The ashen sky showed no signs of relenting easily.

Following the first day of their arrival in Cocytus, heavy rain poured down on the second day as well. It was questionable whether there was a hole somewhere in the sky.

With such gloomy weather, reconnaissance was impossible. When it rained, one couldn’t predict what kind of creatures might appear from within the deep canyons.

The forest was also a problem. Poisonous plants were soaking up the water and becoming fully vibrant. It was land where creatures that could cause a month-long leg swelling with just a graze grew. The rain severely narrowed the scope of people’s activities.

Baek Sang-ho issued an order to wait until the rain stopped. Yoon Tae-ha and Cheon Geon-young ended up being trapped here together.

Having been unable to fall asleep until dawn on the day of their arrival, she finally woke up in the late afternoon, close to evening.

Yoon Tae-ha went to the living room with a disheveled face. Cheon Geon-young was sitting on the floor, fiddling with firewood.

This accommodation had a very old-fashioned heating device called a fireplace. It was in preparation for a possible power outage. She deliberately made the sound of her slippers. Cheon Geon-young turned around. He looked pleased.

“If you had woken up any later, I would have called a doctor.”

Yoon Tae-ha muttered that she had gone to bed late and sat down beside him. Cheon Geon-young neatly stacked the firewood inside the clean fireplace. He looked slightly excited.

“What are you going to do?”

“After putting firewood in the fireplace, what action should I take? Guess.”

He spread his hands like a magician. There was nothing on his palms. She played along.

“Light a fire?”

“You guessed it, so I’ll show you.”

Yoon Tae-ha smiled weakly. Magic. Now Cheon Geon-young was even encroaching on her territory.

“Can’t I watch from the kitchen?”

“No. Wait beside me with a fire extinguisher.”

Yoon Tae-ha could clearly see his confidence. She moved and hid behind her guide’s back.

“Then I’ll watch from here.”

“Do that. I’ll light it on three.”

Yoon Tae-ha, who had only half her face showing, subtly placed her hand on his shoulder. She felt a little uneasy if she didn’t increase the contact area even like this.

Having manifested as an esper, she had to accept that he would be very close to fire. Intellectually, she understood well enough. But her heart still didn’t acknowledge the fact that he used fire, and it sometimes churned.

However, she was gradually learning how not to show it.

Together, they stared at the firewood neatly stacked inside the fireplace. Cheon Geon-young counted. And like magic, a jujube-red ember, like a well-ripened persimmon, appeared in the air. It was instantaneous for the nail-sized ember to ripen. The luscious flame rolled down onto the firewood.

Yoon Tae-ha, who had half her face buried in Cheon Geon-young’s back, let out a surprised “Ah.”

A large hand was extended towards her. Feeling around in the air, Yoon Tae-ha placed her hand on it. Cheon Geon-young firmly wrapped his hand around the hand of the person hiding behind him.

“It’s pretty.”

Cheon Geon-young tilted his head slightly to check the woman’s expression. It wasn’t the voice of someone lying. She was looking into the fireplace without looking at him.

“Are you serious?”

At his questioning confirmation, Yoon Tae-ha looked at him a beat late. Cheon Geon-young looked down at her.

The flame he had created was swaying enchantingly in her pupils. A flame that one would never tire of looking into, even if they gazed at it forever.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. She even felt a pang of jealousy towards his flame. It was occupying a part of her in some way.

“I’m serious. It’s pretty. Warm too...”

Cheon Geon-young’s Adam’s apple bobbed briefly. The woman who had been hiding behind his back gradually came forward. It would be okay to keep leaning. She felt a terrible ambivalence. She wanted him to lean on her back, but she also wanted him to show his face beside her.

“You don’t even make mistakes. You don’t even need to flick your wrist.”

“I’ve improved, haven’t I?”

“I know you’ve practiced a lot.”

Yoon Tae-ha pulled her hand out of his. He almost frowned at the feeling of loss. But a small reward was given to the patient one.

“Compliment.”

A soft touch landed on her head. Yoon Tae-ha stroked his hair.

“Good job.”

“Tell me I did a good job too.”

A sweet chuckle escaped her lips.

“You did a good job.”

“Did you know I sometimes burned the ends of my sleeves?”

“Can I be honest?”

“Yeah.”

“I noticed. I have pretty good eyesight, you know.”

“Why did you pretend not to know?”

“I thought you’d worry. And you were hiding it from me. I didn’t want to deliberately bring it up. I was so scared of making mistakes when I first used psychokinesis too.”

The sound of rain was as melodious as a musical performance. And her voice was the main character dominating all the harmonies. He wanted to place her at the highest point of the stage and keep asking her to continue.

“You were scared too?”

Yoon Tae-ha shrugged as if he were saying something obvious.

“Of course. Because people were watching me. Every time I dropped something on the floor, it felt like my heart was falling too.”

Cheon Geon-young slowly closed and opened his eyes as if savoring her touch. He trusted that Yoon Tae-ha wouldn’t disappear even if he closed his eyes for a moment. She wouldn’t suddenly make a tearful face or twist her features in pain.

“You have so much hair. It’s so fluffy.”

“It’s been like this since I was little.”

