Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 211

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Labyrinth Exploration 101 Episode 211

The Way Home (3)

Seo Ji-woo fell into quiet contemplation.

“…Oppa died because of Seol Ha-woon.”

She murmured softly and looked back at Yoo Seok-hoon.

“Is that what you want to say?”

One side of Yoo Seok-hoon’s face twitched.

Yoo Yul watched the two of them with interest, as if enjoying a show.

“…What do you think?”

Yoo Seok-hoon asked.

“If Seol Ha-woon saved hundreds of innocent children and killed the villain Gustav instead of your brother.”

Seo Ji-woo’s heart shook greatly.

“Could you do something called forgiveness?”

“….”

Forgiveness. The weight of just one word pressed down on her shoulders.

Can we place human lives on a scale and debate their value? Can we dare to measure whose life is more precious and whose is worth less?

“Seol Ha-woon communicated steadily with Gustav’s side. But since he produced perfect results, the higher command didn’t hold him accountable. Gustav was dead and the children were saved. For them, it was the perfect ending.”

From a broad perspective, it might have been the ‘right choice.’ But to Seo Ji-woo, the most precious person was Seo Ji-hyuk.

More than anyone else, more than hundreds of children whose faces she didn’t even know, at least to myself….

───Thud!

Suddenly, a massive crack appeared in the memory space. Everyone turned to look at it. Magic power swirled and widened the gap.

Hissssss.

A passage opened as if fog was lifting, and from beyond, someone walked in leaning on a walking stick.

“….”

Seol Ha-woon. He looked at Seo Ji-woo silently, so different from the past in her memories.

Seo Ji-woo asked with a trembling voice.

“Did you kill my brother?”

Seol Ha-woon just looked at Seo Ji-woo in silence. Seo Ji-woo bit her lower lip and swept her hair back.

This time Yoo Seok-hoon smiled.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

Seol Ha-woon’s eyes shifted to him. Seol Ha-woon gripped his walking stick tightly and answered.

“…Because I know what you want.”

Yoo Seok-hoon’s expression hardened.

“You know what I want….”

He repeated with heated breath and removed his hood. His hideous appearance with his entire scalp burned was revealed.

“Seo Ji-woo.”

Soon, he glared at Seo Ji-woo instead of Seol Ha-woon. He didn’t hide that desperate anger. He didn’t filter the betrayal and rage.

“The emotion you’re feeling right now is the same emotion all the unit members who died that day and I felt.”

“…What?”

Yoo Seok-hoon was about to tell the truth of that day.

Seol Ha-woon couldn’t stop him. He shouldn’t stop him. Even though he knew all too well what kind of wound this would leave on Seo Ji-woo….

Yoo Seok-hoon wasn’t a villain. He wasn’t someone who deserved to die.

He too had the ‘right.’ He couldn’t block or repel him just because of his own emotions.

Seol Ha-woon was that kind of person.

“What are you….”

“The traitor was Seo Ji-hyuk. Seo Ji-hyuk drove his unit members into a death trap with his own hands to save those children.”

Yoo Seok-hoon’s gaze turned to Seol Ha-woon.

“Seo Ji-hyuk probably knew how you would act too. Even you were part of Seo Ji-hyuk’s plan.”

Yoo Seok-hoon smiled self-deprecatingly. Seo Ji-woo’s breathing became rough.

“Your brother became a hero. After killing all of us.”

Seol Ha-woon gestured toward the outside to Seo Ji-woo.

“Go outside.”

“No-“

“I’ll come out soon too. Go, and I’ll tell you the things you want to know.”

Seo Ji-woo hesitated for a moment, but Seol Ha-woon looked at her with upright eyes. It was a gaze that was hard to refuse.

“…I’ll wait.”

Seo Ji-woo left this place as if limping. She vacated the spot.

Seol Ha-woon faced Yoo Seok-hoon who remained here.

A face that had changed too much from memory. A person who shared only a name with that day.

“Captain Yoo Seok-hoon. If this is revenge, let’s stop here.”

“Why should we?”

Yoo Seok-hoon asked back, growling in his throat.

“Our unit members were buried in the desert sand. I became this hideous monster that doesn’t even look human. But Seo Ji-hyuk was revered as a hero by everyone and laid to rest in the National Cemetery, and you….”

