WOSE Chapter 3

Iyu locked herself in a remote room where shadows still fell, even in light-devoured Asgard.

She used the same excuse as before—when she'd first learned of her grand destiny as savior and the confession that she could never return to her original world, when shock had driven her into seclusion.

Of course, she wasn't shocked by facts she already knew. She wasn't curled up having lost her will again. She wasn't hoping this was all a dream, engaging in futile avoidance.

In the darkness she'd barely managed to create by drawing curtains and hanging blankets in layers, she simply thought. And thought again.

'I know what you want. Salvation—I'll do it, so please just leave me alone.'

That's what she'd said when she first fell into this place, barricaded in her room.

She'd had no will to keep living. She'd told them she would gladly sacrifice herself for the world they loved if that's what they wanted.

So why did they bother approaching her, playing at being lover, friend, family? Why did they kill her twice?

Had they worried she might quit later, afraid of the aftereffects?

'With just that rash judgment, they deceived me so thoroughly...'

The reason didn't matter anymore. The answer she needed to find was a plan to return exactly the pain she'd received.

Revenge would have been simpler if she possessed a brilliant mind, or had been born vicious, or if her ability wasn't absorbing darkness but wielding strong power instead.

She could have set their god on fire. Could have driven a knife into their throats herself. But violent revenge remained only imagination. With this ordinary body, she couldn't harm even a lackey, let alone the leaders of entire races.

So she had to deliberate. At length. On appropriate methods to take revenge against those representatives of each race—those insufferably superior beings.

Two full weeks passed this way.

Iyu woke as always from nightmares, barely conscious. She irritably stripped off her sweat-soaked nightgown and stood before a mirror slightly taller than herself.

She examined her shabby body thoroughly. Not satisfied, she ran pale hands over the backs of her hands, her arms, her collarbones. The skin that had been wrapped in black vine-like tattoos was now spotlessly white.

After absorbing darkness, the darkness would remain on her body like tattoos. The hideous results weren't a major problem. Neither was the burning pain that accompanied the process.

The problem was that wherever darkness settled, function was lost.

In her dream, she'd lost freedom of her limbs again. Lost sensation. But this side—where all marks of darkness had vanished—was reality.

Being able to distinguish objects easily even in dimness. Being able to walk completely unassisted. Being able to run until breathless.

She hadn't known what a tremendous blessing those small things were until she lost them.

That moment she'd fled from them—even amid tearing pain and anxiety about being caught—she'd felt liberation.

'Wait...'

Come to think of it, there was one strange thing.

That night she'd learned all the truth and fled. How exactly had she been able to move?

Iyu roughly pulled on a fresh nightgown over her cold body and recalled that time.

When she'd been deceived by them into making another foolish choice and barely woken, she hadn't lamented her vision blurring as if fogged.

Perhaps she'd already sensed it. Both arms and legs had already become impaired. She'd lost taste, smell, and touch. Vision being next wasn't so strange.

By then, traces of darkness had probably spread to her cheeks and around her eyes.

She could have accepted her increasingly hideous appearance. But what pushed her into irreversible hell was news of her only attendant's death.

After the child's funeral ended, Iyu collapsed and fell deathly ill.

The dam holding back all the emotions she'd endured and swallowed had clearly burst. She wept, screamed, fainted, and suffered in cycles.

Her brain felt like it would melt from the fever that wouldn't break. Hot tears streamed from her unfocused eyes, but she couldn't even wipe away her own tears.

She'd definitely been in that wretched state.

Yet on which night was it? Whether dream or waking wasn't clear, but she thought she'd sensed someone's presence.

It couldn't have been that child who'd lost her life. Yet the silent presence keeping vigil at her side late at night, the pitying hands changing the cloth on her forehead—

'Sorry... you... should...'

The voice she faintly heard was so kind and gentle, just like that child. She struggled desperately to open her eyes but failed.

When she finally regained consciousness, she could see, if only hazily. Miraculously, she could walk on both legs. Could flee.

