He had hoped to survive intact, but inevitably, Irregular No. 12 had come to save him by entering the basement. He must have realized that he had been dragged off by Bell after seeing the bamboo spear fallen on the floor while looking for him, who had disappeared.
He had the intuition to notice that, but why didn't he have the sense to realize that it was the perfect time to escape!
Kang Sihyun felt so suffocated he thought he might die. Why keep doing this.
"Why do you keep saying let's die together!"
He yelled uncontrollably, out of emotion. To blame him, because he had been captured, and he had come back because of that—to blame himself for being captured. Startled by this, Irregular No. 12 bit his lip and murmured.
"I didn't come here to die."
"...What?"
"Let's, let's get out of here, together. Together...."
I came because I want to live with you....
Irregular No. 12 added in a creeping voice. Kang Sihyun was at a loss for words hearing the boy's trembling voice.
What more could he say.
To the boy who, despite being scared, kept trying to save himself. To him who, while unconscious, struggled to untie his bound hands and feet, risking his life twice to save him.
What more could he reproach.
"...I'm not as good a person as you think."
"Yeah."
"So, you don't need to try to save me. I mean it, Irregular No. 12."
"...It’s not No. 12."
"...What?"
Irregular No. 12, who rarely stuttered, answered back and managed to finally untie the rope binding his ankle and spoke.
"It’s not No. 12, it's No. 1. Let's go out and... give each other names... and live like others."
No. 1, No. 12, but called by the names they gave each other.
That was the ideal that Irregular No. 12 dreamed of. It was then that Kang Sihyun realized he had come to save him to achieve this ideal. Not just because he was foolishly kind, not just because he was naive. He was in his dreamed future. He had come to save him for his own sake.
It was admirable yet simultaneously heartbreaking.
All he wanted to do after getting out was to live by the names they received, like everyone else.
Kang Sihyun suddenly remembered he often made such promises when he was with Haru. Uncharacteristically filled with hopeful words.
"...Yeah. Let's go on a trip once we're out."
He whispered softly, and the speed of untying the ropes increased. Kang Sihyun sighed and watched the boy struggling to untie the ropes on his arms. He really looked just like Haru, except.
Irregular No. 12's face looked more scarred than Haru's.
A feeling of apology and relief came at the same time.
Relief that Haru's life was better than in his previous life, and the apology was towards Irregular No. 12.
If I had known, I should have been nicer to you.
To make sure you were less hurt. To make sure there were fewer scratches on your purity. I should have done that.
Even as he was regretting, Irregular No. 12 managed to untie the rope around his wrist. He grabbed Kang Sihyun, who had fallen due to his weak legs, and helped him up.
"That's it, No. 1! Now, just to get out...!"
It was the moment the boy shouted in a hopeful tone. The door to the sealed basement opened. Then, the last person they wanted to see walked into the basement.
It was Bell.
"Ah...."
A desperate sigh escaped from Irregular No. 12. Kang Sihyun did not let go of his vigilance, and the moment Bell turned his head and saw Irregular No. 12, he stripped off his cloak.
It seemed as if the cloak was fluttering, then it flew towards Bell, sticking to his face.
"What, what!"
The startled man tore off the cloak covering his face. Kang Sihyun did not miss this moment and grabbed Irregular No. 12's wrist, sprinting past Bell. When Bell managed to clear his vision, Kang Sihyun and Irregular No. 12 were already running up the stairs.
"You, you damned things!"
From downstairs, Bell's angry voice could be heard. The sound of footsteps followed as Kang Sihyun and Bell moved faster, more agilely, escaping the basement stairs. Once they reached the ground floor, Kang Sihyun led Irregular No. 12 ahead.
"Remember the escape route we set up during the assassination plan? That's where we're going. Can you do it?"
"Yeah, yes!"
Irregular No. 12 nodded
in a flustered manner despite the sudden situation. Kang Sihyun urged him on, "Then let's go quickly."
"No. 1!"
Bell, who had reached the top of the stairs by now, shouted at the sight of Kang Sihyun and Irregular No. 12.
"Damn it! I didn't want to use it because it's expensive!"
The man muttered a fierce curse as he rummaged through his clothes. The foreboding was not good. Kang Sihyun was thinking of pushing Irregular No. 12 to the left or right if necessary when the time came.
Bang!
The moment Bell pulled his hand out of his pocket, a gunshot sounded. The shot echoed through the slums, startling people in the distance who screamed or shouted. Abandoned dogs barked, and forest animals howled, but Kang Sihyun could pay attention to none of it.
Because of the boy blocking his path.
The moment Bell drew his gun, something grabbed Kang Sihyun tightly and used the momentum to thrust forward, blocking him. It was such a fleeting moment that Kang Sihyun couldn't gather his thoughts until the echo of the gunshot subsided. Surely Haru, who had been running ahead, had taken the bullet for him and fallen.
