An Ability No Human Should Wield
A hand shot out from behind and clamped loosely over Baek Yeo-eul's mouth.
She moved only her eyes, glancing down at the frequency detection device clutched in her grip. As if to announce how dire the situation had become, a single red dot blinked faster and faster as it closed in, right beside a message flashing at her to RUN.
The moment the monster rounded the curve, it would be over.
What do I do? If I make a sound, every monster in the vicinity will come swarming.
Dozens of thoughts raced through her head each second, until her skull throbbed. And then, just as the red dot finally rounded the curve—
"...!"
Baek Yeo-eul's eyes flew wide open.
Before the monster could register their presence or make a single move, Jerry reached out. Gray smoke spilled from his hand and swallowed the creature whole in an instant.
Squelch. Squelch.
The sound of something being chewed and devoured was enough to make the listener's skin crawl.
She had never seen an ability like this. It was completely unknown. At the sight of that gray smoke, Baek Yeo-eul instinctively sensed danger.
That is not a power a human being should be wielding.
Baek Yeo-eul had witnessed every manner of inhuman ability, and yet she couldn't tear her eyes from the gray smoke, so she watched the whole thing unfold. Before long, the monster vanished without a trace, and when Jerry gave his hand a flick, the smoke flowed back into his palm.
Dripping with the monster's blood.
Baek Yeo-eul stared at the blood the creature had left pooled on the floor.
"Ah."
Jerry let out a groan, as if he'd just realized something.
"...You saw all of it, didn't you?"
Baek Yeo-eul fainted on the spot.
He'd only said it because he'd forgotten to cover her eyes—and she'd fainted right then and there. Jerry set his fluster aside for the moment and caught her before she could crumple.
Without any idea what misunderstanding Baek Yeo-eul had walked away with, Jerry gathered her into his arms and headed down to the basement. Pain bloomed from his abdomen with every step he took, but his expression never changed.
Pain was something deeply familiar to him.
He laid her down on the mattress where he himself had been lying. She was hurt nowhere—it was a simple faint.
Having taken stock of his own body, Jerry judged that he had recovered to a fair extent. The wound on his abdomen had all but healed over the course of the guiding. As for his temple, he had no idea how it had been injured, but he assumed it happened when he came tumbling through the Gate.
Even though the other person had seen the very ability his country had worked so hard to keep hidden, Jerry paid it no mind whatsoever and sank into an entirely different worry.
What am I supposed to do now?
Jerry swept a hand through his glossy hair.
Those few moments after the door closed and he was left alone had been deeply unpleasant. No—unpleasant wasn't the right word for the emotion he'd felt. It fell short of capturing it.
One thing was certain: he wanted that guide to come before him again.
Jerry admitted he'd been hasty. Even as he limped up the stairs in a flustered scramble, he kept throwing questions at himself.
If I catch her? Catch her and do what? Apologize first, and then... what comes after that?
In the middle of that confusion, he sensed a monster very close by. At this range, the odds were high that he would run into the guide.
The moment Jerry opened the door and saw her back, he relaxed in relief and reached out.
For now... she seems to want to live.
I'll deal with the monster, then destroy the core.
"Mmm."
Just then, Baek Yeo-eul, perhaps feeling stifled, furrowed her brow as she pawed at her vest. The thing weighed a good two kilograms, so with it pressing down on her as she lay there, feeling suffocated was only natural.
Jerry reached out and drew down the zipper of the vest.
The moment the zipper came down, the vest fell open on both sides. Perhaps that alone was enough to relieve the pressure, for a light breath spilled from between her lips.
"Baek Yeo-eul!"
The door burst open.
"Ah."
Jerry, his hand still on the zipper, turned around just like that. Someone with stark white hair stood at the mouth of the basement, breathing hard.
Jerry knew instinctively that this man was the rescue team Baek Yeo-eul had spoken of.
The man's relief at finding Baek Yeo-eul lasted only a heartbeat before he froze at the sight of Jerry.
Jerry thought about how the two of them must look. Baek Yeo-eul, lying there. And himself—hand on her vest, dressed in rags so torn his skin showed clean through.
The moment he registered the problem—
The man came striding forward, radiating a crushing aura.
"Take your hand off her. Now."
The commotion roused Baek Yeo-eul, and she opened her eyes.
Hm.
Then, at the scene before her, she squeezed her eyes shut again—writing off the sight of Han Yi-hyeon gripping Jerry by the collar as a dream.
But Han Yi-hyeon didn't miss that tiny movement.
"Guide Baek Yeo-eul!"
Deciding that playing dead was a lost cause, Baek Yeo-eul pushed herself upright.
Han Yi-hyeon couldn't bring himself to touch her, so he combed his gaze meticulously over every inch of her body instead. Catching his intent, Baek Yeo-eul spoke up.
"I'm not hurt anywhere."
Even after her words, Han Yi-hyeon checked her from head to toe with the fervor of a man ready to inspect every last strand of her hair, and only then did he lift his head.
"You're really not hurt..."
Mid-sentence, he yanked her into a fierce embrace. Her body went rigid at the sudden contact.
With a gesture utterly devoid of self-interest, Han Yi-hyeon pulled her even closer.
"Thank goodness. Really..."
At the voice that sounded half a sob, Baek Yeo-eul was thrown off balance.
