The Monster Outside the Gate

What kind of morning-drama nonsense was this.

"Ahaha... so Jin's here. That was quick."

"I asked why you're holding his hand!"

Kim Jin demanded, his face flushed with a vaguely panicked pallor. Seong Ju-ah heaved one sigh after another. And then, there was me.

"Don't tell me...? You dumped me and chose that guy?!"

"Jin, whatever you're imagining, it's not that."

"How could you do this to me after everything we've been through!"

"After everything we've what? We're just friends!"

"Just friends! We grew up together since we were kids... that makes us childhood sweethearts!"

Did I really have to keep listening to this conversation?

I was fairly sure I didn't.

"Hck...! If you were going to take a lover, you should've at least told me first...."

"No, seriously."

Seong Ju-ah pressed a hand to her forehead as if dizzy.

"Tae-hyun, I'm so sorry. Let me calm him down first—"

"Tae-hyun...? Lee Tae-hyun?!"

Kim Jin, who had been sobbing in silence, jerked his head up at the sound of my name. There was something chillingly, murderously sharp in his eyes.

"So you're the slippery snake who seduced Ju-ah?!"

"Like I keep saying, Tae-hyun isn't my lover or anything...!"

I could practically watch years—no, whole chunks of years—being shaved off Seong Ju-ah's lifespan every time Kim Jin committed another act of rudeness against me.

"Tae-hyun is just—"

"Hold on a moment, Seong Ju-ah. Actually, Ju-ah."

I deliberately stopped her from stopping him.

'This situation is actually pretty entertaining, isn't it?'

If things went well, I might even get my hands on information about the noble families' downfall from before my regression.

More than anything else—

'...This is fun!'

Ever since I returned to the past, I hadn't had a single chance to enjoy myself. Sure, it was all part of rooting out the degenerate I used to be.

But come on. Who can live on plain rice alone?

You've got to have some meat now and then.

"I'll have a word with him myself."

"Ah... right. Um, why did you suddenly drop the formalities...?"

"Why not? Between you and me."

"Between you and meeee?!"

Kim Jin's face mottled red and blue.

"You're that close with Ju-ah?!"

"Yeah, close. We even flew to Jeju Island together."

"Je... Jeju Island...?! Really?"

"Mm... that's true, I guess...?"

The B-rank gate had been on Jeju Island, so Seong Ju-ah had accompanied me as the Bureau's guide.

"And Ju-ah once ran all the way across the city first thing in the morning just to see me."

"...That's also true...."

She'd come all the way to the Sword Sect just to deliver a single message.

"And when I disappeared, she tore the entire country apart looking for me until she finally found me."

"Wait, that doesn't sound quite—! Whew... yes, it does."

Who was it that came running first when I was kidnapped by the Fist King?

Seong Ju-ah. That's who.

"That about covers it, doesn't it?"

"Hrrghh! This can't be...."

Kim Jin's legs wobbled.

The charisma of the hunter I'd seen on screen was nowhere to be found; now he looked as unsteady as a newborn calf.

"Then what are you? What gives you the right to wedge yourself between me and Ju-ah?"

"I... I'm...!"

Barely catching himself before he toppled over, Kim Jin glared at me and declared:

"I'm Ju-ah's one and only friend. We've grown up side by side since we were children."

"Grew up side by side, you say?"

"We've been friends since the Fist Sect days...."

Ah. So that's how it was.

'Seong Ju-ah is the Fist King's niece, and Kim Jin is the Fist King's disciple.'

The picture was coming together nicely.

"I see. And?"

"And...?"

"Surely that's not the whole story?"

Smirk!

The corner of my mouth curled upward, twisted and menacing, all on its own.

"If you don't appeal to old feelings, then 'just friends' is exactly where the relationship ends. Is that it?"

"Wh... what are you—"

"If you're nothing but a friend, then whoever Ju-ah dates is none of your ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠business, is it?"

Kim Jin took a step back.

"Whoever she sees, whatever she does—as her friend, you stay on your side of the line."

"Ghk...! You bastard...!"

Kim Jin's fist clenched tight. A thick, inky qi seeped up from it, dark and slow.

So this is what the Fist King's disciple could do.

'I'm curious, though.'

Just how big was the gap between my qi and his right now?

...Maybe we should find out?

