Chapter 3—17. The End, and Another Beginning (1)
The Magic Artisan Guild — a place where countless production-class awakeners gathered.
Some among the craftsmen took to the field as hunters in direct combat, while many others shut themselves inside their workshops, buried in research all day long.
And Freya, the guild's head, was very much the latter type.
Seo Yoon felt considerable tension as she stepped into the guild hall.
After all, this was a meeting with the guildmaster whose face was notoriously difficult to see.
Thanks to her connection with Lee Jun, she had met the woman a handful of times, but the impression left from those encounters was… unmistakably that of an unpredictable person.
"……"
That hadn't changed one bit today, either.
The woman handing over the prosthetic arm wore the expression of someone with a grievance.
"Hmmm… Yes. It's finished, but something's been nagging at me, ye know."
"…Pardon?"
"What's been nagging at me, I say! Why is it that he himself doesn't come and sends someone else instead, haaa?!"
"That is…."
Freya hurled the long pipe she'd been smoking clear across the room as she shouted.
Apparently, Lee Jun not showing up in person was the source of her displeasure.
Then again… there had been that time before when she'd gone to the lodging to see him, only to come up empty-handed.
Seo Yoon didn't know the precise details of the relationship between the two, but she was at least aware of what circulated in the public record.
Right after the Gate Incident.
While the whole world was collapsing, one otherworlder had crossed over through a Gate.
Her race: dwarf.
That demi-human, two hundred years old, had swept across the devastated stretches of Earth with her blue hair streaming behind her.
When her hammer sent sparks flying, ruined buildings rose again; when her two eyes flashed, they pierced through all things.
Her tea-brown left eye perceived truth, and her emerald-green right eye discerned the underlying principles of everything she surveyed.
Having wielded enormous influence over the reconstruction of human civilization, she had… in the end, been drawn in by a certain human and settled down in South Korea.
That legendary man was now….
"Tch, fine. He must be busy again. That fellow never does anything but cook up excuses, one after another. Very well! Merciful as I am, this body has no choice but to overlook it!"
So grumbling, Freya handed Seo Yoon a steel case.
About the size of a human arm.
This was the reason Seo Yoon had come to see Freya in the first place.
"He'll know how to use it. The design's similar to the one he used back in the day, so just tell him to figure it out himself."
"Ah, yes…."
Cowed by Freya's forcefulness, Seo Yoon simply nodded along.
And found herself marveling at Lee Jun all over again.
How on earth had he talked this person into settling down in Korea?
"Ye're having a rather rude thought right now, aren't ye?"
"I am not."
"Aigoo, don't bother denying it. I can see it all over your face, I tell ye."
With that, Freya heaved a deep sigh.
Then she popped a fresh one into her mouth to replace the pipe she'd flung into the clutter of the workshop.
A slow drag in—
A long exhale out—
She lit the mana leaf and drew in a lungful of blue smoke, then let it curl out again.
Wisps of rising mana drifted through the air, thickening it.
Seo Yoon flinched, her body tensing at that dense mana.
"Hmmm… so that's what's been bothering ye."
"…Pardon?"
"You. Mana-incapable, aren't ye."
"……"
Freya was right on the mark.
With her mana overload disorder, Seo Yoon faced restrictions on how she could channel mana.
Freya had spotted it at a glance.
She hadn't even needed to use her left eye.
Going by her lifetime of experience, she could be certain of this much on pure intuition alone.
"Figured there was something behind it the moment ye asked for that thing."
"You mean… that item?"
"Ye'll understand when ye get back. Truth be told, that piece was the one I had my eye on in this auction."
Given her use of the word "piece," this clearly had something to do with the auction.
Seo Yoon had a fair idea what it might be.
So that's how it is, then.
Thinking of Lee Jun, Seo Yoon sank into thought.
It was always like this lately.
Every time… she got the feeling of being looked after, her heart grew complicated.
Watching her, Freya added one more remark.
