Chapter 22
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Translator: MJK
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: 3. Baridegi's Domain (5)
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The moon hung in the twilight sky.
The campus lay shrouded in an ambiguous light—neither fully dark nor bright.
"Moving as a group this late? If we get caught, we might have to write excuse letters."
Gong Seo-yoon laughed as she stretched her arms overhead.
"But the moon's nice, isn't it?"
Yoo Han-seong replied indifferently.
Hyeon-i grumbled but kept pace, while Lee Hae-sol remained silent.
I took a deep breath and loosened up my body.
The breeze was cool, carrying the scent of grass.
No sweat beaded on my skin, but tension ebbed from my muscles bit by bit.
Casual conversation flowed naturally in the meantime.
What was on the dinner menu tonight?
Why had training been so grueling lately?
Rumors of someone slipping in the dorm showers again.
"Hari, aren't you scared of heading into a dungeon?"
Gong Seo-yoon asked offhandedly.
I paused to think.
"I'm not exactly not scared."
"Then? Why dive into somewhere so dangerous?"
I glanced at the moon before continuing.
"If I skip it out of fear, something even scarier might happen. And I need the rewards from that dungeon."
The mood quieted for a beat.
Yoo Han-seong chuckled.
"That's you, alright."
Lee Hae-sol nodded in agreement.
Gong Seo-yoon burst out laughing.
"Tougher than you look, huh?"
I didn't mind the assessment.
Hyeon-i, who seemed shy around strangers, stayed quiet, but her expression had softened.
Before we knew it, we were searching as we talked.
Sweeping natural eyes over spots where a dungeon might pop up.
No one had given the order.
As the moonlight dimmed further, we gravitated toward it unconsciously.
Near the stone wall by the cafeteria, the air shifted.
The wind seemed to halt, sounds lagging a half-beat behind.
I stopped in my tracks.
The others halted around the same instant.
Darkness pooled atop the stone wall.
Black, fluffy mist.
A presence I'd grown familiar with.
But familiarity offered no comfort.
This time, it felt like the dungeon had registered more people.
"Was this place always this vibe?"
Gong Seo-yoon muttered lowly.
Yoo Han-seong swallowed hard. Hyeon-i glanced at her waist, as if remembering the rope.
Lee Hae-sol's face grew stern.
I stepped forward.
There, in the stone wall beside the cafeteria, was a door.
A seam absent in the daylight.
Twilight moonlight grazed its surface.
Baridegi's Dungeon of Luck.
The final door.
I hesitated mid-step into the darkness and glanced back. More faces than I'd expected.
No telling what the original story's leads were thinking.
But I was grateful for them right now.
Guess I'd been more tense than I realized.
"I'll be right back!"
The darkness slowly parted the door.
No branches this time.
From the moment we entered, just one straight passage ahead.
No left. No right.
No option to turn back.
It felt like a declaration: no more hesitation allowed.
Mist barely appeared.
No enveloping black fluffiness clinging to my body.
No ankles snagged, no shoulders weighed down to force a kneel.
The air was clear. Vision sharp.
That only heightened the tension.
The dungeon had ditched its lulling tricks.
I steadied my breath and walked on.
I didn't draw a potion this time.
Felt no need.
This path didn't muddle the mind.
Instead, it dangled something else.
A treasure chest appeared ahead.
Lid yawning open on the floor, brimming with glittering materials.
Things I'd craved while brewing potions.
Crystallized rare herbs.
Refined mana crystals.
Ingredients that'd bump a potion's grade with a single use.
I didn't stop.
Didn't even glance at the loot.
Everything this dungeon showed was something I'd once desired.
This was greed from a phase I'd outgrown.
I walked past.
A little farther, and the scene shifted.
A peaceful vista unfolded.
The school field.
People laughing.
Faces doomed to die in the original story—alive and well.
As if nothing had ever gone wrong.
A world sans dungeons or tragedy, laid bare before me.
My heart lurched hard. Like confronting something long craved.
It's a good thing, but why's my body reacting like this?
Was there something about Jin Hari I didn't know?
One of those cliché hidden backstories?
Whatever.
This isn't my choice right now.
I clenched my jaw.
This was an outcome, not a reward.
I didn't look away.
I walked straight through it.
Like parting mist, the scene dissolved into ether.
Next came power.
Voices calling my name.
Me, flipping the battlefield with a single potion.
Dungeon raids orbiting around me.
Respect and expectation in equal measure.
I smirked inwardly.
Funny how it parades irrelevant cravings as temptation.
How much time passed like that?
The dungeon stopped testing me.
It was confirming.
How far I'd come.
The passage stretched on.
Temptations morphed forms.
Safety.
Fame.
A life unshackled from duty.
All things I'd grasped at once.
Desperately coveted by this world's folk—but not enough to sway my wishes.
With each step, the tunnel's end came into view.
A door stood there.
Unlike the others.
The entire surface etched with an image.
Baridegi.
True to the legend.
A figure on the road.
Taking souls or sending them back.
Not ornate, but resolute.
Before it, my feet halted naturally.
The door was shut.
No lock. No handle.
Just the carved face toward me.
I laid a hand on it.
Neither cold nor warm.
The feel of reality brushing its boundary.
The door began to open.
Silently. Slowly.
Light seeped through the crack.
The instant it swung wide, a voice echoed.
"Greedy one. What do you seek to claim by venturing this far?"
Was that aimed at me?
Baridegi's form beyond the door was quieter and more beautiful than any depiction in the tales I'd known.
Not a god bearing down with majesty, but a figure standing sentinel on an ancient road, wordlessly escorting souls.
Her robes flowed softly, as if stirred by wind, faint light bleeding at the hems.
The glow neither dazzled nor dimmed.
A hue caught betwixt night and day.
Her face clear to see, yet her impression slippery to pin down.
Like a mother, or a guide ushering a lost child home.
Meeting that warm gaze felt like arriving back in my hometown.
First words aside—they were a bit odd.
So I neither bowed nor fled. I steadied my breath and spoke slowly.
"If possible, I'd like to see a future where more people survive."
My voice didn't waver.
These words couldn't shake me.
Baridegi regarded me a moment.
Her eyes settled softly.
"Humans are bound for death regardless."
Quiet, resonant depths—my heart thudded harder.
"Do you grasp that without readying for farewell, there is no growth?"
I simply nodded.
"I still want to see it."
I repeated.
"Not a future forged from tragedy as awakening's fuel. If possible, one with fewer losses."
Baridegi's lips seemed to ease, ever so slightly.
"You know many things."
"Yes."
I smiled.
"Do you know that humans must not become saviors?"
"I'm not trying to be one. I just want to witness a good ending. I was a reader, after all."
Baridegi fell silent, then nodded.
That single motion rippled the space's fabric.
She extended her hand toward me.
Her palm appeared empty.
But I knew.
What rested there.
"This is my domain."
Baridegi proclaimed.
"A place for the dead. Yet one the living may borrow."
I received it with both hands.