Chapter 138. < Surviving (3)>
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Translator: Seven Editor: Yahiko (+ thursdays as of 6/8/2021) PR: LightBrin
-I thought you might call one day. I saw that you’ve been well.
“I’m sorry for taking so long to contact you. I should have…”
-You’re busy with life and work. I know what it’s like to be that age.
I heard a small cough over the phone, and the director cleared his throat.
-Sometimes, strangers come and ask if you are from our orphanage. At first, I thought you had done something terrible. But the others from your generation showed me a video and cleared up the misunderstanding. By the way, you call yourself Death King? You have an interesting naming sense.
“I didn’t choose the t.i.tle myself. The Tower…”
-Of course. It’s been a while since I last heard your voice. I’m relieved.
“……”
-Gongja?
-What’s wrong?
I grasped the phone.
It pressed down the emotions that climbed up my throat.
“There’s something I have to ask you, Director.”
-Say it. No, wait a minute. How serious is it? Tell me that first.
“It’s very serious. Probably more serious than anything I’ve ever asked you about…”
-Then give me two minutes—no, three minutes. I’m lying on the sofa right now. I’ll get up, get some coffee, and listen to you properly. Don’t hang up. Wait just three minutes.
“Okay.”
Now that I thought about it, his life must have been so difficult.
I could only imagine the kind of malice he had to suffer in order to become such a good man. If we gathered all the good people in this world, we would be able to see all the malice of the world as well.
“How is the orphanage these days? Are you healthy?”
-Seeing that you’re changing the subject like this, it really must be serious. I’m fine. There are more teachers now. I’m basically director in name only, and I don’t have to do much. The sponsors.h.i.+ps have increased… Ah, and the food is more delicious.
“That’s good to hear.”
-Mm. I’m in my office now. Tell me what you wanted to say.
I took a deep breath.
“Director. When you were younger… did you graduate from s.h.i.+nseo Middle and High School?”
-……
The other end of the line became eerily silent.
It was tense. I heard a liquid splas.h.i.+ng. The director had taken a sip of his coffee. and gulped down the black water.
-Yes. I graduated from s.h.i.+nseo High. Even now, it’s a pretty prestigious place.
“By any chance…”
I wished it wasn’t.
“Were you the cla.s.s president in your second year?
Maybe it had just been an illusion created by the trauma. Everything I saw could have been fake. The director could just be a good person who enjoyed a normal, happy school life.
I hoped.
Silence befell once again.
-You’re right.
Then, the director’s voice sounded.
-I was the cla.s.s president. It’s already been decades since then.
“……”
-……
Both the director and I fell silent. My heart throbbed as I thought of the things I had to say. The atmosphere felt heavy. Maybe the director felt it too, as he kept his mouth closed, waiting for me.
“Director.”
-Speak.
“When you were cla.s.s president. By any chance… On the roof of the school…”
-……
“Was there anyone like that?”
The sound of breathing stopped.
-Yes.
The director said.
-There was.
My nightmare proved to be reality.
-I never talked about it properly before, but… Yes. There was.
The hallways I walked, the chains on the door to the school roof that ■■ looked down at, the desolate wasteland of a schoolyard, the shack in the middle of the dump, all of them, without exception, were true.
Only.
『Don’t die. Please. I’m begging you.』
『Together. Let’s live in a different world together.』
Only the ending was a lie.
『Yeah. Cla.s.s President. In this world, let’s survive together.』
The things that should have been false were true.
The one thing that needed the most to be true was false.
That was the story of ■■ and the director.
“Director…”
I could barely speak.
“Do you remember that person’s name?”
No one in this world knew his name. He was a man from the wilderness. The people of the empire named him Lefanta to honor him. He was the killer of Constellations. Thus, the people of the Tower called him the Constellation Killer.
He was a man who had been abandoned by the outside world. No one tried to remember him. So now, there was only one person in the world who could say his name.
-Kim Yul.[1]
Someone called out a name for the sake of one person.
-That child’s name is Kim Yul, Gongja.
“……”
I closed my eyes.
I remembered the conversation I had with the Crusader in the school hallway.
『The very last row in the cla.s.sroom. The student sitting by the window. Do you remember him?』
『More or less, since he’s a cla.s.smate. I think his name is…』
The noise was removed.
『Kim Yul.』
There was someone with that name.
『I don’t feel sorry for you, Kim Yul.』
He was small enough to be covered by the curtains whenever the wind blew through the cla.s.sroom window.
