By the time I’d eaten about half of the omelet rice, Kim Namwoon took me and headed for the base’s third floor. I thought we were going to go see Han Sooyoung right away, but the place I arrived at was some kind of supply room.

“You worked hard, Namwoon.”

Lee Seolhwa, who had been waiting in front of the supply room, greeted him as she took the wheelchair from him.

Kim Namwoon twitched his cheeks like he was embarrassed, then patted my shoulder.

“Then I’ll see you later, mister.”

After Kim Namwoon disappeared with a swagger, Lee Seolhwa took me and stood me in front of the mirror in the supply room. She bustled back and forth around the room, then set a bundle stuffed with cosmetics down on the table and started fixing my hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Makeup.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Mm, because the captain told me to?”

I couldn’t figure out Han Sooyoung’s intentions at all.

Why did she tell her to do that? Did I look that unbearable? Or did some kind of “ugliest king” effect activate while I was obtaining Kim Dokja fragments?

I stared blankly at the face reflected in the mirror. The face in the mirror, which I was seeing for the first time in a while, felt unfamiliar.

Ever since I obtained a large amount of Kim Dokja, my face had become much closer to Kim Dokja than to Cheon Inho.

Lee Seolhwa, who had been watching my expression, spoke.

“You really do look a lot like him.”

“Because I’m an avatar.”

It was a self-mocking remark that slipped out without me realizing. But Lee Seolhwa tilted her head and smiled as if she hadn’t read my feelings at all.

“Even if it’s an avatar, depending on what memories you received, your impression changes little by little.”

It was the first time I’d heard that.

Well, the Han Sooyoung of the 1,863rd round was more skilled than anyone at using [Avatar].

The companions who’d lived with her might be able to tell those subtle differences apart.

“What kind of ‘avatar’ do I look like?”

“Well….”

As she cut my bangs, which had grown a lot, she added,

“I can tell you’re someone who neglects self-care.”

Self-care.

A bitter smile came out of me for no reason. I’d forgotten for a long time that a combination of words like that could even exist.

“Isn’t that a luxury in this world?”

“The captain said that at first too. Up until Namwoon went more than two months without washing.”

I suddenly remembered that everyone I’d met after entering the base had a neat face.

“The captain said this. No matter how ruined the world is, if we’re going to exist as humans, sometimes we need to keep even luxurious manners.”

“…….”

“Well, it also feels like she just said it to get Namwoon to wash.”

Lee Seolhwa hummed as she fixed my hair. She trimmed the hair that was sticking up, and fixed my eyebrows.

“You’re very good with your hands.”

“It’s my hobby to mess with the kids’ hair.”

I’d never imagined Lee Seolhwa would have a hobby like that.

Then was Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye’s hair all Lee Seolhwa’s work too?

“When I was young, I wanted to work in beauty.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Well, it’s an obvious reason. My parents opposed it.”

I could roughly picture it.

I didn’t remember which round it was, but I remembered reading that Lee Seolhwa had gone to medical school.

“What about you, Dokja-ssi?”

“…Pardon?”

“What did you do before the scenario started?”

“Ah, I was… a writer.”

“You’re the same as our captain.”

I let out a bitter smile. Could I really say I was ‘the same’ as Han Sooyoung?

With the noise of the hair dryer ringing in my ears, the styling finished.

“Alright, finished!”

With a satisfied smile, Lee Seolhwa looked into the mirror.

“See? It’s way better than earlier, right?”

It was definitely Kim Dokja’s face, but it was subtly different from earlier. It felt like my impression had come alive more.

Lee Seolhwa studied my face, then added with a smile.

“Looking at you like this, you look like a different person.”

I also stared quietly at my face, then nodded.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Then shall we move?”

Lee Seolhwa personally pushed the wheelchair and guided me to another floor. I thought we were going to head to the usual penthouse office, but unexpectedly, the place I arrived at was a large lobby on the base’s fourth floor.

“Even I’ve only been here a few times. The captain must be in a good mood.”

As Lee Seolhwa muttered like she was jealous, a guard who had been waiting at the lobby entrance let me enter inside.

