About what had happened. After hearing the whole story, Baek Sogo closed her eyes.
Because she needed time to sort her thoughts out in her own way, she wanted to be alone.
At least for a moment, Baek Sogo’s unease and worry had been lifted in these turbulent 10 years.
“Thank you.”
Lee Sungmin thanked Yana again. Even if he didn’t see the battle to the end with Geniella, he was able to actively choose and make more rational and safe actions thanks to her presence.
Even if Lee Sungmin and Scarlett had a relationship with Baek Sogo, Yana was a complete stranger to Baek Sogo and had no obligation to help her.
Nevertheless, Yana joined their position against Geniella for Lee Sungmin. No, for Heoju to be exact.
“Thank you, Scarlett.….”
“Don’t thank me. I just wanted to make sure Baek Sogo was safe.”
Lee Sungmin laughed bitterly at Scarlett’s words.
Things went well. A lot better than expected.
No one died even though they entered the Den of the most dangerous monster alive in the North and even fought against that monster for a brief moment. It was an incredible feat and result that nobody could truly complain about.
“So, what is she going to do now?”
Scarlett asked, glancing at Lee Sungmin.
“She was able to open her eyes luckily and regain consciousness but she needs time to herself to think for a bit. Even if she’s up and awake, the poison still hasn’t been cured yet.”
Oslo said she could not neutralize the poison in Baek Sogo’s body. Juwon’s poison was deadly. Even if Juwon, the owner of the poison came to try and treat it, he had no way of doing so.
If left as it was, the poison would continue to gnaw at Baek Sogo’s body. At the end of the day, death was the inevitable result if they didn’t do something about it.
But Lee Sungmin had no intention of letting Baek Sogo just die like that.
Of course he felt that way. Baek Sogo was a lifesaver to Lee Sungmin. Just as Lee Sungmin saved Baek Sogo’s life, Baek Sogo also saved Lee Sungmin’s life. And this time too… Lee Sungmin was determined to save her life once more.
“……the Holy Church.”
Lee Sungmin opened his mouth.
“I’m going to visit Teresa, the Saintess of the Holy Church.”
Ten years ago, Lee Sungmin had been able to meet Teresa in the subjugation against Kim Jonghyun and she left a lasting impression because of her words.
At the time, Teresa was confident that she could completely purify the disharmony and impure forces within Lee Sungmin’s body and mental world that even Oslo was only able to seal.
Teresa was there even when Lee Sungmin went insane. Fortunately, Teresa didn’t die when he did go insane..
“While that’s a good idea… I don’t know if you will like it that much.”
Scarlett interjected, frowning as she spoke. Of course, there was some truth in her words. When Lee Sungmin had gone insane 10 years ago, the Holy Church was right there with him and suffered from his actions while he was mad. It was uncertain if they would welcome him back with hospitality.
“I’ll just ask them as a favor.”
Threats were needed only if they were necessary. Lee Sungmin truly was set on getting the Church to heal Baek Sogo. He was going to apologize no matter what, but if they still turned him away after all he had done to save their lives that day as well, then Lee Sungmin would force his way in.
“Sungmin-nim”
Baek Sogo called out to Lee Sungmin.
Even though he heard her clearly, Lee Sungmin couldn’t react right away. What was this feeling he was getting in his chest? He was trembling and it was surely a form of anxiety.
No, it was fear.
Ten years ago, Baek Sogo did not kill Lee Sungmin. Apart from wondering whether she really had the power to do so or not, she had insisted on saving Lee Sungmin and begged Frau to seal him instead of killing him.
But would her feelings stay the same? Maybe they hadn’t changed. But there was still that fear of whether Baek Sogo looked at him now and would regret not killing him that day.
Maybe she regretted not being able to kill him and she would certainly be sure of those feelings if he forced the church with violence to heal her.
“You’re not going to go?”
Scarlett saw the hesitation in Lee Sungmin’s eyes as he was avoiding replying to Baek Sogo.
He had to swallow his fear. Lee Sungmin slowly rose up. The conversation… …was frightening to say the least.
He was the exact same as he was ten years ago in terms of his mind, but that didn’t apply to everyone else. The decade spent by Baek Sogo may have changed her.
Even so. Lee Sungmin slowly approached Baek Sogo. She was sitting with her back against the trunk of a large tree in the forest.
Lee Sungmin’s heart sank when he saw Baek Sogo’s weak and watery eyes.
“Thank you.”
Looking at Lee Sungmin approaching, Baek Sogo smiled faintly.
