I Gave Up on Conquering the Heroines

I think I’m dreaming.

Everyone is looking up at the sky.

Thinking that they’re seeing a pillar of light that looks like it descended from heaven.

But in the midst of it all, Jill is looking not at the sky, but straight ahead.

Feeling similarly that she might be dreaming.

Dumbfounded.

“Ah… Aaaah?”

A silly sound burst from Jill’s mouth.

The sound of the airship twisting and crashing through the sky quickly drowned it out.

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the heavens, and no one noticed that Jill was crawling on the earth, dirtying her clothes.

With mana exhaustion, every time she tried to support herself, she trembled like a newly born calf.

But Jill did not stop.

No. She couldn’t stop.

Ahead of her, in her wavering line of sight, was a man.

A man holding a pillar of light in his hand.

The man she had desperately called for and searched for in her dreams was right there.

Is this another dream?

Didn’t she just have a dream that felt as vivid as this?

And then was she not betrayed by hope yet again?

So this time, is she being tricked into believing?

Is she struggling, knowing it’s a dream, yet knowing she has to wake up eventually?

No, this time is different.

Something is different.

Jill used every ounce of her strength, trembling from the spasms and the intense pain coursing through her limbs, and crawled desperately on the ground.

In her dreams, she always just waited for Yoo Jin.

If she stayed still, Yoo Jin would come to her.

But this time it was different.

She had to grab him right now.

If she didn’t catch him now, she felt an ominous chill that she might lose him forever.

She had to reach him.

She had to touch him.

Yearning so desperately.

As her tongue twisted, making unintelligible sounds escape her lips, she extended her hand.

“Ah…!”

At that moment.

Yoo Jin, who had been standing firmly, suddenly crumbled.

Naturally breaking his fall was a pale-faced Blood Ghoul girl, gently laying him down.

Her expression was emotionless, as if she had no clue what she was thinking.

The Blood Ghoul girl supported Yoo Jin’s head with her knee and swept his bangs aside.

A fleeting smile crossed her lips, one that showed no trace of joy.

It was a smile with an ominous corner, for reasons unknown.

“Ah… Just a little more… let me sleep a little…”

“…I’ll stay here. I’ll watch over you.”

“Thanks. I’m so tired, really.”

Why? Why is she saying things like that?

Jill’s pupils were darting around.

As if it were just the two of them in the world, their eyes met, and Yoo Jin gently closed his eyes.

Strength faded from her limbs.

Yoo Jin’s lips curled into a smile.

A serene expression like someone who has been freed from all pain in the world.

“Get some rest.”

“…Yeah.”

What does that even mean?

A voice filled with questions escaped Jill’s tired mouth.

“Get some rest” means what exactly?

Is she really saying she just went to rest?

Jill’s eyes took on a faint blue hue.

Through her long-awakened eyes, she perceived things invisible to ordinary people.

What she could only see as a faint fog before was now clearer than ever.

Ghostly wails screaming grotesquely.

Phantoms that had long lost their reason, merely wandering the underworld.

Amidst them, a radiant spirit emerged.

From Yoo Jin’s body.

“Ah! Aaaah!!!”

Words turned to broken fragments spilled out.

Even Jill herself didn’t know what she was trying to say.

She was merely blabbering as her feelings burst forth.

Desperately reaching out to grasp the rising light, but it slipped away just out of her reach, soaring up into the sky.

Wondering if she had seen it wrong, she turned her gaze.

Yoo Jin’s body still looked at peace.

His chest heaving, taking proper breaths as he appeared to be drifting off into a sweet slumber.

But Jill could see.

Inside, there was a void.

That something essential for a sentient being was missing, she could clearly see.

“Ah, ah! No…!”

Crawling forward in anguish or perhaps screaming, Jill finally reached Yoo Jin.

With hands dirty and bloodied, she caressed his cheek.

For a brief moment, a look of confusion flickered across the Blood Ghoul girl’s face, but Jill paid it no mind.

“Don’t go. Don’t go… Please… Huh, huuh…”

Looking up at the sky, the pure white and beautiful glowing spirit was already far away.

From the beginning, there was no way to catch it, and now she felt she had missed the moment entirely.

