The S-Classes That I Raised - Chapter 865

Epilogue (7)

A wind blew from somewhere and stroked my hair. I was already late. Even if I went back, I wouldn’t be able to go straight home.

‘I thought it wouldn’t be easy.’

In one corner of the garden stood a tree full of white flowers. Every time I saw the tree, that day came to mind.

I saw my twenty-five-year-old brother off.

Under the shade of a plum tree filled with the scent of flowers for me. At that moment, Han Yoohyun before the regression met his death. As my brother’s figure faded to white, the flowers poured down like snowflakes. I stood there blankly in a scene I couldn’t forget even in my dreams, with the flowers from the large tree scattering all at once.

My ankles were submerged in the plum blossom grave, my knees were buried, and it reached past my waist to my chest. Still, I didn’t move. I would have even if it piled up to the top of my head. I was just dazed. I couldn’t believe it.

“Ah…”

I nodded my head with my own hands, but I couldn’t believe the empty space left behind. I looked down at my empty hands. A belated regret washed over me. Should I have held on to him at that suffocating moment?

Rustle-

I felt a slight movement.

Before I had time to think, my body moved first. I fumbled through the petals and stretched out my arms. A small, white, warm lump. It was a newborn baby. Its eyes were tightly shut as if it were asleep. Its regular breathing could be heard faintly.

I hurriedly took a towel out of my inventory. Fortunately, I had a spare, unused Todam commemoratetowel. I wrapped the baby in a clean, soft towel and held it in my arms.

“…Who is this child?”

– It’s the Origin.

The parrot said as it landed on my head. The piled-up flowers gradually disappeared. The white tree was once again covered in countless empty branches.

– Originally, it would have been born as an existence that would swallow the entire world and be no different from a god.

I remembered the future the white bird had seen. A snowy tree standing alone.

– But now, the child was born in its father’s arms. It was drawn to the power of the Origin’s foster parent, but it does not possess the complete power of the Origin.

“…It won’t be wrong or anything because of that, right?”

I looked at the baby in my arms with concern. It looked like an ordinary child. However, considering the power of the Origin, it must be like a premature baby that was born without fully developing.

– It’s okay. The massive power that cannot be possessed or handled with an immature body will remain here.

The parrot looked at the white tree. I also looked up. Snowflakes were falling one by one.

– If the father fully grows the child, the power left here will return to its owner and be completed. At that moment, the Origin, who did not swallow the world, will be born perfectly.

“It wasn’t born as a complete Origin right away. I had to raise it.”

After all, even if I had the qualifications of the Origin’s foster parent, I couldn’t replace the act of swallowing the entire world in one breath. It was more fitting for the title to raise a child over time.

The snow began to fall more heavily and pile up. I thought it would be cold, so I took out a cardigan and wrapped it over the towel.

“Then what happens to the Origin’s power that remains here?”

– It will remain dormant. It will no longer swallow the world because it no longer needs to prey to be born. The natural cycle of accepting and sending out the dead will continue, but the direct movement will disappear. The Origin’s ego is not here, but in its father’s arms.

“The worlds of the fifth Origin will be safe now. Will the dungeons in our world disappear too?”

– No. What has already happened will not be undone.

“…That’s right.”

– The dungeons in your father’s world will continue to appear and grow stronger until the point in time before you turned back time. That’s because it’s something that has already happened. It will remain the same after that.

“That’s enough.”

Even though the difficulty level of the dungeon increased significantly four years later, it was not impossible to handle. The current Hunters would become even stronger than they were at that time.

The ground that had been covered with grass was once again covered in pure white snow. It was a scene that seemed to clearly show that Yoohyun had left. There was no reason for me to stay here any longer either.

“Let’s go home.”

Ppyak said that today was the seventh day. We left the snowy field before the last of Boun’s powers completely disappeared.

That’s how I should have returned home.

* * *

‘They’re saying I can’t enter because I’m alive.’

I was able to somehow reach near the dream world. However, Han Yoojin in our world was already dead. The existence that our world could accept was the dead Han Yoojin, not the living Han Yoojin.

In the end, I ended up being unable to go anywhere and just holding the child. Just as I was starting to worry about what would happen once Boun’s power ran out, Myungwoo and Namu came looking for me. That’s how I ended up going to the new Rookie’s, now Myungwoo’s, domain and staying there.

“Heoni will be lonely if you go home.”

The young child, the Rookie, said. The Rookie’s appearance had changed from before, but it was also similar. The hair was still curly, but it was a gentle sky blue, and fox ears had sprouted. The eyes were a sparkling light pink.

The Rookie, who had poured all their power into supporting the system alone, almost disappeared from existence. However, the Rookie’s old seniors, the creators of the system, caught the Rookie’s dispersing body and reconstructed it. It was in the form of the fox that they had accepted. However, the fur was the color of the sky that the Rookie gazed at through the window, and the eyes were a light pink like the flower they had received.