[In this area, the ‘Soundwave Block’ skill is active.]

[In this area, the ‘Interference Curtain’ skill is active.]

…….

After passing through the strict security system and the narrow entranceway, a small living room appeared. In various spots of the living room, which felt more modest than the penthouse office, there was a sense of everyday life.

In that moment, I realized something.

So this is Han Sooyoung’s ‘real residence’.

A bubbling sound of water boiling somewhere. A smell that made my mouth water even though I’d just eaten.

In the simple kitchen, Han Sooyoung was boiling ramyeon.

“Ah, you’re here?”

Maybe she’d been reading up until just now, because there was a book lying on top of the kitchen island table with its spine folded.

『Recorders and Old Notes』.

It was a book I’d never seen before.

“Do you live here?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what about the penthouse?”

“I can’t sleep in places that are too big.”

“There’s even a chef downstairs, so why ramyeon?”

Instant ramyeon.

It was strange that something like that still existed in this world.

Does it sell in the ‘dokkaebi bag’?

“If you’re eating too, I’m boiling two.”

“Then… I’ll just taste it.”

“Egg?”

“I usually put it in.”

“Green onion?”

“It’s nice if there is some.”

“Kimchi?”

“Is there even something like that?”

As I listened to the sound of an egg cracking, for some reason I felt like I’d gone back to before the scenario started.

If the scenario hadn’t started, and Han Sooyoung and I had run into each other by chance in the same world line… what would we have talked about?

“That hairstyle suits you.”

“Seolhwa touched it up for me.”

“You looked like you were having fun with Lee Seolhwa.”

“Were you watching?”

Without answering, Han Sooyoung served kimchi onto a small dish. I picked up a piece with chopsticks and tried it. It was unmistakably the kimchi I knew.

“How’s your body?”

“I’ve recovered a lot.”

The sensation was slowly coming back to my lower body too. If I pushed myself a little, it felt like I might be able to stand up soon.

Soon, a bowl of well-cooked ramyeon was set in front of me. Without me realizing, I swallowed. Maybe she noticed my reaction, because Han Sooyoung said,

“Eat.”

I didn’t refuse and lifted a chopstickful. The moment I stuffed my mouth full of the noodles, which were perfectly springy, an ecstatic sensation seized the tip of my tongue.

How long has it been since I last ate ramyeon?

I don’t know if I can say this, but it was as moving as the first time I ate Yoo Joonghyuk’s cooking.

Don’t they say the taste you already know is the scariest?

“Is it good?”

“It’s good.”

In a quiet silence, we ate ramyeon.

“Do you live off ramyeon every day?”

“Not every day. About once every two days?”

“It’s not good for your health.”

“You sound like Lee Hyunsung.”

Han Sooyoung said that and laughed.

It was the first time I’d seen her laugh so clearly, so I stared blankly for a moment, then started eating ramyeon again.

“There’s something I need to apologize for.”

“Apologize?”

“When you were asleep, I saw the fable that had settled in your incarnation body.”

As I coughed and choked, Han Sooyoung handed me water.

“I didn’t look on purpose. Really.”

What Han Sooyoung said was probably true.

I’d collapsed after being hit by an ‘Otherworldly Divinity’’s attack, so it wouldn’t be strange if she’d checked part of my fable in the process of healing me.

The problem was how much of my fable she saw….

If she saw even things she shouldn’t have, then I’d be causing a huge stain on the main story’s worldview just by existing.

“How much did you see?”

“That you came from a very unusual world line.”

“And?”

“And that you aren’t a simple ‘avatar’ either.”

It felt like my heart was turning cold. All sorts of thoughts popped up in my head and vanished.

Is this okay? Maybe Han Sooyoung learned information she shouldn’t know.

Not knowing whether she knew my thoughts or not, Han Sooyoung poked at the half-broken egg with her ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) chopsticks and said,

“It isn’t easy to endure it. The fact that there’s another me besides me.”

A sentence that flowed in as naturally as stirring an egg. Maybe the Han Sooyoung in front of me was someone who understood that kind of life better than anyone.

