I quietly looked at the Demon King of Salvation. The starlight that had once been so dazzling was now fading.

The reason was obvious.

[Your current existence restoration rate is 10%.]

The amount of ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ I held had become greater than his.

I gently wrapped my hand around my hyung’s now-smaller shoulder.

“You can read it again.”

*

The Demon King of Salvation opened his eyes.

It felt like he had woken from sleep, and also like he had died and come back to life. To someone so used to death, perhaps there wasn’t much difference between the two.

He exhaled lightly, and a pleasantly cold chill brushed against him. He looked around.

What he saw was a plain covered in pure white snow.

In that desolate landscape, the Demon King of Salvation let out a soft sigh.

Just by watching the drifting white snow, he could tell what kind of place this world was.

So this is the youngest’s world.

He thought about the youngest.

The last Kim Dokja of this world.

An existence born with a mission different from the other Kim Dokjas.

The youngest had lived all this time while looking at this landscape.

The Demon King of Salvation reached out toward the drifting snowflakes. Then, between the flakes, faint whispers could be heard.

「“Clack clack! Clack clack!”」

The cries of mole crickets searching for their mother.

「“Save me! Please, save me!”」

The screams of those who hadn’t managed to survive the first scenario and died.

「“If I had just one more, just one more chance……”」

The final wishes of those who died crushed beneath collapsed buildings, or devoured by monsters.

Some were recorded, and some were not. They all slept between the lines, waiting for someone to read them, to imagine them.

The Demon King of Salvation swept through the snow in the air again. This time, different stories were heard.

「“We die together even if we die! Don’t give up!”」

It was the story of the people of Geumho Station, fighting back-to-back to save one another.

Bang Cheolsoo, who had become a different person from the previous rounds. And the heartless mother and daughter fighting by his side.

「“Come on, let’s all have a bite each!”」

The homeless people of Seoul Station, huddled together in front of the old Open Arms signboard, sharing warm soup.

「“I wonder if that hyung is doing alright.”」

Jung Heewon’s younger brother—Jung Eunho—and the children of Open Arms were there too. Children who no longer needed to dig traps to deceive adults, chatting as they warmed themselves by the fire.

Countless stars hung in the sky the children were looking up at.

[Constellation, ‘Last Ark’, watches over the descendants of Open Arms.]

At one bright corner of the sky, an old tower floated.

‘Recycling Center’, District 13.

「“Shouldn’t we go help too?”」

In a small inn in District 13, animal constellations who hadn’t been able to enter the <Twelve Zodiac> were gathered.

「“But would we be of any help……”」

「“If it weren’t for that friend, we’d have been forgotten.”」

「“What do you think, Innkeeper Crane?”」

Sentences left behind like faint footprints. The Demon King of Salvation carefully read those faint but unmistakably existing sentences. He read hard, like someone afraid there might be a line he had failed to read.

How long did he read like that?

Someone was standing in front of him.

“Is it fun?”

It was the youngest.

A youngest who resembled ‘Kim Dokja’ far more than before.

Seeing him, the Demon King of Salvation didn’t know what he should say. Because he didn’t know what to say, the words he could say were already decided.

“The next part?”

“Of course there is.”

The two of them sat side by side and read the stories of the snowy field. They read joyful stories, and they read sad stories. They read stories that could not be clearly defined as joyful or sad.

Simply because they liked stories.

“Is there more?”

“There’s still a lot left.”

He knew. He knew that there were many stories the youngest had prepared for him.

But now, the youngest didn’t have much time left.

A faint sound like waves breaking could be heard. When he raised his head, he saw the far end of the snowy field slowly crumbling.

The wave of destruction was surging in.

“Youngest.”

“Yes.”

“I read hard.”

“I know.”

“Even after reading that hard—”

The end of his voice broke apart like the oncoming wave.

The Demon King of Salvation let out a bitter smile.

For what, and for whom, had he kept repeating this ‘reading’?

“Just by reading, I couldn’t change anything.”

Life was life, and death was death.

No matter how many times he read again—no matter how painstakingly he read—the world did not change.

One day, the universe would perish.

This story would inevitably end.

Even though every tragedy was predetermined, even though they knew that fact well, why did they read?

“At the very least, you came to understand one person better.”

One person. Perhaps, for each Kim Dokja, that one person had a different name.

“There are people who came to understand you better while reading your story.”

“……”

“Can you really say that has no meaning at all?”

At the youngest’s question, the Demon King of Salvation couldn’t answer.

“Coming all the way here, I ended up thinking about a few things too.”

The youngest exhaled softly and began to speak.

“When I first fell into this world, I thought I was really screwed. Wow, how am I supposed to survive? How am I supposed to go back?”

“It was fun then.”

“So you were watching everything, as expected?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, after I somehow managed to survive, the next question popped up. Maybe there’s a reason I fell into this world? The world must have called me because I have some mission!”

“……”

“So I went around poking at everything. Making villains who never got the spotlight repent, communicating with vicious monsters, investigating the hidden sides of scenarios that never appeared in the main story—”

“It was a complete mess.”

“It was. In the end, it got to be too much and I asked you for help. I said I couldn’t do it alone, so please help me.”

“In such a pathetic state.”

“Thanks to that though, a lot of interesting stories were born.”

Interesting stories.

