RG 149

Cha Seohu shuddered the moment he asked the question. Even though he knew he couldn’t take back the words he had spoken, he regretted it. He wasn’t confident he could handle the answer. What would he do if Cha Sahyeon said “yes”? Or if Cha Sahyeon said “no, that’s a misunderstanding”… would he even be satisfied? He couldn’t be sure of anything. Which meant asking the question had been a mistake—a serious mistake. 

Because Cha Seohu himself wasn’t ready for the answer.

He wanted to know whether this stranger was the “kid” or the “Great Calamity.” At the same time, he didn’t want to know. The current Cha Sahyeon felt like a shadow encountered at twilight—uncertain if it was a person or a wolf. And if it was a wolf, Cha Seohu didn’t know what decision he should make.

As he parted his lips to say something, ready to turn away in retreat—

“Who knows,” the calm reply drifted out. “It could be, or it could not be.” At those words, Cha Seohu’s face twisted. Seeing that, Cha Sahyeon gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m not trying to mess with you. I mean my memories are incomplete.”

“…I asked you if you are the Great Calamity.”

“In that case, what do you think the ‘Great Calamity’ is?”

The question struck him speechless.

Cha Sahyeon stared at Cha Seohu with an almost casual calm, as if talking about the weather. Each time the wind stirred his hair, a deep emerald glow flickered faintly in the darkness.

“The memories the Great Calamity holds? Or the dreadful will that destroyed countless lives and even ended the world? If someone carries that will, does that make them the Great Calamity?”

“That’s…”

His mind shook violently.

The Great Calamity—a being that could drag him by the hair back into the filthy, desperate memories of that day.

But Cha Seohu realized he had never once truly asked himself what the Great Calamity was.

He thought of the “trial version” the fake had shown him. If he were to return to a world already ruined and meet the Great Calamity there, it would undoubtedly be the entity he feared. Because it would be in the same world, the same time.

Then what about the Cha Sahyeon standing before him now?

“I thought… if anyone could notice that I’d changed, it would be you. You’ve always been quick and, sometimes, unexpectedly sharp.” His short, neatly kept black hair swayed lightly in the wind. “If what you mean by ‘Great Calamity’ is a being who inherited the will to end the world… then no, I’m not.”

“…”

“I’ve inherited the memories. That’s something I can’t help. Once I merged with this power, it was inevitable.”

“…You mean you have memories from before the regression?”

“Regression?” Cha Sahyeon tilted his head with a strange expression, then soon seemed to understand. “Regression. Yeah, you could call it that. You’re right,” he said. “To be exact, I have memories of every repeating timeline.”

“Every timeline?”

“The end of this world is always the same. I wake up, and the world falls into ruin. Then the one upholding the origin of the world turns back time.”

After the rewind, the Great Calamity falls asleep again. And someday, it wakes and destroys the world once more.

“But this time, the flow has started to change.”

Among the many who lived unknowingly inside that tedious repetition was Cha Seohu. At least, it had been that way before.

“I’m the same.” Cha Sahyeon looked at Cha Seohu with a soft smile. “Because a new past has been written.” The black bird that had been resting at his side beat its wings strongly, as if reacting to those words, and flew beyond the sky.

“You saved me, Brother.”

“I…”

“You protected me. You taught me so many things.”

Cha Sahyeon looked so genuinely happy that Cha Seohu couldn’t find it in himself to respond easily. He wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t know that Cha Seohu had actually intended to kill him.

The only reason Cha Sahyeon had been saved was because of a system quest—and because killing the ‘Seed of Calamity’ would not have eliminated it.

“If you hadn’t saved me, I would have stayed trapped in endless pain, never waking up…” Cha Sahyeon carefully took a step closer. Moving as if approaching a wild animal, he walked slowly toward Cha Seohu and reached out his hand. “As long as I have memories of being with you, I will never harm you. I will never refuse your words. I’ve become someone different from the being I was in the previous worlds—because you created me.”

He truly believed that. Memories form the very core of existence. The moment he received new memories from Cha Seohu, it was as if he had been born anew.

“But… I know it’s hard for you to believe someone like me.”

From the palm of his outstretched hand, black mist rose, and soon a small item materialized. Cha Seohu realized it was the item Cha Sahyeon had retrieved—the only item capable of hiding his L-class aura.

“So, I’m giving this to you.”

The item was a black band joined in a loop, with a green gem embedded at the center. It resembled a necklace but was narrower than one, and though wider than a bracelet, it was meant to fit snugly around the neck. It was what’s commonly called a choker. Cha Seohu’s gaze involuntarily drifted to Cha Sahyeon’s slender, pale neck.

