By Zephyria 
(Finale)
However, there was someone who stopped the monster’s death. There was a warmth that approached like a miracle from beyond the window of a small semi-basement room. The child who met him no longer dies. Even so, the child was anxious. Worried that he might still look like a monster to him.
〈How do I look to you, hyung?〉
To the question asked with trepidation, he gave a refreshing smile.
〈Super cute. The cutest in the whole world.〉
Only then did the child feel relieved. Even if he became a monster again, it felt like it would be okay as long as he was seen as cute by him. Even if he became a terrible monster shunned by everyone in the world, he felt he could survive if he was hugged cutely by him. The child gave a beaming smile and burrowed into his embrace.
“Ah, you’re awake?”
And upon opening his eyes, he saw that same face. Like scattering rings of light beyond that face, unfamiliar memories flowed in. Over the first death—trapped and dying in a fire in a semi-basement room—a newly painted memory appeared: a strange middle-aged man suddenly appearing and saving him.
After staring at Kim Si-baek with a blank expression for a moment, Tae-un looked down at his shrunken body and then looked up again.
His vision was clear. The shadows of the night sky where darkness had settled were vivid, and the outlines of objects were not blurred. The cold night air of midwinter touched his skin directly, and the faint scent of magical beast blood drifted to the tip of his nose.
Above all, he could see Kim Si-baek’s face properly.
His hand, which had been trembling in shock, touched his cheek. Instead of being pitch black, a fair left hand rubbed his cheek. There were no scars anywhere. He felt a void, as if a part of his soul had been neatly cut away. Neither the magical energy within him nor Kim Si-baek’s divine power could be sensed.
‘What is this?’
Hadn’t he just incinerated his own physical body to save Kim Si-baek? No matter if it was inside the Id Portal, if he had been shattered to that extent, his physical body in reality shouldn’t be intact, yet he felt light, as if he had just woken from a deep sleep.
Furthermore, this situation—where his magical energy had vanished and his body had become young—was utterly inexplicable. It wasn’t some sort of panoramic flashback right before death. He had no right to meet Kim Si-baek, who looked as if nothing had happened, even in a dream.
Seeing the face that had become expressionless—unbefitting of a child—because he couldn’t keep up with the situation, Kim Si-baek let out an unintentional laugh. He thought that while the body had returned to childhood, the inside was still an adult.
“The portal is cleared, but is your body okay? I can’t heal you anymore, so if you’re in pain, you have to tell me honestly.”
“…….”
“As for first aid… hmm, no. Since I’ve been healing with divine power every time, I’ve forgotten how to do it. This is a problem. I should learn first aid as soon as we go back.”
While Tae-un still wore a confused expression, Kim Si-baek rubbed the back of his neck. He felt somewhat awkward trying to explain it in words.
“Chaos completely turned you back into a human. Biyendwe-nim also returned via mak slechtro, and now only you and I are left here.”
Slowly, the understanding was processed in Tae-un’s brain. He didn’t know what whim Chaos had acted upon, but in exchange for taking away Kim Si-baek’s future, it had truly returned him to a complete human.
That understanding became a new pain. The child’s distorted lips trembled with difficulty.
“……Why, why did you do that?”
“Un-ah.”
“I… I even killed Si-woon hyung. You saw it too. You should have just abandoned a monster like me. Because of me, you again…”
The things he must have given up because of him became fierce, sharp teeth that tore into Tae-un. Not the shining days of succeeding as a fencer and reuniting with his brother early, but the past moment of hanging himself in a small, impoverished room under the misunderstanding that his brother had died returned as a sense of guilt.
What would he be unable to enjoy now? How would his shining days be distorted again? How much pain would that cause him?
Kim Si-baek carefully cradled the child’s eyes, which were dry despite being distorted as if about to burst into tears.
“I told you before. Even if I went back to being 19, I would go into that same semi-basement room and find you.”
Tae-un had always suffered, saying that his life was twisted because of him, but Kim Si-baek never thought that way. His life wasn’t ruined because of him; it had moved toward a new path. Even if he returned to the front of that semi-basement room on that day, he would save the child. He would never let the death of 5-year-old Tae-gun be announced in a dry voice on the TV.
