The World Does Not Exist for ■■

Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: ford53
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< Chapter 27: A Different Choice, a Different Path, a Different Name (2) >

Seti’s meal was brief. It took her only three minutes to empty the pot, mixing instant rice into her ramen broth. It wasn’t so much gluttonous as it was methodical. If there had been a bottle of soju beside her, you might believe she was a veteran cleaner of a decade.

After finishing her meal, Seti cleared her throat and began to speak.

“Ahem, I’m sure you have many questions. Where shall I start?”

“…How long have I been out?”

“Five days. I’ve been waiting here for two of them.”

“Five days?”

Dung Beetle furrowed his brows without realizing it. Five days seemed unbelievable, especially since the time spent in the comet’s dream felt no more than five minutes.

“Some relics can test the user’s mind and body, or force them into a state of unconsciousness… They are not items to be handled carelessly.”

“… ”

“More importantly, where did you get that relic? It’s incredibly valuable.”

A valuable item.

Dung Beetle thought of Freya Khan, who had given him the dagger. Did she foresee this situation when she handed it over?

‘She wasn’t one to scheme that much.’

The advice she gave when passing on the dagger must have been sincere.

Perhaps her goal was to create a connection through the Comet Blade, as the dream comet suggested.

‘…Though, it all went in vain because of Mignium.’

Having sorted out his thoughts, Dung Beetle responded to Seti’s question.

“I crossed paths with Freya Khan.”

“…Freya Khan? The Holy Sword?”

“Yes, that Holy Sword.”

Seti’s delicate eyebrows arched. After pondering and tapping her lips, she nodded after seeing the dagger.

“…Well, someone of that stature wouldn’t casually hand out a relic like that.”

She didn’t ask what connection had led him to the Holy Sword or why she had given him the relic.

Instead, she stood up, checked Dung Beetle’s body for any signs of injury.

“You don’t seem to have any obvious problems. How do you feel?”

“Not bad.”

Dung Beetle flexed his hands, internally inspecting his body. From his muscles to his mana, everything seemed unchanged from before entering the comet’s dream.

“To be honest, it feels like a lie that five days have passed.”

“Is that so? How powerful must the magic in that relic have been…”

Seti narrowed her eyes.

“What did you gain from the relic? Enlightenment? Martial skills?”

“Swordplay.”

“…Swordplay? What about Pyangyeol? If you spread yourself too thin in martial arts, you’ll have difficulties later.”

Instead of answering, Dung Beetle picked up chopsticks that Seti had failed to pack up.

His breathing became shallow, and mana began to settle quietly.

First, he thought of Pyangyeol, the wave of his mind, the wave of his mana, and himself.

Mana surged from his shoulder through his hand, rippling around the chopsticks.

Next, he recalled the swordplay shown to him by Freya Khan.

The Comet Blade. He borrowed the shell of that technique, holding the chopsticks in his grip.

‘Light overflows without discernment, not distinguishing left from right.’

The true essence of the sword, as taught by the comet, was still beyond his understanding. It was too abstract to be called an epiphany of swordplay.

However, he could push the wave into the empty space where the essence should be.

‘If the heart is behind the fist, it becomes Pyangyeol Fist. Then if the heart is behind the sword…’

The wave strikes. He lifted his right hand, and mana filled the chopsticks.

The hand raised slowly felt heavy, and the mana wrapped around the chopsticks emitted a heavy force.

As his shoulder and chopsticks aligned, he sliced through the air. The wave followed, and mana cut through the atmosphere.

Just once.

The chopsticks drew a trajectory in place of a sword.

Woong­

A peculiar resonance echoed where the chopsticks had passed. Dust in the bunker scattered in alarm, and the atmosphere was sliced open.

Crack!

The next moment, the bunker’s wall, over ten steps away, split apart.

“Uh…?”

Seti gaped, looking back and forth between the cracked concrete wall and Dung Beetle.

“What is this…?”

“Seems that realizing the essence isn’t the end. Just applying it to swordplay shows its limits.”

“…You applied it to swordplay?”

“It’d be hard to use it more than once in a real fight. I need to practice diligently.”

As Dung Beetle muttered to himself, Seti covered her face with her hand. A deep inhale, followed by two sighs.

“…I want to hit you every time this happens, you know that, right?”

Dung Beetle shrugged his shoulders as a response instead of speaking.

Seti glared at him for a moment, then with lips pursed, she spoke.

“Never mind. My heart can’t take it anymore.”

She gathered the trash and tableware, whirled around, and opened the bunker’s door.

“Let’s get out of here first. I’ll explain the plan to you as we go to Sir Jangman.”

Dung Beetle watched Seti exit the bunker unhesitantly and then chuckled softly.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

He pocketed the chopsticks and the dagger and followed Seti, who was leading the way.

***

At the time when the Goddess of Dawn was just raising her head.

Stepping out into the alley, Seti began to talk as she walked ahead.

“You remember the gist of the plan, right?”

Dung Beetle recalled their conversation from a few days ago. Create a fake identity, become famous, then gather the government officials and deal with them all at once…

It sounded complicated, but in reality, it was the most straightforward plan.

