LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 108 - See You in the Future
Chapter 108: See You in the Future
It is said that newborn animals recognize the first creature they see as their mother.
In a world where even looking up at the blue sky had become a luxury.
In such a hellish life where you were so hungry that you’d make soup from dead bodies and where there was no trace of human settlements anywhere, I was like one of those newborn beasts.
The red-haired woman who had been with me since the moment my memories began.
She, who once led the rebel army, surrounded by heroes who had long since died and were now only found in history books.
Later, I learned that I was only being “raised” by her under the pretense of being her adopted child.
But there was far too much that happened between us for it to be just a simple case of raising livestock, especially on the day the white-skinned “witch,” the second princess of the Empire, came to rule over our underground city.
I saw it clearly.
And I could hear it.
“Come here…”
“Teacher…”
“My dreams, my honor, and my hopes… I’ll give them all to you, including my power.”
“……!”
“So, at the very least, don’t end up like me…”
In the underground city, where the sky was torn open, she stood in the rain, already fated to die, merely reflecting on her past and regretting her life as she looked at me.
“If only… I had met you a little earlier… it would have been better…”
“……”
“I’m surely going to hell… aren’t I?”
The person who raised me from the moment my memories began.
She was the embodiment of evil.
If the world hadn’t crumbled the way it did, she might have gone down in human history not as a hero but as a villain.
However, whenever Jin-ah Lee was asked about this, she always responded like this:
“Perhaps the roles between your father and me got reversed.”
“Reversed?”
“Yeah, as long as the world stayed sane, I could continue being crazy. But when the world went mad, I had no choice but to become sane.”
So, she fought.
And she saved me with everything she had.
The future I wanted was vastly different from this one.
It was around this time that Han Jaewon also began to realize deep down that Jin-ah Lee was someone who might have been better off dead.
But even so, there were others who truly deserved to die.
“Are you really… Sophia’s son?”
“Yes.”
“But then, there’s no way we wouldn’t have sensed your presence all this time!”
“You wouldn’t have. Three years ago in the future, I finally awakened this power on the day you attacked the human settlement.”
“!!”
If I had been able to transform into a monster from the start…
Would my future have changed even a little?
At the very least, the white-skinned witch, the second princess of the Empire, which was the only nation allowed to exist on the surface, would have addressed me as a prince.
I might have lived happily, indulging in luxury, treating humans like insects.
But that was all in the past.
“On the day Jin-ah Lee died, I received her spirit and power, and I finally achieved monster transformation.”
“Jin-ah…! So you were deceived by that liar.”
“Watch your mouth. She was the only family I grew up with.”
“No! Your family is with us! Prince.”
“I’m not a prince.”
As if there was no more need for words, Han Jaewon took a fighting stance.
Ria, deciding that further conversation was pointless, also prepared to fight, her head wound already nearly healed.
“His Majesty will be overjoyed to learn that the prince is still alive.”
“Then tell that bastard that I want nothing to do with his lineage.”
“…It seems you won’t come willingly. I’ll have to use force to bring you along.”
After her sister died, her oppa, Shin-woo, had sought out any useful women, determined to produce a strong heir.
Ria, who wanted to at least momentarily give him the warmth of family again, made up her mind.
“Then, here I come.”
“Come at me.”
Ria charged at Han Jaewon with the intention of dragging him back to the Emperor’s palace.
Swoosh!
In the blink of an eye, her sharp, red nails aimed for his face.
Han Jaewon easily blocked it with the flat of his sword and then took the claw swipe head-on with his body.
“Hoo…”
“…!”
He forcefully moved in close, preparing to slice his opponent in two with a wide, diagonal swing of the holy sword.
However, during the brief moment when he paused to gather strength, Ria had already leaped behind him.
“A body that can withstand my claws without being sliced… Impressive, Prince.”
It wasn’t a technique she used often, but those claws had once shredded most A-rank Hunters into tiny cubes.
And yet, there he was, taking the blow and still managing to swing his sword.
‘He really reminds me of oppa from back then.’
For a moment, she seemed lost in the happy memories of that day, but now was not the time for that.
“Hoo…!”
“…!”
This time, Ria gathered strength.
Reacting quickly, Jaewon turned and raised his sword to defend.
“Kyo-kyokushin Karate…”
“Tch!”
“Basic straight punch.”
Bang!
Ria’s fist collided with the blade of Arondight, sending sparks flying and violently pushing both of them backward.
“Gah?!”
“Ugh…!”
“Jaewon! Ria!”
Sophia, watching the people she loved most fight as if to kill each other, could only stare in shock.
Both of them were flung sideways, crashing through several buildings in the Kitsune family’s territory, and when they reappeared…
“That’s a good sword you’ve got…”
“And you, you monster… Survived even after I landed a counterstrike?”
