Hagrid Jones had discovered it in the lab incident!

While everyone else died at the time, he had definitely become a metahuman then, so that must have been when he realized it!

The results of that incident must have told him that not everyone could evolve through exposure to the blue crystal energy. He must not have had the opportunity to conduct experiments to calculate the probability of evolution. So instead of wasting time looking for people who could evolve, he experimented on the entire human population to see who would survive and become gods!

This is too scary!

This is too cruel!

Hagrid Jones had used all life on the planet as his guinea pigs!

He hadn’t hesitated to destroy the entire world just to accomplish his research!

But there was always a chance of failure in any experiment, and so he created Hagrid Island and sent his beloved to this place...

Professor Yin Yue clasped my hands in her trembling hands. “You must kill him… kill him...” Her voice grew faint, as though she were being washed away in the river of time. She continued, “Tell him that it was I who wanted to kill him... Tell him to come and keep me company... and that I still love him... I can’t forgive what he has done to this world, but I am willing to bear the infamy of his choice with him... will you forgive me?” Professor Yin Yue looked at me through pained and tearful eyes.

She was pleading for forgiveness from the entire world - from all those who were left alive in this world.

What had she done wrong? Her lover had destroyed the world, and yet she remained alive with her friends and family.

But was that really her fault?

She had lived with this pain and guilt for over sixty years, carrying such a heartbreaking secret. If she were truly at fault, surely she would have already lived out her penance in full.

“I... forgive you...” I choked back sobs as I held her hands tightly. I felt my heart clenching. It was human instinct to survive. No one could be blamed for another person wanting to live.

“Thank you.” She let out a long breath from her puckered lips. She then closed her eyes peacefully, and a single clear tear rolled down from her eye. Her hands slowly slipped away from my hand, and silence fell.

I came back to reality and I quickly nudged her, calling, “Professor Yin Yue! Professor Yin Yue!”

There was no response.

I stood by the bed glumly, beneath the silence of the night sky.

It felt like that night I had returned to Kro to set the spirits free. I carried the burden of their memory to this day.

The secret of the century felt oppressively heavy, weighing my heart down even more. I was suffocating, feeling as though the air in the room had turned to cement, and that I was trapped in it unable to move or breathe.

I’m sorry, Professor Yin Yue. I lied to you. I don’t belong to this world, so I can’t forgive you on behalf of the people of this world...

I had lied to a dead person.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. It felt as if there were stones blocking every passage of my heart, ones I couldn’t expel. I held her hand and sobbed.

What would happen to the people in Hagrid Island if this secret were to be exposed?

My head felt restless like boiling water, but I knew I needed to calm down.

I opened the door to see Su Yang standing there.

He asked worriedly, “How is Grandma?”

I tried to present as much calm as I could when I replied, “Grandma has departed peacefully.”

His body trembled for a moment like a dry leaf on a withered branch, and then he ran into the room.

I left the room as quickly as I could, as if I were running away. It was as if I could run away from Professor Yin Yue’s secret...

After some time, I finally heard the sound of ocean waves. I sat alone on the white sand of the shore. The fireworks above the crystal palace were like melting ice cream in the sky. They transformed into gorgeous ribbons of light that hung in the night sky.

There was festive music playing. The people in that palace had no idea that the star who had been protecting them all this time had been extinguished.

Professor Yin Yue had said that the people in Hagrid Island should never find out about the secret, because they were kind people. They would hold onto the guilt and pain the way she had if they were to find out about the secret...

But this secret couldn’t be exposed to the outside world as well. They would hate the ‘selfishness’ of the people in Hagrid Island. They would hate the people of Hagrid Island who were living happily.

Once they found out that Professor Yin Yue’s husband had been the cause of all their suffering, their pain would turn into the flames of anger and they would burn Hagrid Island to the ground. They would want vengeance. They would want the descendants of Hagrid Jones to pay with their blood.

Why had Professor Yin Yue told me the secret? She had left me with such a painful dilemma.

If I were to expose the secret, everyone in Hagrid Island would die. No one could control the pain of those who lived in desolation for sixty years after the end of the world. But if I didn’t expose the secret, I would be taking away the people’s right to know the truth.

The chaos in the outside world had all started on that day. Because the people outside had lived in pain and suffering for so long, surely they had a right to know why. They had always thought that it was a natural disaster, but no one had expected it to be man-made!

I looked at the silver moon in my hand. Professor Yin Yue, keeping this secret is way more difficult than killing Hagrid Jones.

Plus, I didn’t even know what Hagrid Jones looked like.

But that was just a matter of time. Hagrid Jones was really famous, after all. I would be able to find his details in the database. If he were still alive in Silver Moon City, he would probably be around a hundred years old.

Professor Yin Yue had still loved Hagrid Jones, but behind their romance lay the secret of sixty years. She couldn’t forgive him, and yet she had still been willing to bear the infamy of his choice.

I hung the silver moon pendant around my neck and took a deep breath. Their love was so heart-wrenching, with hate and affection intertwined. They had wanted to love, and yet there had been too much anger...

Someone splashed fishy-smelling water at me.

I kept looking into the distance, while Ghostie slowly appeared in the water and looked at me cautiously from afar. He approached me with trepidation, as if he expected me to hit him if he drew too near.

“Ghostie...”

He stopped moving. He bent low in the water and looked more alert.

“Do you know why the world ended?” I looked at Ghostie. He couldn’t speak, so he became my only outlet. I had to share the secret, or it would crush me.

It was hard to imagine how Professor Yin Yue had kept the secret the whole time. I couldn’t even keep it for this fleeting moment. I could think of nothing other than finding someone to share this burden with me.