“If I could just hit him once, I really would have.”
The thought alone was enough to make long to see our Seong Hyunjae again. I should treat him well when we et. For about three minutes.
“It’s my business, so why doesn’t it matter if I know? Why were my kids fighting! And what on earth happened to ?”
Before Song Taewon died. Around that ti, I had finally managed to establish myself.
After the dungeons appeared, the hardest period for —aside from right after my brother ran away—was when I had just awakened. The hope I’d clung to, just in case, was shattered, and I’d even made the wrong contract. If it had been just that, Yuhyun might have helped , pretending he couldn’t help it. Of course, I would have refused my brother’s help, but he would have ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) tried to protect by force anyway.
But at that ti, the Awakening Center crisis broke out.
The influx of low-rank Hunters and insufficient education led to casualties that increased exponentially, and the bla was directed squarely at the high-rank Hunters. In fact, it was impossible not to feel dissatisfied seeing the successful high-rank Hunters thriving. That dissatisfaction, which had been suppressed by the image campaign of protecting the country by clearing dungeons at the risk of their lives, suddenly poured out all at once.
At that ti, the Haeyeon Guild was attacked the most. Having established a guild at such a young age without the backing of a large corporation—how unsightly it must have looked. And all for the simple reason of being lucky enough to awaken as an S-Rank.
Sesung and Sudam also received so criticism for being self-made, but it was nothing compared to what Yuhyun faced. If a chaebol wins the lottery, it becos a light topic of conversation, but if a commoner wins, people flock from all over to take a bite. That was the difference between Han Yuhyun, who had started as a minor orphan, and the adults who had already established themselves in society.
And since I could be linked to it, I was perfect for the Hunter Association—the root of the problem—to use as a shield.
‘Still, it eventually died down.’
I had a hard ti for quite a while, and even after that, people who clung to kept popping up, but in my third year of awakening, I could finally breathe a little. Of course, I was still an F-Rank who didn’t belong to even a small guild, and just as I was about to build up my career as a Hunter, my leg broke.
...My life, really. This is why I didn’t want to think about the old days. To think that even those ssy mories aren’t complete—what is this, really?
‘Around that ti, did I drink quite often?’
It wasn’t that I didn’t drink before, but after I injured my leg, it increased. There were various reasons, but the main one was that painkillers didn’t work well. Did Yuhyun feel more at ease because I was just drinking? I had to go to relatively easy dungeons for experience, too.
I looked up—no, slightly down—at Seong Hyunjae. If it was a bar.
“Did you happen to buy a drink? There are those places that low-rank Hunters frequent.”
“I offered to buy you one, and you threw a cup at .”
“...I’m sorry. I had a bad temper back then.”
And since it was that kind of place, so bastards would bring up Yuhyun, so I must have been on edge. Wait a minute—could Seong Hyunjae have ntioned Yuhyun too? I wouldn’t have thrown a cup at soone who spoke nicely. In the first place, he ca to confirm things about Yuhyun, so there’s no way he wouldn’t have ntioned him. I take back my apology.
“So you had fun watching ? At that ti, Ms. Soyeong would have been the acting guild leader, so you were half-retired?”
The Seong Hyunjae from around that ti... instead of quietly going out like before, he had openly declared he was aiming for overseas expansion. That was about two years from now. After the Awakening Center issue was resolved and the Haeyeon Guild had stably beco a giant guild. The Sesung Guild Leader had announced that he would focus more on overseas affairs.
It turned out he had already established many connections overseas.
“I wasn’t that free, but I did visit often.”
“You should have worked a little. Leaving everything to Ms. Soyeong, who’s like your daughter.”
“If Soyeong had known, she would have welcod it. Is it different now?”
“Uh, well. It’s still like that now.”
She had even openly said to , “I’m so happy that I don’t have to worry even if the Guild Leader’s mood is gloomy these days!” Because she could just pass it on to . ...Ms. Soyeong is a bit much.
“If you visited often, how many cups did I throw? The way you’re talking, Mr. Seong Hyunjae, I think I would have thrown a bottle too. You must have been probing about my relationship with Yuhyun from the very first eting.”
“I apologize for making you cry.”
What did this man do! Seong Hyunjae added that I had also thrown a bottle, of course.
“I paid for it.”
“Of course you should! How much did you harass a poor F-Rank? An S-Rank is too much.”
If Seong Hyunjae put his mind to it, he could have been as sharp as Seok Gimyeong, so it might be a relief that I don’t rember. Did this man cause trouble and then erase my mory?
“You probably didn’t just et at bars, did you et elsewhere too? Did Yuhyun not notice?”
“The Sesung Guild Leader was on an overseas tour. I noticed Song Taewon’s approach right away, but that wasn’t sothing to worry about.”
