Eun Woojeong kept walking.
The little boy who had crumbled away and vanished under the sunlight.
Now that he knew that child—young enough to make him wonder if he was even five years old—had been the key factor that changed the shadows, he had no choice but to keep searching.
The one saving grace was that even though the child had disappeared, traces still remained.
Namely, the shadows.
Just as when he had first found the boy, Eun Woojeong followed the shadow rippling across the ground in an unnatural shape.
Once he left the forest, a new village appeared. Like the places he had passed through earlier, this one was empty too, as if the people had evacuated.
‘Evacuated, or this space is starting to show its limits.’
No matter how real it looked, this place was still a virtual space created by an unidentified rift.
So even if that shadow had caused problems [N O V E L I G H T] in the space itself, it would not have been surprising.
After glancing around, Eun Woojeong focused on the shadow again and kept moving.
Far off to the west, he could still see the shadow Cha Sahyeon had created standing like a wall. When the child disappeared, the shadow had shrunk once as well, but that was all. It still had not vanished completely.
‘This had better actually be helping.’
Eun Woojeong was calmly following the shadow, turning over the words of that mysterious blond man in his mind, when it happened.
Flap, flap—the sound of wings beating came from above his head.
In a village so empty that not even livestock could be seen, there was only one living thing in motion.
A flock of crows, several dozen of them.
Caw, caw—the crows cried out as they crowded around a certain place. As expected, it was the roof of some empty house with no sign of people.
Just then, the sun shone behind the roof, and the backlighting stretched the shadow long enough to reach all the way to Eun Woojeong’s feet.
The shadows of the tightly packed flock of crows perched on the roof and screeching at one another writhed viciously, like some gigantic beast opening its jaws.
Eun Woojeong watched the sight for a moment, then slowly approached the house.
When he pushed open the wooden door, hazy dust billowed out, revealing the dark interior. And right in the middle of it lay a small figure.
A small frame that looked about ten years old. Black hair lightly covering the nape of the neck.
Eun Woojeong stepped closer and checked the face. This time, the features that came into view were familiar enough that there was no chance of mistaking them.
Cha Sahyeon. Cha Seohu’s younger brother.
...More precisely, the face he had seen when he was wearing the choker.
‘Then does that mean the child who disappeared first was the same person too?’
Only now was he starting to get a rough sense of what exactly he was doing here.
“This isn’t very fun.”
Muttering in an indifferent tone, Eun Woojeong lifted the child into both arms.
The deeply sleeping child went limp and settled quietly against him.
Cawwwk, caw!
At the same time, outside the house, the flock of crows cried out all at once, and the loud sound of flapping wings rang through the air.
When he stepped back outside with the child in his arms, the flock that had filled the place was already gone without a single bird left behind.
Standing in front of the door, Eun Woojeong stared for a moment at the now-empty sky, then lowered his head again.
The child sleeping quietly with both eyes closed in his arms.
For an instant, a different emotion rose in the eyes staring down at the child.
It was a kind of disgust.
A small body sleeping there, knowing nothing. A young, fragile body that would have difficulty surviving on its own.
Eun Woojeong had never liked children much, and the end of that emotion always led back to self-loathing.
He was reminded of those days in the past, when he had been ignored by his mother, his only parent, and had possessed no power at all, forced to simply endure and take the violence inflicted on him from outside.
Supporting the child’s body with one arm, he reached out with the other hand.
“So thin.”
The child’s whole neck fit inside Eun Woojeong’s large hand.
What would happen if he snapped his neck like this?
A little earlier, when the child disappeared unharmed, the shadow had shrunk. But if he killed him before he disappeared, would its influence grow even greater instead?
Or would it take an even harder hit than when it vanished in the light?
Even as he thought it over, strength entered his hand. Tension gathered between the sleeping child’s brows, and cold sweat began to bead on his skin.
Still strangling the child’s neck, Eun Woojeong looked west again. The shadow showed no particular reaction.
“Hmm.”
Growing bored, Eun Woojeong loosened his grip and resumed the steps he had stopped.
He left the dark house completely and stood under the sunlight. Then, just like before, the child’s body began to glow and break apart into tiny pieces.
Not long after, the child disappeared completely. Then the shadow standing tall to the west like a wall trembled.
Boom. The ground shook, and even from a distance it was clear that the shadow was curling inward.
