Chapter 247
What a strange world.
The bright light of the Cube enveloped her, and after a fleeting moment, Adela opened her eyes again.
Seeing the scene before her, she couldn’t help but think that.
“What… is all this?”
Whoosh— whoosh—
Vehicles whizzed past, kicking up wind in a frantic rush.
She felt like her soul might be sucked away by the dizzying movement.
Adela mumbled in shock, her face pale.
“Magic trains…?”
But they were far too small to be called magic trains.
She stared blankly, almost falling forward.
Adela staggered and regained her balance.
She was in the middle of a road, but she had no way of knowing that.
The scenery was entirely foreign to her.
A chaotic world.
A place guided by the Cube.
There was only one thing Adela could guess about this place.
“Is this… Han Siha’s subconscious?”
She never expected his subconscious to be such a complex place.
Adela stood there, dazed, but soon regained her composure and started moving.
She didn’t know where she had landed, and wasting more time was not an option.
She couldn’t expect a friendly guide from the Cube, so it was best to head toward the most plausible location.
Adela slowly lifted her gaze.
In front of her was a massive building.
It wasn’t grand or ornate like Ardel Academy, just a plain brick structure.
Adela read the name on the sign aloud, rolling it around in her mouth.
Kangul University Animal Hospital….
“Where is this?”
Adela frowned as she stepped forward.
* * *
Inside, it was relatively quiet.
The interior was clinically clean, and the empty space felt cold and sterile.
It was an open space where even the faintest footstep echoed, but no one seemed to pay any special attention to Adela.
Passing by the reception desk, she headed down a hallway.
She could hear voices at the end of the corridor.
Her senses, far keener than those of ordinary people, allowed her to hear the distant conversation clearly. It wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Though she couldn’t understand everything, it was obvious someone was being talked about behind their back, and emotions were running high.
A voice tinged with irritation spoke first.
“So why is that senior still hanging on? Doesn’t he realize we don’t even consider him human?”
“He’s just pushing back openly. Probably doesn’t care anymore.”
“He doesn’t even look at us.”
“He’s always been a jerk. Is it a day or two that he ignores us when we talk?”
They seemed to be staff members, but Adela found it awkward to interrupt their heated discussion.
She scratched her head and mumbled quietly.
“Who are they bad mouthing…?”
Someone had clearly ticked them off, but they didn’t look too admirable themselves.
If she were that angry, she’d just hit them with a staff.
People who complain behind others’ backs are always the same.
Adela clicked her tongue and kept eavesdropping.
The man leading the conversation, a guy with horn-rimmed glasses, was ranting with a flushed face.
“That guy… He never planned to graduate smoothly in the first place. I even pulled him aside to talk it out last time, tried to play nice, but he wouldn’t even say a word. What kind of person does that?”
“What happened this time?”
A woman in a navy blue coat joined the conversation, stepping out of a nearby room.
“It’s exhausting enough working here, and I’m not supposed to be mad? That guy thinks he’s so great. He’s always trying to outdo his seniors.”
“Oh, you mean Senior Han Siha?”
Suddenly, Adela’s ears perked up.
She whipped her head around to look at them.
“…!”
The person they were cursing so viciously was Han Siha?
Adela frowned in disbelief.
The man with horn-rimmed glasses was still fuming, and though it was annoying that these people were talking trash about Han Siha…
“At least I found him.”
Since they had helped her locate Han Siha, she decided to let them off this time.
Instead of hitting them with her staff, Adela decided to try a peaceful approach.
If they were this worked up about Han Siha, they must at least know where he was.
“That arrogant brat. If I see him one more time…”
Adela approached the most agitated man, the one with the horn-rimmed glasses.
“Excuse me.”
“…Oh, God!”
He jumped, clearly not having sensed her presence.
The people who had been cursing Han Siha turned to look at her with startled expressions.
She hadn’t meant to surprise them, but she was so used to suppressing her presence that it happened naturally.
The woman in the navy blue coat, who had been momentarily frozen, finally spoke.
“You look like a foreigner… but you speak Korean well.”
“…?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Go ahead.”
Adela tilted her head, not understanding the woman’s comment, but she asked again.
Finding Han Siha was what mattered.
“Do you know someone named Han Siha?”
At her question, the expressions of all four people subtly stiffened.
“Uh…”
“That guy…”
However, they weren’t the type to badmouth someone right in front of a stranger.
The woman in the blue coat hesitated briefly before pointing down the hallway.
“He’s probably upstairs.”
Adela had no intention of thanking them.
“Ah, okay.”
She ignored their uneasy gazes and headed up the stairs.
* * *
The woman’s directions were correct.
In a wide hallway, a man was sitting at a table tucked in the corner.
A break room, where people could rest for a moment, and he was sitting there reading a book.
“…”
Adela froze on the spot.
Even from a distance, she could recognize him instantly.
He didn’t look exactly like the Han Siha she knew—he seemed a little older, more mature, perhaps.
It was a similar atmosphere to the face she had seen when he was polymorphed.
But beyond all that,
This was Han Siha.
Her instincts told her so.
Adela bit her lower lip instead of calling out to him.
She was just far enough away that he could turn if she called his name.
From this perfectly distant spot,
Han Siha was leaning on his hand, flipping through the pages of a thick book.
With his head completely buried in the book, it didn’t seem like he would notice her even if she approached.
Adela closed her eyes tightly and swallowed nervously.
