Oppa, I'm Really Glad.

With the Villains subdued and the Gate cleared, I handed their bodies over to the Hunter Police, the force that deals exclusively with Villains, and came back.

We’d somehow caught them and turned them in, which was all well and good. The trouble was what came after.

I didn’t know exactly how strong the Villain trio had been, but next to an ordinary D-Rank Hunter they were clearly, overwhelmingly stronger. If a D-Rank Hunter, outmatched in strength and outnumbered besides, had subdued them without a single slip, anyone would find that suspicious. The police would probably grill us on exactly that point during the witness questioning.

Well, that was the Hunter Police’s job. Nothing could be done about it.

Once all the procedures were finished, Junhwi and I left the police station.

“Hyungnim. We got through today all right, but what are we supposed to say at the witness questioning?”
“Say about what?”
“I mean, from their side of it, it doesn’t add up. That a mere D-Rank Hunter killed three Villains rated somewhere between B and C.”

From where the police stood, they might even suspect us of hiding our strength. If it came to that, we’d both be pressed, naturally, on whether we’d deliberately registered below our real ability.

I knew that much myself, which was why, from the moment I stepped out of the Gate, I’d tried again and again to call up that unidentified aurora-light sword energy the way I had in there, only to fail every time. Still, the saving grace was that I had the whole thing on video.

“For now there’s nothing for it but to talk our way through. Or else… let’s say an accident in the Gate left the Villains badly hurt, and that’s how we were able to handle them.”

Unexpected accidents did happen in Gates now and then, so it would make a decent enough excuse. To humanity, the inside of a Gate was still an unknown world.

“Then we’ll have to get our stories straight.”
“Right. Let’s think it over and talk it through separately later. And, Junhwi.”
“Yes, Hyungnim.”
“There’s only a year between you and me. ‘Hyungnim’ is a bit much for me.”

I was only in my mid-twenties, still too young to be hearing ‘Hyungnim’. …And the way he talked made me wonder if he’d come up through some gang.

“Ah, my apologies. At my sister’s guild, Hyungnim is what I call the older guys. It got so familiar to me I don’t think I can fix it easily.”

He must have heard that a lot, because Junhwi scratched his head sheepishly.

“Even so, it’s a lot to put on me. Please, just call me Hyung.”
“I’ll try, Hyungnim.”

Ah, seriously. It had been more or less fine at first, but it was slowly getting toe-curling.

“And, Hyungnim.”
“What.”

I was about to tell him, for the last time, to call me Hyung, but the serious look in his eyes made me swallow the words.

“I know I’m saying it again, but today, really… thank you. Hyungnim, if there’s anything I can do for you, just say the word.”
“So that’s what this is about.”
“Because I can’t thank you enough. You saved my life.”

I really wished he’d stop, because I was dying of embarrassment. I hadn’t noticed when we first met, but Junhwi could be a lot to handle in his own right.

“Just buy me a meal.”
“I’ll buy you as many as you want! Do you happen to like omakase, Hyungnim?¹”
“I told you to quit it with the Hyungnim, come on.”

As it happened it was around dinnertime, so I ate with Junhwi and then came home.

Maybe because I’d been through so much in a single day, my body was completely spent. Left to myself, I’d have flopped straight onto the bed and set off for dreamland.

Even so, shouldn’t I call Sia before I slept?

“…A call?”

After a day like today, was calling the right move?

It absolutely wasn’t that I disliked talking to Sia. I just didn’t want to make her worry.

I’d told her that morning I was heading to a Gate, so the Gate would naturally come up, and then I’d have no choice but to tell her about running into the Villains. I couldn’t lie and say nothing had happened, either. Sia would see through it even if I hid it, and besides, today was vividly recorded on the wearable cam.

If she learned what had happened this time…

Sia’s heart would… grow heavy.

She might grow anxious that it could happen again, and the fact that someone had come for my life might drive her out of her mind. Knowing her temperament, I doubted she’d sleep easy tonight.

And yet.

Doing it is the right thing.

I hadn’t committed any crime, it wasn’t something to hide, and Sia would find out one way or another before long.

I called her right away. As if she’d been waiting by the phone, she picked up in under a second.

“Hello.”
“Oppaaa! I missed you so, so much!”

This time too, of course, it was a video call. Sia was looking at me and waving like mad in her delight.

A year ago we hadn’t been the type to video-call often, but ever since Sia came back, we’d checked in on each other by video instead of an ordinary call whenever we could.

“Me too. I want to see you soon.”
“I don’t know why time is going so slowly.”

Her cute grumbling put a smile on my lips before I knew it.

“Oppa, how was today? Did the Gate go all right?”

Sia watched me with shining eyes, already settled in to hear the story.

But.

“…Oppa? Did something happen? Your face doesn’t look right.”

She must have read the faintest shift in my expression in that split second, because she asked in a voice laced with worry. I had hesitated, if only for a moment, over how best to put it.

“Our Sia, you’re a total mind reader. That’s right. Something did happen.”
“What, what. What happened. Tell me, Oppa. I’ll listen to anything.”

Only moments before, she had clearly been wearing a fresh, bright smile.

“It wasn’t some bitch trying to get Oppa’s number again, was it?”

