“I hope you’re not thinking money is the only thing that matters to us?” Jain took off her robe with a frown and asked before Yoo Yeonha could say anything.
However, I was pretty sure that wasn’t her true face.
“Does that mean you’re not accepting the request?” Chae Nayun asked.
Jain brightly smiled and replied, “Isn’t that obvious? I mean, we do accept the trade you proposed earlier though.”
“Then what’s your standard when taking requests?” Chae Nayun slurred a bit. She tried her best not to show it, but couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“It has to be exciting. We don’t accept requests that don't seem fun. What’s the point of doing something that’s no fun? Taking everything away from Kim Sukho? That sounds good, but it’s not fun. Right, Boss?” Jain said and looked at Boss.
However, Boss was looking dead straight at me without a shift in her expression.
Jain flinched and suddenly said, “Hmm… Hmm… Hold on a minute.”
She wrapped her arms around Boss’ shoulders and turned around before whispering.
— Boss, don’t tell me you’re planning to accept their request? It’s not only impossible, but it’s not feasible either.
— … Something is bothering me.
— What? What’s bothering you?
— I’m curious why he’s trying to go against Kim Sukho.
— Ah, I wonder when did our boss start to get so curious about others?
Boss lightly pushed Jain away and asked me, “Kim Sukho will try to kill you just as you’re trying to kill him. However, what grudge do you have against him? Why are you going against him?”
Boss looked at me with inquisitive eyes, but Jain immediately yanked her back before I even got the chance to respond.
“Anyways, anyways! Let’s decide on the date of the trade. We won’t be discussing anything further today,” Jain said after throwing Boss to Cheok Jungyeong.
Boss tilted her head in confusion before looking at me again, but Jain already tore a scroll. The magic engraved in the scroll activated and twisted the space around them.
The clubroom suddenly turned silent again.
“What was that…? Hey, Nayun… What’s going on?” Yoo Yeonha asked while looking back and forth between us. “Hello? Excuse me? Nayun? Hey… Will you say something…?”
Only Yoo Yeonha’s voice could be heard in the silence.
***
The next day, I was in the clubroom watching TV with Chae Nayun. We weren’t the only ones as the other members were in the clubroom too.
Rachel was playing with Evandel, Kim Suho was texting Yun Seung-Ah, Yoo Yeonha was busy doing her own stuff, and even Seo Youngji and Shin Jonghak were there.
“Hey…” Chae Nayun whispered.
I glanced at her and was surprised by her face beaming with happiness. It was the first time I saw such an expression on her.
Was she glad that we could spend such a peaceful and normal day with everyone else?
“What are you going to do if oppa wakes up…?” she looked up at me and asked.
I found her round and clear inquisitive eyes quite funny for some reason.
I patted her forehead and replied, “It’s your brother. You’re the one who will have to think about that, not me.”
“… No, that’s not what I meant,” Chae Nayun grumbled and cutely pouted.
I initially thought that it didn’t suit her, but slowly started to find her cute.
I tickled her chin like I would to a puppy and said, “Who knows? I guess graduating is the first thing on my list.”
Chae Nayun looked away and didn’t reply. Then she started kicking the table leg while looking at the floor.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
She sulked a bit longer before asking in a trembling voice, “You won’t suddenly disappear…?”
“…”
I couldn’t easily respond to her question. The reason was that this world wasn’t my real world. This was not where I was from.
It would’ve been an easy question to answer if I had no choice but to go back or stay, but I had no idea what my options were at the moment.
I was nothing but a failed author in my world. However, I had my family, friends, and everything else that made me who I was in that world.
I could live happily ever after in this world as long as I gave up everything in that world. I could start a family with someone I wouldn’t even dare look at back in the real world. I could even become an influential figure in this world with my abilities.
I… If only I could fully abandon my real world and accept this world as my own…
“...”
Chae Nayun held my hands. She was looking at me with her lovely smile while I was silently pondering over things.
“But… it doesn’t matter,” she said while snickering and poking my waist.
