Life Doesn’t Go According to Plan (2)

Meanwhile, far away as Ice Queen and Spark were confronting each other.

“Mmm..”

Maker was also about to follow Alpha but his ankle was caught.

“Phantom Luna-nim?”

“……”

“Um.. it’s been a while. Haha.”

The cause was none other than Phantom Luna.

For some reason, she had entered the building where Maker was.

And Maker ended up being caught by her just like that.

“..Maker.”

“Should I deal with her, oppa?”

“Let’s wait a moment.”

Maker, Polia, and Phantom Luna were facing off coldly, standing just a few meters apart.

Honestly, Maker felt like he wanted to run away.

He was worried about Alpha (‘s artifact) who was about to die soon, and he didn’t know what would happen if he was late.

But when he met her eyes, Maker could naturally realize that she wouldn’t just let him leave quietly.

“..Maker.”

Phantom Luna looked at him, calling his name again.

Meanwhile, she was in a complicated state.

After that day, when she overheard his conversation with Ice Queen.

She had constantly wanted to meet Maker.

Especially because he hadn’t engaged in any terrorist activities afterwards.

The reason.. honestly, she didn’t know.

Even in this situation where she finally had him in her sight, she was unable to open her mouth and was struggling with what to say.

“..I, I’ve become stronger.”

After contemplating for a while, Phantom Luna first voiced the thought that had just come to her mind.

“Before I could only handle one summon, but now I can handle two well.”

“..? I see..”

“I’ve also gotten better at fighting than before..”

“That’s.. good?”

..This isn’t it.

Phantom Luna’s cheeks flushed red.

She thought again about what she wanted to say to Alpha.

She recalled a more fundamental question, the moment when she inexplicably felt angry and annoyed.

And another question came to mind.

Phantom Luna asked him again calmly, but in a tone with a heavy atmosphere:

“..Why do you treat me differently from that woman?”

“Pardon..?”

That woman.

For a moment Maker’s mind raced, but he didn’t understand which woman she was talking about.

“By that woman..”

“Ice Queen.”

At Maker’s question, that name soon came out of Phantom Luna’s mouth.

When Ice Queen’s name was called, Phantom Luna’s eyes seemed to flash as if sparks were flying out.

“..You comforted her, didn’t you? Unlike with me.”

Maker could easily understand what she was talking about.

‘This woman..’

She saw it, how he comforted Ice Queen just before her awakening.

Phantom Luna glared at Maker with hurt and jealous eyes.

“..While you treated me coldly.”

“……”

“You said I was pathetic, and didn’t treat me like you did her.”

“..No-“

“You could have spoken kindly to me too..”

At Phantom Luna’s continued words, Maker broke out in a cold sweat.

‘No. I comforted her because she was about to turn evil..’

Moreover, the reason for the difference in conversation style was also because he considered the difference in their personalities.

Ice Queen is tough on the outside but soft on the inside.

She looks tougher than anyone on the outside, but inside she’s quite delicate and her mental state shakes severely as stress accumulates.

On the other hand, Phantom Luna is the opposite of Ice Queen, soft on the outside but strong on the inside.

Perhaps because she lost her parents at a young age and took care of her siblings without any help from adults, she looks soft on the outside but has a strong mentality that doesn’t get hurt or break down easily.

That’s why he had only made a slight difference in comforting Ice Queen, but it seems that behavior remained as quite a big disappointment for Phantom Luna.

‘Well, even the head of a household would have the desire to act spoiled somewhere.’

But he wondered why she was doing this to him as Maker rather than Kang Ian,

Even if that wasn’t the case, he could somewhat understand the complicated feelings that might have arisen when someone who used to criticize her was only praising someone else.

Maker looked at Phantom Luna.

‘Should I try comforting her now?’

He observed her for a moment.

But.

‘..No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem to be time to comfort her yet.’

He soon shook his head.

If Ice Queen before was a fruit ready to be harvested, Phantom Luna was still an unripe fruit.

In terms of growth, she wasn’t mature yet, and it seemed it would take more time until her awakening.

She needed more time to wait.

Of course, Phantom Luna’s rapid growth in just a few months was surprising even to Maker.

However, the cause of that growth was none other than her desire for acknowledgment from Maker and jealousy towards Ice Queen.

‘If she becomes satisfied by receiving praise here, she might not grow further.’

In such a situation, Maker wasn’t stupid enough to remove her motivation for growth.

Maker carefully rolled the words he would tell her in his mouth.

“To you..”

With an attitude that wasn’t too cold or provoking her anger.

While making her feel more frustrated without resolving her feelings.

“I have no reason to tell you.”

His face smiling gently as always.

But those words revealed an undisguisable firmness.

Phantom Luna looked at Maker with quite a bewildered expression, as if she hadn’t expected him to completely cut off the conversation.

“What? Ah, th-then..”

“It seems I have nothing more to say.”

She hurriedly tried to continue speaking, but unfortunately Maker was faster.

Maker turned his head to look at Polia.

And Polia nodded and grabbed his hand.

Woo-ung-

“Wait-!”

Phantom Luna urgently tried to call out to stop him but..

Pit.

He had already left.

“..What is it. Really.”

Complicated feelings boiled up inside Phantom Luna again.

---

“So you were here?”

“..Is it Akaoni?”

Alpha, who was looking up at me while breathing heavily alone in the middle of a winding, complex alleyway.

I smiled brightly and slightly lifted my hat towards him.

“Yes, Alpha. It’s me, Akaoni.”

“Your.. way of speaking.. has changed.”

“Should I use what you’re familiar with?”

“..That’s much better.”

