Moving Out

Episode 17 of Goddess Saga. The move.

It was the episode where, after the academy arc of Goddess Saga, the real story finally began in earnest.

The problem was that this wasn’t a move in any good sense of the word.

It was the first misfortune, the first tragedy: their home was taken from them, and they were forced to leave the house where they had been born.

A fixed piece of history that could not be avoided no matter what.

In other words, the canonical story.

Beomho Development, a villainous organization backed by the Sihyeok Guild—a fact only revealed in the middle to latter half of the story.

The story in which those bastards harassed and threatened the protagonist’s family until they stole their home was one of the unchangeable, predetermined events.

It was the first reason Goddess Saga had been flooded with furious reviews.

And it was also the misfortune and tragedy Seonwoo had tried to change when he first came here, only to fail again and again.

That story was already in motion.

"Whew, it's cold. Damn cold."

Just like the first time he had come here, he had been caught without any chance to prepare.

Even after more than three hundred years, the gangsters from Beomho Development were still painfully familiar as they swaggered closer, joking loudly enough for everyone to hear.

They had come strolling into someone else’s yard first thing in the morning without the slightest restraint.

“...Oh.”

At the sound of the mana generator running, their expressions twitched in surprise.

As if their faces were confessing outright that they had been the ones who’d smashed it the night before.

Then one of them snickered, his look shifting into one that said it didn’t matter anyway.

No matter what happened.

No matter how desperately they struggled, he believed Seonwoo’s family would still end up selling this place for next to nothing.

So with the corners of his mouth lifting, he asked in a leisurely tone, face full of smug ease,

"Nothing bad happen last night, by any chance?"

"We looked into it, and turns out this place has really bad ground. So bad it wouldn’t be strange if anything happened here."

With each line they tossed out, anger kindled in Grandmother’s eyes.

It was an obvious ploy.

They weren’t saying it outright, but it was naked intimidation all the same.

"......"

But even knowing exactly what they were doing, she couldn’t show that anger.

Because it wouldn’t solve anything.

If it turned into a fight, the one at a disadvantage would be her.

"What if something happened to that cute little girl over there?"

"......!!"

But those next words were too much to endure.

Not when he was talking about her granddaughter—sick with a cold since last night—while raking her over with those filthy eyes.

"Don't look at my sister with those filthy eyes."

Grandmother’s anger stopped short before it could explode.

Because Seonwoo stepped forward first.

"Seonwoo!"

Grandmother called out to him urgently.

He might have graduated from the Hunter Academy with an E-grade license, but that was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing more than a formality.

He’d only been given the E-grade certification because he was a graduate and they needed to keep up appearances.

In truth, Seonwoo was essentially F-grade.

Someone who had no business working as a hunter—no different from a civilian who had trained his body a little.

Those men, on the other hand, made a living through violence in the post-Gate world.

The kind who were better at beating people than monsters.

On paper they were the same E-grade, but they were opponents Seonwoo shouldn’t have been able to handle.

"It's okay, Grandmother."

But Seonwoo, having stepped forward to protect Grandmother and Eunseo, spoke without the slightest wavering.

His voice was calm, but deep.

Soft and steady, as though it were wrapping around Grandmother’s and Eunseo’s unease and holding it gently in place.

After soothing his family that way, Seonwoo fixed the thugs with a gaze that seemed ready to bore through them.

Unlike that distant past, he hadn’t stepped forward rashly because he couldn’t master a moment’s emotion.

If anything, he had moved after coldly calculating it all.

Because this was where he had to solve the problem.

They were the kind of bastards who would commit even crueler acts without hesitation to steal the house.

The kind who would casually lay hands on Eunseo—the very thing that had once driven Seonwoo into rage.

So he had to end this before it came to that.

Even if he had run into the event without a single thing prepared.

The System warned him.

That the chance of success was a mere 0.00003%.

In other words, don’t attempt to alter it. Follow the canonical story instead.

It was much like the first time he came here, when his wish had finally been granted.

