“Joo, Joo Yiwon?”
When Jiho turned back in shock, Joo Yiwon was really standing there.
Jiho suddenly felt the ring Yiwon forced on his finger, [Engagement Ring of Eternity], burning.
“Why didn’t you call me earlier?”
“I-if this had an effect like this, you should’ve told me!”
“This shouldn’t activate that easily? It’s a miracle that Honey’s love created.”
“Even still… wait, this isn’t important right now!”
That large dragon above his head is the problem. Jiho was going to tell Yiwon that they need to find a way to fight that somehow when….
“I-it’s running away?”
It didn’t even give them a chance to fight back. That huge, majestic dragon was flying away with its back to them. Jiho doesn’t believe it, but he can only describe it as running away.
“Jiho-ya, wait here for just a second.”
Joo Yiwon let go of Jiho’s hand first. At that moment, Jiho’s heart anxiously skipped a beat. He instinctively grabbed Yiwon before he could leave.
“No.”
“…Jiho-ya?”
“Don’t go, with that man… like last time….”
Jiho’s head aches. He feels like he’s going to faint on the spot, but he can’t let Yiwon go.
Last time he let go of this hand, the result….
“…”
Seeing Jiho look like he was about to start crying, Yiwon sighed deeply.
“Okay, let’s go together.”
Yiwon lifted Jiho. Jiho would’ve normally gotten angry at something so embarrassing, but right now, Jiho tightly clung to Yiwon and didn’t say anything else.
Yiwon looked far off in the distance. The dragon had already flown so far that it looked like a tiny speck, even to Jiho as a hunter, but….
WHOOSH!
In the blink of an eye, an invisible power dragged the dragon over and threw it on the ground.
Having been dragged across a long distance at close to the speed of sound and tossed to the ground, black blood spurt from the dragon’s mouth like a fountain. However, the blood disappeared before it could land anywhere.
Yiwon looked down at the dragon like it was a bug and stretched his hand out. Jiho knew Yiwon was strong, but this is the first time he’s really experienced it.
A large space opened behind Yiwon. In this space big enough to swallow an entire neighborhood….
“…The sea?”
There was a small sea with rolling waves.
Instead of replying, Yiwon glared at Cho Seung Taek. Cho Seung Taek, who was vomiting blood on the ground, had returned to his human form at some point.
“Are you to kill me?”
“…”
“It does not matter if You stay silent. After all, all that You have accomplished since You have arrived here is meaningless.”
“Shut up, Setero.”
As he spoke that unfamiliar name, Yiwon wore an expression that Jiho’s never seen before. What appeared on his cold face wasn’t anger or scorn. He simply looked annoyed, like he was looking at an irritating fly.
The man called Cho Seung Taek or Setero grit his teeth.
“This never made sense from the start. You are only an intruder on this place!”
“Have you left your final words?”
The man’s face contorted at Yiwon’s cold words. He spit out black blood as he miserably cried.
“We devoted everything to You!”
“I only want one thing.”
At those words, the man fiercely glared at Jiho. Like Jiho was an enemy who had crushed everything the man had….
“…”
Jiho was frozen, and Yiwon covered his eyes. Jiho pushed away this excessive protection that always covered his eyes and stared straight ahead.
Whoosh….
A huge amount of water began to flood out of the open space.
Jiho didn’t understand why Yiwon had opened this space to use its water, but it turns out he had a reason. The water was densely packed with mana and it moved according to Joo Yiwon’s will like another limb.
The man was helplessly swept away. Even though it’s just water, he couldn’t escape–like he had sunken into a swamp–and he was slowly dying inside the whirlpool, when….
“Huh?”
Jiho was observing the man when he noticed something strange. Familiar-looking system windows, tens of them, surrounded the man. The windows surrounded him in an instant, and with a blink, disappeared with the man.
“He escaped.”
Yiwon muttered as if it was expected. He didn’t seem particularly disappointed. Yiwon calmed the stormy waters and returned it into the space.
Seeing Yiwon look so unaffected, Jiho had too many things to ask.
“Joo Yiwon. You….”
Is he going to hide again? Not tell him anything and brush it off with more jokes?
Thankfully when Yiwon turned around, his gaze was the most sincere Jiho’s ever seen.
“Let’s move first. We have to heal you too….”
