Ch.15452. Inside the Eternal Barrier (1)

At that moment, Yuri almost squeezed her eyes shut against the darkness.

She was afraid. What she had seen was Minsu’s heart, only its surface so far. But the despair she felt was so thick it was suffocating.

Yet Yuri, at least Yuri herself, couldn’t turn away from what was inside him.

‘I have to accept everything about Minsu…’

Even if this thick darkness might be because of her.

Even if, in truth, Minsu’s heart might not be the same as hers. Yuri had decided to truly believe in Minsu.

Yuri focused the ice mana gathering around her, the energy of the Snow Woman, more intensely into Nivis.

Then Minsu’s emotions, the source of darkness forming that despair, began to rise like scenes from a black and white photograph and flow into Yuri’s inner self.

‘All these emotions… they’re all guilt…’

The beginning of that guilt was, as expected, the tragedy of Aince.

The deaths of over 200 students and academy staff. Minsu was constantly blaming himself for those deaths.

‘Minsu… doesn’t need to suffer this much…’

If anything, she herself bore the greatest responsibility for those deaths. And even Soso, who had stood in Minsu’s way.

But Minsu was blaming himself, saying he was the cause of that tragedy. He was pushing himself toward a cliff with self-reproach.

‘Why… why are you doing this to yourself?’

She couldn’t read Minsu’s memories. Only the emotions flowing into her.

And as Yuri delved deeper into those emotions, she read another feeling from Minsu.

‘This is… fear of death?’

That emotion was something Yuri could hardly believe at first.

Being a hunter is a profession with a higher mortality rate than any other. So in truth, no hunter could be without fear inside.

It’s just that the fear becomes dulled so they temporarily forget about it, or they deliberately ignore it. But the Minsu that Yuri knew was different.

‘Minsu was always… rational and calm.’

Whether facing upper-class students who had bullied her since Aince. Or in front of any difficult dungeon or monster.

Minsu always found the best choice without showing the slightest emotional fluctuation.

Of course, Yuri knew well that he had a fiery temperament inside. Not just during their time at Aince, but also during their time at Flame.

Minsu had never once shown fear in front of guild members.

‘It was the same even in front of the Great Demon or the Twelve Apostles…’

But the emotion Yuri was reading now was clearly fear. And soon she read that emotion more specifically.

That fear was a little different from the general fear of death.

‘He’s afraid of… dying before completing all his revenge?’

This wasn’t something felt through someone’s words. Pure emotion without any falsehood was flowing into her now.

‘No. That… that can’t be possible!’

At that moment, Yuri realized.

The nature of Minsu’s fear wasn’t about facing the Twelve Apostles or the Evil God.

Perhaps it was the fear of death that terminal patients have.

He feared that because of his illness, he would die before completing all his revenge. He feared that sense of emptiness, as if his remaining life was being denied.

‘What’s going on…? Minsu was… his condition was improving… he said he’d found a way to treat it… terminal? That’s absolutely impossible!’

In that moment, Yuri felt a pain as if her heart was being torn apart. She almost screamed out loud.

The terrible anxiety she had forgotten for a while seemed to come alive again.

If Minsu disappeared from this world, Yuri would have no reason to live the rest of her life either. She certainly couldn’t.

Because Minsu was the only companion Yuri had chosen as a Snow Woman.

‘No… without Minsu… I… I…’

Yuri’s vision suddenly blurred.

Without her realizing it, tears seemed to pour down. And because of the massive ice mana concentrated on her, those tears quickly turned to ice.

– I’m fine.

But at that moment, there was a will flowing into her inner self.

It was so warm, like the warmth inside a blanket you never want to leave.

Minsu was wiping away Yuri’s tears. Then he firmly grasped both her hands.

Soon, Minsu’s emotions began to flow into Yuri again.

And those emotions were what Yuri wanted to know most—his feelings about her.

***

Yuri began to shed tears.

Yuri was probably reading my emotions now. Unlike Yuri, I couldn’t know all her feelings.

But I knew at least one thing for certain—that my feelings for Yuri were not a lie.

So just for now.

As the one who had decided to become Yuri’s husband, at least here, I wanted to pour all my emotions only for Yuri.

‘This memory…’

And perhaps due to Yuri’s influence as she was awakening as a Snow Woman.

There was a memory clearly emerging in my mind.

My connection with Yuri. The memory I had recalled in my unconscious became concrete in my mind.

‘This probably isn’t something I experienced in the current reality.’

A dream I had repeatedly while unconscious.

It was a dream I had in a hospital room more than two years ago. In that dream, I also saw things from the future that hadn’t happened yet.

Coming to Setsunomura with Yuri like now. Forming a marital bond with her like this.

The only difference from the current reality was that in that dream, I loved only Yuri from my memories, without thinking about Soso, Arini, or Seohwa at all.

And that memory now resurfacing also showed me more of the future.

Loving only Yuri like that. I tried to stop the resurrected Evil God with her. But failed.

In that memory, there was no Colorless Key, no multiple Eastern Sages. In that memory, only Yuri surpassed the original Yuri and awakened as a Sage.

But in that future, the spell Epitheus didn’t exist.

‘So… it was no different from a bad ending.’

At least Yuri might have been happy seeing me loving only her, but in the end, the world was destroyed by the Evil God.

That memory might be a delusion I created, but I couldn’t dismiss it so easily.

‘Like in the original Akahunter. If it’s a possibility of another world…’

I momentarily hypothesized.

