Chapter 114. Truth (3)

[Today, I received a report on Kwang-Oh.]

As soon as she read the first line, her investigators sent her a message, saying that Kim Hajin was admitted to an orphanage near the Kwang-Oh Evacuation Shelter.
Yoo Yeonha felt sad that she didn’t have potato chips with her as she slowly turned the page.
Now that she was older, she could easily read Hanja, which her father often used to write.

[The media reported last night’s incident as ‘Djinn Attack on Kwang-Oh Evacuation Shelter’. That civilians and nine Heroes who evacuated to the shelter were massacred by a single Djinn….
…I would never be able to forget what happened that day in Kwang-Oh for the rest of my life.]

At first, it seemed like a simple recount of the Kwang-Oh Evacuation Shelter Massacre.
However, starting from the next paragraph, the tone of the writing changed.

[…President Kim Sukho declared Jin Younghwan, who troubled him, to be a secret agent of the Djinns. However, I knew that Jin Younghwan was an honest man. His only flaw was that he was too honest, and perhaps Kim Sukho didn’t want his embarrassing secrets to leak out.
However, Chae Joochul agreed that Jin Younghwan was a Djinn. Chae Joochul also wished for Jin Younghwan’s death. But Jin Younghwan was a trusted man with many loyal subordinates. If he was assassinated when he was alone, it would have surely raised suspicions. As such, Chae Joochul ordered for a massacre, hiring a skilled assassin and leaving me to oversee the plan.]

“…?”

Yoo Yeonha turned the page back and read it once again.
But she couldn’t understand the content even after reading it a second time. Thinking that she misinterpreted a few words, she even translated it with a smartwatch app. However, the content was unchanged, and Yoo Yeonha continued reading her father’s confession in confusion.

[On that day, I received a transmission from Jin Younghwan. His voice was urgent, but it was me who concocted that monster invasion. I told Jin Younghwan that saving civilians came first and drove them to a corner.
Kwang-Oh Evacuation Shelter.
Jin Younghwan tried to protect the civilians in that place.]

The neat handwriting Yoo Yeonha recognized pricked her eyes. Yoo Yeonha felt a strong headache.
However, she couldn’t stop reading.

[November 8th, 8 P.M., the assassin Chae Joochul hired invaded the evacuation shelter.
He murdered Jin Younghwan and his subordinates.
That was their end.
I wanted to bury this incident in my heart.
But the very next day, I received the assassin’s report. That one of Jin Younghwan’s subordinates was with his pregnant wife.]

Pregnant wife. Yoo Yeonha froze when she read this word.
Pregnant.
Kim Hajin was admitted to an orphanage the day after Kwang-Oh Incident.

[There was another interesting matter in the report. That an umbilical cord was found at the site.
Even in the face of death, the mother had given birth.
The corpse of the baby was never found.]

When Yoo Yeonha reached this part, she fully realized what happened. Although there was no evidence, her heart was screaming. Yoo Yeonha squeezed her chest, hoping that the baby wasn’t Kim Hajin.

[This baby was fated to die. Even if he extended his life by a little bit, he would have no future. So, I set out to find him and kill him.]

When she read father’s heartless declaration, she felt something inside her shatter.
Pieces of her memory flashed by her mind.

—Don’t worry about it and sleep. It’ll be over by the time you wake up.

An image of a man who fought against an entire army of monsters to save her emerged in her mind.
He had put his life on the line to save her.
However, her father had led his parents to death and had tried to kill him as well.

[But I suddenly remembered April 29th, when my daughter was born. Although she couldn’t do anything by herself, just her existence brought me great happiness.
I called the assassin and asked what happened. He said that he threw away the baby without killing him.]

Yoo Yeonha dropped her head and tightly clenched her trembling hands.
At that moment, a familiar voice rang out in her head.

—Hey, don’t you think we can become good allies?

It was her own voice.
For the first time in her life, she had asked someone to become her ally.
Though insignificant, it was her way of showing her gratitude.

[In the end, I omitted information about that child from the report. However, I killed his parents and didn’t help him live. Left alone on the cold ground, he might be slowly dying at this very moment.
I have no intention of denying this.]

—Buddy means friend. Don’t you know?

In a not so distant past, he had acknowledged her as an ally. His voice from that time transformed into a sharp blade that struck her heart.

