Armed Forces Capital Hospital.
Sinhyeok lay quietly in a private room. A nursing officer entered and checked his vitals.
Rattle.
The door opened, and someone stepped inside.
She glanced back, flinched, and immediately saluted.
“Loyalty.”
“No need for that.”
The nursing officer carefully left the hospital room.
The man who had entered pulled over a chair and sat beside the bed.
“Sinhyeok.”
The one seated beside him was Lee Gangyeol.
He set his cap down beside him and rested a hand over his heart for a moment.
‘It’s fierce, swirling like a storm.’
Given Sinhyeok’s usual constitution, it should not have been flowing; it should have been pooled, utterly solid and still.
Creak.
The door opened carefully, and Lucien Farrell, who had come as supporting personnel, entered.
“General, is the boy all right?”
“I’m not sure. He’ll probably go to the Dragon Soul Corridor.”
At the mention of the Dragon Soul Corridor, Lucien’s expression turned bitter.
“Sinhyeok, to such a harsh place……”
Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol turned back and thanked him.
“Thank you. For coming so quickly to help.”
“This much is nothing. I owe you a debt, so of course I had to come.”
Lucien moved closer to the bed and stared at the raging torrent of mana.
“If he were one on the verge of transcendence, he could endure it well enough, but this child……”
“He isn’t ready yet.”
Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol also let out a sigh.
“It’s too fast. With what I prepared, it shouldn’t have come to this.”
At his sigh, Lucien held out the potion that had been supplied to the scene.
“The way I see it, you underestimated this young man. What did you originally prepare?”
Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol looked at the flawless highest-grade potion and said,
“The blood of a rotting lesser dragon. Just a superficial taste of it. Enough to help him a little. I thought he would gain it when he went there.”
Lucien gave a self-deprecating smile and said,
“I don’t know whether to call it coincidence or talent. But it must be talent. There is a legend, you know. They say the hand of the ‘Primordial Alchemist’ transcends anything.”
Lee Gangyeol let out a hollow laugh and stroked Sinhyeok’s hair.
“I overlooked it. This child’s talent.”
“It couldn’t be helped. Still, it is a pity. That someone with such talent is wandering the edge of death.”
Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol took out a potion from his coat, one shimmering with an auspicious light.
“General, is that not an elixir?”
“Lucien, I’ll ask this of you. Administer it to him whenever he’s in danger.”
Lucien carefully accepted the elixir.
“You’re going to use this on the boy? Something that is like an extra life for you?”
Lee Gangyeol rose and picked up his military cap.
“I was going to give it to him anyway.”
He stood and left the hospital room.
Before leaving, he turned back and glanced over.
He looked at Sinhyeok’s face as he lay there peacefully.
“When you come back, there’ll be a lot we need to talk about.”
He carefully shut the door.
Command Sergeant Major Kim Hyeonsuk, who had been leaning against the wall, stared at him.
“Sinhyeok?”
“He’s fighting through it. He’s probably gone there.”
“Ah, that Dragon World?”
She followed behind Lee Gangyeol as she spoke.
“But didn’t you say you had arranged something there involving Sinhyeok’s family?”
“I did.”
Sergeant Major Kim Hyeonsuk let out a heavy sigh.
“Then what about that Persona thing?”
“We leave it be. So he has something to vent his anger on when he comes back.”
“When Sinhyeok opens his eyes, he’s going to try to kill ‘you’ first.”
Lee Gangyeol let out a long sigh.
“Whew. Then I’ll have to offer up my life.”
She looked at him with pitying eyes.
“That’s why I’m asking why you had to twist things up from the very beginning, you absolute moron.”
“It’s all my fault. I judged wrong.”
* * *
“Seriously?”
The robot did not repeat itself.
At the robot’s silence, he sighed.
“Haa.”
Sitting on a bench beside the plaza, Sinhyeok mulled over what the robot had said.
“If I keep doing this, I’ll die someday.”
Sinhyeok thought it over carefully.
“Isn’t a person going to die someday anyway? Then it doesn’t seem like much of a difference.”
