Chapter 381

Chapter 381

Eat The World Tree.

Episode 381: I Am Sorry

Dried, hardened blood scraped against the insole of his shoe.

The scene was too much to bear, and for a moment, he denied reality, but he eventually accepted it.

“Hey.”

Lee Shiheon’s cracked voice escaped his lips.

The king, who had come, dragged his nearly dying body.

He was too disheveled to be called a hero who had saved someone.

Shiheon glanced at Aori leaning against the wall, unable to find the words to say, and lowered his head.

“Aori… she can live, Hyung.”

A clear teardrop rolled down Taeyang’s cheek.

The jewel-like liquid mixed with the blood.

The words coming from Mei’s throat were so disjointed that they were hard to understand.

“I’m sorry.”

Even if he apologized, there was no response.

“He can live.”

He simply repeated the same words.

He hugged Aori, whose head was drooping weakly, and again and again.

Shiheon’s eyes were drawn to the hole in her chest.

Could a life without a heart continue?

Her dantian was also shattered.

“Let’s go.”

Taeyang’s eyebrows furrowed at the weak voice.

He could tell what Aori felt, and what had happened in this hallway he had entered, without having to be told.

“Not yet…”

The severed surface from the sword cut was Mugung’s, that person’s.

Taeyang hugged Aori’s cold body, seething with anger.

“She can live.”

The two, who fought like siblings so fiercely, seemed to care for each other more than Lee Shiheon had thought.

Someone’s death is more unbearable than imagined.

-Hiss.

The sound of air escaping from a steel container.

Lee Shiheon had his eyes closed.

Everyone knew that someone could be lost.

He had reminded himself countless times, yet he had thought he could manage.

Could it be that he couldn’t get used to this stimulus yet?

‘What more could I have done here?’

It was suffocating. He was anxious.

His chest ached as if it would burst.

When he returned to the room, he saw Sansuyu.

Lying on the bed, her eyes were open, but she still had no response.

She wasn’t sleeping, and he had been using his divine power for three days.

The unchanged state of her illness always tightened his heart.

-Shiheon?

Just a few months ago, she would tilt her head and act cute.

“…I’m sorry for being stupid.”

Shiheon silently stroked Sansuyu’s forehead.

The beads of sweat on her forehead disappeared into his palm.

“Hyung.”

A voice came from directly behind him.

“Have you slept at all?”

“…”

Taeyang, with a haggard face, sat on a chair.

In the small studio apartment, there were only two beds.

Sansuyu’s mat was located near the outer entrance, and a single-axis manual bed was near the kitchen.

Shiheon passed Sansuyu and approached the inner bed, sitting on the chair next to the bedside table.

Taeyang looked at the woman on the bed with a somber expression.

“…”

A solemn and mournful atmosphere.

The awkward tension, which seemed like it would burst at any moment, was something no one could break, except for one person.

-Blink, blink.

Aori, with wide eyes, had her mouth open.

“King.”

She blushed shyly, asking for porridge to be served.

“Ah~”

As if proving to the world what persistent vitality was, Aori smiled brightly despite her dying appearance.

-Munch, munch.

Aori, who took a big bite of the porridge Shiheon offered, grinned.

“It’s delicious. I’m being served by the king.”

Aori, whose strength was always her brightness.

Taeyang pinched the bridge of his nose at her sight.

“This crazy bitch… she’s come back to life.”

“Do you wish I were dead?”

“Yeah, I wish you’d just go die. No, how did someone without a heart survive?”

“Taeyang, ah~”

While cursing, he still picked up the spoon and fed her porridge.

Aori, who ate the porridge Taeyang fed her, couldn’t control her twitching lips.

“I like being sick. I want to be served by the king and Taeyang forever.”

She was talking crazy.

Taeyang’s face turned red, and he couldn’t take his eyes off Aori for a moment, as if he still couldn’t forget what had happened a few days ago.

Perhaps Aori knew Taeyang’s feelings.

Relying on potions and divine power, she finally regenerated her heart.

“How did you survive, really?”

“To see the king and Taeyang.”

