Chapter 170 – Chapter 170 – Promise (13)

A drop of water fell into the calmly submerged consciousness.

“Brother.”

A voice whispering to me every morning.

“Brother, it’s morning.”

A strangely excited, slightly playful voice whispered into my consciousness.

The consciousness that had subsided immediately came to mind.

“Huh!”

As if unconsciously grabbing someone, the hand stretched out, raising the body.

As I was stretching out my hand into empty space, I heard a voice calling me from next to me.

“Kang Han-jun.”

A cynical voice, different from Areumie’s.

“Wisdom sister?”

Kim Ji-hye was sitting on the chair next to my bed, and she was looking down at me.

Kim Ji-hye put the empty coffee cup down on her table, as if to show that she had been waiting for me all this time.

“Whoa…”

Jihye Kim sighed deeply.

The dark circles under her eyes somehow seemed darker today.

I want to stare blankly at Kim Ji-hye for a while, before she loses consciousness.

It reminded me of Ah-reum, who whispered goodbye to me with an empty, empty look.

I hurriedly asked Kim Ji-hye.

“Areum.”

“……”

Kim Ji-hye snapped her fingers at my question, without saying anything.

She silently put her cigarette in her mouth, impatient with the action to light it.

“Areum?”

The outcome seemed obvious, but she had to hear it for herself.

Minimal possibility.

There’s very little chance, so maybe… Maybe.

Kim Ji-hye pursed her lips and sucked on her cigarette.

Kim Ji-hye spit her white smoke into the air and spoke to me in a cold tone.

“Hanjun Kang, do you know how much sleep you’ve had up until now?”

“… Yes?”

Kim Ji-hye, who suddenly talks about the time I fell asleep, not Ah-reum.

Seeing that look of genuine anger, I stopped talking.

Jihye Kim then slowly sucked on her cigarette, and she exhaled the smoke.

“34 hours.”

Jihye Kim bit her cigarette.

Kim Ji-hye, who snapped her fingers and blew out her cigarette, spoke to me once again.

“It’s 34 hours. The time you’ve been sleeping so far.”

Turning her head, she looked out the window.

Morning when the sun is shining brightly.

I felt like I woke up after a good night’s sleep, but according to Kim Ji-hye, it was that I had been sleeping for over a day.

“I knew it was a dragon attack, but I knew it as soon as I saw it. Even if I touched it, or even if I used magic, seeing you breathing like a dead mouse, what do you think I would have thought?”

Jihye Kim’s eyes sank coldly.

“It was the last hurdle. If I had been an hour late, I would have done something. One way or another.”

Widely.

Jihye Kim snapped her fingers.

The members of the shadow family who were waiting next to Kim Ji-hye quietly left.

For an instant, an eerie feeling ran down her spine.

Since I’m not saying anything, I’m looking at Kim Ji-hye.

Jihye Kim slowly raised her body from her chair.

“Areum Lee ran away. Without a trace, she shook off the surveillance that had been placed around her. I expected it, but she concealed her power far more than I thought.”

Kdak.

Jihye Kim looked down at me, she said.

“So tell me right now, Kang Kang-jun.”

He spat out swear words without hesitation, but those black eyes that always cared for me.

He was staring down at me with a look he had never seen before.

“What happened, and the facts you’ve been hiding until now. Tell me everything.”

As the head of the shadow family, Kim Ji-hye ordered me in a cold voice.

* *

Realizing that the situation had taken a serious turn, I immediately regained my composure.

And first of all, I told Kim Ji-hye everything I knew.

Ah-reum’s seizure, the story of the homunculus I heard from Hong Ma-dong in a dream, and what Ah-reum did to me.

Kim Ji-hye, who was quietly listening to my story in her shadow family office, called Kim Si-hee.

“Yes, my lord.”

“… Quickly investigate.”

“All right.”

Kim Si-hee bowed her head, and she left the office.

A heavy silence fell in the office, where the two of them were left alone.

“Whoa.”

What broke the silence was Kim Ji-hye’s sigh as she smoked a cigarette.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

At Jihye Kim’s blunt words, I lowered my head.

“That’s… It’s the truth that Hong Ma-dong told me on the day we went out, so it’s time to say it…”

Kim Ji-hye’s eyes looked at me.

When she looked into those eyes as she sank coldly, she realized that she was making up excuses after all.

I quietly confessed the truth.

“I was afraid that if she heard the possibility that Ah-reum was a homunculus, she wouldn’t take excessive measures. She wanted to treat Are-eum as normal as possible.”

Jihye Kim chewed on her cigarette.

“So the result is.”

“……”

I didn’t say anything.

Kim Ji-hye tousled her hair, and she asked for a new cigarette.

Pushing the smoke from her cigarette deep into her lungs, Kim Ji-hye helped herself.

“Even though I roughly noticed, it must have been my fault for ignoring it.”

Kim Ji-hye flicked her cigarette with her hand.

“I’m going to blame you for this, and I’ll go after the rest of the work is done.”

“Yes.”

I nodded her head with a serious expression.

When Kim Ji-hye saw me like this, she twitched her eyes as if she was thinking of someone and sighed.

