Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World Chapter 82

“….Pardon?”

 

Ha Cheongwon asked back with a hollow expression.

 

“Are you saying Yoo Hwa-shin-ssi is dead? Right now? Inside there? Is that the truth?” 

 

Jeong Mueum simply turned his head away. Yoo Jian bit her lip hard. Tears began to fall from her large eyes.

 

‘The atmosphere is really bad. Right, Adam?’

 

‘Well, that’s how it is when someone dies.’

 

Once they left the dungeon, the language spoken by Adam and Nathan was naturally no longer translated. They exchanged a few words in English and then approached Ha Cheongwon. Adam spoke to the dazed Ha Cheongwon.

 

‘I understand you’re overwhelmed by the hero’s death. But we two have to leave now. Research on Red Gates is still ongoing in the US, so this success will be quite helpful. We are grateful to you all for your help. America will not forget your assistance.’

 

‘Though we might forget.’

 

‘Nathan.’

 

‘Alright, alright. Anyway, we’re heading out….I think that man, Hwashin, was a pretty good person.’

 

Nathan reached out for a handshake. Ha Cheongwon replied briefly in English and then sent the two off.

 

The situation hadn’t changed. He still wanted to ignore the reality before his eyes. That man is dead? So easily? So… pointlessly?

 

The reason a hero receives a high salary and status from the state and love from the people is simple.

 

It’s because they are closer to death than anyone else.

 

Ha Cheongwon knew this well. As long as one held this profession, the death of those around them was more common than one might think. It wasn’t the first time he had witnessed death. A long time ago, he had witnessed the death of an A-rank hero.

 

He remembered vomiting as soon as he saw the body upon arriving at the scene.

 

Death is not beautiful. Even a soul that fought nobly can die in a hideous form.

 

Since then, Ha Cheongwon decided not to smile. He decided to understand being a ‘hero’ literally as a job. It was easier to think that way. Now, he couldn’t even remember the name of that first hero’s corpse he encountered.

 

If he didn’t do at least that much, he felt like he would go crazy.

 

“….I will write the details in the report.”

 

It was Cha Jaeha who broke the silence.

 

“We couldn’t recover the body. It vanished just like that inside the gate.”

 

Cha Jaeha looked angry.

 

“….That stupid b*stard.”

 

Grit. Cha Jaeha ground his teeth once and left the spot. The Red Gate was closed, and the SH1 unit needed rest now. A much, much longer time than usual. Jeong Mueum bowed his head without showing his face and left. Lee Suho, with his swollen eyelids, seemed unable to even open his eyes properly.

 

Yoo Jian, who was the last one left, clenched her fists and spoke.

 

“….Seriously… I told him not to do that during the last mission. That b*stard who never listens.”

 

Her short hair swayed as she turned and walked away.

 

***

 

“Hey, Elric. Aren’t you being a bit too relaxed despite everything?”

 

Riel asked with a bored face. Hwashin, who was holding a box of butter cookies in his arms, tilted his head.

 

“Even if you know a way because you read the book, there’s no guarantee it’ll work. Even I, who am reading the book, don’t really know. What exactly are you trusting to act like this?”

 

“Mmph-mm-mm.”

 

“Talk after you’ve finished chewing.”

 

Sigh. Riel let out a sigh with his arms crossed. Reading the book was enough to make him burst with frustration. Inside <Your Hero Is Here>, it was already like a house of mourning. The protagonist, Cha Jaeha, had entered his private training room and was firing off flames like a madman.

 

「 ‘….I, more than I thought, him.’ Was I trusting him?

 

Standing in the middle of the room that had turned black, Cha Jaeha looked up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath.

Yoo Hwashin is dead. That fact does not change. The SH1 unit will still be maintained. I know.

 

I am the one who chose this path. Standing closer to death than anyone else to prevent someone’s death.

I know.

 

I know, and yet.

 

He ground his teeth. The first death of a comrade.

 

It was hard because it was the first time. Because it was the first. 」

 

Since the protagonist’s state was like this, the development of the novel was also terrible. Who on earth would want to see such a frustrating development?

 

Even the old dragon watching with them shook his head at how stifling it was. Pages upon pages were filled with stories of Cha Jaeha and his group grieving. Ha Cheongwon had practically stopped eating and drinking, and Ha Yujin cried for days on end.

 

Hwashin, having finally finished his cookies, spoke again.

 

“Riel, aren’t you actually the one who’s okay with this?”

 

“What?”

 

“Isn’t it actually good that I’m here? An old friend has returned all the way here.”

 

“….Please.”

 

Riel snorted.

 

“Do you know how entertaining it is to watch you from above? If you’re here, I have to watch you pathetically eating cookies in front of me.”

 

“That’s true. But really, don’t worry. When the time comes that I can truly return, I’m going to make a deal. I think someone’s about to talk to me soon anyway.” 

 

“Talk to you? Who?”

 

“There is such a being.”

 

Crossing dimensions requires a price.

 

In Cha Jaeha’s world, that price was paid by ‘closing the dungeon.’

 

In the world where Elric originally lived, that price was paid by ‘only dimensional dragons being able to enter and exit.’

 

Since the oral tradition was that only dimensional dragons could cross dimensions.

 

Mages feared the space beyond the dimensions, and so they struggled to seal the rifts. 

 

Crossing dimensions requires a price.

 

At the same time, this meant that if one could pay the price, they could cross dimensions.

 

“I don’t know what kind of deal you’re making or with whom,”

 

Riel tapped a page in <Your Hero Is Here> with his finger.

 

“But to these people, your death is a reality. Even I, as a reader, can feel the pain in every word, so why are you so leisurely?”

 

“Does it look like that?”

 

Elric—Yoo Hwashin—had experienced his first death there. A cruel experience where the body’s sensations vanished completely and a suffocating pain took hold.

