Chapter 4: The Final Goodbye: Leaving the Past Behind

When we were first summoned to this world,

108 people were divided into various groups.

They were separated by gender, by grade, by club, by the popular and the outcasts.

Amid all that, I wanted to stay with my girlfriend, Chae Yuri.

– What? Uh, well, you see, I’ve already formed a party… Since it’s all girls, I don’t think it would work out to team up with you. Sorry.

But Chae Yuri rejected me.

To be exact, she abandoned me.

Her excuse was that she wanted to form a party with only girls, but later I found out that some guys from her athletic club were also in the group.

The real reason? I was an “Undertaker,” while she was a “Ranged Dealer,” one of the noblest of professions.

You’d think the nobles would usually be tanks, right?

Unfortunately, tanks in this world were seen as the lowest of the low.

We were given the game system as a special feature, but there was no “resurrection.”

Once dead, it was over.

Naturally, the tank, standing at the forefront, was always at the greatest risk of dying first.

Even those who received the tank job were afraid of going to the front lines, so they threw away their shields.

– Damn it, you want me to go up front and die?!

– What are you saying? Aren’t you a man? Didn’t you serve in the military?!

– What does that have to do with anything, you son of a—

The group quickly fell apart.

No one wanted to take the lead, and when the humans of this world saw the heroes avoiding battle, they were disillusioned with us.

Meanwhile, I, as someone who had been given the job of an Undertaker, became a person not even the humans of this world wanted around.

When my party offer was rejected, and even after that, Chae Yuri never helped me.

Even though she had joined the Royal Mage Corps and later became a Royal Mage herself, she kept her distance from me.

All the love we shared on Earth vanished into thin air.

Once she decided that I was of no benefit to her, she threw me away.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Chae Yuri was at a loss for words.

I couldn’t read her mind, but from my long experience, I knew she was plotting something.

Thinking of ways to convince me, to win me over.

“Siwoo, listen… I don’t know what you think of me, but it’s all a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?”

What a load of nonsense.

“I didn’t abandon you because you’re an Undertaker. It wasn’t that at all, it was just… the situation at the time…”

“So, did you ever even try to find me?”

“When we were celebrating our victory, you ignored me like I didn’t exist. As if we’d never had any relationship back on Earth, you treated me like a stranger.”

“Siwoo, that’s not—”

“Chae Yuri. Why don’t you just stay here?”

I put the ring back into my pocket.

“You can keep living it up as a Royal Mage, and from here on, you’ll have nothing but a luxurious life ahead of you.”

“This isn’t Earth…!”

“Haha, that’s right. You were so excited about going back to Earth and using magic there.”

Not that I’d heard her say it directly.

It was something I had heard from others.

“If you can use magic, living here wouldn’t be inconvenient. Why bother going back to Earth? Just live here.”

“I want to go back to Earth…! Huh? Siwoo, please, I’m begging you like this…!”

Chae Yuri came close to the bars and knelt down.

“Please, take me with you. You know my parents. You’ve met my family, right? Please?”

“Yeah, I met your family once, that’s about it. Now you’re trying to use them as leverage? How about you make a new family and live here instead?”

“Hey!! I…!”

Chae Yuri raised her voice but immediately caught herself, clamping her mouth shut in surprise.

“Your temper is something else, huh? Hey, Yuri. Are you that desperate? You really want to go back to Earth? Enough to abandon everything you’ve achieved here?”

She nodded frantically.

The heroes had split into two groups:

Those who chose to continue living in this world.

And those who, no matter the cost, wanted to return to Earth.

Chae Yuri, if I had to categorize her, belonged to the latter group. Just without the “no matter the cost” part.

“Well, I guess there’s no choice. Sorry to the others, but…”

I knelt on one knee in front of Chae Yuri.

“I’ll just have to pick someone who fought alongside me.”

“Siwoo! …Huh?”

“…You’ve never done that, have you?”

I smiled faintly at her.

“While we were fighting on the frontlines against the Demon King’s army, where do you think you were, Chae Yuri?”

“T-that was…”

“Oh, right, you were casting magic bombardments from afar? Taking it easy behind the lines? Or are you going to say you were doing your best? But you were part of the Kingdom’s rear guard!”

This woman.

She had never once stood on the front lines facing the threat of death.

That’s why she’s still alive.

The reason she survived until now is because she avoided the battlefield.

Even when she did go to battle, she stayed in the rear, casting long-range magic bombardments.

And even more so…

“Do you remember Yoonjeong?”

“…!”

Chae Yuri’s expression faltered visibly.

Yoonjeong. A girl with the family name Yoon, and the given name Jeong, was one of the wizards who had a noble profession, like Chae Yuri.