“For saving me… As for me… I never imagined you would be the one come to my rescue.”
“……Are you feeling…… okay?”
“It’s not good. I’ve lost a lot of weight and internal energy from the captivity. My internal circuits are rock hard and won’t budge an ounce of energy inside…… I’ve been thinking about what I did a lot over the past year. I’m so… I’ve been acting like such an idiot.”
Baek Sogo closed her eyes as she spoke.
“It was inevitable that I would be captured with how weak I was. What about you though? Are you feeling well?”
“I’m doing okay…….”Lee Sungmin replied, not sure of what to say. Baek Sogo saw this and asked.
“Do you blame me?”
What Baek Sogo said came into Lee Sungmin’s heart. Lee Sungmin looked at Baek Sogo in surprise. Baek Sogo was waiting for Lee Sungmin’s answer.
“There’s no way I can blame you for anything..… Ten years ago, if you hadn’t stopped me…….”
“No, I’m not talking about that.”
Baek Sogo shook her head and continued.
“I’m such a nuisance.”
Baek Sogo smiled bitterly with complete defeat etched across her face. Lee Sungmin, seeing this, looked at her in shock. He sat down in front of Baek Sogo, clasping his trembling hands.
He didn’t want to do this, but his body was already moving. Lee Sungmin placed his hand on her shoulder. Baek Sogo slowly continued, looking at Lee Sungmin’s eyes in front of her.
“You were sealed for ten whole years…… It surely must have been a long time.”
“……Yes.”
“For 10 years, I wanted to do a lot of things. I wanted to destroy the evil of this world… At least the evil that I distinguished as, I mean. Even if it’s a narrow-minded ideal, don’t…… I’ve erased what most people call ‘evil’ from this world.”
At least, Baek Sogo’s actions were not in vain. In ten years, many demonic practitioners that had committed murder and taboo had died at the hands of Baek Sogo.
She wandered around the world without taking a single break in her pursuit of her own ideals. While doing these deeds without taking rest, her name became more and more well-known as a savior of peace.
“I never thought my life would be easy once I decided to pursue these ideals. But…… I didn’t want to collapse and give up on it. But in the end, this is what had happened. I didn’t know too much. When I first learned that monsters were the ones who were causing chaos in the world behind the guise of the Blood Alliance, I felt so foolish and stupid for not realizing it sooner.”
And so, Baek Sogo went to Cheped after finding out about Predator’s involvement.
“Predator…. I thought they were the root of this world’s rotting evil. But while this was all happening, I was starting to grow more and more tired. I had been wandering around the world for 10 years to wipe out any and all evil I could find, but I couldn’t do it… The world still hasn’t become peaceful.”
Because of this, Baek Sogo felt defeated. But even still… She refused to collapse and stop.
“When I found out about them. I thought I found the answer to my beliefs was within my grasp. Destroy them and the world would be at peace. Oh, I know…. What a shallow idea it was. But… at least I thought that if I did get rid of them, there would be a more resolute and definitive change brought about than anything else I had ever done.”
“………Baek Sogo.”
“I failed.”
Baek Sogo opened her closed eyes. Lee Sungmin stared at her, looking into her dull gray irises that had collapsed in defeat.
“I got poisoned from the fight and was wandering helplessly in the snow of the North. I had a premonition of death…… and fainted……but because of that, I missed everything. I woke up in the underground prison of a mansion, tied down and helpless. The first thing I saw was the Vampire Queen- the root of all evil, staring at me. I hadn’t ever felt so helpless.”
Hahaha… Baek Sogo let out a defeated laugh.
“And in the end, I escaped from there with the help of you, who I had sealed with my own hands. Isn’t that pathetic? I had only caused nothing but trouble. Because of me, you took a risk of almost dying again to that monster. If you had gone there and died… I…”
“Stop.”
Lee Sungmin no longer wanted to listen to Baek Sogo.
“I have never thought of you as a nuisance. I never thought you were ever pathetic. I don’t even want to laugh at the beliefs that you believe in. Destroying evil…… Haha, evil. What’s wrong with that?”
Lee Sungmin reached out and held Baek Sogo’s hand.
“What happened?”
Lee Sungmin said, staring at Baek Sogo unrelenting. Baek Sogo’s attitude was strange.
No matter how many years had passed, he couldn’t understand how her mind had become so weak.
Baek Sogo looked down at Lee Sungmin’s hand that was holding her hand. It was warm.Baek Sogo trembled slightly.
“The end of the world.”
