At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 266
Even without Jiwoo saying anything aloud, Kaman seemed to sense exactly what she was thinking.
“I…I’m okay. But what about you, El? What happened…?”
Kaman answered, not even bothering to wipe away his tears as he anxiously checked over Jiwoo again and again.
“Did you wait long?”
“It felt like you just disappeared and then reappeared out of nowhere.”
Maybe because he’d been left in such a nerve-wracking place, but to Jiwoo, it felt as if she’d spent much more time on the other side than he had.
Was it really possible to feel such despair after only a moment apart?
For them, losing a spouse meant that the manifestation had either abandoned them or gone somewhere completely unreachable, a separation with almost no hope of reunion.
Those without a partner were left vulnerable to all the mishaps that happened in El Ragneil. In other words, their chance of survival dropped drastically.
So, even without considering the emotional aspect, losing a spouse could be as traumatic as facing death itself.
As Jiwoo wiped the damp streaks from Kaman’s cheeks, she said softly.
“I’m not going anywhere. Where would I go, leaving you all behind?”
“Then, then… will you really come over here, Jiwoo?”
Kaman glanced nervously at Jiwoo’s foot, still lingering half in the threshold between spaces, and held her hand tightly. Yet, even in his desperation, he didn’t dare pull her toward him. He was careful, even now.
‘So to him, it looked like I just vanished and came right back…’
If place didn’t matter, maybe time didn’t either. Could she just come back now?
Jiwoo glanced behind her, the rift in space hadn’t fully closed yet, its mouth still open into utter darkness. But now, that darkness didn’t seem nearly as frightening as before.
Kaman was clearly unsettled by the fact that Jiwoo hadn’t crossed all the way over yet, but Jiwoo herself felt she shouldn’t close this door just yet.
But before she could decide, someone called out…
“El! Is it really El?”
Both Kaman and Jiwoo turned toward the voice.
“El, ah… El! El, is that really you?”
It was Tyrinos, who, when dealing with Jiwoo and her husbands, had always kept a proud, aloof air. But now, running toward Seel, his voice broke with emotion.
“It’s really El. You’ve finally come back to us, haven’t you? Ah… El, you have no idea how many seasons I counted waiting for you. How we’ve lived, or rather, how we’ve just been dead inside…”
It seemed that for Tyrinos, a world without El was a world not worth living in. Judging from his words and the way he’d thrown himself into danger, it was clear he’d been prepared to die if this failed.
Half crawling, Tyrinos hurried to Seel, then knelt and clung to her hand, rubbing his cheek against it as if the rest of the world didn’t exist.
“But… how did you end up like this?”
He finally asked the question a moment later, implying that the Seel standing here looked very different from the one he remembered.
The body Seel had before, that had been given by the tree, had been torn apart and lost. Now, Jiwoo had helped her form a new one, and so Seel was now about the same height as Jiwoo, with jet-black hair.
“Ah… How could I not recognize El?”
Seel didn’t answer, but after a thousand years together, Tyrinos seemed to understand everything without words.
“El’s voice is lovelier than birdsong, your breath sweeter than morning dew, because you are El. The body doesn’t matter, as long as it’s El. What matters most is what El wants, your feelings are everything to me.”
At first, Jiwoo had thought him insufferable.
But seeing Tyrinos with his blood-soaked shirt, his face contorted between a smile and tears as he kept murmuring El’s name, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
She’d planned to scold him for all the trouble, but seeing him now, she couldn’t help but compare him to her own husbands.
Would they end up like this, if they were ever separated by an accident?
Seel reached out and gently patted Tyrinos’s hair. For once, even her expressionless face softened with a pure, childlike smile.
Watching Tyrinos’s face light up as if a whole field of flowers had bloomed, Jiwoo realized he hadn’t exaggerated about having been ‘dead’ without El. Maybe, after loving for a thousand years, it really could be that desperate.
For Jiwoo, who’d never even outlived a human lifespan, such devotion seemed unimaginable.
“This is the body Seo Jiwoo restored for me.”
“…Ah.”
It was only then that Tyrinos seemed to notice Jiwoo was even there, slowly turning to look her way.
Seel commented quietly,
“My other half took advantage of your kindness.”
Jiwoo could only give an awkward smile. It wasn’t the first time her kindness had been taken advantage of, but this was the first time it hadn’t ended up hurting her in some way.
If it had, her husbands certainly wouldn’t have stood for it.
Though Tyrinos looked a bit apologetic, the children of Ellandos had a tendency to fall silent whenever their partner was present.
Kaman, however, was so annoyed he ground his teeth loud enough for Jiwoo to hear.
“…”
“It’s okay, Kaman. Really.”
Jiwoo squeezed his trembling hand, gently stroking it to comfort him. Then, she turned to the host of this place.
“Seel, I think it’s time for me to go back.”
“Rest first. I have something to give you.”
It was clear Seel didn’t just want Jiwoo to rest, but had a good gift in mind, too.
But Jiwoo slowly shook her head.
“Thank you, but it’s alright. Seeing you all, I’m sure my husbands are waiting for me.”
rivier
Yes come back home