Chapter 262
Chapter 262
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 262
Chapter Title: Episode 86. E#1 BM: Resolve
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Good work.”
“Thanks.”
His smile was awkward.
Yoo Ji-tae checked his outfit. Half-broken sunglasses. A combat uniform torn here and there, stained with blood and grime.
“Dressed like a sack again, just like back then? Is this some kind of protest against me?”
“Nah. No real intention. Just been too hectic.”
“Fix yourself up today. Treat those wounds too.”
“What, do I need to greet some VIP to get that ‘seed that makes the dead breathe’?”
“Got any clothes?”
“Well, I’ve got some regular casual stuff... Must be quite the impressive figure.”
Yoo Ji-tae nodded toward the long path stretching ahead.
“Let’s chat on the way.”
Yoo Ji-tae climbed the mountain with BM.
This was the first time since the 7th round that he’d set aside a full day for something unrelated to evil or the dragons.
He’d even postponed summer’s training for today and left winter’s homework to spring. So spring would be busy today—teaching magic to autumn, helping winter with homework, studying for exams.
Spring had wanted to come along, but he’d refused.
For BM’s sake?
No.
It was for his own sake.
“How’s the body holding up?”
The terrain was rough.
Far off, white eternal snow gleamed.
They were ascending a high peak.
“Fit as ever.”
“Still, you gathered the materials well.”
Yoo Ji-tae carried a level 2 artifact subspace chest on his back, enchanted with preservation magic, which BM had handed him.
Inside were tiny amounts of materials needed to connect the heart and body.
For example, to create a human, you’d normally need 425ml of ATTN essence, but here just 0.2ml sufficed.
Still, every type was required in full. So BM had to labor once more.
“What, should I slack off? It’s about saving my son.”
“......”
“Hm... But the mana density here is pretty high.”
BM changed the subject, looking around.
At some point, an unnaturally thick mana had begun pouring from all directions.
“Cleared out your place?”
“Wiped it all. Baby stuff, photos. Tell summer I’m sorry. Had to toss her gifts too.”
“Good job. Those baby books were secondhand anyway.”
BM laughed in disbelief.
“Come on. Who gives used stuff as a baby gift?”
“The doll you threw out was used too. Autumn’s.”
“Autumn? The one with the yellow hair? The paratroopers treat her like some goddess?”
“Summer’s little sister.”
“...No wonder it was so grubby. At this rate, you’ll say the jelly summer brought for Tae-baek was used too.”
Yoo Ji-tae fell silent, and BM rubbed his forehead.
“Lord help me.”
“That’s just how she is.”
“You’ve got your hands full...”
Yoo Ji-tae smiled faintly.
They walked in silence. The sun high in the sky wrapped autumn’s cool breeze in warmth. The crisp mountain air lifted BM’s spirits today.
Skinny as he was, BM stood taller than Yoo Ji-tae. But his strides weren’t just from those long legs. Lost in thoughts, Yoo Ji-tae spoke up.
“Something you’ve wanted for a long time.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“People call that a dream, usually.”
“True. A dream.”
“How’s it feel to make it come true?”
“What a question.”
BM chuckled.
“Bought new baby stuff and set it up in the cleared spot.”
“Quick.”
“Actually, planned to on the night I cleared out. But couldn’t. Even after tossing everything, it didn’t feel like the kid was gone.”
“......”
“That little rascal turned my workshop upside down. Hairs everywhere—red ones, always catching my eye. Every nook and cranny. Even snuck into the warehouse I told him not to enter. Found hairs there too.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Hurt? ...You ask like a little girl sometimes.”
“What?”
“Nah, your questions hit like that. Like something a young girl would say.”
His face, like he’d just killed someone, softened in thought.
Made sense, maybe.
Who did he talk to most?
“Well, blunt as it sounds. Yeah, it hurt. Thought clearing stuff would help, so I did. Then cleaned up every trace. But then photos on my watch. Deleted ‘em, and damn cloud had backups.”
