794 Episode 37 Graduation ceremony (10)

With a squeak, something bit my sleeve.

It was Odin's night crow.

The crow, with its ominous cry, asked mockingly.

I smiled and answered.

"No."

I know that too.

What constellation could help us, who have become enemies of the entire universe?

A very old story began to flow out from my body.

The stories that had recovered a little during the three days that Yoo Jonghyuk had given them began to tell their final stories.

Like the constellations that flickered at the last moment, all the stories of the 'Demon King of Salvation' were awakening.

I listened to the voice of the story without saying a word.

What kind of expression do I have on my face right now? Like Kim Dokja that day, will someone remember my current appearance?

The startled night crow let go of my sleeve and flew up, screaming.

The crow had noticed. 'What' I was trying to call.

"Come! ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️!"

The sound of the space-time of the universe being torn apart. A massive suction force was generated between the cracks covering the sky.

Constellations, otherworldly deities, hunting dogs. All existences in the area were disappearing into the cracks.

A cleaner that devoured the distorted probability of this <Star Stream>.

The opponent was the disaster of the highest peak of this <Star Stream>.

I looked up at it, barely suppressing the trembling of my whole body.

‘Indescribable distance’.

The nameless mist.

Judging by its size, it seemed to be a powder rather than a main body, but for now, the powder alone was enough.

The constellations began to scatter as the disaster devouring probability appeared. In an instant, the fog of 'Indescribable Distance' grew in size and swallowed up the entire universe. As I watched the fog slowly approaching to bite me, I thought of the main story of 『Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint』.

In the main story, when the 'Demon King of Salvation' was in danger of being eaten by the 'Indescribable Vastness', there was a god from another world who saved him.

It would be a lie if I said I didn't expect it at all.

Maybe he would come back. Maybe he would save me here, just like he did in the original.

However, I knew it was a vain expectation. So I called out more possible modifiers.

"Jecheon Daeseong! Please help me! I offered the meat of the Nagak!"

Anyone would do.

"Abyssal Black Flame Dragon! Have you forgotten that low-level dragon heart? We're both dragons, so help us!"

I wish even just one constellation would respond. Please, in this damned Star Stream.

I want to live.

I shouted and shouted until my throat burst. The moment the fog that had surged in was finally about to eat away at my entire body, someone wrapped around me.

A hard back.

I spoke while being carried helplessly on that back.

"Why didn't you go?"

Then the owner of that back spoke.

"There's still something I have to get from you."

The 41st Yoo Jonghyuk did not return to Earth. He refused Uriel's offer and stayed here.

Through [Resurrection of the Knight], I could hear the sound of his heart racing.

With all his remaining life, he started to run while limping.

"Is there no other way?"

This guy really seemed to believe that there was something he could do for me until the very end.

I smiled bitterly at that foolish regressor and answered.

"No."

"I see."

"But it's not over, you know? I might go to the afterlife."

"I've never been there when I'm dead."

I wish I had a little more time to write the story.

"Now that I'm not a regressor, I might go this time. Let's start over from there. The goal is to cause a revolution in the underworld and take away the giant soldier 'Pluto'. How is it?"

"That can't be possible—"

Yoo Jonghyuk glared at me as if he couldn't believe it, then muttered as he looked ahead.

"I wish there was."

No matter how much he ran, it was impossible for Yoo Jonghyuk to escape from the 'Indescribable Distance'.

Even so, Yoo Jonghyuk didn't give up. He ran without giving up, just like he always did.

I felt sorry for him.

I wonder if there are any sentences left for me to save him. But I have to try everything I can.

The world's scenery slowed down and the final argument began.

However, I didn't know what sentence to use to save Yoo Jonghyuk. No matter how much I imagined, I couldn't picture a future where we could escape.

I thought that maybe this might be the end of the 41st round. Our fate is to disappear without being read properly, without even being left as a proper story.

To make matters worse, the number of characters given to me was less than twenty.

