Rooftop of the building.
Cha Sahyeon, who had been silently looking down at the S-ranks talking below, slowly lifted his head.
A sky covered in dark clouds entered his view. It looked like an ordinary overcast day, yet to Cha Sahyeon, the air filling that sky felt wrong.
'Unnatural weather.'
The foul energy, already spread wide, was finally beginning to tamper with the weather itself.
For Cha Sahyeon, however, this world felt familiar—he had seen it hundreds of times before. Every destroyed world he had witnessed looked like this.
Only one question remained.
'How was this world manifested?'
Cha Sahyeon knew this was a fabricated space.
But for it to be so precise, so complete—at least one sample had to exist. It was not something a person ignorant of the real world could construct.
'I need to find out who was used as the sample.'
His lips pressed tightly together at that thought.
His green eyes turned downward again. More precisely—toward Mook Jeongho.
[There are too many inconsistencies from reality. And at the center of it all is Cha Seohu.]
Mook Jeongho’s words.
Cha Sahyeon, who had caught them perfectly with his sharp hearing, narrowed his eyes.
There are inconsistencies with reality, and the cause is believed to be Cha Seohu—was that judgment truly correct?
He calmly recalled every image of Cha Seohu he had seen over the past year.
'...He certainly was hiding something.'
For that entire year, Cha Sahyeon had watched his brother closer than anyone else.
Yet even he had never uncovered the secret Seohu kept hidden. He could only guess that such a secret existed—its nature was beyond him.
Could this fabricated world perhaps be connected to that secret?
'If so... how would my brother accept that his secret is leaking through this space?'
Cha Sahyeon, who didn’t understand human emotions well and was dull to them, couldn’t even predict what Seohu’s reaction would be.
He could only hope for one thing—that his brother wouldn’t be hurt.
“Hoo.”
At that moment, light footsteps approached, and Eun Woojeong, wearing a mask, arrived on the rooftop.
“I’ve delivered the message. Though I can’t say they’ll follow willingly. Without Cha Seohu around, everyone’s acting however they please.”
The most self-willed of them all, Eun Woojeong, shrugged with feigned nonchalance.
‘Mr. Cha Seohu.’ To him, the “Cha Seohu” standing down on the street was nothing more than another illusion of this fabricated world.
Cha Sahyeon didn’t reply; he only gazed silently at that Seohu below.
B-rank. Member of Circle Guild. A supporter who relied excessively on Ryu Sunghyun—unlike the real one.
“Well.”
Cha Sahyeon murmured softly.
Was that really all there was to it?
The tension right before the battle began vanished completely with Eun Woojeong’s interruption.
On the empty, silent street, the first to move was Mook Jeongho.
“Escape should be our top priority.”
He repeated the order firmly, then turned toward the building Eun Woojeong had pointed out.
His gaze briefly fell upon the “fake” Cha Seohu standing behind Ryu Sunghyun. But he quickly dismissed him and left without hesitation.
“......Hoo.”
Kwon Taehyuk, who had stayed tense until Mook Jeongho was completely gone, finally let out a short sigh and sheathed his blade into his inventory.
But the most crucial problem still remained unsolved.
With a conflicted expression, Kwon Taehyuk looked toward Ryu Sunghyun and Cha Seohu.
Seohu once again wore a guarded, sharp look, but the pallor of his face and the faint tremor in his eyes betrayed how shaken he was.
Ryu Sunghyun looked equally troubled. Since this world’s Seohu depended on him so heavily, the burden of settling the situation pressed painfully on his shoulders.
He understood that—but he couldn’t simply leave Ryu Sunghyun here either.
“Hunter Ryu Sunghyun. We need to go as well.”
Kwon spoke calmly but firmly. Ryu Sunghyun let out a short sigh.
“Hyung?”
When Ryu didn’t refute Kwon’s words, Seohu hastily grabbed his arm, voice trembling with unconcealed anxiety.
“Go where? Why are you with Yesung’s Guildmaster... no, wait, how do you even know Mook Jeongho?”
“Seohu.”
