Chapter 142
Chapter 142
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Flight
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The natives' lust and savage violence...
had become an ordeal too much for his younger brother, who enjoyed fragrant tea brewed from flower petals and leisurely reading.
His younger brother was frail. With his calm and gentle nature, he hated anything that involved moving around, so he wasn't suited for physical labor.
He would have been better off raising animals or tending flowers. And yet, the reason his brother ended up following him into the shipping business, hauling goods across the stars... (His brother always called it a "noble profession soaring through the skies and space," but honestly, that description grated on him. His brother really should have chosen something else.)
It was all because of the tiny little creature that was the first and last thing his brother ever raised.
One day, his brother brought home a fluffy little thing,
and showered it with so much overflowing love and affection that it was overwhelming for such a small animal,
but when the poor creature, which couldn't live more than eight years at best, passed away first, he spent days and nights weeping without sleep.
"It lived much longer thanks to your care."
His brother approached the huddled younger one and said.
"It lived a full two years longer than its wild kin out there. It got so plump and fat, it even forgot its instincts and came rubbing up against a guy like me for pets. It died right by its favorite owner's side. Don't grieve. Don't cry."
The older brother acted nonchalant,
but in truth, he couldn't help but feel sorrow too.
Honestly, the little thing's death wasn't that heartbreaking in itself.
But seeing his brother grieve made him grieve as well.
"There's nothing after death. Once you're gone, that's it. So instead of sitting here crying, you should remember it and live even harder."
The older brother had never been good at comforting others,
but he offered the best words he could muster.
"If it hadn't died, it would have kept living. Remember the dead ones, and live hard enough for their share too."
Gazing at the boy about to deliver a massive blow to the moon, he thinks.
Paradise.
Dreams and hopes.
How long had it been since he'd turned away from such optimistic, unrealistic notions? Once upon a time, it felt like he drew his drive for life from positive things too.
"...It feels like they're coming back."
Joo-ho shared the soft thoughts and emotions he'd harbored with me. In the end, he yelled for me to cast aside all affection, but his eyes still brimmed with a moist farewell.
So I muster my strength once more and say it.
"I'll come back someday."
I have to play the role of the villain blocking his path.
If I leave like this, that poor boy will pretend to be fine on the outside but blame himself deep down and suffer.
"When I return... I'll smash you again, the one who let me go without killing me, your comrades, and this entire planet once more."
I still can't forgive the women.
This planet, that moon—
nothing gets my forgiveness.
I've endured this far on the single-minded resolve to end it all with my own hands. The burning vow to incinerate everything. Rage.
But because of that boy, I can't cling to my stubbornness.
His is stronger and tougher than mine.
A hollow laugh escapes me, mingled with tears.
"No time to rest. Looks like we'll have to go back to your little brother then?"
Two months after the brothers were dragged to the nest,
the older brother had become the women's sole man, standing in for his sickly, collapsed younger brother.
From the winged women's perspective, it was an utterly infuriating situation. They'd gone to the trouble of capturing two males, only to be unable to use them both at once, with each one wasting away one after the other.
"..."
The older brother knew. If he failed to fulfill the males' duties, the women would turn to his brother—and that his already weakened brother couldn't endure it.
So he held on desperately. He had no choice. He couldn't let his brother die.
"Y-you promised... not to touch my brother..."
But living beings have physical limits. No matter how sturdy the older brother's body, it was impossible to handle the women who came at all hours.
"We can't help it if you're this useless."
"Forget it! That punk's just faking it anyway. Let's go."
"Wait... just a moment..."
Impatient from waiting their turn, the women headed straight for the younger brother. They showed no intention of considering his emaciated body.
Some even preferred a delicate male body,
and others suspected he was faking weakness and treated him even more harshly.
His condition showed no signs of recovery.
"Brother... Mom..."
His younger brother was dying. With fading consciousness and a voice barely above a whisper, he lay bedridden, endlessly calling for his brother and parents.
But only the women came to him. When the older brother couldn't handle them all and they got angry, they went to the younger brother, who lay on soft branches, stripped his clothes off.
They seemed to think he wouldn't die anyway. Whether they believed his gauntness was from refusing food, some even crammed mouthfuls into his mouth.
