Chapter 5: Classification: Fantasy · 14
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 5: Classification: Fantasy · 14
Clang!
The sound of clashing steel rang out from the rooftop of the 30-story building.
On one side, the Heavenly Demon of Murim.
On the other, the Apostle of an Outer God.
Two beings from worldlines that should never have crossed were now pointing their swords at each other under the shared name of "returnee."
The storm of sword energy and the divine power that met it were in a realm far beyond the comprehension of an ordinary person.
Every move, every strike, was part of a battle so fierce it made one’s skin crawl.
But amid the violent clash, it wasn't the Heavenly Demon, Cheon Hong-ryeon, who most vexed Orjia, the Apostle of the Outer God Aulaps.
“Ahyu! That’s a confusion chant! It'll twist your thoughts—if you think you need to dodge, you'll be compelled to attack even if it means getting hit. For the next three minutes, doubt your own instincts and focus on defense!”
“That’s Aulaps’s Claw! It carries a curse of corrosion on contact, so don’t block it with your sword! Dodge it no matter what! The curse affects her too, so she can’t use it for long!”
The man who saw through her every move, revealing every weakness and counter, was driving Orjia mad with frustration.
The Heavenly Demon before her was an opponent she wasn't sure she could beat even at full power.
And with that opponent now privy to all her secrets, the battle was turning against her with every passing moment.
How in the world?
How could he, a man who wasn't even an Apostle of Aulaps, know so much?
Aegis Seiya.
It had to be him.
That bastard must have spilled every secret of Serlintium.
He must have anticipated that she would one day appear, seeking revenge.
“Do you have time to be distracted?”
Orjia gasped for breath, narrowly dodging a chilling blade that flew at her throat.
Sweat soaked the black blindfold, disorienting her senses.
Her breath came in ragged bursts.
For some reason, the wound she’d received in her side earlier wasn't healing, even with the power of Aulaps.
There had to be some special power imbued in that woman's sword.
Meanwhile, the dimensional entities she had released to find Seiya were vanishing one by one.
Someone else was clearly dealing with them.
All I wanted…
Orjia bit her lip, her thoughts turning to Seiya.
She just wanted to plant a fist full of divine power right into that bastard’s infuriating face.
“This ends now.”
Shhhng.
A sinister, blood-red aura began to swirl around Cheon Hong-ryeon’s blade.
Recognizing the danger, Orjia raised her cross-shaped longsword.
Buying time to escape wouldn't be difficult.
She had known from the start who she needed to protect above all else.
Then, the holy sword of Aulaps in her hand unleashed a torrent of black divine power.
Like a falling star.
Her sword slammed down toward the rooftop floor.
Her plan was to collapse the building, forcing Cheon Hong-ryeon to save the man and giving her a chance to escape.
“A foolish move.”
But in that instant, a blank expression formed on her face from behind the blindfold.
Her sword, struck down with the full force of her divine power, had been stopped cold by the very tip of Cheon Hong-ryeon’s blade.
Compared to her own, it was a sword so thin it might as well have been a toothpick.
But the moment her holy sword touched it, it refused to move another inch.
“I told you, didn't I? No one touches my partner in front of me.”
The moment the words left Cheon Hong-ryeon’s lips, Orjia realized the truth.
The woman had never once used her full power against her.
“Ah.”
A gasp escaped her lips.
The moment she saw that demonic face, she knew death was upon her. Then, crimson camellia petals bloomed around Cheon Hong-ryeon.
As the camellias, blooming as if scattered by a winter wind, traced Cheon Hong-ryeon’s dance-like movements…
Every one of Orjia’s tendons was severed.
With a brilliant spray of blood, she was slammed face-first into the ground, unable to even resist.
The wounds carved into her could not be healed, not even by the power of Aulaps.
As she lay there, unable to even stand, gasping for breath, Cheon Hong-ryeon stomped her foot down hard on Orjia’s head.
“Are you prepared to pay the price?”
So this is where I die.
Without even getting my revenge on him.
