Chapter 215: Choi Eunju
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 215: Choi Eunju
Fwoooosh—
It was a rather bizarre sensation. My advantage here was experience. I shot into the deepest part of her mind in an instant, giving her no time to resist, and various things began to come into view.
Her life on Earth, from her childhood to her friends, her boyfriend, steamy encounters, her parents, and all sorts of incidents, big and small.
Her mind was certainly far more resilient than Alisha’s. What surprised me a little was that she was older than I thought and had been a married woman.
‘Forty years old…’
I had thought she was in her late twenties at most. I never imagined she was this old.
If my mind was a disorganized library, hers was like an inverted pyramid. A single, core consciousness supported countless fragments of memory. What was most unexpected was that, contrary to my assumptions, she had lived a rather ordinary life.
I could see worn-out parts of her mind here and there, but it was a stretch to call it the mind of a psychopath who enjoyed murder. I had never entered Park Hyeri’s mind, but it was surely different from this one.
‘Choi Eunju.’
That was her name. Born the eldest daughter in an ordinary family in Busan, she grew up experiencing various things. Her parents had a harmonious relationship, and after a normal career, she got married. In a very rare case, she was summoned to the continent along with her husband. They were summoned to a small city in the West and grew through many trials.
Her husband wasn't strong, but he was capable. Seeing the Spider, who was now so expressionless, smiling so brightly in her memories was so jarring that I could barely adjust.
The deeper I went into her memories, the more information about her husband flooded into my mind. It was just as I was trying to press even deeper.
‘You vermin… you vermin!’
A tremendous roar echoed. Just as I had found Alisha, she had found me. No ordinary person would be pleased to have someone rummaging through their memories. In contrast to her emotionless exterior, the face she showed me was horribly distorted.
I felt an enormous pressure, as if she was trying to force me out, but it wasn't unbearable. I ignored her words and continued to delve deeper.
I saw all sorts of precious memories.
I felt like I could roughly guess why she had changed so drastically. It was a kind of conviction.
[Honey, I love you.]
[I love you too, Eunju.]
[I don’t know what would have happened if I’d come here alone without you…]
[It’s the same for me. I was able to endure because of you.]
I saw the two of them, shoulders touching, talking in a small house. It was a shabby home, but the various small trinkets showed how much they cherished it. It was clear that Choi Eunju supported the man, and the man supported Choi Eunju. Recalling her earlier memories, I was certain that if she had been summoned alone, she would have ended up as food for goblins or monsters in the Tutorial.
This time, it was a different scene. Choi Eunju was cradling her belly, and a man with an ordinary face was shouting loudly.
[Really?]
Choi Eunju lowered her head as if embarrassed.
[Yes, honey.]
[Puhahaha! I’m going to be a dad! Hahahaha!]
The man lifted Choi Eunju and began to spin around the small house.
[Ho-honey! You’ll startle him! The baby will be surprised!]
[Ah… r-right. Sorry, sorry.]
I also saw the man leaving the house.
[Time to work hard again today.]
[Are you really going to be okay on your own?]
[Where do you think you’re going in your condition… I’ll go with Mr. Lee from the city, so just rest quietly. It won’t be dangerous. I’m not planning on doing those kinds of jobs anymore… haha.]
[Okay… Then be safe.]
At a glance, they were all happy memories. Memories of kissing, of spending the night together, of eating with a couple who were friends, of her being startled by a scratch her husband got while hunting—they all looked happy.
But the emotion that bled from them was sadness. The deeper I went, the warmer the memories that appeared, and the more the feeling of sadness flowed into me, further expanding my own mind.
There was a memory I had yet to see.
‘D-don’t look! P-please, please don’t look!’
It seemed she was seeing the memories along with me, as she began to scream desperately. My mind, now immensely larger, was already too much for her to handle. She tried to stop me, but the colossal emotion I felt as I went deeper kept pulling me in.
In fact, the memory was pulling me in so strongly that it would have been difficult to escape even if I had wanted to.
I saw a black vortex swirling at the very bottom of her emotions. Ignoring Choi Eunju’s frantic screams, I reached out my hand, and different memories began to pour into me.
It was a tragedy that occurred quite commonly on this continent.
The person I saw was Choi Eunju. She seemed to be heading to a nearby river to draw water, her belly quite swollen. It looked like they lived in a small village outside the city, which made life seem a bit inconvenient.
Still, they must have thought it was safer to settle in a village than to live in a small city with poor security. As she was drawing water, a voice reached her.
[Sa… save…]
Where Choi Eunju turned her head, a man covered in blood had collapsed. He looked like he was on the verge of death. He wasn't wearing a guild or clan insignia, so he probably didn't belong to one. Thinking it an unnecessary scene, I skipped ahead a little in the memory and saw the man lying in a bed in the woman’s small house. In the end, she had decided to treat him.
