< Ending Maker SS #22 To Earth (15) >
Ending Maker SS #22 To Earth (15)
Natasha Molotov stood on the snowfield.
Between morning and noon.
At that time, which was usually in the morning, she stood still and looked out into the pure white world.
Actually, there wasn’t much time.
She had already spent so much time that she had only a few hours left.
But she didn’t rush.
I stood upright and looked out at the snowy field as the wind blew.
“Alexey.”
There was no answer to the soft call.
She knew full well that there was no coming back.
But I called again.
I whispered, as if I was vaguely thinking, just like I did when I was little.
“Help me, Alexei.”
Empty words scattered.
The cold air penetrated deep into my lungs and chilled my chest.
Alexei was no more.
There was still a successor to whom he had left everything, but he certainly existed.
The bell rang.
Natasha took a deep breath again as Katyusha’s melody continued without lyrics.
The screen displayed the expected name.
For a brief moment, no, Natasha smiled bitterly at the fact that her deep-seated wish had been dashed.
It was self-mockery to even have such a desire in the first place.
[Natasha. What happened?]
As soon as I pressed the call button, an urgent voice was heard.
Although he was trying to suppress it as much as possible, his voice was filled with anxiety and nervousness.
So Natasha took another breath.
He spoke in as calm a tone as possible.
“Gino isn’t coming.”
[Oh, shit. Natasha. There’s no way he… No, there’s no way.]
It was easy to guess what Bertrand had been talking about.
Wasn’t Kang Jin-ho scared?
Didn’t you refuse to risk your life for the colleagues you parted ways with six years ago?
There was no way that could happen.
That fact was well known not only to Natasha herself but also to Bertrand.
[Why did you do that?]
That’s why Bertrand’s questions were directed at Natasha.
Natasha answered reflexively.
“Well, why is that?”
[Natasha?]
Natasha didn’t answer right away.
I turned my gaze back to the snowy field and began to release my memories onto the white snowy field.
“The Gino we knew is no more.”
[What do you mean? Did he get hurt somewhere?]
“The feeling is so dead. It’s completely rusted. It’s to the point where you don’t even know someone is coming into your house.”
It wasn’t that I went in when Kang Jin-ho wasn’t there. It was an attempted infiltration while he was at home.
“Six years. Six whole years. Plenty of time for rust to form.”
[···Do you really think so?]
Who else but Gino?
The man who inherited everything from Alexei?
Natasha swallowed her breath.
Actually, she knew it too.
Gino was definitely not the same as before.
It was a skill level that was hard to believe for someone in his prime.
But as Bertrand said, he was the man who inherited everything from Alexei.
With just a little stimulation, he would soon be able to return to his past self.
So Natasha shook her head.
I agreed with Bertrand’s words.
It was an act of acknowledging that what he said was right.
But what came out of her mouth was something completely different.
“But that’s the reality.”
It’s not an immediate sense of power.
Gino can’t fight with us.
A child born and raised on the battlefield has finally found peace, is living a normal life, and I don’t want to destroy that. I don’t want to drag Gino back here.
“Gino is now a soft civilian.”
Fell in love with the kid next door.
That’s probably not just love.
A fateful love like you see in novels.
Yeah, that’s the extent of it. I feel less miserable after spending 10 years of my time there and just swallowing the trash.
No, I guess the expression ‘miserable’ is a bit too harsh.
Because I also couldn’t find the courage.
“Or maybe we just spent too much time together.”
[Natasha?]
“Six years is too long.”
Natasha, who had been slyly ignoring the slip of the tongue, shrugged her shoulders and puffed out her chest as she spoke.
“So, Bertrand, Gino, just give up now. We’re doing this between us. After all, we’re the ones who did it in the first place.”
[But Natasha. From the beginning, this matter······.]
“I’m a torres, but we’ve worked with him.”
Natasha felt tired.
I didn’t want to talk about Torres anymore.
“Get ready. I’ll join you in three hours.”
[Okay. See you later.]
The phone call was disconnected.
Natasha put her phone in her pocket and looked out at the snowy field again.
It was a simple story.
I worked with an organization called A.
A stole something very important from an organization called B.
However, A pretended not to have obtained the important item and manipulated the incident to make it seem like the item was stolen by Natasha and her colleagues.
Of course, B wasn’t a retard either.
