When winter passes, spring arrives.
A moment later.
As soon as the vagrants disappeared into the distance, Shin Sang-yong collapsed to the ground. Almost immediately, a dizzying aftermath swept over his entire body.
“Gasp, gasp!”
His vision spun for a moment. The battle had ended, leaving his mind utterly blank. His heart pounded so fiercely it felt like it was trying to break free from his chest. Overwhelmed by dizziness, Shin Sang-yong quickly calmed his magic circuits and dispelled the summoning.
“Ugh… ugh…”
As he barely managed to regain his composure, the overheated magic circuits began to sear his body.
“Ha… ha…”
He steadied his breathing. Inside, he felt hollow and empty, yet somehow, he was okay with that.
Once he caught his breath, Shin Sang-yong surveyed his surroundings.
Ahn Hyun lay unconscious, blood trickling from his head, but thankfully, he was still alive.
Lee Yoo-jung clutched her chest and side, her face twisted in pain, but she too was alive.
Ahn Sol was still trembling, but she didn’t seem to be seriously injured.
Realizing that everyone was alive, Shin Sang-yong felt a wave of relief wash over him.
“Ah, Ahn Sol.”
“Y-yes?”
“Are you alright?”
“No… my heart and body keep trembling… I’m sorry…”
“Haha, it’s alright. The enemy has retreated. Let’s focus on getting treated…”
Shin Sang-yong struggled to continue speaking and glanced at Ahn Hyun. Understanding his intent, Ahn Sol nodded a couple of times and crawled over to Ahn Hyun.
Shin Sang-yong lay back on the ground. He knew this was the middle of a battlefield, but all he wanted was to rest. He had no strength left.
Just as he was about to rest his head, he felt something soft against his neck. Startled, he looked up to see Lee Yoo-jung biting her lip.
“Oppa.”
“Lee Yoo-jung?”
“Thank you.”
”…”
Her gratitude left him momentarily speechless. His face flushed, and he felt a warmth spreading inside him.
“I’ve never seen you like that before. It was impressive. You should’ve shown that side of you sooner.”
“Haha.”
Her teasing made him chuckle awkwardly and nod.
”…I’m glad we survived.”
At his words, Lee Yoo-jung smiled for the first time since their reunion.
It was then.
“Get up.”
A calm voice suddenly broke the silence, and Shin Sang-yong instinctively sat up. Before him stood the Swordmaster, her face weary.
“It’s not over yet. We’ve only managed to make them retreat.”
“Ah… right. But given the situation and the fact that we can’t see the enemy, maybe we could rest a bit…”
“No.”
Though Shin Sang-yong’s suggestion made sense, the Swordmaster firmly rejected it.
“If they had pushed harder, we might have lost. Yet, Lee Kang-san chose to retreat. I have a bad feeling. We should wake that man, treat him quickly, and leave.”
“Understood.”
Her words were cold but realistic. Shin Sang-yong nodded, feeling a strange sense of familiarity. Earlier, she hadn’t even looked at him, but now she was speaking directly to him.
With effort, Shin Sang-yong got to his feet. As the Swordmaster turned to survey the area, her leg suddenly buckled.
“Ugh!”
“Are you alright?”
He moved to support her, but she shook her head, refusing his help.
”…I’m not okay.”
“Then you should get treated.”
“It’s not something treatment can fix. It’s the side effect of overusing my unique ability.”
“Your unique ability? Well, even so, it’s better than nothing.”
“It’s an ability that enhances my senses to the extreme. It’s fine for short periods, but using it for too long strains my body.”
It was the same ability she had briefly shown during her duel with Kim Soo-hyun. Though she seemed annoyed, she explained it in detail and glanced at Shin Sang-yong.
“I’m in that state now. Aren’t you in a similar condition?”
Understanding dawned on him, and he nodded. A shadow fell over his previously relieved face. He had expended nearly all his strength in the recent battle, leaving him barely able to move. If the Swordmaster was in a similar state…
“What will you do now? What about the encirclement?”
”…I don’t know.”
“Excuse me?”
A thought suddenly struck Shin Sang-yong.
“Have you been using your ability since before we met?”
“I can’t use it for a while. I need to be cautious with my magic.”