And she was dead.

The Demon King’s army wasn’t stupid enough to just leave the mages bombarding them from the rear alone. They sent assassins to attack the backline.

“Before she died, Yoonjeong said something. That Chae Yuri, that damn bitch, abandoned her and ran away.”

“That’s…!”

“Do you have something to say? Because I heard her last words myself.”

Yoonjeong could have survived if Chae Yuri had helped.

But Chae Yuri ran away, leaving her behind.

Chae Yuri, that rotten bitch!!

“…You wouldn’t have heard it yourself. You used a teleportation spell to escape while the demon assassin stabbed Yoonjeong in the stomach.”

“I had no choice! If I died, the magic defense line would have collapsed!”

“Yeah, you had no choice. But I still heard her dying words. Yoonjeong said this.”

I grabbed Chae Yuri’s hands tightly, now outside the bars.

“She said, if that bitch Chae Yuri dies, make sure to bury her next to her.”

“Hey!!”

“We promised to die together, didn’t we? Yoonjeong died in this world, so shouldn’t you die here with her too?”

“D-don’t do this…! Please? Huh?”

As soon as I let go of her hands, Chae Yuri grabbed the bars with tearful eyes.

“Siwoo, please. Just give me one more chance.”

“…What do you think you’re doing right now?”

“Let’s go back to Earth together. I’ll treat you well, I promise. Don’t you want to go back with someone who will stay by your side, someone you’ll keep being with from now on?”

Chae Yuri leaned forward.

“I can be your girlfriend again, right?”

Knowing exactly what weapon she held in her hands, Chae Yuri glared at me with determination in her eyes.

“Siwoo, you know I really love you, right…? We were good together, weren’t we?”

“…Yeah, we were.”

If it weren’t for this world, we might have been wearing rings by now, celebrating our first anniversary on a trip to Jeju Island or abroad.

We were that close, that good together.

We knew everything about each other, knew what made each other happy. We even spent nights together when she was scared.

But…

“The love just fizzled out somewhere along the way. Too bad.”

I took a step back without hesitation.

“I came to confirm one last time, whether I’m just a pathetic fool or if I’ve really made up my mind.”

“…What?”

“I’m really sorry, but you just don’t make my heart flutter anymore.”

If there had been even a sliver of those feelings left from when we were together… maybe things would be different.

But to me now, you’re nothing. Just ‘the ex.’ Got it?”

“Hey, hey…!!”

Once again, Chae Yuri’s eyes sharpened into a venomous glare.

“You bastard…! Do you really think you can escape to Earth alone?! You can’t! You can’t go alone, right?! You need to pair up with someone here to go back, don’t you?!”

“Wrong.”

“Liar!! Don’t act like you don’t need anyone! If you were really serious about leaving, you would’ve left for Earth the moment you woke up!”

True. There was no way to return to Earth alone, I needed to take someone with me.

“Siwoo, please. I’ve worked the hardest out of everyone here. The other girls didn’t even level up, and they haven’t fought the demons! It has to be me…! Not those—”

“I know. Yeah, it’s really insane, but out of all the trash here, you’re the best pick.”

Objectively speaking, if we held a democratic vote and gave everyone in the continent one vote, Chae Yuri would probably get the most.

At least she fought.

She never faced the Demon King directly on the frontlines, and she abandoned her friend to save herself, but she did fight in the rear, so I have to give her that.

“Right? I’ll really work hard from now on. I promise, I’ll—”

“You should’ve worked harder from the start.”

“I wanted to! But look what happened!!”

“Yeah. You can’t undo what’s already been done, just like you can’t turn back time.”

I gave her my brightest smile.

“Yuri, cheer up! I’m sure you’ll do just fine in this world. I believe in you!”

“YAAAAAHHH!!”

I turned around without hesitation.

Chae Yuri screamed insults, curses, and even slung some disgusting slurs at me, but all those words felt like compliments to me.

“Can’t even go back to Earth, you pathetic loser.”

As I walked out of the prison, I felt relieved once more.

“…Thank goodness.”

I’m not a fool after all.

“I was worried for a moment that my feelings might waver because she’s my ex, but nope, nothing at all.”

The moment I thought I had to leave,

the moment I fiddled with the ring in front of Chae Yuri,

the woman who came to mind as the owner of this ring was not her.

“…The Saintess.”

“Yes.”

Ahead of me, a pale-faced Saintess approached. I reached out my hand toward her.

“I will come back for you. I promise.”

“…I’ll wait.”

I could disappear with peace of mind.

Morning came.

‘Undertaker,’ gone missing.