Chapter 203: Forty Years of Life in Another World (3) "Should I return to my homeland?"
Rainfolt asked again and again, but Lee Jinseo didn't answer. Instead, he watched Rainfolt's complexion and carefully approached.
"I don't really know. But you looked unstable, Rainfolt-nim, so I couldn't sleep at ease."
"When I accepted this bunsik from you? Hah—so I must have made that kind of face without realizing it."
"That's why I brought this. Would it be alright?"
Lee Jinseo pulled a soju bottle and soju shot glasses out of the plastic bag he brought, then set them down on the newspaper Rainfolt had spread on the ground.
"Right. In times like this, there's no alcohol that fits better than soju."
"I'll pour you a glass."
Lee Jinseo poured the soju respectfully with both hands, and Rainfolt, staring at the faintly glowing moon, downed it in one gulp.
"Kkhuu...."
With an expression he couldn't quite put into words at the distinctive taste of diluted soju, Rainfolt put the tteokbokki Lee Jinseo brought into his mouth as a drinking snack.
"And you?"
"I'm fine."
"Alright. Then I'll drink your share too. Honestly, this isn't a drink you drink because it's tasty, so it's hard to recommend it to someone else."
Frowning at the bitter taste of soju, Rainfolt drank three shots in a row, and as the alcohol began to hit, his face flushed slightly.
Even so, his mind grew clearer than before, and vivid memories of the days with his companions surfaced in his thoughts.
"That—was made together with the companions buried here."
Rainfolt pointed at the food truck parked beside the container.
"Among the companions who came with me, there were some who were married couples even before the regression. After regressing, they continued living together as husband and wife, but sadly, no child was born. In that situation, the food truck we all poured our strength into was no different from a child to all of us."
Listening to Rainfolt's calm confession, Lee Jinseo could imagine what kind of heart he had lived with in this unfamiliar place while making the food truck.
But separate from that, there was something Lee Jinseo couldn't understand.
"Rainfolt-nim, I might be overstepping, but..."
"You don't understand why I'm acting so pathetic like this, is that it?"
Rainfolt snorted softly and chewed pork liver dipped in salt.
"I can roughly guess what you want to say, but it's better to hear it directly than to just guess. Go ahead."
"If I were you, I would have used the food truck to return to the past once more and accomplish what I wanted. The food truck really has a function like that, doesn't it?"
"I tried to do that. But I learned it was impossible, and I gave up."
"What?"
In Rainfolt's voice as he said it wasn't a failure but an impossibility, regret clung heavily.
"I actually did what you said, and the result was..."
"You attempted regression one more time?"
Rainfolt didn't answer. Only after sinking into thought for a long while did he nod.
"Nothing happened. So I inspected the regression spell formula again from the start, meticulously, and in that process I discovered truths I never wanted to find. Two of them."
His eyes reddened as he downed his fifth shot of soju.
"The truth that someone who has experienced regression even once cannot use regression magic repeatedly."
"Ah..."
"I suspect it's a safety measure to prevent the caster from regressing over and over until the future they want appears. If someone with malicious intent could repeat regression magic, the worst possible future could be forced into existence. In any case, once I learned that truth hidden inside regression magic, I fell into despair, realizing everything I had done until then was meaningless."
"Then couldn't you cross over to the Francia Continent and have someone else regress instead?"
"As someone who has experienced regression once, I'll say this—placing that burden on someone else is far too heavy. And because of the other truth I haven't told you yet, that's not possible anyway."
"What is it?"
"That is… the regression magic I discovered and mastered can only turn back the time of this world—the world where Korea exists. So when I attempted that magic on the Francia Continent, I was forcibly brought to Korea."
"What?"
Lee Jinseo had been turning it over in his head, trying to reason out why Rainfolt looked so despairing despite having regression as a means.
He had suspected Rainfolt might be discouraged because he couldn't regress repeatedly.
But the second truth was something Lee Jinseo had never even considered, so he couldn't hide his shock.
"This is only my guess, but long, long ago, magic may have existed in this world as well—the world where you were born. Going further, it's possible the Francia Continent and this world once existed in the same space. I have never once seen other races such as elves here, but don't stories about other races get passed down through various media? I believe they were passed down that way because the worlds once belonged to the same one."
"Thinking of it that way… I feel your words could be correct, Rainfolt-nim. Magic and other races—things I thought were only products of imagination—do exist clearly in another world."
"Perhaps the regression magic I learned was magic that applied to both this world and the Francia Continent. And now that the two have split into different worlds, the fact that it can only be used in Korea… isn't completely absurd. Once I reached that conclusion, I realized reviving my nephew and his wife was impossible."
After finishing an entire bottle of soju by himself while speaking, Rainfolt collapsed down in front of his companions' gravestones.
"Falling into despair, I thought… wouldn't it be better for someone who truly wished to return to the past, rather than me, to use the food truck?"
"What if the food truck ended up in the hands of an evil person, like you mentioned earlier?"
"Honestly, back then I sold the food truck in a state of self-abandonment, so I didn't think about what came after. You can call me irresponsible. It doesn't matter. I truly was. Selling the food truck I regarded like a child to someone else makes me a terrible parent."
