Chapter 65
I stared blankly at the large man rushing towards me through the basement door.
“Why…”
“Noah! Are you alright? Sehun…”
“Why!!!”
I screamed, interrupting his surprised words.
“Why did you stop me?”
“Noah.”
He called my name calmly, as if to calm me down, but it didn’t reach my ears at all.
“You’re also going to tell me I shouldn’t kill that man, right? Why? Why shouldn’t I kill him?!”
I wailed, pounding my fists against his rock-hard chest.
“Why?! Because of causality?! That damn…”
My words, pouring out irrationally, were cut off.
Because he grabbed my arm and pulled me into his embrace.
His steel-like arm wrapped around my waist, pressing my body tightly against his.
Caught off guard by the sudden warmth, I forgot my anger and blinked blankly.
“It’s because of you.”
Holding me so close there was no room to struggle, he whispered softly in my ear.
“The reason not to kill him is because of you.”
“…Huh?”
“Let his sins remain his own, don’t dirty your hands. Noah.”
At that quiet voice, the anger drained away and tension left my whole body.
I buried my face weakly in his broad, firm shoulder.
No tears came.
There wasn’t enough emotion left in me for that anymore.
Because I had hated too much and cried too much throughout my life.
He held me in his arms, softly murmuring that it was okay.
Hearing his voice, I suddenly remembered the incident at Mangan Beach.
Even then, we held each other, struggling with the loneliness of feeling alone in the world.
“You said it yourself.”
He murmured in a low voice to me, now somewhat calmed.
“That only you are real.”
“I…”
That’s not the context I meant it in…
So please don’t be tainted by evil. Because you alone are my world.
Baek Yi-heon seemed to murmur that in a voice so faint I could barely hear.
It was such a quiet voice that I couldn’t be sure if I heard it correctly.
Human warmth, or embraces where bodies press close together, must have some special power.
My frozen heart had melted without me realizing.
Instead, I could feel his pounding heartbeat through his skin.
Realizing that Baek Yi-heon’s heart was beating almost as fast as mine, I suddenly felt awkward and embarrassed about our bodies being pressed so close together.
“Um… How long are we going to stay like this…”
When I squirmed slightly, he tightened his muscular arm around my waist.
“Just a little longer, like this…”
“Noah!”
That’s when an urgent shout came from beyond the basement door.
I hastily pushed him away, and he surprisingly let go without resistance.
“Hey! Are you okay?”
“Noah! Are you alright?”
As soon as we separated, Yu and Choi Kkang-kang appeared with a clatter.
They looked relieved to see me with Baek Yi-heon, but only for a moment.
“What is this…”
The two wore shocked expressions as they saw the basement scene.
The suspicious open space beneath the government building.
The huge altar rising from it.
Sehun sleeping on top, and Kim Seo-min sitting crumpled, clutching his wet pants.
They finally found out.
I’ll have to explain everything.
…But it was strange.
Until just moments ago, I thought my world would crumble if they discovered this scene.
Now I wasn’t scared anymore.
Probably because of the embrace and comfort this man gave me.
And because of the courage he transmitted to me through that.
“This is…”
“I’ll explain it myself.”
I cut off Baek Yi-heon as he began to speak with a slightly troubled expression.
There might be a way to explain without revealing that Yoo Hyung-min is my father.
But as long as Baek Yi-heon pursues Yoo Hyun-min, they’ll find out someday anyway.
Besides, I no longer wanted to deceive and hide things from them forcibly.
With a calmer face, I began to speak steadily.
“So, this is what happened…”
As I explained calmly, Yu and Choi Yu’s expressions gradually hardened.
💎
In the end, we decided to leave Kim Seo-min’s punishment to the people of this camp.
At the news that the culprit had been caught, people who had been hiding all over the building began to appear one by one.
The gathered crowd surrounded Kim Seo-min and vented their anger and grief.
“Give us back our children! Give them back!”
“You devil!”
Kim Seo-min, beaten by the angry people, kept apologizing with a swollen face.
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Just spare my life…”
I wonder if he still doesn’t feel true remorse, thinking inside that it was all because he lacked power.
But now I knew that once the culprit was caught, it was out of my hands.
As I thought with a calmer mind, a familiar voice rang in my head.
[(Messenger) Emergency Earth Realm Mission Cleared!]
[You’ve saved the humans of Onjeong City from the impending tragedy of annihilation!
As a mission clear reward, you receive 20 A-grade magic stones!]
[(Messenger) Your synchronization rate with Indra increases to 4.23%!]
Suddenly, I felt the hip pouch on my waist become heavier.
I had just received twenty A-grade magic stones.
‘…Success!’
For the first time since coming here, I smiled brightly.
Meanwhile, in another part of the conference room where Kim Seo-min was being beaten, another group was begging for forgiveness.
Or more accurately, they were making excuses.
“We were just having an important political discussion, that’s all.”
“We always work for the citizens… Aagh! Don’t throw stones!”
The corrupt leaders’ actions had also been exposed by Yu and Choi Kkang-kang.
With the system suddenly collapsed, various types of people appeared in the camp.
“What should we believe in now?”
“The camp is running out of food…”
While some people fell into despair, others seemed to renew their determination.
“…Right. We can’t keep hiding in here forever just because monsters are scary.”
“I’m going out hunting. Some of those beasts might be edible, right?”
“If we go out in teams, they won’t attack us recklessly. So, focusing on the Awakened ones…”
Being a large city, there were even more people gathered in the camp than we had expected.
We taught some of those who had awakened Craftsman-type abilities how to refine magic stones and create barrier stones.
I even gave away five mid-grade magic stones that I had been saving.
Baek Yi-heon and the others had that ‘as expected of Noah…’ expression again, but that was because they didn’t know I had just received twenty A-grade magic stones as a mission reward.
‘I can give away mere mid-grade stones as much as I want now.’
As I inwardly smirked, the camp people kept bowing their heads to us.
“Thank you so much. …It seems we were stuck in the old system, unwilling to accept how much the world has changed.”
The woman who had first volunteered to ‘form an Awakened hunting team’ said as she saw us off.
“From now on, we’ll pull ourselves together and run this camp properly.”
“…Stay strong. Make sure you survive.”
After giving a final bow, we headed towards our camping car with its barrier.
“……”
“……”
On the way back to the car.
Somehow, a strange atmosphere flowed among our group.
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