Who had been that person who granted her a miracle?

Something like an avatar of the World Tree that had driven her into this terrible place? Perhaps someone who'd pitied her.

She tried to guess who might pity her, then shook her head. It wasn't an important issue anymore. Especially not since she'd decided to watch the world they loved crumble.

Iyu roughly shoved her feet into oversized slippers and trudged toward the right side of the room.

A map of this world hung on the right wall. Below it, dozens—hundreds—of small notes written in Korean were messily attached. All information she'd experienced and heard in her previous life.

They'd wanted the savior not to know much, so there wasn't particularly useful information... but she intended to squeeze out everything she could remember. In that process, a decent plan might emerge.

Iyu had just pulled her hair into a tight bun, taken out fresh paper, and picked up a quill pen when it happened.

Knock, knock. A rapping sound intruded.

Iyu barely swallowed a rising sigh. Though she gave no response, a low voice came from beyond the door.

"Good morning, Savior."

The owner of that plain greeting was none other than Kalix.

Over two weeks, the race leaders had visited her a few times. Among them, Kalix knocked on her door once every two days.

The same pattern as before.

Back then too, Kalix had consistently visited the outsider who wouldn't budge from her barricaded room. He never forced the door open or offered any persuasion. He simply sat outside her door and murmured stories about this world.

Sky islands floating above clouds. Rainbows you could walk on. Lands where seasons changed four times a day. Eternal flames existing beneath the sea. White sand deserts stretching endlessly like oceans...

Forgetting she'd been crying under her blankets, she gradually became fascinated by the world he revealed. So on that first day she opened the door herself and emerged—

He immediately held out a few modest flowers as if he'd been waiting.

'I saw daffodils blooming beautifully in the Garden of Light on my way here. I thought you'd enjoy seeing them too, so I picked a few. I'm very glad I can hand them to you directly today.'

His bashful smile was lovelier than the flowers. That's how she'd begun giving her heart. After suffering through absorbing darkness, a single wildflower left by the window would melt away her difficult feelings completely.

Iyu glared coldly at the bundle of withered flowers in the trash bin in the corner of her room. To her now, flowers weren't comfort but filth that fouled her mood.

"Are you eating properly? I've heard the food left outside your door has been emptying..."

"..."

In the past, she'd at least shouted for him to leave her alone. This time, even showing no reaction whatsoever, he continued speaking evenly without tiring.

"Come to think of it, I'm curious what kind of food exists in the Savior's world. I do hope our world's food suits your palate."

Kalix began leisurely explaining root vegetables, fruits, and livestock that humans here mainly ate.

How sweet golden apples holding morning dew were. How rich the meat of four-legged winged beasts was. Things like that.

Iyu stubbornly moved her pen, deliberately ignoring his pleasant voice. At some point, she noticed the quietly continuing voice had stopped.

Unconsciously straining her ears toward outside, she caught glimpses of another man's voice, not Kalix's. Apparently Kalix's adjutant had come looking for him.

After what seemed like a long conversation in lowered voices, a farewell came from beyond the door.

"I should take my leave for today."

"..."

"I'll leave the prepared gift outside your door. This gift won't wilt, but it's a delicate child, so please don't leave it unattended too long."

'He brought flowers again.'

Iyu clutched her throbbing head. She couldn't stand constantly recalling memories and emotions she didn't want to remember because of fragrant scents.

She was about to shout without thinking—tell him to stop with the gifts already—when it happened.

She closed her mouth as if struck by lightning.

'...A delicate child that won't wilt?'

Definitely in the past, exactly two weeks after coming to this world, she'd received a very significant gift from them.

'No way, if the gift isn't flowers...'

That assumption alone made Iyu hurl down her pen. She threw open the door frantically with ink-stained hands, not even managing to properly put on her half-removed slippers.

And beyond it... surprisingly, a small child clutching flowers stood there.

The child hastily bowed when their eyes met. The moment she captured that round head in her vision, Iyu's face twisted completely.

"Tamia..."