As I said in the previous episode, I continued wandering all over the world, “strategizing” against the strange beings.
This ti, let’s talk briefly about what happened in Busan along the way.
The comrades of the Returner Alliance often expressed their gratitude to .
The reason was simple.
Because thanks to the intervention of , the returner, their lives had changed.
“Ye-yes. I’m so thankful that I want to peel off your skin, taxidermy it, and enshrine it forever like a sacred relic……”
Correction.
Except for personality-deficient people like Noh Doha, the comrades of the Returner Alliance were mostly thankful to .
For example, Lee Ha-yul.
[Yeah. The thought of living without you is horrifying.]
While in my arms, returning to the Busan hideout after a long ti, Lee Ha-yul, curled up like a squirrel, said:
[I probably would have killed the beloved Mayor Jeong Sang-guk and then cleanly ended my own life.]
[Eradicating every traitor. Sad but true — this is the mission given to , the final descendant of the proud Lee clan of Deoksu…….]
It was true, in fact.
In other words, I had presented Lee Ha-yul, who was originally supposed to die, with the choice called “life.”
No one had forced , yet regarding this, I felt a kind of obligation.
Of course. If I had forcibly kept alive a person who wanted to die, shouldn’t I take responsibility for that life?
It wasn’t that I had to take full responsibility.
At the very least, I had to ensure that Ha-yul wouldn’t give up on life again — that her fingers wouldn’t slip away from the ga’s “Continue” button.
[…….]
I had no intention of just throwing her into the hunting grounds and saying, “Grow on your own now.”
Nor did I intend to ignore her dependence on .
[You’re saying I should get stronger.]
Exactly.
I taught her how to beco stronger. I gave her ti to train.
If she had a hole in her heart that she couldn’t endure, then I would even enter her unconscious to reveal that “□.”
“It’s hard to believe how it ca to this, but every person in this world carries a scar where the existence of Go Yuri has been lost, Ha-yul. You’re the sa.”
[…….]
“When people see Go Yuri, the reason they feel an instinctive affection for her as if they were brainwashed — that magic’s secret lies here.”
I used to think it was rely a brainwashing ability.
But not anymore.
“When people see Go Yuri, they feel as though they are reuniting with soone precious they lost long ago. Unconsciously.”
[Because she was truly soone they lost?]
“Yes.”
That was Go Yuri’s secret. Her art. Her thod.
Everyone who saw Go Yuri felt “longing.”
They sensed nostalgia for the ti before the world beca a ss, before their own lives fell apart.
It was an irresistible temptation.
“But my own past has been not just distorted, but completely erased. Literally a void, an emptiness. Thanks to that, perhaps I was sowhat free from Go Yuri’s brainwashing.”
[…….]
In my arms, Ha-yul tilted her head up to look at my face.
[That’s actually a bad sign.]
“What do you an?”
[Dad. If I can’t rember, but Go Yuri was part of my life, and that part was cut away — that ans my mory was distorted.]
[If your mory itself is entirely gone, doesn’t that an Go Yuri was so precious to you that simply cutting away a piece wasn’t enough, so the whole thing was deleted?]
“……”
A clever child, as expected.
I gently combed Ha-yul’s brown hair. She had a bit of a curl, so she liked when I brushed it like this.
“It doesn’t necessarily an it’s bad that I have a wound I don’t even know about, Ha-yul.”
[Why?]
“You, , the mbers of the Returner Alliance, and others — it ans we’re all suffering from the sa void of mory.”
[…….]
Ha-yul rubbed her head against my chest, and I accepted her affection.
‘Only…’
All humanity had a shared “□.” They had all lost Go Yuri.
That must be why, for so people, when they go deeper into dreams within dreams — a dream within a dream — the so-called “great void” of the unconscious unfolds.
‘The Outcast God is a being that corrupts all humans and twists the world. Then that ans Go Yuri has already devoured humanity on the surface.’
At that mont—
“Ah, Aaaah!”
At the entrance of the café hideout, Sim Ah-ryeon, who hadn’t even washed her hair, pointed her trembling finger.
“G-Guild Leader! You ca ho after so long, and you’re only doting on Lee Ha-yul again……!”
Ha-yul snorted.
[The early bird gets Dad’s lap.]
“I-I was awake too! If I hadn’t been up all night protecting peace on SG-Net, I could’ve gotten there first!”
[Impossible.]
Ha-yul replied coolly.
[Ah-ryeon unnie is a famous commu-addict.]
“M-my hair! Please, b-brush mine too!”
[You sll. Don’t co near .]
