The Shadow Lord's Resolve
As the sun began to rise, two figures stood on the rooftop of a building.
"Miss... what exactly is going on here?"
"......"
"Miss!"
"...I'm listening. The reason the job has been delayed is simple. That man has far fewer openings than I expected."
"What? But even if he's an Awakener, his combat ability should be no better than an ordinary person's..."
A sharp glare cut through the air.
"Are you saying I made a mistake?"
"N-no, not at all... It seems there was an error in the intelligence gathering. In that case, we should quickly..."
"About that intelligence gathering. I'll handle it myself."
"What?! No, Miss, that would be far too much of a waste for someone of your position..."
The man who called himself Mumeong—No Face—was openly displaying his panic for all to see.
"He's hidden his information so thoroughly that even our network couldn't uncover it. It would be dangerous to approach recklessly, so I'll take care of it personally."
As if to say there would be no further argument, Baek Seolha issued the warning and then vanished into the shadows like a ghost.
Inside, she thought to herself, I can't let my guard down anymore. The moment I see an opening, I have to kill him. Yeah!
If she had looked at herself in a mirror, she would have seen not a cold-blooded assassin, but a girl head over heels in her first love. Of course, she herself would never admit it.
After that day, she began visiting the café frequently. We talked about all sorts of things.
The peculiar part was that she always showed up close to closing time.
Does she dislike crowded places?
Her visits were always welcome. As time passed, we grew closer, and eventually we even dropped the formal speech with each other.
There were several reasons we got along so well. We shared the sense of kinship that comes with being the same age, and she was a good person, but ultimately... it was because her reactions were so entertaining.
When I poke her just right, she lets out this adorable little 'Euuang!' sound...
That said, I didn't feel any romantic attraction toward her. If anything, she felt more like a little sister. Like how Eunah used to be...
For some reason, my chest ached at the thought.
I thought I'd already thrown away all my regrets... Damn it, just forget. Forget it already!
I shook my head vigorously and stepped outside.
It was early morning. I opened the café door. The regular customers would be arriving soon.
"Time to get ready, huh?"
I rolled up my sleeves, about to start preparing, when a voice came from behind me.
"Hanseong-ah..."
"Whoa—! You scared the hell out of me."
It was Seolha. She stood there with her head hung low, as if lost in some deep worry.
Huh? How did Seolha get in? I'm sure I locked the door...
As the question flashed through my mind, Seolha delivered a shocking statement.
"I... I won't be able to see you anymore..."
Ah. Fuck. My friend is saying she's leaving and I'm over here worrying about how she got inside?
"I came to say goodbye, at least."
"Are you moving somewhere? If not, maybe we could at least exchange numbers..."
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... Please don't ask me anything more."
What could her circumstances possibly be? I thought we'd gotten pretty close, but maybe it was all just in my head.
"...I see. Then there's nothing we can do about it."
"......"
She silently gripped my shoulder tightly.
What did this mean? That she didn't want to leave?
If we only counted the time we'd actually spent together, we weren't anything particularly special. At most, a month. That's all we'd known each other. And yet, it felt like we'd become quite important to one another.
Maybe it was because we'd shared our wounds and pain through conversation. Or perhaps...
"Hanseong-ah, could you... close your eyes for a moment?"
The sight of Seolha with tears glistening in her eyes as she asked me that... It wasn't the right thing to think in a situation like this, but she looked truly beautiful.
I realized that the blurry face I'd seen when we first met had changed so much by now.
"...Okay."
The moment I closed my eyes, Seolha wrapped her arms tightly around me from behind. I could feel her warm touch.
"I don't want to... I don't want to... I don't want to leave your side..."
These weren't her usual playful complaints. They were words filled with genuine emotion.
What kind of circumstances could she possibly have...? Or was this all just my misunderstanding?
My heart was in complete turmoil.
And the emotion Seolha was currently feeling toward me was...
It was love.
I have to kill him...
Her heart screamed those words. As an assassin. As the successor of Mumeong. It demanded she take the life of the man standing before her.
It should have been easy. Whether by poison or by force, any method would work.
