Drunkard (6)
“I’ve come to keep my promise.”
I stood there, embracing the woman.
Violet hair fluttered around her.
A faint silence lingered around us.
The air in the underground prison sank in an instant.
“……”
I looked down at the warmth in my arms.
The drunkard's appearance was utterly wrecked.
Her limbs were battered all over, her forehead stained with trickling blood, and her complexion was wan, devoid of any vitality.
Selena was slumped on the floor, looking up at me.
Her crimson eyes flickered blankly.
‘Did I startle her too much?’
She didn’t seem to grasp the situation.
She could only wonder.
Why she was alive, why her self-destruction had failed, why a familiar face was standing before her…
Her confused mind was plainly written on her face.
Even her expressionless mask was shattered; she must have been quite bewildered.
I smiled bitterly.
‘I did it.’
I had been watching her all along.
Watching to see what choice she would make.
Whether she would sober up or repeat her mistakes.
I believed.
I believed in the regret you had muttered with a haggard look.
I believed in the faint light flickering in your eyes.
I believed that you, unlike the foolish me, would not be consumed by melancholy.
I waited for you to choose.
And.
-It's just that, I ended up sobering up.
You chose the hangover.
Even though the long-accumulated poison would be painful in sobriety.
To move forward.
“Master.”
Selena was still lost in thought.
I stroked her cheek and whispered softly.
“Thank you.”
A thank you for answering my faith.
I smiled faintly.
A slight shadow flowed over the point where my palm met her cheek.
The shadows that crept out soon clung to the woman, slowly absorbing into her skin as if moisture was seeping into fabric.
Her wounds began to heal along with the dissolution of the lie.
Swish-.
Her disheveled appearance was tidied up.
All that remained afterward was pure white skin.
Following the fading pain, the drunkard’s blurred gaze also returned.
Our eyes met.
“Please sit for a moment. It will be over soon.”
I took off my robe.
And draped it over Selena’s shoulders as she sat slumped.
She was an adult stained with dust and blood, but the fabric handed by the boy wrapped around her shoulders as pure white.
As if concealing her tattered essence.
“Hmm.”
I turned around.
At the end of my gaze were angels clad in white.
A formation formed without an inch of error.
None other than Astro's elite unit.
Clap-.
Only red traces existed at their feet.
Corpses littered the floor.
The guards who had been guarding the prison until just before.
Now they were nothing more than rotting chunks of meat.
As I savored the creeping stench of blood, the angel standing at the very front opened her mouth.
It was the vice captain.
“Master.”
“Neria.”
“The infiltration and securing of the basement floor is complete. Please order the members to head to the upper floors.”
“The enemy forces confirmed in this branch are about 200. Our number is ten… which means a troop difference of nearly 20 times.”
I narrowed my eyes.
As if asking for an answer that would satisfy me as the owner.
“How long will it take?”
“Exactly 30 minutes… no, I will clear up to the ground in 20 minutes.”
“Then that’s good.”
The eyes of the angels shone brightly.
I called out to Neria and everyone standing behind her.
It was slaughter.
“Don’t leave a single one alive.”
The angels bowed their heads in unison.
Suddenly, the fluttering robes contained stars with a pure white afterimage.
““Everything as you will.””
Immediately after.
The stars began to move.
Until the white-covered flag was all red.
The light fluttered.
***
The branch was cleaned up in an instant.
Since it was a small branch from the beginning, the internal forces were swept away like fallen leaves.
There was no mercy in the swords and magic wielded by the members.
Especially Neria.
“Light, come forth.”
Whoosh-!
The brilliant starlight judges evil.
Heat that does not even leave a corpse behind.
The cult tries to counterattack with chimeras and black magic, but they return to ashes without stopping even a silver-haired girl.
The remaining angels followed the vice captain, executing sins on their respective scaffolds.
I was just watching the scenery of purification being carried out.
Had it been a little over 10 minutes like that?
“Master. The cleanup is complete.”
“Good work.”
It was only ten people.
They had annihilated a branch where as many as 200 people resided in 10 minutes.
Perhaps because they were elites, their firepower was refreshing.
The vice captain saluted me.
By now, the security of the branch had been secured.
Only then did I reach out to the drunkard.
“Master.”
“……”
Selena, who had been spilled on the floor.
Had she now accepted the confusing situation a little?
The surprise or embarrassment she had shown before had subsided.
She was just making a complicated expression.
The woman, who had been kneeling alone, turned her head away from the hand held out in front of her.
As if ignoring the kindness.
“It’s all over.”
“……”
“Let’s go back together. To the home everyone is waiting for.”
The Academy.
I conveyed the words to return home together.
But the drunkard was reluctant to take my hand.
Perhaps she was tormented by thoughts. It was a reaction as if she didn’t have the courage to do so.
Her trembling lips muttered.
“……Student Judas.”
“Get up.”
“I… can’t. Shamelessly, I can’t go back there…”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“Yes?”
Grasp-.
I suddenly hugged her.
A faint warmth spread from within my arms.
Before any resistance could return, I lifted the woman's body.
It was a structure commonly called a 'princess carry' in the world.
“S-student Judas…?”
“Shh.”
We were the same as before.
The banquet where we had become each other's first. Just like I had escorted her there.
Selena grabbed my sleeve at the sudden action.
“W-Wait a minute… where are you trying to go?”
“Didn't I tell you? If it's home, there's only the Academy. Everyone is waiting only for Master.”
“Everyone…?”
