Chapter 266
Chapter 266
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 266
Chapter Title: Snowfield (6)
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“Ha-eun…?”
For a moment.
A chill shot down his spine as if the world had frozen.
Ha-eun, who had opened the hospital room door and strode inside, glared at him with icy eyes.
“You lost your memories?”
“……”
*Did she hear everything?*
Oh-jin let out a deep sigh and nodded.
“That’s right.”
“You…!”
Ha-eun raised her clenched fist.
He squeezed his eyes shut, expecting a blow, but no impact followed.
“Why… Why didn’t you tell me?!”
Her eyes welled with tears as she grabbed him by the collar.
Her shoulders and hands trembled.
With a bitter look, Oh-jin wiped away the tears forming in her eyes.
Was there any other reason he had hidden it from her?
“Because I didn’t want to see you make a face like this.”
“……”
Ha-eun bit her lip, her grip on his collar loosening.
She turned her head toward Isabella, who stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
“Step outside for a moment.”
“Miss Ha-eun, Oh-jin is like this because of me…”
“Get. Out.”
Her voice was cold as ice.
Isabella, who had been about to say something, looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes.
Oh-jin gave a slight nod as if to say it was okay.
“…I’ll be outside, then.”
*Click.*
The hospital room door closed.
“……”
“……”
Now alone in the room.
A frigid silence, so thick it felt alien, descended upon them.
Breaking the silence that seemed like it would last forever, Ha-eun spoke in a low voice.
“You said you lost your memories of me, too?”
“Yeah.”
“…What memories were they?”
Ha-eun asked, her voice trembling with anxiety.
Seeing her so fragile, as if she would shatter at the slightest touch, Oh-jin gently took her hand.
“The memory of you and me being a couple.”
“……!”
Ha-eun’s eyes widened.
She yanked on his hand, pulling him closer as she leaned in.
“Th-Then, the fact that we’re dating now is…!”
“Losing a memory doesn’t mean the feelings disappear with it.”
The memory of them being lovers was gone.
But that didn’t mean his feelings for her had vanished.
Those feelings…
No matter what happened, they wouldn’t be erased.
For all his feelings for Ha-eun to disappear, every memory since the day they first spoke on the orphanage rooftop would have to be gone.
“Just when did this… Ah.”
A small gasp escaped Ha-eun’s lips.
When Oh-jin had returned after being trapped in the Miasma Zone.
She remembered how he had suddenly looked anxious, his eyes trembling, and said he needed some fresh air.
She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but looking back now, he had seemed a little different from his usual self.
“…So the memories from before then are gone? All of them?”
“Not all of them. Just the memory of us becoming a couple.”
If that was the case…
“Did you… forget my confession, too?”
When she had been captured by Cheon Do-yoon.
Did he forget everything about that moment when she had kissed him and confessed the feelings she had kept hidden deep in her heart?
“……”
Oh-jin simply looked at her with sad eyes, offering no reply.
That was answer enough.
“Ah…”
Ha-eun stared at him, her eyes glistening as if she were about to burst into tears.
A heavy feeling settled in her heart, like a dark cloud.
The thought that he had been shouldering this burden all alone made her chest ache as if it were on fire.
“…I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I-I didn’t know… You must have been in so much pain, and I…”
She had leaned on him as if nothing was wrong.
Oblivious to what he was carrying all by himself.
*“Those Black Star Organization bastards will be a piece of cake now!”*
The words she’d uttered when Oh-jin first told her about his skill, Gaecheon, flashed through her mind.
What must he have felt when she’d said that so ignorantly, with a silly grin on her face?
“Ha-eun.”
Oh-jin caressed her cheek, a faint smile on his lips.
“Closing your eyes doesn’t make the world disappear, right?”
He whispered the words he had heard from Vega.
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that even if I’ve forgotten, it’s not completely gone. I mean, losing some memories isn’t that big of a deal, is it?”
“Not a big…! What kind of nonsense is that?!”
“Do you remember what you had for lunch a month ago?”
“That’s…”
That’s not the point, Ha-eun mumbled.
“Haha. You’re right.”
Forgetting what he ate for lunch a month ago and forgetting the precious memories they had shared were two entirely different things.
But.
“No matter how many times I forget, I’ll be by your side, just like now.”
“……”
Ha-eun looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes.
She pulled him into a tight embrace.
“From now on… don’t you ever use that skill again.”
“…We’ll see.”
If a situation like the last one arose again, could he really choose not to use Gaecheon?
“Oh-jin, you…!”
“Alright, alright. I won’t use it again.”
“…Promise?”
“Yeah.”
Oh-jin chuckled and nodded.
Ha-eun sadly stroked his back.
She held him in silence for a while before closing her eyes tightly.
*‘Get a grip.’*
Did Oh-jin want to lose his memories? Was he not scared?
Despite knowing everything, he had used Gaecheon.
To protect the people he cared about.
