The Way Forward
"The outside world is going to be a circus for a while."
Oh Hyeon-seong sat perched on the rooftop, gazing down at the scene below.
The ground was pockmarked where the security convoy vehicles had come crashing down, and beyond it, the traces of battle were scattered everywhere — apparently some of the terrorists' remnants had still been lurking around. Of course, the fighting had been over for some time now, but the sudden incident had left the citizens scrambling in confusion.
Ever since gates and hunters came into the world, incidents and accidents have been bursting out of cities at the drop of a hat... but still, something on this scale is hardly ordinary.
Thankfully, the worst-case scenario had been averted, and things had somehow been patched up — but it would be impossible for any of it to pass quietly. Domestic and foreign media would run it as an exclusive, and every available hand would be thrown into investigating the incident. It was only because it was an attempted assassination rather than a completed one that the fallout would be somewhat contained.
"Which is why I need you to put in a little effort for me."
"...Anyone listening would think I'm your errand girl."
Baek Ji-soo, standing behind him with her arms crossed, shot back the reply. She shrugged and went on.
"Don't worry. I can handle a cleanup of this size just fine. No unnecessary eyes will be drifting toward you, Senior."
"I appreciate it."
If a proper, by-the-book investigation were conducted, there was no way Oh Hyeon-seong's movements — so deeply entangled with the incident — wouldn't come to light. But what good was a valuable connection if you never called it in? With the National Security Bureau working things over behind the scenes, it was entirely possible to scrub the name of the key figure right out of the report.
"More importantly..."
Baek Ji-soo's gaze shifted to Yoon Seol-ha.
The woman, unconscious and drenched in blood, lay quietly beside where Oh Hyeon-seong sat.
"You really did pull her out in one piece. Even for you, Senior, that couldn't have been easy."
"I had decent luck on my side. I'm a natural counter to Yoon Seol-ha, anyway — that's what did it."
Yoon Seol-ha's finicky special constitution was famously troublesome. But her ability had been utterly countered by Merz, the earth spirit Oh Hyeon-seong commanded. Even in her psychotic state, once she realized her power was useless against him, she hadn't even bothered to fully draw it out and had pivoted to a head-on confrontation instead. The ease with which he'd subdued someone of her caliber owed itself not just to the gap in information, but to a long-standing elemental advantage that stretched back years.
"Well, that prickly thing never could lay a finger on you. So what's your plan now? I'll admit she looks pretty docile sleeping there, but you do know having her next to you is like sleeping beside a time bomb?"
"I'm going to take her in."
"You sure about that?"
"There are enough IAE members to parade in front of the cameras as the would-be assassins. She'll be better off somewhere quiet for a while."
"That part's no problem, but she's still physically dangerous."
Baek Ji-soo looked down at Yoon Seol-ha in silence. Getting her out of the scene safely had solved the immediate problem, but at its core, nothing about her condition had changed. She was still being devoured by psychosis, her sense of self precarious. Compared to Joo Ji-hye, who'd been freeloading at his house until recently, she was a danger in an entirely different league.
"How nice, having a junior worry about me."
"Sounds like you've already decided."
Baek Ji-soo shook her head.
"If you want to do it, do it. But you look worn out. Wouldn't it be better to stay in Seoul a day or so before heading back? You could keep an eye on the situation, too."
"No. I need to leave before Han Su-yeon shows up. If we cross paths now, I'll never hear the end of it."
Oh Hyeon-seong gave a small chuckle and rose, dusting himself off. Then he looked down at the chaotic, bewildered streets below. Things were about to get even more frenzied for at least another week or so — which meant he probably wouldn't be coming up to Seoul for a while. As it happened, he, too, needed some quiet stillness right now.
Sunlight wedged itself in through the gaps in the drawn curtains.
At the light tickling her eyelids, Yoon Seol-ha flinched, blinked, and woke. An unfamiliar ceiling, a soft pillow and a thick blanket, warmth rising from the floor and from the air itself — she bolted upright in alarm. Instinctively she reached for a sword, but there was nothing resembling a weapon at her side.
