"Oh my, the angel is no longer an angel."
"My, my."
Liera put her arm around Yu IlHan's and declared firmly as Kim YeSeul's eyes shined.
"I had a hunch it would come to this."
"Jeez, you should have told me before then."
Yu IlHan grumbled, but did not shake Liera off. Kim YeSeul's smile became thicker.
"Then should I expect the second grandson soon?"
"I'll try!"
Liera tapped her ample breasts as if to say 'leave it to me'. Yu IlHan changed topics from this embarrassing chain of events with a sigh.
"So mom, I can ask you what happened to you until now, right?"
"Yeah."
Right now, there was no need to hide it anymore. Kim YeSeul looked at her son's unshaken eyes and let out a small smile before speaking.
"Yes, then…… I should talk about how I first came to this world."
"Yes. Mom calls this place the 'Model Garden'."
"Yes. Alone."
Kim YeSeul pointed at the objects in her surroundings and spoke.
"Do you know how panicked I was? I couldn't even see properly, nor did I know where this place was. I couldn't' even tell if I was sitting, standing or lying down. When I was dropped in such a world, there were horrifying monsters, though, they're not here anymore. They couldn't hurt your mom at all though."
It was as if the people and the monsters native to that world could not hurt the people of Earth due to the contract with the Heaven's Army. However, this shouldn't have been the case here. This world, the 'Model Garden', was devoid of any records of the Heaven's Army.
Instead, he could feel the aura of the Garden of Sunset. In other words, the Model Garden was a world under the management of the Garden of Sunset.
"All that mom could do was to breathe. It was good that I did not become hungry no matter how much time passed. And when some more time passed…… Oh, did you meet the spirits of this place?"
"Yes. They became mom's friends. The reason I could feel mana was all thanks to them as well."
After first feeling mana and becoming able to wield it, Kim YeSeul did not count the flow of time and focused on training in mana. In fact, she couldn't do anything else but that.
There were no teachers to teach her magic, so all she could do was to emit mana and roll it around in space, and ironically, that allowed her to learn the magic related to space-time.
"That means……"
"Oh, you found out already?"
Kim YeSeul pointed at the surface of the ware. The water bubbles that she was handling with mana before, the water bubbles that should have fallen to the surface and be merged with the water were maintaining their form as if they were solid, and were rolling on top of the surface.
"Everything in the Model Garden is halted. Whether it's time, or space. Trying to forcefully move mana inside it allowed me to naturally develop the abilities to manipulate them."
"Fufu, I'm not so sure about that. Anyway, I learnt magic like that. Following that."
Excluding the fact that he couldn't train to become able to wield mana, what she had experienced was very similar to what Yu IlHan himself had experienced. Yu IlHan licked his lips in search of something to say, but couldn't say anything. No one could measure another's pain. Kim YeSeul smiled slightly as if she understood him and continued speaking.
"How long has it been since I started training magic? Anyway, I then had the confidence to win against the monsters in the Model Garden. At that time, the spirits requested that I follow them for the first time, and I erased the monsters along with them. It was an endlessly long fight, but they couldn't harm me. Mom could only win."
"And that's how your level rose?"
The three in this place were all at level 299, but Yu IlHan had reached that level through killing numerous higher existences to the point that even he himself thought he was OP, while Liera had broken through her limits after a long period of training. However, there was no way they could just accept it with 'Oh that's what happened', just because they were told that Kim YeSeul's level was 299.
"It did. It did a lot. The last one just allowed me to get to level 299."
"Like I said last time, I did not bother counting their numbers while fighting, nor did I bother counting the time. Just remembering is a little painful."
And at the end.
"The spirits gave mom a present. Son, you've heard about the Garden of Sunset, right?"
"It was an artifact that allowed me to come into contact with them, and go to the world where all the other people of Earth were. Mom used that and could finally go to Ya'umin. And when I did, I saw the ladies of the district."
When Kim YeSeul escaped the Model Garden and arrived at Ya'umin, the other people of Earth had just arrived in Ya'umin. It was akin to how no time would pass if Yu IlHan spent two months in the barrier created by the Hourglass of Eternity.
Although there was a huge difference in scale, it was definitely something similar to what Yu IlHan and Yumir had experienced while they were apart, had happened to her as well. At the time she realized that her countless years of time was less than an instant, how would she have felt. Yu IlHan couldn't possibly imagine.
However, her voice was still very calm.
"After that was nothing strange. Magic to conceal my true self was simple. And like that, I've hidden my true self and lived there for 10 years. After that, I came to Earth."
"Just the time I lived in Ya'umin, that is."
That meant that, Kim YeSeul was level 299 upon the time she returned to Earth. During the Great Cataclysm, the strongest of Earth was not Yu IlHan but his mother!
Yu IlHan became dumbfounded. Let's leave aside the fact that he may not have noticed since he couldn't even wield mana at that time……
"Hey, ex-angel."