He had made so many plans, and yet time slipped by before he could accomplish a single one.

Then he ran headlong into the first story.

And he failed, turning it into an even greater tragedy.

He had learned with bone-deep certainty, through experience, that justice without power was a sin that invited greater misery and greater disaster.

But—

This time was different.

"Huh?"

One of the thugs sneered at Seonwoo as he stepped forward, like he was too ridiculous to take seriously.

Because he already knew what kind of person Kim Seonwoo was.

The blemish of Seoul Hunter Academy.

Seonwoo was trying to glare him down, but to the thug it wasn’t threatening in the least.

"This little bastard gone crazy...?"

But another one’s expression hardened at once. He strode forward and raised his fist.

At first, the other man seemed to wonder why his buddy was suddenly going off like this. Then he caught on to the intent and thought, Oh. The corners of his mouth rose even higher.

The two of them weren’t much as ability users, but within the organization they were considered sharp.

Which meant their brains worked just well enough for this kind of thing.

Pretend to get angry, then beat him half to death.

Normally that would cause problems.

But not this time.

Low-level grunts like them still didn’t know exactly who was backing them, even now that they’d effectively joined the family.

Only the boss—no, the president—was at the stage of receiving instructions with great care.

But they knew one thing for certain: whoever that person was, they were not someone to speak of lightly.

And if they were saying this much—

Then even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠leaving him half-dead won’t be a problem.

That old lady obviously dotes on her grandkids. This’ll wake her right up.

She might hand over the deed to this place on the spot.

And if they wrapped the job up quickly and neatly like that, maybe they’d get a little incentive too.

Having finished that calculation, the thug swung his fist with full intent.

Seonwoo didn’t dodge.

He did not dodge.

Instead—

Ssshhh—

He drew a deep breath while taking it in directly with both eyes.

In that instant, time stretched long and thin, and his eyes opened as though every sense in his body had awakened.

That sharply expanded awareness perceived his body with perfect precision.

The body he had checked over yesterday while assessing the situation had not been prepared at all, but it was in better shape than expected.

Because he had been unable to use mana, the protagonist had focused solely on training the body.

It had been the protagonist’s doing, not Seonwoo’s.

Compared to the realm Seonwoo had reached in Hanwa, it was no more than a firefly before the sun.

Even so—

This is enough.

The path Seonwoo had carved, deeper than deep, adapted perfectly overnight even to this utterly changed body.

Because the trajectories possible with this body, too, had already been engraved into that path.

And with just that much trajectory alone—

Tap.

It was more than enough to deal with a thug whose specs were overwhelmingly higher than his.

"Huh?"

A stupid sound slipped out of the mouth of the man who had thrown the punch at Seonwoo.

Because the world had suddenly spun around him.

His body floated up as if gravity had vanished.

He never realized that Seonwoo had ghosted past his position and lightly kicked his stepping foot, almost like a gentle push.

Tap.

Then Seonwoo changed the flow of force one more time with the back of his hand—

Crunch.

"...!!"

The thug hit the ground on his ribs, jaw falling wide open, unable even to scream as spit dribbled down his chin.

"W-what the hell?"

The other thug, lacking the eyes to recognize that sublime move—something so close to magic, a masterful handling of force exactly as intended—staggered backward.

To be called clever meant he thought too much.

A move he had seen but could not understand was more than enough to fill his head with thoughts.

What was that?

What kind of skill was that?

I didn’t feel mana move at all.

This is...

It was a situation he had never once imagined.

In truth, their behavior was much bolder and more reckless than in the original Goddess Saga story.

There was only one reason.

Because Seonwoo, the protagonist who should have restrained things to some extent, was too weak.

In the original story, the protagonist graduated from Hunter Academy at least D-grade.

In other words, he graduated with the ability of a promising rookie.

By absolute standards, D-grade was considered lower-mid tier, but for a freshly graduated student, it was upper class.

That was enough to make Beomho Development keep at least a minimum level of caution.

But the current Seonwoo did not.