Soon, calm came over him.
“What doesn’t die? If I die, that’s that.”
He decided to think of it simply.
‘I didn’t have any reason to live longer anyway.’
He had finally met the death he had wanted so badly. If anything, he was glad.
“Grrngh!”
He stretched.
“This is better, actually. I finally kicked the bucket.”
But something felt heavy in one corner of his heart.
As if a stone had settled in a corner of it.
“It’s a good thing. I’m finally at peace.”
‘If I’m going to die soon, I’ll finally see them.’
He thought of the family he would meet before long.
So a smile came to him on its own.
“It’s finally over.”
His heart felt light.
Sitting alone, he peacefully watched the clouds and people passing by.
As he watched quietly, he saw someone familiar.
A short-haired woman in black martial robes.
As she was passing through the plaza, she tilted her head.
Then she strode over.
Sinhyeok stared at her blankly.
“Why are you sitting here like this?”
“Just because. The world is so boring. I’m going to die soon anyway.”
“So you heard.”
“Yes, I heard. If I’m going to die soon, why bother struggling?”
At Sinhyeok’s world-weary remark, Dark Sword looked at him pathetically.
“What a waste of time. And you won’t die. If you go to a dragon and form a contract, you can extend that thing called life as much as you like, so stop being so miserable.”
At the unexpected method, Sinhyeok sprang to his feet in surprise.
“I won’t die?”
“You won’t. How on earth did you get here? Whose power did you take for you to treat this with such indifference? Tsk, tsk.”
Sinhyeok pondered for a moment, then answered.
“I don’t think there was any name.”
She paused and thought for a moment.
“That can’t be. One cannot simply barge into the Dragon’s Resting Place.”
“It’s not as if I came here because I wanted to.”
Dark Sword stared at Sinhyeok with a strange look in her eyes.
“How in the world did you enter?”
“I wonder that myself. They should’ve just left me alone.”
She let out a hollow laugh. Then she gave him a piece of advice.
“There is no such thing in this world as coincidence without reason.”
“I hate that saying the most. I wish every coincidence would just end as a coincidence.”
‘Only then can you let go of the death of someone precious without lingering attachment.’
Anger that cannot be soothed is not something to be unleashed.
You can only wish and wish again to forget.
She gave a bitter smile and muttered,
“I did not want to say this if I could help it.”
“Yes?”
She seemed about to say something.
“There is something arranged by one who seems to have ties to you. Follow me.”
With a bewildered face, Sinhyeok followed her.
“Where are we going?”
“Be quiet and follow.”
She headed toward the deepest part of the village.
After they went far inside, a huge stone monument appeared.
Many names were written on it in rows.
Among the densely packed names, she pointed to one.
‘Lee Gangyeol.’
Sinhyeok flinched at the familiar name written there clearly.
“Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol…… came here?”
“He came here as well.”
“Tsk, no wonder he was ridiculously strong.”
She thrust her hand into the stone monument.
And what she pulled out was a folded sheet of paper.
“Here. It is yours.”
“Mm?”
Dark Sword placed the sheet of paper in his hand and warned him.
“I will say this in advance. Do not get too angry.”
“Yes?”
“You will know when you read it. I will be going.”
Sinhyeok found it absurd, but he unfolded the paper for now.
“What could that man have written here for her to say that?”
‘Bu Sinhyeok, read this.’
“Ah…… yes, I’m reading it well.”
Grumbling, he read on.
‘I hope you understand the choice I made to pass my Dragon Heart on to you, who are like a son to me.’
“I didn’t receive anything like that……?”
Something had somehow gone strangely wrong.
“He was planning to give me something like that?”
For now, he continued reading.
‘From the small moment when I first saw you to the day you enlisted, it is all so vivid. The moments when I became your godfather and met you were happiness to me.’
At the slightly heart-prickling memories, the tip of Sinhyeok’s nose stung.
“This feels kind of…… you know.”
‘I leave far too many burdens behind for you. But please know this. There was no one but you. There was no one other than you, with the brightest talent.’
