Childhood Friend of the Zenith – 359 (Part 1)



359 (Part 1)

My shoulders throb as if burdened by an unbearable weight.

My feet feel glued to the ground unable to move.

It’s a suffocating sensation as if my whole body is bound by something.

“Damn it.”

Cursing comes naturally.

The first feeling is one of powerlessness. At the moment I’m caught in this unknown sensation the thought that crosses my mind is that I cannot escape this suffocation.

I grit my teeth and try to move somehow.

Creak.

I exert all my strength but it doesn’t work.

Despite using all this force my body doesn’t even tremble.

I tried to draw up my qi.

“The qi isn’t moving.”

As if there isn’t even a handful of qi in my qi center.

I can’t feel even a slight flow.

It’s as if the world is blocking me from saving the woman in front of me.

My gaze trembles.

From the staggering Wi Seol-ah light continues to emanate.

What is that? Is it a type of qi?

No it’s different. I could tell just by looking.

The woman who had been conversing with me until now.

Is gradually disappearing.

Her body remains but the presence she held is fading away.

Right before my eyes.

I don’t know where she’s going how she’s disappearing.

I have no idea what will happen when she vanishes.

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But at least one thing is clear.

If I leave her like this I will never see her again.

We’ve just met and she’s about to disappear?

Moreover she’s asking me to just watch her fade away?

“Just watch over me?”

How ridiculous.

I gathered more strength. Even if I raised my strength my body remained rigid.

The difference is that the more strength I exert the more overloaded my body becomes.

Crack—!

Muscles tear and my bones strain.

The pain is vividly felt but.

That doesn’t matter.

“Damn….”

I try to move but the shackles are incredibly tight.

If only I could use my qi but not even demonic qi would move.

Please.

“Just move somehow.”

What good is raising my level?

I can’t save even one person I want to save.

While I was desperately trying to break my body apart.

“I’m not in a position to say this to you but….”

Wi Seol-ah speaks to me.

“I have two requests.”

What kind of absurd request is this in the midst of all this?

I wanted to tell her to worry about herself.

But my cursed mouth wouldn’t open.

As if she wouldn’t wait for my words Wi Seol-ah continues.

“Please take good care of this child….”

Not the one who remains in the past.

But the current owner of this body the Wi Seol-ah of this life asking me to cherish her.

Her voice is filled with sorrow and pity. She has already given up on everything.

She doesn’t intend to hold onto any regrets in this world which is why she’s reacting like this.

Hearing those words I wanted to ask.

“Then what about you?”

If she leaves entrusting her current self to me.

What will remain for her now?

For someone who lived her life sacrificing her body and life for others.

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For someone who risked everything to save the world.

What remains after disappearing like this?

“I still have many questions.”

I wanted to ask.

How did she come to this era?

What happened to her after I died?

Why.

Why did she chase after me all the way here missing me?

These were words I wanted to hear directly from her lips.

But am I supposed to let her go like this?

That couldn’t be.

…It couldn’t be but.

“Please just move.”

I feel a creaking sensation from my body.

It meant I had reached the limit of physical strength.

Is there really no way?

Am I supposed to let her disappear like this?

Right before my eyes?

As the self-loathing began at my toes and rose to my neck.

Wi Seol-ah spoke her second request.

“…Please call this child by name.”

“…!”

Hearing that I felt something heavy drop in my mind.

I never imagined her request would be something like that.

“To call her by name…”

I don’t call anyone by name.

If you ask me why there’s nothing particularly noteworthy that comes to mind.

There may have been something in the past.

But now if I were to search for it it would only be ambiguous.

If I were to dig up the reasons I held in the past.

I was simply afraid.

By calling someone by name.

That I would engrave that person’s name and existence within me.

That someone who became important enough to be engraved in my body would look at my incompetence and rotten insides with disdain and run away.

That must have been terrifying.

As time flowed and flowed now the mere fact of calling someone’s name with my mouth feels uncomfortable.

It has become ingrained in me.

Not calling someone by name.

Thinking of it as important enough to engrave within me.

“…No that’s not it. It’s just fear.”

I erased the excuses I had been thinking of.

Pretending to be strong pretending to have overcome everything.

But I know the essence of it myself.

In my past life I was dissatisfied with myself.

After the war broke out I didn’t want to be shaken by someone’s death.

Now in this era where bloodshed and war are imminent.

Not just the Heavenly Demon but in this land filled with the secrets of the world I have resolved nothing.

That’s why I don’t want to hold anyone in my heart. Even while desperately rolling around to watch over them.

I was filled with anxiety about whether I could truly protect them.

“Then.”

Is that why Wi Seol-ah is making such a request having noticed my weakness?

Since she couldn’t do it in the past she wants me to change at least in this life.

Is her request to cherish the Wi Seol-ah of this life or to call her by name meant to convey that?

And yet she doesn’t ask for it for herself.

She doesn’t ask me to do it for the self that stands before me now.

It’s pitiful and sad.

Having lived her whole life for others even up to this moment she doesn’t take care of herself.

It’s so heartbreaking.

You have become a divine sword even up to this point.

That image is embedded in my heart and I hoped that in this life she wouldn’t live such a life.

I hoped she wouldn’t wield a sword.

I hoped she wouldn’t learn martial arts.

I hoped she would live without losing her expression smiling.

I hoped she would live for herself rather than for others.

I hoped she would do what she wanted to do.

If possible I wished to be in the place where the divine sword should be.

So that I could bear the burdens she should have carried.

That was my mindset.

“But.”

What have I achieved since going through reincarnation and coming this far?

Nothing.

I truly achieved nothing.

Wi Seol-ah ultimately took up the sword.

She learned martial arts and as if her talents from her past life were not a lie reached a peak level in just a few years.

The child who always smiled was gradually losing her expression.