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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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“You don’t have to say anything.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s gentle words made Angie close her mouth, her unspoken question hanging in the air.
Even to Lee Hyun-woo, the height was daunting.
A dangerous fall, even for Aslan.
A fatal one for Lee Hyun-woo.
Falling forward would have been bad enough, but he had fallen backward.
“It was… higher than I remembered.”
Lee Hyun-woo nudged the broken railing with his foot, watching a piece of concrete tumble down, a wry smile touching his lips. He remembered something he had been told.
‘That’s an eight-story drop.’
The words of the being who had appeared as he was grappling with the reality of his situation. Lee Hyun-woo now understood the truth of those words.
He wanted to go back, but he wasn’t sure if he could. He sighed, his breath misting in the cool air.
Would his body even be there?
And if it was, would it be intact?
The dizzying height suggested a grim outcome.
He had fallen, become Aslan, and been transported to Gelladrion.
He wasn’t even sure who had sent him there. He wondered if it was all a dream, an illusion, a hallucination brought on by the trauma of his fall.
Lee Hyun-woo stared at the drop, then shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Aslan…”
Angie’s voice made him turn. He spoke in Imperial, the language of Gelladrion.
“This… is why I’m so obsessed with doing good.”
Angie flinched at the unfamiliar language, the sadness in his voice profound, unsettling.
“I wasn’t sure… if I was still me. If I was still… Lee Hyun-woo. Every time I managed to fall asleep, amidst all the… difficulties… I would ask myself…”
He glanced at Angie, her face creased with worry. He smiled at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“What if I’m not Lee Hyun-woo anymore? What if I’m… something else, something that just inherited his memories?”
Angie didn’t understand his words, but she understood the sadness, the fear in his voice. Seeing the flicker of understanding in her eyes, he gripped the railing, his knuckles white.
“Or… what if all of this, everything we’re seeing, everything we remember… is just… fake? What if Gelladrion is the only reality?”
Memories were intangible. And because they were intangible, he could doubt their reality.
He had heard that the insane didn’t question their sanity, that they couldn’t recognize their own madness. And so, paradoxically, he questioned his own sanity.
The words of the unknown being, the confirmation that he had fallen eight stories, had only fueled his doubts, replacing one fear with another.
He had clung to the hope of returning, but was it even a valid hope?
Earth existed. Lee Hyun-woo existed. But could he, Aslan, truly go back, become Lee Hyun-woo again?
He didn’t know.
“That’s why… I tried to prove I was still Lee Hyun-woo. Through acts of kindness, through good deeds, things that didn’t exist in that world… I tried to prove I was still… me.”
He wasn’t sure if he had succeeded.
He gripped the railing tighter, a wry smile twisting his lips. He closed his eyes, then opened them again.
“So… I have to go back.”
His voice was filled with a quiet determination, a stubborn refusal to give up, even in the face of doubt, even if it was all just a cruel illusion. The lonely conviction of a stranger desperate to return home.
“Go back where?”
Angie asked, unsure if he meant Gelladrion or Earth.
Lee Hyun-woo knew that to return to Earth, he had to go through Gelladrion.
So he replied,
“Home.”
He placed his foot on the broken railing, testing its stability. The wind, whipping around them, tugged at his clothes.
There was no reason for this particular illusion, this specific memory of the moment before he fell, the moment he might have died.
It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Whatever the reason, whoever had created this illusion,
Their intention was clear.
To trap him here, to lull him into a false sense of security, to make him forget Gelladrion. They wouldn’t have created such a tempting illusion otherwise.
And what they didn’t want was for him to remember, to recreate the events that had led to his fall, his arrival in Gelladrion. Aslan suspected as much.
It was time to test his theory. As he was about to step forward,
–Buzz… buzz…
His jacket pocket vibrated.
A familiar sound, a memory that, even after twelve years, remained clear and distinct.
He hesitated for a moment, then reached into his pocket and pulled out his smartphone.
It was a phone call.
[Mom]
“This is… difficult.”
The name on the screen was clear, unmistakable.
Lee Hyun-woo felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as he read the name. He closed his eyes and answered the call.
“…Hello?”
[Honey! Where are you?]
His mother’s voice, cheerful and familiar, made him wince. He forced himself to answer.
“I’m… out with a friend.”
[Oh, that’s nice! Well, it’s your birthday, you should celebrate with your friends!]
His birthday?
Lee Hyun-woo pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the date.
September 12th.
He put the phone back to his ear, and his mother’s voice continued,
[—Happy birthday! What do you want to eat?]
A familiar voice, a familiar question. He answered without thinking.
“Lasagna.”
