Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Silence is Gold and Misunderstanding is Diamond
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"Han Jaewoo...?"
Bloodshot red eyes.
A ferocious killing intent, as if ready to tear a person apart right then and there, poured out from the 190-centimeter hulking frame of Kang Taesan as he stomped forward.
His irreplaceable cherished lettuce field.
And the humble peace of that other world, mercilessly trampled.
This was the step of pure, wronged fury directed at the culprit behind all that tragedy, the root of all evil.
But to the hundreds of people and Hunters in the Hunter Association lobby, Kang Taesan's appearance looked entirely different.
Skin charred black by the sun.
Beast-like muscles bulging and throbbing as if about to burst.
A grotesque beast hide crudely stitched together and thrown over his shoulders, wielding a massive bone axe as thick as a utility pole, approaching while shedding tears of blood—a murderous fiend from another world.
The past incident flashed through every Hunter's mind in the lobby: the mad Returnee who returned draped in orc hide, turning the lobby into a bloodbath and leaving it in ruins.
That horrific trauma swept through their heads.
"Th-that crazy barbarian is targeting Hunter Han Jaewoo!"
Someone's desperate shout shattered the silence.
Just then, the elite agents from Guardian Guild—who had been lurking in a corner of the lobby, waiting for a chance to scout Han Jaewoo—leaped into action.
They were all veteran experts, at minimum B-Rank, up to A-Rank.
Especially the man in the lead, an A-Rank tanker wielding a massive shield.
He drew mana from his dantian to its limit and slammed his enormous tower shield into the lobby floor.
"Defensive formation, everyone! Block that monster now!"
A dazzling blue mana barrier firmly rose in the middle of the lobby.
It was Guardian Guild's signature absolute defense line, capable of blocking even a full-charge rush from most large monsters without a scratch.
But Kang Taesan, blinded by rage, did not stop.
"Ah, get out of the way. I have business with that guy."
Kang Taesan had no intention of attacking them.
Like swatting an annoying fly blocking his path, he merely swung the massive back of his hand holding the bone axe lightly through the air.
No skill activated.
No mana gathered.
Pure physical force, 100% from the body honed by S-Rank environmental adaptation.
The moment that casual gesture touched the blue mana barrier...
Kwaaaang-!
A horrific explosion, like a massive dump truck crashing head-on at 200 kilometers per hour, shook the Association lobby.
"Kuhuk!"
"Uwaaaak!"
Their boasted A-Rank mana shield shattered like thin glass.
With just one light backhand swipe.
The five veteran Hunters blocking his way flew off like bowling pins, pathetically.
Their bodies soared through the air for over ten meters before slamming into the lobby's marble walls, vomiting blood in unison and passing out.
"...!!"
Not even a scream escaped as the entire lobby froze like the dead in an instant.
No one could breathe.
Neither the barrier, nor their sturdy armor, nor their experience meant anything.
He had blown away A-Rank tankers with pure physical force, untainted by mana.
It was, without doubt, the power of an S-Rank monster.
And.
Han Jaewoo, who had witnessed that horrific, unreal S-Rank power from just a few meters away in the front row, was wailing desperately inside.
'Uwaaaah! Mommm!'
His poor soul had already fled his mouth and was boating down the Jordan River.
Those Hunters who just flew off—they were the real deal, masters who could dust Han Jaewoo himself in under a minute even if he used Imperial Knight Order Swordsmanship.
And he cleared them in one second, with a single backhand?
Moreover, the absolute armor protecting his body right now, the Mithril Frock Coat, was torn to shreds from the last gate, reduced to wearing it like underwear inside.
The luxury coat draped over it had defense stats approaching zero—just an expensive scrap of fabric.
If that utility pole-thick arm grabbed his collar, his slender neck bones would snap like autumn herring. No, he might physically separate into Han and Jaewoo.
'Run! Turn around and bolt! Where's the emergency exit!'
His survival instincts screamed warnings at his brain like mad.
