Chapter 23
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: The White Santa
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Drip.
The sound of blood dripping down to the floor beneath the stage echoed through the space.
“Han Ji-eon, Hunter?”
Drip. Drip. The blood quickly soaked the area below the stage. No response came.
“…….”
The wooden puppet swung its glowing sword gleefully, striking a triumphant pose as if reveling in victory. Then, the curtain closed.
“What the…….”
Ryu Cheon-hwa grabbed the closed curtain right away. He pulled at it from the side, but it didn’t budge, completely shielding the stage.
“…This is problematic.”
Ryu Cheon-hwa was used to people—Hunters—dying. But this was different. The victim was a rare new S-Rank Hunter who’d only been active for a month, and Han Ji-un’s younger brother. Given the opponent and the fact that they’d been raiding together, the responsibility fell heavily on him.
“This is bad.”
Ryu Cheon-hwa let go of the curtain and let out a groan as he pondered what to do.
No heartbeat. No presence. Death was certain.
“I thought an S-Rank wouldn’t die.”
It was the second Spread Gate dungeon raid. With only S-Ranks gathered, Ryu Cheon-hwa had assumed no one would die, and he sighed deeply. For now, he needed to recover the body, so he gripped the curtain again.
Squeeze. He pulled it sideways once more, but it wouldn’t move. Ryu Cheon-hwa sighed and turned back toward the entrance.
“I’ll have to go outside and call for help—”
Shwaaak! The sound of the curtain—immovable no matter how hard he pulled—finally moving came.
He whipped his head around at the noise.
“…….”
“Surprised?”
“…Huh.”
“I was surprised too.”
Han Ji-eon, who they’d thought was dead, stood on stage, bowing his head in greeting as he looked at Ryu Cheon-hwa.
It was the curtain call after the show ended.
♧♣♧
He wasn’t dead. That’s just what it felt like.
He’d gotten stuck here a lot in the past. Stabbed by a sword, blood flowing, pain surging—who wouldn’t think they were dying?
This was that kind of trap. A play, through and through. Everything was a prop, convincingly faked. The trick was designed to make you believe you’d died from those convincing fakes, and then you really would.
The first time, he’d wavered between dead or alive and survived. The second time, he’d thought he was dead and actually died.
‘It was back then that I learned you don’t respawn right away if you think you’re dead.’
I straightened my overly bowed waist and smiled at Ryu Cheon-hwa below the stage.
“Did you expect it?”
“No? Who expects someone to die?”
“Then why are you so calm?”
“They say you get calmer when you’re really flustered. I was seriously, seriously shocked.”
“Really?”
“Really. Oh, and the bow at the end of the play? I just wanted to do it.”
Truth be told, I’d planned to tease you after seeing your reaction.
Ryu Cheon-hwa gave me an exasperated look at my beaming smile, then relaxed and spoke.
“I was just wondering how to recover the body. Glad that’s not necessary.”
“…That’s too much.”
I hopped down from the stage and awkwardly touched my abdomen. Not only was the pierced stomach fine, but even the clothes were intact. The shoulder that had been sliced before the stomach was also unharmed.
“But…….”
I looked around, turning my head this way and that. Once I confirmed nothing had changed, I said,
“Nothing happened here.”
“Nothing happening here usually means the outside has changed.”
Ryu Cheon-hwa turned and headed back to the stairs they’d come from. He climbed them again. I followed him up.
Thud. Thud. The walls rusted once more, and the sound of footsteps grew louder. Soon, they reached the exit again, and Ryu Cheon-hwa opened the stairwell door. With a creak, it swung open. He stepped out first. I followed.
“…Huh?”
Ryu Cheon-hwa, who’d gone ahead, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an unexpected sight filled my view.
“Wait. What the…….”
It wasn’t smoke. This had never happened before.
“Why, wait. Where is this…….”
We were supposed to head to the next stage once we exited the door. Why?
“Still here?”
Dense buildings. Black residents passing by. The location had shifted, but the scenery hadn’t changed.
“The next stage was definitely that crazy colorful place.”
Where had that mind-bending riot of colors gone? Why another city?
‘First, I need to link up with Ryu Cheon-hwa—’
Whoosh. I sensed a presence and whipped around, scythe at the ready. Something caught my eye.
“…….”
Under the dark night, a pure white, brightly glowing human figure in strange clothes stood behind me.
“What is this?”
The rapid succession of events made my head throb. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them. The white monster remained in the same spot, no illusion.
‘…Better to kill it.’
Tap. The blade drew closer to the white monster.
