OMAKE #013, A Snowy Night (4)

Heo Yun-hwan was frustrated. Rusalka somehow suppressed the demonic energy in her body.

The moment Rusalka’s right hand, transformed like an insect’s joint, was about to touch the newborn baby, Heo Yun-hwan instinctively drew the sword he had placed against the wall and protected the child.

Rusalka smiled at Heo Yun-hwan’s actions. Then, using her remaining mana, she froze Heo Yun-hwan’s body.

Was she really trying to kill him? Frustration filled Heo Yun-hwan’s eyes, soon followed by resignation. Since their first meeting in Sokcho, Rusalka could have killed him at any time.

He had been happy for a year. “I can die for you anytime.” Heo Yun-hwan closed his eyes like that.

“They say husband and wife are one body. Unfortunately, at that moment, both of them were thinking the same thing.”

Rusalka’s left hand lowered Heo Yun-hwan’s Iron Sword. Rusalka gritted her teeth, rose from her spot, and faced Heo Yun-hwan.

Heo Yun-hwan wailed. “Please don’t do that. Just kill me instead and you survive.”

“If she were an executive of the Dark Legion, she would have accepted that offer. But Rusalka wished to die as a lover, as a mother.”

*Puk.* Rusalka approached Heo Yun-hwan’s Iron Sword. The sharp sword tip pierced Rusalka’s chest.

Heo Yun-hwan’s body remained frozen, unable to move. Rusalka took one step, then another, approaching Heo Yun-hwan.

“Stop, stop it.”

Despite Seok Harang’s refusal, the vision did not stop. Every time Rusalka approached Yun-hwan, the Iron Sword pierced her heart, and Heo Yun-hwan wailed.

“I said stop!!”

Seok Harang shouted. The abandoned child was also crying loudly, screaming. Rusalka walked to the hilt of the sword and embraced Yun-hwan.

– I’ll die. Instead, my husband, please protect Harang. There will be six others besides me. Make sure to check the diary I wrote in the drawer….

Rusalka plunged her hand into her solar plexus. A small glass bead the size of a hard candy. Rusalka took out her Core and embedded it into Yun-hwan’s heart.

– With this power, protect Harang. Please.

With those last words, Rusalka dropped her head.

“To commit suicide with Heo Yun-hwan’s sword before rampaging as a monstrous human, as a monster. It wasn’t a bad choice. However….”

Rusalka’s body crumbled. The hand caressing Heo Yun-hwan’s cheek scattered like snowflakes. The armor, transformed into that of a monstrous human, disintegrated like breaking glaciers.

“The problem was what she didn’t know. That even if she died, her tainted essence would remain. And that it could enter you.”

The ice that had frozen Heo Yun-hwan solid shattered, and the Iron Sword fell to the floor. Snowflakes, like butterfly scales, piled up on the ground, and Heo Yun-hwan knelt from the intense pain emanating from the Core embedded in his chest.

Heo Yun-hwan instinctively sensed it. The Core had driven Rusalka mad and made her choose an extreme path. And now, it was trying to corrupt him too.

“Neither Rusalka nor Heo Yun-hwan had a basis for judgment. Rusalka was filled only with the thought of saving you and Heo Yun-hwan, and Heo Yun-hwan was the same.”

Yun-hwan crawled on the floor and picked up the Iron Sword. His eyes turned purple, and at the tip of the Iron Sword he aimed, was the child they had borne.

“There was only one thought: to prevent the Core from going to the child. That was the trigger for his awakening.”

The moment Yun-hwan was about to strike down with the sword, a golden aura burst from his eyes, expelling the tainted essence. Yun-hwan, who had awakened to a higher realm through Rusalka’s Core, soon regained his senses and dropped the Iron Sword.

Heo Yun-hwan, having regained his senses, took the child and the diary, then burned down the house. He then left Busan and abandoned the child by the roadside.

The child cried in pain, and the father cried in sorrow. He had raised the Iron Sword at the child, but soon threw it away and wept bitterly.

A day later, Heo Yun-hwan placed the child in a cradle, left her at the orphanage gate, and fled. Ashamed of himself for almost killing his own daughter, he left, leaving behind only the name Harang, which Rusalka had given her.

With that, the flashback ended.

“What the hell is this now….”

Seok Harang was crying.

“If it’s like this, isn’t my birth a sin….”

“That’s not true. The sinner is Seongju. If it weren’t for him, none of this would have happened.”

“…If I had known this, I should have hit him a little harder when I smashed his head.”

Seok Harang wiped away her tears with a bittersweet smile.

“So, is this the end now? Is there more?”

“The flashback triggered by the Cube ends here. Since you have seen all of the past, this world will collapse in about 5 minutes. However….”

Changyeom pointed to the garden beyond the tomb.

“You will have time to talk during that. It won’t be enough to fully reconcile, but I hope you can say all the words you couldn’t say.”

Changyeom snapped his fingers, creating a flame. At the end of that flame was the back of the man Seok Harang had yearned for for over a year, and resented for over a year.

“What, what is this?”

