[Chapter 189]
[What Should Not Be Touched (4)]
Only one person will be sent home nicely.
Eun-ha's words became the catalyst that made the frightened students resort to violence.
"It's because of you! This happened because of you! I was bullied too, so why do I have to suffer like this!"
"Park Seong-ho, you bastard!! This happened because of you!"
They thought this was the only way for them to survive.
So they surrendered to their emotions.
Even while fighting as they saw fit, they focused their attacks on the root cause that pushed them into this pit.
Park Seong-ho.
The leader of their gang.
"If it weren't for you...! If I hadn't hung out with you...!"
The students went berserk.
Rationally, they knew they were at fault too.
But they couldn't admit it.
Because the future awaiting them if they admitted it was only bleak.
All the punishments they would receive in the future would be 'justified'.
Their lives would be ruined.
So they had to shift their guilt onto someone else.
"It's what you did! I didn't do anything! I was just standing quietly next to you!"
"Ahahahaha!!"
Moreover, they were stressed from being gripped by fear.
They wanted to somehow release those emotions mixed with fear.
And in a situation where 'only one survives', they needed a justification to 'rightfully' attack others.
So it was understandable that they focused their attacks on Park Seong-ho.
"─Ahahahaha!! This is really fun! Come at me, all of you!"
In contrast, Park Seong-ho laughed.
To him, the situation of being cornered was just enjoyable.
Of course it was.
Only one survives.
The extremely simple rule didn't include anything else.
The common sense, logic, morality, justice, and conscience that the world tediously expounds.
Those were meaningless in this place.
Only violence determines survival.
Park Seong-ho, who felt the thrill of being alive while subjugating others with force, greatly welcomed this situation.
Above all─
"─I said come at me all at once!? Are you scared!?"
He was confident he could survive.
☆
The prediction didn't miss by even an inch.
Park Seong-ho, who was initially pushed to the defensive, turned the tables as he started manifesting mana.
""""Ugh....""""
"Stop it stop it stop it ahhh...!!"
He even went a step further.
Park Seong-ho rampaged indiscriminately using this situation as a 'justification'.
Eun-ha saw him put his foot on the back of a kneeling male student and pull both arms back.
Whether the male student screamed or not.
He just cackled with his face smeared with blood from fighting.
""""...""""
And so the fight ended.
Park Seong-ho took rough breaths and turned his gaze to Eun-ha.
He approached with a grin.
"─You'll let me live now, right?"
"Se-Seong-ho, you..."
"Why is dad here.... Ah, dad lost because he's weak too. Then it can't be helped."
Crazy bastard.
Eun-ha cursed inwardly.
He had placed the Sejong Clan Lord beside him to show Park Seong-ho.
But his reaction was just that.
Park Seong-ho's gaze lingered on the Sejong Clan Lord for just a moment.
Soon he turned his head away as if uninterested.
"Yes, I'll send you home nicely."
"Is that so? Then can I go now? Ah, that was fun after a long time. If I follow you, will the futu-cough...!"
Eun-ha quickly grabbed his nape.
Then he tripped him and slammed him to the floor.
"Wh-What is this...!"
"But it would be disappointing to just let you go."
"What? The promise..."
"I'll send you home nicely. Don't worry. But─"
Park Seong-ho struggles.
Eun-ha pressed his Adam's apple.
His pupils dilated as he couldn't breathe.
The strength of his hands desperately grabbing Eun-ha's wrist slowly loosened.
Only then did Eun-ha release his strength.
"─I'll put a restriction on you."
While watching the fight so far.
Eun-ha had figured out Park Seong-ho.
He was the type who realized his own existence by attacking others.
He was nothing short of a madman.
Violence was meaningless to such a being.
It would only be temporary.
The pain would only last for that moment.
But Eun-ha wanted him to suffer for his entire life.
Therefore─
─Hamper Wave
The finger he had been twirling.
Eun-ha brought it to his chest.
Right where the heart would be.
"Ugh...!!"
"First, I'll destroy your mana circuits so you can't manifest mana again."
Just by tracing with his finger.
Park Seong-ho's mana circuits, unable to defend against high-level control techniques, moved.
Circuits moving in the direction of his finger.
Eun-ha tangled those circuits in a mess, finally wrapping them tightly around his heart.
Not only manifesting mana, but even breathing will be difficult now.
Just enough not to die.
Eun-ha twisted the mana circuits.
Then he spoke while looking into the eyes of Park Seong-ho, who was gasping for breath.
"─Too bad. Now you're the weakest. You must have felt the thrill of being alive while beating others, but now you're so weak you won't be able to beat anyone."
"...!"
What do people live for?
What is the reason for people to live?
Park Seong-ho found that in violence.