The reason I could exist as the Colorless Key was because I was emotionally entangled with Yuri, Soso, Arini, and Seohwa—all of them in romantic relationships.

Because they all harbored romantic feelings for me, they all showed achievements beyond the original story at my side and were awakening as Sages.

Conversely, as in the memory with Yuri now surfacing, if I were to love only one person, and thus no connection formed between me and the other Sages.

It would be impossible to prevent the world’s destruction.

‘And the original Akahunter…’

The original novel I remembered. In that novel, I wasn’t the protagonist to begin with.

So it was a future where none of those prophesied as Eastern Sages had any connection with me.

That original Akahunter didn’t even reach the world’s destruction. The serialization was discontinued, so there couldn’t be any future beyond that.

But I stopped thinking further. I returned to reality.

Yuri had stopped crying. And the small stone table between the two of us had melted away in the moonlight.

Now there was nothing standing between us. Yuri’s blue eyes looked at me.

At first glance, they seemed rational and cold. But since I first fell for her, I had read the loneliness and sadness deep within those eyes.

As if buried under terrible permafrost, that fragile appearance shivering terribly in the bitter cold.

‘Of course… no one at Aince who saw the perfect Yuri back then… would have thought like me.’

So even if it was just my arrogant thought or illusion, I wanted to know Yuri’s true self.

And if Yuri allowed it, I wanted to erase that loneliness and sadness.

It was at that moment. Yuri seemed to have read all my emotions. I said to her:

“How was it? The heart of mine that you read?”

And I opened my arms toward Yuri. Now it was time for Yuri to choose.

The blessing of the Snow Woman. Or its curse.

At that moment, Yuri’s body moved.

***

“……”

Yuri couldn’t answer Minsu’s question.

She had read Minsu’s guilt and fear. And now she had read the emotions beyond that.

Minsu’s feelings about Yuri herself. And mixed with those feelings, emotions about Soso, Arini, and a woman named Seohwa.

So Yuri’s heart too was mixed with many emotions that wouldn’t easily calm down.

However, what Yuri wanted to do now was clear.

She wanted to be embraced by Minsu, who had opened his arms to her.

Yuri fell into Minsu’s arms.

And so that Minsu couldn’t escape to anyone else at this moment, so that all of his warmth would be transmitted to her, she hugged him tightly enough to crush him.

Minsu seemed surprised by her action for a moment, but soon he too embraced her and gently stroked her white hair.

Minsu’s warmth soon spread to Yuri’s body.

‘I love Minsu. This warmth. The look in his eyes. Everything… I want it all to myself alone.’

Yuri squeezed her eyes shut. She buried her face in his chest. Her heart ached as if it would tear apart.

At the same time, she recalled the memory again. She had seen all of Minsu’s emotions.

The Moon Shrine. The moonlight shining here amplified the Snow Woman’s power. So now, in this Moon Shrine, Yuri controlled even the space.

Thus, all of Minsu’s emotions were reflected to her with transparency. Yuri could now understand.

Without a doubt, Minsu loved her.

At this moment, Yuri was truly glad to have been born a woman. She was so happy that she could become his wife.

But Minsu’s feelings weren’t directed solely at her.

She had seen the faces of other women permeating between those feelings. That fact was terribly unfortunate.

‘I wish Minsu… would look only at me.’

Now Yuri had fully awakened as a Snow Woman.

So that terrible jealousy was intense enough to erase the village of Setsunomura with a blizzard.

If those women had been in front of her, she would have wanted to annihilate them from reality, from Minsu’s memory, so that Minsu could never think of another woman again.

But at the same time, Yuri knew Minsu’s guilt and fear.

All of it was because of her.

And Yuri never wanted Minsu to be hurt because of her again.

Because the emotions Minsu had carried since Aince were all true.

Only Minsu had been the first person to see the true self of Yuri Tarkovskaya. She confirmed that truth with the power of the Snow Woman.

‘Now I must return that heart to Minsu.’

Yuri decided.

Even thinking about it again, the desire to monopolize Minsu, the desire to make him only her man, would never change even if Yuri wanted to die.

Now that she had awakened as a Snow Woman, that feeling was more solid than the Arctic glaciers.

But Yuri decided to accept it at this moment.

If Minsu loving other women could erase his guilt and fear.

Even if her heart would be torn to pieces by that terrible jealousy, she decided to accept it entirely for Minsu’s sake.

Instead, by becoming Minsu’s wife at this moment.

Also, at least until Minsu left Setsunomura, by monopolizing Minsu as hers alone. That’s how she decided to hold onto her heart.

Yuri raised her head. Her face was very close to Minsu’s.

“I, Yuri Tarkovskaya, accept you, Lee Minsu, as my husband.”

At that moment, a fierce snowstorm swept through the shrine room. The snow soon formed crystals and quickly created a barrier inside the shrine.

All the power of the Snow Woman was concentrating into this shrine. Yuri was creating a permafrost barrier.

The power of the permafrost barrier that imprisons everything. And with that barrier.

She might be able to stop even the brief time they could be alone together from flowing.

It might only be a few days.

But Yuri wanted to make Minsu hers alone, even in that brief stopped time.

‘Yes. At least in this moment. Minsu to no one else… nowhere else…’

At the same time, she wanted to give everything of herself to Minsu.

Woooong—

In the permafrost barrier that began to resonate with the shrine, Yuri’s cold breath reached Minsu.

Yuri spoke in an ecstatic voice:

“So from now on, we two will truly become one.”