Chapter 378: When Winter Goes, Spring Comes.
Chapter 378: When Winter Goes, Spring Comes.
A moment later.
The instant the Vagabonds disappeared into the distance, Shin Sangyong’s body collapsed. At the same time, a wave of dizzying aftereffects washed over him.
“Heok, heok!”
His vision spun. The moment the battle ended, his mind went completely blank. His heart hammered against his ribs like a drum. As vertigo set in, Shin Sangyong quickly calmed his magic circuits and dismissed his summons.
“Keuk… Keuk…”
He had barely managed to compose himself internally when his overheated magic circuits began to scorch his body from the inside.
“Hoo… Hoo…”
Shin Sangyong calmly regulated his breathing. He felt utterly empty inside, but… he still felt good.
After finally catching his breath, Shin Sangyong looked around.
Ahn Hyun was unconscious, blood streaming from a wound on his head. But by some miracle, he was still alive.
Lee Yoojung was clutching her chest and side, her face contorted in pain. But she was alive.
Ahn Sol was still trembling uncontrollably, but she didn't seem to have any major injuries.
Confirming that everyone was alive, Shin Sangyong’s heart began to settle.
“Ah, Miss Ahn Sol.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Are you alright?”
“No… My heart and… my body have been shaking this whole time… I’m sorry…”
“Ha, haha. It’s alright. The, the enemy has retreated. So please, hurry and heal…”
Shin Sangyong found it difficult to continue speaking and simply looked at Ahn Hyun. Understanding his meaning, Ahn Sol nodded once, then twice. She crawled over to Ahn Hyun’s side.
Shin Sangyong lay his body down on the ground. He knew he was in the middle of a battlefield, but right now, he just wanted to rest. He didn’t have a single ounce of strength left.
Just as he was about to lay his head down, he felt something soft against his neck. Startled, he lifted his head and saw Lee Yoojung, biting her lip.
“Oppa.”
“M-Miss Lee Yoojung?”
“Thank you.”
“……”
Her words of gratitude left Shin Sangyong speechless. His face just felt hot, and a warmth spread through his chest.
“I’ve never seen you like that before, Oppa. You were so cool. You should’ve shown us that side of you sooner.”
“Ha, haha.”
At Lee Yoojung’s playful chiding, Shin Sangyong gave an awkward laugh and nodded.
“…I’m just glad we survived.”
At his words, Lee Yoojung smiled for the first time since they had reunited.
It was then.
“Get up.”
At the sudden, calm voice, Shin Sangyong shot up reflexively. He saw the Sword Empress, who had approached at some point, her face etched with exhaustion.
“It’s not over yet. We’ve only just made them retreat.”
“Ah… R-Right. But given the situation and with no enemies in sight, perhaps a little rest…”
“No.”
Shin Sangyong’s point had some merit, but the Sword Empress cut him off flatly.
“A moment ago… if they had been determined to push us to the end, we could have lost. But Lee Kangsan chose to retreat. I have a bad feeling about this. We should wake that man up, give him some basic treatment, and leave immediately.”
“Ah, I understand.”
The Sword Empress’s words were cold, but they were the reality of their situation. Shin Sangyong nodded repeatedly, feeling a slightly unfamiliar emotion. Before, she hadn’t even met his eyes, but now she was looking down at him as she spoke.
Shin Sangyong struggled to his feet. Just as the Sword Empress confirmed this and turned to survey the area, her legs buckled violently.
“Ugh!”
“A-Are you alright?”
Shin Sangyong rushed to support her, but the Sword Empress shook her head, refusing his help.
“…I’m not alright.”
“Th-Then you should get treated right away.”
“This isn’t something that can be healed. It’s a side effect of overusing my Unique Ability.”
“Your Unique Ability? Ah, but still, it’s better than nothing.”
“It’s an ability that enhances my powers and heightens all my senses to their absolute limit. It’s fine for short periods, but using it for so long has taken a toll on my body.”
It was the same ability she had briefly displayed when she fought Kim Soohyun. The Sword Empress looked annoyed, but she still gave a relatively detailed explanation before glancing at Shin Sangyong.
“That’s my current state. Aren’t you in a similar condition?”
Finally understanding, Shin Sangyong nodded. A dark shadow fell over his previously relieved face. He had poured almost all of his strength into the last battle, leaving him with barely anything in reserve. He could only manage to take one painstaking step at a time. But if the Sword Empress was in a similar state…
“S-So, what will you do now? What about the encirclement?”
“…I don’t know.”
“W-What?”
A thought flashed through Shin Sangyong’s mind.
“Don’t tell me you had your ability active even before you met us?”
