named angel (4)

“Hello, mister.”

The voice of Kaya, who quietly greeted her, was devoid of any emotion, and it was as inorganic as the voice of a machine.

His expression and gestures were all dry, as if he were looking at a ghost that had lost its vitality.

“Professor, that person…”

“yes.”

She went to Earth with me, so Encia will know who she is.

Wizard Kaya.

my old colleague.

Although the hair and eye color are different, the features are cut off.

It’s the first time I’ve encountered this since my death on Earth, but I didn’t think much of it.

Because this is the inner world?

No, that’s not it.

Perhaps, because she knows that is not the ‘real’ Kaya.

“You’re not the Kaya I know.”

“·······.”

“Is it a remnant of the old world?”

It is now undeniable that Balthazar is related to Kaya.

But from the history I know, at least Kaya has never met Balthazar.

If so, one possibility.

In the emperor’s world, not mine, she was Kaya.

It’s an absurd idea, but that’s all I can think of right now.

“That’s right. I’m not Kaya.”

“·······.”

“Maybe… it might be nothing.”

Her voice was self-deprecating.

The emotionless black eyes looked at me and at Ensia hiding behind.

Unusually, her gaze stayed on Ensia for a long time.

“Who is that child?”

“He is my disciple.”

“disciple···.”

Look up again and look at me.

For a long time, I looked at it like that.

The mumbling voice, as if trying to say something, was finally swallowed without coming out of the mouth.

“…are you trying to go deeper into the subconscious? Follow me.”

“·······.”

Appearing suddenly, she set herself up as a guide to the unconscious.

why?

In general, people tend to reject others who have entered their consciousness.

It would be normal to chase them away or fight them off.

Rather, Kaya was guiding me deeper into myself.

‘Is it a trap?’

I calmly repeated it, but I didn’t feel any hint of a trap.

let’s follow it

I quietly followed behind Kaya, who led the way.

“Professor, can I really follow you? This is the Witchbeast’s inner world.”

“If you have to, I’ll kill you.”

“·······.”

I do not judge people by their outward appearance.

Even if it took the form of Kaya, its essence was Baltazar.

Commander of the Beast’s Legion.

Lord of the ghosts.

That’s the only thing that’s important to me, so even if I’m covered in Kaya’s shell, the muzzle aimed at her won’t shake.

“You. How do you recognize us in your subconscious?”

I asked Kaya, who was walking ahead.

“This is more like a prison rather than a world of the unconscious.”

“prison.”

“Yes. A prison that confines my ego and memories.”

She raises her hand and points to the surrounding landscape.

burning world.

war that follows.

A battlefield of blood and flame where the hunter’s blade and the monster’s teeth collide.

It was definitely a battlefield on Earth that we had been through for a long time.

“I’m stuck here forever. Maybe forever.”

“Did the emperor imprison you?”

“Yeah. He locked me up.”

Mister.

That was what Kaya called me.

I didn’t like that title, but from the first time I met him, he stubbornly called me Mister.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I wanted it.”

The scenery around us changed along the way we walked.

The black and white world changes from forests to cities, and cities to ruins.

Hunters against the great army of demons.

“They” were at the forefront.

“… Pentagram.”

A five-member death squad that led the war on Earth.

They passed us by in a world of black and white.

Patrick, Kaya, Wolfgang, Angela, and… me.

“Is that the professor?”

“Well.”

“Ummm… they look similar, but something…”

Ensia was looking at ‘me’ with a worried expression.

Her question was understandable.

‘Kang Yu-jin’ over there was markedly different from me.

My personality isn’t that friendly either, but Kang Yoo-jin over there was even more brutal.

It is more ruthless, desperate, and full of anger and murderous intent.

To the extent that it feels like the remnants of emotions that have not been sublimated in battle are shimmering into an aura.

“… Maria is missing.”

And then, I realized.

The composition of the team is strange.

There was no Maria in the pentagram there.

“She didn’t come to Earth.”

Kaya, who was leading the way, added.

“I didn’t have to.”

