The Destiny Record (2)
Seo Eunha stood before Kang Seojun, head bowed so low that any sense of propriety seemed to have vanished. The young woman’s shoulders trembled with barely contained sorrow.
Kang Seojun wondered whether she had truly witnessed his heroine route.
“Did you see it? The events at the peak of Everest…?”
That summit had been the backdrop of the bad-ending path for Seo Eunha’s route.
“Yes… and everything that came after it as well.”
Her words confirmed it.
As expected, Seo Eunha had seen her heroine route.
And that route had led straight into its bad ending.
The Seo Eunha route opened only when the player remained loyal to the Seongjin Group and Jin Serin met her tragic death. During the demonic invasion, Jin Serin perished, precious teammates fell, and the weight of guilt and vengeance consumed Seo Eunha whole.
If those emotions swallowed her completely, she would follow the bad-ending route.
Yet if she overcame them, awakened her conviction, and saved the world, a happy ending awaited.
Whatever she had witnessed, she had seen a heartbroken version of herself consumed by revenge.
And because it was her heroine route, she and Kang Seojun were already lovers by its conclusion.
In that bad-ending path, the vengeful Seo Eunha made an unreasonable demand of Kang Seojun: “If you truly love me!”
He complied, launching an extremely low-success-probability gate raid. The result was permanent injury that left him crippled for life.
Only then did Seo Eunha realize she had driven the man who had always stood beside her straight into the jaws of death through her obsession. She threw herself into desperate research, hunting for any path to heal him.
During those frantic days she discovered the Altar of Regression.
A mysterious stone monument buried atop the perpetually storm-wracked peak of Mount Everest, where mana raged ceaselessly for a full three hundred and sixty-five days.
It was a miraculous artifact capable of restoring everything.
Yet Seo Eunha had never imagined it could rewind time.
The inscription spoke only of returning all things to their former state. She had assumed it would simply mend Kang Seojun’s ruined body—cursed and damaged beyond repair.
Perhaps her mind had been too fractured for clear judgment.
Placing her lover’s broken form upon the altar, she received the cold, merciless verdict.
She had sacrificed his body to rewind the world’s timeline.
She returned to a younger body, but Kang Seojun emerged from the ordeal carrying every curse and debuff untouched, having lost all mana and superior traits.
Realizing she had committed an irreversible mistake, Seo Eunha’s sanity shattered like glass.
She slipped into delusional madness for a long while, unable to grasp reality.
When she finally recovered, Kang Seojun was the chairman of the Seongjin Group.
Utilizing knowledge from the future, he had achieved legendary accomplishments that earned the board’s fervent support.
But could one single regression have saved the world?
Or did the future’s knowledge simply fail against a body too broken to endure?
Either way, the world had faced yet another collapse.
And now—
Seo Eunha was living as though she had forgotten everything.
Kang Seojun had sacrificed his own body a second time, inheriting wounds and curses endlessly, repeating regression alone to save the world once more.
She believed that was exactly what had happened.
“If there is something you wish me to fix… even now…!”
Still bowed low, Seo Eunha muttered. Kang Seojun flicked her nose lightly with his fingertip.
“You’re making an absurd assumption.”
Her large eyes widened as she looked at him, then immediately dropped in shame.
Her shoulders shook violently.
Leaving her in this state would invite trouble before long.
He needed to calm the situation slightly.
“You are mistaken.”
She had witnessed the memory, so it was not mere illusion, but there was one truth she had firmly convinced herself of.
“I feel no regret toward Miss Seo Eunha at all.”
Kang Seojun held no grudge against her.
That was not reality or even a game event; for him it was merely an old memory. If anything, lingering regret would have been stranger.
“Ah…”
Yet to Seo Eunha the words landed like a hammer.
If a person felt no emotion whatsoever, they could not feel anger, resentment, or disappointment—only acceptance that “that’s just how people are.”
Seo Eunha had concluded she herself was such a person.
“So… that’s the case…”
Her face crumpled. Her lower lip trembled, desperately fighting back tears.
“Ehh…”
That wasn’t right at all…
Kang Seojun’s eyes spun helplessly.
[Intelligence: 9]
Speed was crucial, yet with such low intelligence, nothing plausible came to mind that might improve the situation.
“Understood…”
Amid the heavy silence, Seo Eunha moved first. She drew a small wooden box from her bosom—the very one containing the demonic necklace Kang Seojun had requested.
Still bowing, she offered the box with both hands.
He accepted it and checked its contents.
The necklace lay neatly arranged inside.
“I apologize for disturbing you so late at night.”
She bowed deeply once more, then turned and fled as if escaping.
“W-wait!”
-Thud!
Kang Seojun’s hand shot out on instinct and caught her wrist.
If he let her go, problems would arise later when they had to work together again.
“Ugh…!”
Seo Eunha’s shoulders tensed like steel cables.
He poured his own will into the grip.
“I have no regrets about any moment we shared. And I never wanted you to get hurt.”
Her head moved toward him at an agonizingly slow pace.
