WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 468: Final Chapter - Childhood's Beginning (6)
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Long ago, Shangjiang Yang Yongbin had pointed out to Lieutenant General Xieru the misery of a life lived simply to stay alive. Gyeoul had thought of the audience in the outside world and felt that misery too. People who believed that every happiness they deserved would come after death, and who did nothing but endure each gray today, identical to yesterday, and each gray tomorrow, no different from today. In other words, their lives were painful things to be endured at any cost, far removed from the fullness of truly living as human beings.
But the tyrant’s life, as Ayoung described it, had not even been a life lived to stay alive.
Ayoung was saying this: because death would mean defeat at the hands of those who had committed wrongdoing, the life of the man who had once been her father had been nothing more than the sum of all the time he spent denying that defeat. It was certainly a life with a clear purpose, but it was worse than a life with no purpose at all.
The Chairman’s hatred for his own life had been made clear when, after the whole-body transplantation, he thoroughly destroyed his original body with his own hands.
Even so, he could not bring himself to end that life.
His only daughter had known the true direction of that hatred.
She had also known why he had begun obsessing over other people’s bodies.
“I think I can understand a little.”
At Anne’s careful words, Gyeoul looked back at his lover.
“Do you?”
“If the current you said you loved someone other than me as a lover, I don’t think I could stay sane.”
She frowned, as though the thought alone horrified her, then went on.
“The part of my soul inside me that I gave to you would die on the spot. Though when I say ‘the part I gave,’ it’s basically all of it anyway... In any case, I wouldn’t know what form my madness would take until I actually went mad. Assuming it didn’t lead straight to suicide.”
“...”
Turn it around, and if the current Anne confessed that she loved someone other than Gyeoul as a lover, Gyeoul would not be able to endure it either.
Few problems showed such a sharp gap between understanding with the head and feeling with the heart. Even when felt with the heart, the degree would vary clearly depending on the person and the case.
‘This isn’t exactly pleasant empathy...’
Understanding was always a shackle filled with anger. Somewhere inside Gyeoul, there was at least a small part that found this kind of understanding uncomfortable. It was the feeling that had made its presence known from time to time, the wish to be angry at everything in the world with understanding and empathy stripped away.
Why should I have to understand that much? Of course Gyeoul had that thought too.
Otherwise, Bom would never have mentioned Gyeoul’s sour grapes.
Anne spoke again.
“In the end, that means the person we’re about to meet loved his wife with that level of sincerity and conviction. Just look at how completely he’s been ruined.”
“...You’re right.”
“Other people’s feelings... Even when they are the feelings of someone you truly love, their essence can only exist beyond the barrier of your own perception and senses... It really is unspeakably sad, the more I think about it.”
That was why love was an emotion built on faith in that essence.
Before the two of them and their deeply human empathy, Ayoung merely showed them a sad smile, the trace of a compassion worn away until almost nothing remained.
“Then, this way.”
She led Gyeoul and Anne onward.
The inside of Hyeseong Group’s headquarters had been decorated in a style that, by the standards of this era, could only be called old-fashioned. A premodern structure that minimized its reliance on augmented reality. It was far removed from the average outside world, which no longer cared about aesthetics.
Was it a reaction against being betrayed by the reality he had believed in?
If that was why he compulsively rejected anything that could be interpreted as false, then even this scenery, fixed to the standards of the past, had its own reason.
‘Even after falling ill, he stayed here instead of at home... because home wasn’t a comfortable place?’
It was only Gyeoul’s private thought, but it was probably close to the truth. If the tyrant’s attitude toward his life matched Ayoung’s testimony, then there was a good chance his view of home was similar too. A place he refused to give up only because he did not want to lose.
The top floor, where the Chairman’s office and life support room were located, was strangely empty of people.
As they walked down the quiet corridor, Gyeoul felt the smell of death grow thicker. It was not a simple illusion, but an actual scent lingering in the air.
Anne, whose sense of smell had been enhanced as much as Gyeoul’s, did not miss it either. Her nose wrinkled.
“I understand how cats feel. So this is what sensing death feels like.”
As she said, cats had the ability to distinguish the body odor of a dying person. Only a small number of cats reacted to it because the rest had no interest in human death. Or because they had no experience and did not know what the smell meant.
“...Pardon?”
