Chapter 544 – The Story I Couldn’t Tell (2)
A completely sudden and one-sided farewell declaration from Piece.
No matter how much I tried to understand, the word ‘understand’ just wouldn’t fit.
How long has it been since Piece and I met again that we suddenly have to part ways again?
I absolutely wanted to reject the idea of losing something precious, not once but twice.
Why on earth?
[Do you remember the things that bastard did in the realm of the gods?]
“Yeah, I remember.”
How could I forget?
Summoning monsters while diminishing his very existence.
As if that wasn’t enough, he even manipulated the darkness itself.
All just out of a desire to kill us.
We barely managed to overcome those crises by a stroke of luck.
Now that I think about it, it seems like only one problem remains from that.
Especially when I see Piece’s self-deprecating smile.
[That’s why the boundary between gods and humans started to crack, you see.]
“So?”
Honestly, I don’t really understand.
Was the impact of our fight really that significant?
What does it even mean that the boundary between gods and humans is crumbling?
Is it really serious enough to cause issues?
Isn’t it something we can just overlook?
But Piece’s next words were something.
I couldn’t just brush off, no way.
At least for me, it was very serious.
[So, to restore that boundary, this body intends to completely sacrifice itself.]
“No, f*ck. Why?”
My questions still weren’t being answered, but another question quickly arose.
“Why does Piece have to sacrifice herself?”
[Someone has to take responsibility for it, don’t you think?]
Why does it have to be Piece who solves this?
“Why the f*ck is it Piece?”
[Although I don’t want to admit it, that bastard and I were originally one.]
Isn’t that just f*cking ridiculous?
The one who made the mistake is someone else, and the one cleaning it up is someone else?
That bastard was a real pain in the ass until the very end.
“What happens if the boundary collapses, anyway?”
[A lot of gods will come into this world and cause chaos.]
That is true.
Even among humans, there’s so much conflict.
If gods join in, the scale will definitely get serious.
That’s why they usually didn’t mix, right?
“Are you worried that evil gods will show up?”
[Because there are no gods who are always friendly to humans.]
Simply put, because of this incident, they could end up mingling together.
So Piece steps in to prevent all this.
As if it’s the most obvious thing for someone in the position of a god.
Maybe she really made this choice because she couldn’t overcome her guilt.
But I had only one thing to say to Piece.
“Just don’t do it.”
[……Did you really hear what I just said?]
Let’s not do it.
“Yeah.”
[There will really be problems.]
Of course, I’m still ignorant.
I have no idea what kind of problems this situation might cause in the future.
How much impact it’ll have on our daily lives.
Whether we can continue to live properly or not.
But.
“If the boundary is gonna collapse, then let it collapse.”
[……Can you handle that?]
That’s not a reason for Piece to sacrifice herself.
What wrong has Piece done, anyway?
Saving my life when I should’ve been dead?
Still existing without disappearing?
Seriously, this is just insane.
“Everyone will handle what they need to.”
[Isn’t that too irresponsible?]
So is it really right for that bastard to kill us?
“Such things should be shared responsibility.”
[……]
I know this.
This is just stubbornness.
Being seriously foolish.
Being completely trash for being irresponsible.
But this time, I will make a selfish choice.
Even if asked dozens, hundreds of times.
Even if I regress, my choice will never change.
What can the end of the world mean now?
What if it gets worse than it is now?
No matter how important the value presented is, I don’t care.
Because Piece is more precious than that.
Piece is more important than anyone in the first place.
Comparing them is just a serious breach of etiquette.
That’s the emotion I’ve continued to hold on to through endless regressions.
The world she speaks of includes me and the heroines, but.
If Piece isn’t there, unfortunately, it means nothing to me.
Naturally, the target returning home includes Piece, of course.
“If the world doesn’t have Piece, it might as well just end.”
[If that happens, everyone’s lives will be turned upside down.]
But Piece still had no intention of breaking her stubbornness.
If we keep this conversation going, we’ll just continue drawing endless parallel lines.
This time, I decided to be honest about the emotions I felt for Piece.
And soon, I started to speak to Piece, softly.
“Uh… honestly… I don’t care about other things…”
[…….What do you mean by that…?]
It was something I didn’t want to say directly, but this time, it had to be expressed.
It was so embarrassing that I couldn’t say it out loud.
But it was an extremely sincere statement, devoid of pretense.
“Piece… don’t you want to be with me…?”
With great effort, I forced my closing mouth to open.
Before it became irreversible, to convey my true feelings.
“I want to… be together for life…”
As soon as I said it, I clapped both hands to my face tightly.
Speaking it out was so much harder than I had imagined.
The heroines who conveyed their sincere feelings seemed truly amazing to me.
In that moment, I thought I heard Piece’s chuckling voice.
It was a pure laugh, without any impurities of self-deprecation.
[……Hehe… I guess I’ve lost this time.]
Saying that, Piece slowly approached and carefully hooked her arm through mine.
Of course, due to the incoming embarrassment, I still couldn’t lift my face.
But Piece began to push my hands away, showing her smile.
“I never thought I’d say something like this… so f*cking embarrassing…”
[That’s why the protagonists of pure love stories find it tough.]
“F*ck…”
The brightest smile among everything Jieun has made so far.
[By the way, that was a bit cringy.]
“The whole world is cringy…”
With somewhat slimy and sticky gazes.
[Anyway, I will stay with you for life, just like you said.]
“So, you won’t die now?”
[Well, let’s try doing things your way this time.]
It was a relief that Piece was no longer planning to make sacrifices.
Actually, when you think about it, it was completely nonsensical.
There’s no reason for someone who did nothing wrong to sacrifice themselves.
I never intended to let it go that way in the first place.
Of course, Piece was still expressing her concerns.
[But I’m still worried that the world may be covered in chaos.]
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
[Why do you say that?]
Honestly, I thought it wasn’t even a worthy concern.
The boundary between gods and humans completely crumbling, causing chaos everywhere.
There could be situations we could never have even imagined.
Is that really such a huge problem?
“Here, we already have Hunters, so there can’t be any greater chaos.”
[Ah, f*ck. That’s true.]
After all, there are Hunters in this world that shouldn’t even exist?
No matter how many evil gods there are.
Comparatively, they’re just cute.
No, here, it would be more appropriate to worry about a different issue.
“Aren’t we supposed to be worried about gods turning into ‘Hunters’ instead?”
[……Oh, God…]
The worst scenario where gods could learn from Hunters.
Well, even so, I still had no intention of swaying from my stubbornness.
It’s a little selfish, but I wanted to indulge in this desire.
I’ve been through a lot, so a little compensation should be okay, right?
From now on, I will never surrender something precious.
Even if it costs me something great.
At that moment, Piece, still hooked onto my arm, pulled a bit closer.
With my free hand, I suddenly reached out to the void.
Then a large piece containing a dreamy background appeared before my eyes.
This must be some sort of entrance back to the world we left behind.
“Anyway, let’s go back. They must be waiting.”
[Let’s do that.]
Then, we slowly walked towards that piece.
“By the way, how do we explain this to the heroines…?”
[It would be best to leave a strong impression, just like I told you before.]
Though one concern still lingered.
“Is it gonna be okay…?”
[Don’t worry. I have everything planned out.]
Yet we didn’t stop our steps.
We put more power into the arms we were linking.
With faint smiles on our faces.
[By the way, was that really your true intention?]
The emotions we had kept hidden deep within us.
That we hadn’t openly expressed until now.
A little more sincere than before.
“Can you tell me how to regress before I die?”
[This f*cking bastard.]
It might have been a little too honest, but here we are.
