The Ones Who Returned
That worthless piece of trash!
The Korean military had been driven all the way back to the outskirts of Hamhung under the relentless Abyss offensive.
Yet at the last possible moment, reinforcements and supplies arrived. With them, the troops finally managed to halt the Abyss advance and draw a defensive line.
Barely able to catch their breath, the military immediately began redistributing and rotating its forces. Anyone no longer fit for combat, or too exhausted to continue, was pulled to the rear. Hunters whose guilds had suffered such catastrophic losses that they were effectively being dissolved followed the same path.
And among those who returned were Choi Yujin and Lee Sena.
“Yujin…”
“Ji… Jiseon…”
The moment they stepped off the military transport, their colleagues were waiting. Na Jiseon, and the four hunters from the 28th Guild who had been unable to join the operation for personal reasons.
Seeing them standing there with such bleak faces, Choi Yujin felt her heart tear open. She threw her arms around Jiseon without a word.
They had not been apart for long. Yet those days had felt longer and more agonizing than any mission she had ever endured. Even now, cradled in her friend’s arms and weeping, her body still trembled from the nightmare that clung to her like a ghost. The memories of that time still circled her mind, refusing to leave.
In a broken, sobbing voice, Choi Yujin forced the words out.
“I… I couldn’t save anyone… The others… my friend Jiyun… all of them… every single one…”
“…It’s okay… It wasn’t your fault… I know that…”
“If… if only… if I had stopped her… if I could have just stopped Sena back then… none of this… none of this would have… hic… uuh… uwaaah!”
The tears finally broke free. Yujin clung to Jiseon, shaking for a long time. Na Jiseon held her, fighting to keep her own composure while she murmured comfort. In the end she could not hold it either; tears began to fall from her eyes as well.
Then—
“Shut up! Crying like that isn’t going to bring the dead back!”
A sharp voice cut through the air beside them. Yujin and Jiseon turned, faces blank with shock.
Lee Sena stood there, staring at them with open irritation.
The sight of her drove the sorrow out of Jiseon in an instant and replaced it with raw fury.
“You… you… are you seriously saying that right now? Lee Sena… whose fault do you think this whole mess is?!”
“Whose fault? Right… you bitches just want to pin everything on me, don’t you?”
She spoke with pure shamelessness. Something inside Na Jiseon snapped.
“Yes! If it isn’t your fault, then whose?! If you hadn’t gotten greedy and overreached in that situation, none of this would have happened! You know that better than anyone!”
“Cut the bullshit! My fault? All I did was try to make sure our 28th Guild took the biggest credit! We just got unlucky and fell for the Abysses’ trap—anyone in that position would have made the same call, including you!”
“This… this bitch… saying that now…”
Lee Sena stood there claiming, without a shred of doubt, that she had done nothing wrong. Jiseon felt the overwhelming urge to rip that dog-like bitch’s mouth clean off her face.
“It’s because of you… If you… if you hadn’t made that choice… if you hadn’t pulled that idiotic stunt…”
“Hey, Na Jiseon! I get that you’re upset your comrades died, but don’t take it out on the wrong person! You’ve been treating me like some criminal this whole time—this was just an accident!”
“You… say one more word… What… what the hell did you just say?… You piece of trash!”
“Ji… Jiseon!”
Rage finally overrode everything. Na Jiseon lunged at Lee Sena. Choi Yujin threw every ounce of strength she had into holding her back.
“Calm down! Please, not here!”
“Let go of me! Choi Yujin, you heard her! You heard what that dog-like bitch just said! Because of her our comrades are dead—thousands of people are dead—and she’s spouting that shit! You bastard! Are you even human after what you did?! Bring them back! Bring them back right now! Every single guild member who died because of you—bring them all back!”
Na Jiseon’s voice cracked with fury and raw grief. For a moment Lee Sena’s eyes flickered. Then she simply turned her back on the screaming woman and walked away.
The remaining hunters of the 28th Guild watched her leave, faces twisted with open rage. Na Jiseon ground her teeth until blood welled between them.
That kind of person… that kind of person… I’ve called a friend all this time? That dog-like bastard?
She had always known Sena was arrogant and looked down on people. Even so, Sena had acknowledged the strength of her fellow S-class hunters and, as a leader, had seemed decent enough. Or so Jiseon had believed.
Now, watching Sena disappear into the building without a single glance back, Jiseon finally understood how wrong she had been.
Yeah… that’s right. Looking back, that bitch never did anything but give orders. She never once tried to take responsibility for them.
Lee Sena never cared much about small losses. But the moment something major and dangerous happened, she would do anything—anything—to dodge the blame.
Even the B-class mission back when Adjutant Choi Han was still with them: coldly speaking, the greatest fault had been Lee Sena’s. Yet instead of stepping forward as the leader she was supposed to be and cleaning up the mess herself, she had dragged Na Jiseon and the other S-class hunters into joint responsibility just to scatter the heat.
Most of the other incidents that had quietly slipped past them over the years had been handled the exact same way. Jiseon could see it clearly now.
Back then, with Jinhyun Oppa gone, I was too out of it to notice… but now I know for certain. What kind of person that woman—that bitch named Lee Sena—really is…
A personality that invited disaster, paired with a filthy talent for escaping the consequences. That was the true face of Lee Sena.
And as that realization settled, fresh waves of pity and grief for the comrades who had died because of that bitch’s stupidity washed over her again.
Jiseon could already sense, faintly, what was coming next.
And she knew it would take the absolute worst possible shape.
“Haa…”
Kwon Soon let out a heavy sigh in front of the door. Glass watched her with open concern.
“Is Aide… still the same?”
“Yeah. It’s already been a week. Except when it’s absolutely necessary, she hasn’t left that room once.”
Kwon Soon’s voice was low and heavy. Even after all this time, she understood Jinhyun’s state completely. She had lost comrades of her own once. The emptiness and hollowness that followed had made ordinary life impossible for a long while, and a scar from those days still lingered in a corner of her heart, never fully gone.
The harder I tried to forget… the more fiercely it came back. The pain of losing the people you fought beside…
Part of her wanted nothing more than to step forward and comfort him with her own hands. But she knew this was not her place. She also knew that the person he needed right now was not her.
The one who could ease even a fraction of his pain was already walking toward them, carrying a bowl of porridge she had made herself in the kitchen.
“Well then… shall the interrupters step aside for now?”
Swallowing the regret that rose in her chest, Kwon Soon quietly moved away with Glass.
A moment later, Are carefully knocked on the door.
“…I’m coming in.”