Though her answer was somewhat indirect, it was an admission. Shin Sang-yong sighed. He understood her extraordinary detection abilities but was deeply concerned. Just when he thought they had overcome one mountain, another loomed ahead.
Pushing aside negative thoughts, Shin Sang-yong focused on Ahn Sol, who was chanting healing spells.
Healing Ahn Hyun and Lee Yoo-jung was the priority.
There was no time to rest, as the Swordmaster had said. Shin Sang-yong assumed a meditative posture and watched her. Though she had her back to him, he could see her legs trembling slightly.
“Ugh.”
A faint groan reached his ears. He turned to see Ahn Hyun slowly opening his eyes, his face scrunched in pain. Ahn Sol sighed in relief, indicating that he was waking up without issue.
Once Ahn Hyun’s eyes were fully open, he looked around and spoke.
“What… what happened…? Where’s my gear?”
“Hey. Your gear’s over there. Go get it yourself. Let me get treated now.”
“My gear… the gear hyung gave me…”
“Haha. I’ll get it for you.”
Amused by Ahn Hyun’s immediate concern for his equipment, Shin Sang-yong chuckled and stood up. As he walked forward, he saw a helmet, spear, and armor neatly laid out beside a decapitated corpse.
He bent down to pick up the helmet, noticing a pair of delicate hands reaching for the armor from the opposite side. He glanced up to see the Swordmaster looking back at him. He picked up the spear, and just as he was about to stand…
Thud. Thud.
Both Shin Sang-yong and the Swordmaster froze.
Hearing the voice behind him, Shin Sang-yong tried to straighten up.
Whoosh!
Something sliced through the air with a fierce wind.
Thwack!
“Argh!”
“Ugh!”
Both of them cried out in pain.
Shin Sang-yong’s body began to tremble uncontrollably. Slowly, he lowered his gaze. When he finally looked down, he saw a thorny whip protruding from his abdomen. In that instant, the ground seemed to fall away, only to rush back up to meet him.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
His neck twisted painfully as he hit the ground, but it didn’t end there.
Thud!
A second time.
Thud! Crash!
And a third, before the whip twisted free, sending him sprawling forward.
“Hyung?”
“Oppa!”
His breath caught, and pain radiated from his abdomen and throughout his body.
It all happened so fast. He could hear the others rushing toward him, but his mind was spinning. Overwhelmed by pain, he couldn’t even think to breathe.
In that state, Shin Sang-yong forced his eyes open with superhuman effort. He lifted his head to see the others running toward him. Instinctively, he turned his head the other way. There, he saw a woman aiming at them, holding the whip that had pierced him, stained with blood and flesh.
Whoosh!
Without a hint of mercy, the whip lashed out again. In that moment, Shin Sang-yong’s eyes widened. Though he had no strength, he pushed himself up with his hands.
With arms outstretched, Shin Sang-yong’s gaze locked forward.
He saw Ahn Hyun, Ahn Sol, and Lee Yoo-jung. And then—
Smack!
The whip struck his back with a fierce crack, and blood sprayed into the air.
At that moment, darkness enveloped Shin Sang-yong’s vision.
”────!”
”────!”
The others screamed, but he couldn’t hear them. A sharp ringing filled his ears.
”…”
A moment later.
As Shin Sang-yong’s eyes slowly regained focus, the sky began to drift by at a pace so slow he could count the clouds. Time seemed to crawl, as if it had come to a standstill.
Gradually, the sky brightened, eventually washing over his vision in a blinding white.
Before he completely let go of consciousness, a thought crossed his mind.
Could this be the life-flashing-before-your-eyes moment people talk about before they die?
Memories began to flood in like a panorama, and Sang-yong gently closed his eyes.
That winter was bitterly cold. Unusually so.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Flames roared into the night, a scene of chaos and blood.
The source of the fire was an overturned car in the middle of the road. The crumpled vehicle sat engulfed in flames, a lonely figure against the dark.
Inside, two adults huddled protectively around a child. The child looked up at them with trembling eyes. Their gazes met, and one of the adults, with a bloodied hand, gently patted the child’s head and spoke.
“Sang-yong, you must survive. No matter what, you have to make it.”
The child nodded, eyes wide with fear.
Moments later, the scene shifted.
“Stutterer! Stutterer! Look, it’s the stutterer!”
