[ TWATF 2 ]

Chapter 232: World after the fall (4)

Chapter 232: World after the fall (4)

...

The doctor smiled again as Jaehwan became silent.

"Hmmm. So, you never met with me in the future?"

"...There's a reason for that. I was different from now and..."

Jaehwan became confused and the doctor raised his hand to stop Jaehwan.

"Okay. Let me ask you another question. Do you remember anything about your high school or college perhaps?"

Jaehwan became silent again. After a long time, he admitted, "...I don't remember."

Jaehwan bit his lips. He surely attended all of high school and he even went college. He also went to the military. That's when the Tower of Nightmares appeared. He knew that everything then was 'reality'.

But Jaehwan couldn't remember those times. Maybe it had been too long, or maybe it was because his memories had been destroyed when the Transcended ones left him.

"Haha. It's not like you. You don't remember, huh...?"

"I don't. But I really was there..."

Jaehwan then closed his mouth. His words were true, but there was no proof to back up his claims. Not remembering it proved that Jaehwan was just lying. The doctor was still smiling.

There was no more game. Jaehwan will not protect his world. He will not prove anything.

Why? The 10-year-old Jaehwan became frustrated. He felt like he was going to cry. He had proof of all those times, but why did he need to prove everything again? And how could he prove it anyway?

That's when a certain memory came to him. It was when he arrived at a certain 'fortress' when he just got to <Chaos>. That fortress also forced Jaehwan to prove himself.

-Prove yourself. Prove who you are.

What did Jaehwan answer then? Jaehwan looked up to the doctor. He felt like his sight was going blurry. The white lab coat looked like the wall of a strong fortress and the silver eyeglasses looked like spires. Was it because of that? Jaehwan spoke without realizing.

"I will not prove myself."

It was the voice of a 10-year-old boy, but not from a 10-year-old boy. It was a voice that one world answered to another world. The doctor became speechless by the voice. He then realized he was overwhelmed yet again and gasped, "Ugh..."

He seemed to be very frustrated.

'This kid really is something. But there is no way to control him. Then what can we do?'

The doctor sighed after a long time passed.

"Okay. Maybe the world you say does exist."

Jaehwan's eyes shook. What did he just say?

"I accept the possibility."

Was that something a doctor from a mental institute could say? A cold theory-like thing shot past Jaehwan's head then. Everything he had faced until now had some kind of a gate. Maybe this doctor was some form of a gate placed by the Nightmare of Beginning. Even as Jaehwan was lost in his thoughts, the doctor continued speaking.

"But no matter the circumstances, you must know this."

"About what?"

"If you try to protect your world, the ones who love you will be sad."

Sad? Because of his world? Why? And in the next moment, Jaehwan felt goosebumps on his body.

Did he just ask himself 'Why?' He was in no place to ask such a question. He had seen it throughout all his life. In his faint memories, faces came about. They were just faces with no names.