The Liar
“…It was foul working with you all this time.”
The more I’d trusted them, the sharper the betrayal cut.
I never imagined there would come a day when those words would leave my mouth.
Bitter as it was, I had already made up my mind.
“From now on, let’s never see each other again.”
With that one line, I cut away every tie I’d spent all this time building.
Kang Hanna and Yoon Seah looked wounded, but I couldn’t have cared less.
Fine. Maybe you had your reasons. Maybe Choi Jinchul had threatened you, or bribed you, or both.
But even if you couldn’t stand with me, you shouldn’t have lied to my face.
More than that, even while wearing those expressions, even at the very end, they hadn’t tried to stop me.
So there was no reason for me to stay here any longer.
“Then go on and leave, Lee Seoyun. If you end up in prison, I’ll even send you some spending money!”
Choi Jinchul said it while snickering to the very end.
I wanted to wipe that grin off his face right then and there, but I barely held myself back.
I didn’t care what happened to me, but if I did that, Jian would be dragged into it too, along with everyone else precious to me.
Instead of wasting another breath on him, I turned and left the guild leader’s office.
“Seoyun...”
I heard someone call my name from behind, but I ignored it completely.
Whoever it was, it didn’t matter. We were done.
Once I stepped out into the hallway, I took out my phone and started checking the situation.
I didn’t even need to search for my name. The news headlines were already plastered with it.
Politics, entertainment, hunters, current affairs—it was the same everywhere.
Not just the news. The entire community was buzzing about me.
“Ha...”
I stopped reading and shoved the phone away.
The situation was far worse than I’d expected. No matter where I looked, all I saw was abuse and baseless rumors about me.
They were even talking about me in the National Assembly. At this rate, being framed was only the beginning; getting thrown in prison was just a matter of time.
“Haha... So what the hell has my life been until now?”
I’d entered gates to save civilians, and for them I’d been willing to endure pain without complaint.
I’d come close to death more times than I could count, but fear had never made me give up. I’d believed that was my duty as a hunter.
And this gate had been no different.
To protect people, I hadn’t hesitated to enter an A-rank gate, and to save other hunters, I’d even fought the Death Knight.
But no matter how much I sacrificed my body, all that came back to me was criticism and pointing fingers.
“If I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve just let them die...”
The thought that should never come out of a hunter’s mouth slipped out anyway.
And yet, I didn’t regret saying it.
...No, if anything, I felt lighter.
“For now, I should head home. Jian will be waiting.”
There was nothing else I could do here anyway.
I was worried about Jian being alone, and I decided I’d think about what to do only after I got back.
“Hey, hey. Look over there. Isn’t that senior Lee Seoyun?”
As I walked down the hall, the hunters and staff who spotted me started whispering among themselves.
“Senior? Please. I heard he hid like a coward while the boss was right in front of him. What kind of hunter does that?”
“I still can’t believe it. He used to take care of us whenever we ran raids together, and he was always the first one to charge in...”
“That was all fake. People’s true nature comes out when things get dangerous, right? The second he thought he might die, his real personality showed. And the rest of the hunters were the ones who paid for it.”
“Come to think of it, didn’t senior Seojin say he was still in the hospital? And senior Seah too... Everyone looks miserable except for him.”
Everyone in the hallway had their eyes on me.
I had plenty to say, but I ignored every last word. Reacting here was exactly what they wanted.
Rather than waste my breath on those idiots, it was far smarter to go home and figure out a plan.
“S-senior...”
But I couldn’t bring myself to ignore the junior standing right in front of me.
Han Yeseul was staring up at me with a face that looked ready to burst into tears.
“Senior, I heard everything that happened. So please, tell me.”
“Yeseul...”
“I want to hear it directly from you.”
Her voice trembled as she said it.
Looking at her like that, I hesitated for a moment. Maybe Yeseul really would understand.
Kang Hanna and Yoon Seah had both known and pretended not to, but she really did seem to have no idea what was going on.
So if she learned the truth, wouldn’t she be the one person who’d stand by me?
Yeah. I don’t need to cut off every tie I’ve ever made.
I wasn’t asking her to help me. If she did, she’d be dragged into this too.
I only wanted her to know the truth.
That alone would be enough.
It would be a tremendous comfort. A great source of strength.
“Yeseul. Listen carefully. All the rumors going around right now are lies. I didn’t do any of that.”
“...Huh?”
“It was all that bastard Choi Jinchul’s doing. He fabricated the evidence and even the witnesses, then pinned Cha Seojin’s crime on me.”
“...”