Ayoung was a little flustered by the remark she could not understand, but Anne brushed it off as nothing. To Gyeoul, however, she separately sent a short image containing her experience from her time as an investigator.
「In the past, it was a smell I could only detect when I was in the same space... For some reason, this makes me feel unsettled.」
This too was an unfamiliar feeling she would have to get used to as she accepted her new identity.
After walking down the corridor, the door Gyeoul finally faced felt so small and ordinary that it seemed shabby compared to the spaces they had passed through.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sounds of various medical devices leaked through the gap in the door.
Suuup. Haa. Ayoung took a deep breath and pushed the door open with both hands.
The stench of imminent death grew even stronger. In the heavy, stagnant air, the Chairman lay on a white bed with his eyes closed, wearing a distorted and weakened version of Gyeoul’s appearance. He looked asleep, but Gyeoul’s senses could perceive his waking consciousness.
His consciousness was extremely sharp and exhausted. He must not have slept properly in a long time. What had tormented him more, the anger that kept him from falling asleep, or the nightmares that came afterward?
Even if the cultivation of a clone body had been completed, he was too gaunt to withstand the transplant.
Clack, clack. Led by the sound of Ayoung’s heels waking the silence, three sets of footsteps approached the Chairman’s bedside.
Go Geon-cheol’s breathing resembled a thin, sharp wind leaking out. He drew a deep breath and opened his eyes narrowly. Pupils with no light in them at all looked over the three uninvited guests in turn. The last person his gaze fixed on was none other than Gyeoul.
His dry lips parted.
“Am I seeing things right now?”
A voice that resembled Gyeoul’s, yet was not the same. Small, rough, and cracked.
Gyeoul answered.
“No. You’re seeing correctly. I’m the person who sold my body to you.”
“...”
In the silence, Go Geon-cheol’s expression slowly began to twist. The more twisted that face became, the less it belonged to Gyeoul and the more it belonged to the tyrant.
The change ended in an explosion of violent rage.
“You son of a biiiiiiiiiiitch!”
The curse rang out. How could such a sound come from a body so close to death? It was a passion screamed out with every bit of strength he had, as though shaving away what remained of his life.
After exhaling every breath until his whole body went rigid, he stopped breathing in that state and trembled. Bloodshot veins spread in real time across the discolored whites of his eyes. The medical devices around him all began making irregular sounds at once. Ayoung clenched her fists anxiously. If not for his enhanced senses, even Gyeoul would have wondered if Go Geon-cheol was going to die then and there.
Ghhhhh...
At last, his breathing resumed like a groan. Ayoung let out a sigh without realizing it.
Go Geon-cheol’s eyes turned to his daughter.
“...Was it you?”
For a tyrant who did not know Bom, it was a reasonable suspicion.
“You goddamn bitch. Was this your doing? To steal everything I have? Did you block all my countermeasures, finish all your preparations, and come here? With filthy, foul greed as disgusting as that face of yours, so much like someone else’s, you couldn’t even wait until I died on my own? Were you afraid I might do something to the fortune you’re supposed to take before I died? Huh?”
“...”
Ayoung did not deny the charge placed on her. Petty misunderstanding did not matter here. In the larger context, it was similar enough. It simply was not everything. From the way she endured while facing her father, Gyeoul glimpsed something like stubborn defiance.
“Well, I suppose you had reason to worry. Knowing my personality, you wouldn’t have thought I’d obediently leave you an inheritance. Even so, you really did scheme up something like this.”
The Chairman chuckled in derision.
“Yes... You must have inherited your cunning from your mother, and on top of that, I’m sure there are more than a few men and women who hate me. While I couldn’t keep my head straight, plenty of lowlifes must have stepped up to offer you help... What a shame. A real shame. I’m already curious how your new friends will treat you later...”
A dry cough cut off his curse.
“Putting that aside... What a fine hobby you have.”
“...What do you mean?”
“Drop the coy act. It’s disgusting and hateful.”
A thin, trembling finger pointed at Gyeoul.
“Bringing that thing, nothing but a puppet, all the way here was your little display of sincerity meant to humiliate me, wasn’t it? All I have left is the shell, and you shove the former owner of that shell in front of my face. As if to say I have nothing left!”
“No.”
Ayoung bit her lip.
“I only wanted that child to meet Father. He isn’t some tool of revenge. And alone... I didn’t have the confidence to face Father.”
“Yes, yes. If you say so, then it must be so.”