But he couldn't take a single step back.
It wasn't courage. His legs were completely paralyzed from extreme terror—a perfect temporary freeze.
Kang Taesan, who had brushed aside the Hunters without spilling a drop of blood, finally loomed right in front of Han Jaewoo's nose.
190 centimeters tall.
But he felt like a mountain range at least three meters high, casting a thick shadow over Han Jaewoo.
At that moment.
Between the two, a thick dimensional resonance unique to Returnees from the same world began to ripple.
The surrounding air sank heavy like waterlogged cotton, crushing with suffocating pressure.
Along with the scent of wild beast at Han Jaewoo's nose came a strangely familiar, chilling rose fragrance.
The onlookers couldn't even breathe properly.
The legendary arrogant newbie who solo-farmed an S-Rank mana stone.
And the merciless S-Rank barbarian who swatted A-Rank Hunters like flies.
In the breathless standoff that seemed about to collapse the Association, Kang Taesan ground his teeth and opened his mouth.
"You... Because you suddenly ran off..."
His voice rumbled like a beast's growl.
Trembling terribly with rage and injustice.
"Do you know how my peaceful life got smashed to pieces?!"
It was Kang Taesan's blood-boiling shout.
The modest dream of a thirty-year-old K-youth living peacefully in the southern jungles of a romance-fantasy world, grilling meat amicably with savage tribesmen.
That small, precious peace had turned to ashes in an instant because of this damn guy's elopement.
He had every right to demand answers.
But Han Jaewoo gave no reply.
No, his jaw was frozen in terror, unable even to part his lips.
Instead, the survival-honed facial muscles of the Northern Grand Duke, ingrained over ten years, miraculously maintained composure.
He desperately steadied his trembling pupils and looked down at the bulkier Kang Taesan with a feigned bored, arrogant gaze.
A cool, deep blue gaze devoid of any emotion.
Silence.
A lofty silence of the absolute one, heavier and more overwhelming than any excuse or rage.
Kang Taesan faced that piercing, chilling gaze head-on.
In that instant.
The massive hand reaching out in rage to grab Han Jaewoo's collar twitched in midair and halted.
That gaze. That arrogant expression. That coldly sunken silence.
A loathed trauma switched on in Kang Taesan's brain like a light.
It had been just a few days ago.
The ruler of the Rosenstein Empire who stormed into the southern jungles where he lived, driven mad by this man's midnight flight.
Emperor Edelgart.
With a single casual gesture, she unleashed a red aura that erased the southern region's largest mountain peak from the map—literally.
And when he charged with his axe to protect his modest field, she beat him to dust like swatting a bug in three seconds.
That merciless absolute ruler of the other world, devoid of blood or tears.
She had set her empire aside and burned the entire world in blood to reclaim just this one Northern Grand Duke.
'Wait... What was I about to do just now?'
Kang Taesan's fevered thoughts rapidly cooled.
'Was I about to grab the collar of the husband that crazy Emperor is desperately searching for?'
If he so much as scratched this guy here in a fit of anger?
If that madwoman found out even a single hair was harmed?
Forced return to Earth means safety? Not a chance.
That lunatic would rip through the dimensional walls, chew them up, and crawl over here to yank out his spine while he still breathed.
"Th-that..."
The massive hand extended in midair began trembling like an aspen leaf.
The 190-centimeter muscular barbarian who had just exuded S-Rank ferocity and scattered Hunters like fallen leaves.
That overwhelming disaster of a beast visibly shrank, hunching his shoulders.
"Th-that... crazy woman... she's looking for you..."
As if uttering Edelgart's name directly was utmost terror, Kang Taesan muttered in a hoarse voice.
Tears of injustice and fear welled up in his bloodshot eyes.
Finally.
Unable to endure the intense PTSD and survival instincts, Kang Taesan dropped the utility pole-thick bone axe with a thud.
Thung-.
The heavy beast bone rolled across the marble floor, the only sound filling the silence.
