“……”
“Are you feeling a bit more alert?”
Igyeol held out a glass of warm water he’d brought on a tray.
“Drink it. Your stomach will be upset.”
Kang Yeongwon looked back and forth between Igyeol and the water glass with wary eyes. But unable to overcome his burning thirst, he took the cup and gulped it down in one go. After finishing the water, Kang Yeongwon hesitantly put down the cup.
“……Ahjussi, who are you?”
His voice was hoarse.
“What do you do? Where… is this place?”
“This is Jangchun Health Clinic, and I’m the owner here.”
“A health clinic? Why am I here…?”
Kang Yeongwon frowned as he pressed his forehead. His memory was cut off. He remembered passing through the alley after school ended, but after that it was pitch black as if the film had been cut. Kang Yeongwon let out a self-deprecating “ha-” as if familiar with this, hung his head low, then looked up at Igyeol.
“Was I… kidnapped? You seem to know quite a bit about me too…… But you still won’t get any money. My noona’s inheritance is still under trust management, so I can’t touch it.”
The boy’s reaction was sharp. As if all the adults in the world were his enemies, he was curled up tightly with his thorns raised. The sight was oddly pitiful, so Igyeol clicked his tongue.
“Kidnapping, what nonsense are you spouting? Don’t you remember what happened yesterday?”
“……What happened yesterday?”
“You went into a dungeon, you brat. You went in yourself. I saved you from nearly dying and now you’ve lost your mind too.”
“A dungeon… you say? Me?”
Kang Yeongwon’s eyes wavered. To call it a lie, his body felt too heavy and his clothes were covered in dirt.
“Yeah, yesterday. There’s even a witness. Sung Yohan, the Sanctum Guild Leader.”
“Wh-what, wh-what— Guild Leader Yohan?”
“Yeah. He said he’s your guardian. He was going crazy looking for you with his eyes rolled back.”
Kang Yeongwon blinked rapidly as if very flustered. When Sung Yohan’s name came up, his wariness seemed to ease a little, but he still didn’t let go of his suspicion. Kang Yeongwon frowned and snapped at Igyeol.
“Then why didn’t you leave me with Guild Leader Yohan and bring me here instead? That’s even more suspicious.”
“Ha, seriously….”
Igyeol let out a hollow laugh and ran his hand through his hair. Anyway, even after being saved, not knowing gratitude and snapping back—the sight was a carbon copy of someone. Igyeol crossed his arms and leaned crookedly against the wall.
“Like brother, like sister…. Hey, Kang Yeongeum’s little brother.”
At the name that came from Igyeol’s mouth, Kang Yeongwon’s shoulders flinched and trembled.
“……What, you know my noona?”
“I do. Very well.”
“How do you know my noona, Ahjussi? Don’t carelessly say my noona’s name. My noona is an incredibly amazing Hunter! Someone like you, Ahjussi…… a health clinic owner wouldn’t be someone she’d know….”
“Yeah, you would think so. If I said your noona and I were friends, you’d really flip out.”
“What did you say?”
At Igyeol’s calmly spoken words, Kang Yeongwon’s pupils shook greatly.
“……Friends, you said?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s a lie.”
Kang Yeongwon glared at Igyeol and snapped back as if dumbfounded.
“Up until now, noona’s friend, noona’s lover, an older brother I didn’t know, a younger sibling, aunt, maternal aunt, and so on. Do you know how many came looking? They were all lies. They were con artists who approached us targeting the inheritance. There were bastards who tried to make money selling noona’s name too, and Guild Leader Yohan cleaned up all those bastards…… Ha, whatever, stop talking nonsense and take me to Guild Leader Yohan.”
“……”
“Where would my noona have friends? It’s really funny, everyone…… My noona… was always alone… She always said she had to make money because of me, that she didn’t have time to meet friends….”
Kang Yeongwon’s voice became wet and trembled. The child was lonely. After his noona, his only blood relative in the world, left, all that remained were massive assets and the hyenas targeting them. No one saw him as Kang Yeongwon himself. Everyone only treated him as ‘Kang Yeongeum’s little brother,’ a ‘walking lottery ticket.’
That’s probably why he entered the dungeon. Hoping that if he awakened, if he gained power, he could escape from this terrible loneliness and helplessness.
Igyeol silently absorbed the boy’s venom. Then he turned and headed toward the old mother-of-pearl cabinet in the corner of the room.
“It’s not a lie.”
Igyeol pulled out a small wooden box from deep in the drawer.
“And your noona, she wasn’t without friends. She was only cold on the outside; inside she was soft and even meddlesome.”
“……”
“Until the very end… she only worried about you before she left.”
Igyeol approached Kang Yeongwon holding the box. Then he opened the lid and held out the item inside.
Inside the box lay a single plain silver ring. It had no jewels embedded in it, nor was it a flashy artifact emitting magical power. It was just an old silver ring full of the traces of everyday life.
“This is….”
Kang Yeongwon stared blankly down at the ring. It looked familiar. From when he was very young, it was that ring his noona always wore on her index finger.
“It’s… noona’s.”
“Yeah. Your noona left it with me to give to you.”
“Why do you have this, Ahjussi? Were you really… with her at the end?”
“Yeah. I was with her.”
