(Breakdown pt.3)

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“…”

“It’s possible to amplify even the tiniest emotions. You know how many people think things like ‘I hate overtime work, I want to crack my boss’s head open,’ right? They don’t really mean to kill when they think that. But Ezel-nim can amplify even emotions that small. By selecting specific emotions.”

In-woo looked down at his hands. Though the blood that had been on these hands had been washed away, they could never be clean. The hands of a murderer who had killed one person and tried to kill another. In In-woo’s eyes, the sins caked on those hands were clearly visible.

Would he have stabbed Radel if it weren’t for Ezel’s suggestion? In-woo swallowed this unanswerable question.

“So that bastard… tried to kill someone who was like their own child?”

“The weapon they held had rolled away. They probably thought it was better to break it than let it fall into someone else’s hands. Conversely, if Radel-nim killed you, that would have been its own kind of gain. From Ezel-nim’s perspective, they had nothing to lose.”

It was a mindset Kim In-woo would never understand in his lifetime.

“What are you going to do now?”

Raseti asked first what In-woo had been about to ask. In-woo, who was already struggling with his own questions, shook his head.

“I don’t know. What are you going to do?”

“I’m considering.”

“What?”

“Whether to ask Ezel-nim for help.”

“…Are you crazy?”

Asking for help from the one who had done this to them? While In-woo couldn’t understand this, Raseti instead frowned in agitation.

“But I can’t just let Radel-nim die, can I? At the very least he needs to regain consciousness so we can do something, but he’s not waking up.”

“How long has it been since he collapsed?”

“Our medical technology isn’t the same as Earth’s. He should have woken up by now. But he’s not waking up. He already suffers from severe depression, and once it starts getting worse, there’s nothing we can do.”

Raseti snapped back. Their genuinely irritated attitude was surprising, but In-woo recalled what they had said earlier. Depression. An illness you can’t control yourself. In-woo decided to try to understand them to some extent.

Fortunately, Raseti, who had been snapping and fuming, belatedly came to their senses and softened their expression. They covered their slightly sad face with their hands.

“No… Forget what I said. I, I need to rest a bit.”

Seemingly disliking having shown such a disheveled appearance, Raseti waved their hand. It was a clear dismissal. Unable to say anything more to Raseti, who didn’t look well, In-woo left the room.

* * *

In-woo stayed on the spaceship for several more days. Judging it unwise to leave carelessly, Raseti wouldn’t let In-woo return to the ground.

But during that time, Raseti’s condition deteriorated moment by moment.

On the second day, they lost control of their size adjustment, and Raseti’s suddenly enlarged hand nearly destroyed half the spaceship. In-woo thought they were going to crash and die, and cursed Raseti about five hundred times. Fortunately, the androids caught In-woo and repaired the spaceship, but it felt like he had narrowly escaped death.

On the third day, an increasingly depressed Raseti destroyed three androids. It was chilling to see the humanoid androids transformed like flattened tin cans. On the other hand, seeing Raseti react so sensitively to Radel’s death gave In-woo a very strange feeling.

Kim In-woo knew what his emotion was. It was jealousy. It was an absurd emotion. Whatever emotional exchange existed between that nobody and Raseti shouldn’t matter to him, it shouldn’t be this way…

In-woo denied even the confusion he felt. If he had to keep feeling this way, he almost wished Radel would just die quickly.

And on the fourth day.

Radel still hadn’t died, but instead Raseti collapsed.

Upon hearing the news, In-woo left his room for the first time in four days. Raseti’s words about how things would deteriorate instantly once they collapsed anxiously circled in his mind. Unlike his earlier aimless wandering, In-woo went straight to Radel’s room.

Radel lay in bed, sleeping as though he were dead. Since all physical injuries had healed, it was truly just sleep. This idiot who could have prevented it but willingly let himself be stabbed by In-woo’s knife. Looking at that peaceful face, as if waiting for someone to wake him up, anger bubbled up inside him.

“This bastard…”

F*ck, who does he think he is, Snow White?

In-woo rushed at the man and grabbed his collar. He had actually intended to lift him up by the collar, but the heavy man didn’t budge an inch from the bed. In-woo gritted his teeth, straddled the man, and raised his free hand high before bringing it down on him.

With an almost cheerful sound, the man’s face turned to the side. In-woo shouted angrily at the man who was waiting for death, fallen into depression.

“Wake up, you son of a b*tch!”

The moment he yelled, as if by magic, Radel opened his eyes.

…Weren’t they saying he wouldn’t wake up?

Blue eyes that scattered light like finely crafted jewels stared at In-woo.

Radel silently stared at In-woo while remaining lying down. In-woo too, extremely startled, just blinked while looking at Radel.

Though he had hit him and told him to wake up, he hadn’t really thought he would. After all, there was no way someone who had been completely unconscious would wake up just because someone told them to.

Could he have been pretending to sleep?

Suspicion turned to certainty in an instant. As soon as that thought occurred to him, anger surged. In-woo struck Radel’s cheek again. He wanted to kill the man.

“Ah…”

Radel let out a stupid groan. Seeing his overly gentle expression that didn’t suit a former Sovereign of Arkea or war hero, In-woo frowned.

He shouldn’t get angry. Ezel’s suggestion was still engraved in Kim In-woo’s mind. Though he was angry at Radel and wished he would drop dead somewhere, he didn’t want to dirty his hands again.

Rudy. That one person was enough to have died by his hands.

But even if he tried to control himself, he couldn’t help being angry. In-woo glared fiercely at Radel, who was still slowly blinking with unfocused eyes.