At my explanation, she lowered her head instead of answering.
And for a while, she said nothing at all.
Would she believe me?
“...Senior.”
After a brief silence, she lifted her head and met my eyes.
“I’m disappointed.”
Her eyes, always as clear as a blue sky, had gone cold.
She looked at me with an expression I had never seen from her before.
“I can’t believe you’d keep lying even in a situation like this. I never imagined you’d say that to me.”
“Yeseul...?”
“That isn’t the kind of thing I wanted to hear from you...”
Her eyes reddened as she spoke.
But all that remained in the way she looked at me was disappointment and betrayal.
“I wanted to hear your sincerity, senior. I thought you’d truly be reflecting and repentant, but how could you do this!?”
“I told you already. It wasn’t something I did in the first place. Choi Jinchul set it all up with the others...”
“So now you’re blaming other people too?”
She cut me off and said it with a cold face.
There wasn’t a trace left of the gaze that used to admire me.
“The hunters who went in that day all pointed the finger at you. On top of that, there’s video of you running away inside the gate, and the weapon you left behind was found too. How are you going to explain that?”
“I told you. It was all fabricated. Videos can be edited however you want, and that weapon was something I used to carry. I gave it to Choi Jinchul ages ago. He must’ve thrown it into the gate and staged the whole thing.”
“...Liar.”
No matter how much truth I spoke, she wouldn’t listen.
Instead, the look in her eyes only grew colder.
“How long are you going to keep denying it? If you’d just admitted your crime and reflected on it, I would’ve waited for you as long as it took...”
“...”
“But it’s over now. Please don’t ever speak to me again.”
She walked right past me without even looking at my face.
Laughter and mockery spilled in from all around, and I stood there alone.
Just like that, another tie had snapped.
And each time it happened, something inside my chest went dark a little more.
“Of course... What the hell was I expecting?”
My face was ridiculous. All that came out of me was a self-mocking laugh.
I left the guild behind, their contemptuous stares following me.
There were civilians and reporters packed all around the front of the guild, so I had to head for the rooftop.
I leapt between buildings with my ability, then landed in an alley where no one could see me and hid myself away.
I’ll have to stay here until sunset.
There was no point going home now. I’d only become easy prey for reporters and YouTubers. Better to slip back in under cover of darkness.
While I rested, I checked the situation on my phone.
But in the brief time I’d been gone, public opinion against me had grown even worse.
Everyone had already decided I was the culprit, and the National Assembly was discussing my punishment.
On top of that, all kinds of malicious rumors about me were spreading—one of them was even a video of me snatching Cha Seojin’s phone inside the gate.
Even the insults I’d casually traded with Choi Jinchul in private had been spread across the whole community, and yesterday’s curses at him before entering the gate were there too, preserved perfectly.
Of course, every insult Choi Jinchul had hurled at me had been edited out.
Thanks to that, the comments were full of shit about how I’d been rude to the guild leader and how my true colors had finally shown.
“Now they’re losing their minds over every little thing.”
By this point, the truth didn’t matter anymore.
Just breathing would be enough reason for them not to forgive me.
Even if I tried to reveal the truth, Choi Jinchul wouldn’t sit still. He’d drag out every connection he had and try to bury me for good.
“If I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve torn that bastard Choi Jinchul apart before I left.”
I let out a dry laugh at the thought.
If I was doomed anyway, that would’ve been the better option.
“Hah. At this point, maybe I should just take Jian and run off to some rural town or overseas.”
I’d be expelled from the Hunter Association soon enough anyway. There was no reason to cling to the title of S-rank hunter anymore.
I had plenty of money saved up. If I was going to get dragged down like this, it was better to disappear somewhere far away.
“Whatever. Living quietly and farming might not be so bad. Or maybe I could open a shop overseas.”
Come to think of it, Jian liked macarons, didn’t she?
Maybe this was as good a time as any to open a macaron shop.
As I was making plans for the future, I suddenly felt a gaze on my back.
“Hm?”
When I turned around, I doubted my own eyes.
There was no way this bastard should’ve been here.
“Why the hell are you here?”
“...”
“Last time you even talked. Now you’re just wandering around like it’s nothing.”
I stared at the Death Knight in disbelief.
Wrapped head to toe in black armor, he didn’t move an inch.
“You said you’d wait until I got stronger. What, did you change your mind and come to kill me?”
I drew my sword and asked, but he still didn’t answer.
He only stood there, staring straight at me without blinking.
Looks like he’d come to settle things with me.
But why was it...
“…….”
For some reason, he looked furious.