97. The Back View
97.
-Graaahk...!!
The Chimera screamed in agony.
The voice wasn't human.
It was the voice of something that merely mimicked a human voice.
The Chimera was steadily losing its human form.
It turned its gaze on me, shouting.
-You, who looked so weak... how could you possess such power...!!
...Did I really look that weak?
From the Chimera's perspective,
it was like an ant wandering by had bitten it, sending it to the emergency room.
Judging by its glare, it seemed to have started seeing me—the one who dealt the most damage—as the greatest threat.
It's only natural that aggro gets drawn to the DPS who lands the biggest hit on the boss mob.
I immediately fled from its gaze, retreating to my childhood friend's side.
The safest place here was undoubtedly at her side.
"As expected, you have no one but me, Han Si-jun."
"Of course. Just what I'd expect from my childhood friend."
"W-Well, isn't it obvious...?"
Yu Ha-yeon looked satisfied with that remark.
Though her gaze seemed subtly fixed on Na Yu-na.
"Anyway. I'm at my limit now. That thing's magic power is growing too fast for me to keep restraining it."
"How much longer can you hold it?"
"...About 20 seconds?"
20 seconds.
The moment the Chimera's head was pierced, it was bound to abandon the shell called Na Jin-woo anyway.
In game terms, the Chimera's Phase 1 HP bar was completely depleted,
so attacking it now was no different from corpse desecration.
Maintaining my composure thanks to my high willpower,
I shouted at the two who were still unleashing a barrage of attacks.
"Stop attacking. The Chimera can't do anything anymore."
"..."
Na Yu-na glanced at me and stopped her assault.
However, Na Yu-na's stubborn father continued to pour on the attacks.
'...He's truly hopeless.'
Her father, who proudly topped the list of causes for Na Yu-na's misery.
I sighed and spoke to her father.
"Hey, you. Old man. I said stop attacking. Don't you see it's completely useless?"
"Shut up...! Don't you know this is the perfect time to attack, now that it's stopped moving? This is why you ignorant commoners are so..."
"...Should I just release the restraint right now?"
...He's exactly like he was in the game.
Na Jin-myeong, commonly classified as a stubborn old coot.
He clearly had no intention of listening to me.
'...Well, he can do whatever he wants.'
Na Jin-myeong was the one who would suffer the loss anyway.
He was bound to face unavoidable death due to the story's events.
Recalling his past misdeeds I'd witnessed in Na Yu-na's route,
I decided not to bother stopping his pointless actions.
As Na Jin-myeong's futile effort dragged on,
20 seconds passed, and the Chimera let out a furious roar.
-You... you pieces of trash... don't... interfere with my revenge...!!
BOOOOM-!
The Chimera shed its human shell and emerged.
It began to expand its previously small body form.
-I... I have suffered countless agonies... Why do you not recognize my righteousness, humans...!!
The Chimera's volume started to swell.
Gathering its power, it began to take the form of a lion.
Then, after about 3 seconds,
the Magic Beast known as Chimera, which had been a mere D-rank, revealed itself with magic power rivaling an S-rank Magic Beast.
-GRAHH...!!
Ugh, that's earsplitting.
The Chimera roared with a thunderous voice.
Then it made a proposal to us.
-Humans. I shall make one proposal.
"...What is this proposal? I do not negotiate with the enemy."
Oh man, this old coot...
Na Jin-myeong refused without even hearing it out.
I had no choice but to step forward as the representative for this situation.
"What's the proposal, Chimera?"
-Let us relocate. This place is not suitable for a duel. Humans, if you have any brains, you should know that well.
"..."
Even in V. AGE, the Phase 2 battle location wasn't here, but somewhere else.
The reason was the debris scattered all around.
There was too much rubble strewn across the ground to fight properly,
making it difficult to land or move.
That assessment applied to both the Chimera and us.
Considering potential civilian casualties, it was a proposal that was actually more advantageous for our side.
'It's the right call to move the duel location.'
Having made a rational judgment, I saw no reason to refuse.
"Fine. Where's the place?"
-Where I suffered... where I was born... I shall wait there...
The location was the Back Alley.
It's playing out just as I saw in V. AGE.
'Is fate truly unchangeable?'
In that moment, the Chimera spread its wings and flew off toward the Back Alley Gate.
Seeing the Chimera fly away, Na Jin-myeong suddenly turned his head toward me and barked.
"Why are you making decisions on your own...! You stupid commoner brat...!"
"...What's he on about now?"
So he wants us to fight here, with civilians nearby?
