Chương 145: S.05 Time to Fly 12(06)_The LAST of S.05

Scene 03_03. FLASHBACK Beside a wide road beating down with hot sunlight, it was a cozy café where a somewhat lush tree cast its shade. Around it, apartment-style factories rose fairly high, seeming to be putting on their final touches. The street was rather clean. Only one modest café, set among the tall buildings, hung a modest sign as if to say it was a place to rest. Inside was Si-yeon, humming along to a song flowing from a small speaker. She looked youthful, without a trace of makeup.

Behind Si-yeon, who hummed while wiping a table with a dishcloth in her school uniform, stood an adult who looked considerably older than Si-yeon. While tidying the kitchen and putting away the tools after making drinks, the adult asked Si-yeon. Hyeong-jun: Si-yeon, did you finish your applications? Si-yeon: They're early-admission apps anyway, but, yeah. All done. You've got that training, right, ajeossi? Barista. Hyeong-jun, recalling something, stretched with an air of annoyance and heaved a sigh.

Si-yeon: I'll be having a fine time with little-ajeossi and the youngest sis, so just go on. Hyeong-jun: Don't you go sipping away at the booze my siblings give you while I'm gone, using the holidays as an excuse. Si-yeon merely carried on humming, pretending in a roundabout way not to hear Hyeong-jun's light warning. The sound of Hyeong-jun's mouth came. At the sound of Hyeong-jun's mouth about to hold a scolding, Si-yeon, still wiping the table, gave a retort laced with reproach. Si-yeon: Argh! Fine. Fine.

I didn't even drink that much back then and you keep going on about it. You scolded the sis and Oppa enough, didn't you. I even felt sorry for them. The sound of the two bickering did not sound heavy at all. It was the ordinary clamor of an ordinary daily life, an ordinary squabble. Their continuing reproaches at each other carried beyond the café. Someone who had stood quietly by the wall listening to the voices moved. It was a time when the hulking Hong-sin was somewhat younger.

Hong-sin, who looked to be at an age where wrinkles had just begun to set in, moved his somewhat less corpulent body closer. Hong-sin, adjusting the suit he had unavoidably worn even at the onset of a hot summer day, approached the car parked for a moment. As he bent his waist slightly to convey his words, the glass door of the back seat opened slowly and slightly. Hong-sin passed his voice through the opened gap. Hong-sin: Will you do it today? Yeon-jin: Today was the day they said they'd turn a blind eye. Sure.

Let's do it tonight, then. Her figure was not fully visible. As if he had heard the answer well enough, Hong-sin nodded and headed for the café again. Scene 03_04. FLASHBACK A dazed deliberation carried on. She had only done what she had set out to do, yet a strange sense of déjà vu was felt. As if urging her to reconsider her choice, a guilt that had never once surfaced before sat like a fork in the road. Si-yeon: Ajeossi!! At the wailing sound, she withdrew the dazed guilt in an instant.

Yeon-jin looked down for a moment at the blade in her hand. On the blade of the 죽장검(Juk-jang-geom_Bamboo Cane Sword) was smeared another's blood. It was Hyeong-jun, who had died clutching Yeon-jin's own ankle to the very end. Yeon-jin, standing upright without a word, looked down at the coldly stiffened Hyeong-jun. Suddenly, the thought that it was noisy rushed in strongly. All guilt could not linger long. Even if it came again, she was certain she would make the same choice.

With her foot, she shoved off and kicked away the coarse hand that gripped her own slender ankle, as if it were a bother. Si-yeon, in a high school uniform, was wailing in Hong-sin's grip. Beyond wailing Si-yeon's blurred sight, Yeon-jin came into view, lightly shoving aside with her foot the body of Hyeong-jun already fallen and moving her high heels closer.

Approaching Si-yeon, who tried to break free from Hong-sin holding her, Yeon-jin tilted her neck this way and that and cracked the joints of her neck bones as if they were stiff. Si-yeon, gazing at the cold corpse of some man fallen before her, was wailing at the top of her lungs. Sliding the Bamboo Cane Sword into its sheath, Yeon-jin lifted it sheath and all and lightly rapped Si-yeon's brow. Yeon-jin: Quit your damn bawling, would you. You motherless piece of shit. Si-yeon: Ajeossi. Ajeossi!! Open your eyes.