Just twenty characters.

How could I persuade the world with those twenty characters? How could I make them read a story that no one reads?

The moment I thought that far, a light came on in my head.

A story that no one reads.

And I completed a single sentence.

That was all I could write.

A sentence that could probably change nothing.

To say that a story cannot be read is a story that cannot be read.

And yet, I thought.

This is enough. I was sure that if it was the reader I knew—if it was him who loved this story more than anyone else—he would definitely read this sentence.

The fog of 'Indescribable Vastness' engulfed us.

Yoo Jonghyuk started running with all his might.

With each desperate step of his, sentences that I could not write continued.

I read that line, recalling the footprints of a person left in the snowfield.

I hope this story reaches beyond the universe.

But the speed of the fog that was creeping up was faster than I thought, and we were finally caught up by the fog.

"Kim Dokja—"

At that moment, I felt my stomach churn.

Something was coming.

"Yoo Jonghyuk!"

We instinctively crouched down. A vast storm of light surged around us.

My head felt dizzy. Yoo Jonghyuk, who was staggering, lost sight of me.

We looked back, floating in the weightlessness of the scenario. The fog that had covered us until then was dispersing in a dazzling flash of light. Between the magnificently dispersing fog, a magnificent view of the dying universe unfolded.

There was nothing left where the light had passed.

No constellations, no other worldly deities, nothing.

Soon, a single sentence rose above the universe that had spread out like a new blank space.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a period.

A man was watching us in the landscape of destruction.

A faint thunderclap was heard in the clear sky. A faint hint of an aftershock. A small spark that popped up and dyed the sky for a moment, then quickly disappeared.

Yoo Jonghyuk, sitting on the bed, muttered as he looked up at the sky.

"Probability aftermath."

It couldn't have happened.

There was no way something like a 'probability aftermath' would have come in here, not in another world.「This is a story about despair that cannot be read.」

"Captain. What are you talking about? Are you half asleep?"

Lee Jihye grabbed Yoo Jonghyuk’s arm and dragged him out of bed.

"Have you forgotten what day it is today? Wait for the kid!"

Yoo Jonghyuk silently got up from his seat and took out his coat from his clothes.

Come to think of it, today was an important day.

Lee Jihye got angry at Yoo Jonghyuk, who was naturally putting on his coat.

"Captain! Are you crazy? Are you going to wear that black coat today?"

"There’s also a white one."

"Black and white! Captain, you can’t wear that constellation fashion today. You’re no longer 'Secretive Plotter'!"

"I—"

"Please be ordinary! Dress as inconspicuously as possible! All the parents are coming, so you want to show off your baby?"

"…"

"Oh, really. Before Uriel unnie left for work, she told me so earnestly— Why is there only the same coat in the closet?"

Lee Jihye grumbled and naturally started searching through Lee Hyunsung’s closet.

"Why is this guy only in his military uniform!"

"Lee Hyunsung is a soldier."

"No, soldiers only wear military uniforms?"

Lee Jihye finally found a suit that wasn't a military uniform in Lee Hyunsung’s closet. It was a suit.

"Here, wear this!"

Yoo Jonghyuk accepted the suit that Lee Jihye handed him without saying a word.

Lee Jihye nodded in satisfaction as she watched Yoo Jonghyuk quickly get dressed.

"It suits you well."

"It's not a good outfit for combat."

"Why fight? Let's go quickly. We don't have much time."

Today was the day of the parent observation class. In case they were late, the two quickly looked around and started running through the air with [Jujak Shinbo].

"It's gloomy weather."

"It's sunny, what are you talking about, really?"

It took less than 5 minutes to get to school. The two of them, who had lightly adjusted their clothes in order to avoid being noticed as much as possible, entered the schoolyard in a jiffy.

Judging from the mess in the classroom, it seemed like class was already in progress. The teacher who was waiting outside happened to notice the two.

