Dangerous sprouts need to be plucked out in advance. If it were up to my feelings, I wouldn’t want to just sit and watch. If it’s a sprout that can be pulled, I want to get rid of it now.
It would be simple. Just a light touch would do.
I could kill Yeom Hajae instantly just by casually offering a handshake. Not just the civilians here, but other guild members too, even Choi Haegang himself, easily….
But that would make me no different from what I’d done before regression. I’d thought the same way back then, too. That dealing with people was easy. I’d acted on that thought without much hesitation.
And yet, someone had survived. Just one person.
That one person had come back six years later and stabbed me right in the back. My past mistake was, in effect, what had gotten me killed.
That fact kept nagging at me.
How had Choi Haegang survived my attack and become so strong by then? Until I knew that clearly, I couldn’t act rashly.
“Shaking? Me?”
“…….″
Don’t tell me he’d been watching this whole time in case I had a panic attack or something.
“Haha, ah….”
I subtly hid the hand he’d pointed out behind my back.
“It’s nothing. Just an unpleasant memory surfaced, that’s all.”
“You don’t have to feel embarrassed. You don’t have to hide it either….”
Yeom Hajae scratched his cheek.
“Honestly, I get scared every time I go in too.”
“…….″
“I lost family in a dungeon.”
Yeom Hajae seemed to be under the impression that I might have a similarly bad memory tied to dungeons, like he did. I didn’t bother correcting his misunderstanding.
“…I lost something important too, I suppose.”
My life, that is. Not really the dungeon’s fault, though—more Choi Haegang’s fault.
Ignoring Yeom Hajae’s gaze, which had grown somehow gentler, I counted the number of survivors visible behind him.
‘Six… seven…. Including Yeom Hajae and me, that makes nine total.’
Three of them were injured. Having four Hunters fall in together was a stroke of great luck for those people.
And my presence here was their misfortune.
If left alone, Yeom Hajae would defeat the monster and destroy the core, clearing the dungeon on his own, just like in my previous life.
But that wouldn’t do. I needed the artifact. And if possible, I also needed to figure out a way to safely eliminate Choi Haegang. Now that the boss had summoned me, I didn’t have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for a clear like last time.
My head was a mess.
“……?”
While I was deep in thought about what to do, I suddenly felt warmth on my hand. Looking at my captured hand, Yeom Hajae smiled awkwardly.
“Still, having someone beside me like this really helps.”
It seemed his business wasn’t quite finished yet.
“See? You’re better now, right? Don’t bear it alone from now on.”
Yeom Hajae lifted my hand up. The trembling had stopped.
Of course, it wasn’t because Yeom Hajae was holding my hand. I’d consciously stopped it myself.
I smiled and responded.
Zzzt.
“Ouch, that stings.”
Startled, Yeom Hajae let go of my hand.
“Static electricity… haha….”
He laughed awkwardly.
“The treatment….”
“Where’s Hajae hyung—”
Just then, I spotted some people over yonder fussing around an injured person. Yeom Hajae seemed to notice it too, glancing at me to gauge my reaction.
I gave him an opening to leave quickly.
“Go ahead. Looks like they’re looking for you over there.”
“Ah, then I’ll just…. Call me anytime if you need anything!”
I waved him off as he kept glancing back.
“Hmm….”
How easy. To have absolutely no guard up around strangers like that….
Perhaps that’s why Choi Haegang, who stood beside Yeom Hajae, looked so completely at ease.
‘…Wasn’t there a saying about keeping your enemies close?’
Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get close to Yeom Hajae like this and gather information on Choi Haegang.
So I could find out what kind of ability he had.
And so that, when the time came, I’d be able to kill him whenever I wanted.
“Haa….”
I raised the hand Yeom Hajae had held. As I relaxed it, it started trembling again.
Scared of going into dungeons?
No, that’s not right. This is just….
“Mreow—”
“Guess it’s not the right time yet.”
I switched my object of observation.
Yeom Hajae. He was tending to the injured.
It seemed like his personality just couldn’t let him leave an injured person alone. Whether physically or mentally hurt.
A righteous disposition. Not exactly rare among Hunters, either. The type of person someone like that would be drawn to was obvious. Kind, weak people, and the like….
I’m not confident about the “kind” part.
Maybe I should just play the weak card to my heart’s content. Just as that thought crossed my mind—
“Meow!”
The cat latched onto my pant leg, biting down. It seemed to have some sort of complaint, but I had no ability to understand animal speech. I looked down at the cat and smiled brightly.
“I have a plan for everything.”
After that, the cat kept yowling discontentedly several more times.
***
“Hajae-ssi….”
There it was again. I looked back to see a brown-haired man.
“Sorry, I’ll be right back.”
Yeom Hajae left his spot. How many times had he been called away in just the past few hours?
Watching what he’d do, I saw him chatting and smiling with the man. Patting his back, putting an arm around his shoulder. And then, when he saw him even grab the man’s hand, the Atlas Hunter Kim Minjun narrowed his eyes.
“No matter how you look at it, that guy doesn’t seem hurt.”
