Chapter 111

“Look over there! The Young Lady is kidnapping some guy!”

“What?”

“No, some guy is… wait, she really is carrying him on her back and running away!”

“You’re kidding me…”

I left the mansion piggybacked on Yoo Se-byeol.

Thinking about it, rather than something grand like an ‘elopement’ as Digestion had called it, the term ‘playing hooky’—something she did all the time—was more appropriate.

The only difference was that this time, she was doing with someone else what she usually did alone.

So, this was definitely not a date.

“Why?! Do I?! Have to carry you?! Every single time?!”

“Well, I don’t exactly have the strength to carry you and run, Deputy Commander.”

“Are you saying I’m heavy right now?”

Technically, she was.

She had a lot of muscle mass from training, and she had a sword and scabbard hanging from her waist.

Even when wearing her uniform, she preferred a size half a step larger than her frame because she hated the top riding up, so she was likely heavier than Cheon So-baek or No Yeon-hwa.

However, there were times when the world needed a kind lie more than the cruel truth.

I immediately cast the Tentacle of Suggestion on myself within my mind and spoke.

“No, you’re light as a feather.”

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“So… what now?”

She had just stood up an important foreign diplomat and walked out.

Even if it wasn’t this specific meeting, I had received a response that they would continue their cooperative relationship with the Special Unit, but this was clearly a diplomatic discourtesy.

If this whole mess was the work of her father, Yoo Cheol-jin, then this was no time to be leisurely slacking off.

“How about going to Commander Yoo Cheol-jin and asking him politely?”

“To stop bringing up my marriage prospects?”

“No. Tell him that if he crosses the line any further, you’ll make it so he can’t live on South Korean soil. Tell him you’ll take away his position as Commander of Division 3, and since the Sword Immortal couldn’t possibly have agreed to this, you’ll have him completely struck from the Yoo family register.”

I cautiously advised Yoo Se-byeol to settle her long-standing conflict with her parent through a… well, a bit of a mutiny.

There was no guarantee a similar incident wouldn’t happen again in the future.

If she wanted, I was even willing to contact Seo Chae-rin right now and book her a boat to Japan.

Listening to the solution I had racked my brain to provide, Yoo Se-byeol’s lips suddenly curled upward and she let out a snicker.

“Pfft. Your ideas are too radical, Hayan.”

“Is that so?”

“If I actually did that, the entire Old Gods’ Wound would fall to pieces. The White Lotus Union would stop trusting us, thinking we’re collapsing from the inside.”

She looked down at the city landscape visible in the distance and walked slowly.

Cooled by the chilly winter air, she looked surprisingly pleased for some reason.

“There’s already word of another monster in this country that rivals an Archduke. In a situation like this, I can’t rashly expose the weaknesses of the Special Unit and the Old Gods’ Wound just because of my own problems.”

“But we can’t just leave it like this.”

“Are you worrying about me right now?”

“Well, I am your subordinate, Deputy Commander.”

“Really? If it were the Hayan I know, I feel like you would’ve run to Seoul Central Hospital right now and sided with my dad. If I marry the Blade King and go to China, the Deputy Commander position opens up, doesn’t it?”

“…”

Just what kind of person was I in her head?

I must have dropped by the Commander-in-Chief’s office to see Seona too often.

Well, even reflecting on it myself, suggesting a way to destroy everything belonging to Yoo Cheol-jin—a man I’d never even met—wasn’t exactly appropriate behavior for a subordinate.

Why was I being like this?

Maybe I got hurt somewhere when my brain reset earlier.

One of my eardrums was ruptured so I couldn’t hear well, and my balance was off because my vestibular system was damaged, so there might be more issues.

I’d have to ask in detail when I went to Division 6 for treatment later.

“Let’s inform the Bureau first.”

“But then you won’t be able to play hooky.”

“Who said I was going to play during work hours? Besides, we need to deal with this quickly.”

Following Yoo Se-byeol’s words, we decided to report to Commander Ha Yeri first.

Since reception was poor in this area, we had to head down the mountain first.

