Jung-woo was utterly bewildered.

It was because of the change in the Shark Avatar carrying Se-gi.

‘You can cast Fluidification on someone else?’

By nature, it should have been impossible.

If even the main body couldn’t do it, why would an avatar be any different?

The fact that it had become possible led to one deduction.

‘It’s a buffer-type.’

Setting aside the theatrical gimmick of whipping to enhance a target, the ability seemed to focus primarily on augmenting allied capabilities.

He understood that much.

However, understanding aside, the situation was unfolding in a most peculiar way.

Far in the distance, Se-gi was giggling as she soared through the sky, clutching the rabbit’s ears.

One misstep and she might fall.

His heart had never pounded like this since his regression.

“Shark, run faster! We’ll lose her at this rate!”

Ppok…!

The shark ran faster.

But the gap refused to close.

Jung-woo got a firsthand taste of the Snow Rabbit Saint’s buff effect.

Hikaru felt her mind turning to mush.

‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.’

She had ruined everything with her own two hands.

All she had to do was stay in her seat, smile, clap, and celebrate. That was all.

But she couldn’t even manage that, so she had fled.

She should have held it in.

No one would have read her inner thoughts, so why had she let fear get the better of her alone?

It was too late for regrets.

The moment she slipped out of the hotel room, Hikaru had read distress in Jung-woo and bewilderment in Se-gi.

These were people who had been so kind to her, yet her own feeble heart had refused to accept their warmth, and she had let them down.

She ran without knowing where she was headed.

All she wanted was to escape.

That was when it happened.

“Big Sister!!!”

From high above, a familiar child’s voice rang out.

Hikaru felt her heart turn to ice as she looked up.

A shark, a rabbit, and Se-gi clinging to their back.

Against the backdrop of a bright rising moon, the child smiled radiantly from the sky above, looking down at her.

At that, she faltered and took another step back.

Hikaru was in no state to think clearly.

‘Why? How?’

They came all the way here to find her?

She was scared.

The thought that others might come after Se-gi, looking at her with disappointed eyes, filled her with dread to the very crown of her head, making it impossible to face them.

In the end, she turned and fled.

Her heart began to race wildly.

“Ah! Escaped Rudolph!!!”

She didn’t want to hear that innocent voice.

She hated that playful laughter.

‘Don’t smile…!’

She hated becoming a bad person.

She hated becoming an irresponsible person.

She hated that innocence that forced her to confront her own ugliness, that stripped her bare for all to see.

‘Don’t come…!’

She hated herself for harboring such ugly thoughts.

Her breath caught in her throat.

But the laughter wouldn’t fade.

She would rather disappear from the world.

If no one could find her, perhaps things would be easier than they were now.

Her thoughts spiraled into a tunnel, and reason crumbled away.

There was only one thing she desperately wanted.

‘Leave me alone. Please…’

At that moment, the power beyond her control answered her prayer.

【Skill: [Eternal Imprisonment (Ex)] is activating.】

Kiiiiiiing—!

A mountain road on the outskirts of the city.

The sky began to thunder violently.

A tremendous roar erupted.

However, it was a noise imperceptible to anyone who couldn’t sense mana.

Across Jung-woo’s retinas, the raging flow of mana etched itself.

Invisible iron bars descended from the sky, beginning to isolate the space.

Eventually, an entire mountain was severed from reality.

A space from which nothing could enter or exit.

Everything happening within would be hidden from the world.

Jung-woo recognized that power.

‘Eternal Imprisonment?’

The absolute domain that had made Hikaru Japan’s strongest hunter.

The signature technique of Ichijomodori Hasumi, who had been Japan’s strongest before her.

Something had gone wrong.

The wildly indiscriminate spread of mana made it clear this was not intentional.

The interior would be a quagmire.

One of the most well-known effects of Eternal Imprisonment was the suppression of all physical flow within its bounds.

Left unchecked, the mountain would die.

He had to break through and stop it.

“Shark, can you do it?”

Ppok…

The shark shook its head side to side.

Jung-woo bit his lip.

‘Send an avatar inside and use Phase Shift?’

No, even then it couldn’t penetrate deep inside.

It would only get blocked at the entrance.

‘Break through with raw firepower?’

That would be like pouring oil on an already raging fire.

Sea Otter was out of the question.

“…Teddy Bear.”

Pang!

Teddy Bear materialized on the back of the pursuing Shark Avatar.

Jung-woo recalled Teddy Bear’s evolved ability.

