Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Companion III
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Shin Noah
6
There was an epilogue to Dang Seo-rin's story.
No, in truth, all of my stories fall under epilogues. At least until the 1183rd round.
So, to be precise, Dang Seo-rin's story had a great many epilogues, and it would be more accurate to say I would mention only a few of them.
"Oh? Undertaker, you're awake?"
The day after the celebratory feast following the Ten Tribes subjugation.
Everyone had passed out dead drunk. Those who could hold their liquor got drunk accordingly, and those who couldn't got drunk just as much. The Ten Tribes' necks had made for quite the drinking snack.
As dawn lingered, unable to forget the night's afterglow, painting the sky in blue, Dang Seo-rin stood beneath a white pine tree. Alone. Her shadow bid farewell to the night already passed rather than waiting for the sun.
"Yes. I'm awake."
"No headache? You were pounding them back with the Sword Saint."
"I get drunk fast and wake up fast. I don't sleep much in the mornings anyway. How about you, Alliance Leader? Feeling okay?"
"Of course. I'm always fine."
Yet Dang Seo-rin's voice was still hoarse. After all, she'd chanted magic nonstop for 41 minutes straight on the battlefield yesterday, then belted out songs at the feast. Even a singer with steel vocal cords wouldn't have escaped unscathed.
"Guess hearing you call me Alliance Leader is coming to an end soon. Kinda bittersweet."
"Well, the Ten Tribes are dead, but who knows what other monsters might pop up. There's a good chance another guild alliance will form then. You'll have to lead it again."
"Yeah."
Dang Seo-rin quietly gazed up at the dawn sky.
"Yeah."
My head still hadn't fully cleared of the alcohol, so I joined her in the ranks of dazed spectators, hoping the blue sky might disinfect the hangover.
Whether the sky had such a function or not, what did it matter?
When the daytime sky absorbs people's sweat and the night sky their dreams, the thoughts left unaddressed fall to dawn to receive.
"Over here."
The wind beside me opened its mouth.
"Wanna hear about my dream?"
"I know it. Conquering every restaurant in the world."
"Oh, that's right too. Yeah. Can't give that up."
Dang Seo-rin nodded solemnly.
"But the dream I'm talking about now is a different one."
A different dream?
I tilted my head. Did she have another one? I'd assisted her as guild master from the 4th to 6th rounds, but I'd never heard of any other dream.
"Oh. You mean raising three thousand elite guild members to live up to the Three Thousand Worlds name?"
"Oh. That too. What's this, Undertaker?"
Dang Seo-rin looked at my face with fresh surprise.
"You always give off this vibe like you couldn't care less about anyone, but you know a surprising amount about me? Are you a Dang Seo-rin otaku? Sorry to disappoint fans, but it's not that. It's something else."
"Then I really don't know. What is it?"
"Rail travel."
Dang Seo-rin lifted slightly onto her tiptoes toward the dawn, extending her hand.
Her five fingers gripped the sky steeply.
"I want to travel this ruined world by train."
"...By train?"
"Yeah. No need for anything fancy. A rickety old train. A single-car one that I customize myself."
She hummed as if singing.
"Something that breaks down constantly and won't roll without my constant care. But I can eat, sleep, travel, even hang laundry in it. Like a camper van or yacht."
"Not sure if the rails are even intact. Even the KTX trains the Three Thousand Guild uses as temp housing can't run. Primary roads are managed by the Busan Workshop, sure."
"That's where the mysterious power of magic comes in."
Dang Seo-rin made punching motions with a yap-yap sound.
"I'll fix the world's broken rails one by one and keep going. From station to station, forever. And behind me, pretty rails will always be laid."
"Hmm."
"And go, and go, and go some more... Until I reach a rundown station on some beach where I can't go any farther. A station with a single utility pole standing like a lonely stationmaster."
"......"
Dang Seo-rin said no more.
A sudden strange feeling hit me, so I looked at her face.
Oddly, she seemed like she might collapse any second.
"Alliance Leader?"
"Hmm."
Dang Seo-rin blinked. She leaned on her ever-present broom (which she insisted was an essential witch's item).
Her complexion was the same as always.
"Undertaker. How about joining my guild and being my vice-guild master? You know we're doing great. This chance won't come again. No regrets later?"
"...So that's what this was about. Still not taking the witch hat."
"Fine. Guess there's no helping it."
Dang Seo-rin walked away.
Lightly waving over her shoulder.
"Bye-bye~ I'm gonna take a little walk before heading back. Don't follow; I wanna savor the mood alone."
"When will you be back?"
"Dunno. About an hour?"
An hour passed, then two, but Dang Seo-rin didn't return.
The guild alliance dispatched a search party.
Three hours after going missing, Dang Seo-rin was found collapsed on a forest path.
She never rose again after that day.
7
"How is the Three Thousand Guild Master's condition now?"
"It's... peculiar."
