One World, One Family (6)
Reed could roughly guess what she was trying to do.
He wanted to resist, but he had no strength to do so.
The blood pooled in her mouth, riding on her bright red tongue, entered Reed's mouth.
As her blood entered his mouth, a chemical reaction occurred throughout his body.
His heart burst like an active volcano, and hot blood burned his entire body.
"Gulp. Gulp..."
Not even a scream came out.
He was in pain, unable to breathe as he choked himself.
The burden of pain was so overwhelming that it felt like living in hell.
Especially on Reed's right arm, the pain was the most severe.
The burning life force was regenerating Reed's right arm.
The bones, muscles, and flesh were all returning to their original state.
However, perhaps because she had trampled on him and inflicted pain, it wasn't as painful as a shock.
Did she tear off his arm with that intention?
He didn't know.
The only thing he knew was that this abnormal life force flowing through his body made Reed feel dizzy.
Reed's consciousness blurred and sank deep.
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Hey...
...me.
Hey, ...me.
"Hey, wake up."
Reed, who thought it was an auditory hallucination, raised his head at the sound of the voice.
He was startled as he looked up at the man who called him.
The man with gray hair and golden eyes stood in front of him, undoubtedly Reed's appearance.
"You are... me?"
"Not 'me'. The original me. You weren't it, were you?"
As he said that, Reed, or rather Jinhyuk, looked down at his body.
He saw a body dressed in a black office suit.
Although almost three years had passed, he could tell it was his body at once.
"It seems we've returned to our original selves. At this moment, at least."
Reed said, looking at his own body.
"Why did this suddenly happen?"
Reed shook his head as if he didn't know in response to Jinhyuk's question.
"I'm not sure, but didn't something happen in the world you were in? It's strange if something happened in my world."
"Didn't anything happen to you?"
"I was working. It had nothing to do with magic."
Indeed, even if something had happened in the real world, it wouldn't have been supernatural.
Jinhyuk tried to recall his memories in response to Reed's question.
"It might be related to Freesia."
"Freesia, the tower master of the Black Sky?"
"That woman shared her blood with me. So... my severed right arm regenerated, and I passed out."
"Your arm was severed? No, more importantly, she shared her blood? That woman?"
He was surprised twice, but the most important thing was about Freesia.
"She's a strange woman. She hated her own life force and never made such an extreme choice when reviving someone, not even once."
"Am I the first?"
"When I was alive, she was. She was a selfish and willful queen."
"I see."
"Well, there's that, but they say it's incredibly painful to receive her blood. It felt like dipping your hand in volcanic magma."
"That's accurate."
That's exactly what Jinhyuk felt.
The sensation of not being able to withstand the boiling life force.
It was understandable why she would habitually say that living was painful.
"I think maybe because I'm dying, our swapped souls are trying to return to their original places, and that's why we gathered like this."
"I have a similar thought."
Reed nodded, agreeing with that opinion.
And there was no more talk.
They didn't know how to react to the fact that they could return to their original worlds after adapting to and living in worlds unknown to each other.
Neither Jinhyuk nor Reed would find the situation appealing.
"It doesn't seem like anything will be resolved by just standing here like this..."
Reed stood up from his seat and reached out to Jinhyuk.
"Shall we take a walk for a moment?"
"Let's do that."
Jinhyuk nodded at Reed's suggestion.
There was no proper walking path, but it was a perfect place for aimless walking.
The two walked down that path.
"Do you smoke?"
Reed asked.
Jinhyuk shook his head.
"I used to smoke in the past, but I don't anymore."
"Then give me a cigarette. It should be in your left pocket."
"Left pocket?"
As he said, when he put his hand in his left pocket, a pack of cigarettes came out.
It was clear that Reed, who was living in the real world, was smoking.
Reed skillfully took out a cigarette with his thumb, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a lighter.
Swoosh- Hoo—.
He took a big puff and exhaled.
Jinhyuk could tell that Reed had adapted quite well to the modern world, seeing the skillful appearance of a modern person spitting saliva on the ground.
"You seem to have adapted well to that world?"
"It was difficult at first, but now it's bearable. How about you?"
"Same for me."
"How is the tower going without me?"
"Do you mean now?"
Jinhyuk answered his question.
Since he didn't know how long this darkness would last, he briefly explained the key points.
"Magic engineering... Yeah, I once tried to use magic engineering as a last resort when the "Flower Garden" failed."
"I abandoned the "Flower Garden". Because..."
"I know. You don't have to tell me."
Jinhyuk blinked his eyes, looking at Reed cutting off his words.
"How?"
""Disaster 7"."
Reed mentioned the name of the game.
He knew he had adapted, but he never thought he would play a game.
It was practically a story about his future, and he was curious about the evaluation.
"After switching with your body and adapting, I played a game on a device called a computer. I saw the continent and tower I knew, the place names, and myself there. I saw myself full of anger and madness as a villain."
A villain.
He seemed to know he was a villain.
He was curious. How did that villain feel about seeing his own future?
"How did it feel to watch yourself?"
"...It wasn't pleasant. Watching everyone I knew disappear and face death made me wonder what made me like this. In the end, not everything was explained, and it was frustrating. Above all, I wondered if that was really me."
"It's exactly what I felt, yeah."
Jinhyuk laughed, and Reed showed a bitter smile.
"And... I felt like I knew a little."
"What?"
