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“You’re alive!”

“I really thought I was going to die.”

The boy collapsed back onto the sand, completely exhausted. He seemed to have used up all his remaining energy to correct his own name.

I looked at the ragged boy with concern and then removed the seaweed glued to his face.

“Don’t die…….”

“If you don’t want me to die, double the risk allowance again. I can’t die because of this injustice.”

‘So you won’t die if I give you more money, or you will die if I give you more money?’

I was confused about which way he meant but then saw Felix running towards me from the other side of the shore.

I waved my hand frantically, and not long after, he came up to my side.

I thought I was going to die after running like that, but Felix wasn’t out of breath at all.

“…….A person?”

He knelt down with a serious expression, examined the boy’s condition, and held out a bottle of water. It was as if he was checking to see if the boy was okay.

The boy, whose lips had turned blue, hurriedly drank the water as if he had now grasped onto a lifeline. I introduced the boy directly to Felix.

“This is Andrew.”

“It’s Anthony. I don’t know why you keep getting confused with names that aren’t even similar.”

‘I’m sorry. Having lived in Korea for 25 years, all foreign names seem the same.’

I remembered all the names in the novel since I read it countless times – I even remembered the extras – but it was too complicated beyond that.

“Anyway, can you walk?”

“All I can do is breathe.”

I wondered how we could move Anthony, who was mushier than the seaweed previously stuck to his face.

At that moment, Felix unhesitatingly lifted the boy and carried him on his back.

“Lean on me comfortably.”

“What the……. an angel…….”

Anthony murmured, squinting his eyes. Perhaps, since he couldn’t recognize Felix due to the magic enchantment, he felt like he was being saved by a heavenly being.

Of course, I also admit that Felix was an angel.

“What about the others?”

I asked urgently, hoping that the rest of the people might be alive too.

Anthony replied sullenly, his body drooping helplessly.

“They should still be alive. But we have to go get them before it’s too late.”

I wanted to ask what the hell happened, but I wasn’t harsh enough to bother someone who had just been rescued from the sea.

Now that he returned from the dead, he needed to rest. We also had to find accommodation.

At that moment, Felix abruptly stopped walking and stared intently at a place beyond the sea.

As I turned my gaze to follow his, the light of the setting sun slowly began to dye the sea red. It was unquestionably beautiful, but it was reminiscent of an ominous color.

Through his glasses, his blue eyes sharply gleamed for a moment.

“I hear something.”

‘What do you mean?’

I listened carefully. All I could hear was the gentle sound of waves crashing and the cries of the birds.

However, his ears, influenced by the devil’s power, seemed to hear a different sound.

“Screaming…….”

That was rather ominous.

At night, the sky and the sea turned black. There was a saying that the sea at night was not a realm for humans because it was not visible, and common sense of the day did not apply.

The sun was setting, so there was no need to step forward and take the risk.

I felt a chill and clung to his side. Felix then tried to shrink away like embers touched by water, clenched his teeth, and avoided my gaze as he recalled what had happened on the train.

Anthony, who was looking at us alternately, murmured with an expression like he had swallowed seawater.

“I can’t believe you’re having a date while someone is dying here right now…….”

Of course, I ignored it.

Anyway, we happened to stumble across Anthony and made our way back to where we were before.

Then Claudia, who had been waiting for me, came running like a magnet.

Anthony gazed into the distant horizon and slowly wrinkled his face. He looked as if he had seen something offensive and unpleasant.

“…….What is that?”

I looked back at the tombs that I built on the sand to pray for the souls of the deceased.

“It was a grave for you.”

“Don’t kill me arbitrarily. If you’re going to pity me, give me money.”

For some reason, his actions seemed to mirror a ghost who was swindled and killed and was now asking for his rightful payment. Although, I didn’t think I scammed him in the first place.

“Now that I think about it, how much were you going to offer me?”

Anthony brazenly implied that if I were going to dedicate money to his grave, he preferred that I give it to him now that he was alive. It looked like he was determined to extort as much money as possible.

