We Will Be Together Forever (4)
“We’re together forever. We can live together. Let’s stay here together, Oppa. Heeheehee.”
Her voice was enough to raise gooseflesh all over my skin.
From the way she kept whispering in my ear, it was obvious she hadn’t expected me to wake up. No, more than that—right now, she probably didn’t even think I was capable of waking at all.
Wait. Is she in no condition to make rational judgments?
Jung Hayan’s mind had never exactly been healthy to begin with.
Sun Heeyoung was similar in some ways, but in her case, a firm set of beliefs had already taken root. That made her fundamentally different from Jung Hayan, who relied on me so completely.
To be more precise, the difference was whether she could control herself or not.
I couldn’t tell whose voice Jung Hayan was hearing, but…
“I told you, I’m not listening to you. So don’t talk to me. I’m not going to listen anyway.”
I wondered if it might have been her own voice.
Given the circumstances, that seemed like the right conclusion. The voice kept telling her that killing and possessing me was the right thing to do.
“Oppa can’t die. Just my legs? You think I’m going to run away? No way. You said you love me, remember? You’re definitely not running away… And if I do that, Oppa will hurt. I don’t want that….”
Suddenly, I felt a hand stroking my leg. It was such a small touch, and yet it made me want to scream. I wanted to throw it off, but I couldn’t.
Because I was supposed to be asleep.
“Still, just in case? No, you can’t. There’s no need to go that far. You can’t do your arms either, then I won’t have hands to pat your head, dummy. You won’t even be able to hug me tight…. You’re so stupid.”
…….
Shit.
It felt like her condition was getting worse.
I understood why she was acting like this.
Even now, besides Jung Hayan’s voice, I could hear others ringing in my ears.
Jung Jinho and Park Hye-young’s voices were so fucking irritating I could feel my temper rising.
A mind that was already unstable, now layered with a curse on top of it—something had to have worn down.
The curse was eroding her sanity faster than it did for other people.
She kept saying it had no effect on her, but from where I was standing, Jung Hayan was definitely being shaken by those voices.
And yet…
She’s not completely insane yet.
The first proof was the fact that she understood she couldn’t let other people see her like this.
Every time someone stirred, she quietly shut her mouth. She was still holding onto her sanity, at least a little.
That was when I kept my lips pressed tight and tried my hardest not to open my eyes.
“Do you think he’s awake?”
…….
“No. He hasn’t woken up even once so far. Oppa doesn’t wake up easily once he falls asleep. Even magic….”
…….
…….
“Ah. Right, this isn’t home. I forgot.”
The little…
Even with my eyes shut, I could feel Jung Hayan’s face drawing closer to mine.
Her rough breathing was brushing straight across me.
She seemed to be checking whether I was really asleep.
Only after what felt like ages did I feel her press a light kiss to my lips and pull away.
Haa….
I heard a rustling sound, and it seemed she’d decided it was dangerous to keep staying by my side.
I couldn’t feel her breathing anymore, and her hands weren’t touching me either.
She’d already moved back to her own place. I was debating whether I should open my eyes a little after some time had passed when her voice came again.
“See? I was right, wasn’t I? He’s still asleep. Heeheehee.”
Once again, I heard the sound of someone shifting their body. This time, she’d really moved away.
I’d tried my hardest to fall back asleep, but there was no chance of that. At least I’d managed to get some decent sleep earlier, so I wasn’t all that tired, but now I was starting to feel more anxious than if I’d been handed a worse chore than clearing the dungeon. To be blunt, the dungeon was no longer my problem.
Let’s sort this out.
Fixing this situation mattered more.
Jung Hayan’s strange behavior wasn’t exactly new—it’d been going on for a day or two already. Even the magic she’d placed on my room and on me had been too bizarre to make sense of.
Still, that hadn’t been meant to hurt me.
On the contrary, it had been more like protection.
Protection from rivals, and protection from invisible threats as well.
The countless spells she’d laid over the bed had also been, in her own way, a kind act—an effort to take my feelings into account as much as possible.
In simple terms, Jung Hayan had been trying not to hurt me.
That was completely different from what was happening now.
Right now…
She was widening the scope to include hurting me as well. Just thinking back to what she’d said earlier, I was almost certain of it. What she was planning was probably…
For the two of us to stay together here in this dungeon forever.
I was so dumbfounded I could hardly even speak.
Just the idea that there might be food and drinking water to be found in a place like this was ridiculous.
Maybe water could be conjured somehow through magic, but this was no place for human beings to live.
Of course, I still couldn’t be certain Jung Hayan would make a move, but I decided it was best to prepare for whatever might happen.
Assuming Jung Hayan really had made up her mind, she had two options.
One was to kill everyone who entered, then hide. The other was to take only me and disappear.
She seemed to be leaning more toward the second option, but if things grew any worse than they already were, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t choose the first.
Of course.
I didn’t think Jung Hayan could actually wipe out this entire expedition force, but…
It’s possible.
She was smarter and more calculating than I gave her credit for.
This was on a completely different level from what she’d done to Park Hye-young before.
The place we were in had swallowed up Parian’s five parties whole, and everyone was already hearing hallucinations and seeing things that weren’t there. No matter how strong Kim Hyunsung was, Jung Hayan wasn’t a variable the regressor had accounted for.
If her plan went ahead and succeeded, then this dungeon we were in—no, this Hero-grade dungeon, the Cursed Shrine—might very well be renamed the legendary-grade dungeon Crazy Mage and the Cursed Shrine.
