in one hand.

One became a water bag.

The remaining four were for transporting oil.

Everything else inside the warehouse was simply too massive for us to use.

After filling each bag about two-thirds full from the giant oil jar, I climbed back down.

Nam Woojin picked one up.

“It’s pretty heavy… but totally manageable! You can fill mine even more!”

“We’ll be making multiple trips. This amount is best. If we overfill them and someone trips, we’ll lose everything.”

“Oh…

That’s true…”

“But Noona…”

Han Yeonwoo looked worried.

“Even if all four of us make ten trips each… won’t this still be too little?”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

Park Minseok nodded.

“And we only have matches…”

They both sounded concerned.

I tested each bag, checking carefully for leaks, then shook my head.

“If it were an ordinary giant tree, you’d be right. But the Guardian Tree is a monster whose weakness is fire. The records say its bark is covered in moss, and once the bark is peeled away, sap pours out. Fire spreads through it incredibly easily.”

I paused.

“So we just need to be careful around the giants.”

I left out the part where…

The “bark” was basically its skin.

And the “sap” was its blood.

The Guardian Tree had apparently suffered horribly while burning.

There was no reason to tell them that.

Once the preparations were mostly finished, we all stretched out across the cool stone floor.

We chewed on dried fruit, drank some water, and rested.

We’d been walking for hours.

And even if we were too tiny for the giants to notice, getting caught stealing oil would be dangerous.

According to the records, the giants spent the daytime tending the village.

At night, they returned home to rest.

Instead of wasting energy sneaking along the edges while watching for insects that could appear at any moment…

It would be much safer to cross the village once the giants were gone.

As we waited for evening…

I told them a little more about Gates.

“Don’t think too much about it. The creatures inside Gates live in repeating time.”

“…Repeating time?”

“In other words…”

I shrugged.

“Even if I burn this entire village to ashes, everything will return to the way it was.”

“Really?!”

Park Minseok stared at me.

“I-I never learned anything like that when I was studying Gates…!”

“Me neither.”

Han Yeonwoo looked just as surprised.

“I… actually wanted to work for the ESP Association before all this happened. I followed a lot of news about them, but I’ve never heard that before.”

“At first it was just a theory.”

I nodded.

“But there was an incident that proved it.”

“The Association never announced it because they were worried about public backlash.”

“If people found out, they’d start asking whether those who died inside Gates could also be saved. There would’ve been endless demands to rescue them.”

“And then…”

I gave a small, bitter smile.

“The world ended up like this.”

Back then, the Director had told me it was classified information.

But with the world in ruins…

There wasn’t much point keeping it secret anymore.

Nobody could control where Gates appeared now.

Nobody even knew what kind of Gate they were entering.

Without reliable information—or any guarantee of safety—

How many people would really risk something that reckless?

Even if the information had lost most of its practical value…

It clearly eased the weight in the hearts of the three sitting beside me.

Their expressions softened.

Feeling a little more at ease myself…

I closed my eyes for a short nap.

When I felt someone gently shaking my shoulder and opened them again…

Darkness had already fallen over the warehouse.