It was true that he didn’t achieve as much fame as the future where he succeeded as a fencer. It was also true that he suffered enough to decide to end his own life due to the misunderstanding that his brother had died.
But was that life wrong? In exchange for giving up the glory predicted for his life, Kim Si-baek saved the life of a small child, and he strove to walk the right path with a straight back so as not to be ashamed before that child. Every moment he faced and collided with life head-on was also his shining day.
Sharing the shining days of a life he wouldn’t have known if not for Tae-un, Kim Si-baek smiled brightly.
“Saving you is my pride.”
Even if his vision was still not functioning properly, it was a bright smile that Tae-un could not possibly misread, and it spread to the corners of his eyes. More than a hundred words, a pure sincerity whispered through the newly overlaid memories.
〈Just as you didn’t forget the memory of your parents loving you, do not forget the sincerity that I love you.〉
Tae-un’s eyebrows flickered slowly. His vision wavered and blinked a few times, and soon became clouded. Thinking blankly that there was another problem with his vision, Tae-un only later recognized the identity of the hot something flowing down his cheeks.
Once he realized what it was, like a person whose long-blocked speech had finally opened, fragments of emotions that couldn’t even form a complete shape poured out incoherently.
“I’m sor… sorry. Until now, I kept lying… deceiving…”
Amidst the sobs that were crushed and barely audible, mixed with the sound of crying, Kim Si-baek silently embraced him. The small, constantly trembling back was pitiful, as if he were finally vomiting the blood-stained tears he had to swallow alone all this time.
He, who had forgotten how to cry and forgotten what tears were, and had shed tears only once for Kim Si-baek, was now shedding tears for himself for the first time.
For as long as the long, arduous time he had spent alone, Kim Si-baek stayed by his side.
It was only after the darkness had deepened completely that Kim Si-baek was able to wipe away the tears that had thoroughly dirtied his face. Following Tae-un, who kept avoiding him by hanging his swollen face low, Kim Si-baek tilted his head.
“Do you not want to show hyung your face?”
“……I probably became ugly from crying.”
“Our Un-i is always cute.”
As he gently coaxed and patted him, Tae-un glanced up with red, swollen eyes, but upon seeing the face full of mischief, he quickly lowered his head again. Kim Si-baek chuckled and ruffled his hair.
Since the kid was already smaller and thinner than his peers, seeing him discouraged was cute, but also heartbreaking. He was given the task again of feeding him well to make him plump.
Then, a certain thought suddenly crossed his mind, and Kim Si-baek cleared his throat. While the young Tae-un was so cute and lovely that he wouldn’t hurt even if put in his eye, there was a problem—minor if you will, but important if you will.
“If you’re sorry to hyung, grow up quickly and become an adult.”
“Can the body grow quickly?”
“He didn’t give me detailed explanations, but he seemed to imply it depends on your will. It’s not that you’ve completely reversed time, and anyway, the foundation is a 36-year-old body.”
At those words, Tae-un lowered his head further and fidgeted with his fingers. Kim Si-baek deliberately scooped up the child who couldn’t approach readily. Even after being held, Tae-un hesitated for a long time before very carefully wrapping his arms around his neck. Feeling the child’s body heat, which was warmer than an adult’s, Kim Si-baek rubbed his face against Tae-un’s cheek.
“Anyway, I don’t know how to explain this when we go back. Come to think of it, isn’t this a huge problem?”
Even if a normal hunter suddenly became young, it would be a commotion, but a representative hunter of Korea and the Guild Master of a large guild had become a little kid. Just imagining the chaos that would ensue made his head throb, but even if he was young, Tae-un was still Tae-un.
“Eun-ho and Section Chief Gwak will handle it.”
“Yeah, I guess so, right?”
Sending infinite trust to the two who had managed to clean up the messes despite their own confusion, Kim Si-baek slowly stepped forward. The dark night sky split open, and faint moonlight descended. Stepping on the moonlight, he gazed south toward where the Han River would be.
It was time to go back.
To their home, and to their lives and futures that had finally become whole.
〈Main Story End〉