Reunion
When my sister told me I could stay at her place... I was incredibly happy. Even though I knew I would be a burden, I decided to take her up on the offer. After checking out the room she had set aside for me, I brought over my few belongings. It wasn't much to speak of—just a single duffel bag containing some underwear and a few sets of comfortable clothes.
"Is this really all you brought?"
"Yeah... My probation only ended yesterday, after all."
There was no way for my belongings to have accumulated. Her apartment had two bedrooms, so we each took one. Since it was already late, we agreed to get some sleep and talk more the next day.
"Um, about the bed..."
She looked a bit apologetic about the lack of a bed, meaning I would have to sleep on a futon on the floor.
"Don't worry about it. When I was out hunting the Demon King, I slept under the stars every single night. As long as I have a roof over my head, a warm blanket, and a safe place to close my eyes, I'm happy."
For some reason, my sister's eyes filled with pity. At any rate, I slept like a log. I had been carrying so much mental and emotional exhaustion, but having resolved at least a portion of it made all the difference.
When I opened my eyes, the sun was just beginning to rise.
"Ah..."
I stared at the ceiling, momentarily disoriented, before remembering I was at my sister's apartment. I got out of bed and stepped into the living room. The reality of my situation still felt surreal. Just yesterday, I had been agonizing over how I was going to survive, and now things had suddenly fallen into place.
"Thank goodness... Thank goodness..."
Of course, a massive problem still loomed over me. What kind of existence am I, exactly? Was it really just my soul that had traveled to the Other World, as my sister suggested? If so, if I could somehow extract my soul from this female body and return it to my comatose physical form, would I wake up as Kim Seoyul again? It was a labyrinth of incredibly difficult questions.
As I sat there in a daze, lost in thought for a long time, my sister finally woke up.
"Ugh..."
Stepping out of her room, she didn't seem to notice me at first. She walked straight to the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of water, and took a long drink. It was only after the cold water cleared her morning fog that she finally spotted me. She flinched, visibly startled.
"Ah, right..."
"Did... did you sleep well?"
"Yeah... Uh, Nix?"
"You can just call me Oppa... no, Unni is fine."
Since my body is currently female, being called Oppa would probably look pretty weird.
"Then Unni it is. Did you sleep well too, Unni?"
"Yeah, thanks to you, I didn't have to sleep on the streets."
My sister gave me a flat, exasperated look, as if asking if that was really my biggest concern. I quickly averted my eyes. Afterward, we sat down for breakfast. We faced each other across the small dining table, but the silence was deafening. Neither of us was actually focusing on the food, either. We were just walking on eggshells, stealing glances at one another. It was bound to be awkward, considering we hadn't finished our conversation from yesterday. I had so many questions myself, so how must she feel? She probably had a mountain of things she wanted to ask.
"What are you going to do now...?"
I had no answer to her quiet question.
"Well... I'm not sure. Honestly, right now, I don't really exist in this world..."
It was all well and good that I had defeated the Demon King in the Other World and used my wish to return to Earth, but now that I was actually back, I had absolutely nothing to do. I was in a completely hollow state, devoid of any goals or purpose.
"Well... I'm not going to kick you out, so..."
I nodded in gratitude at her considerate reassurance, telling me to take my time and think things through. After we finished eating, my sister mentioned that she was planning to go visit our parents.
"And about you, Unni..."
"Like I said yesterday, I don't plan on telling them the truth yet..."
"Understood. Well... if you get bored, you can watch some TV."
Her cautious, awkward consideration felt strange to me.
"Yeah, thanks."
I saw my sister off and stepped back inside the quiet apartment. It was a truly bizarre feeling. Wandering aimlessly in a hollow state, with no purpose or goals, not knowing what to do next... I mindlessly turned on the television. As the colorful images began to flash across the screen, I stared blankly, letting the time slip away. There were human-interest stories, food shows, and segments on current trends. I wasn't particularly interested in any of it, but it served as a decent distraction. I sat there, completely zoned out, as noon came and went, and before I knew it, the sun began to dip below the horizon.
Then, the front door clicked open.
"I'm home."
I sprang up from the couch to greet her.
"You're back?"
"Ah, yes."
"Welcome home."
A natural smile spread across my face. Just having someone to welcome home seemed to breathe a small spark of life into my hollow chest.
"Um, this is for you..."
My sister held out a cardboard box.
"It's fried chicken. Let's have it for dinner."
Ah. Come to think of it, I had completely skipped lunch.
"Sounds great."
I had eaten fried chicken a few times during my probation, but this freshly fried, crispy chicken was on another level. Come to think of it, our parents used to bring it home quite often when we were kids. Back then, I especially loved the sweet, sticky seasoned chicken. Of course, it tasted just as amazing now.
"This is really good."
In truth, if I had been eating this alone, it wouldn't have tasted nearly as delicious. It was because the sister who had taken me in was sitting right across from me that I could genuinely feel happy, savor the flavor, and enjoy this small slice of peace.
"It's just chicken, Unni. Why are you acting like it's a feast?"
Just chicken...
"Well, it's not exactly something you can get on the battlefield, is it? Besides, when we were operating as a guerrilla unit to hunt the Demon King, we couldn't get regular supply drops. We had to resort to eating monster meat sometimes."
We couldn't even cook it properly; we just roasted the raw chunks over an open fire. Eina, our party's scout, was an elf, yet she would tear into that meat with absolute gusto. The stench of game was overwhelming, so it always amazed me how she could eat it without batting an eye. Eina had a very soft, maternal look to her, but her actual personality was incredibly rough-and-tumble... which made her quite unpopular with suitors. Even by elf standards, she was over a hundred and thirty years old and still hadn't married or had children. Of course, given the state of the world back then, spending decades on the front lines didn't leave much room for romance.