"My father once told me that for everyone to be truly happy, no one should be sacrificed. In the end, my Flower Garden required someone to be sacrificed, and I suffered the consequences for it."
"You didn't feel it was strange at that time?"
"I was desperate."
He took a deep breath and exhaled.
Everything was desperate.
So he tried to gain recognition even at the cost of sacrifice.
Jinhyuk decided to understand that.
"And I had one question."
"What question?"
"Is that the end of my world? The ending credits. It didn't show anything beyond that."
"That's typical for a game. Most games don't show what happens after, right?"
Reed's question seemed to be about the last part of Jinhyuk's game.
The world became peaceful, and they lived happily ever after.
That was the end.
If you were simply playing the game, that phrase indicated the end, and there was no need for doubt.
"As a person who lived in that world, I know everything I heard. I had various thoughts while watching that ending. Why can't I play beyond this? Is the world really ending happily?"
"Then hurry up and talk about it. It's my world now."
"I'm thinking that if that girl dies, everything might be reversed."
"Reversed?"
Reed nodded.
"At first, I thought it was simply a game production, but if it's about my world, the ending is like stopping time."
Since they played the same game, he could understand how it would happen.
Yes, if it wasn't just a production but really the end.
"When the future time is destroyed, only the present and past remain. So, you repeat that event."
The hero with the power to turn back time had sealed himself.
Now, only Rosaria, who has the power to move forward in time, remains, meaning there will be no time regression.
'Living trapped in time...'
Even if it's a happy ending, living trapped in time is a bad ending.
Moving forward and living like a human would be the true happy ending.
'The best happy ending among them...'
That's what Reed wanted.
"To get everything back on track, you need to twist all seven fates. Then the source of the disaster will disappear."
"Disappear..."
What does that mean?
Does it mean that Rosaria's special ability will disappear, or does it mean that her existence itself will vanish?
Jinhyuk was confident that he could love her even without her powers.
However, if her existence disappearing was the condition...
'Could I accept it then?'
Reed added, looking at Jinhyuk staring into the void.
"Of course, you have to go to the end to know everything. This is still an unestablished story."
Awkward silence returned.
This time, Jinhyuk broke it first.
"You played "Disaster 7", so you know the final boss, right?"
"I know. I struggled a bit. It was so hard to clear that guy."
"She's my daughter now."
"What, what?"
Reed turned his head.
Jinhyuk shrugged his shoulders and answered.
"I don't find your reaction surprising, but she's not that monstrous now, so she's cute."
"Hmm... I don't really want to see her."
Reed exhaled cigarette smoke and looked away.
He couldn't dare imagine, having watched himself being torn apart by her.
He started to wonder about his relationships when he learned that the final boss became his daughter.
"What happened to the tower master of the Wall?"
"Dolly?"
"Who's Dolly?"
"A nickname for Dolores. Anton called her that. So I'm calling her that too."
"Is that so? Anyway, how is she?"
Reed told Jinhyuk his story.
Although there seemed to be some awkward feelings, Jinhyuk listened to the story calmly and nodded.
"You removed the magic seed from her body, and even got engaged again... Well, you did all kinds of things with my body."
"....Yeah."
Jinhyuk admitted it without protest.
Reed puffed out his cigarette with a displeased expression.
He smoked more than 10 cigarettes, but the cigarette he held in his hand didn't seem to shrink.
"She would have been better off finding a different man than someone like me..."
"She had no one but you. Can you accept pushing her away and hurting her when there's no one else?"
"Well, that's true. Dolores... she was a cute girl. She was always like a baby. She tried to get my attention by smearing things on her mouth, drew cute pictures, and even sent me handwritten letters several times. Pushing away such a baby without saying anything was me being too clumsy..."
Reed regretted his actions.
Reed didn't like that Jinhyuk had taken Dolores, but he was grateful that he had made amends.
"How is Phoebe?"
"Phoebe is... always the same. She still loves you wholeheartedly."
"I know she loved me, but seeing her still love you after you changed... it seems like she likes you too."
Reed smiled contentedly.
It was different from his reaction to Dolores.
It was a comfortable expression, as if a beloved younger sister had found a good person to be with.
"Why is your reaction different from Dolores?"
"Well, she was pretty depressed in the past. I was worried that she might get depressed again after I changed, but since she became brighter, I can't help but be happy."
"You are very devoted to Phoebe too."
"Well, those who need a lot of care are like that. She makes many mistakes. She's skilled, but her mind doesn't catch up. I have to keep making her memorize manuals. Always check on her, okay?"
"I don't need to interfere; she'll do well on her own, old man."
As he called him an old man, Reed frowned.
"Then, as an old man, I need to nag about your current life, game addict."
"Ugh..."
"As a company employee, do you just play games when you're at home?"
"How did you know... Anyway, I didn't just play games... I still worked."
"It's said that getting a job in a big company is very competitive. In such a competitive society, you'll be left behind quickly. You should aim for a higher position, what will you become just playing games?"
"…Your nagging is…"
"You should take good care of your parents. Can you afford to skip calls because you're busy? There's a great tool called a smartphone, and it's easy to contact them. You should at least let them hear your voice often. You start regretting it when you neglect your parents."
"Are they my parents or yours?"
"What can I do now that they've become my parents? And I've already lost my parents."
That's right, true.
Jinhyuk couldn't speak thoughtlessly.
