Chapter 5
Chapter 5
They decided to move to another location.
The reunion of fellow time-returners couldn’t happen in a place where everyone could see.
But that didn’t mean they were taken somewhere completely private either.
“Are you really okay? Your mana looks almost depleted.”
“Y-Yes… my internal mana is below ten percent, but otherwise there’s no major problem.”
Ran immediately dragged Aren to the infirmary.
That Aren had saved all the team members who were wiped out meant he had gone through a lot.
“We’ve given you a mana supplement, so in a few hours you should be fine. Well then, I will—”
The infirmary staff nodded and quickly left.
Ran, already well-known as the chairman’s daughter, had brought along a man claiming to be her friend. It naturally sparked curiosity, but she didn’t want to get too entangled.
Once the staff closed the door, it was just Ran and Aren.
“There’s no need to request a private room just to get a mana supplement.”
Aren shot her a look that said, Don’t overdo it.
Ran’s eyebrows twitched sharply.
She had gone through the trouble of bringing him to the infirmary, and he still acted like this?
“I know you’re not hurt. An A-rank hunter getting injured from killing a D-rank monster? Huh? Then what’s the point of being A-rank?”
“I’m an E-rank hunter right now.”
“But you’ve been A-rank before, right? And if we want to talk privately, we can’t be in a shared infirmary.”
Ran glared at Aren, clearly annoyed.
“By the way, why are you speaking formally again? We agreed to speak casually.”
Ran’s pout wasn’t because Aren was being ungrateful. It was because he had broken their agreement to speak casually.
“How can I casually speak to the chairman’s daughter?”
“You’re not the chairman now.”
“But I’ve held the title before.”
Ran paused for a moment. The conversation felt oddly repetitive. She shook her head quickly to prevent reverting to their pre-time-return relationship.
“No, we promised. From now on, casual speech only.”
“That was a promise made before death.”
“And since we’ve come back alive, it’s still valid.”
Ran crossed her arms and spoke confidently.
“Besides, didn’t you say that if you could go back in time, you’d want to become friends with Aren sooner? Well… we’re back together in the past, aren’t we?”
“…Even so, a mere agent can’t speak casually to the chairman’s daughter.”
Aren’s objection was logical.
“There’s no one else here now. At least when it’s just the two of us, speak comfortably. Like… a secret friend. A secret friend, isn’t that nice? Let’s be secret friends from now on.”
Ran’s rebuttal was equally reasonable. When no one else was around, casual speech was fine. Like now, in the infirmary, with only the two of them.
Aren looked at Ran, her eyes sparkling.
“Alright. Got it, Ran. Happy now?”
He surrendered first. He had already started speaking casually, so insisting on formal speech felt ridiculous.
Ran grinned playfully and poked his side.
“Hmph. You should’ve done that from the start.”
“By the way, does it really matter now that we’ve come back to the past?”
Aren was dumbfounded. Usually, someone who had returned to the past would first be curious about what had happened or how they returned—not nitpick about honorifics.
“It matters, doesn’t it? If I hadn’t spoken up now, you would never have.”
“…You’re right.”
Aren couldn’t come up with a counterargument and changed the subject.
“When I woke up after dying, I wasn’t in a gate. Where were you?”
“In the chairman’s office.”
“So…”
“Yeah, the first thing I saw was my dad when I woke up.”
Aren didn’t even need to check—Ran nodded cheerfully.
“Are you okay?”
“Huh? Okay with what? Did you expect me to cry my eyes out just because I saw Dad after a long time?”
“Yes.”
Ran’s firm answer left Aren momentarily stunned.
“Do you think I’m a child? I didn’t cry at all.”
“That’s unexpected. You always cry when you drink, so I assumed you’d cry.”
“That’s only because I can’t handle alcohol well!”
Ran huffed, suddenly embarrassed by her past.
-Aren… Have I been too careless with Dad?
-What does it matter? He suddenly disappeared.
-What…? It’s not like it was my big mistake…?
-The chairman isn’t at fault. Go to sleep.
-It’s only you, my secretary, who tells me like this…
-Really, since a rookie died yesterday, it’s just right that I’m here now.
-But Aren… Have I been too careless with Dad…?
-I already told you to stop and sleep. This is the seventh time.
Ran had been difficult, but only because she had been drinking. When Aren drank, she endured his antics in the same way.
“You were the first to drink and cry, weren’t you?”
“What story…? I mean, when did that happen?”
“Uh-huh? Tell me exactly when.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
Their relationship had always been like this.
-Ran, should we play rock-paper-scissors and enter that gate?
-Why now? You’ll whine again if a slime appears, saying it’s hard to clean up.
-Why assume I’ve already lost?
When Ran played pranks, Aren surprisingly played along.
-Chairman, even if I like you, stop clinging. It’s frustrating.
-What…? Go experience a cold area gate by yourself then. Brrr…
-Weren’t you the one so confident earlier? Why come back with a strange cold?