The sudden memory brought a soft smile to my lips.
After we finished eating, we sat back and chatted. I asked about the ten years I had missed, and she asked about my life in the Other World.
"The day after you collapsed, Oppa—I mean, Unni—the Gate crisis began."
Dimensional portals had opened simultaneously all across the globe. The only saving grace was that monsters didn't pour out of them immediately.
"Well, we didn't even have the luxury to worry about that," she added quietly.
In the middle of the night, our parents had received a sudden call from the hospital. When they rushed over, they found me lying in a deep sleep. A coma of unknown origin. No one knew why I had collapsed, let alone when—or if—I would ever wake up. The real nightmare began when the medical bills started piling up. To cover the astronomical costs of keeping me on life support, our father had to take on extra shifts. Our mother couldn't take on more hours, but she worked all morning and spent her entire night at my bedside, leaving her with absolutely no time to rest.
And what about my sister during all this? Naturally, she was left to fend for herself.
Hearing her story filled me with a profound sense of guilt. It wasn't my fault that I had been forcibly summoned to another world, but I couldn't help but think... if only I had found a way back sooner.
"Well, that only lasted for about a year, though."
After a year, the Gate crisis entered a temporary lull, and the general situation began to stabilize. But there was another, much bigger reason why things improved for our family.
"I awakened."
My sister had awakened as a Hunter and started doing raid work as a part-time job to bring in money. Once the financial burden eased, they were able to move me to a private room and hire a professional caregiver, which finally gave our parents some breathing room.
"I see... Was it hard on you?"
"I..."
For some reason, my sister hesitated, stealing a glance at me.
"Honestly, at first, I resented you."
It made sense. It must have been incredibly painful for her to watch our parents' love and attention shift entirely to me.
"But you had already done so much for me, Oppa."
Since we were more than ten years apart in age, I had practically raised her in some ways. Especially after I graduated from my two-year college and started earning a steady paycheck, I used to shower her with allowance. It was an extravagant amount of money for an elementary schooler. Fortunately, she hadn't squandered it, choosing to save it diligently instead. I remembered giving her even more because of how responsible she was.
At any rate, once my sister started bringing in a Hunter's income, the family's financial situation stabilized. Furthermore, as scientists continuously researched and analyzed the Gates, humanity learned to utilize their resources in various ways. The world eventually regained its footing, and a semblance of peaceful, everyday life returned.
"What an interesting turn of events..."
The history of the ten years I had missed was fascinating. However, the details my sister provided were highly fragmented.
"Can I ask about your story now, Unni?"
"Huh? Oh, sure. But it probably won't be very interesting..."
I began my tale from the moment I was summoned by the Goddess. I told her about the early days, when I was told I could make a single wish if I defeated the Demon King, and how my entire driving force was to use that wish to return to Earth.
"..., that's incredibly unfair."
"Huh?"
"Sending you back to Earth should have been a given. They should have granted you a wish on top of that, shouldn't they?"
Her logic was sound. If the Goddess was the one who dragged me there, she had an obligation to send me back. Since I had risked my life to slay the Demon King, the reward should have been separate, and my ticket home should have been guaranteed.
Thinking about it now...
"Y-yeah, you're right..."
Why did I never think of that? Did that Goddess actually scam me?!
But it was already water under the bridge, and there was no way to contact her again to complain. Besides, dwelling on the past wasn't my style.
After that, I began my duties as the Saintess. Whether it was a parting gift from the Goddess or not, I was able to speak the language of the Other World fluently from day one, and all the Divine Arts were already hardwired into my physical form, allowing me to adapt and use them almost instantly.
"At first, I worked in the rear, like a proper Saintess..."
But rear support wasn't enough to turn the tide of the war. It couldn't change the grim reality. When I was first summoned, seventy percent of the continent had already fallen to the demons. Realizing that simply adding one more healer to the backlines wouldn't save humanity, I headed straight for the front lines. In truth, it was far easier to heal my own body with my overflowing Holy Power than to heal others, and the physical vessel the Goddess had crafted for me was incredibly durable and powerful.
"And so, the blood-soaked battles continued."
At first, it was incredibly difficult. Adjusting to the violence was a nightmare. But I had no choice but to fight. The only saving grace was that the human coalition assigned their most elite warriors to my side to protect me. Given my strategic importance, it was only natural, but still...
"It must have been awful."
My sister looked at me with deep sympathy.
"It was..."
Honestly, those days were something I never wanted to recall. "Hell" was the only word that could accurately describe it.
"On top of that, since seventy percent of the land was already occupied, there were traitors everywhere."
They weren't just surrendering; they actively collaborated with the demons to slaughter their fellow humans. Cowards who sold out their own kind just to save their own skins. I fought the demons, yes, but in order to reclaim our lost territories, I also had to fight other humans. Honestly, during my entire time as the Saintess, that was the hardest pill to swallow.
My sister fell silent, absorbing the weight of my words.
"If... if it's too painful to talk about..."
"It's fine. It's already in the past."
Actually, speaking aloud about the things I had kept bottled up inside for so long felt strangely therapeutic.
Anyway, I spent about three years fighting on the front lines. I worked almost without a single day of rest, but we made very little progress. The war was a grueling, endless tug-of-war. We reclaimed some territories, but it felt more like the demons had abandoned them out of sheer boredom rather than us winning them back. The addition of the Saintess had merely brought humanity's heavily tilted scales back to a fragile equilibrium.
"So, the Goddess resorted to another desperate measure."
The summoning of the Hero.
The moment I thought of the Hero, Yu Jin, the corners of my mouth naturally curled upward. I wonder what he's up to right now. Since he defeated the Demon King, is he being treated like royalty over there?