episode_0075

23. Those who leave and those who stay (5)

The atmosphere calmed down at Lee Seok-hyun’s words.

According to him, the number of settlement residents who suffered like that seems to be quite large.

I could see why there were so many lycanthropes in the Garam settlement.

They have been coming here for quite some time now and increasing their numbers.

” Seok-hyeon, what were those people’s bodies like? ”

Yeonwoo asked him with a tearful voice and a look of disbelief.

Sister Yeonwoo has been working hard to create a safe place for herself and her younger sibling.

So now that my settlement has stabilized, I’ve put a lot of effort into making it a place where other people can come and live together.

Her heart must be torn, having been brought to this point by a lycanthrope who came and went without saying.

” Most of them… seemed to have died without even knowing why they died. Many of the bodies were already quite decomposed. There were even a few bodies where you could see the bones… ”

At those words, Yeonwoo unnie lost consciousness and collapsed.

” Hey… Sister!!! ”

Yeonseo quickly caught her, so she didn’t get hurt when she fell, but she was still tired from the attack.

It seemed like Yeonwoo had already lost a lot of blood before I could treat her, so she collapsed.

He approached her and used his divine powers to at least give her some peace of mind.

” Thank you… ”

” No, is that better? ”

Yeonseo was looking at me with a tearful expression.

My heart ached seeing Yeonseo with such a gloomy expression since she came to Nodeul Island.

” Yeonseo, take care of your sister for now and rest. ”

” Yeah… I’m sorry. ”

” Sorry, you should go now. ”

*****

The sight of Yeonseo’s back as she walked out, supporting her sister with Seojin, was so pitiful.

I remembered that day when I swore I would never again create such sorrow…

Children who were holding onto each other in fear and dying.

I swore I wouldn’t end up like those kids… I…

” Charlotte? ”

His voice calling me didn’t sound as pleasant as it did now.

Rather, it felt like he was asking me if I wanted to be happy alone right now.

As I was lowering my head and wondering if it was right for me to be by his side, the warmth I felt on my shoulder made me raise my head.

When I looked up, Hyunseok was looking at me with a faint smile on his face. He reached out and hugged me, putting his hand on my shoulder. I was surprised and writhed in his arms.

” Hey… Wait a minute! Why all of a sudden!? There are other people too…! ”

” Charlotte, you must be happy yourself before you can make others happy. ”

” Ugh…! ”

The kindness in his words as he whispers softly in my ear spreads through my body.

My head, which had been filled with negative thoughts just a moment ago, had melted away and I was left feeling his warmth as I held him in my arms.

” But… you know… I… ”

” Yeah, I know. But I hope you don’t worry too much about it.

Even if that time comes, if you are not happy, won’t you end up repeating yourself like the goddess Gaia? ”

When I met Patruna at those words, I remembered the evil god Thanatos that I had seen.

Gaia died… because she was saddened by the sight of everything she had created leaving her and later hating her or only seeking her out when needed.

And I could tell through that memory and what Hyunseok had just said to me.

I am the body that gathers the divinity of the gods to create a new god.

When I choose to become a new god, if I am not happy, I may end up in the same ending as Gaia.

Something so simple… I wouldn’t have realized it if I were alone.

I came to know because he was there, because he told me.

” Yeah, you’re right. If I become happy, I can make other people happy too… right? ”

” That’s right! ”

As I looked at him like that and slowly brought my lips to his face, I heard a cough and realized who was there.

I tried to quickly get out of his arms, but his arms wouldn’t let go.

” Tongue… Hyunseok?! ”

And then he grabs my face and kisses me.

A shallow French kiss. As I thought about all the times I had kissed him before, a tickling sensation in my heart seemed to be screaming that I was not satisfied with such a shallow kiss.

More, more! The desire to kiss him deeply began to burn inside me.

This time, I held onto his face as it was about to fall, and kissed him again, mixing our tongues.

My mind was filled with the sight of a transparent thread appearing between us as we ended a long, long kiss, forgetting that there was anyone next to us.

I turn around, startled by the gaze I feel as I caress his lips that are aligned with mine.

There was Jinhee, who was watching secretly with her face covered with both hands, and Lee Seok-hyeon and Kim Jin-seok, who were looking at it with surprised expressions as if it was unexpected.

When he saw them, he buried his burning face in Hyunseok’s back and avoided their gaze.

” Wow… You guys are really amazing? ”

When Lee Seok-hyeon said in a tone of disbelief, Hyun-seok laughed.

” Why? Are you jealous? ”

As he said that, he pulled me towards him, burying his face in my back, and hugged me from behind.

