HH Chapter 24

Haylan, with an annoyed expression, subtly pulled his hand away from mine and added,

“On one condition.”

“What is it?”

I wasn’t surprised at all. I knew he wouldn’t show me any kindness without something in return.

He hesitated for a moment, then asked in a slightly quieter voice,

“Do you have more of that… thing you gave me yesterday?”

The thing I gave him yesterday?

I thought for a moment and remembered giving Haylan a bag of ginger cookies yesterday.

Haylan held out his hand towards me and said coyly,

“Give it to me.”

“…….”

So that’s why this little guy followed me all the way here…. A wide grin spread across my face.

Oh, he really liked them!

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

Last night, Haylan calculated how long it would take for the binding spell on his feet to wear off.

“…….”

At this rate, it would probably last at least two, no, three hours.

‘A skilled mage, they said….’

It seemed the man’s reputation wasn’t for nothing. Haylan gritted his teeth, remembering how Chahyun had cast the binding spell on him and then immediately fled to his room.

‘…I’m hungry.’

He wondered why he felt so bad, then realized he was hungry. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this sensation. He felt weak and listless, his vision blurring.

‘I’m losing strength….’

After a considerable amount of time, when the spell finally dissipated, he suddenly lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes again, several hours had passed.

Haylan’s body had shrunk back to its child form, lying sprawled on the hallway floor covered only by a thin sheet. As soon as he regained consciousness, he checked his appearance.

Short legs. Small fingers.

‘Was I the one who was sleepwalking?’

Last night’s events felt surreal.

He’d thought it was a dream because of his suddenly grown body, but then Chahyun had appeared out of nowhere. And the moment he saw Haylan, he had tried to run away.

‘S-Spare me!’

‘What?’

‘Spare me!’

He was excessively afraid. It was a little surprising to see him so pale and terrified after always seeing him with a cheerful smile, eager to chat.

‘Aaah! G-G-Ghost! Aaaaaah!’

‘What are you babbling about….?’

Even in his dreams, he was spouting nonsense.

However, the ensuing conversation made Haylan reconsider his belief that it was all a dream.

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m just a passerby?’

Dreams are remnants of the subconscious. Even if someone else appears in a dream, their words and actions generally reflect the dreamer’s own thoughts.

‘Perhaps it wasn’t a dream?’

Haylan immediately realized that the man before him wasn’t a dream but the real Chahyun. He himself couldn’t come up with such a pathetic, simple-minded, and foolish answer.

Then does that mean this was reality? His suddenly heightened perspective, his grown appearance….

‘All of this?’

Haylan was confused.

‘Who are you?’

Chahyun had asked. The way he looked at him felt unfamiliar. Chahyun always had a faint smile or a cheeky, suppressed grin when he looked at Haylan.

But now, he was wary of Haylan. His trembling body was proof enough.

‘He doesn’t recognize me.’

Well, even just a change in hair and eye color could make someone look like a different person. Even he felt unfamiliar with his suddenly grown body, so it was natural for this man not to recognize him.

‘The owner of this house.’

‘You’re the owner of this house?’

He seemed a little confused, then said as if he’d realized something,

‘You… you do realize you’re dead, right?’

‘……What?’

‘So, you really don’t know.’

Chahyun explained in detail that he was the remnant of a soul that hadn’t moved on after death, in other words, a ghost.

Calling a living person a ghost was quite an overactive imagination. It wasn’t even funny how he was still trembling but talking so much.

‘But… is it part of your culture to not wear anything under the cloth?’

At those words, Haylan was suddenly aware of his own nakedness and became flustered. And in the blink of an eye, the man cast a binding spell on him and ran away.

Haylan, who had lost consciousness due to the sudden wave of sleepiness and hunger, woke up and pondered seriously.

Was it even possible for his body, which had stopped growing for hundreds of years, to suddenly grow?

Haylan concluded that such a thing was impossible unless he had gone insane, but soon after, he spotted a crumpled piece of paper on the floor and picked it up.

“…….”

It was covered with what looked like a failed attempt at creating a defensive scroll. The handwriting was messy and pressed deeply, as if written with an injured dominant hand.

‘It’s him.’

