CH 143

Luzel, who was watching me and Luke, sighed lightly and opened the small refrigerator in the corner.

“Take this.”

I reflexively accepted what was thrown lightly. What was caught in the palm was a can of cold soda. Luzel, who threw a drink at Ha Tae-heon in the same way she did for me, put her arm on the mysterious machine.

“I’ll call you when it’s finished, so take a break until then. Maybe the room on the right has some space?”

“Alright.”

Upon entering the room on the right, which had been covered with piles of objects, a small lounge room appeared with a place to step on.

Ha Tae-heon, who grabbed my shoulder and sat me on the sofa, put down a drink on the table and said.

“If you are still sleepy, sleep more. I’ll wake you up later.”

“I’m not.”

Apparently, Ha Tae-heon was worried about how much I slept. In fact, although the sleep time was short enough to barely make up for four hours, I declined with a smile because I wasn’t tired enough to sleep in a place like this.

“I am fine. Besides, I don’t think it will take as long as Luzel said.”

“Then let’s talk.”

Suddenly talk? I became nervous. I wondered if I should just pretend to sleep peacefully.

With an awkward smile on my face at the unexpected suggestion, I slowly rolled my eyes and Ha Tae-heon sat down on the sofa opposite me, his black eyes shone sharply.

“Don’t look for a place to run away.”

“Haha…”

Damn it. He was quick to catch on. I rubbed the corners of my hardened lips.

“It’s not run away. I’m just looking around. But suddenly, what kind of talking…”

“What will you do after you arrive in China? Are you going straight to the Prophet?”

Aa. What else to talk about. Ha Tae-heon was the person who would guide me to the place where the Prophet was, of course, he would be curious about it. I relaxed a bit and answered.

“I think it will depend on the situation. I don’t know how far is.”

“What if it’s close?”

“Then I have to go right away. It’s not even a situation where we can relax, is it?”

I didn’t know what he meant to ask an obvious question. I calmly observed Ha Tae-heon’s condition. I felt it from the last time, but every time he talked about the Prophet after his visit to China, he seemed a bit uneasy.

‘In that case…’

A few days ago, I remembered a phone call with Ha Tae-heon, who had just returned from China. The voice that seemed like he wasn’t uneasy. I asked with a frown on my forehead.

“Ha Tae-heon-ssi. Did something happen in China?”

“……”

“If the Prophet said something strange…”

This time, Ha Tae-heon avoided my gaze.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Every time you talk about the Prophet, you look upset.”

“It’s just your imagination.”

Who would believe that.

“When we talked on the phone, too.”

When I stared at him with suspicion, Ha Tae-heon gave a shallow excuse and went out of the lounge.

“Ho.”

My mouth was wide open as I was taken aback by the sight of him leaving. Who was the one who talked about it first…

Taking a long breath in despair, I leaned my back on the sofa and tilted my face. Was it a mistake to accept Ha Tae-heon’s offer and come together? Anxiety spread through my mind.

Feeling my head full of complexity, I stared blankly at the ceiling with a pure white fluorescent lamp and felt some presences next to me.

“Ah…”

Knowing that Ha Tae-heon had come again, I turned my head and my eyes met with khaki-coloured eyes wide open in embarrassment. Seeing Luke standing still and couldn’t even come in, I quickly got up and smiled awkwardly.

“I’m sorry. Should I go out?”

“Oh, it’s not that. I was just surprised…”

Luke, who bowed at me, moved back to the corner of the lounge. Now that I looked at it, there was a test tube with a lot of test tubes were placed there.

“Is this also a material extracted from a monster?”

When I asked Luke, who was organizing the test tube with clumsy movements, he shrugged his shoulders and answered without making eye contact.

“Yes. Um, it’s a B-grade Poison Lizard. Under its chin…”

Luke, who put the test tube he was holding back into the tube, stirred it like a water droplet in the air with his hand.

“There’s a round lump. It contains poison, which is connected to the salivary glands, so if you get it wrong, you get paralysis and hallucinations.”

“Oh.”

“Still, it’s not a poison that’s dangerous enough to make you die. Just a little bit of paralysis and hallucinations… It’s pretty safe for a B-grade monster.”

Luke continued his explanation in a semi-high tone, moving his gaze naturally to my face. It was the first time we properly made eye contact.

“This blue liquid is the only paralyzing substance extracted from a poison mixed with various substances. It can be manufactured into items that can relieve the pain in the body.”

“I see.”

There was confidence in his powerful voice. The vividly sparkling khaki eyes were very impressive.

“Monster poison, which doesn’t harm the body much, is a material that is difficult to obtain because there are only a few poison lizards, but I heard from Luzel, Roheon Guild put special effort…”

“……?”

The words that had been spoken without hesitation suddenly became blurred. In the middle of the conversation, as if his mind had returned, Luke hurriedly turned his face away from me and picked up two test tubes.

“Luke-ssi?”

