IDSEGI Chapter 73

Chapter 73

The moment Yeoul stepped out of the officetel with the umbrella in hand, heavy rain began to pour. It had been ten days since he arrived here, and this was the first time it had rained.

So the umbrella was connected to the weather.

In a world where each day was similar but slightly different, there were only two things that never changed— the perfectly clear sky without a single cloud, and the weather report from the weathercaster. He had never realized it before, but now it was obvious the two were linked.

To prove it, Yeoul went straight back inside, left the umbrella, and stepped out again. The blazing sun shone down as if it had never rained at all.

The fourth rule:
If you take an umbrella with you, it rains. If you leave it behind, it stops.

He had now discovered four rules of this world. But that couldn’t be all. To escape this hallucination, he needed something clearer, something more concrete.

To find the fifth rule, Yeoul opened the umbrella and ran. His destination—the ‘Beautiful Store.’

Stopping in front of the shop located in the middle of the main street, Yeoul glanced up at the gray sky, then dropped the umbrella onto the ground. Before his hair could even get wet, the rain vanished instantly.

Pushing open the glass door, he stepped inside, where a shop clerk who looked exactly like the weathercaster greeted him warmly.

“Welcome. This is the Beautiful Store.”

Yeoul glanced around the shop. There was nothing strange about it—just an ordinary second-hand store selling a jumble of odds and ends.

Looking back at the clerk, he said,
“I’d like to borrow an umbrella.”

The clerk turned her head toward the door, tilting it unnaturally far to the left, the movement awkward and mannequin-like. Looking up at the clear sky, she replied in an even, untroubled tone,

“I’m sorry, sir. Since it’s not raining, I can’t lend you one.”

“Is that so?”

Keeping his composure, Yeoul stepped back outside, picked up the umbrella from the ground, and returned. A sudden downpour began immediately. Glancing at the sky, he pointed outside.

“It’s raining now. So I can borrow one, right?”

The clerk’s head, which had been twisted left, snapped back to face him with a cracking sound, as if her bones were being reassembled. Seeing the umbrella in his hand, she frowned.

“But sir, you already have one. We only lend umbrellas to those who didn’t bring one.”

“I see.”

In one motion, Yeoul broke the umbrella, snapping its ribs, and showed it to her.

“It’s broken now, so I can’t use it. Can I borrow one?”

The woman’s mouth stretched into a grin so wide it nearly reached her ears. She reached out and stroked the umbrella—instantly, as if it had never been damaged, it was perfectly restored.

“There, good as new. Have a nice day, sir.”

“You said you only lend umbrellas to those without one.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Yeoul snapped the plastic ribs again and tossed it onto the floor.

“What is it, exactly?”

The TV weathercaster’s words echoed in his mind.
If you don’t have an umbrella, the ‘Beautiful Store’ will lend you one.

But she had never specified what exactly they would lend. Focusing on that omission, Yeoul straightened his back and looked down at the clerk.

“What is it that you lend?”

The woman, a head shorter than Yeoul, lowered her head at his question and began to laugh—loud, sharp, and piercing, as if it would split his eardrums. When the laughter died down and she raised her head again—

Her round white face had only a single eye in the center.

“I can lend anything. Be it death, or despair.”

The lone eye curved upward like a crescent moon as she smirked.

“Or time itself.”

“Does that offer still stand? The one where if I kill you, you’ll grant me any wish?”

The one-eyed being, making no effort to hide its identity now, shrugged casually.

“I’ve already milked that name you gave me twice. No more.”

It moved its arms and legs in the same direction, creaking like a robot.

“This body is so inconvenient. Why do humans drag around such useless things and call them a body?”

As the one-eyed being grumbled, Yeoul fell into thought for a moment.

Twice?

Come to think of it, this was his second regression. The first time had been when he wounded the one-eyed being. And the second time… how had he turned back time then? He couldn’t remember at all.

If it had been the same method, it shouldn’t have worked again. So how had he managed to injure it?

The lack of memory was frustrating. No matter how hard he tried to think, no clue came to mind.

And then…

Why had the one-eyed being suddenly thrown him into an illusion?

It wasn’t just to toy with him—that wouldn’t make sense. If the goal was to torment him, showing him such peaceful, ordinary days would hardly be effective. If anything, forcing him to relive his childhood exactly as it was would have been a far crueler method.