"Where am I... Kgh!"
As she raised her upper body, Yoon Seol-ha clutched her forehead. A piercing headache pounded through her skull, and not just that — her whole body throbbed with a deep ache. At that moment, the door opened and Oh Hyeon-seong appeared.
"Don't push yourself. There's no need."
"S-Senior?"
"Glad you're awake. That was faster than I expected. Have some water first."
Yoon Seol-ha accepted the cup. Cool, clean, crisp water. Whether she'd been thirstier than she realized, it went down in long swallows. And with that, her shoulders finally began to settle.
"Where is this... what happened to me?"
She asked, bewildered. Her memories were fragmented and hopelessly jumbled together, and all she vaguely recalled was being somewhere with Oh Hyeon-seong before she'd collapsed. But he simply gave her furrowed brow a light push and nudged her back down into the blankets.
"Your body has been pushed far beyond its limits. You'll be staying here for a while, so don't think about anything. Just rest."
Yoon Seol-ha had already been at her absolute breaking point even before he'd struck her down. She simply hadn't been in any condition to notice — she'd been enduring a staggering degree of overexertion. For someone in full-blown psychosis, the fact that she'd kept moving at all without collapsing was a miracle in itself.
"Just... rest?"
"That's right."
Yoon Seol-ha's anxious eyes darted here and there. Monsters pouring out of gates, assassins from a foreign intelligence service — it felt like they might come crashing in at any moment. But as she fought to catch her ragged breath, she soon realized that Oh Hyeon-seong was right there at her bedside. He was simply there, close by. Yet that alone was enough to calm her, and she quietly let her eyes drift shut.
Clack.
Oh Hyeon-seong, returning after stepping out briefly, set a bowl of porridge down at her bedside. Remembering to leave the warmth of the fire spirit gently hovering over it, he slipped quietly out of the room.
Yoon Seol-ha was still in a mentally unstable state. Given the level of her ability, it was no exaggeration to say a tactical nuclear weapon lay sleeping in that room.
Thankfully she's showing no hostility toward me, but if anyone else appeared, who knows what might happen.
To prepare for any eventuality, he had sent word around in advance that no visitors were to come. That included the Yoo siblings next door, whose visit count was always the highest, and that rascal Gwon Gyeong-min from the village, who'd been barred from coming up as well. Ever since he'd been rescued from the lurker-type monster's nest, the man had taken to showing up at the house with his wife in tow every so often.
Variables are excluded as much as possible for now... all that's left is to watch how she does.
Oh Hyeon-seong's house, tucked into the far corner of rural Changyeong-ri, could fairly be called the purest place on earth. Thanks to the spirits, even the faintest traces of residue were absent — it was a place completely free of miasma. An environment thoroughly purged of turbid energy, where she would be fed only clean food that had never been exposed to it. That was the best course of action he could come up with.
Of course, whether it actually works is something we'll have to see.
Yoon Seol-ha had already crossed fully into psychosis. Just as quitting cigarettes wouldn't cure a lung cancer already taken root, there was no guarantee that neutralizing the miasma in her body would make her symptoms disappear. But at the very least her condition should improve, and the attempt was more than worth it.
Until only recently, it had been common knowledge that a hunter who fell into psychosis could never recover. But that common knowledge had already been shattered. Joo Ji-hye had proven it by overcoming a psychosis that had only ever worsened, and Yoon Seol-ha herself had returned not in a state of total possession, but noticeably better than before. That alone was enough possibility to work with. All that remained was to hope she fought her way through.
Several days had passed since she'd been brought back.
"Haa... haa..."
Yoon Seol-ha exhaled raggedly, sweat beading on her skin. Another episode had seized her. But this time, too, she had kept her grip on the thread of her sanity and suppressed the episode. It was the first time she had ever calmed a seizure entirely on her own, without Oh Hyeon-seong at her side.
"...Okay."
