Chapter 782: The Last (15)
Chapter 782: The Last (15)
‘What? What’s up with her…’
‘You’re joking, right? Why go that far? What’s wrong? You’re scary. Stop doing that.’
The sight was so ridiculous that I couldn’t get used to it.
‘Why did you suddenly pop out of nowhere?’
I wanted her to come to me, but I wasn’t expecting something like that. I didn’t want her to look like the final villain.
I looked at those who were with her.
The ones that stood out the most were Yuno Kasugano and Sun Hee-young. They were all women I knew.
Of course, they looked different from before. Sun Hee-young’s face had something I couldn’t see before. It seemed as if I was looking at her first timeline version.
Kasugano had the same face as usual, but it was even harder to read what she was thinking.
Their bodies were covered with large cloaks, and everyone had their faces covered with identical masks.
From a distance, it was hard to tell who was who.
There were a few more individuals with them. Ha Yeon-soo was one, and she was guarding Lee Jihye. I thought she would be with her. She was someone that Jihye always took with her wherever she went.
What was a little surprising was that I saw a few unfamiliar faces. No, when I thought about it, they were faces that I had seen before.
“Where did I see them?”
I asked myself, and I found an answer soon after.
‘The brigade from the first timeline.’
If my memory served me right, those twins standing in the back like folding screens would be members of the first-round brigade.
The same went for the man next to them. Unlike before, when he was missing one leg, he had both legs, but I certainly remembered seeing him through Yuno Kasugano.
Among the guys I saw at the time, the only one I couldn’t find was the one who was tall, skinny and had the most unpleasant energy.
If the psychopath killer Jung Jinho and he were with them, I might have mistaken the scene as witnessing the first-round brigade.
I didn’t know how Lee Jihye made a connection with them, but…
‘It’s not too strange.’
Wouldn’t their talents be amazing, considering they were the ones that pushed the continent to the brink of destruction with a small number of people?
Kasugano might have given her the information too. Those were the guys who were active in the dark, and Lee Jihye might have taken them.
Their histories probably differed from the first timeline, so their dispositions probably changed as well…
Oh! In the case of the tall and skinny one, it could have been decided that there was no room for enlightenment, which meant he had to be removed? He was probably the kind of guy similar to Jung Jinho. He was typical trash made with a naturally evil principle.
Other than them…
‘I don’t see Raphael.’
I thought he would act with Lee Jihye, but that wasn’t the case. Or maybe he just didn’t show up here.
Whatever the case was, the important thing was that Lee Jihye’s current condition didn’t seem that good. It was as if she had been corrupted for good, with her face completely stiff. I, too, had never seen her look that crumpled.
‘No, why can’t you read the atmosphere? Honestly, isn’t it too obvious? Can’t you figure it out?’
Sensically speaking, I wasn’t the one to forgive sorrows and sins. I wasn’t the one to die without any conditions. Didn’t she know that better than anyone else?
‘You don’t really think I’d say that, right? Right? Did you really think I would sacrifice myself?’
No, of course, I did… And Kasugano might have said something to her too.
She might have said that Lee Kiyoung decided to sacrifice himself, to accept his destiny, that she tried to stop him as much as possible but couldn’t. Something like that. Still…
‘There’s no way you don’t know…’
She probably knew that the bullsh*t I babbled on the statue wasn’t really sincere.
Maybe she was aware of everything. There’s no way she, who signed with Ronove, wouldn’t know how things up here worked.
‘You’re doing that even when you know everything. You’re just doing that to scare me… You’re just venting out your anger because you’re pissed… Maybe you’re thinking why I called for you…’
It was very likely. Since there was a problem at the top, her intention was likely to help from the bottom.
Since I did the work without telling her the plan, I wondered if she was doing that to screw with me.
-Are you okay, unnie?
-…
-What should we do?
But if Lee Jihye was serious about this…
If she really intended to bring the continent back to the beginning…
“What should I do?”
-Shall we start?
“Start what? Don’t start anything.”
Could Kim Hyunsung handle this? Could Kim Hyunsung stop Lee Jihye from running without brakes?
I wondered about it for a second, but I soon shook my head firmly.
Apart from her power and the brigade’s power, I felt like Kim Hyunsung couldn’t deal with Jihye.
Right. To put it a little low…
‘He will be crushed.’
Apart from my high appreciation of our lovely regressor, Kim Hyunsung couldn’t handle Jihye.
In fact, she didn’t even need a brigade. The brigade was just a device to protect her body and speed her plans up a little faster.
