Chapter 387: The Garden of Time (3)

The Sword Emperor walked across the Garden of Withered Flowers under the speckled sunset, where the dead slept like flowers.

—You’ve done a good job with this place. Well done.

Instead of retorting, “What nonsense are you trying to spout with this build-up now?” I offered a normal answer.

—Thank you.

Rather than asking, “Why are you answering so readily? Have you eaten something bad?” the Sword Emperor continued complimenting me.

—I like how even the soil is dead. On the day I awoke my reinforced aura, I put one grain of soil in my palm to study it. After focusing my aura in my eyes and ears, I studied it and saw that the grain seems calm, though it is, in fact, chaotic. Within that tiny grain, countless things were jostling and squabbling!

The Sword Emperor bent down and stroked the decayed earth with his fingertips. His touch merely brushed the surface, yet a sudden gust of wind scattered the soil, creating the illusion that his hand was caressing the ground itself.

—

What I saw and heard that day surpassed everything I had seen and heard until then. But the soil here is so quiet. That stillness is surely what the flowers here need.

I’m impressed that you made this place even before you felt that true quietness, Gong-Ja.

He straightened his back and turned to look at me. I didn’t retort this time either, only nodded.

—Thank you.

—You’re welcome.

We walked in silence for a while longer. The place we were now walking through was called the summer zone. In this place, where the air was warm, Estelle clasped her hands and prepared to summon rain.

—This is also good.

—Yes.

As we passed Estelle, who had begun to cry, the Sword Emperor spoke again.

—Gong-Ja.

—Yes.

—Do you remember when I said that if you couldn’t reach the ninety-ninth floor, Gramps Marcus would do that in your place someday?

Of course I remembered that.

—Do you also recall what I added then?

Yes, I did.

—You said calling it “on my behalf” is odd because Gramps Marcus isn’t a replacement.

The Sword Emperor nodded.

—

Still, I also added that I believe you’ll still know what I meant.

That was true.

—So, what do you think I meant by that?

My answer came easily.

—I’ve been thinking about the question many times already.

Maybe you were cheering for me, telling me to keep going because you believed in me that much. Or maybe it was your way to show that you care by saying that the Sword Star would do better than me, so I could rest if things got too hard. But I think it was neither.

I walked with the Sword Emperor, keeping my eyes on him. My steps were as natural as the words that left my mouth.

—Because I also recall what you said after. “I’ll be honest. It’s okay if you fail. Trust is about believing that both you and the other person will do their best. You determine what your best is, not the other person. Therefore, a trusting relationship is one in which each person decides what is best for themselves and accepts the other person’s decision. That’s all there is to it.” The important part isn’t that failure is acceptable. What’s important is that, immediately after telling me you believed in me, you explained what trust means. You probably meant that either result is fine. I could overcome this test or fail it, becoming a prisoner of the eternal desert. Gramps Sword Star could bear my load and climb to the ninety-ninth floor. Still, even if he died and started his one-way journey to the underworld, you really don’t mind how it turns out. That’s why you said it like that.

The Sword Emperor kept walking. Like in the Truth Heaven Realm, he picked up the pace. Unlike that time, when I had to run to keep up with him, I could now walk beside him normally.

—

It’s not because you don’t trust me or the Sword Star. You do trust me.

He trusted me as much as a certain senior gentleman who had left everything behind to go to the Tower.

—

You trust Mr. Sword Star.

He also trusted a young jobless man who fled to the Tower and lived alone in the first-floor alleyways.

—

You trust the Gray Spider.

As much as he trusted us, he also trusted the resistance fighters under the Magic Tower’s oppression.

—

You trust the Assistant Writer.

Surprisingly, he would also trust a child like Charumu, the petty tyrant who hurt the Magic Tower’s resistance fighters and spoke out against the Magic Tower to feed on his own lust for power.

—You say you’re skilled, and you also act so arrogantly that I sometimes want to hit you. But your arrogance is different from the Fire Emperor’s.

It wasn’t that the Sword Emperor was skilled and the Fire Emperor wasn’t. Before my regression, the Fire Emperor had been undeniably skilled. The Sword Emperor, the Fire Emperor, and even I could do and actually did what we said we would do. In that regard, we were the same, but there was a key difference between us.

—

The Fire Emperor believed that only he was special. “Only I can do it.” “Only I am special.” “No one else could ever do it like me, not even if they died and were reborn.” This made the Fire Emperor who he was.

But you, Mr. Sword Emperor. If I had to say, you believe you are special, too.

That also meant...

—You could be special. There’s no reason others couldn’t do what you did.

Therefore, that was why he had told me those things back then.