“At that time, I might even hit your butt. I’m prepared.”

It seems that the rebuke ends here.

Kim Ji-hye changed her mood in an instant and spoke to me.

“First of all, I’ll tell you how the homunculus that Kang Kang-joon and Hong Ma-dong declared died in the pond is still alive. I also have to tell you what I know.”

With her ears pierced, Kim Ji-hye continued her words.

“What Hong Ma-dong said must be true. Lee Ah-reum must have died there. But… Not in this world.”

“… In this world?”

“Okay.”

Jihye Kim nodded her head.

“Hanjun Kang, have you ever thought about the world behind this one you created with your shadow food soul?”

“No.”

“Yes, you’d think it’s just a normal world. If you know the truth, you’d think it’s an unstable world. But if you look closely, it’s a wonderfully well-organized world.”

Jihye Kim tapped on the table.

“The trees and plants that make it up. And the insects and animals. All of these things are a world reborn.”

“Yes.”

I naturally nodded.

However, as if Kim Ji-hye was wrong, she shook her head.

“To be reborn is to repeat it from the beginning. The origin of the world from the very beginning, very quickly.”

“… Yes?”

“So, it’s not just a copy. It means that the previous world was quickly rewinded. In a word, it started from the beginning.”

“Wait a minute, then what about humans and monsters?”

At my words, Jihye Kim was silent.

“Except for those that have recurred, or… Disappeared.”

“……”

Hearing this for the first time, the detailed secrets of this world took my breath away.

But after a while, I realized why Kim Ji-hye had said this.

“So, the original Areumi died… But the repeated Areumyi in this world… Succeeded, right?”

To accept the blood of the Imoogi clan.

Failure and success.

At my words, Jihye Kim nodded her head.

“Yes, since it is a world where a new concept called dungeons has been created. Changes to that extent may occur. Besides, the dead homunculus, Areum Lee, may have been recognized by the world as bugs or animals and not erased.”

“That…”

I tried to say something, but I kept my mouth shut.

“Anyway, that’s what I meant to say.”

Kim Ji-hye stared at me intently.

“The newly born Lee Areum knew that he was the cloned Lee Areum.”

“…?!”

“You must have been confused. In order to save your life in such a state, I came to you. I left you in an unstable state. Don’t you have a rough idea?”

I jumped up from my seat.

“I have to go quickly.”

“…Wait a minute.”

Rattle.

At that time, Kim Si-hee, whom Ji-hye Kim had ordered to investigate something about her, hurriedly opened the door and entered.

“That’s right, head of state. Someone just attacked the conductor’s family!”

“Certainly, Lee Ah-reum didn’t put you to sleep for 34 hours for nothing.”

Jihye Kim took out her cigarette and she stood up.

“I put you to bed with the image of tying your feet. Cleverly.”

* *

Conductor crest.

It was like a factory, or like a concert hall.

Inside the massive, bulging building, Merlin tossed and turned her body.

“Mmmm.”

Numerous pipes stuck around Merlin’s body.

The pipes that had been blowing something into the body groaned and went off with a chiik sound.

Merlin made a characteristic humming sound and twisted her crunchy body.

“How is it?”

“Yes, head. The blood in the body has stabilized much more than before. Using the blood mixed based on the data of the Imoogi clan and the previous 13 as a supplementary form, the effect is definitely noticeable.”

“Let’s check it out.”

Merlin raised her wand, humming.

“Sing.”

Whoops-!

Even though there are no instruments, the lively sound of music resonates throughout the hall.

Merlin nodded her head.

“It’s definitely better than before. But… It’s still not enough.”

Merlin stared into space at her with her covetous eyes.

“Is tracking through the bodily fluids of the clan still far from being commercialized?”

“Yes. I think I’ll have to wait a week to use it.”

“… It’s a pity, it’s a pity.”

Merlin’s eyes twinkled.

Lee Ah-reum.

Unleash all eyes, as you find out.

She said that the day before yesterday, Lee Beautiful ran away from the shadow family she was entrusted with.

“I must have been afraid.”

Perhaps, she would have vomited up her identity and entrusted herself to the Shadow Family.

The shadow family, who wanted to hide the truth of this world, would have accepted the child.

But the moment that caused her seizure reminded her of her past, and she was afraid. Pulled her body out

The massacre of the vampire clan, the massacre of the Imoogi clan.

Lee Ah-reum’s eyes filled with fear and resentment came to mind.

Remembering that lovely look, Merlin let out a laugh.

“It’s beautiful, it’s beautiful.”

Merlin hummed as she remembered the child who was hiding somewhere.

But.

Merlin didn’t know.

Even if this newly born Areum had the will to live, she felt loved by someone.

That’s why she accepts herself more pessimistically and burns her despair for someone even more.

“Spread, endlessly.”

Outside the building of the conductor’s family.

A girl with waving light green hair whispered.

Blood spurted under his bare white feet.

Tuk-wook, pop.

The blood that flowed from under the torn feet soaked the ground and spread in all directions.

“This is my territory, my territory, mine.”

The girl standing on the sea of ​​blood declared before she knew it.

“I will not forgive you.”

Right after he said that, a thorn fell.

It pierced a building.