He waited until their eyes met, then spoke.
“In this life, I will not abandon or discard anyone.”
His eyes burned with sincerity.
Her tears deepened.
A single drop rolled down her cheek.
She jerked her head away, but he pulled her wrist gently, preventing escape.
Emotional Resonance
-Splurt!
Seo Eunha’s small face buried itself against Kang Seojun’s chest. The warm, damp sensation spread across his shirt.
-Sniffle!
A muffled sob escaped from beneath his chin.
Her small hands clutched his clothing, trembling violently.
He gently took hold of the shaking hands.
After a few minutes, the trembling eased.
Seo Eunha stepped back a half-pace, turned her back, and wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve before facing him again.
Kang Seojun sighed silently.
Guilt still lingered in her expression.
Even if he forgave her, she would never forgive herself.
Without a word, she bowed once more and withdrew.
Kang Seojun could not stop her this time either.
“Sigh… hum…”
He exhaled slowly, murmuring, “Hidden DLC… this is getting tough.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Approximately ten minutes earlier.
Lim Chaewon’s dormitory room.
She lay in her pajamas on the bed, watching a drama titled She Who Loves You Too Much to Be Your Wife.
The story was about a man who kept meeting his mistress despite having a loving wife.
“Oww!”
The wife slapped her husband’s cheek hard.
“You bad man…”
The drama had reached its climax.
The husband had been caught meeting his mistress.
-[15] HP
“Oof!”
He clutched his stinging cheek and roared, “I love both women at once! Falling in love isn’t a crime!!”
“Whoa. This guy’s crazy. Hehe.”
Lim Chaewon laughed, utterly captivated.
“Slap!”
The wife slapped him again.
“Y-you monster…!”
Without looking back, the wife stormed out.
“I’m sorry… If I hadn’t intruded between you two… I’ll just… I’ll leave…”
The mistress looked up at the husband with tear-filled eyes.
He glared at her once more.
“No! That’s not necessary!”
“Wooah!”
He pulled her into a fierce embrace.
“Even if I face death, every moment with you—I won’t regret a single one! I’ll fight to keep you! And you too! And never abandon my wife!”
“Hic… Joon-seo…”
“To be continued in the next episode…”
“Mmm, that was delicious.”
Lim Chaewon sighed happily and stretched after removing her earphones.
“Hnnng…”
Time to sleep.
She set her phone on the wireless charger, clicked off the bedside lamp, and buried her face in the soft pillow.
Get a Good Night’s Sleep
☐ Sleep by midnight — [1/1]
🎁 Reward: +10 HP
“Mmm?”
Yet the sound from outside her eyes flew open instantly.
“What? At this hour?”
She slid off the bed and headed for the front door.
The rhythmic footsteps grew louder.
She pushed her B-rank sensory perception to the limit and listened.
“Tap… tap…”
Someone was approaching the door.
She peered through the peephole.
“Tap… tap…”
“Hic… sniffle!”
“…?”
Jin Serin had just passed by outside, wiping her tear-streaked eyes and sniffling softly. It was obvious she had been crying.
“What…?”
Moreover, the direction she had come from led past the central staircase…
“That side is the male dorm…”
The top two heirs of the Seongjin Group, Jin Serin—one of the brightest prospects of this generation—was leaving the male dormitory at this late hour, sniffling and wiping her nose.
“I can’t just stand here.”
Irresistible curiosity drove Lim Chaewon. She silently opened her bedroom door.
Her base was archery.
By deliberately silencing sound and footsteps, even high-sensory opponents could not detect her presence.
She narrowed her eyes and peered through the crack at the male dormitory.
Two figures glowed faintly under the dim light.
She boosted her B-rank perception further.
Her pupils dilated wide.
“Kang Seojun…? And beside him…?”
Seo Eunha!
The chief bodyguard and A-rank hunter who was Jin Serin’s closest aide—a name that appeared in Lim Chaewon’s database.
“Why at this hour… and the two of them together…?”
Seo Eunha was crying, while Kang Seojun gripped her wrist with a solemn expression.
“What the hell…?”
Lim Chaewon’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Yet the shock was only beginning.
“I have no regrets about any moment we shared…”
“What…?”
The line from the drama flashed through her mind, but she shook her head violently and refocused on the scene.
“What situation is this…?”
“And I never wanted you to get hurt. In this life, I will not abandon or discard anyone.”
“Eh… eeh…!?”
The next scene left Lim Chaewon’s eyes and mouth wide open.
Seo Eunha was nestled against Kang Seojun’s chest, small shoulders trembling as she sobbed.
“Toc…”
She closed the front door as quietly as possible and returned to bed, lying down without a sound.
Her eyes and mouth remained wide open.
“K-Kang Seojun made a girl cry…! Two at once!”
Both of them—Jin Serin and Seo Eunha.
“T-that’s impossible!!”
Even she thought it absurd, but the drama and the live scene were merging in her mind.
“S-so… could it be…!”
She could not close her eyes and mouth until sunrise.