By Zephyria 
* * *
By this child’s side, he could remain human.
It was truly a thrilling wonder, as if the world were being redefined.
Only after leaving Eight Phases Mental Hospital and meeting Lee Yeo-jin did Jeil Heon learn that the Hospital Director of that Aberrant Realm was the Overseas Chinese man who had taught him how to transplant the true eye. He also learned that Nam Soon-ho’s acquaintance, who had agreed to perform the transplant, had been killed.
〈Hyun-woo killed them both. He said transplanting the true eye would interfere with his plans, so he did it out of spite.〉
〈……Is that so.〉
He no longer knew what kind of misery he should feel toward such cruelty. After a long silence, Lee Yeo-jin forced a smile onto his stiff face.
〈It’s actually for the best. Even walking for a short while in that passage you came out of makes time fly by on the outside, right? If we use that to delay Jiha’s age by a few years, we can deceive the eye of the flute. In the meantime, we just need to find a definitive way to make Jiha safe.〉
Would that really work? Jeil Heon agreed because there was no other viable solution, but he couldn’t fully put his mind at ease. To avoid the conditions of the Sealed One predicted by the Ten Thousand Waves Flute, the true eye was necessary.
His anxiety grew as he moved the child from one Aberrant Realm to another to evade the Smiling Man. As a Bearer, he possessed overwhelming martial power and treated Aberrations as usual, but ordinary people were not the same. Even if they could evade the eye of the Ten Thousand Waves Flute, the true eye was needed to increase the probability of avoiding danger in a world overrun by anomalies.
The vague thought crystallized as he realized the Smiling Man’s pursuit was directed at him. Let’s transplant my true eye into Jiha. This decision required no grand resolution. Doing what was best for the child was as utterly natural to him as breathing or blinking.
While procedures such as mixing blood and carving incantations were necessary for the transplant, the truly important part was the heart of the giver. Since the true eye originally stemmed from the yearning of someone wishing for safety from Aberrations, he hoped this desperation would reach the other.
For Jeil Heon, it was a process as easy as pie—provided that the child was the recipient.
On the day Mae-gu, having received word, brought the materials to disguise the child’s corpse, Jeil Heon transplanted the true eye. The child, unaware of what had changed in his small body, merely blinked. Upon being told to follow a handsome but strange mister, the child’s face suddenly clouded with anxiety.
〈Mom and Dad said that and didn’t come back……. Will you not come back either, Mister? Will Jiha be left all alone?〉
His lips trembled and his eyes reddened, as if he were about to burst into tears at any moment.
Hearing Mae-gu’s warning that the Smiling Man’s energy was close, Jeil Heon knelt before the child and met his gaze. The Smiling Man, now fully enraged, would certainly not be an easy opponent. Although he had prepared to seal him at Nam Soon-ho’s Prayer Chamber just in case, there was no guarantee that he himself would survive.
This moment might be his final meeting with the child. But if what the Smiling Man wanted was not his life, but to drive him to despair—if he intended to destroy his yearning to live and die as a human—
〈I’m not leaving Jiha alone. Even if it takes a while, I will definitely find you.〉
〈Really?〉
〈Really. But the next time we meet, I might have become a scary monster.〉
〈Uh-huh…….〉
〈No. I’ll hold on so that I don’t become a monster that Jiha is afraid of. When that happens, please call my name. Then I’ll be able to become a human again.〉
〈Jiha just has to call your name?〉
〈That’s right. Do you know my name?〉
〈I don’t know…….〉
〈It’s Jeil Heon. Jeil Heon.〉
“Jeil Heon,” the child mumbled, then nodded vigorously. Jeil Heon pulled the child into a final hug and patted his small back. The child’s trembling body gradually calmed down.
〈So it’s okay, Jiha. It’s okay. Don’t worry.〉
With affection, wishing for this child to be peaceful.
