As Jurim clutched his throbbing head, Geuru twisted her hands round and round.
“Then when Mephisto wakes up, we all go back?”
*Nod, nod.*
Just then, from afar, Onijo raised his head high as if begging to be saved and sent them an earnest gaze.
Jurim and Geuru raised their hands in greeting.
“….”
Onijo’s lips trembled as he started signing again.
Geuru stared intently at Onijo.
And just as she was about to open her mouth with a grin—
“Do you know when Mephisto will wake up?”
“Mephi’s power hasn’t filled up yet. Maybe if he sleeps about three more nights from now, it could all be full….”
Three days would place it after Christmas.
It would be perilously close to the conquest of the 99th floor.
“Then what about memories of our existence? Will you not be able to remember us?”
“Um, that’s what Mephi said. When we return to the future, what happened in the past will become as if it ‘never happened.’”
Jurim muttered and nodded.
Then were they merely observers watching the past from a distance?
Well, if the past could be changed this easily, many things in the present would never have happened.
‘So what is meant to happen will happen, after all.’
Then the choice of not sending his brother to the 100th floor had never existed from the start.
Truthfully, ever since finding Geuru, he had harbored such thoughts in a corner of his heart.
The thought that if he had not sent his brother to the 100th floor that day, the tragedy might have disappeared.
Even though he had expected it to some extent, his chest grew tight.
Erasing the now futile worries, Jurim lowered his eyes.
“….”
Suddenly, he crossed his legs and rested his chin on his hand.
At the edge of his vision, he saw a child dangling her legs, and his brother entirely focused on signing someone’s back.
Had prejudice blinded him?
The child resembled his brother so much that it was laughable he had not noticed until now.
Jurim ran a hand over his face.
‘Han Geuru.’
Was the person who brought the child to Milal Orphanage Chloe Han?
The same surname.
The resembling face.
Even the age.
If the person who left the child at the orphanage was indeed Chloe, then she was already dead.
And Onijo had also gone missing on the 100th floor.
In conclusion, the child’s parents were both dead.
If, as Mephisto said, they could not influence the past—if they could not change the past like in movies or novels—
Then in this situation, could he truly tell Geuru?
That the people she met here and now were her mother and father, and that they were all currently dead?
If he said such things and Geuru refused to go back?
“…Hoo.”
A deep sigh escaped, and his head throbbed.
The child, blissfully unaware of his complicated feelings, merely stole glances toward where Ijo was, seemingly wanting to play.
“Go ask him to play. Uncle promised to build you a princess castle.”
At that, color flushed her pale cheeks.
“What about Dad?”
The word “Dad” felt like a red-hot poker piercing his head.
“He’ll be right there.”
Jurim watched Geuru with his eyes as she scurried out.
The child stacked blocks together with the man who might be her father.
Jurim rubbed his eyes with his fingertips.
Countless scenes crossed his mind.
The words he had exchanged with his brother, his brother’s devotion….
What should he do? Had he ever been so utterly lost?
As he quietly watched them, what suddenly crept over him was a suffocating helplessness and emptiness that gripped his entire body.
Meanwhile, Geuru hesitated as she built a princess castle out of blocks with Onijo.
“Uncle. You know….”
“Huh?”
Geuru mumbled and swallowed her words.
This might be something she shouldn’t say. But….
“Can’t you not go to the Tower?”
Onijo scratched his cheek with a troubled expression.
Whether he had heard the conversation or not, Jurim’s gaze could be felt.
Geuru deliberately avoided Jurim’s gaze.
She knew why he was looking at her like that.
But she had seen her father’s face looking sad at the words that nothing could be changed.
Geuru clenched her small fist tight. Because if Uncle disappeared, everyone would be sad.
Grandpa, Dad, and Sister Chloe too.
So she wanted to try doing what she could do.
“Our little princess. You’re worried about Uncle?”
*Nod, nod.*
“Sister Chloe too, she’ll be waiting for you to come back….”
“You think so?”
A voice full of amusement asked.
Geuru nodded.
“She’s just…… not honest. She probably likes you a whole lot.”
“Really?”
Onijo tapped Geuru’s nose with a pleased expression.
“Then I have to go all the more.”
Geuru pouted, fiddling with the blocks in both hands.
“Why?”
Finding such Geuru cute, Onijo pressed her cheeks with both hands and smiled.
“Because Uncle wants our Geuru to build a hundred more princess castles.”
“Even if Geuru says she doesn’t want to build princess castles anymore?”
“Yes, Uncle wants Geuru to eat lots of delicious food with Sister Chloe and have fun playing from now on.”
Geuru suddenly remembered Chloe laughing, saying it was to die for.
She had looked happy.
Uncle must have meant that he wanted to give them such a happy future.
“Uncle is a very strong person.”
*Nod, nod.*
“That’s why I have to go. Because it’s something Uncle can do.”
“……But what if Uncle doesn’t go? Then everyone might be happier.”
“That won’t happen.”
Onijo said firmly.
At this, Geuru looked at Jurim with eyes that seemed about to cry.
Jurim slowly shook his head with a face that said that was enough.
Then and now, Jurim had no way to stop his brother.
And for the first time, Geuru understood Jurim’s heart as he sent his brother alone to the 100th floor. That day, her chest felt suffocated and painful all day long.
*
[“You’re saying you’ll continue the G-r00 research?”]
[“The research results are outstanding. I never expected we’d see results from such brief emotional interaction.”]
Bill drank his coffee and patted Chloe’s shoulder.
[“Bill, is that the Company’s decision?”]
[“Why? Did looking after them make you interested in ‘this side’ of research?”]
‘This side’ referred to research that involved experimenting on children.
[“I told you I’m not interested in that kind of fucked-up research.”]
Chloe bit her lip.
Geuru’s experiment would continue.
She could imagine what they would do to the child this time without needing to be told.
Unconsciously clenching her fist, her nails dug into her palm.
If that happened? Would the day ever come when the child could smile again?
Bill slurped his coffee again and smiled at her.
[“From G-r00’s perspective, it’s better than being disposed of, isn’t it?”]
‘Better than being disposed of?’
Chloe let out a self-mocking sneer.
Right. Geuru was a child to be disposed of.
All this time, under the pretext that it wasn’t her responsibility, she had never once cared about what happened to the children disposed of in the research facility.
So why did it bother her now?
[“When is it scheduled to start?”]
[“Why are you curious about the start date of that fucked-up experiment?”]
Bill shrugged.
[“I need to know so I can prepare……”]
[“Haha, you just need to know that there’s nothing you need to prepare.”]
Gritting her teeth, Chloe threw her lab coat at Bill’s face.
[“Oops.”]
[“Eat shit.”]
Bill watched her with a strange gaze as she ran out of the research lab.
He lifted the coffee cup she had been drinking from.
A sample of this caliber should be more than enough for a pregnancy test.
If she truly was pregnant with Onijo’s child, they would witness tremendous innovation.