[Who is this man you brought home?]
[I found him by the river, honey. I don’t know what happened… but he looked like he would die right away if I left him…]
[Hmph… The villagers won’t like this. Many of them are sensitive to even the slightest danger…]
[B-but he was a dying man. He won’t be able to cause any harm. I’m begging you, honey.]
[Only until he’s fully healed. Tsk, it would be nice if there was a priest in the village…]
[How about buying a potion from the shop?]
[We can’t afford that. The points we spend just on hunting are already a bit much… and it doesn’t look like a wound a basic potion can heal… Still, I guess it’s better to try using that.]
As expected, the village seemed hostile to outsiders. Choi Eunju let out a small sigh as she looked at the man who seemed to be on his last breath.
A little more time passed, and the man’s condition was slowly, but steadily, improving. He still seemed to be unconscious, but it looked like he would come to his senses soon.
[How was your day, honey?]
[Well, same as always. Were you okay?]
[Yes.]
It was just as they were having their daily conversation.
[………………]
The man who had been unconscious opened his eyes.
[Oh my! Honey, he’s awake! He… he’s awake!]
[Wait here for a moment… Sujung said she was a nurse on Earth…]
[Unni, I’m here.]
[Ah… then I’ll leave him to you.]
After the woman called Sujung checked the man’s condition, time passed quickly again. The man’s state improved noticeably. He kept his mouth shut as if he had aphasia, but he was able to move his upper body. Watching him, I could tell that the man’s level was quite high.
He was circulating his own mana to heal himself. He would bow his head to Choi Eunju and her husband whenever he saw them, so they seemed to feel a sense of satisfaction in their own way.
As I expected, the incident erupted not long after.
[I’m sorry.]
[Wh-why?]
[I’m sorry…]
The husband cried out in confusion, but I thought he probably knew the reason. So did I. It was highly likely the man had been injured during some kind of mission and was separated from his group. The important thing was that no one could know he had been in this area. It must have been a top-secret mission.
Choi Eunju and her husband were just unlucky. With trembling eyes, Choi Eunju watched the man holding a bloody sword. The man looked at her husband with cold, dead eyes and spoke again.
[I will make it painless. I am truly sorry.]
[Eun… Eunju, run…!]
Before he could finish his words, the husband collapsed. Choi Eunju stared at the scene with eyes full of disbelief.
[Honey! Ho-honey! You… you son of a bitch, worse than an animal! H-how could you…]
[I’m sorry.]
Soon, the sword was buried in Choi Eunju’s abdomen. It was an incredibly fast strike, impossible for the weak Choi Eunju to dodge.
[Ah… ahh…]
Being inside her memory, I could feel the emotions she felt at that moment. Memories with her husband, the physical pain, worry for the baby in her womb, guilt towards her husband, regret for saving the man, and anger at her own foolishness. A thirst for revenge against the man.
[Aaaah… ho-honey…]
She reached out her hand, but of course, no voice answered. The voice that always called her name so lovingly, the hand that always caressed her belly with warmth, the eyes that looked at her with such love, his body heat—all of it was now cold and gone.
[Ho-honey… I’m… I’m sorr…y…]
[I’m sorry. I am truly sorry.]
Soon, Choi Eunju’s consciousness began to fade. Her vision started to turn black.
When she opened her eyes again, what she saw was a village that had been completely reduced to ruins. It seemed even Choi Eunju herself didn’t know why she was still alive.
[Ah… ahh… Honey! Ho-honey!]
Lying face down, her whole body covered in burns, she looked around, but there was nothing to see. She looked at her belly, which had held her precious child, but she could feel that the baby inside was already dead. As she pushed herself up completely, a black lump fell from on top of her.
It was no longer in a human form, but she could naturally tell who it was. The body was completely burned, but of course, she remembered whose it was. Tears began to stream from Choi Eunju’s eyes.
[Ho-honey…]
No reply came. Of course, it was impossible. It wasn’t clear if he had shielded her from the flames even as he was dying, or if their bodies had just happened to overlap by chance. But Choi Eunju chose to believe the former.
[Ah… ahh… Wake up. Honey, p-please.]
No reply came.
[Ah… ahh…]
When she touched his shoulder, the body completely crumbled, turning to ash and falling to the ground. Choi Eunju shook her head as she watched. She looked up at the sky and screamed.
Tens of thousands of emotions swirled. Sadness and anger, a mixture of various feelings, enveloped me. Her voice wouldn’t come out properly, but Choi Eunju held the formless thing that could no longer be called human—her husband—and screamed.
[Ugh… Aaaaaaaaaah….]
[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]
It was a tragedy that was all too common.