Chapter 16: The Wedding Song
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: The Wedding Song
“So that’s what it is for Yua.”
“Yes, that’s right. Some people erase bad, painful memories from their minds entirely. Others, like Miss Yua, use a type of suggestion that simply papers over the memory, making it feel insignificant.”
I looked down at Kkotbi with a bitter expression.
The past. Something a returnee could never hope to escape.
Their pasts always clung to them, toying with them, strangling them.
Every returnee carried a sickness in their heart.
And even on Earth, the place they had returned to in hopes of healing that sickness, they only let new wounds fester.
A relentless, vicious cycle had been tormenting them all along.
My gaze drifted out the window.
The tower, shimmering like a mirage beyond the mountains, seemed to be mocking those very returnees.
“Have you ever seen a record of Miss Yua’s activities?”
“…No.”
When I lowered my head, Baek Seol-hyang handed me a sheet of paper.
It was a dense list of all the hunter-related activities Blackstar Yua had undertaken.
And it wasn’t just one or two pages, but a ridiculous volume of nearly twenty.
“Miss Yua is one of the most active returnees when it comes to dealing with dimensional gate incidents.”
“And this isn’t all, is it?”
“No, it isn’t. She’s also active globally as an idol. In fact, there have been more than a few times when she’s gone abroad for her idol work and ended up stopping a gate incident.”
I clenched the papers in my hand.
The Kkotbi in the game had always been so cheerful.
When we failed a raid we were all attempting together, she was always the first to offer encouragement and lift the mood.
When someone got a good item, she would celebrate with them, as happy as if it were her own.
As one of the youngest members of our guild, she was a kid who always radiated positive energy to everyone.
I myself had been helped by that Kkotbi on many occasions.
There were times when the world felt so damn awful, and she was the one who comforted me.
Who was comforting whom?
Returnees could never truly be comforted by anyone.
Thinking of Kkotbi comforting me, I shivered with shame.
“Her tendency to overwork herself was likely a reaction to the self-hypnosis. She forced herself to forget the past by finding solace in work. When a person is exhausted, they don’t have the energy left to remember.”
She was saying that Yua worked to forget the horrific past she had endured.
There’s a limit to being a workaholic.
“…When Yua wakes up, will she try to cast the self-hypnosis again?”
“I don’t know. But you must know that a clumsy attempt at consolation won’t help.”
Self-hypnosis is dangerous.
A situation where she knew that, yet had no choice but to cast it on herself.
Knowing this, I let out a deep sigh.
“Still, wouldn’t it be worth a try?”
The moment I bit my lip in gloom, Baek Seol-hyang suddenly spoke.
Wouldn’t it be worth a try?
As I looked at her, puzzled, she tapped her forehead.
“Miss Yua has to cast the self-hypnosis on herself anyway, right? If that’s the case, then trying to comfort her during the process shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
“Ah.”
My eyes widened.
“But if Yua suffers during that process…”
“She suffers just the same even when she casts the self-hypnosis. And while it may not be a solution, with the help of a psychic ability user, it’s not impossible to keep her sane.”
As if to say I should leave that part to her, Baek Seol-hyang offered a reassuring smile.
“And these days, there’s a way to safely maintain a state that’s most detached from reality.”
“…A VR game.”
“Correct.”
A game is the best way to forget reality.
Especially a VR game that feels just like the real world.
“I have a VR console, so I’ll bring it. And I can handle her mental stabilization.”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s for a fellow returnee.”
Watching Baek Seol-hyang say this, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Come to think of it, Ms. Baek, do you play VR games?”
“Oh my, do I look like I wouldn’t?”
“It’s just a little unexpected.”
She had an image of high-class elegance that seemed to fit her so perfectly.
Hearing my words, Baek Seol-hyang covered her mouth and let out a small laugh, then said with a slightly pleased expression:
“I play a lot of games, too. I also enjoy Lord of Academy.”
The moment I heard Lord of Academy, my eyes went wide.
It was a natural reaction, given that it was the name of the game to which I had dedicated my entire twenties.
Moreover, to hear that she—a woman with the wealth to start a company without a second thought and who held a high position in the World Returnee Association—played Lord of Academy…
Of course, I couldn’t help but be interested.
But it felt ridiculous to get excited about games in a situation like this.
Kkotbi comes first.
I could ask these questions later.
Besides, the idea of talking about games with the chairperson of my company was a bit absurd anyway.
Clatter!
“Hey! You damned Iron-Blooded Empress, do you really want to die by my hand?!”
Just then, the door flew open with a bang, and a fuming Ahyu stormed in.
“Heavenly Demon, you’re just in time.”
She glared at Baek Seol-hyang as if she wanted to kill her, but upon being welcomed, she tensed up like a wary cat.
“What is it? What are you planning?”
Looking at her, Baek Seol-hyang simply maintained a kind smile.
“I need you to play a game with us.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“She’s right. Ahyu, let’s play a game.”