Severance — the power to cleave through the very physical structure of a target.

“You only need to cut through the iron bars. Can you do it?”

Slicing away only the phenomenon without damaging Hikaru’s mana would be no easy task.

But Teddy Bear nodded as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Ppok!

It drew its sword.

Mana enveloped Teddy Bear’s body.

It was the first time using it in real combat. Jung-woo, driven by urgency, felt tension flood through him as he placed his faith in his summon.

But the phenomenon that unfolded before his eyes told Jung-woo something.

‘…Hah.’

Just how transcendent a being his adorable partner — the one who had stood at his side the longest — truly was.

Seogeok—!

That crisp severing sound overwrote reality.

Deudeudeudeudeud—!

“Ugh, ahh…”

Hikaru wrapped her arms around herself.

Her nose was bleeding.

Her vision blurred. Her stomach churned.

She hadn’t intended to use her ability.

She had only wanted to be alone.

But the ability had triggered on its own and run amok.

She had to rein it in.

But she couldn’t.

The total magnitude of power was simply too vast.

Hikaru’s control couldn’t match it.

The landscape was withering.

The suppression of flow meant more than merely halting objects in place — it meant stopping the very circulation essential to all life activities within.

The bare trees along the snow-covered mountain road began to twist and desiccate.

Her breath hung suspended in the frigid air.

She stumbled forward.

Driven by the thought that she shouldn’t stay here any longer.

That was when it happened.

Jeojeojeok—!

The sky split open.

More precisely, the [Eternal Imprisonment] split open.

It was a sight bordering on the miraculous.

The overcast clouds above, the iron bars of mana, and the isolated world itself crumbling to form a gap — it was that shocking.

Beyond that gap, something was visible.

Jung-woo, riding on the back of a flying shark plush doll.

His gaze was sweeping across this mountain road.

Hikaru’s mind went completely blank.

‘I can’t let him find me.’

The one thing she couldn’t let him discover was that she was a half-wit who couldn’t even control a single ability.

That thought alone consumed her mind.

She turned and ran.

It hurt.

She was exhausted.

She wondered why she had to be doing this.

Tears threatened to fall.

She wanted to give up.

Tuk!

Her vision was already too blurred.

So she didn’t even know what she had bumped into.

She realized only belatedly.

“Here you are.”

The voice, laced with relief, was Jung-woo’s.

How someone who had been in the sky moments ago had descended to the ground —

How he could appear so abruptly right in front of her — it was a mystery.

But before any of that.

“…Ah.”

It was over.

He had seen everything.

That thought hit her first.

Her head creaked upward.

Her vision was too blurred to make out his expression.

So she let her imagination run wild.

He must be looking at her with contempt, thinking she was pathetic.

Her gaze dropped to the ground.

Her body trembled.

Her mind was in complete chaos.

Shrinking into herself, she spoke through fear.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m, sorry…”

For being a half-wit, for only causing trouble, for letting them down.

She murmured, packing every possible meaning into those words.

I’m sorry. Only those words kept spilling from her lips.

One second felt like a thousand years.

She felt like a prisoner on the gallows, waiting for the executioner.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

But the words that came back were so utterly unexpected that she froze, stunned.

“I was worried. You disappeared so suddenly.”

She couldn’t comprehend why he was reaching out to drape his coat over her.

“It’s too cold to be wandering around in just a Rudolph costume.”

His tone was so gentle it felt strange.

“Aren’t you cold? Are you feeling alright? Your nose is bleeding…”

It all felt like a lie.

Hikaru went blank.

“Hmm, we shouldn’t build a fire here, right? It might start a forest fire.”

The playful remark stripped away all sense of reality.

She almost wondered if this was all some terrible dream.

That was why.

Such strange words tumbled out.

“I, I…”

“Yes?”

“I actually… can’t even control my own power properly…”

She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t tearing her down.

She deserved punishment, and the absence of it was somehow more terrifying.

“I even had… bad thoughts. Thinking Se-gi had it easy… that only I was suffering…”

It would have been easier if he had just cursed at her.

But even thinking about it changed nothing.

“Thank you for the compliment. You’re saying Se-gi looked that happy, right?”

A hand landed lightly on her head.

“What’s wrong with having bad thoughts? I curse the Association Chairman in my head every day. Because he’s incredibly lazy.”

“Th-that’s not the same…”

“As for your ability. That can happen. My dolls don’t listen to me either. Well, except when Se-gi tells them to.”