“Damn… you’re really crazy… a completely insane bitch…”

She was so close to death that she even reviewed her past memories to barely survive.

Her arms and legs were still severed, but Aori didn’t seem to care.

“King, king.”

“…”

“Aori’s ‘thing’ case!”

Boom.

She grinned, wiggling the severed ends of her arms and legs.

“Oh, is it a burl case?”

Even Taeyang couldn’t ignore this and smacked Aori’s head.

-Whack!

“Ouch!”

Now, even if he hit her head, she couldn’t block or dodge.

Aori, who allowed the attack, lay down on the bed and grinned.

“Hehe.”

Fortunately, her chest was filled. Her heartbeat, though weak, was also audible.

Because her dantian was shattered, she couldn’t do anything in the future, but she had the chance to live in this world.

“Hyung, even if we regenerate her legs, she probably won’t be able to walk. We’ll regenerate them, but… well, that’s how it is.”

Taeyang glanced at Shiheon and checked his expression.

He showed no reaction to those words.

He just stared at Aori, deeply lost in thought.

Taeyang thought.

It seemed that his Hyung had also received a great shock this time.

“King?”

When Shiheon didn’t speak, Aori reacted.

“Please hug me.”

Aori, who was being hugged, rubbed her face against Lee Shiheon’s neck, grinning happily, and whispered in his ear.

“Don’t worry too much, king. Every day was fun thanks to you. I ate a lot of delicious food too.”

She had a happier face than when she hugged anyone else.

Aori’s eyes sparkled as if she had received a great fortune.

More than anyone else he had seen.

Shiheon, realizing that he held the life of such a child, was shaken.

“Aori.”

“Yes? King?”

He stroked Aori’s head and murmured.

“Why don’t you go rest for a bit? With Taeyang.”

“…Why?”

Taeyang frowned at Lee Shiheon’s words.

“Hyung, what do you mean?”

“Just what I said.”

“Hyung, this is the most crucial time. If you make a mistake, you’ll die. After the heresy judgment, you have to take care of your lovers too. And… and—”

“Taeyang.”

“……”

A bitter and exhausted expression spread across his face.

His cheeks didn’t twitch. His hair was matted, and his shoulders drooped.

Lee Shiheon was in a near-death state, similar to Aori.

“Take Aori and take care of your lives far away.”

“Hyung…!”

“I won’t say it twice. You said you were a vassal. Don’t worry about the White Ants. I won’t use them recklessly. I’ve learned how the world works… and I know how to manipulate information, roughly.”

If he continued like this, the people around him would die.

Either he’d use someone as a discard or he’d die himself.

“So.”

His eyes, more hollow than before, told Taeyang.

“Rest for a while.”

He wanted to sort things out alone right now.

The face of Lee Shiheon reflected in Taeyang’s eyes was similar to when they first met in the cradle, filled with anxiety about the future.

The only difference was that he looked somewhat relieved.

Taeyang and Aori couldn’t say anything in response.

[I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to Taeyang oppa!? Yes?]

“I know.”

At Lee Shiheon’s voice coming through the phone, Yul in the phone call shut her mouth.

His voice, even deeper than when they first met, held an indescribable power.

A pressure that heavily weighed on the chest.

“Just do as I asked. It’s not a difficult task.”

[How… how does the king know that?]

“…I’m just giving a rough estimate.”

Yul, who would normally have rebelled, didn’t say anything back to his gentle tone.

[……The heresy judgment will come down soon.]

“Yeah, I’ve already changed my phone and cut off contact with everyone around me. I’ve prepared enough cash too.”

[Are you sure it’s okay to use our manpower for something like this?]

“Yeah. Taeyang and Aori are the priority… then work on the people related to me as much as possible.”

[And you?]

A faint smile spread.

“I’ll take care of myself.”

Shiheon ended the call with those words.

Mana rose from his hand, and the phone turned to dust and fell to the floor.

He put his hands in his pockets and looked around for a moment.

El Academy. The place where his home was.

Sansuyu’s treatment was ongoing, but he had something to do here for a moment.

Lee Shiheon’s eyes turned towards the second-floor room.

