The Same Choice
Yoo Kangmin let his answer linger. He had already examined every last detail of her condition.
Simply reconnecting the damaged mana circuit won't be enough. I'll have to disperse the mana clotted around her heart, and straighten out the flow that's twisted every which way besides.
It would take time, but it was far from impossible. The Mugeuk Cheonwon Gong was a mind method that had fused into one even the energies of the orthodox sects, the heterodox sects, and the Demonic Cult—forces said to be utterly incompatible. Handling mana with a slightly different temperament didn't even rank among its difficulties.
"I can fix it."
"...!"
Baek Dohee moved to rise from her seat, but her right leg, unable to take any weight, sent her swaying.
"Is— is that tr, truly the case?"
Baek Dohee grabbed Yoo Kangmin's arm. The composed branch head of moments ago was nowhere to be found.
"Is it really possible?"
"It is."
Baek Dohee's lips parted. These were words she had wanted to hear that badly—yet the moment she heard them, her mind went white.
"Please treat me. I will pay whatever price you name."
"Naturally."
Unblock the stagnant energy, reconnect the severed meridians, then collect a proper fee—that was only right and fair. And yet, before beginning the treatment, one thing weighed on Yoo Kangmin's mind.
"Before that, one question."
"Yes. Ask away."
"If you went back to that day, would you make the same choice?"
"That day, you say..."
"The day your body was ruined. Even knowing how it ends, would you do it all the same?"
After his return, Yoo Kangmin had spent several days planted in front of the television, piecing together the world he had lost. Yoo Gaeun had sneered that he looked like an unemployed bum, but to him the TV had been an excellent source of intelligence. Somewhere along the way he had even watched a documentary about Baek Dohee, so he knew exactly what had happened to her.
Back then she couldn't have known how it would turn out, so that choice was understandable. What Yoo Kangmin wanted to know was whether, even now, she would make it again.
And to that question, Baek Dohee did not answer at once.
"..."
"Take your time. Think it over before you answer."
"Thank you."
A brief silence. Then Baek Dohee opened her mouth, slowly.
"I would want to run. I would want to retreat, or to pray that someone else would step forward in my place."
"Is that so?"
"But..."
Baek Dohee bit down hard on her lip. The pain of that day was blooming inside her all over again.
"If there is no one else."
"If there isn't?"
"Then I will step forward. Every time."
In the end, she had not changed. She had declared she would make the exact same choice as before—because then, as now, the only person who could stand in her place was Baek Dohee herself.
"You're a fool. Recklessly, hopelessly foolish."
"I know."
"I could patch you up, and you'd go and wreck this body all over again."
"I'm sorry."
Watching her, Yoo Kangmin found himself drifting back to something from long ago. The Emei Sect nun who had shoved him—then a boy who knew nothing of the martial arts—behind her back and stood against the bandits.
If not for her...
He would have died, lonely and nameless, on the slopes of some forgotten country mountain. After that day, Yoo Kangmin had vowed that no matter what befell him, he would hold to the righteous path at the very least.
There would be no me as I am now.
Why was that? There was Yoon Seoha, terrified out of her wits at the convenience store, who had still screamed at him to run. And there was Baek Dohee before him now, who had already made that foolish choice once and still swore she would repeat it exactly. Two women who lived in entirely different ways, yet were strangely alike.
Exhausting people.
They overlapped in his mind with those the orthodox sects had called their chivalrous heroes. And people he could not bring himself to hate. Even if they had tried to kill him out of fear, Yoo Kangmin had understood their choice—he knew full well they had not moved for any private greed of their own.
Yoo Kangmin found that he liked Baek Dohee's foolishness.
Come to think of it, I suppose I owe her a debt of my own. In a world where gates had opened, could he really chalk his family's safety up to mere luck? In a sense, everyone living in this gate-torn world owed the hunters a debt—the peace of the present endured only because they fought with their lives on the line.
Even if they were paid handsomely for it.
Yoo Kangmin looked down at Baek Dohee's cane. Of course, she hadn't saved his family in particular. But five years ago, the people who survived that day had been someone's mother, someone's father. They had lived because Baek Dohee had paid the price with her own body.
A short sigh slipped out of him.
"It seems I'll have to change my approach."
"Does— does that mean the treatment is difficult?"
"Ah— no, nothing like that."
Originally, Yoo Kangmin had intended to stop at rebuilding Baek Dohee's shattered mana circuit. Even that would have restored her former strength, and that would have been enough. But...
Baek Dohee would take up a spear again, and someday a day like that one might find her once more. And Baek Dohee would fight it with her life on the line. And so Yoo Kangmin resolved to go beyond simply repairing her—he would forge her stronger.
So that she would never break.
"Might as well build you a whole new body while I'm at it."
"A— a new body?"
"That's right."
Building a new body. In murim, this was the miracle known as bone-shedding rebirth—and Yoo Kangmin intended to grant Baek Dohee nothing less. It was a stroke of fortune exceedingly rare even in murim, but she had one condition in her favor.
Her energy was more than sufficient. Hers was the body of a former A-rank hunter. Measured by the mana still pooled in her heart alone, she fell short of nothing—not even beside a supreme master of murim. The very mana that was killing her could be spent remaking her body anew.
Of course, he had no intention of forcing the process along with his own internal power. She has to learn to wield it herself. His role, after all, was only ever to teach the art.
"You have a great deal of work ahead of you."
"I'll do whatever it takes."
"I haven't even told you what it is yet."
"Rehabilitation I know well. Pain I can endure."
"Is that so?"