His favorite food, the dish he missed the most, his mother’s lasagna. He closed his eyes as he spoke, the memory vivid and comforting. He heard his mother chuckle on the other end of the line.
[Oh, that again? Alright, I’ll make it. Just don’t be too late~]
“Okay, I’ll be home soon.”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled wryly, ending the call, and sighed. It was his birthday. His hand, gripping the railing, trembled slightly.
He didn’t want to go back to Gelladrion.
But he had to.
It was the only way to return home.
Even if he couldn’t return, it was something he had to do.
He would go back, no matter what.
“I shouldn’t be late.”
He steeled his resolve, pushing down the longing for home, even if it was just an illusion.
He turned away from the railing.
Even if he was no longer Lee Hyun-woo, even if he was Aslan,
“Because if I don’t do it… no one will.”
He stepped forward,
And as he fell, he saw Angie.
She stood there, bathed in the warm glow of the streetlights, her golden eyes watching him.
Her eyes were filled with worry.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled gently, closing his eyes as he fell, offering no explanation.
His eyes closed involuntarily, and a sudden rush of acceleration, a dizzying sense of speed, made his hair stand on end. He should have hit the ground, but…
He didn’t.
The sensation of falling vanished, replaced by a sudden stillness. He opened his eyes slowly.
Angie was there, holding him by the collar, her other hand gripping the railing, preventing him from falling.
Her golden eyes narrowed, and he saw his reflection in them.
Where he had been standing, where he should have fallen, was now an abyss, a void of nothingness.
And the world around them was turning black, the edges of reality crumbling, falling into the abyss like shards of glass.
Angie, her grip tightening on his collar, spoke, her voice low and steady.
“I understand… why you want to go back.”
She straightened up, her frown softening, her voice gaining strength.
She finally understood.
“And I understand… why you try so hard.”
She understood his relentless pursuit, his unwavering determination, even in the face of uncertainty.
“And why you had to become so strong.”
She understood the burden he carried, the need to prove his own existence.
“But why… why do you have to do it alone?”
But she didn’t understand his loneliness.
He could have asked her to do it, to take the risk, to jump. But he had chosen to do it himself.
She didn’t like that.
She pulled him up, their eyes meeting.
“You said you needed someone to watch your back.”
She repeated his words, the words he had used to recruit her, to bring her into his party.
Words spoken with a hidden agenda, words that were, in essence, a lie. And now, with their thoughts connected, she knew the truth.
Despite the sting of betrayal, she met his gaze, her voice firm.
“Yeah, I get it. You can’t trust other people to fight for the same reasons you do. And even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to fight like you. They would break, or die, or just give up. That’s why you want to do it alone.”
But! Angie pulled him closer, then released his collar, setting him down on the crumbling ground.
“You could have at least tried to use me.”
She let go of him, her voice filled with a quiet resentment. She knew she wasn’t fully trusted. And that bothered her.
“You don’t trust me because you don’t know me. And I don’t understand you. Why you’re so kind, why you’re so desperate to go home. I don’t understand any of it. But…”
Their thoughts were connected, intertwined. Aslan knew that the words forming in her mind were flowing directly into his, and yet, she continued to speak, as if needing to voice them, to make him hear them with his ears, not just his mind.
“I’ve seen who you are, where you came from. And I know this isn’t fair.”
She extended her hand, the same hand she had offered him in the mines, the day they became comrades.
“Tell me what you want, what you’re trying to do. And I’ll tell you about me.”
Her gaze was intense, her eyes burning with a fierce determination. A silent demand to be heard, to be understood.
“I’m Angela Tail.”
She smiled, a forced, slightly strained smile.
“I want to kill the gods. What about you?”
Aslan looked at her hand, at her face, the forced smile hiding a flicker of fear and uncertainty.
The fear that he would reject her.
The uncertainty of whether he would reveal the truth, that she was nothing more than a tool, a means to an end.
He looked at her hand for a moment, then took it.
“I’m Lee Hyun-woo.”
Their eyes met, and he was Aslan again. He spoke, his voice firm,
“I want to fix the world, and then go home.”
Angie finally smiled, a genuine smile, and the world around them began to crumble, the black void dissolving, the shards of reality fading like shattered glass.
And through the falling shards, a figure approached.
A veiled woman, her slender form barely visible beneath a thin silk dress.
Her face pale, her dark hair streaked with dried tears, her dark eyes fixed on them.
A widow.
She stopped before them.
“Congratulations on passing the test… Lee Hyun-woo.”
Aslan recognized her.
One of the Old Gods.
The last to die.
The Goddess of Grief and Death.
A dead god stood before him.
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