“I won’t be able to activate my ability for a while. In fact, I need to be careful about using any magic at all.”
It was a bit of an indirect answer, but it was as good as an admission. Shin Sangyong sighed. While he now understood the monstrous detection abilities the Sword Empress had displayed, he was also deeply worried. He thought they had just overcome one mountain, only to be faced with another enormous problem.
As negative thoughts swirled in his head, Shin Sangyong shook them away. He looked over at Ahn Sol, who was in the middle of chanting a healing spell.
Heal Ahn Hyun and Lee Yoojung.
For now, that was the priority.
In any case, just as the Sword Empress had said, this was no time to be lazing about. Shin Sangyong immediately sat in a meditative posture and watched her. Her back was to him, but he could see a faint tremor in the legs planted firmly on the ground.
“Ughh.”
At that moment, a faint groan reached Shin Sangyong’s ears. His face brightened as he turned his head. He saw Ahn Hyun, his brow deeply furrowed as he slowly opened his eyes. Judging by the relieved sigh from Ahn Sol, who looked immensely glad, it seemed he had woken up without any issues.
Ahn Hyun opened his eyes, slowly looked around, and then immediately spoke.
“Wh-What the… How did this… Huh? Where’s my gear?”
“Hey. Your gear is over there. Go get it yourself and move it. It’s my turn to get healed.”
“My gear… The gear Hyung gave me…”
“Haha. I-I’ll go get it.”
Shin Sangyong let out a small chuckle at Ahn Hyun’s behavior, searching for his gear the moment he woke up, and pushed himself to his feet. As he walked forward, he saw a helmet, spear, and armor laid out neatly next to a decapitated corpse.
He planned to carry them one by one and bent down to pick up the helmet. Just then, he saw a pair of slender hands from the opposite direction grabbing the armor. Shin Sangyong glanced up and saw the Sword Empress, who was also looking back at him. He tilted his head in confusion but picked up the spear, just about to stand up.
Thump. Thump.
—Hmph. I was wondering why there was no one here…
At that moment, Shin Sangyong and the Sword Empress, who were about to stand, froze completely.
—Are these the bodies of those wanderers from before…? This is unexpected.
As the voice continued from behind them, they tried to straighten up in a hurry.
—From the looks of it… you don’t seem to be allies.
Whoosh!
Something tore violently through the air toward them.
Thwack!
“Ack!”
“Keok!”
The two of them screamed at the same time.
Shin Sangyong’s body began to tremble against his will. He slowly, very slowly, lowered his head. When his gaze finally dropped, he saw a thick, thorny whip that had pierced straight through his abdomen. In that instant, the ground seemed to recede from his vision, only to rush back up to meet him.
Thud!
“Gack!”
The moment his body slammed into the ground, Shin Sangyong’s neck snapped back sharply. But it didn’t end there.
Thud!
A second time.
Thud! Crash!
And on the third impact, the whip embedded in his body was twisted out, and he was sent tumbling forward by the inertia.
“H-Hyung?”
“Oppa!”
His breath caught in his throat, and a searing pain spread from his abdomen throughout his entire body.
It had all happened in an instant. He could hear the others rushing toward him, but Shin Sangyong’s body and mind were already spinning. Overwhelmed by the pain, he couldn’t even think to breathe, only managing to let out choked gasps.
In that state, with superhuman endurance, Shin Sangyong forced his eyes open. He struggled to lift his head and saw the others running toward him. He reflexively turned his head in the other direction. This time, he saw a woman taking aim at them. In her hand was the whip, stained with blood and flesh, that had undoubtedly pierced his abdomen.
Whoosh!
Without a shred of mercy, the whip was swung. In that instant, Shin Sangyong’s eyes flew wide open. He had no strength left, but he pushed off the ground with both hands and forced his body up as if on springs.
Spreading his arms wide, Shin Sangyong’s eyes stared straight ahead.
He saw Ahn Hyun, Ahn Sol, and Lee Yoojung. And then.
SQUELCH!
—Oh my?
As the whip viciously struck his back, droplets of blood burst forth, painting the air.
At the same time, Shin Sangyong’s vision went black.
“────!”
“────!”
The others were shouting, but he couldn’t hear them. A sharp ringing was already screaming in his ears.
“……”
A moment later.
As his vision cleared, the sky began to slowly drift past Shin Sangyong’s eyes. It moved at an incredibly slow pace, slow enough to count the clouds in the sky. Time seemed to flow gently, as if it had stopped.
The slowly passing sky began to brighten until it washed Shin Sangyong’s vision in white.
Before he lost consciousness completely, Shin Sangyong thought.
Could this be it? The revolving lantern of one’s life they say you see right before you die?
