Chapter 83 - Chapter 80: Episode 78 - Time of Suffering
Five years had already passed since the expedition team failed and returned.
It had been nearly as long since she stepped down as representative, and the bitter sting of leaving the Hwaryong Guild—the place she'd dedicated her entire life to—refused to fade.
On top of that, today was the anniversary of the day Seon-ah was pulled into the Gate.
With his fate unknown, they had officially designated it as a memorial day for the missing boy.
"Hehe... Seon-ah... Our family..."
A woman sat there, giggling and calling his name as if Seon-ah were standing right in front of her.
Yu-ra watched her, her heart heavy.
It was her daughter, Yu-rin.
After Yu-rin's mental collapse in the detention center, she had been moved to a psychiatric facility, but as anyone could see, she was a total wreck.
She had been transferred there after being diagnosed with a mental and physical disability stemming from her psychological state.
It wasn't that Yu-ra, as her mother, had pushed for the transfer.
It happened because the warden of the prison where Yu-rin was supposed to be held—who had lost his mind even before her sentencing was finalized—was an Awakened himself. He flatly refused to accept a prisoner with such a history of mental instability.
Even for a warden, Awakened are a terrifying bunch.
Even with restraint suits and cuffs designed to suppress near-superhuman strength, a single moment of carelessness could cost a guard their life.
Given Yu-rin's history, Yu-ra could at least understand the warden's fear.
Once transferred to the psychiatric facility, Yu-rin's madness only worsened. The court eventually ruled that she was unfit to serve a standard sentence, leading to a significant reduction in her prison term.
Her original sentence had been short to begin with, and Yu-ra had mixed feelings about it being slashed even further.
Because the testimony gathered from Min-ah wasn't enough to uncover the full extent of Yu-rin's crimes, only the videos of her sexually torturing Seon-ah were submitted as evidence. Consequently, Yu-rin stood trial solely for those 54 counts of sexual torture.
She had received a ten-year sentence for the malicious nature of her crimes, but after four years in the psychiatric detention center, she was released early.
It had been a year since she returned home.
The change in her was staggering compared to the girl who had entered the Gate.
I had watched her slowly unravel after she returned, but seeing her now, the contrast was heartbreaking.
That confident, dignified young woman was gone.
Now, she just sat on the sofa, hugging her knees, giggling with eyes that couldn't focus on anything.
When I first heard the truth from the expedition team after she returned, I couldn't believe it.
That the person who had ruined Seon-ah—a boy I cherished—and destroyed Min-ah, my most capable subordinate, was my own daughter.
I had seen the videos, but hearing the full story made me feel sick to my stomach.
I had wanted to beat my daughter to death with my own hands.
No, I had fully steeled myself to kill her.
But when I finally saw her in the detention center, she was already half-gone.
She had completely lost her mind shortly after the transfer. With her soul already shattered, I had no choice but to accept the reality.
I realized that my daughter was effectively dead, and the madwoman left behind was a sinner trapped in an eternal cycle of self-inflicted punishment.
The urge to kill her with my own hands vanished.
She was already paying for her sins in her own private hell; she didn't need my intervention.
Yu-ra closed her eyes as hot, uncontrollable tears welled up.
She was living through her own personal hell, watching her daughter suffer while mourning Seon-ah, the boy who had been like a son to her.
She had always believed she deserved to suffer for raising such a monster, but every time she saw Yu-rin's madness, the pain she had tried to numb would flare up again.
Yu-ra could only lament, screaming silently in her heart every day, praying for someone to save her from this endless nightmare.
.
.
.
She was driving toward the Gate where Seon-ah had disappeared.
She was the only one who would be attending his memorial.
With Hyeon-tae and Min-ah having no parents of their own left, she was the only one who could keep Seon-ah's memory alive.
Perhaps that was why Hyeon-tae and Min-ah had poured so much affection into him.
Thinking of the atrocities her daughter had committed against that boy made her chest tighten until she could barely breathe.
Every year on this day, she visited the site of the Gate to honor his soul as an act of atonement.
