Chapter 520: Resolve
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 520: Resolve
Falsely accused of trying to force myself on her daughter, trapped in ice, and nearly sunk to the depths of the North Sea, I only survived thanks to Anastasia’s passionate defense.
Of course, the Tower Lord never fully dropped her suspicion of me, but for now, I decided to just be grateful I was alive.
In any case, I wasn't so clueless as to intrude on the thirty short minutes a day the mother and daughter had to reunite, so I left the bedroom immediately.
My destination was none other than a gate.
In a country that boasted the largest landmass in the world, finding an ownerless gate wasn't particularly difficult.
Naturally, any gates near the capital would have been managed by the Hunter Association, but this was deep in the mountains, about thirty kilometers from a rural village with a population of less than a hundred.
‘Found it.’
Though snow flurries blew intermittently, a starved Tam acted as my navigator, and I quickly found a gate hidden at the bottom of a cliff.
-Kiiik, kiiit!!
“Just wait a little longer. I’ll feed you until your belly bursts.”
-Kihiit, kihiit!!
Soothing Tam, who was clamoring inside his sheath, I threw myself through the gate.
I didn't really care about the gate's rank.
If it had been A-rank or higher, the Hunter Association wouldn't have just left it alone like this.
For reference, Russia was one of the countries with notoriously lax gate management due to its overwhelmingly vast territory.
They might neglect a C-rank gate until it was on the verge of a Dungeon Break before narrowly dealing with it, but they didn't even care if D-rank or lower gates broke or not.
In the end, it meant the local governments had to handle it themselves.
And the budget for that?
I didn't know the details, but would a dictator who had seized military power bother with such trivial matters?
‘Absolutely not.’
The rural village I had just passed through had only survived because a retired C-rank Hunter lived there.
Conversely, a village without a hunter was left completely exposed to monster attacks.
Even if the villagers formed a militia, there was no way they could fight monsters with weapons like rifles or shotguns.
At best, they could handle a few F-rank monsters. That would be their limit.
How many villages had vanished without a trace, their remains buried under the white snow?
Haaa—
A white puff of breath scattered into the air.
I looked up at the gloomy sky and brushed the snow that had accumulated on my coat.
Beyond the gate was a snowfield where a blizzard raged relentlessly, making it impossible to see even a step ahead.
“...Good thing I changed into different clothes.”
Delia’s coat had been spared from being stained with the stench of blood.
Sitting on a small hill made of monster carcasses, I watched Tam tear into the flesh with a gusto that would put any mukbang NewTuber to shame.
His body, made of demonic energy, looked more like a monster than a human.
Crunch, craack—
Perhaps because I had starved him for a while, Tam devoured everything—not just the flesh, but the bones too, crunching them down without a trace.
Considering Tam's seal, I should have been restraining this kind of indiscriminate consumption as much as possible.
But his role was crucial in the process of breaking the curse, so for now, I had no other choice.
“Is it good?”
-Kieet, kieeet!!!
Heh.
A laugh escaped me before I knew it.
Even though I had heard a brief explanation from Lucifer about Tam's true identity and the danger he posed, I felt no hostility or instinctual sense of crisis toward him. It was strange.
‘Is it because I’ve prepared countermeasures in case something goes wrong?’
The entity sealed in the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword was a fragment of Tam.
In other words, even if the seal was broken, a monster powerful enough to destroy the world, as Lucifer had described, wouldn't emerge.
And if, by some chance, that did happen, I could just forcibly shove him into my inventory to seal him or take him to the tower and dump the problem on the System.
The problem was what came after.
‘I have no idea what kind of disadvantage the System would impose on me after dealing with Tam...’
I clicked my tongue softly and got down from the pile of corpses.
Worrying about something that hadn't even happened yet wouldn't lead to a clear answer.
The same went for finding a way to break Anastasia's curse.
In the end, all I could do now was my best with the task at hand.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—
A moment later, the ground began to tremble faintly, as if an earthquake had struck.
Sure enough, in the distance beyond the snowfield, a horde of monsters was rushing toward me, kicking up a cloud of white snow.
There had to be at least several hundred of them.
“That’s a lot.”
I gripped the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword.
Tam, who had been in the middle of his meal, grumbled in protest, but upon seeing the new feast approaching like a cloud, he began to purr with delight.
But it wasn't just prey that was coming.
KUUUGUGUGU—!!!
From between the massive mountain ranges, barely visible through the fierce blizzard, something slowly rose to its feet.
It was the gate's boss, an Ice Golem.
The creature stared directly at me, a being dozens of times smaller than itself.
It had recognized me as an enemy.
Seeing it, I frowned.
‘...Ah, this is giving me PTSD.’
*
Just after Kang Hyun-woo left the bedroom, the Tower Lord stared at the firmly shut door, suppressing the emotions welling up inside her.
She now knew it had all been her misunderstanding, but that didn't mean she had taken a liking to Kang Hyun-woo.
Of course, she was grateful for his sincere promise to do his best to break her daughter's curse.
