We really have an open ending no matter which way we go as there is simply no way of knowing for sure if Ilmo died or managed to live somehow. The answer will, therefore, be different for everyone, with the question now being: what would you prefer it to be? which, in turn, is just another way of asking: what kind of person are you? Well, for me, I like to think Ilmo is alive for the following reasons: (1) Chekhov's gun ("If in Act One you have a pistol hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act."). Pay off. If the bottle in the harbor did not mean anything, why bother drawing it in? and (2) Because of everything we know about Seo Il Mo, particularly that he is always one step ahead of everyone, that his orchestrations are always elaborate and masterfully executed, that he thinks on his feet and is as slippery as an eel, and there is simply no way that he would go down just like that as that would not only contradict everything we know about this character but also everything we know about this author as far as their work on this story is concerned, and these count a lot in my contextualisation of these final chapters.