Please! This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Picking at her ear with an irritated air, Yeon-jin glared straight at Hong-sin, who stood holding Si-yeon. Hong-sin slammed Si-yeon to the floor, then stamped his foot down on the fallen Si-yeon's small head. With consciousness she hadn't yet lost, Si-yeon reached out a hand and crawled feebly toward the fallen ajeossi. Before her, a thick envelope dropped. Yeon-jin: This sis here, my payouts are guaranteed.

Quit dragging yourself through school and scraping by hand-to-mouth — just come along nicely. I'll teach you the good stuff. Scene 03_05. Her eyes opened wide. Surely, she had been certain she had died. She had known, too, what she faced in death. But what her opened eyes saw was the entrance of a thick, dense fog forest, and even the somewhat familiar passenger seat of a car belatedly came into her two eyes. She felt her own self breathing, remarkably intact. But, surely. Yeon-jin: Why am I alive?

It was a question whose meaning she knew all too eerily well. But she had to ask. Yu-seok, who sat in the driver's seat carrying on his driving, scoffed and did not even reply. Yeon-jin turned her hesitant gaze like a machine and looked at the two other presences felt behind her. With her gaze shifted ever so slowly, the two presences began to come into view. The moment she saw the two figures, a memory faintly returned.

The instant the memory through her gaze settled into her head, Yeon-jin gripped her disheveled head with her two hands, as if trembling. It was agonizing. It was painful. All regret was felt. Beyond the regret that she should have, from the very start, from the very start, listened to Seong-hyeon, even the distant past when she first abducted Si-yeon was a matter of regret. Everything had begun from a small and trifling choice. Gripping her head, Yeon-jin let out a meaningless scream.

Even when the great scream rang out, Yu-seok only carried on driving in silence, without a reply. Scene 03_06. In the broad clearing of the 현교(Hyeon-gyo_The Black Doctrine), the remains of underworld things, the 어둑시니(Eo-duk-si-ni_Dusk Fiend)s among them, lay heaped high. Si-yeon, who had burst the 검은 물(Geomeun-mul_Black Water) all at once, sat all but sprawled on the ground, worn out.

As if every offensive that had continued from the capital had ended, the pressure that had reached the distant Black Doctrine no longer carried on. Though they had not lost consciousness, Si-yeon and Jeong-in, looking as if they might nearly faint, stared blankly at the 지식관(Jisik-Gwan_Directorate of Knowledge) officers who had come out to clean up the surroundings.

Jeong-seon, passing the Directorate of Knowledge officers who were tidying the surroundings alongside the Black Doctrine's faithful, headed toward the slumped Si-yeon and Jeong-in. Of the slumped Si-yeon and Jeong-in, only Jeong-in rose hurriedly, if with difficulty, and greeted Jeong-seon, who had approached them. Jeong-seon first bowed deeply to Jeong-in. Jeong-seon: Thank you. Without the 본청 (Bon-cheong_Headquarters)'s help, it would have been truly hard.

At Jeong-seon's calm and deep greeting, Jeong-in, unable to merely receive the greeting, likewise bowed deeply in reply to Jeong-seon. As one might expect, Si-yeon did not rise in the slightest. She only shot a playful glare at Jeong-seon with a grumbling expression. Jeong-in: Not at all. We only did what we had to do. Si-yeon: Hey, treat us to a meal or something. I rolled around for hours and I feel like I'm gonna drop dead — ah, SSibal. For real. I keep forgetting I'm already dead.

At the joke only Si-yeon could make, both Jeong-seon and Jeong-in held a light smile. It was a pressure they had held off far more smoothly than expected. Si-yeon, stretching out her hand indifferently to Jeong-seon and Jeong-in, gave a look as if asking to be helped up. While Jeong-seon pointedly ignored Si-yeon's request with an equally indifferent purse of the lips, Jeong-in took Si-yeon's two hands in both of hers and hauled her up with all her might.