She swept his hair that had fallen below his eyebrows to the side. It tickled. Cheon Geon-young leaned his body, implying that she could touch him more comfortably.

“You’re going to fall backward if you keep doing that.”

“Then you’ll have to catch me.”

The affectionate touch soon fell away. He was very disappointed, but Yoon Tae-ha seemed to want to watch the flames more. She moved closer to the fireplace.

“Don’t get too close.”

“I’ll only go as close as I won’t get burned.”

Cheon Geon-young, who had been looking into the fireplace with her, got up from his seat for a moment. He remembered finding cocoa powder while organizing the cupboard last night.

Heading to the kitchen, he took out a mug and cocoa. Soon, a sweet aroma spread. Yoon Tae-ha actively welcomed him, who had brought two thick mugs. They sipped cocoa silently in front of the fireplace.

A little time passed, and Yoon Tae-ha, having emptied about half of her cup, stood up. She went into her room. She came out with a black box.

“What’s this?”

“Something I’ll lend you.”

Yoon Tae-ha knew how important the contents of this box were to her. That’s why she felt like giving it to the current Cheon Geon-young.

It was something given by the person she had thought of whenever she had a hard time training. It was also a tool that had been a small source of motivation.

Sitting across from him, she carefully opened the box.

An old silver stopwatch appeared. It wasn’t digital, but an antique with moving hands. It also looked like a lidless pocket watch. It was divided into a total of twelve sections. The one long hand in the center was red.

“It’s a collector. An ether collector.”

Cheon Geon-young leaned closer as if he needed an explanation. Yoon Tae-ha pointed to the hand with her finger.

“If you press the button on the left, the surrounding ether gathers. Then the collector gets heavier. You can press it a total of twelve times. But you probably can’t press it all the way right now.”

The old but well-maintained watch was passed to him. Yoon Tae-ha overlapped her hand with his and personally pressed the small button on the left side of the watch.

Click. With a clear sound, the sound of wind being sucked into the watch could be heard. At the same time, the watch became heavier than before. Yoon Tae-ha asked, holding her breath with a nervous expression,

“A non-esper wouldn’t feel the difference. Did the weight change from before?”

“It did. It’s heavier now.”

“This time, you press it yourself. Until it gets so heavy you can’t lift it.”

She let go of his hand. Cheon Geon-young carefully pressed the button. Only after pressing it six more times was he unable to bear the weight of the watch and put it down on the floor. Cheon Geon-young found all of this fascinating.

After pressing it a total of seven times, the watch became so heavy that he couldn’t lift it at all. Yoon Tae-ha, who had counted the number of times with him, mumbled blankly,

“Seven times...”

Cheon Geon-young, seeing such equipment for the first time, didn’t know what the number seven meant.

“Is that a big number?”

“I only pressed it five times and stopped at first. Though I was young. Usually, a fully grown A-rank esper can withstand up to nine times. In the case of an esper whose ability has stabilized. B-ranks usually withstand six to seven times.”

Nine times. To Cheon Geon-young, an A-rank esper was Chairman Cheon. That meant his grandfather could press it two more times than him here.

He picked up the watch again. As he focused all his nerves on his right arm, it felt a little easier to lift than before.

“Don’t overdo it. You can’t increase it drastically all at once. You gradually increase it over time.”

“You?”

She took the watch. Handling the watch, which seemed to have a heavy weight attached, very lightly. Her expression was calm.

“Twelve times, all of them.”

“Show me.”

The left button was pressed in succession. Soon, the red hand completed a full circle around the watch. Yet, Yoon Tae-ha was still holding it steadily. She said modestly,

“I filled it all after I turned twenty.”

Yoon Tae-ha picked up her half-empty mug. After drinking the lukewarm, sweet beverage, she was cautious and careful. She didn’t want to put any pressure on Cheon Geon-young. But she also thought it was necessary to present a reasonable standard.

“You’ll probably exceed nine times too.”

“Tell me the percentage of certainty, considering my grandfather.”

She nodded slightly. Yoon Tae-ha didn’t know what Cheon Geon-young thought of Chairman Cheon.

She only recognized that it was definitely not a normal relationship between a grandfather and grandson. Just like with Professor Yoon and herself.

However, her feelings towards Professor Yoon were close to hatred. The word “bittersweet” was not a suitable word to describe him. Much less “affection.”

But was it the same for Cheon Geon-young? Although she was adopted by someone and gained a family, she knew that the community called family was a very special relationship. So, she didn’t want a development where she carelessly touched it and ruined her relationship with him.

Yoon Tae-ha informed him that pressing the right button would reset the collector. Cheon Geon-young tried pressing it. The sound of air escaping could be heard, and it returned to its original light weight.

“The teacher who taught me how to train made this himself. It’s one of a kind in the world.”

“Can I borrow it?”

“I said I’d help.”

The fire in the fireplace was gradually dying down. But the warmth in Yoon Tae-ha’s eyes remained.

Cheon Geon-young, who had been slowly examining the watch, discovered a single letter engraved on the corner of the back cover. He read it, relying on the light from the fireplace.

“Hyun?”

“It’s an abbreviation of the name of the person who gave it to me.”

And then, the name of a woman he had not expected at all was heard.

“Teacher Hyun Yi-jeong.”