“This can’t be…!”
Jaehee covered his mouth with his hand. He’d seen it with his own eyes, but he couldn’t believe it.
The man looked around briefly. Their eyes meeting was a coincidence, but he seemed to know someone was watching him. Jaehee held his breath. The man didn’t seem to see him, but still he couldn’t make a sound. His hands trembled. The man looked around and let out a sigh.
Jaehee couldn’t bear to watch anymore and buried his face in his sleeve.
The wailing man had the face of someone Jaehee knew well.
Though he looked older than what he remembered, he was absolutely someone he couldn’t fail to recognize. Though haggard and shabbily dressed, the man was definitely Jeongwoo.
“Jeongwoo…. Woo Jeongwoo. Why….”
A lament-like cry came from Jaehee’s mouth. The man was still shouting and wailing as if he wasn’t even tired.
The person lying limply in the man’s arms.
He thought he knew who the collapsed man was. His fingertips went cold. Forcing himself to resist turning his head away, he examined Jeongwoo and the man he was holding.
A headache suddenly struck. Jaehee shook his head several times, struggling to come to his senses.
The collapsed man’s lips had a blackish tinge and his face had a pale bluish color.
He wondered if he’d already stopped breathing. But Jeongwoo looked like he had no intention of letting the man go.
“Please, please, save him! Save my Jaehee! Save him! If you’ll just save him…! If you’ll just save him, I’ll do anything! Please…! I can’t let him go like this! It can’t be like this…!”
The man—Jeongwoo’s cries—rang in Jaehee’s ears.
Goosebumps rose.
What on earth is this situation?
Could this possibly be the future?
Or a dungeon illusion…?
Either way, it was a very nasty bad taste. His own death.
As a human, he would eventually face death someday, but he’d never once thought of a death like that.
He felt dizzy, as if someone had stirred the inside of his head with their hand.
“You bastards! I won’t let a single one of you go! Those who fed Jaehee poison, those who stood by…! The Constellations who giggled watching this! I won’t let any of you go! No…. Jaehee, I can’t let you go like this. Jaehee… Please, open your eyes. Hm? Jaehee…!”
Jaehee turned his head away, unable to watch any longer.
Poison? Did he die from eating poison? Is that why Jeongwoo is crying like that?
A long sigh escaped.
Is that really Jeongwoo in the pond?
The man looked around in all directions like a madman and hurled curses at the empty air. Sometimes he pleaded, sometimes he raged, and sometimes he cried like a small child. No matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem to be in his right mind.
The man was like a mother who’d lost her young. He clutched the collapsed man and endlessly whispered for him to wake up.
When he himself was in far worse shape.
Jaehee bit his lip hard.
If that’s real…. If it’s real, Jeongwoo.
Don’t do that. Jeongwoo. Even if I really did die, don’t be too sad.
Don’t fall apart like that either. Just be a little sad and then just live your life.
I want you to be happy.
As Jaehee muttered such words to himself, the man’s voice gradually subsided.
When the surroundings finally became quiet, Jaehee cautiously stood up.
He became curious about what the quieted man was doing.
* * *
“Ha, damn it. Really nothing’s working out.”
Jeongwoo stood helplessly and glared at the pond.
The pond itself seemed like something with a will of its own. When it had pulled Jaehee in and swallowed him, that was one thing, but now that Jeongwoo was trying to enter, it was pushing him out. Even when he tried to go into the water, he couldn’t enter. The water pushed Jeongwoo out as if it had a will. He tried repeatedly several times, but it was useless.
Eventually, an angry Jeongwoo tried to cut the water with a sword blazing with red flames. But the pond’s water parted the waves like something alive and deftly dodged Jeongwoo’s blade. It was absurd.
Even using freezing magic to freeze the entire pond was the same. At first it seemed to freeze, but soon it rippled the waves and broke the ice.
“This is a first in a dungeon too.”
Jeongwoo irritably disheveled his hair and soon let out a sigh.