But that was a separate matter. It was a parent's nature to feel displeased with any man, no matter how outstanding, who tried to take their daughter away.
The Tower Lord—no, Valentina—was not at all pleased with the fact that Kang Hyun-woo would be the man to take her precious daughter's first time.
The fact that she was vaguely aware of the many women around him only made her feel more resentful.
If she could, she would have put her foot down and forbidden it, but what right did an incompetent parent who couldn't even break her own daughter's curse have to say such a thing?
“Mother...?”
“...I’m sorry. I shouldn't have raised my voice in front of you.”
Valentina, sitting on the edge of the bed, gently pulled Anastasia into an embrace.
It was a gentle side of her never seen before.
If Kang Hyun-woo had witnessed this scene, his jaw would have dropped, and he would have rubbed his eyes, doubting if it was real.
Then he probably would have gotten hit again.
“I’m fine. In fact, it was nice to see your various expressions for the first time in a while, Mother.”
Anastasia smiled brightly.
For the past twenty-three years, Valentina had always tried her best not to lose her smile, at least in front of her daughter.
Even when the elixirs and artifacts she had scoured the world for, spending the family fortune, showed no effect.
Even when the divine power of the Pope, whom she had summoned at the cost of absurd conditions, had no effect at all.
Even when she could do nothing but helplessly watch her daughter grow more gaunt by the day.
Even when she had to accept the offer of those devil-worshipping bastards, knowing full well it was a poisoned apple.
Valentina never lost her smile in front of Anastasia.
But Anastasia was no fool.
She had long since noticed that her mother was pushing herself too hard for her sake.
“...I’m really okay. So I hope you won’t push yourself so hard either, Mother.”
“...”
Anastasia silently burrowed deeper into Valentina's embrace.
But as Valentina stroked her daughter's hair, her own face grew darker.
Having obsessively monitored Anastasia's condition, Valentina noticed it at once.
In just a few days, Anastasia's condition had noticeably worsened.
There really wasn't much time left.
Valentina clenched her jaw, steeling her heart that felt on the verge of crumbling.
She could not show weakness in front of her child.
“...Thank you.”
Valentina offered a rare, bright smile.
Anastasia returned the smile, and the two continued their conversation in their usual warm atmosphere.
Since Anastasia could only stay awake for thirty minutes a day, the time they could spend talking like this was precious beyond compare.
But today, one thing in particular grated on Valentina's nerves.
“Mother, did you also know that Hyun-woo is a pure-blooded human? Just as you said, he really doesn't have wings or a tail. He doesn't have any scales either, so even though he's a man, his skin looked very smooth.”
Anastasia paused as if choosing her words, then carefully continued.
“I feel like my skin has gotten a little dry lately... What if Hyun-woo thought badly of me...?”
As if worried, Anastasia needlessly stroked her own arm.
To anyone, her skin was perfectly white and smooth.
“And... are men my age supposed to have such broad shoulders...? His arms and legs were so thick, too...”
Unaware that Valentina's expression was souring by the second, Anastasia continued, fidgeting with her fingers.
Her flushed cheeks and glistening eyes seemed more vibrant than ever before.
“Hyun-woo is truly amazing. He said he's twenty-one, but Butler Alexei only became a 2nd Grade Mage after he turned sixty, right?”
“...That’s right.”
“And he’s an Elementalist, just like me... Once the curse is broken, wouldn't it be nice to take classes or study together...? Ah...! I-I wasn't thinking of anything strange! It's just, since I'm so far behind... something like tutoring...”
“...”
Watching Anastasia spend their most precious time of the day talking about another man, Valentina felt an indescribable emotion blooming in a corner of her heart.
Above all, the way her daughter's face would subtly flush every time Kang Hyun-woo's name was mentioned made her feel as if her insides were twisting into knots.
Grind—
*
That evening.
Having dealt with even the gate's boss, Kang Hyun-woo returned to the mansion with Tam, who let out a loud ‘Buuurp~’.
“You’re late.”
Waiting for him was none other than the Tower Lord.
The moment his eyes met Valentina's, who was standing on the second-floor balcony of the mansion's central hall, Kang Hyun-woo instinctively froze.
It was a fear etched into his very being.
“Where have you been?”
“Ah... I was just doing some training.”
“You reek of blood. What kind of training were you doing? Did you go hunt some monsters?”
“Yes, well... something like that.”
He couldn't exactly say he had trespassed into another country's gate to hunt monsters, so Kang Hyun-woo decided to give a vague answer.
After that, a heavy silence fell between them.
Valentina stared at Kang Hyun-woo without a word, while he broke into a cold sweat and subtly averted his gaze.
Just as the minute-long silence began to feel like an hour.
“Your meal has been brought to your room.”
“...Pardon?”
It was Valentina who broke the silence first.
“When you’re finished eating, come to my room.”
With those final words, Valentina turned and left the hall.
Left all alone in the central hall, Kang Hyun-woo watched her retreating back and tilted his head.
“...All of a sudden?”
For some reason, he had a very bad feeling.