“Jeongwoo, Jeongwoo…!”
Jaehee felt his heart sink with a thud. He ran frantically and embraced the collapsed Jeongwoo. Jeongwoo’s body in his arms was trembling as if convulsing.
“Damn it, what the hell is this? Woo Jeongwoo! Come to your senses!”
He opened the potion bottle as if smashing it and frantically poured it on Jeongwoo. He frantically poured potions until Jeongwoo’s convulsions subsided. He didn’t even think to make him drink it and just poured the potions. When he finally came to his senses, Jeongwoo was soaked as if he’d showered in potions, and the surroundings were full of potion bottles everywhere.
“Hu, Jaehee, I’m okay now, I’ve come to my senses.”
“Haa…, Jeongwoo.”
Only when he heard Jeongwoo holding his hand and stopping him did Jaehee let out a breath. He’d been so tense that his whole body ached and was stiff.
“Wh, what… Now, wh, what, *hic*, what, *hic*, happened.”
“Catch your breath. The way you look, people would think you were the one fighting, not me.”
Jeongwoo sat up. Jaehee stared blankly at Jeongwoo. Through the tattered clothes full of holes, he could see Jeongwoo’s body stained pitch black.
“Woo Jeongwoo.”
“Uh… Huh?”
“You, tell me honestly. What is this?”
“Wha, what?”
When Jeongwoo hesitated and belatedly pulled at his clothes, Jaehee grabbed him firmly.
“This! The thing that’s turned black! What is this! Tell me honestly!”
“It’s just a bruise.”
“What kind of nonsense are you talking! How many potions have I poured and the bruise is still there? You collapsing earlier wasn’t because of Lee Shinhoo either, right? It’s because of this, right? I put potion on you when you were asleep too. The wound seemed worse than it looked so I thought it was healing slowly, but that’s not it. What is this?”
Seeing Jeongwoo smile awkwardly, Jaehee felt dizzy. That wound clearly had nothing to do with Lee Shinhoo.
Jaehee grabbed Jeongwoo’s arm. His fingertips trembled finely.
“Huu, this… Even after pouring all those potions, it didn’t disappear or even shrink. No, rather it’s getting bigger… What is… this…?”
Jaehee undressed Jeongwoo and traced the black marks one by one.
What had been the size of a palm when he first saw them had now doubled. Looking closely, rather than bruises or spots, they looked like burnt skin. Looking at them one by one, his mouth went dry.
“Well, it’s over now so I guess I can tell you. Jaehee. Actually… Ah, to say this with my own mouth…”
“You better know you’ll die if you talk nonsense. What is this, really?”
“Actually, I regressed.”
Jaehee unconsciously frowned for a moment. Seeing Jaehee’s expression, Jeongwoo smiled awkwardly.
“If you’re saying this to get out of this situation…”
“No, it’s not like that… It’s true. It’ll be hard to believe but… Where I was, the place I remember.”
Jeongwoo paused for a moment. Jaehee, who had been about to get angry thinking it was Jeongwoo’s joke, hesitated for a moment.
Jeongwoo’s expression staring into space was unfamiliar. It was a face he’d never seen before.
At that moment, Jeongwoo looked like an old man weary of the world.
“Jaehee, that place, everything had failed. Selecting a King, protecting Earth, and you too. What remained was only death and destruction. I had to find another way. Another way that wouldn’t fail.”
“…A way? So that means, what you just said…”
“Right. I decided to turn back time. One small variable wouldn’t be enough to avoid destruction, so I needed a sure method.”
“But is that even possible? No wait, what are these black things? Are they related? To, to turning back… time?”
At Jaehee’s words, Jeongwoo stroked Jaehee’s head and smiled.
He thought he’d tell Jaehee this story someday, but when the time actually approached, he didn’t know what to say. He’d thought about it countless times and prepared, but all that preparation seemed useless.
Jeongwoo raised his head and looked at the sky. The sun that had fully risen was now brightly illuminating the world.
“Wow, our Jaehee is smart.”
“Hey, don’t joke around. I’m not in the mood for jokes right now.”
When Jaehee became serious, Jeongwoo smiled once more.
