Chapter 340
Chapter 340
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: Hongyeon (5)
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"Do-won..."
Hongyeon's hands caressed every inch of my face.
Starting from my nose, tracing my jawline, touching my earlobes, tapping my eyelids.
She seemed desperate to etch that sensation into her palms.
"Is this really... Do-won?"
Even so, Hongyeon couldn't believe the reality right in front of her.
She asked while wiping the blood from my lips with her hand.
Her intermittent breaths brushed close against me.
"...This isn't a dream, right? No. It can't be a dream."
A faint metallic tang of blood mixed with the fresh scent of autumn leaves.
And the subtle salty smell from tears soaking and evaporating.
"Where the hell have you been and what have you-"
-Whoosh!
Hongyeon's arms suddenly wrapped around the back of my neck, pulling my face into her embrace.
"I'm sorry for not recognizing you. Sorry... Sob, I'm sorry."
The absurd event of a dead man returning to life.
For me, it had only been a few months, but for Hongyeon, it must have been years of waiting.
No, not even waiting. She must have thought I was truly dead.
Even so, this reaction was beyond my expectations.
"Your wounds... Sob, your wounds-"
She began sobbing as she stroked the grotesquely rotting areas.
Tears streaming down her face, she hugged me even tighter.
"You idiot... Even in that moment, you tried to protect me... You foolish bastard. Sob. You stupid fool... Sob... I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Just pick one—apologizing or cursing.
It seemed her feelings for me ran deeper than I'd thought.
We were just coworkers. Nothing more.
True, her favorability toward me had always been strangely high.
I figured it was lingering affection from our past connection, good memories only.
But apparently not.
Of course, all that aside.
The emotions she harbored after I vanished and she held Do-won together alone—those were beyond my grasp.
In a way, perhaps the burden I passed to her was heavier than I'd realized.
What new loads had Hongyeon after the Heavenly Demon's death tried to shoulder?
As far as I knew, Hongyeon cared for Do-won even more than Heavenly Path did.
The more rationally I thought about it, the clearer her path of suffering became.
To the point where I could understand why she was with Flower now.
Now that I accepted it, it made sense.
"...I'm sorry. Sorry..."
"Why are you apologizing so much?"
My words made her shoulders shake violently.
As if terrified of what I'd say next, her whole body trembled.
Having unleashed her pent-up emotions, Hongyeon was too worked up to regain her senses. I had no choice but to embrace her from my side.
Her slender frame stilled greatly in my arms.
"Tell me. What happened to make you like this? Was it because I got caught in that explosion instead of you?"
"That too... I'm sorry."
"Want to talk after I beat you, or just talk?"
"......"
This attitude might feel more familiar to her.
Thinking that, I spoke, and Hongyeon's movements abruptly stopped.
No way my intimidation worked now, after all this time.
She was like a machine who didn't flinch at parental scoldings or any kind of verbal abuse.
I hid my back injury as best I could while waiting for her response.
I even pictured images in my head to lightly brush off whatever she said as a joke.
"I..."
But her reply, coming sooner than expected, was completely different from what I'd imagined.
"I... couldn't protect Do-won..."
Her voice choked with despair so thick it stuck in her throat.
Hongyeon clutched my clothes as if to tear them.
"The place you tried to protect... Because I lacked the strength, I failed so pathetically."
Frustrated, she pounded my chest.
"...I couldn't even save the kid you rescued. That obedient one... The mother who lost her child in her forties... All of them."
Images of people I knew flashed in my mind.
The girl I'd picked up myself, whom I'd trained to handle her own tasks. The guy overflowing with talent who handled all the paperwork.
Even the widow I'd met while patrolling Do-won's lower districts to maintain order.
Hongyeon still remembered every one of them, even now.
"Because I was lacking... Incompetent. I couldn't protect them. I should have done better."
What she'd feared saying.
Once she started opening up, her resentment boiled over, and she began shouting.
Hongyeon poured out her emotions for a long while.
How heavy the burden had been. The sense of loss after it all crumbled—every detail.
"I... I... Hic, sob."
In contrast, every time she wailed, I couldn't help pondering where her anger had been directed all this time.
-Drip, drip.
Tears pooling on her chin soaked the floor.
In that brief time, we had reunited.
'......'
Comforting Hongyeon was fine and all.
But my injuries seemed more serious than I'd thought.
My knees buckled, my weight shifting onto her more and more until she fell, and I collapsed on top.
"...Do, Do-won?"
Hongyeon, her crying finally subsiding, noticed something off.
'Sistus...'
It wasn't full Black Path, but I'd used my power briefly.
Even to protect Hongyeon, overdoing it—exposed to the explosion only momentarily.
-Hack.
I vomited blood again.
Feeling the wetness on her shoulder, Hongyeon shoved my chest away and lifted her head to see my face.
Her barely stopped tears threatened to burst again.
"Ah... No. Hold on... I-"
"Stay still. I'm not dying."
"How can I just watch you... like this!!!"
"Hey."
"......"
She swallowed hard, belatedly regaining her senses, and shut her mouth.