There was a saying that claimed if a person suddenly changed, their death was near. It seemed like he had many days to live.

I stared at the promising child and lightly patted his round head.

* * *

I booked the nearest accommodation closest to the port and laid Anthony on the bed. I patiently waited for him to recover some strength before asking him for the whole story.

“It was good before we sailed the ship there. At that time, the wind blew gently, and the waves were calm. Of course, I didn’t think much of it.”

The story followed on like this:

As soon as they approached the vicinity of Camoli Island, the wind and waves suddenly stopped.

In an instant, it felt like the world around them instantly changed like a stage set in a play.

He didn’t know what happened. While he was confused, the world suddenly turned upside down.

“When I regained consciousness, I was in a castle.”

No, wait a second. Something seemed to be missing.

“But people said the ship gets dragged into the sea.”

“I don’t know about that. I have no memory of falling into the sea. Towards the middle, I felt dizzy as if possessed by something, then I was suddenly in a forest and fainted.”

At that time, his clothes were wet with seawater, so he probably did fall into the sea? Anthony tilted his head and added.

“There was a castle in the sea.”

“And what else?”

“Everyone there was out of their minds. They’re all alive, but they’re crazy……. I think it’s because they carelessly eat the food given to them.”

He wanted to express something, but perhaps it was because he was too young, so his vocabulary wasn’t very extensive. He just repeatedly said they were ‘out of their minds.’

“I was so scared that I couldn’t eat or drink anything for a few days, and then I thought I’d die like this. I jumped into the sea with the feeling that I would die anyway.”

So there was a castle in the sea, and there was another sea in the castle?

I blinked blankly at the sound of the laws of physics being fundamentally destroyed.

“I was miraculously able to escape safely but……. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the people or what’s going to happen.”

“……”

“It was such a strange and creepy space.”

So, if this matter was related to the independent spirit, then it could be expected that the spirit was no ordinary nutjob.

That’s the feeling I got.

Then how was it any different from Nihilis, the spirit of hopelessness?

Furthermore, there was a possibility that it was not the spirit that controlled purification or life that I expected.

From that story alone, I could only speculate that it was a spirit that twisted space or showed illusions.

Either way, being able to do something on such a large scale meant that it was incomparably stronger than Nihilis. In fact, the situation might be more dangerous than the original.

‘Of course, it could be a great hit.’

It could either be a great hit or a flop¹.

‘It’s all a gamble.’

Should we quit now?

I suddenly had a thought.

Those trapped in the castle, of course, wanted to be rescued. But it was more important for me that Claudia wasn’t injured or died.

I wondered if the situation could even be rectified by connecting a spiritualist to the crazy spirit.

How do we know if a situation similar to Felix’s would happen again?

I whispered in Claudia’s ear for a moment so that no one else would hear.

“I think it might be better for us to get out of here. It looks dangerous.”

Then she replied back.

“If we retreat now, when will there be a next time? We need to find a spirit to sign the contract with as soon as possible before the three of them uses other measures, but if we decide that the spirit we found later is dangerous, should we retreat again?”

It was a very determined voice.

“Rin, I don’t want to live being forever powerless, without accomplishing anything. I’d rather fight back than live like that for the rest of my life.”

“…….”

Claudia had made up her mind to do that.

But here I was saying things like ‘it’s dangerous,’ ‘stay back,’ and ‘let’s search for a safer spirit’. That was very impertinent of me.

After all, Claudia was now different from the novel. That’s right. Very different. The situation could also be different.

‘She’ll be able to overcome it.’

It was just like how Felix overcame the power of the devil. Even if things went wrong, Claudia would be able to succeed. I had to trust her as much as I respected her.

Claudia seemed to be saying that she was the one who wanted to get to know me, become friends with me, and finally, she made that choice, so she was the one responsible for it.

I swallowed a sigh and asked Anthony, “So as long as we don’t eat the food there, we’ll be fine?”

* * *

^{1. The author plays around with the saying “hit or a flop” where hit = success, flop = failure. This term is usually used in the entertainment industry, especially in film.↩}