Chapter 387: On Thin Ice (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 387: On Thin Ice (3)
As if refusing to allow a moment for reason to intervene, my raging emotions took control of my body.
I forgot who I was in this moment.
I approached her as she stood with her back to the window, spun her around, and roughly shoved her against the glass, grabbing her shoulders.
“Why…”
I couldn't understand.
The eldest daughter of a chaebol family.
An S-rank Hunter, one of the best not just in Korea, but in the world.
The Lord of Korea's Magic Tower, who had enhanced the nation's prestige by contributing to the development of outstanding inventions and magic.
Aside from the wealth she was born with, all her achievements, rewards, and status were things she had earned as a Hunter.
She had already obtained so much that it seemed a burden for one person to possess.
“How could you of all people…!”
Even if I summoned every ounce of understanding and consideration I had, I couldn't comprehend it.
There was a time when she and I had personally executed those who considered themselves special beings, an evolved humanity, or some new race.
Back then, her thoughts and mine were no different.
Idiots.
Moths flying into a pit of fire, lost in a foolish dream.
Hypocrites hiding their ugly lust for power behind a flimsy cause.
That’s what we had thought.
“How can you sympathize with such a ridiculous dream? How can you agree with it? Why!”
What in the world was she lacking?
What was she so dissatisfied with?
And just how great were they?
“You know better than anyone that it’s an impossible, empty dream! So why… why…!”
I was furious.
Furious that this woman, who had arguably achieved everything, desired something so pathetic.
Was she really foolish enough to fall for the sweet talk of some dreamer cult?
Did she want it so badly that she was willing to distance herself from her own family, the people closest to her?
Before my eyes, which were filled with emotions this body could never hope to reach, she remained expressionless.
With a gaze so numb it sent shivers down my spine, she opened her mouth.
“It’s not some fantasy. They have the power to make that impossible dream a reality.”
After her rebuttal, she spoke again.
“And I’m not lending my strength to their cause for my own sake.”
With those words, her expression shifted rapidly.
“Finally, a warning.”
At the edge of her emotionless gaze, a thick concentration of displeasure and anger began to form.
“Take your hands off me.”
The area around her shoulders began to glow red.
Soon, I felt a searing heat from my palms.
Ssssizzle…!
The acrid smell of burning flesh and a sharp, stinging pain shot through my hands.
Overwhelmed by the intense rejection, I let go.
Her words echoed in my mind.
And so, I asked.
“If it’s not for yourself…”
My voice was barely a whisper, all my energy spent on my outburst.
“Then who are you doing this for?”
She answered.
“For my daughter and my husband.”
“…What did you say?”
As I stood there dumbfounded, letting out a hollow laugh at the completely unexpected answer, she straightened the clothes I had crumpled in my rough grasp.
“I’ll grant your request. But all I can do is put you in contact with her. Moving her heart… that will depend on your words and actions from then on. And…”
She took a breath before continuing.
“After what happened last time, the organization has begun to see you as a clear enemy. And they do not tolerate obstacles.”
It was a warning.
A warning that the organization, now seeing me as an enemy, could send an assassin at any time.
The reason she was telling me this wasn't out of concern for me.
“…My daughter had better not get hurt in the process. If she does…”
Was she imagining her daughter getting hurt?
Her eyes, gleaming with killing intent, fixed on me.
“You will die by my hand, and no one else’s.”
With that, as if there was nothing more to say, Han Ju-hee pressed her lips together and turned away.
I watched her retreating back with a frustrated gaze before finally turning away myself.
I had used her connections to get in touch with the Saintess of the Vatican.
I had obtained what I wanted before even setting foot in the Magic Tower.
“Fuck…”
I felt fucking shitty.
* * *
Her shoulder throbbed.
It was the reason she was leaving the Magic Tower early for the first time in a long while.
Sitting in the back seat of the car heading home, she was lost in thought.
‘Kim Do-jin…’
He was strange.
From the first moment she met him until now.
There had never been a time when he wasn't strange, but what just happened was exceptionally so.
Strange enough to give her an extreme sense of unease.
‘What was that?’
What came to mind was the moment he had approached her by the window, grabbed her shoulders, and shaken her violently.
The emotions he had shown then were incredibly bizarre.
Loss, sorrow, despair, anger.
And.
‘A sense of betrayal…’
Foremost among all those emotions was undoubtedly a sense of betrayal.
She couldn't understand it.
‘Why?’
Why would he feel betrayed by her?
There was nothing between them.
They were, at best, in a transactional relationship to get what they each wanted.
An emotional connection?
Nothing of the sort existed.
So why would he feel betrayed by her?
‘Because of Seo-yeon and Ju-yeon…?’
No.
