Chapter 147
Chapter 147
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Bye, Farewell in the Ruined World
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0.
If you really want to hear it, I'll tell you briefly.
But it won't be a pleasant story. There's no such thing in the north.
First off, let me say this.
I wasn't a Hunter.
"What did you just say...?"
Don't ask questions. Just listen.
April 5, 2045. The day the world ended—it was my mom who got chosen as a Hunter.
How did she awaken?
When you ask like that, she said she just charged at the Heteromorphs like crazy to protect me, and it happened.
My mom exists.
To me, she was always a hero.
Even as a single mother, she devoted her whole life to sending me to college.
Want to see this photo for a sec?
I look like her, right? My mom was a pretty well-known photographer... No, never mind, I won't talk about that.
But why didn't Mom remarry?
I only found out later. She was afraid the new husband might abuse me or favor his own kids...
Sorry. I rambled too much.
Back to 2045.
Mom was a pretty respected Hunter in Nowon-gu. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Song Chan-woon.
"Song Chan-woon? The Pope?"
Yeah.
That bastard Song Chan-woon... At first, he pretended to be such a good guy. Hell, he still does.
- Come to me, everyone. I'll give you food, drink, and a place to sleep.
All it cost was prayer.
Just pray in thanks to the Holy Apostles that Song Chan-woon served.
Nowon-gu seemed like it was starting off happily.
But.
Right after the First Subordinate raid.
Everything changed once Hwang Ga-in and Choi Sin-yul showed up.
The balance of power shattered in an instant.
"Well... Most Nightmare Hunters are pragmatists, after all."
"Yeah. They flocked to Hwang Ga-in one by one. Especially since Choi Sin-yul was insanely strong."
The only ones who suspected the source of Hwang Ga-in and Choi Sin-yul's power were my mom and her comrades.
Things started getting weirder and weirder.
More and more Hunters weren't coming back from hunts. And even those who did were coming back half-mad.
And then Mom.
One day, she just didn't come back.
I was scared.
Terrified. Afraid I'd never see Mom again. Afraid that even if she did come back, she'd be like that.
That's when I went to see Song Chan-woon.
I was crazy... But at the time, I was so desperate... Song Chan-woon welcomed me warmly and said,
- You're worried about your mother and want to help, right?
- Yes...! I heard you say before... that even ordinary citizens can help Hunters...
- Hmm... Miss Min-young's case is a bit different. You want to go hunting in your mother's place, don't you?
I shouldn't have answered that question from Song Chan-woon.
But I did.
Because I couldn't stand Mom being in more danger.
- Good. Do you think your mother would want that too?
- Yes! Definitely!
- I see! Excellent. We must give opportunities like this to pure-hearted people like you, Miss Min-young.
At that moment.
"You arrived just in time."
He added those cryptic words. I understood what they meant right away.
The place Song Chan-woon took me was an operating room.
"Operating room?"
He calls it a prayer room, but it's just a human dissection lab.
"Good lord."
And there was Mom.
My mom, who had disappeared three days ago... chained to that bed.
- M-Mom!
- Hold on. You can't go closer yet.
- Why, why not?
- Your mom has a bad illness right now. Be a good girl and wait until I cure her.
The treatment was obviously bullshit.
What Song Chan-woon was researching then was turning humanity into divinity.
"Turning humanity into divinity...? How...?"
Do you even know what humanity is, oppa? You look like you do.
Whatever.
Don't wanna answer? Fine. It wasn't anything special.
Just... cut and break the body until the mind collapses, until human emotions vanish from the pain.
- How is it?
Song Chan-woon would cut off Mom's leg and watch, twist her joints weirdly and watch, crush her fingers one by one and watch, even gouge out her eyeballs.
- Is anger still left in that heart? Despair? Oh dear, we're still far off.
Know why torture works best on Hunters?
Their body parts keep regenerating.
I had to watch the whole thing, my hands and feet bound by Song Chan-woon's robed monks.
Why didn't I pass out.
Why did I have to see the whole horrific scene from start to finish.
That sight is still burned into my eyes... Anyway, something clearly worked.
From the moment Mom stopped even sobbing... something like mist emerged from her body.
It all got sucked into Song Chan-woon's unique weapon, [Ice Realm].
