episode_0044

“I know too! But it doesn’t work!”

“This is the guild leader’s order… We don’t want to do this either. However, according to the 4th floor document…”

“So tell them to come directly!”

Behind the two people arguing, Suyeon was seen at the entrance of the mansion, with her head down and just staring at her phone screen.

The fidgeting employee kept looking at Suyeon for help, but she didn’t even think about taking her eyes off her phone.

In the end, as soon as she walked out to the square to mediate the situation, she raised her head and looked at me.

I made eye contact with her, but I walked towards Seolhee.

Fortunately, one of the children who was hiding behind his sister, Nyamu, was also safe.

When Nyamu saw me walking out into the square, he ran towards me and hid behind my pants.

My heart ached.

[The emperor of the empire believed that the heart of a 6-year-old girl was the ingredient for the medicine of immortality.]

In the picture of the heart being cut out, Nyamu was depicted.

Suyeon, who had been just quietly looking at her phone, walked towards me at an appropriate distance.

“..I have to do it.”

“No.”

One word at a time.

Just one word at a time, spoken to each other.

With that, she and I are now separated.

“…You know.”

“You don’t even need to know.”

Nyamu’s hand gripped my pant leg even more tightly.

“You can’t live here forever.”

“There may be another way.”

“Nothing.”

It is firmly asserted that there are no regressors.

My heart felt tight.

“But that doesn’t work.”

“..It’s not me who wants to harm children.”

“Still, you can’t do something that can’t be done.”

Before I knew it, Seolhee and the rest of the children were walking behind me.

“..Suyeon, please.”

“…”

“They are kids who have already been abandoned once.”

“…”

“They are already abandoned by their parents at this young age..”

“…”

He raised his sword with both hands and pointed forward.

I spoke to the people who were already raising weapons towards me from various directions and aiming at me.

“Even if I die, I can’t do that.”

“…”

“It must have been lonely and difficult.”

“…”

“They are children abandoned by their parents twice even in a place like this.”

“…”

“If we do that, it won’t work..”

“…”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but Suyeon.. you and me..”

“I know.”

Suyeon, who had been listening to me silently, finally opened her mouth.

“I know better than anyone else.”

“So please..”

“Still, we can’t remain here forever.”

Then Su-yeon quietly took out a thin dagger.

“So, brother, let’s make a bet.”

“What bet?”

She raises her dagger towards me and lowers her posture.

“It’s a game where the person who hurts each other first wins.”

“Why me?”

“My brother was like that too.”

I couldn’t answer what she said.

I never once suggested to her a bet that whoever hurts each other first would win.

Still, I couldn’t refute what she said.

When I didn’t answer, she continued talking in silence.

“If you win, I will tell everyone here to do as you tell me.”

I bit my lips tightly.

“If I win, just close your eyes for 10 seconds and I will finish this quickly.”

My heart ached.

I understood it in my head.

If we don’t kill these children, we’ll be trapped here forever.

If we don’t kill these children, we will starve to death here.

If we don’t kill these children, we can’t go back home.

“Hold your sword. Because you will regret it.”

Suyeon’s voice wasn’t clear either.

“I definitely warned you.”

Even her warning voice was filled with sadness.

I knew it.

The fact that Su-yeon doesn’t want to kill children now either.

I knew it.

That if we don’t kill our children, we will die.

It was cruel.

“Start.”

As soon as she says “start,” she runs towards me.

I held on tightly to the knife I was holding with both hands.

Soon, Sooyeon’s dagger came towards my face.

I continued to hold on to the sword.

I got cut.

Red blood drops flowing along a thin solid line on the cheek.

Next to me, Suyeon continued speaking silently.

“..Can you close your eyes for just 10 seconds?”

Both my raised hands are shaking.

I was rationalizing myself.

‘Because I don’t know them.’

‘Because they are kids who have never mixed words properly.’

‘Because they are not the children I abandoned.’

But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t stop other thoughts from coming up in one corner of my mind.

‘Because Suyeon was like that too…’

Our stepmother left us and ran away.

In my case, I felt a great sense of betrayal, but I wonder how difficult it must have been for Suyeon, her biological child.

The children standing behind me collapsed one by one.

My heart breaks at the sound of children’s bodies falling to the floor.

And I felt Nyamu’s hand holding my trouser leg trembling.

“Wait a minute..”

In the end, I had no choice but to open my mouth.

When I looked back, all the children except Nyamu had collapsed.

“Really just a moment.. give me time.”

“Okay.”

She shoves a dagger covered in pitch-black blood into the dagger sheath.

I picked up Nyamu.

He buried his head in my chest and patted the trembling back of the child little by little and walked to another room.

