That Development
"Lumia?"
"..."
As Lumia burst into the room and froze, Great Order, handgun already drawn, halted in her tracks.
"It's dangerous here. Kang Haneul might still have comrades nearby," Great Order said, her face taut with concern. "I'll finish this, so you—"
"Fuck."
"...Lumia?"
Ignoring Great Order completely, Lumia forced her way past the debris blocking the entryway.
"We are so fucked."
She muttered the curse under her breath as she looked down at Kang Haneul, whose breath was on the verge of giving out.
"I didn't think he'd die this fast."
"Lumia, what are you..."
"Would you shut up for a second?"
Shoving Great Order aside, Lumia dropped to her knees and pulled Kang Haneul's head onto her lap. Great Order could only stare, dumbfounded.
"Sunbae, can you hear me?"
"Cough..."
Spitting up a mouthful of blood, Kang Haneul weakly fluttered his eyelids open and looked up at her.
"You're..."
"Don't try to talk."
Even as he lay dying, Kang Haneul glared at her with eyes filled with bitter hatred. Lumia placed a hand over his chest and closed her eyes.
"...It's hopeless."
His body was far past the point where healing could do anything. Every shred of vitality within him had already burned away.
Just like Justia on that day.
"So you were the one holding it. The Skill System."
"..."
"That was supposed to be mine."
Hearing her words, Kang Haneul's brow furrowed.
"I was the one who was supposed to receive it from Justia."
"What are you..."
"I'm the only one who can use it without paying the toll. It was designed that way from the very beginning."
Kang Haneul coughed, spitting his words out with faint breath. "So it's true... You really are a transmigrator."
"To be exact, I—"
Clasping his hand, Lumia started to tell him the truth, but then gritted her teeth.
"...Ugh."
Her right hand was trembling violently.
Even after things had deteriorated to this point, the original owner's will—steeped in pure, rancid malice—was still trying to hold her back. She had wanted to tear it off immediately, but because doing so would strip away her abilities, she had forced herself to keep the hideous thing attached.
Lumia glared with murderous intent at the loathsome remnant that had kept her from stepping forward, driving everything to this catastrophe.
CRUNCH!!
With every ounce of strength she possessed, she smashed her right hand against the ground.
"Lu-Lumia?!"
"Ugh..."
Unable to comprehend what was happening, Great Order, who had still been aiming her gun at Kang Haneul, screamed in shock.
Crack, snap...
Channeling superhuman strength, Lumia brutally hacked and tore at her own right hand.
"Haa, haa..."
After an agonizing struggle, the right hand finally severed and fell away from her arm. Hanging her head, Lumia shuddered.
"...Figures. Doing this really does get rid of my abilities."
Muttering to herself, she turned back to Kang Haneul.
With barely minutes left to live, he was staring at her in utter bewilderment.
"I possessed this body just a few hours after Justia died."
"...What?"
"I tried so hard to save you somehow..." Her voice trembled, trailing off into a bitter smile.
What's the point of saying any of this now?
She knew. As long as Ariel was here, this entire regression cycle was doomed to be erased. Whether she, as a fellow protagonist, would retain her memories when Ariel used 'Save & Load', she couldn't say. But she knew for certain that no matter how passionately she poured her heart out, no one here would remember a single word.
"Mr. Trauma."
Yet none of that mattered to Lumia anymore. She had tried her best to bottle up her true personality and manage the situation, but her patience had long since shattered. Now that everything was finished—now that she had severed that hideous right hand—she simply wanted to unleash everything she had been holding back.
Even if Ariel's Save & Load triggered and she didn't keep her memories, at the very least, it would let her blow off some steam right now.
"Why did you throw your mask away back here?"
"...Huh?"
With that in mind, Lumia retrieved the mask Kang Haneul had concealed behind his back and held it up before his eyes.
"A mask...? That's Trauma's..."
"Will you please just shut up?"
Brushing aside Great Order's attempt to wrap her bleeding arm with cloth, Lumia fixed her gaze on Kang Haneul, whose eyes were growing hazy.
"What... are you?"
"Just an ordinary fan who used to love you."
"What you said earlier... is it the truth?" Kang Haneul asked, his voice shaking.
"Why would I lie to you at this point?"
"Ha... haha..."
Rolling his unfocused pupils to locate where she was, Kang Haneul reached out and took hold of her.
"The original owner of that body... why? Why did she do this?"
"..."
"Why did she have to... ruin my life like this?" Kang Haneul's voice echoed through the ruined chamber. "Why?"
