Chapter 268:
A formidable aura emanated from Kang Seoha, who stood still.
As soon as he touched it, Yu-hyun felt his vision turn white and his sanity slip away.
The fruit that could make one a Divine Spirit. Its sweet scent intoxicated everyone nearby.
‘No.’
Yu-hyun bit his lip and clenched his fist. His lip tore and a bitter taste of blood spread on his tongue.
He barely held on to his fading consciousness. He came back to reality.
But even though he regained his reason, his body did not.
“Why, why is this happening…”
His body did not obey him. No matter how hard he tried to resist, his flesh moved on its own.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Yu-hyun approached Kang Seoha.
“Stop! Stop it! Stop this damn body!”
He wielded a dagger from his inventory without knowing it.
All he could do was to resist desperately and slow down his movement as much as possible.
But the distance between them was closing slowly.
Yu-hyun shouted in desperation.
“Hey! Kang Seoha! Run away!”
“…”
“Don’t just stand there, run! Get away from me! Run to a place where there’s no one! Hurry!”
“…”
He looked at her with bloodshot eyes, wondering why she was not moving. The moment he saw her calm gaze, he realized the truth.
Kang Seoha was not refusing to move.
She could not move on her own since the start of this mission.
The tree of flesh that bore the fruit of heart had to stay rooted in its place.
“Brother.”
Kang Seoha smiled at him with a pitiful expression. Seeing her weak smile, Yu-hyun tried to muster his strength and endure.
Creak. Creak.
His movement slowed down like a rusty jointed doll. But he did not stop completely.
He exerted all his strength on his face, but that was his limit.
“Why…! Why!”
Yu-hyun looked at the sky and vented his anger.
“Why are you doing this to me!”
He hated the teller who watched this situation. He despised the Divine Spirits who clapped their hands at him.
The fate that he could only suffer forever.
The realm that made it so.
His powerless self.
He was so angry and resentful that tears ran down his cheeks.
[How sad. A story that is too pitiful to watch with open eyes.]
But the teller of Exodus was more delighted by his appearance.
Despair, tragedy, pain.
Those were the emotions and the purpose of life that Exodus desired the most.
“Stop! Stop it! This cursed body!”
As he slowly approached Kang Seoha with a dagger, Yu-hyun wondered where he went wrong.
Was it because he gave her false hope that she could live?
Was it because he did not kill her when they first met, out of pride or pity?
Was it because he sought a rank that did not suit him and went after the fruit?
Were those such terrible mistakes?
To save someone, to give someone your heart.
Did he have to go through this agony for that?
“I…!”
“Brother.”
Kang Seoha’s calm voice interrupted Yu-hyun’s scream.
“It’s okay.”
She smiled softly and said it was okay. Yu-hyun shook his head.
No. It’s not okay.
“We decided to live, remember?”
“I knew it was impossible, actually.”
The distance was getting closer.
“But I still hoped for it. I was so happy when you gave me a name.”
“Then you have to live…”
“It was hopeless after all.”
Kang Seoha sensed her own fate.
She didn’t want to die right away, so she chose to become a fruit. She knew that becoming a fruit meant dying in the most horrible way possible, but she still wanted to live.
She lived like that, witnessing this terrible realm with her own eyes.
She realized how unrealistic it was to hope for survival.
The moment the 98th trial began, I would die.
I would pay for staying alive until now, by having my heart torn out and eaten.
I was ready for it.
All I had to do was wait for the day of my death.
“I had fun these past few days.”
Meeting Yu-hyun might have been the only hope in her life.
He didn’t kill her, he gave her a name, he talked to her about trivial things, he sat with her and watched the scenery.
They were the things she wanted to do if her parents were alive.
She didn’t say that then. She couldn’t.
“Oppa, you are like family to me.”
So now, at this moment, she could say it.
The short time she spent with this man was the happiest moment in her life, incomparable to anything else.
“You will be able to survive without me. You will be able to see the world that I couldn’t see. I know I won’t be there with you, but I’m satisfied with that.”