 

What was captured in his final vision were Jeong Mueum’s tears, Cha Jaeha’s angry face, Yoo Jian’s hollow expression, and Lee Suho’s trembling fingers.

 

He didn’t think he would truly die.

 

But he had no intention of stopping. Even now, Hwashin did not regret it. 

 

If he hadn’t made all the humans in the city disappear through his mana, a horrific scene would have unfolded before Cha Jaeha. 

 

It’s better for one person to be sacrificed than for many to die. Moreover, if it were Cha Jaeha, that’s what he would have thought.

 

That’s why he would have tried to prevent the destruction of the world with his own death.

 

‘My mind would be less burdened if it weren’t for that final expression I saw.’ 

 

He died with the intention of returning eventually, but,

 

He wanted to return sooner.

 

It was then. Above the vast, endless ceiling. A certain message was heard from there.

 

[ A problem has occurred in one of the books. ]

[ The book is <Your Hero Is Here>. The cause of the problem is the ‘total amount of destiny.’ ]

[The Origin tells you to return immediately.]

[ But at the same time, your death is confirmed. ]

 

“What is this.”

 

Riel looked at Hwashin with a surprised face. Hwashin stood up from his seat as if he had been waiting.

 

He looked up at the ceiling filled with void as if he had anticipated this.

 

“Hey, Origin. I’ve been waiting to talk to you. Can’t you make a separate space for us?”

 

Of course, the other dragons were equally shocked.

 

“My goodness.”

 

“Hmph! What is this! A human talking to the Origin?” 

 

“Old man, be quiet.”

 

The Origin speaks to them first only once. 

 

When a dimensional dragon does not return to the dimension it should go to. In order to maintain the balance of the dimensions.

 

It had been at least 1,000 years since even the oldest dragon had faced the Origin.

 

Such an Origin had spoken. And not to a dimensional dragon, but to a mere human. To a mage who had become human. 

 

The mage, the hero, Elric, and simultaneously Yoo Hwashin, was smiling as if he had anticipated it. Every moment, every minute and second, made the dragons feel alien emotions. At the same time, they were excited. There weren’t many developments that dimensional dragons didn’t know. 

 

[ Confirming the pages of <Your Hero Is Here II>. ]

 

The book that had been placed on the sofa rose into the air.

 

Flap flap flap flap flap—

 

Countless pages turn. Countless stories are engraved. The overflowing flow of souls was engraved into The First.

 

[ The balance of karma in the corresponding dimension is distorted. ]

[ The required amount of destiny is insufficient. ]

[ The Origin accepts your proposal. ]

[ A room opens for you, and for you only. Only you can enter this room. ]

 

Light ran in a straight line across the empty wall. The shape of a square door was engraved on the wall. As Hwashin approached it, a doorknob appeared.

 

“Elric.”

 

Riel stopped him.

 

“The Origin is not a good dragon.”

 

“…..”

 

“It is merely the dragon that possessed the first dimension. You know that too, don’t you?”

 

Just as no one can distinguish whether an absolute being is good or evil, the same was true for The First.

 

The Origin was not a being that judged good and evil. It simply existed in that place. 

 

Hwashin replied as he turned the doorknob.

 

“I’m not a good mage either.”

 

“…..”

 

“You know that too, right?”

 

At that smile, Riel had no choice but to chuckle.

 

“I know it very well.”

 

Because he, as a dragon, knew very well that his friend was not an easy guy to deal with.

 

The space he entered through the door was a void. A pure white space. The end could not be known, and the beginning of the room was also unknown. It was a place enough for a single person to go mad.

 

Hwashin walked aimlessly through the space where he couldn’t even distinguish front, back, or side.

 

A desk and two chairs appeared on the path. A cluster of light that appeared from somewhere condensed into a human form. A voice, which could not be distinguished as male or female, spoke.

 

[ Shall we sit? ]

 

Even though it was right in front of him, the voice seemed to echo throughout the entire room. Hwashin, sitting down, asked.

 

“Are you the Origin?”

 

[ Yes. I am the parent of your friend, a friend, a distant ancestor, and the beginning. Simultaneously, I am the being called the Absolute of all dimensions. What are your impressions of our first meeting? ] 

 

“I’ve learned that the being called The Origin is quite talkative. I don’t really like it.”

 

[ Is that so. Then I shall say that I do not like you either. ]

 

“Still, you won’t touch me.”

 

[ How can you be so sure of that? ]

 

‘The Origin’ could not touch him recklessly. The Origin had its own rules.

 

“Because an Absolute must maintain the balance of the dimensions.”

 

While handling karma, Hwashin knew the importance of that balance. He had seen several times how the thread itself snapped the moment someone died by the karma he used.

 

The thread held significant meaning. The strands of thread meant the strands of destiny, and each dimension had an assigned amount. Violating that amount caused Hwashin terrible pain as well, which was why there were certain restrictions on his own abilities.

 

Then what about an Absolute who governs those dimensions? Wouldn’t such restrictions be even more severe?

 

“If you kill me, Mr. Origin, it will be troublesome for that dimension.”

 

[ ….. ]

 

“<Your Hero Is Here>. Because the existence called Yoo Hwashin is such a being there.”

 

Hwashin crossed his legs and lifted his chin.

 

Yes, Yoo Hwashin was such an existence in <Your Hero Is Here>.

 

In the first place, when Elric read that book, the character named ‘Yoo Hwashin’ wasn’t even mentioned.

 

Such a man exists in that dimension at some point. Even if Riel, not himself, had entered it, at least that empty shell would have existed there magnificently.

 

Therefore, that means.

 

“Mr. Origin, you’re the one who made him, aren’t you?” 

 

This character called ‘Yoo Hwashin.’