The Damn Family Is Back Again - Chapter 389



389. The Time to Come (2)

His body felt languid.

Comfortable, as if lying somewhere soft.

And… warm.

It was so comfortable he didn’t want to get up.

He just wanted to close his eyes and fall asleep like this.

But then, unexpectedly, a woman’s voice tickled his ear.

“───.”

Whose voice is that?

He couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

“──ah.”

The voice became a little clearer.

…Who is she calling?

“──Ah.”

The muffled pronunciation grew clearer.

It was a person’s name, indeed. Someone was being called, that much was true.

…Ignorance was no longer an option.

“Minhyuk-ah.”

The woman was calling out to *me*.

With heavy lids fluttering, I managed to open my eyes.

“You’re awake?”

An inverted face, blossoming with a radiant smile.

The way she had supported me, even now, she was so lovely to behold.

A face I knew well. Oh, so well.

“…Yeah. Ji-eun-ah.”

At that, Ji-eun pinched my cheek.

“Why did you wake up so late? I’ve been waiting ages.”

“You waited long?”

“Of course! Ages and ages! How can you sleep for so long like that? See, I knew it was a lie that you weren’t sleeping properly, right?”

“Haha…”

Truly. How to say this?

It’s because of you that I could sleep soundly at all.

As I stood there, awkwardly smiling, Ji-eun carefully helped me up, then embraced me tightly.

“You’ve suffered. Min-hyuk.”

From noble mtl dot com

“…Huh?”

“It was hard on you, wasn’t it? All this time.”

Just a single word, *suffered*, and strangely, his chest swelled with emotion.

Even more so at the words, *it was hard on you, all this time.*

Then… am I now allowed to rest a little more? Just as that thought surfaced.

“No. Not if you rest here.”

As if reading his mind, Ji-eun pinched his cheek, denying him.

“You still, you have work left to do.”

That resolute denial brings him somewhat back to himself.

A good scent bloomed.

This comforting sensation, he feels it more distinctly now.

The warm body temperature that was melting his heart flowed in from every limb.

…Ah, so that’s how it was.

That’s what it was.

“…I need to get up, don’t I?”

“Mm.”

Blurred memories return.

Clearly, more clearly, threads of memory connect.

The tangled skeins, once erased or knotted tight, unravel into a single strand.

Yes. This very sensation felt foreign.

Clearly, I had lost consciousness and collapsed.

Within the Duke’s residence, no less, in Karsein’s room, I had fought Akshers with my life on the line.

Then, Yggdrasil, the World Tree, which had been stirring little by little, had awakened.

My entire body would have been a wreck.

Wounds torn open, flayed anew.

What were mere scratches became fairly distinct scars. The scars soon transformed into wounds, and then, crossing the line from minor to major injury.

Not just one place, but my entire body was like that.

Even so, I remembered that very clearly.

Harnier, rushing up the stairs and through the corridors.

Harnier, with an expression that seemed to want to unleash every nagging thought she possessed upon seeing me.

And yet, Harnier, who readily offered her embrace when I asked if I could lean on her for a moment.

Only her image remained, indelible and vivid.

“Did you know? They say that when a person is in a life-or-death situation while submerged in sleep, their memories are the first to vanish.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. I read it in some psychology book. There might be a light at the end of the tunnel, but when you’re injured this badly, they say your memories slowly disappear without you ever waking up from your sleep.”

I don’t know.

But it sounds plausible.

…Whoever said it, wherever they are.

“But they say that once you recall even a single memory, all the other memories come flooding back. Memories you’d forgotten are sequentially, chain-reactively, re-engraved.”

I’m not entirely sure if that’s right. It could be uncertain knowledge, after all.

But the reason for speaking these words seems clear enough.

Hmm. Perhaps I am, the me that exists elsewhere, asleep.

A slumber death-kissed, a sleep I must fight my way back from.

Therefore.

“You knew all along, didn’t you? So, wake up already, Minhyuk-ah.”

It means to awaken.

From this profound sleep.

Having regained my senses, I approached Ji-eun, who was smiling, and asked,

“Just one more embrace… that wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”

“Eh, uhm? Why all of a sudden…?”

“It’s just one more embrace before I wake up. That’s alright, isn’t it?”

“Eeh? Mi, Minhyuk-ah. W-wait a moment!”

What use is permission or anything of the sort?

“You were right. It was so hard, wasn’t it? Yes. It was terribly hard.”

But.

Even if it was difficult, I gained something.

“Even so, I’m satisfied. Because I saved you.”

-A sudden grasp.

“Minhyuk, you…”

Yes. There was Jieun.

After wandering and circling, lost and without a single clue, she was always there beside me.

When my eyes, practically blind and unable to properly open, finally saw, she was always there beside me.

And. Even here.

Jieun stayed by my side again.

No matter how difficult it was, no matter how shards of an unfortunate past flew at me, no matter how fragments of agonizing memories tore at me.

Just the fact that I could protect Jieun was enough to satisfy me.

“…Fool. Only realizing it now?”

Jieun stared at me, then smiled softly.

In Jieun’s eyes, snuggled into my embrace, a glistening moisture had already gathered.

Perhaps, this is a dream.

That must be why I can see Jieun.

Seeing what shouldn’t be seen.

That might be why Jieun has appeared in this place.

Then, I have to say it.

This time will never return. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this is the last chance I’ll have to see her before I die.

Of course, the conclusion remains that Harnia is Jieun… but unlike me, she doesn’t have her modern memories. In other words, I’ll never get another chance to say those words to Jieun.

So, I bring them forth.

The words I should have conveyed to her long ago.

“Thank you. For always being there beside me. For loving a guy like me.”

