Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World – Chapter 65

Author: rolypoly

The white-haired old man spoke.

[Hey, doesn’t it feel like something is falling from the ceiling? Like dust, no. It’s a bit bigger than that. Like fragments of the wall.]

This time, another white-haired old man spoke.

[You’ve grown old, and now you’re seeing things. That’s why I told you ages ago to just move anything you wanted.]

This time, the white-haired young man threw a book. The old man quickly dodged it.

[Could everyone please be quiet? Can’t you see I’m reading?]

[Tsk, tsk. For a newcomer to be so antisocial. It was a mistake for you to come here in the first place. You should have come when you were older. Why get lost at such a young age?]

[I’m not lost.]

The white-haired woman wrapped her arms around the young man’s neck as he leaned back on the sofa.

[Honey, stop reading and play with me. It’s all over anyway. Why do you keep lingering on it when you’re the one who threw it away?]

The old man flew into a rage.

[No, really, fragments are falling from above, you idiots!]

The quiet white-haired muscular man suddenly stood up.

[Oh, come on, old man! Just shut it. Who’s even going to notice that tiny thing or dig it out? What idiot would dig around for that? Are you worried I’m going to bring a magic spoon to poke at it or something?]

***

Thump—.

The magic spoon worked better than expected. The tiny gap widened just enough for a hand to fit through.

“Ppi, ppi.”

“It’s okay, Pii piii. Once it gets a bit bigger, I’ll dig with something other than a spoon. Your master isn’t that stupid.”

“….Ppi.”

“…It’s fine if you don’t believe me.”

Hwashin had plenty of experience sealing rifts, but this was his first time prying one open.

A rift was evidence of distortion, and the wider it was, the greater its influence on the world. No one had ever uncovered the true nature of the rift; even the peerless archmage known as the genius of centuries ago simply introduced the rift as “something that must not be delved into.”

‘“Must not be disturbed,” my foot.’

Your junior is currently widening a rift, Grandpa.

The reason the elder said the gap mustn’t be widened was simple: once opened, it couldn’t be closed again. This came from a time before anyone even considered sealing a gap. But now. Right now. Standing before him was someone.

Was it not Elric, the great junior who accomplished what even his senior could not? Besides, having lived for over 200 years, he was the senior in terms of age. …No, wait. Since it was never revealed at what age that old man died, perhaps he had lived longer.

Anyway.

“…Will this be enough?”

Gazing at the roughly widened rift, Hwa-shin dispelled the spoon. Standing up, Hwashin picked up a crumb of the dimension. It sparkled like a glass shard. Its flat surface reflected the hallway like a mirror. Beyond the fragment, Hwa-shin’s face could not be seen.

Raising his right foot, he kicked the rift, and the space widened even further.

Crackle. Clatter. The sounds of breaking varied. Thud. By the time the fragments falling to the floor began to pile up, the hole was large enough for Hwa-shin to poke his head in.

“Ppi!”

What kind of space lay beyond the ‘rift’? It was impossible to know. A mysterious space where knowledge did not apply. This was different from mere curiosity.

Mages inevitably avoided such spaces.

Magic is not omnipotent. It is a physical reaction that unfolds within a strictly calculated formula. Mages loathed spaces where such formulas and calculations did not work at all—spaces where they became powerless.

Even the magic Hwa-shin used had its own laws. With a few more kicks, the rift widened further. A hole just barely large enough for an adult male to pass through.

Pii courageously leapt inside, followed by Hwashin, slipping both legs through.

‘Is it really okay to go in here?’

Hmm. Perched on the edge of the hole, Hwa-shin pondered for a moment. Of course, he was curious about who sent the notes, and the inside of the rift was intriguing.

Then again.

‘Well, the worst that can happen is I die.’

He had almost died plenty of times anyway.

Dangling there, the inside of the rift shared some similarities with a dungeon. There was a vast space inside, and it felt alien. Furthermore, as expected, it was pitch-black, making it hard to see ahead.

“Pii!”

He heard Pii’s fall.