A group of children taunted another child, who stood in the center, looking back at them with a blank expression.
Watching silently, the grandfather spoke just one word.
“Silence.”
The child obeyed. It seemed the only way, as no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the habit.
That child was Shin Sang-yong.
As he realized this, memories began to flicker through his mind one by one.
Time passed again.
Sang-yong kept silent. But his naturally timid nature, combined with his silence, left him isolated. He lived as if he were invisible, and as a result, no one paid him any attention. At times, he was even bullied.
But he was used to it. It was how he had always lived, and he wasn’t the only one.
After all, he had always thought he was… beyond hope.
Yet, there was one thing Sang-yong couldn’t endure: the loneliness that crept in after his grandfather passed away. With no one to lean on, his world was perpetually dark and cold, like winter.
The seasons on Earth changed, but Sang-yong’s personal season remained frozen in winter.
He tried to fight it.
As he grew older, graduated from college, and entered society, things improved slightly. He achieved some success, but his core personality remained unchanged. Though not as severe as in childhood, he still stuttered, which often led to being overlooked. His timid nature frequently put him at a disadvantage.
Still, he thought it was okay.
He had always lived alone.
Then he entered the Hall Plain.
After passing the initiation, Sang-yong fell ill for nearly a week. At first, he cursed the world for bringing him there.
But when he finally got back on his feet, he realized something: the Hall Plain was a world where one couldn’t survive alone. For someone like Sang-yong, who clung desperately to life, adapting was essential. And to adapt, he had to change everything about himself.
Yet, even in the Hall Plain, his life didn’t change.
He tried his best, taking on menial tasks and joining expeditions despite his fears.
But nothing changed.
“Isn’t he too much? Even if he’s a wizard, he’s too aloof. Why join the caravan then?”
“Even if you stutter, you should at least cast spells properly. We almost died.”
“We don’t accept wizards who dabble in alchemy.”
“Ancient language interpretation? Not really interested. We’ll contact you if we find any ancient ruins.”
A year passed.
When Sang-yong finally came to his senses, he found himself alone once more. He thought he had tried his best. He believed that if he waited, spring would come. But nothing changed. The outcome was no different from his life before.
In the end, both in the modern world and the Hall Plain, Sang-yong was still alone. His season remained winter.
Then a thought struck him.
Perhaps he had been passively waiting for spring all along?
The familiar thoughts from his childhood, the ones that had kept him in winter, might have been holding him back.
But by the time he realized this, it was too late. He was already an outcast in the Hall Plain, alone in a world that valued “user information” above all else.
He pondered for days. Then Sang-yong made a bold decision.
For the last time, he would step out into the world.
And during a perilous expedition where he nearly lost his life, he finally met another user.
This user was everything Sang-yong was not. He was proactive, trusted by everyone around him.
Yes, he was like the sun.
Sang-yong thought, perhaps if he stayed close to this sun, his winter might finally thaw.
For the first time, Sang-yong clung to something. It was the first time he had ever reached out instead of retreating.
And the result?
“Alright.”
“Wh-what?”
“Welcome to the team, Shin Sang-yong.”
Reality began to change.
The ice of the endless winter he had been waiting to end started to melt.
A new chapter began in Sang-yong’s life, one that started with the people around him.
“Shin Sang-yong, don’t overdo it.”
“Haha, I don’t think you’re one to talk, Leader.”
“Hahaha! True enough.”
People who had never approached him before began to gather.
“Hey, hey! Sang-yong! Guess what? I’ve been given an important task.”
“Wh-what? An important task?”
“Yes, an important task. Kim Soo-hyun asked me directly! You’ll help, right?”
One by one.
“Hyung! Thanks for your help last time! We work well together, don’t we?”
“Oh, please. You did all the work and now you’re bragging.”
“Exactly.”
One by one.
People began to gather.
Sang-yong was overjoyed to finally find a place where he belonged, a place where he was welcome.
Perhaps that’s why he felt even more heartbroken.
“In the next selection, Shin Sang-yong will be excluded.”
“Being a non-combat user isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
There were clan members far more skilled in magic than he was.
Alchemy was out of the question.
Would he become useless again? Would he return to how things were before? With these thoughts, Sang-yong joined the war, determined to prove his worth.