Yoo Kangmin answered with a smile. "Then that's a relief."
With that, he wrote the dojo's address on the memo pad lying on the table.
"Starting tomorrow, come here."
"What is this place?"
"A kendo dojo. Well—it's shut down at the moment."
"A kendo dojo?"
"That's right. Yoon Seoha trains under me there."
"Will I receive the treatment there as well?"
"It isn't treatment, strictly speaking."
"Then...?"
"Training."
"Training?"
"That's right. Don't expect to be fixed while you sit back and wait. You'll be learning every last thing with your own two hands."
"Understood."
Baek Dohee checked the address, then slipped the memo into her document folder. Her hands were careful, as though the paper might crease or crumple if she wasn't gentle with it.
"What time would suit you?"
"Ten in the morning."
"Every day?"
"For the time being."
Baek Dohee's gaze drifted to the schedule on her desk, packed solid from the morning onward. Yoo Kangmin caught where her eyes had landed.
"If you're busy, we can set another time."
"No. I'll rearrange things."
"Can the branch head really be away every day?"
"The work can be divided. I've been clinging to duties that don't actually require my personal review."
Baek Dohee looked away from the schedule. Until now, she had poured everything into association work, because she had believed it was the best a woman who had lost her mana could do. Now that circumstances had changed, she meant to allow herself a little room to breathe.
"For now, the treatment comes first."
"At least you have your priorities straight."
"Now, shall we discuss the fee?"
"Oh."
Yoo Kangmin straightened in his seat. "Nearly forgot the most important part."
Baek Dohee drew a planner from her document folder.
"To begin, I will offer 100 million won as an advance."
"..."
Yoo Kangmin held his tongue. Reading his expression, Baek Dohee pressed on.
"I will cover the costs of treatment and training separately. Compensation upon your full recovery will be negotiated on its own as well."
"Hmm."
Yoo Kangmin slowly lifted his teacup—an act of feigned composure.
One hundred million? What Yoon Seoha paid him was 1 million won a month. This woman meant to hand over a hundred times that, up front. A-ranks really do play in another league.
Yoo Kangmin took a sip of tea. It had long since gone cold, but this was no time to be judging flavor.
"What counts as a full recovery?"
"Being able to enter a gate and fight again."
Baek Dohee looked down at her cane. "At the very least, I want it defined as regaining my former strength."
"Fine."
"At that point, I will pay an additional 500 million won."
The hand lowering Yoo Kangmin's teacup stopped for a beat.
Six hundred million in total. At that much... could I even buy a decent house? Yoo Kangmin still knew next to nothing about Seoul real estate prices. His answer came late because he had drifted off wondering where to move—but Baek Dohee took that silence to mean something else entirely.
"Is the amount insufficient?"
"No. That much will do."
This time, Yoo Kangmin answered without hesitation. The figure she had named herself was plenty. More than anything, he had no intention of probing how high she could go—not with someone he had already decided to heal because he wanted to.
"In return, show up as promised, and don't skip out. No amount of money will do the training in your stead."
"You needn't worry on that count. I will prepare the contract myself—please review the terms and sign."
"Do that."
"I'll also need your account number."
Yoo Kangmin took out his phone with practiced ease—a far cry from when he had collected Yoon Seoha's training fee. He had at least learned how to work a banking app in the meantime.
A moment later, Baek Dohee tapped at her phone a few times. Ding.
Yoo Kangmin stared down at the screen. So many zeroes. He counted them again, just to be sure. One hundred million won, beyond any doubt.
"You're wiring money before the contract's even drafted?"
"You have promised to come tomorrow."
"And if I take the money and run?"
Baek Dohee smiled faintly. "I have your address. And I know the identity of the young lady who accompanied you."
"Huh."
"I do my due diligence."
Yoo Kangmin snorted a laugh and set his phone down. The woman who had looked ready to burst into tears only minutes ago now wore every inch the face of a branch head.
Building good relations with her wouldn't hurt. She stands close to the heart of power, after all. If Baek Dohee passed through her rebirth and reclaimed her strength, she would forge an unshakable position within the Hunter Association.
Just then, a knock sounded at the office door.
"Yes. Come in."
A staff member entered carrying documents.
"Hunter Yoon Seoha's special promotion exam has concluded."
"And the result?"
"She has been rated D-rank."
The staff member held out the evaluation report.
"She met the D-rank criteria in the practical assessment. She even defeated the projected hobgoblin in the final stage."
"I see."
Baek Dohee accepted the report, studying Yoo Kangmin's face as she did. He looked entirely unsurprised, as though it were only natural.
"So her registration card gets updated too?"
"Yes. It will be reissued within the day."
"Good."
That was the whole of his reaction.
"How long have you been instructing Hunter Yoon Seoha?"
"A week."
"A week..."
Baek Dohee murmured under her breath. Long, if you called it long; short, if you called it short. She did not know Yoon Seoha well, but the report alone told her plenty—Yoon Seoha's record to date was documented there in detail.
Nowhere in it was there any change that could explain a leap from F-rank to D-rank. And the hobgoblin kill—that was surely this man's doing as well. Baek Dohee was certain that it had been Yoo Kangmin, not Yoon Seoha, who had brought down the hobgoblin.
And yet, after just one week under this man's instruction, she had undeniably changed. True, Yoon Seoha had faced a projection rather than a real hobgoblin—but a week ago, she could never have stood against it.
I must trust this man.
Baek Dohee quietly clenched her fist, hard. I can hold a spear again.
Her heart trembled. Just for this moment, what she felt was not pain, but the fierce pounding of a heart beating strong.