Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Grievous Memory Resolved
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When I opened my eyes, it felt like time had stopped.
No, it had stopped.
The battlefield, deafeningly chaotic just moments ago, was as silent as a tomb.
Because the swinging spears and swords, the screams, the flowing blood—all of it had frozen, as if someone had hit the pause button on a screen.
“Huh?”
I blinked.
This was exactly the scene right before I entered the boss monster field, so why was everything like this?
“Kang Ye-na!”
“Shit, you scared me.”
I was so startled I nearly hiccuped. Lee Woo-yeon suddenly burst out from between the frozen soldiers.
He looked pretty flustered too.
“You okay? Did you get out of the field?”
“Seems like it. Since we’re here.”
I poked one of the soldiers frozen mid-swing with his sword raised. He didn’t budge, like a statue.
Just like Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army.
“What the hell happened?”
“The boss monster defeat message just popped up, and the instant it did, this.”
Lee Woo-yeon let out a deep sigh.
“At least you look fine. You have no idea how freaked out I was when you vanished like that.”
That made me feel a little bad.
From his perspective, in this dungeon raid, I was the only one he could really rely on. Me disappearing must’ve felt like his carefully built tower crumbling.
Of course, it wasn’t my fault.
“You don’t look so fine yourself. What’s that on your face?”
Lee Woo-yeon was a mess.
It was still dark dawn, so hard to see clearly, but his limbs were covered in wounds, and there was a nasty gash across his handsome face—one that could’ve taken out an eye.
But he didn’t seem too bothered.
“This doesn’t even count as an injury, right? One potion and I’m good. You, on the other hand—you look way too fine after soloing a boss monster.”
“Ah, well……”
I explained to him how a hidden route had opened, bumping the boss monster up to S-rank.
He got it right away.
“A hidden route popping up here.”
Yeah, hidden routes usually showed up in fixed dungeons with solid strats, as a way to shave time off clears—so of course he’d know about them.
“Worse odds than hitting the jackpot. Your luck is insane.”
“Tell me about it. Maybe I’ll grab a lottery ticket on the way out. I’m flat broke anyway.”
Especially since if he didn’t settle up on the items from that lich kill, I’d be scraping by on pennies. A lottery win would be clutch.
“Anyway, glad we made it. So, the boss defeat message hits, and then boom—this??”
“Yeah, felt like a sitcom cliffhanger. Oh, hold on. It’s Lee Seon, the hunter.”
Then Lee Woo-yeon scowled, glaring at empty air. Telepathy skill or something?
After a moment, he turned back to me.
“Sounds like the same deal over there. Everyone inside the castle just froze.”
“Clear message? It pop?”
“Boss defeat did. Clear message…… Huh?”
His serious face went blank mid-sentence.
I whipped my head around to follow his gaze.
“……Huh?”
Faint dust was kicking up.
Dust out of nowhere? Then the soldier right next to Lee Woo-yeon cracked in half—crumbled away. Not like a human body breaking, but a statue succumbing to time.
“Argh!”
Lee Woo-yeon yelped in horror.
I jumped too. At how damn loud he screamed.
It was happening everywhere on the battlefield. Bodies crumbling, scattering into the air.
No, they weren’t bodies.
This was a dungeon—a space for the already dead. Born from repeating a finished story, to vent lingering grudges.
This space dissolving meant……
“……It’s been exorcised.”
The curse called ‘Grievous Memory’.
On our way to the castle, we spotted Duke Bern and Reinhardt. Frozen mid-shout at each other—no reaction even when I poked them.
They’d seemed alive just now, but up close, they were uncanny. Like finely crafted dolls.
Well, not inaccurate. The whole dungeon was a play put on by conjured puppets.
A requiem performance for the dead.
“Does exorcism usually look like this?”
Lee Woo-yeon asked me, but I had no answer. First time seeing one myself.
But if exorcism meant the people I’d talked to crumbling to ash right in front of me…… I squeezed my eyes shut for a second.
How many times had Ariadne endured this pain?
“Crying?”
“No way.”
And now that I knew the truth, I was pissed.
If Ariadne were here, I’d rip into her. But she wasn’t, so I just bottled it up.
Slowly crossing the battlefield, most of the soldiers had already crumbled to ash and vanished. Watching the field empty out gave me chills.
“Why hasn’t the clear message hit yet?”
“Makes sense. Technically, we got caught in the dungeon’s curse.”
A framed setup, you could say.
Lee Woo-yeon snapped his fingers. “Ah, right. So everything in the field has to vanish…… Huh? Look over there.”
He pointed up at the wall.
I followed his finger—Lee Seon and the other hunters were waving at us.
Good, they were safe.
The oppressively dark dawn receded as we walked, daylight breaking fast.
But up on the wall, the people stood frozen like taxidermy. No breathing. No blinking.
Silver armor glinted among the soldiers locked in all sorts of poses.
Faces I’d gotten used to.
Elisa. Damon.
I murmured the names that had become familiar in just two days.
Maybe because the knight captain’s soul was long gone, they stirred no feelings.
Just curiosity.
Are you satisfied now? Does this settle the injustice?
No answers coming.
“What’ll happen to them?”
Lee Woo-yeon muttered beside me.
Heavy words.
“What’ll happen? They’re already dead.”