The youngest referred to all those failures and bitter memories that way.

“So I’m going to keep doing it.”

Listening to that calm voice, the Demon King of Salvation recalled the expression the youngest had worn when calling out to him for the first time.

“Please keep reading. I’ll keep writing.”

In the same voice as back then, the youngest was speaking.

“I’ll prove that just reading can change the world.”

Looking at the youngest’s shining eyes, the Demon King of Salvation thought,

「If I could be born again, I hope at least I wouldn’t be Kim Dokja.」

Every Kim Dokja had their own theme. The youngest standing before him now was no exception.

「It’d be nice if he wasn’t a ‘reader’.」

The reason this youngest was special among all his siblings. It was—

“Youngest.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have something you want to ask me?”

“……”

“Aren’t you curious who you really are?”

The youngest twisted his lips into a reluctant expression, then sighed.

“Of course I’m curious. But honestly, right now I feel like it doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

“Right now my head is so full of what I want to write that I don’t have room to think about who I am.”

“……”

“You’ll read and tell me who I was someday, won’t you, hyung.”

The Demon King of Salvation stared blankly at the youngest.

If it’s someone like this, maybe it’s alright.

If it’s this guy, maybe it’s okay to entrust him with the future of all Kim Dokjas.

Watching the approaching wave of destruction, the Demon King of Salvation slowly rose to his feet.

“Alright, I will.”

“Thank you.”

“In that sense.”

The youngest also dusted off his backside and stood up.

To that youngest, the Demon King of Salvation said,

“From now on, you’re the ‘Demon King of Salvation’.”

The time had come.

It was time to pass all of his fables on to the youngest.

The youngest would take all of his fables and become the ‘one and only Kim Dokja’.

“Huh? I don’t want to.”

“What?”

“You have to die and come back to life over and over for that.”

The Demon King of Salvation opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.

The youngest punk kept talking.

“I can’t live like that. Ugh, I’d have to be crazy.”

“Hey, you—”

He wanted to say that throwing a tantrum like that wouldn’t change anything. He wanted to tell him to come to his senses, that he couldn’t still be saying things like that.

But the youngest’s eyes looked strange.

“I told you, didn’t I. I’m going to write an ‘impossible story’. «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» In that story, you don’t die.”

The snowy field was crumbling.

Watching the wave now right before their eyes, the youngest continued.

“I’ve been thinking about it for quite a long time. If I really am Kim Dokja—then maybe I can do ‘that’ too.”

It felt like something was going wrong. The Demon King of Salvation quickly reached out his hand toward the youngest.

“Youngest. Wait—”

“Don’t worry. You just have to keep reading from there, hyung.”

Finally, the wave swallowed them.

The world was thoroughly churned, and the Demon King of Salvation felt his soul being sucked off somewhere.

As expected.

Like this, he would become a fable. He would become part of 「Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint」.

The youngest would read him and live through this world again—

「“Huh?”」

He should have completely vanished and been absorbed, becoming a part of the youngest.

Then why? Why did he still have a sense of self?

A flickering light between rows of bookshelves.

The smell of old paper in a dim space.

It was a small library.

He knew this place well. Because he knew it well, goosebumps rose on his skin. His heart pounded wildly.

「“Someone came again.”」

When he turned his head, little kid Kim Dokjas were huddled together.

There were girls and boys. Little Kim Dokjas with all sorts of different hairstyles.

The little Kim Dokjas who had been watching him with curious eyes all snapped their heads up like meerkats at a sound from the back.

「“Oh. The newspaper.”」

「“Hurry up and read it.”」

The little Kim Dokjas were gathered in front of a desk, reading something. He staggered over toward them. On the wide desk lay a single newspaper.

『Today’s Kim Dokja』.

A newspaper with no headline.

He slipped in among the little Kim Dokjas and read the paper. Sentences were appearing on it in real time.

「A way to absorb ‘Kim Dokja fragments’ while still preserving their souls.」

They were the youngest’s sentences.

「Just like Asmodeus’s ‘movie theater’, maybe I can use the same method.」

Goosebumps rose on his skin again.

Just when had the youngest started preparing this space?

「Exactly what percentage of Kim Dokja does one have to become to use the [Fourth Wall]?」

「If I can just create that ‘library’—」

The youngest, who had never wanted to be just a ‘reader’, had said it. That he would write an impossible story. If so, then for the youngest,

「Maybe it’s possible to dream a new ‘dream’.」

He might already have written the first sentence.

A library that would make the impossible story he spoke of possible.

A space where the ‘reading’ of Kim Dokjas could continue.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Fourth Wall’, is in operation!]

But from there, slightly strange sentences began to be written.

「Constellation, Demon King of Salvation prepared for the death that would come.」

Just as he was wondering what that meant, a message rang in his head.

[The ‘Fate’ that bound you no longer functions.]

He had entered inside the [Fourth Wall] thanks to the youngest, and had lost the qualification of ‘Demon King of Salvation’.

Thus, he was still ‘alive’.

If so, who was bearing the fate of ‘Demon King of Salvation’ now? A chilling thought flashed through his mind.

Youngest.

Black letters were being written in the blank space of the paper.

「Constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ will die within the story he loved.」

From somewhere, the sound of fate coming to pass could be heard.

[You are no longer the ‘Demon King of Salvation’.]