Failed Possession Chapter-7

## Chapter 7

—

Elena, who had stepped right up to him, boldly stretched out her hand and flicked a finger at the worn, tattered shirt Yuri was wearing.

Tadadadak!

Her finger hadn’t even touched it directly, yet every single button popped open.

“Hey—w-what are you doing?”

Yuri asked again, genuinely flustered.

Elena didn’t answer this time either.
She widened her blue eyes and stared at Yuri’s upper body.

Old scars.
Burn marks branded with a hot iron.
The wounds he’d taken during his time in the Black Snake Faction had all healed, leaving fresh scars.

Seeing the countless marks, Elena’s eyes trembled.

“Ugh…”

She bit down on her lip and swallowed a groan.
Lowering her head, clutching her skirt, she took a moment to steady her emotions.

“I… got a letter from Mister Gordon.”

What?

“After you left the orphanage… what kind of life you lived. You… joined some ridiculous, trash organization called the Black Snake Faction, didn’t you?”

Damn it.

Yuri pressed his lips shut.
So that’s why she’d suddenly shown up—she’d gotten a letter from Gordon at the general store.

“I also know your group got attacked. And that you… survived by luck.”

Her voice began trembling more and more.
She steadied her breathing a few times, then raised her head and glared at his body.

“You almost died.”

“It… wasn’t that bad.”

“How is that ‘not that bad’? Just because you weren’t fatally wounded doesn’t mean you didn’t almost die. In the end, you’re the only one who survived!”

—Pajijik!

Her uncontrolled emotions sparked electricity around her.

The place Elena belonged to was the **Dercia Magic Tower**. Just like in the game, this world’s Dercia Tower specialized in lightning. For Elena, who had studied there, wielding lightning was only natural.

“…Hoo.”

She calmed her ragged breath.
The crackling current died down.
Pressing down her hair floating with static, she glared at Yuri.

“What the hell is all this?”

“….”

“I knew you were doing shady things. But there’s still a limit, isn’t there? You never told me anything. Not Mister Gordon, not the director either. No one told me what you were going through.”

She let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.

“So in the end, I was the only one who didn’t know. What you were doing. How you were living.”

“You didn’t need to know.”

He couldn’t keep quiet forever.

Yuri hardened his gaze and stared back at her.

After a month, he’d figured out what Yuri’s personality was like.

This bastard just had no manners.

“You’re living well at the Mage Tower. Why would you need to hear about me?”

“What…?”

“Like you said, yeah. I lived like trash. So what? However I live, what does that have to do with you?”

He snapped harshly, pushing her hand away, then rebuttoned his shirt with a smirk.

“What does it have to do with me…?”

Elena clenched the hand he’d shoved aside.
Blinking a few times, she composed herself and opened her mouth.

“How does it not? Yuri, you and I are—”

“Childhood friends? Isn’t that funny? We were just kids the same age at the same orphanage. That’s all.”

“Yuri…!”

“Please, Elena.”

He cut her off with a short sigh.

“Ten years.”

“….”

“Ten years. It’s been ten years since you left for the Dercia Mage Tower. I don’t know how you remember the old me, but I’m… not the same ten-year-old kid you remember.”

It was true.

The orphan Yuri, Elena’s childhood friend, was dead.

What stood here now was Lee Su-hyeok wearing Yuri’s skin.

Of course, he didn’t mean it that way—just laying groundwork in case.

*Please.*

Hiding his desperation, Yuri looked at her.

Elena stared back, stunned.

Seeing her like that softened his heart a little—but it couldn’t be helped.

Even if Yuri’s original personality was rude, the current Yuri didn’t have to be kind. Ten years could change landscapes—how much more a person? Especially a childhood friend meeting again after ten years. He could say nice things if he wanted.

He was choosing not to.

He wanted Elena to cut off her attachment to Yuri.
To despise the childhood friend who’d become trash.
To leave.

And never—never—get involved again.

“….”

Elena silently glared at him. She looked angry now.

“Go back,” Yuri said.

To drive the final nail in.

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll live my life, and you—”

“Live how?”

This time Elena cut him off.

“How exactly are you going to live?”

