215 – Selfish Hearts Collide # 3
Lee Jin-A left the village right after dropping me off at the well house.
Daldaldaldal-.
Inoi rubbed his sleepy eyes as he watched the truck spewing exhaust.
“For some reason, Jun-Core Jin-A is really angry…!”
“Right.”
I was also taken aback when Jin-A suddenly got angry and hit me.
Now, as the excitement settled, I calmly recalled what had happened earlier, and one phrase suddenly echoed in my ears.
—This selfish brat!
It was Jin-A’s curse.
I couldn’t help but feel bewildered because I had never thought of myself as a selfish person.
But as my mood calmed, I began to faintly understand what Jin-A was trying to say.
“She said I’m selfish for not thinking about the people left behind.”
Jin-A had waited a long time for her family. She was someone who had been a family member waiting for someone who might never return.
Could it be that the image of my mother, who didn’t come back after being swept away by the rift, overlapped with the scene of me being dead for about ten seconds?
No, even so, she didn’t have to hit me and call me selfish.
I shoved a tissue into my nose where the blood had gushed out in the mirror.
—Kkung-kung…!
Just then, Kkungkkungi approached me and climbed from my ankle, making his way up my clothes and settling on my shoulder.
Kkungkkungi began munching on strawberries while sitting on my shoulder, looking so peaceful that the chaos that had just occurred felt like a dream.
Suddenly, I imagined what it would have been like if I had collapsed from the superconducting dragon’s explosion and never woke up again.
What would have happened to friends like Kkungkkungi, Bang Bang, Ahn Ahn, and Kalilnoi?
Without me, the guardian and partner, would someone have taken care of them? Given that they were kind, cute, and capable animals, that was a strong possibility.
But it could also have been different.
“What would happen to Kkungkkungi and Bang Bang if I died?”
I asked Inoi my question.
Inoi, who had returned to the well house and was unpacking, replied.
“Rare and independent animals like the supreme squirrel and the imperial ant, or the ghost spider, cannot be tamed by just anyone…! There’s a high chance they would return to nature…!”
Is that so?
It was a thought-provoking topic in many ways.
I sat by the window and turned on my charged phone.
“That evolved copper snake looked extremely dangerous just by glancing at it, but it jumped in anyway.”
└For real, I would’ve probably peed myself right then.
└Seems like only A-rankers can do that; I’d rather live as a C-ranker.
└Isn’t Haildo amazing, even if he’s not an A-ranker?
└I feel like other A-rankers would have done the same too…
The awakened ones’ SNS, which had been full of stories about artificial respiration, began to mention the impressive parts of my performance.
It was a good thing for me.
It meant my fame was rising just as I had hoped.
But I didn’t feel as good about it as I had expected.
Instead, I became more thoughtful and calm.
“To be honest, I was focused only on doing what I had to do and never thought about the people left behind. What should I have done?”
I closed my eyes and rummaged through my memories.
My colleague Kang Cheol-Min’s mother crying at his funeral. The daughter of my deceased colleague Min-kyu struggling to survive.
The families of the victims of the rifts.
In truth, the media often talked about such topics.
However, I typically tried not to think about those things deliberately, fearing that my ankles would be tied in critical moments.
Thinking about Kkungkkungi, Bang Bang, and Ahn Ahn wandering around my grave and eventually returning to nature made me feel that the hardness of my humanity might soften.
Should I say my resolve was dulling?
When I thought about it that way, it turned out I was indeed selfish.
It was only natural for Jin-A, who was left behind, to be angry.
Soon, Inoi spoke up.
“Heroes are inherently selfish…! Even Achilles, who distinguished himself in the Trojan War, gained fame but died young, leaving his family in sorrow…!”
“Is that so?”
“Heroes often saunter back and forth at the crossroads of life and death and tend to die young…! Our Nymphs love to sing tales of such heroes…!”
The lives of heroes sung by the Nymphs are transmitted from mouth to mouth through history, ultimately becoming immortal.
The difference between the life of an ordinary person who will be forgotten after death and a man who will be remembered over time is probably found in this.
Pat-!
At that moment, Inoi climbed onto the sofa.
Having observed the Nymphs for quite some time, I knew that they loved to climb onto high boxes or platforms to look down at people.
Standing tall, Inoi proclaimed like a great orator.
“Is it a matter of whether to tread the line between death and immortality to be forever remembered and sung, or to end an ordinary life happily? It’s always a dilemma for heroes…!”
“Really?”
“What our house owner is worrying about now truly means that stepping onto the hero’s path signifies becoming a ‘hero’…! It’s best to ponder deeply about it…!”
The worries I had now seemed to be entirely natural and the correct sequence of events.
I opened the book labeled “The Path of Heroes Vol. 1.”