-Just be quiet and hug me more.
They teased each other openly, too.
-Aren, will I ever get to wear a wedding dress before I die?
-Probably not.
-Then can I go briefly? There might be a dress in the internal world.
-Don’t say nonsense. You can’t come out unless it’s a soul wedding.
-I could marry a handsome ghost, too.
-Get the dress later, stop the nonsense, let’s go.
That was how they endured a collapsing world.
“Anyway! I’ll make sure Dad doesn’t disappear again.”
Ran had two goals if she went back in time: become friends with Aren faster, which was already underway, and closely watch her father to prevent him from disappearing at twenty-five.
“How about you, Aren? You saved people who were supposed to die, right?”
“Right.”
Aren looked at the IV in his arm. He had lost his usual weapon and the levels he had achieved, but he had saved his team. Years of experience allowed him to respond perfectly to unexpected situations.
So, how did it feel?
“Nice. No one dies in front of me.”
That was better than dealing with emergencies—it was better than watching teammates die.
“You… really consistent.”
Ran naturally got up from her chair and sat on Aren’s bed.
“So what’s this? Seeing us together, it really seems like we’re back in the past. Does this make sense? We weren’t eaten by a mind-control type gate, right?”
“That’s not impossible.”
“Hey! Deny that!”
Ran shivered as though she didn’t want to imagine it.
They had seen far too many impossible gates as the world raced toward destruction.
-Ran, gotta go to school.
-Ugh… five more minutes…
In one gate, they spent years as close childhood friends.
-Finally found you, you damn…
-That’s my line.
In another, they treated each other as arch-enemies, killing countless times.
High-grade mental gates distorted time and space, making them feel like five years of shared time was actually fifteen.
Of course, they could still be caught in a mental gate now.
“It really feels like we went back in time.”
This time, they were certain it wasn’t a gate.
“How do you know?”
“My ability, I guess.”
“What? You don’t have an ability.”
“Not that I don’t know, maybe I just didn’t realize it.”
“Are you… serious?”
No explanation was needed. Years together made comprehension instant.
“My ability seems to activate when I die.”
“Is that possible? Well, seeing as we came back together, it has to be.”
Ran couldn’t deny it outright, being the one who traveled back with him.
Abilities were a kind of superpower that only some hunters had. Anyone could become a hunter, and ranks could rise with training, but abilities made an immense difference.
Every S-rank hunter had an ability—except Aren.
“Then what do you think your ability is?”
“Time regression, probably.”
“You can go back in time every time you die?”
“Not exactly.”
Even if trust had been built, belief wasn’t easy. Ran didn’t blindly trust him either.
“Why do you think it’s regression?”
“Before returning to the past after dying, I heard a clock ticking. Tick-tock.”
“Ah…”
Hunters with abilities realized their powers instinctively—they didn’t get a status window.
So Aren’s conclusion that his ability was was very likely correct.
Ran had also realized her <Elemental Swordsmanship> ability when fire and lightning naturally appeared on her twin swords.
But even if Aren’s ability was , one question remained:
“Then why did I come back with you?”
Ran hadn’t heard the ticking.
Abilities couldn’t be shared, just like she couldn’t transfer her elemental sword ability to someone else. Aren’s ability shouldn’t have affected her.
“Maybe it’s because I was hugging you before I died.”
“…Huh?”
Aren answered simply and clearly.
“We were physically close. Maybe that’s why we came back together. Like when I swing your hand with a sword, you can still use the elemental sword.”
Exactly.
You can’t share the elemental sword, but if Aren swung her hand while using the ability, the elements remain. Similarly, his time regression worked the same way.
At the last moment, they had hugged each other, so his ability brought Ran along.
“So… you kidnapped me into the past?”
“No need to put it that way.”
“Not wrong, though?”
Technically, it was a kind of kidnapping.
Aren glanced around nervously.
“Sorry. That was reckless.”
Instead of dying peacefully, he would walk through hell again—but Ran’s playful smile wiped away his guilt.
“Why apologize? I should thank you. Thanks to you, I can see Dad again and become friends with you faster.”
“And you already know how the world will end.”
“Yeah.”
“And it could happen again?”
“We’ll stop it from happening again.”
Ran chuckled at his obviousness.
“And isn’t two better than one? Plus, having an S-rank hunter return with an A-rank is much better than alone.”
Ran clapped her hands, realizing the obvious.
“Now that I think about it, Aren, you should be grateful. An S-rank hunter who knows the future came back with us. If you want, you can even say, ‘Thanks, sister.’”
Seeing her teasing face, Aren felt his tension melt.
That’s why he survived until the end. Someone like Ran prevented him from overexerting himself.
He couldn’t help but agree with her.
“Yeah, it’s good we came back together.”
Not because of the S-rank hunter—but because he came back with a chairman and friend who had been with him for over five years, a companion to face a hellish world.