Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Quiet Room Frustrations
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A quiet room.
Sa-hyeok, who had been huddled under the covers, suddenly kicked them off like bursting out of a cocoon and flipped over.
“Ah—!!”
That damn Helcannon bastard.
When he killed Avrilia’s king and crown princess, the prince who had a meltdown turned out to be an S-rank hero, so he’d gone to great lengths—three visits and all—to barely make him a bound hero.
Behind that mask-like face, he must have harbored resentment for losing his father and sister.
Betrayals by heroes were more common than one might think, and even within SpaceKing, there were talks of just killing Helcannon since their relationship was already ruined.
It was Dart who had insisted on sparing the rare S-rank hero and binding him.
That’s right.
He should have just killed him cleanly.
Whether he’d helped guild members from the shadows or not, Sa-hyeok found Helcannon irritating.
Helcannon was dangerous by his very existence. He was one of the few in Midgard who could match top ranker players.
“Ha…….”
Sa-hyeok covered his eyes with one hand, then slowly dragged it down.
No matter how much he cursed and wanted to kill Helcannon for being a threat, the sharp arrow of guilt quickly turned back on him.
Yeah, I’m the one who should be killed.
The mark from getting smacked by Kaisha that day had vanished from his face without a trace thanks to the healer’s power.
But the wound in Sa-hyeok’s heart wouldn’t heal so easily.
He had so much to do—prepare funerals for the dead guild members, handle guild affairs, look for a new house—but nothing stuck in his hands.
Letting out a sigh, Sa-hyeok reached out and pulled his phone from the table.
Lee Sa-hyeok’s lock screen was still the tall, stunning female character from Bipa, Kaisha.
“…….”
He stared at it blankly.
Sometimes, when SpaceKing guild members he met in real life saw it, they’d make awkward faces, but Sa-hyeok’s phone wallpaper was always consistently Kaisha.
Because she was fucking awesome.
Going into [Photos] > [Favorites] on his phone screen brought up a flood of Kaisha’s real-life photos.
Pictures circulating online.
The real Kaisha had a somewhat softer impression than her in-game counterpart.
She was shorter too.
In-game Kaisha was over 180 cm.
Her real-life version was softer yet still cool, which was incredibly attractive.
After the second raid before entering the gate, quite a few well-taken photos of Kaisha had spread online.
For some reason, collecting photos of the real woman felt even more perverted than collecting game character pics, so Sa-hyeok hadn’t dared use them as wallpaper.
Before entering the gate, Sa-hyeok had scoured SNS pages that pissed him off just seeing him and Gilgamesh together, and Kaisha’s fan cafe—the zealot gathering spot—to swipe every photo.
Of course, he’d pre-ordered the Kaisha photobook too.
Flicking through the painstakingly collected Kaisha photos, Sa-hyeok’s face turned melancholic.
“Shit…….”
He’d wanted to get close to her.
Overwhelmed by surging frustration, Sa-hyeok flung his phone away and wrapped himself tightly in the blanket again, turning into a burrito.
It was over.
She’d already pegged him as done in the game, but now even the chance to pretend to be a different person in real life was completely gone.
Why did I do that? I should have gotten closer to her in the game from the start.
That Gilgamesh bastard.
That traitor Helcannon bastard.
In his imagination, Sa-hyeok saw Kaisha’s face smiling and talking with Gilgamesh, and Helcannon being carried off by her.
The blanket exploded once more.
“Ah, I’m so fucking pissed!!”
Unable to contain his temper, Sa-hyeok kicked off the blanket, roughly ruffled his hair upward, and hopped down from the bed.
“Ha…….”
His throat felt parched, maybe from the inner heat.
Click.
Sa-hyeok left his room to cool off with some cold water and bumped into his roommate fresh out of the shower.
Sa-hyeok scowled as he brushed past, and the man flinched, glaring back at him.
“……When are you leaving?”
“Soon, you little shit.”
The man—Sa-hyeok’s stepbrother Kang Hyun-su—glared fiercely at Sa-hyeok.
Blood didn’t matter; Sa-hyeok yanked open the fridge door and chugged cold water straight from the bottle.
As the chill settled in his gut, he felt a bit better.
Feeling the persistent stare, Sa-hyeok smirked without turning around.
“What? Scared?”
“……Murderer bastard.”
“Ha.”
Sa-hyeok let out a cold laugh at Kang Hyun-su’s words.
The news had blown up nationwide—no, worldwide—so there was no way he didn’t know what Sa-hyeok had been up to.
He’d probably looked into it thoroughly.
Especially since he might lose his life to a murderer’s revenge.
Sa-hyeok sneered.
“Aren’t you the last one to talk, you bastard who used to beat me like you wanted to kill me as a kid? Does your girlfriend know? He’s the type to gleefully hit his own wife and kids someday—guy’s got no taste in women.”
He’d vaguely heard they were getting married soon.
Kang Hyun-su clenched his fist tight at the sharp, cutting insult.
A menacing expression.
He was the type to swing if his temper got the better of him, but maybe seeing all the fights on the news had sapped his courage.
“Oh, right, I heard hunters don’t get charged with murder.”
Kang Hyun-su flinched at Sa-hyeok’s words.
It was a wartime measure rushed for heroes, and while laws to protect civilians would soon be properly made, right now it was suffocating terror for someone.
Lee Sa-hyeok—Dart—had killed countless heroes in the Anyang Station urban war.
Buoyed by overwhelming public opinion and global legal trends, the government had decided to sweep all legal issues from the incident under the rug.
They hadn’t even billed for building damage or road destruction.
Sa-hyeok glared at his stepfather’s son.
“Yeah, I’m a murderer, so if you don’t wanna die, don’t mess with me, you punk. And don’t go blabbing like you know me.”