Watching that change with his arms crossed, Eun Woojeong tilted his head.
At this point, there was no choice but to notice it.
The young child bearing Cha Sahyeon’s appearance.
In other words, the more those existences that were all but fragments making up Cha Sahyeon were returned to the main body, the more the rampaging shadow energy gradually calmed down.
The problem was that he had been assigned the role of finding those fragments.
It was such a smooth flow that it almost felt as if someone had deliberately assigned him that role.
He had felt this way before.
That filthy feeling of being reduced to a game piece on a janggi board, forced to move where someone else placed him.
“Maybe I should’ve just killed him.”
Eun Woojeong muttered coldly, but his discomfort led only to the conclusion that nothing could be done about it.
It was a kind of resignation.
Because Cha Seohu was in there.
Because he had to save Cha Seohu too, the one who had saved him again and again.
‘Maybe even feelings like this are part of the path that was set for me.’
Meeting Cover, having his life saved, and because of that, making Cha Seohu into the most important person of all.
He had realized he was walking a path someone else had laid out for him, yet by now he could not even summon the will to break free of it.
That was what he was now.
Helpless and disgusted, but still able to endure it as long as Cha Seohu was involved...
Eun Woojeong found it strange and curious, the way he could feel like this, but he had no intention of turning away from it.
So he began walking again.
To find the next fragment of Cha Sahyeon.
Ahead of the walking Eun Woojeong, the shadows swayed as if guiding the way.
I stabbed the sword into the ground and barely managed to keep my collapsing body upright.
Panting harshly, I forced my head up.
Bright red blood was splattered all over the ground before my eyes.
And there I saw Kwon Taehyuk’s corpse, dead in a gruesome state with both arms severed.
A little while ago, it hadn’t been Kwon Taehyuk’s corpse lying there, but Ryu Sunghyun’s.
Before that, Song Jiwoon.
Before that, Eun Woojeong, Hyun Dowoon, CEO Seo...
The scene before my eyes kept repeating over and over.
It had happened so many times already that it was hard to even count.
In that repeated situation, I always made the same choice.
I tried to protect them, swung my sword, and poured everything I had into the fight.
But the end of it always finished the same way: with me facing the corpse of someone who had died in my place trying to protect me.
I stared at Kwon Taehyuk’s eyes, now hollow with life cut off, and let out a dry laugh.
“Yeah.”
I forced strength into my aching body and made myself straighten my upper body. Then I pulled the sword out of the ground and barely managed to grip it.
“No matter how much I try to deny it, this is probably what a guy like me really is.”
The deepest thoughts inside me, the ones I had never been able to show anyone.
The true feelings I had hidden even from myself because they were so pathetic, so weak, that I was ashamed of them.
Because they were the protagonists chosen by the System.
Because if the world was going to be saved anyway, that religious group had to be stopped.
That was the justification I kept giving myself, but the truth was, I had always been anxious.
What if their lives were twisting and breaking because of me?
What if, by getting tangled up with me, they were suffering pain they never should have had to endure?
Even while going into rifts together, wandering through dungeons, and cleaning up the mess those cult bastards had caused, guilt would surge up in me without warning.
But apologizing would not change reality.
I knew that better than anyone, so I desperately buried that guilt and pretended not to know it was there, struggling instead to focus more on reality.
Even though I could see their affection for me, the guilt pressing down on my mind made it impossible to face it properly.
So this was a nightmare, showing in the most naked way possible the feelings I had been turning away from all this time.
Kwon Taehyuk, dying even earlier than he had before my regression because of me.
Ryu Sunghyun, meeting the same fate as before my regression while trying to protect me.
Eun Woojeong, using the life I saved on me in the end.
Even my district family, throwing their bodies away to protect me.
Once I admitted it, a hollow laugh escaped me.
“Thanks, kid.”
I passed the corpses and reached straight into the darkness ahead of me without hesitation.
The moment I thrust my hand into the wall-like shadow, a ghastly chill crawled up my bones.
“But this is enough.”
Thanks to you, I realized just how much of a coward I was.
Twisting up the corner of my mouth, I tightly grabbed whatever I caught in my hand.
Then I yanked hard without hesitation.
“I’ll take it from here.”
Cha Sahyeon’s body was dragged out of the shadow.
Without the slightest hesitation, I ran my sword through him.

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