The reason wasn’t some mysterious energy dwelling in Mount Cheonsan… it was because the swordsmen of the Old Gods’ Wound would secretly sabotage the repeaters installed by the Red Tower every night.

Anyway, after descending to the city and making contact via smartwatch, she answered with a slightly heavy breath, as if she were in the middle of calisthenics.

—Huff, this is Ha Yeri of Division 2.

“If Commander Yoo Cheol-jin and Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol both fell into the water, who would you save?”

—What on earth…? It’s Hayan, isn’t it? Please do not play prank calls on the direct line meant for emergencies. Aren’t you on leave today?

“That’s not what’s important right now. Hurry and answer…”

“Hayan! What are you even saying?!”

As Yoo Se-byeol cut in from the side, bewilderment leaked into Ha Yeri’s voice from the other end.

—Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol? Why are you with Hayan? More importantly, the location where your signal is being picked up isn’t near Mount Cheonsan?

“Ah, about that…”

After she explained the whole situation over my wrist.

Realizing the situation was more serious than she had thought, Ha Yeri said she would send people to the mansion immediately.

—I will send Agent Kang Nabi right away to look into the internal situation. You don’t need to worry too much.

“I’m sorry. Because of me…”

—No, if I had known this would happen, we would have dispatched an aide from our side as well. It was my oversight. Regardless, leaving that spot was an excellent judgment.

“Aren’t you going to praise me?”

I was the one who suggested running away.

Infiltrating the servants to figure out Yoo Cheol-jin’s intentions and luring the Blade King outside would have all been impossible without me.

When I pointed that out, Ha Yeri promised to give me one ‘Wish Coupon’ later, as if she had no choice.

—The Bureau will handle any further contact with the White Lotus Union, so Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol, please return to the unit for now. You’ve worked hard.

“Yes, I understand.”

The situation seemed to be settling down for the moment.

Yoo Se-byeol also followed Commander Ha Yeri’s instructions without a word.

Once we arrived at the bus stop, she told me I could go.

“Hayan, you’re on leave today, right? There’s no need to come to work just because of me.”

“Are you all right?”

“My bad relationship with my father isn’t something that started yesterday, so don’t worry about it.”

“Why is your relationship with Commander Yoo Cheol-jin so bad?”

“That’s because… I’m a bad kid.”

A small murmur escaped her lips.

“It was because I stepped forward to help, ignoring my father’s warnings… and then my mother died.”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, anyway! I’ll teach you the rest of the internal power techniques next time! Rest well and see you tomorrow!”

After a hasty goodbye, Yoo Se-byeol boarded a bus headed toward the Bureau.

Actually, I should have taken the same one.

Since my right ear hadn’t been injured during a mission, it didn’t qualify for official medical coverage.

Rather than going to Seoul Central Hospital to get treated and paying out of pocket, it was better to just ask the healers in Division 6.

“She’ll feel awkward if we run into each other at the entrance again, so let’s wait a bit and take the next one.”

I sat at the bus stop and killed some time.

I logged into the game on my smartwatch to pull for the newly released <Apostle of the Outer God (EX)> in ‘New Monster Wars RE:VIVE!’.

“This isn’t fun.”

However, a moment later.

When the next bus arrived, I took a seat in the section for the elderly and disabled and promptly turned off the game.

Even while playing my favorite game during a rare vacation, I wasn’t enjoying myself.

I didn’t know if it was because I had spent a hundred pulls only to get <Debt Mage Sae Hayan (D)>, or if it was because the forced smile Yoo Se-byeol wore at the end remained stuck in a corner of my heart—but I just felt uneasy.

I arrived at the Bureau just before the end of the workday and headed straight for the clinic.

The small space set up next to the training grounds was a place like an infirmary, where Special Unit members injured during missions or training could receive treatment or rest.

“Hello. My name is Sae Hayan.”

“Oh my, aren’t you a friend of Ah-rin’s?”

A woman with a gentle gaze recognized me immediately and spoke.

It was Shim Ha-yul, the Deputy Commander of the Supply Support Unit.

Possessing an ability to heal the body, she was close with Moon Ah-rin from Division 4.

