Chapter 134: Sincerity
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 134: Sincerity
As I let out a long sigh of relief, I realized Yu U-jeong was staring intently at me.
“Watching you get angry is so fucking hot. I’m wet.”
“Are you crazy? How can you say something like that in this situation?”
“Well, if not in a situation like this, when would I ever get to say it?”
She certainly had a knack for spouting nonsense.
Just then, I noticed Si-ho gazing at me, her eyes slightly unfocused.
When our eyes met, her face turned red, and she quickly looked away.
“I-I’ll go help block them.”
With that, Si-ho teleported away, and I shot a glare at Yu U-jeong.
She flinched, then transformed into her beast form and dashed off as well.
Sighing at the sight, I turned to look at Ji-eun and Saran, who was beside her.
Ji-eun was still using her empathy, and Saran was watching her with a worried expression.
The Spirit Cluster hadn't been resolved yet.
The spirits, on edge because of Ilbelli, were preventing anyone from getting close.
Everyone knew there was something inside that was causing the spirits to rampage like this.
But in their current state, we couldn't even help.
“Ha-chan-oppa, I promised that child I’d stay with her.”
At that moment, Ji-eun spoke.
As if to prove her empathy was running wild, a trickle of blood ran from her nose.
“I want to save that child.”
But Ji-eun’s eyes shone clearer than ever before.
Considering Saran had been repelled while using her own mental abilities, we would need Ji-eun’s help to get the child out of the Spirit Cluster.
Ilbelli wasn't dead yet.
‘If only I had finished it in one blow.’
None of this would have happened, but I knew that was an arrogant thought.
In that case, Ji-eun was right. The wiser decision was to use the time we’d bought to rescue the child and get out.
“Ji-eun, it could be dangerous.”
Saran had already warned us once.
She said Ji-eun’s empathy had intensified to the point of overload.
“But I’m a hunter.”
Her next words, however, silenced me.
A hunter. Just as she said, Ji-eun was a hunter.
“You told me yourself, Ha-chan-oppa, didn’t you? That a hunter’s job is to save people from dimensional entities, and that it always comes with risks.”
If Ji-eun avoided this danger now, it would become a threat to someone else.
She had studied the duties of a hunter more diligently than anyone and knew them well.
And the one who had taught her that was none other than me.
Ji-eun, whom I had always seen as a child, was striving to become her own person.
I was her manager, and she was a hunter.
A hunter on my team was saying she wanted to save someone.
As her manager, my duty was already decided.
A faint smile touched my lips as I looked at Ji-eun.
“Ji-eun, can you do it?”
Facing me, Ji-eun’s eyes widened before she nodded with a confident smile.
“Then I’m counting on you. We’ll hold off the rest.”
“Okay!”
With that, Ji-eun began to approach the Spirit Cluster.
With dimensional entities pouring out from all sides, the Spirit Cluster was also pinned down in its spot.
As Ji-eun drew near, the clustered spirits turned to her with angry expressions, ready to attack.
“It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Ji-eun tried to soothe them by using more of her empathy.
But it wasn’t enough to calm the already rampaging spirits.
Fwoosh!
Suddenly, one of the spirits unleashed a torrent of ice shards at Ji-eun.
Having overused her empathy, Ji-eun’s physical reaction was slow.
But I deflected the attack before it could reach her and said.
“Don’t worry. Keep going.”
Hearing my encouragement, Ji-eun clenched her fists.
“I’ll help.”
In that moment, Saran moved to Ji-eun’s side.
“I can’t do anything about the one who did this to the spirits. But I can help calm the others.”
“Saran.”
Ji-eun smiled at her.
“Thank you.”
After her words of gratitude, Ji-eun and Saran began using their mental abilities in unison.
As their powers resonated and washed over the spirits, even the rampaging ones began to hesitate.
“Make a path. I need to get to that child.”
Seeing this, Ji-eun pleaded earnestly, and the spirits, after a moment of hesitation, slowly began to part, creating a path.
Her sincerity had reached them.
Ji-eun took a step forward.
Watching her from behind, I tightened my grip on Bazra and turned around.
I had to buy time until Ji-eun could persuade the child inside.
I cleaved the head of a dimensional entity that lunged from the side.
It was time to show the results of my training with Ahyu and Baeksan.
*
8
Inside the Spirit Cluster.
Surrounded on all sides by spirits, Saran swallowed nervously.
She knew all too well that the slightest misstep could cause the spirits around them to tear them into pieces of meat in an instant.
But more than that, Saran was worried about Ji-eun.
The mental overload of Ji-eun, who was walking beside her, was growing more and more severe.
It was reaching a point where her world and the child’s were beginning to mix through their empathetic link.
‘At this rate…’
Ji-eun was in danger.
Saran remembered what Ha-chan had told her.
If Ji-eun was in danger, she was to sever the empathetic link immediately.
Saran had readily agreed.
‘Isn’t now that time?’
If she did it now, Ji-eun would suffer some mental shock, but she could safely sever the connection.
If they went any further, even Saran couldn’t guarantee she’d be able to cut the link.
Just then, Ji-eun took Saran’s hand.
“It’s okay, don’t worry.”
Feeling that warm touch, Saran bit her lip.
At the same time, she realized that Ji-eun was in the process of shedding a layer of herself.
A hunter’s awakening.
It wasn’t something that only happened upon one’s initial awakening.
Hunters were often mocked as “instant ability users.”
That was because most hunters remained stagnant their entire lives.
But occasionally, there were exceptions.
Some hunters would awaken once more and continue to grow.
Just as returnees grew ceaselessly when pushed to their limits.
Hunters, too, could face another awakening when placed in extreme situations.
And Saran knew just how important such a moment was for a hunter.