The instant ‘something’ came up, though, Sia’s mood turned at breakneck speed.

“Right. I knew it. This is exactly why I can never relax. Oppa, which bitch is it. Was it a bitch who went into the Gate with you? Or else—”

…Apparently she’d taken it for another woman problem, like the time we’d gone to the tteokbokki place together.

Yet the cold look on her face lasted only a moment. Anxiety must have overtaken her, because she bit at her nails. I decided to tell her quickly, before it bred an even bigger misunderstanding.

“That’s absolutely not it.”
“It’s not? Thank goodness. I was worried about what I’d do if it was that again.”

Reassured by my denial, Sia went back to her usual self.

But did she know that I’d been through something far more serious than that?

Having to tell her this kind of thing hurt my heart too… but it was a story I’d have to tell sooner or later anyway.

“Sia.”
“Mm.”

I broached it in the most serious voice I could manage.

She had been smiling easily at first, but as I grew more serious than usual, her pupils began to tremble faintly.

“…”

As the silence stretched on, the anxiety on her face deepened.

“What is it, what is it, Oppa. Hm?”
“Something a little serious happened.”

I let out a deep sigh and laid out what had happened in the Gate today: the Villains trying to kill me, my sudden ability to wield aurora-light sword energy, and my using that power to kill them. Naturally, I didn’t bother telling her about the insults the Villains had thrown at me and Sia at the end.

“…And that’s how it went.”

The moment I’d unloaded the long, heavy story, I watched carefully for her reaction.

Sure enough, her expression wasn’t good at all. She looked like someone with much to say and even more to ask, forcing her feelings down all the same. In her eyes most of all, I sensed emotions too tangled to put into words.

She kept them in check fairly well at first, but soon the feelings she’d been holding back seemed to spill over, and her expression kept shifting from moment to moment. As if she didn’t want me to see that, Sia turned her camera off.

“Sia…?”
“…I’m really glad, Oppa.”

Her voice sounded composed, but the feeling behind it had plainly been forced down.

“I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Thanks. And in a way it’s thanks to you too, Sia. If it hadn’t been for the sword you gave me, that miracle probably wouldn’t have happened.”
“No. It’s a miracle Oppa made, all of it. Thank you so much for coming back alive.”

She spoke brightly, acting as though she were fine, but I could tell she was still keeping a lid on her feelings. For her sake, I played along and pretended not to notice.

“Anyway, Sia, I came back in one piece without a scratch, so don’t worry. All right?”
“…Mm.”

She was putting on a bright front, but the faint tremble in her voice hurt my heart. Dragging the call out any longer wasn’t going to do either of us much good.

“Ah, I’m tired. Sorry, but let’s leave the call here for today and have a long one tomorrow. Is that okay?”
“Mm. Of course we should. Sleep well, Oppa.”

I hung up and stared blankly into the empty air. Hearing the brightness she was forcing into her voice had left me feeling wretched.

Neither of us, it seemed, would sleep soundly tonight. If I could, I’d sing her a lullaby at her side, and we’d fall asleep feeling each other’s warmth.

Tonight was going to feel especially lonely.

The call had only just ended.

Sia couldn’t control the emotion boiling up from deep in her chest.

She had passed through every kind of hardship to finally meet her precious lover again, and she had almost lost him in a single instant, to something this absurd.

Even after something that enormous, Minjun had still been thoughtful enough to worry about her instead. Seeing it, she felt sorrow and guilt begin to creep up inside her.

Soon, though, that feeling turned into a fierce rage at the trash who had dared try to kill him. And the rage turned again into regret, thick enough to leave her chest hollow: regret that she hadn’t been able to help him at all while he staked his life on getting through that ordeal.

It’s only lucky that Oppa drew the power out.

And if he hadn’t?

Something she didn’t even want to imagine would have happened.

When her thoughts got that far, she crushed the drink bottle in her hand without realizing it. It was only plastic, yet under her overwhelming grip it didn’t merely crumple; it shattered into fine pieces, the way glass breaks.

What is there that I can do for Oppa?

For Minjun’s sake, Sia could do anything. Literally anything.

But at this moment, all she could do for him was listen to his story and comfort him, because those bastards, who deserved worse than being torn apart, were already dead.

She was a dragon, a being that powerful, and still she could do nothing for him. That helplessness was more than enough to set her rage blazing.

— BANG!

Carrying her rage at the Villains, and at herself, she struck the floor with all her strength. The floor was hard marble, but one blow of her fist split it with a crack.

I have to do something.

Not only for Minjun’s sake, but for her own too. If she just stayed still and did nothing, she felt she would go mad.

As she searched for a fitting way to do it, an idea flashed through her head.

Just because they’re dead doesn’t mean revenge is off the table, does it?

An ordinary person might be another story, but as a dragon she had more than enough ability for that.

Having been reincarnated herself, she’d been drawn to the necromancers’ discipline since her hatchling days. That interest grew into a hunger to learn, so she taught herself the craft, and thanks to that she could also use necromancy, the art that calls back the souls of the dead, at an expert level.

This is it.

If her targets were already dead, she could call their souls back with necromancy and take her revenge then. They were all probably in hell by now, though.

“I’ll show you there’s a place more terrible than hell.”

A deep killing intent began to seep into her eyes.