Cough. A cough cut off his breath as he sneered again. Ayoung asked him.
“Do you not feel sorry toward me at all? Even now, when you don’t know when you’ll die?”
“Sorry? Me?”
Go Geon-cheol kept coughing, but still let out an irritable laugh.
“I have no reason to apologize to you.”
“...”
“Even if I did, the fortune of mine you’ll steal from now on would be compensation far beyond what you deserve. So I will not apologize to you... I will not apologize.”
He was still laughing at his daughter’s foolishness, but to Gyeoul, it was a smokescreen meant to hide the anger that had briefly faded. There was also a note in his voice that sounded like a vow to himself. A lie meant to deceive himself, and a sign of the truth born from that lie.
At this moment, a person even God could not save lay before Gyeoul’s eyes.
The Chairman now looked at Gyeoul instead of his speechless daughter.
“Hey, you thieving little bastard.”
It was anger with an empty core.
“I bought your body. I have the exclusive right to use everything about your body in physical reality. So what gives you the nerve to stand in front of me...? Shameless bastard with no sense of business ethics. In that regard, you must take after those wretched parents who died like dogs.”
His desperate abuse failed to make Gyeoul burst into anger. It was not that there was no anger. That anger had simply been burning low for a while now.
“If you have a mouth, say something, you lowborn bastard. Or have you still not adjusted to the clone body you lucked into while helping with theft?”
Gyeoul, who had been quietly watching him, asked.
“Do you have any last words you want to pass on to my sister?”
At the same question he had asked Gaeul, Go Geon-cheol clamped his mouth shut. But he had no way to hide the change in his expression. A moment of remorse and relief flashed across his twisted face.
It was only a momentary change.
‘You couldn’t cut only that part out and call it the person named Go Geon-cheol...’
The tyrant glared at Gyeoul with a ferocity, or desperation, that made it hard to believe he was dying.
Gyeoul sighed and said,
“There are things in this world that money can’t buy.”
“There are no such things.”
The tyrant’s words sounded like stubborn denial.
“I only made a mistake because I acted too hastily.”
“...”
“Judging by the fact that you’re here, and judging by that calm look on your face, your sister must not be dead. You’re an idiot who sold your body for the sake of family. I was worri... I didn’t know what happened after the disappearance, but it seems my mistake didn’t grow too large.”
Gyeoul had thought it strange that Go Geon-cheol had not asked about Gaeul, even though he must have been wondering ever since the special secretary disappeared. Even as he was dying, that jagged rationality of his was still alive and sharp.
Gyeoul replied.
“And if that’s true?”
“As long as Gaeul isn’t dead or insane, any damage can be compensated. Yes, it’s a problem that can be solved with money. You asked if I had words I wanted to pass on, didn’t you?”
The Chairman opened his eyes wide and swallowed a cough.
“Yes, go ask how much Gaeul wants. Ask how much it would take to compensate for what I... No, anyway, ask how much would count as mental compensation. I’m still breathing. If only you cooperate, I can even make you the true owner of this company instead of that bitch...!”
Gyeoul sighed again.
“Before that, I’ll ask you one thing.”
“What?”
“How much would I have to give you to calm your hatred toward your dead wife and younger sibling?”
“...”
“How much would I have to give for you to forgive them? How much would I have to give to make you apologize to your daughter and say you’re sorry?”
Go Geon-cheol gritted his teeth and answered.
“A meaningless question. You don’t have the ability to pay.”
“Let’s assume I do. If I gave you the entire world, would you accept even one of the requests I just made?”
“Shut up! You don’t have the ability to pay!”
The tyrant shouted, trembling all over like before.
At that, Gyeoul slowly nodded, with regret rather than disgust, and pity rather than contempt.
“Then you don’t have the ability to pay either. There are things in the world that money can’t buy, and the current you can’t buy my sister’s forgiveness. You must have known that too.”
The tyrant’s trembling gradually faded.
“...Get out.”
He closed his eyes, as if turning away.
“I’ll die quietly, just as you want. So get out right now.”
“Father.”
Ayoung called him, but the tyrant kept his mouth closed and showed no reaction.
After that, his condition worsened rapidly, and before even half a day had passed, he drew his last breath. The only being who watched that lonely death was Bom as God.
A monster that resembled a human but was not human was, in the end, made by humans.
Footnotes:
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