Chapter 851: Save Me
Seong Hyunjae.
Three characters stood out clearly across his palm.
Sesung Guild Master.
Along with the words on both hands, the memories that had been fading away began to return. A bright, ringing voice complained in his ear.
‘Seong. Hyun. Jae. Now, repeat after me. I am Seong Hyunjae. I am the Sesung Guild Master. I will repay my debt to Han Yujin tenfold. I will eat every last bit of my bread, crusts and all—’
“I draw the line at that.”
Seong Hyunjae muttered aloud.
The damp chill of the sodden earth pressed against his skin. At the same time, every breath carried the overpowering stench of blood deep into his lungs.
His head was intact.
Slowly, he became aware of the body beneath it. His torso, his two arms, the hands attached to his wrists. He moved his fingers slightly. Both legs were still properly connected as well.
After being broken apart, shattered, and broken again more times than he could count, it became easy to forget whether limbs had ever been attached to him in the first place. Perhaps having none was the natural state. His original form disappeared behind a veil of fog, and a single fragment became the self.
Was the person he was now truly him?
Was the person he had been in the past?
Or was he the self from a past so distant that even he no longer knew it?
Could someone who did not remember his own beginning ever be certain that the person existing in the present was truly himself?
Seong Hyunjae closed his hand, then opened it again. There were only a few smears of blood on the otherwise clean palm.
But he remembered the tickle of the pen moving over his skin.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
The past that had been erased, the present that had grown hazy, the past that would soon be shattered into fragments—none of it mattered.
Those two phrases were proof of who he was.
Then another memory surfaced.
The aquarium.
He had left himself two memories.
His identity and his purpose.
His name, written across his palm, and the promise to visit an aquarium. Even if every trace of himself were erased, so long as those two things remained clear, he knew he could rise and walk forward without hesitation.
His golden eyes slowly closed, then opened again.
It was nothing more than a casual invitation to go have fun together. An insignificant promise, the kind that could be forgotten or ignored without consequence.
That was precisely why it had been engraved so deeply.
To go out of one’s way to preserve such an ordinary, lighthearted promise meant that the person on the other end of it was that special. Someone capable of making even the mundane extraordinary.
His limp arm bent. His palm pressed against the ground.
Blood seeped up through the soil.
Seong Hyunjae pushed himself upright.
It was night here, and yet there was no night.
The darkness had been chased away by white moonlight, leaving the entire world drenched in silver. The few faint scraps of shadow that remained were swept helplessly back and forth between curtains of moonlight that rippled like an aurora.
The moon rose at night.
But could this place truly be called night?
Beneath this silver sky, the bird of night could not close its eyes, and the bird of day could never sleep.
Seong Hyunjae looked up into the moonlight.
Within its flowing currents, the Crescent Moon gazed down at him.
It was the gaze of a god looking upon her own creation.
In truth, she was not far removed from one.
“I assume it will be impossible for me to escape this place through my own power.”
Golden light flashed around Seong Hyunjae.
He had already surpassed the level of an S-Rank. Through the Perfect Nurturer title, he had refined a portion of the power accumulated inside him along with the Gardener’s magic stone, shaping them into something he could wield.
One more step might have carried him into the realm of Transcendents.
But he still fell short of the Crescent Moon.
The layers of contracts binding him also dragged at his ankles.
“However, you will not obtain what you desire either.”
Jingle, jingle—
The sound of bells drifted toward him.
Seong Hyunjae felt the hair rise along his spine, but the corners of his mouth lifted.
The little moon possessed more than enough power to wax full. The Gardener’s magic stone had supplied the final drop, filling the vessel to its brim.
And yet Seong Hyunjae had not lost himself.
Perfect Nurturer.
The power held within that title prevented Seong Hyunjae from changing into a form he himself did not desire.
He clung to himself by the narrowest of margins.
Only barely. Desperately. Precariously.
But he had not given in.
The Crescent Moon did not move.
She merely hung in the sky.
Instead, the moonlight trembled.
Clink, clatter—
Silver chains poured down from every direction.
KRA-KOOOM—!
Golden light exploded upward to block the moonlight.
Hundreds of chains burst apart, but countless more crashed down upon the golden waves. Before the undeniable gulf in power, the light shattered. It broke into glittering fragments and scattered.
The moonlight drank blood.
It sliced through his limbs like blades.
Without uttering a single scream, Seong Hyunjae burst apart.
His blood scattered over the red earth, dyeing it red once more.
The sound of bells faded.
The moonlight resumed its silent flow.
The fragments began to gather, forming the shape of Seong Hyunjae once again.