Fine. Jiho moved his lips to answer.
“…Jiho?”
Maybe because the tension left his body, but Jiho’s body collapsed.
The first fissure appeared much sooner than the system had predicted.
However, the error was within its calculations.
A world’s first fissure always appears in front of the administrator. That is the fate meticulously woven by those preparing for the fissure.
The first administrator is selected for that moment, conceived for a long time to be born at the right time.
As soon as the administrator sees a fissure, they, who lived an ordinary life, will realize the duty they must carry out for the rest of their life and pour out their strength.
The same was true for Earth’s administrator, Shin Jiho.
The moment he saw the first fissure on Earth, Jiho instinctively knew what it was.
That that is a threat to this world, and that his fate is to spend the rest of his life getting rid of that.
Jiho summoned the power given to him. He never used mana before, but it came more innately than moving his arms and legs.
Though the first fissure was quite large, it’s nothing against a newly awakened administrator.
At least, it should’ve been.
“Ah, ack….”
Not long after using his power, Jiho’s head felt like it was going to crack open. It wasn’t just his head; his entire body ached like it was being split apart. Not a single part of his body wasn’t in pain, he felt like he was going to die.
This… something’s wrong.
He should’ve been able to wield this power like he wields his own limbs. Instead, this power was hurting Jiho.
No… there was no problem wielding that power.
The issue began from the plate holding that power. It was like someone was trying to pour hundreds of tons of water into a thin glass bottle. The price of accepting a power beyond his tolerance was destroying Jiho from within.
Why?
The administrator’s body should’ve been created to accept that power.
“Jiho!”
Terrified, Yiwon tried to support him, but even his lover’s touch was too painful for Jiho to bear. But Jiho was okay with the pain if he could cling to Yiwon.
Having just awakened, Jiho couldn’t control his strength. Jiho broke Yiwon’s arm when he grabbed it, but he didn’t realize that. Because Yiwon gritted his teeth and endured the horrible pain.
“Jiho-ya, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay….”
“What do you mean, it looks like he’ll die at this rate.”
A man sarcastically remarked from the side. Yiwon glared at him.
His name is Setero. A man with a strange name that appeared recently. Up until recently, Yiwon thought he was a human from Earth, but….
This man had come from another world.
Jiho’s body trembled when he saw mana not from Earth. He must reject everything from another world. However….
The person desperately cradling Jiho right now is… also not from Earth.
Even though he knows this, Jiho clung to Yiwon. Jiho can’t let go of Yiwon–especially if he’s from another world.
But the conversation between the two headed in a direction Jiho didn’t want.
“Should I save that thing?”
“You… can save Jiho?”
“Indeed, I can.”
“…”
“I assume you know the price.”
Yiwon flinched at the mention of a price, something Jiho was unaware of, like they had already talked in secret.
Yiwon wouldn’t even think to compare most things to Jiho’s life and death, so the fact that he can’t give an answer right away means the price is that tall.
“I don’t… even remember that place. My parents are from this world, and my world is this world. This is where I belong….”
“Would you prefer to lie in Earth’s grave?”
Setero interrupted. Shin Jiho will definitely die like this. He cruelly whispered to Yiwon, who was wavering.
“Don’t you know that an ordinary doctor cannot heal him? I am the only one in this world who can heal this person.”
Yiwon’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
No.
Don’t go.
Jiho desperately latched onto Yiwon, but….
“Fine.”
Joo Yiwon made the worst decision.
“Yi, Yiwon-ah.”
“Jiho-ya, it hurts.”
Jiho was going to grab Yiwon so that he couldn’t run away.
But when Jiho heard Yiwon’s words, he realized that he had broken his lover’s arm. When he saw how Yiwon’s arm was twisted and let go in shock, Yiwon walked up to Setero.
Setero whispered something in Yiwon’s ear. While Jiho couldn’t move, he felt some sort of contract be established between them.
“Joo Yiwon!”
Jiho wanted to tell him not to leave, that Yiwon doesn’t need to sign a suspicious contract with that man for him, but….
“…”
Joo Yiwon arbitrarily said it was for Jiho’s sake and left. To another world that Jiho’s hand couldn’t reach.
LaZ Bird Corner
I tear up every time I read this chapter….
Setero, pay for your crimes.
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