Perhaps she had been preparing to go home, as she put her white coat back on over her chair and asked me a question.

“What brings you here?”

“I hurt my ear and my head a little.”

“Is that so? Have a seat here, I’ll take a look.”

Shim Ha-yul treated my damaged eardrum and semicircular canals.

Healing abilities really did have the best cost-performance.

Minor injuries like this could be fixed for free.

Even though I was someone who handled the ability bestowed by Mala-nim along with three types of magic—Black, White, and Extreme—simultaneously, I was uniquely lacking in self-healing capabilities.

I didn’t have any suitable tentacles for it, and I had focused my magic training on firepower.

Half-baked healing magic wasn’t much help in the Demon Realm, where human bodies could be vaporized in an instant.

There were ways to sidestep death itself, but that was a story for when I used the single-digit tentacles.

Anyway, after the treatment was finished, I asked her one more thing.

“Do you happen to give consultations for mental issues as well?”

“If you’ve accumulated a lot of stress, I’d recommend using the confessional… have you had a hard time lately?”

“Actually, this is a story about a senior I know well called ‘Spear of Thunderclouds’.”

I recounted the story of taking Yoo Se-byeol from the mansion, adapting it into a tale about Kang Ha-neul and a certain tentacle.

It was to get a diagnosis for the complex emotions I had felt during the process.

Being quite sensitive, she listened to my story with great interest, as if she were reading a fairy tale.

When the tentacle, having parted ways with Kang Ha-neul at the bus stop, lonely turned the gacha, she even had tears welling in her eyes.

“It’s clear his brain must have been severely injured. Even after receiving treatment from the Special Unit’s best healer, he still feels the same way.”

“I am the Special Unit’s best healer… anyway, I understand exactly how that tentacle feels toward Mr. Ha-neul.”

“And what is it?”

Shim Ha-yul explained the reason for my behavior using the simplest word she knew—yet the most foreign expression to me.

“That symptom is, well. If I had to give it a medical name… love?”

Seoul Central Hospital.

An Upper Level Awakened who had served as the Commander of Division 3 for the longest time since the Special Unit’s founding.

Yoo Cheol-jin, the Blade King—once evaluated as being as strong as, or similar to, the Seven Immortals—did not take his eyes off the window today.

Even in the deep darkness of night, the city lights grew wider and brighter with each passing day.

However, the Seoul reflected in his eyes was still stuck in a time from three years ago, burning amidst the ashes.

The day the Eighth Night arrived, and the screams of people never ceased.

The day a certain Archduke, who had grown powerful in secret to the point of challenging the status of an Outer God, trampled the stars.

The day the apocalypse fell from the sky, and not just Seoul but the entire territory of South Korea was decimated.

The day even the last remaining hope of humanity was shattered.

Yoo Cheol-jin, whose life was hanging by a thread, discovered something beneath a collapsed building.

It was a massive hunk of flesh vomited out by a dying Outer God.

The moment his hand touched the wriggling purple tentacle, he gained a second chance.

The regression of time—a return to the past.

It wasn’t that everything started from the very beginning.

But it was enough to prepare for the coming calamity.

He founded the Special Unit alongside Seona and Ha Yeri, and eliminated magical creatures on the front lines better than anyone.

He sought out the Sword Immortal secluded in Mount Cheonsan and received teachings much earlier than before.

In the process, he was imprisoned in a basement by a lovely woman he met, and received chilling threats that he would never escape her with a leash around his neck, but regardless.

On the day the time of judgment arrived once again.

He protected Seoul by sacrificing everything he had.

He succeeded in driving the Archduke known as the ‘Hooves of the Statue’ to the brink of annihilation.

However, when he headed into the dust cloud to deliver the final blow to finish it.

He witnessed a shocking sight.

It was his beloved daughter stabbing his wife with a sword.

It had been his mistake to grant the request of his daughter, who said she wanted to help her parents and would only handle the monsters nearby.

The horns sprouting from his daughter’s head were far too similar to the characteristics of an Archduke’s incarnation.

And so, he who had succeeded in saving the world with his second chance.

Had left his wife behind in a past he could never return to.