The Novel's Extra - Side Story 84 – Chae Nayun (39)

“We only managed because Sir Chae Joochul helped us out. It was an extremely close call,” Yoo Yeonha said.

We were on an unknown plain in Central Asia. Things were coming to an end, but I worried after hearing what she said.

Chae Joochul’s emotions had completely dried up when I met him. It had progressed at a much faster rate than I expected, which meant that he was already detached from this world. That was the reason why no one could predict his thoughts or what he would do.

“Yeah, it’s a relief… I guess…? Oh, is that the place?” Chae Nayun said before she brightly smiled and pointed somewhere.

There were buildings erected on the plain. The entire city was empty and resembled an abandoned ghost town. The eerie vibe it was emitting made us huddle together.

“… Huh? Who’s that?” Chae Nayun spotted someone standing in front of the fountain at the center of the city square.

All of us raised our guards after spotting the person. That person gave me the creeps as she sculpted something with a strange smile.

“Hey!” I shouted and waved my hand.

Only then did Jin Sahyuk notice us and immediately changed her expression to a cold one.

“You’re here?” she haughtily replied.

The Pharmacy Club’s destination was none other than Jin Sahyuk’s neutral city-state.

“What is… this place?”

“Beats me. Hey, you said you’re making a city. Is this what you’ve been up to this whole time?”

Yoo Yeonha and Chae Nayun looked around the place with amazed eyes.

All of the buildings in the city were influenced by Western architecture from the past.

“This is…”

Only Kim Suho was aware of this city’s purpose. He stared at the city with a strange sense of familiarity.

“Anyways, why don’t you guys go and take a look around?” Jin Sahyuk said before she dragged me away from the rest.

“H-Hey! Are you crazy?!” Chae Nayun screamed as she ran up to us and snatched me away.

Jin Sahyuk glared at her, but soon sighed and gave us a tour.

We walked for a while until we reached a small palace, which I assumed was where she resided.

“This is it,” Jin Sahyuk said as she pointed at a mirror installed in the palace garden.

I instantly realized what this mirror that resembled the moon was.

[Otherworldly Mirror] [Mystic]

— A mirror with the power of another world. It may be possible to peek into the otherworld.

This was the dimensional conduit Jin Sahyuk created with her mana.

“Will this be enough?” she asked.

“No, give me a second,” I replied.

I inspected the mirror and could immediately tell that it wasn’t enough. I used my SP to add more details to the mirror.

[Otherworldly Mirror] [Mystic]

— A mirror with the power of another world. It may be possible to peek into the otherworld.

— Establish Passage: It will be possible to establish a passage to the otherworld with the help of stigma and a suitable catalyst.

— Summon: Consume a significant amount of mana to summon a human from another world.

It didn’t consume as much SP as I expected. I wasn’t sure if it was because I added stigma and a catalyst as requirements, but I only spent 1,500 SP.

“Huh? What’s this?” Jin Sahyuk asked as she looked at me.

I could tell that she was greatly surprised when the mirror brightly shone after I finished changing its settings.

I didn’t respond to her and took out a dagger to cut my thumb instead. Then, I wiped my blood on the mirror.

My blood would act as the catalyst to connect me to Kim Chundong on the other side.

“If… that world has truly been destroyed, then nothing will happen. Are you fine with that?” I asked.

“No, I’m certain there are survivors out there,” Jin Sahyuk confidently replied.

I nodded and infused all of stigma into the mirror.

Shwaaaaa!

The mirror shined brightly like the sun before a pillar of light shot up to the sky. Then, the pillar slowly disappeared and only left behind a thick white fog.

“…”

“…”

Nothing happened amid the deafening silence.

As Jin Sahyuk grew distressed, Chae Nayun suddenly grumbled while looking at her feet.

“Who’s this?”

Jin Sahyuk and I immediately turned towards her. There was a child on the ground that I was certain wasn’t there a while ago.

She was wearing tattered clothes and seemed to be four or five years old. She looked severely malnourished and was only skin and bones, but I was certain that she was still alive.

Jin Sahyuk smiled brightly for the first time after seeing the child. She exclaimed joyfully at the top of her lungs, “It’s a success!”

***

Murmur…! Murmur…!

The association’s courtroom was quite rowdy. There was a heated exchange between people that eventually led to shouting.

“… What’s going on?”