—In a way, you trust everyone in this universe. If not me, then Mr. Sword Star. If he also fails, then Anastasha or the Gray Spider will take on the mantle. When they also fail, then someone no one knows because they haven’t discovered their true potential yet will take over. In any case, you believe that someday, someone will reach the ninety-ninth floor.

The Sword Emperor finally broke his silence.

—Everyone has potential.

It had been some time since the Sword Emperor and I passed Estelle. During that time, we walked swiftly through the fields, mountains, and seas in the Garden of Withered Flowers.

—Those who are meant to succeed, succeed; those who are not, fail. People never change... These words come only from those who live short-sightedly and cannot see far ahead.

That was how we faced the faraway land where red rain fell.

—

If “That person can do it, but you can’t’ doesn’t make sense, then the other way around—“I can do it, but others can’t”— is nonsense, too.

Yes, the two of us circled the world.

—Only then is it fair.

Raindrops pounded the ground, piercing me and the Sword Emperor.

—That proves it, then.

I gazed upon the crimson landscape, a memorial to nameless deaths. Now that I had a true understanding of what it meant to see, the sight coming into view was so clear. The rain felt less like it was falling from above and more like it was rising from below.

—Gong-Ja, you sometimes recall and talk about those days spent in that cramped, old studio of yours.

“How did I get here?”

—

If others had seen you trimming newspaper clips, like that man, Yoo Soo-Ha, they would have clicked their tongue and said, “What a loser.” “That guy is hopeless.” “I shouldn’t become like him.”

It felt less like walking through the rain and more like stepping into water. Air and water had swapped places. Endless red bubbles rose around us.

—

And yet, here you are now.

My heart pounded.

—People change. Even the smallest opportunity can make a change. That’s what you’ve proven each time you went back a day.

It was like when my orphanage director complimented me for the first time.

—

That isn’t all. The Gray Spider didn’t change for a thousand years, but she did change in the end. Was it because of you? Yes, of course. But was it only possible because it was you?

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

His words couldn’t purely be seen as a compliment. I could take them the wrong way, like an old-fashioned criticism of why I couldn’t be like him. At the same time, it could be seen as a claim that only he was special. But I knew that wasn’t the Sword Emperor’s intent.

—That’s probably why this was the first Skill I got after I entered the Tower.

When there was no malice and no hidden agenda, and words worked purely as words, that was when his words held true meaning.

—Unlock the Skill Card.

The Sword Emperor raised his hand. A Skill Card slipped out from beneath the tattered sleeves of his robe.

You Can Be Like Me

Class: F

Effect: You can see all the Skills another person possesses.

※An enemy you have defeated can copy one of your Skills and make it their own.

※This Skill does not affect foes you have already defeated once.

※The copied Skill is picked at random.

As if spellbound, I raised my hand, pulled out the first Skill I got and read it.

—Unlock the Skill Card.

I Want To Be Like You

Class: S+

Effect: Will automatically activate after an enemy kills you. You will be able to copy and turn one of their Skills into yours. The Skill you copy will be chosen at random, but you can’t copy your enemies’ Skills more than once.

※ However, you will die!

The cards touched. One was a Class F Skill, and the other was Class S+. The two Skills mirrored each other like opposing reflections. In the space between them, the Sword Emperor and I stood facing each other.

—Sword Emperor.

—Yeah.

—What is your holy ground like?

Even the Constellation Murderer had one. The fact that you’re on the ninety-ninth floor now means that you’ve made one too. I...

I’m curious what your holy ground is like.”

—Hmm.

The Sword Emperor raised one hand. The hem of his robe fluttered and swayed.

—Ah.

A world opened before my eyes.

■. In a dim forest, morning glories stretched their necks. Half their usual size, they bowed deeper and deeper.

As the flowers bowed, dawn turned to morning, which soon turned to noon. When evening fell, the sun set and died from fatigue. The night fell like a coffin being lowered in a grave, and the sunflowers opened their petals wider in the dry season of that dim place.

Flowers of those who died without blooming. People of flowers. Ten million flowers meant to be held. Ten million flowers to hold. Morning glories, dianthuses, frost flowers, peonies, roses, and hydrangeas.

In this world, a man wearing a tattered robe sat in the lotus position. Beside him, a sword as tall as him was embedded in the field with hundreds of millions of flowers. I knew that man very well; I had seen him countless times, but this was the first time I had ever seen him not translucent.

I hadn’t stepped foot in that world yet. That was probably why I couldn’t call the man by his name—the Sword Emperor.

Nevertheless, I could see him. This was possible only because he was letting me. Without opening his eyes, the Sword Emperor said, “Come, Kim Gong-Ja.”

That was the first time I heard his actual voice.

“I’ll be waiting for you here."

He was waiting for me on the ninety-ninth floor.