Chapter 20: The Day the Truth Returned.

With a parched feeling in his mouth, Seo Jin woke up.

And as soon as he regained consciousness, the previous day’s hangover heavily weighed down on his head.

“……Ugh.”

His vision swam.

Forcibly opening his heavy eyelids and turning his head, he saw that the space beside him was already empty.

Slightly creased bedding merely showed the trace of someone having been there.

With a somewhat dazed expression, Seo Jin stared at the empty space for a while.

In the middle of the silent bedroom,

reminiscing about the events of last night.

A trembling voice,

“Even if you leave, could you create a reason for me to keep living… for me?”

Eyes meeting his directly,
a moment where everything seemed to stop,
Seo Jin couldn’t say anything.

Seril was undoubtedly a beautiful and charming woman.
A truly good person, and an association that was too good for him.
Therefore, her proposal was, in fact, a more than generous offer that he didn’t even deserve to consider.

But, Seo Jin couldn’t accept it in the end,

because……. even now, several years later, he still couldn’t forget.

One person who had once shared his soul….

Her voice,

her laughter,

her habits,

her small quirks,

the texture of her hair,

the color of her eyes,

the smile she gave when she looked at him,

all of it, everything was engraved in Seo Jin’s heart, and nothing could be erased….

He couldn’t bear to….

couldn’t bear to…… grant Seril’s request.

Seo Jin only felt deeply guilty.

Her proposal was truly a generous sentiment that he didn’t even have reason to hesitate over.

Compared to the grace of turning his final moments, which he had resigned himself to spending alone, into such comfortable and warm memories…. it truly was. He wouldn’t be able to repay it with anything.

And yet Seo Jin couldn’t accept her request.

He was so sorry that he couldn’t lift his head.

Only the weight pressing on his heart was agonizing.

At that moment, Seril gently stroked his hand.

“You still…. only have that person in your heart, don’t you.”

“……I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

His gaze inadvertently met hers again. In those eyes that Seo Jin couldn’t even bear to look at out of guilt, a calm understanding was reflected.

“I knew it.”

Seril was Seo Jin’s comrade, but she was also Arcel’s comrade. She remembered how dearly they had treated each other in the past.

Still…. so many years had passed since then. She thought that there might be a chance now.

But her guess was spectacularly wrong.

His heart was still entrusted to one person, and it hadn’t been returned even now.

From the moment they first met, Seril had sensed that fact.

She was just disappointed.

“You don’t need to be sorry. You’re here beside me now. I’ll be satisfied with that.”

Seril merely said that,

and smiled faintly through the darkness of the night.

Again, morning.

Seo Jin was still sitting on the bed, lost in thought.

Rejecting Seril’s feelings last night was something that he only felt sorry about, even after thinking about it again.

But-

At that moment, a cough burst out.
Seo Jin hurriedly covered his mouth.

“Cough! Keuh-!”

But it wouldn’t stop easily.
Disturbingly, a dry cough that suddenly surged up shook his shoulders roughly.
It felt like his windpipe was tearing.

For a while, Seo Jin had to curl up and suppress the rising breaths.

Then, when he barely calmed down and managed to open his eyes, what he saw was a splatter of bloodstains.

Blood soaking his palm.
Traces dyeing the blanket red.
Looking at it made him feel faint.

He wasn’t particularly surprised.
He had expected this time to come, after all.

‘It’s faster than I thought.’

Perhaps the infection had reached his lungs now.

And if it went a little further from here, it would be his heart.

Seo Jin sensed it.
That the end he had been waiting for was approaching.
Now, would he have only about a month left?
Or maybe even less than that.
A human body wasn’t an exact mechanical device, and Seo Jin wasn’t a doctor with specialized knowledge either, so he was just making vague guesses.
But…. no matter how optimistically he thought, it didn’t seem like this body could last more than a month from now. He could feel that fact instinctively.

Even though the end was rapidly approaching, Seo Jin was in a fairly calm mood. It was a fate that had been decided from the start, after all. It would be more funny if he were surprised now.

However, a slightly bitter taste remained.

Seo Jin opened the drawer beside the bed.
From the innermost part of it, he took out a medicine bottle without a label.
When he opened the lid, white pills were visible.
He poured about six of them onto his trembling palm, which was still soaked with blood, and swallowed them all at once.

Soon, as time passed and the medicine began to take effect, the pain that had been tingling and stimulating his whole body gradually subsided. The pain of his windpipe burning and his lungs being torn apart was also erased.

Only then did Seo Jin let out a slightly relieved sigh.

“Haa….”

He sat there blankly for a while, then got up from the bed.

Forcing his limbs, which had little strength, to move, he picked up the blanket that had been stained with blood and went out to the living room.

He put it in the washing machine and started it.