“Oh, he never once said anything like this to me. He was always going, ‘You think that’s enough?! Huh?! You grub! You weakling!’ and grinding me down.”
As if remembering the past, Sinhyeok trembled.
“Okay, thanks for the private praise, at least.”
‘I entrust the Republic of Korea to you. I hope you protect it to the very end. You must win the war against them.’
“Well…… that’s simple.”
Sinhyeok gave a small laugh at the brief contents.
“So what?”
He fluttered the paper, and there was another sheet.
“What? He wrote something else separately?”
He picked up the fallen paper, and its contents were anything but ordinary.
‘I will atone to you with my death. Even that will not be enough to earn forgiveness.’
“What is this?”
‘I knew in advance of the tragedy that befell your family. I’m sorry.’
“Ah…… what are you suddenly…… saying.”
Clench.
Sinhyeok’s hand, gripping the paper, trembled.
‘Your existence was discovered. I had no choice. Whether to hand you over to the hands of devils, or abandon the hostages.’
“What are you saying? No. Don’t do this.”
With trembling hands, he continued reading.
‘I made the worst possible choice. I’m sorry. This war has taken so much. I’m sorry, Sinhyeok.’
The hand holding the paper shook violently. He looked at the two sheets side by side.
The strength left his hand. The papers dropped to the floor.
With blank eyes, he collapsed to the ground.
“You said you didn’t know. You said you didn’t know, Mister…… So you said you were sorry!”
That was what the man had said after telling him his family had been killed by a civilian guild.
‘Mister, why are you doing this to me?’
He grasped far too quickly the truth hidden behind his family’s accident.
“What the hell? Don’t tell me……. Khk, wow~ Where is that damned old hag?”
His head rang.
He sprang to his feet and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“You! Old hag! You told me not to get angry after reading this!? Aaaaaaagh!”
At the sudden scream, the people passing by jumped in fright.
“Come oooooout!”
As Sinhyeok huffed and puffed by himself, her voice came from behind him.
“You have no manners toward your elders.”
He spun around, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Move faster. How will you catch even a bug when you are that slow?”
He turned his body toward the voice, but still could not see her.
“Hey! You already knew, didn’t you?! Is it fun messing with people?!”
Her voice came from somewhere again.
“When anger boils over, moving your body helps.”
Even when he followed the direction of her voice, he could not see her.
“Fuck, yeah! Fine, come at me!”
Whoosh.
A stone slammed into the back of his head.
“Aaagh!”
He covered the back of his head with both hands.
“You were the one who said it first.”
“If I catch you, you’re dea—”
Thwack!
Another stone flew from right beside him.
It struck him square in the temple, and his body lifted sideways into the air.
Smack.
“Khh!”
Lying on the ground, he writhed and complained of pain.
“Seriouslyyyyy!”
Another stone flew from directly behind him.
“Guhk!”
He took the hit head-on, and his mind spun.
As his consciousness grew hazy, Dark Sword appeared smoothly.
“Have you calmed down?”
“Like hell.”
“It seems it would be better for you to sleep.”
She took out her scabbard and raised it high.
“N-no! You brute!”
Crack!
The scabbard came down in an instant.
Sinhyeok reached out to block it, but it was already too late.
He blacked out completely, and she dragged him away by the ankle.
“Hmm. A boy like that man’s son, is he…… It would feel wrong to just leave him be. Shall I pay him some attention?”
Drag, drag, drag.
Everyone flinched as they watched Sinhyeok being dragged away.
“After that fellow, she’s caught another one.”
“Will he survive?”
“Why, one survived and transcended just fine before leaving.”
“True. What was his name again?”
“Lee…… Gangyeol?”
“Ah, right. Tsk. That kid’s in for it too. Of all people, why did he have to get caught by that demon king?”
Whoosh.
Dark Sword turned her gaze.
The people immediately startled and scattered quickly in every direction.
“Those idle fools. They should be training and thinking of how to leave, yet all they worry about is settling in. Tsk!”