Chapter 201: The Angel Who Dreams (6)

Episode 201: The Angel Who Dreams (6)

The girl felt freedom for the first time in her life.

The cold, crisp air filling her lungs, the blue sky and the picture-perfect clouds, the sun that illuminated the world, and the boy who was bathed in that sunlight.

Because she was flying through the sky with such a boy, Mari couldn’t help but feel free.

“Leffrey…”

Mari gently touched the boy’s cheek. A boy so beautiful that he seemed fragile. A boy she couldn’t take her eyes off of.

A boy who carried the scent of the blue sky she missed so much.

“Mother’s scent…”

Mari, nestled in the boy’s embrace, steadied her trembling voice.

“Mari, what kind of dream did you have?”

“I, I…”

Mari trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. Leffrey held Mari close and whispered in a gentle voice,

“Mm, you had a nightmare.”

“Yes. I, had a nightmare.”

And so, Mari began to tell her story.

“I have nightmares every day, so they don’t bother me, but there was one dream I truly couldn’t bear.”

She said the dream started like this.

“I remembered what happened back in the family. Seeing my sisters being punished for failing training and tests when I was young. And myself being punished. And…”

And, and… Mari trailed off again and buried herself in Leffrey’s embrace.

“And I also dreamed of when the other children couldn’t get up again.”

There were dozens of children in the Seocheon Yu family. And only two of them had survived. Mari, even before she could fully speak, had witnessed the end of those children.

“That was still okay. Because I dream about it every day.”

But what broke Mari was a different dream. Compared to these dreams, it was so much more…

“I saw my mother in the dream.”

It was a bright dream. Too bright.

“Mother, Mom. I don’t really have any memories of her, except for her voice when I was very young. So even though I’ve never seen her face before, I knew it was her. Even though it was the first time.”

Once again, a small sob could be heard.

Leffrey was at a loss for words, feeling Mari’s sadness through his hand.

“I hate myself. I hate myself so much now…”

And Mari poured out her words as if collapsing.

“The moment I saw Mother, what I felt wasn’t joy or longing, but resentment. I hated her so much. Because she left me alone in this world.”

“I hated seeing her holding a baby. If she had just let me die, if I had fallen asleep forever without knowing anything. If she wasn’t going to take responsibility anyway!”

“Mother’s scent, that fragrance, it remained in my memories…”

“If it weren’t for that scent, I would have already given up. I would have abandoned the light, the sky, without any hesitation.”

“So do you know what I did to Mother?”

Leffrey asked.

“What did you do?”

“I took the baby from her arms. And I threw it away.”

Far away- Mari said with a twisted smile.

“But the sight of Mother urgently running out, her back as she ran towards the baby, unable to give up.”

And then Mari slowly broke down.

“Still, I liked it. Even though I hated her so much… still…”

“You hated your mother that much?”

“Yes. Because she left me alone in this world.”

A child left alone.

A child who swallowed loneliness under a sofa.

Leffrey slowly closed his eyes. Because there were so many sad and dark things happening on the ground under the blue sky.

So, Leffrey couldn’t keep this sky in his eyes as it was. Instead, he decided to look at the ground again.

The ground where Leffrey met the young heroes.

The ground where he gave up his wings to protect a mother and daughter.

He embraced that ground with his eyes.

“Mari.”

And Leffrey began to tell her the story of a certain angel.

“There was once an angel.”

That angel was said to follow the commands of heaven without hesitation, to the point of being called a puppet of heaven. It was known that he carried out the will of heaven on earth without questioning any order.

“He carried out even orders that could put him in danger as if it were nothing, that angel was truly like a puppet. But, you know, even such an angel failed a command?”

What kind of mission was it that even this angel couldn’t complete.

Was it a mission to purify a continent, or to prevent an invasion from another dimension? Or perhaps to erase all the darkness in the world?

No. It was an incredibly, incredibly simple mission. It was a mission to simply bring a mother’s soul to Heaven.

It was a mission that even the youngest angel could easily succeed in.

“But that angel failed such a simple mission.”

“Why was that?”

“That was because.”

Leffrey smiled.

“There was a baby who was so much like an angel.”

And Leffrey’s small hand slowly caressed Mari’s cheek.

“Your mother didn’t intend to leave you alone in this world. She just believed in an angel like me.”

Leffrey spoke while wiping away Mari’s tears.

“She put her faith in this foolish angel who lost his wings, his memories, and even his powers.”

The foolish angel, Leffrey.

The girl’s eyes widened.

“So please don’t hate your mother, Lumari, so much.”

Only then did Mari understand everything.

Why she thought Leffrey’s scent was nostalgic.

Why she remembered that scent as the smell of the sky.

That fragrance, that scent she had remembered as her mother’s scent, was actually Leffrey’s.

“Hate me instead.”

“…I.”

“Hate me for not being able to protect you…”

At that moment, Mari could see.

A single teardrop falling from Leffrey’s emerald eyes.

Mari’s mouth forming unfinished words.

Since Mari was already clumsy with her emotions, she couldn’t say a single word for such complex feelings.

“I, that is, I…”

“Mari.”

After wiping his tears, Leffrey reached out his hand towards the ground.

“Even though there are so many cruel things in the world…”

The girl looked down at the ground.

The calm, blue sea that shimmered like silk.

“Isn’t it amazing how beautiful it looks from the sky?”

Massive golden wheat field swaying in the wind, with blue veins of rivers flowing through it.

“So, Mari, you too can be happy.”