Thanks to that, Aileen was woken up by the ruckus and let out a yawn.

“…”

However, Jin Seyeon didn’t say anything in response. She just continued to observe the trial with a serious face.

Aileen followed suit and observed the trial.

Kim Sukho had his head down in defeat and a woman was standing in front of him.

“… I am certain that Kim Sukho tried to kill me. You should admit it,” the woman said.

Kim Sukho did not refute what the woman said. Instead, he continued to shake his head and muttered under his breath in denial, “This can’t be real… There’s no way… There’s no way this is possible…”

Jin Seyeon explained to Aileen, “That woman was a close colleague of Kim Sukho in the past. Her name is Yoon Yirang.”

“Huh? So? What about her?” Aileen tilted her head in confusion.

“It seems the end has come,” Jin Seyeon said with a sigh of resignation before she stood up.

“?”

Aileen still looked lost at the whole turn of events. She regretted falling asleep during the earlier parts of the trial.

“There seems to be no need to stay any longer…” Jin Seyeon said as she dragged Aileen out of the courtroom.

“Huh? Why? Hey, wait a minute… Hey…” Aileen protested and flailed her arms like a ragdoll.

However, Jin Seyeon simply picked her up and carried her out.

Then they came face to face with two familiar cadets, Kim Hajin and Chae Nayun.

“Huh? You came?” Chae Nayun was surprised, but immediately bowed and greeted them. “My name is Chae Nayun and this is my boyfriend, Kim Hajin.”

“Yes, we know who you are,” Jin Seyeon replied with a gentle smile.

On the other hand, Aileen put on a look full of authority and asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

Kim Hajin was the one who responded to her question, “Ah, that is… Nayun said she was going to meet her grandfather, so I was accompanying her.

Chae Nayun clung to Kim Hajin’s back while he spoke.

“Sir Chae Joochul is?”

“Yes.”

Aileen raised a brow and grumbled, “Why the hell are you two going to meet the esteemed Sir Chae Joochul… Uff! Umph!”

Jin Seyeon covered her mouth and said with an awkward smile, “Haha… I’m sorry about that. We’ll be on our way now, so have a lovely time you two.”

Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!

A barrage of flashes went off the moment Jin Seyeon opened the doors.

“Ugh! What the?!”

The entire place from the entrance of the courtroom to the park in front was teeming with reporters.

“What happened in the trial?!”

“Did Kim Sukho admit to his crimes?!”

“Is Madam Aileen really running for chairman…”

Aileen was dazed by the sudden frenzy unfolding in front of her, but Jin Seyeon calmly slipped her a script she prepared the night before.

“You can just read what’s written there,” she said with a smile.

“… Ah, sure. Okay, listen up you lot!” Aileen enthusiastically shouted before she proceeded to read what was written on the paper.

The content of the script was the common speech one would hear from people running for office such as rooting out corruption, reformation of the association, enacting transparency, and so on. The caveat was that Aileen was using her Spirit Speech to say them.

***

The Ancient Castle was a place of records that recorded every single event since the beginning of time.

Chae Joochul could relate to the nameless old castle built by an unknown person who was forced to observe the passing of time.

The reason he was collecting the fragments of this castle was not because of what normal people would call a hobby. No, it was something entirely different from that.

Of course, Chae Joochul was merely an observer watching the movement of time. He was not someone that could enforce his will upon it.

His existence was something even the castle had no recollections of, just as he didn’t know who he was.

“The young lady has arrived.”

A deep respectful voice made him cut off his consciousness from the castle.

He looked at his attaché and said, “Let her in.”

“Yes, sir.”

The doors opened and his granddaughter waltzed in.

He brightly smiled after seeing his granddaughter. His granddaughter did the same as she approached and stood in front of him.

The next thing he had to do was guide her to a more comfortable place.

“Hmm… This place is a bit too stuffy. Come, follow me,” he said.

However, the way he said those words was like a ruler speaking to his subject who was a close friend.

They went to a room with a cozy atmosphere.

Chae Joochul sat on a rocking chair and his granddaughter sat near him.

“Grandpa, so what happened today was…”

His granddaughter started to tell him all sorts of stories enthusiastically. He laughed at the right moments while she told her stories.

She seemed to be encouraged by his responsiveness and continued chatting for a long time, but she soon stopped after she saw the clock.

“Ah, this isn’t what’s important right now. Rather than that, so… grandfather… how was… that…?” she asked carefully.