She had drawn up countless plans, but the moment she tried to carry them out, her body refused to obey.
It was the same now. Today was the final deadline. The excuse of gathering information wouldn't work anymore. If she dragged this out any longer, No Face—that person—would handle it himself.
Maybe... it would be better if I killed him myself.
But the part of her that was a woman in love screamed that it was wrong.
I can't...
If it had been at the very beginning, maybe. But after continuing to meet him, she had already fallen for him completely. She could no longer imagine a life without him.
And this man... he's truly a good person.
Though some personal bias had crept in, after diligently gathering information, she had confirmed his true nature. This man was the kind of genuinely good person you rarely saw these days.
Even when walking down the street, if he saw someone struggling, he would roll up his sleeves and help without hesitation. Separately from that, he donated half his monthly salary to an orphanage. Before the Gates had appeared, his school life had been not just smooth but exemplary. He was truly clean.
Just what kind of grudge could someone hold against a person like this...
The purpose behind trying to kill such a man was something her common sense simply couldn't comprehend.
I need to send him off peacefully and quickly...
She wanted to kill him without pain, but imagining him dying at her hands made her heart feel like it was being torn apart.
In a way, it was truly ridiculous. That she would feel this way. Her true nature was, after all, that of an assassin—a murderer. It had been that way since she was a child, and she had never felt any particular aversion to it.
I'm not some tragic heroine... Ha, I'm such a pathetic bitch.
She must have heard the warning not to get emotionally attached to a target dozens, hundreds of times. So why, with him of all people...
—Thump. Thump.
Why did her heart race like this?
One day, she had even imagined becoming lovers with him. But soon after, doubt had crept in.
Would someone like me—who's covered head to toe in filth—ever be worthy of Hanseong?
From his perspective, she was an unforgivable sinner.
Time marched on mercilessly, and she could no longer delay her decision. After long deliberation, she made her choice.
The worst choice. And at the same time, the best one.
She would leave him. And she would negotiate. Even if it meant she might never see him again, it was to save his life.
An S-class Gate known as the Cold Cave.
Inside the Gate, an explosive battle was unfolding.
—Kwaaaaaaaaang!
—Uwoooooooooo!!!
With a tremendous roar, the creature fighting was a massive, furry beast. At first glance, it resembled the mythical yeti.
And the other being fighting it was not a monster, but a human. She rose to her feet, snapping her broken bones back into place.
—Crack.
"...It's tougher than I thought."
A voice like jade rang through the cave.
"Cough..."
Though she spoke in a tough tone, her entire body was drenched in blood, and she stood precariously as if she might collapse at any moment.
—Uwooooooooooooo!!!
A massive roar that seemed to declare its victory. She didn't like that one bit.
Her ability, Predation, granted her an overwhelming physical body. The powerful skeletons and muscles of monsters were compressed into an excessive amount for a single human and reborn within her. With physical ability alone, she could rank among the 10 Strong—perhaps even the strongest—but... it still wasn't enough to defeat a monster from an S-class Gate.
"Physical ability alone really is pushing it..."
"Huuup."
As she inhaled, her right arm swelled dramatically.
What she had gained through Predation wasn't just physical ability. She could absorb the latent powers and special abilities that even the monsters themselves didn't know they possessed. She could also take the abilities of the Awakeners she had killed.
But once she reached a certain level, it became impossible to organize them all. That was why she controlled her power in a way that suited her.
—Kiiiiii...?
The monster sensed a sudden wave of power and felt a flicker of unease.
"Single Point."
—Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!
A roar incomparable to anything before exploded outward. She had gathered every single ability she possessed into one single point of power. That was Single Point.
Of course, many of the abilities clashed violently with one another. Mental abilities were especially troublesome, and there were powers as incompatible as water and fire. But she mixed them all together as if such penalties didn't matter.
It was a reckless, wasteful ability with zero restraint, but she was satisfied with it.
—Kugugung.
The cave began to collapse from the massive shockwave.
"Tch... I won't even be able to use Predation on it."
She quickly escaped the cave. The Awakeners who entered afterward were able to close the Gate easily, without even understanding what had happened.