Chapter 854: To Han Yujin (1)
The golden chain rippled. We both turned toward the moon.
Crescent Moon stood amid the fading moonlight. Eyes like the night cradling the moon, and the pink hair I had once seen. She was no more than a faint afterimage, an illusion woven from moonlight.
Then she scattered.
Not a single trace remained.
“…Do you think Crescent Moon is truly gone?”
“Who can say? But this thing – this chain – may be the last lingering attachment she left behind.”
Young Chaos said there was nothing suspicious about the chain itself. Had Crescent Moon felt guilty for keeping Seong Hyunjae bound? Perhaps she, too, had wanted him to be free. Of course, there was no way to know what she had truly felt. It might have been nothing more than one final, minor reward.
Still, the Crescent Moon I had met… hadn’t seemed like a bad person.
“Leaving all the symbolism aside, Seeker’s Chain really does suit you, Seong Hyunjae. Especially the fact that it’s so impossible to predict.”
There was the way the weapon moved, the way it broke apart and rejoined at will, and even the fact that it wasn’t truly metal at all, but light. Seong Hyunjae gazed at the place where Crescent Moon had stood and gave a small nod.
“The only thing I found distasteful was being bound. I have always been fond of the weapon itself.”
“And it’s stayed by your side all this time. In a way, isn’t it your oldest companion?”
The golden chain circled Seong Hyunjae once with a bright, chiming rattle, then slipped into his inventory. Chirp fluttered over to me and settled on top of my head.
It was time for me to leave as well.
“Try not to lose your memories again. Oh, and mine! You can give those back now.”
“I thought I might keep them for company on the road.”
“Cut the nonsense. If you’re that lonely, I’ll give you a squeaky chick doll or something.”
A black shadow streamed from Seong Hyunjae’s fingertips. The last fragments of my memories returned to me. The writing on my palm. The aquarium.
Now that I had recovered every last memory, however, I found myself hesitating to leave. With the old man here, there shouldn’t have been anything to worry about, but…
“Firstborn.”
Young Chaos spoke, looking displeased with me for some reason.
“You do not need to worry about this one.”
“I know, but still.”
“If you insist on worrying, worry about the world instead.”
“What?”
Why was he suddenly talking about the world? Did he mean the Origin?
“This one still possesses the power of a Pseudo–Origin.”
“Yes. He does.”
“Out of countless sentient beings, Crescent Moon singled him out as the finest material. In raw potential, not even the Transcendents can compare to him.”
“That’s true. He really is absurdly gifted.”
“And he does not neglect his own efforts.”
“Mmm. Yes. He is… diligent, I suppose?”
The more he spoke, the more a creeping sense of dread rose inside me. Young Chaos was stamping his seal of approval on every fear I had been trying not to examine.
“Firstborn, you have taken the leash off a man like that.”
“I…”
“You removed every restraint and set him free. You gave that willful bastard the foundation he needed to grow exactly as he pleases.”
…
Oh.
A chill shot down my spine.
So Seong Hyunjae had all his power back. He was prepared to handle that power. And now he had been set completely free.
Seong Hyunjae’s eyes met mine, and he smiled sweetly. Behind that gentle smile, I imagined a horrifying calamity beginning to stir.
Uh, well… First of all, Chief Song, I’m sorry. See, the thing is…
“…You’re going to live quietly from now on, right?”
Instead of answering, Seong Hyunjae’s smile deepened.
As if.
He was going to live exactly as he pleased, doing anything and everything he wanted. Young Chaos shook his head.
“This one will no longer go easy on you either, Firstborn. His days of curling up quietly inside his cage are over. Once he reaches the point where he no longer requires my protection, even I cannot say what he will do. Handle it yourself. This is your own karma, Firstborn.”
Everything Seong Hyunjae had done until now flashed through my mind.
That counted as curling up quietly?
No. No, absolutely not. That wasn’t allowed.
I looked at Seong Hyunjae with deep misgiving.
“…Let’s just remain pen pals. From a very safe distance. Chief Song too.”
“Do not worry. Surely I can be trusted to observe some measure of restraint.”
I was fairly certain he hadn’t observed much restraint even before.
I sent Young Chaos a desperate look that said he was the only one I could count on. Please teach Seong Hyunjae to cherish a pastoral, peaceful life…
Except, to be honest, the old man wasn’t much of a pacifist himself.
– Chirp!
Chirp flapped his wings, urging me onward. Young Chaos gave the little bird a suspicious look.
“I cannot even begin to guess what that thing is.”
“Neither can I. But he’s a good kid.”
