The Day Silent Thunder Grew Heavy
Silent Thunder pressed down on the treatment room floor.
At first, it was just a single crack.
A hairline fracture spread across the white tiles next to the bed, followed quickly by a low sound.
Crack.
Cha Yu-ri stopped wrapping the bandages.
"Tae-san," she said.
"What?"
"Your hammer is diagnosing the hospital floor."
"Didn't know it had that function."
"Patients don't have the function to joke. Take your hand off the handle."
I let go of Silent Thunder's handle.
Even so, Silent Thunder didn't get any lighter.
The dark weight pressing against the floor slowly grew heavier. It felt as if the stream of mana I had deflected in the banquet hall, the residual pressure of the black low-rank gate, and even the scent of the core Oh Min-hyeok had abandoned were all pooled inside the handle.
It was heavy.
But it wasn't just the weight of a simple lump of iron.
Something was still surging toward me.
Han Mi-rae looked down at the cracked tile from the doorway of the treatment room.
"Can we bill the floor repair costs to Oh Min-hyeok?"
Cha Yu-ri replied immediately.
"Mi-rae. Please don't talk about repair costs in the treatment room."
"Then what should I call it? Medical space stabilization fees?"
"I don't like that either. It'll just make the patient stand up again."
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I raised my head.
"I'm already up."
Cha Yu-ri's hand gripped the end of the bandage tightly.
"Would you like me to make you sit back down? Medically speaking."
"Sounds like a threat."
"It's a treatment policy."
Han Mi-rae started to chuckle, then stopped.
Because the treatment room door opened again.
Yun Seo-ah walked in.
The hem of her torn dress had been tidied up, but the wound on the back of her hand remained. Before looking at my bandages, her eyes fell on the floor crushed by Silent Thunder. Then, she slowly held out a folded piece of paper.
The Partner Termination Agreement.
It was the paper I had signed in front of the black gate.
"Oh Min-hyeok is trying to use this to claim the reward rights," Seo-ah said, her voice low.
"He's claiming that since Tae-san terminated the partner contract of his own accord before entering, the party needs to verify the gate debris and awakening rewards."
The smile completely vanished from Han Mi-rae's face.
"He's talking about reward rights under the name of the person who abandoned him?"
Cha Yu-ri spoke as she placed fresh gauze over the bandage.
"Where is he right now?"
The answer came from the hallway.
"Tell Kang Tae-san to get out here!"
The shout was followed by the sound of camera shutters.
In the waiting area outside the emergency treatment room, victims of the banquet hall incident still remained. The injured, staff, and people waiting for their families. Oh Min-hyeok's voice forced its way through them.
I stood up.
Cha Yu-ri blocked my path.
"You can't."
"He's intruded into the patient area."
"Which is exactly why someone other than you should stop him."
Han Mi-rae was already moving toward the door.
"I'll call the security team. And as for the reporters, if I clear them out using my name—"
"No."
Yun Seo-ah cut her off.
Both of their gazes shifted to her at the same time.
Seo-ah folded the agreement and tucked it into her hand.
"Get the people out first. If Tae-san goes out there, he'll direct all the cameras toward him. We need to clear the path before that."
Her words were quick.
In the past, Seo-ah stood by my side because of her quick judgment. Now, she was using that quickness not in front of me, but behind the people.
I nodded.
"You handle it."
Seo-ah's eyes trembled ever so slightly.
But this time, she didn't hesitate.
"Please stick to the left wall. The person holding the child first. Reporters, please clear the hallway."
Han Mi-rae let out a short laugh and opened the opposite door.
"Fine. I'll buy the door. No, today I'll just open it."
"Don't buy the door," Cha Yu-ri said.
"Alright, alright. I'll hold back since we're in front of the patient."
I picked up Silent Thunder.
This time, it felt slow to lift.
My wrist was dragged downward. The wound on my flank flared hot first, and my breath caught a beat late.
Cha Yu-ri saw it. Her eyes turned cold.
"Just this once."
"What is?"
"You getting hit."
I didn't answer.
Stepping into the hallway, I saw Oh Min-hyeok.
Clad in brand-new armor, he stood with his back to the reporters. In his hand was a metal case. A thin wisp of black smoke was leaking from inside it.
Lee Na-gyeong entered from the end of the hallway.
"Hunter Oh Min-hyeok. There is no record of authorization to remove evidence. Please put down the case."
Oh Min-hyeok sneered.
"Evidence? This is debris from our party's gate. Our party suffered losses because of the awakening that bastard hid, and today that hammer of his ruined the banquet hall again. I came to prove its danger."
He fiddled with the case's latch.
Click.
The sound was quiet.
But Silent Thunder reacted first.
Hum.
Black smoke poured from the case, splitting like claws. It didn't come straight at me. Instead, it crawled low toward the wheel of the nearest injured person's wheelchair.
Oh Min-hyeok saw it.
And he took a step aside.
Just like he had done in the gate back then.
I didn't run.
Running would be too slow.
I slammed Silent Thunder onto the floor.
Thud.
The floor sank. The black claws hesitated in front of the wheelchair.
I didn't twist the handle. If I pushed it away with brute force, it might bounce toward the injured.
So I pressed down.
Into the floor.
The residual pressure bent beneath the tiles. Having lost its destination, the black smoke coiled back toward the case. Oh Min-hyeok tried to drop the case, but the seal inside the handle ruptured first.
