The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 366:

The fight was over.

Yu-hyun slowly approached Kang Hye-rim, who had collapsed.

He felt an indescribable emotion as he looked at her, who was gazing up at him with unfocused eyes.

He knelt down beside her.

Kang Hye-rim greeted him with a faint smile.

“Oh, Yu-hyun. You’re back.”

“…”

“Why do you look like that? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“No.”

“I’m happy. Very much so.”

“Right?”

Kang Hye-rim raised her hand and stroked Yu-hyun’s cheek. Yu-hyun lifted his right hand and gently held her hand that touched his cheek.

He could feel the warmth leaving her skin little by little.

The emotions that he had ignored during the fight burst out like a dam breaking as everything came to an end.

“Hye-rim. I…”

“Shh.”

The tip of Kang Hye-rim’s hand that caressed Yu-hyun’s cheek lightly pressed his lips.

“Don’t say anything. Right now, I just want to be like this.”

What flowed from her slanted wound was not blood but text.

Like Teller’s, the text that came out of Kang Hye-rim’s wound slowly scattered in the air.

She had escaped from the madness and returned to her old self.

But she didn’t have much life left.

Tears ran down Yu-hyun’s cheek as he took off his mask.

Kang Hye-rim looked at him and smiled sadly.

“Don’t cry, Yu-hyun.”

“No. I’m just…”

“Yu-hyun, you did your best from your perspective. Yes. The one who did wrong was… me.”

She turned her head and looked at the liberation army beyond the distant plain.

“I turned away from reality and killed people in madness. Maybe this is a fitting end for me. Not as a sword master, but as a villainess, the Empress of Evil… dying like this.”

“…”

Yu-hyun couldn’t say anything to refute or comfort her.

He knew better than anyone the sins she had committed, and he was the one who had cut her with his sword and made her like this.

He had promised.

He had promised to stay with her forever.

But he was the one who broke it first.

Where would there be someone who wanted to die? Even if she pretended to be strong and smiled, she must be the most troubled in her heart facing death.

He couldn’t stop the tears. He had vowed not to cry anymore, but it was so hard to keep it.

“You can blame me.”

It was all because he wasn’t good enough.

If he had been more careful, more thoughtful. Or, more powerful.

Then maybe this ending would have been different.

“It’s all because of me. It’s my fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, Hye-rim.”

That was all he could say.

To her who had waited for him and fallen into corruption, the only words of comfort he could give were so simple and crude.

He was frustrated and angry with himself.

She knew his care too well and shook her head.

“I don’t blame you, Yu-hyun.”

“But…”

“We finally met again like this.”

Kang Hye-rim’s breathing became more ragged. The powerful life force of a transcendent was reaching its limit.

“Yu-hyun, can you help me sit up for a moment?”

“…”

“Please.”

Yu-hyun nodded and helped her sit up by supporting her back. He held her hand with his left hand and looked into her eyes with his right hand supporting her back.

She was happy as if this situation was what she had dreamed of.

“I’m happy. I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. I’m really glad that I got to see you again, Yu-hyun.”

“Me too… I’m glad that I met you, Hye-rim.”

Yu-hyun forced a smile at Kang Hye-rim, even as tears streamed down his face.

“I’m ridiculous, aren’t I? I’ve done such terrible things until now, and yet I’m happy at the end. I’m such a horrible woman, aren’t I? I shouldn’t be smiling. I shouldn’t be happy.”

“No. Don’t say that. Hye-rim… You’ve already paid for your sins.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“…”

“Yu-hyun.”

“Yes.”

“Can you bring your face closer to me for a moment?”

“…”

As their faces got close enough to feel each other’s breath, Kang Hye-rim took a deep breath and then gently kissed Yu-hyun’s cheek.

“Yu-hyun.”

Kang Hye-rim smiled like a beautiful flower that had just bloomed as she saw Yu-hyun’s eyes widen in surprise.

“I love you.”

***

The dark clouds in the sky cleared.

The sunlight that had been hidden by the Black Thunder Palace’s magic poured through the gap.

Some of it also reached Yu-hyun, who was holding Kang Hye-rim in his arms.