For a moment, I was seized by the desire to pour out everything I knew to her.

“Whether I’m real or fake. Who I am, and how far I’m me. Whether my memories are really mine.”

Couldn’t she change this story I ruined, that became a mess? Couldn’t she bring Kim Dokja back to this world that lost Kim Dokja?

“Kim Dokja.”

“Why are you calling me Kim Dokja?”

“What do you think decides existence?”

At the sudden question, I couldn’t answer right away and hesitated. But Han Sooyoung didn’t look like she was waiting for my answer in the first place.

“I think it’s actions.”

Actions.

“In decisive moments, the actions we chose. Those actions pile up and become history, and then history becomes fables again.”

And fables decide who we are again.

“In that sense, I thought you were Kim Dokja. So I’m calling you Kim Dokja.”

Not knowing what to say, I lowered my head for a moment.

“What’s with that expression. Are you happy, or sad?”

“Both.”

Han Sooyoung gave a bitter smile.

“You said you wanted me to send you back to your world line.”

“Yes.”

“Do you really want to go back?”

“I have to go back.”

“You have to go back.”

Han Sooyoung repeated it as if she found that answer interesting.

“Even in the world line you lived in, you must have risked your life over and over for precious people. You kept making things you had to protect, and you protected them obsessively. That must have been the way for you to exist as you, and for Kim Dokja to exist as Kim Dokja.”

I couldn’t say anything.

“But you know. In the ending of a fable made like that, can you really become happy?”

Happiness.

At the unfamiliar word that I’d never even thought of, I flinched without realizing.

“A being that can only feel its own usefulness by saving someone—what choice will it make when there’s no one left to save?”

A faint shiver ran down my spine.

For a moment, I thought this.

Hadn’t she already figured everything out? What happened to Kim Dokja—maybe she was predicting it all.

Han Sooyoung, who set down her chopsticks, stood up and said,

“You can still choose your ending.”

Before I could ask what that meant, Han Sooyoung started pushing my wheelchair. She crossed the living room and headed toward the balcony. When she opened the balcony window, the incarnations who had been waiting below Gwanghwamun all looked up this way at once.

“Oooh—!”

“He finally came out!”

Along with the murmuring noise, I heard the cheers of people from below the balcony.

A little flustered, I asked,

“Why are people gathered?”

Han Sooyoung answered as she waved to them.

“I called them. To introduce you to people.”

“Then why….”

“You don’t have a scenario yet.”

Han Sooyoung grinned and added,

“There are a few ways you can get a scenario.”

There were incarnations here, and the constellations those incarnations had contracted with.

Meaning, right now Han Sooyoung was—

[Constellation, ‘War God of the Seas’ admires your spirit.]

[Constellation, ‘Bald Militia Commander’ asks if that man is really the hero who protected Gwanghwamun.]

[Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’ likes your hairstyle.]

[A very small number of constellations say you look neater than they thought.]

She was trying to imprint my existence onto the constellations of the Final Scenario.

[All constellations of the Korean Peninsula are looking at you.]

The Final Scenario.

The stars that didn’t have much time left in this world were focusing on me. Following the desires of the stars, I could hear a faint plausibility moving.

[The Administration Bureau acknowledges your contributions in this scenario.]

[A new scenario will be assigned to you.]

The moment I heard the messages ringing in my head, I felt like I understood why Han Sooyoung had dressed me up, and why she called me to this place.

“You don’t need to save anyone anymore. You don’t have to live as the Demon King of Salvation. You don’t need to become the Kim Dokja people want.”

Han Sooyoung was showing me her world right now.

A world facing its ending.

With the end of that story right in front of us, Han Sooyoung was telling me.

“Here, you’re only one.”

Even in this world, there was a place for me. No, maybe this was the world where I could exist as ‘the real me’.

“You don’t have to see the ‘ending’ in the world line you lived in. So—”

Han Sooyoung’s hand was trembling faintly. With that hand, she gripped my shoulder tightly and said,

“This time, watch this world’s ending with me.”