Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World Chapter 80

Hwashin recalled that day in his blurring vision. 

 

The day he faced the death of his friend.

 

‘I’ve never seen you cry before. I’m finally seeing it now.’

 

‘Shut up.’

 

‘Don’t cry like that. After all, the only reason I came here is all thanks to you.’

 

After the death of his only friend, before meeting Riel, many things changed for Elric.

 

The way he accepted death, his emotions, and his way of life.

 

Karma, grand in name only, was ultimately a magic that couldn’t save the one person he wanted to save. Even if the threads of destiny are visible, one cannot forcefully bring a person back to life. Because the destiny of the dead no longer belongs to that world.

 

Elric had never once thought he was afraid of his own death.

 

Ever since he learned to use Word Command through karma, his destiny flowed exceedingly slowly. Even he himself couldn’t gauge until what age he would live.

 

He just lived day by day, unable to die.

 

He desperately wished for death, but was just as afraid of it. Because dying on an empty plain, without anyone knowing of his death, was another terror.

 

[ You will die. ]

 

If one dies in a dimension they don’t originally belong to, where does that life go?

 

A dimensional dragon heads to the dimensions. A dead human heads to the universe. Wandering karma revolves and revolves towards the place it desires, and is reborn as a new life.

 

Hwashin was not a being supposed to be in this dimension originally. He merely slipped in through a temporarily distorted dimensional rift.

 

Where does a destiny that couldn’t find its place head to?

 

“Hyung, hyung!”

 

“Kim Daecheol-ssi, can’t we use a hospital near here?”

 

“We aren’t citizens of the Illusion City, so—”

 

“The barrier—!”

 

Voices tangled together into a hum. Breathing became even more difficult. His lungs felt hot. Starting from his legs, the sensations in his entire body vanished. 

 

Death means returning to nothingness.

 

Hwashin was fully accepting his return to nothingness.

 

***

 

“Hey you.”

 

“I’m listening.”

 

Hwashin, standing on his hands, laughed. His silver hair hung upside down. Riel placed a hand on his forehead and shook his head. 

 

“You knew you’d end up here, didn’t you?”

 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

 

“Look at your smirking face, Elric. How do you know things even I don’t know?”

 

“It’s nice to hear my name after a while. Living in this body, I sometimes forget that I was Elric.”

 

Whoosh. He lightly placed both feet on the floor.

 

Hwashin looked up at the ceiling filled with books.

 

“Is there a book about me among these too? Which section is the dimension I lived in?”

 

“Just answer my question.”

 

Two slender arms rested on the shoulders of Riel, who was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed.

 

“Hey, kiddo. You should answer our youngest’s question. I’m actually curious too. So are the old geezers and the mister over there, just sticking their ears out.”

 

“Tsk, who are you calling an old geezer!? Show some manners, you impudent brat!”

“Old man, he’s only acting like that because you react like that.”

 

“Hahaha, it seems the ancient texts saying dimensional dragons are dignified were all lies.” 

 

Hwashin laughed loudly and sat across from Riel. Crossing his long legs, he lifted a teacup from the table and took a light sip. 

 

“Riel, you haven’t read all of this book yet, have you?”

 

“….Well. I hadn’t completely read it when I gave it to you either. Since I’m reading along with the parts you’re in right now, I guess that’s true.”

 

<Your Hero Is Here>.

 

In this book, Cha Jaeha dies. Cha Jaeha dies, and this world meets its end.

 

Even before Cha Jaeha dies, several heroes meet their deaths inside the gates. Because as time passes, the number of Red Gates overwhelms the number of other normal gates.

 

The Red Gates, which originally only S-ranks from each country entered, would have A-ranks, and occasionally even B-ranks, enter in the mid-to-late stages. However, the corpses of the heroes who die inside the dungeons disappear right there. Those who are alive can return when the gate closes, but those whose destinies ended there cannot return to their original places.

 

That doesn’t mean they meet their death in that dimension either. Because they literally disappear.

 

Their wheel of life doesn’t fit there in the first place.

 

The dead end up wandering the dimensions.

 

As the price for meeting their death in the wrong place. Until their turn for reincarnation comes around.

 

“If that’s the case, why are you here?”

 

“That’s because I’m a genius.”

 

Because I am.

 

“….Don’t think that will work as an excuse.”

 

Riel said, sweeping his long white hair to one side.

 

“I just can’t understand your choice. I know you, Elric. I don’t think you would have used such crazy magic just to save lives in a dungeon.”

 

Hwashin stared blankly at the book placed next to Riel. The title <Your Hero Is Here> was clearly written on the spine.

 

“Because I would be able to find this place even if I died anyway. Karma is always connected to a place you’ve been to once. Because that’s what karma is.”

 

Actually, that fact had nothing to do with him using ‘Moment of Destiny’ while vomiting blood. That’s probably why Riel made a face as if he couldn’t understand either.

 

In reality, Elric wouldn’t even bat an eye if one or two villages in front of the cave he lived in were devastated by goblins.

 

“Because Cha Jaeha would have been sad..”

 

“…..What?”

 

“Starting from the school ghost stories, the lives here resemble the human race far too much, don’t they? And Cha Jaeha used to say things like this often.”

 

Elric—Yoo Hwashin—mimicked the words Cha Jae-ha had said in the original work.

 

“‘A hero’s job is to save people. Whether they’re dead or alive, save them. Even if you have to die, save them.’”

 

What must Cha Jaeha have thought in the original work as he watched the citizens of Enet burning to death?

 

Did his past trauma resurface?

 

Did he recall his dead parents again?

 

Could he really completely forget that past? Could he shake it off? No, he probably couldn’t. Even though it must have gotten much better thanks to the SH1 unit.

