Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: A Ruined World (11)
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There was no hunger. Sure, every now and then when he returned to Earth, thoughts of gorging on chicken, ramen, jjajangmyeon, jjamppong, or sweet-and-sour pork crossed his mind. But in the past few years, his stomach had never once growled.
"...This is kinda ridiculous."
Lee Sang-hyun let out a wry smile as he gazed up at the sky choked with ash-gray clouds.
He didn't have to worry about starving to death, but it felt oddly hollow not needing food at all.
It was like the disappointment of a favorite dish suddenly turning greasy and unpalatable. His heart felt unsettled for the same reason.
Lee Sang-hyun let out a long sigh. More than some jaw-dropping treasure, he yearned for a single chilled can of soda.
"Guess I'll have to make up for it when I get back."
The surroundings were as quiet as ever. No living creatures stirred, only flames, smoke, ash, and scorch marks hinting at life's former presence.
The wind was as thick and unchanging as always. It occasionally carried dry sand that tickled his nose—that was it.
Whoooo...
The ash-gray clouds devoured the moisture but showed no sign of quenching the parched earth.
True to a ruined world... not even a spark of hope took root.
"...Almost there."
A green star twinkled through a gap in the clouds. It was just for an instant, but vivid enough to signal he was nearing his destination.
"Before that... let's fill in that pit."
Lee Sang-hyun sighed and stretched both hands high toward the sky. He pulled down the sticky ash-gray clouds—thick as demon snot—to form a lake on the ground.
Of course, it wasn't some grand gesture. Purely self-satisfaction.
It was a house carved from stone. A house carved by human hands from charred black stone. And someone lived there.
"......"
Someone still alive dwelled in that stone house.
Was he a traitor? An abandoned one? Or merely a survivor clinging to life?
Whatever the case, he was alive.
And not alone.
Thump. Thump...
Just like what he'd seen in the pure white horn, he was with a demon. With the demon that had destroyed this world...
"...Maybe they were abandoned too."
Lee Sang-hyun wondered if they had been discarded by the demons, like an forsaken king.
But he quickly dismissed the thought. The demons were still here, after all.
So they hadn't been abandoned.
"...Guess I'll find out once I go inside."
To uncover the truth, Lee Sang-hyun approached the stone-carved house.
It looked like a lot of effort had gone into it over a long time: a garden, a stone fence, a large pond, even a vegetable patch.
Of course, none of it was normal. All barren and desolate. Like a haunted house.
Standing before the stone door, Lee Sang-hyun didn't smash it open rashly. He knocked.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
It was an incredibly awkward sound. More startling and out of place than an unexpected visitor... chaos erupted inside.
Lee Sang-hyun stepped back. The stone door creaked open inward.
"Ah, ahh...!"
The one who opened it wasn't twisted like the traitors, bound tight like the abandoned king, or frozen in time like High Elf Lea.
He was just living ordinarily. Though time had let his beard overrun his face, his eyes were sharp. His voice clear and unclouded.
"C-can't believe it...! A surviving Abel tribesman?! My god! I can't believe my eyes! Lil! Lil! Look at this! It's an Abel tribesman! The Abel tribe is alive!!"
"......"
Lee Sang-hyun stared at him. At the man living with a demon, mistaking him for an Abel tribesman.
"My god! My god! This is a miracle! A surviving Abel tribesman! Incredible! Oh, shoot! My bad! Leaving a guest standing outside after so long! But bear with me! My heart's racing from the shock—it's been ages! Come in, come in. Oh, name's Raham! What's yours? No rush, names aren't important. Come on in. Got something to eat."
Lee Sang-hyun followed the man who introduced himself as Raham inside.
The stone house's interior was spartan. Stone table and chairs, a wardrobe for clothes, a bed—that was it. Nothing else.
And then the demon named Lil appeared.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Lil, Raham's wife."
Lil wasn't grotesque like the demons in the pure white horn.
She was utterly ordinary, same race as Raham. Just smoother, without fur.
"......"
Lee Sang-hyun nodded quietly. Then sat on the stone chair at Raham's urging.
"Yes, yes, perfect! So, how'd you find this place? That long journey... crossing the barren desert can't have been easy. Lil! Bring that over! Enough for two! I know we don't have much left. But days like today, we gotta eat, right? Please. Oh, sorry! It's been so long since a guest... honestly, first time ever. Forgive the poor hospitality. But you'll like this, I bet."