“It’s okay if you can’t trust me. If you tell me you don’t want me around… I’ll leave. I’ll leave behind my shadow for safety, though.” Isn’t that not actually “leaving”? Cha Seohu thought dryly, but before he could say anything, Cha Sahyeon continued, “But… if you ever decide you want me by your side—” Handing over the item, he smiled deeply, his eyes crinkling. “Then fasten this around my neck.”

The soft fabric brushed against Cha Seohu’s hand.

Nothing had been resolved. Cha Seohu still didn’t know much, and Cha Sahyeon was still hiding something. Cha Seohu could not trust Cha Sahyeon. Even if Cha Sahyeon had memories of the time when he had been the “kid,” that alone was not enough to resolve everything.

‘I know.’

No one knew it better than Cha Seohu. And his decision was…

“…”

After staring at his hand for a long time, Cha Seohu finally gripped the item tightly. It was his way of accepting the offer.

Cha Sahyeon’s eyes lit up joyfully, and he pulled Cha Seohu into an embrace.

“Let’s go.”

A black shadow rose from the ground and swallowed the two of them whole.

***

The bird, sent off by its master’s command, had flown beyond the sky. Following it through the shadows, Cha Sahyeon and Cha Seohu arrived at a new cave. It was so small and narrow, it was barely worth calling a cave. Something inside was lightly swaying in the winter wind.

“There it is.” Since Cha Seohu couldn’t see clearly in the dark, Cha Sahyeon pointed it out to him. “The flower is blooming inside.”

As Cha Seohu had suspected, hidden inside the cave was a flower identical to the one he had found at Gwanghwamun. Suddenly struck by a question, he stepped slightly away from Cha Sahyeon and asked, “Do you know how to deal with it, too?”

“Just pull it out. Make sure to get the roots, too.”

“And after that?”

“Once the roots are removed, the effect disappears. After that, it doesn’t matter what you do.”

It was comforting how easily Cha Sahyeon could answer any questions related to those cult bastards.

Cha Seohu crouched down and carefully reached into the cave to pull out the flower. Being careful not to snap the stem, he lifted it out, roots and all. After retrieving the flower, he looked around, but there was no noticeable change. It seemed the real problem wouldn’t be solved until they purified the jewel embedded in the forehead of One Who Walks Above Snow and Painting.

Staring up at the dark sky where snow was falling, just like Cha Seohu, Cha Sahyeon spoke. “I’ll have to use my skill again. Honestly, I like traveling with you, but…”

While Cha Seohu tucked the flower into his inventory, Cha Sahyeon sent the bird flying once more.

“If we stay here too long, you’ll freeze to death.”

“I can just use my divine power.”

“You think divine power is free? Your energy isn’t infinite, you know.”

“…”

Free, he says. Who would have ever imagined the Great Calamity would even utter the word “free”?

The hand Cha Sahyeon placed on Cha Seohu’s wrist felt even warmer than before. Since Cha Sahyeon was unaffected by the cold, it only meant Cha Seohu’s body had gotten that much colder.

Cha Seohu stared at Cha Sahyeon’s hand with a complicated expression. The hand, just slightly larger than his own, had completely lost the childlike softness it once had—it was now unmistakably the hand of a grown man.

Frowning as he mulled something over, Cha Seohu finally raised his gaze and asked Cha Sahyeon, “You said you’d leave if I told you to, right?”

“Yeah.”

“If you leave… where will you go? Don’t tell me…” To those cult bastards?

If what Cha Sahyeon said was true—that he had inherited memories from the previous timeline—then returning to them might seem natural. After all, they were originally his “guardians.”

If he was really planning to go to them, Cha Seohu would have to stop him immediately. He couldn’t let Cha Sahyeon get entangled with them and risk him becoming the Great Calamity again.

Clenching his lips tightly, Cha Seohu grabbed Cha Sahyeon’s arm. Cha Sahyeon blinked in surprise.

“I don’t really… have anywhere to go,” he said.

“What?”

“I’ll just wander around. Probably stick to places without people.”

“Wait, why? You have those people who protected you, that research lab—”

“Do you want me to go back to them?” Cha Sahyeon asked, his voice full of bitterness. The question struck Cha Seohu like a broken machine grinding to a halt. “Even if I went back to the lab, it wouldn’t matter. After awakening, I always ended up alone.”

“Alone? Without a place to stay?”

“Yeah.”

The curt answer left Cha Seohu flustered.

Alone, without even a place to stay? In other words…

‘The Great Calamity was basically a hobo?’

Now, thinking back to the replica of the Great Calamity he had encountered up close—with his tangled hair and worn robe—Cha Seohu could finally understand why he had looked the way he did.