Nari walked through the dark cave for a long time after leaving the guild leader’s room.

She tripped over tree roots a few times, brushed herself off and got up, and marveled at how she had no injuries despite all that.

Swish, the sound of the water stream gradually became louder as she approached. What she encountered along with the cool breeze was…

“Oh my gosh!!”

Nari was standing on a steep cliff.

Below the cliff flowed a swift river current, and right in front was a sign warning to be cautious of the water stream.

↓ The tears Nari has shed so far

(The current is very strong, be careful!)

And beyond that river was a large cave.

“You want me to go there? Damn it!”

But how? Questions dominated Nari’s mind.

Pondering if there was any way, but unable to come up with a suitable answer, Nari got angry at her innocent subconscious.

“Hey! You expect me to swim through that water stream and climb the cliff?! If I was going to do that, I should have become a holy knight, not a spirit mage! Hurry up and give me another option!”

Then immediately, another mark appeared above the sign.

→ The easy way

(But do you really have to go there?)

Nari looked to the right. At some point, a precarious cloud bridge had been placed there.

Although slightly concerned by her subconscious trying to dissuade her, Nari, who had no confidence in climbing down the cliff, swimming through the rough currents, and climbing back up, turned her body to the right without hesitation.

“Oh come on, don’t be ridiculous. Are you really going to go that way?!”

Snorting, she stepped one foot onto the cloud bridge. The swaying sensation made her instinctively grip the rope attached to the side tightly.

For an easy way, the bridge was unexpectedly much shoddier than she thought.

With each step, creaking sounds could be heard, and there were many places where the bottom had fallen out, making it seem like she would fall immediately if she misstepped even slightly. Nari took a deep breath.

“…I can do this!”

Holding the rope tightly, she carefully took one step at a time. By the time she reached the middle of the bridge, a familiar voice was heard.

“Are you really going that way, sis?”

Soon after, a blurry face appeared in front of Nari. Then a body appeared below the face, and upon seeing that appearance, Nari let out a deep sigh.

“…Yeah, I suspected it since you were a cat.”

Min Jaeyun, wearing cat ear headband, made a cute pose of hitting his own head with a bonk while saying ttakong.

“Hehe, aren’t I cute?”

“Your sense of humor is really something else. Seriously.”

As Nari sighed as if she was exasperated, Min Jaeyun sat on the rope.

With that, the bridge swayed with a creak, and Nari, holding the rope, screamed.

“Hey! What are you doing, I almost fell!”

“So you can’t do that?”

Nari looked at Min Jaeyun with eyes that clearly said it was obvious.

Min Jaeyun laughed with a hehe and smiled at Nari, spinning around.

“But it’s no big deal.”

“What are you talking about, if I jump in there, I’ll drown, drown! I don’t want to die in my subconscious, you know?!”

“Sis is strong, so it’ll be fine!”

Nari, at a loss for words, stared at Min Jaeyun. He laughed with a huhu and clapped his hands with a clap!

“It’s okay, sis. It’s your tears after all. They will never hurt you.”

“…Can’t I just go the easy way? I don’t want to fall into something like my own tears, I want to go the easy way if I can.”

“Hmm~”

Min Jaeyun scratched his cheek as if pondering for a moment. Then, crossing his arms and carefully choosing his words, he spoke again.

“Well, you can do that too. But I still want sis to take another look at yourself.”

“Even if I look, there’s nothing there, and if I dig deeper, it will only become more miserable and sad.”

“Do you know what role I play?”

At the sudden question, Nari raised her eyebrows.

‘Come to think of it, the Kang Sujin from earlier said she played the role of an ‘adult’. Then what about Min Jaeyun?’

As if sensing the question in Nari’s mind, Min Jaeyun clapped his hands again and said,

“I am ‘the days when sis overcame the past’!”

“Overcame the past. What?”

“The big and small results that bloomed from overcoming a painful past with small goodwill and sense of duty, that’s me. I’m ranked 3rd, right? That’s really amazing, isn’t it?”

After saying that, Min Jaeyun grinned mischievously.

“So, I assure you. I’m sure sis can also create great results!”

“No, no, wait a minute. That doesn’t mean jump from here right now…!”

Hee hee, Min Jaeyun laughed.

Nari reflexively gripped the rope tightly. She could instinctively know what he was going to do here.

“It’s okay, it’s hard to jump in….”

Min Jaeyun said that and grabbed the rope. And he leaped up with a hup…

“But once you jump in, the rest is easy!!”

“Aaaaaaahhhh!!”

He landed back on the cloud bridge with a thud! The bridge swayed greatly with a creak, causing Nari, who had let go of the rope, to fall.

Below, the sound of the swift water current could be heard. Nari roared at Min Jaeyun’s spinning, smiling face, the last thing she saw.

“Min Jaeyun!! When I get back, I’m really!! I won’t let you off easy!!”

Min Jaeyun, who was waving his hand, gradually became a mirage and scattered.

At the moment Nari thought his laughter was the last thing left in her eyes as she screamed that she would kill him,

Splash! Nari fell into her own tears.

“Ugh…!”

Nari, who had crawled out of the water completely drenched like a ghost at the bank of the river, coughed for a long time.

“Dammit. Seriously, what tears! It’s just salty!”

After spitting out water for a long time with a cough, Nari flopped down on the riverbank.

At some point, the blue sky was facing Nari again.

“Once you accept it, it’s easy…. If this was reality, I would have died.”

Feeling the wind that was neither cold nor hot, just pleasantly nice, Nari sat up from where she was. Her clothes were drying quickly.

