Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: The Guardian (1)
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“In that winter, that friend became the captain of the White Corps.”
A life that began with the memories of his first regression.
The man preemptively claimed the treasures of the hidden world, monopolized skills and blessings, and gathered necessary people as comrades by his side. Thanks to that, even at a young age, he was able to rise to the position of White Corps captain while hiding half his power.
“He had a hundred subordinates. All of them were recognized superhumans.”
Though their faces had grown faint in his memories, they were once as precious as his own life.
He couldn’t recall the emotions he felt toward his comrades back then. They were like vague black silhouettes emerging from a hazy fog. He only remembered that such people had existed.
“It was a time when localized wars were breaking out. The demonkin organizations had begun to move.”
Both large and small battles posed no threat to him. He had hidden power, and dungeons and battlefields were no different from his workplace.
An era when everyone acknowledged him. A time when he repeatedly achieved great feats. He was satisfied with this second chance and hoped such happiness would last forever.
“While roaming the battlefields with his corps members, sharing joys and sorrows, he met a woman.”
Morning Star.
A rare superhuman in the operator class. Before awakening as a superhuman when the war broke out, she had been taking care of children at an orphanage.
Her awakened blessing was “Eyes that Detect Threats”. A fitting ability for an ‘operator’ who guided the unit’s direction. She had enlisted as a resource when the Chungcheong region was half-destroyed.
Despite having no proper military training, the Korean government’s policy was radical. The woman who had been scrubbing floors and singing lullabies to sleeping children just yesterday was thus driven to the battlefield.
“She was a terribly timid woman.”
Morning Star was a coward.
She feared fighting, so she’d hide first when battle broke out and get scolded by the man.
She feared blood, unable to even look properly at wounded soldiers.
Once, as a non-combatant staying in the rear, she was grazed by an arrow and got a gash on her leg. She’d act composed in front of others, but when alone, she’d whine endlessly about the pain.
In a way, it was natural. War was far too cruel for someone who had lived an ordinary life.
Did that stir some strange protective instinct? Looking back now, it was incomprehensible, but the man gradually fell for her. Who else would help such a scaredy-cat if not me? It must have been romantic thoughts like that.
“As the war dragged on, the woman slowly opened her heart to the man.”
In the aftermath of an archduke’s bombardment. Alone together in a crater.
The man had casually said something to her.
And she had replied.
Perhaps because they both needed someone to lean on. They grew close quickly, and the corps members blessed the pair.
“They promised each other a future. ‘Once this localized war ends, let’s plan our life together.’”
Where to honeymoon, how many kids, how to raise them. They spent time pondering such things.
‘Ji-tae oppa. Do you think I can really do something that huge?’
‘It’s just like pulling an egg out of your nostril.’
‘Just imagining it gives me chills.’
Her voice, fearing childbirth, seemed faintly remembered even after all this time.
In the time they spent lying on the wasteland.
The two, pressed tightly together against the cold.
“The night sky they watched together was truly beautiful.”
Probably. That’s what he thought.
Yet now, it was a memory that stirred no emotion.
“But good times don’t last forever.”
The tide of war began to turn.
The demonkin suddenly grew stronger.
Their equipment and tactics leaped in quality.
“War has enemies men don’t know about. Extremely strong ones. Brutal ones. Enemies who nurtured power in the shadows.”
He had been complacent thinking all demonkin were the same. In the first regression, ones who didn’t even reveal themselves to the world—the ‘real’ ones—existed there.
“They were merely labeled demonkin. Few knew their true nature. Those among them who crossed a certain line were like living calamities. That fool realized it far too late.”
The demonkin lords. Colloquially known as ‘calamity-grade’.
Their intervention reversed the war.
“The man became a target due to his many achievements. His unit started getting swept away. Subordinates began dying.”
Half of the men he’d shared half a year with returned to the earth in just three days.
“He couldn’t protect them even if he tried.”
Before overwhelming force, the man was powerless.
Even grasping the hands of dying corps members, all he could do was pray blessings upon them. Muttering a few words before fading lives—that was the best he could manage.
With repeated defeats, the unit was pushed back relentlessly.
When cornered like that.
“It finally appeared. A calamity-grade demonkin.”
A powerhouse beyond reach at the time.
“The demonkin was strong.”
His lifetime wielding weapons felt futile. The battle ended anticlimactically.
“And cruel.”
The captured prisoners weren’t killed.
They simply began being tortured for no reason at all.
“As the torture continued, many of his subordinates died.”
“The man lost one arm to a saw.”
“The cowardly woman was impaled on a hook and lost both eyes.”
“Just when it seemed they’d all die. The demonkin, who loved toying with human lives, said this right there.”