Whatever his true identity might be.
I bowed my head to the old man.
“There’s one last place I need to go.”
There was one more person waiting for me.
“Will you be all right?”
“Chirp will show me the way.”
– Chirp.
The little white bird floated into the air.
I didn’t say goodbye to Seong Hyunjae. He didn’t say anything either. I turned my back as though we would see each other again tomorrow.
I spread my wings.
Chirp shifted through space, and I followed the movement conveyed to me through the Teacher skill.
The moonlight vanished completely, leaving behind a vast, pitch black expanse.
And ahead of me…
‘White Bird.’
A great white bird flew through the darkness.
The Bird that Counts the Stars.
This was not reality. A memory from the distant past poured directly into me.
‘A future seeing species.’
The White Bird wandered through countless futures. Her enormous wings carved into the currents of time.
‘The most distant future.’
She saw the system being created.
She saw those who struggled to escape the destruction brought by the Origin.
She saw Crescent Moon attempting to create a new Origin.
And so she became curious.
About the future of the system.
The future of people.
The future of the Origin.
Her white wings trembled. The White Bird reached the farthest point she had ever visited. Her wings grew heavy, but she did not stop.
Farther.
Toward a distance she had never touched before.
Farther, farther, farther.
Time twisted into chaos around her. She no longer had the strength to choose a single branch among the countless futures. She simply flew blindly across time.
At last, what she reached was…
‘Nothing.’
The White Bird’s wings trembled.
At the end of the future she had witnessed, nothing remained.
Every star had vanished.
Countless sentient beings, the Transcendents, even the system itself – not a single trace of any of them remained.
It was the end of every world.
The same end Crescent Moon had also heard would come.
The White Bird flew through the empty expanse. Her eyes were filled with fear when she caught sight of a white light in the far distance.
White.
Impossibly white.
‘A field of snow.’
Land blanketed in snow.
The White Bird beat her wings with all her strength and flew toward it. The white bird skimmed over the snow, gathering powder on the tips of her low spread wings before soaring once more.
And from high above…
‘Ah.’
Their eyes met.
The White Bird’s emotions flowed into me.
No, they were not hers alone.
There was another emotion as well.
A second heart pounded. It swelled with unmistakable joy.
“Hello.”
The figure standing upon the snow smiled.
“Hello!”
Pure white.
The only being in this entire world.
For the first time since she had been born, her iridescent white eyes filled with radiant emotion. Like a child, she opened her arms and lifted them wide.
‘Snowfall Tree.’
The Origin that had devoured every world and remained alone.
The Origin gazed in rapture at the White Bird flying over her head. The White Bird could only look into the future. She did not truly exist within it.
But the Origin possessed endless power. She was a being who could, in the most literal sense, be called a god.
And she saw the White Bird.
The only sentient being in this place other than herself.
– You are…
The White Bird’s voice trembled.
Her black eyes held the pure white god.
Beautiful.
Dreadful.
Wondrous.
Terrifying.
Horrible.
– Every emotion spilled out in a tangled flood. The urge to flee clashed with the desire to remain, and her wings locked rigidly in place.
But then…
“Hellooo!”
That bright voice and the gaze overflowing with affection melted the stiffness from the White Bird’s wings.
“You are… you are.”
The Snowfall Tree laughed.
It was the first time she had ever spoken the word you aloud.
You.
Me and you.
The Origin delighted in the concept, drinking it in with her entire being.
“You truly are the loveliest thing.”
For no reason beyond the simple fact that you existed.
The Snowfall Tree spread her wings. Her body transformed, and she soared into the air as a pure white bird.
The two white birds intertwined in flight.
The sky was nothing but black, with no stars, no moon, and no sun. Only the field of snow shone white beneath them.
The birds danced among the softly drifting snowflakes.
A world for only the two of them.
The White Bird’s fear disappeared.
Loving the bird before her was easy. As though they had always been fated to meet, they fell into one another.
Their wings spread, folded, and swept wide. Their long tail feathers brushed over the snow. They bounded after one another, dipped low, sprang high into the air, and wheeled in circles.
They tumbled like children, then raised their necks with elegant grace and gave clear, ringing cries.
At times, they took human form and walked slowly together. They overlapped their wings and held hands.
Whatever they did, they were happy.
But the time granted to them was brief.
The White Bird was the past, unable to remain in the future.
The Snowfall Tree was a future that had not yet come to pass.
The White Bird’s strength began to run out. Even the Origin could not hold her there.
The Snowfall Tree possessed the power to make even the past into reality, but…
“You and I cannot exist at the same time.”