To Jeong-seon's provocation of not helping her up to the end, Si-yeon countered with a reproach. Si-yeon: You, SSibal, you'd better drop dead after we eat. Jeong-seon: Ha, did you forget I'm a dead one too? When it was you, sis, who brought me over? Si-yeon: Argh!! SSibal, you really never let up, do you. As Si-yeon's grumbling drew to a close, Ye-seung's hurried dash drew near toward Si-yeon's party, who were about to enter the Black Doctrine's main hall.

Ye-seung too looked worn out, but it seemed an urgent matter, urgent enough to come running like this. Ye-seung, who had come running hurriedly, still panting, read the uneasy mood. Jeong-in: What, what is it? Jeong-in's voice, trying to calm her somewhat, could not carry on. Ye-seung: Deputy Secret Agent, right now, The Seer — Scene 03_07. After Yu-seok's car reached deep into the fog, it began to slow to a stop.

Yu-seok, come after a long while to the forest laid thick with fog, cut the engine and stepped out of the car. From the hand of Yu-seok, who looked around for a moment, 검은 모래(Geomeun-morae_Black Sand) was conjured. Yu-seok, approaching the back seat, bowed his waist courteously while gripping the blade conjured in his hand. He bade the bound So-hui and Yeon-su step out. So-hui, her two hands bound in front, stepped out of the car first, then carefully propped up Yeon-su, whose wounds had not yet settled.

Yu-seok gripped Yeon-su as if snatching her away and opened the passenger door. When the jeep's passenger door opened, Yeon-jin was revealed, looking at Yu-seok with dazed eyes as if she had lost her mind. Yeon-jin listlessly shifted her gaze and looked at Yu-seok. Yu-seok: Follow me. Yu-seok moved off first, all but forcibly dragging the staggering Yeon-su along. After watching for a moment Yu-seok, who headed beyond the deeper fog forest, Yeon-jin turned her dazed gaze and glared at So-hui.

Within her dazed eyes, a hatred that could hardly settle seethed. Yeon-jin, having stepped out of the car, forcibly snatched the bound So-hui and followed after Yu-seok before he drew further away. After walking a long while, he shoved the limping Yeon-su hard and flung her against the 시간수(Si-gan-su_The Chronostump). Yeon-su's congealed blood could no longer flow from the gaping wound.

Yeon-su, shoved limply by the pushing gesture, tumbled harshly against the great tree, bound with the 금줄(Geumjul_Ritual Taboo Rope to suppress power). Yu-seok, gripping the blade conjured from Black Sand, stabbed the shoulder of the fallen Yeon-su and drew blood. Yeon-su's blood seeped into the split bark of the great, thick Chronostump. But Yu-seok, for a moment, did not wound his own body and turned to look behind. The fog that had risen full around them muffled everyone's sound shut.

So-hui and Yeon-jin, positioned not far off, came into view. Yeon-jin, who had forced So-hui down while keeping her bound, aimed her blade at So-hui with a dazed expression. Yeon-jin: I hear a voice, you know? Telling me to ask you. So-hui, kneeling, said nothing. Yeon-jin: Who are you. Why are you here. I know what you are. But, why. Even at the question of the soul-lost Yeon-jin, So-hui did not answer.

Yeon-jin raised the 죽장검(Juk-jang-geom_Bamboo Cane Sword) she had been holding dazedly and laid it upon So-hui's shoulder blade. Yeon-jin: Are you here. As before. The deep question set in Yeon-jin's head had begun from a reasonable suspicion that there was every reason for So-hui being brought captive. The great trouble that had erupted before at Yu-seok's family home had grown Yeon-jin's suspicion further. Yu-seok: For now, I've come to seal her away.

In place of So-hui, who in the end did not answer even Yeon-jin's suspicion-laced question, Yu-seok answered. He came stepping over. Yu-seok: If the one who sees the path vanishes, then no matter that the three fragments have taken their place, they'll be able to do nothing. But, I'm suspicious too. Yeon-jin: … Of what …? Yu-seok: Because if she gives up even herself, it amounts to giving up everything. She couldn't fail to know that, and yet she came like this of her own will.