Dark red blood was dripping from Jaewon’s mouth, while Ria’s right arm, which had clashed with the holy sword, was sliced cleanly in two up to the elbow.
“It wasn’t even this rough when I was having sex with oppa, but now I’ve really overdone it.”
Muttering to herself, Ria swiftly reattached her severed right arm.
Meanwhile, Han Jaewon spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth, preparing to resume the battle.
“Here I come again.”
“As much as you want.”
“Raaaaargh!!”
“?!”
“What is that…?”
But just then…
A giant monster’s final roar echoed beside them.
Simultaneously, Ria and Han Jaewon turned to see Godzilla, its body expanding before bursting like a firecracker.
“Amaterasu, now!”
“I know.”
At the same time, from within the Kitsune estate, they saw a gigantic sapling growing rapidly, its blue leaves soon covering the entire city of Osaka.
“Yggdrasil is ready!”
“It’s done! Now, even if Godzilla explodes, the poison gas inside will be neutralized quickly!”
“……”
“……”
Unnoticed, the battle in the “present” was coming to an end.
But unaware of this, the two continued their battle over the “future.”
“So, that’s what it was. Godzilla… I remember now.”
“Ria?”
“Yes, that’s right. We definitely traveled to Japan together back then to defeat that monster.”
As Ria involuntarily recalled those old memories, she couldn’t even take a proper stance anymore. Instead, her expression was filled with a deep, melancholy longing.
“Unnie, I want to go on a trip with you and oppa again.”
“Ria…”
“But now all those tourist spots have burned down, so it’s impossible, right?”
Ria began to cry, unable to contain her sorrow.
She cried because she missed those days and because she knew her current situation all too well, which only deepened her pain.
Back then, when she was sad like this, there were always people who would come running to comfort her.
But now, she wasn’t sure anymore.
She was just so sad and miserable that she couldn’t even think about whether anyone would worry about her.
But at that moment—
Suddenly, someone hugged her tightly.
“…Unnie?”
“Don’t cry. You’re all grown up, so why are you being such a crybaby?”
We were supposed to be enemies now.
But it didn’t matter; her sister, who had always been there for her when she cried, was now holding her close and comforting her.
“Unnie… You shouldn’t do this. If you get too close, I might end up kidnapping you…”
“Mother! She’s right! Please step away from Ria immediately!”
“I know. I understand why Jaewon is worried about me. But you know…”
No matter what evil Ria had committed in the future, in her eyes, Ria was still just Ria.
Even though Ria had become a monster that needed to be exterminated, Sophia could only see her as the younger sister she had spent so much time with as family.
No matter how she had grown or how twisted she had become, in this hateful world, Ria was one of the few beings she could still feel close to.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch her sister cry.
Sophia gently patted Ria’s back.
“Unnie, stop it…”
“I’ll stop when Ria stops crying.”
“But we’re supposed to be enemies… If you do this, it might weaken the resolve I worked so hard to build…”
Unable to bear it any longer, Ria began to step back from the sister who had treated her so kindly.
Being comforted by the person she was supposed to kidnap…
In this state, she felt too guilty to do anything more.
And in reality, she couldn’t.
“…It seems the time is almost up.”
“Ria, your body… it’s glowing…”
“Why are you so surprised? I was only able to return to the past for a short time thanks to the Future Ring.”
Soon, a white light began to envelop Ria’s entire body.
Seeing this, Han Jaewon quickly assumed a drawing stance, ready to strike.
“Ria…”
“Mother…”
But when he saw his mother looking so sad as she watched her sister from the future disappear, he couldn’t help but lower his sword.
And just as she was about to completely vanish, Ria issued a warning.
“Unnie, I’m stepping back this time, but next time, it won’t be the same.”
“Does that mean you’ll come back to the past again?”
“Yes. But this time, the soldiers coming to take you won’t be me.”
“Then who?”
“The children of our Imperial Palace. The princes and princesses who carry oppa’s blood will soon come to this past to take you to the future.”
“…!”
“The royal family themselves will be coming?”
Upon hearing that dreadful news, Han Jaewon immediately undid his monster transformation and ground his teeth.
“Yes, Prince. And for your information, you are our second target.”
“…!”
“Don’t worry. The brainwashing you suffered at the hands of the humans will be easily forgotten once you spend some time in the Imperial Palace.”
With those words—
“Ria!”
“Then, until next time… in the ‘future,’ Unnie.”
Ria’s matured form was completely enveloped in light and disappeared. After a brief moment, in the spot where she had stood…
“…My kids are a mess.”
“Ria?”
“Unnie, I think I messed up raising my kids.”
“???”
In place of the mature Ria, the present Ria had suddenly returned, having inadvertently traveled to the future for a short time.
She now stood there, looking sullen, with various cat-like accessories adorning her, making her look as if she had been dressed up in some sort of cat cosplay.