Chapter 382

Chapter 382

Eat The World Tree.

Episode 382: Sansuyu Tree (1)

Sansuyu opened her eyes in a dark, empty one-room apartment.

The tropical nights of summer continued.

Sansuyu, inhaling the humid air, let out a dry cough.

“Cough, cough.”

A life without wind.

No emotions or will.

She couldn’t properly receive any external stimuli from the world.

Her broken body had no living nerves, and her brain was frozen, unable to speak.

No matter how hard she tried to say something, all that came out of her chapped lips was a weak sound like “ah.”

No one would call this being in one’s right mind.

It wouldn’t be strange to say she had become a speechless infant, lost in spirit.

All virtues came back around.

Perhaps the words left by her mother were not true for Sansuyu.

Loved ones died, and the family fell apart. She was branded a heretic and became unwelcome wherever she went.

-Rustle.

A small, warm patch of skin touched Sansuyu’s face.

“…Ah.”

“You’re awake?”

A warm voice. Two long arms reached out and embraced her.

The scent of fragrant fabric softener from the finished cleaning.

A mat without a speck of dust.

Sansuyu, who showed no reaction to any stimuli, had one exception: when she felt this warmth, she moved her arms on her own.

“How were you today? Is your body okay?”

Sansuyu hugged the warmth in front of her.

The man, stroking the back of her head, brought his face close to Sansuyu’s cheek.

-Buzz!

A hot, rough green energy began to enter Sansuyu.

Sansuyu’s grip around Lee Shiheon tightened. It was an act as if she would never let go, whether to live or simply because she didn’t want to be separated.

-Crack.

As her bones and intestines settled into place, a small moan escaped Sansuyu’s lips.

“Ugh… ah.”

The pain she had felt for a long time.

The sensation of treatment made her hands and feet tremble. Sweat flowed from her forehead and collarbone.

Yet, instead of struggling, she tried to endure the pain by hugging him tighter.

“It’s okay. Just stay still.”

Tremble-

Her convulsions gradually subsided. A softly resonating voice and hands stroking Sansuyu.

He didn’t care about her chest, bare and soaked in sweat.

He just hugged her tightly, and she crumpled like a steamed bun from the force.

Sansuyu’s cold skin felt warmer than before.

“Okay, let’s lie down now.”

Even at Lee Shiheon’s words, Sansuyu didn’t let go of his arm.

She wouldn’t let go unless he held her arm and slowly soothed her.

Like a lost child in an amusement park who couldn’t see ahead.

Lee Shiheon, following Sansuyu’s gesture, smoothed out his wrinkled shirt and gently laid her down.

“Arm.”

He took Sansuyu’s arm and inserted a needle.

“….”

He hung up a nutritional supplement and adjusted the flow rate. The nutrients entering her vein went into Sansuyu’s body.

Learning it wasn’t that difficult.

With magic power, seeing blood vessels was simple.

“I boiled some porridge. Let’s eat it when you come to your senses later.”

He continued the conversation even without a response.

A silent attitude as if it were natural.

He picked out some suitable seasoning from the kitchen, sprinkled it on the boiled porridge, and put it in his mouth.

Lee Shiheon’s eyes were calmly sunken. The playful side he usually showed, or the emotional side that sometimes flared up, was gone.

The wandering figure, reflecting on various pasts and realities, was nowhere to be found.

Sansuyu’s eyes were still fixed on the ceiling.

“Sansuyu.”

The words heard close but far away.

“It’s not a big deal. Just listen.”

Turning his back, Lee Shiheon self-deprecatingly took another bite of the porridge.

“It seems I might die soon.”

There was no hesitation in his calm voice.

Another bite of porridge went into his mouth. Moving his jaw mechanically, Shiheon swallowed and spoke to Sansuyu.

“So I’ve been thinking.”

Even though he had put all the porridge into his mouth, Lee Shiheon put the remaining porridge back into the bowl.

He continued his meal.

“Isn’t there a way to save only you?”

The thick porridge got stuck in his throat, but he swallowed it down.

