Chapter 141
Chapter 141
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Last Promise
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Standing tall in front of the escape rocket, Joo-ho falls silent. His tightly pressed lips part slightly as if he's mustering the courage to say something.
"…"
Perhaps feeling his words aren't quite ripe yet, he bites his lower lip and holds his tongue. Instead, he looks down at me.
I don't know what to call those emotions. Even after cramming every manner of knowledge into my brain, expressing the boy's subtle smile, his tears, and the trembling muscles of his face is beyond me.
"What do you call this thing?"
"…It doesn't have a name. It's a new weapon I developed to fire at the moon. I left it sitting around because its power was too weak."
In the end, I spit out the fabricated lie. I lack the courage to tell the truth. I'm neither as brave nor as honest as Joo-ho.
That seems to amuse him. The moment I finish speaking, he chuckles softly and wipes his eyes. He laughs while wiping away tears—a contradictory act performed simultaneously.
"Is that so? For a weapon, it sure has a bunch of unnecessary features."
Pshhh—
Joo-ho presses the button perfectly tailored to his hand, opening the rocket's hatch. The controls are straightforward. It's designed to be used flawlessly without any instruction.
So one person could escape safely,
so they could make it back home.
"Rophuk, how did you all navigate this vast universe?"
Joo-ho remarks while inspecting the rocket's interior. Life support systems prepared for unexpected long journeys, the Ember Engine that warps space around the rocket for rapid travel.
"Does riding this get you home in a few months? We're different. We sleep long sleeps. We wake from slumbers lasting years to find we've arrived at our destination. That's why, even as we humans live together at the same time, we're also living in completely different eras."
It's different from our civilization. It seems they've decided as individuals to endure the discomforts before overcoming the technological limits of interstellar travel that demand astronomical time.
"Of course it's dangerous. Plenty of problems too. Do you think we stick together well? Everyone's too busy surviving on their own. Most can't even look after the person right next to them."
Joo-ho carefully clears the inside of the rocket,
then lifts my remaining body and places it on the internal seat, securing it. Designed to fit his body perfectly, the seat feels quite large and cozy to me with only a portion of my body left.
"…And yet we roam the universe. Chasing dreams and hopes somewhere out there. The dreams and hopes in each of our hearts."
I don't quite grasp what Joo-ho is trying to say.
But I can't tear my eyes from his serious face as he straps me into the seat.
"That's the mindset that binds us together. It might look precarious, but it never breaks. We fight and argue and scream every day… who's better, who's worse, who's poor, who's rich… even as we bicker over that nonsense, us humans keep on living. Roaming the endless universe, believing there's a paradise out there for us somewhere."
Joo-ho says.
His two hands cup my cheeks.
"Do you think that's meaningless? That if we never find paradise, our whole lives up to now are just worthless trash?"
I don't answer.
Joo-ho opens his mouth again.
"I think this struggle is what's truly cool and romantic. Even if we never find paradise, every day we live dreaming of it has meaning. Even if the whole universe teams up to shove our fates into the mud, as long as we hold onto those precious goals we've kept all this time, we'll keep surviving and fighting. Until we die."
He pulls a small notebook from his pocket.
It's the diary I used.
The record I kept inside the escape rocket,
hoping he'd read it to me someday.
Of course, I wouldn't be around by then.
I'd have turned to dust along with the moon, the planet,
and all these cursed things.
"Rophuk, I'm not sad. Not tormented. No regrets. So don't worry. Staying on this planet is my choice. I can't leave yet. I've got friends to take with me. Things to settle."
Joo-ho says, lightly tapping my forehead.
"But you've lost, so get out of here. No reason to stay anymore. If you're going to be my enemy, I'll send you so far away we'll never meet again. Might as well be death for you. Everything's over, right?"
This plucky boy clumsily mimics my own tactics.
"…But I don't think what you've done so far is meaningless. Go back home and live without blaming yourself. You lost because you're weak, that's all. I'll handle avenging your little sibling."