“No! You can come with me too!”
“You know that’s impossible, oppa.”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
“Maybe this is for the best.”
Kang Seoha was amazed by herself, who could still find a small wish in this situation.
If she had to die by someone’s hand, she wanted to choose that person herself.
That’s what she thought.
“Seoha! I…!”
“Promise me, okay?”
“…!”
Yu-hyun recalled the conversation he had with Kang Seoha in the past.
He made a promise. But he only did it without thinking, knowing that it was impossible to fulfill.
His careless decision came back to haunt him.
Yu-hyun approached Kang Seoha before he knew it. His creaking hand pushed her body away.
Kang Seoha fell weakly on the floor, and Yu-hyun climbed on top of her.
The dagger in his right hand aimed at her heart.
“It’s okay. It will be over soon.”
“No. No.”
Kang Seoha smiled even in this situation where she might die.
Yu-hyun cried in this situation where he might have to kill her.
“Oppa. Let’s make a new promise then.”
“A promise…?”
“Please live until the end. Please live for the people like me. Please feel sorry for them and show them compassion.”
“You…”
“Please don’t lose your kindness, oppa. And please live a life without regrets.”
Slowly.
Very slowly.
The sharp blade of the dagger descended towards Kang Seoha.
Yu-hyun shed tears and screamed like a beast.
“Aaaah! Stop! Stop it!”
He forced his arm to move, while crying.
“Someone! Someone please help me! Someone please, please!”
Someone please stop me.
Please someone save this girl.
God. Spirits.
I was wrong.
I beg you earnestly.
Please have mercy on me.
Please stop me and save Seoha.
Please I beg you.
Please.
“Please! Please!”
A tear fell from his eye and landed on Kang Seoha’s cheek.
The tear rolled down her cheek as if she was crying too.
And then, the dagger pierced through Kang Seoha’s heart.
Thud.
Someone grabbed his hand.
Clang.
The dagger fell to the floor with a loud noise, as a strong force tightened around his wrist.
Yu-hyun wiped away his tears and looked at the man who blocked his way.
“Are you, Jisu?”
The man he had seen in the past had come to his rescue in this unknown situation. Before he could even thank him, he felt a powerful impact on his body and flew back, rolling on the ground.
“Baekryeon.”
He heard a voice that sounded similar to his own, and then a white rope wrapped around his body.
Yu-hyun lifted his head, wanting to ask what was going on.
But the Kang Jisu who had stopped him. No, the real Yu-hyun didn’t care about that.
“So… this is how it ends.”
He had been watching this situation for the past few days.
He watched from afar as his past self and Kang Seoha enjoyed their time together.
This place was his nightmare, and to escape from this nightmare, he had to overcome it.
So he just watched, but.
“I guess I couldn’t stay still.”
Yu-hyun smiled bitterly.
Not far away, Kang Hye-rim, Kwon Jia, and Seo Sumin looked at him with pity.
They had told them not to interfere with this situation no matter what happened.
Yu-hyun met eyes with Kang Seoha, who was looking up at him from the ground.
“Ah.”
Kang Seoha looked back and forth between Yu-hyun who was tied up by Baekryeon and the one in front of her, and laughed mockingly.
“So you were the oppa.”
“Yeah.”
The others couldn’t see through Yu-hyun’s true appearance, but Kang Seoha was different.
She remembered everything she had forgotten as soon as she faced Yu-hyun.
“So that’s how it was. I was already dead.”
“Yeah.”
“And now I am, a being reconstructed from your memory.”
“That’s right.”
“But why did you come?”
“To keep my promise.”
Yu-hyun said that and picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground.
His past self twisted his body as he saw him.
“Stop! Please don’t do that! Weren’t you here to help me?!”
“I am helping you. Doing what you couldn’t do.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! I…!”
“You weren’t even ready for it. So just stay there.”
Yu-hyun coldly shot back at his past self that he wanted to forget.
