Chapter 230: The Calamity Strikes (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 230: The Calamity Strikes (2)
“What… are we?”
The moment I heard those words, only one thought came to mind.
The inevitable had finally come.
It was a question we had to address sooner or later.
Our relationship now straddled so many boundaries that it was difficult to define.
Too passionate to be just friends, yet not quite lovers.
But to dismiss it as just being sex friends… our feelings for each other weren't that shallow.
“Well…”
“‘Well…?’”
At my ambiguous answer, Shin Yu-jeong’s face went cold.
She looked as if she’d never dreamed I would respond that way.
Or perhaps she knew it was a possibility but had hoped it wouldn’t come.
She asked me, her expression hollow.
“You… you don’t like me?”
I could feel the desperation in her question.
“I do like you.”
“Then… if you like me, why would you say something like that?”
That’s the problem.
If I didn’t like you, I could just cut you off coldly, even if it meant getting slapped a few times. But I can’t do that with you.
“I’m certain that I like you. It’s just…”
A relationship that didn’t fully belong to any one category, but instead straddled several boundaries.
This relationship had started with Shin Yu-jeong.
With her worldly desire to use me, a rare resource who possessed a magician’s talent.
That initial feeling, that emotion, had begun to transform into the purest sincerity, leading us to this point.
However, she wasn’t the sole cause of it all.
She may have started it, but I was the one who maintained this relationship and dragged it out this long.
Shin Yu-jeong might not have had one, but I did.
A chance to redefine our relationship.
The reason I let this unstable connection continue was…
“My heart isn’t 100% yours.”
…because I thought it would be easier to shape our unstable relationship into what I wanted, rather than breaking down something already solid and starting over.
At least, that’s what I thought.
“So what you’re saying… is that you like me, but you like some other bitch too, is that it?”
Seeing Shin Yu-jeong’s face, her voice sharp as a blade and red mana seeping out in wisps of fury, I had a premonition.
That we might be distant for quite some time.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I was heading to the university for the first time in nearly two weeks.
As I walked down the stairs, I saw Jeong-hee standing at the bottom of the flight, waiting for me.
It seemed she had something to say.
“Um, Do-jin.”
“Yes.”
“Did you happen to fight with Yu-jeong…?”
So that was it.
After my cold response, a furious Shin Yu-jeong had questioned me over and over.
She kept asking who the other woman I liked was.
Of course, I didn’t answer.
It didn’t take much to imagine what would happen if I revealed that.
In the end, unable to get anything out of me, Yu-jeong had stormed past me and left.
Vowing that if I wouldn’t tell her, she’d find out herself.
“…We had a little argument.”
“I see. She’s been looking so down since yesterday with her lips sealed shut, I was wondering what happened, hoho.”
Though Jeong-hee laughed awkwardly, her beautiful smile couldn’t completely hide the worry scattered across her face.
I smiled as brightly as I could for her and replied.
“We’ll be able to work it out soon, so you don’t have to worry too much.”
“Worry? What’s there to worry about? Yu-jeong and you are both adults, so I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Jeong-hee waved her hands dismissively as she answered with a smile.
For someone who thought that, she sure had a lot of worry written on her face.
“You’ll be late. You should get going.”
“I’ll be off, then.”
“Okay.”
I was about to start walking again when Jeong-hee, who had stepped aside, suddenly grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
“……?”
When I turned my head, she wrapped her arms around my neck.
And then came a kiss.
Chu!
No, it was more of a peck.
Maybe she was a little flushed, or maybe she was just shy.
She waved, her face red.
“Good luck.”
“……”
I pointed downward with my finger and replied.
“I think the energy went somewhere else.”
“Oh my.”
Morning classes… I guess I’ll have to skip them, right?
* * *
The barracks for the members of the Haenam Surveillance Team.
Last night, Shin Hyo-seop had come back after drinking himself stupid at the only bar in the area, just like any other night. He finally woke up late in the morning.
“Ugh, my stomach hurts…”
The trouble started when he’d been wetting his throat with soju. When things quieted down, the madam joined his table, and he’d hastily ordered some Western liquor and mixed it.
“Wasted money, wrecked my stomach… What the hell am I even doing?”
He smiled bitterly as he looked at his reflection in the mirror while brushing his teeth.
Even though his stomach was killing him, his face looked like he could manage.
‘That’s good enough.’
He liked this life.
A free life where nothing held him down.
As long as he did his duty properly, his salary came in on time, he had colleagues to hang out with, and there was a place with good booze.
Though his youth in his twenties had passed by in vain, he didn’t regret it.
No, to be precise, he had regretted it so much he could beat the ground in frustration, but now he was slowly letting go of that regret.
‘I’m being compensated right now.’
He considered his current free life a reward for his past struggles.
Compensation for the difficult days he’d spent in his early twenties, struggling to take responsibility for a child that had come unexpectedly.
Of course, it was largely his own fault for ignoring the importance of contraception, but still.
