Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 121

As blood welled up, Lee Jae unknowingly turned around.

It wasn’t because of the sound of footsteps. She sensed a familiar presence approaching.

Upon seeing the King, she shook her head with a desperate expression.

“Don’t come! I told you I could do it! I’m fine, so please, just stay back!”

It was a firm cry, but Roderick wouldn’t yield to her this time.

His voice was chilling.

Yet, it betrayed a fierce emotion he couldn’t quite contain.

“I’ve decided not to listen to you anymore.”

“……”

“Everything you say about being fine is a lie anyway. Shouldn’t you have been more moderate so I could pretend to be fooled?”

He drew his sword and asked.

“Where is it? Is it here?”

“……”

“Where do I need to cut?”

“……”

“I feel like I’m really going crazy, so tell me quickly!”

“Come out.”

He finally pulled Lee Jae behind him, who couldn’t answer.

And he swung his sword down where Lee Jae had been touching just moments before.

Physical force couldn’t violate spiritual power.

As if proving that, a stream of blood flowed from the King’s mouth.

Lee Jae clung to his arm, begging him to stop.

But the King didn’t back down in the face of this intangible barrier.

He looked utterly devastated.

‘Lee Jae. The truth is, I’m suffering. I can’t see what you’re fighting against. That always makes me feel miserable and pathetic.’

If only I could see the same scenery as you, just once.

Then I could stand before you… and tell you how I feel.

Just like you did, I want to protect you always.

The King suppressed the rising sorrow and desperately wished.

And with all his might, he poured his heart into the sword.

It was at that moment. An unreal light began to gather at the sharp tip of the sword.

The boy king quietly watched the auspicious radiance.

He was the spirit who had waited five hundred years to complete the great work.

Those who embrace a great cause must always endure criticism.

He couldn’t grant anything Lee Jae wanted, but he had to grant what the human he protected desperately wished for, even at the cost of her life.

That was the role borne by the guardian spirit.

The perpetuity of Cayenne. The completion of the great work.

The moment his great cause and Roderick’s wish intersected, he was finally able to break the law once more and intervene in the mortal world.

The boy king reached out and granted Roderick sight.

Then, a scene unfolded before Roderick’s eyes that he had never imagined.

“Lee Jae. What… what is this?”

Inside and outside the barrier, groaning vengeful spirits were swarming.

With horrifying faces, festering and rotten, they mocked humans and poured out curses.

A pitch-black pit was open in front of the mansion, and the demons crawling out of it looked as if they had risen from hell.

It was a chilling sight, but the King, who had been staring at the scene in bewilderment, soon became saddened.

“You… you were smiling at me while looking at something like this?”

“Ah, no…”

“How could you always do that…? Why did you…”

Kang Lee Jae sobbed as if in despair.

She shook her head and looked at the boy king.

Her eyes were full of resentment and sorrow.

“Please take it away! I… I was wrong. It was wrong of me to dare to think I wanted to see the same scenery as people!”

I was so lonely. I was so scared too.

But love isn’t like this.

“How can this be? How can you do this? If I was wrong, you can punish me! Why do the people I love have to see this!”

Lee Jae knelt before the boy king and bowed her head.

But after watching her weep sorrowfully for a while, Roderick lifted her up.

No. Lee Jae, love is like this.

Holding her hand tightly, his blue eyes were endlessly strong.

“Lee Jae. I will be forever grateful to have seen the same scenery as you. I will live considering it the greatest luck of my life, a stroke of heavenly fortune.”

“……”

“So don’t cry.”

Sending Lee Jae behind him again, the King looked at the massive flow of energy blocking their path.

Having finally grasped the reality of the barrier, he no longer hesitated.

The king once again poured himself into the sword, and the sword imbued with the heart of an extraordinary person was indeed a holy sword.

The barrier began to shake with a loud, shattering sound.

More blood than before flowed from the King’s mouth.

However, he didn’t let go of the sword and continued to pour in the royal family’s energy.

The shaking barrier and the unwavering back of the human.

Lee Jae stared at that steadfast back and reached out her trembling hand.

And she placed her hand on the back of his hand holding the sword.

Roderick looked at her for a moment.

‘Lee Jae. I don’t care if everyone curses me. If only one person in this world, you, believes in me, I can do anything.’

‘Your Majesty, you can do it. You can definitely win.’

Lee Jae added her energy to the holy sword.

The hearts of two people flow into one sword.

Although they were clearly different energies, the moment they desperately wished for the same thing, an explosive energy erupted from the sword.

Roderick and Lee Jae watched the dazzling spectacle together.

The miraculous blue light filled the barrier.

The vengeful spirits that coveted humans were crumbling like a handful of ashes in the realm of that light.

Soon, a cracking sound like shattering glass rang in the ears of the two.

The barrier that had surrounded them on all sides collapsed in that way.

The King looked back and immediately signaled to the knights.

It was a signal to chase after the prince’s party without delay.

Lee Jae gasped for breath with a pale face, as if she would collapse at any moment.

Her hands trembled even more than before, but she pointed to the front of the mansion with her finger and said.

“Your Majesty, we have to destroy the demon gate.”

But the King only looked around with a stern face.

Growing anxious, she grabbed the King’s hand and shook it.

“Quickly. If we leave it like that, other people will die.”

The King silently picked up Lee Jae and walked towards the knight commander, who was giving instructions.

He entrusted her small body to his friend.

