Naeun groaned loudly when she opened her eyes. What had happened just moment before she out was a complete blur. All she remembered was that one second, Howon was silently making his wish, and the next second, there was a beam of light that appeared out of nowhere.

She tried to get up, but found herself locked in place. There was some kind of force preventing her from moving, and she wasn’t sure what it was. She panicked until she saw Taemin hover over her.

Taemin! Naeun cried out. She believed that she had opened to speak, but nothing came out. She was completely paralyzed, and she wasn’t sure why. Her body was completely out of her control.

“Her eyes are opened,” Myungsoo remarked, also hovering over her face. “Naeun? Can you speak?”

No, you idiot. If I did, then I’d be talking right now, she thought.

“What should we do?” Myungsoo asked Taemin. “Should we carry her?”

“That seems like a hassle,” Taemin said. “Let’s leave her.”

Myungsoo widened his eyes, while Naeun felt a strong tug pull her heart.

“Leave her? Why?” he asked, shocked.

“If she’s going to slow us down, then we have to leave her. It’s either she gets up or she gets left behind. It’s entirely her choice,” Taemin said.

Myungsoo glared at him. “Well, I’m not leaving her behind. Not like how you would.”

“It’s entirely up to you,” Taemin said, putting his hands up to his shoulder in his own defense. “I’m just saying that she’s just going to be a nuisance if she doesn’t wake up any time. This place is filled with pixies. I can already tell that some of them are aiming at us for fun.”

“Give her a few minutes. She’ll wake up, I swear.”

“She better,” Taemin said, “or else I’m leaving to find Jieun.”

“And Mino?” Myungsoo asked.

“If he appears along the way, then I’ll let him join, too.”

Myungsoo continued to make a deep frown. He sat next to Naeun and crossed his arms.

“You know,” Myungsoo said, “you weren’t like this when those two weren’t here. You were completely satisfied with the two of us.”

“But Jieun’s interesting, isn’t she?” Taemin asked him.

“Is it because of her powers?”

“It’s because of her behavior and how she reacts to certain situations,” Taemin said. “It’s how she gets involved into messy situations and how she finds herself out of it. Don’t you find it intriguing?”

Naeun continued to lay down on the floor, paralyzed, with her eyes wide open to see Taemin’s soft and fascinated look. A small tear slipped out of the side of her cheek. Taemin looked down for a brief moment and noticed the tear. Instead of wiping it away, he turned away, completely ignoring the fact that she might’ve possibly heard anything he had said.

Ah, damn it, she thought, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes, as I thought, I hate Lee Jieun.

“So can you get these strings off of me?”

“I told you, I tried to do that. It doesn’t work.”

“Well, find another technique or something. I hate being dragged around.”

“Well, maybe you have to do something.”

“Me? How is that supposed to make sense? You’re the one who had strings appear out of your finger tips.”

“Well, you must’ve done something to trigger it. I don’t even know what this power is.”

“How? Everyone knows what their own power is when they’re born. It’s written in the Council’s Book of Civilians.”

“Book of Civilians? That’s my first time hearing about it.”

“Seriously? Are you even from this world?”

Jieun pressed her lips together. She wasn’t sure how to answer Howon’s last question. She only kept quiet, which made the boy more suspicious of her background. He didn’t care to question her, though. He had already dragged her through so much with his contract.

“So where am I supposed to go?” Jieun asked, trying to change the subject.

“To my village.”

“And where is that?”

“I don’t know. I was going to play Eunji’s game to get the information, but someone pulled these red strings and prevented me from playing…”

“Okay, are we going to keep pointing at these strings or are we going to try and figure out where the village is together?” she asked, fed up with the fact that the situation was (probably) her fault.

“I’m going to keep talking about these strings until you can untie me,” Howon stated.

“Should we stop here, then?” Jieun asked, finding an area with a small river running through.

“For the night?” Howon asked.

“Yeah.”

“You’re okay with sleeping next to someone like me? I eat everything, and I can also eat you,” he pointed out.

Jieun thought about his words carefully. Right now, she was alone with a creature who could probably kill her. She would run away, but there were two things that were tying her down to him: the contract and the red strings.

If at least one other member was with her, she could’ve have alternating sleeping routines to keep an eye on Howon just to make sure that he wasn’t going to drool over them. However, she was alone, which meant that she had to decide for herself whether or not to trust him. 

“Are you hungry?” she asked him.

“Yeah. I’m really hungry. Seriously, when I saw Eunji put those items on the mat, I was ready to eat—“

“But the little boy told me that you were full,” she blurted. She stopped herself, then looked at Howon, who stared at her.

“What little boy?” he asked.

“W-Well, it wasn’t just one boy, there was actually two boys—“

“Two boys?” he repeated.

“A-Actually, never mind! We don’t need to talk about this anymore. Let’s just stop—“

At that very moment, Howon was about to pounce her, ready to force her to start talking. However, Jieun screamed and the red strings reacted. The strings tightened their grip on Howon even more, quickly forcing him down on the ground and restraining him from doing anything. While Jieun hid her face behind her hands, she was able to catch a glimpse of Howon’s teeth growing at an incredible rate. The red strings wrapped itself around the fangs and started to glow faintly. In matter of minutes, the fang shrank back to its small size.

She quickly uncovered her eyes and started to let out shaky breaths. Howon growled at her.

“You sure you don’t know how to use your powers?” he asked.

