Chapter 77: End; Death dancing in the Masquerade (5) (1/2)
If he hadn’t gotten rid of Prototype X; if Ha Saetbyul was able to link the minds of all demons to one place, Wei Yan’s current situation would’ve been immediately conveyed to Noah and Ysayle.
But since that wasn’t the case, Wei Yan laid his hand on his waist, looking for the communication artifact. However, there was nothing on his waist.
“Looking for this?”
The Regressor lifted a long stone plate.
Hatred and despair appeared on Wei Yan’s face. That was the only device that allowed one to communicate with others outside the current room, and Wei Yan now understood the place he was in.
“…”
With the scimitar in his hand, Yu Jitae walked towards Wei Yan.
He was breathing heavily and uncomfortably. The intense shock had destroyed all his organs and the demon barely managed to raise his trembling head to glare at Yu Jitae.
The one remaining eye however, was out of focus.
“Why, why… the fuck… are you doing this.”
His voice squeezed out the remaining life he had.
“…”
“What did I do to youu… you piecee of shit.”
After approaching him, Yu Jitae stabbed the scimitar into the ground.
“Why do you think I’m doing this.”
“… I did something to you, huh? The last name ‘Yu’… if I remember correctly, the girl I kidnapped when developing a new drug was a ‘Yu’… is it her? Because of that?”
“Wrong.”
Wei Yan faced Yu Jitae with a powerless gaze.
“I have no grudge against you.”
“Whaat…? Are you crazy then…”
Perhaps there was a time in the distant past where he had a grudge, but there was not a single emotion against Wei Yan at this point, that could be considered a resentment.
There were times when he had been annoyed because of Wei Yan in the seventh iteration, but ultimately Wei Yan had never been a direct source of harm. There was no reason for him to feel emotions like grudge or vengeance.
“Should I be honest.”
“…”
“There’s something I wish for, and you’re a hindrance. That’s why I’ll be killing you.”
“…Fuck, fucking trash… are you still human?”
Yu Jitae gave a faint smile. For the first time in a very long time, he felt a trivial doubt.
“If there’s a human somewhere that could ruin your plans, and if that future will come for sure, what will you do.”
“I’ll pull their intestines out and strangle them… but, aren’t you human…?”
“What does ‘human’ even mean.”
“…”
“They are a disturbance, but words don’t go thorough, and they remain stubborn even with swords pointed against them. You guys are all generally like that. Disgusting, pathetic and talk nonstop about a boring topic.”
“…”
“Annoying enough to see them one or two days, but I had to watch on for a fairly long time because of circumstances. So what else can I do.”
Looking back, he had killed a lot of innocent people for various reasons. For being a hindrance; because they were annoying; accidentally, etc… if actions defined a person, he wouldn’t be a human.
Yu Jitae did not deny that.
“Hmm?”
“…”
“What should I have done.”
The man locked up in the walls of time did not put regulations on himself. He just had to live some way or another.
“…Cough.”
After understanding what the Regressor meant as a demon, Wei Yan felt blank. He looked into Yu Jitae’s eyes, before laughing, “Kuk, kuk” while bleeding from his mouth.
Because of his short breath, his laugh also left with short pauses.
Soon, his laughter as well as his breath came to a stop, as Wei Yan comprehended the situation.
Yu Jitae.
The communication artifact in Yu Jitae’s hand; the direction of the Azure Dragon study group’s encampment at a distance; the room-type dungeon with dimensional walls isolating the room, as well as something that was distancing itself on the other side of the wall.
“All fucked up… Cough…”
Before long, Wei Yan opened his mouth with a calm voice as he made a resolve.
“This is the heart…”
Since he understood that his Grand Schema had failed,
“The bone’s quite tough, so you should stab properly.”
Wei Yan discarded himself without a second thought.
***
“How old are you, young miss?”
“I’m 20 years old.”
“Twenty?”
Before the dungeon gates closed, Li Hwa was talking to Bom while flying through the empty sky of a ‘room’.
“How pretty. I have never seen a child as beautiful as you in my fairly long life.”
“Thank you.”
“Even your voice is like a glass marble… you must be loved a lot.”
Bom returned a smile.
Due to the planned battle formation, Li Hwa had to go stop Ysayle Khalifa.
Ysayle had departed before them, and she must be heading to the boss room through another room with a puppet. Therefore, they needed to go faster if they wanted to stop Ysayle from going any further.
With an unfamiliar dimension and the coordinates not being clear in her head, even a green dragon was not able to teleport from the inside of a dungeon, to another area of the dungeon.
And while they were comfortably flying thanks to the telekinetic ability, Bom suddenly turned blank. After coming to herself, she stared at the old lady.
There was something strange – what she read through Providence was different from the old lady’s current self.
Bom therefore decided to ask her.
“Granny.”
“Nnn?”
“…If this sounds rude, you don’t have to reply.”
“Okay I will. What is it.”
“What happened between you and Ysayle Khalifa?”
Li Hwa stared at Bom with a smile. Beneath her eyes were the deep wrinkles of her life.
“Back in the days… I was like you, young miss. I was very pretty as a child.”
“Really?”
“It’s a joke. I wasn’t as pretty as you. If I was, I would have become a celebrity instead of a superhuman.”
“Hehe…”
“But even then, I was quite loved. The men of my village would come near my house to sneak a look at me.”
“Ahh.”
“I don’t know why in the past, but I didn’t want to show myself to them. Maybe I thought my face would wear down if I showed them too much. I was acting snobby.”
“…”
“And there was this boy who was really persistent. He was short, and ugly. Every time he would stay at a nearby park alone, and if I left for the convenience store, he would greet me from a distance without even having the courage to step up.”
“…Was he younger than you?”
“He was. That’s why I wasn’t that content, because I was into confident older men.”
“Aigoo…”
“Ahh, am I saying too much?”
“No? It’s fun.”
Others would be surprised if they saw this, because Li Hwa rarely ever talked about herself. Thus, even the members of the Grand Natural Society that were close with her barely knew about Li Hwa’s past.
“Hulhul. It’s against the rules if you’re kind on top of that…”
But Li Hwa was feeling a strange sense of comfort from this unknown girl.
“And one day, he plucked up his courage and walked up, and handed me a small envelope, you see. He put a letter and a picture of himself inside.”
Searching through her pocket, Li Hwa took out a small notebook. It was a leathery notebook, that had been blanched here and there. Inside, there was the faded photo of a man taken with a polaroid.
“No-one used a polaroid back then… well, he was a strange child. His face wasn’t that great, nor was his family. He was short, and he wasn’t even a Taiwanese like myself. And back then, the interpreting artifact was expensive so he was a slow speaker too. I had never thought that I would end up marrying him.”
“Oh wow?”
“Yes. We somehow ended up dating, and also somehow ended up bearing a child. I regret it a lot. I should’ve met a better man! You know.”