She couldn’t just blame him for using such a dangerous skill.
If he hadn’t used Gaecheon, she wouldn’t even be here to hold him like this.
“…You said you were attacked by the Queen of Serpens, right?”
“To be precise, it was the Queen of Serpens being controlled by the Cheonma.”
“Whatever.”
He had faced the number one Executor of the Black Star Organization and come back alive.
She couldn’t let this turn into a somber, depressing memory.
“Ahem. Hey, now that I think about it, when you used Gaecheon before, you lost all memory of us dating, right?”
“Ah, yeah. I did.”
“So… does that mean you forgot our first time, too?”
“What?”
Oh-jin stared at her, dumbfounded, as if he couldn’t believe such a question would come up in this atmosphere.
“Well… since the memory of us dating was erased, I guess I did forget.”
“So you lost your virginity twice?”
*What is this woman talking about all of a sudden?*
“Hehehe. Then… if I do it with you one more time, it’ll be your third time, right?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten this time…”
*Flop!*
Ha-eun, who had been hugging Oh-jin, used her strength to push him down onto the bed.
She climbed on top of him, a seductive smile on her face.
Leaning down, she brought her face so close their noses touched.
“Then from now on…”
She reached out, her hand gently tracing his chest.
“I’ll carve so many memories into you that you’ll never be able to forget.”
With a deep smile, Ha-eun pressed her lips against his.
“Hey, what is this crazy woman doing to a patient… Ugh!”
*Creak, creak.*
The once-chilly air of the hospital room began to heat up.
***
“Haa.”
Late at night.
After Ha-eun, who had clung to him since broad daylight, finally fell asleep with a satisfied expression.
Oh-jin slipped out of the room and went up to the rooftop.
The cool night air caressed his cheeks.
He gazed up at the stars twinkling in the night sky and took a sip of the canned coffee he’d gotten from a vending machine.
*‘The Cheonma.’*
Who in the world was it?
*‘Right now, it’s likely a powerful constellation like a Titan or Polaris, but…’*
Without any concrete information, he couldn’t make any rash judgments.
“Haa.”
A deep sigh escaped his lips.
Before, even though he knew the Cheonma existed, its movements were invisible, so he hadn’t felt this sense of dread.
*‘First Barbatos, and now Cassia.’*
As the Cheonma’s movements became more apparent, the pressure and fear began to mount.
“Is it not yet in a state where it can move directly?”
The only small comfort was its current condition.
Seeing as it went through the trouble of using Cassia to attack him, it was safe to assume it couldn’t yet act on its own.
“Ugh.”
Oh-jin leaned against the rooftop railing and groaned.
Just then, a gust of wind blew the empty can he had placed on the railing behind him.
As he turned to grab the flying can.
*Slither.*
An eerie sound, like a snake slithering.
A black snake with the empty can in its mouth slithered across the floor toward him.
“There you are.”
Cassia emerged from the deep shadows.
Oh-jin flinched, his eyes filled with tension as he watched her.
Cassia chuckled, a faint smile on her lips.
“You don’t have to be so guarded. I have no intention of harming you.”
With those words, she glided closer and whispered in his ear.
“For now, that is.”
“……”
Her chilling breath touched his earlobe.
“What are you doing here?”
“I stopped by before I leave. I have something to give you, too.”
“Leave? To where?”
Surely she didn’t mean she was going to the Cheonma.
“Fufu. Why? Are you curious?”
Cassia giggled, a playful smile on her face.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going back to the Cheonma.”
She looked up at the night sky with a somewhat lonely expression.
“My own form of atonement… I suppose? Though I’m not sure I have the right to say such a thing.”
Atonement.
Indeed, the amount of blood she had on her hands was not small.
But.
“You did those things while your mind was controlled by the Cheonma.”
The Cheonma had skillfully manipulated her trauma, turning her into a puppet that followed him with fanatical devotion.
She probably moved according to his will in a daze, unaware of her own actions.
“Even so, they were my actions.”
Cassia shook her head with a faint smile.
“Still, thanks to you, I now know what I must do.”
Cassia approached Oh-jin with a lovely smile in her eyes.
Just like Isabella’s older sister, the corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled, reminding him of Isabella.
“Don’t forget. The promises you made to me.”
Cassia said as she carefully wrapped her arms around Oh-jin.
“I won’t.”
He had promised to become *her* Cheonma.
Even if it was just a pathetic lie a swindler had told to survive.
He couldn’t bring himself to turn his back on the girl shivering in the snowfield.
“……”
Cassia trembled slightly as she held him.
*Is she crying secretly again?*
Honestly, both the younger and older sisters were quite the crybabies.
Oh-jin smiled faintly and patted her back.
“…Oh-jin.”
“Hm?”
But.
What she said next was a little different from what he had expected.
“You smell of another woman…?”
Cassia’s eyes glowed an eerie green as she flicked out her long, snake-like tongue.