I could tell that she was eagerly waiting for my answer behind that smile.
“Because I already told you before, right? I’m going to make it impossible for you to live without me,” she confidently said while staring straight into my eyes.
I could only smile in response as she already achieved a bit more than half of her objective.
However, Chae Nayun muttered in a painful voice this time, “But… I think I already lost…”
I didn’t ask why.
She buried her face in my shoulder and whispered, “I think… I’m the one who can’t live without you…”
Her hands were warm. I glanced around our surroundings before scratching the back of her ears. She seemed to like it as she closed her eyes and flashed a warm smile.
***
The midterm exams were finally finished. I was back at the dorm after a long time. My dorm room for this semester was slightly better than the last one as I ranked 451th for this semester.
I decided to look around my room before the pre-semester dorm cleaning started.
An overwhelming presence was waiting for me at my dorm room window. I was suffocated by her aura alone.
However, I tried to act as nonchalant as possible and asked, “Have you read the diary…?”
Jin Sahyuk simply looked at me without saying anything. Her sharp gaze felt like they were stabbing me in my chest, but she soon let out a sigh and nodded.
“… I read it hundreds of times, but I still can’t believe it,” she said before looking at the night sky out the window.
The moon was letting out a gentle luster.
“But I don’t think it’s impossible since I myself went through something impossible and came to this world,” she added.
She leaned on the window sill and started to fidget with her nails before continuing in a low voice, “I was foolish back then. I was drunk on my title as the king that… I lost a lot of things that were precious to me…”
Jin Sahyuk looked visibly tired under the moonlight. She was displaying weakness that went against how I designed her to be.
I felt quite nervous that she would stray from her settings because of this event.
“However, that’s not something I can change… I can’t return to those times, and I can’t go back to that place… In the end, it’s all over… I’ve been drifting aimlessly in this world for far too long,” she said with a bitter smile.
She was in a dangerous state. Her hopeless voice, void of even a hint of enthusiasm, made it clear to me that she lost all reason to live. She could even jump out of the window and end her own life.
“… You can just make a new one,” I said in hopes of deterring her from spiraling into depression.
Her gaze landed on me again.
“I heard that Kim Sukho has a few neutral city-states under his command. You can forcibly take one of them from him and rule over it. You can start anew and build your own kingdom,” I added.
The Jin Sahyuk I knew definitely had the capacity to do that, but she simply shook her head.
“I ruled over that world because it was my world. No, that world probably met its demise because I ruled over it… The continent plunged into chaos after my kingdom fell, and every citizen died because of my incompetence. What’s the point of creating another kingdom when I’m clearly incompetent to rule? I don’t have the plan or will to do something like that. Ah, but don’t worry. I will heed your request,” Jin Sahyuk said before she tapped her smartwatch and projected a hologram.
It was Kim Chundong’s diary that I gave her. She glossed over the diary she read hundreds of times with eyes filled with sadness.
“… No,” I disagreed and activated stigma.
“That world most certainly fell. No, it’s most likely in ruins now, but humans don’t die that easily. Humans are tenacious creatures who will always find a way to survive no matter what. You will be able to call those survivors into this world.”
“…?”
The hologram of the diary disappeared and Jin Sahyuk stared at me with eyes filled with curiosity.
However, it didn’t take long for her eyes to shift into hopelessness again as she snickered, “Hehehe… Someone like you will save the survivors of a world you don’t even know? Someone like you will do something that even I can’t?” she questioned.
“I’m thinking that it’s possible because it’s me,” I confidently replied while pointing at my heart. I added, “Did you forget? I’m connected with Kim Chundong.”
Jin Sahyuk’s eyes shot open and it seemed that she saw a sliver of possibility in my words.
“I’m confident it’s possible,” I continued.
I was actually quite confident that I could pull it off. Stigma was a power that could make anything possible. Although the amount I possessed was just a drop in a bucket, it wasn’t impossible if I placed a restriction such as only using an ability once in my lifetime.