Her husband had left her and their broken daughter to return to his own family.
It was understandable; he had been terrified of Yu-rin, who was like a ticking time bomb.
When medicated, Yu-rin was quiet, lost in her delusions, but when the drugs wore off, she was completely unpredictable.
Watching her call out for Seon-ah in a crazed voice while unconsciously wielding her Awakened powers was terrifying, even for a parent.
If she ever turned that power on her husband, who wasn't an Awakened, the outcome would be gruesome.
Yu-ra couldn't blame him for leaving. Pity for one's child only goes so far when your life is at stake.
After all, being killed by your own child would be the ultimate tragedy for both parent and daughter.
If Yu-rin ever regained her senses, the realization of what she had done would destroy her.
Yu-ra often wondered how she would even begin to face her if that day ever came.
No matter how much she thought about it, there was no answer.
Because her mind was so distracted by Seon-ah's memorial, the car barely seemed to move.
She forced herself to clear her head and pressed down on the accelerator.
Yu-ra focused on the road, desperate to stop the intrusive thoughts.
But despite her resolve, the ache in her heart—a bruise that refused to heal—remained.
.
.
.
The site where the Gate had swallowed Seon-ah was the same place the expedition team had emerged from.
To commemorate the first humans to ever enter the Demon World and to honor those who died, a monument and a park had been built along the highway.
It was a project the Hwaryong Guild had pushed through using their final bit of influence before Yu-ra stepped down.
In truth, she had built it because she couldn't bear to forget Seon-ah.
If she stopped remembering, he would vanish entirely.
The thought of Yu-rin briefly crossed her mind, but Seon-ah wouldn't want her to remember him.
The trauma of the video—the moment Yu-rin broke his neck and violated him until his final breath—remained etched into her mind.
"Huu... Huu...."
The memory suffocated her.
The phantom pain in her head and the crushing weight in her chest returned, over and over again.
'Seon-ah... I'm so sorry... You're still suffering because of her...'
Every visit broke her heart anew; she never got used to it.
Her vision blurred with tears as she walked listlessly toward the tombstone in the corner of the park.
It was a private memorial, separate from the official expedition monument.
The front of the stone read: "In memory of Seon-ah, who was lost in a Gate accident."
On the back, she had inscribed: "Mother Lee Min-ah, Father Kim Hyeon-tae."
Below their names, she had added, "I love you, Mom and Dad," a tribute to the happy boy he had been with his parents.
She had personally requested every word.
At first, she hadn't wanted to build a tombstone, hoping Min-ah would bring him back.
But once it became clear they were trapped, she had used the pretext of a "return monument" to build this park and place his tombstone.
She placed the artificial flowers she had brought.
She had started with fresh flowers, but seeing them wither and shrivel reminded her too much of Seon-ah's unseen end, making her insides burn with agony.
Artificial flowers were better; they didn't die.
After placing them, she lit a cigarette—the first one she'd touched since her marriage.
There was nothing like a smoke to help her think, and with every puff, she tried to imagine Seon-ah running around, happy and alive.
Suddenly, her vision began to blur.
It wasn't from tears.
And it wasn't the smoke stinging her eyes.
The intuition she had honed as a hunter told her this was a 'Gate sign.'
It was incredibly rare for a Gate to appear in the same location three times over several years.
'A Gate is opening.'
The very source of all the misfortune that had befallen Min-ah's family and her own.
She saw someone jumping out of the rift.
They were the height of a five-year-old child.
Smaller than even a goblin, the weakest of the monsters.
The fog obscured the figure, so she started walking toward it.
She had no weapons, no gear, but Yu-ra relied on her instincts as an A-rank hunter.
The fact that the Gate had reopened exactly where Seon-ah had vanished meant this couldn't be a coincidence.
Driven by a desperate curiosity, she needed to see what had come through.
Yu-ra's pace quickened.
And when the fog cleared enough for her to see, she froze in shock.
A child who looked exactly like Seon-ah stood right in front of her.
The shock left her completely unable to think.