"You... you're my opponent in the next Guild War, aren't you."

Before my curiosity could be satisfied, Kim Jin drew his qi back in and warned me in a low, level voice.

"Be ready."

"Looking forward to it."

He turned on his heel and strode out of the corridor without another word. All that remained were two abandoned cups of coffee, Seong Ju-ah—

"...Tae-hyun?"

—and me.

"Yes?"

"I think you and I have a lot to talk about."

"Haha, I'm afraid I'm rather busy."

"You did ask for a Bureau escort, didn't you?"

"We can discuss that later."

As she grabbed my fleeing arm, I glimpsed it in her eyes.

"And where exactly are you rushing off to?"

A glimpse of the Seong Ju-ah I'd seen before my regression—the one who became Director of the Hunter Bureau.

"Whew... fine. Jin did get in your face first, so I'll let it slide."

An unexpectedly short tea time had somehow been arranged. Seong Ju-ah fiddled with her paper cup and unloaded her grievances.

"Jin... Kim Jin, I mean, has been my friend for ages. We grew up together in the Fist Sect."

"I thought as much."

"My uncle brought him home when we were little, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and we lived under the same roof. That's how Jin naturally became a disciple of the Fist Sect. Thankfully, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his potential rank turned out to be A."

There was a faint bitterness threaded through her voice.

"After I got my job at the Hunter Bureau and left the Fist Sect, Jin went and joined Silla Guild just to prove something, I guess. Honestly, who knows what goes on in his head...."

I hadn't expected there to be a hidden backstory like this behind Kim Jin.

"Could the two of you perhaps be... lovers?"

"Gahk! Don't even joke about that."

"Why not? A hunter of Kim Jin's caliber is handsome, and—well, I couldn't speak for his personality—but he's popular, isn't he?"

I did think his personality wasn't bad... though that opinion had died roughly two minutes ago.

"To me, Jin is honestly like a little brother. My uncle treats him like a son, so it feels even more that way."

"Is that so?"

"Of course. If anything... "

Seong Ju-ah trailed off mid-sentence, her words suddenly going vague. She stared at me for a long moment, then dropped her gaze and mumbled at the floor.

"If anything... what?"

"Ah... it's nothing."

She cleared her throat for no reason and straightened herself before speaking again.

"Honestly, it's not that I don't know how Jin feels about me."

"Well... it would be stranger if you didn't know."

Let's be blunt and stick strictly to the facts: Kim Jin liked Seong Ju-ah. As a friend, naturally. And as a woman, too.

"Haah... I just don't know how to turn him down."

"What is there to think about? Cut it clean. Off with it."

"Easy for you to say. What if Jin ends up hurt...?"

"He'll get hurt—that's a given. Do you believe a rejection without hurt exists anywhere in this world?"

People are creatures built of greed. Get one thing, and you want one more. Acquire a hundred, and you'll fight tooth and nail not to lose a single one.

"People get hurt no matter what. Which is exactly why the cut has to be made in one stroke—so no new shoots sprout from the same wound."

I made a scissors shape with my index and middle fingers.

"Leave no room for hope. Snip. If you don't, a wound that could have ended as one becomes two. Then three."

"......."

Seong Ju-ah stared blankly into my eyes.

"Ahem. That was getting a bit preachy of me. Sorry."

"No, really. Thank you. That was good advice."

"Well... I've got what I came for, so I'll be off."

My face was heating up—I'd apparently gone and delivered a full sermon. Fanning myself with a hand, I hurried out of the Hunter Bureau building.

I regretted it.

No matter how I looked at it, I regretted it.

Why did I have to go opening my mouth with all that unnecessary talk?

"...And yet."

It wasn't the words themselves I regretted.

Nothing is crueler than offering a sliver of hope to something hopeless.

'Kim Jin and Seong Ju-ah. And the Fist Sect.'

Now I roughly understood how things had played out before my regression.

'Hmm... if I work this angle properly, I might be able to swallow the Fist Sect whole.'

The Sword Sect and the Fist Sect. The two great pillars propping up the Four Great Sects—indirectly, I could claim them both for Cheonseong.

'Just imagining it makes my mouth water.'

I was smacking my lips as I walked down the street when—

Wooooong—

The phone in my pocket buzzed, blaring an alarm.

"...Huh?"

What on earth was this supposed to mean?