He didn’t know if it would become as clean as before, but it would be better than leaving it as it was.

Even if unremovable stains remained, he hoped that she wouldn’t be surprised.

Seril probably knew about it, but he still didn’t want to make her worry unnecessarily.

The washing machine started spinning.

Until the laundry was finished, Seo Jin gradually cleaned the empty house.

Because it was something he could do now.

Even if there wasn’t much time left, he wanted to live as normally as possible as long as his body moved.

But all he did while doing that was housework.
If Seril saw him, she would stop him from doing even this.
While she stayed here, she always thought only of Seo Jin’s convenience.

Because he felt sorry for that consideration, Seo Jin would help with the housework as much as possible.

In a situation where there wasn’t much time even allowed, there was no way to repay her kindness, even a little bit.

Even so, Seo Jin, who had rejected her only request, didn’t know what to do now. He was at a loss as to what face he should make when he faced her, who would be returning home from work this evening.

[Ding-dong-!]

At that moment, the doorbell rang from outside the front door.

Seo Jin was startled without realizing it.
Because that was what he had been thinking about, he thought Seril had returned. He looked at the clock, wondering if it was already that time, but it was still broad daylight.

It wasn’t the time she usually came home from work.

Seo Jin suddenly felt wary.

In fact, it was almost the first time the doorbell had rung in this house. Seril made it so that Seo Jin didn’t have to receive things like deliveries himself.

‘Then what….’

His shoulders stiffened without realizing it, then relaxed.

In fact, there was a high probability that it was an unnecessary worry.

Because he believed in Seril’s abilities. Although she had shown him a few vulnerable aspects in front of Seo Jin, her skills were trustworthy enough. She had even reached the rank of colonel in the Allied Forces at such a young age. She wasn’t the type to do sloppy work.

So it wasn’t a situation where her wanted status had been exposed.

‘It’s probably nothing.’

But it wouldn’t hurt to be careful, so Seo Jin held his breath and first looked at the intercom.

But no one was visible on the screen.

“……?”

Waryness raised its head again.

Seo Jin didn’t care what happened to himself, but he thought that if something happened, Seril would suffer that much hardship.
Therefore, he had refrained from even going out to avoid troublesome things.
Therefore, he was worried about what to do in a situation like this.

After the doorbell rang, no sign of anyone was felt outside, even after a long time.

The screen visible on the intercom was the same.

Then, he belatedly realized it.

That a while ago, something had been slipped in through the gap under the front door…….

‘An envelope?’

A brown envelope had come all the way to the shoe cabinet.

Seo Jin carefully picked it up.

On the surface he turned over, it was written in a scribbled handwriting.

【Present for You】

He was wondering why it felt somehow familiar, but even while he was pondering, there was still no sign of anyone outside.

Seo Jin hesitated for a moment, then slowly tore open the envelope.

Then, a document made up of several sheets of paper came out from inside.

It was in the format of some kind of report.

But as he carefully examined it… the date written at the very top was somehow familiar, and Seo Jin’s eyes widened.

December 12th.

That date was an unforgettable memory for Seo Jin.

Because it was the day he had experienced an absolutely unerasable, worst failure.

[Operation Name: Dawn of Humanity]

Seven years ago, the first battle in which the Allied Forces launched a full-scale offensive against the Encroachment.

A subjugation operation to eliminate the first Omega-class Encroachment species, .

Humanity concentrated all the capabilities it could use on the plan, and at the center of the operation was the name of ‘Arcel Daylight’, who was the strongest Aegis at the time.

But… the result at that time ended with a devastating defeat for the Allied Forces.

The price of failure was enormous, and it became a topic that everyone avoided mentioning.

But now, the unidentified document in his hand was recording the events of that time.

With a stiff expression, Seo Jin unfolded the document.
His gaze quickly reading through the contents,
the hand that turned each page gradually becoming rough.

Finally, when his bulging eyes reached the end of the document,
he clearly understood what all the contents implied and completely froze.

Due to the failure that day seven years ago, the Allied Forces clearly suffered irreversible damage.

They had to pay a terrible price that was referred to as the worst mistake of the Great War.

Seo Jin was the same.

On that unforgettable day, he had lost the most precious person in the world.

‘Arcel…..’

It was the price of a failure that was more painful than anything else.

Always,
every minute, every second of his life,
it was something he still regretted.
It was a memory that had become a deep regret, to the point where he could say that he would give his life a hundred times over if he could reverse it.

But what if the defeat at that time… was actually intentional by someone?

The document revealed fragments of numerous manipulations:
Omission of fire support,
concealment of information,
reduction of reserve forces,
induction of communication confusion,
and many others.

A clue that a despicable story he didn’t know was intertwined with Arcel’s death…

was gradually crumpling in his uncontrollably trembling grip.