This was proof that it wasn’t a dream. Then…

‘Did he see me too?’

Haylan went back to his room, holding the crumpled scroll, and thought about Chahyun for hours.

Why did he come out at that hour? Judging by the way he was looking around, he seemed to be searching for something. More importantly, what caused his body to suddenly grow and then revert?

Besides himself, Chahyun was the only one who witnessed his temporary growth. Haylan, lost in thought until dawn, opened his door at the sound of footsteps outside.

“Hello!”

It was Chahyun. He was smiling at him again with a dazed expression. Such a friendly attitude. He didn’t seem like the same person who had been so terrified of him last night.

‘I feel a little better.’

Only after finishing his breakfast did he feel his mind clear up. It was strange that he felt hunger, something he had almost forgotten, and even felt full after the meal. Something was definitely wrong with his body.

Haylan suspected that Chahyun was at the center of this incident. His body hadn’t shown any signs of growth for hundreds of years, not even a flicker. But last night, Haylan actually grew, even if only for a short time, and experienced hunger for the first time in centuries.

The only thing that had changed was Chahyun’s presence.

‘What did he do…?’

Haylan frowned, trying to recall yesterday’s events. There were a few possibilities.

Because of that man, he’d eaten a normal meal for the first time in a long time and gone out for a walk in the garden during a rainy day. And… the cookies?

‘Was there something in the cookies?’

As far as he could remember, there was nothing special about them. But what if there was something special in those cookies?

‘…No wonder they were so damn delicious.’

Haylan tried to hide the sharp glint in his eyes.

He felt a surge of motivation for the first time in a long time. When he was younger, he firmly believed he would one day break free from this curse. He seemed to have lived each day busily, clinging to that vague and futile hope. Although those memories had faded now, the emotions he felt at the time were still vivid.

His age was the most powerful constraint. Haylan was currently far too young, unable to even live a normal life without someone’s assistance.

‘Can I grow?’

He couldn’t help but feel hopeful. He was willing to do anything if it meant he could grow, even a little, just like he dreamt of when he was younger.

‘First, let’s find out what caused my body to grow.’

Haylan decided to approach Chahyun for that purpose.

It wasn’t difficult to coax the man who was already being friendly towards him. Perhaps because he was currently his source of income, he was always smiling and acting subservient whenever he saw Haylan.

“Shall I teach you?”

He used Chahyun’s defensive scroll as an excuse to get on his good side.

Unlike other magic, defensive scrolls are triggered by hostility. As long as he didn’t try to harm him directly, it wouldn’t activate, so there was no harm in teaching properly.

“On one condition.”

The white cookies with the ginger scent.

“Give it to me.”

At Haylan’s request, Chahyun’s eyes sparkled, and he grinned foolishly.

“These are delicious, right? I knew you’d like them.”

He pulled out a bag of cookies, identical to yesterday’s, from his bag. He even took one out and popped it into Haylan’s mouth.

‘He’s treating me completely differently from yesterday.’

Last night, he was trembling as if he was about to die, but now, he had a constant smile on his face.

‘He doesn’t even know I’m trying to use him.’

He probably thought these actions were out of goodwill, right? 

How foolish.

If that was the case, he was mistaken. He had no interest in Chahyun whatsoever. Once he figured out what the man had done to his body, he would kick him out without hesitation.

“……?”

Then it happened. Chahyun slipped his hands under Haylan’s arms, lifted him up, and placed him on his lap. It happened so fast that Haylan could only blink, unable to protest.

“There’s only one chair in the room… I hope you’re not uncomfortable?”

“…….”

‘What’s the point of asking after you’ve already done it?’

Chahyun was undeniably inconsiderate. He had already noticed this from the moment he’d picked him up him without permission, claiming they were going for a walk….

“Not really.”

What was wrong with this guy?

This went beyond rudeness; it was absurd. He didn’t even know where to begin with his criticisms. Haylan swallowed a deep sigh and shook his head.

Bear with it. 

Making things worse with Chayun wouldn’t benefit him right now.

Whenever Chahyun copied formulas from the book onto the paper, Haylan would immediately point out the errors. After two or three hours of following the book’s instructions, a plausible basic defensive scroll was finally completed.