⸢Hospital room, 9:12 AM⸥
Gather in front of the Complex's eastern entrance 19:00 tomorrow. We'll go rescue Kim Dok-Ja beyond the [Final Wall].
Jeong Hui-Won received that text message last night. The sender was Han Su-Yeong. As always, her text came across as rather curt.
After receiving that text, she dazedly stared outside the window for a long while.
⸢Jeong Hui-Won didn't want to go back to the scenario.⸥
She fought harder than any other Incarnations. She wished to save Kim Dok-Ja more than anyone, and also badly wanted to end the scenarios, too. And eventually, she reached this place.
⸢The Final Wall she saw at the closing pages of the scenario.⸥
Even now, closing her eyes brought back all those vivid memories. The memories of fighting alongside Kim Dok-Ja after he became the 'Enemy of the Story'.
She survived the horrifying flood of Fables by cutting down many things over and over again. They destroyed the wall, and she reached her own last stop.
⸢However, Han Su-Yeong was now telling her to get on that train one more time.⸥
She was telling her to go to where the [Final Wall] was once more.
She was saying that they had left something behind in the train as they disembarked.
“Hui-Won-ssi.”
Jeong Hui-Won only then noticed her trembling hand gripping the curtain.
“Hyeon-Seong-ssi, did you also get it?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think?”
“….Dok-Jssi we remember is right here with us.”
The 'Kim Dok-Ja' they remembered was currently asleep. His lashes that forgot all the tragedies of this world quivered a little. Jeong Hui-Won quietly placed her hand over his eyes.
Some tragedies would end up disappearing just because they weren't seen.
⸢This Kim Dok-Ja was the 'Kim Dok-Ja' they remembered.⸥
Kim Dok-Ja that survived Geumho Station, Chungmuro, Gwanghwamun, the Demon World, Olympus, and the Journey to the West, and even the Final Wall together with everyone, was right before her. He remembered the name of Jeong Hui-Won's sword, and he also remembered Yi Hyeon-Seong's trauma. He remembered the promise he made with his companions.
So, technically speaking, this was the 'Kim Dok-Ja' they loved, and the one she wanted to protect.
One would wonder if it was fine to divide a person so conveniently like that, but this problem wasn't about the issue of 'Avatar'. From the get-go, the meaning of liking someone was that you liked certain parts of that person.
The blood staining Kim Dok-Ja's wound emitted 'Psusu' noise and evaporated into smoke.
The crumbling Fables wandered in the air, before scattering outside the windows and into the sky above. Jeong Hui-Won didn't know where those Fables were heading off to. It might be that they were extinguished forever, or perhaps they could be returning to other Kim Dok-Ja.
⸢Kim Dok-Ja who remembered the 'Ways of Survival', who always loved that one single story.⸥
Jeong Hui-Won didn't know anything about such Kim Dok-Ja.
No one could love something they didn't know much about.
“Hyeon-Seong-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“If Dok-Jssi was us, what would he have done?”
Yi Hyeon-Seong didn't reply for a long time.
“Those people also know it, too.”
Chapter end
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