When a Man Swears
Yet the snow light kept shifting without end. The train carved its way forward through the snow-buried tracks, never slowing. It slipped past villages, hunters, and monsters until it finally reached a modest settlement.
The locals—one tribe among them—proudly displayed their white hair and pointed ears as they watched the students. The middle schoolers, for their part, marveled that a village like this could even exist here and wandered the streets in wonder.
“Feels like we’re visiting my relatives in Gangwon Province.”
“It’s just like my grandfather’s house in North Hamgyong.”
“My great-grandmother’s place out west looked exactly like this.”
They passed houses roofed with blue steel plates, steam curling from their chimneys, until a mountain rose into view. Tall, pale branches formed its frame; white expanses were stitched with blue-green rock. A dirt path—freshly cleared—wound between them. The ground was black and frozen, just slippery enough to demand caution. Everyone moved carefully until they reached the wooden stairs. Once they stepped onto them, the climb became swift.
Ordinary middle schoolers would have been whining by now, but these were hunter-track students who trained far harder than their peers. They simply kept walking. And walking. And walking some more. After crossing two mountains, a massive cave tucked into a rocky fold seized everyone’s attention. Old stone pillars stood before it like ancient sentinels, the unmistakable mark of a ruin.
The students bolted toward it as if they’d discovered buried treasure. Ironically, the first two to arrive—crunching across the snow—were a pair of model students. To be exact, the well-liked male model student reached it first, followed by the unpopular female model student who had been jostling and fussing the whole way.
A few kids openly lamented losing to the guy with trash-tier magic and the girl who ran like she was possessed by a delivery driver.
“Wait, isn’t that Kang Sian? Didn’t he completely bomb the hunter aptitude test last time?”
“Yeah, what the hell?”
“His magic is rock bottom. How is he that fast?”
“Beats me. Maybe he’s got some running trick.”
The teachers led the way into the cave. Despite the exterior that suggested it would be bristling with stalactites, the interior was lined with clean-cut stone. It looked recently maintained, and sure enough, several people emerged from deeper inside. They wore modern armor with weapons strapped to their waists and name tags on their chests that included the word “Guild.”
Hunters. Guild-affiliated hunters. Professionals.
“Excuse me, but this ruin is currently in a hazardous state.”
One of them hurried over to the teachers. The instructors tilted their heads in confusion.
“We were told it was fine as of yesterday?”
“That is no longer the case. A red Dungeon Gate has been discovered underground.”
“A red Dungeon Gate?”
Gates were normally blue, but the longer they lingered, the more they darkened toward black-red. A red gate, therefore, meant this one was ancient.
“We’re in the middle of cleanup, but we don’t know how long it will take.”
“Good grief…”
And the older a gate was, the more dangerous it became. The situation could easily put everyone at risk. As educators, they had a responsibility to turn the students around.
“Mr. Kim, what do we do about the field trip?”
“What can we do? We go back.”
“But the kids are already…”
“We can’t possibly take them inside the ruins.”
Just as the students were about to learn that their picnic had been canceled in the most unprecedented way, a hunter came sprinting from deeper in the ruins, waving a magic flashlight.
“Team Leader Cha! It’s handled! The mages successfully wiped out the monsters! We just need to clear the inside of the gate and we’re done!”
“Excellent! So the entire ruin is safe now?”
“Yes! More or less!”
The team leader stared at the teachers and students who were watching them in bewilderment. He rubbed his hands together, thinking briefly.
They called it a picnic. Opening the upper levels should be fine.
Looking at the long column of children, he made his decision. With permission from the nearby government official, he allowed entry to the upper floors only, excluding the basement. At once, a flood of middle schoolers poured into the ruins.
“Whoa, look at that! There’s something crazy on the wall!”
“I wonder what’s under this bridge?”
“Over here! There’s a monster corpse!”