They also wouldn’t be fooled by A’s tricks until the end.
But it was clear that they would devour Natasha and her colleagues before A.
It was pointless to complain about the injustice.
Because B will never trust Natasha and her colleagues.
In the end, Natasha and her colleagues were left with only one option.
Hitting A.
A returns the stolen item to B.
There wasn’t much time.
Moreover, A was clever enough to know what Natasha and her colleagues would choose as a last resort.
The reason Natasha and her colleagues were hired for the past year was to be used for this job and then thrown away.
Something like that.
For that one thing, I wouldn’t mind spending years or losing countless lives.
That was a really crappy story.
But it was also a very possible story. It could even be considered an everyday occurrence here.
And that’s why Natasha didn’t want Gino to set foot in this place again.
Natasha let out a laugh.
There was not enough time.
It was something that I didn’t have the luxury of time for in the first place.
But I stubbornly went to Korea.
I finally met Gino.
“Sorry Bertrand.”
It was a lie that I said I was going to persuade Gino.
I had some expectations, but I actually knew this would happen.
Well, I guess it was just my last greed.
Still, I want to see Gino’s face once before I die.
I’ve been enduring it for the past six years, so I feel like I can be stubborn one last time.
“Still, that’s fortunate.”
Because Gino is living well.
Because I’m living a really ordinary life.
That Gino is in love.
That too with someone I met in the game.
“Is this truly a fateful love?”
The first person I met in a game.
Bad friends who have been fighting for 6 years.
But that person actually lived next door and was the one who had secretly admired you for the past 6 years?
There has never been a coincidence like this.
It really got to the point where I started to wonder if there really was such a thing as fate.
“Gino.”
Natasha took a deep breath as she spoke again.
After forcing myself to shake off the feeling of depression, I opened my chest wide.
A letter flew into Natasha’s eyes with the wind.
“uh?”
Natasha reflexively snatched the letter and let out a blank voice.
That was understandable, because Natasha’s name was written on the envelope of the letter that suddenly arrived.
[To Natasha Molotov]
Natasha blinked again at the round, pretty letters and quickly looked around.
But the only one standing in the middle of the snowfield was Natasha herself.
I’ve never heard of the art of sending a piece of paper in an envelope all the way here, let alone a letter attached to an arrow.
Natasha looked up at the sky in hopes, but there was not a single cloud in the sky, and there was no drone either.
What happened?
Natasha swallowed dryly and made up her mind. She took out the knife she always carried with her and carefully cut open the envelope of the letter.
The powder didn’t fly.
There was really only one letter inside the envelope.
Natasha opened the letter with her leather-gloved hands.
[Hello, Natasha.]
[First of all, I would like to thank you. Thank you for raising Yuder so well.]
“Uder?”
Natasha furrowed her brows.
Because it was a name I didn’t remember.
Also, the expression “raised” was strange.
It was just a short sentence, but somehow it felt like it was drawing a line.
It’s as if he’s saying, ‘You’re the one who raised Yuder. You’re like a sister or a mother to him.’
[We’ve taken care of the troubles. So don’t worry anymore. And it might be too much to ask, but you should consider retiring this time. According to Uder, you can’t just say you want to retire, but try if you can. I’ve roughly prepared the things you need for retirement. I’ll leave it to my friend Bertrand.]
Natasha raised her head again and looked around.
But still, there was not a single sign of life around.
[What’s it like living in Korea? Honestly, the fact that Natasha lives next to me makes me a little uneasy… But I think it’ll be okay since I’ve already stamped my seal. I don’t know about anything else, but one thing’s for sure is that our Yuder is like that. Yeah, that’s right. For sure.]
The more I read, the stranger I felt.
Even though it was a story that I clearly didn’t understand, I felt as if I knew it.
“Yuhi?”
Before I knew it, the image of the girl next door – the cute kid who was in love with Gino – came to mind, but I couldn’t help but shake my head.
She was just a really ordinary girl.
This kind of approach was impossible.
[Tell her that Yuder loves her. I say this out of concern, but it’s not love between a man and a woman, it’s love between family. Yeah. It might seem like I’m jealous, but it’s true. Yeah, yeah. That’s right.]
[Anyway, Natasha. Thank you again. If you have any trouble in the future, instead of calling out to Alexei, call out to Yuder and Cordelia. Yudelia is fine too.]
