Chapter 07

Escape from Another World with a Possessor (7)

1. Families Collapse, Society Collapses, the Empire Collapses (5)

It was lucky that the villa was meant for hiding—there were travel supplies and emergency food stored there.

While gathering food, they also changed into more comfortable clothes.

Gayeon wore a comfortable shirt and leather pants, like an adventurer would. Since she kept looking at her daggers eagerly, Selena gave her a set of daggers she could fix on her belt.

Even though Gayeon specialized in controlling spirits, she might want to fight hand-to-hand herself—and that was her choice.

Wearing pants again, Gayeon sighed softly.

“It’s the first time I’ve worn pants since we raided that illegal slave market.”

“…You raided what?”

“Huh? Oh, the illegal slave market. It’s common, right?”

Probably only common in novels.

Selena considered telling Gayeon, whose experiences as a princess and former empress mixed with her modern Korean knowledge, about the reality of this world—but decided not to.

They were going to leave this world anyway; a slightly twisted worldview didn’t matter.

“Unnie, aren’t you changing clothes?”

“I’m fine. This outfit I put magic on myself—it’s super comfortable and strong.”

Selena’s clothes had triple-layered shield magic.

They were more like magical tools than regular clothes. If the fabric was damaged beyond a certain point, the magic would activate automatically.

This was one of the safeguards Selena had prepared to survive numerous assassination attempts disguised as accidents, right before she became an Archmage. Besides the shield magic, the outfit had other small protections, so she had no intention of changing.

She did, however, swap her ceremonial robe for a simple brown coat for traveling.

“The backpack is already prepared as a survival pack, so we just need to take it. Let’s rest for now. Oh, I think we should stay in the same room, just in case—are you okay with that?”

“Of course!”

With jerky movements relaxing, they spread out jerky, bread, dried fruit, and wine. Their lighter clothes made them more comfortable.

Since they weren’t sleepy yet, they sat on the carpet floor, each hugging a cushion, opening the second round of conversation.

“Do you think this villa is safe?”

“Yes. I bought it under a false name to hide when the mana mine was exposed. It would take the Empire two days to find us.”

Relieved, Gayeon chewed the rabbit jerky Selena gave her.

“Let’s rest a bit to recover mana, and we’ll leave tomorrow.”

“Okay. But… where exactly are we now?”

“Mihal. It was upgraded from a village to a city about seven years ago. You probably wouldn’t know it.”

“Hehe, I know. I was top of the geography department at the academy. I may have grown up with books, but I know all place names once I hear them.”

She seemed uneasy about meeting the Emperor, but enjoyed academy life.

Gayeon chattered like a little bird with a much more relaxed expression.

It was the first time in three months she could have a proper conversation with someone, and the other person was Korean, so she talked freely.

Selena listened happily. With nothing else to do until bedtime, Gayeon’s lively storytelling was fun. Selena also asked questions about her life out of curiosity.

“I’m tired of this world, but it’s a little sad to leave the spirits. They were my only allies in the palace. I couldn’t see them after wearing that cursed bracelet.”

“Hm. Spirits are theoretically multidimensional beings. If you do it right, you might even be able to summon them on Earth.”

“Isn’t there no mana on Earth? Or is there?”

“There must be. This world has it, and other dimensions do too.”

“Oh, good… Wait, how did you know that?”

They even talked a little about the past, things Selena had almost forgotten.

Oops. She hadn’t planned to talk about this—but with Gayeon, it might be fine. Selena scratched her cheek awkwardly and answered:

“Well, I didn’t know the original world’s coordinates… I got annoyed sometimes, and when opening dimensions, I hoped one of them would be the original world… So I tried opening a few different ones. That’s how I knew.”

Gayeon was silent for a moment, staring at her.

“…Unnie. You know the founding history of the Elsaik Empire, right?”

“Why all of a sudden? Of course. The corrupt Archmage opened a demon world to summon demons and monsters. The first Elsaik Emperor stopped him and closed the gate.”

“Oh. You know, then. I thought you didn’t.”

“Hahaha. Of course I know. Any Empire Archmage has to read the Elsaik Founding Record.”

Hearing Selena speak calmly, Gayeon suddenly stood up.

The cushion rolled across the carpet. Gayeon’s thin rationality from the past three years rolled away with it.

The former, pink-haired—would-be—empress roared.

“How can you just open other dimensions like that without permission?!”

“Huh, huh?”

“I may be fed up with this world, but I don’t mean to destroy it! You can’t just go wild like that!”

Her words were perfectly reasonable.

Even the confident Archmage Selena shrank in an instant. Gayeon’s righteous scolding was unavoidable.

“Ah… I didn’t mean to destroy it. I was just frustrated at the time…”

“If frustration was a reason to destroy the world, I would’ve ended it a hundred million times while in the palace!”

“I’m sorry! I know I was wrong. But I closed everything properly. Almost like sealing it. It’s fine now!”

“Everything? You said dimensions, right? How many times did you open them?”

Selena hesitated, thinking about lying. But after pausing, she answered honestly:

“…Seven times.”

“Unnie!”

Gayeon, who usually acted gentle, glared fiercely.

She had tried to live well in this world, so Selena’s careless actions angered her.

Millions of people could have suffered—her anger was justified.

In Earth terms, what Selena did was like pressing the atomic bomb button seven times.

Luckily, she had managed to stop each countdown, but it was still too reckless to excuse.

If the world found out, it would immediately mark her as the continent’s top criminal.

Selena fiddled with her fingers, feeling guilty.

Ugh, I even kept this secret from my master… but I blurted it out to Gayeon because I felt safe with another Korean possessor.

Selena regretted it and muttered excuses.

“Really, it’s fine. I blocked a demon lord trying to escape, even lost some lifespan, got skewered by his cursed sword while stopping him, but I closed it properly. That’s enough, right?”

“You said demon lord? Lost lifespan?! That’s dark magic! And you got skewered by a cursed sword too? What exactly were you doing?!”

It had been dangerous.

Back then, assassins still came sometimes, so if she hadn’t carried multiple high-level potions, she would have died.

“Unnie!”

“No… I just… wanted to go home…”

Selena tried to say more, but groaning, she surrendered to Gayeon’s nagging and stayed quiet.

After acting brazen for so long, being quiet was better than making more shameless excuses.

Where did the warm first night with the fellow possessor go? Selena lamented, lowering her head.

It was her own fault.

Gayeon’s lecture continued for an hour.

Selena couldn’t stop her.

Even a reclusive Archmage like Count Kim, who hadn’t listened to anyone for over ten years, had no choice this time.

Following the love of a fellow Korean possessor, Gayeon’s authority was unavoidable.

Selena had to listen quietly for an hour, feeling her mind almost burn from so much lecturing.

“Gayeon… stop. My mental strength is at its limit…”

Gayeon sighed after a while, her face showing she still had things to say.

“Fine. You fixed it, no one else was harmed. But you can’t go wild again. This isn’t just your world. Got it? You could have been in serious trouble too.”

“Lost lifespan? It’s only a few decades. Archmages live 200 years anyway…”

“…Unnie?”

“But life is still precious!”

Finally, Gayeon nodded in satisfaction.

After making more promises—no getting skewered, no cursed swords, paper swords only—Selena was finally free.

Mentally exhausted after hearing so much truth, she fell asleep.

Fortunately, she slept deeply.

Even if the first night ended awkwardly, maybe the miraculous presence of a fellow Korean possessor rekindled a bit of hope in her heart.