While the others were refreshing their minds, Il-seong was being all gloomy. Of course, Ae-rin needed to do something, right?
"Il-seong"
Il-seong raised his head from his folded arms around his knees and looked at Ae-rin.
"It's ok. You don't need to be feeling sad. You just gave the suggestion, that's all."
"No, it's that I know how risky it is, and there might be a better way and less risky way to call out to our lord. I … just… I was being a dummy again."
"That's not true. You were just trying to help. Well, what's the danger in it though? I mean, what is the trial exactly?"
"That none of us knows," Yu-jun said.
"Every country is supposed to have a massive magic ritual circle in each of their national sacred ground. That magic circle is heavily used for any kind of ritual. It has the markings already drawn on it for every one of them. Whenever we enchant a ritual scripts, it activates that specific marking for that specific ritual." He continued.
"That sounds cool!"
"It is!" Il-seong was coming back to his normal self.
"But when someone is to give the trial of imperial, they just have to say 'I am here to perform the trial of imperial'. If the speaker has strong enough magical power, it would activate all the markings in the magic circle and the trial would start. The one giving the trial just stands there for the whole period of the trial. The only way to guess the trial was over is when the marking goes back to normal. *sighs* But each and every time, anyone who has ever managed to activate the trial, at the end of it, they just died in that standing position; their heart just stopped beating. Nobody has ever come back; that I and Il-seong both know."
Il-seong again looked gloomy.
"But we don't have time though…"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The seal on the world tree would be completely broken in around three years from now."
The two had the funniest look on their face, even though the situation wasn't funny.
"What… WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!"
---------------------
~Awkward silence~
Daeshim, Hyunwoo, Yeong, Kwang, Il-seong, and Yu-jun all had that 'alpha-male-shadows on the stone-stoic thinking face' expression on them, and the rest had either worry written all over their faces or were just frustrated by the situation. Say you know what I mean, or you aren't the reader.
"We should have listened to you first before calling up the break…" Do-hoon clearly sounded guilty, but he didn't do anything wrong!
"No, no, I never told you."
"So, to come to the point, we don't have time, right?" Haneul was just trying to take things straight but ended up brain-fusing already panicked males.
.....
Ok, serious question from author-chan,
Have you ever seen crickets hop around?
The next scene was identical…
Happy imagining!
.....
"OH NO! WE'RE LATE!!!!"
"IT'S THE WORLD DESTRUCTION, FOR SURE THIS TIME!!!!!" We all love Kwang and Yeong's shenanigans, but they were being too loud, so Hyunwoo had to turn their volume down. With a good chop on the heads.
"SHUT UP!!! WE'RE TRYING TO THINK HERE!!!!"
"YU-JUN, WHAT NOW? WE CAN'T BE JUST STANDING HERE; WE GOTTA PREPARE FOR WAR!!!"
"I KNOW, BABO, I WAS JUST ABOUT TO START DOING THAT!"
"OH HELL NO! YOU TWO ARE NOT LEAVING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MEETING!!"
"Ae-rin," Do-hoon diverted Ae-rin's attention from the chaos in the background back to him. "What do you want to do?"
"Do-hoon, you can't be serious! We're not sending her to the Imperial ritual!" Daeshim tried to stop him.
"We don't have another choice; we don't have time. That's exactly why I am asking her what she wants to do."
"But still-"
"I want to give it a try." Ae-rin suggested in.
"Oh, you don't! There is no chance to come back if you go!"
"Not even if I manage to pass the trial?"
Daeshim stopped in his tracks. "But we have never seen anyone come back from it…"
"Well, we haven't ever seen someone do the things at their first go as she did." Do-hoon interfered. "If she is the saviour from the legends, don't you think she should be able to go through these kinds of loops? The real problem she would have to face in three years would be like burning in hell in comparison; I am sure of it."
"Where did you get this confidence? Not even half an hour ago, you were against this idea."
"I didn't want to take the risk too. But what else, at this point? If we're to do it, the best thing we can do is to appreciate her decision and cheer her on to do her best. Either we try, or we give up right here and wait for doom to come knock at our door."
Do-hoon sounded so strict about it.
"But,-"
"I- I don't want to sound too confident about this myself, but I think I know what the trial is all about."
"Huh?"
I know. 'Huh?' sequences than 'AHA' sequences.
"And I believe I can come back to you all."
"How are you so sure about it? You have never even seen it being performed, even."
"Well, to me, I have never meant to meet you guys either, but here I am."
Everyone stopped their fidgeting.
"I was supposed to be dead by now. But I didn't; I came here; in what? A week or so? I found out what magic powers are; that I have my own; a whole a lot more about this world that I somehow crash-landed on and nobody made me feel alienated? That's crazy if you ask me; I experienced real-life fights that I had only ever watched in anime or read manhwas; a mysterious legend to back up this flip in my life; Hell! I managed to even find myself great friends and another friend right here" Tae-ya did a quick walk around her neck. "To sum it up, I could never have found life this interesting; I thought it was only fictional; but now that I am here, thinking about my next adventure would be enough to make me come back. I know I am trying to be the protagonist here, but I won't go anywhere, and I am definitely not leaving, burdening you all for it. Not for my choice and enthusiasm."
