Chapter 36: Choi Seulgi
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 36: Choi Seulgi
The blood-splattered scene was a veritable hellscape. Seeing Choi Seulgi standing there blankly, a wave of sympathy washed over me, and I quickly wiped the blood from my head and face. It was definitely her, Choi Seulgi. Seeing her youthful face, just as it was when I first arrived here, made my heart pound before I even realized it. This wasn't a feeling born simply from her beauty, of course. It was the thrill of seeing her up close after so long. If I’d known I’d get this much blood on me, I wouldn’t have ripped that bastard apart so brutally.
Just then…
Choi Seulgi’s pupils slowly began to return to normal. She was starting to resist Jung Hayeon’s scent, which could almost perfectly control even intermediate-level adventurers.
“Jung Hayeon.”
I had no choice but to call her name quickly.
“Ah… Yes! Understood.”
The look on Jung Hayeon’s face as she gazed at Choi Seulgi was complicated. She obviously didn’t know the exact nature of my relationship with Seulgi, but she had noticed that I was being overly protective of her. The emotion in her eyes was unmistakably jealousy. Still, as long as I was watching, she wouldn’t try anything foolish. Jung Hayeon also seemed a little surprised that Choi Seulgi was resisting her scent.
“I’m not certain, but because they’re the same gender… it doesn’t seem to be as effective.”
“So that’s it…”
After she spoke, Jung Hayeon began to release her scent again, and Choi Seulgi’s eyes glazed over once more. Perhaps because she had already been incapacitated by the same method before, it took a long while of inhaling the scent before she returned to her previous dazed state. I nodded at Jung Hayeon’s words. It certainly seemed that the effect was diminished between members of the same sex.
I had already caused a commotion here, so leaving was the first priority. But I started to worry about where I should take Choi Seulgi. If I had my way, I would have taken her to the Green Goblin Clan’s village, but bringing a human into a village protected by shamanistic magic was a considerable discourtesy. Even if we had an agreement not to interfere in each other’s affairs, as a guest living under their protection, I couldn’t impose on them like that.
More importantly, the decision to join us was Choi Seulgi’s to make. Knowing her future, the last thing I wanted was for her to go back into the city.
She had luckily escaped a major crisis, but I was worried that if she went back into the city, things might go wrong for her again.
But I could worry about that later.
For now, I led the members of the Blood Dagger Clan to a spot not far from the Green Goblin Clan’s village. Since there was a chance she might try to attack us, I retrieved the dangerous dagger, handed it off to one of the goblins, and we ran. We reached our destination in no time.
“Mev.”
“Yeah?”
“Take the children and return to the Green Goblin Clan for now. I’ll be back by training day, so don’t worry about us. Ah! No, after you take the clan members back, come back here.”
“Ah! Okay, Chieftain.”
To be safe, it was best for Jung Hayeon to stay with me. I was about to send Mev away, but then I thought that Mev’s fairy-like appearance might help lower Choi Seulgi’s guard, so I called her back. Mev seemed overjoyed at my words. She smiled brightly and then vanished.
“Ah… Is she someone you know?”
“A little…”
“Ah.”
With that, I stood before Choi Seulgi. Jung Hayeon began to create a makeshift cave with tree roots to hide us, and after Mev arrived, I slowly waited for Choi Seulgi to wake up.
I had no idea what to say first. No, I was even debating whether I should reveal that I could speak the human language. Unlike me, Choi Seulgi was completely human. The most straightforward solution would be to turn her into a Green Skin, just like Jung Hayeon, but…
To be honest, I didn’t want to do that.
I was hesitant because of the battle-crazed frenzy I carried within me, and the murderous intent and violence that Jung Hayeon constantly displayed. It was an absurd selfishness, but what I wanted most was for Choi Seulgi to remain the person she used to be.
Mev returned, and I continued to watch over Choi Seulgi. Mev, the fairy, was also inside the cave with us. As I watched Choi Seulgi’s pupils slowly return to normal, I swallowed hard.
The sound of my heart began to grow louder. No, it felt like my heart was going to leap out of my mouth. What if she saw me and screamed? What if she tried to run away? The thoughts kept racing through my mind…
“Grrrrr.”
I let out an involuntary growl out of anxiety, and just like that, Choi Seulgi woke up completely.
“…”
The moment she opened her eyes, Choi Seulgi stared intently at me. She was gritting her teeth, seemingly aware that she was surrounded by the Named Monsters she had only heard about in rumors. But she was far calmer than I expected. I didn’t know why, but she seemed to know that we weren’t going to harm her.
“Thank you…”
“Grrr.”
“My mind was hazy, but I saw you kill all of them… so brutally. And I can sort of tell… that you have no intention of attacking me.”
She seemed a little frightened as she mentioned seeing me kill them all. Her body trembled, but thankfully, she seemed to realize that those men were the ones who had wronged her, and I could see her slowly calming herself down.