“What? Domi, what are you talking about now?”
Only Ahyu’s confused voice echoed through the room.
*
8
Crackle, crackle.
A girl sat on a wooden chair before a blazing campfire, staring blankly into the flames.
With her black hair and bright yellow eyes, she was draped in a robe that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy world.
Only the staff in her hand suggested she had anything to do with magic.
The girl’s expression was so vacant it seemed she couldn’t make sense of her current situation.
‘Why am I here?’
Her name was Han Yua.
She was active as the idol Blackstar Yua, and her in-game nickname was Kkotbi.
And right now, she was inside her game character, Kkotbi.
For some reason, her memory of the process of logging into the game was hazy.
Her head tilted slightly.
What was I doing just now?
Right, she was definitely meeting people she knew.
And then a hunter-related job came up, so she had to leave in a hurry.
She left, and then…
A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over Kkotbi, and she pressed her palms against her eyelids.
A throbbing headache clearly revealed her fatigue.
‘Am I tired?’
She had been running nonstop for so long.
After being swept up in a dimensional shift, she had nearly lost her life countless times amidst the turmoil of war. Surviving in such a conflict as a woman had been an immense hardship.
But thanks to a fateful encounter, she gradually found a way to live in that world.
The hero, Rion, and his girlfriend, Ernin Bianca.
「I am Ernin Bianca, you atrocious demon bastards! You’re all dead today! Of course, our hero will be the one to do it.」
「Bianca, why are you the one acting all high and mighty?」
Their first meeting was when they happened to save her while she was being chased by demons.
Bianca was fierce and flashy, but her confident demeanor was incredibly cool.
Rion, the hero, was gentle and kind, but in front of Bianca, he was a total prankster.
「Yua, your singing is so beautiful. This is a song from another world, right? I want to go there someday.」
「If you’re going, take me with you.」
「What’s this? We girls are talking, what are you butting in for!」
She remembered the two of them, always bickering affectionately.
「Haha, you’re right. I guess I’m a little tired. Keep it a secret from Bianca.」
And she remembered Rion, occasionally smiling bitterly with a weary look on his face.
「That idiot. He could just say he’s tired when he’s tired. He only acts tough in front of me.」
She remembered Bianca, who saw right through him, grumbling with worry.
Yua loved those two.
Although their lovey-dovey behavior as a couple sometimes annoyed her, the two of them genuinely treated her, a stranger, as a friend.
She grew closer to them, and they began to travel together.
As time went on, the war with the demons grew more intense, and eventually, it became too dangerous for anyone but Rion to go to the battlefield alone.
「Bianca, when I return, let’s get married.」
The words he spoke on his last night before leaving, as he offered her a ring, brought tears to Bianca’s eyes.
“…Yeah, I promised to sing the wedding song for them then.”
In the end, I never got to do it.
And I had kept this memory buried all this time.
What if I had never met them back then?
If I hadn’t, wouldn’t they have built a happy family by now, living blissfully?
Showing her their child, smiling as they stroked the child’s head.
A life like that…
“Ha, haha.”
Once again, the abyss of memory seized her and dragged her down.
The nightmare of that day resurfaced.
The image of Bianca, who had come to save her after she was kidnapped by assassins hired by a nobleman because of her singing.
「Yua! Run! Rion, Rion will come for us!」
Bianca’s voice, shouting for her to escape as she lay dying from blood loss, her vocal cords slashed by scissors, echoed in her ears once more.
“Stop.”
She clamped her hands over her ears.
A contradictory feeling of not wanting to look away, yet desperately wanting to, tormented her.
And once again, that horrific sound echoed.
The image of Bianca collapsing, her eye and brain pierced by a stray arrow.
And the ring, shining brightly on her ring finger.
The memory, which she had somehow suppressed with self-hypnosis, tormented her once again.
‘It should have been me who died that day.’
But she had survived.
Though she had lost her voice, she had survived.
The death of her precious friend, and the agonized cries of the hero Rion upon his return from the war, were too painful to bear.
But Rion did not seek revenge.
He was a hero, born to protect humanity.
His sword was meant only for demons, not for humans.
So Yua asked.
Then who will avenge Bianca?
No answer came back.
Because she could no longer speak.
From that day on, she broke.
She had lost her most precious friend because of herself.
And the dream she had cherished her whole life vanished along with her voice.
Rion could no longer speak with her either.
Seeing her must have reminded him of Bianca’s death.
She went mad.
But in this world, there was no one left to care for her.
Then, one day, Yua had a fortuitous encounter.
A retired soldier, taking pity on her, taught her how to produce a voice using mana.
Her awakening as a Word Spirit Art User.
Even on the day she awakened, broken as she was, she still remembered it vividly.
The scissors that had cut her throat and the hideous face twisted by human greed.
And Bianca’s brutal death, her head pierced in the face of that greed.
The unfulfilled promise she had made to her.
