Chapter 383: The Light (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 383: The Light (2)
The color drained from her face.
The sight of her form crumbling spurred my body into action.
“Professor!”
I managed to catch her before her back hit the ground and gently lowered her down.
“Hngh…, haaa…!”
She let out a constant stream of pained groans.
Her body, covered in hideously bulging veins, was burning like a furnace.
“Just why…”
It was a pointless act.
The crisis had slightly exceeded my expectations, but I was never in true danger.
If I had used my speed, I could have escaped easily.
I might not have escaped the bomb’s blast radius completely, but… I definitely wouldn’t have died.
My injuries wouldn’t have been severe, and even those would have healed quickly.
That’s because I’d asked Ju-yeon to follow me from a kilometer away, just in case.
As long as I didn’t die, an S-rank healer who could mend any wound was nearby.
So.
“Why would you do something so pointless…!”
I couldn’t understand.
Right before she collapsed, she said it.
That she had kept her promise.
That meant everything she’d done until now had been an act.
Even if she wasn’t supposed to worry about my safety, using Electric Nova on me was a surprisingly soft move.
The advanced magic ‘Electric Nova’ is powerful, yes, but it’s a spell focused on hitting a wide area.
There were far better spells for single-target attacks, so seeing her use Electric Nova of all things made me vaguely suspect this possibility.
But I never expected this.
I never dreamed… she would try to help me so directly that it would trigger the restriction.
“…You asked me to guarantee your safety.”
She wanted to live.
She told me so with desperate eyes, as if she had a reason she absolutely had to live.
She could have easily survived.
But then, at the end, why?
“Why did you do that?”
She struggled to open her mouth.
“To completely fool the organization… I th-thought this was the only way. A half-assed method would just look like I was selling out the organization to you, Student Do-jin… hic, and I thought I’d be killed for it.”
“……”
She had deceived herself, the organization, and me.
She had genuinely reported me to the organization and meticulously set a trap with Lee Yoon-seok.
And then she lured me into it.
There was only one reason she could carry out all these actions, which at a glance looked like nothing but betrayal.
“I… I was sure. That you, Student Do-jin… hic… could overcome it.”
For her, it was an incredibly dangerous path, but it was the one with the highest chance of survival.
Right.
I understood all of that.
It was a dizzying gamble, but one worth taking, and she had succeeded brilliantly.
“…But why did you save me at the end, throwing your own life away?”
She gave me a pained smile and answered.
“I didn’t want to live by sacrificing innocent people.”
“……”
If the bomb had gone off, this entire apartment building would have collapsed.
I would have had a hard time just getting myself out, so all the residents in the building would have been massacred.
“I thought… it would be better to die now than to live like that. If I died saving you… saving everyone, then at least I would die as a professor of Korea University, not as a member of the secret organization Hexagram.”
Baek Hyeon-a smiled, a white, ghostly smile that belied her dying state.
“A university professor who died saving her student from an unknown villain… and hundreds of apartment residents. Hehe… isn’t that a fortunate death?”
She hadn’t joined the organization of her own free will.
Because of that, it seemed she had accumulated more hatred than loyalty toward them.
So much so that she didn’t want to face death with the label of a secret organization member.
And… she must have liked her cover identity that much.
Enough to want to die as that person.
Sensing she might answer now, I asked her.
“What was your reason for joining an organization you hated so much?”
“…I have a younger sibling. My only family, who collapsed unconscious from a congenital mana deficiency.”
“They said they would cure them, didn’t they.”
She smiled at my quick reply.
“Hehe… you’re sharp. That’s right. They have a new drug. That’s the very reason I joined them.”
If the organization had saved her only sibling, she should have been endlessly loyal.
For her to have this much hatred, then…
“They must have held the drug over your head and refused to give it to you.”
“That’s… also correct.”
Having confessed her secrets, she continued, her expression one of relief.
“I was exhausted. From watching my collapsed sibling, from being forced to pledge indefinite loyalty…”
“So… you thought now was your chance?”
It sounds ridiculous, but she must have seen it as her first and last chance to die a good death.
Her pained smile shifted as her gaze moved to the side.
“I left the safe in the small room open. The information you’re looking for, Student Do-jin… is in there, so make sure you take it.”
“I will.”
As I answered, she tried to push me away with a touch that had no strength in it.
“Haa… go, quickly. The members who sensed the anomaly will be here soon. If they all swarm here… even you might die, Student Do-jin.”
“Let’s do that.”
If enemies that strong were coming, then escaping quickly was the right move.
I lifted her slowly dying body into my arms, like carrying a princess, and stood up.
Baek Hyeon-a’s eyes went wide.
“What… are you doing?”
“I’m escaping.”
“I mean… why are you taking me…”
I grinned at her questioning tone and replied.
“Did you forget our promise?”
“A promise…?”
“The promise that you would lead me to the other members, and I would make sure you survived.”
“That’s…”
Just as she had made a promise, so had I.
