Magic Monopoly: Reborn as the Sole Magic Tower Master-Chapter 260: Episode

The first candidate on my list of demonkin suspects to meet in person was Jin Bora.

To see her, I returned to the Kim Yusin Museum. And I read the comments.

—Kim Yusin Museum reopened?

—Yeah.

—I saw Jin Bora. She’s seriously gorgeous.

—Jin Bora keeps coming here. She’s been tearing into the staff like crazy.

The Kim Yusin Museum was publicly known as a facility founded by Jeong Seojin, but the one who truly cared for it and personally managed it was Jin Bora.

I had gotten word that she had been coming and going from here constantly ever since the day of the museum incident.

I changed my face with a Water Veil and used a core translator to slightly alter my voice.

After paying the admission fee, I stepped into the museum. Perhaps because the Rift incident had happened so recently, there weren’t many people around.

For me, that was ideal. I wanted to talk to Jin Bora alone. This was not something I could say in front of others.

Before meeting her, I stopped by the museum gift shop.

Oh, wow.

In that moment, I discovered the museum’s main source of revenue.

Kim Yusin greatswords, Kim Yusin umbrellas, Kim Yusin figurines, Kim Yusin character T-shirts, and so on.

I suddenly felt the blood rush to my face.

’The quality is good, but... ahem.’

The figurines, in particular, were quite varied.

There was a figurine of me wrapping Devastar around my leg to deliver a kick, another of me raining down Rapid Arrows from the sky, and another of me freezing the surroundings with Blizzard Ground.

Honestly, it was mortifying. Deeply, profoundly mortifying.

’They say the dead get deified, but still...’

From the selection, I bought a navy suit meant for cosplay and put it on over my clothes.

I was the spitting image of a Kim Yusin cosplayer. I never imagined I’d see the day I’d be cosplaying as myself.

Once I was ready, I pulled up the hood attached to my coat and started walking through the museum.

There were plenty of other people imitating Kim Yusin, so I didn’t stand out. In this museum, my outfit was perfectly normal.

First, I headed for the Specter exhibit.

’What a mess.’

The spot where Specter should have been was completely empty.

Police officers were moving back and forth, reporting something over their radios.

At that point, I started looking around for Jin Bora.

’She was supposed to have come two days in a row—is she not here today?’ I strained to listen to the conversations around me.

It didn’t take long to hear her name.

“You really saw Jin Bora?”

“Yeah! She parked and went in through the back door.”

“Ugh, I’m so jealous. How much do you think people at the Tower make?”

Hearing she was here, I hurried on.

According to the map, the staff offices were on the 5th floor.

I got into the elevator.

Whew...

I was nervous.

I had thought about what to say, but this would be my first time seeing Jin Bora face-to-face in five years.

How much had she changed? What if she was completely different from the Jin Bora I remembered?

The elevator stopped on the 3rd floor.

I froze. I hadn’t expected this.

The woman I had been searching for, her light purple hair flowing behind her, stepped into the elevator.

With a blank expression, she pressed the close button, then folded her arms and leaned against the corner opposite me.

Her vibe had definitely changed. The bubbly, playful girl I remembered was gone, replaced by someone... more mature.

She radiated the presence of a Tower executive.

“Fifth floor. Doors opening.”

The elevator doors slid open.

She stepped out first. I followed slowly after her and called out.

“Excuse me.”

Thankfully, she turned back.

“You’re Jin Bora, aren’t you?”

She quickly scanned my outfit from head to toe, let out a small sigh, and replied.

“Yes, that’s me. Nice cosplay.”

“Ha ha ha! Thanks. He’s my idol.”

“Want an autograph?”

She spoke as if she had done this a thousand times, but I answered with a broad, cheerful smile.

“I don’t need your autograph.”

“...What?”

“Because you’re the one who drove my idol to his death.”

I had tossed the line out just to see how she would react, but the effect was so potent it gave me chills.

Her expression twisted into something terrifying.

“...What makes you say something like that?”

“Well, it’s something any hardcore Kim Yusin fan would know.”

I shrugged.

“Remember the GreenCare incident five years ago? You were the only Tower member who took the cold medicine.”

She bit her lip and stared at me.

She clearly had urgent business, but it seemed she had completely forgotten about it now.

“To protect you, who had been infected by the drug, Kim Yusin pushed himself to fight the Sky Castle Lord. That’s what led to his death. Am I wrong?”

“...What do you know? You skimmed some half-baked info online and think you understand anything? The antidote was already finished before Sunbae went to fight the Sky Castle Lord!”

“As his former teammate, you know Kim Yusin’s personality, don’t you? He’s reckless. There’s no way he would let someone who threatened his comrade’s life walk away. If you hadn’t been involved, if you hadn’t taken that cold medicine, there would have been no reason for a fight between Kim Yusin and the Sky Castle Lord.”

I took a step closer.

Even though she was a Certified Rank 3 hunter with nothing in the world to fear, she instinctively stepped back.

“But you know, the more I talk, the funnier this gets.”

I brushed my bangs back and continued.

“If the antidote was done, that should have been enough. Why didn’t you stop Kim Yusin from going after the Sky Castle Lord?”

“N-no! I just...!”

Another step.

“Did you want him to get revenge for you? Or did you think he would win again this time? Unbelievable. Administrators only ever think about using Kim Yusin. A bunch of hypocritical, selfish bastards.”

I stepped forward again. Each time I advanced, she retreated.

“And then for the past five years, you’ve been going three times a week to wash his body, huh? What, are you hoping people will call you devoted? Or is it guilt? Are you just trying to ease your own conscience? Washing the body of someone who’s never coming back?”

“...Stop it.”

Seeing the pain on her face made my own chest feel like it was being torn apart.

