novelraw Chapter 229 : Chapter 229
Chapter 229 : Chapter 229
Chapter 229: Sorting Out the Pecking Order
No matter how much Smiley was dying from illness, a wound of this degree couldn't be a fatal one.
However.
“Trait……”
Ho-cheol also belatedly realized the identity of the sense of wrongness covering this floor.
“It’s not coming out properly……”
The Trait wasn't listening.
If even Ho-cheol, who couldn't even be compared to an average S-rank, felt this suppressed, a normal Awakened person probably wouldn't be able to activate theirs at all.
That was the most horrific and frightening thing for an Awakened.
“To think technology has advanced this much.”
Smiley forced a smile even as she narrowed her brows as if in pain.
“I've heard about it. That various countries are researching several methods to control the Awakened. This is probably a result of that research.”
Modern technology, advancing daily, had reached a higher place than the two had expected, and ignorance of this was fatal.
“Besides, it looks like they've also dispersed a drug in the air that interferes with Trait activation through inhalation.”
Normally, the foul smell of chemicals should have been pervasive, but the smoke from the fire had completely erased that smell.
If even he, in perfect condition, felt this much discomfort and pressure, how much harder must it have been for Smiley, who was wasting away from illness.
Conversely, it was amazing that she had overwhelmed dozens of those villains armed with firearms even in this situation.
If it had been Ho-cheol, at least, he would have given up on controlling his strength and killed them all.
“Let’s save that feedback for later. First, let’s move you to the hospital right away.”
It was a serious injury, but if she got surgery and treatment right away, she could at least prolong her life.
It wasn't her time to die yet.
It was a relief that all the villains who might interfere were knocked out.
However, seeing Ho-cheol approach, Smiley just shook her head.
“It’s too late.”
“What?”
“My body isn’t in a state to endure that kind of surgery anymore.”
“How can you be so sure without even trying……”
“Because it’s my body. I know it better than anyone. Of course, there might be a miraculous one-in-a-million chance, but……”
In truth, Ho-cheol knew well too.
Awakened like Smiley or himself, humans who had always fought with death right before their eyes.
They were far more knowledgeable about death, at least, than the doctors chattering in hospital gowns.
“At least, rather than wasting time on such false hope and drunk on anesthesia, I want to spend this little remaining time with a clearer consciousness, and more meaningfully.”
Ho-cheol let out a sigh.
Smiley, with that kind of expression, wouldn't back down no matter what he said.
Forcibly taking her to the hospital now, she would just refuse the surgery itself, saying it's a waste of time.
Yes, it would be meaningless.
Smiley would die here, today.
That terrible reality finally felt real.
“Is that so.”
Ho-cheol let out a sigh.
“You’re dying.”
A calm reaction, tinged only with faint regret.
Of course, it wasn't that he was actually feeling no emotion.
It just wouldn't do to make a bigger fuss than Smiley, who was the one actually dying.
He slowly laid Smiley’s body back and grabbed the rebar.
Although pulling out what was embedded would lead to immediate bleeding, it was possible to at least break off the front and back parts to reduce the weight.
Ppudeudeuk―
Snapping off the rebar, which was thicker than an arm, he stood up again.
“……Where are you going?”
“To kill.”
Ho-cheol drew his sword and motioned toward the fallen villain.
“Them too.”
He had refrained from murder until now.
But at least, these things, he absolutely had to kill.
No, there was no reason to let them live.
However.
“Don’t.”
A faint voice scattered and reached Ho-cheol’s ear.
“Why?”
Ho-cheol asked as if he genuinely couldn't understand.
“They’re the ones who tried to kill you. And now, they’re the ones who will succeed in killing you.”
Until now, he had understood and tolerated Smiley's obsession, which went beyond just valuing human life.
Because she was a hero who could only live that way.
But this was completely different.
The enemies who would kill, who had killed, her.
Rather, shouldn't she be grateful that he was killing them on her behalf, as she couldn't move?
But Smiley just shook her head with a sad expression.
“The ones I'm worried about aren't those villains, it's you.”
“……Really……”
She wasn't sane.
An obsession close to madness for justice and good.
Where on earth did that madness come from.
He would probably never be able to understand it in his lifetime.
And since he couldn't understand it, he couldn't empathize, nor did he intend to follow it.
It was Ho-cheol who always gave in to Smiley’s stubbornness, but not this.
Just as he raised his sword to cut the fallen villain's breath short.
At her voice, Ho-cheol’s hand stopped once again.
“I wish you would give me what I want to receive from you, not what you want to give me.”
“What is that.”
“Instead of spending time killing those things, just staying by my side?”
“……Damn it.”
Ho-cheol, who spat out a small curse, finally returned his sword.
He threw the sword aside and sat next to her.
Smiley smiled lightly and raised her hand.
The blood-covered hand trembled slightly.