- Good. Excellent...! To think there's a human with such dense humanity...!
Song Chan-woon finally approached me, his whole body splattered in dark bloodstains.
- You said you wanted to hunt in your mother's place?
- ....
- Shall we see if that's possible? Let's test it.
Song Chan-woon shone the [Ice Realm] on me right then. The mist... the mist that had been sucked out of Mom poured into my body.
I don't know what happened after that.
At that moment, I...
Felt pain like my whole body was being torn apart... had visions of floating somewhere in space... then suddenly saw some light....
A dark blue flash....
The moment I saw it, my eyes snapped open.
In front of me, Song Chan-woon and his group were clapping in celebration.
- Wow... We've finally succeeded for the first time!
"Success...? What do you mean?"
What else?
They succeeded in turning an ordinary person into a Hunter experimentally.
- It's a shame Iquillas's spirit didn't possess her... but you've been through so much. Miss Min-young. And Miss Hye-ri.
I just sat there blankly.
Even with Mom turned into a monster right in front of me, I didn't respond, just nodded.
Because.
[The time has not yet come. Wait.]
The Holy Apostle who chose me told me to do so.
[Act like a doll... do everything as ordered... and wait.]
That's the reason I got.
[Iquillas's soul is bound here. Even if killed, the soul goes to Iquillas and becomes a slave.]
So I did that.
Lived like a doll, doing everything Song Chan-woon ordered.
Song Chan-woon didn't kill me either. Maybe because I was his one success?
Thanks to the act, I was able to rescue Mom. We faked her death during the Seventh Subordinate hunt.
I don't know how I've stayed sane this long.
Maybe that punk I Haram was right, and I'm already crazy.
But it doesn't matter.
Now... I've reached my goal.
1.
After Gong Min-young finished her story.
A suffocating silence settled over the bathhouse.
The only sounds were "Mom" howling and the clank of chains.
This world... what a world...
I opened my mouth, fighting nausea rising like vertigo.
"How... how have you endured all this time...?"
"My mom?"
"You! You mean you! Your heart!"
Gong Min-young answered with a blank smile. Lee Seong-mi asked.
"But she won't die even if killed, right...? We should ask the Chairman..."
"He said that sword is different."
"Different...? How?"
"The only power that can sever the bond with outer space."
Lee Seong-mi glanced at me for a moment, and I nodded.
Not surprising.
Even Paul, who was an Apostle, not a Holy Apostle, knew about it.
"Now you get it? You know the whole story."
Gong Min-young pointed at her mom with her cane.
"Let my mom... rest now."
I looked at "Mom."
Not a shred of reason left... just a rampaging beast...
"Please."
Knowing that, the Dawn Sword felt like a lump of lead, growing heavier.
-Do you know why my mom never remarried?
I snatched the photo from Gong Min-young's hand.
A woman beaming brightly while holding a five-year-old girl.
[With my cutie♡]
I flipped the photo, my eyes drawn to the writing on the back.
"Cutie was your nickname?"
"Yeah. Mom's exclusive patent."
I suddenly wondered.
What was she feeling when this photo was taken?
When she was losing her humanity in front of her daughter? And now, showing her mad form in front of her daughter?
"Really... no other way? Besides this?"
"Yeah. None. Even if there is, only Song Chan-woon would know."
A sigh escaped my lips.
The tip of the barely raised Dawn Sword trembled faintly.
"Do you really want me to kill her...?"
"Kill her for you"—the phrasing felt absurdly funny.
Maybe a new expression coined since the world ended.
"Yeah."
Gong Min-young nodded blankly at my question.
"Mom's at her limit now too. Look at that body...! What if she just drops dead suddenly?"
"......"
"And that soul?"
"............"
"Won't it suffer like that forever?"
Then she drew her thumb across her throat.
"This is the best way to send her off now."
"But this is your mom."
Gong Min-young laughed boldly.
It was an empty laugh. A dried-up laugh devoid of mirth.
"That's my mom? It was, once. Now it's just a monster... I asked you, please."
"You really want this?"
"I want it! Fuck, how many times do I have to say it? Kill her, please! Kill her! Kill that thing! Look at her! Is that human? Human?! Why do you keep hesitating!"
