Chapter 309
Chapter 309
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 309
Chapter Title: A Faded Promise (1)
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Three days had passed since that rather... stormy incident.
Oh-jin's party had managed to escape the Sky Mountains and arrive at the long canyon that led to the Dragonian Kingdom.
“Finally!”
Confirming that the wretched fog was gone, Ha-eun threw her arms up as if roaring in triumph.
Even though the Behemoth was dead, the fog blanketing the Sky Mountains hadn't vanished, so finding their way out had taken quite some time.
“So now we just have to keep going straight down this path, right?”
“Yeah. If the map is right.”
Oh-jin nodded, recalling the map Leoru had drawn for him.
“By the way…”
Ha-eun trailed off, scratching her head.
“Has Vega been in the Sanctuary this whole time?”
“Uh… well.”
Oh-jin cleared his throat and avoided Ha-eun’s gaze.
After what had happened that day, Vega had holed herself up in the Sanctuary and refused to show her face.
“Well, after something like that.”
Indeed.
Having her preferences laid bare for the entire party to see must have been unbearable, even for someone like Vega.
“Let’s not call her unless it’s absolutely necessary for a while.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
For now, their priority was to check the state of the Dragonian Kingdom anyway, so they didn't particularly need Vega's help.
“By the way, Mr. Oh-jin.”
Isabella smiled prettily and linked her arm with his.
Pressing her body against him, Isabella whispered in his ear with a sultry voice.
“Can’t you give my butt a good spank too?”
“…I’m telling you, that’s not my thing.”
Thanks to Vega, he’d nearly been initiated into a whole new world, but fundamentally, Oh-jin did not possess the peculiar disposition of finding pleasure in spanking bottoms.
“Hehe. I wonder. Are you sure?”
Isabella pressed herself even closer with a playful smile.
‘This is why Vega’s cooped up in the Sanctuary.’
Oh-jin sighed and started walking through the canyon.
Since Riak had also shut himself away in the Sanctuary along with Vega after the incident three days ago (apparently to beg for her forgiveness), Oh-jin had to take the lead.
‘Stigma of Canes Venatici.’
He heightened his senses and climbed onto Poppy's back.
“Grrrr!”
“Let’s go slow.”
Poppy nodded and began to move.
Although they moved slowly, scanning their surroundings, their pace was quite decent now that they were out of the Sky Mountains.
After running for several hours without a break…
“Man, it’s nice to finally be able to breathe without all that fog and those damn beasts.”
Ha-eun chuckled, tightening her arms around Oh-jin’s waist.
She had been warily scanning their surroundings at first, but after several hours without spotting so much as a mouse, she seemed to have relaxed a bit.
“Should we camp here for the night?”
The sun was starting to set, and he’d spotted a suitable stream nearby where they could wash up.
They needed to reach the Dragonian Kingdom as soon as possible, but they couldn't force a march without any sleep.
“Okay, let’s set up the tents then!”
After getting off Poppy, the group cleared a space and pitched their tents as usual.
“Alright, I’m gonna take a quick smoke break!”
Once the tents were set up.
Ha-eun waved her hand and ran off somewhere.
While Ha-eun was away having her cigarette, Isabella approached and asked.
“How much further do you think we have to go?”
“Hmm. According to the map, it shouldn't be too far.”
But all they could see around them was a massive canyon reminiscent of the Grand Canyon.
There were no man-made structures that would suggest a ‘kingdom’ anywhere in sight.
“We’ll just have to look a bit more.”
Having crossed the Sky Mountains, they now had some time to spare.
“Yes, let’s do that. Oh, I’ll start preparing dinner, so could you go get Ha-eun for me?”
“Yeah.”
Oh-jin nodded and went to find Ha-eun.
Activating the Stigma of Canes Venatici, he followed the scent of tobacco and found her smoking some distance away.
“You came all the way out here to smoke?”
“Ugh.”
As Oh-jin approached, Ha-eun hastily stubbed out her cigarette, which was still more than half-full.
“What a waste. Why’d you put it out?”
“Well, it’s just…”
Ha-eun hesitated, averting her gaze.
“I heard that guys don’t really like girls who smoke.”
Where on earth did she hear such a strange rumor?
“Is there any point in hiding it now? We’ve been together for years.”
“Well… still, I guess it feels different to have you see me smoking directly.”
Ha-eun scratched her head, looking awkward.
So that’s why she’d been going so far away to smoke lately.
“I think it’s nice.”
“Huh? R-Really?”
It was kind of sexy, in a way.
Seeing the tall, fierce-eyed Ha-eun smoking a cigarette gave off a bit of a gangster vibe that suited her quite well.
“Though I hate the smell of tobacco.”
“Ugh.”
The hand of a beaming Ha-eun, which had been reaching into her cigarette pack, froze mid-air.
With a short sigh, she put the cigarette back in the pack.
“Ojini, come sit here for a second.”
Ha-eun patted the spot next to her.
“I came to get you for dinner.”
“She’s just starting to prepare it, right? We probably have about ten minutes.”
“That’s true.”
Oh-jin nodded and sat down next to Ha-eun.
With a swift, cat-like motion, Ha-eun lay down, resting her head on Oh-jin’s thigh.
The night sky, which had already grown dark, was embroidered with beautiful stars.
“Ojini.”
“Yeah?”
“Vega has feelings for you too, right?”
“…That’s.”
Oh-jin’s expression stiffened.
He wasn't some dense protagonist from a romantic comedy; he had known for a long time that Vega held affection for him.
