Pah-su-sut.
The traces of a Fable stained the [Unbreakable Faith]. Thick smoke arose from this burning Fable.
What used to be someone's history was now scattering away as ashes.
Kim Nam-Woon's blood-soaked white hair strands were hooked on the edge of the sword.
⸢This was Kim Dok-Ja's choice.⸥
I watched his hair scatter away within this ash-grey smoke and opened my mouth. “When I was young, I really hated you.”
When I was still absorbed in reading the 'Ways of Survival', Kim Nam-Woon was the only character that I couldn't sympathise with. If every person appearing in that novel was my hyung, my father, my dongsaeng, and my noona, then….
….Then, the character 'Kim Nam-Woon' was the cautionary tale for me.
“Your so-called justice had no dignity, and your killings were indiscriminate.”
The 18-year-old boy adapted to this abnormal world faster than anyone else. He was the Incarnation who wielded his knife with reckless abandon and sheer arrogance, while throwing himself fully to the darkness.
Unhesitantly carrying out acts of evil, while spewing out one corny line after another. Such traits were so vividly drawn out and my younger self could unabashedly hate this guy as a result.
⸢The evil fashioned just so that one could hate and detest it without holding back.⸥
That was Kim Nam-Woon.
“You are a villain. It's the same story back then and even now.”
I muttered out as if I was talking to myself. Fables staining the blade dripped down like blood.
⸢Kim Dok-Ja, now an adult, was looking at Kim Nam-Woon once more.⸥
Just like how the characters from the 'Ways of Survival' changed inside the scenarios, the person reading that story, me, also changed too.
I was now old enough to figure out why he had to become a villain.
⸢Perhaps it was Kim Dok-Ja's fault that Kim Nam-Woon had to become a villain.⸥
….Because, I read the 'Ways of Survival' back then.
Because, I offered my opinions to the author, and just like how Constellations would do, I evaluated and judged him.
– Dear Author-nim, does Kim Nam-Woon have to become the comrade again this time?
Because, I believed that he was merely a 'character' the author had created, not a living, breathing person.
When I thought about it, the reason why I hated Kim Nam-Woon was pretty simple in nature.
“Yu Jung-Hyeok always took you in as his comrade.”
Out of everyone from the 'Ways of Survival', Kim Nam-Woon most closely resembled me.
“Even though he knew that you are an evil bastard, even though he knew that you did evil things… Even then, he took you in.”
If I was him, how would I have turned out?
Cheongil High School second-year Kim Nam-Woon.
A regular high school student living under the stress of the studying and at odds with his parents.
What would happen if such a high schooler was thrust all alone in an extreme environment where he couldn't survive without taking the life of another, and no one was there to protect him?
“At first, I thought that Yu Jung-Hyeok was thinking of practical benefits. Because, you as an Incarnation held a high potential, that's why. But when I thought some more about it, there were other people with just as much potential as you. Even then, Yu Jung-Hyeok always accepted you as his comrade every single regression turn.”
If it was me, would I have been able to make a different choice?
While repeating the 1st turn, the 2nd, then the 3rd…. then even the 999th, would I have survived by making a different choice than the 'Kim Nam-Woon' from that time?
“….When I think about it again now, maybe it was not Yu Jung-Hyeok chasing after practical benefits, but me.”
Chapter end
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