Chapter 44: The Unyielding Refusal

“Alright. Let’s say that’s the case. But what if, despite all your efforts, it still doesn’t work out?”

Sagyeol couldn’t answer. His eyes welled up, just the thought bringing a wave of sadness. Witnessing this unexpected display, Lee Hyun-su’s brow furrowed.

“Then I’ll have to ensure he settles into Grisha, watching his back.”

‘Is he insane?’

“I’ll monitor everyone he meets, everywhere he goes, making sure no annoying flies swarm around him. I’ll slowly tighten the net, subtly enough to avoid causing discomfort, until eventually, he’s mine.”

‘And then, when he says things like that, he seems perfectly sane again.’

“Have you erased from your memory the fact that he tried to kill you?”

This was Lee Hyun-su’s way of asking, ‘You still like him, even after he did that to you?’

“I told you he didn’t actually try to kill me.”

“How can you be so certain?”

Sagyeol offered no reply, simply exiting the security room. Lee Hyun-su found himself unable to stop him further. Left alone, Lee Hyun-su let out a sigh so profound it seemed to shake the very ground.

Stepping outside, Sagyeol walked with an impassive face. The corridor stretched ahead, a succession of iron plates and locks, leading directly to the cargo hold.

He had expected to hesitate considerably before entering, but the accumulated anxiety of the past few days pushed away any momentary reluctance.

A grating screech.

The door creaked open with a metallic groan. The deafening hum made his ears ache. The air was frigid, the floor rough beneath his feet. Sagyeol’s brow furrowed at the far more desolate environment than what he had observed on the monitor.

‘What about the temperature? What about the decompression?’

‘Lee Hyun-su, that bastard, truly…’

‘If I had known this, I would have insisted on locking him in a passenger cabin, no matter what.’ Sagyeol bit his lip, his gaze falling upon the corner wall. There, Yeowon sat, slumped against the wall, head bowed low. He remained utterly motionless, like a statue.

Sagyeol swallowed hard, slowly approaching. Even though Yeowon must have heard his footsteps, he showed no reaction.

“Yeowon.”

Calling his name yielded the same result. Sagyeol knelt before the man, gently touching his disheveled hair with his fingertips. As he swept the bangs aside, the man, who had been as still as death, finally opened his eyes.

His heart pounded at the simple action. The words he had rehearsed dozens of times before coming here vanished completely, leaving only raw, unformed thoughts swirling in his mind.

‘If this is how it would be, why did you sleep with me?’

‘What were you thinking, following me?’

‘Did you truly intend to kill me?’

Yeowon glared at him with savage eyes. It was merely a look, yet Sagyeol felt his breath catch. He desperately wanted to deny the hostility contained within that gaze.

“……”

“……”

A metallic scent of blood hung in the air.

Whumph. Whumph.

The booming engine sounds faded, and a battlefield, filled with countless shouts, flickered into view and then vanished.

However, Sagyeol was more profoundly shaken by Yeowon’s reaction itself than by any murderous intent. It was cold, detached. A faint, hostile gaze seemed to pierce right through him.

“Go back.”

Sagyeol couldn’t think; he felt as though he had been bleached, frozen in place.

Was the heat they had shared days ago merely an illusion? He knew that very skin, when he held it, had been burning hot, yet now, even drawing a mere handspan closer felt impossible. That chasm carved deep into Sagyeol’s core.

“I wish to be alone until we reach Grisha.”

The refusal was unyielding. Sagyeol, unable to utter another word, practically fled the cargo hold. He walked down the corridor, each step a creak. How many steps had he taken, how far had he distanced himself?

CRASH!

His fist, capable of effortlessly dispatching lesser monsters, slammed into the iron-plated corridor wall. The spot caved in, as if struck by a hammer.

Sagyeol hit it a few more times before covering his face with his palm. Such an open display of emotion was utterly unlike him.

His reason dulled, and unfamiliar emotions crashed over him like waves. These waves soon brought forth a colossal storm. He swallowed the words rising in his throat, again and again.

“Damn it. Damn it all.”

The repeated curses felt as powerless and futile as waterlogged autumn leaves.

The airship’s voyage was smooth.

This colossal sky-whale sliced through the clouds, utterly unconcerned with whatever might be transpiring within its belly.

Sagyeol did not return afterward, nor did anyone else. When the time came, a crew member, clearly a hunter, would bring his meal. They would place the tray at a precarious distance, just within reach of the chains, glare once, and then depart.

