Episode 387 < Garden of Time. (3) >
6.
After leaving the garden of rotten flowers, the Geomje slowly walked around.
Under the falling sunset, in a place where the dead sleep like flowers, the Geomje said this.
– Well made.
Instead of asking if he was going to start talking nonsense like that, I said this instead.
– Thank you.
Instead of saying, “Why is Geomje so obedient?” or “What did this guy eat wrong?” he said this.
– It’s good that even the dirt is dead.
-……
– On the day I realized strength, I placed a grain of soil on my palm and observed it. When I looked into it with my eyes and ears, I saw that although the soil seemed quiet, it was very noisy. How many things were competing diligently on and inside that tiny grain?
The Geomje bent down and stroked the rotten dirt floor with his fingertips.
Of course, the fingertips only passed over the soil, but the wind that blew at the right time disturbed the soil grains, creating a landscape that looked as if the ground had been caressed by the Geomje’s hand.
– There were more things I saw and heard that day than what I had seen and heard until then.
-……
– But the soil here is so quiet. And that silence is probably what the flowers here need.
Geomje straightened his back and looked back at me.
– Even before I felt such true tranquility just a moment ago, Confucius, I am so amazed that you have already created a place like this.
I didn’t do a long distance fight this time either.
I just nodded my head once in silence.
– Thank you.
– okay.
We walked in silence again for a while.
The area we are currently walking through was commonly called the [Summer Area]. In a place where the lukewarm air flowed like the breath of someone covered in a blanket, Esther, holding her hands together, was preparing to call for rain.
– This is also good.
– yes.
I nodded.
Geomje said as he passed by Esther, who started crying.
– Confucius.
– yes.
– Did you ever say that if you don’t get to the 99th floor, old man Marcus will one day do it for you?
Of course I remembered those words.
– Do you even remember what I added back then?
Of course I remembered.
– Instead, I said it was funny to say that. You are not my replacement.
Geomje nodded.
– Nevertheless, I added that I believed that you knew what I meant.
It was like that.
– so.
Geomje asked.
– What do you think I meant by that?
– It’s a topic I’ve thought about several times already.
Therefore, the answer flowed easily.
– An encouragement to cheer up simply because you believe in me that much? Or is it a consideration that you can rest if you are tired because the old man of Geomseong will treat you better than you?
– It was probably neither.
I walked side by side with Geomje and looked at him.
Before I knew it, my walking had become as natural as the words flowing from my mouth.
– Because I remember what you added next.
[ To put it bluntly, you can fail. ]
[ … … . ]
[Faith is the idea that each other will do their best. And the best thing is not for the other person to decide, but for you to decide for yourself. So, a relationship of mutual trust means that each person decides what is best for them and each person accepts that decision. That’s it. That’s all ]
– The important thing here is not to say that it is okay to fail.
– Right after you said you believed in me, you explained to me what [faith] meant.
therefore.
I was able to answer like this:
– [It doesn’t matter either way.] … That must have been what it meant.
– Whether I overcome this ordeal. Either you fail and become an eternal prisoner in the desert. The old man of Geomseong ascends to the 99th floor carrying his heart on his back. Or maybe he too meets an unexpected accident and becomes a guest of immortality. You would say that because it really doesn’t matter either way.
Geomje did not stop walking. Just like in the world of Jincheon, his steps became faster and faster.
But unlike those times when I had to grit my teeth and run to catch up with him, I was able to continue my conversation while keeping up with him.
– And it’s not because you don’t trust me. It’s not because I don’t trust the old man of Geomseong.
So I continued talking.
– You believe me.
And just as much, you trust an old man who left everything he achieved and came to the tower.
– You believe in the old man, Geomseong.
And just as much, I believe in an unemployed man who ran away to the tower at a young age and lives alone in an alley on the first floor of the tower.
– You believe in the gray spider.
I will trust the Resistance that was trampled by the Magic Tower to that extent again.
– You trust your assistant writer.
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Again, just as surprisingly, even a child like Charumu would believe in a small villain who harassed the Magic Tower’s resistance forces and complained to the Magic Tower to satisfy his own thirst for power.
– You say you are great. Sometimes he’s so condescending that I want to hit him. But your smug attitude is different from that of Emperor Yan.
That did not simply mean that the Geomje was actually good and the Yeomje was not.
The Flame Emperor before his return was clearly a proud human being. Whether it was the Sword Emperor or the Flame Emperor, and even me, they were no different in that they could do what they said they could do and did what they said they would do.
But there was a crucial difference.
– The Flame Emperor thought that only he was special.
– Only I can do this. I alone am special. Only you can do it, so even if others die and wake up, they can’t do it like me… That was the driving force that made the Flame Emperor the Salt Emperor.
I looked at the Geomje.
– But you, the Geomje nobleman. Either way, I believe that I am also special.
In other words.
– You can do it yourself. He could be special. There is no reason why others cannot do what you were able to do.
Therefore.
– You believe, so to speak, in [everyone who exists in this world].
So that’s what you said then.
– If it’s not me, it’s the old man of Geomseong. You believe that if even the Elder Sword Saint fails, Anastasana, the Gray Spider, or if they can’t, someone that no one knows among the people everyone knows now, will somehow get to the 99th floor someday.