As Raham chattered, Lil brought something on a stone tray.
Up close, it was stone cups filled with something breathtakingly beautiful.
"You might've seen it before... but it's nectar! Mystic nectar! Demons' blood. Not much left now. Used to get it easy thanks to Lil... but no more lately. Anyway, not important. Dig in, as much as you want."
The nectar—demons' blood—shimmered brilliantly. Mouthwatering just to look at.
But Lee Sang-hyun shook his head.
"Why? Why not? This nectar's irreplaceable now! Eat up! Plenty left. No need to hold back. For our first-ever guest..."
Lee Sang-hyun cut Raham off.
"I'm no guest. I'm from another world, here on Tethys's request to exterminate demons."
Raham blinked dumbly at his words. Face blank, as if he hadn't comprehended.
Then realization hit, mixing bewilderment, anger, and fear.
"Wh-what nonsense is this...! Showing up out of nowhere spouting weird crap...! L-listen...! We're not involved! Has nothing to do with us! Don't drag us into this!!"
Raham protested his innocence like a guilty thief caught red-handed.
"......"
Lil, by contrast, seemed half-resigned, or perhaps expectant. She stayed calm.
Lee Sang-hyun asked them coolly.
"No relation at all? Even though Rune was destroyed?"
Raham shouted back.
"We...! We didn't fight...! We didn't lead Rune to ruin...! We just fled! That's all! Fled to find our paradise!!"
"......"
"So Rune's fall has nothing to do with us!! Sure, Lil's a demon... but not all demons are the same...!! Lil never did anything blameworthy!!"
His desperate insistence carried regret for the past.
"We're innocent...!! And...! What right do you have to judge us...! Judge Lil? What gives you the authority...! Tell me! Say it...!!"
"Raham...!"
Lil blocked Raham as his outrage nearly launched him at Lee Sang-hyun.
Lee Sang-hyun replied calmly.
"Not enough just because she's a demon?"
"That's what I've been saying!! How many times do I have to tell you we're not involved?! We're...! Innocent!! Nothing to do with Rune's fall!!"
Raham kept yelling it had nothing to do with them.
"If we sinned at all... it was just fleeing. Nothing else! No sin!!"
"......"
"We're sinless...!!"
Raham wasn't a traitor, abandoned, or survivor. He'd left the world seeking paradise.
A fugitive.
How could he judge Raham, whose only "crime" was fleeing—barely even a crime?
Especially in a ruined world where the traitors' end was just the finale. What right did Lee Sang-hyun have...?
"We're sinless...! Selfish thinking only of ourselves, sure, but that's no crime! And you're... not even from this world. From somewhere else. What right do you have... to judge us? Hold us accountable? Why torment us...!!"
"......"
Lee Sang-hyun had no such right. No duty or privilege. He wasn't a resident of ruined Rune.
"...You're right. I have no right. Don't even know if dealing with you is the correct choice or if leaving you be is."
"Th-then...!!"
But there was a promise to keep.
"That said, I can't leave the 'demon' alone. Because I promised Tethys to exterminate the demons who destroyed Rune. So I'll keep my word."
A promise wasn't duty, right, or qualification. Just a contract to uphold.
So whether Raham fled or stood by... whether Lil was a demon or not... irrelevant.
Lee Sang-hyun gripped the pure white horn. And swung it at Lil.
The stone house shattered. But demon Lil didn't die.
Not that he'd swung half-heartedly. Raham had intervened, blocking the blow.
No intent to spare her.
Cough! Cough!
Raham spewed crimson blood. Miraculous he hadn't died instantly—utterly wrecked.
"Wh...at did... we... do wrong...! Why us... Why... Why...!!"
Eyes filled with sorrow, denied peace even in his hard-won refuge.
Cough! Cough!!
"We... just... wanted... to live... That's all... Together... Just live... That's all..."
Stagger!
Raham collapsed, unable to withstand the shock. Lil rushed to support him, but it was futile.
"Raham! Raham...!!"
Lee Sang-hyun approached Raham, his face vacant, and spoke quietly.
"Fact is, Lil being the same kind of demon doesn't change. I'm just here to exterminate demons."