“Wait, Jaehee, before that, let’s celebrate what we need to celebrate first.”
“Stop talking nonsense! Tell me what this is first! Do you want to see me dying inside with worry?”
“Jaehee, don’t be angry, I’m not going anywhere so we can talk slowly. More importantly, check the system window. We ran for this all along, so we should check it. We need to contact the guild members too. Okay?”
When Jeongwoo coaxed him, Jaehee sighed.
After Jeongwoo defeated Lee Shinhoo, something did pop up in the system window. However, Jeongwoo collapsed right after so he couldn’t check it.
When he called up the system window, something appeared.
[Emergency Notice
Due to the consolidation of suitable King candidates for Earth, all currently ongoing missions are temporarily suspended.
Currently calculating qualification scores for Earth Number 47, Unique Number 3831 candidate.]
Unlike usual, it was a brief notice with only content.
“Did you see it?”
“Yeah… But does this mean it’s really all over?”
“Right. It’s all over.”
Jaehee blinked blankly.
When told that something that never seemed like it would end was over, it didn’t feel real.
Jeongwoo took out a champagne bottle from his inventory.
With a pop, champagne flowed down.
Jaehee blankly watched the champagne flowing from Jeongwoo’s hand. A sweet smell spread through the ruins that had collapsed all around. It was so surreal in itself that his head spun.
“Congratulations. My King.”
After staring at the champagne glass Jeongwoo offered for a while, he hesitantly reached out his hand.
It was quite strange to toast with champagne over ruins. The sweet smell swept down his insides.
“You say such embarrassing things so easily.”
Jeongwoo lightly clinked his glass against the one Jaehee was holding. A clear sound rang out.
“Now tell me, Woo Jeongwoo. Why is this like this?”
Jaehee said, pointing at the black marks visible between Jeongwoo’s open shirt.
Jeongwoo smiled bitterly.
“This is heavenly punishment. Punishment for going against the laws.”
“What does that… Then what should we do? No, what happens if it continues like this?”
“I thought there was no way to prevent the end except by turning back time and regressing myself. Reversing time was a big deal, but fortunately I met a Constellation who could do this.”
“That was Blazing Flame? Blazing Flame turned back time?”
“Yeah. Blazing Flame has been helping continuously all along. Constellations can’t be trusted, but if there’s one Constellation I can trust, it would be Blazing Flame.”
“Then those black spots? What happens to them? Did Blazing Flame do that?”
Jaehee frowned while listening to Jeongwoo’s words.
If Blazing Flame turned back time, what were they thinking warning him about Jeongwoo?
“Ah, no. This isn’t… Hu, so it’s not Blazing Flame’s fault. Reversing time ultimately means going against the world’s laws, so this happened because the world rejects me. It’s no one’s fault. In other words, my very existence goes against this world’s mood, you could say.”
“Wh, what is that? Then what happens?”
Jeongwoo smiled silently. Jaehee felt something chilling from Jeongwoo like that.
“No, no. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear anything.”
“Jaehee.”
“I said don’t say it! This doesn’t make sense! You didn’t turn back time for yourself, you did it to prevent the end, so to save the world. But why, why! This doesn’t make sense. I won’t listen.”
“Jaehee. Even so, nothing changes. And it is my greed. I, actually, didn’t even care about this world.”
“I said don’t say it!”
“I wanted to save you from the beginning. For that one thing, for my greed, I did all of this. To save you, for you to live happily, this world was also needed, so that’s why I did it. So I have no regrets or lingering attachments.”
Jaehee bit his lip hard. He bit it so hard that blood flowed, but he didn’t even register that he was bleeding.
“Only, as long as you’re good, that’s all? You crazy bastard! What about me? What am I supposed to do!”
Jaehee screamed at Jeongwoo. He knew Woo Jeongwoo had secrets he wasn’t telling, but he never thought it would be a story like this.
He called him crazy, called him crazy, but he never thought Woo Jeongwoo was this crazy of a bastard.
Even now. Seeing him shaking champagne and laughing happily didn’t even make him feel better.
“Crazy bastard!”