Chae Joochul knew what she meant by that.

“Hoho! It was fine. Tell that child that I’m thankful,” he replied.

He smiled as gently and brightly as he could, but his granddaughter’s expression soon darkened before she smiled again.

Of course, Chae Joochul could tell that she was forcing herself to smile. Her smile didn’t last long as she lowered her head.

She bit her lips and muttered, “You didn’t eat it… that medicine…”

Chae Joochul contemplated how to respond. He was definitely in a tough position, but he had no choice as she seemed to know already.

“… Yes. It seems that nothing escapes my granddaughter’s instincts,” he said with a warm smile.

She looked at him with visible anger in her eyes and her ears flushed red.

What he had to do next was appease her anger.

“Grandfather! I just—!”

“Nayun.”

“What?!”

“Hoho… Nayun, there is something we call value in this world.”

The words old and scolding went quite well together, but Chae Joochul had never scolded anyone in this life as that required too much emotion.

Of course, he had no idea why it was such a difficult thing for him.

“You might be aware of this, but humans tend to decide the value of things at whim. I’m talking about how they base their decisions on their emotions and rationale.”

Emotions and rationale were the two main things that made humans who they were.

“But those are too difficult for me. I have no idea if what’s right to me is really what’s right. If what’s right for humans is what’s right for the world. If what’s right for the world is what’s right for me…”

Chae Joochul had committed countless bloodshed until he became numb. He had no choice but to walk a path of blood in the lawless world he lived in. It reached a point where even the emotions that guided him to commit bloodshed back in those days had disappeared from his heart.

“So, is it really right for me to regain my emotions or is it the wrong thing to do? Will it have more value or not? Those are answers I won’t be able to find and this world will not give those answers to me.”

A person could not live in this world with rationale alone. Such was the fate of Chae Joochul, who was now detached from the world. He could no longer place any value on things after he lost his emotions. Everything became equal in the present and he could no longer put a value on things.

If someone were to ask him who he would save between an elderly person and a child drowning, he would question why it was a must to save another human in the first place.

He was now nothing but a robot without guidance or a living breathing plant.

“But I have one belief that I hold onto.”

Truth and lies, cause and effect, justice and injustice, glory and shame, repentance and fall, good and evil.

These things were not important for someone like him who possessed no emotions. However, there was one belief he held onto that was left behind by his old self before he lost his emotions. This allowed him to study what unfairness meant despite not possessing any emotions.

“My granddaughter is right.”

That belief was none other than to treat his own family above others. This belief was Chae Joochul’s only measuring stick to determine something’s value.

He could’ve been an evil person in the past, but he was determined to walk such a path once again if his family deemed it right.

“My motive to move lies in that.”

Knowing what his granddaughter desired, understanding her underlying emotions, and acting on his analysis was the method he came up with to replace his lack of emotions.

“So, I will not hurt you even though I lack emotions… No, I will never be able to hurt you because I don’t have any emotions…”

Chae Joochul was explaining how his thought process worked, but he was soon faced with a sight that he couldn’t understand. He was past eighty years old now and his emotions were frozen solid, which made it even harder for him to understand what was going on.

Sniff… Heuk… Heuk…

His granddaughter was crying.

He could tell that she was not simply crying out of sorrow. There was something much deeper than that. He analyzed the situation to the best of his abilities to find out what emotions his granddaughter was currently showing.

However, he understood her emotions a little bit too late.

That was how long it had been since he last saw this emotion. This emotion was filled with remorse, pity, and sorrow.

Chae Joochul could not understand why his granddaughter was showing such emotion right now. He had already strayed too far away to understand such complex emotions.

The only thing he could do was embrace the young girl calling out to him while crying. He did not push her away or stop her from walking into his embrace.

Ironically, he did all of that without a hint of emotion and acted out of a sense of duty instead.

As he embraced her, he felt something for the first and last time.

He was certain of himself.

“Waaah! Waaaah!”

Her wailing suddenly reminded him of an old memory. The memory of a baby crying and everyone gathering around the child. The baby wrapped in a white blanket cried so loud that it could probably be heard from the other side of the globe.

A long time had passed since then and that child was crying once again.

Chae Joochul could only nod after he connected the dots.

“…”

This strange sensation welling up inside of him was Chae Joochul’s emotions… It was only then that he finally realized.