"I didn't know, I really didn't! I was completely in the dark about this!? I don't get how I couldn't know but I didn't!"
Looking at Liera's eyes, it seemed that she really didn't know. Well, this shouldn't only apply to Liera, but all the other angels dispatched to Earth. Although his faith in the Heaven's Army had disappeared long time ago, he thought once again that they were not a reliable organization!
Kim YeSeul's story still had a little bit left.
"And while I was going back and forth to Ya'umin like that, the Garden of Sunset contacted me again."
"No, it was about the magic formation. The magic formation that the Destruction Demon Army and the Army of Brilliant Light schemed with. I've got information about those."
"I've heard that I should just open a barrier and hide without ever coming into contact with those formations."
"Huh?"
Yu IlHan's head tilted for the first time. Kim YeSeul's lips had curved into a bitter smile.
"At that time, mom was actually suspicious of the Garden of Sunset. If everything went normally, I would have been with all the other ladies, but somehow, only mom was dropped in this Model Garden. Moreover, I've heard that this place was under the jurisdiction of the Garden of Sunset, so it wouldn't be strange if I thought that all my suffering was because of the Garden of Sunset, right?"
Yu IlHan also thought that.
Of course, he did not know how they snatched Kim YeSeul in the middle and drop her in the Model Garden, nor did he know why that target was Kim YeSeul. Perhaps Yu IlHan and Kim YeSeul really had hidden talents, and the Garden of Sunset had schemed to take the two after knowing that beforehand.
If not, it was also possible Kim YeSeul was dropped in the Model Garden like how Yu IlHan was dropped out on Earth simply because 'God couldn't find him', but the probability of that would be low. No, in fact, Yu IlHan even doubted that his dropout was a 'mistake' in the first place.
"And so, I did the opposite. Since you weren't here, IlHan, I asked MiRae, YuNa, and Mir and started erasing those formations. However, the result was this. Moreover, now I'm back in the Model Garden and not Ya'umin, so…… they gave me the right advice after all."
It wasn't just a day or two that they were unable to comprehend what the Garden of Sunset was thinking. Yu IlHan delayed his judgement on whether they wanted something from Kim YeSeul or not. Right now, there was something more important than that.
"……And so, mom. How long have you lived after that?"
She said that time did not flow despite living countless years in the Model garden. Then, now that 3 years had passed and Yu IlHan had come here, how much time did she spend in this place? Is her existence even true?
Kim YeSeul replied with a smile.
"3 years."
"3 years. Son. Mom's confident in her ability to count time now. As far as I know, it has been exactly 3 years."
Strength drained from him. No, wait. Yu IlHan also didn't experience any gap in time after his 1 thousand years of being a dropout, so perhaps this was normal.
Anyway, this was very good. It was very good that Yu IlHan could find his mother like this. It was good that he didn't take any longer.
"Well, then. Should I hear from you next? Mom has confidence to not be surprised no matter what story you will tell."
"Well, I do feel that what I've experienced is tiny in comparison after hearing you, but……ok, here it goes."
Yu IlHan thought of something while speaking. This was the first time he spoke about his millennium dropout period. And in such a strange place as well, to his mom who looked to be about in her mid-twenties too…… he made a bitter smile.
"I didn't fall somewhere strange, but rather was left alone on Earth……"
Yu IlHan compressed his story as much as he could. About four chapters of worth if it was written. However, that was enough for Kim YeSeul to understand about him. What the two have experienced, in the end, were similar.
"So that's what happened. My son, you've suffered a lot."
Yu IlHan thought that what Kim YeSeul had experienced would be even more harsh than him, but Kim YeSeul thought the opposite. Yu IlHan looked at Kim YeSeul's eyes becoming red and hurriedly added.
"I've said this from the beginning, but I wasn't alone. Lita…… Liera was there with me."
"Dear, dear…… you've suffered, haven't you. My baby."
Since she heard all of Yu IlHan's story, she should realize that he had lived for over a thousand years. However, Kim YeSeul did not care about that and embraced him.
"Mom……."
Although the scene was very strange on the outside, Yu IlHan felt like a heavy load being lifted off him when he was embraced by his mother.
"Yeah……. It was hard."
"Yes, yes."
Yu IlHan stayed in Kim YeSeul's embrace. He was laughing and crying at the same time and even he thought it was weird.
"Here, you come here too, my other child."
"Just come."
"Ok."
Even Liera ended up in Kim YeSeul's arms. How long had it been since she had forgotten about the existence of a mother? Liera felt the wonderful feeling of motherly love after a long time. She subconsciously relaxed.
In the unflowing world where space and time had stopped, the three stayed still like that for quite a while.
Author's notes
N/A
Translator's notes
Translator: Chamber
Proofreader: Koukouseidesu