Her hand moved.

She placed it on the center of his scarred chest and twisted her lips.

“Black Snake Faction? When I first heard the name, I thought it was some proper underworld sect. But it wasn’t even that. Yuri, you could’ve at least joined a real dark sect. Maybe you’d have picked up even a third-rate cultivation method.”

The *Veil of Deception* was working perfectly.
She couldn’t sense even a trace of internal energy from him.

“Ten years? You’re right, Yuri. Ten years is long. I changed. And you… changed too. But.”

She withdrew her hand and sighed softly.

“Don’t you… have anything you want to say to me, after ten years?”

“What about you?”

“If you hadn’t shown up like this, maybe I would’ve said something different.”

After blinking a few times, Elena stepped back with a short sigh.

“You’re right.”

Calmly nodding, she removed her wide-brimmed hat and bowed her head.

“I was rude. Showing up suddenly, breaking your door, scolding you without thinking about how you feel. I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t say that to get an apology.”

“Yuri.”

She lifted her head.

“I’m taking you with me.”

“…What?”

“Even if you say no, I won’t listen. The moment I read Mister Gordon’s letter, I decided. I’m taking you with me.”

Her voice didn’t waver.

She looked around his tiny room.

“From this small room. From this countryside where there’s nothing and nothing you can do. I’m taking you out.”

The worst.

“I came here having already decided.”

She hid the trembling in her fingertips by gripping her hat.
She suppressed the feeling that she might cry.

Clothes that didn’t match the countryside.
Spotless shoes.
The image of the “city” they used to dream of as children.

Elena turned her back and bit her lower lip.

If he hadn’t spoken so coldly, would she have heard him say she’d gotten prettier?

“Why?”

Yuri couldn’t understand her.

Ten years without visiting once—just occasional letters. Yes, some concern for him had been written, but he never imagined she’d go this far.

He searched old memories.

Back at the Aldor orphanage—they had been close. If anything, Yuri had been like an older brother to her.

Before her magic talent awakened, she’d already been pretty, which only made other orphans bully her more.

And Yuri had always been a troublemaker.

He fought everyone—but was gentle with Elena.

If she got bullied, he beat the others down.

*Because of that?*

That was ten years ago. Or because he almost died a month ago?

*…No. Maybe that isn’t something to call “just.”*

Hearing a distant childhood friend had barely survived might really be that shocking.

“Why? Why do you think?”

Elena spun around.

“Because I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Her face showed firm, stubborn resolve.

—

### 8

Elena couldn’t be persuaded.

That was all there was to it.

She had already decided to take Yuri back before coming here, and right now, Yuri had no valid reason to refuse.

He had nothing he had to do, nothing he truly wanted to do.

He’d lost even his pseudo-job with the Black Snake Faction—and nearly died in the process.

Even objectively, Elena was already successful. And she’d only go higher.

In this world, Seronis, a Mage Tower stood at the forefront of magic. Not every great mage came from one—but every Tower Master was great. Even in the game, anyone with the title “Tower Master” had been a named boss hard to kill.

Elena had been acknowledged by one of them.

And according to her last letter, the Dercia Tower Master—Heavenly Thunder Orca Dercia—had personally arranged missions to broaden her experience.

That clearly meant she was cherished.

Someone that extraordinary had personally come here and was insisting on taking him.

Even if Yuri was a rude bastard, “because I’m rude” wasn’t enough reason to refuse.

*Just saying I don’t want to…*

Wouldn’t work. She was determined to drag him along if necessary.

Checkmate. No retreat.

*Maybe… it’s not so bad?*

Life would definitely be better than here. Aldor had countless inconveniences.

There were risks, of course. He’d have to fake personality changes, avoid childhood memory topics, hide possessor traits.

If not for the Veil of Deception, he might’ve had to run—or punch her in the solar plexus first.

*At least my internal energy won’t be exposed.*

Like the difference between game and reality, the item worked differently too. No manual, of course.

Still, he’d figured out how it worked.

A mental switch in his head.
By focusing on it, he could adjust the output.

He could look like a normal civilian.
Or a beginner.

Deception was its true value.

