Chapter 73, Companions
At my question, Arlin's eyes began sparkling as she started explaining.
She looked unusually excited.
“As for what kind of organization the Mystery Protection Association is...”
She began with those words and continued with a long explanation.
Maybe because she was excited, she talked more than usual.
Strangely enough, though, not a single thing she said was useless or irrelevant.
I listened carefully to every word until I was finally able to summarize the Mystery Protection Association in one sentence.
In short, the Mystery Protection Association was an organization that possessed an enormous number and variety of Mysteries.
According to Arlin, the Mystery Protection Association wasn't a major faction on the level of the Order or the Company.
In terms of size alone, it barely qualified as a mid-sized faction.
However, while the Order and the Company gathered Mysteries to achieve their own goals, the Mystery Protection Association's goal itself was to collect Mysteries.
Because of that, in terms of sheer quantity, it apparently possessed enough Mysteries to confidently stand at the very top.
After hearing the explanation, I understood why Arlin was so excited.
Since meeting her, there hadn't been many times when she had gotten visibly excited.
Recently, I had seen it more often, but even then, I could count those occasions on one hand.
I could remember every time she had gotten excited.
Looking back now, all of those situations had one thing in common.
Academic curiosity.
When she first encountered the enormous amount of magical knowledge in the Gallery.
When we first discovered the divine power fragments.
And when things that had only existed in imagination became possible to recreate and observe through the Inner World.
Arlin herself had once described herself as someone with strong academic curiosity.
She was the very image of a typical mage overflowing with a thirst for knowledge.
She couldn't suppress her curiosity, and if there was something she didn't understand, she had to experiment with it before she could feel satisfied.
To someone like Arlin, Mysteries were overflowing with research value.
And now there was an exhibition hosted by an organization that might possess dozens or even hundreds of them.
It was easy to understand why she was excited.
“There shouldn't be much possibility of it being a trap. The Mystery Protection Association also held exhibitions for its one-hundredth and two-hundredth anniversaries, and no problems were discovered at either event.”
“Hmm...”
“And Scq711, False Utopia, where the exhibition will be held, is a fairly famous place. For one thing, even if you die inside, you don't truly die. No matter what happens to you there, once you return to reality, it all becomes as though it never happened.”
“Like a dream?”
“Yes. Like a dream or an illusion. Though that doesn't mean the possibility of danger is completely nonexistent.”
No matter what happened in a dream, it couldn't physically harm the real me.
Even if I died in a dream, I might wake up shaken, but my actual body wouldn't be injured.
False Utopia apparently worked the same way.
Arlin explained that its defining trait was that anything that happened inside couldn't affect reality.
Because of that, the possibility of it being some dangerous trap was very low.
As I listened to her explanation, my decision gradually became clearer.
I had already been leaning toward going, but Arlin's attitude finally settled it.
It was obvious that she desperately wanted to attend.
Yet even then, she still consistently warned me that the danger wasn't exactly zero percent.
That made me smile.
She really wants to go that badly.
If she wanted it this much, then fine.
We might as well go once.
Even if something dangerous happened, I still had the book, so it probably wouldn't cause any serious damage.
I decided to attend the exhibition hosted by the Mystery Protection Association, just as Arlin wanted.
“But the invitation says I can bring up to two people. Who should we take?”
One spot was already reserved for Arlin.
The other still hadn't been decided.
Who would be a good companion?
Lee Yeonhee?
No.
She didn't have time.
During our last journey, Lee Yeonhee had gained an enormous amount of divine power and grown far too quickly.
Because of that, she couldn't properly control her own strength yet.
She had said around two days ago that she wanted to focus on training for a while to fix that.
It was probably better to leave her alone for the time being.
Then what about Hwa-ryeon?
I thought she would be fine, but Arlin objected.
“That Sword Freak doesn't suit a refined cultural event like an exhibition. Even if she went, she obviously wouldn't look at anything and would just follow Yuhyeon around the entire time.”
Arlin strongly opposed it, saying it would be a waste of an invitation.
Her tone suggested that if I specifically wanted to go with Hwa-ryeon, that was one thing.
But if not, she wanted me to reconsider.
Hwa-ryeon was out.
Then who was left?
Eriel?
I asked Arlin what she thought about Eriel.
She nodded and said that would be fine.
We still hadn't spent much time together and things were a little awkward, so this could be a good opportunity to get closer.
