The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 36

The first thought that came to mind was why.

Isabel would never forgive me for blaming Lucas. So, I thought her anger would never subside either.

But somehow. Now, Isabel’s anger was clearly waning.

‘What did I miss?’

I don’t know.

The focus of Act 3 is Nikita. So, I was only watching Nikita’s side of things and hadn’t considered Isabel at all.

“Isabel.”

In that case, it’s better to be direct.

“Weren’t you determined to crush me for blaming your friend? Where did all that confidence go?”

It’s better to ask bluntly. Circling around won’t get me any answers.

I looked at Isabel with a stern expression. Isabel clenched her fist tightly. But soon, that fist loosened.

My eyes opened lazily.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Isabel said that, gazing quietly at her now-open hand. A hollow laugh escaped from Isabel’s lips.

“But then, suddenly, I started thinking.”

The life in Isabel’s eyes began to fade.

“Thinking… whether I even have the right to condemn you for shaming Lucas.”

Anger undoubtedly burns so fiercely that it can make someone feel reborn. But sometimes, it blazes so intensely that, with just one trivial trigger, the fire begins to go out.

“After Lucas died, I… I didn’t do anything.”

Isabel looked down at her empty hand, trembling slowly. Her tightly bitten lip quivered.

After hearing the news of Lucas’s death, after the shock. Isabel let go of everything in the world. She even let go of her own life.

A sunflower that lost its sun was withering miserably.

“I just stayed, barely accepting reality, doing nothing. No, that’s not true.”

Isabel’s hollow eyes looked up at me.

“As you said before, I was definitely trying to die with Lucas.”

She had lost the most precious friend in the world. A parting from a friend with whom she had grown her whole life was devastating enough to collapse her life.

She didn’t eat, didn’t drink water. She didn’t sleep, just repeated empty days.

“I just wanted to die as I was.”

But as time passed and led to now, Isabel realized.

“Someone like me.”

Isabel had indeed wanted to die.

“With what right…”

She merely lived, unable to die, wishing to follow Lucas.

However.

“…do I act as if I speak for Lucas?”

She realized what a mistake that was.

Lucas had faced death fighting against the apostles to save others. Isabel knew this better than anyone.

Lucas died to save others.

She couldn’t accept Lucas’s death and wanted to die along with him. It was the choice Lucas would have hated, grieved over, and been tormented by the most. Isabel almost became the worst kind of friend to the late Lucas—one who would follow him in death.

Isabel covered her face with her hands. Then, pressing her hands against her face as if clawing at it, she poured out her anguish.

“How… how could I…”

Thick tears rolled down from Isabel’s eyes.

“I almost did something so cruel to Lucas, who’s already gone.”

Unable to bear the burning pain inside her, Isabel sank to her knees. Surely, the one who suffered the most was the deceased Lucas. Knowing that, she had intended to add even more sorrow to his memory.

Isabel felt immense guilt, her heart aching unbearably.

“How could I…”

She was consumed by self-loathing. Self-loathing is poison. A vicious poison that eats away at a person until nothing is left.

Isabel’s anger had brought her back to reality. That’s why she was able to reflect on the mistake she nearly made and realize how foolish it had been.

In that single moment of realization, Isabel could no longer go back to the way things were.

「As long as she’s this furious, she won’t think of dying. 」

She must have replayed my words over and over in her mind. And in the process, she came to understand.

Living out of anger for Lucas’s sake— even that was ultimately an excuse, using Lucas’s name to justify staying alive.

She realized just how pitiful it was to live fueled by anger, and as this understanding hit her, she started to crumble again.

“…So, if someone insults your dead friend, would you just stand by and do nothing?”

Isabel cherished Lucas more than anyone. I asked her if, out of guilt, she’d really sit back and do nothing while someone insulted him.

Isabel remained silent. Seeing her hesitation, I pressed my lips firmly and spoke again.

“Isabel Luna.”

I took a step closer, calling her full name. The Isabel I knew was someone as bright as the sun. If anything, she would become a blazing sun fueled by rage, not someone broken down to a shadow by self-loathing.

“Is that all the devotion you had for your friend?”

“Then what!”

Isabel shouted, almost as if screaming. Her face bore scars left by her own hands.

“What was I supposed to do! I was planning to die with Lucas! And yet, here I am, pathetically furious and training again just because he’s been insulted! I didn’t even realize that the one who disrespected Lucas the most was me!”

Isabel pressed her hand tightly against the stone floor. She pressed so forcefully that her nails cracked, and blood began to seep out.

“But you, thinking that I’d disrespected Lucas— you were doing exactly what he would have wanted…”

Only then did I understand why Isabel had changed.

That day, when I awoke in the gray forest, Isabel saw me overlapping with Lucas, who had sacrificed himself to save others.

