00985 Epilogue 4. Face Up To The Reality. ————————————————– ———————-=
When I first came to my senses, the scenery was quickly passing through my vision.
The knife-like wind scratches my ears coldly. My head was dizzy, like cars crossing an intersection, and the constant noise was annoying, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. I just ran blindly.
I don’t know how long it ran. However, as I ran with all my might without stopping, at some point I found myself running on a familiar street. It was my first time seeing my neighborhood in 15 years.
It would be a lie if I said it didn’t feel familiar, but instead of slowing down, the running speed accelerated even further. Because I imagined returning home from Hall Plain hundreds, thousands of times. Of course, the imagination wasn’t this sudden… .
It was not difficult to find the townhouse that I remembered as my home. As I climbed the stairs as if I was flying and stopped in front of the front door, I felt my heart pounding. I entered the password and carefully opened the unlocked door. I slowly took a breath as I looked at the faded white wallpaper that was slowly being revealed.
As I entered the front door, my eyes naturally squinted. He was in quite a mess, as if he had been robbed.
The microwave in the kitchen was cracked and the doorknob in the master bedroom was smashed and had a gaping hole in it. The kitchen was also a mess. The sink looked as if it had been roughly torn apart, and pieces of broken cups were scattered all over the floor.
“this… ?”
At that time, I briefly heard a faint moan. As she turned on her magic sense and pulled open the bathroom door, a foul smell assaulted her nose.
The bathroom was much more spectacular than the room. The sink was in a miserable condition, and the tiles were covered in vomit.
Above all, my brother was in this devastated space. He was lying face down on the toilet and was moaning intermittently.
“brother!”
I immediately went up to him and shook him, but he only made me nauseous and couldn’t come to his senses.
In fact, I wanted to wake him up by force and ask him what happened. However, the mind that had calmed down through the mind’s eye chose to put it to bed rather than keep shaking it to wake it up.
After watching my brother in constant pain for a while, I returned to the bathroom as if guided by an intangible energy. He turned the hot water knob all the way and turned on the shower. I came to my senses as the cold water hit the top of my head with a strong sound.
That was it. My third eye had already started working, and my mind became clear even when I was slapped or my thigh was pinched.
Waking up from the dream did not happen.
Everything was a mess.
*
When I opened my eyes, it was dark. I felt so dizzy, so I closed my eyes to her, but she seemed to have fallen asleep.
I looked around with narrowed eyes and sighed. She expected it to be Hall Plain, but the view was showing my room from every angle. Finally, she arrives at the house she had been dreaming of, but she is not very impressed. Rather than feeling new, questions keep rising.
There are three possible cases.
The first is that it is a dream, but it would be better to exclude it for now. Because it’s so vivid like a dream. The senses are alive and people’s reactions are very realistic.
The second is that you are seeing an illusion, but this is also unlikely. If it was truly an illusion, it should have already been canceled with the third eye. I’ve reached EX rank, but there’s no way I can beat it.
The third… .
“Have we really returned to Earth?”
In fact, reason was already shouting yes. It’s just that my emotions can’t accept it. But in many ways, the third was clear.
If my brother had returned to Earth, I could understand the sight he saw when he arrived home. It was probably difficult to handle the experiences and memories from his time as a user. He caused that mess because he couldn’t overcome his mental confusion.
“under… … … … .”
You can’t sigh without sighing.
Since when did it start?
When did it start to become this strange?
Looking back, from the moment I woke up on the train… .
No, since I went to the summoning room… .
No, no, ever since I met my clan members at the restaurant… .
Suddenly a ding-dong beep was heard. The cell phone screen on the desk was glowing. I ignored it because I didn’t want to disturb my thoughts.
Ding dong. Ding dong.
However, when the beeps rang one after another thirty minutes later, I could not just ignore them. When I grabbed my phone out of thin air, there were three texts.
The sender of the first text was an unknown number.
『I’ll be waiting for you at the Tancheon Stairs.』
Tancheon Stairs? Ah, I guess someone is going to confess. She laughed bitterly at the thought that she must have sent it by mistake.
However, the moment I checked the second text, the laughter automatically stopped.
『Come to Olympic Boulevard and go straight down to Tancheon. I’ll be waiting.』
Because the sender was my brother.