“When spacetime is warped and worldlines are shaken, such things can happen. In short….”

For the first time, Changyeom’s lips curved slightly upward.

“It’s a service time I’m offering at my discretion to the hero-nim who saved the world.”

Changyeom incinerated his body and vanished. At the same time, the Cube Harang held in her hand crumbled into dust.

Click. Click.

Harang approached the man with trembling steps. The man, who had been silently gazing at the sea from the garden, turned around.

“……So this is what happens after you die.”

The man, who had been scratching his head awkwardly with a hearty laugh, cautiously approached Harang. About five steps. It was the distance the man and Harang always kept when they trained.

“……Teacher-nim, it seems you’ve gotten about 5 years younger since you went to the afterlife.”

“You seem to have grown a lot in the meantime.”

They both laughed. Perhaps shyness was genetic, as they both hesitated, unable to speak. But the world was slowly crumbling.

“Father.”

Seok Harang spoke. Gwanggeom, Heo Yun-hwan’s eyes widened.

“I won’t ask why you abandoned me, why you didn’t look for me for 12 years and left me at the orphanage. Instead, I’ll ask just one thing.”

“…….”

Gwanggeom silently waited for Seok Harang’s question.

“Were you happy being in love with Mom?”

“…Yes.”

Gwanggeom affirmed. His voice trembled, uncharacteristic of him.

“I was happy. Meeting Rusalka. If there are two things I did best in my life, one was going for a night walk on Sokcho beach that day.”

“And the other?”

Gwanggeom took a deep breath.

“……That day, the day I went to the orphanage to find you. Not turning back and going to find you.”

“It wasn’t a journey that should have taken 12 years, was it?”

“You’re right. …Harang-ah.”

He usually called Harang by her name, but Harang could feel the many meanings contained in that voice.

“Be happy. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Of course. I’ll be happy. More than Father and Mother were happy. We’ll travel the world together, buy a house with an ocean view and camp there….”

The world was crumbling. The five minutes passed unbelievably quickly.

“…Father, even so, I haven’t forgiven you.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“So Father, don’t talk about forgiving me or anything like that either.”

“…Why would I?”

Seok Harang smiled with a mischievous face. Yun-hwan thought her downturned eyes resembled Rusalka’s.

“I’m go-“

The world crumbled.

* * *

“Did you have a good trip?”

The man greeted Harang with worried eyes. Harang rubbed her eyes and punched the man’s shoulder.

“You, you knew everything, didn’t you?”

“…No?”

The man turned his head. Harang grabbed the man by the collar and shook him.

“At least you should’ve told me what was coming out so I could prepare myself, you bastard!!!”

“No, I, I didn’t see it, really!!”

“Can’t you shut your trap! I was watching and I almost *got off*….”

Harang’s face turned bright red. The man quietly released her collar and put some distance between them.

“What happened? Almo…?”

“…Do you think that was anything new?!”

It didn’t seem to be that. The man tilted his head, but he deliberately held back his words for Harang’s honor and shame. Harang finally calmed down and continued.

“…Anyway! I’m not coming to Busan anymore. I’m going to live in Seoul, following you.”

“Suddenly speaking Seoul dialect?”

“Shut up.”

“Yes.”

The sea breeze ruffled her hair, tickling her cheek. Harang tidied her hair and said,

“I’ve learned what I wanted to know, so that’s enough. You can visit occasionally on the anniversary of his death. It’s the same as his birthday, so it’s easy to remember. Tsk.”

“……You reconciled, then?”

At the man’s words, Harang shyly hit his chest.

“Reconciled, my ass. We didn’t even fight in the first place. I was just annoyed by myself and pissed off by myself. Now that everyone in the world knows why Father did what he did, how can I act like that? I’d just become the wicked bitch.”

“So you do know.”

“You’re really cocky today.”

The man smiled faintly. Harang pondered how to break that smile, then hardened her expression and adopted a serious demeanor.

“Do you know why I came here today?”

“…Hmm? Did Yuna instigate it? Or was our Harang so touched by the birthday gift I gave her? What’s the reason?”

How would that smooth face crumble? Harang chuckled inwardly and replied,

“I really didn’t understand it at all, but thinking about it from a parent’s perspective, I get it now.”

“……Huh?”

A look of bewilderment crossed the man’s face. Harang put her hand in her inner pocket and smiled.

“Since you gave me something big for my birthday, I should give you something equally good, shouldn’t I?”

The expression vanished from the man’s face at the object pulled from her inner pocket. Harang held out a long, pink object to the man.

“Oh, no. You didn’t want to have a baby. Because you were afraid you’d do something bad to the child, like my father-nim.”

“That’s right. I’ve never not used a condom. But there is, you know….”

The man nodded vigorously. Harang pointed to the two clear lines on the test kit in her hand and smiled.

“You sleep really soundly, don’t you? So soundly that you wouldn’t know if someone carried you away.”

Harang made a circle with her thumb and index finger, then inserted and withdrew her index finger through it, laughing.

“Congratulations. You’re a father now.”