The mighty power of the Pseudo-Origin, which even contained the power of creation, restored “Seong Hyunjae” to his original state.
Not only his body but his clothes and shoes returned perfectly to the way they had been at the beginning.
That, too, was proof that Seong Hyunjae had not lost himself.
He let out a long, exhausted breath and remained lying on the ground, staring up at the sky.
“You have failed again.”
The Crescent Moon had retrieved Seong Hyunjae, only to discover the condition he was in.
Despite possessing everything required, the little moon had failed to be reborn as a full moon.
Ordinarily, “Seong Hyunjae” would have been naturally crushed beneath the immense power and disappeared.
But Han Yujin’s memories continued to awaken “Seong Hyunjae.”
Simply erasing his memories would not be enough to destroy him.
The Cradle had attempted to seize the Nurturer, only to be thwarted by Young Chaos.
Only two options remained.
Break “Seong Hyunjae” completely.
Or erase his memories and begin again.
Jingle—
The moonlight trembled.
He had been shattered into countless pieces.
When the body was broken, the mind could not remain unaffected.
Even so, Seong Hyunjae endured.
He was still the Sesung Guild Master.
He had promised to visit the aquarium with Han Yujin.
If he bought Han Yujin ice cream, Han Yujin would pretend to be reluctant before accepting it.
“The Cradle will disappear as well.”
Seong Hyunjae rose, swaying slightly.
For an instant, his perfectly intact legs felt strangely unfamiliar.
“I’m sure the elder will find a way.”
Rookie, too, would ultimately try to help Han Yujin.
The world to which Seong Hyunjae would return should be safe.
His golden eyes curved gently as he smiled.
The Crescent Moon stared down at that smile without any change in her expression. She seemed as indifferent as the moon hanging in the sky.
“Your plans have gone rather badly off course, haven’t they?”
–I wanted to complete you with as little damage as possible.
Unlike her unchanging expression, her voice contained unmistakable affection.
That was why it felt so unnervingly out of place.
Like a doll playing a prerecorded voice.
CRUNCH!
Moonlight shot forward at a speed even Battle Precognition could barely follow and pierced Seong Hyunjae’s shoulder.
He seized the chain of solidified moonlight and tore it apart with his bare hand.
–I hoped you would not break until the moment immediately before your completion.
Moonlight fired again.
Several silver chains were swallowed by the exploding electrical current, but it was nowhere near enough to stop them.
THUD!
Seong Hyunjae was flung violently across the ground. His arm snapped. His ankle twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Hrk—!”
A chain wrapped around his throat.
The sound escaped him reflexively as his breath was cut off.
Without killing him, the chain dragged him brutally across the ground like a toy.
He broke one chain, then another, but the moonlight was inexhaustible. His remaining good leg was torn open. The broken ankle was severed completely.
CRACK—
His vision went black.
The breathless body of Seong Hyunjae returned once more to its original form.
Between the disordered strands of his hair, his golden eyes opened.
–My child, in the new world, you will not Awaken.
The silver chains pierced both legs of Seong Hyunjae just as he managed to stand.
His knees buckled.
He collapsed heavily onto the ground.
–You will be unable to communicate your will through either speech or writing. Even so, countless people will desire you. That desire will become another source of suffering.
Powerless and incapable of communicating with others, yet still desirable.
In the end, he would be treated as an object.
There might be those who cherished him.
There would also be those who subjected him to unspeakable cruelty.
And even the affection offered to him would never be the affection given to an equal.
–You will wander without ever building anything of your own, until you abandon yourself. Or until the power sustaining you disappears.
It would be different from everything that had come before.
The man who had always climbed to the highest place would now be forced to crawl through the lowest.
Even if his innate brilliance eventually lifted him upward, the moment he escaped the bottom, he would be dragged into another place.
Seong Hyunjae would be given no opportunity to assimilate the power accumulated within him.
No leisure or time to search for a way to escape the Crescent Moon.
Gagged and leashed, he would be trampled helplessly beneath the feet of others.
Unable to use his impaled legs, Seong Hyunjae spread his wings.
He had barely risen into the air when the moonlight tore through them.
His body plummeted.
Before he could strike the ground, silver chains carved his entire body into pieces.
No matter how many times he rose, ran, or took flight, he always ended on the ground.
Seong Hyunjae opened his eyes again.
He saw one limp arm and an open palm.
Sesung Guild Master.
Seong Hyunjae.
“To think I might break my promise…”
How many years did Han Yujin have left to live?
Seong Hyunjae was confident that he himself could endure until the end.
But he could not guarantee that he would return within the time Han Yujin had left.