However.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t?”
“Even if she does, it’s probably closer to motherly affection.”
“Motherly affection…”
Ha-eun knew full well that was a ridiculous thing to say, but…
“…Alright, let’s go with that for now.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t feel possessive.
It hadn't been long since she accepted Isabella; she couldn't just ask him to readily accept Vega as well.
‘Sorry, Vega.’
Just a little longer.
She wanted to enjoy her time with him.
She wanted to share memories that were theirs alone.
“Being like this reminds me of the old days.”
“The old days?”
“You know, when we’d run from the director and lie down like this on the orphanage roof.”
“Ah. I remember.”
Whenever they played a prank on the bald director, they would always hide on the roof.
Ha-eun giggled and began to bring up old memories only the two of them could share.
“Remember that time you got pissed and fought the director because he made fun of your name? You threw a dirty rag right in that bastard’s face.”
“Of course, I remember.”
“Man! The look on that bastard’s face was hilarious!”
Back then, he had a significant trauma associated with the name ‘Oh-jin’, so he would fly into a rage if anyone made fun of it.
Well, thinking about it now, he wondered why he had reacted so sensitively to a mere name.
But as a child, the fact that the name his parents had left him meant ‘dirty dust’ had felt like the deepest despair.
“Come to think of it, you started deliberately slurring my name back then.”
Looking back, it was a rather delicate gesture for a clueless child.
‘Oh-jin’ and ‘Ojini’.
There wasn't much of a difference other than a slight slurring of the pronunciation.
But to him, who had a huge trauma associated with his name at the time, that subtle difference had felt immensely significant.
“How about it? Pretty sharp of me, right, Ojini?”
“But you don’t really need to call me that anymore.”
“I’m used to it. It’s more comfortable this way.”
Ha-eun smiled softly, slurring his name with her usual lisp.
Of all the people who knew Oh-jin, she was the only one who called him ‘Ojini’.
Others wouldn’t even be able to guess why she did.
Because of that, it felt like a special pet name only she and Oh-jin shared, which made her feel a little proud.
“In that sense, the meaning of your name is really nice.”
“Heaven’s Grace?”
“Yeah.”
Ha-eun, short for ‘Haneul-ui Eunchong,’ or ‘Heaven’s Grace.’
Compared to his own name, which translated to ‘dirty dust,’ what a beautiful name it was.
“You even said something like that before. That you’d become ‘Heaven’s Grace’ just like your name and shine on me…”
“Hey, hey, hey! Stop!”
Aaaargh!
Ha-eun screamed and writhed as if an embarrassing old memory had resurfaced.
“Damn it, how could I have spouted that stuff so shamelessly back then?”
“We were at that age.”
Wasn't that an age where they placed importance on the meaning of names, which, in hindsight, meant nothing at all?
“Wow, damn, it’s so embarrassing thinking about it now.”
“Why? Have you given up on the idea of being ‘Heaven’s Grace’ and shining on me now?”
“Hey, I told you to stop.”
“Well, honestly, it’s much better than ‘dirty dust,’ isn’t it?”
Oh-jin, meaning dirty dust.
Ha-eun, meaning Heaven’s Grace.
It didn't take much thought to know which was better.
“Though those bastards who called themselves my parents threw ‘Heaven’s Grace’ away.”
Ha-eun gave a bitter smile and slowly raised her hand to caress Oh-jin’s cheek.
“Still, I’m glad when I think about it now.”
“About what?”
“If those bastards hadn’t thrown their Grace away, I never would have met you, right?”
“……”
Had he become such a precious existence to her that she could call being abandoned by her parents ‘a relief’?
An indescribable sense of gratitude, along with a heavy weight of guilt, pressed down on his shoulders.
Did he truly deserve to hear such words from her?
“You’re thinking something useless again, aren’t you?”
Ha-eun pinched and stretched Oh-jin’s cheek.
“Let’s go get something to eat!”
Ha-eun, who had been lying with her head on his thigh, shot up.
She smiled brightly as she pulled on the arm of the seated Oh-jin.
Perhaps it was because they had just been talking about the past.
For a moment, he had the illusion that a young girl’s face was overlapping with Ha-eun’s bright smile.
“……”
Of course, even if it overlapped, it wasn't her exact face from the past.
All his memories of Ha-eun’s childhood face had vanished beyond the dark clouds of Heukcheon.
“Huh? What’s wrong? Why the long face?”
Ha-eun approached Oh-jin with a worried expression.
“It’s nothing.”
She didn't know that he had forgotten all his memories of her childhood face.
Oh-jin pushed the torn pages of his memory album deep into his heart again and turned away.
“Let’s go eat.”
“Wait a minute.”
Ha-eun gently tugged on his arm.
As he tilted his head and turned back, Ha-eun stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.
A light kiss, like a bird pecking at grain.
“How is it? Feel better now that I gave you a kiss?”
Ha-eun smiled playfully and gave his butt a few light smacks.
“…Hah.”
A faint laugh escaped Oh-jin’s lips.
Seeing her playful smile, the suffocating feeling, as if a heavy stone had been placed on his chest, seemed to lift away.
‘I really am a simple guy.’
Oh-jin started walking, his expression much lighter.
After finishing dinner with Isabella and Ha-eun, and completing his daily training routine.
He dragged his exhausted body and lay down in his sleeping bag.
“Heaven’s Grace.”
He closed his eyes, thinking what a fitting name it was for Ha-eun.