That’s why Isabel kept avoiding my gaze. When she looked at me, she thought of Lucas, and it forced her to confront what she had almost done to him.

“I was just a selfish person who, caught up in the thought of Lucas being disrespected, entered the demonic palace to change that…”

As a result, Isabel’s emotions grew increasingly unstable. So, like running from herself, she threw herself into training. To overcome her self-loathing, she desperately tried to learn the sword from Van.

But what came of all that dedication? All she heard from those around her was whether she was dating Van.

It had only been a few months since Isabel had lost Lucas. The thought that she looked happy enough to be dating someone, despite losing a dear friend, made her fall to her lowest point.

So she lashed out at her friends. What she thought was a sword wielded in Lucas’s name was, in reality, a sword she didn’t even deserve to hold. And to others, that sword she swung for Lucas looked as if it was wielded for her own happiness.

Seeing her struggle,

“Why is being selfish such a bad thing?”

I asked her what nonsense she was talking about. Isabel slowly lifted her head.

“No one can live their whole life solely for others. Of course, everyone lives for themselves. I’m no different.”

It’s only natural that everyone puts themselves first.

“That’s just human nature and a natural thing to do.”

My eyes met Isabel’s, and she started to listen carefully.

So,

“Isabel, let me tell you something. What you’re doing now is just putting on a show of being good.”

“…What?”

Here’s where I hit hard.

“You tried to follow your dead friend into death. And since you couldn’t die with him, now you’re just standing by and letting people insult him? What kind of twisted nonsense is that? Choose—are you going to keep acting noble, or are you going to be selfish?”

I stepped forward, clearly annoyed, closing the distance between us. The blazing sun was high above me, casting a shadow over us, and my red eyes glowed in the shade.

“Your friend is dead. The dead are silent. If you follow him in death, you’ll just be another silent person. It won’t bring him any sadness because the dead can’t feel sorrow.”

Isabel was shackled to the ghost of Lucas. So if I had to, I would use that ghost to bring her back to life.

“On the other hand, if you died and Lucas heard someone speaking ill of you, do you think he would just sit there and do nothing?”

Isabel’s shoulders shook. This was something we both knew. Absolutely not.

If it were Lucas, he would never have let someone insult Isabel’s death without taking action.

“You said you don’t want to see anyone disrespect your friend anymore.”

I spoke firmly.

“Isn’t what you’re doing now the very thing that disrespects him the most?”

Closing your mouth and claiming you don’t deserve to defend your dear friend after hearing him slandered— that’s the worst thing Isabel could do to Lucas.

Isabel’s eyes trembled fiercely.

“I still think that Lucas’s death has cast a shadow over the history of Zeryon Academy, and it’s not the example he should have set for the other students.”

I repeated the words that had reignited Isabel’s spirit before.

“Isabel, what about you?”

Tear-streaked, she bit her lip hard. With a hand still smeared with blood, she clenched her fist.

She looked up at me again. In her eyes, which had lost their light just moments ago, a small but steady flame flickered once more.

“…No. Lucas gave everything to save others. That’s something no one should diminish.”

Isabel slowly rebuilt her resolve. Not on an unsteady foundation like before, but now on a solid base of determination she could stand on.

“I won’t let what happened to your friend happen again. His death is a stain on Zeryon Academy, one that must be erased.”

Isabel argued back.

“Lucas’s death was a noble sacrifice. His spirit of self-sacrifice is an exemplary legacy that everyone should carry forward.”

Our views clashed. At some point, Isabel had risen to her feet.

The first time I saw Isabel, I made a decision. I knew I couldn’t be a sun for her like Lucas. So at the very least, I decided to be her moon. Even if I could only make her mistake my moonlight for sunlight, I was determined to help her lift her head like a sunflower reaching for the sky.

“Isabel, I don’t think we’ll ever agree. You’re exactly the kind of person I can’t stand.”

“Same here. I can’t stand you either.”

Just like on the first day we met, her eyes glared fiercely at me.

This is enough for now. By invoking Lucas’s spirit, Isabel would live on, carrying out Lucas’s wishes.

“Yes, so let’s see whose view is right until the end.”

I’m not here to comfort or support Isabel. In her story, my role is to be her rival and adversary, someone she must fight against. My role is done.

Below the wall, I saw Isabel’s friends running toward us. Among them was her best friend, Sharin. They would listen to Isabel’s story and take care of her.

I turned away.

“…Hey, Airei, let me ask you just one thing.”

In that moment, Isabel, turning away, called my name for the first time.

“…Have you… met Lucas before?”

Maybe she sensed something in our conversation today. I looked at her briefly, then turned my head.

“I don’t know. I might’ve crossed paths with him somewhere by chance.”

It was better to leave her with a question than to deny it and raise unnecessary doubts.

Leaving those words behind, I departed from Isabel. Even after I left, Isabel simply stood there, silently watching as I disappeared below the wall.