When I got out of bed and checked, my brother’s room was empty. It was obvious that he had become conscious while I was sleeping. I quickly got dressed and went out.
Originally, it took about 30 minutes to walk from my house to Olympic Boulevard, but I was able to get there in less than 5 minutes by sprinting at my best.
“Thank you for your hard work. First, move to the hospital… .”
The third letter was a map. As I was about to check the location and go down to Tancheon, I suddenly heard a voice. I looked around to see where the sound was coming from and found a dark figure standing at the bottom of the stairs. Just then, the man saw me and raised his hand.
“Clan Lord!”
“Cho Seung-woo?”
The man was Cho Seung-woo. As I went downstairs, he bowed and smiled his characteristic friendly smile.
“Are you feeling okay? Wow, I really thought I was going to die.”
“User Seungwoo Cho.”
“Yes yes. That’s right. that’s right.”
“Are you coming back together?”
Seungwoo Cho nodded his head and suddenly stared at me.
“Clan Lord. Do you know why I came to meet you?”
“… well?”
“Because I felt the least sense of disparity. “I have been a non-combat user since I joined the Mercantile Clan.”
“yes?”
“I had a hard time filling out documents every day at work. Isn’t it similar to writing reports at work? So it was relatively quick to accept it.”
“ah… .”
That made sense. Because I was only in charge of administration rather than war, combat, or exploration. There may not be any discrepancies, but the burden will be relatively less than that of a combat user.
“Shall we go this way?”
Seungwoo Cho pointed to the pedestrian path to the left. This was the direction I had to go anyway. I think he means to talk as we go, but there is absolutely no reason to refuse.
“There are a little over 40 users who have returned to Earth.”
After a while, as soon as they walked side by side, Seungwoo Cho spoke up. A little over forty people… .
“It sounds like you knew you would definitely come back.”
“you’re right.”
He admitted it coolly and his complexion hardened.
“The first thing I did when I got back was… . Of course, it took some time to get used to it. Anyway, the idea was to contact the returnees. “I even got their contact information and home address in advance.”
He pushes up his glasses and continues talking.
“How many people do you think were contacted when the first call was made?”
“well. “One and a half?”
“There were eight people.”
“Eight people?”
“yes. The time we returned was 11:45 am. It was shortly before 6pm when I started calling. “Over the course of six hours, there were eight people who were mentally and physically stable enough to answer the phone.”
“… … .”
I walked looking at the ground. If it was a shock, it was a shock. Only eight out of forty… .
“Well, in the end, everyone is safe. “Some family members or friends answered the phone, and some people called later.”
“No way, the phone call earlier… ?”
“Oh, did you hear? In fact, there was only one person who I couldn’t contact until the end, but I just picked up the phone. Fortunately, it was not too late and we were able to secure safety.”
“wait a minute. Ensure safety? Are you saying he attempted suicide?”
“yes. Feeling ominous, I sent one of his subordinates to his home address… . Unfortunately, my prediction was correct. Don’t worry too much though. “He should be on his way to the hospital by now.”
“who… ?”
Seungwoo Cho laughed bitterly and stopped walking.
“Clan Lord. Sorry for cutting you off, but I’ll tell you the rest later. “My guidance ends here.”
And pointed to a distant light.
“Just go straight to the pedestrian path. “I will be waiting for you.”
There was only darkness in front, but as I raised my eyesight, the scenery soon became clear.
At the place Seungwoo Cho pointed to, a man and a woman were sitting on a long wooden chair, waiting for me. My brother expected it, but it was unexpected that Han So-young was also there.
“… All right.”
Hesitate for a moment. It’s not that I didn’t care about who made the extreme choice, but since everyone was safe, I decided to focus on the task at hand first.
The longer I walked, the more the two figures became clearer. My older brother was sitting on an old wooden chair, staring endlessly at the leisurely flowing river. He made loud footsteps on purpose, but he didn’t make the slightest movement.
Even if Han So-young doesn’t know, his brother probably knows the whole story. It was a guess that was close to certainty. Because there is only one user other than me who has the authority to activate the zero code.
Eventually, I got closer to where the wooden chair was, but I didn’t sit down. She made eye contact with Han So-young, who was leaning against the stone wall, and turned her gaze to Tancheon.
