“What... what happened?!”
I was perfectly fine a mont ago. Both my eyes and arms were intact. I was bewildered and incredulous. How did this happen? Could it be that my condition worsened and another hunter attacked ? I should have asked Director Song to co with . If I’d grown weak, I should’ve quietly returned to Korea instead of wandering off alone and ending up like this!
“How badly hurt are you? Where’s the healer? Can’t they regenerate your severed arm? There’s a saint in this area—”
“It’s been a while.”
A low voice echoed. It had indeed been a while—barely half a month, but still. Yet Seong Hyunjae’s voice carried depths far beyond that ti span. My advancing steps halted unconsciously. It felt as though a chasm more than a year deep yawned at my feet.
I blinked. I scrutinized that familiar face anew. Faded hair, golden eyes.
“...Seong Hyunjae?”
“I still can’t get used to it.”
Seong Hyunjae offered a faint smile. His eyes closed, then opened slowly. Golden rims like the edge of the sun glowed in pupils that had once turned dull. His arm, too, had miraculously reappeared intact. He lifted the restored limb and flexed his fist.
“In this body, you see.”
Seong Hyunjae hadn’t lost his eyes or arm. And yet he had lost them.
“You.”
My mouth felt bone-dry.
“Who are you?”
“As you can see.”
“My body...”
His voice remained calm, even as he spoke of what he’d stolen.
“In effect, perhaps it’s not so different.”
He continued, that faint smile still playing on his lips.
“I sought the traces of my pre–regression self—information and the shadow left by Song Taewon. Too precious to let fade into oblivion.”
...So Seong Hyunjae had gone searching for remnants of his pre-regression self? They had remained? Even if traces lingered, how had he concretized them like this?
“And then—”
He slowly brushed the fingertips of his returned hand along his jaw and mouth.
“I remained upon the surface.”
“...What does that an?”
“Even if these are but residues left between flows of ti, they remain Seong Hyunjae. Which bit survives and which is consud depends on chance. And thus it beca so. Or rather...”
His smile deepened.
“Perhaps this version feels more natural.”
I felt my patience snapping. My body moved before my mind could catch up. My foot shot forward; I lunged, reaching to seize his collar—but my fingers t empty air as a sudden blow struck my abdon.
Thud!
With a muffled sound I was hurled backward. Thanks to my armor it only stung, but I coughed reflexively. I skidded across the floor before stopping. As I tried to rise, a force pressed down on the back of my neck. My elbows buckled; I nearly collapsed face-down, blinking up at polished shoe toes. Only one shoe was visible, but I could easily imagine the other pinning my nape to the ground.
“How soft.”
A dry voice drifted from far above .
“Gentle, as always. For Han Yujin to recklessly attack without thought... you must be in quite the state.”
...Right. Pre-regression would never have charged an S-Rank or senior hunter on a whim. Not unard. I would have waited for a mont, weapon in hand, to inflict even a scratch. If I’d faced another senior hunter now, things would have been different.
“With... your partner.”
He flexed that pristine hand.
“We were partners, after all.”
But not like this. Bang! A bomb detonated on my palm. Heat and pressure surged. My vision flad. The grip on my neck released, and I floated up before falling again. This ti I landed lightly, already braced. Simultaneously I detonated a smoke bomb and rolled aside.
Swish!
Sothing sliced through the air. A flash of tal glinted at the corner of my vision. I activated Invisibility and slid across the floor. Even an S-Rank would struggle to locate now.
Crackle—
A faint electric current tingled. A curtain of electricity dominated the space, sensing every motion. Even perfectly concealed, I couldn’t escape its all-encompassing touch. It closed in on .
Tap.
A heel struck the floor. As easily as lifting a fish from a net, it hooked my collar and yanked upright. My disheveled hair whipped across my sleek forehead.
“You bastard.”
All of them. Well, the sa one in different guises. I kicked the heel away—it didn’t budge. My overheated mind cooled a bit, but my insides still twisted. What the hell was this?
“You ‘got eaten’? Is that even sothing you can say?”
I kicked again. My dirty shoe was caught. Twisting free, I used Deloise Skill. My shrunken form slipped from his grasp, I created distance, then returned to my normal size.
“You fucking human!”
He wouldn’t have let end up like this without reason. That irritates more. Maybe there’s a solution, maybe he trusts . Calmly considered, it’s not all bad: he retrieved pre-regression information and seems to have beco the representative of the Filial Piety Addict.
I gained much. And that bastard probably thought I’d comprehend the situation—because I’d handled everything well so far. And I’d never give up...
“You son of a bitch!”
Right, I said I wouldn’t give up! Damn you! How many tis did you grab and hold ? Because of that, huh? So you threw your own body away? Even against your own self, you’re not soone to lose easily—so was it deliberate? I pointed at Seong Hyunjae. His eyebrow twitched.
“I’ll restore you to how you were—then kill you!”
I can’t kill him anyway, so I might as well blow his head off once. He shrugged.
“Do I, post-regression, deserve to be despised so?”
“You too! You too!”
Why does he speak as if it’s soone else?
“You miserable bastard—no, are you Dog Number Two or One? Either way, sorry to the dogs! You—”
If I could, I’d rip his collar and punch that shaless face.
“You erased my mory! At your whim!”
Even I pre-regression wouldn’t have wanted that. Never.
“And it’s not just about Han Yujin.”
“There you go with that line again! You said his mories weren’t intact anyway!”
“I used the power of Plunder in various ways on my body. During the experints it was a ss, but now I’ve mostly recovered what I lost.”