It wasn’t as if hunters didn’t want to become stronger.
Such a moment had come for Ji-eun.
At that instant, blood streamed from Ji-eun’s eyes.
As her empathy continued to push past its limits, the strain was beginning to take a toll on her physical body.
Even so, Ji-eun refused to release the connection.
Because she had told Ha-chan she would save that child.
It was a promise she had made directly to the person she liked.
She had no intention of giving up.
“…Alright.”
Saran began to take on the burden of the spirits herself so that Ji-eun could focus completely.
She, too, gave her all so that Ji-eun could reach the child even a fraction of a second faster.
With Saran’s help, Ji-eun pressed forward.
Once again, a pitch-black space unfolded before her.
[ Sniffle, sob. ]
The sound of crying echoed in her ears.
When Ji-eun arrived, the golden child was there again, weeping.
[ I don’t want to. I’m scared. Help me. ]
Terrified of being devoured by Ilbelli in this strange place, the child could do nothing but cry.
Like any young child who gets lost and is chased by a bad person, all they could do was run away in fear.
Ji-eun approached the child and once again pulled them into an embrace.
Feeling Ji-eun’s warmth, the child finally lifted their head.
And the child was surprised to see that she had entered their world once more.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
Ji-eun held the child in her arms and gently patted their head.
Feeling that warmth, the child’s sobs began to subside.
[ …Why again? ]
“I told you a little while ago that I’d stay by your side.”
[ But the monster keeps chasing me. ]
“It’s okay. I can’t do anything about that monster, but the person I trust most in the world took care of it.”
Ji-eun looked at the child with a warm smile.
She liked talking, but she wasn’t very eloquent.
But Ji-eun had her empathy.
Right now, her sincerity was being conveyed to the child more clearly than anyone else’s could be.
At the same time, the things the child had seen were painted in her mind.
The child, still immature, had been raised with love in the Spirit World.
But after being swept up in a sudden dimensional gate, the child was thrown into a desolate place. Lost and alone, the child called out to other spirits in fear.
But none of the spirits they knew were there.
The spirits they saw for the first time did their best to comfort and stay with the child, but the child’s fear would not disappear.
That was when Ilbelli appeared.
Sensing the child’s energy, Ilbelli relentlessly pursued them as prey.
The child ran and ran, and now, they were truly lost.
There was nothing left to do but cry their eyes out.
But those sobs were fading.
The warmth of the person holding them now was easing the child’s terrified heart.
“There’s someone who believes in me.”
The person who was her everything believed in her.
That alone was enough for Ji-eun to do anything.
“So I’ll be the place you can return to here.”
Just as Ha-chan had been for her.
She wanted to become that kind of person, too.
That’s what Ji-eun told the child.
[ Really? ]
The child asked back, their voice choked with tears.
Looking at the child, Ji-eun’s face lit up with a smile as bright as a blooming flower.
“Yes, it’s a promise.”
She took the child’s tiny hand and linked their pinkies.
With that, flowers of all different colors began to bloom across the world that had been nothing but darkness.
A wind carrying the scent of petals rustled through her hair.
And in that wind, Ji-eun saw the child finally manage a smile.
Slowly, the world began to return to normal.
“…Ah!”
At that moment, a voice reached her ears.
Through her blurry vision, she felt an intense burning inside her.
Her throat was agonizingly painful, as if on fire.
Her entire body began to throb.
The pain pounding in her head, in particular, felt like it would shatter her consciousness at any moment.
Ji-eun’s eyes found Saran.
Seeing Saran desperately shouting to wake her up, Ji-eun tried to move her lips, but no sound came out.
‘Ha-chan-oppa.’
Even amidst the searing pain, Ji-eun wanted to see Ha-chan.
Just as her body was about to collapse.
Thud-
Someone caught her.
As Ji-eun’s eyes fluttered open, she saw the face she had been longing to see.
His eyes were wide as he looked at her, beads of sweat dotting his forehead.
The faint electric currents flowing from his body told Ji-eun that he had pushed himself to break through the spirits to get to her.
To appear at the very moment she wanted to see him most.
Feeling a surge of emotion overflow, Ji-eun carefully reached out and cupped Ha-chan’s cheek.
“O…ppa.”
Her voice barely escaped.
With that voice, tears streamed from her eyes as she spoke each word, precious and deliberate.
“I’m… sorry. I… like you… so, so much.”
And then, as never before, she poured out all of her feelings to Ha-chan.
“I… can’t… give up… on you, oppa.”
It was her true heart.
I might not have a story like Si-ho’s, and I might not be as pretty.
But I loved Ha-chan-oppa more than anyone.
Right now, in this moment, I can say that I love him more than anyone else in the world.
And her consciousness began to fade.
Ji-eun was thinking that she was glad the last thing she saw was Ha-chan’s face.
Something began to flow into her mouth.
As it spread throughout her body, Ji-eun slowly felt her body relax.
“Ji-eun.”
The voice she had longed to hear tickled her ear.
As Ji-eun’s eyes slowly opened again, Ha-chan was looking at her, smiling in relief.
“Feeling a little better?”
“Uh, uh.”
A slightly flustered sound escaped Ji-eun’s lips.
Her cheeks turned bright red.
She had just remembered the words she had uttered, like some tragic heroine in a movie.
‘S-so embarrassing!’
And yet, she felt pathetic for still being happy about being held in Ha-chan’s arms in this situation.
Looking at Ji-eun, Ha-chan let out a sigh of relief.
What he had given her was one of the Rejuvenation Pills Ahyu always gave him.
It was a pill she would always stuff into his pocket, telling him not to get hurt anywhere.
It was only for first aid, but he was glad it was effective.
‘I’ll have to thank Ahyu.’
Though I’ll probably get an earful for it.