"Urk..."
He couldn't swallow anything properly and vomited it all up. When that happened, the women would slap his cheeks, drag him by the hair, and tie him naked outside the nest.
There was nothing the older brother could do. If he intervened, the women would torment his brother even more cruelly—it was obvious.
Yet he couldn't just stand by and resign himself either.
He couldn't let his brother die.
"S-sor... ry... I'm... sorry..."
In front of his brother, trembling and bound to a pillar, begging forgiveness,
as he was dragged around like a pet by the women,
the older brother held his breath, searching for a way to save him.
Escape.
Those two words swirled in his mind.
Even amid the harsh routine, he began slowly regaining his strength. With his tough, sturdy body, there might be a way down from the nest perched on the high, treacherous cliffs.
But he had to escape with his brother. Down sheer rock faces too hard even alone, carrying his brother on his back, trembling all the way...
"..."
He couldn't even fathom it.
He agonized over it dozens of times, but couldn't shake the fear that catering to the women to save his brother's life was safer than an uncertain escape.
He was strong. Definitely strong.
Yet in this cursed planet that drove men to unreasonable cruelty, his strength was woefully inadequate and incomplete.
Both brothers knew it. Escaping hand in hand side by side was impossible.
"It's okay."
So the older brother chose the realistic path.
Prostrating himself before the women,
he used his healthy body to the fullest to protect his brother as much as possible.
Living was better than dying.
If escape was impossible, adapting to life with the women was the right choice.
"I'll do my best. You focus on recovering first. We're basically slaves now, but in time, they'll accept us as one of their own."
Just as he couldn't let his brother die, he didn't want to die himself. Fear of death, terror of a tragic end overwhelmed him.
"I'll handle it. Rest easy."
They had to survive.
They couldn't die.
He had no doubt that was right.
"..."
But his younger brother,
who had withered away and languished,
might have chosen the exact opposite path from this moment on.
"Brother, I wanna drink cola after so long..."
"Idiot! Forget that stuff for now. No pointless thoughts. Let's just survive first."
As a solution dawned on him,
a spark returned to his brother's dazed eyes.
"Heh heh, yeah, figured... Might be too much, huh."
But the older brother was too desperate for survival.
He didn't have the luxury to notice his brother's change.
"We'll definitely survive... Ungh..."
"I'll come back!"
My already severed engine, my heart, my blurring vision, my lens full of noise—they all prevent me from defying this moment.
"Boy, you got lucky this time, but next time you won't stop me. I'll end your foolish stubbornness and unrealistic delusions once and for all!"
I pray Joo-ho doesn't suffer because of me. He's so ridiculously kind-hearted, feeling guilt even toward the villains and enemies he blasted away himself.
The world has more ambiguous evils than absolute ones. He shouldn't torment himself over this. I don't want to see mud on that shining gem.
"I, Rophuk, will return!"
Joo-ho chuckles softly and turns to leave.
Now it's time to fire the cannon.
Farewell time.
No matter what it takes, I'll come back,
so please, let that boy survive to the end and show me dreams and hopes too.
My vision shakes.
With a massive beam of light,
my body is swept up in gravity and soars into the sky.
Flight.
My body lifts off.
His younger brother repeated it over and over.
Brother, we're flying. I'll soar freely home.
Keen winds always blew over the cliffs high enough to touch the sun and moon. To the older brother, it was just bone-chilling cold, but to the younger, it felt like a gentle spring breeze lifting his body.
Brother, I'm light, so I can fly far away. You're heavy, so you can't yet. It's not time. It's my turn to take responsibility.
His body was weak, but he wasn't stupid. He could fully analyze what his actions would bring, the pros and cons.
Brother, don't die. Live. Death makes it all meaningless. But we're brothers, so if one lives, the other lives too.
It took days to find his younger brother's body.
His limbs had torn off on jagged rocks,
his spilled blood frozen in filthy clumps,
but his tightly closed eyes were filled with relief and peace.
Now his burdensome flesh would rot away,
but thanks to that, his brother could leave unburdened.
Though he himself had fallen,
someday his brother would truly take flight.
His strong, dependable brother was always right.
He couldn't be shackles on such a brother.