Chapter 132: The Stranded
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 132: The Stranded
“Tell me more.”
At my question, Ji-eun immediately began to recount the story.
Among the scenes Snowflake had shown her was one of a person trapped in a place of ice and rock.
The person seemed to have an injured leg and couldn't move.
A fire lizard was wrapped around her neck, likely to maintain her body temperature.
“A fire lizard… a Salamander?”
Hearing Ji-eun’s description, I instantly recognized it as a Salamander, an intermediate fire spirit.
At the same time, I realized the trapped woman had to be a Spirit Mage.
“Yu U-jeong, could it be…”
“No, it’s not Zeroni.”
The hunter Yu U-jeong had told us about, Zeroni.
He was a mental-type ability user who had contracted with a spirit.
As a mental-type user, he was in a very rare situation.
Immediately after awakening as a hunter, he had been swept into a dimensional gate and thrown into another dimension.
The place he was sent to was designated Spirit World · 6.
There, he used his awakened mental abilities to communicate with spirits.
Since spirits are close to mental beings, they could be communicated with through mental abilities rather than human speech.
As a result, he formed a contract with a Spirit King and, after many trials, safely returned to Earth.
He was now living as a hunter affiliated with Alterz.
Yu U-jeong had known him during her time in Alterz, which was why she had suggested a similar path for Ji-eun.
“She looked about the same age as me.”
According to Ji-eun, the girl was a Spirit Mage, but it didn't seem to be Zeroni.
Someone was in trouble, whoever they were.
In that case, we had to help.
“Let’s go help. Si-ho, can you get the location from Ji-eun?”
“Yes, I can. Ji-eun, if you would.”
“Okay!”
Ji-eun immediately began to convey the scene she had witnessed to Si-ho through empathy.
A moment later, Si-ho looked at me as if to say she was ready.
“Manager, we’ll teleport right away.”
“Please do.”
At my words, Si-ho teleported us in an instant.
The scene that appeared before my eyes was a space made of ice and rock.
“An ice cave.”
Recognizing our location, I quickly scanned our surroundings.
It didn't seem like the ground was weak enough to collapse.
“Here, is this it?”
Just then, I heard Ji-eun’s voice.
She seemed to be talking with Snowflake.
“Ji-eun, what’s Snowflake saying?”
“Yes! She says the girl is right in front of us!”
Ji-eun pointed at a wall and shouted.
It seemed Si-ho had brought us to the perfect spot.
“A wall, huh.”
If we broke through it, the person on the other side could get hurt.
“I’ll do it.”
Si-ho walked up to me with quick steps.
I had been relying on her a lot, but there was no one as dependable as Si-ho.
She immediately placed her hand on the ice wall.
“Come.”
And in that instant, a woman fell out in front of us with a thud.
She had dark skin and black hair, and just as Ji-eun had described, an intermediate spirit, a Salamander, was wrapped around her neck.
She stared with wide, startled eyes, shocked by the sudden teleportation.
“Kamu siapa? (Who are you?)”
She cried out and tried to stand up hastily, but she grimaced from the pain in her leg and collapsed back to the ground, clutching it.
“Are you okay? We’re not bad people.”
Ji-eun quickly tried to reassure her, but the woman didn't understand Korean and only looked at us with wary eyes.
Since I had a translator, I handed a spare one to Ji-eun.
I figured it would be better for a girl her age to give it to her than a strange man.
After taking the translator from me, Ji-eun put one in her own ear, pointed to it, and then offered the other to the woman.
The woman seemed cautious but soon put the translator in her ear.
“Can you hear me okay? We came to help you.”
“You came to help me? How?”
She looked at us with an expression of complete confusion.
It was only natural, considering she had been stranded at the bottom of this ice cave until a moment ago.
“Snowflake told us.”
Ji-eun took out Snowflake, who was nestled in her chest, and showed her to the woman.
“...A Sleigher. So you’re a Spirit Mage.”
“That’s right. This child told us you were stranded, so we came to rescue you.”
Hearing that, the woman’s eyes finally softened as the tension left her.
Being stranded had frayed her nerves, and the fatigue seemed to wash over her all at once.
“May I take a look at your leg?”
Eva-noona approached her and asked, and the woman meekly showed her leg.
It seemed her guard was completely down now that another Spirit Mage was present.
“How is it? Can you move?”
Several talismans were layered on her leg.
“Whoa, it doesn’t hurt at all. Are you a healing-type hunter?”
“No. I’m a returnee. This is just first aid, so you should get proper treatment when we get back.”
“A returnee?”
She asked back, surprised.
Then again, it was just that I was surrounded by an unusual number of returnees. In reality, most people went their whole lives without ever meeting one.
The number of returnees was extremely small, after all.
“May I ask your name and how you ended up in this situation?”
I asked, and she looked at me and answered readily.
“I am Laura Saran, disciple of Master Zeroni. I came here to form a contract after learning a new Spirit World gate had opened.”
Master Zeroni.