Kang Hye-rim closed her eyes. She was no longer breathing. Yu-hyun held her lifeless body with his head bowed.

The Liberation Army, who had confirmed that the fight was over from afar, slowly approached.

The Legion, who had been watching nervously from outside the Black Thunder Palace, also began to move.

The fight between the two was over, but their fight was not.

Kill each other. Fulfill your revenge. Avenge your family. Kill to survive.

“Stop it.”

Yu-hyun muttered in a small voice that no one could hear.

“Just stop, fighting.”

But the Liberation Army and the Legion did not hide their hostility as they faced each other. Even if the Black Thunder Lord, the Empress of Heaven Kang Hye-rim, was dead… this old conflict was not resolved.

The fight would start again and people would die.

In the end, this conflict could not be erased from the world unless one side completely disappeared.

“Stop it───!!!”

A powerful force swept around Yu-hyun as he shouted.

The Legion, who had been boiling outside the Black Thunder Palace, and the Liberation Army, who had been rushing towards it, were frozen in fear.

Yu-hyun did not look at them and declared in a clear voice.

“Don’t insult her and me any more.”

With that, he acted as if he didn’t care anymore and remained still with Kang Hye-rim’s dead body in his arms.

As everyone was at a loss for what to do, a voice came from the sky.

[Oh no, you can’t do that.]

At the same time, the sunlight that had been coming through the clouds stopped abruptly.

[I’ve gone to such lengths to set up this stage, but it’s no fun if you stop here.]

Yu-hyun did not answer the voice.

He still looked like he was entranced by something and peacefully gazed at Kang Hye-rim with her eyes closed.

But that wouldn’t last long.

Her body was slowly turning into text from where she was wounded and scattering away.

[Are you ignoring me? My goodness, I didn’t expect to be treated so coldly.]

“…”

[Or do you think something will change if you keep holding on to a dead body? That’s a funny story. You killed her, didn’t you? She let go of her sword at the last moment, but you didn’t. Did you not know this would happen?]

The voice echoed in his ears but also dug into his heart. Yu-hyun felt his mind sinking deeper and deeper.

[Are you not suffering? Are you not in pain? I can help you.]

“…”

[You can forget all the pain and misery and get the happiness and peace you want so much. There, you can enjoy your ideal world without anyone’s interference.]

Along with the voice, a black tentacle-like thing slowly descended from the gap in the clouds that had not completely cleared yet.

[Join me. Then you can escape from all this suffering.]

A temptation that corrupted not only the soul, but also the essence.

Yu-hyun did not argue with those words. But Mara Papayas, his opponent, seemed to take his silence as an affirmative answer and stretched out his tentacles towards him.

The troublemaker who corrupted the world had been waiting for this moment.

He had corrupted the Sword Emperor into the Demon Sky Emperor, driven her mad, and prepared the stage while waiting for this man to return.

There was no longer anyone in this world who could stop him.

The only being he could not corrupt. His flaw and nemesis. When he disappeared, Mara Papayas felt both exhilaration and rage.

So he targeted Yu-hyun. He wanted to make him his own and corrupt him, the one that the Enlightened One had tried to protect until his dying breath.

[It’s all over.]

[Who says?]

[What?]

Suddenly, a voice came along with a golden pillar falling from the sky.

Boom!

The shining pillar tore apart all the tentacles that Mara Papayas had extended and slammed into the ground.

It was a huge rod that glowed gold. Mara Papayas knew who owned that weapon.

[The Great Sage!!!]

At the same time, a huge golden figure landed next to the Golden Cudgel that he had thrown.

A stone monkey with squinty eyes and golden armor.

The Great Sage Sun Wukong grinned and bared his teeth as he glared at Mara hiding behind the dark clouds.

[You’ve been quite reckless, you six-eared troublemaker.]

[Sun Wukong. Why are you interfering with me?]

[Why? Are you asking me that because you don’t know? You’re the one who’s doing this to insult the Enlightened One, aren’t you? I’m speechless at your audacity.]

[Didn’t you hate that bastard who’s dead now? Have you forgotten the time when you were trapped under Mount Five Elements?]

