Chapter 767: Black Butterfly (5)
Clang!
The two swords crashed together. The white blade twisted, slid, nearly knocked off line by sheer force. The gaze fixed on me finally snapped away, and the black sword seized the opening, carving out in a long arc. The blade skimmed an arm. Then, so suddenly it barely made sense, the white sword slammed the Ruler’s Sword aside with enough force to make it ring.
None of it felt real. It looked like a mirage shimmering in the heat, something that might dissolve if I blinked. Steel met steel again. Watching the fight through Peace’s eyes, I had no choice but to accept it.
“…Han Yuhyun!”
He was stronger than the Yuhyun standing beside me now.
And still, he wasn’t trying to hurt him. Or couldn’t.
Yuhyun, on the other hand, kept baiting him into landing a serious blow. The sword had been going for his shoulder, but the second his throat moved into its path, it jerked aside.
“Stop! Both of you!”
I jumped off Peace’s back. I stepped toward the ground where one fire bled into another. Peace lunged after me in alarm, trying to stop me, but I shoved him away. Yuhyun had the advantage, but even so, I could see cuts all over him. The other one looked mostly unharmed aside from the arm that had been sliced when I showed up… probably. The butterflies made it impossible to tell for sure.
“I said stop!”
The dry earth crackled under my feet. A few steps ahead, it had already gone soft, melting into sludge. Heat slammed into my whole body. I had Grace active, but my face still began to burn almost instantly. As I got closer, both of them slowed. Their eyes turned to me again.
I kept going.
I ran straight into the fire.
“Hyung!”
Even with S–rank damage resistance, I couldn’t block all the heat. My eyes squeezed shut on instinct. Then arms wrapped around me.
The heat vanished in an instant.
I opened my eyes again. Over Yuhyun’s shoulder, I could see the butterflies.
“That was dangerous!”
“…Han Yuhyun.”
Still blurred. Still hidden beneath a cloud of butterflies draped over him like a shroud.
“Yuhyun.”
No answer.
The Yuhyun holding me tightened his grip. His black eyes didn’t even blink.
“Han Yuhyun!”
“It’s just a corpse.”
I startled and turned to look at him. His voice was low, but his eyes were a mess of emotions fighting under the surface.
“You said it yourself.”
“…I did?”
“You said that if there was no other choice, you’d leave it behind and come back.”
Because there were living people here. Because there was a living younger brother here.
He was right.
But this… this was different.
“It’s okay, hyung.”
The voice came from in front of us. The butterflies scattered, and a face I knew all too well came clearly into view.
“I’m not the real thing.”
…I needed to answer. I needed to say something, but nothing came. Only a ragged breath slipped out. Not real? I grabbed Yuhyun’s arm and forced out the words through a throat that felt locked shut.
“What… are you talking about?”
I dragged a thought together through the noise in my head. If he really was fake, then—
“If you’re not real, then Yuhyun wouldn’t have come here like this. He wouldn’t have tried to erase you while leaving me behind.”
If this were just a simple fake, he would’ve told me exactly that and nothing more. I might’ve wavered for a moment, but after that I’d only have gotten angry.
“It’s only a body. Left alone, it would’ve rotted away and disappeared.”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A discarded corpse that should never have been able to come here in the first place.”
His voice stayed quiet.
Every word landed like a blade.
“A fragment of him got lodged in that corpse.”
His calm gaze shifted to the Yuhyun holding me. Yuhyun’s expression tightened almost imperceptibly.
“…A fragment of Yuhyun?”
“Memory.”
Memory.
Something flashed through my mind.
The memory marble of Yuhyun’s that the King of Harmless had stolen. We had lost it under that tree in the snow. I was sure it had vanished back then.
“J–just that was enough to…!”
“It created a link to this world. Then the Gardener found the body. It was only a shell, but it still held the memories it had in life, so he made it move using a fragment of the living me.”
The Gardener… found the Yuhyun who had been beneath the source…
“That’s all, hyung. I’m dead.”
He said it like a warning. Don’t hope for anything else.
But still. Even so.
I looked at him. The memory I’d thought was fading, slipping further away, snapped back into focus.
“You remember me. You’re moving, talking. And even if you say you died, you’ve changed. You look taller… maybe even taller than Yuhyun is now.”