「If you can’t do it, I will.」
She said this to Rion, who had left to kill the Demon King, and her steps took her in the opposite direction of the hero.
On the day the hero killed the Demon King, she set fire to the human king and his kingdom.
And then, Rion came for her.
The sword of the hero, the guardian of humanity, was now pointed not at the Demon King, but at her.
「Let’s stop. Yua, you have to stop.」
Rion’s eyes as he looked at her were filled with so much sadness.
But she couldn’t stop.
She, who had gone mad, had long since forgotten how to stop herself.
And so, the hero and she had no choice but to fight.
In a desperate battle that lasted a week, her voice finally reached Rion.
And Rion’s voice reached her as well.
By then, countless lives had already been erased from the world.
She felt relieved.
Was she relieved?
Watching her sit there in a daze, Rion, for some reason, looked at her with pity and cupped her cheeks in his hands.
‘Can I awaken you?’
That was what Rion had thought as he, his body dying from the Demon King’s posthumous curse, entered the ruined castle after ending the war.
I couldn’t avenge Bianca.
But you avenged her for me.
That was what Rion had thought when he saw her sitting alone on the throne.
I wanted to protect the world.
But I couldn’t protect you or Bianca.
That was what Rion had thought when he saw her face, so broken that he couldn’t read any emotion in it.
If I tried to forget Bianca…
You tried to remember her forever.
That was what Rion had thought when he saw the ring, worn as a necklace around her neck.
Because he was a hero.
He had saved the world, but failed to save his own people.
That had been his greatest regret.
But Yua had tried to protect them until the very end.
「Yua… I’m sor… ry for not protect… ing you and Bianca.」
Rion forced out the words, his voice breaking, and managed a smile.
Oh, God.
Please, let her live without feeling guilty because of us.
Just as you chose me to be the hero.
Please, protect this fragile girl.
If you grant this, I will not resent you.
「…Now, go… back.」
To a world where she wouldn’t have to suffer.
To that world where she could live on and forget us.
Rion grasped the necklace in Yua’s hand and, with his last bit of strength, erased the ring on his own hand and the one on her necklace.
Shatter—
The moment she saw it, Yua felt as if something inside her head had shattered into a million pieces.
Her broken heart finally began to find its shape again.
The emotions that had long since stopped flowing finally burst forth from her like an explosion.
「No. No. No! NO!」
She unleashed her Word Spirit Art on Rion.
She screamed until her throat was raw, telling him to come back to life, but he did not.
Her tears turned to blood.
Clutching Rion’s body, she quietly sang the wedding song they had asked for, all alone in that place of ruin.
And after several months had passed, the many surviving nations branded her the Great Witch, the enemy of the state, and came for her in the ruined kingdom.
Their eyes were twisted with fury for the enemy of humanity.
Who was it that made me this way?
Why do you look at me with such eyes?
But she did not let the words escape her lips.
Because she knew all too well that the moment she spoke, they would vanish from this world.
She smiled a broken smile.
The bloody tears that fell stained the floor and trickled down the cheek of the hero who had become a corpse.
「Han Yua, let’s go back.」
And so, she spoke to herself.
That single phrase, uttered with all the power of a Word Spirit Art User, was enough for her to return to Earth.
And she cast a self-hypnosis on herself so that the memories of that day would not surface.
She couldn’t have gone on living otherwise.
「I like it best when you sing, Yua. I want to listen to you by my side forever.」
「Why are you trying to make your boyfriend jealous? Maybe I should practice singing, too.」
Only the good memories.
Remembering the words Bianca and Rion had said to her.
She sang.
And just as the hero had raised his sword to protect humanity, she fought against dimensional entities, seeking to protect people with her voice.
It was an obsession, a compulsion.
‘Everything I was doing was just an act.’
To show that she was okay.
So that Bianca and Rion, who had died because of her, would worry about her even a little bit less.
From that day until today, she had been running.
But even running has its limits.
Like today.
‘Is that why it’s a game?’
Yua stared blankly at her appearance as Kkotbi.
Her in-game appearance, different from reality, helped her forget the memories of that time.
While Lord of Academy was close to a fantasy world, it was distinctly different from Elysium, where she had lived.
It wasn’t intentional, but perhaps she had wanted to show that she could live a normal, untroubled life in a fantasy world that was similar to, yet very different from, Elysium.
That was why she clung to the game, even as she grew exhausted from juggling her work as an idol and a hunter.
I’m okay now.
I can survive even in a world like this.
It seemed she had wanted to show that to the two of them.
Perhaps that was why, with her self-hypnosis broken, she had chosen the game as her final refuge.
Her dazed mind still hadn’t settled properly.
As an aftereffect of the hypnosis breaking, her mind was in a constant, hazy fog, as if she were on drugs.
Thud, thud—
Just then, she heard footsteps.
Yua tore her gaze from the campfire and lifted her head. Someone was walking toward her through the dark night path.
There were two familiar faces.