A thought flashed through his mind.

The fifth rule: If you don’t have an umbrella, the Beautiful Store will lend you something.

Until now, he’d focused on that fact alone. But maybe that wasn’t what really mattered.

To borrow something, you had to be without an umbrella while it was raining. But without an umbrella, it would never rain, so you couldn’t borrow anything. It was a paradox.

But… what if he hadn’t come to borrow something, but to return it?

To lend meant to eventually take back. And if he’d already borrowed something from the one-eyed being…

If his theory was correct, then whether it rained or not, whether he had an umbrella or not, it wouldn’t matter. Because he wasn’t borrowing—he was returning.

His brown eyes sharpened as they locked onto the pitch-black pupil.

“I didn’t come to borrow. I came to return what I borrowed.”

A metallic clash rang in the air, like rusted cymbals smashing together.

“Correct!”

And then everything went black.

* * *

Yeoul coughed, struggling for breath.

“Khuh… kuhk.”

When he came to, a massive, round eye the size of his own body loomed before him.

“That was more fun than I expected. You were right.”

“Hff… ha…”

Finally, the memories from his second life came rushing back.

After his first regression, Yeoul had failed to save Ihan. So he had entered the gate again. At the time, he didn’t remember exactly how he’d regressed before—he thought perhaps dying inside the gate had triggered it.

It was only after entering the cave that he remembered the one-eyed being.

He’d faced it again and asked to fight under the same terms as before, but it had refused.

“Fighting you twice sounds boring. I don’t want to.”

So Yeoul had made another proposal.

“Then lend me some time. I’ll come back to return it to you.”

The one-eyed being elongated vertically, intrigued.

“How will you repay me?”

“That’s for you to decide. You’re the one lending it.”

It rolled its eye from side to side, then flipped the white outward.

“Fine. You don’t have to repay me, but you must come back to return it. If you don’t…”

Its black pupil swelled, filling the whole eye before swallowing him whole.

“Then your time will be mine forever. I’ll turn it back, again and again, and play with you for eternity.”

If he hadn’t discovered the hidden rule of that world, Yeoul would have been the one-eyed being’s toy forever.

Leaving it cackling behind him, Yeoul swept his gaze around urgently and shouted,

“Where’s Ihan? What about Geon?”

“Oh—those two?”

With one slow blink, the world brightened, revealing Ihan and Yoon Geon lying unconscious. Yeoul ran to them, shaking them awake.

“Ihan! Wake up! Geon-hyung, get up! Can you hear me?”

“Don’t worry so much. I just put them to sleep. Three against one isn’t fair, you know. It has to be even when you return something you’ve borrowed.”

“Wake them. Right now!”

When Yeoul roared in anger, the one-eyed being stretched wide horizontally in a grin.

“No. Do you know how much energy I used putting them to sleep? Especially that yellow-brown-haired one—his willpower is so strong, he was hard to knock out.”

It blinked rapidly, muttering complaints.

“Why’d you bring someone like that? If you were going to bring anyone, you should’ve just brought one. Add the black-haired one to the mix and even I have worse odds of winning.”

Then a confident voice rang through the cave.

“Is that so?”

The voice had come from somewhere near Yeoul’s knees, but in an instant, it shot forward.

“That’s perfect, then.”

Boom!

With an explosion of sound, flames surged toward the one-eyed being’s pupil. At the same time, a wall of water enclosed Yeoul in a perfect sphere. As he blinked in shock, someone pulled him close by the waist.

“Hyung?”

“Stay back.”

Yoon Geon held Yeoul in his arms, shielding him from the searing heat that melted the surrounding rock.

“Aaagh!”

Screaming, the one-eyed being thrashed, trapped by fire on all sides. Its eyelashes burned away, the veins in its eye bursting as it writhed in the heat.

Even as he attacked, Ihan threw a curt warning over his shoulder.

“Keep Yeoul safe. If even a thread of his clothing gets burned, you’re dead.”

“You’re the one who said if I can’t handle that much, I’m not worthy of being called an Esper.”

When Yoon Geon shot back, Ihan raised an eyebrow.

“Not wrong. If you can’t manage that much, you’re no Esper.”

Then his lips curved into a fierce grin.

“Party’s started, you one-eyed bastard.”