He placed the empty plate back in the same spot and leaned his back against the iron wall. For two days, all he had done was close his eyes in contemplation, occasionally opening them to steal a glance outside through the palm-sized, circular window.

The sky shifted with the sun’s trajectory, and sometimes, through gaps in the clouds, the ground would appear. Occasionally, the energy barriers and magic fields of other cities were visible, but mostly, it was barren land teeming with lurking monsters.

The remnants of once-flourishing civilizations, now buried under vines and overgrown by nature, served as prime habitats for these creatures. Though the colors differed, the landscape itself was not so unlike the Demon Realm.

Monsters roamed, and demonic beasts writhed, poised to devour them. Just then, a low-grade monster took flight. Resembling a bird, it soared past the airship, disappearing beyond the horizon.

I thought about Sagyeol. Still, no answers emerged, and I found myself only repeating meaningless questions.

It had been three days since leaving Baekdam.

In the distance, the energy barrier of a great city, bordering a vast forest, began to emerge into view.

Screech! Shriek!

Pterodactyl-like monsters, targeting the airship, approached only to be repelled by the magic field. Weaker individuals among them fell, paralyzed as if electrocuted, plummeting amidst trails of smoke. Naturally, other monsters swarmed to the spot.

CRUNCH. SNAP.

The pterodactyls were torn limb from limb while still alive. The ground monsters feasted on the rare taste of airborne prey. Only a few tough tails and hooked talons remained.

Just then, the airship began its descent into the city. The wavelength of the sky-vessel’s magic field adjusted to match that of the city’s barrier.

CRACKLE. SPARKLE.

Like one soap bubble merging with another, the airship smoothly passed through the magic field. From this point, they were above the city. Below, it was still forest, but the scenery was entirely different from outside. There were no monsters, only startled deer occasionally darting about. It undeniably felt like human territory.

Unlike Baekdam, the distance between the energy barrier and residential areas in Grisha was substantial. The barrier itself was double-layered, with an approximate 3-kilometer gap between the colossal outer barrier and the relatively smaller inner one.

This matched the information he had received from the informant. It was highly likely, then, that Grisha’s size also aligned with that intelligence: an area more than twenty times that of Baekdam.

The sheer scale of it, when imagined, felt overwhelming. It wasn’t called a super-metropolis for nothing.

‘From the barrier, it would take over an hour by car just to reach the outskirts, wouldn’t it?’

Even considering that most of the outer roads were dilapidated, it was an immense expanse. Given the airship’s speed, they would likely reach the port in about ten more minutes.

“……”

I slowly rose to my feet. It would be a lie to say I hadn’t wavered even once. Nevertheless, I had reached a conclusion and made a firm decision.

In the past, as now, my primary goal was to reach Grisha. Whether I stowed away or used Sagyeol like this, there was little difference. It was merely better to pretend to comply in order to resolve the situation smoothly… or so I reiterated to myself, as if making a vow.

More than anyone, I knew that this repeated incantation was a lie.

“I was wrong.”

“Won’t you give me just one chance?”

The single room where the truth had been laid bare.

The situation that day, in that moment, had been remarkably similar to when I was being dragged away by Kratus. There was only one difference: the person at the center of it all.

Sagyeol, who could have chosen the same path as Kratus, ultimately made an opposing choice.

In a situation where he clearly held the upper hand, he knelt and pleaded with me. He handed me the hilt of the sword he firmly held.

Perhaps that was why I had followed him, as if enchanted.

I had boarded the airship by my own complete volition. Being bound and dragged along like this was also entirely the result of my own choice.

Suddenly, I laughed. I knew I was a flawed and twisted person, but experiencing it firsthand felt profoundly different.

‘If I had refused him then, would he have become as coercive as Kratus?’

No. He wouldn’t have.

It was merely a matter of atmosphere, a feeling. Though I couldn’t explain it any other way, despite that inability, a bright, lantern-like certainty had taken root in a corner of my heart.

I slowly rose from my spot.

Outside the window lay a basin-shaped plain. The rice fields, their harvest complete, were starkly empty. This meant the outlying villages, which relied on agriculture and livestock for their livelihood, were close.

This was where I needed to disembark.

CLANG.

The chains rattled uncomfortably. As I exerted force, the shackles, supposedly designed for restraining hunters, shattered like toys.

I lifted my gaze.

I briefly stared at the surveillance camera—which I knew was there but had pretended wasn’t—before turning my back. Then, I smashed through the airship’s wall.

CRASH!