Chapter 160: Subduing Heuksan
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 160: Subduing Heuksan
One second.
It was a short amount of time, but Baeksan spoke as if it was all he needed, and I nodded.
The moment I did, my vision went black.
I had no idea what was happening while Baeksan possessed me.
“Keuk, cough, ugh.”
And when my vision returned, Heuksan was there, her throat caught in my hand, spilling metallic-tasting blood from the corner of her mouth.
Red lightning still crackled across her body—Baeksan’s handiwork, no doubt.
“Tsk, I guess she has gotten stronger than before. It took two seconds longer.”
Which meant that Heuksan had ended up in this state in a mere three seconds.
“H-How… could you… be stronger than me?”
Heuksan stared at me in horror, blood and saliva dribbling from her lips.
Her expression screamed, How could a mere imitation of me be this powerful?
Too bad for her, this side was the real deal too.
“Guh…”
At that moment, unable to hold on any longer, Heuksan’s eyes glazed over, and she lost consciousness.
Seeing her pass out, I quickly released my grip on her throat and lowered her to the ground. She twitched from the residual lightning on her body, then lay still.
She was completely out.
I guess he knows his own body best.
Seeing him put her in this state in just three seconds, there was clearly a significant skill gap between Heuksan and Baeksan.
Then again, considering the Earth Baeksan had lived on, he would have had no choice but to become incomparably stronger.
“Ha-chan.”
“Chairperson.”
Seol-hyang and Si-ho approached, calling my name, and I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
“Uh, should we get her to a hospital first?”
It seemed we needed to get Heuksan admitted.
*
After somehow getting Heuksan admitted to the hospital, I found myself watching over her as she slept.
Si-ho had wanted to stay longer, but it was late, so I sent her home.
Seol-hyang had stepped out for a moment to report the situation with Heuksan to the World Returnee Association and her parents.
“Baeksan, what happened in the world you went to?”
As I asked, Baeksan, who had been looking at Heuksan, let out a long sigh.
“The world I went to, Fantasy • 51, was a complete shithole on the verge of annihilation. If we didn't fight and defeat the bastards known as the Six Evils, the world would be destroyed.”
I listened quietly. This was the first time Baeksan had ever spoken about his world himself.
“The problem was that those Six Evils were cunning bastards who had planted their agents among the humans. Traitors, from humanity's perspective. Because of them, humanity was crumbling before the Six Evils at an even faster rate.”
“So the reason Heuksan acts like she can't trust anyone is…”
“Yeah. In that place, the only person I could trust was myself. I stopped trusting people after I was betrayed by the one I trusted most and fell into the lowest level of a demonic labyrinth, a place where one misstep meant death. From the moment I clawed my way back up… Wait, did you just call her Heuksan?”
“Huh? You must have misheard.”
I quickly played dumb. Sharp as ever, just as you'd expect from a regressor.
“Damn it, don't just call me whatever you want. Anyway, it wasn't just that I didn't trust them. I saw countless bastards wearing human masks and constantly faced the vile malice dwelling deep inside people.”
Comrades from yesterday turning into enemies, swinging their swords at you.
Those who captured people to sell as slaves.
Those who would smile brightly while cutting off another's limbs to sell their flesh.
Even those who sold their own children or parents to the Six Evils.
The world Baeksan described was one where only malice thrived, causing everything to rot.
Humanity had already lost the will to fight the Six Evils. It had become a world where harming others for personal gain was the norm.
“Living through that shit day in and day out until I finally killed the Six Evils, my brain just fucking broke. I couldn't see people as people anymore.”
Baeksan looked at Heuksan with a complicated expression.
It seemed he was thinking that even though he'd imbued her with aura to give her an easier start in that world, the end result was the same.
“And the one who fixed that mistrust of people was you, Kang Ha-chan.”
“…Me?”
“Yeah. Because your meddling, no matter what anyone said, was genuine. It made me realize something. My world was a shithole, but that didn't mean everyone else was like that.”
After saying that, Baeksan sighed again, long and slow.
“The problem is, by the time I came to my senses, you were already dead.”
Hearing that, I looked over at Heuksan.
“Then Heuksan is…”
“Yeah. I thought things might get a little better, but it's going to be a lot harder for her to come to her senses this time around.”
Baeksan's gaze also turned to Heuksan.
He looked at her with that same complicated expression and swept his bangs back.
“…And the reason I tried to possess you right before you died was also to help her come to her senses.”
The moment he had intended to regress to was then, but as the world began to change, Baeksan ended up possessing me much earlier.
That's why things had become so twisted.
“Looking back now, I guess it was all just my greed.”
Today, Baeksan let out a hollow laugh, one that sounded unusually weak.
“Even if I hadn't regressed, the others would have figured things out on their own. I might have just gotten in the way.”
The moment I heard that, I stood up.
“Baeksan.”
He turned to look at me as I called his name.
Seeing his face so devoid of strength for the first time, I clenched my fists.
“The reason I'm alive is because of you, and no one else.”
Baeksan fell silent.
“None of the things I've overcome so far would have been possible without you. The very fact that I'm standing here right now is all thanks to you.”
“…”
“You called me a masterpiece, didn't you?”
I shook my head.
