Chapter 131: Endless Night (7)

Chapter 131: Endless Night (7)

“Ah…”

Ohjin looked at Ha-eun’s back gradually becoming more distant.

‘No.’

His two arms pressed on the ground.

Chewing his lips, he gathered all of his remaining strength into his arms.

However…

Thud!—

“Kugh!”

The two arms helplessly gave up.

Blood started to drip out of his nose after his face slammed onto the ground.

“Don’t… go…”

Ohjin sorrowfully stretched out his hand to Ha-eun’s back.

Next, he tried to get up by putting strength into his legs, but it seemed like his Achilles tendon was ruptured, as he couldn’t feel any strength entering his legs.

“You… mustn’t go.”

He recalled his memories from six years ago.

—The way she shivered from the unfamiliar darkness on the hospital bed… He couldn’t let himself abandon her inside of that horrendous darkness once again.

“…Ohjin.”

Ha-eun bit her lips as she slightly turned her head around to look at Ohjin. With the Dragon Bead placed close to her left eye, she continued.

“I’ll call people from the Association to take Ohjin away. Giving my eyes comes after that.”

“Hmm. But how can I trust that the only thing the Association members will do is take him away?”

“I can call them after we leave this place. If you still can’t trust me, why don’t you just give up on the Dragon Eye?”

Ha-eun waved the Dragon Bead dangerously right in front of her eye. If it strayed even 1cm off, the Dragon Eye would burn and disappear.

Cheon Doyoon was able to realize that she wasn’t bluffing without much difficulty.

“Holholhol. What a confident child. You are very much to my liking.”

His wrinkly mouth tilted up as he nodded his head.

“Very well. Call the Association to take away the Lightning Wolf after we leave this place.”

“Alrigh—”

Bang!—

Cutting off Ha-eun’s words, a dull sound rang out in the empty lot.

“Don’t… be fucking ridiculous.”

“Ohjin…?”

Stagger—

His shaking legs stepped on the floor. However, his body powerlessly fell to the ground moments later.

Blood leaked out of his cut wounds and soaked the dry dirt ground.

“Oh-Ohjin!”

Ha-eun quickly approached Ohjin.

Due to how ruthlessly he was cut, his clothes were drenched in so much blood you couldn’t even recognize their original color.

“Y-You son of a bitch…!”

She gave Cheon Doyoon a sharp look and chewed her lips, but she couldn’t let herself get blinded by the rage and attack him.

“Ha-eun…”

Ohjin’s muttering voice could be heard.

Ha-eun closed her eyes tight and got back on her feet.

“Holholhol! Such a touching sight! Just what kind of existence is this child to you to make you so desperate?”

Cheon Doyoon looked down at Ohjin with ridicule filling his eyes.

Ohjin barely held on to his fading consciousness and thought about Cheon Doyoon’s question.

“…”

‘What kind of existence is Ha-eun to me?’

“Argh, uh.”

Crawl, crawl—

He wretchedly crawled to Cheon Doyoon.

It was a dreadful and pathetic sight—

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

—but it didn’t matter.

No matter how dreadful or pathetic he was…

Even if people pointed fingers at him for having no parents…

Even if he was beaten up for no reason…

—If he had her…

He could endure it. He could withstand it.

He could take another step forward.

Because, to him, she was the first thing that…

“Ah, uh, ah.”

He dragged his unmoving legs across the ground and crawled over to Ha-eun, who was standing still.

* * *

* * *

Was it because he had lost too much blood? Memories so old and faded that he didn’t know when they took place anymore suddenly crossed his mind.

-You’re the new kid, right?

—A young girl with maroon hair.

The girl who was basically the leader of the orphanage children extended her hand to him with a bright smile.

-Your name is… Ohjin? What does it mean?

She confirmed the words written on his name tag with her poor Hanja skills.

—The name he hated to death.

-Ohjin(汚塵)…? No way, doesn’t this mean ‘dirty dust’?

That’s right.

He didn’t even know how his parents looked, and all they had left him was the name ‘Ohjin’, which meant ‘dirty dust’.

It was a name that couldn’t be more dreadful and cursed that explained what his parents thought of him.

-So what?