“Yeah. Feels kinda hollow. We fought so hard, but we didn’t change a damn thing.”
Surprising.
I snuck a glance at his profile.
Lee Woo-yeon saying stuff like that. Got attached to the ghosts after possessing the lord?
……Not like I could talk. I let out a long sigh and turned from the castle to face him.
“Then let’s link up with the hunters over there……”
“Huh?”
His focused gaze suddenly blanked.
About to snap at him for the dumb noise and tell him to pay attention, he yanked my sleeve.
“Look—over there.”
His voice shook a little. Pupils quivering hard.
That scared-shitless face.
I swallowed. Flashed back to first stepping into this ghost castle.
Something scary popped out again?
“Nah, don’t wanna look.”
“No—you gotta see this!”
“I said no…… Ack!”
He grabbed my cheeks and forced my head around.
Hey, you little—?
I went for my sword, but before I could, ‘that’ sight hit my vision. Knights and soldiers moving in perfect sync.
Everyone frozen in random poses now staring right at us, all snapping to the same motion.
A sound that shouldn’t have been there brushed my ears like a hallucination.
Laughter? A sob? Someone’s voice.
Under the fully bright sky, Elisa’s salute toward me faded transparent. Damon’s hand. The soldiers’ swords.
Once it was all gone, the wall held only the hunters, standing there baffled.
“Haha……”
A laugh slipped out unbidden.
Yeah, like Lee Woo-yeon said—we couldn’t change a thing in reality, couldn’t save anyone…… but still.
Still, it felt like I’d heard the answers I thought were lost forever.
The darkness that seemed eternal was nowhere in sight. The sun had risen over the field.
All that remained: a lush grassy plain. And that ominous castle smack in the middle. Just like the view when I first entered the dungeon.
But the scarred walls, the churned-up ground, the heaps of smoky corpses—they were all gone without a trace.
Staring at a place stripped of any human remnants, I thought of a friend I couldn’t see right now.
Did a moment like this ever come for you?
No—god, I hope it did……
- ‘Grievous Memory’ has been exorcised.
- Clear condition: ‘Extermination of All Monsters’ fulfilled.
- Greatest Contributor: Wandering Pilgrim
- Rewards available. Check your rewards!
I gazed at the now-empty ghost castle just a moment longer, then turned away.
“……Let’s go.”
We couldn’t stay forever.
Lee Woo-yeon, standing quietly beside me, nodded. “Yeah.” Then he patted my shoulder.
My knees nearly buckled.
This time, I actually drew my sword.
“You trying to die for real?”
“Just messing around. You’re scary enough.”
“Then die, you bastard!”
“Yeah, yeah—let’s bounce.”
* * *
Title: Holy shit. Disaster alert says possible dungeon break in Sinchon—evacuate (update)
Content: Just got the disaster text.
Y Uni grad student here—saw Lee Woo-yeon flying in earlier. Front gate’s crawling with soldiers, and Gye-su-nim’s supposedly roaming around.
- Is Y Uni actually closing for real?
- Tuition refund? Gimme half back at least.
- Why you still watching—gtfo and evac
- Dungeon break warning and you’re calling it epic? Braindead af;
- Gonna get banned soon after posting that eyewitness shit
- It’s just a sighting and you’re already doomsaying?
- Lol what is this, military state secret?
- Monami-level shit? Yeah, that’s classified.
- Monsters monitoring the net? Lmao overkill
- That the issue rn? Dungeon break imminent lol you guys are way too chill
- Not from Seoul, peacing out
- +2222 peacing
- Tbh after 5 yrs of breaks, I got safety fatigue or smth
- Facts, I’m not even there…… Gangnam outbreaks get cleaned fast unless it’s bad
- If it’s the front gate dungeon, difficulty’s low af. Gets regular raids…… not a big deal? My hood sends break alerts every raid.
- Nah it’s not that dungeon breaking—it’s a random outbreak right?
- No, it’s def the front gate one—told everyone in uni buildings to evac, hospital evac’ing non-essential staff
- Wtf why’d it break?? Govt not managing saturation? Sinchon’s packed af;;
- Breaks spiking lately? Sketchy
(omitted)
- Yo dungeon clear text just came
- Back to normal life, as expected—Gye-su-nim MVP
- Cheers erupting lol Sinchon locals screaming~
- Like watching soccer, clueless fucks
- Up on a roof watching the dungeon perimeter lol gonna snap Monami if he shows
- You’re getting sued bro
- Wait—you watching rn? People coming out of the dungeon
- Me
- Me too
- Raid team’s huge, like 20+ peeps
- That many went in and it’s a “break”? Lol text error?
- Gye-su-nim doesn’t mess up
- Emergency interview starting—talking raid deets
- But where’s Monami? No sign
- OG spotter prolly lied, cleared w/o him ig
- Duh, fail a regular raid with Monami? No way
- Nah I saw him + pics of Lee Woo-yeon incoming (pic)
- Still no Monami tho
- Huh? What if Monami bit it?
- Nah there he is
- Monami out of dungeon! He was in the raid fr
- Proof Monami’s here (pic)
- Who’s the chick next to him? Hunter?
- Yo check this article link> Breaking: Top contributor in this raid is Rank 1
- ?!
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