Yoo Seok-hoon looked Seol Ha-woon up and down. His eyes held a mixture of contempt and jealousy.

“You’re shining so brilliantly.”

Tap.

Seol Ha-woon stepped forward with his walking stick. He let out a word like a sigh.

“Do I look like I’m shining to you, Captain?”

Shining.

What does it mean to shine?

What was Yoo Seok-hoon seeing in him to say such things?

“You’re wrong.”

Seol Ha-woon shook his head.

“If it’s you, Captain, you would know better than me. We’re going out.”

Still unable to escape from that day, still buried in that day.

All purposes are to see that ‘end.’

To find out why we had no choice but to become this unhappy.

“In the desert, there are still answers we haven’t found.”

“….”

Yoo Seok-hoon’s complexion dried up. He stared at Seol Ha-woon with a parched face.

“Answers? Those aren’t answers. They’re just results. Even if you find such things, nothing will come back.”

A bitter smile hung on his lips.

“I became a monster. I just want you and that woman Seo Ji-hyuk cherished to suffer at least as much as I have. That would be fair.”

Yoo Seok-hoon was already a person who died that day. Like his pre-regression self, just barely clinging to this reality, a ghost wandering the living world.

Yoo Seok-hoon gestured.

“Go. I have nothing more to say to you.”

“….”

Nothing changes, nothing helps. He was already a fossilized human.

Whether he wanted revenge or forgiveness, even he himself didn’t know.

Seol Ha-woon stopped as he was about to turn around.

“…Captain Yoo Seok-hoon.”

Again, he looked back at Yoo Seok-hoon.

“There are words I couldn’t say then. Words I should have said then.”

Seol Ha-woon’s posture returned to the old days. He straightened his back while leaning on his walking stick.

“You were a good superior, Captain.”

For a moment, Yoo Seok-hoon’s eyes wavered. Seol Ha-woon faced him directly and continued.

“You cared for your subordinates, led by example, and sacrificed yourself.”

Seol Ha-woon’s tone contained sincerity. Unadorned respect and belated regret were embedded in it.

“I probably couldn’t have become a superior like you.”

He wasn’t an excellent commander, but he was certainly a good superior.

“My thoughts remain unchanged, then and now.”

“….”

Having finished speaking, Seol Ha-woon turned around. He slowly walked away, leaning on his walking stick.

Yoo Seok-hoon watched his retreating figure for a long time before letting out a hollow laugh. Though it was too late, these were words he had wanted to hear for so very long.

Perhaps it was the comfort he had been waiting for his entire life.

Beep──

Suddenly, a strange electronic sound broke the silence.

Beep──

The sound of vitals echoing from the ICU. The memory scene contained in the orb brightened hazily.

“This is…?”

Yoo Yul spoke with an unknowable smile.

“There’s still more memory left.”

“…What?”

Just as Yoo Seok-hoon asked in bewilderment, his vision lit up.

Beep— Beep—

ICU. Yoon Jeong-hyeop lay on a bed somewhere in that spacious place, dying while surrounded by countless medical devices.

“Memory orbs mainly show the most intense and impressive memories.”

Someone approached and quietly sat in the chair beside his bed. A careful presence settled on Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s chest.

“Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s consciousness was very faint at this time, but.”

Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s blurry eyes moved, looking at him with difficulty.

“It must have been that intense.”

It was Seol Ha-woon.

─….

He stared at Yoon Jeong-hyeop without saying anything, then finally spoke in a very small voice.

─I’m sorry.

The heaviest guilt contained in just one word.

Saying he was sorry, he gritted his teeth hard. He bowed his head deeply.

─I’m sorry…

Tears flowed from his distorted face. His shoulders trembled finely.

─I’m sorry, Jeong-hyeop…

Yoon Jeong-hyeop clearly watched Seol Ha-woon crying and apologizing, gasping for breath like a beast.

Soon his vision went dark.

All memories faded away.

Though Yoon Jeong-hyeop died without being able to say anything to Seol Ha-woon in the end.

“It seems.”

Yoo Yul continued as if smiling.

“He wasn’t as heartless and ruthless as we thought.”

* * *

I came outside. Seo Ji-woo was leaning against a tree in the open ground like a shadow.

Her face looked somehow drained of spirit. She seemed to have lost weight in that short time.