I nodded in response to her words. Choi Seulgi looked surprised for a moment, then began to speak to me again, a little more cautiously this time. Of course, it would be stranger if she wasn’t wary. A monster that could understand human speech was surely something she had never seen or heard of. It was something they definitely wouldn’t teach you about in the training centers. Soon, Choi Seulgi began to look at me with an expression of utter astonishment.
“You can understand me?”
I nodded once more. I wanted to open my mouth, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out. It was ridiculous, but I was getting choked up.
“That’s amazing… I’m sure… never mind.”
Perhaps because she was still a bewildered first-year, she wore an expression that said something miraculous had just happened. It was no wonder she looked that way. This wasn’t some Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; she was a tragic heroine being rescued by a Named Monster. She herself must have found the situation utterly absurd.
As Choi Seulgi looked at me with that strange expression, I could clearly see that there was no ‘hostility’ in her eyes. I had to consider this a very good start. I had been expecting her to scream or try to run, but she was surprisingly amicable… It seemed the presence of Mev the fairy next to us had also played a part in lowering her guard.
Jung Hayeon was watching us from outside the root cave. She wasn’t showing it, but she seemed curious about what we were saying.
“So… why did you bring me here?”
“…”
I had no real answer to that. Saying something like, “We were lovers in a past life, and I was reincarnated as a monster to save you,” would sound insane to anyone. But I desperately wanted to tell her. I found myself opening and closing my mouth without realizing it. Just as I made a firm resolve and was about to speak, Choi Seulgi spoke again.
“I can’t stay here.”
“…”
Hearing those words, I was reminded that she was the human, ‘Choi Seulgi.’ A slightly anxious look lingered on her face. It was the expression of someone who, while not believing we would harm her, was deeply worried we might try to keep her here. Seeing that look, I had no choice but to realize that Choi Seulgi could not be with us.
She was completely human, both now and ten years ago in my past.
Even in my ten years of life, Jung Hayeon’s case was the first time I had ever seen a human turn into a monster. Was it only possible for humans to switch factions to Green Skin under the special circumstances of the Tutorial? Or could they evolve into a different species if they killed humans alongside Green Skins? Nothing had been proven. If I tried to turn Choi Seulgi into a Green Skin and some side effect occurred, I would never be able to forgive myself.
Her face was still innocent, untainted. It certainly didn’t belong on this continent. I bit my lip hard.
I would send her back to the city for now.
But before that, there was something I absolutely had to do: power her up. Her claim that she “had some talent,” which I had once thought was just a bluff, was clearly true. The mana within Choi Seulgi’s body was quite pure.
To put it simply, for a summoner who had only been here for a year, this was a very respectable level. To be precise, she couldn’t compare to outliers like the Queen of the North, but by the standards of an ordinary person, she was a definite ‘genius.’ Of course, compared to me, who had the bonuses of being an Ancient Orc and a rare Gladiator class, her level was a bit ambiguous, but objectively, she was slightly weaker than or on par with Park Youngwhan.
Only then did I realize just how talented the old Choi Seulgi had been, and how much stronger I had become. My memory was hazy, but Park Youngwhan had arrived about four years before me. That meant he had arrived three years before Seulgi.
For a rookie in her first year with no experience to have a similar amount of mana as a third-year was quite astonishing. I didn’t know if she was aware of this fact herself, but at this rate, she was a summoner with a very promising future. It was funny, but in this state, she was arguably stronger than the Choi Seulgi of my past.
I nodded.
It wasn’t much, but I would train her myself.
“You’re not going to let me go?”
I shook my head at her. It was my way of saying I would indeed send her back to the city. Choi Seulgi smiled happily at my gesture and slowly began to get up. I hadn’t decided exactly how I would train her, but I thought the first step was to improve her shabby equipment.
As a start, I handed Choi Seulgi the Bloodsoaked Dagger I always carried with me.
“Huh? You’re giving this to me?”
When I nodded, she gave me a strange look. It was the face of someone who couldn’t understand why this monster was being so kind to her. I gently took Choi Seulgi’s hand and began to pull her outside. She seemed startled for a moment but then quietly started to follow me.
“Mev, let me borrow your dagger for a bit.”
“Huh? To kill her? Weren’t you going to mate with her?”
“No. It’s not like that… It’s just training.”
“Oh… okay. But you have to be careful with it and give it back.”
As I took the dagger from the fairy, Choi Seulgi’s expression tensed slightly. I raised my hand to show I had no intention of killing her, then slowly extended the dagger toward her. She swallowed nervously at my action but then muttered in a small voice, “Training?” After I nodded, her expression seemed to relax a little.
I couldn’t train her the Green Skin way, by clashing bodies.
Instead, I began to demonstrate the dagger techniques I had learned from the Green Goblins in the empty air. Of course, to the members of the Green Goblin Clan, these skills would look incredibly clumsy, but I thought they would be a great help to the current Choi Seulgi.
Even to my own eyes, they weren’t anything special, but the dagger techniques, enhanced by the proficiency bonuses of an Ancient Orc and a Gladiator, looked quite plausible.
As if she understood my intention, Choi Seulgi was quietly watching me. Soon, seeing her begin to move her body, however awkwardly, I couldn’t help but realize once again that she truly was talented.