 

The reenactment of trauma is a terror. Everyone has memories they want to forget. A terrible past that one struggles to forget somehow, regardless of whether it was right or wrong.

 

“Since our protagonist said that a hero’s job is to save people, I just faithfully followed those words.”

 

The corners of Hwashin’s eyes narrowed. Following the outer corners of his eyes that curved downwards in an arc, Riel made a dumbfounded face.

 

“I quite like Cha Jaeha and the SH1 unit, you see.”

 

Hwashin replied, his eyes growing sunken. 

 

“I might have just wanted to become their selfish hero.”

 

An old man, who had been quietly listening to Hwashin’s words, approached while stroking his beard.

 

“Young mage, friend of our little youngest.”

 

“Just call me Elric comfortably, or Yoo Hwashin is fine too.”

 

“….Hmm, then I’ll call you Hwashin so as not to confuse you with our youngest. Yoo Hwashin, why did you want to become their hero?”

 

The old man had an incomprehensible look on his face.

 

“Understand that we dragons sometimes cannot comprehend the human heart.”

 

A dragon in the form of a woman added.

 

“Especially that old man over there.”

 

“Hmph.”

 

“It’s fine. Hmm, yes. You ask why I wanted to become a hero?”

 

Hwashin hooked a finger under his chin, pretending to think for a moment. But that pretense was brief, and he answered right away.

 

“Because that’s what I’ve thought ever since I read that book.” 

 

A hero sacrifices for someone.

 

Jeong Mueum, who constantly grumbled, actually moved to ensure the safety of citizens faster than anyone else.

 

Yoo Jian, who was said to ignorantly smash buildings around, had a body covered in scars.

 

And if you were to strip the clothes off the fire-attribute user Cha Jaeha—who was said to never suffer burns—he was actually covered in burn marks.

 

Because the one he wanted to burn to death the most was himself. It must have been hard to use his ability while controlling that gap.

 

“There wasn’t a single guardian to protect kids like that. I was the same way back when I was a mage.”

 

The mage with eyes as clear as glass laughed.

 

“So I want to be the one to become their hero.”

 

“But as a result, you died, and you might not be able to enter that dimension again, isn’t that right?”

 

The muscular dragon who had been listening asked.

 

“No. That’s not it.”

 

Hwashin wanted to become a hero for them, but he had no intention of leaving their side either. Would it be right to completely disappear without even stopping the destruction, after finally getting this chance? If anything, he should stay with them until the end.

 

To do that, there was an opponent he had to settle scores with, but it wasn’t as if there was absolutely no way.

 

“Since I never belonged to either side from the start.”

 

***

 

“…Hyung.”

 

“Mueum, stop.”

 

“Hyung, wake up. Hyung….. hyung, don’t joke around with something like this.”

 

Hwashin’s right hand fell to the floor with a thudding sound. His body gradually grew cold. Jeong Mueum’s vision, as he held him in his arms, was blurry.

 

Dried bloodstains around his mouth. Both eyes were completely closed. The blinking status window.

 

[ Yoo Hwashin has died. He is removed from the citizen list. ]

[ Physical: 0 ] [ Intelligence: 0 ] [ Light: 0 ] [ Owned Abilities: ….. ]

 

In the 「Battery War」, everything of Yoo Hwashin became 0.

 

“A hospital…. won’t be necessary.”

 

Nathan didn’t say anything further.

 

“Th-th-this is a lie, right.”

 

Lee Suho grabbed Cha Jaeha’s sleeve.

 

“E-even if he dies here, won’t he c-come back to life when we return to our original world? I-I also crossed dimensions and stuff, s-so! H-hyung too!”

 

“Yeah, that might be possible. Mueum, you calm down too.”

 

Yoo Jian calmly assessed the situation. But her eyes were different. Her endlessly trembling pupils spoke for her heart.

 

“What does 0 mean?”

 

Cha Jaeha asked, looking down at the dead Yoo Hwashin. Kim Daecheol, who was blankly guarding his side, also opened his mouth to babble nonsense.

 

“What 0… points to is death. Th-they used to say that the reason the status window appears and the numbers in Enet point to ‘necessary humans’. A-as a result, the lower that number is, the more you are classified as a useless human…..So in other words.”

 

Cha Jaeha’s sunken eyes, having lost their light, couldn’t take their gaze off Hwashin.

 

“….It means a human not needed in this city.”

 

That’s what it means.

 

The moment Kim Daecheol’s words ended, the corpses of Heo Mugong and Yoo Hwashin simply vanished. They didn’t turn into light, nor did they turn into dust. Literally, like beings that had never existed in the first place.

 

“What’s this? Is the festival all over?”

 

“….Oh my, what happened? Hey, let’s hurry up and go home.”

 

“Isn’t that the barrier? Looks like something happened.”

 

The people who had returned began to leave the plaza all at once. Countless crowds passed by the heroes. The returning people muttered a few words with dazed faces and headed home.

 

“We should head back now too.”

 

Breaking the heavy atmosphere, Adam spoke.

 

“I understand the grief of the Korean heroes, but first, the future direction—.”

 

Sshhng.

 

Yoo Jian’s axes, Jeong Mueum’s Gravity Imprisonment, Lee Suho’s shadow, and even Cha Jaeha’s fire. All the abilities of the SH1 unit.

 

“….I believe I was suggesting a realistic direction.”

 

They gathered to point at Adam’s throat. Adam raised both hands as if he understood, but he didn’t back down from his opinion. 

 

The empty plaza floor. Cha Jaeha, who had been staring at the spot where Hwashin disappeared, slowly turned his head.