“Do you know what Baek is meant to eat in half a year?” “I know. The Yeom-yang-eo.” “Ah, so second place remembers after all.” “Hey, I’m… and why do you keep calling me that? Second place, second place!” Jin-hwan’s warning was sharp, but Baek just laughed. It had been fun teasing her in a chat window, but seeing the legendary SolarFlare as a breathtakingly beautiful girl, her every emotion on display, was infinitely more entertaining. “Well, as you know, the Yeom-yang-eo is a fish that possesses an extreme Yang energy.” “So we’re going fishing for it?” “Are you sure you were ranked second on the server?” “What was that? I’ll have you know I was second on the server!” “And I was first.” As Jin-hwan trembled, her fists clenched, Baek decided to move on. Knowing when to stop was important. Besides, she was a different breed of player. They were CrimsonFang and SolarFlare, first and second on the server, but their playstyles were polar opposites. I was an attacker; she was a fighter. If CrimsonFang was an attacker who earned points by exploiting every character build, event, and item in the game, SolarFlare was the ultimate fighter who climbed the ranks through pure, overwhelming combat. Of course, both were hardcore veterans. CrimsonFang was a decent fighter, and SolarFlare knew plenty about the world of Chronicles of Valor 2, but their specialties were worlds apart. Pushing the idle thoughts from his mind, Baek spoke quickly. “If we can get our hands on an item with powerful Yang energy, we can treat the Gueumjulmaek much faster.” “I know that, but was there anything like that available to us now?” Jin-hwan frowned, searching her memory. There were plenty of items with Yang energy besides the Yeom-yang-eo, but it was doubtful that the two of them, in their current state, could acquire any of them. “There is one. And it’s nearby. You know what I’m talking about, right?” “Huh? Uh… well… oh, right. That thing. Yeah, there was that.” Jin-hwan nodded, her voice flat and unconvincing, like someone reciting memorized lines. “Yes, that thing. So I’ll need your help dealing with it. Here’s what we need to prepare.” “Oh, I know. Yes, I know.” She clearly didn’t know. Baek could see right through her. He clicked his tongue and decided to just give her the answer. Teasing her was fun, but their time wasn’t infinite. “We just need to get the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul that Rak-sha is wearing.” “Right, we just wear the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul from Rak-sha—Rak-sha?! The demon Rak-sha?!” A startled Jin-hwan shot up from her seat, her voice rising to a shriek before she managed to cut herself off. Baek lunged forward, clapping a hand over her mouth. “Hey, we’re meeting in secret, remember?” he hissed. It was the middle of the night, and the entire estate was silent. Thankfully, most of the household staff had left with Baek’s father; otherwise, her shout would have brought someone running. “Seriously. I’m only taking my hand away if you promise to calm down, okay?” Jin-hwan nodded vigorously. “Fuh… Hey! Are you really talking about that Rak-sha? The Red Moon demon, Rak-sha?” she demanded in a fierce whisper the moment Baek released her. She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Yes. The Red Moon’s Rak-sha.” “Are you crazy? How are we supposed to defeat him? Don’t you know his level is monstrous compared to ours right now?” The Red Moon’s Rak-sha. A demon sealed in the north of the Sëlen Kingdom, and one of the mid-bosses from Chronicles of Valor 2. Even for seasoned players like CrimsonFang and SolarFlare, defeating him with their current power—barely above that of a new character—was impossible. Baek didn’t deny it. “Yes, how could we possibly defeat him? But that’s just like you, SolarFlare. Your first thought is always to fight it head-on.” “You said you needed the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul. That’s a drop item from him.” Five hundred years ago, it was the Sun Seong-gisa Han-yeol who sealed the Red Moon’s Rak-sha. Just before the seal was complete, Rak-sha struck a final, fatal blow, taking Han-yeol’s life. In the chaos, the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul—a holy relic of the sun god that Han-yeol wore—was trapped inside the seal with the demon. Since Han-yeol was already dead, the priests of the sun god completed the ritual, believing the holy nature of the necklace would continue to weaken Rak-sha’s power from within. As a result, the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul became Rak-sha’s signature drop. “We’re not going to kill the demon. We’re just going to steal the item.” “How? To even get to Rak-sha, we’d have to break the seal first. What are you planning to do about that? I’m still just a 1-star wizard.” “Exactly. And I have an illness that makes me weaker than villager A. That’s why we’re going to use Do-hyeon’s Magic Circle.” “Do-hyeon’s Magic Circle?” “Do-hyeon’s Magic Circle. If we use it, we can temporarily manifest