Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: A Stolen Heart
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“Hey! You really…!”
Juyeol’s face was beet red as he firmly gripped the hem of Haon’s T-shirt.
“Huh?”
“Why are you stopping her? It was a nice view.”
At Nova’s suggestive laugh, Juyeol shot him a look that could kill.
Haon looked around, surprised by the unexpected reaction. The Heroes were also visibly stunned.
‘What’s wrong? Is it because I lifted my shirt in front of Heroes? Public indecency? But it was really just a tiny bit of my side…’
Flustered, Haon tried to explain herself.
“I-I was just trying to show that I don’t have a tattoo—”
“She really doesn’t have a tattoo…?”
“Didn’t she just erase it with that weird technology of hers?”
“But there’s also a slight scar…”
The Heroes murmured among themselves, their faces a mixture of confusion.
‘Are they believing me?’
Just as a sliver of hope began to form in Haon’s mind…
Beep— Beep—.
An alarm blared simultaneously from all the Heroes’ bands.
Haon turned to Juyeol and asked, “Do you have to go?”
“Someone took over District 2 right after District 1, so it’s another emergency meeting.”
“…I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“You did well.”
The heat in his face having subsided, Juyeol stroked Haon’s cheek.
“You should head inside, too. You must be tired.”
“Yeah. I’ll fix up Ttiyong good as new.”
Haon felt a tickle in her chest at Juyeol’s actions, which had become increasingly tactile and, for some reason, gentler.
As if to make a point, he put on the helmet she had modified for him and got on his bike. She hadn't seen it in a while, but it seemed he’d kept it all this time.
Watching Juyeol ride away, Haon scratched her cheek.
‘Has Juyeol… softened?’
* * *
On the way back to the lab, all sorts of thoughts swirled through Haon’s mind.
She kicked off her damp shoes and was about to slip into her slippers when she froze, prompting a chuckle from Nova.
“What are you thinking about this time?”
He had insisted on escorting her all the way back to the lab.
Haon stared at him, contemplating.
Although she had known Nova for some time now, there was a question she had never asked.
A question that had been overshadowed by the chaotic rush of other problems, but had never truly disappeared.
Haon finally decided to voice it.
“Nova, what happened between you and Halo? Why do you want to kill her?”
Nova looked surprised for a moment, then let his eyebrows droop.
“Darling, are you only just now getting curious about me? Took you long enough, didn’t it?”
“Well, I thought it would be rude to pry into someone else’s personal grudge.”
This time, his eyebrows twitched upward.
“…Someone else’s? Personal? Your choice of words is quite hurtful, you know?”
He didn’t seem to be joking; Nova crossed his arms with a sullen expression.
Haon waved her hands, trying to explain that wasn’t what she meant.
“Actually, I asked Chacha about it once. Why you wanted to kill Halo. But she said she didn’t know the reason either.”
He wasn’t the type to go around broadcasting his personal stories to others. It was no surprise that no one knew his circumstances.
“So you’ve been asking around about me behind my back?”
“If that upset you, I’m sorr—”
“I’m touched. It seems my darling is finally growing into a proper boss.”
That, too, didn’t seem like a mere joke.
Looking at Nova’s pleased smile, Haon thought to herself that he truly had a unique way of thinking, and continued.
“If it’s a problem I can help with without having to kill Halo, I’ll lend a hand.”
“That’s touching, really. But the only way you can help is by making me a weapon that can kill Halo for sure.”
“You don’t always need a weapon to solve a problem.”
Nova chuckled as if he’d just heard the most naive thing ever, then fumbled with the front of his shirt.
“She stole something very important from me.”
“What was it? I’ll help you get it back.”
“It can’t be gotten back. Not even after I kill Halo.”
Speaking in a low voice, Nova unbuttoned his shirt. On the left side of his chest was a large scar.
“……!”
It was a gruesome scar, so much so that Haon almost asked the foolish question, ‘Did Halo steal your heart?’
Even though it had already healed, she felt a throbbing pain in her own chest just looking at it.
“How… what did she take?”
“Even I don’t know exactly what it was.”
“……?”
“What I do know is that after I Awakened, a part of my Awakening Sphere covered my heart like a shield, and thanks to it, I was able to control my powers right from the start.”
Haon gasped, her eyes fixed on his chest, now hidden by his clothes.
So this was what they meant when they said little was known about how forced Awakenings occurred. It seemed the power could manifest physically on the outside of the body.