That wasn’t the issue.

She couldn’t stop Jormungandr.

Despite being useless, she had tried to push others into the line of fire.

Yet his attitude seemed utterly unbothered by it, which was strange.

“You’ve been through a lot. Suffering in silence all this time.”

Why she was being comforted was beyond comprehension.

And yet, even in that confusion, emotions kept leaking out.

“Ugh, uhh…”

“It’s okay. Things will get better. That’s why I came.”

“Heuh…”

“I’ll help you. So you don’t have to run away anymore.”

Tears began to flow.

The fact that he didn’t say it was her fault made her heart ache as if crushed under heavy weight.

The dam holding back her emotions seemed to crumble.

The hand stroking her hair was so gentle, yet it demolished the wall she had built so solidly.

“Why…”

Why was he speaking like that?

Why wasn’t he even asking for a reason?

“I did something wrong, so why…”

Why was he talking as if she didn’t need to take responsibility?

The questions came out in broken fragments.

Then an answer came.

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”

The tears seemed to wash the film from her eyes.

Only then did she see clearly.

“You did your best. Ms. Ichijomodori is still a student, after all. That’s enough.”

Jung-woo was smiling gently.

“You did your best, so the rest is for the adults to handle.”

That was when Jung-woo was wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

A voice tinged with laughter rang out from the sky.

“Escaped Rudolph spotted!!!”

Se-gi had finally caught up.

She landed on the ground with a giggle.

Then, seeing Hikaru’s disheveled state, her jaw dropped.

“Huh, hah! Big Sister is crying! Daddy made her cry!”

“Hm? No. Daddy was comforting her.”

“Really?”

“Really really.”

Se-gi came pattering over and threw her arms around Hikaru’s leg.

She was fully on guard, as if protecting Hikaru from Jung-woo.

“Big Sister, Daddy really didn’t bully you?”

Hikaru didn’t understand what she was saying.

She wasn’t fluent in Korean.

But even so, there were things she could understand.

“Big Sister, he was really comforting you, right!?”

Se-gi was genuinely worried.

Everything she did showed it.

“You shouldn’t cry…!”

Se-gi pulled a small gift box from her coat.

She held it out carefully, yet tenderly.

Jung-woo smiled and translated Se-gi’s words faithfully.

“‘Normally, crying children don’t get presents, but Big Sister is pretty, so Se-gi will keep it a secret.'”

The moment the small box was placed in her hands.

“‘So, you can’t cry anymore, okay?'”

Sadly, she would fail to keep the child’s request.

Something cold touched her cheek.

Snowflakes began to drift down from the sky one by one.

Amid it all, as if to prove they were indeed father and daughter, Jung-woo and Se-gi smiled identical smiles.

“Snow! It’s snow!”

“So it is. Looks like a white Christmas.”

The gently falling snowflakes and the father-daughter smiles were so enchanting.

That seemed to prod at her tear ducts once more.

Because these were the first people to tell her she wasn’t useless, that she was okay.

Because these were the first people to comfort her without asking anything.

Because it was so strange and so reassuring.

Hikaru shed tears in front of the very child who had given her a gift and asked her not to cry.

She collapsed to the ground and wailed like a child.

Todak, todak — Se-gi patted Hikaru’s head and spoke.

Those words, at least, she could understand.

“Merry Christmas!”

The moment the little Santa who appeared on Christmas smiled, the pure white Snow Rabbit plush doll swung its whip toward the sky.

Chwaaaak—!

A crisp sound rang out, and the rampaging power subsided.

Jung-woo smiled at the sight of Se-gi comforting the crying Hikaru.

Se-gi, grinning at Hikaru and declaring that her red nose meant she’d truly become Rudolph, was absolutely adorable.

Ttiring!

An interface materialized across Jung-woo’s retinas.

【”A midnight chase! A high-altitude march through a snowy night!” Flying through the sky across winter is an ever-so-special experience! The child who delivered a gift to a sad friend is today’s Santa! [Great Caregiver (1/10)] *Collect stickers to unlock skills!*】

【Show more of the world to the little treasure who can only explore it through you! Let her imagination bloom ever more vibrantly!】

【Se-gi’s World (3/?)】

Along with the familiar notification, one more appeared.

【Connecting to the world!】

【A re-registration review for Skill: [■■■■] has been requested!】

【Warning! This skill is locked!】

【Review request temporarily denied! D-3 until unlock】

Jung-woo’s eyes went wide.