“So help me first,” I added.
Jin Sahyuk continued to lean on the window sill and looked at me. She seemed disgruntled by what I said, but I knew for a fact that she was smiling underneath her expression.
“You’re overstepping your boundaries. I’m going now,” Jin Sahyuk said as she sat at the window.
However, I could clearly see that her expression and body language was a stark contrast to her hopeless self a while ago.
“See you tomorrow,” I said with a smile.
She didn’t bother responding as she jumped out the window. The way she descended wasn’t that of someone who gave up on life. She disappeared into the darkness without making a sound.
I strangely felt that she was no longer the final boss of this story.
***
The day finally came.
All of us took one ingredient from the clubroom’s greenhouse and headed to Seoul through the Cube portal. A limousine was already waiting for us at the portal station. We hopped in without saying a word to each other.
“We will depart now,” the driver said.
Chae Nayun simply nodded in response.
All of us looked out the window and saw another vehicle right beside ours.
It was the bodyguards, Tomer and Loelle, that Yoo Yeonha hired under Essence of the Straits.
“Phew…”
I felt nervous while looking at the passing scenery of the Han River. I wondered if it would be possible to wake Chae Jinyoon with the help of these various medicinal herbs, this heart, and Jin Sahyuk’s help.
I had been quite confident in my theory, but still felt nervous now that D-Day arrived. My mind started to race as various anxious thoughts rapidly occupied it.
“…”
Still, I knew that Chae Nayun was the one who was the most anxious among us. I held her hand tightly since it was now my turn to comfort her.
Her eyes shot open in surprise as she looked at me, but I simply smiled in response.
To my surprise, she smiled back.
I was blinded… No, I didn’t mean figuratively, but actually blinded.
I frowned and looked back. A bright ray of light headed towards our limousine.
However, this was also within our calculations as we already expected Kim Sukho to try and ambush us… We didn’t expect him to do it so blatantly in the middle of the Han River Bridge though…
Kaboom!
A powerful explosion battered the limousine. The limousine withstood the explosion since it was made out of mana alloys, but it wasn’t able to withstand the force and flipped upside down.
We were thrown around before floating in a zero-gravity state for a split second. Then we slammed onto the ground.
“Argh… Is everyone alright?!” Kim Suho was the first to check on everyone.
I was able to come out unscathed thanks to aether. It seemed like everyone else reacted in time and protected themselves with mana.
“Yeah, I’m alright! What about you, Yeonha?!” Chae Nayun shouted.
“Me too…” Yoo Yeonha replied.
“Which bastard dares to…” Shin Jonghak growled before kicking the limousine door open.
Bam!
The mana alloy was crushed by a single kick and the door flung open.
We released our seatbelts and came out of the vehicle.
“Are you alright, Hajin?” Chae Nayun asked while checking every inch of my body.
I nodded and said, “Yeah, but rather than that…”
I looked around our surroundings and laughed in disbelief.
“This is quite the sight…”
The scenery around us was indeed a sight.
The bridge was cut front and back, blocking not only us, but anyone else from leaving. We were basically stranded on top of the Han River. Not only that, our surroundings were flooded with the sounds of civilians panicking and the horns of their cars.
“… This is probably Kim Sukho’s doing,” Kim Suho said in a low voice.
I could sense in his voice that anger was welling up inside of him. He would erupt at any moment.
Kim Sukho was in deep shit now that he enraged Kim Suho to this point.
“Take up your arms, everyone,” Yoo Yeonha calmly instructed.
Chae Nayun took out her [Sword of Highlander], Shin Jonghak smiled and took out his green [Dragon Crescent Blade], and I morphed my Desert Eagle into a machine gun.
“They’re coming,” Yoo Yeonha warned.
Flocks of flying monsters headed toward us and a powerful surge of mana came from underneath the water.
“Are you ready?” I asked Chae Nayun.
She looked back at me and nodded with a smile. Her relaxed smile alone was more than enough to assure me.
There was no need to worry.
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