An old woman who would soon have to surrender her hunter license.

A nobody with an E-grade hunter license that was only a shell.

They had judged him insignificant enough to run wild against.

And yet now, Seonwoo—whom they had pegged as not even worthy of being called a hunter—had shown them something absurd.

He had neutralized a comrade of roughly equal level in a way they couldn’t even comprehend just by watching.

The thug wasn’t stupid enough to dismiss that as mere luck or coincidence.

So just as a tangled silence was about to settle over the scene—

"What the hell are you idiots doing?"

He appeared.

Thud.

He was a big man, a little over six feet tall.

Thud.

And even that height somehow seemed too small for the sheer mass of muscle on him.

And more than that—

Thud.

"I asked what the hell you're doing."

He blanketed the whole area in a vicious aura, like a feral beast that had tasted human blood.

"H-hyung-nim."

By chance, the real muscle of Beomho Development had come along with them.

"Didn’t I tell you to beat to death anyone who gets in the way? You screwing around?"

"N-no, sir. It’s just—"

"That little bastard?"

Ssssss—

His slick, gleaming eyes turned toward Seonwoo.

Thump—!

Behind him, Grandmother reflexively drew up her mana.

The brute caught even that with beastlike senses and bared his teeth in a grin.

"You gonna shoot? Go ahead."

He spread both arms wide in blatant provocation.

But it wasn’t bluff.

He genuinely wanted her to attack.

The naked intent in those gleaming eyes made it obvious: he wanted an excuse to cut loose.

Even if magic really did come flying at him, he didn’t think for a second he’d be hurt.

Even at E-grade, a mage’s magic was powerful.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that was only when they had protection and time to cast properly.

Generally speaking, an E-grade mage had no ability to face a physically trained awakened one in a one-on-one fight.

Much less when that opponent was a D-grade physical-type awakened.

A fight between them couldn’t even be called a fight to begin with.

"If you don't shoot, that brat over there dies today."

"Well, even if you do shoot, he dies."

He mocked Grandmother.

That bastard was mocking her.

This was what the System had warned about.

A success rate of 0.00003%.

The reason the chance of failure was 99.99997%.

As if some coercive force had appeared to eliminate the variable trying to alter the story—

an unbeatable enemy, one who did not appear at this point in the canonical story, was now standing there baring his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠teeth.

And Grandmother—

"......"

Lowered her hand.

She was about to give up.

And it wasn’t simply because the opponent was an enemy she could never defeat in battle.

This house held memories of her son.

And memories of her grandchildren.

Yet the reason she was willing to give up her most cherished treasure so easily was because her grandchildren were even more precious than all of that put together.

Grandmother had suffered terribly after her grandson suddenly vanished.

She had aged ten extra years.

Even the savings that should have guaranteed her old age had run dry.

All because she had tried to find him.

She had spent everything without hesitation for that one thing.

When she lost her son and daughter-in-law together, Grandmother had lost her will to live.

Her strengthless hands had reached for nothing.

So this time too, as Grandmother tried to give up something precious far too easily for the sake of her grandchildren—

Seonwoo wanted, more than anything, to make her happy.

Together with his little sister Eunseo, trembling behind him.

He wanted to stop every tragedy and every misfortune he knew was coming, and then be happy with them as one family.

That was why Seonwoo had been able to keep moving forward in silence.

But no matter how many times he tried again, all he found was failure after failure.

He thought, and thought, and thought again.

Even though he never once stopped moving forward, what awaited him in the end were always tragedy and defeat.

And at the moment he resolved to face that tragedy head-on, Seonwoo finally realized why.

I was the one who had to do it.

Seonwoo had come to the world he had longed for so desperately, not as an extra or supporting character—

but as the protagonist.

So it had to be Seonwoo, and no one else, who achieved the future he desired as the protagonist.

And so now—

Step.

Seonwoo finally stood before this unreasonable trial as the protagonist.

"What? You wanna fight?"

"Yeah. Let's fight."

Only now had he truly reached the prologue.