Ryu Sunghyun looked at him with visible distress and guilt.
He knew he had to shake Seohu off and go meet Sahyeon, but facing the younger man trembling with fear made it unbearably difficult.
This Seohu was so different from the real one—fragile, unstable, utterly reliant on him.
The sharpness in his tone and wariness were nothing but thorns grown to hide his weakness.
That difference only emphasized how unlike the real Seohu he was. The Seohu from reality was far steadier.
'He’s ~Nоvеlight~ not the Seohu I know. This is a fake. I know that. And yet...'
Why couldn’t he push him away so easily?
Why did those black eyes look as genuine as the real thing?
“Hunter Ryu Sunghyun.”
Kwon Taehyuk’s cold voice cut through Ryu’s tangled thoughts.
“We have to go. The real Cha Seohu hunter may be in danger.”
“......”
The phrase real Cha Seohu stabbed straight into his heart.
At last, Ryu slowly pried Seohu’s grip off his arm.
“Hyung.”
“I’m sorry, Seohu.”
Seohu’s pale fingertips trembled violently.
His face turned even whiter as he looked up at Ryu with desperate eyes.
Don’t go—that plea was clear in his gaze. But Ryu could no longer grant that wish.
“...Return to the guild. It could be dangerous outside.”
It was deception, but without saying something, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
As Ryu turned his back and walked toward Kwon, Seohu’s voice broke out, shaking.
“W-where are you going? What do you mean ‘the real Cha Seohu’? I... I’m the real one!”
That desperate cry made Ryu’s body stiffen for a moment.
But Kwon shook his head shortly and kept walking. Ryu followed him.
“Hyung, please! Don’t go, it’s dangerous...! Hyung!”
Kwon Taehyuk and Ryu Sunghyun didn’t look back again. Soon, like Mook Jeongho before them, their figures disappeared between the buildings.
On the ruined road, with even the civilians long fled, only Cha Seohu remained alone in the desolate street.
His dark eyes, fixed on where Ryu had just stood, blurred faintly. His sweat-damp hair fluttered in the cold wind.
He wanted to chase after him, to hold onto him—but the fear of being rejected again, as coldly as before, froze his steps.
[Then where is the real Cha Seohu...]
[Subduing that fake should trigger a change.]
[Dragging a B-rank around will only be a nuisance anyway.]
The words they’d left behind stabbed deep into his chest.
[I’m sorry, Seohu.]
And then Ryu’s rejection.
Seohu’s eyes twisted; the tears he’d barely held back finally slid down his pale cheeks.
Why am I the fake? I’m real. What even makes someone fake? Why do I have to be treated like this by people I don’t even know?
No—he didn’t care if strangers saw him as a doll or an annoying burden.
The real agony was that Ryu Sunghyun had left him behind—with the very people who called him fake.
Seohu slowly lowered his head.
The red flowers trembled more violently.
Rumble—lightning flashed through the dark sky heavy with clouds.
The wind grew harsh beyond comparison, scattering crimson petals in every direction.
“Tsk.”
A man let out a soft sigh of pity and lowered his head, strands of gentle brown hair falling forward.
A firm hand reached toward the cheek of the sleeping Cha Seohu held in his arms.
His brows were drawn tight, eyes shut hard, tears streaming enough to soak his pale skin.
“I...”
Deep in his sleep, unable to withstand the storm of emotion, Seohu murmured faintly as if talking in his dreams. The man watching him smiled in satisfaction.
“You look so pained. Naturally so—there’s nothing sadder than being betrayed by someone you trusted.”
The man’s face shifted again, and at last became perfectly identical to someone Seohu knew very well.
“To touch the wound even deeper...”
Then, suddenly, his lips stopped moving.
The golden eyes looking down at Seohu quivered violently. The man—wearing Ryu Sunghyun’s face—took a sharp breath and pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Wait... what is this? The synchronization rate—it’s too high...”
Golden light flickered from his body. The red flowers nearby swayed uneasily, mirroring his instability.
Soon, a familiar voice escaped slowly from his lips.
“...Seohu.”

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