In exchange for her help, I would guarantee her life.
So I couldn’t escape alone.
As I conveyed my intent, she began to struggle weakly in my arms.
“P-put me down. It’s over for me anyway. I have no intention of blaming you for not keeping the promise, so just you go, quickly…!”
“No.”
I cut her off.
“You’re still alive, Professor. And you’re not going to die.”
The weight of a promise is heavy.
Even more so when the other person kept their end, but you couldn’t keep yours.
Son Si-woo’s body was weighed down by a string of broken promises.
I know how heavily that can weigh a person down.
“I will save you.”
This time, I don’t want to add another weight to the chain.
I held a palm, brimming with mana, over her face.
“Get some sleep.”
“Student Do-jin…!”
「Sleep.」
After easily putting the weakened woman to sleep, I placed my fingers on her carotid artery to check her pulse.
Her pulse, faint beyond measure, was growing even weaker.
“…There isn’t much time.”
I had to get to Ju-yeon, who was nearby.
I couldn’t undo the restriction binding Baek Hyeon-a right now.
But with Ju-yeon’s abilities, she should be able to postpone the pain and the moment of death.
“Let’s go.”
I went straight into the small room, took the file from the safe she had left open, and tucked it into my clothes.
She risked her life for this; I couldn’t possibly leave it behind.
Clutching the file and her precious body, I threw myself over the open veranda.
My body plummeted downwards.
「Fly.」
Just before I hit the ground, I used magic to land safely, then immediately tried to leave the complex.
Dozens of pairs of eyes filled with killing intent rained down on me from all directions.
“…Faster than I thought.”
Is this some kind of clan village where all the members live?
Every one of them sported the classic look, faces completely hidden by black hats and masks.
“Hoo.”
I let out a small sigh and looked down at the woman in my arms.
There wasn’t much time.
But it was enough.
“Twenty-four of them.”
Because I’ve survived worse conditions than this.
I gathered my mana, gauging the distance to the enemies who were closing in, their formation tight.
The color of the mana swirling before me was a pure white, so brilliant it stung the eyes.
What I was creating from particles of ice that could freeze anything was a single sword.
「Snow Bringer.」
I once again forged the weapon of severe cold that the Russian hero had so proudly wielded.
C-crack—!
The air froze in an instant.
Within it, particles of ice clumped together, again and again, forming the shape of a sword.
A blade covered from hilt to tip in a frost so thick it was visible to the naked eye.
A voice came from within it.
『Hoh… you’ve been quiet for a while. I thought you’d stopped progressing, but it seems I was wrong.』
It was the voice of the ego weapon, one I hadn’t heard in a long time.
It asked.
『But… how do you plan to hold it?』
Whenever I used Snow Bringer, I always used Kkamseul-i, who would transform into the hilt.
That was the only way to wield the sword without issue.
However, Kkamseul-i, the bridge between me and the sword, was not with me now.
That was why I had to forge it entirely from ice, from hilt to tip.
Just like that time when I first created it and boldly grabbed it, only to get black frostbite on my hand.
But it didn’t matter.
“Because one swing is all it will take.”
I boldly reached out and gripped the sword, which radiated a blinding white light.
C-crackle!
My arm froze in an instant as the cold energy shot up it.
The hand gripping it was already turning black.
I felt a pain from my fingertips to just below my shoulder.
It felt like thousands, tens of thousands of microscopic ice shards were stabbing relentlessly at my nerves.
I can bear it.
Unlike her, who was in agony all over, it was just one arm for me.
And this pain would be over soon.
Fwoosh!
The Hexagram members, now at a suitable distance, seemed to exchange a signal and charged at me from all sides at once.
I quickly stepped back, taking in the twenty-four figures glinting with murderous intent.
Then, I swung the sword in my frozen hand with all my might.
Swoosh!
Crack!
A fierce wave of ice rode the gently spreading cold front.
Craaack—!
The twenty-four men who had charged to kill me were trapped in transparent ice with their eyes wide open, ending their lives without so much as a single, satisfying death scream.
Then, a voice filled with admiration reached me.
『Your ability to handle me is lacking, but your swordsmanship is even greater than my master’s.』
Even in a situation like this, a compliment feels good.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
With those words, I immediately let go of the sword.
Snow Bringer naturally began to melt away.
A fading voice left one last message.
『Let us see each other again soon.』
I didn’t know what that meant.
Whether it was telling me to replicate it again, more perfectly than before.
Or if it really meant to come find me.
That wasn’t what was important right now.
“Alright, see you later.”
After a brief farewell, I resumed my interrupted journey.
I dashed a kilometer in an instant and landed in front of a familiar-looking car.
Seeing me, Ju-yeon immediately got out of the car and approached.
I held Baek Hyeon-a out to her and asked.
“Can you… keep her breathing?”
She stared intently at the woman in my arms with a grave expression, then answered.
“Of course.”
I felt a wave of relief at her short, firm answer, which left no room for even a sliver of doubt.