“The most important masterpiece, the one at the very beginning of it all, is you, Baeksan. I have never once doubted that.”
Ever since Baeksan possessed me during the encounter with Catherine, I've been through countless trials to get to where I am today.
And every single one of them would have ended in the worst possible way if you hadn't been there.
“Your regression wasn't meaningless.”
At least to me, it was an incredibly precious and important event.
Baeksan, who had abandoned his own future to come here and stay by my side, was someone I could call a lifelong friend without exaggeration.
If a friend like that were to regret his regression…
I would tell him its value again and again.
“I exist because you exist. So don't say things like that.”
“…”
Our eyes met, and Baeksan slowly began to let out a hollow chuckle.
It soon turned into a roar of laughter. After laughing for a long while, Baeksan pressed a hand to the corner of his eye.
“…Haa, fuck. Right. Seeing myself in a woman's body must have made me forget for a moment.”
As he spoke, the domineering light returned to his eyes.
“Just what kind of guy you are.”
“What about me?”
“That whether you die or not, you'd end up changing both me and her anyway.”
Baeksan glanced back at Heuksan.
“Kang Ha-chan, let me ask you for one more favor.”
“I'll grant you a hundred.”
“Cut the crap. Just... take her with you for a while. In my current state, I'm basically a ticking time bomb. If you leave her as she is, she'll cause trouble, nine times out of ten.”
“Should I take her with me forever?”
“Are you going to keep talking nonsense?”
As I joked around, Baeksan replied gruffly, but he seemed to be in a better mood.
“Don't worry. I'll take responsibility for changing my bestest friend, Baeksan.”
I gave him a thumbs-up, and he looked back at me with an expression of deep concern.
Then, as if something occurred to him, Baeksan frowned.
“Hey. And I'm warning you.”
“Yeah?”
“Do not, under any circumstances, seduce her.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
He'd said something similar earlier. This guy was making me out to be some kind of womanizer.
“What do you take me for?”
“Look at the situation around you. You think I can help but say this?”
Baeksan clutched his head as if the mere thought made him grind his teeth.
“Absolutely, under no circumstances, seduce her. If I ever end up like that, I'll bite my tongue and die on the spot.”
Can a spirit even bite its own tongue?
I scratched my head and said, “Alright, alright. But even you have to admit, there's no way you'd fall for me, right?”
“Fuck, don't say such nauseating things.”
Baeksan made a disgusted face, and I just shrugged.
That was Baeksan's extreme reaction. I doubted the female version, Heuksan, would be any different.
“Fall… for you?”
Just then, another voice echoed in the room.
I turned my head to see Heuksan, who seemed to have just regained consciousness, staring at me with her eyes barely open.
Did she hear our conversation while she was unconscious?
I quickly feigned ignorance and smiled.
“Heuksan, you're awake?”
“Kang Ha-chan, you bastard! Don't say my name so affectionately! And stop smiling!”
What does he want me to do?
Ignoring Baeksan, who was throwing a fit next to me, I looked at Heuksan.
“You! You!”
In that instant, Heuksan shot up and pressed her back flat against the wall.
Her red eyes burned fiercely as she glared at me.
She was probably reacting so violently because I had, one way or another, subdued her.
“Where is this?!”
“A hospital.”
I answered kindly as she shouted like a wary cat.
Hearing that, she whipped her head toward the window.
Outside, the morning had just begun, and the streets were coming to life.
“…I really came back.”
Heuksan stared blankly for a moment, muttering to herself, before seeming to realize this wasn't the time for that. She turned back to me, red sparks flaring around her.
“What the hell are you? How can you use the same power as me, and with that much output?”
It was the same question as before.
“Hey, Kang Ha-chan, she's going to attack while talking.”
And just as I was about to answer, Baeksan's warning came, followed immediately by Heuksan's fist.
Thanks to my training with Ahyu and Baeksan's warning, I twisted my head and dodged. Heuksan's face contorted in frustration.
Technically, she was the past Baeksan, yet she was falling for this so easily.
Finding it rather amusing, I let out an unintentional laugh. That seemed to set her off again, and she charged at me with an even more furious expression.
“Left, right, down, straight.”
Meanwhile, Baeksan, who seemed to see right through Heuksan's every move, gave me one command after another.
Thanks to him, I was able to dodge every attack.
“Hah… why… how?”
As none of her attacks landed, Heuksan's eyes trembled violently.
Having lived a life without rivals in the world she'd returned from, losing to someone who used a similar power must have been driving her mad.
“Kang Ha-chan, relay a message for me.”
Just then, Baeksan spoke to me, apparently having something to say to Heuksan.
I nodded, and Baeksan immediately continued.
“In the process of imbuing every action with aura, I can see unrefined parts. Since you were born with aura, you must be used to using it without refining it, but because of that, the momentary flow of your aura makes all your movements predictable. You idiot. Start by cultivating your aura again.”
I relayed what Baeksan said, leaving out only the insult.
Heuksan stared at me with a dazed expression, then clenched and unclenched her own hand.
Her expression was one of sudden realization, which made me think, Yep, Heuksan is Baeksan, alright.
“Tsk, tsk. Forgetting she's in the middle of a fight just because she learned one little thing. Look at her. What an idiot.”
Baeksan, however, was harsh.