As soon as he opened his eyes, he checked his status window first.

Status: Remaining lifespan 3 days 17 hours 41 minutes

The desperate numbers flickered as if mocking him. His vision flickered along with it. A high-pitched ringing sound came from somewhere. He just felt dazed.

“Where are you trying to go again?”

It seems he had tried to leave the bed aimlessly like a sleepwalker. Only after feeling the grip tightly squeezing his waist did he realize. He was lying in Choi Gang-hu’s broad embrace.

“Do you really want to see me go crazy?”

The bright afternoon sunlight gently caressed his head. The harshly scolding voice sounded as pleasant as bird chirping. An overwhelming peacefulness tightly squeezed his throat.

“I can’t take my eyes off you for a moment…”

The words that continued as if scolding him while turning his body around stopped abruptly.

“Why are you crying?”

The suddenly lowered voice held bewilderment. His vision was blurred and he couldn’t see his expression. An incomprehensible sadness choked his chest.

The touch of the thumb wiping his eyes was moist. Only then could he realize. He had been crying endlessly without even knowing it.

The warmth of the hand cupping his cheek made it impossible to stop the tears. When he tried hard to close his eyes tightly and open them again, the handsome face that was always impressive filled his vision.

“Ryu Seo-ha.”

He felt as if the green hill standing somewhere in his heart was crumbling. The tears that had been falling drop by drop poured down like a waterfall. His breath caught.

What more should I do here? What more can I do? He had struggled non-stop, utilizing all available means. Pretending to be composed and enduring stubbornly.

Perhaps the one he had been deceiving wasn’t just Choi Gang-hu. He had kept ignoring his inner fears, telling himself it was okay because there were other methods.

Even as all those means turned useless one by one, he didn’t let go of the thread of hope. And finally, he reached the end.

At the end of the dead-end road he had run breathlessly, there was nothing left. A terrible sense of helplessness choked him. He was scared. So, so scared.

“…Just cry out loud instead.”

He couldn’t bring himself to follow the sympathetic suggestion. He couldn’t open his mouth. It felt like the dark emotions swelling explosively would burst out chaotically.

Ryu Seo-ha desperately grasped the dry collar. Just when it seemed he could finally live like a person. Why does happiness always leave only afterimages and disappear so quickly?

Like a mirage that seems within reach but can’t be touched, seems graspable but can’t be grasped. Was this punishment for a sinner who should spend a lifetime atoning daring to desire happiness?

“It’s okay to cry.”

The soft voice soothing his wounded heart, the gentle touch stroking his back, encouraged the sobs he was trying hard to swallow. He wanted to wail out loud.

He wanted to cling to him who willingly offered his embrace and beg. Please save me. Sobs seeped into his rapid breathing.

“Huu…”

I don’t want to die.

“Huuup…”

He wanted to live. He wanted to live and be happy. Like others, taking a pleasant nap once a week, ordering delivery food once a month, just like that.

Maybe he had been puffed up with insubstantial expectations, seeing his sister recover and receiving love beyond his station. That life would be different from now on, that he would surely be happy if he just overcame this one hurdle.

Didn’t they say that a very small hope makes a person much more miserable than a great despair? The moment the dream he had been holding onto until the end was snatched away, he could feel that reason cruelly vividly.

“Hic, Choi Gang-hu…”

The clear morning sunlight felt terribly sad. The soft touch of the blanket, the warmth on his cheek, the breath tickling his eyelashes, all of it.

“Yes, I’m here.”

The pleasant voice painfully stabbed his heart.

“…Choi Gang, hu…”

Even while thinking his slurred pronunciation and thoroughly wet voice must sound unsightly, he couldn’t stop repeating his name.

“Yes.”

The voice that answered without neglecting a single call, the touch that kept patting his back without rest, caused a stinging pain in one corner of his chest.

He stayed like that for a long time, crying, calling, in his embrace. Until Choi Gang-hu’s top was completely soaked as if dipped in water.

“…”

When he was too exhausted from crying and no more tears would come out, Ryu Seo-ha blankly stared at the fluttering curtain beyond the large body firmly wrapping around him.

The spring wind peeking its head through the tumbling sunlight gently brushed his drooping arm as it passed. Spring was coming already. The change of seasons he usually didn’t pay much attention to suddenly felt poignant.

Even if his life faded away, his sister and Choi Gang-hu would continue living in this world. He doesn’t regret saving his sister with the elixir. Even if given several more chances, he would probably make the same choice.

