The size of the facility was about the size of a soccer field.
The dome covering the ceiling of the building was tightly packed with magical inscriptions, and the presence felt inside was extremely minimal.
With the knowledge I had, I couldn’t deduce what this building was used for.
With a secretly excited heart, I followed Baek Ahrin.
Inside the facility, there was a rectangular bed just sitting there.
“?”
I couldn’t imagine the inside looking like this. I was completely at a loss.
Momentarily, I tried to shake off the stiffness in my head and maintained a bit of composure as I looked around again.
To be precise, it wasn’t just a bed that was placed there.
Next to the bed, there was a small wooden storage box and a tiny refrigerator.
And that was it.
“Come on, this way.”
Just as I was about to inspect the inside of the storage box, Baek Ahrin grabbed my hand and took a step.
The destination was the central bed.
The bed was incredibly large.
The standard bed in the dormitory was already pretty big for my size, but this bed looked at least four times larger than that.
To exaggerate a bit, it was so big that even if Lee Ha-yul and I lay side by side, there would still be space left over.
I tilted my head and lightly shook Baek Ahrin’s arm.
[What is this?]
[Why is there a bed?]
[What is this facility for?]
The confession necklace started rattling with excitement. Baek Ahrin glanced at the rattling necklace and shrugged her shoulders.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Because…”
By the time we got right in front of the bed, she said, “You’re going to experience it directly now… yap.”
[Huh?]
As she pulled on our joined hands and gave me a gentle push toward the bed.
It wasn’t like she shoved me but simply a light nudge.
There was no malice in that action at all.
I was relaxed and ended up being nudged helplessly.
My calves caught on the bed, my knees buckled, and I flopped down onto the bed.
“Good. Please go in a bit more.”
[???]
The plush sensation of the bed rushed around my backside. Before I could respond, I was pushed again and ended up lying flat on my back.
“Oof…”
In a blink, I found myself sprawled on the massive bed.
Baek Ahrin, who had pushed me down, shrugged off her denim jacket and tossed it over to the side before plopping down next to me.
“Wow, it’s so soft and nice. They really brought in a high-quality one… Are you uncomfortable?”
[No]
[It’s okay… I guess]
“Here. Have a glass of water.”
[Thank you]
There was a slight distance between us.
As Baek Ahrin checked the status of the bed, she asked me how I was doing, and I nodded awkwardly.
After fiddling with the water bottle I received, I opened the cap and took a sip.
The cool water poured down my dry throat.
“……”
I swallowed and momentarily racked my brain.
I still had questions about the inscriptions all over the ceiling but, having gotten this far, various thoughts came rushing in.
Among them were some utterly bizarre thoughts that I couldn’t possibly share with anyone.
A huge bed sitting alone in a hidden room…
This backdrop fueled those thoughts.
It was a notion I could never share with another person.
And it was also a ridiculous fantasy that popped up the moment I thought of it.
Baek Ahrin had no reason to act that way.
I didn’t know Baek Ahrin too well, but logically speaking, that made sense.
How long had it been since we met? Even after a year or two, people often couldn’t read each other’s true feelings.
It was a foolish thought. Even I thought it was so dumb that my face felt hot.
I covered my face with the pillow right in front of me.
‘Wow, it’s so soft…’
The unexpected softness made my body momentarily stiffen.
Thinking about it, the cushioning of the bed supporting my body was simply out of this world. Baek Ahrin wasn’t exaggerating when she praised it as high-quality.
“You can just stay lying down if you’re tired. Just relax and keep your ears open~”
[Huh?]
After checking my state, Baek Ahrin smirked and tapped away at her smartwatch.
“Keeping your ears open?” What does that even mean?
Just as I tilted my head in confusion…
– Whoooooom…
My body jolted.
I didn’t hear a sound. It wasn’t the kind of movement that produced noise.
The round ceiling.
The massive amount of magical inscriptions inside it began to channel magical power and activate.
I hadn’t intended to interpret it, but once it started up like that, I had no choice but to comprehend it.
There were no offensive magical inscriptions. And there were hardly any defensive inscriptions either.
Almost none for security or maintenance purposes.
Two main types of inscriptions…
The moment I decoded it,
– Boom!
“……!”
A heavy noise reverberated around us.
The sound amplified as it seemed to bounce off all around, creating a large and stimulating vibration.
It felt like the sound was thumping against my eardrums.
But it didn’t hurt my ears.
It was the magic effect.
‘…Just now?’
I might not have heard it often, but I had a few memories of that sound.
I didn’t know its exact name.
But I knew it was caused by musical instruments.
– Boom! Boom! Boom!
The successive thumps pounded against my eardrum like a sign that a performance was about to begin.
– ♪…
Then, as if in response, various musical instrument sounds gradually chimed in.
Every kind of sound filled my ears. Different instruments tickled my ears and pounded against my eardrums.