"You've changed a lot. I'm telling you I'm not dying, why freak out and collapse?"
"I..."
"It couldn't be helped. The rumor I died... At the time, there was no other way."
"I'm not blaming you!"
"Then you get it. You know my personality. If I'm gonna die, I'll say so. If this kills me, would I have reached Little Heavenly Demon?"
The Healing Authority wasn't working well. The explosion's power was stronger than anything I'd faced before.
Destructive force with no means of defense.
To make matters worse, Flower's remnants were closing in.
Even for me, fighting in this state was suicide.
"Yeon-ah."
Did she read the emotion in my eyes? Hongyeon urgently grabbed my hand.
"......Where... are you going?"
No time to spare.
"You gonna kill me for real? If Flower comes now, I'm dead next. I told you—if I'm dying, I'll say it. This is that moment."
"I-I'll stop the attack."
"Then the World Tree will kill you for colluding with Flower."
"If I protect you-"
"You think I'd join a place like that?"
"......"
Her eyes wide, face lost, hands trembling.
Finally, Hongyeon seized my arm, hugging tight as if refusing to let go with her whole body.
"Don't go. I don't want to be separated again."
Don't grab me, I'm dying here.
Who could've known trying to ravish one World Tree would end like this.
'Damn it all.'
The growing World Tree. Keeping it for now.
"Hey."
With no choice, I pried Hongyeon's hands loose and hugged her fiercely.
"Why...!?"
Hongyeon fidgeted in the sudden embrace, bewildered by this passionate affection unlike before.
Why the sudden change? her face seemed to ask.
I'd had plenty of time to think. Her appearance necessitated adjustments to my plans.
And there was much to say.
"First off, whatever. That."
Setting aside her original sin entirely. As someone who'd been by her side a bit in Do-won, my honest feelings.
No matter her actions. Hongyeon had extended Do-won's lifespan plenty.
Letting the three peaches I knew make more memories.
Sure, there were regrets aplenty.
And with the gap in our times, I couldn't fully grasp what she felt.
"Must've been tough."
At least that much, I could say to Hongyeon who'd vomited her pain.
"You worked hard."
Hongyeon stared at me blankly, as if struck on the head.
As if she never expected such words from me.
"......Worked hard?"
"We should have a drink, but circumstances suck. We'll meet again for sure."
"W-Wait...!"
"Flower... Seemed pretty powerful."
Face hardening, about to flip her mask down, I bowed my head to meet Hongyeon's eyes.
In our brief eye contact, light finally entered her pupils.
I smiled.
"Stay put there."
With those final words. I vanished from the spot.
Flower had enough power to escape the Cradle.
I didn't grab Hongyeon's desperately reaching arm.
She looked like she might cry, but not drowned in despair like before.
Whatever she was thinking.
At least more optimistic than before.
In the end, only I, with my back melted away, had taken the hit.
-Thud!
Far from the foundation, focusing on treatment, but the scar wouldn't heal.
Was brushing it off just from reuniting with an old tie really worth it?
"Sigh."
With a sigh, until I repaired my damaged organs, I had no choice but to perch on a branch for a long time.
I looked up at the sky.
Piercing the long night of the assaulted Cradle. Dawn was approaching.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ -El Academy. Lee Siheon.
The two words Hongyeon received. Likely indicating his identity. She repeated the name through the night.
Probably.
Do-won never revealed his name in the end. It must be his real one.
"......I have to find out."
Hongyeon, who'd ignored all outside info except frontline studies, finally showed interest in the world beyond.
Within her faction, rumors were already spreading subtly.
Hongyeon's face had changed a lot.
If her old gaze was dead, like a dried fish's dull eyes, now it accepted some light from the world.
Her subordinate, Bead, doubted the rumors.
'Weird.'
That person suddenly changed?
Bead had seen Hongyeon's face countless times. She remembered that expression.
A cynical look that wouldn't change from ordinary triggers.
For her to change now. Too strange.
'...Still. Broadly speaking, maybe it's good?'
Word was her personality had softened a lot.
Then, for recruiting the Wood Spirit King, influential figure Hongyeon might cooperate somewhat.
"Um, Deputy Executive."
"What is it."
"About recruiting the Wood Spirit King. How about gathering info again?"
Bead, who'd been watching her mood all day, cautiously broached the topic.
After this incident, Wood Spirit King Lee Siheon's presence grew murky again.
Need to recollect info. Assign some personnel.
"Have you lost your mind?"
But Hongyeon's cold rejection came.
"S-Sorry."
"I'll give you another task."
"Pardon...? But I have my main duties."
"Planning to defy orders?"
Demoted. One wrong word and this.
Bead swallowed her resentment at her plight.
"Sorry... So, what do you want me to do?"
Only then did Hongyeon soften her face.
"El Academy, Lee Siheon."
"Huh?"
"Investigate that man. Use money, people, whatever. But absolutely do not harm him. Don't even irritate him!"
Suggested investigating Wood Spirit King.
Miserably rejected, then ordered to investigate him as punishment.
'What is this. Some hilarious hidden cam?'
Bead nodded awkwardly with a blank face.