136. Wrap-Up (3)
136. Wrap-Up (3)
THUD—!
The colossal body collapsed, and the ground roared with the crash.
A cloud of gray dust billowed into the air.
Huff.
Huff.
Kang Do-hee's whole body, as she panted for breath, was drenched as if she'd showered in sweat.
"...Goddamn son of a bitch...."
At her feet lay the black, limbless trunk of a monster, its arms and legs completely torn off.
Ptui.
Kang Do-hee looked down at the Demonized Human, now reduced to a shapeless mass, and spat.
It had truly been a formidable enemy.
She had snapped its neck with the grappling technique Jin Yu-ha taught her and thought that was the end of it. Then the thing suddenly convulsed and morphed into some kind of monstrous form—what the hell!
No Healer. No Tank. No Support of any kind to help her out. Kang Do-hee had no choice but to fight the creature in a one-on-one life-and-death match.
It was a powerful enemy she could barely defeat after pushing her Mana and Berserk to their absolute limits.
"Hut—."
A haughty laugh slipped from Kang Do-hee's lips. Whatever the struggle, she was the one still standing at the end.
Ever since joining Jin Yu-ha's party, she'd worried her solo instincts had dulled—that fighting alongside others all the time might have weakened her somehow.
But fighting this powerful enemy all alone had given her certainty. She stared quietly at her trembling fists.
'I'm incomparably stronger than I was before.'
Clench.
It seemed that hellish training Jin Yu-ha had put the party through really had paid off. And that grappling stuff, or whatever it was—she hated to admit it, but it had helped too.
No matter how gigantic and monstrous the form, the core was still humanoid. Her grasp of human anatomical weaknesses—and her understanding of joints, gained from grappling training—had given her a decisive edge in fighting the creature.
"Tch, so that training method actually helped...."
Kang Do-hee clicked her tongue and scratched her head.
Every single day, striking those humiliating poses in front of the other cadets. It was all supposed to be a means to an end—breaking free of those holds so she could spar with him someday....
Still, if it meant becoming stronger, she could endure a bit of shame.
And honestly? It wasn't exactly... bad....
"Ahem!"
Kang Do-hee cleared her throat loudly and swept away the stray thoughts that had crept in.
Crunch!
Crunch!
She then finished by stomping on the chunks of the corpse, just in case the thing tried to get up again.
"Hmm.... Maybe I should be a little nicer to that Yellow Dog bastard...."
Kang Do-hee snorted and turned to walk back toward where the other cadets were gathered.
And what she saw when she got there....
* * *
Shhhhhhh—
Sofia loosed an arrow toward the sky. A rain of gold scattered from the heavens.
Since a full day had passed, Sofia's cooldown had reset, and she'd used her area heal: Healing Rain.
A golden shower fell onto the exhausted cadets' bodies. Lee Yu-ri had taken on just enough of their injuries to keep them from dying, so they were still in poor shape themselves.
"Huh...?" "Wh-what is this!?" "M-my body is recovering...?" "Recovering...? Is it a heal? Is there a Healer who can do this kind of thing...?"
The cadets receiving Sofia's area heal opened their eyes wide and fumbled at their own bodies in a daze.
Then their gazes turned toward the source. Toward the one who had fired that golden arrow: Sofia.
It wasn't quite the dramatic entrance she was known for in the original, but that didn't diminish the gratitude for her healing one bit.
On the contrary—with all the fighting over and the tension fading, just as the delayed pain was starting to hit, Sofia's heal landed with the force of a cup of water handed to you in the desert. Awe and gratitude settled in the cadets' eyes as they looked at Sofia.
"Wow... it doesn't hurt anymore." "But was there a Healer like that among the cadets?" "Th-thank you...!"
As the cadets stared at her with eyes full of curiosity, Sofia bolted behind Jin Yu-ha's back.
Peek.
Sofia, hiding behind him.
But her tall, model-like stature and gleaming blonde hair spilled out from either side of Jin Yu-ha, betraying her beauty entirely.
A woman with a mysterious aura, someone they'd never once seen around the academy, had suddenly appeared and poured down a sacred golden rain. And the moment the rain touched them, their grievous wounds healed in an instant.
It overlapped with the golden streams of light that had been pouring from Lee Yu-ri moments earlier. To the cadets, it looked like a deeply sacred vision.
"...Saintess."
The word slipped out softly from someone rising after receiving the healing.
"...Saintess?" "Lady Saintess...." "It's the Saintess!"
Overwhelmed by their reaction, Sofia blushed bright red from behind my back.
"Aaaaah...."
'So, in the end, she still gets worshipped as the Saintess.'
I turned my head toward Sofia, hiding behind me, and snorted a laugh.
"Hey, Lady Saintess, why don't you go out there and make the sign of the cross or at least say hello?" "D-don't make fun of me...! You're the one who told me to do this, Jin Yu-ha!!"
Sofia glared at me with her cheeks puffed up, still hidden behind my back.
