111 – Reason
“……….”
When Pandora unlocks the smart phone of the river sky and hands it to Ariel, silence begins to flow in her infirmary.
– Talk, Todok…
Laying Lumia on the cot with a bandage in her hand, Ariel, who had bandaged the wound she had inflicted on her while holding her down, put her treatment on the back burner and looked at her smartphone in her silence. Was tapping
“Ah…”
Then, her eyes slowly start to grow.
＞ Sir.
＞ What are you doing, teacher?
＞ Why haven’t you been contacting me lately?
Recently, a text message she sent to her was left in his inbox.
＞ Do you have a girlfriend, sir?
From nob le mt l dot com
No.
＞ Teacher, what is your relationship with the female teacher you were with at the cafeteria the other day?
Why are you asking that?
Even the conversations and phone records she had with ‘Professor Ji-seok Oh’ every night, intact.
“…….”
Ariel, who had been looking down at the records for a long time, quietly started flipping through the menu on her smartphone.
[Hero Anonymous Community]
[Writing: 12 / Comments: 520]
Before long, she enters her community app that is also installed on her own smartphone.
“………”
Ariel’s eyes, which were looking at her writings, start to shake quietly.
[Justia (221.17): Ariel, what do you think?]
ㄴ [MountainGround: Cute]
“What…”
Most of the hundreds of comments he wrote were under his own writings.
[Justia(221.17): Really?]
ㄴ [MountainGround: I’m a fan, so I’m always cheering for you ^^]
ㄴ[ㅇㅇ(17.21): This bastard is like this again]
ㄴ[ㅇㅇ (17.21): Let’s do a little bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of]
ㄴ[MountainGround: Where do you live?]
“…What?”
Only then did Ariel scroll down in a cold sweat when she realized the identity of the user who had recently appeared in the community and whom people called the rogue Ariel Barr.
[ㅇㅇ(17.21): hahahaha If you know, will you find me?]
ㄴ[MountainGround: ㄱㅅ]
The users who had a fight with him started staring blankly at Pandora after Ariel confirmed that his actions had become unclear from the next day.
＞ One of my main tasks was… Community hacking and ip address picking…
“……Why?”
＞ I wonder why.
Then, Pandora answered with her head bowed.
＞ It must be because Kang Ha-neul is Professor Oh Ji-seok.
“………!”
＞ So far, as Professor Oh Ji-seok, Kang Ha-neul has done countless behind-the-scenes work for you.
A synthesized sound from a small cat-shaped drone quietly enters Ariel’s ears, whose head is white.
＞ So, please.
＞ Please don’t kill Kang Ha Neul…
“…I don’t understand.”
Then Ariel started muttering with confused eyes.
“How can Kang Ha-neul become Professor Oh Ji-seok?”
“………”
“The height, the height… The body shape is different, right? But why…”
＞ In an age of all sorts of bizarre abilities, that seems impossible?
But at Pandora’s extremely common sense remark, Ariel, who had been muttering in a trembling voice, stopped her words as she was speechless.
“Yeah, but I still don’t understand…”
＞ What do you mean?
“…Kang Ha-neul, then why did you kill my sister?”
Then, with her pale complexion, she opens her mouth again.
“And why were you so nice to me?”
“………”
“…No way, you’ve been fooling me all this time?”
Ariel’s clenched hands begin to turn white because her blood is not flowing through them.
“Just for fun…?”
＞ You obviously said that earlier.
Then, Pandora shook her head with her terrified expression.
＞ The person who killed Justia wasn’t Kang Ha-neul!
“…Then?”
＞ The ones who killed Justia are the 7 main agents!
A silence begins to flow in the room.
“The 7 main agents…?”
Even without it, Ariel’s head, which had been confused by information that was completely contradictory to what she already knew, began to become even more complicated.
“They… Are the wartime heroes…?”
“…….”
“Why are they killing my sister…”
But at that very moment, a memory from the past pops into her mind.
“………”
Because it was so long ago, and because I didn’t want to remember it, I had forgotten about it, but in the first session of the seminar, she clearly witnessed it.
The weapons she made using her sister’s body parts were being traded in the seminar’s dark auction house.
“………”
Once the thought reaches that point, her head begins to spin rapidly.
Whenever she shows her admiration for heroes, her older sister sometimes makes dark expressions for some reason.
The dark side of the hero world that Professor Oh Ji-seok, who saved himself from the auction house, lived in.
And, for some reason, Justia’s old sidekicks were reluctant to tell her the story of the day in detail.
– Burr…..