The healers' faces were grim.
"Her overall bodily functions have declined. We checked for curses, but nothing. It's truly bizarre; that's all I can say... I'm sorry to report this, but she could close her eyes any moment."
"I see."
I steeled myself and entered the hospital room. One of the few still-operational private rooms in a Korean hospital.
My eyes met Dang Seo-rin's by the window.
She was reading a novel. Not on a beloved train, but entrusting her weight to wheelchair wheels.
"......"
"......"
Silence flowed for a moment.
After about 30 seconds, Dang Seo-rin closed the novel with a thak and set it on her lap.
"It's lifespan."
Her first words after two weeks.
"Lifespan?"
"Yeah. That's the point, right? I hate this atmosphere. Spit it out quick and let's talk about something else."
Dang Seo-rin shrugged. Her expression and gestures were utterly unchanged from usual; without the wheelchair, I couldn't have believed anything was wrong.
No.
It wasn't just the wheelchair. The witch hat hung on a clothes rack, and the broom leaned against the wall like mere outdated cleaning gear, not a witch's essential.
The room felt like an insult to the person that was Dang Seo-rin.
"My magic grows stronger the more lifespan I burn. It's not just magic—it's my awakened ability. Cool name: [Equivalent Exchange]. Not exactly unfamiliar, right?"
"Then..."
"Yeah. Wow, that Ten Tribes bastard was insanely tough. What kind of monster holds out until the 10th Melody? I thought I'd drop dead right there, but somehow I'm still alive. Anyway, I'm not sick."
I couldn't find words easily.
Not because I lacked consoling words. I was simply struck deeply.
'She never revealed it once.'
That Dang Seo-rin was a multi-ability awakener.
Beyond her magic affinity, she had the power to burn her lifespan for temporary firepower.
Even as her close second-in-command in the Three Thousand Guild, she'd never disclosed this secret weapon.
Because.
"...You planned to die in the Ten Tribes subjugation fight anyway?"
"Yeah."
Dang Seo-rin nodded briskly.
"Couldn't guarantee victory without staking my life. Right? You, the Sword Saint, all the awakeners in combat, the soldiers and civilians in support. Everyone."
I couldn't deny it.
I'd thrown away seven lives myself.
Suddenly, her words from past rounds surfaced, right before the Ten Tribes subjugation.
-30 minutes. Just hold out 30 minutes somehow. I'll build a grand magic spell and blow its head off.
-Undertaker. Sword Saint. By any means, 25 minutes... no, 30 minutes.
She'd already accepted her death then.
So in truth, she'd been asking this:
-Hold out 30 minutes until I die.
But the subjugation took 41 minutes.
An expenditure far beyond her limits.
"......"
My mind roiled, hard to calm.
Regression was also a tool to test others' potentials. Most people changed actions and outcomes with rounds. But some things stayed constant, no matter the regressions.
The strength of heart and firmness of conviction.
Dang Seo-rin had always discussed the Ten Tribes subjugation without exception, always mentioning 30 minutes.
In every round, her principle remained: 'Sacrifice my life to annihilate humanity's enemy.'
"How exactly does Equivalent Exchange work in detail?"
"Oh. When I awakened it, it showed my natural lifespan as 85 years. Then I think something like 'burn X years from my remaining 60' and my firepower amps up automatically."
"So over 60 years burned in the Ten Tribes fight?"
"Uh, umm..."
Dang Seo-rin furrowed her brow.
"It's weird, actually."
"Pardon?"
"Did I tell you? Even while chanting Song Enchantment, I didn't expect to last over 30 minutes. By my calculations, even the 6th Melody was pushing it."
Dang Seo-rin propped her chin.
"See, Song Enchantment's melodies multiply mana costs exponentially as they overlap. Real exponential. Even burning 60 years, reaching the 10th theoretically shouldn't be possible."
"You chanted it just fine."
"Yeah. Weird, right? While chanting behind you all, I was internally like, 'Why is this working? What's going on?' Total question marks."
"......"
"Ugh, cold sweat city."
That's when it hit.
A strange premonition spread from my back—not anxiety or foreboding, but a sensation with similar waves, utterly different hue.
"Alliance Leader. Exactly how many years of lifespan did you burn in the Ten Tribes fight?"
"Huh? It was chaos; didn't count precisely. Hmm, let me think..."
"...Roughly 250 years, by any chance?"
"Oh."
Dang Seo-rin nodded.
"Yeah. Not exact, but over 200, under 300 for sure. About 250. How'd you know?"
A jolt of electricity, a realization, surged through me.
For example. Suppose, just hypothetically.
――What if unburned lifespan carries over to the 'next round'?
I don't know how Dang Seo-rin fared from 1st to 3rd rounds. Probably fought the Ten Tribes too.
But without Old Man Show and me, even entering subjugation, the strike team would collapse in 5 minutes.
Dang Seo-rin would've died without chanting Song Enchantment.
