Chapter 44. I Love You (2)

“Tae-beom-ah. Listen to me….”

“You’re going to make excuses again. Just like always!”

His vision blurred, and his lower lip trembled. He never wanted to look young in front of him, he wanted to look like someone he could lean on. Baek Tae-beom’s tears flowing out of his eyes felt cruel. Choi Ga-hyun’s expression looked like he was crushed.

Finally.

His throat felt hotly submerged. The surroundings seemed to grow dark, but he couldn’t care less. Only Choi Ga-hyun filled Baek Tae-beom’s view.

“I am nothing to you, aren’t I?”

“That’s not true! You’re….”

Choi Ga-hyun hesitated.

“You’re, a good… Dongsaeng.”

“Ga-hyun Hyung.”

Baek Tae-beom bowed his head.

“You can stop now. Helping me out, with that kind of sympathy.”

“What?”

“I know everything. You’re helping me just because you’re a nice guy. You don’t have any feelings for me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You still have no idea?”

Baek Tae-beom smiled faintly.

“Hyung, I love you.”

And everything changed.

Baek Tae-beom was the first to know that a person can bleed so horribly. He reflexively embraced the person who fell in front of him and shouted as he saw his face turning white and his eyes gradually closing. He couldn’t remember properly. No, he couldn’t remember. It was all just red. As if red flowers were blooming on top of the black earth. He struggled to stop the flowers somehow, but it couldn’t have worked. Because Baek Tae-beom had no luck or ability.

The only thing Baek Tae-beom could do was pray to his constellation.

Since you are so omnipotent, because you are an all-powerful God. Please, it doesn’t matter what happens to me, please save this man.

But no answer came. It was getting cold all over. He shouted and hugged him so desperately. It felt like his neck and ears were going to explode. His shoulders trembled. Baek Tae-beom realized that his sole foothold had collapsed.

[The conditions have been met and the skill, Hermit is revealed.]

[Locked stats are released.]

[You have acquired a new skill.]

[Skill : Guardian]

[You have acquired a new skill.]

[Skill : Madness]

[You have acquired a new skill.]

[Skill: King’s Blade]

[You have acquired a new skill.]

.

.

.

Translucent windows filled his vision. Baek Tae-beom looked at them foolishly. Things he couldn’t obtain when he desperately wanted to stand by Choi Ga-hyun’s side were given to him like a reward only after Choi Ga-hyun’s death.

However.

Did it make any difference?

Baek Tae-beom didn’t even know what was being cut by his sword. Endless despair and pain engulfed him. People’s shouts and monsters’ seething cries all sounded the same to his ears.

“Baek Tae-beom-ssi!”

Baek Tae-beom was grabbed by his shoulders and had no choice but to get up. It was only then that he realized what he had done. Surrounding Choi Ga-hyun’s body, which was lying quietly, the corpses of people and monsters with their limbs cut off were mixed and scattered all over. In fact, it was ambiguous to say they were corpses. It was just chunks of meat.

However, Yoo Jin-woo could not even be found in the mountain of corpses.

“What are you doing now?!”

“Hyung… hyung….”

“Look around. Do you think Choi Ga-hyun would have wanted something like this to happen?”

Baek Tae-beom finally came to his senses. He dropped the sword he was holding and knelt in front of Choi Ga-hyun, shaking off Lee Myung-won’s hand.

“Hyung, Ga-hyun hyung….”

However, the moment he brushed Choi Ga-hyun’s cheek with his fingertips, dust flew away. Choi Ga-hyun’s body turned into dust like the bodies of monsters and disappeared. The only thing left was the ring he had put on Choi Ga-hyun’s finger. Baek Tae-beom, who had lost everything in an instant, could only look down at his hands.

He couldn’t even hear Lee Myung-won’s shouts.

Baek Tae-beom’s savior was no longer in this world.