Igyeol’s voice sank. In the flames, Kang Yeongeum’s face as she faded away for the last time flashed before his eyes.
“Take it. I gave it to you too late. I didn’t know how to find you… I agonized over it a lot too.”
No, actually, dragging his sick body around, he hadn’t been able to think about looking for anyone. He was just looking at the day he would die. He was just thinking about dying, when Kang Yeongwon appeared before his eyes. Igyeol smiled bitterly.
Kang Yeongwon picked up the ring with trembling hands. As the cold metal texture touched his fingertips, the tears he’d been holding back surged up to his throat.
“What… is this? Is it an artifact? If I wear this… can I awaken too? Can I become strong like noona?”
The boy asked desperately. He needed power. Power to wash away the guilt of not being able to protect his noona, the guilt of surviving alone.
But Igyeol shook his head.
“No. This isn’t a weapon.”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know either. I haven’t used it. It’s just… something your noona earnestly begged me to make sure I gave to you.”
Kang Yeongwon’s disappointment was evident. But just the fact that it was his noona’s keepsake meant he couldn’t throw it away. He slowly placed the ring on his finger. It was still a bit loose on the boy’s hand.
That was the moment.
Crackle, crackle-.
A faint friction sound came from the ring.
“Huh?”
Kang Yeongwon tried to take it off in surprise, but a faint light leaked from the ring’s surface. It wasn’t a sharp light like attack magic. It was a warm, soft, amber light.
Hiss- crackle-.
[Ah, ah. Can you hear? Is this recording properly?]
A voice flowed out, breaking the silence. Kang Yeongwon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
[Ah, ah- ah geez really Kim Heejun you son of a… no, oppa, is this really recording properly?]
[I said it is!]
It was a voice he couldn’t forget even in his dreams, a voice he missed.
[Ahem, you won’t believe it but well…… Hi, Yeongwon-ah. It’s noona.]
“No… noona…?”
Kang Yeongwon’s lips trembled.
[Ahem, ahem…… Hey, Kang Yeongwon. Are you eating well and doing okay? This noona is doing well.]
The light floating in the air wasn’t a video. It was just a voice. The voice with noise occasionally had laughter passing by recorded along with it, and contained Kang Yeongeum’s voice and breathing as they were. Kang Yeongeum tried to set a serious atmosphere but gave up as if awkward and spoke roughly.
[You’re now 8 years old… how old are you? Ah, I can’t gauge it, time is a mess here. Anyway, you should be about to enter school by now, right? Obvious, you brat! Always eating late-night snacks, not eating meals on time, being late to school, huh? I know everything. Even from far away, I can see it all, so stop gaming, you brat.]
[Yeongeum-ah, why are you recording if you’re just going to nag?]
[Ah, shut up!]
The voices of a man and woman giggling from the side followed. Kang Yeongeum was talking with them in a cheerful voice.
[Ahem, hey, Kang Yeongwon. Noona will earn lots of money. So I’ll send you to college, and buy you a house when you get married. If anyone bullies you at school, tell them you’re Kang Yeongeum’s little brother. I give you permission to do that!]
The ring wasn’t just a simple artifact. It was a ring embedded with a ‘recording stone’ that Hunters going to the battlefield used to leave their last words.
[Yeongwon-ah.]
This time the voice in the call was a bit choked. As if it were the last.
[Noona hopes you won’t do anything like being a Hunter. I just want you to live normally, safely, like everyone else. The reason noona runs around wielding a sword is so that at least you can live without seeing blood.]
A tear dropped from Kang Yeongwon’s eye. Why he wanted power so much, why he tried to enter the dungeon. He thought all of it was for his noona, but what his noona actually wanted wasn’t that.
[I love you, my little brother.]
The voice mixed with crackling noise filled the room.
[Ahem, ah geez this is embarrassing. Hey, Kang Yeongwon, Yeongwon-ah! Noona loves you so, so much! The most in the world! I love you!]
The playback ended. The ring’s light faded. But Kang Yeongwon couldn’t move.
“Sniff….”
The tears he’d been holding back burst out like a dam breaking.
“Noona… noona….”
Kang Yeongwon clutched the hand with the ring to his chest and collapsed to the floor, sobbing. It was a desperate crying sound like a beast howling.
“I miss you… sniff… I was wrong… I was wrong….”
The loneliness accumulated over 10 years, the sorrow, the longing, all poured out at once. Confirmation that he wasn’t alone. Proof that he hadn’t been abandoned. The words “I love you” that he’d so desperately wanted to hear slashed through the boy’s heart and stitched it back together.
Igyeol silently watched the scene. He didn’t offer words of comfort or pat his shoulder. Right now, the best thing was simply to give the child space to cry as much as he needed. Igyeol quietly turned and left the room.
Rattle. The door closed, and the sound of sobbing continued to leak endlessly from inside the room.
“……Ha.”
Igyeol, who came out to the shop, dry-washed his face. His eyes stung. At times like this, he really didn’t know what to do. Igyeol picked up the cigarette pack he’d tossed aside and went outside the shop to crouch down next to the door.
His heart ached. His heart… hurt so much.
“I delivered everything. Yeongeum-ah.”
Igyeol took out one cigarette and lit it. He lit another one and placed it on the opposite side. He stared wordlessly at the burning ash for a long while like that.
