Chapter 22: Where Am I?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 22: Where Am I?
The moment Si-ho, momentarily blinded by the lightning strike, stumbled back, unable to grasp the situation.
She let out a choked gasp as a sudden impact struck her neck.
Her body was lifted into the air, a sense of weightlessness washing over her.
As her vision slowly returned, she looked up to see a woman with electric currents coursing through her entire body.
The unfamiliar military pants, tank top, gloves, and deep blue hair made it clear she wasn't Korean.
“Эта женщина права? (Is this the woman?)”
Russian flowed from her lips.
“Yes, yes, that’s her. Don’t kill her, just hold her tight.”
With those words, the man approached the girl with a smile.
Though he appeared to be blind, he circled her lightly, as if confirming something.
“Well now, for a hunter like this to be born in Korea… that’s quite a rare find. S-rank spatial ability users are practically nonexistent, you see.”
He beamed, a look of delight on his face.
An S-rank spatial ability user.
The moment she heard those words, the girl flinched and bit her lip.
She was none other than Ha Si-ho.
The younger sister of the S-rank hunter, Snow Mountain Wolf, Ha Seo-ho.
An S-rank spatial ability user who had concealed her rank.
No, she hadn't actually concealed it.
It was just that, for certain reasons, her power output was limited to A-rank, which was how she had been measured.
“Who… are you people.”
The moment Si-ho asked the question, the grip on her collar tightened.
Si-ho’s face contorted in pain, and the man slapped her across the cheek.
Smack!
A trickle of blood flowed from Si-ho’s mouth, as if she’d bitten the inside of her cheek.
Her eyes wavered from the sudden pain, but the man nonchalantly tapped the cheek he had just struck with the back of his hand.
“We’re the ones asking the questions. You will only provide answers. We require your power, so you’ll have to cooperate with us.”
Si-ho’s wide eyes glared at him.
Her unbroken spirit, even in the face of violence, only seemed to fuel the man’s sadistic tendencies.
“Ah, what a shame. If my sight were different, I could have properly appreciated that expression.”
Si-ho shuddered as his fingers traced her cheek, the sensation feeling like ants crawling on her skin.
Ignoring her reaction, the man withdrew his hand after it reached her hair and smiled.
“So, where is it that you’re continuously using your spatial ability right now?”
At his words, Si-ho’s face hardened.
This man is a spatial ability user.
And a powerful one at that.
As Si-ho kept her lips sealed, he pushed up his black glasses and chuckled.
“Ahaha, you don’t want to answer? Well, that’s fine. I’ll just cancel the ability myself.”
“N-No, don’t!”
Si-ho screamed at his words.
Trembling in the woman’s grasp, she seemed to be in a state of terror far greater than when she had been slapped.
But the man only laughed, as if enjoying it.
“We are in dire need of your power, you see. I do hope you’ll be cooperative.”
With that, the man’s outstretched hand vanished into thin air.
Realizing he was trying to invade her ability by crossing through space, Si-ho tried to struggle.
Squeeze!
But the moment she tried to resist, the Russian soldier’s hand clamped down even harder on her collar.
Her breath caught in her throat, and her consciousness began to fade.
I can’t let him.
I have to stop this, no matter what.
Just as Si-ho was desperately trying to hold on to her senses.
“God always weeps beside you with eyes closed. You, too, shall share in those tears.”
A woman’s beautiful voice echoed, carried on the summer breeze.
It was a voice so sacred it sounded as if she were reciting from a holy text.
“Gah?!”
At that moment, the two people beside Si-ho staggered back, blood streaming from their eyes.
Their bodies trembled violently as if they’d suffered a powerful shock, and thanks to that, Si-ho was released from their grip and sent tumbling to the ground.
“Cough, cough!”
As Si-ho coughed, she suddenly realized she felt weightless again.
Startled, she looked up to see a man holding her in his arms, running for his life.
It was a face she knew well.
“M-Manager.”
At Si-ho’s call, her manager, Ha-chan, didn’t answer, simply continuing his mad dash down the mountain path.
How was he here?
She didn’t know, but she could see his body was drenched in sweat.
Did he come looking for me?
Searching through the forest in the middle of summer?
The question of why arose in her mind.
Their relationship was only a day old, and it was purely professional.
While he might bear some responsibility if something happened to her, this was after work hours.
As she pondered this, Ha-chan ran with all his might, never slowing his pace.
He had to secure the minimum distance Orjia had warned him about.
His 50-meter dash time was 8.5 seconds.
Considering this was a mountain trail, it was a miracle he hadn't fallen. He must have covered 50 meters in about ten seconds.