“It was adjusted to match the rank here. The real me had been suppressed too.”
“That doesn’t matter! You’re still you, Yuhyun!”
I didn’t know. He kept calling himself nothing more than a moving body, but I didn’t know. He was looking at me. Talking to me. How was I supposed to say that wasn’t him?
“And what the hell is this Gardener anyway? Why would he do this to you?”
“Hyung.”
His eyes turned cold. He looked past me, at the Yuhyun holding me.
“Take him and go back.”
“…What?”
“You don’t need to be involved in this.”
“He’s right.”
The Yuhyun beside me had stayed silent until now, but finally spoke.
“This isn’t your problem, hyung. I know you want to bring all of us back with you. I wasn’t planning to stop you either. As long as you were safe.”
The same voice.
The same words.
I could feel two identical gazes on me at once.
Yuhyun and Yuhyun.
I remembered him telling me not to feel guilty. Yeah, well, good luck with that. Even if he wasn’t the real thing, even if that was true, that wasn’t how it felt to me.
It was Yuhyun.
At some point, the fire around us had started to die down. Only the burned and melted ground remained, charred black and red. The raindrops that had been driven back by the heat began to fall again. They still couldn’t reach me. They hissed into steam before they touched my skin. Far off, I could see the Puppeteer. Behind him, I caught glimpses of Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song Taewon. Maybe they had heard us. Maybe our voices had vanished under the rain and the thunder overhead.
Honestly, I wanted the rain on me. I wanted it to soak through me and clear my head.
But Yuhyun was never going to let the rain fall on me.
“Yuhyun.”
I was always grateful for that.
But not now.
“I want to stand in the rain.”
“No. You’ll catch cold.”
The answer came back sharp and immediate.
If I were Yuhyun, I probably would’ve said the same thing. Don’t get wet. Be careful. Take care of yourself.
But right now I needed cold water on my head.
I pushed at the arms around me. I couldn’t overpower him. I knew that. Still, I shoved him anyway.
“So what if I do?”
“Hyung!”
“I’m going to do what I want.”
“But—”
“Let go.”
That time, maybe because of the way I said it, Yuhyun flinched and loosened his grip. I stepped back. Rain slipped into my hair. The other Yuhyun twitched too.
Both of them were watching me.
“So you do what you want too.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“I wanted you to be happy. I wanted to give you anything you wanted.”
That hadn’t changed.
Not even now.
“But we’re different, Yuhyun. I’m your brother, but I’m Han Yujin. You’re my little brother, but you’re Han Yuhyun.”
We were different people.
We couldn’t live exactly the way the other wanted. And we shouldn’t.
“I wondered if I should just give up because that’s what you wanted. I thought maybe I should let it go and go back. But that’s not what I want. No matter how many times I think it through, I can’t do it. I can’t give up.”
“You’ll get hurt!”
“Yeah. But, Yuhyun, I…”
My voice shook.
It wasn’t just the twenty one year old Yuhyun in front of me.
The brother I had left behind was here too.
He was looking at me.
“I’m not going to throw myself away, even for you.”
There were things I could do for my little brother. Things I would do. Anything, almost. But there was one thing I had decided I would hold on to no matter what.
For both our sakes.
Yuhyun drew a short breath and opened his mouth.
“That’s what I want too! I don’t want you sacrificing yourself because of me either!”
“No, that’s not what I mean. If you were in danger, I’d step in front of it. I’d put my life on the line.”
“But just now—”
“Because that’s what I want. Because that’s what Han Yujin truly wants, and that’s the way Han Yujin has to live.”
Yuhyun’s eyes shook. He looked completely lost.
“I don’t… I don’t understand what you mean, hyung.”
“It’s the way I’ve lived. The way I’m going to keep living. That’s who I am.”
Maybe to him it looked like I wanted to sacrifice myself for Yuhyun, for other people.
But that wasn’t it.
This was what I wanted.
Not for anyone else.
For me.
“I just want hyung to…”
“You’re the same. Tell me what you want.”
And even if our paths diverged, that was okay. Even if—
Whip!
A line flew in.
Before Yuhyun could react, it wrapped around me and yanked.
“Hyung!”
I was ripped away in an instant and caught by arms I knew. Black butterflies swept right past my face. Far off, I heard the Puppeteer’s startled voice.
