Chapter 168 – Chapter 168 – Promise (11)

As soon as I left the bathroom, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

Different~ Different~.

When he noticed that the classical music resonating absently inside the department store was the same music Merlin had been muttering.

When I got goosebumps all over my body and reflexively started running toward Areum.

As if my forebodings were correct, the world began to slow down.

Goo Woo-.

Yin and yang dissolved in the air.

All of them tilted, as if guided by a certain law.

Distorted feeling.

As if a natural disaster was sweeping away everything in front of my eyes, this sense in front of my eyes, executing an incomprehensible order as if it were natural.

It was undoubtedly Areumie’s ‘dragon’.

“Axis paper.”

That’s why, without hesitation, I spat out a congratulatory paper.

The crowd was gathering, so I pulled out my bankruptcy sword in mid-air, using a jigsaw up instead of in front.

‘Right below.’

The dessert shop where Areumi was at was not too far away, so Areumie’s figure came into view immediately.

Blinking dangerously golden eyes, Areumi stretched out her hand.

Naturally, Merlin would be where that hand stretched out, thinking.

I hurriedly tried to use the axis there.

“… Uh?”

There was a completely different scene from what I expected, so I stopped in mid-air.

Kim Cha-ryeok.

In front of Areumi, Kim Cha-ryeok, who was gritting his teeth and crossing his arms in the shape of an X, had been drawn in a mess and his blood was dripping.

Next to Kim Cha-ryeok, Kim Si-hee, who was hiding his presence, appeared, and she was assisting Kim Cha-ryeok.

I guessed it unconsciously.

If it had not been for Kim Si-hee to assist with shadow magic.

What would Kim Cha-ryeok look like now?

“……”

I couldn’t believe it, so I looked down again.

The situation still persisted.

There was no Merlin.

Just, Ah-Reum attacked Kim Cha-Ryeok.

Another panic came, but the sight of Areum slowly opening his mouth.

I didn’t hesitate, and immediately used the chukji toward Areum.

“…!”

Woowook-!

As soon as my eyesight returned, the figure I saw in front of my eyes.

It looked like Aumie slowly opened his mouth.

Verb.

Ah-reum was about to use the dragon again.

The moment the space shudders and the lips that are trying to give orders to the world open again.

I pushed the tip of my finger that I tore off with my sorcery into Areumie’s lips.

I thought about hugging her, but when I saw Areumie’s sunken eyes that gave me goosebumps.

Instinctively, I thought that I should make people aware that it was me, so I did it in a hurry.

The tip of her torn finger touched Areumie’s tongue.

Let the blood that can only be received from me, which has been supplied periodically for the past three weeks, touch the tongue.

A small light returned to Areumie’s empty eyes, which could not even feel the vitality.

“… Brother?”

As if confused, Areum whispers my name.

I grabbed her chin and made her look in my direction.

“Beauty, it’s me. Come to your senses.”

As blood flowed into my mouth, I stared at Areumie.

Areumie’s eyes, which were shaking precariously, met mine.

“Ahhh…”

Seeing me, Areumie’s eyes suddenly regained their light.

Then, as if she knew what she had done, she slowly began to let out a moan full of shame.

“… Shit.”

The groaning, almost like a scream, made me realize that Areum was doing this.

Once Areum calmed down to some extent, she turned her head with the image of checking Kim Cha-ryeok.

“I’m fine.”

Even though Kim Charyeok had a wide open wound on his arm, he calmly replied as if nothing was wrong.

Kim Si-hee tried to heal her wounds with shadow magic by her side, but the wounds damaged by her dragon words rejected her magic.

Blood oozing out profusely, enough to be thought of as excessive bleeding.

Kim Si-hee took off her suit, which she was wearing, as if she was going to stop the bleeding.

As if there was no need for that, Kim Charyeok silently patched up his wounds with his hands.

“Suck!”

Wooddeuk.

With the sound of something twisting, the wounds were stitched together.

“This is fine.”

Wood deuk, wood deuk.

Charyeok Kim, who made a grotesque sound and sutured all his wounds, told me whether he was stitching up his wounds with his constitution.

“Hanjun, cover your little sister’s ears first.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.”

Ah-reum is trembling in my arms.

Areumie was trembling to the tune of the song that was gently flowing in the department store.

Let’s hurriedly tear off her clothes and cover her ears.

Areumie’s struggles were noticeably reduced.

“Bocchan, leave this to me for now. Take the lady out.”

Kim Si-hee told me as I was calming her down by hugging her areum.

“It’s attracted too much attention. We need to get out of here quickly.”