As memories immediately began to flow like a panorama, Shin Sangyong slowly closed his eyes.
*
The winter that year was cold. It was an exceptionally cold winter.
Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo.
Bright flames shot up. A space of soaring fire and splattered blood.
The source of the fire was an overturned car in the middle of the road. The crumpled vehicle was engulfed in flames, sitting alone on the dark road.
Inside the car, two adults were crouched, protecting a child. The child looked with trembling eyes at the adults shielding him. Their gazes met. One of the adults stroked the child’s head with a blood-soaked hand. Then, they spoke.
—Sangyong-ah. Survive. No matter what, you have to survive.
The child nodded with trembling eyes.
A moment later, the child’s surroundings changed.
—Nyah nyah nyah nyah. Nyah nyah nyah nyah. He’s a stutterer. He’s a stutterer.
A group of children surrounded one child, teasing him. The child in the center just stared back at them with a blank expression.
His grandfather, who had been watching the boy silently, said one thing.
—Remain silent.
The child obeyed. He thought it was the only way, and besides, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t fix his habit.
That child was Shin Sangyong.
Starting with that realization, memories began to flash through Shin Sangyong’s mind, one by one.
Again, time passed.
Shin Sangyong remained silent. But that silence, combined with his timid nature, left him isolated. He had always lived as if he wasn’t there, and as a result, no one paid him any attention. Sometimes, he was even bullied.
But it was okay. He was used to living like this, and he wasn’t the only one.
And besides… he had always thought he was a failure anyway.
But there was one thing even he couldn’t bear. It was the loneliness that occasionally visited him after his grandfather passed away. With no one to lean on, his world was always dark and cold. Like winter.
The Earth’s seasons always changed. But Shin Sangyong’s personal season, which had stopped that year, was always winter.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to fight it.
Things got a little better as he got older, graduated from college, and entered the workforce. He had some minor successes, but in the end, his fundamental nature didn’t change. He still stuttered, though not as severely as when he was a child, and was often looked down on for it. His timid personality often caused him to lose out.
But he thought it was okay.
He had always lived alone, after all.
And then, after entering the Hall Plain.
After passing the Rite of Passage, Shin Sangyong was sick for nearly a week. At first, he resented the world, wondering why he had been summoned to this place.
When he finally got back on his feet, his first thought was… that the Hall Plain was a world where one could never survive alone. For Shin Sangyong, who had a particularly strong attachment to life, he had to adapt to this world to survive. And to adapt, the first task was to change everything about himself.
But Shin Sangyong’s life didn’t change even after entering the Hall Plain.
He desperately took on odd jobs and forced himself to join expeditions despite his fear.
But still, nothing changed.
—Isn’t that guy too much? I know he’s a mage, but he’s holding back way too much. Why did he even join the caravan if he was going to be like that?
—Even if you stutter, you have to chant your spells correctly. We almost died.
—We don’t accept mages who’ve learned alchemy.
—Ancient text interpretation? I’m not really interested. I’ll let you know if we excavate some ancient ruins.
A year passed.
When he came to his senses, there was no one standing by his side. He thought he had tried his best. He thought that if he endured and waited, spring would come. But nothing changed. The result was no different from his time on Earth.
In the end, both on Earth and in the Hall Plain, Shin Sangyong was still alone. His season was still winter.
Then, a thought occurred to him.
Maybe I was just passively waiting for spring to come?
Maybe the things I’d grown accustomed to since I was young were what prevented me from leaving my winter… Those kinds of thoughts.
But by the time he realized it, it was too late. He was already an outcast in the Hall Plain, all alone. In a world where ‘Player Status’ was paramount, he was an unwelcome presence.
He agonized for days. Then, Shin Sangyong made a big decision.
One last time. Just one last time, I’ll try to step out into the world.
And on an expedition where he nearly lost his life, he finally met another User.
That User was a completely different kind of person, a different kind of User. He always took the initiative and was trusted implicitly by those around him.
Yes. That man was like the sun.
Shin Sangyong thought, Maybe if I stay by the sun, I can melt my winter away.
Risking everything, for the first time, Shin Sangyong clung to someone. For him, who had always complied and retreated, it was the first time he had ever done so.
And the result.
—Very well.
—Y-Yes?
—We welcome User Shin Sangyong.
Reality began to change.
The ice of the winter he thought would never end slowly began to melt.
And so, a new turning point arrived in Shin Sangyong’s frozen life.
The change began with the people around him.
—User Shin Sangyong. It’s not good to push yourself too hard.
—Ha, haha. I-I don’t think you’re one to talk, L-Leader.
—Hahaha! You have a point.
Into his world, where no one had ever dared to venture.