[Hey. Have you forgotten my story after that?]

Sun Wukong’s fur flared up like a fierce flame in the wind.

His body grew as big as a mountain and he pulled out the huge Golden Cudgel that was stuck in the ground.

A golden flash burst out from the center of his fierce eyes.

[I became the Victorious Fighting Buddha after finishing my journey with Tripitaka.]

The Great Sage.

No, the Victorious Fighting Buddha Sun Wukong aimed his cudgel at Mara Papayas.

[Don’t dare to utter his name with your filthy mouth and get lost. If you don’t, I’ll personally beat you up.]

[Can you handle it?]

[I wouldn’t have done this from the start if I couldn’t. Have you forgotten? I’m a stone monkey. A great being who ruled as a nightmare of Heaven’s Thirty-Six Thousand Worlds since you were called a troublemaker.]

[And now you’re following the orders of the gone Sakyamuni!]

[Watch your mouth. I’m not following orders, I’m just fulfilling a request.]

Yes, it was a request.

Sun Wukong still remembered what happened five years ago.

The Enlightened One who came to him suddenly and made him a request for the first and last time.

The giant Sun Wukong pointed his finger at Yu-hyun.

[Mara Papayas. You can never touch this guy.]

[…You’ll regret it.]

Mara Papayas growled a warning and disappeared.

The light returned to the darkened sky.

The legion and the liberation army stared blankly at the scene.

They couldn’t comprehend it with their minds as such absurd beings appeared one after another.

[I’ve gotten rid of that annoying guy, and what’s left is…]

The Great Sage looked down at Yu-hyun and clicked his tongue.

He was still holding onto Kang Hye-rim’s corpse, looking like a broken person.

[Kid. No matter how much you hold onto her, a dead person won’t come back. It’s the same even if she was a transcendent. The reason her corpse didn’t disappear right away was because her story was vast, but it’s already starting to fade away and you can’t pick it up.]

“…”

[Tsk. I still don’t know what he saw in him that he asked me to help him even as he was dying.]

“…”

[Hey. Can you hear me?]

As Sun Wukong kept talking to Yu-hyun, Yu-hyun heard something else than his voice.

The moment he cut Kang Hye-rim with his own hand, the world gave Yu-hyun another achievement.

The savior who defeated the notorious Black Thunder Lord and freed the people who suffered under him.

That story seeped into Yu-hyun.

At the same time, Yu-hyun, who had barely crossed the boundary beyond the level of transcendents, reached the other side of the wall.

Everything was dyed white, and a huge book with countless letters opened up.

Yu-hyun stood alone in it.

The scene he had seen in his previous life. Yu-hyun, who had reached the horizon of the story, looked up.

[What are you?]

That voice.

It sounded again.

This was an opportunity.

He was not a pathetic Divine Spirit that was forced to be created in his previous life, but he had literally built up his own rank and status and reached a seat beyond the wall.

Depending on what he said here, he could achieve what he wanted more easily in the future.

With the starry seat that he could regain in front of him.

Yu-hyun answered in a soft voice.

“I am, a human.”

Human Kang Yu-hyun.

He defined himself that way.

He had been hurt, tormented, and eventually despaired, but his eyes had always looked up at the sky.

[Are you sincere?]

“Yes.”

His feet were on the ground, but his eyes always aimed at the stars in the sky.

He wanted to reach out and grab the stars with this hand, he thought that way.

Yes.

He did not want to become a star.

He just wanted to stand tall with the stars as a human, as a being despised by everyone, and see the end of the story.

The voice did not ask any more.

As before, it said that it had heard enough of his answer and sent Yu-hyun back to his original world.

His sight brightened and reality appeared.

Yu-hyun, who had returned from the horizon of the story, looked down at Kang Hye-rim’s corpse that slowly turned into text and scattered.

His gaze soon turned to the book floating above Kang Hye-rim’s head.

The book that had been corrupted and stained black had regained its old light. Not gold, but a brilliant rainbow. But now even that light was fading away.

Death could not be stopped. But was that really so?

“Never.”

He vowed not to give up.

Yu-hyun recalled what Oelo had said before.