“After leaving Incheon, the first thing I did was prepare a fake identity. I was going to manipulate existing records to make you into a completely different person. But… you were already declared dead, weren’t you?”

Seti looked at Dung Beetle with a ‘did you know?’ expression. He nodded.

“So I decided to create a whole new identity.”

“A new identity?”

“From family to education… we created everything new. I brought in the most renowned expert in that field. It’s so thorough that the government won’t be able to doubt it. But…”

Seti trailed off for a moment, then stopped walking. She turned her head to look beyond the market alley, towards the cloud-filled horizon.

“The expert wanted to see you in person.”

“In person?”

“They’re already here. Waiting at Sir Jangman’s tavern.”

If she had been waiting at the bunker for two days, then this identity forger had been waiting for him for the same amount of time.

“…They must be no ordinary person.”

“Definitely not someone you’d call ordinary.”

Seti hesitated for a moment and then asked tentatively.

“Have you thought of any aliases?”

“Aliases?”

“We can’t use the name Dung Beetle for your new identity, can we?”

“What’s wrong with my name?”

Seti looked at him incredulously.

“You’re not asking because you don’t know, right?”

“…It’s a joke.”

“Don’t make jokes with that expression. It’s hard to tell if you’re serious.”

She let out a heavy sigh and started walking again.

This was a different direction from Sir Jangman’s tavern, but Dung Beetle didn’t bother to point it out.

“Anyway, I’ve thought of some aliases for you. John, Bruce, Khepri… names like that.”

“Khepri?”

“The name of an Egyptian god with a dung beetle for a head.”

“…Ah.”

“But it’s more advantageous to use a Korean name if you want to become famous here. So, Khepri is out. Names that sound too much like Hanja characters like Ganglang or Toehwan are also out.”

Ganglang and Toehwan.

Both were the Hanja pronunciations of Dung Beetle. He scratched his cheek, feeling inexplicably embarrassed.

“Minsoo, Cheolsoo, Junsik… all the politician names are out.”

“…”

“Siwoo, Yujin, Jinyoon… all the celebrity names are out too. Dongpung, Donggyeong, Songgyeong… the names of chaebol families are also…”

While Seti rambled on, they had left the alley and reached the outskirts of the market, where the sea was visible.

It was the opposite direction from the back alley of the tavern.

“…We took the wrong turn.”

She realized she had taken the wrong path and blinked. The breeze blew, sweeping through her black hair.

An awkward silence flowed between them.

The wind ceased when Seti started to speak again.

“…Why didn’t you tell me we were going the wrong way?”

“I thought you had a reason to come this way.”

Seti closed her mouth and turned her gaze to the sea.

The cloudy sky was slowly tinting red, but the sun was still hidden.

“Um… Dung Beetle.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you trust my plan?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

As Dung Beetle furrowed his brow, Seti added hesitantly,

“Just that, as we’re about to execute the plan, I started having these thoughts. What if the plan fails? What if I lead you astray…?”

“Like right now?”

“…Yes, like right now.”

Seti nodded. The pre-dawn sky glittered in her blue eyes.

“What does it matter?”

“…What?”

“No plan is perfect. Not all of them can succeed.”

Dung Beetle turned to face the same direction as Seti. Past the clouds invading the horizon, warm winds were beginning to blow.

“Moreover, I made the choices. It was me who joined hands with you and agreed to the plan. So if the plan goes wrong, the responsibility lies solely with me.”

His voice was serious, his words sincere.

It should have been encouraging, but Seti wore a perplexed expression.

“Uh… legally, it’s not exactly like that…”

“… ”

“Depending on the law, the standard of responsibility differs. Since Dung Beetle and I didn’t write a contract, the legal responsibility is… Ouch!”

Dung Beetle flicked Seti’s forehead without realizing it. She clutched her reddened forehead and pouted.

“…Was it necessary to use mana for that?”

“Yes.”

As Dung Beetle answered curtly, Seti chuckled. The unsettled feeling from before faded away.

“Shall we head back?”

Seti turned around to leave, light and free. Or she would have, had Dung Beetle’s next words not stopped her.

“The morning has come.”

When she turned her head, indeed, the sun was peeking through the clouds.

Despite the clouds intermittently blocking the sun, the arrival of morning was unstoppable.

Sunlight painted the sky, and the sea too captured the light. Even the breeze, which had been slightly cool, now gently caressed her cheek.

“It’s not bad to greet the morning by the sea.”

Seti couldn’t take her eyes off the view of the night fading beyond the horizon. Neither could Dung Beetle.

A warm silence settled between them. After a while, Dung Beetle was the first to speak.

“Seti.”

“Yes?”

“Would the name ‘Dawn’ be out of the question?”

“Dawn?”

“Yeah. Dawn.”

Seti was about to say that there was already a famous superhuman with the name Dawn. A very well-known one at that.

But at that moment, one of the clouds blocking the sunlight shifted, bathing Dung Beetle in light.

From Seti’s perspective, slightly behind Dung Beetle, it appeared as if a halo of radiance was pouring down behind him.

Even she thought it was a ridiculous idea… but at this moment, Dung Beetle looked almost holy, like a figure painted in a church.

For a moment, captivated by the sight, Seti found herself responding.

“…It suits you well. Dawn.”