“You didn’t have to?”

“Because the enemy of Earth in this world was not Diablo.”

It wasn’t Diablo, it was just a slightly stronger Witchbeast.

The black-haired Kaya said so.

So there was no need for Maria to come, and Kang Yu-jin here did not meet Maria.

There were no milestones here that would have corrected my mind and pointed the way.

“We’re almost there.”

The battlefield of the earth expands to a dimension beyond the world.

A man who won victory by wandering through many worlds, finally destroyed the demons and rebelled against mankind.

It would have been revenge against them.

It was a curse on the world that had deceived and ruined his life.

“Professor… are you okay?”

“It’s okay. Why do you ask that?”

“No… It’s kind of like that when you see something like this.”

Ensia showed signs of concern.

Heck, even if I’m not the current me, Kang Yoo-jin, the emperor over there, looks just like me.

But that’s it.

It didn’t happen to me anyway, so what can I do?

If you ask me what I feel, my eyes hurt from watching too many black and white screens.

“It didn’t happen to me. I don’t feel anything new.”

“aha···.”

Some may say that I am ruthless, but my opinion does not change.

They look the same, but the emperor and I are different people.

Their lives are different and their values are different.

Since he is a completely different person, there is no reason why I should overlap his life with mine.

“Think simple. The more complicated you think, the more complicated it becomes.”

How long did you walk with Kaya?

We have reached the second boundary before we know it.

A darker black wall than the previous boundary.

It was pitch black, as if the abyss had been polished and carved out of glass.

“From here on out, I can’t go in either.”

She stopped in front of a wall.

“What lies ahead of me are more primal memories. My fears and the malice planted by the Emperor lurks there.”

“The emperor planted it?”

“He did it to make me ‘Balthazar’.”

Kaya closed her eyes and confessed.

The Emperor changed ‘Wizard Kaya’ to ‘Shadow King Balthazar’.

“I was a coward, a failure.”

The black wall shudders.

Various landscapes began to be drawn and passed by on the huge wall that divided the world.

“·······.”

“·······.”

That was the appearance of an emperor who would annihilate mankind.

A sword that burns the world, kills all life, and erases the sound of breathing from the world.

Kaya sits down in front of his shadow that covers the entire dimension.

The emotion that dwelled there was probably endless despair.

“I couldn’t stop it even though I knew everything. I didn’t have the courage to do that.”

Looking up at the wall, she said.

The emperor kills his comrades.

Patrick, Wolfgang, Angela.

Killing everyone who resists, Kaya stands in front of him at the end.

She just calmly accepted the emperor’s anger.

“I didn’t resist. I thought that was the only atonement I could make.”

To entrust one’s life to him and to accept the name of Balthazar.

The Emperor’s bullet pierces her chest, and Kaya falls to the ground with a broken heart.

The Emperor did not hesitate, and his darkness engulfed Kaya and turned her into a beast.

“Perhaps even that was an excuse. I was afraid to face the uncle’s anger and sadness… so I rationalized it like that. I ran away.”

“·······.”

“Yes. That’s right…we failed.”

Emotions crept across his expressionless face.

Looking at the history that has passed, the emotion formed was ‘regret’.

“Going forward here is like facing the emperor’s malice.”

The screen changes and the battlefield unfolds.

The people who run away and the demons that chase them.

The cloth is rampant, and the arena of slaughter continues.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a sharp inhalation.

It was Ansia.

“Not a very nice sight for a child.”

The landscape was erased with the power of ‘erosion’.

Facing the wall that turned black again, I said with my hands on Ensia’s frozen shoulder.

“It is also human will to overcome human malice.”

I have already overcome the calamity of Diablo.

Even though I traded my life back then, I will definitely survive and succeed this time.

“You will be swallowed up by malice.”

“It’s not going to happen.”

I saw the kaya of the old world.

“That’s just your malice.”

It’s their failure, their despair.

“I am here now. I am not a specter of a ruined old world, I am a man who lives now and designs tomorrow.”