Given Chief Song’s personality, Yuhyun might have been rather relieved. Because he was the only S-Rank who sincerely tried to protect F-Rank Hunters. And since he was soone who thoroughly prioritized public duty, even if we got a little closer, the boundaries would be clear. Unlike the Haeyeon Guild Leader, there would be no one who would approach to target Song Taewon... right? There’s nothing to gain.
“But he was wary of Park Yerim. Although she wasn’t an S-Rank, she was an outstanding A-Rank at a young age. Maybe it was jealousy.”
“So the two of them almost fought? Yerim, uh, because she was close... with ?”
“You’re going to leave anyway. You’re an A-Rank. There’s nothing to gain from being close to . You’re just lonely now, and you’ll soon find many good people. That’s what he said. Han Yujin.”
The back of my neck flushed slightly. Th—that, well, that’s true. Before the regression, I was a really unremarkable F-Rank.
“Ah really, I don’t rember at all. What do you an it affected too? This is a story related to , isn’t it?”
At my look that pleaded for him to tell , Seong Hyunjae slowly lowered his eyes. His golden eyes were slowly hidden under his eyelashes, then rose again. The gaze that moved to sent a montary chill down my spine.
“Yujin-ah.”
Unlike the friendly call, his voice was cold.
“There was nothing you could do.”
“What......”
“An F-Rank is an F-Rank. Even if you were certainly unique, one of a kind, and had influenced . That was all.”
...I rembered when I had just regressed and gotten to know Seong Hyunjae. No, it would have been worse than that. Before the regression, I wouldn’t have even been a useful tool.
To put it in perspective, I was probably like a dog or a cat. And even then, just a pet to be petted for a mont and then left alone. Or a rare collectible that was of no help in real life, only to be glanced at from ti to ti.
I unconsciously ground my teeth. I was angry, but I had to accept it, and that made even angrier. Seong Hyunjae grabbed the end of one of his gloves and pulled it off. His bare hand, revealed from under the black leather, cupped my chin. His thumb pressed against my cheek, parting my clenched teeth.
“It’s a bad habit.”
“Is an F-Rank not even allowed to grind their teeth?”
“Still, I’ll say that I cherished Han Yujin.”
“Should I wag my tail for you?”
I know that there was nothing I could do besides just holding on. Unlike now, what could I have done even if sothing happened to Seong Hyunjae? No, in the first place, I would have just heard the news of Song Taewon’s death and the Sesung Guild Leader’s disappearance without knowing anything.
“There’s no need to feel resentful for being ordinary. You were just born that way.”
“Yes, fish can’t run and mice can’t fly. But there’s also the story of the lion and the mouse, right?”
“If the net had been a chain, it would have ended with the mouse’s teeth breaking.”
It was a story without dreams or hope. Right, a normal F-Rank’s teeth probably wouldn’t even scratch an S-Rank. In the end, the pre-regression Seong Hyunjae had one-sidedly approached , been nice to as he pleased, then suddenly disappeared and sent a postcard, right?
If I had those mories, damn it, I wouldn’t have even looked at him.
‘Although he was always that kind of person.’
What can you expect from a person who gets tired of even S-Rank Hunters in no ti?
“Let go. If you don’t want to see bite you and break my own teeth.”
“I don’t know why you’re growling like this.”
Seong Hyunjae said in a soothing tone. What do you an you don’t know?
“It’s okay. If I disappear, this world will go towards its normal destruction. The probability of preventing the destruction is also high.”
If Seong Hyunjae disappears.
Then there really might not have been any problems. I recalled the mory of Diarma that I had seen. That dragon bastard had tried to find Seong Hyunjae after he had broken the contract. The reason that incredibly dense guy had found out about and tried to bind Yuhyun even more might have been because of Seong Hyunjae. When the high-rank contract was broken, he might have beco anxious and dug deeper into Yuhyun.
If that hadn’t been the case, if he hadn’t noticed until the end.
I also rembered what the Unfilial Children had said. Our world had been evaluated as having a high possibility of preventing destruction. If Crescent Moon and Whitey hadn’t intervened, would it really have been like that? Could we have cleared the dungeons safely without Seong Hyunjae?
And if we had escaped destruction, would Yuhyun have co to find ? Even after several years, or more than a decade. Would there have been a chance for , close to forty, and my brother, over thirty, to et again and slowly fill the deep gap? Was there a possibility?
‘I’m sorry, Hyung, for all this ti.’
The thirty-sothing, but not much different from when he was twenty-five, brother might have said that. Not , but my brother would have apologized first, and I would have been angry. I wouldn’t have been able to accept it right away even after hearing the circumstances. But in the end, it would have slowly gotten better.
It might have been like that. But.
“Just because you disappear, nothing is solved now.”