Spitting the words, Lee Sa-hyeok shoved Kang Hyun-su’s shoulder and brushed past.
Then, as soon as he looked up, his eyes met his mother’s, who had just come out of her room, and his face turned utterly dismayed.
What timing.
“Sa, Sa-hyeok. You—”
“What did I do.”
“…….”
“Go comfort your son. Poor Hyun-su’s trembling in fear that I might kill him.”
He spoke as if Kang Hyun-su, not himself, were the real son.
Of course, back then, the one pitifully trembling in fear of getting beaten to death by the big, inferiority-complex-ridden Kang Hyun-su had been none other than Sa-hyeok.
Yet his biological mother had never once fully taken his side.
And now she had the nerve to look shocked.
“Lee Sa-hyeok!”
Sa-hyeok’s lips twisted.
The scolding voice calling his name didn’t come from his mother—it was Kang Hyun-su.
The reason for raising his voice was obvious.
Kang Hyun-su had Mom fully on his side.
After his soldier father died young, his mother remarried and got along extremely well with her new husband.
She also got along well with her new husband’s son, Kang Hyun-su.
But Sa-hyeok had never gotten along with Kang Hyun-su, who’d been a lump of inferiority from the first meeting.
Even when bruises multiplied on young Sa-hyeok’s body, Mom did nothing in the face of his stepfather’s words that kids grow up fighting.
From some point, Sa-hyeok started hiding the wounds from his brother’s beatings.
A capable, quiet father.
A happy mother remarried to a man who greatly respected her dead first husband.
If only the smart, studious brother didn’t always beat him up, if only he kept quiet, it would have been the perfect family.
Sa-hyeok looked at his shocked mother, then grew bitter.
“Why are you even surprised, Mom.”
As far as I remember, I was never your son in this house.
That’s why he’d left home.
Sa-hyeok knew it too.
That Mom had sacrificed her biological son to be loved by her new husband and maintain that good relationship.
The damn stepfather really treated her well.
Sa-hyeok’s biological father hadn’t been such a great guy; he’d remarried for appearances and basically neglected her.
So how good must it have felt for Mom to remarry a man her age and finally be treated like a person.
That was just how it was.
“I’ll be out soon.”
The only obstacle in Mom’s life would be gone soon, so no need to worry too much.
Succumbing to his mother’s gaze full of guilt and apology, Sa-hyeok trudged back to his room and shut the door.
From beyond the closed door came his mother’s heartbroken sobs and Kang Hyun-su comforting her, tearing at Sa-hyeok’s chest.
* * *
Helcannon dreamed.
Of the day the gods’ hands took Avrilia, his father died, and the sister who was like a mother to him was executed.
‘No—!!’
Helcannon, escaping the gods’ grasp with all his strength, desperately reached out, but before he could touch, his head was severed clean off.
Heart-dropping pain.
‘Grab him quick!’
Panicked SpaceKing guild members rushed in and subdued Helcannon.
‘Crazy! How’s an NPC this strong?!’
‘Wait. This guy’s S-rank.’
‘S-rank without any raising?’
The players were shocked.
SpaceKing’s hero training standard started at A-rank.
NPCs maxed at Triple A.
So S-rank was known as a god’s grade—only players could raise to that.
A base S-rank among players was unprecedented.
‘……We’re screwed.’
Someone muttered.
Helcannon fell into despair, abandoning his will to live, but the gods didn’t kill him—they threw him in prison.
SpaceKing had made the mistake of killing the royals without checking hero grades or relationships because it was in the heat of a fierce siege.
To quickly take central Avrilia and push to Tereb, they’d hastily killed the royals.
Dart arrived after hearing the news, but it was already over.
Helcannon, who’d adored his blood sister like a mother, sank into despair in his cell, refusing food and waiting to die.
Dart visited several times, but Helcannon didn’t budge.
He really intended to die.
At least back then.
‘How pathetic. Suicide over family?’
‘…….’
‘Think it over.’
Dart coldly mocked Helcannon’s weakness, then dragged in Helcannon’s siblings and locked them in the same cell before leaving.
It was during the busy siege.
Dart had given them the siblings meaning “if family’s so precious, take comfort in them for now,” but Helcannon resolved to live for his siblings’ sake.
So he became Dart’s bound hero, obeying orders like a machine.
It was easier than expected.
Because even before SpaceKing conquered Avrilia, Helcannon had lived a similar life as Avrilia’s sword.
He was just a sword to be sharpened and sent to Tereb anyway.
Becoming SpaceKing’s sword to fend off monsters threatening Avrilia, with promises of good treatment for his siblings—everything went smoothly.
It wasn’t bad.
Living like this was fine; sunk so deep in darkness he’d forgotten light’s feel, suddenly a hand reached out.
A woman smiling in a halo looked strong and omnipotent, like the ancient chief god in Wirentia’s records.
‘!’
But it wasn’t him rushing into that sturdy embrace.
Whoosh.
The woman who scooped up Helcannon’s sibling rushing into her arms slowly stood and turned away.
Helcannon rose to chase desperately.
But clank! Looking down at the sound, heavy shackles bound his ankles.
‘…….’
I can’t go.
Helcannon slumped in despair, gazing endlessly at the receding light, then suddenly gritted his teeth, stood, and ran shackled.
Clank! Clank!
The heavy clamor suddenly vanished. Running faster, he desperately reached out.
Don’t go.
Take me too.
Please.
‘Kaisha—!’
His cry echoed in the darkness, and far ahead, Kaisha stopped and slowly turned.
Light pouring from Kaisha whitened his vision.
“…….”
Helcannon opened his eyes amid ecstatic warmth to morning sunlight streaming through an unfamiliar bedroom window.