Her heart pounded loudly.
What should she say first?
Would he recognize me?
Why are you here, sitting alone in this unfamiliar place?
Countless questions swirled in her mouth but refused to come out.
“You look tired….”
Adela slowly examined his unusually weary face.
He looked different from the Han Siha she remembered, with black hair and deep, dark eyes.
Sitting here alone, engrossed in a book, he seemed almost lonely.
Adela stared at Han Siha intently before making up her mind.
She hadn’t come all this way just to stand there like an idiot.
Finally, she took a step.
Then another.
Adela walked toward Han Siha.
She was close enough now that she could call out to him, her voice trembling slightly more than before.
“Excuse me.”
“Ah.”
Han Siha looked up at the sound of Adela’s voice.
Adela was certain from the look in his eyes.
He didn’t recognize her.
“What brings you here?”
A voice slightly different from what she knew, softer and kinder.
Han Siha casually pushed the book aside and smiled.
“The counter is on the first floor. Should I call another doctor for you?”
Adela flinched and shook her head.
She hesitated, unsure of what to say, before blurting out a completely random question.
“What book are you reading?”
“Pardon?”
She caught a glimpse of the book’s cover just beyond his hand.
‘A Smart Guide to Academy Life…?’
Not a magic tome, nor any special artifact.
Was he the type to enjoy self-help books?
Han Siha, looking slightly embarrassed, trailed off.
“Oh… this…”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s a dystopian thriller fantasy where everyone dies horribly. It’s not finished yet, but almost everyone’s dead already.”
Not a self-help book but a novel?
Although he looked a bit different, his way of speaking confirmed that this was indeed the person she knew.
“The author’s clearly insane—oh, sorry.”
Han Siha muttered to himself, his voice too low for Adela to hear, then looked up and apologized awkwardly.
It had just hit him that talking about a novel with a random kid wasn’t exactly appropriate.
He shifted topics as he glanced up at Adela.
“By the way…”
They were close enough to see their reflections in each other’s eyes.
Han Siha pointed at her as he asked.
“Why didn’t you bring a dog or something if you came to see me?”
“Doesn’t seem like you have any business here; are you lost?”
Adela hesitated, unsure how to respond to his calm question.
His concerned voice continued.
“If you don’t have a phone, I can lend you mine. I can call your parents.”
“….”
“You were answering just fine earlier. Why are you pretending you didn’t hear? Your Korean is good. Was the question too hard?”
Adela opened her mouth at his words.
She was here for one reason alone.
She had spent a long time thinking of what to say, but there was only one answer.
Her trembling voice slipped out.
“Because I wanted to see you.”
“…?”
“You asked why I came… it’s because I wanted to see you.”
“You… wanted to see me?”
“Yes.”
Han Siha blinked a few times, tilting his head in confusion.
Then, he grabbed the book on the table again.
“I’m sorry, but I have a lot of girls already.”
“…!”
* * *
From Han Siha’s perspective, it might have been a polite rejection, but unfortunately, the listener’s perspective was different.
Especially if the listener was someone like Adela, with a fiery temper.
Chaos was inevitable.
‘You bastard, you had girls even here?’
Heat flared up in an instant, and Adela snatched the book from Han Siha’s hands.
It was a sudden, impulsive move.
Han Siha jumped up in surprise.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Shut up!”
“…Huh?”
At that moment—
Crash!
The book, “A Smart Guide to Academy Life” or whatever it was, was flung to the end of the hallway, and Adela yelled in frustration.
“Oh… oh no!”
It was his subconscious, after all. It would have been better if she had kept things under control….
But the damage was already done.
Adela looked at what was in her hand and widened her eyes.
She had instinctively summoned her staff.
“What the hell… are you crazy?”
Han Siha recoiled in shock, taking a step back.
The Earth Staff.
There was no going back quietly now.
“Do I have to hear such infuriating nonsense the moment I arrive? What? You have a lot of girls? A lot, huh, you bastard!”
“Whoa…! What are you holding? Should I call the police?”
“If you knew what I gave up to come here… you’d….”
“Oh… oh no!”
I didn’t see the future—I came from it.
Adela clenched her teeth and threw a blunt remark.
“You won’t get married anyway.”
“What?”
Han Siha stared at her in disbelief, his mouth hanging open.
There was something oddly convincing about her saying that while waving a staff around!
“What a curse.”
“It’s true.”
“You’ve been speaking pretty informally, haven’t you?”
“It’s my choice!”
A scene unfolded in the hospital hallway: a kid swinging something resembling a staff in anger, and a grown man arguing back.
In the eyes of a third party, it looked like nothing more than a ridiculous mess.
To put it simply, it was chaos.
At some point, seniors who heard the commotion gathered, and the hallway was soon filled with curious onlookers.
It was a sight that was hard to believe even with one’s own eyes.
A perfect setup for gossip.
Murmurs spread—
“…Now he’s fighting with the guardian too?”
“Didn’t he just threaten to call the police?”
“Wow… is he finally trying to get himself fired?”
Han Siha’s face twisted in frustration.
“Goddammit.”
There were plenty of weirdos in hospitals, but he never thought he’d get tangled up with someone carrying a bizarre staff like they’d jumped straight out of another world.
Han Siha ruffled his hair irritably.
One thing was clear: he needed to get this crazy kid out of here.
No more of this.
Han Siha urgently grabbed Adela’s wrist.
“Hey, come with me!”