Kim did not sleep that night.
It wasn't because of the pain.
Nor because of the seal.
But because of a single thought
that refused to leave his mind:
"Why me?"
He sat on the edge of the hill overlooking the village.
The small houses were lit with a faint glow—
a light that did not challenge the darkness,
but coexisted with it.
That alone
was enough to anger him.
He heard footsteps behind him.
He didn't turn.
He knew them by the silence.
He said without looking,
"How long?"
Neer stopped.
Biath sat beside him slowly.
"Two generations,"
Biath finally said.
"Maybe more."
Kim clenched his jaw.
"And where was the truth?"
Neer took a deep breath.
He said,
"In every thing that fell from the sky."
"In every monster that didn't belong."
"In every illness we couldn't understand."
Kim turned to them.
"But you didn't tell us."
Neer replied bitterly,
"Tell whom?"
Silence fell.
Kim looked back at the village.
Children sleeping.
Women baking for tomorrow.
Men preparing tools.
A whole life…
built on the possibility of annihilation.
Kim said quietly, but sharply,
"Do you live every day
knowing it might be the last?"
No one answered.
Biath lowered his head.
That was the answer.
Kim laughed.
A joyless laugh.
"So there is no peace here,"
he said.
"It was only a truce."
He stood.
The black veins in his hand
moved slowly,
as if sensing his anger.
"The world I thought was peaceful…"
he said,
"is chaos at its core."
He turned to them.
"Not because you are weak,"
he said.
"But because someone decided
you have no value."
Neer's voice trembled.
"We are not core worlds,"
he said.
"We are not an energy source."
"Nor a temporal nexus."
Kim stepped closer.
"Nor living beings?"
Neer fell silent.
And that was the worst confession.
Kim pressed his hand to his chest.
The pain flared for a moment.
The seal trembled.
Kim said slowly,
"In my world…"
"they said laws existed to protect everyone."
He raised his head.
His eyes were dark.
"But they were always written
for those who held power."
He breathed deeply.
"And here?"
He smiled mockingly.
"Here, the laws didn't even bother to exist."
Biath stepped closer.
He said,
"We chose to stay."
"We chose to live…
not to scream into a void that doesn't listen."
Kim looked at him for a long time.
Then said softly,
"And I hate the void."
A heavy silence fell.
In that moment…
Kim felt something.
Not a threat.
Not power.
A gaze.
He slowly lifted his head.
The sky was clear.
But at its highest point—
there was a small flaw.
A point.
As if reality itself
had collapsed around an invisible eye.
The black veins froze.
The seal pulsed.
Neer whispered,
"Kim…?"
He didn't answer.
He was only looking.
And in a place no one else could see…
a Watcher stood.
Not a complete body.
No aura.
Just awareness,
looking from behind the layer of existence.
A voice was not heard—
but understood:
"This world is still alive?"
Kim's chest tightened.
He didn't move.
The voice continued, with cosmic coldness:
"Strange…
it wasn't within the calculations."
The pressure increased,
as if the sky were weighing itself.
Then—
the sensation vanished.
The point disappeared.
The sky returned to normal.
But Kim
did not sit.
Did not breathe in relief.
He looked at Neer and Biath.
He said in a terrifying calm,
"Someone saw us."
Neer asked,
"Who?"
Kim looked toward the horizon.
"A Ruler,"
he said.
"Or something like one."
He clenched his fist.
"And that…"
He smiled a dark smile.
"…is the worst news this world could receive."
Inside him,
chaos did not scream.
It smiled.
Because a world without value
had finally drawn attention.
Kim told Neer that he wanted to know the truth of this world.
Neer said to him,
"This is a world ruled by no one, because it has no value.
It lies between two worlds—
neither wants it.
So they made it a place of exile for the worthless,
a dumping ground to them.
But to us…
it is a homeland.
Our world.
To them, it is only a battlefield,
or a place for banishment."
Kim said to Neer,
"So you weren't born on this planet.
You were exiled.
You and everyone here—
from other worlds, or from one place?"
Neer looked at Kim with sorrow and nodded.
Yes.
Then Neer shouted,
saying they were searching for a way
to negotiate,
to establish laws,
to gain the right to live
as living beings—
not mere exiles or animals.
Kim burst out laughing.
His laughter was filled with rage.
"Justice?
Rights?
Laws?"
He laughed harder.
"Don't make me laugh, Neer.
Laws equal justice?
No one cares about the law except the weak—
because they don't possess power.
Power is the law, Neer."
Neer's eyes widened as he stared at him.
Kim continued,
"If the truth is too cruel for you,
then lies feel like kindness.
That's why kindness is a lie.
You are nothing but toys in their hands.
This was never a battlefield between equals, you fool.
They see you as prey—
and they are the hunters.
And you come to me talking about justice?"
He laughed again.
Long.
Bitter.