The adorable little fox was cradled in Myungwoo’s arms. The Rookie had lost a significant amount of memories along with their power. They had the knowledge of a Transcendent and a system creator, but they couldn’t remember their past memories well.

Myungwoo said that he would take care of the Rookie who had become a young child, and the creators of the system acknowledged Myungwoo as the Rookie’s successor, the official manager and creator. They said that even though there was still much lacking, the Rookie, who had a wealth of knowledge, would be able to supplement Myungwoo.

“I’ll visit often even if you go home.”

I reached out and stroked the Rookie’s, Hanayeol’s, head. Myungwoo had been thinking about what to name the Rookie. He had also asked the Rookie for their opinion. At that time, the Rookie, who was still shy, often hid under the chair in their little fox form. The Rookie only poked their head out and said that they liked the blue sky. That they really liked their fur too. Then, hesitantly, they asked if Myungwoo was their family. Myungwoo thought about it for a moment and then said that he would give them his last name.

That’s how the Rookie became Yoo Haneul.

“Our world is disconnected from the system, but Myungwoo is an exception. You can meet through the dungeon.”

“But Appa is still clumsy.”

Haneul said worriedly. At first, Haneul had called Myungwoo ‘Myungwoo-nim’ cautiously. However, after I came here and called the baby ‘Appa’, Haneul hesitated for a moment before shouting ‘Appa!’ at Myungwoo.

Myungwoo had been really flustered at that time. But what could he do? In the end, Myungwoo ended up on the list of colleagues who had become the father of my child without us even dating once.

“Haneul can help. Namu is here too, and if anything happens, you can even wake up the Lighthouse Keeper.”

Haneul nodded their head. Then, they looked into the baby bed next to me. I also looked at the sleeping child.

“Heoni, are you crying again?”

“I’m not crying. Why would I be crying?”

“But you cry whenever something happens.”

“No, that’s just…….”

It was like that for a few days after I came here. Especially at night, when everything became quiet, it was hard to bear because my insides felt empty and bitter. If I could go straight home and Yoohyun was there, it would have been less difficult, but I couldn’t do that. The empty space only felt bigger……. Even during the day, I would suddenly burst into tears out of nowhere, and Myungwoo and Haneul would be startled.

After sending off my sibling, who was like my child, I thought I’d be able to stay calm after crying for a few days. Especially when it was night and everything was quiet, it was hard to bear the emptiness and bitterness in my heart. I wanted to go straight home and be with Yoohyun, but I couldn’t. The empty space felt particularly large…Even during the day, I suddenly burst into tears without thinking, which surprised Myungwoo and Haneul.

Still, it’s been a few days since I sent off my eternally young sibling, so I’m pretty calm, right? That might be the case.

“Oh, our Bini’s awake. Do you want to go inside with Daddy?”

The sleeping baby opened its eyes. I picked up the baby while talking to it. Maybe it was because of Yoohyun’s influence, but the baby’s hair, which was once pure white, had turned gray as if mixed with black. Its eyes, which were once white, had also turned a silvery color with a hint of crimson.

This child is a new life. I shouldn’t compare it to the dead.

It was hard at first because of that. It wasn’t Yoohyun, but I still couldn’t completely separate it from Yoohyun. Myungwoo told me this at that time.

“It’s like reincarnation, isn’t it? Isn’t it stranger to try not to connect them at all?”

It’s common and natural for descendants to resemble their ancestors. There are often cases where people say that someone who looks or acts like a deceased person might be their reincarnation. Even if I said that, it was clearly a different person.

“It’s not someone you hate, but a sibling you truly cared for and loved. I think it’s okay if you don’t completely identify them.”

Even if they were different beings, this child wouldn’t have been born without Yoohyun. The two were clearly connected. However, I also felt that it was wrong to just deny and hide it.

Over the past three months, I’ve slowly come to accept that fact. At first, I was going to give the baby a name with only one character, like texture, this, or star. But in the end, I included the character you. I wanted to do that.

Han Yubin.

I thought about using the characters shine (to shine) or price (water’s edge) for Bini, but I decided to go with the former because it suited the baby better. I thought it would be okay to call him Bini as a nickname.

I went inside with Haneul while carrying Bini. At first, I felt suffocated and worried because I couldn’t go back right away, but now I think it’s okay to have some time to organize my thoughts. Of course, I would have gone straight home if I could have. I wonder how many people are waiting for me.

“Is Myungwoo still not back? He’s not caught by another strange transcendent, is he?”

“I’ll go check!”

Haneul quickly transformed into a young fox and disappeared. Myungwoo, who became a manager-level administrator despite not being a transcendent, was receiving a lot of attention from the transcendents. It was similar to how I used to be when I was a weak F-rank but had a coveted skill that caught the attention of S-ranks.

Although transcendents couldn’t directly access the new area and the trees provided some cover, I also spread rumors that there was a young chaos behind it…There were still quite a few suspicious people, so…Myungwoo was pretty stressed. Eugene sighed and asked me how I had put up with it.