“This is something I should have done a long time ago.”
The promise he couldn’t keep back then.
It was time to fulfill it now.
Not with someone else’s hand, but with his own.
“Did you live a satisfying life, oppa?”
Kang Seoha asked Yu-hyun before she died.
Yu-hyun shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I wanted to live a life without regrets. I tried hard for that until now. But there were always small regrets lingering. It was always like that. I thought I became stronger, but I was still weak. I tried to be happy, but there was still unhappiness.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry for not keeping my promise.”
“You don’t have to be sorry, oppa. You tried your best. I can tell. You look like you’re okay now.”
Kang Seoha said that and smiled at her friends behind Yu-hyun with a wink.
“And you already have great companions, oppa.”
“…Yeah.”
“So oppa. This is the end.”
Kang Seoha moved her right hand slightly and pointed at her heart.
“You’ll keep your promise, right?”
Yu-hyun nodded.
“That’s why I came here.”
“That’s good enough. Come on. I’m ready.”
As soon as Kang Seoha said that, Yu-hyun stabbed her heart with a dagger.
Seoha gasped and widened her eyes. Her stiff body relaxed, and she kept looking at Yu-hyun with trembling pupils.
“I’m still your family, right?”
Yu-hyun nodded.
“Always. You’re my family.”
“That’s enough for me. Oppa, please live your life as I told you. Until the end.”
“I promise. I will.”
Seoha closed her eyes as if she was satisfied. Her movement gradually stopped completely.
Kang Seoha’s body scattered into pieces of letters.
The white and warm letters floated in the air and were absorbed into Yu-hyun’s body.
“Nooo!!!”
The past Yu-hyun who was watching the scene screamed.
Yu-hyun retrieved Baekryeon, which had turned into a rope.
The past Yu-hyun, who had lost all his strength, rolled on the floor without being able to stand up.
He rolled his eyes and glared at the enemy who killed Seoha.
Yu-hyun approached himself and sat down in front of him.
“Angry?”
“Grrr!”
“If you’re really sad and angry, promise me. You’ll live as she wished.”
With that, Yu-hyun got up from his seat and walked toward his companions.
He didn’t need to hear the answer.
The three people who were watching silently couldn’t offer any comfort to Yu-hyun.
“Let’s go. We can’t stay here any longer.”
Yu-hyun took the lead, and his companions followed him.
As they were about to leave the scene, they saw a familiar face in front of them.
A tall man in a red coat.
Choi Do-yoon was standing still and watching them.
‘Was he watching from the beginning?’
He didn’t know why he came here, but it was none of his business now.
As Yu-hyun tried to pass by Choi Do-yoon, Choi Do-yoon opened his mouth.
“You did a useless good deed.”
Yu-hyun stopped in his place.
It was a word that he couldn’t understand at all.
“Useless?”
“That was his job.”
Yu-hyun and Choi Do-yoon’s eyes collided fiercely in the air.
“Weren’t you the one who didn’t care if your subordinate died on the street? Since when did you care about that man?”
“It’s true that I don’t care if he dies, but not now. He has value until the end of this trial that is not far away. I’m not happy to see him fall apart here.”
“So you think he’s completely discouraged?”
“He already is.”
“No. You’re wrong.”
Yu-hyun gave Choi Do-yoon a harsh sneer.
Even though it was made of his memories, just a fragment of a story.
Yu-hyun felt like he had to say this to him, or he wouldn’t be satisfied.
“You don’t know him. He’s discouraged now, but he’ll overcome it soon.”
“What?”
“He’ll get up again. And someday he’ll become a much, much greater person than you.”
Choi Do-yoon’s eyebrows twitched.
He looked at him as if asking why he was so sure.
But strangely enough, he couldn’t refute that.
If it was him as usual, he would have dismissed it as nonsense.
But when he looked at the eyes of the man who was staring at him with a burning gaze, he couldn’t help but see the shadow of a man who kept getting up even after being wounded and falling down.
“Definitely.”
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