Rak-sha’s physical form while keeping the seal itself intact. We just have to snatch the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul off him while he’s still bound and then let the Jusu end.” “That… does sound plausible…” Do-hyeon was a powerful wizard who appeared late in the game’s timeline. With a proper application of his unique chain magic, it was theoretically possible to do as Baek said: call forth the body of a sealed demon while its power remained suppressed. “But… wasn’t that magic circle incredibly complicated?” Jin-hwan had looked it up on a walkthrough site once. It was praised as the perfect magic circle for demon-sealing, but she remembered seeing the diagram and abandoning the idea immediately, certain she could never draw it, even with the image right in front of her. At her question, Baek nodded. “Of course. I’ve already used it to rip that item off Rak-sha a few times. Oh, can’t you draw it?” “Ah, no! I can draw it! Of course I can. I’ve drawn it tons of times. I have it completely memorized!” “Right? I thought so. You are second on the server, after all. It’d be strange if you couldn’t memorize something like that.” Baek patted her on the shoulder, giving her a look of absolute trust. Jin-hwan managed a strained, teary-eyed smile. Her expression was a dead giveaway. He now understood why she never used voice chat. She was the type who could never lie. “Good. Since you’re the wizard, I’ll leave the drawing to you. I’m counting on you, SolarFlare. You’re the only one I can trust with this.” “Uh… yes. Trust me. Only me. Yes. Only me…” The sight of Jin-hwan puffing out her chest with absolutely zero confidence was truly something to behold. “Then let’s make acquiring the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul from Rak-sha our first official quest.” “But isn’t it a little far? It’s not exactly a short trip we can make in the middle of the night.” The place where Rak-sha was sealed was an abandoned temple deep in the Cheon-ma Mountains. It was a half-day’s carriage ride from the frontier city where both Count Baek and Count Jin-hwan lived. “Yes, so I thought about that. There’s a solution for that, too.” Baek paused, then said, “We are, for the moment, engaged, are we not?” Jin-hwan flinched at the word “engaged,” and Baek felt a wave of awkwardness himself. SolarFlare and engagement. A promise of marriage. The thought was enough to make his head spin, but an attacker used every tool at their disposal. “So, let’s go on a date.” “In a carriage.” “Who? You… you and me?” “You and me. CrimsonFang and SolarFlare. First place and second place.” What would the people in their old chat rooms say if they could see this? Jin-hwan’s face, already pale in the moonlight, seemed to lose all color. She froze, a horrified expression on her face, and Baek felt a similar chill run down his spine. “Oh, I think my time is about up.” “Yes, my Gueumjulmaek.” He’d been out in the night air too long. A deep chill was already spreading through his hands and feet, the cold seeping into his very bones. “Are you okay? Do you need some healing magic?” “I’d appreciate it. By the way, how is it, using magic? Is it very different from the game?” “It’s completely different. It’s incredible. It feels… fantastic.” Unlike Baek Yu-sung, who was born with a debilitating condition, Jin-hwan Chae-won was a gifted wizard from the start. She had used magic just to hop over the estate wall a few minutes ago. After being led around by Baek’s plans, her confidence was flagging, but now, a proud smile lit up her face. “Fufufu, watch this.” Jin-hwan placed a hand on Baek’s forehead. She closed her eyes and murmured an incantation, and a soft green light bloomed from her palm. The sight of the ethereal glow illuminating her focused expression was surprisingly beautiful. “How’s that? Did it work?” “Yes. It’s a little easier to breathe now.” Baek felt he could at least make it back to his room safely. “Then I’ll be heading back.” Jin-hwan pulled her hood up again. Though the Baek and Jin-hwan estates were neighbors, they weren’t right next to each other. It would take her some time to return. “Sorry about this. Once my illness is cured, I’ll be the one hopping your fence.” “No thanks. I think I’m fine with just the date plan, okay?” “Hey, can we just call it the Rak-sha quest instead?” “Yes, yes. That would be much better for our mental health.” Baek and Jin-hwan stood side-by-side for a moment, then awkwardly bade each other farewell. “Well, go on. Good night.” “Yeah, good night to you too. Dream of me.” Jin-hwan’s only response was to flip him a vulgar gesture as she turned, then she launched herself into the air, clearing the high stone wall in a single, fluid leap. “Huh. Real magic.” A world where angels, demons, and magic all existed. Baek stared for a moment at the spot where she had vanished, then turned his gaze toward the distant Cheon-ma Mountains. The Red Moon’s Rak-sha and the Tae-yang-ui Nunmul. Their plans had begun.

Chapter 4: When Legends Collide