Thinking about it now, that stupid, insignificant name wasn’t even that important, but he had replied like it was a sensitive topic for no reason.

-No, there’s no specific reason why I asked you… I was just curious because you never talk.

-You don’t need to make an effort to pay attention to me.

As he coldly turned around, the girl scratched her head with a perplexed look and continued.

-Uh… um. Ohjin… no, since it seems that you don’t really like that name…

While she was lost in thought, her eyes suddenly shone as she clapped her hands.

-Little bro! Yeah, I’ll call you little bro!

-…

His chest palpitated from it for an unknown reason.

-So why are you up here? Are you also avoiding that damn director bastard?

-That’s…

They were on the rooftop of the orphanage that consisted of four floors. The entrance was supposed to be shut tight, but it was left open for a couple of months due to the director’s carelessness.

-…

He didn’t go there to avoid the director.

Unlike the girl that always stood up to the director, he was quiet. All that happened to him was getting slapped on the head now and then when he was unlucky.

Despite that, there was a reason why he secretly went up to the rooftop while enduring the risk of getting scolded.

-It’s because… this… is my secret hideout.

After finding out that the rooftop wasn’t locked by accident, he had started to decorate that place as a secret hideout that was only meant for him.

Though it was a shabby hideout made out of only disposed cardboard boxes and wood planks…

For the boy who had nothing…

For the boy who didn’t have any parents, relatives, and not even friends…

That place was the very first thing he could call ‘his’.

-Kyahaha! What kind of secret hideout is this?

-…

The young girl exploded out in laughter as she clutched her belly.

He couldn’t do anything but lower his head to hide his reddened cheeks.

That’s right…

Even though he said it was his secret hideout, he knew the truth.

—The truth that the rooftop wasn’t truly ‘his’.

—The truth that not a single thing in the world belonged to him.

He was at a young age where most couldn’t memorize the multiplication table properly, but that was the one thing he was certain of.

-Hehe. I’m just kidding. Hmm, so this is your secret hideout?

-N-No.

-But didn’t you say it was before?

The girl smiled playfully and approached him, her hair swaying like flames. Her appearance was beautiful to the point that it put him in a daze and caused him to unconsciously gulp.

-Let’s see… if it’s a secret hideout, you won’t let just anyone in, right?

-Y-Yeah.

He avoided the girl’s gaze and clenched his fists.

–Even… even if mom and dad come, I won’t ever let them in.

Was it just the childish vindictiveness of a child? Even if his parents came looking for him one day, he vowed that the last thing he would do was let them into his secret hideout.

-…Really?

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The girl smiled bitterly while looking at him speaking with his fists clenched.

That’s right…

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The girl and the boy already knew…

They realized it before they had even memorized the multiplication table…

—The fact that by no means would their parents come back to look for them.

-Then what about big sis?

-…Huh?

-Will you let me in?

The girl asked as she put on a pretty smile that was like gems.

-Big… sis?

-Since I’m two years older than you!

-…

-I can do what your mom and dad aren’t allowed to do, right?

-Uh? Y-Yeah.

After hearing the reply that came in the heat of the moment, she took a big step into the shabby hideout.

At that moment, she took a step into his worthless life…

-Hehe. Since I’ve come in, you need to think of me as your big sis forever, alright?

The girl smiled brightly.

Thinking about it now, the words she said probably had no special meaning—they were probably just words she had said playfully in the flow of the moment.

In fact, she probably didn’t even remember she said those words in the past.

However… did she know that single line… that childish brief joke… would be the biggest salvation that came to him?

“S-Stop it, Ohjin!!”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Exhaling breath mixed with blood, he pressed against the ground with his trembling arms.

“Ah, ugh.”

Ohjin’s body screamed as it exceeded its limit.

It creaked, twisted, and cried out that it shouldn’t be moved anymore.

-Ring!

[Warning. Your body has been harmed to the extent that it cannot maintain mana.]

[Your mana is going out of control.]

[Entering the ‘Overload’ state!]

[Entering the ‘Unstable’ state!]

“Shut… up.”

He didn’t care if his body broke down.

He didn’t care if his body was destroyed.

If he could stand up this one time, he didn’t care if he couldn’t stand up ever again.

“Please.”

He slammed his fist down at his shaking legs.

“Please… move.”