He occasionally felt a pang of guilt when he thought of his wife, but it was only for a moment.
‘It’s not like I’m out here gambling or having an affair.’
He was out here because of work, wasn’t he?
He was sending half his salary straight home, so he was fulfilling his duties as the head of the household.
‘Yu-jeong is all grown up now, and Jeong-hee is probably living comfortably.’
In fact, ever since his daughter turned twenty, she didn’t contact him as often as before.
To be exact, it was a little after she turned twenty, but that wasn’t very important.
The guilt that crept up now and then would quickly fade with a single round of such rationalizations.
The only thought left in his head was who he should drink with today.
After a quick wash, he changed into his team uniform and left the barracks.
“Hey, keep up the good work.”
“Looks like you’re on the afternoon shift today, Officer Shin.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
He passed through security with a simple greeting to the familiar faces guarding the surveillance post, then took the elevator to the top of the building to reach his duty station.
After a handover that consisted of the usual jokes and a report of ‘nothing unusual,’ he started his mission.
The Haenam Surveillance Team had only one job.
To monitor the vast, open sea spread out before them.
It was to detect and stop any rifts that might form over the water, however slim the chance.
“So boring…”
The mission, which involved seeing nothing but the dark blue sea no matter where he looked, was mind-numbingly dull.
Ever since he started working here, there hadn’t been a single incident. The heavy sense of responsibility and tension he’d felt when he was first assigned here had long since vanished.
“Officer Yoon.”
“Yes, Officer Shin.”
“You’re up for a drink after our shift tonight, right? Huh?”
Officer Yoon, who was on the afternoon shift with him, made a troubled face.
“Agh, please give me a break today. We’ve been drinking every day, and my bank account is empty.”
Shin Hyo-seop grinned and nudged Officer Yoon’s side with his elbow.
“I’m buying today, so just come keep me company. You’ll come, right? Huh?”
“Well, if you’re buying, I’m grateful, but… I feel bad for always getting free drinks…”
“Hey, man! As long as we’re drinking together, that’s all that matters.”
“Haha! Well then, I’ll take you up on your offer just for today.”
While the two men were chatting cheerfully, an ominous wind began to blow over the dark blue sea, not far from the mainland.
At the same time, the various devices filling the desk in front of them began to blare loudly.
BEEEEEP!
BEEEEEEEP!
“Wh-what the…?”
A piercing alarm.
It was the sound coming from the device that measured the surrounding mana concentration.
There was only one reason for the mana concentration to rise in this perfectly peaceful place.
“N-no way…?”
“Ch-check the radar, quick!”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
A single dot that should never have appeared was showing on the radar.
A point not far from here, a location that could easily be seen with the naked eye of an Awakened Being.
Officer Yoon’s trembling gaze turned toward the wide-open sea.
An unbelievable sight was unfolding there.
CRACK!
CRRRAAACK!
“The, the sky…”
It was cracking.
The clear precursor to a rift forming was appearing right before their eyes.
Just as Shin Hyo-seop was panicking at the surreal situation…
“O-Officer Shin! The, the alarm!”
“Ah, r-right, yeah!”
Snapping back to his senses, Shin Hyo-seop slammed the emergency button in front of him.
BEEEEEEEEEEEP—!
A signal soon echoed throughout the entire area.
Hearing it, team members came rushing in.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
“Why the sudden emergency alarm?!”
“Everyone, look over there!”
One of the arriving members pointed toward the open sea.
There, a rift in the process of forming was gradually consuming the sky.
“A r-rift…!”
One of the members who had managed to keep his composure screamed as if in a frenzy.
“Raise the defensive barrier, now!”
At his shout, Officer Yoon forcefully slammed a button located at the far end of the room.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!
The surrounding ground shook, and from beneath the water’s surface near the land, something enormous began to rise.
SHWAAAAA—!
What shot up, parting the sea, was none other than a wall.
A massive wall that completely separated the nearby sea from the land.
It was a defensive barrier installed at an astronomical cost to prepare for monsters pouring out of a rift.
Perhaps because they thought the giant wall would keep them safe, the team members slowly began to regain their senses.
After some time had passed…
“Switch to the cameras, hurry!”
When one of the members shouted, Officer Yoon pressed a button.
A micro-camera installed on the barrier displayed the situation at sea on the screen in real-time.
What they saw was a colossal rift.
A rift of unbelievable size, its diameter easily over 100 meters.
The team members’ jaws dropped at the sight.
“Wh-what in the world is that…?”
“Were rifts always that big?”
“Of course not!”
Just as fear began to set in again and the members were at a loss…
Something began to emerge from within the massive rift.
Ten giant tentacles… no, legs, writhing without a moment’s rest.
Following that, a massive triangular body came into view. One of the team members who saw it muttered in a trembling voice.
“A K-Kraken…”
It was the moment the calamitous monster that had once laid waste to Japan revealed itself once more.