Mumble, Mumble.

At those words of Kim Si-hee, the scene around her that had not been heard due to her tension was gradually revealed.

The customers of the department stores surrounding us.

Their eyes were filled with curiosity as they looked at the blood still spread on the floor and Areumi who caused this scene.

I hurriedly left the department store, hugging Areum.

* *

A back alley outside the department store.

It’s so quiet, it’s only after arriving in this back alley where no one is there.

I released Areumi from my embrace.

“It’s beautiful.”

“……”

Ah-reum didn’t say anything, and wrapped herself in her own clothes.

“It’s beautiful.”

“… Sorry Sorry.”

When I called for Areumi, she reflexively bent her waist toward Kim Charyeok.

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

Ah-reum, who kept bending down to the point where she felt obsessive-compulsive, stopped her actions only after Kim Cha-ryeok grabbed her shoulder.

“Stop it, I’m fine.”

Looking down at Areum, Kim Cha-ryeok patted his arm.

“So, stop it now. You’re kind-hearted, so I know you won’t feel guilty. Shake it off even if you look at me.”

Kim Cha-ryeok said.

“It’s because I’m suffering. Because I can’t see you, my friend’s sister, suffering from me. Stop it now.”

“……”

At the words of Kim Cha-ryeok, who silently comforted her, Ah-reum stopped apologizing.

But just because I stopped apologizing, that anxiety didn’t go away.

Areum was mashing her own lips to the point of bleeding, her tears dripping down her cheeks.

The size of the despair in my golden eyes made me realize that I had been thinking wrong all this time.

A scar hidden deep in Areum’s heart.

The wound was much deeper than I thought.

Even if he tried to fill the wound, the wound that had already rotted away from festering would not be healed by patching it up.

Only by removing the root cause could the wound be healed.

And maybe the culprit is…

“Young master.”

Again.

Kim Si-hee appeared in her alley.

As if she had finished cleaning up, there were small beads of sweat on Kim Si-hee’s neck.

“Song. What was that?”

Kim Si-hee hesitated once at my question, then she spat out an answer.

“… It was just a song that came naturally. It’s a very famous classic song.”

I tightly closed my eyes.

It was an amazing coincidence.

No, maybe it was inevitable.

Merlin.

The homunculus 13 that Merlin made that Hong Ma-dong talked about.

The homunculus 13 that was said to be dead was probably Areum.

It was clear when I looked at the blood well that I had seen with my prayer foreshadowing and the way I reacted to the song I was hearing now.

In this situation, the situation was too exquisitely twisted to blame that song.

“Hanjun.”

And at this time.

Suddenly, Kim Cha-ryeok came out and pulled Ah-reum.

Pulled into the alleyway, Kim Cha-ryeok was looking up at a certain place.

“Someone saw us.”

“… Fuck.”

I spat out a curse.

It was clear who the party was.

* *

Merlin.

Merlin shuddered as he recalled the scene that had just come into his field of vision.

“Ah ah ah ah ah!”

The music that resonated in my head rose just in time.

Bam Bam Bam!

The trumpet sound and the rising highlight part.

Merlin raised her trembling hand to express this overflowing emotion.

And, as if in command, she waved her hand slowly.

Bam bam bam bam!

Sounds getting louder and music getting faster.

Humming the music on repeat in the corner of her own head, Merlin grinned.

She suddenly felt the word being used, and she followed its trail.

And she was able to face ties she previously thought had been cut off.

13.

It may be a coincidence, but it is a homunculus that has the same number as itself.

It may be inevitable, but a homunculus that survived alone like himself.

“13.”

Whispering the name that felt like fate, Merlin recalled her past.

The time when the Imoogi slowly pushed 13 corpses into the pond containing the blood of her clan.

Sucking the blood, the time when everything disappeared due to a load in the end.

Apparently 13 disappeared from the world.

But.

Not in ‘this world’.

Merlin frantically waved her arms at the sound of her escalating music.

It was beautiful.

She was so beautiful that this witchcraft she was putting her feet on now.

About the fact that she didn’t just move the world, but went against it one by one.

Insects and animals.

About the fact that all of those things, which are just by-products, contain the past one by one.

That’s why, about the fact that the 13 corpses repeated here succeeded unlike before.

Merlin shuddered.

“Ahhh…!”

Chae Ae Ae-!

The highlight of the music exploded in my head.

Merlin trembled in the intensely swirling melody.

A long ago.

She felt the same thrill she had had when she killed her father, and Merlin vomited her ejaculate.

“Ahhh.”

Even in the silence after the music ended, Merlin was smiling brightly.