The mission of “Kissing Core” was the last entry; the book had not been updated since.
Perhaps the contents of the first volume ended here.
# # #
The autumn dawn had a strangely burnt smell.
Many people were burning fallen leaves.
Clunk, creak-.
5 AM.
I woke up earlier than expected and slowly opened the door. Kkungkkungi, who had curled up on the living room cushion, seemed to have awakened and shook off his body before climbing onto my shoulder.
—Kkung-kung…!
That cry made Ahn Ahn, who was sleeping in the kitchen, stir. He then brought the vitamins and supplements I needed for today along with a water bottle.
He must have sensed that I was about to go outside.
—Szzzzz…!
In reality, I was thinking of going outside today.
There was a place I wanted to visit.
I wanted to jog around the neighborhood a few laps like a daily routine, checking if anything unusual happened overnight.
As I dashed between the fields, squirrels and honey ants would usually rush to me to watch, but today there were fewer of them.
Just as I was worrying about this, the village chief spoke.
“They all went to hibernate. You can meet them again in spring. I hope we can meet again for sure, but many squirrels don’t wake up from hibernation.”
Swish-.
While saying this, the village chief spread a sack of peanuts on the ground for the squirrels.
“Of course, the Squirrel Beast is different. Unlike regular squirrels, I’ve heard Squirrel Beasts live well over 100 years.”
“That’s right. They will all live long.”
I hoped to meet the Squirrel Beasts in the spring of next year again. That way, I could see them for a long time.
Brrrng-.
7 AM.
A car entered Primal Village.
A tall man with a neat hairstyle, resembling an actor, yawned deeply as he closed the car door in front of our house.
“There are really a lot of Squirrel Beasts. Normally, I would have struggled to breathe because of allergies. This newly developed medicine is pretty good. I’m doing fine even with all these Squirrel Beasts around.”
—Kkung. Kkung.
It was Lee Joon-Hun, who was raising the Squirrel Beast named Binnari.
“Haildo, why did you call me out so early? I came because I owe you, but what’s up?”
I was thinking of getting into Lee Joon-Hun’s car this morning to go somewhere.
Lee Joon-Hun asked.
“Normally, you used to ride in Jin-A’s car when going somewhere. Did she say she had a busy day today? Well, she must be busy. I watched yesterday’s broadcast, and it showed that the station had invested a lot of money. Your story was also featured prominently.”
It seemed Lee Joon-Hun had seen the broadcast from yesterday as well.
I thought about telling him about the fight I had with Jin-A yesterday but felt it would be a bother to explain it all, so I kept my mouth shut.
“So where are we going?”
Lee Joon-Hun asked me about the destination.
I showed him an address, and he frowned.
“Really?”
“It’s real. Let’s hurry. I want to be back here before lunch.”
Lee Joon-Hun’s supercar took off.
Indeed, it was a nice car, and we arrived at the destination quickly.
Daejeon National Cemetery.
A special place where just anyone cannot be buried.
It was a hall of honor where national heroes and those who died in service rest.
I could find some names I knew there.
“Here it is.”
“Hero Kang Cheol-Min’s Grave.”
I recalled the face of my big, confident comrade.
Kang Cheol-Min.
He was my comrade who had been bumping into and competing with me since long ago, building a bond of fondness.
Awakened ones are treated as heroes and will have their deaths processed collectively if they die on duty.
That hero Kang Cheol-Min lay beneath this small gravestone.
Now, the cemetery was quiet, but Kang Cheol-Min’s death had been quite a loud event, with his name frequently mentioned in newspapers and online.
Though it was so quiet now.
“Why here?”
Lee Joon-Hun, who disliked Kang Cheol-Min particularly, asked me in a slightly curt manner while putting on sunglasses he took from his inner pocket.
I recalled that Lee Joon-Hun definitely did not like Kang Cheol-Min.
It seemed he couldn’t be fond of him even now that he was buried beneath the gravestone.
“If I had died, I would have been buried around here. In this cemetery for Awakened ones.”
I said that while momentarily lost in thought.
At that moment, someone approached us and spoke.
“It seems like guests have come to visit after a long time. Friends of Cheol-Min? Colleagues?”
It was a woman wearing a long autumn coat.
Since she seemed to be quite a bit older, it felt appropriate to call her an elderly lady.
She seemed to be of a similar age to my mother.
She held a Bible in her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Deaconess. I am Haildo, a colleague of Cheol-Min. This is Lee Joon-Hun, a junior from a year behind. You might remember us from the funeral.”
I remembered that Cheol-Min’s mother, Kim Ok-Soo, held the position of a deacon at a small church.
Deaconess Kim’s face brightened as she looked at me and Lee Joon-Hun.