There was no one following me.

All I could hear from behind was Suyeon’s command to ‘kill all adult-looking guardians remaining inside the mansion with as much pain as possible.’

As I was about to open the door and go in, I heard a voice calling me from behind.

“Oppa.”

I quietly turned my head to show that I was listening to her.

“When the children die, they will become guardian spirits, and they will not be trapped here. Everyone will go out and start a new life. I promise you that one thing.”

I nodded to her words and went into the room and closed the door.

In the dark of the room, I sat against the wall and let Nyamu sit on my lap.

“Nyamu~.”

When I called her in a soft voice, Nyamu looked up at me with eyes full of tears.

“What is our guy’s real name?”

Doridori.

Her shaking her head made my heart hurt even more.

It seemed like he didn’t want to say the name he had been given by his parents who abandoned him.

“Then can you tell me what you said earlier?”

“…Dad.”

Nyamu avoiding my eyes as if embarrassed.

I tried not to cry.

I promised myself not to shed tears, but a stream of tears flowed from my eyes.

Nyamu, who saw my eyes like that, raised his small hand and wiped away my tears.

“..Why am I.. your father?”

“Because I fought to protect you!”

What was Nyamu’s childhood like?

Was I happy as a child?

How scary must it have been for the child to have to give up his heart to the emperor.

“I’m sorry..”

Now the uncontrollable tears were flowing down my cheeks.

“I’m sorry that this is all I can do..”

“Don’t cry, Dad.. you didn’t do anything wrong..!”

I am not her dad.

I didn’t do anything wrong in her death.

But I was sorry.

I felt so sorry that I had to make her feel that pain again after going through such a difficult time being abandoned by her parents.

“Nyamu’s name is Nyamuya from today!”

He nodded.

“My dad is the sweetest person in the world!”

He lowered his head and hid his crying eyes.

I hung my head down and cried quietly for several minutes.

For me, Nyamu raised her small hand and stroked my head.

As time passed, the crying gradually stopped.

After taking a deep breath, I raised my head again and looked at Nyamu.

Although she was smiling at me, there was a fear that could not be hidden on her face, like a child who knows the future that will soon come to her.

“Nyamuya.”

“Yes?”

When I suddenly called her, her pronunciation was slurred because she was in a hurry to answer.

“I’m waiting at the mansion, my dad will come back to get me.”

Did you understand what I meant?

I patted Nyamu’s head as she nodded cutely.

Soon, he hugged Nyamu and walked out of the door again.

The two women were shocked when they found out I cried, but they didn’t say anything.

“Suyeon.”

When I called her in a quiet voice, she slowly walked towards me.

At first I tried to do it myself.

If it was a life that had to be cut off anyway, I changed my plan because I wanted to let him go with as little pain as possible.

“I ask you not to feel any pain.”

She nodded.

I left Sooyeon behind and slowly started walking into the mansion.

The child, who was trembling slightly in my arms and leaning against my chest, was stroked on his head and back to keep him from feeling anxious.

The sound of Seolhee and Suyeon’s footsteps quietly following behind me was heard through the creaking sound of the wooden floor.

I walked.

I walked very slowly, stroking her.

From the middle, dazzling golden magic came out and enveloped Nyamu’s body, but he did not resist.

The golden magic was warmer than anything else.

After walking for a while, we arrived in front of a white room.

Let’s gently place Nyamu’s cold, dead body in the white room.

Her body slowly turned white.

At the same time, the phone vibrated.

It would be a 4th floor clear alarm.

“Sister.”

“..huh?”

“Please return home as quickly as possible. I’ll go to my sister in about 5 minutes.”

“..I understand.”

At my request, my sister immediately picked up her cell phone and returned to Earth.

Now, the only people left in front of the white room were me and Suyeon.

I spoke to Su-yeon while looking at Nyamu’s body, which was still turning white.

“What rank are you in?”

“1st place.”

“This time too? Of course it’s Jeong Soo-yeon.”

“Thank you.”

“..I’m sorry.”

Su-yeon did not respond to my sudden apology.

After a while, I felt someone hugging me from behind.

((Oh my!! As soon as I come..!! I get to see this precious scene!!))

This time, the little fairy appeared quietly without a word.

Suyeon’s face turned red because of the fairy muttering next to her, and she relaxed her arms and lifted up her phone.

“I started hating the fairy this time.”

((Eh?!! No!! Sooyeonniyyy!!))

Soon after, Suyeon returned to Earth.

((No!! Ugh..!! I’ll go first, Cheonhwi!! See you later!!))

The little fairy disappeared, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off Nyamu’s body, which was turning completely white.