“Hahaha!”

Finally jumping down, Hwashin fell endlessly into the hole. The speed of the fall felt refreshing. His lustrous silver hair fluttered upward. He caught up to Pii’s speed. Holding Pii, who had been suspended in the air, Hwashin continued to plummet.

Stars were visible through the falling walls. The reason the darkness was gradually lifting was largely due to the stars seen in between. Not long after, he heard the sound of voices murmuring from the bottom.

One rough voice that sounded elderly,

“No, I’m telling you, I really heard it.”

And one voice scolding that man,

“Tch, I told you, no one can find this place. You foolish old man. If you’re going to be this anxious, why don’t you just leave instead of staying here?”

“No, why would I leave? You know better than anyone that this is first-class. To begin with, you shouldn’t decide which dimension to leave for by compromising like that. Look at that newcomer; see how cautious he is, deliberating for so long even at that age.”

“He’s just being picky, what are you talking about?”

his time, a sharp voice was heard.

“Hey, I’m in the middle of hitting on the newcomer, so could you all just be quiet?”

“What do you mean ‘hitting on’ him at your age? The newcomer isn’t even 700 years old yet, you hag.”

“H-hey! Look at that! Something is falling from the sky! Aigoo, aigoo, we’re in trouble! A human is falling from the sky!”

“Is this old man talking nonsense again— Huh?! W-w-wait, it’s true?! My god, it’s true! It really is! Everyone, get out of the way!!”

“Oh my.”

At the old man’s words, the owner of the sharp voice looked up and was truly shocked. Some crazy human was falling while laughing.

“Hahaha!”

“A madman is falling! Aigoo!”

Hwashin cast Word Command on his body to slow his descent. Thud. Landing lightly on the floor, he looked around.

Even at a glance, it was a peculiar space. A checkered floor of black and white. Books strewn across the ground, and five doors standing in a space with no walls. Frames and mirrors hanging where there was no ceiling.

The white-haired figures looked at Hwashin, who had fallen from the sky, with curiosity.

“There really is a space inside the rift?”

Hwa-shin waved toward those who were peeking out from behind the sofa. Hello.

The white-haired old man waved his arms frantically.

“See! I told you! Something fell from the sky!”

“No, is that what’s important right now? Isn’t the fact that something is actually here what matters? Just how did a human get in here? If there’s a dragon who caused trouble, you better speak up quickly, eh?”

Hwa-shin began to scrutinize them one by one as they hid behind the central sofa. White hair and blue eyes. Their clothes were all white, in a style that looked like they were roughly made from torn fabric. Their ages varied, but they all mixed informal and blunt speech with one another.

He felt he’d seen something like this somewhere before.

“…Aha.”

Realizing something, Hwa-shin began to walk toward them.

He had thought it was strange.

The Dragon of Dimensions. A dead dragon heads to a new dimension. Because it is, literally, a dragon of ‘dimensions.’

However, the capacity for karma in a single dimension is fixed. Just as the threads to be entangled in the wheel are set, the destiny to be entwined is predetermined.

<Your Hero Is Here>. The book the dragon had given him. Even if it was a book, it was a single world and dimension created.

In that world, he had entered instead of the dragon. Through Yoo Hwa-shin’s body.

Then where did our dragon go? To begin with, how is the dimension for a dragon’s reincarnation decided? Would a dragon even want to be reborn into a world it didn’t desire?

Now, returning to the beginning.

Where was the soul of my only friend, the ‘dragon,’ who couldn’t enter <Your Hero Is Here>?

Hwashin smiled toward the one person among those hiding behind the sofa who only showed the back of their head. The way their shoulders were trembling was funny.

There isn’t just one Dragon of Dimensions. Even if they are an endangered species.

But the one dragon who knew me back then and stayed by my side was unique.

There was no way Hwashin wouldn’t recognize such a dragon.

“Dragon.”

And here I was, thinking the sounds I heard were just auditory hallucinations.

