## Chapter 236 – The End (3)
Inside the quiet airplane, a piece of the broken bathroom door hung precariously from its latch, swaying back and forth. The silence was shattered as the fragment, creaking sharply, fell to the floor with a thud.
“W-Wait a minute! Why are you here?!”
“Uh, um! That’s… well! Uh!”
The airplane interior, which had been filled only with stiff announcement voices, instantly became noisy.
“How did you get on?! More importantly, how did you know and follow me?!”
“Just, just wait! Calm down for a second!”
A person I never expected to see, in a place I never imagined they’d be, popping up in a situation where they shouldn’t exist… I didn’t know how to react. I started to feel dizzy, as if I was getting motion sickness, which I normally never experienced.
“…Okay, let’s calm down… We haven’t been in the air long, so we can still turn back…”
Amidst the chaos in my head, the only thought that surfaced was that I had to send Iria back. How she managed to follow me secretly and sneak onto this plane was secondary; I just had to.
After all, this plane was headed to a battlefield, and Iria didn’t have the strength to protect herself. Of course, I could fight while protecting her, but it was the enemy’s main base. The numbers were overwhelmingly against us. There was no way I could take her to such a dangerous place, so I had no choice but to turn the plane around.
I didn’t know how to fly a plane, but if I used the automatic system or whatever, landing should be…
“…Ah, right.”
As I sat Iria down and entered the cockpit with a sigh, the warning Min-jeong gave me right before departure flashed through my mind.
‘Be careful, if you touch the controls, the automatic system will turn off and switch to manual.’
In other words, if I touched something wrong in the cockpit, the automatic system would shut down. Then I’d have to fly it manually, and since I didn’t know how, the plane could crash.
“…Shit.”
Muttering to myself, I scratched my head and came out of the cockpit, where I could see the interior of the plane clearly. Iria was sitting in the empty seat, waving at me with an awkward smile. She had taken out a bottle of alcohol from the refrigerator and placed it on the table, looking at me.
“Um, this! You were trying to take this out earlier, right…? Hahaha…”
“…I’m not mad at you, so you don’t have to act so awkward.”
“……”
Sitting next to Iria, who was watching me carefully, I ran my hands over my face. I now knew that things had turned out this way, and I couldn’t turn the plane around. What was even happening…
I took off the tie that I had only loosely hung around my neck and placed it on the table. As I was wondering what to do, Iria, who had been fidgeting with her hands, spoke up.
“I’m sorry for following you without permission… But I don’t regret it.”
“…You heard everything I was talking about with Iran noona, didn’t you?”
I asked Iria, who was smiling calmly as she apologized. She closed her eyes tightly and turned her head.
“…When I was trapped in that mountain, watching you through Chae-yoon’s or ‘the other me’s’ eyes, I kept thinking. The things I did because I hated the fighting between Hir caused even bigger fights, and it killed me and Hir. And the fight that should have ended then has continued until now, harming the people of this era, and you’re trying to end the things we should have ended. ‘I’m just causing trouble until the end…’ That thought has been tormenting me ever since I first learned about you.”
“……”
I fiddled with the empty champagne glass, leaving Iria to put herself down.
“But I don’t have the strength to fight, and I don’t have any experience. I have to leave all my responsibilities to you… I hate that, I don’t want to do that. What’s the difference between sending you alone and asking you to do everything?”
“…To be honest, nothing changes even if you come along. You might even get in my way, and you could be in danger.”
“…Of course, I thought about that. I didn’t just follow you without a plan. This time, I’m going to do it. I’m going to end everything in place of Hir and be happy.”
In the middle of her speech, Iria stood up and picked up the tie I had placed on the table. She came up to me and, with clumsy movements, put the tie around my neck and neatly tied it.
“I’m sorry for being selfish, but I want to help you this time. ‘Something only I can do,’ I’ll never hold you back. Will you trust me…?”
“…I can’t turn back anyway, and I can’t just throw you off here. And it looks like you’ve prepared something, but you can’t leave my side, okay?”
“…Thank you.”
Iria, who was smiling brightly with tears in her eyes, leaned down and kissed me. What I could tell from our touching lips was that she was trembling. Was she nervous, or scared? I didn’t know how she felt, but it didn’t matter. I had nothing to say to her determination.
All I had to do was smash everything as usual, and help Iria cut off her past completely.