Her natural lifespan: 85 years.
Subtract her current age, exclude the subjugation, and deduct casual burns here and there—about 45 years left.
Thus.
In rounds 1-5 where subjugation failed, she preserved 40-45 years per round intact.
From 6th round with Old Man Show, subjugation gained momentum. She burned more leisurely.
10 more years, 15, 20.
Her lifespans accumulated bit by bit.
By the 10th round, unbeknownst to her, 250 years' worth had banked in her 'lifespan account.'
'If this theory holds.'
The lifespans she'd banked over past rounds were unfortunately all spent in this 10th.
But my regressions don't end at 10th. They'll continue. And depending, she might keep banking.
'Beyond 250 to 500? 1000, 2000?'
I couldn't suppress the trembling.
"Guild Master."
"Yeah?"
I called her Guild Master like old times without thinking. Dang Seo-rin didn't notice the oddity, tilting her head as usual.
"What?"
"I have something important to tell you."
8
That I'm a regressor.
That perhaps her lifespan accumulates across rounds.
"That's amazing!"
Hearing my theory, Dang Seo-rin was intrigued, shocked, eyes sparkling.
"So you've been my sidekick all along, Undertaker?"
"That's your takeaway...?"
"Of course! What else would shock me? Man, the me in other rounds was awesome too. See? My eye doesn't lie. A witch hat suits your coat rack. Hey, Undertaker. Wanna be witch buddies?"
Witch buddies—what even?
"You don't consider I might be lying?"
"Huh? Why would I? We're comrades. If you're a regressor, then you are."
Dang Seo-rin coughed lightly, smiling faintly.
The rattling vibration leaked her remaining lifespan thinly into the air.
"Anyway, our dreams are similar."
"Pardon?"
"You're fixing broken rails one by one and pushing forward. Rails wrecked by Ten Tribes. Abandoned lines smashed by other monsters. Fix them inch by inch, and someday stations connect station to station. Others can follow that path."
"......"
"Not bad, right?"
Even without [Perfect Memory], I'd never forget those words from this day, this moment.
Dang Seo-rin grinned.
"And ironically. I can't walk the rails you tread, but my lifespan will follow your stride exactly. Can't go together alive, but in death, we're companions."
Dang Seo-rin extended her hand, smile intact to the end.
The novel on her lap slipped and fell. Flutter. White pages bound like suits, unable to become wings, half-unfurled on the floor.
Her eyes shone brightly.
Her five fingers gripped my forearm firmly. The one robbed of parents and siblings by monsters, unable to stop as just a quirky witch-and-train lover, clutched my arm.
Strongly.
"Don't waste my lifespan. Use it well, Undertaker."
"......"
"Had to go to 10th Melody for the Ten Tribes. Too wasteful. You need to get stronger."
And so it happened.
"Don't let me burn too much lifespan with Song Enchantment. Just a hunch, but Ten Tribes aren't the end. Next ones might be stronger. Maybe 500, 1000 years needed, not 250. Need as much banked as possible for monsters after Ten Tribes."
And so it happened.
"And if possible, don't tell next round's me you're a regressor. I'm greedy and impulsive. I'd never think 'sacrifice this round for next.' Knowing I have centuries left, I'd burn it all now. For real final crisis only—guide so my lifespan banks."
And so it happened.
"And always be my vice-guild master in other rounds too."
That one didn't happen.
Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly.
"Take care from now on. Companion of my time."
That night, Dang Seo-rin died.
Her ashes were scattered at the beach.
Honoring her will wasn't easy.
I grew stronger; Ten Tribes no longer challenged me. No need for her 10th Melody in subjugation.
But even without Ten Tribes, strong foes kept appearing, and Dang Seo-rin always stood at the forefront.
Always at the forefront. The ragged end of broken tracks—that was her destination.
Backing her up subtly when she kept trying to burn lifespan was harder than expected. Midway, a catastrophe reset all her banked lifespans once.
Just one mistake, of course.
Now past 1000th round, by my calculations, Dang Seo-rin's lifespan has piled up to tens of thousands of years.
At least 30,000 years.
'If she sang now, how far would she get?'
Sometimes, sipping coffee, I imagine.
On some battlefield, Dang Seo-rin singing.
1st Melody, 2nd, 3rd... No matter how they layer and continue, her song doesn't end, echoing to every beach where the world's tracks connect, beyond the horizon.
Only then will Dang Seo-rin arrive at her longed-for coast. Wearing her witch hat, broom in arms, aboard her single-car train.
I yearn to hear that song someday, yet inwardly hope it never comes.
Even in recent rounds, when fate crosses us, Dang Seo-rin asks the same as our first meeting in 4th round.
"Undertaker. Wanna join my guild? Can give you vice-guild master spot."
Then I smile faintly and reply.
"Won't join."
No helping it.
The witch hat's a bit much, right, Guild Master?
- Companion. End.