Ch.115115. The Promise Between Kang Yerin and Ji Sehwa

“Kang Yerin.”

“…Ah.”

When Jung Ui-seok’s low voice called her name, she felt like she might lose her mind.

Despite her torn forearm, broken ribs, and ruptured internal organs from the recent battle, she felt no pain.

That resonance was simply too electrifying.

Desperately clinging to the floating sensation in her head, barely suppressing the urge to run to him and act spoiled.

Kang Yerin smiled, pulling up the corners of her mouth.

“Hmm? Haha, come to think of it, this body’s owner was one of your disciples, Gerogius. Well, I won’t thank you. Considering my performance so far, you should be the one thanking me, you shameless bastard.”

Kang Yerin continued her act of nonchalance.

Though this was the first time showing him her expression, she was confident in her deception.

She had practiced countless times, rewinding time over and over to perfectly hide the habits and mannerisms of the human known as Kang Yerin.

But Jung Ui-seok’s gaze never left Kang Yerin. She couldn’t help feeling a bit tense under that penetrating stare.

“Why are you glaring at me like that? Do you have some fetish for corpses? That’s disgusting.”

Jung Ui-seok didn’t answer and picked something up from the floor.

It was the Milky Way switch.

Kang Yerin was a bit flustered.

She had been so distracted that she’d forgotten dropping it.

“Damn it. Give that back, you jerk.”

Kang Yerin approached Jung Ui-seok to snatch the switch.

But her injuries left her without strength, and when Jung Ui-seok pulled his arm back slightly, she just swiped at empty air.

“Ugh.”

As Kang Yerin lost her balance and fell, Jung Ui-seok caught her.

‘…It’s still warm.’

Kang Yerin closed her eyes as if falling asleep, feeling the warmth from Jung Ui-seok’s strong arms.

***

“Hic, hic. Why, why did this happen again? I, I tried to do well this time. S-sorry. I’m sorry, Ui-seok. I’m sorry, Somi. I’m sorry, Se-hwa.”

Kang Yerin had killed Han Somi, who had been the prison warden Ursula on the Galaxy Empire’s ship, and fled.

She escaped in an emergency pod through frozen time and returned to Earth, where she remained paralyzed in self-blame and despair.

Even when war broke out and the Galaxy Empire’s combatants attacked Earth, she just hid. She only went back to the past when the space battleship was about to crash into Earth.

With the Yellow Dragon’s power, she intended to give up everything once and for all and hide in the past forever.

“Yerin?”

The one who called her was Ji Se-hwa.

It was when they were tracking Choi Minseo together. She couldn’t go back further because Jung Ui-seok had already cleared the Civil War.

“…Se-hwa.”

“Why are you suddenly like this? What happened…”

Kang Yerin couldn’t hold back anymore and fell into Ji Se-hwa’s arms.

Ji Se-hwa immediately realized she had come from the future and hugged her with all her might.

“…It didn’t go well?”

“Sorry, I’m sorry. I ruined everything again. I’m sorry…”

“…Nothing we can do about it. You did well.”

Kang Yerin wept in Ji Se-hwa’s arms until she lost consciousness.

By the time she had given up everything and lost all her emotions, Ji Se-hwa approached her.

“Are you going to stay here forever? You’ll have to go back eventually.”

“…I don’t want to. I don’t have the GM account anymore, so I can stay until the Yellow Dragon disappears.”

“You’ll die that way.”

“I don’t care, even so.”

“Since I died, at least you should live.”

“Is there any need for that?”

“I’ll keep bothering you until you die. Here in your past.”

“I can just go back again.”

“Ha! You think I won’t recognize you? Go back as many times as you want. I won’t leave your side.”

Ji Se-hwa linked arms with Kang Yerin.

They sat on the beach, staring at the distant horizon for a long time.

Somehow, Ji Se-hwa noticed every time Kang Yerin went back and never left her alone.

Neither fake smiles nor lies worked on her.

Finally, Kang Yerin gave up on giving up and decided to listen to Ji Se-hwa.

“So Ursula was Somi, and we killed her without knowing, and Ui-seok is settling things with Choi Minseo. Since there’s no way Ui-seok will lose, I guess the world will truly belong to the villains now.”

“See? There’s nothing we can do.”

“…Want to try doing what Ui-seok did?”

Ji Se-hwa suggested.

“I mean, he hid his identity and attacked us, and somehow we ended up getting involved with him again. I’m not sure why he did it…”

“That was because of a misunderstanding.”

“Don’t we have one too?”

“That’s just our perspective.”

“Isn’t that what a misunderstanding is? Different perspectives.”

“Hmm…”

Kang Yerin was strangely persuaded by Ji Se-hwa’s words.

“He targeted us using the name Gerogius. He tried to kill us but never crossed the line to take our lives. And he had goals as a villain.”

“So I should become a hero who targets Gerogius?”

“But you’d need to be incredibly strong. That would be difficult, right? You can’t be stronger than him.”

“Somi and Choi Minseo became monsters and gained tremendous power.”

Kang Yerin fell into deep thought.

“The goal is to kill Gerogius and become a hero who realizes justice.”

“That sounds very heroic!”

“…But will there ever come a day when Gerogius loves me for doing that?”

Of course, you never know until you try.

But this conversation felt like an unrealistic fantasy no matter how she thought about it.

However, as soon as Ji Se-hwa heard Kang Yerin’s question, she nodded.

“Yes. It will come.”

Perhaps it was precisely because Ji Se-hwa lacked calculating abilities or probability assessment that she could answer with such certainty.