*If I’m lucky, maybe Elena can get me a mana manual or a cultivation method.*

The Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique gave him internal energy, but he’d still need excuses later.

*Alright.*

After much thought, he accepted it.

He’d leave this countryside with Elena.

Might as well benefit a little from his accomplished childhood friend.

“Are you done yet?”

Elena, standing with her arms crossed in the corner, asked.

His mind was busy, but his hands kept moving. He couldn’t just follow her empty-handed. He still had to pack.

“Don’t just stand there. Sit or something.”

“It’s dirty. I don’t want to.”

What’s dirty?

He frowned—then looked at her outfit and understood.

A pure white dress like that would gather dust just by standing.

“…Why are you dressed like that?”

“What?”

“The clothes. You remember what kind of place this city is, right?”

In Aldor, no one dressed like her.

“…I’ll wear what I want.”

Irritation seeped into her voice.

Ah.

Maybe it was her way of showing she no longer belonged here.

Back at the orphanage, she used to trail behind him constantly, calling “Yuri, Yuri.”

To think she’d grown this prickly and cold…

“Looks nice on you.”

He muttered.

He’d acted harsh earlier to push her away—but now that he was going with her, he had to soften up.

“…What did you say?”

“Looks nice.”

“….”

“Did I say something weird?”

“No… um. Thanks.”

Her voice softened slightly. A small cough sounded behind him.

He kept packing.

There wasn’t much.

Clothes.
The emergency money he’d saved.
His diary filled with self-loathing.

And—

“That.”

Elena, fidgeting nearby, stepped closer.

“…My letters?”

Letters piled in the very bottom drawer.

Yuri, carefully placing the letters into his travel bag one by one, looked up at Elena, who had come to stand beside him.

“Yeah.”

“You… didn’t throw them away… you kept them?”

“Why would I throw these away?”

At his answer, Elena’s eyes trembled faintly.

Honestly, she had thought he might have thrown them away.

The replies she’d received from Yuri had given her that feeling.
Letters that barely talked about himself.
Replies that felt perfunctory, thick with the sense that he’d only written them out of obligation.

No matter what kind of letter Elena sent, Yuri’s replies lacked “communication” and “empathy.”

Life at the Mage Tower had gotten busy… and when they were younger, she hadn’t liked Yuri’s attitude either.

So gradually, Elena stopped putting effort into her letters too.

A relationship called “childhood friends,” barely connected by shallow memories of the past.

A relationship that wouldn’t have been strange to break at any time—

But she didn’t want it to break.

It felt like it shouldn’t.

“You kept them…”

Elena glanced at the letters still left in the drawer.

Most of the seals were loose.
She couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like they had been opened and reread recently.

Maybe he’d read them over several times.

“…Are you taking them with you?”

There wasn’t even a need to ask.

Right now Yuri was packing them into his bag.

Even after meeting her in person.
Even after ten years of letters that had slowly made them aware of the distance between each other.
He wasn’t throwing them away.

“Yeah.”

*Why would I throw these away?*

He absolutely couldn’t throw them away.

These letters were ten years’ worth of accumulated information about Elena.

“You didn’t throw my letters away, right?”

“Ah… no. Why would I?”

“That’s good.”

“What’s good about it?”

“It’d be weird if only I kept mine.”

If possible, he wanted to read the letters Elena had kept too.

The “Yuri” he’d pieced together through memories and the diary lacked detail. And his memories weren’t perfectly clear—he couldn’t recall exactly what Yuri had written in each letter.

Judging from reconstructed memories, Yuri’s personality, and Elena’s replies, Yuri probably hadn’t written anything deep…

Still, reading them would help.

*But asking to reread letters you wrote yourself would be weird, wouldn’t it?*

While thinking that and packing the letters away, Elena hesitated, then spoke.

“Can I read them later?”

“…The ones you sent?”

“Yeah.”

“Why…?”

“Just… maybe… I might’ve written something weird in some of the old ones.”

Maybe it wasn’t that strange after all.

“They’re letters from when we were ten. I—I don’t really remember what I wrote…”

“Then we can exchange and read them.”

He grabbed the chance immediately.

“I don’t really remember what I wrote back then either.”