“Jade, please take care of my wife.”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

“Lee Jae, I’ll be right back. Just wait a little.”

Jade had the knights spread out a robe and laid Lee Jae on it.

Soon, people surrounded her tightly.

The King’s momentum as he walked towards the demon gate was unstoppable.

But Lee Jae couldn’t hide her worried heart.

I want to help, I wanted to do all the hard work.

Having already exhausted too much energy, she had no strength left.

Just as Lee Jae, who was very anxious, was trying to get up somehow.

The guarding knights all looked embarrassed, but she soon smiled.

Because she could know the result without watching from the side.

Lee Jae could feel it. An even greater energy than before was covering the whole world.

The King thrust the holy sword into the demon gate and finally destroyed the passage.

The blue energy surging before her eyes was endlessly clear. Lee Jae murmured.

“It’s water…”

She smiled brightly and dipped her hand into the water.

Lee Jae blinked and opened her eyes.

It was the same place as before, and she was still lying on the robe.

It was fleeting, but she seemed to have lost consciousness.

“Your Majesty the Queen, are you alright?”

“Everything is settled, so His Majesty will be here soon.”

Jade and the knights were looking at her with worried faces.

But what caught Lee Jae’s eye first was not them but another being.

It was the boy king.

-I’m leaving now.

“Where to?”

When Lee Jae spoke to the air, the knights flinched even though they knew the situation. Of course, neither the boy king nor she cared.

-I’ve seen the great work completed, so I have to achieve enlightenment too. I’ve waited five hundred years, surely you don’t want me to stay here any longer, do you?

The boy king asked playfully, and she smiled embarrassedly.

Because she remembered writing a talisman [a paper inscribed with supernatural powers] wishing for longevity, hoping to win him over at heart.

“Um, I’m sorry.”

-What is it now?

“I know it’s harder to endure while knowing everything than not knowing anything at all. I’m sorry for resenting and complaining even though I knew everything.”

The boy king, who hadn’t particularly taken it to heart and just thought it was cute, shrugged.

-I know you were like that because you had no one to talk to.

“Yes. And thank you for protecting His Majesty.”

-You protected him. Kang Lee Jae. You’ve worked hard.

Lee Jae felt embarrassed and choked up, so she lowered her eyes.

The boy king, who knew her heart, tapped her on the shoulder.

-From now on, only good things will happen, so stop looking so grim. It looks terrible.

-Live a little happier.

“I’ve always been happy.”

-You’ve grown up. Our Gae-Jae [a playful nickname].

The boy king smiled and continued.

-Roderick will be able to block his sight whenever he wants. Actually, he’ll be fine anyway, in fact, he seems very satisfied now, but it’s a gift because you were so sad. There’s nothing else I can do for you separately, but I thought you’d want this the most.

“Thank you so… so much. It’s the best gift.”

-Okay. Farewell. Kang Lee Jae.

Lee Jae wanted to get up and bow, but she didn’t have the strength to do so, so she only pulled her chin down and bowed her head.

When she opened her eyes again after closing them for a moment, the boy king had already disappeared.

And in the distance, Roderick was approaching with a hurried face.

As if conscious of Lee Jae, he put the blood-stained sword into its scabbard first.

“Your Majesty.”

Roderick immediately knelt on one knee and cupped her cheeks.

Looking restless, he tried to wipe away the bloodstains with his sleeve.

“What to do. Does it hurt a lot?”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Lee Jae, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. It’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s not. I don’t hurt.”

“Really, what to do.”

“……I know, what should we do? It seems like you can’t hear me again.”

Lee Jae joked, but the King’s anxious face didn’t ease.

So she changed the subject by asking something else.

“Your Majesty. Did you win?”

“Yes. I’ve captured them all. It’s all over.”

“That’s a relief. Actually, I knew Your Majesty would win.”

Good fortune doesn’t go anywhere.

She caressed the King’s handsome face.

The King placed his hand over her small hand.

And from then on, he began to almost plead.

“Can’t you talk a little later? It seems like the bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.”

“……I think it has stopped.”

“Are you sleepy by any chance? We’ll go to a private house, so just bear with it until I find a doctor. Even if it’s hard, don’t close your eyes now.”

It seemed like the King still couldn’t hear her well.

Wiping the bloodstains from the corners of her mouth repeatedly, he looked like he would burst into tears at any moment.

Lee Jae felt a little sorry for the King, but she smiled and opened her mouth.

“Your Majesty.”

“Talk later. Please.”

“No, I’m going to say everything I want to say.”

“……”

“Your Majesty, I was right to live as my heart led me.”

Without clinging to fate. Without cowering before the world.

The King didn’t know why Lee Jae was smiling so relieved.

But without asking anything, he nodded his head several times.

“Yes. My wife is always right.”

“That’s not true.”

“No, everything is right.”

“What do you mean everything is right, but it’s not?”

Lee Jae couldn’t hide her pleasant expression even as she spoke as if she was dumbfounded.

She admired the mystical scenery that she and the King had created and said.

“Your Majesty, the water is so beautiful. Don’t you think so?”

“……Yeah. It looks like that to me too. I can see it too.”

“Thank you. I don’t think I would have had this courage for the rest of my life if it weren’t for Your Majesty.”

She reaches out her hand once more towards the surging blue energy.

She gives a wonderful smile.

All these moments were gifts given to the living.

A privilege that those who have lived their lives with will can have.

Lee Jae no longer trembled before the water.

Life was brilliant, and love was dazzling.