So Eun-ha made it so he could never manifest power again.
"Now you won't be able to fulfill your dream of becoming a player. How sad."
The reason for living and the goal in life.
Not only did he destroy the mana circuits, but he ultimately took those away too.
Then what choice will a human who has lost those make?
If there's no reason to live?
If they have to live a boring life that repeats unchangingly every day like this?
No thrill, no happiness.
If there's nothing but despair.
How is that different from being dead?
Wouldn't the peaceful rest of death be better than that?
That's why Eun-ha─
─Stygian Eye
Decided to put one more restriction.
His eyes flashed ominously.
"I hope you live a long time.
I hope you live without any reason to live until you die, yes, live because you can't die."
"...Uuugh...!"
"So don't die. Your death can only be natural death due to old age."
Eun-ha placed a suggestion.
A person like Park Seong-ho was the type to unhesitatingly take his own life if the 'thrill' of life disappeared.
That's why Eun-ha placed a suggestion on Park Seong-ho to absolutely not die.
"You'll come to keenly feel how painful living is from now on."
Eun-ha cackled.
☆
People's mental states collapsed.
Of course they were tortured.
It was understandable that their will would become hazy after fighting each other with fists.
Stygian Eye
Eun-ha brainwashed all of them.
Even at the cost of breaking their memories, it was to erase his existence.
Now they would create 'plausible' memories to replace the lost ones.
It was the workings of a defense mechanism.
Still, they probably won't forget what happened today for their entire lives.
They'll occasionally remember when triggered by trivial things.
Or go crazy for life.
Sometimes mental pain is worse.
Physical pain can heal, but mental pain doesn't heal.
Moreover, if they don't know why they have mental pain, that's the end.
It's impossible to heal for life.
That's how they'll have to live for their entire lives.
"Now send them all home."
"Yes, boss."
Eun-ha ordered Lee Gang-hyeok.
Lee Gang-hyeok bowed his head in response.
The alley gang members helped the roughly treated people stand up.
They left while being supported.
Park Seong-ho was among them.
And the Sejong Clan Lord too.
Eun-ha quietly watched them.
"─Your handling is softer than I expected. Master, is this really okay?"
"What is?"
"Park Seong-ho."
Barely.
He didn't cross the line.
When Eun-ha thought that.
Twenty-five suddenly spoke.
"If it was the Master I know, he probably would have made that bastard die painfully. Not keep him alive."
"I was going to do that at first too."
Twenty-five's grumbling.
Eun-ha agreed.
He had thought about just killing Park Seong-ho, if no one else.
"─Death would end it all, so I can't let him off that easily. I wanted to make him regret for his entire life."
"So you took away his reason for living. I understand Master's feelings, but it's too soft."
"Why? What is?"
"Humans are animals that keep searching for reasons to continue living. Park Seong-ho may be in despair now, but as he lives, he'll find reasons to live. And as he lives, happy things will happen too."
Humans pursue hope.
That's how they can live.
So his handling was clumsy.
That's what Twenty-five was saying.
To this, Eun-ha shrugged his shoulders.
"─That's why I placed another suggestion."
"What? What kind of suggestion?"
"A suggestion to immediately forget the moment he finds a reason to live. Also, I even manipulated his nervous system to immediately feel sad when happy things happen."
"Master, really..."
"That's right. People tend to keep living while searching for reasons to live. Then to make that bastard live as long as possible, I had no choice but to do that. And take it away the moment he finds it."
Hope is so fleeting.
Humans live pursuing that hope.
Even if they experience despair every time, they believe there must be hope somewhere.
That's how they become slaves to hope.
The suggestion Eun-ha placed on Park Seong-ho was similar to this.
Make him keep living.
Make him live his whole life until he finds an oasis in the desert.
But make it disappear like a mirage the moment he finds the oasis.
Like that, turn him into a person living because he can't die.
"You really give me chills when I see you, Master. How can a person do that? Are you perhaps a monster?"
"I guess I'm not human."
"Ah, again.... Look at him seriously answering a joke."
"But I'm not completely cruel either. I also placed another suggestion in Park Seong-ho and the others' minds."
"What suggestion?"
"If they feel genuinely sorry towards Eun-ae, not out of fear, they'll forget all the suggestions."
"Do those people know?"
"No, they don't. I made it so they can't even think about Eun-ae at all from now on."
"No, what... Are you joking? Then how can those bastards repent?"
"So make them sincerely repent the memory of bullying someone, even though they can't remember Eun-ae."
How can they repent easily?
It's atonement only if they repent with difficulty.
As much as Eun-ae will have to live with the memory of being bullied for her entire life from now on.
Eun-ha wanted them to suffer.