“…I don’t know, I still really don’t understand.”

Nari, who was muttering, grabbed her knees and stood up.

To remove the limit of growth, she had to go here, and once she jumped in, the rest would be fine. It was full of incomprehensible words.

Even though she was a spirit mage class, she had hardly talked to herself, so perhaps this was the natural result, but one thing was clear.

However it turned out, she had to move forward. Because in the deep world, one couldn’t gauge how much time was passing.

Last time too, after having a light conversation with the ruler of chaos, hadn’t half a day already passed?

She didn’t know what the situation was outside, but she needed to escape this strange land as quickly as possible.

Nari, who discovered a forest path behind the river, a trail where the grass was lying down as if people frequently passed through, slowly walked there.

“…Wow.”

Amidst the colorful mushrooms and pretty flowers lining the path, Nari blinked upon discovering a cute brick house with smoke rising from the chimney.

On the surface of the house, there were scribbled drawings that looked like they were drawn by young children with crayons, and all sorts of weeds were blooming in the garden.

Walking through the garden with cautious steps, Nari stood in front of the blue door and showed a slightly hesitant expression.

“I guess it’s okay to go in?”

Nari looked around and fell into a bit of contemplation.

However, since there was really nothing else around except this house, she sighed and grabbed the door handle of the house with a creak to open it.

“Excuse me?”

“…Ah.”

And she came face to face with Jung Suho, who was watering a baby crib with a watering can.

Nari’s expression instantly distorted as if dumbfounded.

“…What are you doing here?”

“I, I am…. The Blue Peacock….”

“Seriously, of all things….”

The Jung Suho in front of her eyes laughed awkwardly.

Nari let out a deep sigh and took a look around the inside of the house. Despite his position as a peacock, the house was just a small two-room.

Except for the area around the baby crib placed where sunlight came in through the window, all sorts of junk were piled up, leaving only enough space for one person to barely pass through.

“Uh, um. Okay. Be good. Just a moment.”

Suddenly, a whimpering sound came from the baby crib, and Jung Suho reached out his hand to pretend to soothe the baby.

When the baby’s cries subsided, he put on the navy blue frock coat hanging on the nearby coat hanger and tied a cravat.

Then he familiarly picked up the baby wrapped in a cloth from the bundle.

“Hey, that, I, I have to go outside. Please move aside for a moment.”

“What? To where?”

Even while saying those words, Nari slowly opened the door of the cottage and headed outside.

Jung Suho, holding the bundle, put on a hat and finally put on his shoes before stepping out the door.

“Umm, I have to go receive a trial….”

“A trial?!”

As she walked slowly towards the back of the cottage, where a side path had appeared, Nari quickly followed behind him.

The suddenly changed surroundings unexpectedly revealed a bamboo forest path and stone pavement.

“Yeah, I didn’t take good care of this child. The, the queen entrusted me with it.”

While soothing the crying baby a few times with a waaah, Jung Suho laughed awkwardly. Nari glanced to the side.

“Are you the Jung Suho that existed in my subconscious?”

“Ah, yeah. I…. I’m not really Jung Suho.”

Jung Suho had said he was ‘different from ordinary people’ and had caused harm to Nari.

Thinking that she might be able to get a hint about Jung Suho’s ‘differences’, Nari carefully brought up the topic.

“Then. Do you know what state Jung Suho is in?”

“Uh…. Well, I’m not sure about that. You, you know Jung Suho after all.”

As expected. Nari, who had that thought, let out a deep sigh. Jung Suho, who was carrying the child, looked ahead of the bamboo forest and said,

“But, but is that important?”

“Of course it’s important. Because Jung Suho ended up like that, well, because of me.”

Jung Suho rested his chin on his hand and pondered something deeply. Seeing Nari looking down from the corner of his eye, he smiled.

“That… may be so, but you, you also don’t like other… people finding out that you’re Rude, right?”

“That’s true, I guess? Kang Ihyeon was the most fortunate case in that regard.”

“So. Hmm. Isn’t, isn’t it better to wait for the real Jung Suho to… voluntarily tell you? The fact that you said those… things to Jung Suho and didn’t know about Jung Suho’s condition, hmm. They’re sep… separate issues.”

“…Is that so.”

Jung Suho nodded. Come to think of it, it really was like that.

The fact that Nari had verbally abused Jung Suho and Jung Suho’s condition were separate issues. Even if Jung Suho wasn’t different from others, it was an issue that deserved an apology.

Just as Nari didn’t want to reveal to others that she was Rude’s main character, it was right to turn a blind eye to Jung Suho as well unless he directly stated it himself, even if the other person had noticed.

“He, he’s trying his best to fix it himself. …There’s no need to try to find out….”

“Okay. I get what you’re saying.”

Nari let out a deep sigh. The sound of Jung Suho’s small laughter could be heard as he looked at her.

“Hmm, I have to get going soon. So. This.”

“…Huh?”

Jung Suho handed the baby he had in his arms to Nari. The moment she looked down to check the face of the baby wrapped in the cloth, Jung Suho turned his back.

“I have to go receive the trial. So, so. Nari, you take care of this child in the meantime.”

At those words, Nari, who was about to check the child, looked up. Jung Suho smiled at Nari.

The sunlight spreading through the bamboo forest backlit him. Jung Suho readjusted his hat and disappeared into the bamboo.

On the stone path where she was left alone, Nari slightly opened the cloth wrapping the crying child and inhaled.

As if there had never been a baby, only a sky-blue envelope existed inside the cloth.

Nari put the envelope inside her apron pocket.