"Are you crying right now?"
Someone had said the very thing Baek Yeo-eul was thinking. Hearing her inner thoughts spoken aloud, she turned to look at Jerry.
Jerry was briskly brushing off his dress shirt, crumpled from being grabbed by the collar. Truthfully, since it was a rag that already bared all his skin, the gesture didn't look like it accomplished much.
"Hah."
Jerry made no effort to hide his disbelief.
Moments ago the man had looked ready to tear him limb from limb, only to morph into a docile puppy the instant Baek Yeo-eul opened her eyes—a transformation he couldn't believe even watching it with his own eyes.
Through it all, Baek Yeo-eul gave a few light pats to the forearm coiled around her neck.
"I'm glad to see you too, but I can't breathe."
"Ah."
Only then did Han Yi-hyeon step back.
Baek Yeo-eul roughly rubbed her startled, stiffened nape as she looked around.
"But where is everyone else? Where's the rescue team—why are you alone?"
"There is no team. They'd only get in the way, so I came in alone."
The hand kneading her nape stopped dead.
"Oh. Is that so?"
She was surprised, but not enough to be shaken. She'd more or less expected it from the moment only Han Yi-hyeon appeared. She'd grown used to his independent streak, so she took it in stride.
"Baek Yeo-eul? Your name is Baek Yeo-eul?"
Jerry cut in between the two of them.
Only then did Han Yi-hyeon register Jerry's existence, and he asked, his face brimming with wariness:
"Who are you? According to him, you saved Guide Baek Yeo-eul's life."
If Baek Yeo-eul had opened her eyes even a little later, Han Yi-hyeon and Jerry would have gone outside and had it out with each other.
Because Jerry had been slipping out of Han Yi-hyeon's questions about his identity like a slippery eel, offering up nothing but vague non-answers, and Han Yi-hyeon—unaccustomed to that kind of evasive talk—had finally lost patience first and seized him by the collar.
"I don't know anything about him, other than that he was dropped into the Gate before I was."
"I've never heard of any such person."
Han Yi-hyeon swept a doubtful gaze over Jerry from head to toe. Jerry shrugged.
"Are you planning to stay here? Nothing good comes of lingering in a dungeon this long. Especially for a low-rank ability user."
"Ah..."
Only then did Baek Yeo-eul realize she had been inside a Grade 2 dungeon for several hours. Just as Jerry said, the lower one's rank, the less time one could endure in here.
She'd been fine only because the higher-ranked Jerry was at her side. If she'd been alone, she would have collapsed long ago, unable to withstand the dungeon's pressure.
Realizing it this late, Baek Yeo-eul felt a chill run through her.
Seeing that her face was paler than usual, Han Yi-hyeon rose from his seat at once.
"I'll be right back."
"Will you be all right on your own?"
Baek Yeo-eul held out her hand.
Catching her meaning, Han Yi-hyeon dipped his head and folded both of his hands around hers.
"I can still hold on."
The Han Yi-hyeon who said that looked, for all the world, completely fine. Granted, he'd received plenty of guiding before the battle started, but a great deal of time had passed since then.
And he would need to use his ability to destroy the Grade 2 core.
"If it gets urgent, I'll call for you first."
Only after he'd said that much did Baek Yeo-eul lower her hand. She was inwardly relieved. Now that she was awake, breathing felt harder than before, and the air pressing down on her shoulders had grown heavier. If she had tried to guide him here, she surely would have struggled to keep her wits about her.
"Stay here."
Baek Yeo-eul nodded meekly.
Han Yi-hyeon gave Jerry an anxious look.
Jerry, who had been observing the two of them like a spectator, raised both hands in a lazy show of harmlessness the moment Han Yi-hyeon turned to him.
"I won't do anything. I haven't even properly recovered."
"You know perfectly well that even in your current state, you could stir up plenty of trouble."
"Well... fair enough."
Jerry nodded, looking at Baek Yeo-eul.
He's not wrong, but that stings my pride.
She didn't have energy to spare for glaring, so she shooed Han Yi-hyeon off instead.
"It won't take long."
Perhaps leaving Baek Yeo-eul behind weighed on him, because Han Yi-hyeon glanced back with every single step he took up the stairs.
"Go. Go on."
Only after Baek Yeo-eul said it with a stern face did Han Yi-hyeon finally leave the basement.
A chill draft slipped through the gap of the door, briefly opened and closed as he left, and coiled through the basement room.
But the stiffening atmosphere wasn't the wind's doing alone. Baek Yeo-eul, deliberately keeping her eyes off Jerry, was certain of that.
She squirmed about, trying to lie back down.
But a shadow fell across her body first.
"You and I have things to talk about, remember?"
"...I don't."
"Really?"
There was such certainty in his voice that more words were coming that Baek Yeo-eul finally spoke first.
"...Thank you for saving me."
"...That's it?"
What, there's more?
Baek Yeo-eul's eyes darted back and forth before she ventured,
"Thank you?"
"......"
"Thank you very much...?"
"......"
What else am I supposed to say here? Don't tell me he wants me to bow?
Even after she expressed her gratitude, Jerry's face only crumpled further, leaving Baek Yeo-eul utterly bewildered.
Fortunately, Jerry spoke up before she could cement her misunderstanding.
"Not that. Aren't you going to ask about my ability?"