“Yes, everyone. Everyone must be panicking because the hospitalized patient has disappeared. The headmaster, of course, the students who were receiving lessons, fellow professors… even Professor Kadel is looking for you.”
“……Why.”
She slowly lowered her head.
Soon, the woman held back tears as if they would burst.
But she swallowed them so they wouldn't overflow.
As if she didn't even have the right to shed tears for herself.
She hung the recollection of the already spilled sin around her neck like a scaffold.
It was a terrible guilt.
“I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve to go back to the Academy…”
“Why do you think that?”
“Student Judas knows. What I almost did.”
“Master.”
“I almost ruined the things I loved. At the same time, I almost ruined the things that loved me. Using my own sadness as an excuse.”
Her pupils trembled.
The drunkard had eyes that looked like she was about to die.
The shoulder embraced in my arms was trembling weakly.
"Just... let me end it here."
A word of request.
Perhaps a plea.
The woman was hoping for the conclusion of her miserable life.
As if she was trying to take responsibility for herself.
But
“That’s foolish.”
Responsibility was not such a thing.
“What Master is doing is just running away.”
Death can never be a means of responsibility.
Furthermore, it should not be a means of responsibility.
It becomes a wound for those left behind, and the unresolved conflict becomes a deep scar.
If you want to take responsibility for your mistakes, you have to face them properly.
Even if the process is sinful.
“You must live. Only then will you have the opportunity to atone.”
God only gives opportunities to the living.
After death, there is no opportunity to atone to others, nor is there an opportunity to correct things.
"But..."
“Why do you only think that everything is over?”
I thought about you while watching you all along.
A person with many wounds.
Yet a warm person.
She always pretended to be indifferent to everything in the world, but she never forgot her kindness to the students, so it was no accident that many children at the Academy followed her.
It was the connection that the drunkard had diligently built.
At the same time, it was proof of affection.
'If.'
If you hadn't walked the path of revenge… I thought you would have been a pretty good educator.
On the one hand, I also had the thought that it wasn't too late yet.
Because you have finally come out of the long tunnel of regret.
-Eat shit.
-Five years is enough for me to be swayed by you guys.
Now that you have shed the faults of the past.
Your whole life was now standing on the starting line.
Not with anger at something, but with love for something, you chose the things you wanted to cherish.
You were finally allowed to remain in the world.
In my world too.
In your world too.
“Master.”
In the original story, you deserved to die.
Just for the reason of anger and sadness, you pushed too many people into unhappiness.
But not in this world.
No one was harmed or made unhappy.
“You… haven’t ruined anything yet.”
If you haven't ruined anything, there is an opportunity.
I believe that is the truth.
“Because I stopped you.”
I stopped your sin.
I stopped the ugly tragedy.
The regret, self-reproach, suicide… all those words that would have weighed on your shoulders someday no longer had meaning.
As I said before, I wanted to save you.
“So it’s okay.”
“But, Student Judas was hurt. To the point where you have to use a wheelchair. With a noticeably emaciated appearance…”
The hand holding my sleeve trembled.
Perhaps she was recalling a few days ago.
I remember her smiling complexly as she looked at me sitting in a wheelchair.
All of that seemed painful for you.
To the point where it was too difficult to bear to look away.
“Perhaps your sin is heavy after all.”
“……”
“But.”
I was grateful to you.
For making a different choice.
My trash-like previous life was full of only despair and sadness.
It was a life that couldn't change until the end… but from your choice, I saw new possibilities.
Maybe even me in those days.
“Aren’t we specially connected?”
I just didn't have anyone to hold on to.
The possibility that I could have changed if only I had the opportunity.
Just that alone gave me some salvation from those days.
I promise.
“When you take responsibility… I will always be by your side.”
That’s what taming is.
Just as I tamed you, you tamed me, so we must take responsibility for each other.
If individuals only lived as individuals, what meaning would there be in relationships?
Humans are beings who harmonize because they conflict, love because they hate, and forgive others because they make mistakes.
If you don't give up, the opportunity to start over will come someday.
“Selena Drunkard.”
What you had to beg for was not death.
But forgiveness.
And I.
“I will forgive you.”
I didn't resent you anymore.
I put my complete sincerity on my lips.
-Everything. Without missing a single thing.
-All my firsts belonged to Student Judas.
This time too, I was your first.
The first person to forgive you.
From now on, you will have to live with countless atonements, apologies, and original sins, but that is why the value of this forgiveness was clear.
Because it will become hope in every step you take.
The hope that someday you can be forgiven from all sins.
“So, Master.”
I to you.
I volunteered to be the first hope.
“Let’s go back together. To the home that is waiting for us.”
“……”
Her pupils were blankly frozen.
Tears welled up in her crimson eyes, and soon the overflowing emotions flowed down.
The straight lines drew dark tear stains on her cheeks.
Relief, joy, doubt, hope, sadness… a wave of all those mixed emotions.
The woman asked with an increasingly slurred pronunciation.
“Why… Why is Student Judas so…”
Why.
The question of why I was so kind to her.
I answered without hesitation.
“Because, I’m your disciple.”
One word that finally made her cry.
The drunkard buried her face in the snake's chest.
Tears that gradually soaked through the dress shirt.
Holding the gradually growing sobs, I walked steadily down the dark corridor.
It was surrounded by darkness, but the vision was not obscured at all.
It was just bright.
Like that.
Light shone for the first time on the life of a traitor or a drunkard.
Perhaps a light that she would cherish forever.
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