Was it her emotions flaring up?
Gong Min-young spewed curses and frustration in a loud voice. But her eyes glistened with moisture.
"The reason I kept asking."
That's why I answered.
"I'm afraid you might regret this decision someday, so I asked three times total."
Gong Min-young, who had been panting, stared at me blankly for a moment.
"But your resolve is that firm..."
I slowly drew my left palm up along the Dawn Sword's blade.
Blood soaked the blade.
For some reason, that pain today... pierced deeper into my chest.
"Come forth."
Cracks in the blade emitted light.
The light turned into threads of dawn, rising up to brilliantly envelop the broken greatsword.
"Divinity."
A crimson blade forged in darkness. The bathhouse darkness burned away in mystical flames and retreated.
"Chairman..."
I gestured for the approaching Lee Seong-mi to stop.
"Step back. Blood will splatter."
I gave Gong Min-young one last glance. Her eyes were fixed on my Dawn Sword.
"Any last words?"
"None."
"Really?"
"Really. This is enough."
Gong Min-young carefully folded the photo and tucked it into her sleeve pocket.
"You've... worked hard."
I looked at "Mom" and said. To the being that was only howling with its mouth agape like a beast.
"Now... rest in peace, as your daughter wishes."
And that day.
Right after the Great Library raid.
What [Master of the Broken Dawn] had told me resonated in my chest.
- Hunting is a funeral rite.
I gripped the hilt tightly and stepped forward.
- Paying the utmost respect to one who was once human.
KIaaaaaaaakkkkkK......!
"Mom" howled and thrust her head at me like a monster.
- Remembering that honor one last time.
I quietly brought the divine blade before its eyes.
- So that honor won't be sullied any further.
Thus... I had to chant the incantation.
- Because it's a rite that grants peace to blood gone mad.
"Pierce."
With just the first incantation.
Dawnlight surged from the divine Dawn Sword's blade like waves, gathering at the tip. And.
"Divinity."
The moment I uttered the final incantation.
The dawnlight concentrated at the tip... erupted in a flash, exploding forward.
"Mom."
It was right then.
Gong Min-young murmured in a tear-choked voice.
"I'm sorry... for always rotten inside... Why don't I have a dad...? I said shit like that, huh? Really... really sorry..."
The Dawn formed a wedge, swirling and crashing straight into "Mom"'s face.
"For not... studying hard... always... making you come to school... when you were busy... sorry...?"
Dawn's flames incinerated that face... that upper body... that lower body... into ashes.
"That time... I couldn't... save you right away... only now... only now coming... really... sorry..."
Mom didn't scream.
A hallucination? In the swirl of Dawn, the last thing I saw... was her face.
"But... but now... rest... sleep soundly..."
Before becoming a monster.
That youthful, beautiful face.
"Don't ever wake up again... You said you wanted to sleep forever... so... got it...?"
I clearly saw her shaking her head toward Gong Min-young, tears streaming down.
Got it... got it... got it...
The dawn storm subsided.
The echoes ringing through the vast bathhouse interior finally quieted.
After a long silence, I finally raised my head to look at Gong Min-young... and was shocked.
"It's done. All done. Feels so refreshing now."
Gong Min-young, quickly wiping her tears, just seemed blank.
"Why that face? I'm fine. Now. All good, I said."
"Good?"
Why.
The rage surging in my chest at that moment burst out.
"Good my ass! What's good about any of this!"
Gong Min-young's eyes widened.
I pointed with the Dawn Sword to where "Mom" had been until just now.
"That was your mother! The one and only... your birth mother in your long life...!"
"......"
"You just lost her! You'll never... ever... see her again... and it's good? Really good...? You mean that?"
Gong Min-young's brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, lips slowly curling up.
Her face crumpled like it was falling apart.
Tears burst from her eyes, sobs from her mouth.
"So... what... what do you... want me... to do... what...?"
"Let's go."
At that moment, the Dawn Sword rang out—ZING—from my grip.
"Let's go catch that bastard Song Chan-woon."
The laws of the hunt hadn't changed.
I had to return to the nightmare... the nightmare humans created.
"That fucker... a beast who did this...! Even if you forgive him... I won't. I absolutely won't forgive him."
And I... want to go back to that place again.