rlaehrwk37: But isn't he passing out too often?
When I opened my eyes again, it was night. In the faint hunger and thirst, I blinked my eyes, then raised my upper body.
How many times have I fainted?
At this point, it was not the time to tease Kim Dokja by calling him a 'fainting man'.
Kim Dokja.
I didn't get to meet Kim Dokja this time. Usually, whenever I passed out, I met him in the snowfield.
An old table and countertop were visible in the dim darkness.
I wondered what kind of kitchen it was, but it seemed to be inside a nearby restaurant.
"Woke up?"
In the darkness, Jung Heewon's face appeared.
"Ah yes."
Jung Heewon, who had her hair done with pride, was sharpening her knife under the moonlight.
While I was feeling something eerie, I held out the temperance pot that Jung Heewon had placed next to me.
"Would you like to eat this?"
Inside the pot were several grains of gourd crops and roasted foreleg.
"I'm not good at cooking, so I only seasoned it. There was some seasoning left in the restaurant."
"Oh, thank you."
Come to think of it, I haven't eaten anything all day.
When I ate food rich in seasoning after a long time, the taste buds on the tip of my tongue went cold.
It was a melting feeling.
As the hunger and thirst subsided, I thought that I would live a little longer, and I was on the verge of fainting.
The situation came to mind spontaneously.
I was having a conversation with Yoo Jonghyuk. Jung Heewon was away for a while to catch the sniper.
Yoo Jonghyuk asked me who Kim Dokja was, and I thought about it… and passed out?
Jung Heewon held out water to me as I choked on food.
"Thank you."
Looking back, I couldn't understand the last situation.
Why did I faint while thinking about Kim Dokja?
Wait, other than that.
"Where is Yoo Jonghyuk?"
"He went alone."
Jung Heewon answered, changing her words indifferently.
"Leaving us?"
Jung Heewon only nodded. But why do you keep being like that?
With a thud, Jung Heewon put down the clean knife.
I had a feeling that something wasn't right.
I think she's going to get mad.
"I thought I told you not to die."
A strangely sparkly voice.
"Did you know how surprised I was?"
Jung Heewon glared at me with her eyes narrowed. I hurriedly narrowed my eyes and apologized.
"I-I'm sorry. But I don't know why that happened either. I passed out all of a sudden."
"Really?
"Yes, really."
"It can't be. Were you threatened by that man?"
"No."
"Weren't you beaten or mistreated? Take off your shirt."
"I'm not, really."
I answered while sneaking away from Jung Heewon, who reached out.
"I didn't really do anything. I just passed out while talking. I guess I'm a bit tired."
Jung Heewon blinked in disbelief and sighed.
"My God. It was real."
When I saw the expression on her face, there was a situation that was drawn in my head belatedly.
No way?
She dismissed the sniper at the request of Yoo Jonghyuk. The situation where we were away, but I was lying on the spot when she returned.
"Did you fight?"
"We were about to fight."
Jung Heewon pursed her lips and said.
"But he said he felt a bit unfair. He said he didn't do anything, but Inho-ssi collapsed by himself."
"So what?"
"Of course I didn't believe it. Does that make sense?"
It makes no sense.
"I almost got into trouble."
"I was almost on the verge of drawing a knife, but the words of Dansu-ahjussi came to mind."
Dansu-ahjussi?
"Before we broke up, the man said that, if I go out with that man, there will be a situation where I will get angry all of a sudden, and then go to sleep."
"Oh."
I really appreciate Dansu-ahjussi's wise judgment.
"He said there could be a misunderstanding."
Even in the past, the Dansu-ahjussi was misunderstood alone when everyone thought of Yoo Jonghyuk badly.
He said it might be.
Ahjussi's wisdom is really amazing.
"The misunderstanding is correct. I really fell alone."
"Then I'm glad."
By the way, Yoo Jonghyuk and Kim Dokja became a company at most, but he went away like this.
"Where did Yoo Jonghyuk go?"
"To the north."
If it's in the north, he must have gone to rescue his younger sister, Yoo Mia.
Because right now is the right time.
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"He said he wouldn't go out with you anymore."
"Yes?"
"He doesn't need a weak guy who faints all the time…"
It was embarrassing, but it was right.
"The current Inho-ssi cannot properly play the role of Cheon Inho, and he told me to tell you that."
Yoo Jonghyuk said, if I could play the role of Cheon Inho, he would believe that I am Cheon Inho.
In other words, it means that I am now disqualified.
Damn it.
Of course, to miss Yoo Jonghyuk at such an important moment.
My mind was complicated.
Soon, the battle for the flag will be over, and the 'King's Road' scenario will begin.
Then, going to the 'absolute throne' will be in an instant.
"But Inho-ssi, why do you want to hang out with him?"
Jung Heewon asked as if she did not understand.
"You haven't forgotten what kind of person he is, right? Me and Inho-ssi, we were in danger because of him."
Hearing that, I remembered that I hadn't explained anything to Jung Heewon until now.
Jung Heewon could not understand this situation, because that Yoo Jonghyuk was a human who threw me and Jung Heewon as food for sea monsters.