Ariel, who has reached her one conclusion in the end, poses her question to her companion in the river and sky standing in front of her, her body trembling quietly.
“Really?”
“…….”
“Isn’t it really Kang Ha-neul who killed Justia?”
Then, Pandora quietly nodded her head.
“Okay then…”
Ariel opened her mouth again, with a voice that was even quieter than before.
“Why the hell did you lie to me…?”
“…….”
“Boo, apparently he did that to me. He killed my sister…”
That kind of voice was trembling more and more.
“If he didn’t kill my sister, why would he…”
Pandora was watching the situation.
＞ That’s for you to go and ask yourself.
“………”
＞ I’ll stay here.
Saying that, she answered as she opened the door to her infirmary. Ariel, who had been chewing on her own lips, moved her steps forward cautiously.
“…Huh.”
“……?”
At that time, faint laughter began to be heard from behind Pandora.
＞ What’s up?
But when Pandora looked behind her, the only thing that caught her eyes was Rumia, who was lying quietly on the bed, stretching out as if she had asked when she had said that.
.
.
.
.
.
– Tuck, Tuck…
Leaving her infirmary, Ariel slowly moves her steps, she still bleeding from her mouth, and the river sky sitting there slowly raises her head.
“………”
Kang Ha-neul stares at Ariel with a disfigured face.
“…Why?”
“…….”
“Why did you lie?”
As Ariel begins to ask her questions in a confused voice, her river Ha-neul avoids her gaze with a puzzled expression.
“Look me straight in the eyes.”
However, Ariel pushed her head in while holding him by the collar.
“Why did you cheat on me all this time?”
“………”
“Tell me.”
Kang Ha-neul’s eyes shake wildly, while Ariel’s eyes start to shed tears again.
“Tell me, Professor…”
“…I’m sorry.”
In response to her cracking voice, she finally quietly opens her mouth.
“I tricked you until now…”
“…….”
“…I’m really sorry.”
As he murmurs with dull eyes, Ariel’s mind begins to wander.
“…I’ve been thinking about it all along.”
Kang Ha-neul, still avoiding her gaze, starts muttering in a panicked voice.
“I thought hiding the truth was to protect you. Actually, the more I did, the worse the situation was…”
“………”
“…Maybe I was already acting selfishly.”
At his words, Ariel tightly closed her eyes.
“Was it really a lie…?”
“………”
“Are you saying that you’ve been fooling me by going this far just because I’m afraid I’ll be in danger?”
A single tear flowed from her eyes.
“…Are you stupid?”
“Cool…..”
“To tell you the truth, did you think I would go blind and run to the people who killed her sister?”
Ariel grabbed his collar and murmured as her body trembled.
“…Have you ever thought of working together to overcome a crisis together?”
“I tried.”
Then Kang Ha-neul answered with a crawling voice.
“However, I had no choice but to give up.”
“Why?”
As he murmured with a calm expression, Ariel interrogated with her cold eyes.
“Everyone I’ve been with has had a bad end.”
“For that reason alone…”
“…Not just that.”
The moment Ariel tried to raise her voice to him, Kang Ha-neul shook her head with a serious expression.
“In all my life, there has not been a single exception.”
As he starts muttering with a distressed expression, Ariel’s face hardens.
“My loving parents and older sister, my girlfriend who promised to marry me, my childhood friend who said she would never leave me, and even your older sister whom I respected.”
“………”
“Everyone I’ve been with and gave my heart to, even a little bit, has betrayed me or ruined me.”
Kang Ha-neul, who said that, had a dark expression on his face as if he would collapse at any moment.
“Later, I found out that I was born with such a destiny.”
“That’s…”
“…I was so afraid that I, like a cancerous cell, would bring bad luck to you.”
In that state, the river sky, with her head bowed, quietly stretched out her hand forward.
“But that fear, on the contrary, made you suffer…”
– Swoop…
“I’m sorry…”
His hand begins to caress Ariel’s hair.
“Hey there.”
Only then did she understand the attitude Kang Ha-neul had shown her so far. She stared down at him for a while and then quietly opened her mouth.
“I want you…”
– Go oh oh oh…
“…….!?”
A terrifying life suddenly began to be felt behind her.
“What…”
“No!!!”
At the time when Ariel, who reacted to the killing spree, turned around, Kang Ha-neul shouted with a stunned expression and threw herself forward.
“Ah…”
Thanks to Ariel’s eyes, which had been pushed back, the image of the river sky being entangled in the blue aura emitted by the concept of death that was approaching right in front of them was clearly visible.
“……Kang Haneul?”