“What are you doing.”

I approached casually and asked. Seo Ji-woo twisted her chin to look at me. Complex emotions were tangled in her blue eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you lie? Why did you hide it? Why did you do everything alone…”

She seemed to have many questions.

“You, you knew everything about my brother from the beginning, so why didn’t you tell me anything, why-“

“If you knew, what would change?”

I cut her off briefly. Seo Ji-woo’s face contorted for a moment.

“Seo Ji-hyuk died saving children, but he wanted you at least to live your own life.”

Seo Ji-hyuk had led his unit members to their deaths. But at the same time, he saved hundreds of children and stopped Gustav’s ‘magic’.

That’s why I wanted Seo Ji-hyuk to be remembered as a hero.

“Don’t be mistaken. You’re not Seo Ji-hyuk. You don’t need to follow him or carry his burden instead.”

“…He’s my family.”

Seo Ji-woo protested tearfully. It was the too-perfect reason of ‘still being family’.

“Being family doesn’t mean you live someone else’s life for them.”

That doesn’t work on me, someone without family.

“….”

Seo Ji-woo was silent for a moment.

She stared at me blankly, then came to a grand conclusion.

“I’m going to quit Mitamnan.”

I raised my walking stick like a baseball bat. Seo Ji-woo startled and crossed both arms.

“Eek! What!”

“…I couldn’t help myself.”

Her serious expression was so ridiculous I almost hit her.

“If you quit, then what’s next?”

Seo Ji-woo pressed her lips tightly shut. I sighed involuntarily.

I changed to a serious expression.

“I’ll tell you one thing. Whatever was in that desert, Seo Ji-hyuk must have seen the ‘answer’.”

“…Answer?”

“Right. I’m still chasing that answer. It was impossible for me alone, and it would be impossible for you alone too.”

Seo Ji-woo before the regression had failed.

Back then, I was no help at all. I was a pathetic invalid who had collapsed.

Not anymore.

I had gained strength.

“Take it. It’s yours.”

I took off my dog tags and held them out to Seo Ji-woo. Seo Ji-woo made a deliberately disgusted expression.

“Why are you giving me yours-“

“They’re not mine.”

“…Huh?”

Seo Ji-woo looked at them. She confirmed the name engraved on that thin metal plate.

Seo Ji-hyuk.

“This is…”

Seo Ji-woo’s eyes looking at me became dazed. 

Though I felt reluctant since I’d always carried them with me, it was time to return them to their original owner.

“Take them.”

“Oh, okay…”

I quickly grabbed her hand as she reached for the dog tags.

“Even if not alone, it might be possible with two people.”

That ‘end’ Seo Ji-hyuk faced in the desert is surely not far away.

“That might be the reason I came to this place.”

There’s definitely a reason for regression. The same goes for why I returned to this place.

“….”

Seo Ji-woo stared at me blankly, then burst into a hollow laugh. Puhup. She forced a relaxed smile.

“Fine. I got it then, let’s share this one by one.”

Dog tags usually have two identification plates. One for the fallen warrior, one for the unit.

I had greedily taken both, but Seo Ji-woo gave one back to me.

“Let’s do that.”

I didn’t refuse.

“…Sorry.”

Then, Seo Ji-woo lightly punched my chest. She tapped gently between my ribs.

It didn’t hurt. I simply accepted it as a small warmth.

“Thank you.”

Seo Ji-woo whispered softly.

“For being oppa’s friend.”

I pressed my walking stick against the ground.

Building momentum.

“Yeah.”

Nodding, I placed my hand on Seo Ji-woo’s head. I applied pressure. As hard as possible.

“…Ah, ahhh! Ahhhhh! Ah, shit! What are you doing?!”

Seo Ji-woo hurriedly pushed me away.

“That hurt like hell. What’s wrong with you?!”

She glared at me while rubbing her head.

“Just felt like it. Got annoyed all of a sudden.”

Before regression, this brat never listened to a damn word. The person who went completely against the life Seo Ji-hyuk wanted and died alone in a foreign land.

Back then, was it because the order was wrong, or was it because my weakness wasn’t trustworthy enough?

Either way, the future has changed now.

“Let’s go. To the dormitory.”

I’ll have to wait and see how things unfold from here.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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