The sound was immensely stimulating and colossal.
In this space, the only things present were the bed, the storage box, and the refrigerator.
Perhaps because of that, the sound from a variety of instruments could smoothly propagate throughout the spacious area.
“……”
I absentmindedly rubbed my ears.
Since my senses magnified, I’d often been startled by sudden loud sounds.
I knew how to sharpen my senses, but it was still my responsibility to cope with them.
Even sounds of considerable intensity were manageable with conventional hearing.
If I took in such sounds with amplified hearing, it felt as if my skull was thumping painfully.
But right now, it wasn’t like that.
The overwhelming and heavy sounds continued to fill my ears, pounding against my eardrums but without any feeling of burden.
‘Magic.’
One of the two types of inscriptions nestled in the ceiling.
It was a type of magic I had never really studied before… one that intricately interfered with sound.
‘Ah.’
Realization dawned on me.
A spacious but empty area.
A bed sitting there all alone.
Sound-manipulating magic.
‘This facility is for that.’
This place was a concert hall.
A space designed and constructed from the outset for experiencing sound enhanced by magic.
– Tap tap
At that moment.
Baek Ahrin, who had been enjoying the music like me, suddenly tapped my shoulder.
As I was absentmindedly listening, I turned my head, and Baek Ahrin chuckled while saying,
“I told you you’d like it, didn’t I?”
Her voice was distinctly clear amidst all the different sounds.
She spoke as if she already assumed I would be taken with it.
I felt no urge to dispute that. The melodies pouring into my ears genuinely pleased me.
I nodded blankly, and Baek Ahrin, smiling as if she expected this, waved her hand and produced a hologram.
“Your sensing ability gathers information within a certain range. It can’t gather anything outside that range… right?”
This was something she had explained previously.
Baek Ahrin manipulated the hologram.
“I’m not sure if you’ll like this as well.”
– Whoooooom…
I felt the movement of magical energy from the ceiling.
The half of the inscriptions that hadn’t been activated yet began to spring to life.
A rather complex type of inscription filled with magical energy began to manifest.
“……”
The ceiling was painted solely in black.
It resembled a starless, pitch-black universe.
– Twinkle
Suddenly, light emerged from within that darkness.
There were vivid yellows, hazy blues, and shimmering reds.
But the most common were just shades of blue and white.
Countless white lights appeared on the black ceiling.
At first, there were one or two… then ten… and at some point, the numbers crossed over a hundred and burst past a thousand.
The sheer amount of lights filled the dark ceiling as if made from innumerable points.
Their quantity was so overwhelming that at one edge, tiny little lights seemed to form an almost white river.
Tiny points illuminated the darkness below.
‘The sky.’
The magic had activated, and the ceiling replicated the universe sprawling into the night sky.
.
.
.
For a while, I was enthralled.
My ears were filled with the sounds of beautiful instruments, and the ceiling displayed a variety of starry night skies, revealing the universe.
‘The sky.’
An area I couldn’t fully encompass.
Spatial perception… I didn’t possess a vast enough range to contain the sky.
If I made an effort, I might be able to achieve a conscious observational ability.
Instead of drawing in the sky’s information, I could possibly change into a perspective similar to direct sight.
Not feasible for now, but one day it would be.
However, before attempting that, the universe unfurled in my mind.
“How is it?”
I felt a light tickling sensation in my hand. When I looked over, delicate fingers were teasing the palm of my hand.
Baek Ahrin, lying beside me, glanced my way as she asked.
Her once neat hair had now spread across the bed, rippled with the imitated starlight cascading from the ceiling.
“I booked this place after putting in a lot of effort… do you like it?”
‘……’
I pondered for a moment.
The universe wasn’t contained in my retina.
It wasn’t the sky I viewed with my eyes.
I genuinely wanted to see the sky with my own eyes.
The information brought in by observation was ultimately insufficient.
The necklace rattled.
[It’s nice]
If I had come to this facility on my own, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it.
Upon realizing that, I suddenly felt my personality was quite childish.
Petting my own head felt utterly unremarkable.
When someone’s kind like that to me, it warms my heart and brings a bashful smile.
Food shoved down my throat under such circumstances tends to feel unpleasant.
Yet, food offered by someone who cares for me, even with a bland taste, felt good.
Occasionally, being buried in a giant teddy bear or having a blanket pulled up to my head doesn’t give me much gratification.
But being held by someone who likes me feels overwhelmingly happy and cozy.
‘Baek Ahrin…’
Is she someone who cares for me?
Does she cherish me?
Does she like me?
I dove deeper into my observations, trying to reflect on Baek Ahrin beyond her mask.
The expressionless demeanor I always felt.
A cold face devoid of emotion.
‘I don’t know.’
In the first run, Baek Ahrin remained steadfastly by my side until the player was ultimately killed. A strong and trustworthy figure.
