WOSE Chapter 2

1. End and Beginning

A man racing toward the cliff, a hand reaching out pitifully, a scream-like shout... With that unreachable—or more precisely, unwanted—scene as her last, she fell down, down.

Having plummeted down a dizzying cliff with no visible bottom, her body would surely shatter beyond any hope of recovery.

Iyu closed her eyes, waiting for the intense pain that would soon cover her. But even after considerable time passed, there was no pain. Rather, even the existing pain that had clung to her stubbornly couldn't be felt.

Not even a sense of floating.

Instead, something cold and solid firmly supported her. Only then did Iyu open her tightly shut eyes.

Soft light poured into her cleanly cleared vision. A high domed ceiling that looked like an ordinary sky, light-clusters pouring down from it like sunbeams, a floor densely tangled with roots as thick as tree trunks, a circular table placed upon it and seven stone seats surrounding it.

Iyu knew this exotic and overwhelming space well.

The heart of Asgard, located on the World Tree's highest branch—"Brimund." The regular meeting place of leaders where she'd overheard their terrible schemes.

Sitting collapsed on the wide iron round table, she finally faced familiar figures. The terrible beings she'd seen just before death were looking at her with eyes soaked in joy.

Goosebumps rose from her lower body touching the cool metal.

Had they caught her after she fell after all? Nausea surged with despair, when suddenly they shouted.

"It worked!"

"The Savior!"

'What?'

It was a strange reaction—not reproach, not blame, not even detestable lip-service worry.

Come to think of it, her vision was unnaturally clear.

Only then did Iyu fumblingly check her own condition. Jeans and a worn padding jacket, dirty sneakers. And arms and legs that felt no discomfort at all.

Exactly like the day she first fell into this world.

'No way.'

If she hadn't been caught, and if she wasn't having a nightmare. There was only one answer.

She had returned. To her end point, which was also her starting point.

A hollow laugh burst from her throat of its own accord.

'Don't be ridiculous.'

How had she escaped? How had she gotten away? How had she ended it? And she had to experience that terrible thing again?

Her whole body trembled with a sense of loss so profound her mind grew hazy. Her hands clenched into fists. Creak. Then suddenly, a gentle voice reached her.

"I understand everyone's happy, but it would be better not to raise your voices too much. She just fell into an unfamiliar place—we might needlessly increase her wariness."

Freya, leader of the Celestials with honey-blonde hair cascading to her waist as sweet as her voice, admonished the leaders of each race.

Amid scattered throat-clearing, someone clicked their tongue.

"Now that you mention it, her condition seems a bit strange."

Ragthir, leader of the merfolk—notable for the red gills slashed horizontally like scars beside his neck and the blue-green scales on both cheeks—continued worriedly.

"If she's fallen into an unfamiliar place, shouldn't she be surprised or afraid? Could we have summoned a mentally defective individual..."

"That would be rather fortunate. It would make her easier to use."

A copper-skinned woman with bright red hair pulled tightly back retorted cynically. Then a slender figure wearing a white mask immediately cautioned.

"Watch your words."

"She can't understand us in her current state anyway, so what does it matter?"

A massive man tapping the stone seat's armrest with sharp nails snapped irritably.

It wasn't wrong. In fact, she hadn't been able to understand their words until eating the "World Tree's fruit" in the past, and they couldn't understand hers either.

The reason she could understand their conversation now was purely thanks to her own effort. Because she'd wanted to understand their culture, because she truly wanted to live together with them, she'd bothered to learn the common language.

'So this is the conversation they were having the day I fell into this world.'

If she'd been able to understand from the start, she wouldn't have ended up being so foolishly used. A bitter smile rose unbidden.

Whether knowing or not knowing how her feelings grew more miserable as the conversation continued, the white mask—Ellaran, leader of the elves—sitting in the diagonal stone seat spoke plainly from across.

"This individual also has round ears and I sense no magical or physical abilities, so she seems to be an ordinary human."

The gazes that had been persistently scanning Iyu all shifted at once to one place.

To the human representative, "Kalix Le Terschnia."

Hair black as if dipped in black paint, below it a straight forehead and eyes shining as refreshingly clear as if they contained a piece of blue sky, a sharply refined nose and petal-like lips.

Everything about him that she'd loved endlessly embedded itself forcibly in her eyes, her head, her heart. Lest the emotions pouring out in lumps, the cruel turmoil, be noticed. She struggled to regain composure.