Given a little more time, Lee Jihye would be able to proceed without a brigade.
What if Lee Jihye really intended to mess up the continent? Maybe she’s writing a scenario where she would let others know that Kim Hyunsung stabbed me.
Max controlled Benignore Net and the Goddess’s Mirror, so it wouldn’t be easy to spread such rumors, but she would try to let everyone know that Kim Hyunsung stabbed me at any cost.
She would drive a wedge between the Blue Guild and Kim Hyunsung and might completely isolate him.
If she was lucky, she might be able to make Jung Hayan and Kim Hyunsung fight.
Her first task was to separate Kim Hyunsung and the continent. Honestly, looking at that, her first plan didn’t feel difficult.
-I will save you. No matter how… Please answer me. Kiyoung. Please answer me!
-Sunset Swordsman.
-Guild Master…
-Damn… Sh*t… Sniff… Please answer me. Please… There is hope… Please answer that it’s possible.
‘You’re still on that…’
I didn’t know if that bastard knew that the greatest danger in his life had come, but he was still at the statue that had already been disconnected from me.
Even though he was strong, I could guarantee that he would be backstabbed without a break. Since he was having a mental breakdown, it would be a lot easier.
Even the Blue Guild, which was experiencing various problems, including financial problems, had limitations in serving as a shield, and eventually, they would rot from the inside.
She could even drive a wedge between the Benignore Church and the Lee Kiyoung Church. I couldn’t say that there was no possibility of causing a conflict between those two.
There were many things that Lee Jihye could do in the current situation, which wasn’t yet stable. That was why I felt the candles burning at both ends even more.
‘If you intend to make me feel how sh*tty it is not to know anything, you have already succeeded, so stop this, Jihye. I’m getting really nervous.’
-Unnie?
-…
-Unnie…
‘Why are you crying? Don’t cry.’
-This asshole.
‘She was always good at acting. I don’t think it’s really a joke…’
-This asshole.
‘You know everything, right? You do.’
-I didn’t know, oppa.
-Yes. I really didn’t know I would be so angry. I really didn’t know I would feel sh*tty like this. Honestly, I thought I could just forget it, but I can’t. You feel the same as me, right? If we had been in a similar situation, you would’ve done the same.
-They dared mess with something that’s mine. Did you think I’d be watching everything silently? You didn’t really think that I would just accept it, right? Did you think I would enjoy a happy life when you ended everything in this way?
“No, it’s not that…”
-…
-They have to pay the price. I don’t know what you’ve been thinking about to do something this absurd, but that’s none of my business. That has nothing to do with me. What’s important is that the bastard that messed with what’s mine will pay the price.
-Listen carefully, my love.
-I’ll offer them to you.
-I’m going to offer the screams of these decaying bastards that don’t even know who earned the peace through self-sacrifice.
‘I think they know, Jihye.’
-I’m going to dance with you on the ruined continent and sing on the corpse of the one that stabbed you.
“Do you really not know?”
I saw Lee Jihye slowly turning her back, and the members of the brigade slowly opened the way for her.
-So we’ll start over from the beginning. With everything back to the start, we’ll meet again, right?
“Ah… Fuck…”
-That would be fun, wouldn’t it?
“Really…”
Quietly putting on her mask, she once again opened her mouth.
-I love you, Kiyoung, my soulmate.
Her face was twisted as if she shed tears.
-See you later.
She went off somewhere in an instant. Seeing that I couldn’t see her even with the telescope, she seemed to have been helped by Ronove.
“Fuck…”
I had to sigh. I really didn’t know what she was thinking. I couldn’t breathe because I thought that something I wasn’t aware of might explode.
I couldn’t figure out why I had to worry about the continent’s fate because of Jihye.
Looking next to me, Benignore seemed to have an intuition that something serious would unfold. Unlike before, when she continued to giggle, her face was quite stiff.
“W-What should we do, believer Lee Kiyoung?”
“I don’t know. First, I need to make contact…”
“What if that woman runs wild? Shouldn’t you try to stop her? Can you do it? Can you? I… I… I don’t want to sacrifice, Junior Lee Kiyoung. I am not Altanus. There are many things I haven’t done yet…”
“This is not the time. I’ll have to tell Elune to j-join us quickly. R-Right now, we lack people. I should put aside the difficult problem for a while, and uh… I’ll focus a little more on this…”
“You don’t have to, Benignore. We’re not sure yet. Still, I think we need to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
“Whatever it may be, I think she will probably proceed with the plan.”
“What?”