Even more than Eun-ae.
"Strong regret will remove the suggestion."
"Do you believe it will disappear, Master?"
"No."
"..."
"People who are busy just thinking about their own affairs probably won't care that much about others' affairs. Moreover, Eun-ae is a very distant stranger to those bastards."
"..."
"So suffer for your entire life."
He is not righteous.
He is extremely biased and convenient.
If seen by the world's correct standards, he would be 'evil' twisted beyond measure.
He's somewhat crazy.
But it doesn't matter.
Because the life he 'hopes' for can't be obtained through justice.
Whether he can achieve it despite that.
He might not be able to achieve it.
Hope was truly fleeting.
'Yes... Go ahead and climb as much as you want. Climb and climb, what do you think will be waiting when you climb until there's nowhere left for you to climb?'
Suddenly, the words of Choi Yun-han, the first chairman of Galaxy Group, came to mind.
Eun-ha smiled bitterly.
It was then.
"─Ah, right Master. You know the investigation you asked for before?"
Twenty-five changed the topic.
Eun-ha snapped out of his thoughts.
He had asked to find Sindorim's whereabouts before.
His eyes changed.
"How did it go?"
"Well..."
But Twenty-five's expression was different.
Unlike Eun-ha with his serious face.
Twenty-five looked troubled.
"─Sindorim is dead."
"...What?"
"It's been determined he died in the Seoul invasion two years ago. His younger sister Shin Yeon-su is alive."
Hearing unexpected news.
Eun-ha's eyes widened.
☆
After being bullied at school.
Eun-ae stopped going to school from that day and stayed shut in her room.
She comforted herself by talking with the plants in her room.
No Eun-ae, who had been hurt by people once, became afraid of people.
"─Miss Eun-ae. Would you like to go out with me?"
"Where are we going?"
"I was planning to go for a walk in the botanical garden. Oppa gave me admission tickets this time. But I got two tickets... I was looking for someone to go with. So I wanted to go with you, Miss..."
Of course, she wasn't completely shut in and hadn't closed her heart.
She came out of her room when family called.
And she spent time with people who came to comfort her.
That day was the same.
Lee Yu-jeong came to Eun-ae's house and suggested going to the botanical garden.
"You can go with oppa without worrying about me..."
"Why? Don't you want to go with me?"
"That's not it.... Then let's go together."
Eun-ae and Lee Yu-jeong had similar personalities.
Their tastes and hobbies were similar too.
So it was inevitable that the two quickly became close.
That day, Lee Yu-jeong took No Eun-ae out to the botanical garden.
"The air is good. It's refreshing."
"Right? The fragrance is nice too."
There were no people in the botanical garden.
Lee Yu-jeong had already rented out the entire facility in consideration of No Eun-ae.
So Eun-ae could freely look around at the plants without being conscious of others.
Perhaps that's why her heart opened up.
She, who had been conversing with a cactus, opened her mouth.
"─You know, Yu-jeong unnie."
"Yes."
"My gift... you know about it too, right?"
"Yes, I heard about it then too."
"Then, what do you think oppa will think?"
A question tinged with some fear.
Lee Yu-jeong answered the question with a question.
"How do you want oppa to think, Miss?"
"...I hope he won't be afraid of me."
"Do you think Eun-ha will be afraid of you?"
"No.... But still..."
Not as energetic as usual.
Lee Yu-jeong carefully hugged her as she trailed off.
She calmed down after being startled for a moment.
"Who would be afraid of you, Miss? Such a small, cute, and pretty Miss."
"..."
"So don't worry."
It lacks objective evidence.
Nevertheless, Eun-ae somehow felt reassured by Lee Yu-jeong's words.
"You're just like grandmother who passed away..."
"Miss, that's a bit..."
"Ah, sorry! I like you so much, unnie!"
Soon Eun-ae realized her slip of the tongue.
She hurriedly apologized.
Lee Yu-jeong chuckled.
Then she said to her:
"So I have a request too."
"Hm?"
"I hope you won't be afraid of Eun-ha either."
"..."
"He's been quite on edge lately. Please cheer him up later. I, Seo-hyeon unnie, and Ha-yang can't completely lift his mood."
Hearing those words.
No Eun-ae blinked her eyes.
Soon she smiled as brightly as possible.
"─There's no way I'd be afraid of our oppa! But it seems our oppa still needs me even though he got three unnies?"
"It seems we're still far from catching up to you, Miss. Please take good care of us."
"You know, Yu-jeong unnie."
"Yes, Miss?"
"Thank you so much for bringing me here today."
While there are bad people.
There are far more good people.
Eun-ae expressed her gratitude.
What she needed was time to heal her heart that had been hurt by people.
And even better people than that.