It wasn't a forced Awakening, but she wondered if River's gills were a similar case.
“That shield, Halo…”
“She carved it out with light. After that, I struggled to control my powers, like learning to walk all over again.”
Unconsciously, Haon raised her hand toward the scar, then hesitated.
“Does it… still hurt…?”
It was a healed wound, yet her hand, unable to either touch it or leave it be, hovered near his chest.
Then, Nova suddenly grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest.
“……!”
“It doesn’t hurt. Even if you touch it like this.”
“……”
Guided by his hand, Haon gently caressed his scar.
Over the thin, smooth texture of the skin, which felt different from the surrounding flesh, she could feel the steady thumping of his heartbeat.
“It must have hurt a lot.”
“It did. It hurt so, so much, darling.”
Nova intertwined his fingers with hers and put on a tearful face.
Realizing he was starting to joke around again, Haon quickly pulled her hand away.
A strange feeling lingered, as if the steady rhythm of his heart was still echoing in her fingertips.
“Why would Halo take it? What would she use it for?”
“Until yesterday, I had no idea either.”
Nova straightened his clothes and casually raised the corners of his mouth.
“But today, I think I have a clue.”
“What is it?”
He pulled something black and flat from his pocket.
It seemed he had actually found what he was looking for when he said he had to find something and left the underground passage late.
“Is this carbon fiber?”
“I knew you’d recognize it right away. It’s a piece of the suit Sniper was wearing.”
“……!”
Guessing what he was about to say, Haon immediately examined the carbon fiber.
An astonishing amount of mana emanated from it. The remnants of condensed mana had seeped deeply into its weave.
“Did you see it?”
Haon asked, and Nova stared at the carbon fiber with a cold smile.
“Vaguely. And besides, it was originally mine. I could recognize it even through the tiniest gap.”
“How is that possible…”
Haon replayed the moment she fired the mana bullet at Sniper.
She had thought it had no impact because Sniper had only been pushed back slightly, the mana bullet seemingly absorbed directly into her body.
It seemed the strain on her heart had caused a small tear in the suit over her left chest.
That must have been where the part of Nova’s Awakening Sphere that had covered his heart was implanted.
If so, it also made sense that it had absorbed the mana.
“I couldn’t even detect the Awakening Sphere while we were in the same space. She used stealth technology on that, too.”
Haon took a bottle containing a blue liquid from her pocket. She hadn’t left Bae Anjae’s hideout empty-handed either.
“It seems Sniper’s forced Awakening wasn’t a complete success.”
The blue, mud-like substance was the blood Sniper had coughed up.
“What… is the relationship between Halo and Sniper?”
To take her on as a right-hand woman, force her to Awaken, and when problems arose in the process, to steal Nova’s Awakening Sphere shield and implant it in her…
“Is she trying to raise a successor?”
“Darling, that’s not important.”
Nova placed the piece of carbon fiber in Haon’s hand and added.
“What’s important is that she stole what was mine and made a mess of it. And if Halo cherishes Sniper that much, doesn’t that just give me more options for revenge?”
“…Want to make another promise?”
Haon slyly raised her pinky finger.
“…Heh heh.”
Finding something amusing, Nova chuckled for a long while before biting Haon’s pinky.
“Ah! Nova!”
Even as Haon yelped and snatched her finger back, he just smiled playfully.
* * *
After Nova left, Haon headed straight for the Dimension Gate lab on the fifth floor.
With the turbine and particle accelerator now installed, the Dimension Gate was starting to look quite impressive.
Haon inserted a brilliantly shining diamond into the gate’s core.
‘The Dimension Prism!’
Even in the midst of her insanely busy schedule, she had put so much effort into making this diamond absorb the Awakening Sphere extract.
And today, on her way to a place where Halo might be, she had brought the diamond with her just in case.
When Halo had unleashed that blinding beam of light, Haon had absorbed all of its power into the diamond.
‘Should I say it took longer than expected to create the Dimension Prism? Or should I say I’m lucky to have made it at all, despite everything that’s happened?’
The Dimension Gate was gradually taking its final shape.
‘Theoretically, all I need to do now is gather more Awakening Spheres and input the correct mana for the destination dimension.’
Haon took out the bomb fragment that had been embedded in her side when she came here, then paused.
‘…Why do I feel this way?’
The completion of the Dimension Gate was not far off, so she should have been feeling proud, but for some reason, a corner of her heart felt empty.