Boom!
The explosion wasn't small.
But it didn't spread toward the people. The pressure rebounding inside the case pushed up against the chest plate of Oh Min-hyeok's new armor from the inside. The silver ornaments on the armor crumpled like paper, and he slammed back into the wall.
The reporters gasped.
I couldn't take my hand off Silent Thunder.
It was still heavy.
Silent Thunder wasn't holding onto my arm; it was holding onto the pressure remaining in the entire hallway. I gritted my teeth and pressed the handle down once more.
Thud.
The smoke flattened against the floor.
Only then was there enough space for the wheelchair to pass.
Cha Yu-ri checked the injured person first. She started to come toward me, but stopped when she saw the hands of the elderly person in the wheelchair.
That was the right call.
I saw that, and felt strangely relieved.
Seo-ah guided the employee holding the child inside the wall. Han Mi-rae pointed a single finger at the line of reporters.
"Cross it and I'll sue; take a photo and I'll bill you. Both are expensive."
Lee Na-gyeong captured the case and Oh Min-hyeok's wrist in a single frame.
"Unauthorized removal of evidence. Unsealing within an emergency zone. Circumstances of evasion in front of victims. Recording."
Oh Min-hyeok leaned against the wall.
"Kang Tae-san attacked me. You all saw it!"
I caught my breath.
"Your armor took what you opened."
He couldn't answer.
Yun Seo-ah stood in front of him.
She didn't look at me. She didn't look at Oh Min-hyeok for long either. Instead, she looked at the wheelchair that had almost been pushed back, and then at the child.
"You dodged like this that day, too."
Oh Min-hyeok's face stiffened.
"Seo-ah."
"I will bear the consequences of my own mistakes."
She pulled out the agreement in her hand.
"But don't blame what you abandoned on the power Tae-san hid."
The agreement wasn't torn.
Seo-ah handed the paper to Lee Na-gyeong. Instead of tearing it up in emotion, she left it as a record.
That choice would last much longer.
I lifted Silent Thunder.
This time, it came up.
The weight was still there. But it wasn't a weight that pressed down only on me like before. The path the case had opened, the direction the smoke had crawled, the spot Oh Min-hyeok had dodged. All of it remained darkly inside Silent Thunder.
Only then did Cha Yu-ri come to me.
"Pain."
"I thought you said you wouldn't ask."
"Policy change."
"Four."
Her eyebrows shot up.
"You answered with a number right away."
"Felt like I'd get scolded otherwise."
"You're right. But you'll get scolded less now."
Han Mi-rae chuckled from the side.
"You're finally making a choice cheaper than the treatment costs."
"Is that a compliment?"
"By Mirae Group standards, yes."
Cha Yu-ri placed her hand over my bandage. She didn't press hard this time. Just lightly, as if checking the temperature of my palm.
"It's gotten heavier."
"Silent Thunder?"
"Both."
I leaned Silent Thunder against the wall.
The floor cracked again, but it didn't sink any further. The black smoke had completely died inside the case, and Oh Min-hyeok's armor remained crumpled inward.
The calculations he brought with him had ultimately crushed him.
Silent Thunder was still heavy.
But this time, I felt like I understood a little where that weight came from.
The walk back to the treatment room was short.
Yet, I walked slower than before. It wasn't because Silent Thunder was heavy. The things I had just witnessed held my ankles back, bit by bit. The step Oh Min-hyeok had taken to dodge, the black claws that had stopped in front of the wheelchair, Yun Seo-ah's hands handing over the agreement instead of tearing it.
The heaviest of them all wasn't Silent Thunder.
It was the fact that I had tried to stand in front first, once again.
Cha Yu-ri didn't pretend not to notice. Only after she sat me down on the treatment bed did she pull out new bandages.
Her hands were fast and precise, but her words came much later.
"You did some things right this time."
"Like what?"
"Checking the injured first. And telling me the number right away."
Han Mi-rae chimed in as she sat on a chair.
"Can I give a compliment too?"
"Not if it's contract-related," Cha Yu-ri said.
"What a shame. He just did something incredibly expensive."
"What's a cheap thing?" I asked.
"Oh Min-hyeok folding his own justification with his own gear. That's cheap. Since he has to pay for it himself."
Yun Seo-ah stood by the door. She wasn't smiling. Instead, she looked down at the hand that had held the agreement she just handed to Lee Na-gyeong.
"I wanted to tear it up," she said.
"But I felt like tearing it would just end with me feeling relieved, so I didn't."
I raised my head.
Seo-ah didn't avoid my gaze this time.
"Leaving it as a record is the right thing to do. Even if it's late."
Cha Yu-ri spoke softly as she tied the bandage.
"It's fine to record what's late. Just don't make things even later in front of the patient."
Seo-ah nodded quietly.
Silent Thunder stood against the wall. The floor didn't sink any further. The residual glow on its black surface slowly cooled.
I opened my palm.
The weight that had been digging into the handle until just moments ago still lingered. But my fist wasn't clenched. That was all I had barely managed to learn today.
Not how to hold onto something heavy, but where to open my hand.
Only after seeing that open hand did Cha Yu-ri loosen the knot of the bandage slightly.
"That's enough for today."
It was a brief sentence. Yet, it lingered longer than the weight of Silent Thunder.