"Ahem. Tell him it's this body's gracious concession, will ye? Ye understand?"
"Yes, I'll pass it along."
"Good. Then see to your health as well. If I hear ye've gone and tried some bizarre folk remedy or other in the name of a 'cure,' I'll knock ye flat on the back of your head."
"…Yes, ma'am."
With that answer, Seo Yoon picked up the case and left the workshop.
And as she silently watched the girl's retreating figure—
Freya exhaled another cloud of blue smoke.
A long exhale—
"…Truly a strange one, that man. Is he keeping her around on purpose?"
The tea-brown eye that pierced through truth.
Her left vision was a gift bestowed by the gods.
And her right eye, the one that observed all things—
It held no special power. It was simply the fruit of a talent honed over a lifetime, of endless effort.
While everyone fixated on her left eye—
one human boy had offered praise to her right.
She still remembered that moment to this day.
A glance flung about in desperate panic amid the ruins.
A man who swallowed down his grief again and again, tending to those around him before tending to himself.
"…He was always a fool, that one."
He constantly tried to shoulder everything with every ounce of strength he had.
Back then, and now.
And all she could feel about it was worry.
A slow drag in—
A long exhale out—
Time flowed by at quite a clip.
It felt like the triplets had only just arrived, but more than two weeks had slipped past since then.
And now the time had come to part ways again.
By evening, Jeanne's press conference had wrapped up.
She returned to the lodging carrying the items Lee Jun had told her to bring.
Along with modest compensation for the lots that had gone astray from the auction.
True, the artifacts had been swept up as part of Lee Jun's scheme, but getting something extra on top of that was never unwelcome.
"Everything from the auction was bought with your money, Oppa, so please take these too."
Unfortunately, none of them were high-grade artifacts.
Well, that much was to be expected.
The auction had never even gotten as far as the high-grade lots, after all.
Still, the lineup wasn't bad.
They weren't especially versatile, but they were artifacts that would prove useful in the right situations.
Hang onto them, and someday they'd come in handy.
Gear was always a gain when you stockpiled it, so no complaints there.
Lee Jun swept the artifacts into the prototype Pocket he'd emptied out beforehand.
But that wasn't the important thing right now.
"So you're heading back tomorrow?"
"No, they're sending a plane to the airport in a little while. The Association said it would be better if I returned quickly."
"What? Right away?"
"Yes, everyone seemed rather urgent."
Apparently, things were in an uproar on the French Hunter Association's end as well.
Not that he could blame them. They'd just fought a major battle with the next Gate clearance drawing near.
They'd be worried about her mental state, too.
"I wouldn't have minded staying a while longer, though."
"They're calling you back, so what can you do? Better get going."
In France, the Association's influence ran fairly strong.
Largely because there were no guilds of any real name there.
And of course, Jeanne herself was under the Association's direct affiliation.
They granted her autonomy wherever possible, but in a situation like this, they had no choice but to issue a recall order.
Jeanne had come to Korea in the first place on Yelena's advice.
After Liberation's assassination attempt on her—
in essence, she'd been moved far away for a time in order to lure out the masterminds lurking behind it.
And the plan had worked. Chapman had taken the bait, and in the end, they'd caught him.
But that was something only those who knew the inside story could appreciate.
From the French Association's perspective, there was no other way to see it—
Lee Jun had worked for the Korean Hunter Association for years, after all. Regardless of the outcome, this could only look worrying.
The official reason Jeanne had given for coming to Korea this time was rest and recovery.
There had been an assassination attempt, so she would recuperate in Korea for a while—something like that.
In reality, it had all been bait to draw out Liberation, but the Association had no way of knowing that.
From the outside, it looked as though she'd been attacked yet again in the very place she'd gone for a rest cure.
In a space managed by that country's Hunter Association, no less.
"When it comes to this incident, you could say the Korean Association bears responsibility as well. Honestly, we should be grateful they aren't lodging a formal protest."
"But I don't have any problems with it at all."
