Chapter 48
I’ll translate this chapter into natural English prose and preserve the required HTML structure, including any special in-universe content as styled blocks. First I’m checking the source for any scene-break markers or special formatting needs, then I’ll render the full chapter cleanly.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 48
Gwangju. Did she say Gwangju?
“The Gwangju in Jeolla Province?”
When I asked just to be sure, Jin Yeonhui gave a small nod.
“Yes.”
“And you want me to go there with you?”
Right after Ye Jiram disappeared, that was the real reason Jin Yeonhui had brought me here. She had shown up out of nowhere and said it in a single breath.
—Come to Gwangju with me.
That was all she’d said. Out of nowhere, what was this even supposed to mean?
“What do you mean, go to Gwangju? Why all of a sudden?”
“...There’s something I have to do there.”
“Okay, but why with me?”
If she had business there, fine. Though I had my doubts about whether someone from the Knight Order could just waltz off on a trip like that, if she wanted to go, she could always look into it herself.
But—
With me?
That was what confused me.
“Why do you want me to go with you? And what’s the reason you have to go to Gwangju in the first place?”
“...That...”
Jin Yeonhui’s eyes shifted. She looked like she was thinking it over. Just as I was starting to wonder if she was reluctant to say it, she finally spoke.
“...It was Gyeongbeom who asked.”
“Gyeongbeom?”
The name of Jin Yeonhui’s twin brother—and my friend—came out of her mouth.
Jin Gyeongbeom was involved in this?
“What do you mean?”
“Taesung Group is handling something in Gwangju right now.”
It was the company Jin Gyeongbeom and Jin Yeonhui belonged to. And they were doing something in Gwangju?
“A report came in that a Rift had opened there.”
“What? A Rift?”
At that, my eyes widened. The word Rift was the problem.
If it’s a Rift...
If a Gate was an otherworld concept entered directly through the reincarnator network or through an anomaly gate—
...then a Rift is...
Put another way, it was basically a small disaster.
Unlike the catastrophes that triggered according to contamination level thresholds, this was trouble caused by an actual tear in the world itself.
It was sometimes called a micro-gate, but to be exact, it was more like—
A Gate that appears in reality.
You couldn’t enter it as a group through the network, and only a few people, including the one who discovered it, could go inside.
And if you leave it alone, it disappears.
That was the nature of a Rift. It vanished on its own after some time passed. So in a sense, it was less dangerous than a Gate.
...Actually, people are desperate to find them.
Like stumbling across jewels in a patch of dry, barren land, people reacted to the appearance of a Rift in reality as though they’d found wild ginseng.
And it made sense.
Part of why people went wild over Gates and superhumans was that they lowered the world’s contamination rate and saved humanity.
But at the core of it, it was still money.
The rewards you could get from a Gate were a major factor.
...And with Rifts, only a limited number of people can even collect the rewards.
Maybe because of that scarcity, they paid out a surprising amount compared to the difficulty.
And Taesung Group had found one of those.
“In Gwangju?”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to go with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I came back to the root of the issue. Why was she taking me along?
“Gyeongbeom told you to?”
“...He asked me to look after you.”
“...Hmm.”
I nodded after hearing that.
“Then I’m not going.”
“...”
“I appreciate the offer, but if it’s something like that, you don’t need to worry about me. Besides, you said Taesung Group is managing it. So it’s not really mine to begin with.”
It was a good opportunity, sure, but I didn’t need to chase after it. More than that—
I’m busy right now.
I turned my head and looked toward the small room inside the house. I’d left a lot of things organized in there.
“I’ll contact Gyeongbeom separately and tell him I—”
“It’s not just because he asked me to look after you.”
“Huh?”
I narrowed my eyes at Jin Yeonhui’s words.
“Then what is it?”
“...To resolve this Rift, we need your strength.”
“What?”
My strength? What did that even mean?
“What would a Rift need my strength for?”
“Looking at the nature of this Rift, I can’t solve it alone.”
“...What kind of nature?”
“We need a single decisive strike.”
“Huh?”
A decisive strike?
“It’s blocked by a thick wall, and to break through it, we need to deliver tremendous power all at once. That means I need to bring someone who can do that.”
“...Ah.”
I understood what she meant.
So that’s how she sees my power.
Not my strength, exactly, but the power of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
She seemed to be planning to use the power of the Heavenly Demon’s Secret Blade.
But—
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t there be no need to drag me along? There are other people in your company, aren’t there?”
There were plenty of people besides me who could use power like that.
“There isn’t an S-class superhuman in the company who can use that kind of power.”
“Does it have to be S-class?”
“It has to be that strong.”
“...Even so.”
“Please help me. I’m asking you.”
“...”
At Jin Yeonhui’s words, I scratched my cheek.
A Rift, huh.
I’ve never been to one.
I’d gone to Gates quite a few times by now, but a Rift was something I’d never experienced.
Besides—
Hmm...
There was something odd in Jin Yeonhui’s eyes. The desperation in them was strangely hard to ignore.
“...Fine.”
“...!”
Her eyes widened at my answer.
“If you need me, I’ll help. But do we have to leave right away?”
“If we leave by tomorrow, it should be fine.”
“Tomorrow, huh.”
I nodded.
“Then I’ll need permission first. Once I get it, we’ll leave.”
“Permission?”
Jin Yeonhui looked at me in confusion, but—
“Yeah. Permission.”
There was still one very important problem left.
* * *
After seeing Jin Yeonhui off, I headed straight for somewhere else instead of my own place.
One floor up. The house where a terrifying monster lived.