I’m going to die in this world I so desperately wanted to return to.
Tears of blood streamed from behind her blindfold.
An image of a brightly smiling man appeared in her mind.
「…Seiya, the dimensional travel we created is impossible. If we can’t find a way to connect the worldlines, we’ll die from dimensional exposure before long.」
No matter how much they researched, they couldn't find an answer.
As she despaired, Seiya had smiled as brightly as ever.
「It’s okay, Orjia. I’ll get you out of this hellhole of a world. I promise.」
The next day, Seiya vanished.
He had used the dimensional travel device they had painstakingly built together.
A short time later, she realized the worldlines had been connected.
But now, none of that mattered anymore.
“Wait a minute.”
Just then, the man’s voice rang out again.
“Let’s talk.”
And for some reason, his voice was filled with pity.
*
5
Looking at the nun collapsed amidst the blood splattered across the rooftop, I let out a sigh.
A sword technique that could sever every tendon in a single strike… Truly terrifying.
She probably could have handled this on her own even if I hadn't helped.
I never thought Cheon Hong-ryeon, a returnee, would be weak, but I hadn't expected her to so completely overwhelm another returnee.
She must be a pretty high-ranked one.
But thankfully, for now, she was on my side.
We had built enough trust that she would willingly release an opponent she was about to kill just a moment ago, all because of a single word from me.
“I don’t know what to do with you trusting me so much.”
“It’s not as if that riffraff could try anything funny against me anyway,” she said.
“Right. It’s reassuring to have you.”
Cheon Hong-ryeon huffed, crossing her arms and turning her head away, but the corners of her lips were turned up slightly.
“So, Sister. Things got a little rough, but I’d like to talk.”
“…”
“Of course, you don’t have to say anything. The association that specializes in returnees will be here soon, and you’ll be transferred to their custody.”
I knelt before her.
The blood soaked the hem of my pants, but I didn't really care.
“I just wanted to tell you what you’re curious about.”
I’m not a hunter or a returnee.
I didn't even graduate from college, so I’m not an industry professional, nor do I have any legal authority like the police.
I only got involved because people were in danger and there was a returnee.
All I did was give a little help so that Cheon Hong-ryeon, who happened to be next to me, could subdue her.
In reality, I did almost nothing.
And it would likely be the same from here on out.
But at the very least, before the World Returnee Association arrived, I could answer the questions this nun had.
I didn't know how much value it would hold for her.
But I could at least resolve some of the lingering questions a confused returnee might have—one who, despite returning to her home on Earth, was met only with aversion and contempt.
“And it’d be great if you could close that dimensional gate while you’re at it.”
As I spoke with a casual grin, the nun slowly lifted her head.
She stared at me for a long time from behind her blindfold before finally opening her mouth just a little to ask.
“Is… Seiya… alive?”
The moment she asked, a gust of wind swept past, brushing through her hair.
Even with the blindfold, I felt as if her sorrow-filled eyes were looking right at me.
And so, I resolved the question she had returned to this world to answer.
Right here, right now.
“He is dead.”
Classification: Fantasy · 14
Serlintium.
The final entry on that file concluded with the death of returnee Seong Ho-ram, Aegis Seiya, due to dimensional exposure.
And his last words, recorded in that report, were:
「Please, when my love, Orjia, returns, don’t let her rampage so much that she gets hurt.」
Information on returnees is usually classified.
At most, only the classification of their world is listed; there’s no information on which returnee came from which world.
As proof, I knew almost nothing about Cheon Hong-ryeon, the Heavenly Demon.
But for Classification: Fantasy · 14, the returnee’s name and information had all been made public.
The reason was that he had written it all for his lover, Orjia, who he knew would one day return.
“You… you damn bastard… If you came back… you should have lived. You should have… lived to the very end. You… you bastard.”
In the blood that scattered with the wind, it seemed her tears were mixed in.
But I could never fully understand the depths of the sorrow she must have held.
That was their story, not mine.