“Hand. Give me your hand.”
The first time they held hands.
Months had passed since their first meeting, but this was definitely the first time they had held hands like this.
Smiley's clasped hand, despite having suffered so much, her palm was soft.
However, the disappointing thing was that the hand he held for the first time was, for a human's, too…….
“……Cold.”
“You’re warm.”
Smiley, in contrast, fiddled with Ho-cheol’s palm, which was so warm it was hot.
She laughed joyfully, as if she didn't know she was about to die.
Kwaang―!
Kwang―!
At that moment, the roar of a bomb exploding rang out from far away, and a crimson pillar of fire shot up.
Seeing that, Smiley let out a sigh as if relieved.
“That’s a relief. The villains said they were going to blow up the power plant, but it looks like the heroes stopped them in time.”
If they had failed to move the bomb to a safe place in time, it wouldn't have ended with just that level of explosion.
Ho-cheol hesitated for a moment, then asked.
“How can you laugh like that?”
For a person about to die, she was too calm, peaceful, and at ease.
As if she wasn't afraid of death.
At that question, Smiley rolled her eyes left and right for a moment, contemplating.
Then she smiled faintly.
“If it’s an end that comes for everyone anyway, isn’t it the best end to be able to choose it according to our will, rather than just meeting it like we’re being chased and running away.”
“……This is that end? Dying like this, while catching a few small-fry villains, saving people whose faces you don't even know?”
“Why not.”
Smiley pulled Ho-cheol’s hand and placed the back of his hand on her cheek.
“A wonderful night view, spectacular fireworks, and even someone who is genuinely crying for me. This is the best.”
“I’m not crying.”
At Ho-cheol’s curt reply, Smiley burst into laughter.
“Sure, sure.”
How can he be so dishonest.
She looked up blankly at Ho-cheol.
The tears flowing down his cheeks gathered at his chin and fell pitifully.
Those fallen tears then clung to Smiley’s eyes, making it look as if she were the one crying.
“Should we just say I’m the one crying.”
Still smiling, she holds out a trembling hand.
The hand, which seemed difficult to even lift, stopped midway.
Ho-cheol stealthily lowered his head.
His cheek barely touched that hand.
“Warm.”
Her voice gradually fades.
“Really, warm.”
As her voice grew fainter, Ho-cheol also leaned his body forward slightly to hear her voice.
“And, I have a request.”
“Speak.”
Smiley moved her lips for a moment, then laughed awkwardly.
“Is it because I’m greedy. Normally, at times like this, I should desperately ask for just one, but I have several. Can you grant them?”
“……Yes.”
“Live on smiling. Even without me.”
Ho-cheol licked his lips as if genuinely perplexed.
He was going to just nod his head at first, no matter what, but this one.
This was a really difficult request.
Still, looking at Smiley’s eyes, full of that anticipation, he couldn't answer that way.
“I’ll try.”
“That answer alone is enough. And……”
She narrowed her brows as if in pain and raised her remaining hand.
On her palm rested an orb of light that hadn't been there just moments before.
“This is……”
Ho-cheol stared blankly at the orb, as if mesmerized.
“This. I’ll leave it to you.”
An orb of light.
Inside it, an overwhelming power was swirling like a storm.
“……Your Trait, was it something you could hand over to someone else like this?”
“Huhu. I’ve been preparing it little by little ever since I found out I was sick.”
Ho-cheol instinctively realized.
Her refusal of the hospital and treatment just now was probably to leave this power behind, intact.
Because even if she survived here, Smiley would, at best, just prolong her life by gradually chipping away at this power.
She had made a decision not for her own life, but for the sake of future citizens.
Ho-cheol silently accepted the orb of power.
Smiley, who knew well that this action was Ho-cheol’s own way of making a promise, just smiled.
“Thank you. And the last one.”
Smiley momentarily paused her words.
The previous two were requests for Ho-cheol, and for this society.
But this one, this was completely separate from those two, a request born purely from her own desire.
And the result could perhaps be tremendous pain for Ho-cheol.
After hesitating for a moment, Smiley finally spoke, as if she had made up her mind.
“Right now. To be honest, I'm in a lot of pain. I was wondering. I'm really sorry, but… I’d like you to relieve this pain a little.”
Ho-cheol’s eyes widened at the completely unexpected kind of request.
But that bewilderment was brief, and he muttered melancholically.
“……The me of the past would have cursed you, saying it was a selfish request that didn't even consider the person left behind. But now, I understand.”
He slowly brushed Smiley’s hair.
“You were human too, after all, and you must have needed a place to lean on and depend on.”
If only he had seen her as just a person, not a hero, sooner, they wouldn't have been hurt and wouldn't have hurt each other like that back then.
Smiley just smiled wordlessly.