“I guess it’s some kind of defense mechanism,” Jieun murmured. 

“I don’t think so,” Howon said. “That string is definitely not a defense mechanism. It came out when I was supposed to eat the items, not you. It didn’t need to protect you at all that time.” He glared at the strings. “Rather, it’s some kind of force of will that’s preventing me from doing something.”

“A force?”

“Yeah. Gosh, I hate this so much,” Howon grunted. “Do you need me to do anything? Do you need something from me?”

“I just need to finish the contract,” she said.

“Contracts don’t pull strings, Jieun.” He paused. “Maybe it has to do with the two boys you were talking about.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—“

“Two. Boys. Start talking,” he demanded.

Jieun started to sulk. She clearly didn’t like how demanding he was, but she felt the need to properly explain everything to him. After all, it would be unfair for him to be left confused and lost due to everything that happened because of her.

“When you made your wish,” she started, carefully eying him, “I was transported to a completely empty place. There were two boys. They were both drenched with blood, but one had a bloody mouth and the other had a bloody chain. They were the exact same person, except if you looked carefully, the one with the bloody mouth looked a bit more corrupted than the one with the bloody chain. The two boys gave me a choice to grant the boys’ wish, which was to go home.”

“So you granted both of their wishes?”

“Well, in the end, I chose to grant their wishes, but there were two carpets leading me to either one of the boys. One wanted to eat pixies, and the other didn’t…” She started to make a small frown. “In fact, the two boys looked exactly like you, but much, much younger…”

Howon finally looked away. “You were probably dreaming. Come on, let’s go to sleep—“

“It was you,” she breathed. Howon froze. “It was you. The two boys were split versions of you! They were the younger you—“

“Shut up!” Howon yelled, ready to hit her. The red strings didn’t stop him from hitting her. It was his own self that refused to hit her just because he was annoyed. 

Jieun gasped and flinched from the sound. She covered her head for a moment and curled herself into a defenseless ball. She trembled and kept still. Then, she slowly opened her eyes, only to see that Howon had withdrawn for the night. The man curled up next to a large tree and closed his eyes.

“A-Aren’t you going to kill me?” she asked him nervously.

“Enough. I’m tired. Let’s sleep for the night,” Howon said.

Jieun kept quiet for the moment. “Howon, why do you refuse to practice your way of living—“

“Go. To. Sleep.”

With those three words, Jieun only nodded and rested near a tree. She didn’t even bother to clear the ground for herself. She was too afraid that the red strings would disturb his sleep. She lied down on the ground, her back against the erkling and her body ready for the next morning.

At a certain dome, blue holograms started to appear. The Council started to gather in a circle, either frowning deeply or confused with the sudden meeting.

“The Councils have gathered,” the wizard announced.

“What’s going on?” One of the members stared at directly at the leader of the Council. “I got an urgent call to attend this meeting, and I see that everyone is here.”

“It’s about the Galaxial user,” the wizard croaked out. “Everyone, I am getting too old. I have underestimated my abilities. The chain that was supposed to store her powers has been broken. The consequence was death, but it looks like she has escaped such a circumstance with a force that seems far more superior than me.”

“What are you trying to say?” someone else asked. “Are you trying to tell us that we are doomed?”

“I am trying to say that, although I would love to stay and help solve this problem, I am unable to do anything for the Council. My powers are and has been falling at a rapid rate. The next leader for the wizards has yet to be found, and I am trying my best to stay in position. Therefore, I would like to hand down this responsibility to the next creature leader in line.”

“The next one? Then that leaves…”

All the holograms turned to the angel.

“Me,” the angel answered. “I would be the next Council Leader if the wizard retires his leader position.”

Everyone looked back at the wizard. They all stared at the wizard, begging for the old man to not let go of his position. 

“Angel Leader Shim Changmin,” the wizard said. “Will you uphold the responsibilities of the Council, guide the Council, and listen to the voices of the other members of the Council?”

The angel raised his right hand for the pledge. “Yes, I do.”

“Do you understand that by accepting these tasks, you must clear your mind of any tainted thoughts and be open-minded?”

“I do.”

“Do you promise to promote justice and righteousness of the Council and the good of the world?”

“I do.”

“Then, with the transfer of the Council’s staff, I will grant you the powers of the Council Leader and retire from the position of the Council Leader.”

In minutes, the staff in the wizard’s hands disappeared. In a blink of an eye, the staff was in the hands of the angel. Instead of it being a wooden stick like what the wizard had, it was made out of a magical silver-like texture shaped into a spear.

“With this,” the wizard stated, “I shall retire. Goodbye, and I wish you luck.”

“You will be missed,” the angel said, bowing at the wizard. The rest followed the new Council Leader’s action. The wizard nodded and disappeared from the meeting.

Everyone stared at the angel with an intense expression. The angel waited for a minute and carefully looked at the empty spot. Then, the angel broke into a wide smirk. His wings turned black and his angelic suit dimmed to a devilish one.

“Ah, finally,” the angel murmured, fixing his new clothes. “Wearing that white dress was a pain.” The angel smirked. “Now, why don’t we get that Galaxial user and use her for our own?”

There was a pause. Then, majority of the members raised their hand or their weapon, cheering on for the angel’s decision. The angel snickered and drowned himself into the endless applause and praises, while the minority cowered in the shadows, logging off from the meeting as they knew what was coming.