Yoo Yeonha’s fingers trembled. She no longer had the courage to turn another page.
Her heart began to beat violently.
She felt an unknown emotion rising from the depth of her heart.
Guilt, resentment, anguish…. She couldn’t think, and she didn’t want to either.
Cold sweat formed on her forehead. Her vision turned blurry as a world-shattering exhaustion engulfed her body.

[I’ve lived the life of a coward. Even if I dirtied myself more, it would make no difference.
So I decided to forget.
For my daughter and for my clan.
But I am leaving the truth behind in this diary.
Was I just trying to appease my guilty conscience? Or was it to spite Chae Joochul?
That, I didn't know.]

Kim Hajin’s face and her father’s confession joined together to form an image of a monster.
Yoo Yeonha couldn’t withstand this monster.
Kim Hajin, Kim Hajin, Kim Hajin… his name flickered in her vision like an apparition.
She choked up, and her heart ached.
The torrent of emotions was too much for her to bear.

[Seoho Memorial]

On a dark night, a crescent moon shone down cold light.
Tomer was standing alone under this pale light.
She had already dealt with all of her personal affairs before coming here.
She couldn’t predict what her days would be like going forward.
She lived her life for revenge, but now that revenge was impossible to achieve, it was entirely possible that she tears her father’s will apart and takes her own life.

Kiik—
Tomer roughly opened the silent memorial’s door and looked for Agus Benjamin’s name.
Soon, she found a cabinet engraved with his name, which stood out from the rest.

[Agus Benjamin]

Inside the small, square cabinet was a cremation urn with the name ‘Agus Benjamin’ written in Spanish.
Because of the flowers surrounding the urn, it didn’t look so lonely.

“What’s this?”

Dumbfounded at the number of flowers inside the cabinet, Tomer pulled the cabinet all the way out and picked one of them up. On it was a small card.

[2024 April, Kim Hajin]

Tomer immediately checked the rest of the flowers.

[2024 August, Kim Hajin]
[2025 April, Kim Hajin]
[2025 August, Kim Hajin]

They were all from Kim Hajin.
Because the flowers were uselessly refined with mana, they didn’t wilt either.

“…The hell.”

Tomer cursed and threw the flowers aside.
Then, she found a yellow envelope inside the cabinet.
Tomer carefully held it up.
Written on the cover in Spanish was the phrase, ‘To my daughter’.
Immediately, a fiery heat rose up from her heart.
She ripped the envelope open and began to read the letter.
She was curious what excuse her damnable father had cooked up.

[Dear my beloved daughter,
As I am writing this letter, I am wrought with complicated emotions. On one hand, I hope that you don’t read it. But on the other, I hope that you do. I am also worried how you will feel afterwards…]

Tomer skimmed over the letter. It was partly because it was hard for her to get used to reading Spanish again.

[Unable to withstand the temptation, your mother sold her soul to a Djinn.]
[I couldn’t let anyone find out that she became a Djinn.]
[It was the only way to save you from a society where relatives of Djinns were lynched or executed.]

However, there were several sentences that she found hard to understand. Furthermore, she found them harder to accept.
Rather than acceptance, Tomer felt rage.
As far as she was concerned, her father was refusing to repent and was blaming her mother.

[I wanted you to go to Korea. I wanted you to live a more stable life in a more stable place. But when I came to Korea, you were gone. I gave up everything I owned to a friend to protect you, but I couldn’t contact him either.
Feeling like everything in the world betrayed me, I thought to end my worthless life…]

Tomer crumpled the letter without reading it until the end.
She considered it a lie and was about to tear it apart.
It was then that two items fell on the ground from inside the envelope.
A rusty brooch.
The birthday gift her father gave her when she was little.
A small watch.
The gift she gave her father by saving up her allowance.

Tomer stared at the two items in a daze.
At the same time, she felt the foundation of her being rumbling.
Tomer leaned against the wall, and opened up the crumpled letter.
Collecting her thoughts, she began to read the letter again.
This time, slowly and thoroughly.

The Lotus Inn, Busan.
Currently, I was staying at the presidential suite of this luxury hotel.
On the balcony of this 500-square-meter room, I was sipping on a glass of wine.
Usually, a suite like this was hard to come by even with money. But because someone canceled right before I made the reservation, I was able to do so cheaply. Though, it was still a room that cost 8 million won a night.
In any case, luck made my daily life comfortable to no end.

“…What a beautiful view.”