” No matter how you look at it, I can’t give it to Charlotte. ”

” Ha! That’s it! ”

” Wow… Wow… So… Ugh… ”

Sister Jinhee just exclaimed in admiration as she watched us being affectionate regardless of what other people thought, and Mr. Kim Jinseok coughed in vain.

” Ahem! Okay, now that everyone has calmed down, let’s move on with the story. ”

*****

” First of all, considering what Seok-Hyeon saw… I understand why there were so many lycanthropes among people. But there’s one thing I don’t understand. ”

” What is that? ”

Lee Seok-hyun quickly asks with an expression that says he doesn’t know what it is.

” As you said, it’s been like this for a long time… Even if people were affected by lycanthropy, why did they come all the way here?

In the first place, it’s not that often that demons come to the settlement. Even if they do, it’s because they haven’t been able to properly conquer the tower, so the tower is being devastated and the territory is spreading.

However, our settlement has quite a lot of fighters centered around you, Seok-Hyeon, Hyeon-Seok, and Yeon-Seo, so we’ve already conquered all the surrounding towers. ”

” Really…? ”

” And the towers around us don’t have any lycanthropes, right? ”

At those words, Hyunseok, who had been hugging me, opened his mouth.

” Jinseok hyung, maybe that’s… Namsan Tower? ”

” What? Of course, the counter on that tower is currently full… but the period doesn’t match.

It hasn’t even been a week since the demons overflowed from Namsan Tower like this! ”

” But no one knew the situation around there, right? It’s only now that the demons have started to spread here and there that they’ve come to know about it.

If that’s the case, I think the devil may have already started spreading before that. ”

” Indeed… I thought that the devil had appeared between the Blue House and our settlement a while ago, and that was when the devil started moving… Was that the problem…! ”

” If you think they were already moving before that, it makes sense. And if you think it took time to get over the mountain behind our settlement… ”

” Then, why did people suddenly turn into demons… ”

This time, I answered what Mr. Kim Jin-seok said.

As I was taking out the items I had just gotten and the ones I had gotten before that from my bosom.

” You know what I told you earlier, right? This is the candy. And this is the pill we got after we killed the outlaws a while ago. ”

” I heard that through the letter. But why is it in our settlement? I thought… I blocked it all. ”

Those words reminded me of the hooded man I had met earlier.

That person whose very existence seems to have disappeared from everyone’s memories except for mine.

If that was his ability… it’s very likely that he would have made you think he blocked it all like that.

” Do you remember the people we met earlier? ”

” You mean the people who were about to leave? Yeah, I remember them all. There were people I knew. ”

” Really? Then, do you remember the ‘hooded man’ who suddenly appeared? ”

” Who… are you talking about…? There… was… no such person. ”

As he spoke, Kim Jin-seok’s eyes looked lifeless.

No, both Jinhee and Seokhyun Lee in front of me were like that.

I could feel a very subtle, evil spirit energy… from them.

And to Hyunseok who is hugging me.

‘How dare you… touch… my person…?! ‘

I spread the divine power centered around my body, and filled the entire room we were in with the divine power.

After meeting Patruna this time, I can now transform the techniques I’ve used so far as I wish.

So what I’m doing now is a technique that recreates the realm of Curtana with divine power…

It is a technique to make the place where divine power is spread my territory. Well, if I were to give it a name, I could call it ‘Sanctuary Declaration’.

Soon, life returned to their eyes.

” Do you remember now? ”

At my words, Mr. Kim Jin-seok nodded as if he remembered.

” Now… I remember. It was definitely that guy with the weird hood over his head… ”

” Yes, I think that person may have manipulated people’s memories when he came into the settlement. ”

” Now that I think about it… It’s definitely been a week? That person came a little bit before that. Ha! I can’t believe I only remembered this now… ”

” It’s okay. I think it couldn’t be helped. More than that, this candy… It seems like a product that’s more stable than the pills we found. ”

At my words, Hyunseok, who was holding me, lowered his face next to mine.

” What we got? ”

His breathing tickles my ears.

” Uh… yeah… the pills we got… are probably mostly for experimental purposes. ”

” Really? Well, I guess candy is easier for people to approach than pills. ”

” Yeah. And considering what the old man said… I think the people involved… already know what this candy does. They probably didn’t know about the side effects. ”

At my words, Mr. Kim Jin-seok sighed deeply and frowned.

” How should I say this… Will people believe it…. ”

” That’s… ”

Surely, in the current situation, who would believe me if I said something like that?

You wouldn’t know that eating one of these candies would turn you into a demon unless you tried it yourself.

The moment I was wondering what to do, someone knocked on the door.

And what appeared was… the man who had lost his wife and child.

” I’ll make sure to eat it. ”