Walking over, Hwashin grabbed the dragon’s head. Ppi cried out ppi, ppi, telling him not to do that. Without hesitation, Hwashin applied strength to his hand. The face tilted upward along with his hand. He saw the face of the ‘Dragon,’ who was smiling with a complex expression and avoiding eye contact.

“Long time no see.”

Welcome back.

“Ridiculous.”

It’s been a long time, friend.

***

Hwashin and the white-haired figures sat in a circle on the floor. One was biting their nails nervously, while another tried to stop the old man. The muscular dragon failed at crossing his arms, and one dragon of seductive appearance was stuck close to Hwa-shin’s friend.

“F-f-for a human to enter here is already—!”

“Old man, shut that mouth. Hey, newcomer. You called him, didn’t you?”

A dragon’s human form usually follows their appearance in dragon form. A fire dragon would have red hair, and a water dragon would have blue hair.

“Honey, did you really call a friend all the way here?”

The white-haired woman boasting glamorous features spoke first.

“…That’s not it. He’s just a friend who’s naturally good at causing trouble. I need to explain the situation, so could you all please excuse us for a moment?”

“Hmm, I don’t mind. Though those old geezers behind the sofa will probably hear your whole conversation anyway.”

“Hey! Old geezer? You hag! You’re only 100 years younger than me!”

“…It seems the conversation won’t go well because of the old geezer. Well then, have a nice talk. You seem to have a lot to say.”

Tell me what you talked about later.

The graceful dragon winked slightly, pulling along two quarrelsome elders and a muscular dragon as she left.

She was of a beauty that even made Hwashin’s heart skip a beat. The saying that the human forms of dimensional dragons were seductive was true.

Well, our dragon was also handsome.

Before he knew it, Piii had naturally climbed onto the dragon’s lap and was sleeping. The sight of him sleeping soundly was cute, but.

Why does it feel like the master has changed?

“Is Pii your pet?”

“Not really, I picked him up while coming to this dimension. I got lost for a bit too after sending you there.”

“….Is that so?”

The one who had first handed the book <Your Hero Is Here> to him was none other than the dragon.

The one who had sent him to this dimension was also the dragon.

It was a good thing Hwashin had no desire to live in his original world anyway; had it been anyone else, they would have made a fuss about returning home.

The dragon, seated cross-legged, whispered softly.

“By the way, how did you realize that the people… or rather, the dragons here are all dragons?”

Hwashin smiled.

“You told me before. What was it? All dimensional dragons have white hair and blue eyes, and they wear pure white clothes.”

“Just with that?”

“Plus, there were the notes I saw before entering this rift, so I thought of someone with white hair who would know me.”

“A note?”

At the dragon’s question, Hwashin tilted his head.

Handing over the crumpled notes from his pocket, he spoke.

“Didn’t you intentionally send the notes this way?”

With a look of complete ignorance, the dragon examined the notes. His skin, which had been white as a pearl, turned completely transparent. No, really, literally.

“Dragon, I can see the universe through your skin right now. Hahaha, I’ve never seen this before.”

“It’s because this is the first time I’ve been this shocked since taking human form. No, I just scribbled these while reading the book, and they went all the way there? ….Ah, when that guy who broke through last time was going back. Hmm.”

With a deep sigh, the dragon placed the notes back on the floor. Beneath the still transparent back of his hand, the characters written on the notes were visible.

[Yoo Hwashin is alive.]

[Yoo Hwashin, why is that guy acting like that even after going all the way there. Sigh, how frustrating.]

[Can he really prevent the destruction?]

“You wrote these, right? Only you would know my name here.”

“….I didn’t write them for you to see.”

“Anyway, these notes crossed through the rift and I saw them. I was curious who it was, and while looking for someone with white hair who would know my name…”

He pointed straight at the dragon.

“I found it was only you.”

The dragon did not regret sending Yoo Hwashin into that book. Because his friend wanted it, and because he had no lingering attachments to life there.

But.

“Now, tell me.”

“Huh?”

“Why did you send me to <Your Hero Is Here>?”

Why does he look so angry?