“Wh-wha? You, ugh… Why so sudden with this…”

“And…”

“W-wait just a moment!”

Right when I was about to leave behind one last honest word here.

Ji-eun cut me off, shoving me away.

“N-no! Things like this… are not allowed. Mm. Absolutely not!”

“Huh?”

“…I told you it wasn’t all over yet, you idiot!”

She puffed out her cheeks and gave my shoulder a light tap.

Doesn’t hurt as much as it should, knowing it’s a dream…

“…Ah.”

In the dream, my eyes begin to droop shut.

“Words like that… S-Save them for reality…”

…What does that even mean?

*

With Ji-eun’s final word, I was able to awaken from the dream.

‘…Ugh, damn that stings.’

Pain was the first thing to greet me.

Agony from head to toe.

A body battered from continuous battles, fatigue piling atop injuries and nothing but wounds left in its wake. It’d be stranger if it *didn’t* hurt this much.

‘To say I was teetering on the edge of death wasn’t just a turn of phrase, was it.’

At this point, I really could have kicked the bucket.

Still, this pain… it was enough to hazard a guess that I’d clawed my way back to reality.

With a heavy struggle, my eyelids parted, and my vision, though gaunt, slowly cleared.

Hm. A ceiling that was growing rather familiar.

A ceiling that had once been foreign, and at another time, gratingly loathsome.

This was the Duke’s manor’s ceiling.

So, it must be one of the Duke’s rooms.

The place I collapsed was the Duke’s estate, and after somehow managing to sever the World Tree Yggdrasil, Harnier had been by my side, so finding myself here wasn’t all that strange.

‘What with… none of my family holding any hostility towards me anymore either.’

No more framing or assassinations, certainly.

As for pursuit, Arina must have given up by now.

Not only that, but the various wanted orders have been revoked, and even the danger level has vanished, so it wouldn’t hurt to consider that the overwhelming majority of the troubles have been settled.

It was a situation where I could let my guard down and feel at ease.

-Ding!

‘The status window seems to be saying the same thing.’

▶CHAPTER 5. The Only Method Cleared.◀

▶Successfully vanquished Bellian Theresia and thwarted the Yggdrasil Project.◀

▶Congratulations. By overcoming the brink of death and rising once more, you have ultimately safeguarded the soul of Seo Ji-eun.◀

Episode Clear.

And chapter five, cleared.

With the success of thwarting the Belian Theresia Church and the Yggdrasil Project, no longer were there elements threatening me and Harnier.

It seems the final key was me; by not dying and rising, everything was resolved. Fortunate, that.

However… there is, shall we say, a single regret.

‘I couldn’t say it. In the end.’

…I had wanted to.

To say I was sorry for not realizing, that I liked them.

‘Haa. That I couldn’t utter those words, it leaves a lingering… hm?’

Wait a moment.

After mulling it over, the regret swiftly morphed into doubt.

A fact I had missed in the dream, it seemed the Creator had discerned my intention to say those things. Otherwise, there’s no reason they would have tried to stop me.

‘Hmm… so why would the Creator stop me, then?’

-Such words… say them, in reality…

-…I told you it wasn’t over yet. You idiot!

It wasn’t over yet, or say them in reality.

Could those words possibly mean I should say them to Harnier, in the real world?

No. Perhaps it was simply because it was a dream that it happened this way─

-Squelch.

Suddenly, my vision was obscured by something.

A large object… no. A part of a body.

We’d seen each other often enough now, I suppose.

‘This is…’

Yes. It felt, somehow, warm.

Somehow, a feeling of being weighed down settled over my entire body.

The comforting embrace, coupled with a pleasant scent, it was quite something.

…Indeed. Harnia was by my side.

Right beside me, holding me in her arms.

Turning my head, her peacefully sleeping face finally came into view.

‘Best not to wake her just yet, eh?’

…Hmm. Upon further reflection, not waking her isn’t just a good idea; it’s a necessity.

The moment she stirs, I’ll be bombarded with a torrent of nagging.

Perhaps I should pull the stray blanket over her.

So, carefully, ever so carefully, I reached for the blanket.

Just then, a remarkably soft sensation enveloped my head.

“Why didn’t you say you were awake?”

That single sentence brought a cold sweat to my brow.

“Y-you were awake? Ah, ha ha…”

“Were you pretending not to notice? On purpose?”

“N-no, not at all! It seems my body isn’t quite right… My senses must be dulled by the pain, because I couldn’t feel a thing.”

Surely Harnia would understand something like that, wouldn’t she?

“Right?”

…No.

She was seething.

“You said you’d return unharmed.”

“…Th-that’s…”

“You promised you wouldn’t be hurt!”

“But, there was no way to avoid injur─”

“And you promised! We promised to face this together. No matter how dangerous, we’d get through it together!”

About everything else, I could argue, but on that last point, I was speechless.

That was entirely my unilateral decision, borne from wanting Harnié to remain unscathed…

“…I am sorry.”

She narrowed her eyes, a sharp glint in them.

Prevaricating was out of the question; I’d best abandon that thought.

There was no other option but to lower my head in apology.

“Fool. Utter, senseless fool.”

A touch so gentle, so very soft, flowed through my entire being.

Enveloping me more deeply than before, a comforting embrace.

“Do you know how worried I was…?”

The pressure of her arms holding me close spoke volumes, I felt the full weight of her worry.

“What if you had died like that… what if… what if…!”

Tears falling, *drip… drip…*

The guilt deepens with the plea in her voice.

…Me. What a terrible sin I’ve committed.

Foolish wretch.

“…I am sorry.”

I could do nothing but reach out and embrace her.