This really was a cruel thing to do.

But I had no choice. I needed to stay cold, at least long enough to confirm she wasn’t a demonkin.

Most cases of demonization stemmed from psychological issues. Calamities preyed on the fragile parts of human nature.

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

Which meant I had to dig into that wound even deeper. I had to push her to the brink.

“Who do you think you are? What right do you have to monopolize Kim Yusin and pretend you’re atoning?”

“No!”

She screamed, veins standing out on her neck.

“Atonement? Guilt? Why do I have to slap some pathetic excuse like that on something I’m doing because I want to?”

Her face twisted in fury as she took a step toward me. Her sheer momentum made me unconsciously step back.

“He’s my last remaining hope.”

She pressed a hand to her chest as she spoke.

“In the Labyrinth Dungeon! In the Classic Gate! In the Frost Incident! Even when everyone else gave up, Sunbae always came back! He’s just late, that’s all—this time will be the same! No matter what you say...!”

Overwhelmed by emotion, she finally broke down, covering her face as she sobbed.

“I can’t give up.”

I had already checked multiple sources regarding the circumstances of my death. Inside the Tower, there had been voices saying they should just let me go and grant me euthanasia, since my heart had stopped.

But every time, the one who had opposed it most fiercely was Jin Bora.

“Is it really... that wrong for me to hope... like this?”

I shut my eyes tight.

This was enough.

“No, you’re not wrong.”

I turned off the core translator as I spoke.

The moment my voice changed, she flinched and froze.

I gently placed my right hand on her shoulder and tapped my own face with my left.

Water poured down to the floor, and my bare face emerged.

“Ah... ahhh...”

Her eyes filled to the brim with tears.

“Sorry I tricked you.”

I forced my trembling voice to steady and gave her a soft smile.

“I’m back, Bora.”

“Sunbae...!”

Her eyelids fluttered, and then her legs gave out as she collapsed to the floor.

I knelt down in front of her and wrapped my arms tightly around her shoulders.

“I’m really late, aren’t I?”

“Sunbae, Sunbae! Sunbae! Is it really you?”

“Yeah. It’s really me.”

She went past sniffling and buried her face in my chest, sobbing her heart out.

Her sudden, choking wail drew murmurs from the people nearby.

’Right.’

I quickly changed my face again with Water Veil and helped her to her feet.

“Ha ha, she’s my aunt. I’ll take her home.”

Even in the middle of all this, I felt her pinch my thigh.

I led the weeping Jin Bora into an empty room.

* * *

She sat there and cried her eyes out for three straight hours, her sobs echoing in the small room.

The Kim Yusin cosplay suit I had splurged on was soaked in her tears and snot in a single day.

For a moment, I found myself thinking, ’So a human body really can hold that much fluid.’

“When are you going to forgive me?”

“Never!” she sniffled.

I told Jin Bora everything.

That what I had just said to her was an argument I had adapted from the post she had written five years ago.

Words that the Jin Bora of five years ago, at her most tormented, might have wanted to say to the Jin Bora of today. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

But she hadn’t broken under grief and regret. She was still herself, still looking toward the future.

I was certain she wasn’t a demonkin.

“Auntie. My neck hurts.”

Even while crying, she glared at me and smacked my thigh.

“Don’t call me that, seriously.”

“Five years have passed. I’m younger than you now, right?”

“You got older too, Sunbae!”

“While the Requiem spell is in effect, I don’t age.”

“Ugh, I don’t care about that! I’m the younger one now, okay?”

I let out a wry laugh. She was still as unreasonable as ever.

“Ah!”

She suddenly jumped to her feet and grabbed her phone.

“Then you’re coming back to the Tower now, right? I have to tell them the good news right away!”

“Wait, wait, stop!”

I covered her phone with my palm and quickly explained the situation, including the fact that one of my comrades had become a demonkin.

“Do you have any guesses who it might be? Your opinion matters a lot here.”

Her expression turned grave as she thought it over.

“Everyone except me.”

“Huh?”

“They all seem suspicious to me. After what happened to you... everyone’s changed so much. It wouldn’t be strange if any one of them turned out to be a demonkin.”

Oof. That bad, huh? It looked like the demonkin investigation was going to be a lot tougher than I thought.

“Then who’s the most suspicious? Just pick one person.”

“One? Ugh, that’s hard.”

She furrowed her brow, thought for a moment, then finally answered.

“If I had to say, it’d be Association President Hong Yeon.”

“Hong Yeon?”

“Yeah. She’s gone completely dark.”

...What was that supposed to mean?

“She changed completely after you died. It’ll be faster for you to just go see for yourself.”

“Hmm.”

I was looking forward to seeing Hong Yeon again, too—assuming she wasn’t a demonkin.

If she was, I might find myself in a crisis far worse than the one with the Sky Castle Lord.

“Sunbae. So you’re not coming back until you figure out who the demonkin is?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Ugh, no! No way! I waited for you for years, and now you’re telling me to wait even longer?”

She shrieked and clung to my arm.

I took back everything I had said earlier about her seeming more mature. Five years later, Jin Bora was still Jin Bora.

“You waited five years. You can handle a few more days.”

“Haah... Do you at least have somewhere to stay?”

“I’m enjoying the jjimjilbang life.”

“Want me to book you a five-star hotel?”

...Well, her spending habits had definitely changed.

“I’m good. I was just getting used to the carefree jjimjilbang lifestyle.”

“Fine, okay. If you need anything, tell me. Anything at all.”

I thought for a moment, then spoke up.

“First, I need a fake identity and a new phone line. And...”

I brought my hands together and opened them politely in front of her.

“Give me some allowance, Auntie.”

“Gah! I told you not to call me that!”