BM chuckled lowly.
“That damn cloud, popping up his face big with facial recognition. Kid grinning like an idiot...”
Lost in memory, BM trailed off.
“Truth is, he did it to survive. Pretending to be human, my friend’s son, all to eat my heart.”
“Technically, yeah.”
“Right. Just a kid struggling to live. Smart in this harsh world. But who made him that way? Me.”
BM sighed.
“So after clearing his stuff, I cried a lot.”
His steps slowed.
“Like a little kid. Sobbing loud. Couldn’t hold it. But didn’t want to disrespect the new Tae-baek, so vowed one day only. Cry today, forget tomorrow.”
“But after bawling all day, snapped out of it at night. Went to wash up.”
His breath shook.
Recalling that moment.
“Guess what was there?”
Thought he’d emptied it all.
Vowed to focus on the new kid.
Right before his eyes.
“Two toothbrushes...”
That day, BM failed his vow.
“Two freaking toothbrushes...”
And even now.
After that, BM stayed quiet for a while. Only the crunch of footsteps on the path. The distant eternal snow drew near. They trudged through snow up the mountain.
“Packed the toothbrushes.”
BM broke the silence.
“Said you’d empty it out.”
“Yeah. But seeing them changed my mind. Not something to bury or forget. I shouldn’t empty him out.”
“So.”
“Put the toothbrushes somewhere like a gravestone. Visit now and then to honor him. When I meet Tae-baek again, when he’s older. Tell him someday.”
“......”
“Once I accepted that, I was ready for a new kid.”
BM couldn’t let go of the dead child.
By accepting it instead.
He finally emptied the tied-up past.
“Good.”
“So, how far we going? Hours of walking... Where’s this big shot? Nothing feels special.”
BM eyed the high snowfield.
A fierce wind made him squint.
“Mind ready?”
—To get it, we go somewhere a bit dangerous.
—Dangerous? You too?
—No. Just you.
BM recalled Yoo Ji-tae’s old words.
Ahead. To save Tae-baek, face danger.
Extremely so.
Yoo Ji-tae himself called it ‘dangerous.’
He nodded solemnly.
“Won’t lean on you.”
“Can’t drop that stubbornness?”
“Nope. Arm torn off, leg gone— from now on, I handle it. You watch.”
BM drew up mana.
“You could die.”
The transcendent’s words weighed heavier on BM.
But he shook his head.
“If I’d done right once, this wouldn’t have happened.”
BM never thought he’d done well.
Long ago, in flame-wrapped Arandot.
Losing old friends and comrades as the long war ended. Losing Tae-baek then.
“Shouldn’t have looked away from the kid, excuses or not.”
Near the end of 20 years of despairing research. Facing Yoo Ji-tae’s advice, clutching worthless junk.
“Shouldn’t have compromised from exhaustion.”
When he implanted an unverified heart. Ignored realizing the mistake. Had to rip out the pulsing thing himself.
“Shouldn’t have watched wrong as love.”
Finally, the last chance.
BM thought so.
“Now I’ll do right once. Watch over me.”
All his history embodied.
Days pondering night and day. Dreaming Arandot’s history.
Prepared for this moment.
With his whole body.
Then.
Yoo Ji-tae smiled faintly.
“Sorry.”
BM’s eyes twitched.
Sorry? For what?
Suddenly, a black subspace split behind Yoo Ji-tae. White hands emerged holding something.
Jeong Tae-baek’s dead body.
“All that resolve. But I already did it all.”
“What?”
What did he say?
The person to meet? The danger?
As BM reeled.
Yoo Ji-tae snapped his fingers.
Snap—
Snow exploded like fireworks from a nearby peak amid the snowfields.
Snow filling the ground scattered everywhere, filling sky and surroundings.
Catching the late evening sun, sparkling.
Like a dream.
Like movie magic.
Filling BM’s world with light shards.
Only then did the old returner realize the peak he stood on was a massive, stirring ‘life.’