He was a child who quietly took out a notebook and looked through it before cla.s.s began.
He was a child who yanked the chain on the iron door even though he knew it wouldn’t open.
『I’m sorry, Kim Yul. I’m sorry.』
Decades ago.
Before I was born.
『I’m so sorry.』
Such a child had existed in this world.
-Gongja?
And there was someone who had lived those decades.
-Are you crying…? No. Nevermind. Anyway, where did you hear about Kim Yul? I didn’t think anyone remembered.
Someone who was smart enough to enter such a prestigious school with a scholars.h.i.+p. Who was so zealous that he remained at the top of his cla.s.s even in such a prestigious place. Who studied for four or five hours every day when he could have been sleeping. To be someone who could create the future he wanted.
What kind of dream did he have when he entered high school?
What kind of future did he envision?
-I don’t know how you found out about him, really.
However, this person saw.
He saw humans. Beasts.
Death.
『No one cares about you. No one, n.o.body, not one of them…』
At that time, one person’s time stopped.
And for the other person, the freedom of choice that everyone deserved disappeared.
The director devoted the rest of his life to prove something.
[At that time, there was a child named Kim Yul.]
“Director, he’s here.”
-What are you talking about?
“Kim Yul. Director’s cla.s.smate. That child.”
-I still don’t understand what you’re saying…
“He lived in a garbage dump at the foot of the mountain. That Kim Yul.”
-……
“The very last row in the cla.s.sroom. The seat by the window. He sat there.”
-……
I continued.
“The collar of his school uniform was always dirty. The guy who was dating the student council president was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d who bullied him. His older brother was a singer. Because he was being hara.s.sed by the cla.s.s through text messages, Kim Yul was forced to hand over the phone that wasn’t even his.”
-……
“Did you know that there was a small farm behind the school? They reared rabbits and chickens. It was supposed to be taken care of by the farming club, but no one wanted to do it after a foreigner jumped with her newborn. That’s why Kim Yul started taking care of it.”
-How…
The director’s voice shook.
-Gongja, how do you…
“Director, you tried to stop it. You’ve been trying to stop it since the first year. But after your investigations, you stopped because the main culprit’s parents were on the school board, didn’t you? The president of the church you attended was also a member, right? Seryun Presbyterian Church. You told your homeroom teacher, but you couldn’t do anything more because of your scholars.h.i.+p.”
-How…
“He’s here, Director.”
I held the phone and dropped my head.
“He’s here.”
-……
There was a long silence.
-Four days.
Then, the director spoke again.
-No. Give me a week.
The student, whose time was stopped decades ago, spoke in a voice that sounded older and wearier.
-I’ll come there.
4.
A week pa.s.sed in an instant.
During that week, the director liquidated all of his a.s.sets. Anyone could enter the Tower, But you could not bring anything from the outside world. In other words, the director had given up everything he had achieved, earned, and collected in his life.
“I was thinking of retiring anyway.”
It had been a long time since I saw the director, but he looked much older than I remembered.
“I found someone to be my replacement. There were still some things in the region that needed to be done, but… What can the government officials do now that I’ve come to the Tower? They’ll have to figure it out themselves.”
“Welcome, Director.”
“I’m not the director anymore, but call me whatever you like.”
The director smiled bitterly.
Naturally, as someone who had only just entered the tower, the director didn’t have a t.i.tle. People without epithets had not yet been allowed to enter the Great Library, but I talked to the Corner Librarian and succeeded in making an exception for the director.
“Coming here, I can see how successful you’ve become. Everywhere I go, I only hear about you, Gongja. After entering the Tower, dozens of people gathered at the entrance to guide me.”
“Well, I have a bit of influence in the Tower. I’m currently No. 2 in the rankings, Director.”
“You were always last when it came to studying…”
The director looked at me with new eyes.
『Princess Pyeonggang could reform the foolish Ondal.』
His gaze reminded me of what I saw in the trauma.
While I was overwhelmed with emotion, the director was greeted by the rest of my colleagues.
“Aha. So you are the one who raised Death King! I am called the Heretic Questioner. Please take care of me!”
“I am the Black Dragon Master. I will forever be indebted to Death King. The Death King is also the vice head of our guilds. If you have any troubles while in the Tower, feel free to let me know.”
“I’m the Crusader, and I’m in charge of the security in Babylon on the first floor. Teacher, I heard that you ran an orphanage outside. It’s hard to talk about since we’re meeting for the first time, but the Tower is always in need of professionals. I’ll make a formal visit to you later.”