So that he wouldn't cling to it, he listed the food truck for a price cheaper than the market rate, and it didn't take long before Lee Jinseo bought it.
"After I sent the food truck away, I lived in Korea only waiting for the day I would die. Then a young man came to the junk shop. The young man you called Jungkook—was that him?"
"Yes."
"I could tell he came to ask for help, but I believed the food truck had completely left my hands already, so I hid myself until he gave up and went back."
Lee Jinseo gave a bitter smile as he recalled Jungkook's face, so apologetic that he couldn't find the seller.
"But when you came here with my granddaughter, my thoughts changed. I thought I had let go of everything, but my granddaughter… I couldn't pretend not to know."
"Of course. You hadn't seen Your Eminence in over ten years."
"Thanks to you, I was able to meet my granddaughter at last, even if it was late. I am truly grateful. And now there is finally someone who can listen to the stories I kept buried in my heart. That is the end of my story."
After finishing, Rainfolt looked toward the gravestones of the companions who had gone ahead.
Lee Jinseo stood silently beside him.
"Aren't you going to sleep?"
"After hearing your story, I don't think I can sleep."
"It must be burdensome, since it was so heavy. But I wanted to tell someone. And as the owner of the food truck, it was something you needed to know someday as well."
Perhaps because he felt he had forced part of the burden he carried onto Lee Jinseo, Rainfolt looked up at him with an apologetic gaze.
But Lee Jinseo stayed at his side, smiling as if it were fine, not leaving his place.
"Now there is something I want to ask you. May I?"
"Go ahead."
"What, exactly, is your relationship with my granddaughter?"
"That's..."
Hit with a question he never expected, Lee Jinseo trailed off and scratched the back of his head.
"After talking with my granddaughter, she seems to have lived quite uprightly. Her reputation in her homeland is good, and it seems she has quite a bit of fondness for you as well. I'll say it now, but I truly think it was fortunate that you ended up as the food truck's owner."
Feeling awkward at Rainfolt's words, Lee Jinseo turned his gaze elsewhere.
"My granddaughter said she will become the next Pope of the Heirem Order, didn't she?"
"Yes, most likely."
"She isn't trying to become Pope because she craves high status. I believe she chose that because she thinks only from the highest seat in the Order can she fulfill her intention to care for everyone. That is the kind of child she is."
"I think so too."
The Fedora Lee Jinseo had seen was someone faithful to her duties, regardless of status or rank.
And at the same time, Fedora was a regular who could rejoice simply while eating spicy tteokbokki—a woman Lee Jinseo wanted a relationship with beyond just customer and seller.
"But if she becomes Pope, she won't be able to build a family."
"Yes..."
"And you, like I used to be, want to meet your dead family again. Am I wrong?"
"You're not."
"Then if you raise the food truck's grade to the maximum, you will choose regression as your wish."
"Yes."
If the food truck's grade is raised to the maximum of 100, one of the wishes you can choose is regression.
From the very beginning, Lee Jinseo had decided to choose regression, and even now, that decision hadn't changed.
But it was also true that as his time with Fedora grew longer, he had repeated the same internal conflict again and again.
"I will tell you in advance—if you choose regression, you will not be able to meet my granddaughter again. The existing spatial transfer spell formula that allows travel between the Francia Continent and Korea does not work in the timeline changed by regression. Even the spatial transfer spell formula installed in the food truck is the result of over twenty archmages researching it over and over, and recreating it again would be far too difficult."
"I… see."
Once the possibility that he could meet her again even after regressing disappeared, Lee Jinseo's face turned serious.
"If you cannot meet her again, my granddaughter will be very sad. But I will respect your choice. I know well how painful it is to lose family, and how, if there is a way, you would want to meet them again no matter what."
Rainfolt, who had attempted regression magic just to revive his nephew and his wife.
Lee Jinseo, who wandered the other world, chasing the single wish of regressing to a time when his parents were alive.
They had only met a week ago, but the desire each carried in their hearts was the same.
Lee Jinseo looked at Rainfolt sitting blankly in front of his companions' gravestones with pity, then returned to the food truck.
"Child."
After confirming that Lee Jinseo had entered the additional trailer, Rainfolt stared toward the rightmost gravestone and spoke.
"Come out."
"Yes..."
Fedora, who had hidden herself in the darkness with magic and listened quietly to the two of them, answered weakly and approached Rainfolt.
"I am truly a pathetic grandfather."
Unable to bring himself to look at Fedora's face, Rainfolt fixed his gaze forward and let out a long sigh.
"Because of the food truck I made… I have led you into a fate where you must part from the person you carry in your heart. I have no face to show."
"Little Grandfather."
Fedora came up behind Rainfolt and wrapped her arms around him.
"Please don't say that. If it weren't for the food truck, I wouldn't have been able to meet Lee Jinseo-nim either. I also wouldn't have been reunited with you."
"But if you and that young man were fated to separate anyway, wouldn't it have been better not to meet at all—"
"I'm fine."
With her hands resting on Rainfolt's shoulders, Fedora forced a smile and lifted her head.
"I really… am fine."
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