Ji Se-hwa extended her pinky finger to Kang Yerin.

“Yerin, promise me. It might sound cliché, but live for my share too, and receive love from him for my share too.”

Kang Yerin hesitated.

Could she keep such a heavy promise?

Did she deserve to make such a promise?

Unable to raise her hand, she just looked down, and droplets fell, wetting the floor.

It wasn’t rain. They were Ji Se-hwa’s tears.

“I, I’m dead, dead so. Yes. You, Yerin, must, live and be loved… P-please. For me…”

Looking at Ji Se-hwa’s face, Kang Yerin realized she had been having a fortunate dilemma all this time.

It was true.

Ji Se-hwa was dead.

All her possibilities had already ended.

Of course she couldn’t forgive with just an apology or two. Of course she couldn’t accept it.

Yet she was enduring and encouraging her.

She must desperately want to grab this opportunity too.

“…I promise.”

Kang Yerin linked pinky fingers with Ji Se-hwa.

The first premise was abandoning the Yellow Dragon. Kang Yerin had another switch with comparable power.

Milky Way. The very switch she received from Jung Ui-seok after defeating Eridanus.

Unlike the Yellow Dragon, it could transform her into a pure white hero, though its power was slightly lacking.

To reinforce it, she infiltrated military facilities to create the ultimate Dillitter. She studied and researched technology for decades, recording the knowledge in her brain. She made sure she could immediately create the strongest suit when she returned to reality.

Milky Way’s ability was spatial separation. Kang Yerin wanted more powerful abilities.

At the same time, there was a way to hide her identity from Jung Ui-seok.

Becoming a monster.

Even Gerogius never realized that Ursula was Han Somi until the very end.

Not knowing the exact method, she decided to brutally force monster magic into her body.

Kang Yerin intervened in the final battle between Vengeance and Recter countless times. Even if Han Somi didn’t die, the final battle with Recter happened that day.

She intervened and devoured Recter before being killed by Gerogius.

The first time she ate him, her body twisted and exploded. The same happened up to the hundredth time, and even the two-hundredth time. Still, she easily endured such physical pain.

Eat, go back, eat again—the magic gradually engraved itself on her soul as an ability.

After repeating a thousand times, she gained the event horizon.

After ten thousand repetitions, she acquired most monster abilities and even an aura.

She maximized both Milky Way’s ability “Beyond the Milky Way” and Recter’s ability “Event Horizon” through training.

She practiced acting, discarding all her original speech patterns and habits to be reborn as a different person.

She took the name of the sulfurous fire where the Red Dragon of Apocalypse met its end in mythology as her new name.

“Se-hwa, thank you for everything. I love you.”

“…Yes, this is goodbye.”

After sharing a final embrace and parting with Ji Se-hwa, Kang Yerin—no, Sulphur—finally returned to reality.

Gerogius had, as expected, stopped the Galaxy Empire’s spaceship and saved the world.

He had achieved everything he wanted.

By his side would now be trustworthy villain comrades, lovers.

When she learned that even Han Somi, whom she thought was dead, was perfectly fine by his side, her heart ached so much it nearly stopped.

When she discovered he hadn’t demolished the Dragon King Sentai statue, she felt a little happy.

But she decided not to get swept up in emotions.

She could never go back to those times, and she was neither a Cloaker nor Kang Yerin anymore.

Her relationship with Gerogius would start from here, from the beginning, anew.

This world needs Gerogius.

If the scenario isn’t cleared, the world will end.

With Dark Matter and E.lena by his side, the probability of Scenario 4 occurring is low.

Then they’ll need a means to grow.

Sulphur left the Yellow Dragon switch in an easily discoverable location among the Galaxy Empire ship’s wreckage. The Yellow Dragon’s max performance was originally meant for training purposes.

Instead, she limited how far back one could go to prevent him from learning the truth.

The Yellow Dragon’s max performance had a rule that one couldn’t go back to a point before they had already traveled to the past once.

This was merely using villains as a means to achieve her purpose as a hero, not helping him.

Ultimately, Sulphur would kill Gerogius.

This was revenge for all the heroes who had fallen so far.

“…Well, it’s all lies and impure motives anyway.”

If it could capture Gerogius’s attention.

If he would become obsessed with me.

I will forever be the last hero.

***

“…Ui-seok.”

Sulphur opened her eyes with a breathy voice. About three hours had passed since she lost consciousness.

I had already provided emergency treatment to Sulphur. She woke up, checked her body, then smiled sarcastically with narrowed eyes.

“Kekeke. Does the villain lord these days personally tend to heroes’ injuries? Or did you want to pretend to be human because this is your former disciple’s body? Gerogius. You disgusting bastard.”

Sulphur mocked me.

“After slaughtering heroes so mercilessly. Don’t pretend to have humanity. I’ll kill you soon.”

I answered briefly.

“Kang Yerin.”

“Haha. Hey, snap out of it. There are six hours left until the start of round two. How long are you going to indulge in fantasies?”

Indeed, Sulphur’s expression, attitude, and speech pattern were completely different from the Kang Yerin I knew.

If not for this, I might have thought she was a vengeful spirit or evil entity possessing Kang Yerin’s corpse.

――――

Sulphur / Kang Yerin / Emperor Recter

Occupation: Hero / Monster

Rank: T15

Abilities: Beyond the Milky Way Lv.26

Event Horizon Lv.35

Affiliation: None

Alignment: Neutral/Good

Talent: Hero of Darkness (T20)

Her greatest weakness as the best strategist is her inability to be honest with her emotions.

――――

“Kang Yerin.”

Once more, I spoke her name.