An ordinary conversation that didn’t look like people who were just fighting and being chased.

However, Alpha’s breathing was gasping loudly like someone about to die soon.

‘Just right. I was thinking of killing him now.’

The consecutive battles, the side effects of the drug that finally erupted, and the accumulated damage from Viktor and Heart Queen had made him something weaker than an ordinary person.

I looked down at Alpha leaning against the alley wall.

While contemplating exactly when to kill him.

But.

“..Take this.”

“Hm?”

Alpha’s subsequent action was something I hadn’t expected.

He took off the coat he was wearing and handed it to me.

Perhaps because shape transformation was his basic ability, he didn’t need to painfully take off his clothes but just reached out his hand to put the coat in my hand.

“This is..”

“Thousand Changes.. it’s my artifact. Originally it was in a bound state, but maybe because I’m about to die soon, the binding naturally came undone. You take it.”

Alpha spoke calmly.

I smiled inwardly at that sight.

‘What an unexpected windfall?’

Thousand Changes.

An artifact that grows to match its owner’s ability and assists the owner.

You could say I went through all sorts of hardships to get this, and in the worst case I was even thinking of fighting a healthy Alpha, but now Alpha just gave it to me.

“..Then I’ll take it without hesitation?”

Worried he might change his mind if I showed I was happy, I quickly put on the artifact.

Woo-ung-

Then my internal mana and Thousand Changes naturally reacted.

For a moment I felt as if thin threads were connecting somewhere in my body, and I felt like my head was clearing up slightly, if only a little.

‘I’ll figure out the details later, let’s focus on Alpha again for now.’

I lowered my head and looked at Alpha.

“How was it, your last activity?”

“It couldn’t have been a more chaotic and ridiculous act.”

“Were you satisfied?”

“Well..”

Alpha thought for a moment, then smiled and opened his mouth.

“If only someone hadn’t interfered, it would have been better.”

“Haha.”

As expected, Alpha seemed to have noticed long ago that I had used some strange method.

‘Well, showing the past and sharing it with others is because of the Traces of Mystery if not a person.’

It was understandable that he would easily notice since I had given him something else besides the potion earlier.

“You’re not angry, are you?”

“What can I do about their will? They said they didn’t want to kill me, so it can’t be helped.”

Alpha looked up at the sky blankly with a regretful expression.

“They’re cruel. Telling me to live on in this state.”

Alpha’s appearance showed serious injuries at a glance.

His organs were half crushed, and blood welled up from below his throat whenever he breathed.

Even if he survived, he was likely to have major aftereffects.

But Alpha wasn’t just talking about that.

Emptiness.

It’s most cruel to tell someone to live on in a situation where there’s no one around, and their honor, dreams, and hope have all disappeared.

“Isn’t that atonement too? You’ll suffer like hell.”

“That could be.. but I don’t know. I hoped those guys wouldn’t break down over the past.”

“Don’t be so uptight~ Didn’t Heart Queen and Viktor say they forgive you?”

I sat down heavily beside him and smiled casually.

“The past isn’t something you must forget and turn away from. Even if it’s a sad past.”

“I..”

“Even if you hurt a lot of people, it wasn’t just bad memories, right? You must have left many happy memories of laughing and being happy together too.”

“……”

“And after comparing the wounds and happiness you gave, Viktor and Heart Queen decided to forgive you in the end.”

“..Are you saying the happiness I created was greater than the wounds?”

“It’s a bit cheesy but maybe?”

Kuluk! Kuluk!!

Alpha coughed.

Then blood spurted from his mouth.

Even though death was imminent, Alpha’s lips wore a smile.

“I.. see.”

“And from what I saw, those two seem like people who might use the past as fuel to move forward, but not people who would break down over it.”

“If I had.. done a little better.. things might not have.. come to this.”

A hint of regret dwelled in Alpha’s eyes.

And Alpha immediately squeezed his eyes shut.

“..Now, kill me..”

“Wasn’t the original promise to die by your friends’ hands?”

“Now, I can’t do that.. you know that well.”

Alpha lightly chided me, then clenched his fist and weakly tapped my chest.

“You kill me instead. That was.. also a promise.”

“I did certainly promise death.”

What Alpha wanted even as he escaped from Tartarus.

Death.

Not just any death, but dying while atoning towards Viktor and Heart Queen and receiving their anger.

But now that he couldn’t do that, he was asking me to kill him instead as a poor substitute.

Thinking it wasn’t too much to grant, I nodded and aimed the gun at his brow.

“Any last words?”

“Kuluk!.. Honestly, I regret it.”

If I had tried a little harder, I might have been able to fix things.

Alpha’s tone was tinged with regret.

It was unavoidable as a human to have many regrets engraved.

Even more so if you saw a possibility at the end.

‘Well, it’s too late now so nothing can be done.’

“You have to think you’ll do better in the next life.”

“..The next life, huh.”

Was my confident statement funny?

Phew. He let out a deflated laugh, completely relaxed his body, and quietly waited for his death.

“..Right, if there’s a next life, I should. Since I received something this time, I’ll perfectly play the role of your subordinate then.”

“Is that a promise?”

Finally, I smiled and pulled the trigger towards Alpha.

Tang-!

A clear gunshot rang out, and the hero once called the strongest crumbled like that.

..Thud.

It was quite an empty death for someone called the strongest.

---

..Thump.. thump.

And.

A few hours later.

..Thump, thump.. thump. Thump..

“……”

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump-!

Whoosh.

“..Huk!!”

Alpha opened his eyes again.

“You’re awake?”

“..?”

And Maker’s face, which didn’t look particularly surprised, was also visible.