I grabbed Iria’s still trembling shoulders to calm her down and pulled her closer. After sharing a longer kiss, I broke away and met her eyes, and she smiled.
“…Oh, right, but how did you tie the tie? I don’t know how.”
“Ah, I learned it from Min-jeong. While we were in the car…”
Min-jeong? While we were in the car? That means…
“…That noona secretly brought you along, didn’t she? You snuck onto the plane when she called me to the cockpit.”
“Ah, no! Don’t scold her! I forced her to help me…! That’s…!”
She didn’t deny her actions, but instead tried to protect Min-jeong, flustered.
Come to think of it, Min-jeong’s attitude was lighter than usual. Now everything made sense. Iria, who had overheard my conversation with Iran noona, must have also heard me calling Min-jeong, and asked her to hide her and bring her along.
Iria was worried that Min-jeong would get in trouble because of her, fidgeting and not knowing what to do. I stroked her hair and gave her a light kiss, and she froze.
“…You’re not mad?”
“I told you, I’m not mad. I was just surprised because you suddenly popped out.”
I chuckled as I watched her blush and touch her lips. I adjusted the chair to recline the backrest and make a bed, and took out the eye mask next to it.
“I need to get some sleep. I’m tired from fighting that big guy today. It’ll take a long time to arrive, so I need to rest.”
“Oh, oh? Weren’t you going to…”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Ah, it’s nothing!”
Iria, whose face was even redder than before, covered her face with her hands and quickly ran to the seat next to me.
…Let’s do it all we want after this is over.
I smiled quietly, so she wouldn’t hear, and covered my eyes with the eye mask, trying to sleep. I completely forgot that the champagne I had taken out was getting lukewarm, and prepared for tomorrow.
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————————————-
‘Authorization complete. Welcome back, Dr. Aiden Park.’
“…”
The door opened after a mechanical voice announced the name of the body I was using. Finally, the door of the plane reached the landing site, and the morning sunlight streamed in. Sunlight seen through human eyes was truly unpleasant, but today it felt different.
“Dr. Aiden Park! We received a report that there’s something wrong with your body…!”
As I shielded my eyes from the burning sunlight with my remaining hand, enjoying the refreshing air I hadn’t felt in a long time, humans called my name and approached me with hurried steps, disturbing me.
“This is…! Are you alright, Doctor?! Medical team! The Doctor’s arm…!”
“…”
A young man who appeared from somewhere and two humans wearing white coats with armbands indicating they were a medical team. They clung to me, touching the wounds inflicted by Lim Chan-woo, and screamed.
“…Since I don’t have any more business here, it should be fine.”
“Pardon? Dr. Aiden Park, what did you just say…”
Crack-
Using my remaining arm, I blew away the head of the medical team human who was touching my body. The body that lost its head trembled and spurted blood before collapsing to the floor with a thud.
“Huh?”
“Don’t touch my body either, it’s unpleasant.”
The neck of the medical team woman, who was panicked by the blood of her colleague raining down like a waterfall, was also quickly snapped. The two humans who dared to touch my body died so easily. How pitiful.
“…Today is a good day. I have shown you mercy, so rejoice. I have allowed you to end your lives as humans without feeling fear or pain.”
“D-Doctor…? What is this… A-Aiden Doctor… Huk?!”
“…The sin of daring to covet our power deserves to be punished ten thousand times, but I will not hold you accountable for the sins you have committed by working for me until now. How is that?”
“Euk?! Eup!! Heu, heuek?!”
The young man, who had been glaring at the lump of meat that used to be his colleague with a pale face, shed tears. Unpleasant human fluid smeared on my hand that was holding his mouth. I had no choice.
“…You have also worked hard until now. Although you were deceived, you served me with your short human life.”
“Eueueueup!!!”
With a short scream, the young man’s neck was bent 180°. The three humans who had come to greet me no longer moved.
“…Although it’s troublesome, I’ll need some manpower to dig out Iria.”
I wiped the young man’s tears from my hand and walked down the stairs of the landing site. Finally, finally, today I will become king. What a glorious moment.
‘Warning, warning. Dr. Aiden Park, stop immediately and surrender. I repeat. Stop immediately and…’
“…You have mispronounced the king’s name. Call me ‘Kin,’ not Aiden.”
The humans, realizing my joy, were commendably setting off celebratory fireworks. Now, only one step, only one step remained. Nothing would stop me now.
Not Hir, but I am the true king of the Root.