Thinking positively, it felt like the pond had no intention of directly harming him. He thought about just blowing up the pond entirely since the way it dodged around was infuriating. But he couldn’t attempt it because Jaehee might get hurt in the process.
Jeongwoo glanced at the collapsed Kang Mingyu and recalled what Kang Mingyu had said. When asked what he saw in the water, Kang Mingyu had answered while trembling.
‘There was nothing special. It was just the destruction I always see.’
The destruction he always sees.
Somehow those words made his heart sink. Jeongwoo ground his nails with a crunching sound. Biting his nails was a childhood habit he’d stopped doing long ago, but now he was biting them without realizing it.
Don’t look at useless things and hurry out, Jaehee.
Because destruction won’t happen in the future.
You don’t need to see things like that.
Because I won’t let such destruction come anywhere near the path you walk.
Kang Mingyu stuttered unhelpful words and then lost consciousness. When he checked, he’d simply lost consciousness, so Jeongwoo roughly threw Kang Mingyu onto the grass.
Lighting a campfire in front of Kang Mingyu was the greatest kindness he could show him.
Jeongwoo glared at the pond and took out a tent from his inventory. Actually, even when throwing Kang Mingyu down, he hadn’t thought of it, but seeing Kang Mingyu made him realize that Jaehee would need a place to rest when he came out of the pond.
Jeongwoo took out the tent and put water over the campfire. He prepared various foods so Jaehee could eat if he came out. As he busily moved around like that for a while, the sun slowly crossed over the mountain.
Jeongwoo casually stood up and planted luminous pearls one by one near the pond. A soft light flowed as if the entire pond had nighttime lighting turned on.
Jeongwoo unfolded a fishing chair and sat in front of the pond. With Jaehee not returned, there was no thought of sleeping.
He intended to wait here until Jaehee returned.
Jeongwoo glared at the pond and smirked.
All right, let’s see who wins. When it came to waiting, he was more confident than anyone.
Enduring, persevering, and waiting.
That was what he did best.
No matter how long the time, if it was waiting for Jaehee, he could wait as happily as ever.
It was when Jeongwoo was glaring at the pond like that.
Jeongwoo sprang up from his seat.
The middle of the pond was rippling. The ripples of the previously calm pond spread outward from the center. Unlike the noisy rippling of the waves, there wasn’t a speck of wind.
Jeongwoo slowly walked into the pond. When the water rose to waist height, Jeongwoo stuck his head into the water. Though the water was pitch black since it had become night, Jeongwoo swam toward the center without hesitation.
The pond that had been busy pushing Jeongwoo away until earlier was quiet now. It even looked like it was waiting for Jeongwoo to come.
In the middle of the pond, something floated up.
Jeongwoo hurriedly approached and embraced it. It was Jaehee.
While swimming while embracing Jaehee, Jeongwoo didn’t even notice it was difficult. He only thought he had to get Jaehee outside a little faster.
While climbing onto land while embracing Jaehee, his body trembled. Not because he was cold or struggling, but because he was scared. Jaehee with his eyes closed was too frightening. At Jaehee’s cool body temperature, Jeongwoo’s heart seemed to drop.
“Huu… Jaehee, Jaehee….”
Jeongwoo laid Jaehee on the ground and put his ear to his chest.
He heard the regular sound of a thumping heartbeat. Jeongwoo blew his breath into Jaehee’s mouth with a puff.
A few times Jaehee’s ribcage swelled, and with a coughing sound, Jaehee vomited water in a stream.
“Jaehee, Jaehee…. Are you okay? Are you okay? Answer me. Can you hear me?”
Jeongwoo frantically called to Jaehee while maintaining an angle so his airway wouldn’t be blocked.
Jaehee slowly blinked his eyes.
“Jaehee. Are you okay…?”
Seeing that, Jeongwoo plopped down on the spot. All the strength drained from his legs.
He embraced the water-soaked Jaehee and kissed his nape. He felt like he’d aged ten years.