"Is there a reason you have to be with that person all this time?"
"Yes."
In the end, it was Yoo Jonghyuk who held the key to this world. He is a regressor of the 41st round.
The strongest incarnation.
However, that Yoo Jonghyuk eventually met a tragic ruin at the end of the 41st turn.
In order to prevent that ending, I had no choice but to correct his risky behaviors one by one.
Jung Heewon opened her mouth after a while.
She said, "I heard that Inho-ssi is also an apostle. Is it a problem related to that?"
I involuntarily stopped breathing. When I raised my head, I saw Jung Heewon with a dark complexion.
How long did Jung Heewon ponder over it before asking that question?
"You're right."
A feeling of late guilt came over me.
As Yoo Jonghyuk said, if I was 'Cheon Inho' now, it was Jung Heewon in front of me who protected me.
I could not have survived at Geumho Station and Chungmuro Station without her help.
And to her, I left out important explanations.
「 Throughout the scenario, Jung Heewon would have been confused. 」
For her, who was an ordinary person, the cataclysm of her world, the scenarios and the constellations as well. It must have been a difficult story.
But in the meantime, the apostles who knew her future appeared, and even those apostles were her own companions.
"Sorry. I haven't told you anything for too long. Where did you hear that I'm an apostle?"
"Just all over the place. I heard people talking."
Even if she pretended not to hear or not see, it seemed that she was actually listening. Even so, Jung Heewon waited for me to speak all along.
"Do you know the 'future' of this world, too?"
"Yes. I know."
Now is the time to talk to Jung Heewon. Just like Kim Dokja did in the main story, I also have to break through this head-on.
I slowly got up from my seat and bowed my head to Jung Heewon.
"Sorry for hiding it for so long. I won't make excuses. I know the future of this world, and I knew of Heewon-ssi's existence from before."
"Oh."
Embarrassed by my sudden apology, Jung Heewon stood up from her seat.
"To prevent the destruction of this world, Heewon's help was absolutely necessary. Actually, that's why I tried to become friends with Heewon-ssi."
Since Jung Heewon had come this far, I couldn't hide it any longer. Because that'd be deceiving her.
"So you were trying to be friendly with me?"
"Yes."
She shuddered and thought there was nothing she could do. But some relationships can't go forward unless they're particularly weak.
I bit my lip and quietly lifted my head. Of course, I thought Jung Heewon would have a disappointed face.
Rather, she had a puzzled expression.
"But... I didn't really feel that way. I was the one who went and talked to you first when I was alone, wasn't it?"
I pondered.
"That… I guess I was lucky."
"If I hadn't been Jung Heewon, wouldn't we have become close?"
I thought for a moment.
If Jung Heewon wasn't Jung Heewon, would I have been close to her?
"No. I think we wouldn't."
The person I liked was Jung Heewon, and the person I needed was also Jung Heewon. She may be angry, but it was a meaningless assumption to me in the first place.
"As expected, Inho-ssi is honest."
"Sorry."
"What do you have to be sorry about? Thank god, because I am Jung Heewon."
"Yes."
"Because I am Jung Heewon, Inho-ssi risked his life for me. It was the same on the bridge and the Theater Dungeon back then. If Inho-ssi wasn't there, I would have died that day."
How is this person…
A sentence came to mind with a momentary sense of tingling.
「 That I was able to come this far thanks to her. 」
I unknowingly bit my lip. Why does that sentence come to mind now?
「 "Thank you for finding me. I'm not being sarcastic, I mean it." 」
How can this person be so consistent even though the speaker is different?
"I'm going crazy too. I am alive here thanks to Heewon."
Even knowing that the sentences in my memory do not explain the Jung Heewon in front of me, it was hard to hide my excitement.
Jung Heewon said with a smile.
"Actually, I didn't want to ask until the end. I wanted you to tell me someday. But, on the roof of the Theater Dungeon, I had a rather strange experience. From then on, I was a bit confused."
The roof of the Theater Dungeon.
I belatedly remembered what had happened with Han Sooyoung.
["This world, that, no…"]
There, Han Sooyoung showed Jung Heewon the story of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.
"What was the story about?"
How else am I supposed to explain that?
"It's a story from a different world than this one."
No matter how much I thought about it, it was best to return Jung Heewon's answer as it was.
"Then all the stories she told me really happened."
"Yes, that's right."
I thought for a moment about the story of that world.
The world where Kim Dokja and
"In that world, Inho-ssi was a complete badass."
In Jung Heewon's hand was a well-forged Mikazuki Munechika.
I thought of Cheon Inho, who was killed by her sword.
Cheon Inho, the villain of 'Geumho Station' who instigated, killed, and extorted coins at will.
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Even though it was Han Sooyoung who first wrote it, I certainly wrote a sentence about it with sincerity.
I fiercely wrote sentences that harass, kill, and torment people.
Because it's villainous, because it's more violent, brutal, and probable.
If so, this moment may be the moment when I get back the 'probability' I used at that time.
"Is the Inho-ssi in front of me the same person as Inho-ssi over there?"