Chapter 309:

Chapter 309:

Instead of answering Yu-hyun’s question, Lean pulled a chair from across him and sat down.

Bella was surprised by his gesture, as if he didn’t want to avoid the conversation.

“Lean, you...”

“Bella. I want to talk to him alone for a while.”

“...Okay. I understand.”

Bella didn’t say anything more and left the seat. Yu-hyun asked Lean after she was gone.

“Did you really have to send Bella away?”

“She doesn’t need to hear this.”

“So you’re saying, you’re going to explain everything to me?”

“I don’t know what you’ll do if I don’t. You have a record of punching Frechen in the jaw. I have to be careful around you.”

“I don’t regret that.”

Yu-hyun answered with a smile, but Lean still had a blank expression on his face.

“What are you curious about?”

“Hmm. Let me see. What am I curious about... There are a lot of things.”

Yu-hyun had a lot of questions he wanted to ask Lean if he ever met him.

He didn’t expect to meet him so soon, but he already had a list of things to ask in his mind.

“Let’s start with something light. How long can this city last?”

“...What do you mean by that?”

“I know that the city has a magic circle that keeps the temperature warm and allows crops to grow. But you can’t maintain that forever in this world. No matter how much power you put into the magic circle and how much maintenance you do.”

“...”

“There’s no such thing as a magic circle that works forever, and even if you somehow manage to keep it going, there will be a limit eventually. So how much time do you have left?”

“68 years.”

Yu-hyun was a bit taken aback by his precise answer.

“You know exactly.”

“The barrier can only last for 100 years at most. And that’s only if we somehow fix and maintain it along the way. It’s been 32 years since the frost curse erupted, so we have 68 years left.”

“Then what exactly is the frost curse?”

Yu-hyun only knew that the frost curse suddenly covered the world with ice.

And that the frost giants appeared as remnants of the curse and killed anyone they saw.

As far as Yu-hyun could recall, the frost curse that struck this place was very similar to the apocalypse that Earth had experienced in his previous life, except for the direction.

“I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

“That’s why I formed an exploration team.”

“...I see.”

He had heard that the explorers were looking for possible survivors or other living areas. But Yu-hyun felt something was off about that.

But if the explorers were looking for the origin of the frost curse, then it was a different story.

“So you don’t know means, you haven’t found it yet.”

“That’s right.”

“I heard that the frost curse started from the north, so why don’t you go there?”

“No one knows how wide the northern continent is. Even if we vaguely know that the direction is north, the search area becomes huge. It’s been 32 years since the frost curse started. We haven’t found any traces yet.”

It was not only because the continent was too wide, but also because of the harsh environment outside and the small number of explorers.

“Besides, the more we go north, the more frost giants there are. It’s dangerous for even explorers to face them. Even the great Gard warriors can’t win against them one-on-one.”

“What about the south? What about other survivors?”

Lean shook his head.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know, but that he couldn’t find any other survivors even if he tried.

“The frost curse didn’t just swallow up the north of the continent. It froze over the whole world beyond the continent. Even the hot desert in the south was already covered with cold snow. You heard it from the survivor who came up from there, so you should be sure.”

“There is, a survivor.”

“As far as I know, he was the only one. He somehow came up after his place collapsed and couldn’t hold on. Out of more than 2,000 people, we only found one.”

“...Where is he now?”

“He died. 15 years ago.”

“...”

The situation was not normal at all. He couldn’t believe that the world had changed so much in 32 years.

And for 32 years, they couldn’t do anything because they had few people and too many dangers outside.

But they still managed to form explorers and cling to some hope.

Their desire for life.

Their struggle to prevent their extinction.

“...How old are you, Lean? You sound like you’ve seen everything since 32 years ago, but you don’t look like it at all.”

“I guess not. This damn body doesn’t age or change over time.”

Yu-hyun frowned at Lean’s self-deprecating remark.

There must be a reason why he called his own body a damn body.

“You’re not a normal Gardian, are you?”

“You got that right. I’m not even a Gardian to begin with.”

He would move himself and do it with his own hands.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t explain that. It’s something I have to show you.”

“You talk as if you have confidence.”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”

“...”

Lian stared at Yu-hyun as if to glare at him. A fierce aura flowed from his body and pressured Yu-hyun.

Yu-hyun didn’t flinch or avoid Lian’s eyes.

He challenged Lian with his unwavering eyes, as if to say, look at me if you dare.

‘He’s similar.’

The more Lean talked to Yu-hyun, who looked like Keira, the more he saw the image of her that he could no longer see even in his dreams.

Keira, who had appeared before, had always been the same in the big picture. She was selfish and arrogant, looking down on and using others as if she was superior.

She couldn’t do anything by herself, and in the end, she died after two futile weeks, begging for her life.

In the form of his beloved lover, that is.

How many times did he have to watch that scene? How many times did he have to see the ugly ruin of the one he loved so much?

He didn’t want to do that anymore.

He was exhausted.

‘I vowed not to care about anyone who came from now on.’

But Yu-hyun was different. He only thought that something that had to come someday had come until Ringug brought him.

His perspective changed when he met Frechen.

Yu-hyun shouted confidently in front of Frechen and hit him.

And now he was acting boldly in front of him, face to face.

-Lean. You can do it.

That longing look.

It brought back the memories of the past that he thought he had forgotten.

Crack.

Lean bit his teeth and jumped up from his seat.

He ignored Yu-hyun’s bewildered gaze. If he kept looking at him like this, something that he had endured until now would collapse.

He didn’t want to remember the past.

Lean turned his back on Yu-hyun and said in his usual cold voice.

“Do whatever you want.”

“...What do you mean by that?”

“I won’t stop you from joining the exploration team. You said you would take care of yourself, so I don’t intend to limit you. But while I have the authority to let you in, everything after that will depend on your discretion.”

“I don’t want more than that.”

“I’ll send someone soon. He’ll guide you.”

Lean left the inn without saying anything else. However, unlike when he first guided Yu-hyun roughly, Lean’s back as he left now was somewhat agitated.

“Lean, did that guy leave?”

Bella showed up from the kitchen as if she heard the door closing behind him.

“Don’t take it personally if he’s too cold to you.”

“I know. He had a special relationship with my body’s owner, so it’s natural for him to react like that.”

“...Did you know?”

“Who wouldn’t notice such a reaction unless they were clueless?”

“...I’m sorry for hiding it.”

“It’s not something you have to apologize for.”

Bella sighed and sat down on the chair that Lean had used earlier.

“Please understand. For Lean, it’s hard enough to protect and lead the city, but now he has to see people who look exactly like his dead lover keep appearing.”

“I guess so.”

It wasn’t just a coincidence. He didn’t know what Keira was like, but judging by her being the eldest of the five sisters and having a dignified appearance, he guessed she was someone who cared for others and had a compassionate personality.

Those Tellers who looked like Keira died miserably before they died.

What did Lean think when he saw that?

And the Tellers weren’t stupid either.

There must have been many who noticed that Lean had a special relationship with this body.

They must have tried to lure Lean with sweet words and imitate Keira as much as possible, digging up his memories.

“I’m sorry too.”

In the end, he used the body that was stained with his memories.

The world was bad. It was ruined as much as it could be, and the system did this to give a chance to the world that somehow kept its lineage alive.

Maybe he wouldn’t have suffered if it hadn’t done that.

Knock knock.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

The guide that Lean said he would send arrived sooner than expected.