“…….”
Swoosh. I moved the blade sideways, and the white monster, already trembling, shook even harder.
“Huh.”
Flick. I pulled the scythe away and stared intently at the white monster. The odd outfit reminded me of something upon second look, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.
“No point talking to it.”
I stared too intently at the white monster, and its body jolted. Then it fumbled to pull something out. With mittens on, it struggled but finally held it up to show me.
“What’s this…….”
It was plain paper, but the content was quite bewildering.
“…Santa?”
Exactly that. The torn scrap of paper depicted Santa secretly giving a gift to a child, and the next day, the child smiling at the gift.
‘No way.’
I looked back at the white monster, and suddenly its outfit made perfect sense.
Santa.
The clothing matched the drawing perfectly.
“…….”
Yeah. Definitely Santa. Now that I looked, there was a large sack on its back, with faint white objects peeking out.
I hadn’t expected this kind of existence, but it didn’t seem helpful. Still, it was something I’d never seen before, so… I wanted to observe a bit more.
“Hmm…….”
I pretended to ponder for a moment, then jerked my head as if to say “go on.” The white monster brightened, gathered its things, and headed off somewhere. I followed openly behind.
I didn’t know how many minutes passed following the white monster, but I figured out what it was doing.
The white monster was Santa to a T. Sneaking into buildings, giving white objects that looked half-made to the black residents, then slipping out. Repeating the process.
“What the heck is it doing.”
The black residents who received the “gifts” stared blankly for a moment before swallowing the white objects whole. Not toys or anything—just food. It was absurd, but since it was a monster, I accepted it quickly.
“…This isn’t the time.”
What an idiot.
I sighed deeply. No matter how novel something was, it never derailed me from the main task. But this was new and not my brother, so it had distracted me briefly.
‘I need to find Ryu Cheon-hwa.’
I didn’t know where he was, but wandering would lead me to someone.
As I moved without paying the white monster more mind, boom! A familiar roar echoed.
I glanced over instinctively. The white monster was being chased by an armored resident. It seemed to flee as fast as it could, but the armored one’s size and speed were overwhelming—it was about to get caught.
“Seriously…….”
My body moved on reflex. I snatched the white monster and leaped quickly to the rooftop.
On the building’s roof, where fierce winds blew, confirming the armored resident couldn’t follow, I looked at the white monster dangling helplessly from my hand.
“…Is this the next stage?”
The stage might have changed. A monster like this popping up suddenly was odd, so a stage shift was most likely.
‘Then helping this thing is the objective?’
Plop. I released the monster from my hand, and it fell limply to the ground. It trembled as if it had hurt itself on impact, then lifted its head to look at me.
I gazed at the white monster for a moment, then nodded as if to say “go.” It gathered its belongings, bowed in thanks to me this time, and slowly climbed down the building wall.
‘…Like a snail.’
As the white monster reached the alley floor, I jumped down too. It flinched in surprise at my action. I beckoned it to continue its work.
Hesitantly, the white monster tensed under my gaze, then hopped off to another spot.
After that, it repeated the same routine. Giving white objects to black residents, moving to another, giving more. Occasionally, I helped it escape armored residents or enter buildings it couldn’t reach.
‘When does this end?’
On the roof of a relatively low building, the white monster scanned around, seemingly deciding where to go next.
“…Why the heck is it doing this?”
I sighed and looked at the white monster. This time, it was already staring back at me.
It gazed at me blankly for a moment, then pulled out the paper it had shown earlier from its sack and pointed at something on it.
The white monster pointed at the smiling child receiving the gift.
“…What’s th—”
Wait. Is this its response?
“You understand speech?”
I snapped my head up to stare at it. The white monster tilted its head as if it hadn’t understood.
“…Of course not.”
As I sighed deeply, it pointed at the smiling child again.
“You want me to smile?”
Damn it.
It was boring as hell. The regret of helping crept up like a spark on dry wood, irritation building, when suddenly, a white object was thrust close to my face.
“…What.”
The white monster was offering it to me. I wondered what now, but it seemed like its way of saying “smile.”
“…….”
Fine. It’s not the creature’s fault it was born this way. The environment’s the problem.
The absurdity made me chuckle. As I let out a brief laugh and took the white object, the monster bounced around joyfully.
‘This’ll be useful somewhere.’
I stowed the white object in my inventory and lifted my head to look at the still-bouncing white monster.
Or so I hoped.
“…….”
What I saw when I looked up wasn’t the joyful, bouncing monster.
It was the white monster with a sword plunged into its chest.