Chapter 334
Chapter 334
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 334
Chapter Title: Treasure Hunt (13)
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After Deimos’s death.
The Golden Knights and the other demonic beings of the underground city began a hasty retreat out of the tunnels.
With their ‘Grand Duke’—their central figure—dead, it was an expected outcome.
“Where do these bastards think they’re running?!”
“Won't you just die quietly?”
Of course, the decisive reason for their hurried escape was the brilliant performance of Ha-eun and Isabella.
There was Ha-eun, who, having obtained the trinity of power—the Dragon's Eye, the Dragon's Heart, and the Dragon God's Soul—possessed firepower comparable to an 11-Star Awakened. And then there was Isabella, who, thanks to Oh-jin's blood, stood on the cusp of 10-Star, now looking toward 11-Star.
Faced with the combined assault of these two women with superhuman strength, the Golden Knights were utterly helpless.
After all the demonic beings from the underground cities had retreated.
Oh-jin's party freed the captured salamanders and decided to take a short rest inside Deimos's empty castle.
“Wow, there isn't a single spot in here that isn't sparkling.”
Ha-eun let out a short gasp as she looked around.
She gathered up an armful of golden teacups and candlesticks and approached Oh-jin.
“Hey, Oh-jin, should we take some of this?”
“What would we do with it?”
“Sell it! You said it's imbued with star mana, right?”
Returning to Earth and selling the gold would certainly fetch an enormous sum of money.
“Forget it. It's not like we really need money.”
Even without selling gold, he had more than enough money to live comfortably.
“Wow... I never thought I'd live to hear you say you don't need money, Oh-jin.”
Thinking back to the days when Oh-jin had desperately saved every penny, it was an unimaginable statement.
“I was saving that because of you.”
Now that Ha-eun had recovered, he no longer needed the money.
“I-Is that so?”
Ha-eun blushed for no reason, scratching her cheek.
Amidst the warm atmosphere between the two, Isabella spoke softly.
“Where is Cheongwonseong-nim?”
“He's probably in his room.”
Oh-jin's expression darkened at the thought of Baek Mu-gang.
“...Should we go see him for a moment?”
“Yeah. It's about time to eat, anyway.”
Oh-jin, Ha-eun, and Isabella headed to the room where Baek Mu-gang was staying.
“Heh, hehe.”
Baek Mu-gang was grinning foolishly, clutching a grimy, well-worn envelope in his hand.
“Ah! Good person! The good person is here!”
Baek Mu-gang, who had been lying on the bed, shot up and scampered over.
“How are you feeling, Elder?”
“My arm, it still doesn't move well, but it doesn't hurt!”
Baek Mu-gang lifted the arm that Deimos had crushed, smiling brightly.
“That's a relief.”
Oh-jin gave a faint smile and surveyed the room.
He saw Deneb's holy sword lying discarded in a corner of the room.
A dry laugh escaped him at the sight of the holy sword lying so shabbily on the floor.
‘So the holy sword wasn't the treasure.’
The sense of unease he'd felt when Baek Mu-gang first saw the holy sword and shouted that it was his treasure.
The gears that hadn't quite meshed were finally clicking into place.
‘He never needed the holy sword in the first place.’
What was important to him wasn't the holy sword bestowed by his Constellation, but the grimy envelope stored inside its hilt.
‘I never would have guessed the hilt was hollow.’
A normal sword's hilt wouldn't be hollow.
But in the case of Deneb's holy sword, a hollow space existed inside to allow for inscriptions of magical formulas on the 'interior' of the hilt.
‘If you weren't Deneb who made it, or the Elder, you'd never have known there was a hollow space inside.’
Oh-jin had tried holding the holy sword himself, but it had such perfect weight and balance that he'd never have thought the hilt was empty.
As a holy sword, a divine artifact, it probably adjusted its weight and balance in detail to suit its user.
“Elder, if you leave the holy sword lying around like that, won't Deneb-nim scold you later?”
“Ah! I-I forgot!”
Baek Mu-gang quickly turned, picked up the holy sword from the floor, and placed it neatly on the bed.
“Th-This is a secret, okay? You can't tell Deneb-nim, alright?”
“Yes, I promise.”
Oh-jin let out a small chuckle and nodded.
Just as he was about to suggest they go eat.
“Um... Grandpa, can I ask you something?”
“Ooh? Yes, yes! Ask away!”
“That envelope...”
There was one strange thing about the grimy, well-worn envelope.
“Why... haven't you opened it?”
The seal of the heavily smudged envelope was firmly shut, with no sign of ever having been opened.
“……”
The foolish grin on Baek Mu-gang's face hardened.
After a moment's pause, he managed a faint smile.
A fragile smile, one that looked as if it would shatter at the slightest touch.
“I... I did a lot of bad things to my old lady.”
Therefore.
“My old lady must have been very angry with me.”
His voice was timid, like a frightened animal's.
The hand clutching the unopened envelope trembled slightly.
Her last letter.
He had tried to open it many times, but he never could bring himself to do it.
“It must... have bad things written in it.”