Even if he was close to them, that wasn't reason enough to feel betrayed by her.
And that wasn't the only strange thing.
‘That expression, that look in his eyes, the way he spoke…’
Though the face was unfamiliar, everything within it was familiar.
Things she had seen not for a year or two, but for decades.
They were so similar to the expressions and mannerisms of her husband, Son Si-woo.
No, similar wasn't the right word.
‘They were identical.’
Was such a thing possible?
How could it be that to her eyes, the eyes of a woman who had lived with Son Si-woo for decades, he didn't just seem similar, but completely identical?
‘Something is wrong.’
The sense of unease that had started then wouldn't leave her mind.
Something was missing.
A jarring feeling filled her head.
It felt like a crucial piece needed to resolve this unease was missing.
‘What could it be?’
It was frustrating.
The persistent ache in her shoulder felt like a rebuke.
Why did you make that choice?
Was that really the only way?
‘It was the only way.’
At the time, she had been certain.
But now, looking back, it felt a little different.
Was that truly the only path left for her back then?
Perhaps.
‘Did my exhausted mind make a bad move?’
Perhaps there had been two paths before her: a difficult one and an easy one.
And perhaps, in her exhaustion, she had unthinkingly dismissed the hard path and chosen the easy one.
The pain in her shoulder seemed to scold her.
Deeper and deeper she sank into her thoughts.
“We’ve arrived.”
A voice broke through, pulling her back to reality.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
With a brief word of thanks, Han Ju-hee stepped out of the car and entered her home.
Just then, she ran into Son Seo-yeon, who was coming out of the kitchen with snacks, about to head up to her room.
The emotion in her daughter’s eyes was awkwardness.
It stung a little.
That this was all she saw in her daughter’s gaze.
She found herself snapping.
“…You’ll gain weight if you eat that at night.”
Son Seo-yeon averted her gaze slightly and replied, “I train a lot, so it’s fine.”
“Right.”
That was true.
Her daughter no longer trained only in magic.
She had tried so hard to stop it, but in the end, her daughter had taken up the sword, just like her father.
Thanks to that, rumors were circulating that she was the world’s only magic swordsman, having inherited the brilliant talents of both her mother and father.
She asked without thinking.
“How have you been lately?”
Son Seo-yeon’s body flinched slightly.
Her expression was one of someone who never dreamed she would be asked such a question.
Soon, she answered.
“Good. I’ve made friends, and there’s a slightly arrogant junior, and a cute junior too…”
One by one, faces appeared in her mind, the last being Kim Do-jin.
He was a qualitatively different existence from the others, someone hard to describe.
But one thing was certain.
Whatever her feelings for him were, they were far from ordinary.
Watching her daughter’s faint smile, Han Ju-hee’s voice turned cold again.
“Mark my words. The moment you get even slightly hurt, your life as a Hunter is over. I’ll personally force you to retire, so you’d better understand.”
It was surely a statement born of worry.
But that emotion was buried so deep beneath her cold, sharp tone that it was hard to see.
Son Seo-yeon pouted and replied, “I won’t get hurt.”
Han Ju-hee scoffed at her confident tone.
“Hah… really. To me, it just sounds like a rookie’s useless pride.”
Hurt by her mother’s complete lack of faith, Son Seo-yeon spun around.
“I’m going up.”
With those sulky words, she stomped up to the second floor.
Han Ju-hee was alone again.
“Haaah.”
She let out a small sigh, drained from the mental exertion, and headed for the master bedroom.
On one side of the bed the couple shared, Son Si-woo was already lying down in his pajamas, looking as if he had gotten home earlier and was ready for sleep.
Their eyes met.
“Oh… honey, you’re home? Oh, you’re back early today.”
His tone and gaze were filled with unconcealed surprise.
It was odd.
Wasn’t he the one who was always happy whenever she came home early, glad they could spend more time together?
‘But why today… no, it’s not just today.’
It had happened before.
That one time she came home early, he had reacted the same way.
He had looked at her with an incredibly flustered and uncomfortable expression.
Today was the second time.
Just as an intensely unpleasant sense of unease began to consume her mind, she found herself speaking.
“It’s been a while since I had some free time… how about a glass of wine?”
Normally, he would have jumped at the offer, saying, ‘Wine? I’d love some!’
“Ah, um… s-sorry. I have something I need to do today. Haha.”
He replied with a flustered tone, sitting up from where he had been lying with his legs stretched out.
Then, he brushed past her and was about to leave the room when he paused, his hand on the doorknob. He turned and added, as if making an excuse.
“I have some work to do before bed, so don’t wait up for me. You go ahead and sleep.”
“…Alright.”
Thud!
The door closed just as she gave her weak reply.
It was then she finally realized.
Something was terribly wrong with her husband.