– Everyone has potential.
It’s been a while since I and Geomje passed by Esther. In the meantime, we walked around this garden at a fast pace.
Above the fields. On top of the mountain.
Over the sea.
– Become the person you want to be, don’t be the person you shouldn’t be, people never change… These are words that can only be said when you live a short life and cannot see far ahead.
So far away. We were ahead of the land where red rain fell.
– If [that person could do it, but you can’t] doesn’t make sense, then of course the opposite, [I was able to do it, but other people can’t] doesn’t make sense, right?
Yes. Before we knew it, the two of us had traveled around the world.
– That’s a fair attitude.
Raindrops came out and passed through the sword, hitting the floor.
– Actually, you weren’t like that.
I looked at that redness, the requiem for nameless deaths.
Now that I was able to [see] in the true sense, in the scenery that came in so clearly, the rain felt like it was slowly rising from the bottom up rather than pouring down from the top.
– Confucius Sometimes you think back to the time you spent in that closet. And then you say it.
[How did I get here? ]
-Other people would have clicked their tongues and said the same thing if they had seen you back in the days when you were cutting and pasting newspaper clippings for a guy called Yoo Soo-ha.
[Why are there all these idiots? ]
[You can’t do anything with a guy like that. ]
[It shouldn’t happen like that. ]
– but.
The feeling of being in water rather than walking in the rain.
The Geomje spoke as the positions of air and water were reversed, and red bubbles bubbled, bubbled, and exploded endlessly around the two of us.
– And now you are here.
My heart pounded.
My heart cried.
– People change. Even a small opportunity can make a difference. Isn’t that exactly what you have proven every time you go back a day?
Just like when I was a child and first heard a compliment from the director.
– Was that all? The gray spider, which had lived unchanged for a thousand years, also changed.
-……
– Thanks to you? Of course it is. But was it only possible for you?
Of course, it was not something that could be heard purely as a compliment.
It could have been interpreted maliciously. Like a common old joke, it could be seen as an accusation asking why you can’t be like me, and paradoxically, it could be seen as a declaration that only you are special.
But I knew that Geomje didn’t mean to say those words.
– Perhaps that’s why this was the first skill I received upon entering the tower.
When there is no malice, when there is no intention and the words function purely as words, the Geomje’s words have exactly the literal meaning.
– Open skill card.
Geomje raised his hand. A skill card flowed out from inside the frayed hem of the coat.
This was written on the skill card:
+
[You can be like me]
Rank: F
Effect: You can see all the skills your opponent has.
※However, an enemy defeated by you can copy one of your skills and make it their own. Opponents who have already lost to you once are excluded from this skill effect. Additionally, which skills are copied is randomized.
+
I raised one hand as if possessed.
– Open skill card.
I took out the first skill I had and looked into it.
+
[I want to be like you]
Rank: S+
Effect: Activates automatically when killed by an enemy. Copy one of the skills of the enemy that killed you and make it yours. You cannot copy a partner that has already been copied once. Which skills to copy is randomly determined.
※But, you die!
+
Two cards meet.
F-level skills and S+-level skills. The two skills reflected each other like mirrors.
In a world of similarities between two skills, there was me and Geomje… We were facing each other.
I said.
– Geomje.
– huh.
– What is your sanctuary?
I stood in my sanctuary and spoke.
– Even the Constellation Killer had a sanctuary. And the fact that you are now on the 99th floor means that you have also created a sanctuary. I am… .
I am.
– I wonder what your sanctuary is like.
– hmm.
Geomje raised one hand.
The hem of the coat was shaken and shaking. and.
– ah.
The world unfolded before my eyes.
■.
In the dimly lit forest, the morning glory stretched out its neck longer.
Half the size, half the head bowed, half again, the morning glory’s crown shrinks, and as it shrinks, dawn becomes morning, morning to daylight, noon to evening, in the sunset when the sun is dying.
the sun is tired
On a dark night in the wilderness where rain is rare, the sunflowers spread their flower droplets more widely.
ah
In that season of low sunlight and rare rain, the flowers of people and the people of flowers who died without being able to bloom, the ten million flowers that were meant to be held, the ten million flowers that could have been held, and the ten million flowers that were meant to be held.
Morning glory, Enoki flower, Frost flower, Peony flower, Rose flower, Buldew flower
the world
A man in lotus position was there.
‘…….’
It was a man dressed in frayed robes.
There was a man sitting there, cross-legged, with a sword as big as his height placed on the floor next to him, in a flower field with hundreds of millions of flowers in full bloom. I knew that man well–very well. saw. I have seen it.
Countless times, however,
This is the first time I have seen that man who is not semi-transparent.
Geomje.
The reason I couldn’t say that is probably because I’m not here right now.
Nonetheless, I looked. I could see it.
I only knew that it was because he was showing it.
The man—the Geomje, without opening his eyes, just quietly opened his lips with his eyes closed.
And, he ‘said’.
“come. Gongja Kim.”
That was the first time I heard his voice.
“From here.”
On the 99th floor.
“I will be waiting for you.”
He was waiting for me.
etc,