‘I’m merciful in my own way, so I plan to let you all live?’
‘But not the captain. You’ve been more irritating than a mosquito, so this one must die.’
‘…Anyway.’
‘I hear your unit is tight-knit? Heard the captain threw himself to protect his men.’
‘If you receive, you should return. That’s what makes you human, unlike us demonkin bastards. Right?’
‘So, anyone here willing to die in the captain’s place?’
The man dangled in the air, gripped by the nape by the demonkin, like a marionette with cut strings.
The unit fell silent. Before terror beyond limits, anger cooled, and vengeance faded. All they could do was tremble and pray to the gods.
Then, in the quiet wasteland, a woman’s voice rang out.
‘…Me.’
The woman, blind with blood streaming down her cheeks, took a step forward.
That terribly timid woman.
She began walking out on her own feet.
The demonkin laughed loudly.
He had the ability to manipulate people.
“The demonkin moved the man. And made him torture her to death.”
He had promised to protect her just days before.
Yet the man drew his sword and approached her. Even blind, she knew he was coming.
She who feared fighting. She was stabbed.
She who dreaded injury above all. All her fingers shattered, all toes crushed. Joints twisted, skin branded. Yet as a superhuman, her vitality endured; the slow torture posed no mortal threat.
She who abhorred the sight of blood. Her body became drenched in it.
The winter night was long. The screams that began at sunset didn’t stop until dawn. Yet the torture continued. Even when her voice failed, the man couldn’t stop his tearful hands.
Just before her breath gave out.
Morning Star uttered one last word.
‘I… it’s cold…’
She who might still be living somewhere in Korea today became unrecognizable in death.
He had killed her.
What emotions did he feel? Gaeul’s hand tightened fiercely on Yoo Ji-tae’s wrist.
Yoo Ji-tae continued his explanation indifferently.
“After she died, all remaining corps members had their eyes and tongues ripped out. The man’s legs were severed, and one eye gouged. On the way back, they had many legs but only one eye among them that could see ahead. All severely injured, unable to fight even after recovery. He made them drags on the unit.”
A fleeting memory surfaced of being carried by his subordinates, directing their path, then dissipated.
That was the end of the story.
Having explained up to there, Yoo Ji-tae closed his mouth.
Gaeul stared at him with a rigidly hardened expression.
“…Did that friend… die?”
Her voice taut like a thread about to snap.
Yoo Ji-tae shook his head.
“He survived just fine, luckily. Tough bastard.”
The man had committed suicide.
“Technology advances, right? It’d take time, but he probably got new legs and recovered his eye eventually.”
Cruelly, the world wouldn’t permit his death.
Time began rewinding.
But there was no need to explain even that.
Once, he had lived mad with vengeance.
He regressed, killed enemies, killed more, and more. But time has its peculiarities. Now, recalling it stirred nothing. Like recounting a drama plot from a couple years back.
Forgetfulness consoled him that way.
Now, drifting time merely carried him by inertia.
“Weak humans can end up that pathetic. Got it?”
“…”
No reply came.
Gaeul’s gaze fixed straight on Yoo Ji-tae before slowly dropping to the script. He couldn’t know what she was thinking.
Then. Winter cautiously looked up at Yoo Ji-tae and reached out both hands.
Wanting to be held.
With the explanation over, it was okay to get close now, he judged. Yoo Ji-tae picked up Winter. As if understanding something, the child wrapped her short arms around his neck.
And began sobbing quietly.
He felt the fist-sized head trembling against his neck.
This was troubling for him.
He didn’t know how to soothe a crying baby.
On the way back after buying candy and snacks for Gaeul and Winter. Winter toddled along holding Gaeul’s hand, and Yoo Ji-tae, with no rush, matched their pace.
Gaeul still wore that dazed expression. Even when asked why, she gave no real answer.
But.
Upon arriving at the dorm.
Yoo Ji-tae sensed something unfamiliar.
Something had entered the dorm.
Something extremely feral.
A being that concealed its presence beyond a certain level.
He had anticipated the time was near, but it was far earlier than expected.
The ones inside seemed fine. Of course, there’d be no issue. Those things were meant to protect dragons, after all.
“Yoo Gaeul.”
His voice was drier than usual.
Gaeul looked up at him with clouded eyes.
“I’ll go in first. Count to a hundred before entering.”
“…Okay.”
As Yoo Ji-tae opened the door and entered, figures in black full-body armor emerged from Bom’s room. Towering at about 2.3 meters. As he approached, they detected him and turned.
As the four full armors moved, heavy metallic friction sounds rang out.
Where eyes should be in the helmets, red lights flickered like glaring eyes.
“Was it you who turned Green into this?”
From one, a voice like scraping metal emanated.