They say that among the dead, very rarely do some escape the underworld’s sight to wander in the current world.

But for Yoo Jin, it seemed he would simply be pulled up straight away.

“Priestess…?”

Yulia, stumbling closer, widened her eyes.

In an instant, the alcohol’s effects faded, and reality slammed before her.

It was all so sudden that she couldn’t laugh or cry, merely standing there dumbstruck.

It was the possibility she had been somewhat ignoring.

That Yoo Jin wouldn’t come back alive.

Thinking she had to suppress such hope to survive…

Even though the future she had wished for was unfolding before her eyes, Yulia’s gaze was filled with fear.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

Jill is wailing.

Tearing her heart apart.

It was more desperate than the day Yoo Jin vanished.

On that day, there had been no corpse of Yoo Jin.

But now, he was in Jill’s grasp.

Jill caressed Yoo Jin’s cheek, stroked him, and held his hand, trying everything to elicit a response, eventually resting her forehead against his chest and weeping.

Stumbling over, Yulia sat on the ground.

Then she took hold of Yoo Jin’s other hand.

It’s warm.

It’s pulsing.

It was undoubtedly the hand of a living person.

And yet, Yulia quickly sensed the reason for Jill’s weeping.

Yoo Jin’s hand did not feel like Yoo Jin’s hand.

The touch, warmth, and scent were all Yoo Jin, but strangely, the sensation of that hand felt different.

Yulia had come to accept Yoo Jin’s touch slowly and over time.

But this hand felt more like a lifeless chunk of wood…

Even though it was still alive.

Clearly, the heart was beating and he was breathing.

But something invisible seemed to be missing.

Come to think of it, hadn’t the Priestess vaguely mentioned that she could see spirits?

If that were the case, wasn’t it strange that the Priestess had looked up, suddenly appearing distressed…?

Yulia felt her heart drop.

“What is this? What’s going on?! Why…! Ah!”

In a flurry, Yerina rushed in, barely keeping her eyelids from drooping with exhaustion.

She quickly grasped the situation.

Memories of her origins re-emerged.

Recalling the times she had spent with Yoo Jin in her world, and how she had used Frost-style secrets to bring Yoo Jin back.

Her chest swelled with emotion.

Seeing Jill and Yulia pouring their hearts out with tears made her eyes brim, but she held it back for the moment.

An emotional response had to wait; rational action was the priority.

“What’s going on?! Speak up, you frustrating girls!”

To Yerina, Jill and Yulia’s uncontrollable crying was simply maddening.

Were they telepathically connected, or something?

How could they not look at each other and still somehow synchronize their sobbing in this outrageous situation? It was a mystery.

“Uuhhuh…! Huh! Uuhh… Yoo Jin…! Yoo Jin…!”

“Ah! Quickly! Isn’t this urgent? Blow your nose!”

“Huhhh!”

“So what then? If all you’re doing is crying, who’s going to solve this?!”

“Y-Yoo Jin…! His soul…! I-I can’t feel it…”

“Yoo Jin…! Huh…! His soul is…! Going to the skies…! Aaaaah!”

Yerina was about to explode.

But what, are they just going to keep crying?

They had to do something!

Whatever it is, they needed to take action!

“This little guy…! I just brought him back, and now he’s trying to die in front of me!”

Thwack!

In a fury, Yerina grabbed Yoo Jin’s chin.

Then with a smooch, or rather a chu! sound that was more fitting, she pressed her lips against his.

Jill and Yulia’s faces turned incredulous, their tears momentarily drying up.

“What are you doing?! Shouldn’t we be doing something to bring Yoo Jin’s soul back?!”

“W-What should we…?”

“How am I supposed to know?! If all we do is cry, clearly that isn’t going to bring him back!”

“…!”

Clumsily, Jill and Yulia began to move as well.

Holding Yoo Jin’s hand, they infused their own will into his.

Crying into his mouth, spilling their tears.

Taking turns to kiss him, they pleaded.

Come back.

Don’t leave.

Stay here with us, their hearts wished fervently.

All the while, Mi Jeong watched, closing her eyes tight and pondering.

‘…What are they doing?’

She had really just gone for a short break.

Just to see the face of her future boss.

They were making such a fuss over nothing at all.

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