I'd originally planned to hold these bastards accountable for abandoning Lee Yu-ri once the Demonized Humans were dealt with. But, strangely enough, while I'd been swinging my sword alongside Baek Seol-hee, all that anger had dissolved, so I decided to let it go.
'And besides... when they came bowing first, it made it hard to keep piling on.'
Lee Min-young—who's basically a corpse the moment you strip away her pride—had stepped up on behalf of the cadets and bowed her head at a perfect right angle. She apologized for letting Lee Yu-ri make a lone sacrifice like that, and then gave a heartfelt thank-you for saving them all. The cadets' adoration came as a bonus.
It was all so overwhelming that I summoned Sofia and had her scatter an area heal.
'Hmm, anyway... I just cleared one of the 《goals impossible to achieve in the game》 in this episode.'
There were obviously errors in the process, and some clumsy moments. I just have to remember those, stay careful, and adapt them when we reach the next destination.
That was the moment I was steeling myself.
"Yellow Dog."
It was Kang Do-hee.
Her red hair was completely disheveled, and her clothes were tattered and a total mess.
She shuffled toward me, feet dragging. I stared at her for a moment, then tilted my head.
"...I-is that Poppy?" "Who the hell is Poppy!" "Caveman roleplay is over now, you know." "...."
Kang Do-hee clenched her fists and trembled.
Did she get so into the caveman thing that she forgot to fix her outfit? Eh, well, I still have to say what I have to say.
I hardened my expression and addressed her with stern authority.
"If it were just you? Nothing would've happened. Where were you off playing that it took you this long to get here?" "P-playing? I, I was...?" "Yeah, I mean, the one you chased was only an officer, right? That one does have a mutation, but if you'd just smacked it during its second transformation, you could've beaten it easily."
That guy isn't like the final boss Rebecca—it doesn't start spraying tentacles or anything mid-transformation. So you can just hit it while it's changing and finish it right away.
I was looking at Kang Do-hee when a sudden thought occurred to me, and I asked.
"...Wait. Don't tell me you waited for its transformation to finish, right? Like, 'A one-on-one duel against a powerful foe! A rare chance to test my skills!' and struck some kind of doofy pose...." "Wh-who struck a doofy pose! I-I mean, no!!"
Kang Do-hee bit down on her lip and yelled. She was shouting with the veins in her neck popping, like she was genuinely outraged.
"Right? Hmm, yeah, I figured you wouldn't make a stupid choice like that."
I nodded, withdrawing my suspicion.
"...S-stupid...." "Oh, c'mon, you were off playing after all, Kang Poppy." "...."
Kang Do-hee glared daggers at me. Where do you get off glaring at me like that when you were out goofing off?
* * *
Twitch─
Lee Yu-ri's body, deep in a long sleep, twitched.
'Where am I?'
Soft and warm...? No, it feels a little rough?
'This texture...?'
Draped over her body was an animal hide.
'Ah.'
Only then could Lee Yu-ri figure out where she was. The uninhabited island hideout she'd built herself.
Uninhabited island.... Midterm evaluation.... Demonized human attack....
Huh!?
Suddenly, that desperate moment flashed through her mind.
'...Come to think of it. Are they okay!? Everyone!?'
She tried to jolt upright, but her body wouldn't rise.
'Ngh? M-my arms won't move.... Wh-what is this now? A-a caterpillar? ...A monster!?'
A green caterpillar the size of a person was wriggling on her arm. Lee Yu-ri was about to fling it off right away—
"Mmmnnn...."
—but at the caterpillar's odd little cry, she lowered her hands.
Roll─
The caterpillar turned toward Lee Yu-ri as if murmuring in its sleep. And right in front of her face, the caterpillar's face came into view.
Jet-black hair, long eyelashes. Skin so fair it didn't have a single blemish. A high nose bridge. Dewy red lips.
Even in sleep, a man with such breathtaking looks he seemed to live in a world of his own. Of all the men she knew, there was exactly one who looked like this.
'...J-J-J-Jin Yu-ha!!!??'
The caterpillar's true identity was Jin Yu-ha.
His face was poking out from a sleeping bag, and he'd been using her arm as a pillow.
Softly breathing, in and out─
She nearly screamed but held it in with superhuman patience. Lee Yu-ri's mind went completely blank.
'Huh? Wh-what? What is this.... What's going on? Seriously, what?'
She opened her eyes and woke up, and a man was sleeping right next to her. And it was Jin Yu-ha.
Lee Yu-ri's eyes rolled wildly as she gulped.
'Why the hell is this guy sleeping with me!!?'
She couldn't make any sense of the current situation.
Just then.
Blink─
Those long eyelashes parted.
Right in front of Lee Yu-ri, Jin Yu-ha opened his eyes. And his red lips slowly curved upward.
"Morning, Gukbap. Sleep well?"
Jin Yu-ha smiled nonchalantly and greeted her.
And Lee Yu-ri...
"Hic—cup!?"
Her hiccups made a comeback for the first time in a while.