“Okay.”

An awkward smile formed on Elena’s lips.

Yuri matched it with one of his own.

After packing what he needed from the drawer, he opened the desk drawer.

<Basic Mana Primer>
<Anyone Can Become a Mage>
<Three Elements Sword Art>
<Wind Origin Heart Method>

Four books that reeked strongly of scams.

He’d already judged them not worth taking, but deliberately opened the drawer and took them out in front of Elena.

“What’s this?”

Just as he’d intended, Elena showed interest.
She quickly stepped beside him and picked up <Basic Mana Primer> first.

“Yuri… do you want to become a mage?”

“I just read it to kill time.”

He told an obvious lie she was bound to notice.

Elena gave him a strange look, then opened the book.

Her expression grew fairly serious as she read and flipped the pages.

Flap, flap…

She focused for the first few pages, then started flipping faster.

“You didn’t pay money for this, right?”

He didn’t know. Since it didn’t look stolen, he probably had.

“It’s even secondhand.”

He knew. At least three people had owned it before.

Had any of them actually become mages after reading it?

“…Is there a problem?”

Of course Yuri knew there was a problem. But he couldn’t act like he knew.

He asked back with a dubious expression.

Elena let out a hollow laugh and flicked her finger.

—Fwoosh!

<Basic Mana Primer> burned up in her hand and disappeared.

“This is trash.”

She pronounced the cruel truth to Yuri, who wore a genuinely stricken expression.

“To someone who doesn’t know magic it might look convincing, but it’s mostly nonsense. A fake. Why do you even have this kind of book?”

“Because it was the best I could get.”

It really was.

There were no proper magic books in this rural town. And even if there were, Yuri wouldn’t have been able to get them.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Elena frowned.

“You literally had a mage from the Dercia Mage Tower right next to you! If you’d written to me saying you wanted to learn magic, I would’ve—”

“I didn’t want to.”

She was right.

If he truly wanted to learn, asking her would’ve been faster and correct instead of buying trash like this.

But Yuri hadn’t.

Why?

He didn’t know the exact answer.

The Yuri who could answer had died bleeding out from a stab wound.

Still, he could guess.

Yuri resembled Lee Su-hyeok.

And if it were Lee Su-hyeok—

There was only one reason.

Pride.

Pathetic pride.

Elena, the childhood friend who’d gone too far ahead, whose letters only deepened his inferiority and reminded him of reality. He didn’t want to show weakness. He didn’t want to ask for help.

There was no need to explain such a miserable, petty story.

“I didn’t want to.”

That answer was enough.

It clearly said he didn’t want to talk further.

“….”

Elena wasn’t stupid.

And the Elena he’d met in person had more consideration than the one he’d imagined from letters.

She studied his face for a moment, then sighed softly and nodded.

“Okay.”

The burned <Basic Mana Primer> crumbled into black ash on the floor.

After a moment of silence, her gaze moved to the remaining books.

“You wanted to learn martial arts too…?”

“Magic didn’t suit me.”

“Can I look?”

“Go ahead. Probably not worth it.”

Elena glanced at Yuri’s stiff face.

Regret flickered through her at what she’d said earlier.

She checked <Wind Origin Heart Method> and <Three Elements Sword Art>.

Sure enough, they were just as trashy as the magic book.

But this time she didn’t laugh or burn them.

She quietly set them down.

<Anyone Can Become a Mage>

The last remaining book.

Elena stared at the title.

She didn’t bother opening it.

Books with titles like that were obvious.

Many mages who longed for the Tower but hit their limits sought comfort in books like those.

Elena wasn’t one of them.

She knew she had great talent and had never felt lacking.

If someone else indulged in those books, she’d mock that comfort as cheap. She’d tell them to train harder instead.

But she couldn’t do that to Yuri.

“I’m glad I came to see you.”

Instead, she muttered that.

Looking away from the books, she gazed at Yuri seriously.

“I’m glad I found out now, at least.”

“….”

“I promise you. Yuri.”

She swallowed and turned around lightly.

“You’re going to think it was lucky that I came to take you today.”

His few belongings were now all packed.

It was time to leave Aldor.