He said that he still could not handle the power of the fragment properly.

The codex is the world itself, and the fragment of the codex is ultimately part of the world.

The reason why he could only see other people’s books while having part of the world was because his thoughts were lacking.

It was different now.

Yu-hyun reached out and grabbed Kang Hye-rim’s book.

He felt the touch of the book that was losing its light and trying to disappear, and he aroused a strong will.

‘If you really chose me, then follow my command properly this time.’

As if responding to him, Kang Hye-rim’s book in his hand began to glow brighter and brighter.

The book that had never been seen by anyone’s eyes before, that only Yu-hyun had seen, began to shine on others.

“That is, a book?”

“Where did that come from all of a sudden?”

The Liberation Army muttered blankly as they watched the scene.

It was the same for the Great Sage.

The book that became more and more intense in light soon turned into countless dusts.

No, it was not dust.

What made up Kang Hye-rim’s book was text.

The foundation of this world, and the story of all the history she had built up until now.

It seeped into Kang Hye-rim’s wounds as she closed her eyes.

Sun Wukong widened his eyes as he saw that unbelievable sight.

‘Her wounds are healing?’

Even with his fire-eye golden vision, he could not figure out what was going on.

A being who died in a mixed world could never be revived by attaching any text. It was a fact that everyone knew.

But what he was seeing now, this bizarre spectacle that Yu-hyun showed him, completely overturned the common sense of the mixed world.

The Great Sage realized at that moment why Shakyamuni had asked him to take a good look at Yu-hyun.

Yu-hyun was different.

He was more special than anyone he had ever met.

Shakyamuni, who always walked alone on the path of asceticism, had seen this far.

‘But, it’s not enough.’

Kang Hye-rim’s wounds had healed a lot, but they were not fully recovered.

A single book was ridiculously insufficient to revive her existence, the existence of a ruler who had surpassed the transcenders.

That was what Yu-hyun also felt. He bit his lips and tried to find a way.

‘I need more books, more stories.’

And not just any stories, but ones that were related to Kang Hye-rim.

But, where could he find them? Where could he get books that were related to her, in a place like this?

At that moment, Yu-hyun felt something shining in his arms.

‘What is this?’

What he took out from his arms was a small lotus that the seer had once given him as a gift.

When did it get into his arms?

The lotus in Yu-hyun’s hand bloomed and withered at the same time, and its petals seeped into Kang Hye-rim’s body.

At the same time, a door of light opened above Yu-hyun and Kang Hye-rim’s heads.

Something started to fall from between the light that descended like a blessing.

It was a book with a familiar title that shone with a faint golden light… It was…

[The Swordmaster Chronicles]

Yu-hyun’s eyes widened.

It was the first story that he had created as a teller after meeting Kang Hye-rim.

‘Ah, that’s right.’

Yu-hyun realized what this light was, and what these books that were falling now were.

It was his library that he thought he had lost.

“Hye-rim… You had my library.”

The lotus that the seer had left behind responded to Yu-hyun’s intense wish and opened the library that she had been holding.

The books that fell from between the open doors of the library were the stories that Yu-hyun had shared with Kang Hye-rim so far.

As they imprinted on his retina, the scenes of him being with Kang Hye-rim flashed through his mind one by one.

Her face when she got scolded for buying snacks and getting caught.

Her face when she fought bravely against the phantasm and claimed victory.

Her face when she came up to him with a bright smile and asked if he did well.

All those memories.

Those beautiful memories.

They fell like snow, like petals.

“Ah.”

Yu-hyun couldn’t take his eyes off of them.

The countless books that fell turned into text and soaked into Kang Hye-rim’s body.

The people also stared blankly at the scene.

The scene that was pious, majestic, and beautiful at the same time.

The sight of Yu-hyun holding Kang Hye-rim in his arms among the countless golden books that fell from the sky had something indescribable in it.

That day.

The day when the tyranny of the Black Thunder Ruler ended and her oppression disappeared like dark clouds, a new ruler was born in the mixed world.

The people who witnessed that scene all thought of the same name in their heads.

[The Pile Books Ruler]… The name of a new change.