Chick 359
by Cristae359
For a moment, he couldn’t think at all. It felt as if his heart had stopped.
His body responded before his mind—instinctively, he took a step, then another, forward.
A person he’d thought he’d never see again.
A name he’d called so often he couldn’t even remember for how long.
He reached out to Chloe.
But—
Thud!
A powerful shock struck his abdomen.
Chloe had kicked On Ijo in the stomach as he approached her.
Gru startled, both hands clamped over her mouth.
“Gasp!”
But even after the blow, On Ijo paid it no mind and pulled Chloe tightly into his arms.
Furious, Chloe struggled desperately to break free.
“Let me go! Have you lost your mind?!”
But the man’s arms only tightened, as if he could never let go.
Chloe pummeled his back with her fists.
“How dare you even consider such a wretched thought?”
On Ijo pressed his lips into a thin line.
Chloe asked, her voice trembling.
“You’re going to rebuild the tower?”
“…….”
His arms around Chloe wavered.
“It’s the world you saved.”
With those words, his fingertips began to tremble.
“…I regretted it. Every day, every single moment.”
His low voice scattered like the wind.
Chloe hesitated.
A wave pulled the sand, shaped by Chloe, away.
On Ijo, breathless, held her even tighter.
“I’ve regretted it all along—I should never have done it.”
Wet drops trickled down Chloe’s shoulder.
She understood. She knew too well where On Ijo’s regret came from.
Her death. The despair of their family.
Countless tragedies that must have dragged him ever deeper into darkness.
The strength drained from the fists Chloe had raised to strike him.
“…Haah.”
Her ragged breathing began to steady.
The fury that had burned to her very scalp ebbed away, replaced by an ache of pity.
“You did well,” Chloe said quietly.
“You saved everyone.”
“…….”
“Someone needed to say that to you, now that you’ve come back.”
On Ijo bit his lower lip, his arms around her slackening ever so slightly.
With his face buried in Chloe’s shoulder, he spoke in a plaintive voice.
“You promised we’d go to the sea when I returned…”
“Sorry, I had a lot on my plate too.”
“I wished you’d visit, even if just in a dream.”
“I wanted to, but the work never seemed to end…”
Chloe gently pushed him away and lowered her arms to embrace Gru’s back.
Ahem. She cleared her throat, embarrassed, then spoke again.
“I’m sorry for all the things I kept from you. But in exchange…”
Chloe smiled lightly at Gru.
“I gave you such a beautiful child, so please forgive me.”
Simultaneously, On Ijo’s and Gru’s eyes met.
Startled, Gru edged up shyly to Chloe’s leg.
On seeing Gru so reticent, On Ijo’s face crumbled.
“…My princess,” he said, voice trembling.
“I’m sorry. For everything…”
His consciousness had been clouded, not himself, but he should never have let it go that far.
In the end, he had become a danger to Gru.
“Did it hurt?”
Gru peered out at him from behind Chloe’s leg.
“No,” she said, shaking her small head.
“It wasn’t Uncle, so it’s okay.”
On Ijo carefully swept Gru up in his arms.
Her little hands hesitantly circled his neck.
A happiness so overwhelming it seemed to melt him filled his throat to the brim.
“She’s our child. I’ll leave her to you now. So…”
Chloe looked him straight in the eye.
“Stop thinking foolish thoughts. You have a duty to raise our child well.”
“Sisi…”
“Mr. On Ijo, the world is always full of disappointments.”
Chloe’s eyes grew distant, as if recalling a sorrowful past.
“I know it might not make sense to someone as sheltered as you, but life’s full of failures—just when you think things are looking up, they collapse again. The more you live, the more unfair and unreasonable the world seems. My life was like that. Unfortunate, unhappy, winding, and never easy.”
Chloe’s laugh was humorless and bitter. On Ijo called out to her, flustered.
“Sisi?”
“And yet,” she continued, raising her head.
“In spite of it all, you showed me that there are always new reasons to hope and to love in this world.”
She gazed at him warmly.
On Ijo blinked, eyes wide, as if he couldn’t remember ever having done such a thing.
Idiot.
Chloe smiled faintly.
“I love you, On Ijo.”
Chloe’s sudden confession was followed by her drawing both Gru and On Ijo into a tight embrace.
“It was a foolish, unfair, and twisted world, but it let me meet you both. So don’t hate it too much.”
Chloe pressed a kiss to Gru’s hand, then to On Ijo’s cheek.
Last of all, she gazed deep into On Ijo’s eyes and whispered,
“Even if this world seems not worth it, don’t let it steal the place for our love.”
On Ijo looked at her in silence, feeling something quietly break apart in his chest.
As if the fetters that had bound him so long were finally slipping free. He stood blankly, as though doused in cold water.
And then, very slowly, his frozen lips moved.
“I…”
A tear slid down from On Ijo’s left eye.
“It feels like I can’t wake from a never-ending nightmare.”
His life was like running endlessly through rain, cradling Chloe’s lifeless form. As if time had stopped at that moment.
Chloe wiped away his tears with her thumb.
“That’s all just part of the life that’s already passed.”
She took his empty hand and had it wrap around Gru.
“The nightmare is over. Look at the reality in front of you.”
On Ijo gazed at Gru in a daze.
The child’s arms wrapped around his shaking shoulders, tears flowing freely down his own.
Only then did On Ijo fully accept what was before his eyes.
The sea began to collapse around them.
Within the surging flow of mana, golden light flashed yet again.
Cabalon, facing On Joorim, could not relax his guard for even a moment.
Though he could not wield Shea’s power freely, that someone could stand against him like this was astonishing.
Cabalon clicked his tongue, fending off On Joorim’s onslaught—but then his pupils quivered minutely.
The feeling was not just of the battlefield quaking.
He took a deep breath, and realized—
‘On Ijo is awakening.’
Cabalon’s lips tightened.
A chilling sense of discord crawled down his spine.
Crash!
Sensing danger, he leapt back from Joorim. Where he had stood, the ground collapsed in.
As Cabalon took this in—
Title: ……Fallen Hero
“……!”
The title before his eyes was vanishing.
A cold chill crept beneath his skin.
The title he had carved into On Ijo, exploiting the hero’s tragedy, was disappearing one by one.
Proof that On Ijo was breaking free of his shackles.
‘No! Not like this…!’
All composure vanished from Cabalon. His eyes grew wild as mana surged around him, explosive and furious.
As if burning up his very life, the pressure caused Joorim to raise his eyebrows in alarm.
Cabalon tightened his fists.
It didn’t matter if the old brand vanished.
He could bring new tragedy to On Ijo yet again.
By killing On Joorim, he would drag him back into corruption.
Frost began to settle around Cabalon. He was laying claim to Gru’s snowfield, making it his own.
Even as he felt his soul melting, he sneered at the confusion on Joorim’s face.
Joorim glanced down—snowflakes clung to his ankles as if to bind him.
The snowfield that once had lightened his body, now corrupted by Cabalon, was slowing Joorim’s movements. The frozen ground had truly seized his feet.
Meanwhile, Cabalon’s presence only grew darker and more threatening within the swirling snow.
Just then, as Joorim sensed mortal danger—
Creak, creak, creak, creak—
A familiar sound echoed.
The metal hinge-wheels caught as they rolled.