Only the sorrow of a woman who had returned just to confirm the death of her beloved echoed quietly on the rooftop.
I’ll say it again. There is no reason why they, who were simply caught up in a dimensional shift, should have to suffer and be tormented just for coming back.
That’s what I believe.
That day, not a single person died from the dimensional entities brought by the returnee Orjia.
It was determined that the entities she controlled were simply roaming around in search of the returnee Seiya.
*
6
Afterward, Orjia closed the dimensional gate and was taken into custody by the World Returnee Association.
There was some property damage from the dimensional entities, but it seemed the Association would handle it.
In the process, Cheon Hong-ryeon spoke with someone from the Association for a while. As an outsider, there wasn't much for me to do besides answer a few of their questions.
The only other thing of note was watching Orjia give me a brief bow as she was being led away.
“All wrapped up?”
“Yeah. Haaah, those Association people are so dramatic. I just stepped in because it looked like a returnee showed up. Why all the fuss?”
When Cheon Hong-ryeon returned, she was back in her Ahyu form, the one I had met earlier that day.
I heard that in her Cheon Hong-ryeon form, she has to consciously control her magi, which is tiring, so she finds this form more comfortable for daily life.
“I just came out to eat with you, hyung. What a mess.”
“Hey, I got caught up in it too.”
Hearing my reply, Ahyu let out a chuckle and stretched her arms wide.
“It’s been a while since I used my strength, and now I’m sore all over. Maybe I should start moving around a bit more often from now on.”
“Thinking of working as a hunter?”
“The World Returnee Association gives me a steady stipend, but now that I’m 20, they cut it because I’m not a minor anymore. It’s starting to not be enough.”
Ahyu glanced at me.
“And I was thinking it might be nice to have some money to buy someone food.”
“I’ll pay next time.”
“No thanks. Just don’t go blowing it all on crypto. The problem with you, Domi-hyung, is that you’re too impulsive sometimes.”
Ah, right. My crypto investment tanked.
Having forgotten about that for a moment, I was plunged back into despair.
What am I going to do about rent?
“A-And… I was thinking, if I earn enough to buy a house, maybe you could live there too, hyung.”
Ahyu said this while twisting a lock of her hair with her finger.
Buying a house, huh.
Hunters certainly make a lot of money, so it probably wouldn't be that difficult.
But I could see right through her scheme.
“Just how much are you planning to make me grind duo queue with you?”
“Uh, yeah, th-that’s right! I want to get to Diamond by duoing with you, hyung. If we lived together, we could duo queue every day. Just imagining it is great, right?”
“Ooh.”
“What’s with that reaction? You wanna die?”
“Nope. My apologies.”
When Ahyu was in her Cheon Hong-ryeon form, she could actually kill me, so I apologized immediately.
I almost lost my head there for a second.
“Well, I’m heading out. It’s getting late.”
Somehow, we had met for lunch and now it was past dinnertime.
As I looked up at the darkening sky, Ahyu, who had been staring at me, tapped my shoulder.
“If you quit the game, I’m coming to find you, oppa.”
“Yeah, sure—huh? Oppa?”
“No need to hide it now that we’ve met in real life, right? Actually, it seems like all the other guild members figured it out a long time ago.”
What, was I the only one who was clueless?
I thought I was the closest one to Ahyu, but I’ve certainly seen many different sides of her today.
Well, online friendships have their limits.
It was only natural to see a different side of someone when you meet them in person.
“See you in the game, then.”
After parting with Ahyu, I returned home and opened the door.
Looking at my one-room apartment, I felt myself crashing back down to reality after everything that had happened today.
In the end, the rent…
What do I do?
I scratched my head and started opening the mail I’d grabbed from the mailbox on my way up.
I was pretty sure a rent notice would be in there, but I had to check.
“Huh?”
It was at that moment.
Inside one of the envelopes I opened was something I’d never seen before.
[ Rodri, a new company specializing in hunter development, would like to offer you a ‘position.’ ]
Something suspicious had arrived.