Crazy Mage and the Cursed Shrine….
The more I thought about it, the more plausible it sounded.
From Jung Hayan’s perspective, the people entering this dungeon to clear it would look like invaders trying to destroy the sanctuary of love.
It was the best kind of bad ending—the absolute worst possible outcome.
Obviously, I had no intention of rotting away in a place like this for the rest of my life.
This place might become safe and comfortable, sure, but I had zero taste for having my freedom crushed.
What am I supposed to do….
I had several options, but the first thing I needed to do was keep Jung Hayan’s mental state from collapsing any further.
On top of the dungeon clear, I’d just been handed another problem to solve.
As I kept thinking through my next moves, dawn must have broken at some point, because the area around us began to stir.
The first voice I heard, as expected, was Jung Hayan’s.
“Oppa, it’s time to get up.”
“Ah… yeah.”
I nodded and looked at Jung Hayan, and her status window appeared before my eyes.
Checking the status window and latent potential of player Jung Hayan.
Name - Jung Hayan
Title - None. You’ll need to try harder.
Age - 21
Alignment - ??
Class - Archmage - Heroic Grade
Attributes
Strength - 17 / Growth cap: Rare or lower
Agility - 15 / Growth cap: Rare or lower
Stamina - 29 / Growth cap: Heroic or lower
Intelligence - 61 / Growth cap: Heroic or higher
Endurance - 22 / Growth cap: Rare or lower
Luck - 52 / Growth cap: Heroic or higher
Mana - 70 / Growth cap: Legendary or higher
Equipment - Divine Protection
Trait - The Method of Becoming a Mage - Heroic Grade
Overall Evaluation - Her growth rate is remarkably fast. Player Jung Hayan understands mana and magic almost to perfection. Her intelligence still seems too low to push into the higher tiers, but once that hurdle is cleared, she should accelerate quickly. It feels almost improper to even mention player Lee Kiyoung here. There’s something interesting to note: her alignment is changing. If you don’t want the Cursed Shrine transformed into a new kind of dungeon, you’d better work for it. I’ve grown attached in the meantime, so please survive.
I figured as much.
The one bit of good news was that her alignment change still wasn’t complete.
I couldn’t tell what that question mark meant, but if the evaluation was to be believed, Jung Hayan was standing at a crossroads right now.
Whether she would continue down the path of a pure, devoted supporter—or become something entirely new.
I couldn’t tell what kind of alignment she might change into, but at the very least, I knew it wouldn’t be anything positive.
When I looked at Jung Hayan again, I saw the same face as always. She seemed too calm, so much so that I was the one getting flustered.
“Hehehe.”
And of course, she immediately slipped into character.
Smiling as I stroked her face, she looked absurdly happy.
“Are the voices still there, Hayan?”
“Y-yes. I can still hear them a little. But it doesn’t bother me anymore. They’re just hallucinations.”
“What exactly are they saying?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t really hear them clearly now. So please don’t worry.”
Lie.
“I see. That’s a relief. We should get ready to head out first. Where are the others?”
“I heard we’re leaving in thirty minutes. Everyone seems to be packing….”
Her hand came over and clasped mine tightly.
I gave a faint smile and kissed Jung Hayan on the lips. It was so natural it barely even felt deliberate.
As if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Jung Hayan wrapped her arms around my neck, but because we didn’t have much time, I didn’t let it go any further.
It felt like the morning greeting between lovers who had been together for years.
For a moment, I caught sight of Jung Hayan’s flushed face.
Good.
Not a bad reaction.
I’d tried it because it seemed like I should be a little more proactive, and for now, it looked fine.
Pressing my body a little closer to hers and continuing to feed her sweet words was obvious enough.
What Jung Hayan needed right now was more affection.
She wasn’t muttering to herself, and her eyes didn’t look strange.
At least when she was with me, she didn’t seem to be in bad shape.
“Did you get everything ready to leave?”
“I took care of it all. Hehe.”
“Ah. Thanks. Then shall we go?”
“Yes.”
“Ah. Oppa, wait a second… I have something to ask you.”
“Yeah?”
“The last time…. The last time, I mean.”
“Yeah. The last time?”
“When we… when we had our first… our first, first kiss?”
I remembered.
Before going to Cha Heera, I had kissed Jung Hayan once to reassure her.
“Then….”
“…….”
“Y-you said you loved me, right? You said I was the only one, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I did.”
“You still… feel the same, right? You do love me, don’t you?”
This….
It was hard to tell what the correct answer was supposed to be.
But seeing that pleading look in her eyes, I realized I’d arrived at a fork in the road.
Under ordinary circumstances, of course the right answer would be to nod.
But it was surprisingly difficult to know whether that was truly the correct choice.
It was only natural to worry that a single word might alter her alignment.
While I was running through all kinds of calculations in my head, her voice pressed me for an answer again.
“You do love me, right?”
Her eyes were urgent. I nodded and slowly went on.
“Of course. I still love you now, and I’ll keep loving you in the future, too.”
“Ah… I’m glad.”
“But… why ask all of a sudden?”
“It’s nothing.”
Her face was filled with joy, but whether I had chosen correctly was still unresolved.
There still hadn’t been any change in her alignment.
“I love you too, Oppa.”
“I know….”
That was when Jung Hayan’s status window changed.