“Yes. Everyone, thank you for your hospitality.”
The director responded to the Hunters like he was used to it.
Once the welcoming procession pa.s.sed and the two of us were alone, the director spoke.
“I’m used to things like this since one of your peers became the youngest member of the National a.s.sembly. At that time, dozens of people came over every week to greet me.”
“Huh?! Who?!”
“Kim Hanbija. Do you remember him? He’s now a representative. You probably didn’t realize it because he changed his name.”
I was shocked.
This news wasn’t something I’d heard before my 4,000-day regression.
I had stopped paying attention to my homeland.
“Seriously… No way. He’s just an idiot… What did he change his name to?”
“Kim Hanbi.”
“Then he just cut off the last syllable? He is an idiot, isn’t he?”
“I can say this now that you’re an adult, Gongja, but you were also an idiot. A great king of fools.”
“Ack. Wasn’t I a little smart?”
“I never knew that people could be so bad at math until I raised you kids. Death King, you’re lucky that the Tower rankings are not determined by test scores.”
Bae Hu-ryeong giggled from behind.
-I’m going to hear a lot of Gongja’s dark history today! Good, good! Say more!
The director and I continued talking pleasantly.
I spoke to the Librarian in advance so that our conversation would not be overheard. He granted my request, and not just that, but he got the bookmark maids to serve us tea and refreshments.
“I saw it in the videos, but this really is a strange world. Here…”
The director looked at a bookmark maid suspiciously.
“So.”
Finally, after sweeping through the entire library, the director’s eyes once again settled on my face.
“Where is that child?”
I told the director everything. About my abilities. About the trauma. And about the person named [Lefanta Aegim] and the [Constellation Killer].
“……”
The director listened to everything I said with a blank expression on his face. But expressionless didn’t mean emotionless. For more than an hour, the director sat still without taking even a single sip of the tea.
“It’s all so hard to believe. Any of it.”
“Yes.”
“However, it would otherwise be impossible for you… to know about Kim Yul.”
Since childhood, I’d always found the Director’s expressions to be hard to read.
But that had changed after the trauma.
The director was afraid.
“Kim Yul wasn’t even in our yearbook. There were no photos or traces of him. No matter where I looked, I could not find anything, and no one seemed to care… Think about it, Gongja. Could you pretend that the seat was empty the whole time?”
“……”
“How could they smile so brightly for the photos? They… He… For a very long time, I couldn’t understand how they could smile. Right. I’m sure they’re living well even now.”
The director looked down at his teacup with an indifferent expression.
He quietly took a sip of his tea, which had already cooled a long time ago, and looked me in the eyes.
“It’s fine.”
“……”
“That child. No, the trace of that child. Please show him to me.”
I nodded.
“Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation.”
The shadows spread.
They squirmed
as though they were alive, and flowed like water before gradually rising to the shape of a human. The waves turned into silver hair, and the puddles formed neat clothes.
“…Hm.”
Lefanta Aegim.
The Constellation Killer looked around.
“This is an unexpected situation.”
The silver-haired man spoke in a blunt tone.
“Was I abducted? Did you kidnap a puppet and forcefully awaken it? My power… I can’t use it. I suppose that either the puppet’s system was tampered with or very powerful mental magic was used.”
The man who lost his black hair. His name. His memory. [Kim Yul] had already forgotten his origins, so the man before us was a completely different person from [Kim Yul]. He was Lefanta Aegim. The Constellation Killer.
Therefore, no one could call him [Kim Yul].
“…Kim Yul-ssi.”
Except for the one person who had witnessed his beginning.
The Constellation Killer turned to look at the director.
The director slowly kneeled on the library floor.
“I am one of the people who killed Kim Yul.”
“……”
“I wanted to tell you this for a very long time. Sincerely…”
The director put his forehead to the ground.
“I’m sorry.”
The Constellation Killer’s expression hardened.
~~~
(TL: Thank you for pointing out my errors in the last chapter guys. thursdays is currently unavailable, and while the team helps me a lot with the things I’m unsure about, there are still many things that are missed or forgotten. As usual, if you guys see any errors or stuff, don’t hesitate to point them out. I might just be helping temporarily, but I still don’t want the quality of the translations to drop too much.)
[1]: The hanja for his name is 金律. Kim, 金, means “gold” and Yul, 律, means law/principle.