“Whaat? T-that’s not true! I sll great… All the faithful believers of the Holy Eastern Kingdom love ! If my sll bothers you, that’s your nose’s fault, Lee Ha-yul!”
[Why is this woman perfect when she cosplays as a Saintess, but as soon as she’s ho, she turns into a complete ss? I don’t get it.]
Regardless of Ha-yul’s grumbling, Sim Ah-ryeon pushed herself in like a hedgehog and took a spot between us.
“Ughh,” Ha-yul groaned — not in words but in her entire body.
Even so, she didn’t truly push her away — proof of our Ha-yul’s beautiful nature. Q.E.D.
What’s the big deal about having killed, tortured, and turned her family into marionettes? It happens.
It was all Go Yuri’s fault anyway — she had drilled a “□” into Ha-yul’s heart and set the Humanity Affection Deprivation Plan in motion. Hmph.
“……”
Sim Ah-ryeon stared at .
I had expected this, so I took out another comb I’d brought separately and started brushing her hair. Only then did her expression finally soften.
“Ah-ryeon.”
“Yes?”
“How’s the exhibition preparation going?”
“Yes!”
Ah-ryeon giggled.
“It’s all thanks to you, Guild Leader.”
________________________________________
Let’s pick the person who everyone in the Returner Alliance agrees “might actually be an anomaly.”
The overwhelming first-place winner: Sim Ah-ryeon.
This ungrateful Goryeojang Villain always complained that I only doted on Ha-yul, but of course, that was fake news.
No one — not in a past life, this life, or any of the Three Thousand Worlds — could say they’ve done as much for Sim Ah-ryeon as I have.
“The… painting?”
“Yes. Paint portraits of the strange beings.”
The Portrait of the Strange Beings Project.
This too was part of my plan to rehabilitate Sim Ah-ryeon, the human enigma.
As I ntioned back in the Inunaki Tunnel episode, around this ti, I kept Sim Ah-ryeon by my side and always instructed her to paint “portraits of the strange beings.”
There was deep thought behind it.
‘Ah-ryeon too is, after all, a pitiful victim — soone who ended up ntally ill because of that wicked Go Yuri’s mischief!’
The reason Sim Ah-ryeon couldn’t find fulfillnt in reality and always fled into the SG-Net community to extract validation from others —
The reason why, even after I got her a job as a Saintess in the North so she could live in the real world, she scread “This isn’t the real !” and turned her life into a stage play instead —
And the reason why every ti she saw , she’d give that silent pressure — “Ehehe,” “You saved , so I won’t allow you to run away” — showing the essence of a nhera —
It was all because of the “□” Go Yuri left behind.
“Uh……”
After hearing this claim of mine, Oh Dok Seo tilted her head.
“Mister. Didn’t you once say that ignoring your own responsibility and blaming everything on others or the world is the cause of strange beings being born? You’re basically doing the sa thing — just replacing ‘blaming others’ with ‘blaming Go Yuri’……”
“The most recent chapter uploaded was 172 days ago.”
“Gyaaaaaaaah!”
Don’t worry. The monster that trapped pure and delicate readers in the swamp of hiatus has already been slain by , the Undertaker.
Anyway, the problem was the heart. It was a disease of the heart.
But I couldn’t just bring Go Yuri here and say, “Now, beco one.”
So how could I heal Sim Ah-ryeon, the troublemaker of the Returner Alliance, the villain who produced endless nuisance like a perpetual motion machine — even a little?
Answer:
‘Art.’
That was my tentative conclusion.
‘Even though Ah-ryeon treats all real-world activities as re “gas,” when she paints — at least then — she’s more serious than anyone else.’
That was Sim Ah-ryeon’s blessing.
That she could be sincere in at least one field. That she had a point of friction where she could face and clash with the world.
And she even had heavenly talent?
If that’s not a blessing, what is?
‘Even though I can draw fairly well, Ah-ryeon’s paintings of strange beings… they have a power, a living detail that I can’t reproduce.’
Considering that I, a returner, had invested hundreds of thousands of hours into art, Sim Ah-ryeon’s sense was truly impressive.
‘But……’
The problem was, she never revealed the results of that talent under her real na.
Even when she posted sketches on SG-Net, it was always under the nickna [Goryeojang Villain].
Or attached as anonymous illustrations to guides posted by [The Librarian of the Grand Library].
‘No, it’s not just her art.’
How many people even knew of Sim Ah-ryeon’s existence?
Plenty of awakened beings knew the Goryeojang Villain.
Even more people worshipped the Saintess of the North.