They were at an age with zero common sense, but thankfully none of them wandered down to the lower levels on their own. They might have lacked order, but they still followed the rules while exploring. The teachers trailed after them anyway, just in case.
Because the ruins were so vast, the students weren’t clustered together in one noisy pack. They were scattered in small groups instead, which meant bad news from one area might take a while to reach the rest. The one saving grace was that everyone had been told to gather at the entrance when the bell rang. Still, if they went too far, they might not even hear it.
Students worried about that stuck mostly to the upper floors or hurried down to the lower levels and rushed through their sightseeing. They were clever kids. Kang Sian was one of the latter.
“Where the hell did Cheon Mari run off to?”
The moment he reached the lower levels, he found himself alone. They had been together until they started down the stairs, but the regressor had vanished at some point. She must have suddenly needed the bathroom.
Thinking along those lines, Kang Sian began exploring the lower floors bit by bit.
“It’d be nice if we could take pictures.”
The ruin was far too impressive to leave behind only in memory. He took his time, eventually stepping onto a bridge on one side and peering down. Beyond the railing stretched endless darkness. The hunters were probably fighting for their lives against monsters down there.
He wanted to watch, but life was precious, so he gave up on the idea.
“Hm?”
Right then, a fierce gust blew up from beneath the bridge, carrying a single spark of flame. A red flare, like a signal rocket. It shot upward, then fell and vanished.
“What the… Magic?”
Whatever it was, he needed to tell a teacher. He turned immediately toward the stairs.
“……”
He never made it.
When he looked back, he saw the same situation behind him. Kang Sian frowned at the female student standing in front of him—Lim Hana.
“Hana, what are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
It didn’t look like nothing. She was thoroughly prepared. And so was everyone else.
The scrape of metal dragging across stone echoed. Kang Sian glanced around and let out a heavy sigh.
“Hana, get a grip. Are you really trying to drag your own friend into this now? For no reason at all?”
“No reason?!”
She scratched at her arm and exploded. To him it seemed insane to get this angry, but in Lim Hana’s fractured mind, it was perfectly justified.
“From the very beginning! If you hadn’t gone running to my parents, I never would’ve resorted to something like this!”
“I snitched? Me?”
“Yes! You’re the reason my parents showed up at the playground! You’re the reason they found out I was chewing grass leaves! You’re the reason they made me quit the academy! And…!”
A long list of gray-tinted incidents spilled out. Most of them were closer to paranoid delusions than actual events.
Chaotic time and space. Claims that bordered on sophistry. Memories twisted into nightmares.
The reason I’m this miserable is all because of you. Every humiliation I’ve suffered is because of you. The reason I’m doing this is because of you. I hated seeing you sitting at my desk every morning. You beat me, cursed me, tried to kill me on night roads. You bribed teachers to lower my test scores. It’s your fault. All of it. The entire world is your fault.
“I hate you.”
“You’re not just crazy—you’re completely unhinged.”
Schizophrenia or drug addiction. Maybe both. The problem had clearly erupted after a massive increase in her Madness Herb dosage.
She was in a state that belonged in a psychiatric ward immediately. Kang Sian was horrified by how broken she had become, but he resolved to act right away. It was the only thing an old friend could still do for her.
“What the hell did you people do to Hana!”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
Before he could even ask questions, Lim Hana screamed. The sound fit the word “madness.” She clutched her head and collapsed where she stood. Withdrawal symptoms had hit on top of her hallucinations and auditory delusions.
Her academy friends scowled and hurled curses at Kang Sian. Among them, the one who acted as their leader—Kim Yujae—walked over to Lim Hana’s side.
“Hey, while I’m feeding her the grass leaves, show that bastard what happens when he interferes.”
“Was already planning to.”
It was a beautiful friendship. Six boys and girls tightened their encirclement on the bridge, weapons in hand.
“This is… what kind of fucking bullshit…”
No reason. No justice. No logic. The only word that came to mind was insane.