“What is it?”
There was no answer. After a brief silence, what ca out was sothing completely unrelated.
“You should get so rest.”
“I already rested plenty, both in the dungeon and after coming out. I haven’t really done anything.”
I only moved my mouth. I was a little sleepy, sure, but I was fine now.
“Don’t change the subject.”
Seong Hyunjae furrowed his brows slightly. It was... a troubled expression. That only made more curious. Was it sothing he was hesitant to say? Why, though? He wasn’t the type to worry about how others would react.
...Ah, maybe.
“Is it because I looked so weak? Is that it?”
Now that I’d spilled my rotten insides, maybe he thought this wasn’t going to work out after all. Back in the day, I would’ve felt a chill in my chest, thinking I failed to et Seong Hyunjae’s standards again. But now, I was okay. Not completely unaffected—but I wasn’t shrinking back like before.
Either way, he was still paying attention to . He hadn’t walked away. If he had, he would’ve already said so to my face.
“I’ve never been perfect, and I won’t be going forward either. You know that. So if there’s sothing you want to say, just say it. There’s nothing left to break anymore, and I think I can accept whatever it is right now.”
“Why is that?”
“Sorry?”
“I want to reveal everything inside you. Down to the deepest parts.”
At those quiet words, I suddenly had the urge to run. My Fear Resistance didn’t even activate. It was pure instinct.
“I could do it. Anyti.”
The languid, almost indifferent tone made it even more chilling. It wasn’t threatening. It wasn’t scary. And yet my gut told —it was dangerous. But at the sa ti—
“You’re not going to. No point pretending otherwise.”
At my response, Seong Hyunjae fell silent for a mont, then let out an exaggerated sigh. The mood shifted dramatically.
“I could’ve sworn the young master wasn’t the patient type, but here we are.”
“Seong Hyunjae, you’re not really the type to hold back either. Keep it in too long, and you’ll get sick.”
“Fortunately, I’m sturdy enough to handle it, being S-rank and all. But if I didn’t hold back...”
His eyes swept over .
“There wouldn’t be much left of Han Yujin. Maybe so crumbs scattered about.”
“You seem to have a lot of things you want to dig into.”
“Enough to need a list.”
Well, that made sense. He’d want to know about the state of the magic stone in my chest, why I had struggled so much. I shouldn’t have had any major wounds left. My parents—that was long in the past. I had reconciled with my brother. Even if the future felt uncertain, I was eating well, living well.
There were more than a few suspicious parts. Just the fact that my sensitive partner had held back this long was impressive. With his own issues piling on, it’d be enough to make soone explode—but he was restraining himself.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“It wouldn’t be right to leave my dear partner burning up inside. Sorry for making you wait so long.”
“You’re making it sound like you’re going to talk.”
“Yes.”
If the Unfilial Children told I could only reveal my regression to one person, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose Yuhyun. But if I had to make the decision rationally and logically, that person would have to be Seong Hyunjae.
Because he was even more deeply connected to the pre-regression tiline than I was.
Unabsorbed mories, the sleeping Crescent Moon, the Changeling, the incident with Chief Song. And the one who had likely tried to save the world before regression—was none other than Seong Hyunjae. He must’ve had to disappear because of Crescent Moon’s interference, but I doubted he just quietly went into hiding.
‘I have to tell him at least about Crescent Moon.’
His freedom was on the line.
“The Unfilial Children said I wasn’t allowed to speak about it, but I’m not planning to just obey anymore. I’ll have to see what kind of effect it might have, but I’m going to talk.”
“To ?”
“The first person is Yuhyun. That’s non-negotiable. But after that—it’s you, Seong Hyunjae.”
He looked surprised. But definitely not displeased. If anything, there was the hint of a smile.
“For Han Yujin to place right after the young master—what an honor.”
“Oh, don’t flatter yourself. That’s just for this situation, alright? I’ve got more than a few kids around , so don’t go thinking you outrank them.”
Grumbling for no reason, I t Seong Hyunjae’s eyes. Normally, this kind of mont—us facing each other like this—would never have happened. It felt... strangely amazing. Really.
“They say sweets are good for lifting your mood.”
I pulled out a jar of star candies from my inventory and offered one to Seong Hyunjae.
“They’re really tasty.”
A pink, glittering star candy. Called Warm Star Candy—it made your insides feel cozy and relaxed when you ate it. Seong Hyunjae stared at it for a mont, then took it and popped it into his mouth. I should tell soone to clear away that coffee—it was just sitting there, useless.