An empty dish.

Looking at his face reflected in the clear bowl, Lee Shiheon put his hands together as if praying.

“With family problems and being branded a heretic, you probably hate the world as much as I do.”

“……”

Sansuyu’s head slowly turned.

Lee Shiheon’s back, seen in her empty eyes. His slumped shoulders and near-critical physical condition.

Sansuyu’s body couldn’t judge anything, but instinctively, she scanned him with her eyes.

“Don’t worry too much.”

Lee Shiheon’s eyes were fixed on one place.

The gray, crumpled newspaper was filled with countless sentences woven from jumbled words, but only three words were visible in his pupils.

‘El Academy’, ‘Lee Shiheon’, ‘Heretic’

His name, clearly written, must have already spread to someone he knew.

“I have a lot to be sorry for. To you and to others.”

-Clatter.

Lee Shiheon, who had washed the dishes, dried his hands with a towel and sat down in front of Sansuyu.

Sansuyu’s head followed Shiheon’s movements.

Lee Shiheon, wiping the sweat dripping from her blurred eyes, smiled.

Sansuyu’s arms went up. As if asking for a hug, she raised both arms.

He hugged her in response, and Sansuyu’s head fell, her chin resting on Lee Shiheon’s shoulder.

Her chapped lips touched his neck.

-Squeeze.

She hugged the man as if to break him.

Her eyelids slowly closed as if drowsiness was coming. A slight hot throb in her heart.

China.

A small city in a remote, secluded area.

“The target is a dying man.”

Lee Shiheon, not wearing a mask and dressed in light rags, slipped into an alley.

The users of spatial magic were the Sage, Hwangdo, and Maronnie. At most, four or five others in the entire world.

With Lee Shiheon’s magic level unidentified, their attention was solely focused on this city.

Many hunters surrounded him.

Unlike the Cornus family, it was an individual, not a family, that was branded a heretic.

The same subjugation forces as before were not formed. Mugung had returned to his home country, and Baekdo had disappeared.

Of course, far more trackers than expected were attached, but capturing him was difficult.

-Drrrrrr!

Hunters stopped advancing and activated magic against the fire-spitting weaponry.

Lee Shiheon, leaning against a wall as if his legs were strained, raised his firearm.

Other hunters falling from high-rise buildings drew their swords to subdue him.

“Got-”

The shouted voice was drowned out.

The trackers’ bodies were crushed and burst.

“The target is an injured brat who can’t even use his magic properly! Push harder- grrr!”

-Thwack!

The shouting tracker leader’s neck was severed.

As many trackers, startled, dropped their weapons and tried to escape, Lee Shiheon emerged from the alley and chased them down, eliminating them one by one.

“…Huff. Huff.”

Breathing heavily, he threw a sword he picked up from the ground.

It pierced the chest of the fleeing man.

The magic power leaking from his body was seeping out. As if trying to forcibly leave a trace here.

“Ugh, ugh! Wait!”

“……”

A man sat down in fear and screamed.

With everyone else dead, Lee Shiheon stopped his arm just before throwing a punch.

“P-please, spare me.”

“…What?”

His voice was bewildered.

“I only came to get the reward… I didn’t intend to kill you! Life is too hard… I need to feed my daughter.”

Anyone could tell that his words were illogical.

But as Lee Shiheon’s hand stopped, the man begged him with a more desperate voice.

“What will happen to my daughter if I die? Please, spare me. I won’t tell anyone that you escaped.”

“……Get lost.”

“T-thank you-”

Lee Shiheon, lowering his fist in vain, turned his head.

A boulder weighing down his tired shoulders.

The hunter lying on the ground, limping, got up and picked up his sword.

“Ugh, ugh!”

The sword tried to stab Lee Shiheon’s back.

-Clang!

The sword’s blade shattered, and the hunter’s face was once again filled with despair.

The hunter, meeting his eyes, trembled at the corners of his mouth.

“You said you wanted to live.”