But the calm she managed with such difficulty crumbled like a sandcastle at one word from him.

"It certainly appears so. Fortunate it's no different from expectations."

Not because the content was bleak. Because the gentle voice crafted with awareness of listeners was no different from when he'd spoken love to her.

Iyu suddenly realized.

Kalix was the sole bloodline of the ruler who governed one of the most powerful empires in human territory, Midgard. Even so, how had one who hadn't even inherited the emperor's crown yet become humanity's representative?

'His Majesty's health isn't good. I'm something of a proxy.'

At the time, she'd dismissed even the faint question at his bitter answer, but that wasn't the truth.

They'd simply selected whoever could best play the role of luring out the Savior. Meaning from start to finish, he'd offered nothing but deception and lies.

That smile resembling sunlight, those innocent eyes saying he wouldn't harm you, this kindness readily draping his coat over your trembling body.

'You must be very confused, and you must resent us. If you wish, I'll definitely find a way to send you back. So for now, how about thinking you've just come on a long journey? I'll stay close by and protect you so only pleasant things can happen.'

Even that consolation he'd offered on the first day.

She hadn't been able to answer, but in truth, tears had nearly pricked her eyes. The warmth and scent of the coat wrapped around her body kept coming to mind. Even after sacrificing, she'd chewed over that promise again and again, trying to believe in his affection.

Iyu thought she wanted to scratch wildly at his face, still beautiful, still appearing kind. She also thought she wanted to throw the coat covering her shoulders at his feet and trample it.

But her anger was more like ice than flame. Not something that blazed up in an instant but something that persistently froze until even turmoil and emotion became frozen solid.

The moment she curled up further to hide her coldly hardened expression, Freya clapped once.

"Let's have her eat the 'fruit' first. We need to have a conversation with the Savior."

Freya drew out a white handkerchief from her bosom. Inside it lay a single red fruit the size of a fingernail. Staring quietly at the fruit resembling a cornelian cherry, Freya even demonstrated putting it in her mouth and swallowing.

But for Iyu now, the important problem wasn't whether to eat this fruit or not.

'Can I escape?'

Her limbs were still intact. If she was lucky, she might reach the window in this wide room before being caught.

Since Brimund, where they gathered whenever scouting her next sacrifice location, was positioned at the highest point in Asgard, perhaps this time she could die instantly.

When they weren't on guard, if she ended her life, wouldn't she no longer be used? Above all, she could properly screw them over.

Thinking she might see those faces distort with despair one more time, a thin smile leaked out despite herself.

That's when it happened.

Perhaps finding her strange as she remained silent without any answer or reaction, Tigrevald, leader of the beastfolk, suddenly raised his voice.

"Hey, did we really summon the wrong one? Dammit, it's too burdensome to summon another Savior!"

Words she absolutely couldn't let pass.

'Burdensome? Not impossible?'

A case she'd never considered, but what if they had another alternative after losing her?

Just that tiny possibility snapped her to attention as if she'd been slapped.

That couldn't happen.

Those who'd driven her to a cliff hadn't suffered any pain yet. She couldn't end it as just a troublesome happening.

She would return it all. That dizzying despair like the ground collapsing beneath her feet, that sadness like lungs being hacked to pieces, that sense of loss like organs emptied out, all those wretched emotions.

Iyu snatched the fruit from Freya's hand like robbing her. She tossed the round fruit into her mouth and swallowed.

The small fruit passed down her throat without difficulty. Several pairs of eyes watched that scene, watching for the change that would soon appear in her.

At the end of the strange silence. Freya spoke first.

"Welcome to our world, Savior. I am called the one who represents this world, the Red Fruit of the First Branch."

"..."

"This must be confusing, but first, could you tell us your name?"

'Iyu, or wait, should I do it English-style...? I'm Woo Yi.'

'May we call you "Our one"?'*

'Ah, Yi is the surname and Woo is the given name, but, just call me whatever's comfortable...'

The foolish and naive Savior "Our one" had died the day she threw herself off the cliff.

Iyu lifted her head and finally faced them squarely. And said.

"...Iyu. Call me Iyu."

Translator Note:

*이우 (Iu/Iyu) can be very similar sounding to 우리 (Uri/Ouri, “Ours/Our One/One of Us”) when flipped.