Chapter 102
“You don’t have one?”
At Park Taeyoung’s pressing question, I couldn’t answer for a moment, then barely managed to say,
“…Is that important?”
—
[(Burst of laughter)]
[Look at this! When it comes to his own story, he always takes three steps back.]
[You can dig into others’ stories however you like, but yours is off-limits?]
[If you hide things like that, why do you demand truth from others?]
—
…I’ve never hidden my story.
Even now, I was just asking whether that’s what they were curious about.
—
[Never hidden it? Hahaha! Even passing Lee Hoin would laugh at that!]
—
At my words, Park Taeyoung spoke.
“It matters. If you haven’t lost something precious, you can never understand me… or the people here.”
If you haven’t lost something precious, you can’t understand.
“…Is all of this for your ‘family’?”
At my question, Park Taeyoung let out a faint laugh.
Then he answered with a question of his own.
“Is there someone you want to bring back to life?”
Someone I want to revive.
For a moment, my gaze turned toward where Lee Hoin should be.
That guy, who went to the owner.
“Is there someone you want to bring back so desperately that you’d do anything?”
This…
‘Mockery.’
Mockery and deception.
“…Bring back to life?”
They aren’t reviving anyone.
They’re pretending to.
It’s not like the concept of “resurrection” doesn’t exist in this world.
If anything, some have died hundreds of times and come back hundreds of times, gaining titles and becoming “third parties.”
But our world hasn’t progressed far enough for that kind of resurrection.
And even then, it’s not a self-achieved resurrection.
In other words, they’re talking about reviving someone through another’s will.
Revival through another’s will… that’s necromancer territory. Or something like a dead figure like Do Yoseol gathering fanatics, offering countless sacrifices and items, and being revived through prayer.
You don’t revive a person with a single item.
Resurrection always requires a massive sacrifice.
It’s not something that can be maintained with just a few mutants.
Even when Do Yoseol was revived, countless followers were killed, countless lives sacrificed, and numerous high-grade items were poured in. He even coordinated all of it himself right up to the moment of death.
‘Calling it resurrection through others’ wishes sounds nice.’
But in reality, it’s almost the same as choosing resurrection himself.
So revival purely by another’s will is extremely rare.
Even the Broken Oath I have isn’t a resurrection… It’s a contract.
A contract at the level of the soul, and summoning.
“…Do you really believe they’ve been brought back to life?”
Maybe all of this was an illusion.
I frowned slightly and asked back.
At my words, Park Taeyoung seemed provoked instead.
“So you don’t have one. There’s no one you desperately want back.”
“Don’t make assumptions. I’m asking about the method. Are they really revived?”
“They’re breathing in front of me, laughing in front of me… how can you say they’re not alive?”
With bloodshot eyes, Park Taeyoung stood up.
Then, with his uninjured arm, he grabbed my throat and shoved me against the wall.
“They talk to me, they eat with me, they tell me they love me… and you’re saying they’re not alive? My wife, my daughter, my family… aren’t alive? What a joke. They’re alive. They came back to life through my love.”
The grip on my throat tightened.
“You… you just haven’t lost anyone. You’re lucky! So lucky that no one died on you! That’s why you can say something so insulting with that kind of face!”
“…Kgh.”
“If you had lost someone precious… if you had lost them… you wouldn’t dare make that face in front of this!”
He shouted like a scream.
I tried to pry his hand off my throat somehow, but he was stronger than I expected.
Again and again, he slammed me back against the wall while choking me.
Ah, fuck.
‘Triggered him.’
My head spun for a moment from the impact of my skull hitting the wall repeatedly and the suffocating pressure on my throat.
Bang!
“You lucky bastard. You unbelievably lucky piece of shit!!”
Bang!
“Ugh….”
“How dare you–how dare you call my family fake–”
Bang!
Bang!!
“Fake? You spout that kind of bullshit?!”
The commotion drew people out.
Kim Daejin and Shin Junwoo rushed over and restrained Park Taeyoung.
“Stop it! What are you doing, hyung!!”