She looked down at her own hands as the trembling faded. It had felt like dying — dangerously so — but to think she could now suppress an episode completely on her own. Above all, the very fact that she could recognize she was fighting the psychosis was proof in itself of how much better her condition had become.
"..."
Yoon Seol-ha glanced around the room. Somewhere along the way, its scenery had grown familiar. And yet in all her days here, she still didn't know where this place actually was, and she had never once set foot outside the room. Rising somewhat awkwardly from her seat, she pushed down a faint flutter of unease and opened the door.
"Huh?"
Standing squarely in front of her was a fair-haired girl of exotic looks. It was Alisa, the spirit of light. Startled as she was, Yoon Seol-ha grasped at once that despite the girl's flawless exterior, she was no human, but a spirit. Still, having never seen that face even once before, she wondered if she truly was Oh Hyeon-seong's spirit.
Snatch!
At that moment, Alisa grabbed hold of her hand, which still trembled faintly. Yoon Seol-ha jolted in surprise, but Alisa said nothing, only gazing steadily up at her. It should have felt like an uncomfortable, weighing stare — and yet for some reason, Yoon Seol-ha felt her heart ease instead. In the warm grip holding her hand, her quivering fingertips slowly found their stillness.
"..."
"Ah. Sorry."
Alisa hopped back a step. Having felt the soft, plush warmth of her touch, and realizing she'd fidgeted with the girl's hand a little too much, Yoon Seol-ha flushed pink. Alisa spun around and headed out of the annex, and after standing blankly for a moment, Yoon Seol-ha followed her out.
Yip yip!
"You all..."
There before her, the spirits turned to greet her. Across the wide yard of the main house, spirits could be seen dancing in lazy, bobbing swirls, romping through the clear sunlight. As she stared at the scene in a daze, a faint smile spread across her lips.
"You're up and about."
Oh Hyeon-seong, seated on the wooden porch of the annex, turned and spoke.
"...Senior."
"Seems you've gotten better at least somewhat."
"Thanks to you."
"Do you remember what happened?"
At his question, Yoon Seol-ha shook her head. To recall anything in detail was impossible — her consciousness at the time had been shredded to ribbons, and little remained intact. But that didn't mean she lacked an awareness of what she had done.
"Senior... while I was in that possessed state — how many people did I kill?"
Yoon Seol-ha asked, her voice trembling faintly. Oh Hyeon-seong gestured for her to sit beside him. Sitting down next to her, he told her about the past. He couldn't lay out everything here — there was far too much — but he told her what could be told right now. It might be painful, but avoidance was no solution at all.
"...I knew it."
She fell silent. She had committed purposeless murder beyond counting. Meaningless slaughter, done for no one's sake — not to save, not to protect. Her hands, once clean when she'd looked down at them, were now drenched in countless invisible stains. Her eyes wavered unsteadily.
"It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault."
"Does a word like that even mean anything?"
"Call it rationalization, call it whatever you like. But let me say this upfront — I have never once regretted the choice I made back then, to kill you. Never once felt guilty for it."
Oh Hyeon-seong said it flatly. Not the sort of thing to say to the person herself, but it was the plain truth. Because that was, in fact, what he'd done.
"Even if I went back to that moment, I'd make the same choice. And I doubt the others would think any differently. The moment Baek Ji-soo heard you'd come back, she was the one who left that option open the widest."
He went on.
"So tell me — do you resent us?"
"...I could never."
"Then it's the same thing."
This cold, unforgiving world was forever springing its unavoidable tragedies. But in the end, a choice had to be made, and you had to keep moving forward — burying what had passed behind you, and going on.
"Then... what am I supposed to do now?"
"There was a time when I was cut off from the world for a while, too. And the world had changed enormously in the meantime. The gap you're feeling will be far bigger than those five years I lost."
Oh Hyeon-seong rose from his seat. Then he looked down at Yoon Seol-ha, gazing up at him.
"Take it one step at a time and find your way. And to start — farming."
As she took the hoe he handed over, Yoon Seol-ha stared at it, wide-eyed.