“Bini, let’s eat, baby~.”

I put Bini in the high chair. Although he was less than four months old, he could hold up his head, roll over, and sit by himself for a short time. He seemed to be growing a bit faster than other babies.

“Ah-.”

He had also started babbling. I thought of Yoohyun when he was young, but I also clearly felt that this was a different child. He smiled a lot when our eyes met and cried occasionally. However, he cried a lot less than the average baby. There were other things that were different from other babies, so I was a bit confused at first.

I took out a C-rank magic stone and ground it in a special blender that Myungwoo had made for me. I put the finely ground powder into a round, empty container and inserted it into a custom-made rattle. I handed the rattle to Bini.

“Here you go.”

Jingle, jingle. Every time Yubin shook the rattle, the magic stone powder inside disappeared little by little.

At first, I tried to feed him regular formula. However, Bini didn’t eat well and eventually started crying loudly. The new guy and the trees didn’t know what to do, so we ended up waking up the lighthouse keeper and figuring out the reason after much deliberation.

Yubin could also eat normal food. However, the amount of energy she could gain was small compared to the amount of energy she used to eat and digest it. It was similar to how a baby sucks on a milk bottle but doesn’t get much milk. Moreover, since it didn’t taste very good, she got irritated.

‘She must have been angry because I gave her formula, which has no nutritional value, when she could have had something like a magic stone that is easy to absorb and fills her up quickly.’

According to the Lighthouse Keeper, the higher the rank of the Awakened, the more they could directly absorb energy through mana. Even if they ate the same food, the energy conversion efficiency of a non-Awakened person and an S-rank Awakened person would be different. He even said that they could survive without eating food if they absorbed energy through their main attribute. Was that why Yuhyun didn’t eat much? She ate because of me, but she preferred snacks. Yelim seemed to like delicious food itself.

“Waaah.”

Bin shook the bell hard. Immediately after, Piyak appeared with a pop. Her magic sensitivity was also extraordinary.

– Piyak!

“Welcome, Piyak.”

There was a postcard attached to Piyak’s foot. It must have been from Seong Hyeon-je. Piyak, who could still travel between worlds, often visited Seong Hyeon-je’s place. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come to our world. I suddenly thought of it and opened my status window. As the last Blessing effect disappeared, I was once again part of the system.

[Foster Parent of a Young God]

It was a title that appeared instead of a perfect foster parent. There was no grade, and there was no title description either. All the additional skills had also disappeared. However, according to the Lighthouse Keeper, my abilities as a foster parent would have become even stronger. If I took care of them, the foster child would grow quickly as they wished, and if I cheered them on, their ability stats would increase. However, the last Blessing skill seemed to have disappeared.

‘It’s better that it’s gone.’

If it hadn’t been for the last Blessing, I wouldn’t have been able to come this far, but it was still an ability that I didn’t want to keep.

The Impression keyword was gone, but the Impression list was still there. At the very top.

[Seong Hyeon-je (?)]

This human was there. Yoo Hanul was also behind him. It was not a keyword application, but it appeared naturally as they became close to me and trusted and followed me. The keyword application effect was also gone now. Because it was a newly changed title, the names of those who had been erased could be entered again, and Myungwoo’s name also appeared. Of course, Piyak, and after about a month, Yelim, Peace, Kyul, Seol, Byul, and even people who were not here, such as Song, began to register. Even Director Song.

However, Yubin and Yuhyun were not there. I thought it was because my title itself was born by embracing the two of them. They were not on the Impression list, but they existed as the title itself.

“Did Seong Hyeon-je give you this?”

– Piyak!

Piyak answered vigorously. The snowy tree that was with Piyak said that now that its work was done, it would become difficult like Piyak. It said that it would grow together with someone precious. Still, there was a difference. The snowy tree was still a little smarter.

If Piyak continued to grow by my side, it might one day split into two. If they both wanted it. It wouldn’t be bad to have one body, but it would be nice to see a pair of birds as well.

[Congratulations on your return home. Han Yujin returned first. Below is a small gift from me.]

A short message was written on a postcard with an unfamiliar landscape. A gift. Oh, it was something I needed. Thank you.

‘Myungwoo stopped my birthday present from being delivered.’

Piyak could deliver a postcard, but anything more than that would be difficult. I had only received a birthday card. What on earth did he send? The old man also sent me a card, and Myungwoo hurriedly made me a cake before my birthday. I thought about how they had a birthday party in our world without me and started to cry again…

‘My birthday has already passed.’

The more I thought about it, the more sorry I felt. I should have taken care of Yelim myself. I could only celebrate Myungwoo’s birthday, who was with me.

Then, a door appeared in the living room. The door, suspended in the air, opened and Myung-woo, Haneul, and Eunhye appeared. Judging from Myung-woo’s expression, it seemed like he had been captured by another strange guy.