Chapter 45: Hexennacht (4).

The field of vision passed quickly.

The black and red ray of light passing through the branches covered with snow drew a zigzagging afterimage.

Having finally shaken off all pursuit, Chayeon landed on the ground, fluttering her red hair tied in a ponytail.

“It seems like we’ve shaken them off for now.”

Heukgu, borrowing Chayeon’s mouth, looked around and came to that conclusion.

“I’m sorry, Chayeon. I didn’t want to take it away without permission, but the situation was too urgent. I’ll give it back.”

Soon, the black heterochromia mixed in Chayeon’s eyes subsided, and the red color, reminiscent of rubies, began to return.

Chayeon stood there blankly.

Soon, her lips were closed tightly, and her teeth were grinding.

Chayeon turned her body silently.

To return, she began to move her feet along the way she had come.

<<Chayeon, I advise you to wait until you calm down a little more first.>>

The unpleasant bass that echoed in her head.

Thump thump.

<<Chayeon, listen to me. Right now you are overly excited………>>

“Get out.”

Suddenly, Chayeon stopped on the spot.

“Get out.”

The same words flowed out of her mouth again.

<<Chayeon.>>

“Get out, get out I said. Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out!! Get out of my body!!!!”

Chayeon’s face crumpled in an instant.

From those eyes and mouth stained with pessimism, a thunderous scream poured out.

“Get out!! Get out I said!!!”

<<Chayeon, calm down and…………….>>

“Don’t be ridiculous! Get out!!”

Startled by Chayeon’s shrill scream, birds fluttered up from their nests.

“Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out… Get out…I…I said… get out….”

As the rough breath she was spitting out subsided, Chayeon slumped down on the spot.

She couldn’t save Arena, and Byul.

Leaving the two of them who had lost consciousness and were being dragged away, she had run away alone.

She could feel Heukgu infusing power.

Forcibly, her heart, her thoughts, and her emotions were regaining their composure.

That familiar feeling, was now, in this moment, coming to Chayeon as terror.

“…Don’t do it………..”

<<Chayeon……………..>>

“Don’t do it, don’t do it, please don’t do it! My body too, my heart too, it’s mine!! Don’t control my thoughts, my body, as you please!!!”

At that scream, at the scream as if tearing out her heart and spitting it out, Heukgu stopped speaking.

The power, was cut off.

“…A, Arena, sh, she’s being held, a, and my, my body, I, I mean…Wh, why, as, you please……”

The fragile mind, which had not recovered its composure, began to crumble under the shock.

Fragments of words that didn’t connect in meaning flowed out through Chayeon’s lips.

“It’s mine………………”

As if a child was whimpering, sorrow burst from Chayeon’s eyes and flowed out endlessly.

Becoming a woman overnight, being threatened with her life, seeing her body’s bones crushed, torn, and her intestines and flesh scattered and destroyed, almost being raped, receiving unwanted attention, writhing in pain after being injected with a strange drug, being imprisoned, and being subjected to unfair beatings and assaults that she could not resist.

The last two months, after barely escaping, the peaceful life that said that the hardship up until now was like a nightmare.

The sweet dream that she had thought she had finally regained had crumbled away in front of her eyes.

With that as the starting point, the pain, fear, sorrow, and pessimism that had piled up and piled up burst out of her like a dam breaking.

“It’s, mine, I tell you………………”

The fragile mind crumbles, and the body breaks free from control.

On the pure white snowfield, Chayeon continued to shed tears that were dripping down and sat there shivering for a long time.

<<It seems you’ve calmed down.>>

Although she was still sitting there with her head hanging down, Heukgu was eerily grasping Chayeon’s state.

Along with that, she could feel power slowly permeating again.

As Heukgu’s power was covered over the wave that had calmed down after an explosion of emotions, Chayeon was quickly regaining her reason.

Chayeon was silent.

She didn’t know what to say, how to start.

<<I think you’re guessing to some extent since you’ve regained your reason, but I’ll explain anyway.>>

Heukgu’s words echoed.

<<Don’t worry too much about those two kids. Although they were captured, nothing bad will happen.>>

<<Originally, their goal was you, Chayeon. The two are students of Jindal, and if it is revealed that they are unrelated to the demons when they are suspected and investigated, there will be no big problem.>>

<<The problem is us, but I don’t think that will be a big problem either. There was Yggdrasil and Wolmyo. Since I poured out as much power as I could, those two wouldn’t be able to not recognize me. It’s only a matter of time before the misunderstanding is resolved. However, I just ran away because the situation was urgent right now.>>

During Heukgu’s explanation, a blush gradually appeared on Chayeon’s cheeks.

Belatedly rushing in, embarrassment, shame.

<<There’s no need to be embarrassed. The human spirit is originally like that. It would be even more so if you have fallen in love.>>

Heukgu’s words maximized Chayeon’s shame.

Unable to think of anything to say about her disgrace, Chayeon decided to ask something else instead.

“…If it was this easy to resolve the misunderstanding, then why didn’t you do that sooner.”