Sitting on the balcony, I stared into the horizon.
The beach was within my view, and as it was the night before the festival, the streets were lit up with beautiful colors.
After arriving in Busan at 5, we enjoyed the festival eve until 9.
Water gun wars, fireworks, and even dining at a 3-star Michelin restaurant.
I took pictures of Evandel and Hayang running around and having fun. My personal favorite was Evandel’s face when she tasted a 3-star Michelin dish for the first time.
For the first time in a while, I felt like I was on a true vacation.

[Thanks.]

That was the message I just got from Tomer.
This also made me happy.
Since the magic power contract was still active, our relationship as the creditor and the debtor still existed.
Now, Tomer should become my ally without careering off course.

“Wow~ look at that, Hayang! We’re inside this paper~!”

I could hear Evandel’s voice coming from the living room. Evandel seemed to be fascinated by the pictures I printed. I couldn’t help but smile at just how pure she was.
When I took a sip of wine feeling the fresh air, I received another message on my smartwatch.

[Um, Hajin-ssi, if possible… can you maybe teach me how to wield magic power?]

The sender was Rachel.
That wasn’t the only message.

[To be honest, I was in awe when I saw the Barrier Hajin-ssi showed in class. Recently, I’ve also been feeling like I hit a wall… (ㅠ__ㅠ)]

Although I found her message cute, there wasn’t anything I could do for her.
I didn’t know a thing about Barrier, since Stigma created it for me.
Rather than that… a wall?
Was the bracelet not working?
I should have tested it before I gave it to her.

[I can even give you lesson fees (★ω★)/ !]

When I was about to refuse her offer, I suddenly thought of something.
Hitting a wall.
If the bracelet I gave her worked as intended, the Butterfly Seedling Dust should have seeped into her, helping her reach a new height. It wasn’t just because it awakened her potential. It was because Rachel’s Gift was related to ‘elementals’.

“Hmm….”

Rachel was a proud girl. I knew it well because I was the one who created her. The fact that a proud girl like Rachel was asking someone like me for help showed how frustrated she was with her current situation.
I couldn’t blame her.
She should have been Enlightened at the end of the first semester, but it was being delayed for close to half a year.

[See you Sunday night.]

In the end, I agreed. All I needed to do was make the Butterfly Seedling Dust in her bracelet seep into her body.

“Ah~ what a great breeze.”

Standing up imposingly, I leaned against the handrail. I looked down instinctively. From the presidential suite on the 60th floor, people below looked like ants.
While I was observing the people walking by, my eyes fell on a man walking by a seemingly average street.
No, to be precise, the man caught my eyes. He was dressed more fancily and brightly than anyone else.
Black hair, tall nose, and well-defined facial lines. This handsome man seemingly resembled Legolas.

At that moment, I was struck with an ominous sensation.
I stared at the man intently.
The man looked up as though he felt my gaze.
Although an ordinary person would have never been able to discover me with the distance between us, I could tell that he was directly looking at me.
The man smiled almost as though he was trying to confirm something.
Feeling my heart tremble, I returned a relaxed smile. Then, the smile on his face became even thicker.

For some reason, I felt like I knew who he was.
My intuition as the original author of this world was screaming.

A man who was born in another world just like Kim Suho, but had a completely different personality.
A man despairing at the loss of his home world, and betrayed and worn down by his desires.
A seeker of evil with twisted beliefs, searching for a false paradise.
The ‘growth-type final boss’ I designed, whose name I feared to utter.

However, I was only the original author.
I had no way of knowing what changes the co-author made. Not to mention, I went on hiatus right when he should have started to get active.

…Hold on.

Suddenly, I had a strange thought.
Did the final boss I designed look like that?
It was true that the Busan Festival was where he first appeared.
However, his smile was strange.
He was still looking at me and smiling.
I didn’t remember writing anything about him smiling frequently.

At that moment, the man nudged his companion and gestured at me. It was as if he was saying, ‘look at that guy’.
Right, he had a companion.
A guy and a girl.
They both looked up at me.

I met eyes with the girl.
A navy haired beauty with a sharp expression who resembled an elf.
Her eyes flickered coldly.
Her piercing killing intent pressed down on me.
This crazy girl was letting out killing intent just because I met her eyes.

“…Wait a minute.”

Suddenly, I felt a bit scared.
Could it be?
The final boss was supposed to be the polar opposite of Kim Suho.
Could it be that he became… a she?

…Although it wasn’t implausible, I hoped that the co-author had enough common sense to not let that happen.

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