His mind went blank.
"Haru!"
He screamed, forgetting that he was not Haru, and grabbed him. Irregular No. 12 staggered to his feet. But having already fired one bullet, Bell did not spare the next one. Determined to catch them no matter the cost, the man pulled the trigger again.
This time, Kang Sihyun tried to block Haru but couldn't. The boy stood up and wrapped himself around Kang Sihyun, protecting him. It was an incredible stubbornness. Eventually, another bullet hit Irregular No. 12's body.
"Hey, Banharu!"
This crazy bastard!
There's a limit to stupidity. It was unlikely for someone who was not a superhuman to survive being shot repeatedly. He had told him to move away, but he stubbornly resisted. Instead, he restrained Kang Sihyun even more strongly, preventing him from moving.
"That damn bastard!"
Bell saw Irregular No. 12 embracing Kang Sihyun and lost his mind, shouting. He fired another bullet and ran towards them, hissing. It seemed he had only three bullets.
As the gunshots ceased, Haru finally collapsed.
"Ah...."
Kang Sihyun watched Haru fall without being able to say a word. The breath was faint. Not completely cut off.
But.
It would be soon.
Having seen many deaths, he knew.
"Uh...."
Kang Sihyun's face was a mess. Haru, who had collapsed, sat on Kang Sihyun's lap and put his hand on him. It was a simple gesture, yet he trembled and struggled with great difficulty. He furrowed his brow and opened his mouth.
"Go."
That was all. Even that seemed difficult to say.
"Go."
Once more.
"Go, far away."
With a voice so faint it seemed about to be cut off, he urged his own escape.
"Ah..."
Kang Sihyun held Haru's hand as if he had forgotten how to speak. If only divine power, just divine power, were unleashed.
If only that were unleashed.
He desperately wished. If he truly was a son of a god, shouldn't divine power be unleashed at a time like this?
And yet he knew inside.
Irregular. Facing a Decumanus and dying as a sacrifice, Haewoon and merely being shot, Irregular No. 12—these cases were different. If he stopped breathing, he couldn't be revived like Haewoon.
It was a fated death, not one intervened by a god.
Knowing this, Kang Sihyun just groaned, holding Haru. Go. He spoke again, telling him to get up and run. Breathing seemed difficult. He looked like someone about to die. So Kang Sihyun, unable to move easily, was eventually grabbed by the hair by Bell. Haru saw this and closed his eyes in despair.
The faint pulse in his hand was no longer felt. Even as Bell yanked his head back, Kang Sihyun focused only on Haru's energy until he confirmed his breath had stopped.
Despair.
Divine power was unleashed then.
It had ignored him when truly desperate and needed, and only after death did divine power unleash. Truly. Truly, humans are frail and divine power a fleeting force.
Kang Sihyun did not control the vast power unleashed. He just let it overflow. He let it rampage. The violently fluctuating golden energy covered the slum's ground. It swallowed Bell and the village.
"Aaaaagh!"
The engulfed Bell screamed. The villagers also screamed. With a body endowed with divine power, Kang Sihyun became a disaster
in the slums, merely staring blankly at the dead Haru.
Still, he had closed his eyes in death.
If he had died with his eyes wide open, he would never, never forget this moment. He wouldn't have just let it go. Anger would have surged and he would have overturned the entire village.
Go.
That was his last word.
Kang Sihyun held Haru and slowly got up, heading towards the forest.
Go.
Just as the boy had said.
Go, far away.
Wherever his feet took him.
Then, as the rampaging divine power calmed and the aftermath hit, Kang Sihyun collapsed with Haru in the middle of a forest full of hungry animals due to winter.
If he had known, he just wouldn't have treated him harshly. Wouldn't have made him cry. Would have just cherished him, telling him he was the most precious, and escaped together earlier, then gone outside.
Would have given him the name Haru and told him his name was Kang Sihyun.
That's how they should have lived.
Kang Sihyun regretted it. Just then, sensing a presence in the forest, a growling sound along with a pack of wolves burst out from between the trees. Seeing them, apparently starved, Kang Sihyun held Haru and closed his eyes.
There was no reason to continue living as No. 1 anymore.
The pain was instantaneous, but the regret and attachment lasted even after death.
After death.
What do you desire?
Death, even afterwards.
Kang Sihyun, now a soul, looked down with a sad expression at the god watching him.
At last, everything began to be visible to Kang Sihyun. The flow, the reality, and the whole.
Everything is not a dream but reality.
I have already met you all once.
'...I want to meet those children again. All of them. In one world.'
I desired you.
This time, not to lose.
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