The river that had absorbed the night was eerily quiet. It was so black that it made the viewer feel as if they were being sucked in.
How much time has passed?
“You’re here.”
My brother’s voice was very hoarse. I wanted to say something, but no words came out.
After gathering my heart once, I was barely able to open my mouth.
“I feel like you know things I don’t know.”
My brother was still looking at the river. He didn’t say anything, but he nodded slowly as if he knew I was watching.
“I’m just asking, just in case. You’re back on Earth, right?”
My brother shook his head again in silence.
“maybe.”
And then he continued speaking in a voice that was barely audible.
“Maybe what you think is right.”
The moment I heard the admission, I felt like my heart stopped. Both hands began to shake. I forced it into her pocket and deliberately took a deep breath in and out. I was expecting it, but I still couldn’t believe it.
“what? “You mean my brother used the zero code without me knowing?”
I tried to pretend to be calm and continued speaking.
“I really didn’t know. “Since when did it start?”
However, it was impossible to stop the voices from gradually getting louder.
My brother touched his forehead and opened his mouth softly.
“know. Know. It must be very confusing right now. and… .”
“That’s it, when did it start?”
I cut off my brother’s words with a single word. It meant getting to the point quickly, but it also meant criticizing.
“It was something I had planned for quite some time. Of course, it went on without your knowledge.”
My brother spoke calmly. The calm voice was very annoying for no reason.
In fact, since I have decided to return to Earth, I have no intention of trying to arrange a return.
“I am the one who took the lead in implementing it, and it is also true that I used zero code.”
But no matter how much I try to swallow it, I don’t understand why something happened like this without saying anything.
“But I wasn’t the one who made the plan. “It’s a Seraph.”
“what?”
“Seraph made a plan and I carried it out.”
“… … !”
My throat felt hot for a moment. My stomach, which I had managed to calm down, suddenly became hot, as if it would explode at any moment. The discomfort that I had been suppressing since the restaurant finally started to boil over all at once.
“So, Seraph and your brother are in a relationship?”
Perhaps that’s why a mocking tone was automatically formed.
“Suhyeon.”
“Ah, yes. Of course there must be a reason.”
“… … .”
“say it. I can’t even begin to understand how great of a plan this was. Well, at least I can listen to it.”
I didn’t want to do this in front of my brother, but the corners of my mouth kept twitching.
“But it would be better to explain it properly. I warn you in advance, but you say it’s for my sake… .”
“It was for you.”
At that moment, I felt the string of reason I had barely been able to hold on to was snapped. When he came to his senses, his right hand, which had been in his pocket, was on the verge of grabbing his brother’s collar.
In a split second, I managed to turn and hit the stone wall behind me.
Boom, even though I let go of my strength at the last minute, a noise that made the entire stone wall vibrate rang out.
I almost punched my brother. It was something he couldn’t believe he had done himself.
I took a deep breath and glared at my brother.
“why.”
why.
It is a simple but most fundamental question.
“Why did you do that?”
My brother finally took his eyes off the river and looked at me.
“Why are you doing this… !”
“Let me ask you one question.”
This time my brother interrupted me helplessly.
“Why did you save me?”
“what?”
“You said that. He said right before I died, he told me not to bring him back to life. But you saved me. “Why did you do that?”
“… … .”
“My answer is probably what you’re feeling right now.”
“… … .”
I was suddenly speechless. My brother certainly said so and I did not follow his will. Strictly speaking, I also acted on my own. If you ask why, there is only one answer. For me, for my brother.
“of course.”
My brother continued speaking.
“That doesn’t mean I did well. No matter what the reason is or what excuse you make, it is true that you acted arbitrarily, and it was clearly wrong. “I will never deny it.”
The low voice was full of fatigue. Even speaking was difficult, so it continued intermittently.
“Suhyun. I promise. What happened and why it had to happen. I will reveal everything here without adding or subtracting… .”
My brother couldn’t bear to continue speaking and quietly closed his eyes.
“therefore… .”
Then he slowly lowered his head and cupped his face.
—————————= Review of the work ——————– ——-=
Forgive me for being late.
I will post the next episode right away.
fantasy,