In my eighth run, Baek Ahrin was a betrayer who stabbed me in the back during a crucial moment against the Tower of Eternal Winter’s Lord.
She was a character hiding secrets that I couldn’t get to know in the original work.
It was puzzling.
I couldn’t hold onto any certainty. My own mind felt too foolish, and I lacked sufficient experience facing people to make educated guesses.
“Well, I’m glad you like it.”
Baek Ahrin smiled brightly.
Despite her chilling expression inside, she wore a mask of satisfaction and smiled.
This disarrayed me greatly.
Why was her true face so cold while her mask beamed so brightly?
Why did she stab me in the back in the eighth run yet didn’t betray me in the first run?
Was she going to stab me down the line in reality too?
Was her kindness now just an act to lower my guard…?
Moreover.
Why do I feel this faint emotion, and what does she desperately desire?
‘I don’t know.’
Questions and confusion.
‘But…’
I tightened my grip on her hand. It felt cold, yet… it had become a fairly soft and familiar sensation.
All this time, Baek Ahrin had consistently acted considerate towards me.
Even if there was some ulterior motive, I hoped there was a shred of care for me behind it.
‘I hope she doesn’t betray me.’
As selfish as it may seem, if someone taking care of me were to stab me in the back… it was a feeling I didn’t want to imagine, my heart would shatter.
If she did desire something, I would do my best to grant it, but I wished for no betrayal.
“I went ahead and booked this until tomorrow. If you feel sleepy, you can just sleep.”
Baek Ahrin said that, then paused for a moment, grinning mischievously.
“Don’t worry. I’m just going to hold your hand while you sleep.”
With a playful grin, she waved our joined hands.
‘…sleep if you’re tired…’
Hearing that implied suggestion made me feel genuinely sleepy, almost like Pavlov’s dog.
The plush bed, along with the blanket now pulled up to my neck, urged me to sleep.
The melodies filling my ears approached like a lullaby.
Beside me, Baek Ahrin lay there.
If I recalled the information from the eighth run, I wouldn’t feel at ease… but within Shio-ram, there was absolute certainty of safety; I felt no threat.
Besides, my wariness towards Baek Ahrin had diminished significantly.
My body grew heavy, and my consciousness began to drift away.
“Uh… huh? Are you really going to sleep?”
My hand felt lonely. Instead of holding onto the flickering light in my grip, I released my conscious thought.
My consciousness sank.
I didn’t have nightmares.
*
“…She really fell asleep.”
As soon as I told her she could sleep, she took an even rhythm of breaths and drifted off into dreamland.
Baek Ahrin, lying on the bed, blinked her eyes and turned her head.
In that instant, she caught a clear glimpse of the peacefully sleeping Lee Ha-yul’s face.
His face looked so innocent and simple.
Just as she was about to poke his cheek in curiosity, her hand was suddenly caught firmly.
Looking down, she saw her hand being tightly held by Lee Ha-yul.
Rather than fear, he seemed to be clinging to her as if saying not to go away.
Baek Ahrin found his unexpectedly fast relaxed demeanor quite perplexing.
At first, he had clearly seemed terrified of her.
As time passed, those feelings gradually faded, but the fundamental rejection he had towards her still appeared to linger.
She had thought it would be quite challenging to greatly dismantle that wariness…
‘Oh, right.’
In that moment, Baek Ahrin recalled Lee Ha-yul’s reaction upon first recognizing this bed.
His initial expression of confusion and bewilderment had suddenly turned into an explosive flush of red like a tomato.
Such an overt and innocent reaction made clear just what kinds of thoughts crossed his mind.
With a peculiar expression, Baek Ahrin opened the storage box beside her.
She picked up a small box that had caught her attention.
“That was indeed a purpose too.”
The box contained standard contraceptive tools.
There were people who used this place for such purposes.
*
[Player Adjustment System: Favorability]
Lee Ha-yul → Baek Ahrin
●●●●●●○○○○(63▷68/100)
“Favor” “Questions” “Confusion”
…
[Conditions for breaking the “Curse of Silence” have not been met.]
[Conditions for breaking the “Curse of Loneliness” have not been met.]
…
[The Savior’s Adjustment System: Aversion]
[The system expresses severe aversion towards the cold!]
…
[Reading the Savior’s Emotions]
…
[Player Adjustment System: Measurement]
▶ Mental State
“Salvation”: Saving those in peril.
…
[Player Adjustment System: Favorability]
Lee Ha-yul → Baek Ahrin
●●●●●●○○○○(68/100)
“Favor” “Questions” “Confusion”
…
[System Calibration in Progress…]
[The Savior’s Adjustment System: Development]
[Linked with Main Quest “Tower of Eternal Winter”…]
[Creating Quest “Baek Ahrin.”]
…
[The Savior’s Adjustment System: Salvation]
[Whenever the Savior performs salvation, the system will assist the Savior with full power.]
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