Worried I might agonize after he's gone, he acts as harshly as he can, lying straight-faced to push his stubborn plan through. The words don't suit him at all—it's almost funny.
"The moon won't let things escape the planet, but right after taking a cannon hit, it probably won't have the wits left to attack anything. Right? So you were planning to sneak me aboard and launch me."
Wanting more than anyone to go home,
to meet a cozy bed and welcoming kin,
yet choosing the thorny path anyway.
"Any last words?"
Joo-ho gathers all my diary and records from inside the rocket, tucking them carefully into his bundle,
then prepares the final launch sequence.
Departure is imminent.
Soaring into that sky,
shooting toward the cosmos.
"Rophuk, you hearing me?"
Joo-ho asks me.
I want to say something—anything—but
all I can do is etch Joo-ho into my eyes.
"You listening, Rophuk?"
"…Bro, you hear me?"
His younger brother spoke, his face pale. It was after the brutal initiation rite on the first day.
The women of the nest didn't leave their hard-won male alone. Especially those returning from grueling hunts—they unleashed all their pent-up lust on him before their own wounds had even healed, like venting their frustrations.
"Sorry."
The brother suffered. Even without seeing his face clearly, the older brother could hear the tears falling.
He was still a child ignorant of the world. The older brother loved his sibling's indiscriminate kindness, but in this harsh nature, that gentleness became a foolish weakness that received no reward.
The brother had saved a girl with broken wings,
but they broke the older brother's limbs and ravaged the younger one mercilessly. It was too much agony for the once gentle and quiet boy to bear.
"Sorry…"
He came to the older brother barely able to walk. Whatever they'd done, his body was covered in bruises, his clothes torn to shreds without a single intact piece.
Yet the sight of him painstakingly dressing himself again before leaving was heartbreaking. As if, even after all the injustice, violence, and rape, he was desperately clinging to his sense of self.
"Hin bynda buldang? (You were here?)"
But even that brief reunion ended quickly. The women let the brother roam the nest freely, only to seek him out whenever they pleased and take their fill.
The nest was high up. Escaping it was impossible. Males had no wings anyway, and venturing out meant shivering to death in the freezing cold.
The nest of winged women was like a prison slyly flaunting freedom. Once there, males couldn't flee without forfeiting their lives.
Few chose death. Especially if the initially violent women gradually treated them better or showed small kindnesses—males constantly milked for seed or beaten daily would shed grateful tears and reframe their plight positively.
Survival came first.
Better to live and submit as a husband than die.
"Bro, it's okay."
But the brothers dragged into the nest were different somehow. Their bond had become an unexpected variable.
Feeling guilty toward each other,
they harbored the will to escape together somehow.
"No big deal. The ladies here have been pretty nice to me. Don't worry about me. Got it?"
The brother said while tending to his older sibling, his face gaunt. It was a week into nest life.
"We'll get out someday. Don't worry, bro. I'll watch for a chance. Once you're better, we run together."
"…Yeah."
Bald-faced lies.
The smile that once shone so brightly had lost its strength,
his frail body now worryingly emaciated.
"Bro, sorry—"
"Don't say sorry."
The brother constantly sought forgiveness from his older sibling,
but each time, the older one clamped his mouth shut and said,
"It's not your fault."
That was another lie.
The older brother was undoubtedly wronged. He'd done nothing wrong, yet suffered because of his sibling's mistake.
Still, he couldn't blame him.
His brother's face,
already brimming with too much guilt.
"You're not at fault. Don't blame yourself."
"…"
The brother finally smiled.
Not a smile that brightened the heart. A forced one, made because he didn't know what expression to wear, fearing tears if he didn't do something.
"Eat something. You look worse off than me."
"Yeah. I will."
Until the older brother recovered enough to serve as a male,
the brother endured all the women of the nest over about a month.
"Let's get out together. Bro, rest easy."
By the time the older brother could fulfill that role,
his brother's overexertion had left his frail body exhausted, wracked daily by fever and anemia.