And the result…
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
Huh?
Startled by the sudden noise, Sang-yong looked up and rubbed his eyes. The white void he had been in was now filled with the familiar faces of his clan members.
He instinctively started to walk towards them but hesitated.
Is there really a place for me there…?
In that moment, memories flowed through his mind like a panorama.
Eating together.
Standing watch together.
Exploring ruins together.
Fighting for their lives together.
Entering the clan house together.
Celebrating festivals in the garden together.
Sang-yong stared blankly at the scenes in his mind. Then, one of them slowly turned around. The man smiled lightly and stepped aside to make room for him. At the same time, all the clan members turned to look at him.
Their welcoming demeanor drew Sang-yong in, and he found himself walking towards them.
And as he finally stepped inside…
“Welcome to the team, Shin Sang-yong…”
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
“───! ───!”
His vision turned white again.
“…….”
He felt no sensation in his body. He couldn’t tell if what he was seeing was real or a dream.
Slowly, his vision began to shake. Through the blur, he saw three familiar faces.
“Hyung! Hyung!”
“Oppa! Oppa! Answer us! Please!”
”───. ───. ───. Healing!”
Ahn Hyun shouted.
Yoo Jung shook him frantically.
Ahn Sol chanted spells desperately.
“Hyung, you can make it. They said you can!”
“Just hold on a little longer! We’re healing you right now, okay?”
I can make it?
The words reached him faintly. Sang-yong slowly parted his lips.
“Thank… goodness…”
“What? Thank goodness? Yes, that’s right! Thank goodness, right?”
At their cries, Sang-yong smiled faintly.
There was still so much he wanted to do, so much he wanted to say.
He wanted to apologize to the kids.
He wanted to boast to his mentor that he could finally summon demons.
He wanted to do something, anything, now that he felt he could be of help.
But contrary to his heart, he felt his body growing colder.
Caught in this conflict of emotions, what could he possibly say?
Sang-yong looked at the three faces watching over him.
“I’m sorry…”
I’m sorry.
“Thank you… so much…”
Thank you so much.
Finally, Sang-yong smiled. And then he cried. He smiled as he cried.
Suddenly, darkness crept into his mind. He had felt his consciousness slipping for a while now.
So, Sang-yong decided he would close his eyes for just a moment.
“Just for a moment…”
“Oppa, what’s wrong? Why are you closing your eyes? Huh?”
For reasons he couldn’t quite grasp, Shin Sang-yong murmured softly to himself, “After winter… comes spring…”
In that moment, something he’d been barely holding onto suddenly snapped.
“Hyung… Hyung…? Hyung…!”
As his eyes slowly closed, Shin Sang-yong thought to himself, If by any chance I can open my eyes again…
“Oppa…?”
Then, I should be ready to welcome the warm spring.
As Shin Sang-yong’s eyes shut completely, tears that had been welling up spilled down his cheeks.
Even amidst the cries of Ahn Hyun and Lee Yoo-jung, Ahn Sol continued to chant healing spells. Her trembling hand rested over his heart, but the heart that had already stopped showed no response. All she could feel was the coldness spreading.
Ahn Sol slowly turned her gaze. Blood from the gaping wound in his abdomen had soaked her robe. Yet, Shin Sang-yong’s face was serene. Despite the blood, his lips were curved in a gentle smile.
Ahn Sol quietly parted her lips.
“Oppa…?”
No answer came.
Just as she was about to speak again—
“Ah…”
Before she could finish, Shin Sang-yong’s head fell limply to the side.
Thump!
In that instant.
Thump, thump!
Ahn Sol’s heart began to pound fiercely.
---------------------------= Author’s Note ---------------------------=
Finished at 4:41 AM. I can still get about three hours of sleep. Haha.
Shin Sang-yong’s part is done. Kim Soo-hyun will appear in the next chapter.
The war has crossed its peak.
What’s left is… well, just the grand finale. (Ouch!)
Hmm. 28K, 17K, 23K. A total of 68K. I’ve published content equivalent to almost five episodes this weekend.
So, I’m planning to take a break on October 29th (Tuesday).
I really burned the midnight oil this weekend. I hope you understand. (You will, right?)
My head feels fuzzy. I need to sleep.
See you on October 30th (Wednesday)!