Chapter 221: Fragment of Emptiness (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 221: Fragment of Emptiness (4)
From beginning to end.
Even inside the Non-Action Non-Form, which the past Kang A-rin could never see.
She was watching it all.
Just a few seconds before she opened the door.
How Jung Hae-in had taken Balak down with him.
The very moment his spear pierced the golem’s core.
And how Balak’s rock fist had pierced his heart in return.
Down to his final moment, as he collapsed, coughing up blood.
“Huu… huuk…”
She was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Kang A-rin’s body convulsed.
Cold sweat poured down like rain, drenching her black hair.
She was breathing so erratically it wouldn’t have been strange for her to collapse at any moment, but the Fragment wouldn’t allow her the comfort of fainting.
It forcibly seized her consciousness, prying open her drooping eyelids.
‘Look.’
‘This is your sin.’
‘This is the truth you turned away from.’
It was as if it were whispering to her.
The Kang A-rin of the past wept as she cradled Jung Hae-in’s cold, lifeless body.
His empty eyes no longer held her reflection.
Drip… drip…
Kang A-rin’s hot tears fell onto Jung Hae-in’s cheek.
This was the empty end she had brought upon herself.
Swoosh…
Kang A-rin slowly closed Jung Hae-in’s eyes.
“I’m… sorry…”
She bowed her head into his chest and begged for forgiveness.
But the one who should have received her apology was now…
Gone.
But it was then.
The moment Kang A-rin finally reached the depths of despair.
The moment she experienced all her atonement and emptiness.
Everything stopped.
And the world began to reverse.
Her tears that had fallen on Jung Hae-in’s cheek floated into the air and were sucked back into her eyes.
The speed increased.
Balak’s bisected corpse fused back into one.
Kang Yu-sung’s head flew through the air and reattached to his neck.
The world rewound faster and faster… until Kang A-rin could no longer bear it.
And finally, her vision went black.
*
…Warm.
The first thing she felt was a pleasant warmth enveloping her entire body.
It wasn’t the damp chill of blood.
At the same time.
It was quiet.
There was no sound of collapsing buildings or roaring fires.
Only the clear chirping of birds and the sound of spirited shouts from somewhere nearby, tickling her ears.
Kang A-rin slowly opened her eyes.
“……”
There was no ashen sky or… dark bunker spread before her.
It was the dazzlingly blue… morning sky of Seoul.
And beneath that sky… was a sight so familiar it nearly brought her to tears.
The view of the Maengju Guild headquarters.
She looked down at her hands.
They were clean, clad in a familiar training uniform, with no trace of blood.
“…So this is hell.”
Heaven was never an option for me.
She naturally assumed it was hell.
This peaceful scenery was something she had no right to enjoy.
It had to be hell.
Just as Kang A-rin was about to accept her punishment.
“I’m sorry!! I’m so sorry!!”
From somewhere.
An urgent, familiar voice called out.
When Kang A-rin turned her head, she saw someone in the distance at the training ground entrance, waving their hands desperately as they approached.
“……”
Why are you here?
I’m the only one who should be in hell.
“Sorry, I overslept.”
His hair was a mess.
He panted, catching his breath, and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
Overslept…?
Kang A-rin slowly looked around. The powerful shouts of other guild members running laps on the track.
For this to be just hell, it was all too… vivid and mundane.
And.
This situation.
This air.
It was all… strangely familiar.
She was sure she had experienced this before.
Before a joint training session, Jung Hae-in had overslept and been late for their morning workout, apologizing with the exact same expression he wore now.
‘And I… I grumbled, but I ended up taking his hand and running with him.’
Why?
Kang A-rin’s heart began to pound madly again.
Did I… come back?
“But… I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t think I can work out today.”
Jung Hae-in’s words were different from what she remembered.
“Why.”
Why.
I’m sorry.
Don’t leave me.
“There’s someone I have to kill.”
“…What?”
Kang A-rin’s body froze.
Jung Hae-in spoke with a rather regretful and lonely smile.
“A-rin, listen to me carefully.”
“……”
“Your brother… is colluding with the Mines.”
“……”
Perhaps if this were the original Kang A-rin.