“Let go! I’m going to kill that bastard!!”
Having lost his reason, Park Taeyoung tried to rush at me again, but Kim Daejin and Shin Junwoo dragged him toward his room.
“Oppa!! Oh my, oh my, what do we do!!”
Choi Seongeun screamed.
At that moment, Park Taeyoung froze completely.
She ran over to me.
“A-are you okay? What do we do? Are you hurt badly? Your neck–oh no….”
She quickly checked my condition.
Then she shouted at Park Taeyoung,
“What are you doing! Oppa, what’s wrong with you! Apologize right now!! I don’t know what happened, but you can’t go this far! Seriously… seriously, what’s wrong with you? You weren’t like this before!!”
As Choi Seongeun looked at him with fierce eyes, Park Taeyoung twisted his face in a way that looked like he was both crying and laughing.
“…Sorry. I’m sorry. I–I lost control. I’m sorry, Seong-eun… And… student Muyeong, I’m sorry… As an adult, I shouldn’t have done that….”
This whole thing… felt like some kind of play.
At some point, Kim Sungho came up from downstairs, took Park Taeyoung, and led him to his room.
Choi Seongeun stomped after them.
As if determined to say something firmly, she rolled up her sleeves.
After Kim Sunghho came back out, from behind the closed door, Choi Seongeun’s voice could be heard shouting.
“Oh dear, what is all this… Are you okay?”
Shin Junwoo patted my shoulder.
Kim Daejin gathered the children and sent them back to their rooms.
It seemed Park Sooyoung was sent to another room.
Lee Hoin let out a quiet breath, checked my neck, and silently asked what happened with his eyes.
“…I’m fine.”
I roughly rubbed my neck as I said that.
Up until then, the owner, who had been standing on the stairs, let out a deep sigh and called me.
“Kid, come down. Let’s treat that first.”
At those words, people began to disperse.
Shin Junwoo looked at me for a moment, then went into his room.
In the hallway, only Lee Hoin and I remained.
Choi Seongeun’s voice continued to echo from behind the door.
***
“Everyone’s got something they want to protect, right?”
At that, I nodded silently.
“Usually it’s someone they love, or maybe a belief. Ain’t that right?”
“…Yes.”
“You’re curious what that is, ain’t you?”
I was.
That was right.
What is it… that makes people go this far?
I think I roughly understand.
Bringing back the dead.
But that didn’t feel like the whole picture.
It felt like something fundamental was missing.
As the owner wrapped a bandage around my neck, she spoke.
Lee Hoin, looking anxious, tapped the back of the sofa I was sitting on.
That guy clearly hadn’t heard something either.
“A wish.”
A wish?
“One time, long ago, I woke up from sleep… and there was something like a giant snake coiled up in the backyard.”
A snake?
“But it wasn’t quite a snake. Its head was… what, not a snake’s, but like a tiger’s? Something like that. And that snake-like thing told me it’d grant me a wish.”
She continued in a calm, steady voice.
“At my age, what kind of wish would I even have, right? Even if strange things show up, all I wanted was just to live with people, you know… simply, peacefully. That’s my wish.”
A tiger’s head.
A snake’s body.
Something that grants wishes.
It felt like I almost remembered something… but not quite.
“…Do you remember exactly when that was?”
“Don’t know. I didn’t keep track.”
If it’s an item…
Did someone place it here?
Or…
While I was thinking, she continued.
“So I just said I wanted to live peacefully. That’s all. Just peacefully. That the people who come into this place, into this mountain, could live like before… like before all of this existed.”
And that thing… that snake or whatever it was… said, “Alright.”
It said, “Alright.”
After that, it started taking sacrifices little by little.
Like paying money to maintain peace.
At first, it was small animals.
Squirrels and such.
Then gradually, over time, it grew bigger.
And since she couldn’t bring herself to offer humans, she offered mutants instead.
It eats sacrifices.
It eats them and grows.
It grants wishes.
A snake.
An item.
A tiger’s head…
All kinds of keywords swirled in my head.
And then… one came to mind.
Comments (0)