He was completely incapable of having a rational conversation.
Na Yu-na blocked Na Jin-myeong from approaching me further.
"...Department Head. Stop it."
Na Yu-na didn't call Na Jin-myeong her father.
At that, Na Jin-myeong grew even more indignant and shouted.
"It was a foolish act! It gave that Chimera creature time to recover! You're just a commoner who doesn't even realize that...!"
The Chimera possessed a cheat-level recovery ability that could heal it within a single second.
Even if I attacked that thing alone right now, I wouldn't be able to kill it anyway.
Na Jin-myeong was screaming that we should be wasting our time instead.
Watching this, Yu Ha-yeon, who was starting to get heated, asked Na Yu-na a small question.
"Na Yu-na."
"...Yeah."
"Can I curse at your father?"
"..."
Na Yu-na remained silent.
Silence implies consent.
Seemingly taking that as approval, Yu Ha-yeon raised her voice toward Na Jin-myeong.
"Old man. Is your head completely empty, or did you just cram it full of nothing but garbage?"
"W-What did you say...!"
"No, you'd be a corpse rolling around on the ground if we weren't here, so why do you keep butting in? I can't understand it."
"D-Do you even know how old I am...!!"
"You have to act your age to get any respect."
"Enough!!"
Stop!
Na Sang-cheol scolded them like an elder from a martial arts novel.
He interrupted the arguing between Na Jin-myeong and Yu Ha-yeon.
"What in the world are you doing... at a time when we need to cooperate and fight together...!"
"...My apologies, Chairman."
Na Jin-myeong immediately bowed his head at a 90-degree angle.
But his father, Na Sang-cheol, frowned as if the word 'Chairman' disgusted him.
"I... clearly failed to raise my child properly... I can't even remember the last time I was called 'father'... it seems there's never been a day where we truly bonded as a family..."
NAVI was a family before it was a company.
But Na Sang-cheol, the chairman, had always believed the company came before family.
That was why he had cast out Na Jin-woo, who was under suspicion, according to company policy.
Even though he had been convinced in his heart that his son was innocent of the misconduct.
"Responsibility... it seems that word was nothing but a hollow pretense..."
Hoho...
Na Sang-cheol let out a self-loathing laugh mixed with a sigh.
When the Chimera revealed the original form of Na Jin-woo, he seemed to have come back to his senses.
"You there, male student. What is your name..."
"...I'm Han Si-jun."
"Thank you... for helping us..."
"No."
Strictly speaking, I'd only helped Na Yu-na.
I didn't have the slightest thought of helping Na Sang-cheol or Na Jin-myeong.
'Getting thanked because of an unnecessary misunderstanding feels a bit off...'
A slight guilt began to creep in...
Just as that feeling was beginning to stir within me,
Yu Ha-yeon, who was beside me, brought up an important point.
"But wait, does anyone know where that Chimera told us to come...?"
"...Yeah."
Na Yu-na chimed in.
Upon hearing that, I immediately
recalled the conversation with the Chimera.
'Where I suffered... where I was born... I shall wait there...'
...It didn't specify exactly where to go, did it?
A Magic Beast is still just a Magic Beast, I guess.
It seemed to have an unavoidable intelligence issue.
-No. Human. Chimera. Stupid. Magic Beast. Smart.
It's been a while since you spoke.
The S-rank Magic Beast Fenrir had a way of speaking that inspired zero confidence.
I concluded that no matter how high the S-rank, a Magic Beast's intelligence just wasn't all that high.
'If you don't tell us exactly where to go, what are we supposed to do...'
Among the people here, I was probably the only one with any information about the Back Alley.
Objectively speaking, it would seem suspicious for me to claim I knew the place.
A mere student knows the location where illegal activities take place?
Let alone getting interrogated by Yu Ha-yeon, I couldn't imagine any good coming from it.
Should I say it or not?
Just as that dilemma arose,
an unexpected person spoke up about the location.
"...That place. I know it."
"Huh...?"
The person who claimed to know the location was Na Sang-cheol.
That meant he had known about the Back Alley.
And that implied he had been turning a blind eye to his son's illegal activities.
How on earth could a father overlook his child's actions like that?
I couldn't understand Na Sang-cheol's way of thinking at all.
Na Sang-cheol, whom I couldn't understand, began walking forward toward the location of the Back Alley Gate.
"There's no need for reinforcements from anyone else. I will take responsibility..."
He declared this while emphasizing that sense of responsibility.
The back of Na Sang-cheol as he headed toward the Back Alley looked utterly pitiful.