If I couldn’t escape his gaze, at least I needed to know why he had descended to bring a sword to the world.
“I’m tired of secrets. No, I hate being thrown into the unknown even more than secrets.”
Herschel approached, placing a hand on each of our shoulders before stepping back, leaving all decisions to Liam Moore. Honestly, I was grateful. It felt like a conversation just the two of us needed to have.
Liam Moore had his head bowed, rubbing his eyes, washing his face with dry hands repeatedly.
“I don’t want to be someone outside your realm,” I said. That seemed to hit home. He stood frozen as if struck by lightning, then sighed and lowered his hands from his face.
“Please, don’t be alarmed.”
“I promise.”
“And please, don’t hate me.”
Are you kidding? How could I hate you?
The air shifted.
All the air in the room was moving. It was very sharp. It felt as if the particles of air were condensing sharply, an impossible sensation. Yet when it approached me, it softened, like a hedgehog hiding its quills. I had experienced this sensation before.
I had seen this pale violet color before, too.
“My body hasn’t fully recovered yet, so I can’t do it like before…”
“…What?”
“I just showed you a fraction. It’s faster to show than to explain.”
William Schofield Moore smiled, his eyes crinkling. The gray eyes I cherished, resembling London’s overcast sky, were now…
“…Your eyes.”
They had turned violet. The color was still close to gray. If I hadn’t looked closely, I might have thought it was just a trick of the light. It was a diluted lavender hue.
He leaned in, and I took it as permission to look closer.
There were fragments swirling in his eyes. They might have contained a galaxy. I recalled hearing somewhere that we are all astronauts traveling through the galaxy.
He gently touched his forehead to mine. His hand rested on my waist.
“Jane. It might be hard to believe, but there are powers in this world that science cannot explain.”
“The supernatural?”
“Maybe something granted to someone, but yes, you could call it supernatural. Things people call miracles or magic. You could dismiss them as fairy tales or myths, but…”
For a brief moment, I saw my homeland. Through our touching foreheads, he seemed to show me something. I didn’t know what it was or what he did to me.
But I saw the landscape of Korea. The sea. The winter sea…
I knew. This wasn’t the sea of England or any foreign land. The texture of the sand was different. How could I forget the land I had walked on for over twenty years? Even if my body was far away, this place was always in my memory. The fishing boat lights floating on the distant horizon…
“Ah…”
I sighed. Liam Moore asked,
“Did you see something?”
I felt like crying a little. The salty sea breeze was gone now. Liam Moore’s eyes had returned to their gray color. He had just shown me…a miracle. Rubbing his eyes, he confessed slowly,
“Magic exists, and we are living in an era where myths and monsters breathe.”
I didn’t react with disbelief or cause a scene. I’m not stupid enough to deny clear facts. It just felt so surreal that I accepted it could be true.
Thinking back, the suspicious actions he had shown (like coming to Bailonz Street from Plurititas) all started to make sense.
“So,
what are you?”
“Are you a magician?”
“Yes.”
Liam chuckled, then placed a hand on his chest, wincing in pain. After a few moments, he spoke again.
“Jane, what do you think I’ve been showing you all this time? We’re not the kind of people to do heroin.”
This is crazy. The humor is almost painful after nearly dying.
“Yes, to put it simply, I’m a magician.”
‘Liam, you’re a magician…’
I imagined Herschel saying that. No, that’s not the genre we’re in. I quickly erased the thought and blinked at him.
“I thought so. Normal people don’t do such things.”
“I’m normal, too, except that my profession comes with its own set of troubles.”
“What is Greenwich?”
So you figured it out. Liam sighed deeply. Well, there’s no point in hiding it now.
“Sometimes, things that don’t belong to our world wander around London. Greenwich is a group of people who can see those things, a kind of secret society, if you will. They observe, guard, and monitor while these things just wander around. But if they cross the line or harm civilians, we intervene. It’s self-defense.”
So, it’s a kind of vigilante group.
Liam tilted his head. His hair, which had grown longer while lying down, scattered over his forehead, covering his eyebrows and eyes slightly.
“If you can see it, you have the duty to protect it. So, naturally, there are forces that hate Greenwich. Many of us don’t form deep relationships. Some have even distanced themselves from their parents.”
“…Because they might get hurt?”
He echoed my words.
“Because they might get hurt.”
“Those exposed to this for long periods have short lives. Greenwich is no exception. Being born human, they can’t die as one. Some go mad, some become mere meat, and some can’t forgive themselves for surviving.”
Knowing a lot usually ends like this. Knowing isn’t always a good thing, he added.
“It’s inevitable. Call it an occupational hazard. If we manage well, we won’t go mad, but those who want to harm us won’t let us grow old peacefully.”
It’s a brutal profession. Now I understand why he didn’t want to reveal it. You can’t just tell someone you have a job that drives you insane or gets your loved ones killed. In the early 20th century, you’d be accused of being a German spy.
Not wanting to pity him, I cupped Liam Moore’s cheeks.
“You are…”
With his cheeks held, he murmured.
“…trying to say that you’re nothing to me, that it wouldn’t matter if you died, that I should just live my life.”
I frowned.
“That’s a bit hurtful.”
“…If you were nothing, if it didn’t matter if I died, you could escape from all this.”
How do I explain this feeling?
It’s amazing that he could think that way for a woman he had only known for two years (and only about a month and a half truly).
“So you tried to solve everything by yourself.”
“There were quite a few who approached you, asking strange questions out of the blue. They would have tested you. They wanted to know how much you knew about Liam Moore and how important you were.”
Come to think of it, there were people like that. Even in the middle of summer, wrapped in coats, hats, and scarves, they would approach and ask me something. At the time, I just thought, ‘Huh? An observatory? Do I take a train?’ and they would disappear as soon as I looked away.
There were a few more incidents like that. Even recently.
“…I thought I hid you well, Jane.”
Liam Moore murmured something incomprehensible.
“I thought I hid my thoughts and feelings for you well.”
What is he trying to say? His gray eyes were still fixed on me.
Come to think of it, it was like that from the beginning. From the moment I started this game with this character, Liam Moore’s gaze was always fixed on me. Among countless people, he always found me, watching what I was doing.
My mouth felt dry because of his gaze.
Or perhaps it was because of a pair of eyes persistently following me.
“Jane Osmond.”
He called my name. The words that followed were the most desperate and tender I had heard in this 19th-century England. Liam Moore was smiling innocently.
Warmth lingered, and regrets faded. His hands, neatly placed on the bedspread, were clutching the innocent blanket.
Kindness felt like a knife.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep hiding you well.”