“I promise. I won't kill anyone after this. This is my last……”
Ho-cheol’s hand, at some point, moved to the part where Smiley’s back and the nape of her neck connected.
“This is definitely the last time.”
“I didn't say anything, worrying it would be too much of a burden, but thank you.”
Who was thanking whom.
“Go well.”
“Yeah, stay well.”
It was a peaceful and easygoing farewell, as if they could meet again tomorrow.
Ho-cheol applied strength to his hand.
There was no pain.
Just very slowly, as if falling asleep.
Quietly, she closed her eyes.
Ho-cheol slowly laid Smiley’s head on his lap.
Not the easy path right in front of him that he could reach just by extending his hand, but the inconvenient path that required good intentions, effort, time, and luck.
Everything.
In this world, dominated by violence and absurdity, that incorrect choice is instead regarded as if it were the correct answer.
Even in that situation, the reason she chose that path, to the point of seeming foolish.
It was simply because it was the right thing to do.
It was a reason that was really nothing special.
Something one couldn't help but genuinely respect.
She was that kind of shining person.
Although the light of her life had run out here, at least her spirit was still here.
The one who died here wasn't Hero Smiley.
It was Villain Jeong Ho-cheol.
“I will inherit your will and your purpose. I will continue them.”
Ho-cheol covered her eyes with a trembling hand.
“Don’t be in pain there.”
The sound of sirens approaching from far away.
Ho-cheol stayed in that spot, protecting Smiley by her side, until the moment the heroes stormed in.
***
Ho-cheol let out a long sigh.
Had he ever talked this long recently?
It was a truly strange feeling, as if he had given a lecture again after a long time.
“……Alright. That’s all. The rest is all stuff you two know.”
Or maybe you don't need to know.
However, even though he had rambled on for almost 30 minutes, there was no reply.
Kuljjeok― Huljjeok―
Instead, only the sound of sniffling, the sound of sleeves wiping at eyes, the sound of barely holding back sobs, returned.
The two of them tried to control their reactions as much as possible, but as expected, they just couldn't hold it in.
At that sight, Ho-cheol smiled bitterly.
“Why are you crying.”
“Because……”
“Euheuk.”
They couldn't even finish their words and covered their faces with both hands.
Then, as if on cue, they buried their faces in Ho-cheol’s embrace.
“……Oh Dear.”
As if troubled, he stroked the heads of the two, who were sniffling while embraced in his arms.
He hadn't talked this much just to make them cry in the first place.
He wondered if it was really something to cry about.
Of course, as Ho-cheol expected, the reason the two couldn't hold back their tears wasn't simply because his past was sad.
If it had been someone else, they would have just ended with a dry reaction like, 'what a sad story.'
It was because it was Ho-cheol that they empathized like this and reacted so strongly.
“Anyway, because of this relationship, I can't help but be a bit sensitive about matters related to Smiley. They might hold you hostage and pull some stunt. That’s why I'm kidnapping, and also protecting, you.”
At his words, which seemed to ask if she understood, Ye-jin nodded her head, biting tightly onto the hem of his shirt.
His chest, getting damp, was really bothering him.
He gently pushed their heads back.
Looking at the two who had finally calmed down, Ho-cheol raised his body.
“Let's go now. We've talked for too long……”
Kkuuk― Kkuk-kkuk-kkuk―
Da-yeon, who had at some point stood behind him, tugged his collar forcefully and quickly.
“Take me too.”
Separate from his past being sad, it wasn't a reason for her to miss this opportunity.
“I said I’m not taking you, I’m kidnapping you.”
“So, kidnap me too. If you don't, I'll keep following you.”
In the end, he couldn't shake off Da-yeon, who was dangling from him.
No, to be precise, the situation where he had to shake her off didn't come.
A blatant killing intent felt from far away.
The heads of all three turned at the same time.
“What. Is this situation?”
The Sword Demon, who had at some point stood at the entrance of the alley, ground his teeth.
“Ah.”
Ho-cheol briefly grasped his current situation objectively.
His mortal enemy, who had turned into a villain, after knocking down all the employees, was now holding his daughter in his arms.
Could anyone see any room for misunderstanding here?
Ho-cheol let out a bitter smile.
Of course not.
Anyone could see it looked like he was kidnapping Da-yeon and Ye-jin.
However he interpreted his smile, the Sword Demon drew his sword and rushed toward Ho-cheol.
“I’ll kill you!”
“Erai.”
Ho-cheol also pushed the two behind him and immediately drew his sword.
Just my luck.
But that was also brief.
He raised one eyebrow and tilted his head to the side.
“Ah, but now, we're not in a parent-and-professor-in-charge relationship anymore.”
Ho-cheol twisted the corner of his mouth into a smile, as if this was for the best.
“It’s about time we sorted out the pecking order, isn’t it?”
Right, he's been an eyesore for a while, strangely speaking informally.