Baek Sogo finally spilled what had been eating at her.
“The end of everything. Gemini told me about it. One day… …no, it’s not long before the world is done for.”
Learning of the truth, Baek Sogo felt utterly destroyed in her morals and beliefs. It was her sole reason for living and becoming stronger during her training in the Trial of Time. What could she do when she was faced with the truth that nothing would ever matter?
The Apocalypse would make Baek Sogo’s life and ideals completely meaningless. No, not just her being.
All of her efforts, every living being in the world of Eria, was helplessly and mindlessly doing whatever they found important in their lives. But none of them knew the truth that it would all be for naught.
A world fated to be destroyed.
A world where everything would cease to exist. It was a world where nothing anyone did would have any impact. Their lives would be forfeit, their dreams and aspirations would be useless.
“You can stop it.”
Lee Sungmin looked into Baek Sogo’s eyes and spoke,
“Even if this world is doomed to end, there must be a way to stop it. I want to stop it from happening. I will prevent the end of the world.”
“……Sungmin-nim…… Aren’t you afraid?”
Baek Sogo had become both physically and mentally weak.
She had been wandering around for ten years on that blind faith in her ideals. While it gave her a sense of direction, it also led to her downfall. Because her goal was so narrow-minded, it allowed little room for error.
Sima Ryunju had said the same thing about Baek Sogo’s beliefs when he was still alive.
Sometimes people with stubborn mentalities like Baek Sogo, would break miserably and face setbacks.
Or completely fall into despair and ruin themselves.
It was as Sima Ryunju had said. Baek Sogo was falling into despair, and was ruining herself. Baek Sogo had always been a strong person for Lee Sungmin, so seeing this weak side of her was new.
“I’m afraid.”
Lee Sungmin added without hesitation.
“I’m a human being too. How can I not be afraid? I’m always afraid of death. The life I’ve lived so far, the efforts I’ve made. Every person faced with the truth would be afraid to know that whatever they had lived for, was for nothing.”
Even after suffering from death once, Lee Sungmin was still afraid of it. He was even more afraid after knowing the truth of this world, and that he would never have another chance.
“Because I’m afraid, I will struggle. But I will be doing that because I don’t want this world to end. Baek Sogo. I…… I’ve been through a lot that you would be surprised to hear about. Those around me stood together to stop the end, and died doing their part to prevent it.”
Lee Sungmin thought of Sima Ryunju and Abel.
“Some people are still fighting against it as we speak. We’re struggling to prevent the end of this world that we aren’t even sure will come.”
There were people like Wijihoyeon.
“I’m going to… …stop the end of this world. If I don’t, I’ll end up being nothing but a pitiful excuse of a person for those who died for me and did their part to prevent the end of the world. I don’t want to end up dead and forgotten, I want to live longer and be happy. That can only happen if we prevent the Apocalypse.”
Baek Sogo did not answer. Her conviction was broken when she learned of her helplessness.
It wasn’t because she suffered defeat from Juwon and was poisoned by him.
It was because she learned that she was nothing but a small being who could do nothing in the face of the clear fate of this world’s ending.
“Your actions and behaviors are not meaningless.”
Lee Sungmin spoke up in a desperate voice.
“Thanks to you, I was able to survive on the Mountains of Mush. I was able to live until this point because you had given me a way to survive with your martial arts. Not only that, but I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t the one to make the decision to seal me 10 years ago.”
“……that…… What does you mean?”
“I’ll stop the Apocalypse.”
Baek Sogo’s eyes widened at Lee Sungmin’s voice.
“You saved my life, and I’ll stop the Apocalypse. I’m not going to make this world a meaningless place. I’m going to create a good and peaceful world like you wanted. It is impossible for evil to not exist, but it will create a world where there is definitely less.”
So please.
“……Don’t give up. Just like how I didn’t give up.”
Baek Sogo’s head bowed slowly at the words. Her shoulders were trembling slightly.
“……………… hahaha.”
A weeping laugh came from her.
“I’m so ugly.”
Baek Sogo said so and covered her face with her hands.
“You have become so great, but I…… I’ve just gotten ugly.”
“You’re not ugly.”
Lee Sungmin said, wrapping Baek Sogo’s hand in his.
“I will cure the poison in your body so you can help too.”
“……Can I…… really help you?”
“Yes.”
Lee Sungmin hugged Baek Sogo’s as she cried on his shoulder.
“I’m sure.”
In Lee Sungmin’s arms, Baek Sogo sobbed silently.