“...”
I stood in front of the door, hovering between ringing the bell and leaving it alone. Uh... was this even okay?
Then—
“...What are you doing?”
A voice came from inside. The door unlocked on its own the moment I heard it.
Clack.
Creeeak.
“...Come in.”
“...Ah, yes.”
Irene must already have known I was here. Swallowing hard, I stepped inside.
Now that I think about it, this feels like I’m walking into a Gate.
“Are you done talking?”
“...Ah, you knew?”
So Irene had known someone had come to my house?
“...I didn’t... eavesdrop. I just checked who was coming and going.”
“...”
That was scary enough as it was. That was surveillance, no matter how you dressed it up.
“So, what did you come to say? Are you asking me to make you deputy commander?”
“No. That’s not really important.”
“...What a shame.”
Why the hell does she sound disappointed?
“If you wanted, I was going to call the Black Night Witch and have her go at it with you again...”
“...”
Please don’t. I really didn’t want to fight that woman again.
“You’re really not disappointed?”
“...Yeah. Not really.”
Or rather, it sounded like she was disappointed for me.
“That’s interesting.”
“Do you want to play the role of commander, Irene?”
“...No?”
The expression on her face was basically, Why the hell would I want that?
“...”
Then why ask me?
Amused by the look on my face, Irene’s lips curled up ever so slightly.
Hero's Super-sensory is activated.
It was so faint I might not have noticed it without the skill. A tiny movement at the corner of her mouth.
“That question had a reason behind it.”
“A reason, you say—”
“We have another objective.”
“...Ah.”
The search for the Martial God.
It was another objective set for Irene and me alone.
“For that, it would have been easier if you had some sort of position, too.”
“...”
“But it’s fine if not. So... why did you come here?”
“Would it be all right if I went to Gwangju?”
“...Gwangju?”
At the word Gwangju, Irene tilted her head.
Was she going to tell me not to go? I was starting to feel a little uneasy when—
“Gwangju. Why?”
She asked for the reason first.
“Jin Yeonhui told me there’s a Rift there, and asked me to help out.”
I answered honestly without beating around the bush. There was no reason to hide it.
“A Rift? There’s a Rift in Gwangju?”
“Yes. She said Taesung Group is managing it.”
“Hmm.”
Rift— I heard Irene murmur quietly.
“It’s an awkward time for us to move right now...”
“Yes. I know that. So if you tell me not to go, I obviously won’t—”
“...Then that’s fine. Go ahead.”
“Huh?”
I blinked in surprise. She was letting me go? I hadn’t expected her to approve it. Not this easily, anyway.
“However...”
She looked at me and said,
“...There is... a condition. A very important one...”
And at that—
“...Understood.”
I had to answer a little reluctantly.
* * *
The next day came. In the early dawn, before the sun had even risen, I met up with Jin Yeonhui.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
The conversation was short. We weren’t close enough to exchange idle chatter, so we moved on while forcibly ignoring the awkward air between us.
“We’re heading straight there, right?”
“Yeah. The car’s ready.”
How long had it been since I’d left here? I don’t think I’d ever gone outside the government-provided lodging and the area around it.
Was I excited? Not really.
...More like slightly annoyed.
Thanks to this, I’d even skipped morning training. That was what I regretted most.
“Did you bring the black sword?”
Jin Yeonhui asked me.
“Ah. Yeah.”
It was properly secured on my bracelet.
“We should be able to finish within a day, right?”
We’d been given permission for one night and two days. Once you counted travel time, that was absurdly tight.
“We’ll have to make it happen.”
“...”
Even Jin Yeonhui didn’t sound fully certain.
Hmm. Right.
“...”
“...”
After that, there was no conversation. The atmosphere stayed painfully awkward.
As I stood there smacking my lips together in discomfort, a very expensive-looking car pulled up in front of us.
“Young lady.”
A middle-aged gentleman stepped out and greeted Jin Yeonhui as he opened the car door for her.
“Get in.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Interesting. So this is what it’s like when you’re from a rich family.
The inside of the car was wide and comfortable. Where else in the world would I ever get to ride in something like this?
I sat in the cushy seat and even buckled my seat belt.
“We’ll be departing now.”
And so the car set off.
A few hours later, we arrived in Gwangju.
* * *
Ugh...
I got out of the car and stretched my stiff body. The ride had been comfortable enough, but the people inside had been so uncomfortable that I couldn’t rest the way I wanted to.
I can smell sweetness. Sweetness all over.
We’d gone the whole drive without exchanging a single word, and I hadn’t been able to move my aching body either.
We’d just spent hours in that atmosphere.
Jin Yeonhui had sat a little distance away and read a book the whole time.
As for me, I’d stared out the window, pretending to be occupied while desperately trying to figure out where to put my eyes.
I’m going to die.
It was an experience I never wanted to repeat.
“We’ve arrived. Please proceed inside.”
The driver guided us. The place we’d arrived at was a mountain in Gwangju.
More precisely, it was a space you had to go a little deeper into the mountain to reach.
Inside, barricades had been set up everywhere, and the Taesung Group logo was plastered all over the place.
People in what looked like fireproof uniforms were moving around.
Then—
“So you’ve come.”
Someone approached us.
The moment I saw him, I froze.
“It’s been a while.”
He looked a lot like Jin Gyeongbeom, though with a heavier, more mature presence than Jin Yeonhui’s twin brother. A middle-aged man with a cool, sharp gaze and an air of quiet weight about him.
“...Good day, Chairman.”
It was Jin Cheon, chairman of Taesung Group.