“So, sorry… then I’m going…”

Luke staggered and bowed a couple of times then left the lounge in a hurry, just like when he came in. I tilted my head, recalling Luke’s red and burning ears that I had seen.

“He’s interesting.”

It was the first time I had seen someone that shy. He was worse than Kim Woo-jin. Well, even though Kim Woo-jin was shy, he didn’t have that kind of atmosphere. I had met several producers, but I thought he was probably the most unique.

But it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was fresh and even fun. If I had had enough time, I would have made an effort to become friends, but it was a bit disappointing.

* * *

“Nice.”

When I walked out to the centre of the lab with Ha Tae-heon at Luzel’s call, she played a video on the screen.

“This is the completed gate coordinate reset item. The name is, let’s call it Luzel No.1.”

The round machine that Luzel was holding in her hand was also reflected in the video.

“There are three buttons at the top. The red is the ON button and the blue is the OFF button.”

Following the explanation, she pulled out two long vials of drugs from the small leather bag she was wearing around her waist.

“In addition, this too. It’s a diluted paralytic drug. You will need it when you exit the gate.”

The colour of the drug was a pale sky blue that was almost transparent. As Ha Tae-heon received the items and bottle, I looked at Luke, who was standing in the corner for a moment.

“Now I will tell you the principle and how to use it.”

Click. Luzel pressed the bottom of the screen and turned it around once. Then, the backside with a whiteboard attached to it appeared.

“Here is… usually, gates have an entrance and an exit, right?”

With a black chalkboard pen, Luzel drew two ellipses on top and two on the bottom, writing next to the first one.

“This is the entrance, the second is the exit. The entrance and exit are both separate inside the gate, but not outside.”

I looked at the picture and nodded my head.

Inside the gate, the entrance and exit were in different places, but outside the gate, the entrance and exit were the same.

“That’s because the coordinates set for the gate entrance and exit are the same. This item will change the coordinates.”

“The coordinates set?”

“Yes. I put the coordinates you mentioned when ordering. If you activate the item in front of the exit inside the gate, you can exit to the gate in a different location.”

Luzel shrugged her shoulders lightly, leaning against the board with her arms crossed.

“Of course, because it is forcibly changing the coordinates, there will be some burden on the body when going out. That’s why we need paralytic drugs.”

“Is it that serious?”

“Um… well. It may be different for each person, but if you take the medicine, you will be able to endure it to some extent.”

Even with that answer, Ha Tae-heon’s firm forehead didn’t stretch out. Feeling strange, Luzel blinked her round eyes and tilted her head.

“Deputy Master is SS-rank, so you won’t have any problems enough to cross without taking paralytic drugs, right?”

“The problem is not me.”

“Then…”

“Han Yi-gyeol is the problem.”

“Yes?”

Standing quietly next to Ha Tae-heon, I was surprised at the sudden remark and hurriedly looked at him.

“His body is very weak, so we have to be especially careful.”

“Wait a minute.”

“Your body… is weak? Isn’t Talented Han Yi-gyeol an A-rank?”

At Luzel’s voice, I felt embarrassed, my face became uncontrollably hot. My body was indeed weak. I was embarrassed by the evaluation I had never heard of in my life.

“It’s different from normal A-rank. Sometimes he falls down and passes out…”

“Stop, please stop. Ha Tae-heon-ssi!”

I hung on Ha Tae-heon’s arm, who didn’t care about the reactions around him, and cut off his words. However, Luzel, who had already heard enough, looked at Ha Tae-heon’s arms with eyes that she would never see it happen again. (그러나 이미 들을 만큼 들은 루젤은 세상 다시없을 팔불출을 보는 눈빛으로 하태헌을 바라봤다)

“Yes, Han Yi-gyeol-ssi… it will be fine. It’s not that dangerous in the first place. If you’re worried, should I get you another medication?”

“Yeah.”

“No! It’s fine.”

I covered Ha Tae-heon’s mouth, who answered quickly, and shook my head vigorously. With an uneasy expression on her face, Luzel beckoned to Luke.

“Then would you like to take Luke too? Just until the inside of the gate. I want to go, but I have some items left to be made by tomorrow.”

“It’s really fine…”

“Luke! Are you okay? There’s nothing to do anyway.”

Luke, who had only looked around, shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head.

“……”

No matter how you look at it, it looked like he didn’t want to go together. Could I really do this?

Noticing my concern, Luzel said lightly while erasing the picture on the board.

“Don’t worry. If Luke really didn’t like it, he would have turned it down. Anyway, we have to make sure that the item is working properly.”

“If that’s the case…”

Ha Tae-heon was staring at me with a grim face as I put my hand away from his mouth and smiled slightly, expressing my gratitude to Luke.

“Please take care of me. Luke-ssi.”

“…yes.”

Again, he answered without making eye contact with me.

“Have you decided which gate you want to enter, Deputy Master?”

“Yeah. We’re leaving right away.”

“Write it right and bring it to me. Don’t forget to take the potions.”

Luzel put down the goggles she had put on her forehead again and gave a refreshing smile.