~Awkward silence 2.0~
'I said too much, didn't I? Oh No…'
"AE-RIN!!!!!"
Everyone was tearing up, some were openly crying out loud. Ae-rin could only sweat-drop…
---------------------
"*Snuffles* you do know how to make someone feel emotional, Ae-rin."
'What… that's another one of my superpowers, Daeshim-ssi?'
"But not only the emotional part, but I also think it has its logical approach to it too." Ae-rin added.
'Logical, I said, eh?'
"You think?"
"Ya, Do-hoon-ssi said that I would need to be mentally and emotionally strong in order to utilise my powers to the fullest right?"
Do-hoon and Daeshim both nodded.
"I believe the trial would be a test for both of them."
"What made you think that, Ae-rin-chan?" Seo-young asked.
"The Raven is a lord to you, right? And as I said before, they symbolise rebirth in our world. I don't know how or what… The grimoire was written in my language from my world. So, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't so abstract for me to start my journey in this world from Goguryeo-sun. Like I am 'rebirthing' in this world. I know too abstract a way of thinking on my part. Yet I believe it has to mean something even for this world too."
"That's… That's some big brain stuff."
"Ya." "Yup." "Definitely."
"But what does that have to do with the trial?"
"I guess in my head, the lords from every nation represent something from our world. And trials are about testing the participants in the trial to quantify their brilliance on each value that the lord stands for."
"So, you're saying that the trial would be about 'Rebirthing' because our lord is the representative of that in your world?"
"Exactly."
"Well, we can't know it for sure until you get to the trial."
"Until she passes the trial."
"Ya… until you come back."
"I am only going to approve of it if you promise that you will certainly come back."
-"Promise me that you would certainly come back to see Mom."
The moment of her mother's last conversation with her flashed right before her eyes. Who knew the next day's visit would never come…
"I will. I certainly will. I promise."
Her words weighed more than usual; everyone could tell; as if she was swearing it to herself.
--------------------------
The giant magic arena was supposed to be the flying land in the air that Ae-rin might or might not have noticed until being pointed out to her. The preparation would take about another 7 days from then, so until the time came, Ae-rin decided to look around the town and go about her those 7 days doing chores. And of course, playing with Tae-ya! The stress-ball equivalent in this world for Ae-rin.
It was already night.
"Tae-ya, come here." The little adorable ball of joy jumped his way to Ae-rin and sat on her lap comfortably.
Everyone wanted to spend as much time as they could with Ae-rin. So, they were all in the girls' room that Ae-rin shared with Sun-hee and Seo-young. It was so odd that she became that close to everyone in just a handful of days spent with them.
"Tae-ya, aren't you hungry? You didn't eat anything even yesterday." Tae-ya just dropped his head to the side as if asking, 'What is even eating?'
"You don't eat?"
Tae-ya just shook his head.
'Alright, we still don't know how she understands what he is saying' the four honoured 4 people thought simultaneously.
"You're with me now. So, you have to eat something. I won't take a no."
Tae-ya whined at that.
Everyone was shocked when Jihoon chuckled at that, a genuine chuckle. Can you imagine, oh ok…
'What's up with Jihoon???'
'Dude's ok?' Il-seong and Yu-jun thought.
Ae-rin took him to the kitchen.
"Would you eat that?" She pointed at veggies. Tae-ya shook his head.
"Then this?" Fruits. He nope-ed again.
"Then meat?" And again.
"Then rocks? Like that?" She pointed at the garden. He growled at that as if saying, 'Show me at least the edible things, woman!'
"Then us?" She pointed to herself. Humans.
Tae-ya popped his wings over his head and ducked his head in and whined loudly.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I will never say that again…"
Then Ae-rin took Tae-ya on her lap like a baby. "I am so sorry, Tae-ya." He happily whined and cuddled her neck. "But what else can I give you to eat?" He perked up at that. He licked the side of Ae-rin's face. "EH!!!" "Ai! Get off of her!" Yeong hissed, and Tae-ya hissed back.
Ae-rin, however was busy figuring out what he meant by that.
"Wait, you would like to eat sweets? Like- like these?" Ae-rin held out the sweet crackers she had earlier.
Tae-ya was so happy that Ae-rin got it; he jumped on her.
"Ok, ok, you like sweets, I get it, I get it!"
The guys had their mouths open. 'Like how? How did she- she is omniscient or telepathic with the dragons!'
Anyway, after feeding Tae-ya, being off the To-do list, Ae-rin could sit down and talk about the details of the upcoming trial with everyone, at least as much as they knew about.
------------------------------