[Okay, okay. I guess that’s all for now. Bye, Natasha. Let’s meet again later if we get the chance.]
“Cordelia… August Chase?”
Natasha read the name written on the last line out loud, then began reading the letter from the beginning again with a possessed expression.
And as if on cue, just as Natasha finished her first reading, Katyusha’s voice came out of her phone again.
[Me, Natasha?!]
“Bertrand?”
At the panicked voice, I reflexively raised my voice.
But instead of calming down, Bertrand shouted in an even more urgent voice.
[Hey, do you know who Pink Bomb is?]
“what?”
What bomb?
[Pink Bomb!]
“Hey, Bertrand. Right now······.”
[I’m not on drugs! My head is clean!]
“Then what the hell is going on? Explain it so I can understand.”
[therefore······.]
Bertrand swallowed hard as he poured out the information, and Natasha blinked with a dumbfounded expression.
A was destroyed overnight.
No, not overnight, but in just a few hours, the main base was completely looted.
A’s head was killed in the explosion, and B’s belongings that A had stolen disappeared.
And then a huge amount of gold bars and a letter arrived at Bertrand’s hideout.
[It said Blood, Pink Bomb and Black Cloak.]
Natasha frowned at the truly horrible nickname and turned her gaze to the letter she was holding in her hand.
Uther and Cordelia.
Cordelia August Chase.
[Natasha?]
“maybe.”
[maybe?]
“They will be on our side.”
[Natasha? Do you know something?]
“Sorry, I’ll call you back later.”
[Appear······.]
Natasha hung up the phone, trying hard to ignore Bertrand’s call.
And then I turned my gaze to the letter once again.
“Cordelia August Chase.”
And Yuder Bayer.
Natasha folded the letter.
I had no idea what was happening, but I felt strangely relieved.
I didn’t even feel anxious that it might be another trap.
“Cordelia.”
Natasha smiled without realizing it as she spoke out loud again.
He showed a bright smile.
&
“Doesn’t everything seem to be going well?”
“I think everything went well.”
Except that Natasha really came to Korea.
That too, in the same apartment building as Kang Jin-ho.
“I stamped the seal so it’s okay.”
“Still.”
Because it was just a just in case.
Uther smiled at Cordelia’s timid muttering.
Perhaps the reason why such small jealousies are welcome is because Yuder himself is so tightly wound.
“Anyway, should we go back now?”
“Okay, let’s go back.”
It was a shame that I couldn’t stand in front of my parents.
It was a shame that I had to just watch and leave.
But Cordelia took a deep breath and smiled coolly.
On Earth there was Hong Yu-hee’s life, and in Pleiades there was Cordelia’s life.
“Still, I’m satisfied. Yes, I’m satisfied. Because it all ended here.”
Kang Jin-ho must fall in love with Hong Yu-hee.
The two of you should be together for a hundred years.
As Cordelia giggled and cheered, Uther laughed again and hugged her waist.
Standing before the door to the space leading to the Pleiades, I recalled the events of the past.
Immediately after defeating Auriel.
When Asmodeus set out on an endless journey to close the gates of Hell.
“But even then, there were just two of us. It wasn’t scary.”
Cordelia spoke as if she had read Uther’s mind, and Uther nodded.
In the past life, in the present life, and in all future lives to come, Uther and Cordelia will always be one.
“let’s go.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
The two people smiled at each other and walked away happily.
As always, the two moved forward together.
fin
Kim Hye-eun – Nam Man-goyang, who was looking at the monitor screen with her eyebrows furrowed, tapped the keyboard.
Namman Cat: [What’s that avatar?]
Yellow Storm: [It’s a bunny girl set. Isn’t it cute?]
Cordelia Chase in a black dress with a white rabbit ears headband and a perky tail.
It was cute, just like Hong Yu-hee said.
But Kim Hye-eun frowned once again. It was because A-bok – that is, Kang Jin-ho’s character, Yuder Bayer – seemed restless.
“Oh, let’s not dig into it.”
If you dig into it, you’ll just get pickled.
Kim Hye-eun clicked her tongue and reached for the can of beer she had opened earlier.
It was really strange, but today the beer tasted salty.
fin
< Ending Maker SS #22 To Earth (15) > End