‘…Should I tell her?’

He lowered his head, then raised it again.

Leaning against the wall, he sat down on the curb without even checking his surroundings and scratched his forehead without sighing.

He tapped the ground with his hand.

He stared blankly at the moon above.

He counted the cracks on the ground, then counted the stars.

He hugged one knee and lowered his head.

He thought without stopping. He thought of a breakthrough, with the determination that he would die if he stopped thinking.

‘How can I escape?’

What should he do to avoid death?

‘How should I persuade them?’

Not doing it at all was also an option.

It was too tangled to resolve the conflict. He decided to stop reflecting on himself.

A solution.

His legs trembled. The sensation at the tips of his toes disappeared, and they began to tingle.

His crumpled body leaned pitifully against the night air.

When his mind became overheated and he couldn’t think of anything.

-Sliding sound!

The window opened.

“…Ppi.”

It was clearly time for her to be sleeping.

Perhaps she noticed her father coming close because they were connected.

Shiba, precariously perched on the second-floor railing, saw her father and, without realizing the danger, floated up into the sky.

“Shiba, dangerous—”

Shiba, descending like a star, nestled into Shiheon’s arms.

“Ppiiiii!”

-Snuggle!

Shiba, hugged tightly, buried her face in Shiheon’s chest and rubbed against him.

Lee Shiheon’s eyes trembled as he tried to sit up, but then fell back down again because of Shiba.

“What was our daughter doing up, not sleeping?”

“Ppii! I thought… I thought Dad was coming…”

“……Is that so?”

His lips trembled.

His mouth was dry.

“It seems Dad and Shiba are connected.”

“Shiba wanted to see Dad.”

She wanted to see him.

It was what a daughter said to her father.

She hadn’t been born long and was still at an age to receive love, and she was thinking of her father.

“Yeah.”

The arm holding Shiba tightened. Shiheon buried his face in his daughter’s head.

A familiar scent. A fresh child’s scent that wafted whenever he returned from the academy.

The branches growing from Shiba’s head kept wiggling.

“Dad misses Shiba a lot too.”

“…Ppi?”

Shiba, feeling the emotion in his voice, raised her head.

Father and daughter made eye contact.

Their faces reflected in each other’s eyes. A seed, then a sprout, then an infant surrounded by tree bark, then a five-year-old. And now.

Her constant growth, which he didn’t even realize, was something to be proud of,

but he couldn’t speak.

“…When will Dad come home?”

“Well, you know.”

Lee Shiheon’s mouth slowly opened.

“Our daughter. Dad is a little busy with work, so it might take a little longer, okay?”

His breath stopped.

“…Okay.”

“Dad is really sorry, but can you wait a little longer?”

Shiba’s face immediately turned gloomy at her father’s words, then she clenched her fists tightly and lowered her head.

Rough breaths touched Shiba’s crown. Someone was gripping the hem of little Shiba’s clothes as if they would tear.

“Shiba will wait patiently. I won’t whine anymore.”

“Yeah. Shiba is so mature. You learn quickly and you’re smart.”

“Shiba is smart.”

“That’s right. But Dad isn’t as smart as Shiba, so it might take a long time before we meet again.”

-Drip.

It was strange.

Rain fell from a clear sky.

“So… um. You see… Dad isn’t as mature as Shiba, he’s stupid… and he just makes trouble. It’ll take a while to clean up. It’s not a big deal… It’s not like something will happen to Dad. Shiba should stay with Mom…”

“Dad?”

Dad.

“Well—ah. It’s raining, wait a moment.”

Warmth melted into the place where they were touching. His large wrist was trembling. Shiba, confused, looked back and forth between her father and her hands, then couldn’t hold back her tears.

“Dad, why are you crying?”

A twenty-four-year-old, a shut-in who hadn’t even graduated from college.

This unexpected child was too much for him, and he finally broke down.

“Dad… I’m sorry. Really, really…”

“Daad… are you hurting?”

“A lot, a lot…”

He shed his emotional shell.

“I… I want to do well too.”

He couldn’t speak for a long time.