This Seong Hyunjae seed older than the one I’d t in the Nightmare Dungeon. Likely just before his regression.
“It wasn’t for Han Yujin to bear.”
“That’s my decision.”
I glared at those two perfect golden eyes.
“He might have suffered, I suppose. I don’t know your relationship with Director Song and him, but I likely cared for both of you.”
He would have. He might not know about Director Song, but I would have liked him all the sa. And Seong Hyunjae, though I’d complain, I would’ve felt so affection.
“Perhaps it was my fault... It would’ve been very hard, but I would’ve endured. Even if I’d been in agony, I would’ve lived on. And I would’ve answered that damn postcard.”
That postcard I don’t even rember. I roughly pulled a dagger from my inventory and tossed it. Seong Hyunjae rely turned his shoulder, letting it slide off harmlessly.
“My life is my own! So you can be five tis more obnoxious!”
Even if both are obnoxious, the one who trusts the slightest is the least obnoxious. He probably thought he could manipulate however he liked—like imdiately after regression. Maybe he erased my mories to protect . Like he’d offered to be my guardian post-regression. But I don’t need that.
“You filthy Shepherd.”
I started to speak, then froze. Shepherd... isn’t that the liar from “The Shepherd’s Tale”? I suspected maybe this really was the pre-regression Seong Hyunjae. His attitude differed from the current one, but a man can feign anything.
‘...This inscrutable person even confuses now.’
In any case, the body is currently Seong Hyunjae’s. If I can restore him, that’s all that matters.
“So why are you here?”
“Done venting?”
“To finish, I’d have to stay up all night. The Filial Piety Addict wouldn’t have accepted you as his proxy, though you were on our side.”
Seong Hyunjae closed one eye at my question. As if to say, so?
“There are usually two ways to nullify the penalty for breaking a contract.”
“One is to overpower the contract with greater force. And the other...”
“Is to fulfill the contract’s terms again.”
He opened the eye he had closed. Two eyes, two arms intact.
“I, in my current self, was spared, but pre-regression couldn’t. Reducing the contract’s impact on the body was the best I could do. And as long as I remain on the surface, the contract continues.”
“You restored the contract?”
The contract between current Seong Hyunjae and Diarma, the Filial Piety Addict, had been cleanly erased. But for pre-regression Seong Hyunjae, it remained.
“The contract was with Diarma, but apparently it automatically transfers to another Filial Piety Addict.”
“Clever.”
“My gaze of praise for a bastard.”
“I doubt that.”
The contract endures, circumstances have changed drastically, and Seong Hyunjae must have talked his way through it. He might claim he’s essentially a different person from his present self.
“What happened to the ssage I sent?”
“The second one, I suppose.”
Seong Hyunjae’s lip twitched upward.
“After Han Yujin’s.”
“...That was true. But you are strong, after all.”
“We began simultaneously, fairly.”
“So it was deliberate! You rotten bastard!”
Seong Hyunjae had deliberately delayed replying to my ssage, buying ti. And in that ti...
“You must have sent a ssage to Director Song and Hyunah while holding .”
Because they’d already been marked unsuitable. anwhile Seong Hyunjae hadn’t been.
“A proxy should have shown as unsuitable! Such a scam!”
Seong Hyunjae lifted his hand and tapped the air twice. Then—
[Dear Han Yujin! Please side with Seong Hyunjae~☆ Your beloved partner has chosen you! Take your partner’s hand, Han Yujin–(?□?)/]
A ssage appeared before . What the—! ...But why did it look like that? Could my ssage have looked like that too? I tried not to think about “Beloved brother” or “Shishio...” and so on.
“Still, I didn’t expect you’d bring Hwangrim.”
“Hwangrim?”
Seong Hyunjae looked genuinely surprised. Then why was he marked unsuitable? He’s a thoroughly unsuitable human in many ways. Maybe because of his contract with another Transcendent or Puppetmaster? I exhaled and stared at Seong Hyunjae, gathering strength in my eyes.
I had no idea what sche he was plotting. But still—if he vanishes after dropping hints like this, I swear I’ll never let him off. I’ll extract five tis as much from him.
[Temporary System Administrator]
A ssage appeared then.
[We will now begin a # Nоvеlight # practice ga to adapt to the system.]
A practice ga?
[Please summon one of the awakened you selected!]
One? Naturally, Han Yuhyun—wait. How do I summon them?
[Awakened Registration Teleportation System Instructions]
Fortunately, a manual popped up. First designate the region and scan for the target’s location... scan...
[Trace the map with magic power drawn from the system to guide the teleportation!]
I followed the arrow on the map, drawing system mana and pulling it along. Without a mana imprint, an F-Rank couldn’t hope to manage this. Transcendents must operate without such aids.
“Yuhyun! Over here, over here!”
“Han Yujin.”
“Director Song!”
Song Taewon appeared before Seong Hyunjae. He glanced between and Hyunjae, his brows contracting slightly. He sensed sothing odd from Hyunjae but wasn’t yet certain. Then—
“Hyung!”
Yuhyun teleported in front of . My brother’s eyes quickly assessed .
“You okay?”
“As you see... um, I just took a tumble. I’m not badly hurt.”
His suspicious gaze returned. Not one pair but two eyes. Director Song, I really am fine.
“What happened? What’s your affiliation now?”
“It’s a long story to explain—”
Especially how to describe that Seong Hyunjae. As I hesitated, another ssage appeared.
“...Myeongwoo?”
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