Infamy or fa — both nicknas drew the world’s attention.
But Sim Ah-ryeon herself?
“Oh, Dok Seo, look at this! ‘I’m sorry, readers! I’m cutting sleep to rewrite the manuscript again and again, but I just can’t reach the quality I want. Sotis I resent my own craftsmanship…’”
“Arghhhh! Mister! Ah-ryeon unnie’s bullying again! She’s following around, reciting her old announcent posts!”
“……”
How many people, really, knew Sim Ah-ryeon?
‘Probably only the mbers of the Returner Alliance.’
The real Saintess living in her ho in Yongsan, and the fake Saintess coming and going from the palace in Pyongyang — both were hidden from the world in their own ways.
‘That’s why I’ll debut her! The great artist Sim Ah-ryeon, who succeeded Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, birthing the new school of Strange Being Expressionism!’
“?”
Sensing my fiery gaze, Sim Ah-ryeon tilted her head, then ca toddling back with the comb and plopped herself down in front of .
‘Heh-heh.’
I smiled like a dark fairy and brushed her hair.
Ah-ryeon. Soon, the whole world will be shouting your na.
‘Then you’ll finally enjoy reality, and stop playing mask theater!’
“?”
Finally, the day of the exhibition arrived.
We set up a temporary gallery at Babel Tower Square, so citizens of Busan could freely visit.
Noh Doha seriously questioned whether such a project was worth the manpower investnt, but in front of the righteous cause of rehabilitating Sim Ah-ryeon, even the great National Highway Administrator had to yield.
“What’s this? An exhibition?”
“Wow, it’s been ages since I heard of one.”
“Is this hosted by the National Highway Administration?”
People who would have ignored museums in the past as “not giving enough dopamine” now wandered through the gallery in groups.
“Oh……”
“This has a feeling.”
“Yeah. It’s hard to grasp, but kind of fascinating.”
The the selection was excellent.
The exhibition displayed portraits of strange beings Sim Ah-ryeon and I had laid to rest together, each painted in an intense expressive style.
After all, strange beings were familiar to awakened ones, and at least rumors to ordinary people — a subject of interest across all classes.
And yet, never once in art history had such a genre been properly established — until now, by Sim Ah-ryeon’s brush.
“Oh, that’s a Gremlin! I know this one!”
“Ugh, I want to kill it just by looking at it……”
“Haha.”
“What about this kid with the mask? Is that a strange being too?”
“No idea. The awakened ones probably know.”
Murmurs spread.
By lunch, the crowd had quintupled from morning, and by evening rush hour, the gallery was packed full.
“Heh.”
“…I didn’t expect it to be this popular.”
On the second day, even Dang Seo Rin and Cheon Yo Hwa, each with their aides, couldn’t hide their amazent.
All eyes turned toward Sim Ah-ryeon, who sat behind the counter with her head bowed low.
“Since the teacher always defended her, I thought she was just a full-ti healer……”
Their amazent was natural.
The exhibition was, after all, The Strange Being Special Exhibition.
The more kinds of strange beings the viewer knew, the deeper their appreciation.
In other words, the stronger the awakened being, the more they’d be drawn in.
‘When I saw her art on SG-Net, it didn’t get nearly this reaction.’
There was a big difference between seeing art on a small smartphone screen and experiencing it in person.
Sim Ah-ryeon even depicted the Infinite Void and the Mastermind as abstract expressionist works.
In front of those enormous canvases, even Cheon Yo Hwa couldn’t help but linger.
“Hmm……”
On the fourth day, even Noh Doha, having heard the rumors, made ti to visit.
After touring the gallery with my curator comntary, she murmured:
“As expected. I thought, ‘What kind of useless art exhibition is this,’ but this could actually help people properly perceive strange beings. It had aning…….”
For even Noh Doha, who’d lived with no connection to art, to say that — it ant the exhibition project was an absolute success.
-Anonymous: I think I’ve never seen anyone draw this well in my life
-Anonymous: fr, I thought modern art was just clapping for famous people’s crap, but this changed my mind
-[Samcheon] WitchTrial: I’m impressed too
-Anonymous: Whoa, a celebrity comnter!
Even SG-Net was buzzing with talk about the exhibition.
“Hmph.”
I looked down at my smartphone with satisfaction.
Yes. Whether in reality or online, there was no longer any need for her to stir drama as the Goryeojang Villain.
Sim Ah-ryeon had enough charm to attract people on her own.
Maybe now she’d be free from her heart’s emptiness.
That hopeful —
“……”
Sim Ah-ryeon was staring right at .
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