Although I lost a lot because of you guys, I also gained something because of it.

I met a lover, made a colleague, and took in a disciple.

Clearly, it was the present created by me, not by them.

“So, I’m not swallowed up. I’ve forgotten all about it now.”

“···I see.”

I walked past Kaya and onto the wall.

He stretched out his hand to create a crack and cut a path.

A trail leading to a deep, deep abyss appeared ahead.

“Encia. Light the way.”

“Yes, yes.”

Ansia is still confused.

Was the scenery I saw earlier so shocking?

Or did you see something else through it?

Neither is a good sign, but I didn’t bother asking.

“That’s the answer.”

“yes.”

I turned my back and left her behind.

“Goodbye.”

Behind her, she walks away.

The journey that entered the trail leads to darkness, and the end of the unconsciousness that has passed through has become as small as a dot.

“Good luck, mister.”

In a faint voice, it seemed that such encouragement was heard.

*

After crossing the border of unconsciousness, Encia became less talkative.

He quietly raised the spirits to reveal the future, but he couldn’t show the same kind of volubility as before.

It was because she had her own problems.

‘The devil’s malice…’

Encia doesn’t know Kang Yu-jin’s past.

I didn’t understand most of what I heard today.

However, only one.

She remembered as much as the demon’s malice.

-Don’t worry, Encia.

In the past, when he was very young, he took himself with him and ran away with his father’s words from the demon’s attack.

Then, he was caught up and jumped into the Witchbeast leaving a will to protect her.

That was the last thing he saw of his father.

Through his death, Ensia had seen the demon’s malice and the tragedy it caused.

That is probably the only big trauma that a person named Ensia has.

“Are you afraid?”

“Yes Yes?”

“You talk less.”

“·······.”

afraid.

That’s right.

Ensia was afraid of the Witchbeast.

She always acted lively, but Ensia was more afraid of the Witch than anyone else.

To be precise, I was afraid of losing something to the Witchbeast.

Because the weight left behind by the void of what was lost was the responsibility of the person who was left intact.

“Encia. You are my disciple.”

And he said, breaking the silence.

“I was the first person to rise from the ground and interpret the power of the Beast, and I ended the war by killing Diablo, the commander of the legion.”

He turned his head and his characteristic sharp gaze turned to Encia.

“You are a disciple of such a person.”

“·······.”

“Spread your shoulders, raise your head and look ahead. You have an obligation to be confident wherever you are.”

His voice was cold.

However, Ensia could feel the consideration in that coldness.

He was giving encouragement under the guise of a rebuke.

“When you’re afraid, keep an eye on who’s in front of you.”

“I… in front of you??”

“yes.”

in front of her.

Yujin Kang is there.

“If it is the disciple’s duty to save the master’s face, it is the teacher’s duty to lead and protect such a disciple.”

“·······.”

No matter what happens, I will protect you.

he was saying that

‘But, that’s what scares me the most.’

It’s not that I’m killed by the beast, I’m afraid that the professor dies trying to protect me.

Read at noblemtl.com

Just like how her father sacrificed herself to protect Ensia, who was running away from the demon in the past.

‘Dad···.’

Then, what did Dad say?

I’m sure I remember what he said before we broke up.

─■■■ ■■■ ■■■.

As of now, I don’t remember very well.

Probably because I was too young and too scared.

“·······.”

Was what he said encouraging? Or was it a lesson?

I can’t remember the voice or the expression, so I can’t recall it.

Maybe he was angry, maybe he cursed his fate to die in my place.

Recalling the memory of that day, which I had struggled to forget, my heart ached and ached as if stabbed by a dagger.

-Ansia…

“I’m okay.”

I don’t want to find out about it, so I walk forward.

to energize as much as possible.

to live with a smile

Because he thought that was the only atonement he could do.

My mom always told me to live with a smile, so that would be right.

“It’s done. I’ve brushed it all off! Let’s go!”

“···yes.”

Never, never looked back.

Because I didn’t know what kind of expression he was making now.

Not wanting to find out, she didn’t turn her head.