"Don't... make... me... laugh...!!"
"Raham...!"
"Don't... torment us... on your whim...! What we wanted... wasn't war... but happiness...!!"
True from the start... Raham spoke of "us" to the end, not just Lil.
"...If you want to die together, I won't stop you."
At Lee Sang-hyun's murmur, Lil stepped in front of him.
"No!! Please, please spare Raham at least... I don't mind dying... If it atones for this world... just spare Raham."
"Li...l...!!"
Lee Sang-hyun said no more. He simply raised the pure white horn high.
Whoosh!!
The pure white horn swung down. Like divine punishment from the heavens, wreathed in blue light, it cleaved Lil—and Raham, who leaped to save her.
No maudlin tale of love staying his sword.
Lee Sang-hyun struck at the "demon" in earnest. Raham jumping in? Irrelevant. He swung.
Slash.
The demon-slaying Ilbern swordsmanship cleaved Raham and Lil simultaneously. Coincidence or not, their hearts aligned perfectly...
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Yet Raham and Lil didn't die. They merely gushed dark red blood, but lived.
"Ah......"
"Wh...at......"
Baflled, they couldn't continue. They just blinked at Lee Sang-hyun in呆滞.
Lee Sang-hyun told them.
"I've exterminated the demon."
"Wha...t?"
"P...ardon?"
"No idea what happened myself. But the demon is definitely gone."
Truthfully, Lee Sang-hyun didn't fully understand either. But he'd struck the demon—that much was fact.
"The demon..."
"But I... didn't die. Still here..."
"Maybe after so long, you're no longer a demon. Demons don't stay unchanging."
His speculation widened their eyes. Lil especially denied it vehemently.
"Impossible... Sad, but... I'm still a demon."
But Lee Sang-hyun shook his head.
"No matter what you think, I exterminated the demon. And the one inside Raham too."
"What do you..."
"Inside Raham...?"
Lee Sang-hyun answered no more. Instead, as Nameless requested, he handed the pure white horn to them.
"Nectar—the demons' blood—is dealt with. Live as Huya tribesfolk from now on. Just like before, forever."
"As Huya tribesfolk......"
"Ah, aah...!"
Holding the pure white horn, they struggled to grasp the miracle.
But they realized they'd been freed from their demonic past.
"Aaaah...!!"
And so... Raham and Lil shed tears unwittingly.
For the first time in ages...
Before returning to Earth, Lee Sang-hyun planted seeds picked from the barren land here. He sprinkled a bit of water's essence too.
"......"
No special meaning to it.
Just a whim, wanting to plant seeds since it was the end. Nothing more.
"Time to go home."
Lee Sang-hyun opened a portal. The energy he'd gathered sufficed for the long trip back to Earth.
"...Rest easy."
With that final farewell.
Lee Sang-hyun left Rune for Earth.
Living without lack in ruin, nectar's absence changed nothing.
Couldn't produce more anyway. Due to run out anytime.
Sure, the broken house stung. But they'd rebuild.
Besides, they had the pure white horn now. The miraculous horn that birthed a new family.
Raham and Lil embraced. Their love shone brighter than ash-gray clouds could veil.
"So quiet."
"Really."
"Happy yesterday. Even happier today. Tomorrow'll top today."
"Me too."
Even ordinary time was bliss for them.
"Sometimes wondered. If we'd lived normal lives... what would it be like? Never thought it'd come true."
"I wondered too. Gave up as impossible... but I'm thrilled. Truly happy."
Time left didn't matter to them.
What mattered: dreams fulfilled... and facing the end not as demon and Huya, but as "husband and wife."
And rain fell from the ash-gray sky.
Drip. Drip drip.
One drop. Two.
Rain from the ash-gray sky.
"This is..."
"Rain...?"
Rain that never fell in eons... clouds that always watched indifferently...
Now poured droplets onto the parched earth.
Patter patter patter!!
"My god...!"
"It's raining...!"
"A dream?! Not a dream, right?!"
"Not a dream! Real rain!!"
Rain caressed the land of flames, smoke, ash, and scorch marks tenderly.
Pour...
"Ahh, gods...!!"
Tears streaming down their cheeks were joy. Not sorrow, resentment, despair, or defeat—but life's pure joy.
Thus, the rain soaked their hearts.
And desolate Rune.