“U-uh…”

“If you have a mouth, speak. What do you want me to do?”

-Crunch!

The hunter’s body, gripped by Lee Shiheon’s hand, was crushed to the bone.

Foaming at the mouth and showing the whites of his eyes, the hunter collapsed powerlessly.

Standing there somewhat pathologically, he knelt on the spot.

His body was covered in wounds. Without using his authority, healing was slow.

He searched the hunter’s pockets with his cracked fingernails.

He took out the cash from the wallet, and seeing the picture, it was a family. A still young child.

“Hah…”

A small sigh escaped his lips.

El Academy Lee Shiheon colluded with Sansuyu, the eldest daughter of the Cornus family.

Currently discovered in China. On the run.

The dryly written articles once again caused a stir in the world.

All the world’s condemning arrows flew across the internet.

Countless acts of collective madness flew in.

Everyone associated with Lee Shiheon could not avoid this information.

“That’s what happened.”

“……”

Maronnie’s hands were trembling.

“W-who?”

Her deep, sea-blue eyes swirled.

Clutching her heart, and unable to breathe properly, Maronnie bowed her head, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Taeyang, gripping the armrest of the chair as if to break it, composed himself.

“Please don’t worry too much.”

“…Don’t worry? How can I not?”

“Since he is your lover, I’m just conveying what he said.”

“Why? What did Shiheon do?”

“Well, what’s the point of good and evil in this process?”

Taeyang’s gaze was directed toward Aori, who was sleeping with prosthetic limbs.

A body that probably couldn’t even stand, let alone fight, for the rest of her life.

“It’s too late to argue about that. He was always destined to be pushed aside by political factors.”

“How can’t I? I, I…”

Maronnie had forgotten.

In the dreamlike time and passionate love, she finally remembered something she had forgotten.

Maronnie also knew about the Cornus family.

She even tried to contact them directly, but received no response.

As a National Tree, all her actions were considered the nation’s will, and any further action was not allowed.

Taeyang slowly lowered his fierce eyes.

“Don’t do anything.”

“……Huh?”

“He asked me to. Your Grace, the National Tree of France, has no place to intervene. Even if you do, it will only add another problem for him to solve.”

“If being a National Tree is the problem… I’ll step down. Then I can help-”

“Your Grace.”

No one could completely reverse this situation.

Individuals coming in would only add to Lee Shiheon’s burden.

Taeyang bowed his head.

“Please.”

“…What if he dies?”

Even Taeyang thought there were not many ways to survive.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t give her negative words, and Taeyang lowered his head further.

“Sob, uh. Sob.”

He seemed like someone who was completely fine.

That’s why she could give her love without reservation.

When such a person faced hardship and the world began to point fingers at him.

Maronnie covered her face with her hands and began to sob.

It was time to leave.

“Your Grace, I’m sorry.”

Taeyang immediately left the room.

He could hear Maronnie’s loud crying from inside the door.

It was unfortunate, but it was something that could happen at any time.

It was something that would have happened eventually, even if he hadn’t saved Sansuyu.

They say it’s better to get hit sooner rather than later… but I wonder if that’s really true.

-Creak, creak.

Aori, following Taeyang, pulling her wheelchair with her hands, asked him.

“Taeyang.”

“Yeah.”

“Can the King survive?”

“I don’t know.”

“You said he wouldn’t die earlier.”

He hoped so.

Seeing the deep shadow on Taeyang’s face, Aori remembered something and pulled his sleeve.

“Taeyang, Taeyang.”

“…I’m not in the mood.”

“Look at this.”

“What.”

Aori, raising her arms, which were barely revived with artifacts, pushed the wheelchair wheels and ran down the hallway at an incredible speed.

“Hey… you crazy-”

-Screech!

An incredible drift shown in that state!

“Inertia Aori Drift!!!!”

However, her physical condition had not yet improved.

-Crash! Bang!

“Aaaaaah!!!”

The slipped wheelchair fell over, and Aori’s limbs, floating in the air, were scattered and rolled away.

“You crazy bitch!”