Chapter 72
With the moon so bright, one could walk without needing a flashlight.
I slung on my backpack, filled with a barrier stone and two days’ worth of emergency food.
Then I placed a small letter on the dining table.
It was a letter containing everything I could remember from the original story I had read.
Due to its length, it spanned three or four pages.
Including how I came to know all of this.
‘This should do it.’
I hesitated for a moment, holding the pen.
Despite thinking about it all evening, I couldn’t write a closing greeting for the letter.
What should I write?
‘Thank you all for your hard work.’
…That sounds mocking.
‘Don’t die and survive till the end.’
…This is too solemn.
‘Well then, fighting everyone!’
“…This looks soulless.”
I sighed deeply.
After pondering, I wrote just one line at the end.
Then I left the house, leaving behind everything I had grown fond of.
💎
The group discovered Noah’s disappearance and the letter the next morning.
The long letter contained stories Noah had never revealed before.
The mysterious novel on her father, Yoo Hyun-min’s bookshelf.
Meeting Baek Yi-heon, the protagonist of that story.
And that she had only used information from the original work, not being an Awakened or anything else.
At the end of her calm confession, her last words to them were,
[I’m sorry for everything.]
Bang!
Choi Yudam slammed the table hard and shouted,
“I knew this would happen!”
He cried out in anguish,
“I kept saying something was off! Damn it! I told her so many times not to leave. Why…”
“Are you upset?”
Lee Yudam, who was reading the letter with a sorrowful expression, quietly said,
“It hurts my heart.”
“What do you mean…”
“She said she was sorry.”
She murmured, slowly closing her eyes.
“…All this time, how did Noah feel being with us?”
A person who tried to act tough but was weaker and more delicate than anyone.
Whenever Yoo Hyun-min was mentioned, she would look at the group with a scared expression.
As if she had done something wrong herself.
It was the same when we came here to investigate whether his group had infiltrated.
She looked relieved every time evidence of this place being safe came out.
“Damn it! That’s what pisses me off!”
Choi Yudam shouted, messing up his hair in frustration.
“Why the hell is she apologizing! It’s not like she chose to be born to such a father!”
“…Perhaps no one had ever said such words to her in her entire life.”
Lee Yudam muttered with a lonely expression.
“Always being told, ‘You’re that man’s daughter. You’re a psychopath.'”
“……”
“If even the mother who gave birth to her denied her like that… I don’t think I could have endured it either.”
“…Damn it!”
Choi Yudam cursed roughly and asked Baek Yi-heon,
“What are we going to do, bro? We’re going after her, right?”
“……”
Baek Yi-heon, wearing a complex expression, couldn’t readily give an answer.
Of course, he wanted to run and catch her right away.
But what held him back was the last sentence in Noah’s letter.
The ‘I’m sorry.’
Had they been too quick to call Yoo Hyun-min an enemy, a villain?
They thought it was okay because she seemed unbothered.
He wouldn’t stop pursuing and confronting that man.
Then, isn’t letting her go the better path for her happiness?
The letter clearly stated that she ‘knew a place where she could live safely alone.’
…But.
Still.
Is this really okay?
His head had already made the decision to let her go.
He had never in his life reversed a decision once made.
Yet his heart kept saying something else.
To catch her.
She said she found a safe place, but didn’t say she’d be happy there, right?
Iheon slowly clenched his fist.
…For the first time in his life, he felt selfish.
He didn’t want to lose her.
He wanted to hold onto her not for her sake, but for his own.
“Let’s find Noah…”
Just as he was about to speak, at that moment.
“But that Unnie said so.”
Minseo, who had been watching the group while sucking her fingers, suddenly spoke up.
“She said because she’s a psychopath, it was easy to deceive people.”
“You keep…!”
“Oppa saw it too, the crystal turning red.”
Minseo quickly cut off Choi Yudam, who was about to angrily shout.
“You thought to yourself then, ‘Could Noah be lying to us?'”
“…..!”
He was momentarily speechless, his inner thoughts exposed.
“Unnie came to me alone and said. She was really annoyed because you kept getting angry and speaking roughly.”
“…What?”
The child immediately turned her gaze to Lee Yudam.
“She talked about you too. ‘What team, our team. I’m just using them until I get to the shelter.'”
At those words, a ripple crossed Lee Yudam’s usually calm face.
“Anyway, Baek Yi-heon and others, there’s no one in our team who gets jokes…”
“‘Our team.’ Are you calling us ‘team’?”
That was a conversation they had alone when Noah and she had sneaked into Dowonhyang.
There’s no way anyone else could know that…
“I don’t know why Se-hoon keeps following us when he’s useless. I want to just abandon him.”
“...Sob.”
After the tearful Sehun, it was Baek Yi-heon’s turn.
The child looked at Baek Yi-heon with unusually clear eyes and said quietly,
“About you, she said, ‘I saved that man from nightmares, and now he’s obsessively clingy. It’s annoying.'”
“……”
For a moment, everyone was speechless.
Only Sehun’s pitiful sobs filled the silence.
Looking at the group, the child tilted her head with an innocent face.
“Will you believe me now? That Unnie really did bully me…”
💎
The sun had risen before I knew it.
“Walking at night relying only on moonlight really isn’t easy…”
I took a sip of water I had brought, hiding my body in what looked like a safe crevice between rocks.
I had walked quite diligently from town and had just reached the seaside.
In the distance, I could see Ganghwa Bridge.
Fortunately, the bridge I had connected using magic stones when we came in was still intact.
I just needed to cross that bridge, but I knew why I was wasting time drinking water.
And why I kept muttering to myself.
No, I keep saying ‘reason’ (유), and it reminds me of Yu who must be reading my letter by now.
[*Both of them sound the same (Yu)]
“*****. Is this why they say love is scary…”
There’s not a single old saying that’s wrong, I tell you.
If even a psychopath like me is acting like this.
After grumbling for a while sitting there, I soon got up again and headed for the bridge.
The salty sea breeze blew, ruffling my hair.
The bridge that seemed so short when we came now felt unusually long as I walked across it.
Strangely, my steps were slow, and I couldn’t muster much strength.
I kept telling myself as I fixed my windblown hair:
Once I cross this bridge, I’ll forget everything.
Think of leaving all lingering attachments behind on the other side.
‘Right. Think of it as a brief daydream, and forget it all…’
Creak.
“Hm?”
It was just as I reached the middle of the bridge.
A very ominous sound came from the joint where I had connected the bridge with wood and metal.
I stopped in my tracks, stiffly frozen, and gave an awkward smile.
“…Haha. No way, it can’t be.”
But once again, my uneasy premonition didn’t miss the mark.
Creak! Crack.
“…F*ck.”
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