—Yohohoho. Hey, hey! Shin Sangyong! This master of yours, you know. I’ve finally been entrusted with an important task.
—Y-Yes? An important task?
—That’s right. An important task. Kim Soohyun asked me. Personally! You’ll help me, right?
One by one.
—Hyung! Thanks for your help last time! We work pretty well together, don’t we?
—Geez. Oppa did all the work, and now you’re taking the credit.
—I knooow, right?
One by one.
People began to gather.
Shin Sangyong was overjoyed, thinking he had finally found a place where he belonged, a place where he was allowed to be.
Perhaps that was why he was so disheartened.
—User Shin Sangyong will be excluded from this selection.
—There’s no shame in being a non-combat User.
There was a clan member whose magic was far superior to his.
And alchemy was out of the question.
Will I become useless like this…? The thought that he might return to his old life terrified him, and so, Shin Sangyong joined the war. To prove his existence.
And the result…
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
Huh?
At the sudden sounds, Shin Sangyong snapped his head up. He rubbed his eyes. It had been an empty white space, but now, the members of the Mercenary Clan were standing there.
Shin Sangyong instinctively started to walk toward them but stopped short.
Is there really a place for me there…?
At that moment, the memories flowed like a panorama once more.
When they ate together.
When they stood watch together.
When they explored ruins together.
When they fought with their lives on the line together.
When they entered the Clan House together.
When they celebrated joyfully in the garden together.
Shin Sangyong stared blankly at the scenes from his memory. Just then, one person slowly turned around. The man smiled lightly and shifted his feet, making room. At the same time, all the clan members turned their heads to look at him.
As if they were welcoming him, Shin Sangyong felt drawn toward them.
And the moment he finally stepped inside.
—We welcome User Shin Sangyong…
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
His vision turned white again.
“……”
He couldn’t feel his body. He couldn’t tell if what he was seeing was reality or an illusion.
His vision slowly began to shake. Through the shaking, he saw three familiar faces.
“Hyeoong! Hyeooong!”
“Oppa! Oppa! Answer me! Answer me!”
“───. ───. ───. Heal!”
Ahn Hyun, shouting.
Lee Yoojung, shaking his body frantically.
Ahn Sol, chanting spells without stopping.
“Hyung. You can live. She says you can live!”
“Just hold on a little longer! She’s healing you right now! Okay?”
I can live?
The words barely registered. Shin Sangyong slowly parted his lips.
“Thank… good…”
“Wh-What? Thank goodness? Right! It is! Okay?”
At the shout, Shin Sangyong smiled faintly.
There was still so much he had to do, so much he wanted to do.
He wanted to apologize to the others.
He wanted to boast to his master that he could summon magical beasts now.
He wanted to do something, anything, now that he thought he could finally be of help.
But contrary to his wishes, he could feel his body slowly growing cold.
Amidst these conflicting emotions, what on earth was he supposed to say?
Shin Sangyong looked at the three faces looking down at him.
“Sorry…”
I’m sorry.
“Thank you… so mu…”
Thank you so much.
Then, Shin Sangyong smiled. And he cried. He cried as he smiled.
A sudden darkness crept into his mind. In truth, he had been feeling his consciousness fade for a while now.
And so, Shin Sangyong thought he should rest his eyes for a bit.
“Just for a… moment…”
“Oppa. What’s wrong? Why are you closing your eyes all of a sudden? Huh?”
Feeling strangely at peace, Shin Sangyong murmured softly.
“When winter passes… spring comes…”
In that instant, something that had been barely holding on suddenly snapped.
“Hyung… Hyung…? Hyung…!”
Before he closed his eyes for the last time, Shin Sangyong thought.
Still. If by some chance I can open my eyes again…
“Oppa…?”
Then I must prepare to welcome a warm spring.
*
As Shin Sangyong’s eyes closed completely, the tears that had pooled there streamed down his cheeks.
While Ahn Hyun and Lee Yoojung wailed, Ahn Sol was still chanting her healing spell. She placed a trembling hand over his heart. But the heart that had already stopped showed no reaction. All she could feel was a chilling coldness spreading…
Ahn Sol slowly turned her gaze. The blood flowing from the gaping wound in his abdomen had soaked her robes. But Shin Sangyong’s face was peaceful. Though blood was still flowing, his lips were clearly smiling.
Ahn Sol quietly parted her lips.
“Oppa…?”
There was no reply.
Just as Ahn Sol was about to speak again.
“O…”
Thump.
Before she could finish the word, Shin Sangyong’s head fell limply to the side.
Thump!
At that moment.
Thump-thump!
Ahn Sol’s heart began to pound furiously.