Chapter Text
A barren field of snow white. Inky blackness crept beyond the horizons in large streaks.
This is where Kim Suho found himself standing, body strangely fuzzy, yet unaffected by the visually biting cold.
Last he remembered, he had cast himself into the portal of reincarnation with the King of Hell in a mad gamble to save his homeland- the Frontera County. In fact, he had already expected a swift death as he was tossed into the turbulent winds, transformed into a flickering soul form.
Perhaps this was what Lloyd Frontera felt when he left this world through the portal of reincarnation as well.
Did he feel such an overwhelming sense of loss, at losing the people he cared about?
But, Kim Suho was not Lloyd Frontera. He had nothing to return to in Seoul, even if he ended up returning there as well.
And all the people in the world of Knight of Blood and Iron will forever remember him as Lloyd Frontera, his own name lost to the whispers of what once spoke of system magic and transmigrations.
Ha, Suho laughed bitterly as the winds bit at his edges, slightly fraying, all those years, it might have been but a dream. It feels too real.
And I can’t return there, can I?
A pit formed in his chest at the realization. No, he could not.
They do not need him there any longer. He had paid off the debts of the Frontera county and made sure they would thrive.
To return now, to take advantage of the care they have for Lloyd Frontera… This was simply not for him to take and receive.
…But he had to figure out what to do next, first. Even if he is still hurt from his forced departure.
His gaze swept towards the dark, starry skies. He was alone.
A slow shuffling of snow sounded out behind him, not far away. Suho felt a chill run across his back.
White fabric flutters in the (evidently not-winding)wind. A pair of dark, dusty wings stretched slightly behind the figure. Two red, spiralling horns crowned his head, on top of messy, slightly overgrown bangs.
Just as I was having a moment there, too. Suho felt a flicker of what might be Lloyd course through him. He was being sad and all that just now, too.
The man(?)’s presence seemed fleeting, almost, as if stitched together from millions of fragments, yet there was a brightness to it. The two stared at each other.
The man: …
Suho: …
Some part of him reared his head in slight frustration (over not knowing what is going on because where even was he?) but the other part felt that the two were similar.
They were not supposed to be in their worlds.
Perhaps he was a transmigrator as well. Suho dared to guess, sick of the silent staring contest.
“Hello. I’m Kim Dokja.” The man spoke. He just had to start speaking before I could start a conversation, Suho internally complained (out of spite).
“Lloyd Frontera. Or Kim Suho, whichever is fine now.” Suho explained, turning away. Not that it matters anymore.
Silence. “They won’t be happy about you leaving, you know.”
What? Momentarily shocked, Suho turned his head to the side, only to find Kim Dokja’s starry gaze bearing into his own. “How do you-” He paused himself before he could ask. “No, actually. Why are you here. Why am I here. What is going on.”
Still, Kim Dokja’s face remained indecipherable, but it seemed he was smiling, almost. “This is the snowfield. This is where characters come after fulfilling their fate.”
Suho’s heart cooled. Fate. But he had a feeling this fate was not the same as the one in the Knight of Blood and Iron.
“I once made the same choice. Sacrificing myself, that is.” Suho couldn’t hold back a flinch at the detached, matter-of-fact tone coming from the man. “I believed that my companions’ survival was greater than my own. So I made the choice to leave them, to watch over them.”
“Because if I did not watch over them, the universe would stop turning.”
Is this man some kind of god or something? Nevertheless, Suho wasn’t sure what drove him to start speaking, but he did.
“I had to leave the world behind. The new one that I was- transmigrated into.” He thought his nose soured slightly. “It was necessary. If I had not done that, they would’ve died. They would’ve all died. By doing that- I mean, jumping into the reincarnation portal… I took the King of Hell with me. And he would not be able to harm them, ever again.”
“But you miss them, do you not?”
Do I? It was uncharacteristic of Suho, even during his time as Lloyd, to cry. But the feeling of tears welling up in his eyes was unmistakably true.
All the time he had spent at the County, just a Barony back then.
Travelling the world to avert Fate with Javier, the protagonist and Frontera’s knight.
Working on construction projects at the Frontera Estate, seeing residents work hard to make a living and improve the estate’s infrastructure.
The Count and Countess treating Suho as their own son, Lloyd, and caring for him as such.
Gaining Queen Alicia’s trust and working with her to save the Magentano Kingdom.
All of that, destroyed by the King of Hell, and left behind by Suho himself.
“Oh, who am I kidding,” Suho sniffled, “I fucking miss them. Even if my place isn’t in that world.”
He only wished they did okay, even without him there.
A quiet beat passed, the white-coated man keeping his silence as Suho mourned in whispers. “What if you can return there? To your homeworld.” Kim Dokja asked quietly, the voice tranquil as if to not scare the fluttering snowflakes.
Would he want to return to Seoul? “No one is left for me in Seoul. While I don’t mind…” An image of Beef flashed through his mind’s eyes. “It would never be the same.”
The snow cascades. “Kim Suho. You still have someone willing to search for you in that world you see as a home.”
Kim Suho gaped. “Who-”
“You will come to understand in the future, but they care for you, Kim Suho, even if you had lived a life as Lloyd Frontera.” Kim Dokja muttered softly, yet his words reached Suho with perfect clarity.
But why? He was not the Count and Countess’ son. He was not the Frontera’s heir that Javier was tasked with protecting. Everything was built on lies, where he never showed anyone else his true self.
They do not know Kim Suho.
How do they care for someone they have never known?
“They may not know Kim Suho, or his past in Korea,” It seems he had said that out loud unconsciously. “But they know you. And they know of the good you have done for the County.”
An avalanche rages in the horizon, sweeping closer as Kim Dokja’s voice starts to buzz with static in Suho’s ears.
“Be not afraid. He will find you, one day. Give it a chance then.”
Any response was swallowed in the snowstorm, completely shredding Suho’s form from the snowfield.
–
The storm had quelled. Kim Dokja alone remained in the snowfield, again. Snowflakes settled on his unmoving form, coating him in a misty white.
“What if you can return there? To your homeworld.”
“They may not know Kim Suho, or his past in Korea, but they know you.”
“They won’t be happy about you leaving, you know.”
No, these words are not relevant to him. Kim Suho was a Character, with a World he belonged to.
Kim Dokja was just a Reader, that’s all.
And Readers do not have a place in a World. They merely cast their eyes upon them,
and Read for all Eternity.