The brightly lit cities of humans, with roads that seemed like rivers of light.

“Nightmares will eventually end, and someday only happy things will remain.”

And then, in the distance, the morning sun began to rise.

The girl, seeing that light, was reminded of Leffrey’s hair.

Another teardrop fell from the girl’s eyes.

“Just like this world, as seen from the sky…”

The world was beautiful.

The girl had no choice but to acknowledge this fact.

Even at the end of all those tragedies.

This world was still incredibly beautiful.

In the end, like this.

Despite everything that had happened.

The world.

“So you have to be happy, no matter what.”

In the layer of the atmosphere called the stratosphere.

There was a girl crying there.

The girl, left alone, looked at the rising sun and thought of a boy she missed so much. So, she couldn’t help but cry again.

As though the sky itself is crumbling.

* * *

A boy wearing the Central Superhuman Academy’s uniform. That boy, his body covered in scars, smiled shyly as he grasped the doorknob of a dark iron door.

“Now, the time has come.”

With a click, the doorknob turned.

This boy’s name was Gori, known to some as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and to others as the Doorman

Gori stepped into the room without hesitation. A red sofa under a dim, red light, a grotesque painting of the gates of hell hanging on the wall, and a boy sleeping on that sofa.

Everything was just as Gori had imagined.

Gori naturally knelt down and examined Leffrey.

His beauty that told him he was of the same kind as the Demon King, his hair, almost as black as the Demon King’s.

Karma of darkness so powerful that it could erase all boundaries.

And a single tear trickling down, the tear of one who had yet to fully accept the darkness.

“His words were right, senior.”

Gori said, stroking Leffrey’s jet-black hair.

“You didn’t mistakenly think that that person wanted something like a fallen hero, did you? Even a fallen hero is ultimately human, what that person has always desired is you, his kin.”

Gori’s scarred lips curved into a smile.

“To lead you to the darkness without hurting you, senior, we needed a water bottle called a Fallen Hero. A bottle to hold karma.”

Pat, pat—Gori, as if he were delighted, said,

“And you’ve gulped down the water in that bottle until you’re choking, senior.”

Gori stood up again and appreciated the painting hanging in the room. The gates of hell, with sinners suffering from their crimes as the door frame, and the darkness filling this world as the door itself.

Now all that was needed was a doorknob and someone worthy of turning it.

And in this room, everything was prepared.

“Then let us open the door to a new world.”

With those final words, Gori fell silent. Wordlessly, he took out a dagger from inside his clothes and, without any groan, deeply stabbed it into the right side of his chest.

.

.

.

Thus, Gori’s body began to collapse slowly.

His vision blurred, and his hearing faded.

But his expression looked somewhat relieved.

With trembling hands, he used his own blood to paint a doorknob on the gate. And so, as the door was complete, he smiled brightly once more, then collapsed, motionless.

Only the darkness of time passed in that room. And then…

The boy who had been deeply asleep on the sofa got up and approached the painting.

Still with his eyes closed, the boy walked unsteadily towards the painting as if he were sleepwalking.

*Thud*- Something was kicked by the boy’s foot.

It was Gori, who was no longer moving.

Although asleep, the boy could understand Gori lying on the floor there. No, he came to understand.

That for some people, this world is hell itself, and they want to judge this world even if it means opening the gates of hell.

The sleeping Leffrey suddenly realized this.

“Sleep well…”

After closing Gori’s eyes, which he couldn’t close himself, Leffrey slowly approached the door.

In this world…

…A proper judgment is needed.

Therefore, Leffrey would turn this doorknob. By turning it, he would invite his kin waiting beyond into this world.

He would do so.

Leffrey must do so.

So, he had to approach that painting, use the power of karma to open that door…

However, Leffrey just stood there, flinching. Even though he was frowning due to the nightmare and clenching his hands so hard that they turned white, he didn’t think of moving.

Even as his small shoulders trembled and tear stains appeared on his eyes, Leffrey just crouched in front of the painting.

“Leffrey.”

At that moment, a familiar voice came from beyond the door. A somewhat blunt voice, and yet full of warmth.

“Where are you? Qu-quickly answer me! It’s too dark in here. No, wait, as a black mage, I’m not scared of the dark or anything, but…”

It was Soya’s voice. It sounded exactly like Soya trying to hide her fear despite being scared.

“This darkness is just too black magic hate…! Hurry up and open the door!”

Leffrey stood up again.

He placed his hand on the painting, then…

“Hurry!”

…pulled on the doorknob drawn in the painting.

*Rip*—*Rip*—The sound of something like a sketchbook tearing filled the red room. Then, a hand emerged out from beyond the torn painting.

The hand belonged to a girl, identical to Soya except for her eyes. Her eyes were glowing red. That was the only difference between her and Soya.

No, there was another difference. Her expression.

Soya would never make such an intensely murderous expression.

“Fallen Angel’s ability, Shadow Play.”

The red-eyed Soya couldn’t hide her joy and hugged Leffrey tightly. However, Leffrey still couldn’t open his eyes.

“How is it? It’s an ability that can imitate everything about the opponent, including personality, appearance, behavior, and abilities. It’s a trivial and weak power, but it’s useful in times like this.”

Even the ability to imitate everything about the opponent is just a weak and useless power for the Demon King. After all, the Demon King’s basic attack is ‘Smearing’, which erases beings from this world.

Then what kind of power could his stronger abilities possess? Before falling asleep, Leffrey always held that question in his heart.

“I’ll teach you later.”

The Demon King said.

“After everything is over.”