bigabreads Chapter 287: Someone Like Me Can’t Do Such Things
Chapter 287: Someone Like Me Can’t Do Such Things
“this is one of the hideouts of the flower organization.”
his hardened expression didn’t soften.
“what did you say? i didn’t hear you well.”
the place was no different from a landfill, reeking of waste scattered everywhere.
although there were no starved corpses, hungry children watched us silently from nearby.
a figure, seemingly an adult, stared at me from beneath a hood before turning away without a word.
the mention of flower made me stretch out my hand before even any emotional reaction.
“let’s avoid unnecessary disputes.”
at the sage’s intervention, the hand stopped.
the blue mana swirling around my arm flickered, almost ready to shoot.
stopping myself from casting the magic was difficult, even for me.
“...what is this?”
“lee shiheon, the children are scared. please ease your expression a bit.”
was i too agitated?
when i followed the sage’s gaze, i saw children who looked freshly weaned. there was a girl who seemed to be in middle school, and a boy who looked like he’d cause trouble.
most had faces filled with fear, though a few glared at me with pure hatred, as if i were an intruder.
they were children struggling to survive.
at an age when they should be carefree and playful, their cheeks were sunken.
their expressions, filled with anxiety and worry, were too much to bear.
i withdrew my mana from my arm.
“are you saying that flower is protecting these children?”
my thoughts were already in disarray due to what guseul and taeyang had told me.
my voice twisted with irritation.
“is that really what the great sage believes?”
i couldn’t show them a pleasant face, so i pulled out a mask from my cloak and put it on.
the sage’s expression didn’t change, calm and unbothered.
i couldn’t help but find it irritating how she looked at me with pity.
only after taking a deep breath could i regain composure.
“when did i ever say i was defending them?”
she spoke calmly.
“good and evil, beauty and ugliness shift with time. i neither condemn nor defend anyone.”
“anyone can say such obvious things.”
there were positive aspects to this group too.
but could she truly expect me to listen to such rhetoric calmly? even tearing it to shreds wouldn’t be enough to express my frustration.
if we accepted and understood everything, then no evil group would ever exist.
go ahead, justify racial supremacist groups or environmental extremists who killed in the name of protection.
“don’t cover up the problem with platitudes. flower is flower, and bringing me here is nothing short of betrayal from the world tree’s perspective.”
although i kept formal speech, my words were far from kind.
i had no intention of criticizing the sage’s humanitarian actions.
in a narrow sense, they were good deeds.
but the weight of names matters. it’s different when an ordinary person helps children here versus a sage doing the same.
even just the presence of a sage repeatedly visiting flower’s dwellings was enough to raise significant issues.
“if flower exposes this, things won’t end well for you either.”
“do you really think i’d fall for such a move, shiheon?”
“probably not.”
“please calm yourself a bit more and listen to me.”
i stopped talking and looked down at her.
her expression remained composed, exuding a sense of ease.
“shall we move on to the next place?”
she raised her hand, ready to cast spatial magic.
as i watched her, guseul’s words echoed in my mind.
-there are those in flower who engage in terrorism, and others who only do humanitarian work. we are not that bad. we haven’t killed innocent people.
nonsense.
even if i ignored the blatant lie that no innocents were killed, as long as flower operated as a unified entity, they were in the same boat.
regardless of internal conflicts or differences in methods, as long as the faction remained intact, they benefited from each other’s functions and turned a blind eye to it. �
it was amusing if you think about it.
in a way, it implied that factional divisions within flower were routine.
a terrorist was a terrorist.
unless someone turned it all upside down.
and even if they did, they wouldn’t escape the stigma.
......
this was a world i couldn’t help but despise.
“lee shiheon.”
“yes.”
“the place we’re going next isn’t a flower base, so you don’t have to worry.”
my face flushed with heat.
i cooled my mind and put the mask back on.
the next destination was another slum.
we had seen it before—regimes overturned by gaining public support through propaganda, ideologies twisting until people fought one another.
even in this world, with its many superhumans, who knew how a war would unfold?
with science and magic advanced to such a degree, the very foundation of this world could crumble.
it might even become uninhabitable for humans.
“sigh... who could possibly resolve this situation?”
no one.
that was the truth, no matter how you looked at it.
the sage glanced at me, her gaze steady.
“a king, perhaps?”
“wha—?! me? geez, you scared me.”
“it seems you’re the only one with such potential, though many decisions lie ahead.”
i scoffed.
if the sage were truly wise, she wouldn’t say such things to me.
“someone like me can’t do such things.”
it was nonsense.
of course, i wasn’t cut out for a role like that.
“i’m more suited to being a drifter. i’d help if war breaks out, but...”
i wasn’t the kind of person who could take on such responsibilities.
when she woke up, lee shiheon and the sage were gone.
maronnie stepped out of the shower that morning, her indifferent gaze falling on the empty beds.
sansuyu had holed herself up in the library for a while, apparently after resolving something the day before.
it seemed she had discussed something with the sage.
“there are many books to read.”
in the end, maronnie was left alone in the room.
under normal circumstances, she too would be reading a book. but these days...
nothing seemed to hold her attention anymore.
she felt lethargic, her thoughts constantly haunted by the image of that infuriating man.
gathering her damp hair into a towel, maronnie gazed quietly at lee shiheon’s bed.
thump. thump.
the blanket, still warm with his sweat from the night, and the pillow where his face had rested...
“...no one’s here.”
she brought her hands together and placed them over her chest.
her face flushed in rhythm with her heartbeat.
...brainwashing. lee shiheon had called it brainwashing.
so this feeling she was experiencing—it was all a lie.
the pounding of her heart, the way his voice kept echoing in her mind, it was all fabricated.
it was because of this that she couldn’t focus on reading.
maronnie clenched her eyes shut.
step.
her feet moved hesitantly toward the bed.
with the utmost caution, as if handling precious silk, she knelt and gently gathered the blanket into her arms.
she buried it in her chest.
“...i’m not doing anything wrong.”
“blanche, the bad one is that man, the one who looks like your lazy brother. you know that, right?”
‘yes.’
maronnie’s thoughts seemed to agree with that.
and then, another part of her, the voice that always offered sharp criticisms, joined in.
“...yeah. he’s the one at fault.”
‘right?’
this time, there was no disagreement.
she brought the blanket to her nose and inhaled deeply.
sniff.
the scent filled her nostrils and seemed to melt into her bloodstream.
her eyes fluttered.
“sigh...”
she lay down on the bed, clutching the blanket.
rubbing her cheek against the pillow, she rolled the blanket between her thighs and squeezed it tightly.
a tickling sensation spread through her.
“...”
she pressed her hips forward in small spasms.
her clean, freshly showered body absorbed his lingering scent as she squirmed, spreading it across her skin.
it was as if she was reliving that night. maronnie shut her eyes tightly, muffling the whimper that escaped her lips against the pillow.
“
saliva trailed onto the pillow’s surface.
her dazed eyes shifted back toward the bed sheets.
“he said it would fade soon...”
this was a drug—a temporary way to calm her excitement.
it didn’t take long for the bed to become damp with her body’s fluids.