The distance Orjia had requested was 30 meters.
Once he was past the 50-meter safety margin, Ha-chan screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Orjia!”
The moment his voice tore through the air.
The sky split apart.
A mass of pitch-black tentacles poured down from above as black lightning shot up.
The returnee Orjia was now entering full combat.
*
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of explosions, unimaginable to an ordinary person, thundered from behind me.
The battle between the blue lightning and the writhing black tentacles that coiled around it was a spectacle, even from a distance.
But I had no time to take it in.
The priority right now was to escape, no matter what.
There was almost nothing an ordinary person could do in a fight between returnees.
This was especially true since this wasn't like the fight between Orjia and the Heavenly Demon, Cheon Hong-ryeon; this was a battle where they were fighting solely to kill each other.
I don’t know who those returnees were.
But they were after Si-ho.
That meant I had to prioritize her safety above all else.
My heart ached seeing Si-ho in my arms, her cheek still bright red from where she’d been hit.
Holding her, I realized it.
Si-ho was truly small.
And still so young.
Nineteen was an age on the cusp of adulthood, but she was still a child who needed society’s protection.
I didn’t know what those people were thinking, targeting a girl like this, but I felt a surge of anger.
“Manager, please put me down.”
“What? M-Miss Si-ho! It’s still, dangerous!” I managed to reply, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I ran.
She just shook her head.
“I’m a spatial ability user.”
Right.
I’d forgotten in the heat of the moment.
With her power, we could escape from here in an instant.
“Are you, okay to do it?”
“I’m Ha Si-ho.”
I’m well aware of that.
Whatever her meaning, I stopped running and set her down. She planted her feet firmly on the ground.
“Ah.”
Si-ho immediately staggered, and I rushed to catch her in a panic.
This small girl had just endured such violence.
Of course, there would be aftereffects.
“I-I’m okay. Thank you.”
But she seemed embarrassed to show such weakness, her ears turning bright red as she pulled away from my support and straightened her posture.
“I’m moving us.”
As soon as she spoke, our vision warped.
With the sudden shift in scenery, my eyes widened as I realized I was floating.
Huh?
Aren’t we falling right now?
“M-Miss Si-ho?!”
“Huh?”
As I shouted in alarm, Si-ho’s eyes also went wide as she was buffeted by the wind.
I glanced down and saw the cityscape far below, realizing we had teleported to a considerable altitude.
“Wh-Why did this…”
It seemed this wasn’t what Si-ho had intended either, as she wore a panicked expression.
But if she panicked now, we were both dead.
I quickly reached out, grabbed her, and pulled her close, shouting.
“Move us again!”
I could tell her condition was unstable for some reason.
But if we fell from this height, there was no escaping instant death.
Clinging to my arm, Si-ho bit her lip and activated her spatial teleportation once more.
Our vision shifted again.
This time, however, I felt my breath catch in my throat.
Water was flooding into my mouth and nose.
Because it was night, it was too dark to see anything, even in the water.
A river?
No.
This salty taste.
The ocean!
“Uuub!”
I forced myself to hold my breath and pulled Si-ho into my arms.
I didn’t know where in the ocean we were, but the waves were already starting to sweep us away.
Si-ho seemed to be panicking as well. She flailed in the water before activating her ability one last time.
Thud!
Finally, I was able to tumble onto solid ground.
The sharp pain in my back suggested we’d fallen from a slight height, but thankfully, it wasn’t from the sky or into the ocean.
My body, soaked in seawater, felt completely drained, but at least I wasn’t dead.
I immediately checked on Si-ho.
“Cough, cough.”
Coughing up mouthfuls of seawater in my arms, Si-ho looked to be in great distress.
I quickly patted her on the back. After a long coughing fit, she slowly lifted her head.
“……Why on earth.”
Was it because of the repeated teleportation failures?
Her eyes were filled with deep bewilderment.
My guess was that it was the shock from the attack, but her expression suggested something else was on her mind.
“That man from before.”
As if remembering something, Si-ho clenched her sandy fist.
Watching her, I suddenly became aware of the sound of waves brushing past my ears, along with the sand.
Since we’d been teleported to the ocean, it seemed we’d ended up on a nearby beach.
We were in Seoul, so maybe somewhere near Incheon?
But why did it feel so bright behind me?
Feeling something was off, I lifted my head and blinked at the sunlight filtering through palm trees.
It was night just a moment ago, so why was the sun up?
And what were these palm trees, which you would never find in our country?
“Um, Miss Si-ho, where are we?”
“……”
Si-ho was also staring blankly up at the sky.
We were stranded on a deserted island.