Lumia looked down into his face. It carried far too many agonizing emotions, which paradoxically made him look calm. She answered softly:
"I don't know."
Naturally, Lumia didn't know what this body's previous owner had done in the past, so she couldn't give him an answer.
"But one thing is certain."
Yet this much she could tell him.
"The owner of this body is the true culprit who turned you into this."
Having witnessed with her own eyes the horrific tragedy that forced him down the path of absolute evil, this was the greatest kindness Lumia could offer Kang Haneul.
"...Is that so."
Hearing that, Kang Haneul closed his eyes, murmuring faintly.
"Hey."
"Yes."
"If you really aren't the mastermind, but just an innocent person trapped in that body..."
"I already killed the mastermind. Just look at that hand squirming over there."
"No, not that."
Barely managing to lift a single finger, Kang Haneul pointed toward his coat.
"Before Ariel gets here, please... use this."
Tucked inside his coat was a card that clearly belonged to Paradise, imbued with Kim Ira's Concept of Disguise.
"I can't let her... find out..."
Lumia recognized the design instantly from playing the game countless times. As she picked up the card with her left hand, Kang Haneul whispered in a fading voice:
"Let me die... not as Kang Haneul, but as Oh Ji-seok..."
A brief silence fell between them.
Gazing quietly at him, Lumia laid the card across Kang Haneul's motionless face.
Kang Haneul's features shifted and dissolved, reshaping into the visage of Oh Ji-seok.
"Hey..."
"...Yes."
"Did I do well...?"
Having returned to the appearance of Oh Ji-seok, Kang Haneul asked his final question:
"Because of what I did... will peace return to this world...?"
"Of course."
Lumia knew all too well what would become of the world in the final chapter without him, yet she nodded gently anyway.
"Then... that's enough..."
"..."
"I'm sorry to you, too..."
Feeling his consciousness slipping away into the dark and sensing the end, Kang Haneul squeezed out one last murmur:
"Please... look after Ariel..."
Kang Haneul's short, sorrow-filled life—
Justia...
—finally came to an end.
I'm coming now, so just wait a little longer...
"Sleep well."
Brushing Kang Haneul's hair back, Lumia covered his eyes with her left hand and whispered softly:
"Sunbae."
From the massive blood loss of severing her right hand, her own consciousness was beginning to waver.
When I open my eyes, what point in time will I be back to?
Whether she would return with no memory of this incident at all, or retain her memories back at some earlier save point... either way, Kang Haneul wouldn't truly be dead.
"E-Excuse me."
Feeling relieved, she was about to close her eyes quietly when—
"Lumia."
Great Order grabbed her by the shoulder.
"What in the world is going on here?"
Great Order's expression was grave. Though she couldn't comprehend what was unfolding, she understood that the situation was dire.
"T-Tell me."
She pressed for answers from Lumia, who merely looked back at her with chilling eyes.
"...If you're so curious," Lumia said, shaking off Great Order's hand once more, lacking even the energy to explain on her own, "why don't you just give me a command?"
Hearing that, Great Order looked at her with wavering eyes.
"Order me to tell the truth."
"B-But against you..."
"My ability is gone. Any attack will work on me now."
Lumia's voice was completely devoid of emotion. Cold sweat beaded on Great Order's skin as she parted her lips.
"...Tell me the truth."
"Is that an order?"
"Speak the truth."
For the very first time, Great Order's ability took hold of Lumia.
"Why does Kang Haneul have Trauma's mask?"
The penalty of having her commands reflected back upon herself had vanished with Kang Haneul's death. Realizing this, Great Order began issuing command after command without hesitation.
"What did that conversation just now mean?"
"..."
"Why are you looking at me with those eyes?"
"..."
"Tell me everything."
The moment her orders finished.
"To sum it up in a single sentence:"
As numbness crept through her body from the loss of blood, Lumia finally opened her mouth, compelled by the power of the concept.
"You were played for a fool by Lumia."
"What?"
"Framed by Lumia for Justia's murder... a little brother who didn't share a single drop of blood with you, yet cared for you until the very end... You and your fellow heroes drove him straight to his death."
Silence descended upon the room.
"The explanation is only just getting started."
Looking up at Great Order staring down in a daze, Lumia sneered.
"So pull yourself together and listen closely."
If she ever transmigrated into this world, this was the one thing she had wanted to do at least once. The classic trope written in countless ways across dozens of fanfics—
"Kang Maru."
—was finally unfolding right here, right now.