Realizing she was the disciple of the Spirit Mage Zeroni, I glanced at Yu U-jeong.
She just shrugged as if to say she didn't know.
“I know Zeroni, but I don’t know anything about his disciples.”
“You know my master?”
“A little?”
Hearing Yu U-jeong’s words, Saran’s eyes widened.
She seemed to have never expected to meet someone who knew Zeroni here.
Looking at Saran, I decided to get back to the main point.
“Miss Saran, does that mean Mr. Zeroni came here with you?”
“...No.”
She answered, hesitating slightly.
From her expression, it was clear she had come in secret.
Besides, if Zeroni had been here, she wouldn't have been trapped here alone.
“I came secretly, without telling my master. He always treats me like a child and never acknowledges me. I thought if I contracted with a high-level spirit, he might….”
She trailed off, confessing her circumstances.
The emotion that filled her eyes as she mentioned Zeroni was one of tender affection.
“Oh my, Zeroni is popular. Isn’t this similar to someone else’s situation?”
Yu U-jeong covered her mouth and laughed.
“I know that feeling!”
Just as I was about to scold Yu U-jeong, Ji-eun grabbed both of Saran’s hands.
Her eyes were shining fiercely, like someone who had just met a fellow alumna.
“He only sees you as a kid. You worry about how to make him see you as a woman, and you wonder every day if he’ll finally notice you if you get stronger.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it. You have someone like that too, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. Oh, by the way, I’m Yoon Ji-eun.”
Before I knew it, Ji-eun was talking with Saran as if they were about to become best friends.
Thanks to her, Saran’s depressed expression from having caused trouble had brightened considerably.
The only problem was that the subject of her story was standing right in front of them.
“Ah, ahem, excuse me, Miss Saran.”
I called out to Saran, thinking I needed to calm the two of them down.
She stopped talking to Ji-eun and looked over at me.
“Could you tell us why you got trapped in there?”
I knew why Saran had come here, but not why she had been trapped.
“Honestly, I don’t know the details either. I was using my mental ability to try and contract with the spirits, but they suddenly got angry and trapped me here.”
She explained, looking troubled.
From what she said, it seemed the spirits’ condition was abnormal.
“I think something’s wrong among the spirits. The strange climate in Iceland is probably because of that, too.”
They’re causing climate problems, too?
“Manager.”
Just then, Si-ho, who was standing beside me, gently tugged on my sleeve.
When I turned to her, she looked off in a certain direction and said.
“That Spirit World gate is very close by.”
Being sensitive to spatial senses, Si-ho must have felt the gate’s location.
“Does it seem dangerous?”
“Spirits are hard to pin down with spatial senses, so I can’t tell their exact state.”
Si-ho replied with a vague expression.
Because spirits are primarily mental beings, it seemed even her spatial senses had trouble grasping them.
“Ha-chan, if you’re curious, why not check it out? With this team, is there anything to be afraid of?”
Hearing Yu U-jeong’s words, I thought it over once more.
Courting danger was never a good idea, but in Iceland, our group was probably the furthest thing from being in danger.
“Alright. Let’s go check it out. Is everyone okay with that?”
Everyone voiced their agreement to my question.
“Can I come too?”
Saran raised her hand slightly and asked.
“I’m a Spirit Mage. I might be of some help in figuring out the situation.”
She seemed to want to know why the spirits were in such an uproar.
Hearing her, I nodded.
As she said, Saran was the foremost expert on spirits here.
“Si-ho, can you take us?”
“Yes, I’ll teleport us a little distance away.”
Si-ho said and raised her hand.
In that instant, our vision shifted once again.
Just as Si-ho had said, when I opened my eyes, I could faintly see a dimensional gate in the far distance.
But that wasn’t the problem.
“Uwah.”
As Ji-eun started to gasp in surprise, I gently covered her mouth with my hand.
Because everything visible to our eyes in this space was a spirit.
From low-level ice spirits, Jack Frosts, to high-level ice spirits, Glaciers.
Countless spirits filled the area.
There were so many that they were packed in without a single gap, to the point where we couldn't even see the ice walls.
And the movements of these spirits were unsettling.
Having noticed our intrusion, they were slowly closing in.
“...Si-ho.”
I called her name quietly.
Si-ho already had her hand extended toward us.
A sign that we could escape at any moment.
An opening.
I could make one if I needed to.
The spirits were wary of us, but they didn't seem to have any immediate intention of attacking.
It was as if they, too, wanted to avoid causing a commotion in here.
“Ha-chan-oppa, some kid is crying.”
Just then, Ji-eun spoke to me as if she had heard something.
It seemed her empathy had picked up on something.
I glanced at Saran, the other mental-type ability user, but she just shook her head with wide eyes.
A reaction that said she didn't feel anything.
“Ji-eun, what do you mean a kid is crying?”
“I’m not sure. It sounds like a little kid. They keep crying, asking to be sent back. W-what should I do?”
As Ji-eun asked with a flustered look, I turned my gaze to the spirits.
“...Miss Saran, do you think these spirits will attack us?”