“There’s only one thing I want.”
Yuhyun said it quietly. The arms around me were terrifyingly cold.
My heart turned icy.
He was talking. Moving. Looking at me.
And still.
“Go back safe, hyung.”
“Yuhyun, I—!”
“So help me for just a little while.”
His gaze dropped. I followed it and saw faint lines etched into the scorched ground.
What was that?
“Wait, Han Yujin, that—!”
the Puppeteer shouted.
I had no idea what was happening, but instinct screamed at me that I should not be here.
“Give hyung back!”
“Don’t you want him safe too?”
Yuhyun hesitated.
He tried to break free, but the arms holding me didn’t budge. They were harder, colder, stronger than the Yuhyun I knew.
“What are you trying to do, Han Yuhyun!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll return him to you. I’m just clearing away the useless trash so hyung won’t have to trouble himself over it.”
“What the hell are you—”
Stepping on butterflies, Yuhyun came down onto the line carved into the ground.
“If the reason disappears, then hyung won’t have any reason to stay here either.”
“Han Yujin! Skill!”
My skill?
Thunder cracked as the Puppeteer warped over in a burst of electricity. Yuhyun looked at Yuhyun.
“Stop them.”
“…”
“I’ll clean up the rest.”
“Yuhyun!”
“It’s okay. I’ll carry all of it.”
A faint smile touched those cold lips.
Just like before the regression.
Again.
Something lurched up inside me. Heat flooded my throat so hard it made me want to throw up.
“You idiot! Who do you think you are? Why the hell should it be you?!”
Yuhyun stepped in front of the Puppeteer. Blue–black flames roared upward. The other Yuhyun ground his heel against the line on the floor.
“You really did get weaker.”
Blood welled at the tips of white fingers. A vicious flame bloomed. Fire dripped onto the line in heavy drops. Still pinning me down while I struggled, he let black fire surge up around us. The line started burning away little by little.
I stared at it blankly for a second before my head finally caught up.
‘The Puppeteer made that, didn’t he.’
My skill.
Poison? A curse?
I couldn’t tell what exactly had been set up there, but I knew I had to stop it first. Because if Yuhyun said he would “clean it up,” then that definitely meant—
‘Seong Hyunjae. And… Sigma?’
If the Puppeteer was this desperate to stop it, probably.
I hurriedly turned off Poison Resistance and Curse Resistance. The flames burning along the line halted at once. They hissed and spat heat, but they couldn’t go any farther.
“Hyung.”
“I don’t care if you’re dead, alive, whatever. You’re my little brother, so let go of me right now!”
I twisted hard.
Thunder boomed.
The Yuhyun who wasn’t holding me skidded across the ground. Chief Song Taewon stepped in front of the Ruler’s Sword. Black shadow pooled along his thick arm.
“I do not understand the situation, but is that man also Hunter Han Yuhyun?”
Instead of answering, Yuhyun took two steps back toward us. Beside the Puppeteer, I could see Seong Hyunjae now. A golden chain swayed together with thin threads of string. The two Yuhyuns met each other’s eyes for a brief moment.
“I’ve never considered a combination like this before.”
Seong Hyunjae looked thoroughly entertained.
“Han Yujin, would you care to explain what exactly is going on?”
“If my little brother gets hurt, I’m not letting it slide.”
“Then I suppose getting an answer out of you will be a fairly difficult process.”
“Then, Han Yujin, get yourself out of there at least!”
the Puppeteer snapped coldly.
Two on one side.
Three on the other.
Flames swayed. Light flashed faintly in the rain. I bit my lip without thinking. The hand holding me was still so cold my thoughts wouldn’t work right. But I still couldn’t let them crash into each other like this.
Rumble—
That was when it happened.
The ground shook.
The Puppeteer and the Yuhyun holding me reacted first. Their eyes moved at the same time, but not in the same direction.
“What now.”
The Puppeteer frowned.
Something was coming. I couldn’t tell from where, but it made the world tremble again.
Then—
Rush!
The rain came down harder.
Crash! Rumble—!
Water started pouring in.
From everywhere, unseen currents of water energy surged toward us.
And through it all, a voice I was very glad to hear rang out.
“Mister! I’m here!”