Not now.
“Regression. It’s a nice word, regression. But in the end, that—it didn’t beco sothing that didn’t happen. If it had beco sothing that didn’t happen, then things shouldn’t have changed. In the end, it’s just—it seems like everyone except doesn’t rember. No, the transcendent beings all know, don’t they? So what do you an it didn’t happen?”
I rember, I changed, and so my surroundings changed. The changed surroundings were in turn changing the surroundings again.
“This ti, that chaos with the Awakening Center didn’t happen. Because I rembered the fact that the low-rank Hunters had been sacrificed. Although they died in vain, this ti, sothing like that didn’t happen. We even made the dungeon status detector in Korea this ti, and we’ll find out about dungeon creation in Korea too. And I’ll tell everyone and let them know. The Hunter Association has been cleaned up, and MKC has already gone bankrupt. There’s no more room for them to be tyrannical. That bastard Diarma is dead too, but if it hadn’t been for the events of the pre-regression, how would we have fought back?”
I looked straight at Seong Hyunjae. Song Taewon was dead, and Seong Hyunjae had only a short reprieve before being retrieved by Crescent Moon. Han Yuhyun was dead, and Han Yujin was left alone, unable to reconcile with his brother and with his corpse even stolen.
“You and I are both screwed. But what—what can we do? To say you’ll end it beforehand just because it seems like we’ll be screwed again is real bullshit, isn’t it? We’ve changed so much thanks to being screwed, so what do you an you’ll solve it simply? Isn’t that just running away on your own?”
After saying that, I felt a little guilty. It must have been quite an annoying thing to say, but Seong Hyunjae was still just smiling faintly.
“Are you saying I’ll change too?”
“You’ve already changed quite a bit. And the thod.”
My gaze rested on the swaying moonlight around Seong Hyunjae’s body.
“It won’t be that there isn’t one. In the first place, you’re not the type to give up easily. Mr. Seong Hyunjae.”
Is it because the current Seong Hyunjae is in a hopeless situation? To cut himself off rather than be used by Crescent Moon like this might be more like Seong Hyunjae, but still. Seong Hyunjae picked up the gloves that were on the table and put them on again. His long fingers bent slightly and then straightened.
“As long as I exist, as long as Crescent Moon exists. This world has no choice but to be destroyed.”
“...What?”
“It ans I can save the world while I’m at it, as I wrap up my own problems.”
“Is the world a bonus?”
What a grand scale. Crescent Moon would try to retrieve Seong Hyunjae no matter what. Is the act of retrieving itself what destroys the world? Because it’s an excessive intervention? Or maybe there’s another reason.
I pressed my lips shut. To be honest, it was hard to shout confidently, “I’ll take care of it sohow, so please send off the current Mr. Seong Hyunjae peacefully!” I had caught two transcendent beings, but a transcendent being was still a transcendent being. With Diarma, the Rookie and the rmaid Queen helped, and with the King of Harmless, there was the help of the Changeling. And if I hadn’t caught Diarma, that Changeling wouldn’t have been born either.
If I were told to face Crescent Moon without any of that, I would just be at a loss. Nine tis out of ten, I would just end up watching Seong Hyunjae be dragged away. Or I would be in a position where I couldn’t even watch.
‘Thinking rationally, it would be better to stay out of the business between Crescent Moon and Seong Hyunjae......’
Crescent Moon was still on the Unfilial Children’s side, for now. There’s also Chatterbox, so making more enemies here would be a stupid thing to do. But how could I do that? Even if it’s like hitting a rock with an egg, still.
Still, shouldn’t I try to do sothing? I was about to open my mouth.
[Fixing the error in the Sesung Guild area!]
A system ssage window appeared. At the sa ti, the surroundings began to shake violently. It wasn’t a simple earthquake. The collapsed buildings and the piled-up debris were still there. Without any fragnts rolling down, it was literally the whole thing—the space itself was shaking.
And then.
“...Keuk.”
Seong Hyunjae’s form blurred and contorted. The spread moonlight, the silver chain, also blurred. Darkness spread in the space where we were, and CRACKLE, with the sound of sothing breaking, fragnts scattered. I opened my eyes wide and stared at the scattering fragnts.
They were fragnts of mory.
Fragnts of Seong Hyunjae from before this world. The accumulated information was being forcibly scattered.
[Removing error! Do not move!]
Is that an error! Just then, sothing ca into my view. A white-feathered bird.
‘Whitey!’
The thought and the movent were simultaneous. I reached out my hand with all my might. The transcendent being who had taken my little brother. The being who would have been deeply involved in all of this with Crescent Moon.
My fingertips barely touched the fragnt of information that was rapidly scattering. Seong Hyunjae’s mories poured in like a waterfall.
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