She would have thrown a fit. She might have begged him, insisting it wasn’t true and asking him to check again… or perhaps she would have tried to somehow gloss over the situation.
Jung Hae-in, too, seemed prepared for it, ready to face her anger and denial.
However.
The Kang A-rin of now.
“……”
She said nothing.
She simply stared at him with empty eyes.
She knew all too well.
Drip.
A single hot tear traced a path down her cheek.
Seeing that tear, Jung Hae-in’s expression filled with bewilderment.
This was not the reaction he had expected.
It was only then that Kang A-rin realized.
It was true. She had returned.
She had come back.
But…
She wasn’t the only one who’d returned.
There was no way Hae-in could have known that fact at this point in time.
The truth that Kang Yu-sung… was a spy for the Mines was revealed much, much later.
For him, a man of cautious nature.
For him, a man who would rather die than hurt Kang A-rin.
To declare this fact with such certainty meant…
She finally understood the meaning behind the lonely smile he always wore.
The weary look in his eyes that sometimes seemed as if he had lived through the entire world.
And the true nature of the immense weight on his shoulders, a weight she could never have fathomed.
He was a regressor.
“A-rin…”
Jung Hae-in began to speak with a sad, understanding expression, but…
“I’ll kill him.”
A chilling voice escaped Kang A-rin’s lips.
“That bastard. I’ll kill him.”
This time, I…
Will never let you die again.
Kang A-rin, who had been watching all of this, closed her eyes.
The Fragment of Emptiness.
What is emptiness?
As had been said.
It is the despair one feels when their own choices lead to an absolutely unchangeable outcome.
This was the worst emptiness Kang A-rin knew.
The Fragment of Emptiness had recognized that emptiness within her.
And.
It gave her a chance to change it.
Kang A-rin did not miss that chance.
The path of this second life she now walked was no longer an empty road paved with the regrets of the past.
Every single moment would have the value of protecting him, painting a new future.
And to Kang A-rin’s change.
The Fragment would surely respond.
Fwoooosh…
Kang A-rin opened her eyes again.
The world had collapsed.
She was standing in a cathedral.
Everything else had vanished, and before her floated a black stone.
In front of it.
That stone.
She gripped the Fragment of Emptiness tightly.
A black energy swirled around Kang A-rin.
That black energy wrapped around her bare body…
And became a robe.
The Executor’s Robe.
Which tears the Demonic Force to shreds.
====
[Authority: Fragment of Emptiness (片鱗)]
① Tyrant's Evil Destruction (覇道滅惡)
— The executor who tears the Demonic Force to shreds.
② ???
③ ???
====
Awooo…
Behind Kang A-rin, a black fox began to frolic.
“Ari.”
Kang A-rin turned her head and called its name.
Pat-pat-pat-pat.
Ari leaped into her arms.
She held the fox and shed tears.
“I won’t… leave you again…”
At that moment, the world before her slowly faded away.
It was time to open her eyes.
Kang A-rin slowly rose to her feet.
And she closed her eyes.
Let’s go.
As always.
To protect Jung Hae-in.
*
I was meditating next to Kang A-rin.
About thirty minutes had passed.
It was taking longer… than I expected.
But I believed she could do it.
It was then.
Flinch.
Kang A-rin’s body, lying next to me, twitched.
Cold sweat was drenching her red hair.
I quickly moved closer to her.
Just as I was looking at her face.
“……!”
Kang A-rin sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes flew open.
Her unfocused gaze wandered through the air before… finally seeming to recognize my eyes and locking onto them.
“A-rin… are you alrigh—?”
My question was cut short.
Mmph…
Kang A-rin’s lips crashed into mine.
She came at me as if to devour me.
“Heuep…! Hhngh…”
Schlurp…
Her searing tongue explored my mouth.
“I love you… I love you…”
She pressed her entire body against mine, as if seeking stability.
The Fragments… can sometimes manifest as trauma.
It must have been very difficult for her.
I looked up and checked the meteorite.
The faint blue aura it had been emitting was gone.
I stroked the head of the woman clinging to me and opened my mouth.
“You did well.”
Now.
There were no Fragments left.