He was afraid that her last words would be filled with hatred for him.
Afraid that the life they had spent together would be negated.
“So... I can't open it.”
Baek Mu-gang hugged the envelope to his chest and curled into a ball.
“……”
Ha-eun could offer no words of comfort, only watch him with pity in her eyes.
It wasn't just Ha-eun; Oh-jin and Isabella, also in the room, couldn't bring themselves to console Baek Mu-gang either.
Because they, too, had no idea what was written inside the letter.
Oh-jin let out a deep sigh and looked at the letter clutched in Baek Mu-gang's hand.
‘She took care of him alone for five years, was it?’
Baek Mu-gang's wife had died just before the 'First Fissure' appeared on Earth.
In other words, when Baek Mu-gang had not yet become Deneb's Apostle.
Because his wife was infertile, they had no children, so she had taken care of Baek Mu-gang, who had dementia, all by herself.
‘Then she fell ill and died before the Elder.’
It was a story that left a bitter taste in one's mouth just hearing it.
“Ah, d-dinner is ready. Would you like to eat first? There are dumplings, which you like.”
“Wow! Dumplings! I want to eat dumplings!”
It was Isabella who broke the awkward silence.
As if he had never cowered at all, Baek Mu-gang beamed and nodded his head.
“Munch munch. Hehe. The dumplings are delicious!”
“Please eat slowly.”
After the meal was over.
Oh-jin's group dispersed to the spare rooms in the castle to spend their time individually.
“Haaah.”
Back in his room, Oh-jin sighed and sat by the window.
Since the castle was built inside a mountain, the only thing visible outside the window was dull granite.
“……”
For some reason.
The image of Baek Mu-gang, terrified and clutching the letter, wouldn't leave his mind.
*Knock, knock.*
A hesitant knock sounded.
Thinking it was Ha-eun or Isabella, he opened the door, but unexpectedly, it was Baek Mu-gang standing there.
“Is something the matter?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
A favor?
“This.”
Baek Mu-gang held out the envelope in his hand to Oh-jin.
“…Can you look at it for me?”
Baek Mu-gang looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes.
Oh-jin carefully took the envelope and asked.
“I thought you couldn't open it.”
“Yes, that's right.”
Baek Mu-gang nodded with sad eyes.
“I... I thought about it a lot by myself.”
After losing his treasure.
How much he had regretted it.
How terrified he had been at the thought that he might never know her last words.
“I have to see it.”
If he didn't see it now, he didn't know when he might lose his treasure again.
“B-But. I'm a little scared.”
“So you want me to look at it for you?”
“Yes. Good person, I can trust you.”
“But I can't read Chinese...”
They could converse using a translation device.
But it couldn't read text.
“My old lady, she was Korean. She didn't know Chinese characters well, so the letter... it should be written in Korean.”
“...Is that so?”
Oh-jin looked down at the grimy envelope in his hand.
For some reason.
Though it should have contained just a single, light piece of paper, the envelope felt impossibly heavy.
“I understand.”
Thinking about how much Baek Mu-gang must have agonized before asking him to read it, he couldn't refuse the request.
“O-Okay. I'm counting on you.”
Baek Mu-gang took a step back, watching Oh-jin with a tense expression.
Oh-jin carefully opened the envelope.
Inside was a single, neatly folded piece of paper.
On the paper, white as a snowy field.
The stiff words 'Divorce Agreement' were written.
“……”
The feeling of his breath catching in his throat.
Oh-jin bit his lip as he read the words on the letter—no, the document.
“This letter... did your wife give it to you herself?”
“Ooh? No. My old lady collapsed after going to work and never got up again.”
“Then this letter...”
“It was in my old lady's pocket.”
In other words.
This was never a 'letter' to begin with.
“……”
It wasn't something he couldn't understand.
Taking care of a husband with dementia for years couldn't have been an easy task.
If she suffered from financial hardship to the point of dragging her sick body to work, it must have been even more hellish.
No matter how much she loved her husband, some things in this world can't be solved by love alone.
It must have been agonizing.
It must have been painful.
She must have wanted to give up on everything and run away.
‘The world is full of things... that can't be solved by just enduring.’
The world isn't a movie.
Life isn't like a drama.
Only a very small number of people could stand firm and endure endless pain and despair.
“Wh-What does it say?”
Baek Mu-gang asked in a trembling voice, his eyes squeezed shut.
Oh-jin gazed down at the document in his hand and answered softly.
“It says... that she was happy to have met you, Elder.”
He ran his hand over the document, using Transformation.
Black clouds erased the words on the document and created new ones.
“R-Really? Is it really?!”
Baek Mu-gang's eyes flew open as he snatched the letter from Oh-jin's hand.
“Heh, hehe.”
A single, clear tear rolled down from the corner of his wrinkled eye.
He hugged the letter he had never been able to read to his chest.
“I'm so glad... hehe, really... I'm really so glad.”
Watching Baek Mu-gang sob, Oh-jin smiled bitterly.
“...Yes, it's a relief.”
The truth is so bitter that, at times, it requires the seasoning of a lie.