A vast contradiction stood between them.
“I am a being who can only be born after devouring everything in my world.”
The White Bird had to disappear for the Origin standing here to be born.
If the White Bird survived, the present Origin would cease to exist.
Even the Snowfall Tree, a being who was all but a god, could not deny and rewrite the foundation of her own existence.
The White Bird looked at the Snowfall Tree.
She would never reach this place again.
But even if she could never see her or meet her again…
“I want to protect you,” the White Bird said.
“Even if everything else disappears, I want a future in which you still exist.”
Even if Crescent Moon’s plan – the Wish Moon’s plan – failed.
Even if the system collapsed and every world was devoured.
Even if, at the very end, the White Bird had to offer up herself as well.
The Snowfall Tree silently watched the White Bird.
Her white eyes, which held every color, reflected the one she treasured. She looked deep inside her.
“Tell me what you truly desire. Not something for my sake. Tell me your own selfish wish.”
The White Bird released a breath of white mist. The snowflakes before her scattered.
“I… want to spend even one day with you. I want to fly through the same stretch of time.”
Not within an illusion, but in reality.
In the present.
“Even if I lose all my power, and even my memories. Even if you can no longer remain the perfect being you are now. Even if we are nothing more than two insignificant little birds.”
Though she would one day be devoured, the White Bird, as a Transcendent, would live a life that approached eternity.
Though she might be left alone, the Origin would eventually be completed as a nearly perfect being.
But they were willing to lose all of it.
The Snowfall Tree smiled.
“Me too.”
I feel the same, she whispered.
At last, the White Bird took flight.
She left behind the future that could never welcome her and spread her wings toward the unimaginably distant past – the present from which she had come.
The Snowfall Tree watched the White Bird recede into the distance for as long as she could.
A bird flew.
The beating of wings echoed beside my ears.
– Chirp!
A white bird.
But a tiny one.
I slowly blinked.
The memories of the White Bird… and the Snowfall Tree.
“…Chirp.”
I cupped my hands together and held them out. The round little bird descended onto my palms.
Two black eyes looked up at me.
– Dad.
I stared blankly at the tiny bird.
I remembered the White Bird’s memories that had reached me through Yuhyun when he was twenty six.
She had clearly said…
‘My greatest wish has come true.’
The White Bird’s greatest wish had already come true at that point in the past, nearly ten months ago.
“Chirp, you appeared not long after I regressed.”
He had suddenly popped out of a dungeon.
I had never been able to inspect his status window properly, and the system sometimes treated him as a kind of error.
Now that I thought about it, Chirp had never suffered a serious injury. Even when Belare bit him, he had been perfectly fine.
He teleported wherever he pleased, so there must have been times when he encountered danger, yet he had always remained unharmed.
He could cross into places he had never visited.
Into any world at all.
As though every world lay within reach of his wings.
“You are…”
The Chirp who loved magic stones, and the Chirp who refused them.
The Chirp who truly seemed like a baby bird, and the Chirp who grew intelligent with startling speed.
Two little birds who had been unmistakably different.
“You’re the White Bird… and the Snowfall Tree.”
The White Bird, reduced to a chick after using all her power.
And the Snowfall Tree, who had entered the White Bird’s embrace.
– Yes. That’s right.
That was how the White Bird’s wish had come true.
– I am the Snowfall Tree. The White Bird is asleep for now. I didn’t remember everything from the beginning, either. It returned to me little by little.
The dark space gradually began to brighten. A white light appeared in the distance.
– There is still no way for me to create a body of my own, so the White Bird accepted me into hers. I am no longer the Origin. After I recovered some of my memories and power, we traveled together.
Chirp had traveled throughout the worlds.
– We were unstable, and we did not know how long our time would last. But we believed in you, Dad.
My heart leaped.
It pounded against my chest.
I briefly closed my eyes against the dazzling light. The ground beneath my feet felt soft.
Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew I had arrived, and I folded my wings.
If the Snowfall Tree had entered Chirp – entered the White Bird…
If she was no longer the Origin…
A gentle fragrance drifted around me.
As I opened my eyes, a white blossom brushed past them.
Then, within the Origin…
Within the place she had left empty…
I raised my head.
“…Ah.”
Flowers had bloomed.
At some point, the snow had melted away, and pure white blossoms had taken its place.
Every branch gleamed white.
The flowers that bloomed before the leaves fell like snow, drifting down and gathering upon the ground.
Both the sky and the earth were white.
And through the gentle fragrance surrounding me…
“Happy birthday, big brother.”
The voice I had missed reached me.
–TL Notes–
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