And.
Kuwoong-!
That mountain-range-like bulk knelt with a thud at the toes of Han Jaewoo's luxury shoes.
He slammed his forehead so hard the marble cracked like a spiderweb, then prostrated and wailed sorrowfully.
"Please... please go back and rein in that crazy woman..."
"...?"
"Because you're gone, she's lost her mind and is smashing the whole world! My field! My lettuce field!! Please put a leash back on that terrifying bitch!"
The invincible barbarian who seemed ready to spray blood moments ago.
Now sobbing like a child, clutching Han Jaewoo's coat hem like a lifeline.
And the Association's guild executives and hundreds of Hunters who had been watching this absurd, unreal scene in bated breath.
Their pupils dilated to the point of tearing.
Scattered pieces of information in their heads rapidly pieced together in the most fatal, absurd direction.
'That Returnee with insane power who just swatted A-Rank Hunters like flies is trembling in fear, cautiously mentioning someone.'
'A crazy woman smashing the world. An absolute ruler from beyond dimensions in that other world.'
'And yet... even that fearsome otherworldly ruler goes berserk without that Han Jaewoo by her side?'
'That monster-like barbarian is begging for a leash? Does that mean this guy perfectly controlled that absolute being?!'
The logical conclusion was all too clear—and chilling.
What on earth could make an S-Rank-equivalent barbarian fear so?
Even this otherworldly killer who scattered them like flies couldn't handle it, prostrating and begging Han Jaewoo alone to stop that world-ending doom.
People's breaths grew raggedly abnormal.
In their eyes, Han Jaewoo was no mere strong Hunter.
In that horrific other world teeming with S-Rank monsters underfoot, he was the true shadow boss who alone tamed and controlled the absolute ruler capable of destroying the world.
The invisible absolute dark lord who leisurely shook the world's leash from the shadows, untouchable!
As blind awe and bone-deep terror pierced the heavens.
The true shadow boss and absolute dark lord, Han Jaewoo, looked down at the hulking barbarian sobbing on his leg, sweating bullets.
'She's talking about Edel...? Telling me to go back there now and rein her in?'
Chills raced up his spine, freezing it to shards.
Go back on his own to that obsessive yandere Emperor?
To Edel, he was the betrayer who flirted and gaslit her for ten years, got proposed to, then fled.
No way that possessive woman would welcome such a betrayer with "Honey, you're back."
The instant he returned, he'd be bound in sturdy mithril chains, thrown into the lightless palace basement dungeon, squeezed dry for life... No, gruesomely executed by dismemberment.
'Are you insane?! I'm scared too! What you went through was mild! I'll lose my head if I go back!'
Inside, he wanted to hug Kang Taesan tight and roll on the floor sobbing "I'm scared to death too, waaah."
But hundreds of camera lenses and smartphones flashed at him.
Absolutely, no matter what, he wouldn't return to that hellish romance-fantasy world.
3 billion earned just now—he couldn't abandon this sweet taste of capitalism.
Steeling his resolve to survive, Han Jaewoo nailed it down with the firmest, coldest voice he could muster.
"...I."
His deep blue eyes froze like a northern blizzard.
"Will not return."
It was the desperate refusal and deathbed cry of a terrified everyman.
But to the hushed onlookers, it sounded like the ruthless declaration of an absolute one mercilessly discarding a useless world.
"Aaaah... No! My field...! My lettuce...! My peace...!"
Kang Taesan despaired utterly, pounding the marble floor with his fists and wailing.
The surrounding Hunters swallowed hard at that overwhelming cruelty, goosebumps rising.
'Look at that merciless, cold resolve.'
'A whole world perishing, that monster sobbing—he doesn't blink, just discards it. A true bloodless, tearless shadow boss.'
Han Jaewoo's chilling silence was gold, and the world's ridiculous misunderstanding hardened like diamond.
Han Jaewoo's status rocketed through the atmosphere toward the stratosphere once more.;