For the first time in his life, someone he wanted had appeared.

For the last time in his life, someone he wanted to protect appeared.

In his life that was dark like a starless night, she was the only thing that shone.

“Oh…jin?”

Looking at Ha-eun, who was looking at him with shaking eyes—

Bang!!!—

“Uaaaaahh!!!”

—he got up as he roared out.

He firmly stepped on the ground and straightened his back.

“Huff! Huff!”

Exhaling out ragged breaths, he took a step forward in her direction.

Even though he staggered and stumbled, he didn’t fall.

“Ohjin… why…? Why won’t you give up?”

“Why… won’t I give up?”

Was that something a woman who was trying to pull out their eyes to save another’s life should say?

“You entered someone else’s secret hideout as you pleased… so you’re not allowed to go out now.”

“What? Wh-What are you talking about?”

Did she forget about it?

‘Well, it doesn’t matter. Even if she did forget… I still remember.’

“Holholhol!! To think that you’d get up in that state!”

Cheon Doyoon’s ridicule-mixed voice could be heard.

“However— what changes now that you’ve gotten up?”

Things wouldn’t change easily.

The thing about the matters of the world was that, even if you endured, it wouldn’t be resolved on its own. Even if he did manage to get back on his feet, the gap between him and Cheon Doyoon still remained distant.

‘However.’

There was a method he had thought up.

‘I’m certain that bastard said that the Dragon Eye is used to control the mana contained within the Dragon’s Heart.’

In that case, there was a possibility that the Dragon Eye had the power to control not only the mana inside the Dragon’s Heart but also the mana of the dragon vein.

“Whatever happens from now on, don’t ever move.”

“Wh-What are you planning to do?”

“I don’t have time to explain.”

Ohjin carefully put his hand next to her left eye.

Rumble—

The black clouds that flowed out of the tip of his fingers gently covered her left eye.

“Kyaaa! Wh-What is this?!”

“Stay still.”

Controlling the Black Heaven meticulously so that she wouldn’t get hurt, he absorbed a tiny bit of the Dragon Eye’s power.

And then—

Owoooong!!!—

—the dragon vein’s mana that had quietly coiled itself within the black clouds slowly raised its neck.

-Ring!

[You have achieved part of the conditions needed to unlock ‘Heaven Unfolding’.]

With the sound of clear bells ringing in his head, a line of text appeared in front of his eyes.

[Αυτοί που με προσπερνούν στον κήπο των αναστεναγμών]

The unidentifiable letters were the ones written in the explanation of ‘Heaven Unfolding’.

Ohjin raised his head and looked at the letters.

He didn’t know why, but it felt like the meaning of the unidentifiable letters was flowing into his head.

Slowly opening his mouth, he recited the chant that flowed into his head.

“Through me, you pass into the garden of lament.”

With the chant that rang out ominously—

“Ah.”

—the sky opened.

Crack!! Crackleeee!!—

The blue lightning that wrapped around Ohjin’s body gradually lost its color and faded black.

The blood that wet the ground turned into black clouds and was sucked back into Ohjin’s body.

As if he had drunk an elixir, the cut wounds all around his body quickly disappeared.

“Wh-What?”

Cheon Doyoon’s body flinched as he looked at the blazing black lightning.

An unidentifiable, ominous feeling pressed down on his body.

Clatter, clatter, clatter!—

His teeth shivered noisily.

Not even being confronted by a North Star had caused him to feel that much immeasurable fear.

‘What is this…’

Cheon Doyoon looked at Ohjin with an expression of fear.

Crack! Crackle!!—

With his entire body wrapped in black lightning, Ohjin looked up at the sky with hazy eyes.

For some unknown reason, despite being able to feel the bright sunlight burning his skin, the sky he looked up to couldn’t be any darker.

“The sky is too dark.”

Looking up at the blue sky without a single speck of clouds, he asked with a somewhat rapturous voice.

“Isn’t that so?”

T/N:

“Through me you pass into the garden of lament.” is a reference to the Italian narrative poem The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia), Inferno. (And the garden of lament is probably from Lost Ark)

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric moved:

To rear me was the task of Power divine,

Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.

Before me things create were none, save things

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Eternal, and eternal I endure.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

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