“Have you calmed down a bit now?”

Choi Gang-hu, who had been silently embracing him, softly spoke up. He was like a guardian tree always standing in the same place, watching over the village unchangingly.

“Yes…”

A harsh metallic sound flowed out between his dry lips. He felt severe thirst and not a bit of strength entered his muscles throughout his body.

As he lay limp unable to move a muscle like someone who had collapsed after finishing a marathon, Choi Gang-hu sighed and pressed his lips to his swollen eyelids.

“Can you tell me the reason?”

He couldn’t immediately answer the voice asking quietly as if muttering to himself. After the fear that had swept through his heart like a storm, suffocating guilt overwhelmed him.

He shouldn’t have said he liked him so easily. No matter how much of a mistake it was, it was too selfish an action. Deep regret stabbed his ribs.

The image of his precious ones who would be left behind without knowing anything constricted his heart. Should he confess honestly? At this point? It would only cause pain. Should he just leave for somewhere no one knows?

“…Choi Gang-hu.”

“Yes?”

There was something he had to do first before deciding on a direction.

“Let’s rewrite our contract.”

❖ ❖ ❖

After checking on Ryu Jeong-ah who was still deep in sleep, Ryu Seo-ha moved to the living room. This time too, Choi Gang-hu contacted the guild’s legal team without asking for details.

“You requested to modify the contract?”

The guild’s chief lawyer, who had rushed in out of breath, asked as if to confirm as soon as he sat down. The partner lawyer who came with him quickly spread out a bundle of documents.

“Yes.”

His eyes were drawn to the phrases he had written while ignoring the approaching death and not letting go of the thread of hope. It was a contract listing amounts he had never even dreamed of in his lifetime.

“Exactly what content…”

“First, I’d like to include a clause on the obligation to provide information.”

“Pardon?”

“The obligation to provide From Hell Guild with information equivalent to the value of the elixir received a few days ago.”

“What do you mean…”

“Also the obligation to return the contract money, last month’s salary received in advance, and special allowances.”

The lawyers made strange expressions at the unexpected content. While glancing at their boss, Choi Gang-hu, sitting firmly next to Ryu Seo-ha.

It was clear they were spreading their wings of imagination in their heads, wondering if perhaps the two had fallen out. Anyone would if they understood the content of the proposal.

After all, he had come forward suggesting to add clauses that were not at all advantageous to himself. Ryu Seo-ha continued speaking, disregarding the awkward atmosphere.

“Instead, if the value of the information provided to the guild exceeds the price of one bottle of elixir.”

He hesitated for a moment. It was because his older sister’s face flickered before his eyes. When she finds out about this measure later, she’ll be furiously angry rather than pleased.

“I’d like the difference to be paid under my sister’s name.”

But it couldn’t be helped. If he leaves this world, Ryu Jeong-ah will become the sole heir. He needed to sort out parts that could become problematic in advance.

“Under your sister’s name? That’s a complicated procedure… There are also various tax issues, so it’s disadvantageous in terms of the amount received.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The lawyers again glanced at Choi Gang-hu. Only after he nodded while deep in thought with his arms crossed did they fumble to take out a new contract. The modifications were completed quickly.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Choi Gang-hu, who had been quietly glaring at the backs of the departing lawyers, asked calmly.

“…Thank you.”

He nodded and conveyed his sincere gratitude. He hadn’t thought he would comply so readily. Especially with demands made suddenly without even explaining the reason.

“I fully understand your concern for your sister.”

Suddenly swallowing a magic stone in an outlandish act, crying his eyes out as if the world had ended, and then overhauling the content of his employment contract.

Looking at it from a step back, there’s no one as troublesome as this, yet Choi Gang-hu said he understood him without batting an eye. His heart throbbed.

“I understand providing information, but how do you plan to return the received amounts?”

He might think he’s being capricious due to the shock of having to suddenly face his sister’s death. Whatever the reason, he was just grateful.

“It’s shameless, but there’s something I’d like to ask for that.”

But it was far too early to feel relieved. He also needed to resolve the debt created by Go Young-hoon, which had now passed into Choi Gang-hu’s hands. Of course, he had no intention of asking for it to be forgiven for free.

“You’re blocking my sister’s exposure to the media, right?”

After Ryu Seo-ha lost consciousness in the pool, healers from the guild had been coming and going to the mansion. But there hadn’t been a single article or news about Ryu Jeong-ah’s revival.

“I’d like you to lift the embargo.”