His consciousness sank quietly. It was as distant as the bottom of the abyssal depths where he would soon be laid to rest. The Aberration who had been called Jeil Heon in life followed the flowing memories like sediment drifting in the deep sea where no light reaches.
He wanted to live as a human. He wanted to stay by the child’s side as a human. The voice of the child calling his name defined his existence as human.
Because of Yoo Jiha’s existence, he became human. ……He had become one.
Yoo Jiha.
The only thing that held light in the abyssal depths where no light shone. Even though he became a monster who eventually met death as a human, the light of the jewel did not degrade; it still shone brightly and beautifully within him.
Is that why it is painful? Does he despair for having strayed from the human path?
How could that be? He saw the child grow into an adult. Though he may have carried the scar of being an orphan, he was adopted by wonderful foster parents and grew up surrounded by love. He grew into a good person who knew how to love and could give love.
He became an adult capable of showing love even to a man like him. He was satisfied with that.
……No. No. No. He was not satisfied.
The beast in his stomach, which knew no satiety, howled. The twisted madness of the fox demon, which could never be satisfied, resembled him.
What was the problem with devouring? What was the problem with eating everything? How could he let go of the jewel in his arms that had not degraded even after he became an Aberration? How could he let go of that name, engraved upon his soul and heart with a new meaning, rather than just a simple fragment of a cute childhood?
Couldn’t he just eat and eat and eat and eat everything? Eat Yoo Jiha’s family, friends, acquaintances, and even the anomalies that would harm him, leaving only Yoo Jiha in this world. If he did that, wouldn’t his jewel be eternally peaceful in his arms? Wouldn’t he be his forever?
Despite denying love, he wanted Yoo Jiha.
He craved Yoo Jiha’s affection like a ferocious hunger.
A terrible selfishness stimulated the devouring. No matter what he ate, this craving would never be satisfied. He would search for Yoo Jiha while keeping Yoo Jiha locked in his arms.
That was why he had to be isolated. That was why he had to be laid to rest in the abyssal depths.
Because this was the only way to save Yoo Jiha.
Because he had to be protected from the monster that had nothing left but the instinct to crave Yoo Jiha.
The bottom of the abyssal depths, where no light enters and the light of the jewel does not shine, was the only place the monster should be.
He closed his consciousness. He eroded the human ego that had been Jeil Heon. Yet, the hunger did not subside.
…….
It slowly opened its eyes.
Light poured into the pupils of a beast, which were more sensitive to light than a human’s. However, the typical biological sensations of being dazzled or feeling pain no longer existed.
It slowly scanned the surroundings. Everything was silent. It recalled that it was supposed to be laid to rest in the abyssal depths. Is this already the abyssal depths, and is its consciousness merely waking up clumsily to see hallucinations?
But there was a human holding its hand. The warmth of the joined hands was too warm to be a hallucination. It moved its eyes. The features of the face, the gaze, the warmth of the eyes, the breath—everything that composed him, the scent of an existence emanating from a human who should be nothing more than prey, wrapped around it, holding it fast so it could not move.
Even in this moment, it recognized the hunger that constantly drove it and overlaid the human upon it.
「…….」
Ah.
A terrible hunger directed itself toward the human. A thirst that would not be satisfied even after devouring every single part from head to toe, from a single strand of hair to a single cell—was that truly hunger?
It extended its consciousness while capturing the human in its gaze. This was not the abyssal depths. It was a temporary isolation room in a Containment Sector. It sensed various machines and the presence of humans bustling about. The craving, which had been indistinct when directed at the human, became clear as it expanded to the surroundings. It had to satisfy its starvation. Even knowing it would never feel satiety.
Wouldn’t it be enough to leave only this human? Couldn’t it just devour everything else? Once a clear conclusion was reached, it took action. It raised its body, which had been asleep for a long time, and expanded its hunger to the surroundings. There was the presence of a human rushing toward this place. Let’s eat that one first.
It was just as it decided.
“Jeil Heon.”
A fragment of a word uttered by the human pierced through it.