Not long after, noise erupted at the entrance of the lounge. I didn’t even have to look to guess.
He’s finally here.
“You’re planning to gather the monsters and wipe them out all at once?!”
With a booming voice, a large man stomped toward . A sharp tallic scent hit like a wave. He didn’t seem to be injured, but the Amaterasu Guild must’ve taken quite a hit.
“Is that even possible?”
“For soone asking for help, you sure are talking with your chin up.”
Shishio’s face twisted into a scowl at my words. Must’ve bruised his pride. But if Japan collapsed like this, he’d be forced to abandon everything and go into exile in another country. Sure, he was an S-rank Hunter—plenty of places would take him. But his days of playing king would be over.
At least he could bring his items along. Still, starting over from scratch without his own dungeon wasn’t going to be easy. Every country already had its mid-to-large-scale guilds firmly established. Making it ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) to the middle would be doable, but for soone used to sitting at the top? Not satisfying in the slightest.
“...And you expect us to just blindly trust you when your thod isn’t even certain yet?”
“If you don’t trust , what are you going to do about it? Should I just head back to Korea? Also, you’re the one asking for help, but acting like I have to lay out all my cards is just straight-up thief logic.”
So of my skills would definitely get revealed. I’d be using them openly, so hiding everything was impossible. Still, demanding full explanations? That’s not sothing soone drowning gets to ask for.
“When soone throws you a rope, you grab on and climb, no matter what it is. Anyway, let’s just draw up the contract. Clean and simple—one reward per monster.”
“Per monster?”
“Yup. One SS-rank item per SS-rank monster. One S-rank item or dungeon ownership per S-rank monster. Of course, I get to choose what I take. Wow, I’m being real generous here. Honestly, even if I asked for double, you should be bowing your head in thanks.”
Shishio’s face contorted even more at my words. The other Japanese Hunters around us weren’t looking too happy either.
“You’re planning to sweep away all of Japan’s SS-rank gear?!”
“It’s just five. What are you whining for? You’ve probably got at least double that stashed away. And I’ll be collecting them after the fact. The ones you have now probably won’t even suit my kids. Oh, and we should add a clause requiring you to report all newly discovered SS— and S-rank items to in detail. I need to see what’s available to make my picks.”
“What? You little—!”
Detailed reports on SS to S-rank items. That was a deal-breaking clause for any guild. It ant revealing all item stats, even the weaknesses. Especially in Japan, where guilds were constantly at each other’s throats, it’d be even more unthinkable.
“Whew, I’d better head ho out of fear~”
I clucked my tongue and pulled out a chair, casually sitting down. Peace jumped onto my lap, baring his teeth at Shishio, while Yerim and Noah took position at my sides like bodyguards. Myungwoo and Moon Hyunah didn’t take their eyes off him either. Seong Hyunjae watched on, looking thoroughly entertained.
“Maybe you should give it a rest and go back to your roots, Mr. Shishio. African savanna’s nice this ti of year. Seems like it’d suit you.”
Grrrk—I could hear his teeth grinding. The veins on his thick neck were bulging. Jeez, look at that tension in his fists. He was seriously about to swing. Bet those forearms pack a punch.
“...If you fail to handle this—”
“Then I’ll compensate you. The condition: elimination of the five SS-rank monsters currently appearing in Japan. If I fail, I’ll give you five SS-rank items as compensation.”
Not that I was going to fail. But even if sothing went wrong, I wouldn’t care. I wasn’t putting a deadline on it, and if Amaterasu Guild went under, they wouldn’t be able to enforce the contract anyway. Makes feel just a tiny bit—ant’s eyelash-sized—sorry.
“Include the Fla Horned Lion too.”
“My kid’s off-limits. But I’ll toss in a bonus clause—when we capture a Fla Horned Lion in the future, I’ll prioritize raising the monster mount to your liking.”
When I looked at him like are you satisfied now, Shishio grumbled but pulled out the contract. Where he got it from, I didn’t know, but it was SS-rank quality.
“The item reporting clause...”
“That has to be included. Otherwise, who knows what good stuff you’ll hide.”
“Ensure confidentiality.”
“Sure, sure. Add that in too. You can include penalties for breaking the contract, whatever you want.”
We drafted the contract, adding all sorts of clauses. The SS-rank gear was a big deal, sure, but even more valuable was the S-rank dungeon ownership. One per S-rank monster. I had no idea how many there would be, but of course, we couldn’t manage them all. If it wasn’t a high-value dungeon, we’d just grab the first-clear rewards and sell them off or hand them to overseas buyers.