<<I’m not so depraved that I would wake up a sleeping child.>>

At Heukgu’s words that were treating her like a snot-nosed kid, Chayeon could only drop her head without saying anything.

Aga sae, and then now a sleeping child.

She couldn’t deny it.

Seohee had told Chayeon to hide because the situation was urgent and she would take care of it.

It was because she didn’t know that Chayeon had Heukgumiho inside her.

Chayeon had believed Seohee’s words and was holding her breath.

No, as Heukgu had said, she was actually enjoying a quiet and peaceful life.

Chayeon, who had been living alone since the day she lost her parents, couldn’t break free from that warmth on her own.

Heukgu knew that he could resolve the misunderstanding at any time, but he couldn’t bear to wake up Chayeon, who was having a happy dream.

That was the story.

“Come to think of it, Seohee-sensei wasn’t there.”

<<If she had succeeded in persuading them, we wouldn’t have been attacked.>>

It was as she said.

Then, is she remaining in Jindal?

<<If what you’re saying is true, then we can go back now, right?”

<<Unless Yggdrasil’s vessel is terribly stupid, they wouldn’t dare to attack even after seeing that appearance earlier. I think they will at least hear the story.>>

That was fortunate.

It was enough if Arena and Byul were safe, but it would be good if the misunderstanding could be resolved as well.

Of course, even if the misunderstanding was resolved, she didn’t have any intention of returning to Jindal now.

Her body was still trembling and she was grinding her teeth just thinking about what had happened in prison.

What did they trust about a group that sets such a bastard up as a guard to entrust their safety?

Besides, this time too, they started attacking without asking anything.

The only thing that bothered her was Seohee-sensei.

Is she doing well?

Chayeon brushed off the snow on her butt and got up from her seat.

Her pants were wet because she had been sitting on the snow floor for a long time.

<<Wait.>>

Just as she was about to turn back, Heukgu called her.

“What’s wrong?”

<<This energy is…? Chayeon, there’s a place to stop by for a moment.>>

There’s a place to stop by.

No matter how much she thought Arena and Byul were safe, the anxiety hadn’t completely subsided.

She felt like she would only be relieved if she saw those golden eyes and confident expression right now.

To stop by somewhere else in this situation.

But Chayeon decided to trust Heukgu.

Because she had realized so much about herself.

<<I’m happy that you trust me, but self-deprecation is not good. I’ll guide you.>>

Following Heukgu’s instructions, she went forward while pushing through the trees and bushes.

Her skin tingled as she passed through the bushes, and her whole body was soaked as she was buried in the snow, but she didn’t care much since she was already wet.

After hurrying along the road like that for a long time, a moderately sized area appeared as she finally reached the end of the bush.

If it was spring, it would have been a field full of flowers, and if it was summer, it would have been a plain full of vegetation.

But now it was winter, the trees were dry and the ground was a snowfield full of pure white snow.

In the middle of that snowfield, a man stained with blood was lying down.

The blue energy-tinged hair color and the pale skin, and the white snowballs that his body was buried in, formed a color contrast with the crimson blood that was constantly pouring out of the man’s stomach.

Chayeon was startled and quickly approached the man.

She could feel a faint breath with her fingertips brought to his nose.

But even if she wasn’t an expert, she could tell.

It was soon.

While burning the last remaining light, the man’s life was fading away.

<<This is・・・・・・.>>

And from the man’s open mouth, peculiar things that were not white, not black, and not even something with a color, were constantly flowing out that she couldn’t tell what they were.

What color should I call this?

It was a color that Chayeon had never seen before, that she couldn’t even imagine, a color that didn’t exist in this world.

She didn’t even know whether she should say she was seeing this, or feeling it.

But Chayeon could tell that something was constantly leaking out from inside the man’s body.

She didn’t know why, but she just knew.

It was that kind of feeling.

In that enormity, in that greatness that seemed to devour the universe, Chayeon was feeling awe before she knew it.

She couldn’t move an inch.

Such a chilling sensation that she wanted to kneel down and bow her head right now ran through her whole body.

It was looking down at Chayeon. Their eyes met.

Her body was trembling.

<<Chayeon.>>

And at that moment, Heukgu’s power flowed through every single cell of Chayeon.

She regained her reason and her mind in an instant.

Heukgu, confirming that Chayeon had regained her senses, stared straight at the existence flowing out from the man’s body and opened his mouth.

<<Long time no see.>>

That existence, whose color and shape were unknown, was quietly looking at Chayeon and Heukgumiho beyond her.

Heukgu once again, opened his mouth first.

<<It seems like the last time I saw you was several years ago, were you hiding in a place like this.>>

The huge existence in front of her was still silent.

<<You’ve become a mute in the meantime. It can’t be that you can’t hear since you’ve become a spirit.>>

<<Explain what happened.>>

Heukgu’s words, which were lowered more than ever, echoed in her head.

<<The 7th Divine Pillar, Odysseus.>>