That man over there was suspicious in many ways. Despite all this chaos, his clothes were spotless, and his suit was clearly an extremely expensive brand. But despite his neat appearance, there was something about his cocky demeanor that bothered him.
And what was with that name, Kim Cheolsu? It practically screamed “fake name.”
But the most suspicious part was something else entirely. It was his overly relaxed attitude. While all the other civilians were huddled together, sobbing in terror, that man alone was smiling and grinning to himself. And he wasn’t even a Hunter! The leisurely air about the man made him seem like someone who had something to fall back on.
He’d brought it up to the leader once, asking if it wasn’t strange. The leader had given him a bitter look.
“He’s probably just forcing himself to act fine. People like that tend to be more of a mess on the inside.”
Looking at that flawless face, it really didn’t seem like the inside was a mess at all. But seeing the melancholy in his leader’s eyes, Kim Minjun read the room and kept his mouth shut.
In any case, the leader, apparently sensing nothing odd, walked over to the man without hesitation. If anything, he seemed pleased to be called over like that.
The two of them seemed strangely close, despite having met less than half a day ago. The leader was naturally kind, sure, but how exactly had he been won over so thoroughly….
Kim Minjun sought sympathy from the colleague beside him.
“Hey, Haegang-ah. Isn’t that weird?”
“…I dunno.”
Choi Haegang glanced briefly toward Yeom Hajae’s direction, then went back to staring at the ground. He stood there silently, fidgeting with the sword sheath at his waist.
Kim Minjun clicked his tongue, frustrated.
That guy Choi Haegang—it had been five years since they’d met, and he still had no idea what was going on in his head. Actually, was he even thinking anything at all?
The sharp impression that had seemed intimidating at first had gradually come to look like he was just zoning out. Like how the man called Kim Cheolsu smiled suspiciously often, this colleague was suspiciously expressionless.
While he was looking at Choi Haegang with displeasure, someone dropped down from above.
“Hyungs, there’s nothing in this room.”
It was the youngest, who’d gone out scouting. The moment his floating feet touched the ground, the wings on his back disappeared.
Startled by the sudden presence appearing out of nowhere, Kim Minjun smacked the youngest on the head.
“Ow!”
“You scared me! Don’t come down so suddenly like that.”
“Then what am I supposed to do….”
The youngest grumbled, rubbing his head with an air of indignation. Choi Haegang, not even blinking at the commotion between the two, spoke up.
“Nothing at all, you said?”
“Yeah. No monsters or anything—not even an ant nearby, it seems. Couldn’t find the core either…. How are we supposed to get out?”
The key to clearing a dungeon wasn’t dealing with monsters. The important part was destroying the core. And the core was hidden inside the body of the boss monster.
The monster holding the core was usually located not too far from the gate. So there wasn’t really a need to take the risk of going deeper in….
“The problem is we don’t have a detector.”
They hadn’t come here after receiving word from the Association—a gate had just opened right in front of them and they’d jumped in on the spot. There was no way they’d have proper equipment.
Finding the core under these circumstances seemed like it would be a fairly tedious process. Kim Minjun swallowed a sigh.
When a problem arose, his eyes naturally drifted toward the person he could rely on. Right then, he made eye contact with Yeom Hajae, who’d turned to look his way.
‘Get over here already.’
With that meaning, he gestured and grumbled.
“What’s that guy doing. There’s important stuff to discuss and the leader’s off by himself.”
The youngest chimed in bluntly.
“Hajae-hyung is sometimes way too nice to civilians. He’s a total pushover.”
“Hey. Don’t call hyung a pushover.”
“But it’s true.”
Regardless of the two colleagues bickering, Choi Haegang said what he had to say.
“You said there’s no monsters around.”
“From what I could see from above, yeah.”
Everyone knew it was too early to conclude anything from a single direction’s view.
“…You guys go check it out with Hajae-hyung.”
“Huh, what about you?”
“I’ll keep watch.”
With that, Choi Haegang closed his mouth again.
Click, click.
As if mulling something over, he simply repeated the motion of holding the sheath and lifting the sword slightly with his thumb.
***
As the sun dipped lower, sunlight gradually reached even the inner part of the wooden structure. With the cat lounging and purring in the sunlight beside me, I sat in the innermost corner.
Yeom Hajae had gone out to search.
In truth, the search was bound to be futile. The core would be inside the body of the monster that would come in after sundown.
But since there was information I needed to dig up, I couldn’t afford to do anything that might raise suspicion. I didn’t bother stopping him from his enthusiastic effort. What mattered was after Yeom Hajae came back empty-handed. By then, I needed to have a solid plan in place to get my hands on the artifact.
For now….
‘What am I even going to tell the boss when I get out of here.’
I was in the middle of my own important worries when—
“Mr. Kim Cheolsu. Could I have a moment?”
“…?”
Choi Haegang called to me from near the entrance. When I hesitated, he added.
“Hajae-hyung is calling for you.”
He’s back already? Why’s he calling for me?
There’s no way that’s true.
Half-doubting, I went out. And immediately regretted it.
BAM!!!
“Gkh…!”
“What the hell are you?”
[Karma: 59,779 (-10)]