"An... unidentified monstrous creature?"

Had something like this happened before my regression?

A monster appearing near City Hall Station at this point in time...

'No. It never did.'

Nothing like this had ever occurred in this era. If I had to name the closest comparable incident—

"Jung Min-chul...!"

—it was when that man, the one who had tried to kill me inside the gate, came back as a monster.

Grotesquely warped, crushed and mangled beyond any hope of being called human—Jung Min-chul. The world had named him a "monstrous creature."

'I don't know what's going on, but.'

I had to go.

"City Hall Station is right nearby!"

I broke into a dead run without a moment's hesitation, drawing a silver spear from my subspace as I went.

"Surround it! Don't let the thing escape somewhere else—if it goes on a rampage here, it'll be a massacre!"

A short-haired hunter breathed shallow and quick, sword raised. He was a C-rank hunter under the Hunter Bureau's banner.

He was a seasoned professional with plenty of gate experience under his belt, a man who'd faced his share of monsters.

'But this is my first time facing a monster outside a gate...!'

Monsters outside gates generally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠came down to two scenarios: something summoned by a summoner-type hunter, or something dragged out of a gate using a special extraction item.

Both were vanishingly rare, and no one had ever prepared for them properly.

'On top of that, only hunters with slack in their schedules got dispatched this time.'

Himself—a C-rank—plus two or three D-ranks. That was the entirety of their force.

And worse—

"Whoa, is that thing a monster? It's hideously ugly."

"Why is there a monster outside a gate?"

"Hey, film it! Film it!"

—they couldn't even control the civilians properly amid the chaos. Which meant that if the creature slipped free, it could end in slaughter.

"We take it down here!"

Steeling himself, he poured mana into his blade.

They were professionals—trained by the Hunter Bureau, low-ranked though they were. And the capital's side held the overwhelming advantage.

"Hit it all at once!"

"Sir!"

"Understood!"

If they attacked in unison, the monster wouldn't be able to do a thing. The Bureau hunters all charged at once.

But—

"Ghk!"

"AAARGH!"

The monster was stronger than they'd imagined.

Its tentacles lashed in erratic, unpredictable arcs, cleaving through the D-rank hunters and knocking the entire line out of commission in one sweep.

"You damn—!"

He was the only one left who'd managed to sever a tentacle and land a solid hit. His blade had sunk deep into the monster's chest.

'Now I twist it and finish this!'

The instant he moved to wrench the sword—

KRAKK!

A massive set of teeth punched clean through his arm.

"AAAAAAGH!"

Bladed tentacles came flying in after it. He tried desperately to yank his sword free, but the arm skewered by those teeth only got mangled worse with every movement.

'Is... is this how I die?'

Despair and terror crushed down on him like a weight.

And then—

BOOM!

A spear of flame tore through the air and struck the monster square in the head.

"KYAAAAAAAAAK!"

"...I threw that to kill it. I suppose it's still lacking—C-rank monsters really don't die easy, huh?"

Lee Tae-hyun scratched his head and closed the distance to the creature in a single stride.

"This is going to hurt a bit."

"Excuse...? Wha—AAAACK!"

In one motion, Tae-hyun ripped the hunter's arm free of the monster's teeth and splashed a potion over the wound. The mangled, blood-soaked arm gradually regenerated, fresh skin knitting over the ruin.

"KYAAAAAA!"

Fire blazing from its head, the monster thrashed wildly and slammed its skull against the pavement again and again.

"It's a hunter! Another hunter's here!"

"Wait... isn't that Lee Tae-hyun?!"

All this unscripted attention was, as always, a burden—but that wasn't what mattered right now.

"You're in the way. Get back."

"Yes...? Ah...! Y-yes, sir!"

Tae-hyun shooed the hunter aside and took up his spear.

'...It looks similar.'

Yes—distressingly similar. The Jung Min-chul of my first life, warped and twisted into a monster.

It wasn't exactly the same, but even instinct told me the two carried the same stench.

"What the hell are you?"

"Kehegek?!"

"Though there is one difference."

At the very least, the Jung Min-chul monster had been able to speak human words. The thing in front of him was presumably an inferior specimen, a rank below.

'Which means—'

He could subdue it alone, easily.

"Come, monster."

A dark crimson aura coiled around Lee Tae-hyun's spear.