Is this the ‘seed that makes the dead breathe’?
“Tae-baek ready to meet?”
Chills raced over BM.
Already prepared?
“Wait, hold on!”
“What.”
“What’s all this? Meeting already? I’m not ready.”
“What prep? You had 20 years.”
“Still, just a bit— wait—!”
BM fiddled with his sunglasses. Paced around the seed. Hands shaky. Legs worse. Glanced at the seed, soaring snow, light shards.
Unexpected timing. Moment at hand. This sixty-year-old superhuman feared like a child.
“Look at me.”
“Huh?”
“How do I look?”
“What?”
“This shabby casual getup! Hair’s a mess. Should’ve fixed up, clothes too.”
“......”
“So, how do I look? Scary for a first meeting with a kid?”
Asking Yoo Ji-tae.
He pondered, then answered.
“Ditch the sunglasses first.”
“Huh?”
“First meeting. Eye contact.”
“Ah, no, but...”
BM removed the sunglasses, pocketed them.
Revealing BM’s bare eyes—first Yoo Ji-tae had seen across regressions before the last.
Arandot’s monster bird.
Abrakasas’ eyes gleamed blue in his.
“Weird, right? Kid’ll be scared.”
Yoo Ji-tae thought of winter, shook his head.
“Gets fine quick if from the start.”
“R-really?”
“Prep done then?”
“Y-yeah! Yeah...”
Like a kid facing first love?
Or an old man from a divided nation reuniting with family after long parting?
Long-cherished wish near. Middle-aged man overwhelmed.
Prep, prep...
BM muttered, soothing himself.
“Kneel. Circulate mana. Think ‘live.’ Will to the seed.”
The life lost back then.
The faded distant world.
His two precious friends’ child.
Reunited, BM knelt trembling.
Clumsy hands clasped in prayer.
Activation
Yoo Ji-tae released the seal on the ‘seed that makes the dead breathe,’ its special artifact power.
The returner’s intense mana, his iron will, flowed downward.
The boy’s body rose, held by white hands.
Empty heart filled by the seed’s power.
The child wrapped in light.
Heart beats once.
Stagnant blood, forced unrotten, flows.
Heart beats twice.
Life to dead cells.
Heart beats thrice.
Blood to organs, muscles, brain, vessels—all human parts. Oxygen supplied.
Finally, a finger twitches.
Eyelids part slightly. Red pupils show.
Yoo Ji-tae, stepped aside, watched father and son.
What’s it like fulfilling a dream?
To glimpse ahead, he came alone.
BM gently lifted the lying boy.
Jaw clenched.
All weary times to this tiny being flashed in memory.
—Know how it feels? Dear friends dying beside me, but I alone must flee?
—But I can’t forgive myself, hundreds of times a day.
From losing precious ones.
—The kid died. Nothing grand—just hit by a passing monster’s poison stinger. My carelessness.
Times he failed, killing the child.
—I got lazy. Excuses exist—repeated failures.
—But shouldn’t.
—Anyone else, anything else, maybe. But me. This. Shouldn’t have...
Countless failures over ages.
—Throat hurts suddenly...
—Daddy... it hurts... throat...
—Don’t kill meeeee—!
The child, unjustly born and killed by his failings.
Flashed in memory.
As if compensated.
Or punished.
Here now.
Red eyes gazing his face.
Suppressing bursting sobs.
The man spoke to his child.
“Hello...”
Voice weak. Lips barely moved. BM desperately wondered what shape they made.
The child didn’t look away. BM in those red eyes. His blue eyes, weary life-worn face. Held in pure young gaze.
A young being.
Starting anew.
“I’m Jeong Bong-man...”
BM vowed again.
I’ll make you happy.
I’ll help you conquer this harsh world.
I’ll make a home for your tired return.
I’ll live for you.
“I’m your daddy...”
I’ll be with your beginning to my end.
E#1 BM: Resolve
End