“No, I don’t think so. They have no intention to attack. I can clearly feel that they don’t want to cause a disturbance in here.”
It was just as I had expected.
“Ji-eun, can you try to empathize more?”
I didn't know for sure, but my intuition was telling me.
The crying child Ji-eun had just mentioned was likely connected to this situation.
“I’ll try.”
Ji-eun answered with a determined expression and immediately began to focus her empathy.
This time, I decided to put my trust in her.
*
The moment Ji-eun, who had begun to empathize, lifted her head, she found herself standing before a pitch-black path.
She knew it was a path connecting her mind with the target of her empathy.
As she followed the path, she found a child sitting slumped over.
The child, tinged with a faint golden light, was covering its eyes with both hands.
Approaching the child, Ji-eun asked carefully.
“Hey, why are you crying so much?”
[ I want to go back. ]
“Go back where?”
[ To the place I lived. ]
The child seemed to be lost.
It was trembling and crying in fear, and seeing it, Ji-eun carefully sat down beside it.
This child… it’s a spirit.
Ji-eun knew well that the child before her was something similar to a spirit.
The pure, refreshing energy flowing from it was unmistakably that of a spirit.
But that spiritual energy was completely steeped in fear.
Ji-eun felt a pang of pity for it.
Lost, a lost child.
How do you usually comfort a lost child?
Ji-eun thought hard.
At the same time, she recalled her own experience of being lost.
The memory of when she was very young, when she had let go of her mother’s hand, gotten lost, and wandered around, crying her eyes out.
In that memory, she had been utterly terrified.
But it was too long ago, and now she could only remember it faintly.
So, Ji-eun began to recall a more recent memory.
And that memory was related to Ha-chan.
A lost child. To Ji-eun, that word didn't just apply to being physically lost.
People, even adults, sometimes lose their way.
Not a physical path, but the path they were meant to walk in life.
The memory of being bullied at school surfaced in Ji-eun’s mind.
At one time, Ji-eun had vaguely thought that if she just became someone amazing enough, she wouldn't have to care about the kids at school who bullied her.
But that path of hers was, just as she’d thought, nothing but vague.
Ji-eun had no one to walk that path with her.
Because of the violence at school, her teachers had completely turned a blind eye to her.
And she couldn't very well ask her non-powered parents about this path.
Unable to rely on friends, teachers, or parents, Ji-eun had, at some point, lost her way.
She just went to the Rodri Company, where she’d been scouted, and received hunter training out of habit.
A lost child.
The words fit her perfectly.
Then, she met Ha-chan.
He took her vague dreams seriously and helped her think of ways to achieve them.
Unlike her teachers, Ha-chan never laughed at her dreams.
He didn't have that condescending ‘You?’ look on his face that her teachers gave her; he truly believed in her dream.
He was a good person.
Then, when he found out she was being bullied, he told her it was fine to just quit school.
That he would make her a hunter, so she didn't need to be trapped in the framework of a school.
Ha-chan had declared it so boldly.
A rookie manager at the company, saying that to a team member he had just met that day.
But she could clearly feel his sincerity, and through that sincerity, Ji-eun gradually began to walk her own path.
Ha-chan walked that path with her.
He carefully watched the path so she wouldn't get hurt, and his presence as he walked alongside her gradually made her forget about her school life.
That’s why I leaned on Ha-chan-oppa, too.
For her lost heart, he was too good a place to land.
That was why she had come all the way to Iceland.
Because she wanted to grow stronger and become someone who deserved to be with Ha-chan.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to take you back to the place you want to go.”
Ji-eun reached her hand out to the small child before her.
The child flinched, as if scared of her touch, but it stayed still, sensing no malice.
Ji-eun pulled the child into her arms.
The small child fit perfectly in her embrace.
This child was trembling with fear.
So, Ji-eun spoke in an incredibly gentle voice.
“But I’ll stay with you, at least until you can go back without being scared.”
[ Really? ]
“Yes. Someone stayed by my side, too. Until I could find my own path and walk it myself.”
That person was still doing so even now.
Enough to come all the way to Iceland with her.
Thinking of Ha-chan, Ji-eun felt a warmth spread through her heart.
And she passed this warmth to the child through her empathy.
Slowly, the child’s trembling began to subside.
Ji-eun, who was once a lost child herself, had grown enough to embrace another child who had lost its way.
“So let’s go together. It’s too lonely to be here all by yourself.”
[ You’re right. It’s lonely… ]
A sense of hesitation came from the child.
It was the moment Ji-eun thought she just needed to talk a little more.
[ No, no. It’s coming. ]
The child suddenly cried out, its face pale with terror.
A startled Ji-eun was about to speak when she felt herself being pushed out of the mental world.
“Kyahk?!”
With a scream, she was instantly ejected from the empathy link, crying out from the pain of the mental shock.
“Ji—!”
Just then, a voice echoed in her ears. She barely managed to open her eyes and saw Ha-chan.
He was holding her in his arms, looking at her with a shocked expression.