It would not matter if Han Yujin aged until Seong Hyunjae could no longer recognize him.
It would not matter if the world changed beyond recognition.
Even if the aquarium had dried up completely, leaving behind nothing but an empty lot without a trace of water, Seong Hyunjae could simply go there.
Even if not a single minnow remained, they could imagine the largest whale shark, draw it, and talk about it together.
Seong Hyunjae stood once more.
His golden eyes grew wet.
The droplets gathering there slid silently down his cheeks.
He was not frustrated.
He was not in despair.
He was simply, purely—
–So you are sad.
“How could I not be? I loved those times.”
Every moment he spent living in that world.
The life of Seong Hyunjae.
Even after Han Yujin reached the end of his life, Seong Hyunjae would still have his own death awaiting him.
His dutiful death would surely come for him and offer him an ending.
That was why he felt neither anxious nor afraid.
He was only sad.
Song Taewon would tell Seong Hyunjae about everything that had happened in his absence.
There would probably be enough time to share one or two drinks.
But anything more than that would be impossible.
“I want to live in my world.”
A little longer.
Greedily.
Like a child, he found himself overflowing with things he wanted to do.
He did not want to let all the time awaiting him simply pass by.
“I want to spend a few more birthdays there—and my death, too.”
Not only his own birthday, but everyone else’s.
He had not even had the chance to properly celebrate Han Yujin’s birthday once.
Perhaps Song Taewon’s birthday would be a little different this time.
Or perhaps Seong Hyunjae would once again outlive those two and everyone else, until he was the only one left behind.
But this time, he wanted to remember every one of them.
He wanted to miss them all.
As long as it was there, even being the one left to tend their graves would be a joy.
“And I want to remember myself through it all.”
Moonlight poured down like rain, concealing his tears.
His blurred vision became stained red.
Even though he knew perfectly well that he stood no chance, golden light overflowed from him.
The electrical current raged and snapped until the instant its master’s breath was severed.
Again.
And again.
And again.
But beneath that merciless violence, his memories were gradually erased.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Even after seeing those two phrases, he could no longer connect them immediately.
Aquarium.
An enormous glass wall with fish swimming beyond it.
He could no longer remember that place.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
Someone held his hand and guided the pen across his palm.
It was an unfamiliar space.
Light burrowed into his heart and his head.
The memories he had barely managed to reconnect were abruptly severed.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
The broken words drifted aimlessly through his mind.
He could no longer remember how to breathe, but he understood that Seong Hyunjae was his name.
Fish circled through clear water.
Bubbles rose toward the surface.
A vast space.
A high ceiling.
Moonlight fell from the sky.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
He saw the illusion of words appearing on his empty palm.
He had promised to visit an aquarium.
He could not remember what an aquarium was.
His body felt heavy, as though he were sinking beneath deep water.
Even standing had become almost impossible.
His flesh shattered once more.
He scattered like grains of sand slipping between someone’s fingers.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
The Sesung Guild Master named Seong Hyunjae reached out his hand.
A sky filled with moonlight entered his vision.
Had the sky always looked like that?
Soon, this hand would be cut off.
It would tumble away in fragments as though that were the most natural thing in the world.
He no longer even thought that he should stop it.
That he should resist.
He merely stared at his own hand.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
And pink yarn.
“…Yarn.”
At some point, a strand of pink yarn had descended from above.
No.
It almost seemed as though the yarn extended out from him.
The Crescent Moon raised her head.
The strand continued without end.
Seong Hyunjae caught it reflexively.
‘Happy birthday.’
The voice brought a flood of memories with it.
A ball of yarn tumbled down from the sky.
A golden dragon cut across a brilliant blue expanse, rather than a silver one, as hot-pink yarn poured down around it.
‘Hold out your hand.’
His hand was already extended.
A pair of knitting needles surfaced faintly in his memory.
‘I wasn’t invited, but I’ll leave you a present anyway. Keep that dementia at bay and live a good long life.’
At the same time, all the memories that had been buried came bursting out at once.
Seong Hyunjae.
Sesung Guild Master.
Aquarium.
Pink yarn.
Han Yujin.
Song Taewon.
His guild.
His world.
They lit up his mind like a magnificent display of fireworks.
Seong Hyunjae rose.
The golden electrical current that had vanished surged around him once more.
And then—
CRAAACK—!
The sky split open.
At the far end of the fluttering strand of yarn, a pair of golden wings spread wide.
“I’ve come to save you, Princess!”
Han Yujin shouted.
Seong Hyunjae laughed with unrestrained delight.
–TL Notes–
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