“It’s not like Amaterasu is Japan’s only guild. Have all the mid-sized and large guilds sign. Sa goes for any new guilds that pop up in the future. Any guild that ets international mid-tier standards in Japan will be bound to this contract.”
They might try to use loopholes, so I let the small guilds slide. Shishio looked like he was about to explode as he started making calls. He began barking orders at people to get over here now, practically shouting at the top of his lungs.
“You’ve got a lot of anger issues.”
Well, his face did give off that kind of vibe.
The leaders of Japan’s other mid-to-large guilds quickly gathered. So sent representatives instead. They all glanced at while signing the contract.
anwhile, preparations were steadily progressing. A hundred Hunters of A-rank or higher with strong defense or evasion abilities had gathered, and the locations of the S-rank and above monsters had been identified.
“Luring operations are underway to herd the SS-rank monsters within the 200km radius.”
“Make sure the SS-rank monsters arrive last, positioned farthest from the central point.”
As the day began to fade into dusk, I headed up to the guest room where Yuhyun was resting.
“Yuhyun, I’m coming in.”
I made my presence known and opened the door. My little brother was seated on a chair in the living room. He was wearing the ceremonial outfit of the Thunderbird, holding a sword laid horizontally across his lap. He must’ve been checking over his gear—other weapons were scattered around him. His half-lowered eyes slowly lifted to et mine. He smiled, but there was a sharp energy to him, like a well-honed blade.
“I told you to rest.”
“I did. I just woke up a little while ago.”
“Doesn’t seem like just a little.”
Yuhyun stood from his seat. His movents were impossibly light. He pulled a wire from his inventory and gave it a flick—sweeping up all the weapons around him in one motion and organizing them.
“Are you all set?”
“Yeah. We can head out now.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Not worried?”
I asked as we stepped out of the room together.
“There are five SS-rank monsters.”
With his current abilities, even one would be a struggle for Yuhyun. Even if his attack skill effects were doubled, his stats were still only at S-rank—it was basically asking him to bet his life. But there wasn’t even a hint of tension in him. If anything, he looked a bit excited.
“You wouldn’t put in danger.”
“I appreciate the trust, but still.”
“If you’d said you were going to do this alone or with soone else, I would’ve been worried. But you asked .”
Seriously, this kid. I reached out and gently ruffled his slightly tousled hair.
“You’re right—there’s no danger at all. You just get to go wild and have fun.”
“Okay.”
“It’ll take a bit to get there, so let’s eat dinner first. What do you want? I’ll cook.”
“Anything. I like it all.”
As we descended to the lounge, the contrast in atmosphere hit hard. Shishio and the Amaterasu Guild mbers were all huddled together, looking like their country had just collapsed. They whispered among themselves, occasionally glancing over at us.
anwhile, our group—
“No SS-rank grandeur, huh. Should I just take this?”
“Unni, what about this belt? The options look pretty good.”
They were happily flipping through the list of available items. Yerim, who was still short on S-rank gear, looked the most excited.
“Hunter Noah, why are you just sitting there?”
“Right? You’ve gotta grab stuff when they offer it!”
“No, I just...”
“What about this one? If we tweak it a bit, it should work well even in a waterbound form.”
“Myungwoo! Look at mine too! These boots—do you think we could redesign them? Like, take off this tal accent?”
It was nice seeing everyone so absorbed in their shopping. Made feel all warm inside. I gave Noah a light pat on the shoulder and told him to pick sothing out comfortably.
“I need your help too, Noah, so I’ll feel better if you get sothing for yourself.”
“Ah, alright. Then I’ll just look for a bit.”
“Feel free to take a lot. They said the place is crawling with S-rank monsters, so the more we bring back, the better. What about you, Partner? Nothing caught your eye?”
“There was a bow that seed decent.”
“Your care for your guild mbers is admirable. You can send the list to Soyeong too. You’ll need plenty of gear to go with the monster mounts.”
Maybe because of their interest in monster mounts, Amaterasu Guild actually had quite a few pieces of high-grade gear for them.
When I headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner, both Myungwoo and Moon Hyunah followed, saying they’d help. Seong Hyunjae slid in too, and the rest of the crew piled in right after—until we had to kick out everyone under twenty, saying the kitchen was off-limits for them.
After a hearty al, we set off for our destination.
Toward the land that would soon burn—gloriously.
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