"Even so. I can't help worrying a little."
The head might understand, but the heart rarely cooperates.
Well… the French Association was surely factoring its own interests into that worry, too.
Either way, that's what worry was.
"Were you worried about me too, Oppa?"
"I suppose you could say that."
"…Mm, I see."
Lee Jun worried, too.
He'd keep saying no, who was he to worry about anyone given his own state—but inside, it was different.
Some things simply couldn't be helped.
Navigating danger successfully didn't mean the danger had never existed, did it?
It was just… like that.
"So be careful on your way back. Keep your eyes on your surroundings."
"Hehe, you sound just like Unni talking about you, Oppa."
"That's only because you have so little sense of self-preservation."
Well, that much was beyond Jeanne's control.
With no sense of crisis to speak of, there was a limit to how consciously careful she could be, no matter how she tried.
Which was precisely why Siara and Timothy ran interference around her.
"Anyway. Be careful even after you get back to France."
"I don't think they'll be attacking over there for some time."
"That's exactly why you never know. If there's even the slightest possibility, you prepare for it."
"That's true as well. Yes, I'll be careful."
Lee Jun patted Jeanne's head in gentle strokes as she answered.
She closed her eyes quietly, feeling the sensation of her hair mussing beneath his hand.
Her hair, braided into a single long tail at the back, swayed softly with each touch.
After a while, he smoothed her hair back into order and spoke.
"Come back safe from the next clearance, too."
"Is this because of the fortune from last time?"
"Well, I rerolled that one, so it should be fine… but still. Consider this nothing more than needless worrying."
"Yes, I understand. Worrying…."
By the end of it all, the fortune-rerolling seemed to have gone off without a hitch.
They'd just faced an incident of this magnitude—if that had been a great-calamity reading, he'd hate to imagine it.
He could tell her to go to the Gate clearance in France without a shred of worry.
Then again, it wasn't a fortune he could truly trust, given that he'd doctored it himself.
"Well then, I should be going."
"Right. Contact me before you come next time."
"Yes. And take care of yourself too, Oppa. You're always getting hurt."
"That's… yeah, I'll be careful."
Lee Jun nodded as he said it.
Now even Jeanne was worrying about him.
It was a first, and it felt oddly refreshing.
She was a child who barely understood what worry even meant.
"What's this? Nothing to say to us?"
"Shh, Siara. They're having a nice moment."
"Oppa."
Lee Jun turned his gaze toward the two plushies nestled in Jeanne's arms.
According to her, the two of them had played a major part in the recent affair.
He bent down to meet them at eye level and spoke.
"Siara, Timothy. You two worked hard as well."
"Heheh."
"Hahaha, this is what they call 'bowing and expecting thanks' in Korean, isn't it?"
"I suppose you could say that."
"What does that even mean?"
"There is such a thing."
After giving Siara's and Timothy's heads a pat as well, Lee Jun saw Jeanne off.
He'd have liked to walk her all the way to the airport… but Seo Yoon would be back soon.
Then he'd fit Choi Jeong-hyeon with her new arm and treat Seo Yoon's mana overload, one after the other.
His old comrades mattered, but right now, he wanted to devote his attention to the comrades of the present.
"Whew…."
Standing at the gate, Lee Jun ran his eyes over the length of the lodging building.
From a house he'd lived in alone, to a lodging where they all lived together.
The purpose behind building the place in the first place felt, at long last, fulfilled.
In the distance, he could see Seo Yoon walking toward them.
No taxis could make it into this area, so that much was inevitable.
She was carrying a large case in both hands.
Presumably, that was the prosthetic arm.
"Phew, that's a big one."
Murmuring that, Lee Jun raised a hand and waved to her.
Beyond her, the sunset was sinking low.
At his wave, Seo Yoon's steps quickened in a peculiar way.
The sight drew a laugh out of him.
After one great ordeal, it was everyday life once more.
Chapter 3 Complete
To Be Continued?