"Are you here to observe as parents?"

When Yoo Jonghyuk nodded, the teacher smiled slightly and asked again.

"Is your kid's name..."

"Kim Dokja."

"Oh, you're Dokja's parents!"

Lee Jihye, who thought she would be misunderstood the worst if things continued like this, quickly stepped forward.

"This person is his uncle. I'm his older sister."

"Oh. I see. Would you like to come this way?"

She followed the teacher's instructions.

As they entered the classroom, they saw a group of parents gathered at the back of the classroom.

Some parents noticed Yoo Jonghyuk and Lee Jihye and chatted, or even glanced at Yoo Jonghyuk’s face.

However, most of them were just standing there, yawning repeatedly, bored.

The two of them sat down near the lockers and observed the students.

The students were each drawing on their we drawing paper under the guidance of the art teacher.

The small backs of their heads were gathered here and there.

Yoo Jonghyuk quickly found the one that was most familiar among the backs of their heads.

"It’s amazing to see sometimes."

Lee Jihye, who happened to be looking at the same back of the head, said.

"It’s amazing to think of so many things with that small head."

Time passed quickly.

The students submitted their drawings one by one. Every time a drawing was submitted, the teacher called the parents over with an exaggerated gesture and talked to them.

"Wow, what did you draw?"

Even as the students who had finished submitting their work were chatting with their parents and leaving the classroom, Yoo Jonghyuk saw a small head still buried in the desk.

Just as he was worried that his head might get sucked into the desk, the teacher made their move first.

"Dokja. Time's up."

"Just a moment."

Now, only Yoo Jonghyuk and Lee Jihye were left in the back of the classroom.

The teacher, who had noticed the two, smiled brightly and asked.

"Father. Would you like to come over here and take a look?"

Yoo Jonghyuk approached him.

However, Kim Dokja, who was so focused that he didn't even notice him approaching, was absorbed in his drawing.

The teacher asked.

"What are you drawing?"

"Space."

"Space?"

As Kim Dokja had said, the background of the drawing was pitch-black space. Space with faint starlight scattered about.

Three people were standing in that space.

The teacher, who had been looking back and forth between the drawing and Yoo Jonghyuk several times, asked.

"Is this by any chance your father?"

"Hmm."

Yoo Jonghyuk looked at Kim Dokja's painting. There was definitely a man with the exact same face as him.

A man covered in blood all over his body, glaring at the world with hateful eyes.

Yoo Jonghyuk immediately recognized who he was. He couldn't not know.

'41st.'

Because that Yoo Jonghyuk, was the Yoo Jonghyuk who most resembled himself.

Next to him stood a man wearing a pure white coat.

His hair was a bit lighter than he remembered, but this time, Yoo Jonghyuk immediately recognized who he was.

"Who is this?"

Kim Dokja answered with an embarrassed expression.

"It's me from another world."

"Oh my, this is a profound painting."

The two people in the painting looked very tired, as if they had been fighting someone just a moment ago.

Yoo Jonghyuk looked at the two people in the painting for a long time, as if he was reflecting on the old times.

In the meantime, the teacher's gaze turned to the last person in the painting.

"Then... who is the naked person next to him?"

There was a naked man holding a sword.

Yoo Jonghyuk also looked at the man.

However, the moment he looked at the man, he felt as if the man in the painting was looking at him.

"Captain."

Only then did Lee Jihye notice something was wrong, and her face changed. She looked at Yoo Jonghyuk.

Yoo Jonghyuk continued to look down at the man in the painting without answering, and then suddenly looked up into the sky.

Tsk tsk tsk.

The aftershock of the sky that he had witnessed earlier was heard once again.

Looking at that spark, Secretive Plotter opened his mouth without realizing it.

"Still."

At first glance, a longed-for starlight seemed to twinkle across the vast expanse of space.

Staring at that starlight, Secretive Plotter said.

"It seems there are stories left that I haven't read."

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