A Woman’s Complex Heart (2)

Five minutes before the problem erupted, Go Yu-jin was also letting out a sigh.

When settling down and active in Seoul, there were ill-fated relationships that one frequently encountered.

Among them, Jeong Sang-hu, whom she met recently, was one, and Cheon Se-ah, the Cold Witch she had to meet now, was another.

For some reason, it wasn’t quite an ill-fated relationship with Cheon Se-ah. Because she had frequently been entangled in complaints as an Awakener who used cold air that inevitably interfered with her work, but at some point, their relationship soured rapidly, and currently, Go Yu-jin was troubled because of Cheon Se-ah, who treated her like a sworn enemy.

‘I haven’t particularly done anything wrong, it’s just… Since the moment I took Seong-chan as an employee, the relationship worsened rapidly. Does she have a grudge against him?’

She thought the battlefields might have overlapped because they were of the same 2nd generation.

A black mage’s power was a strength where it wasn’t easy to distinguish between friend and foe, and because the influence it exerted on the outside was immense, there were many cases where it caused repulsion among Awakeners when a black mage used their power.

A black mage was accustomed to such situations that were close to the absurdity they experienced daily.

‘Anyway… since there isn’t much time left until the Gate closes, let’s smile as much as possible. Just smile…’

Go Yu-jin smiled as she recalled the burning heat of last night.

It was unfamiliar, but it was a happy memory, and it felt like a recollection she wanted to experience again.

It was a past too recent to call a memory already, but it was also a dreamlike experience, so Go Yu-jin wanted to keep immersing herself in it.

After moving rapidly for a while, she finally faced Cheon Se-ah.

“As I thought, it’s you?”

At the sharp question, Go Yu-jin asked seriously.

“There’s no reason to cause harm to each other, so let’s not act so sharp, shall we?”

“Do you know how much stress I’m under because of you alone?”

“To put it the other way, it’s the same for me. Why are you trying to interfere with every single thing? Even if your grudge against Mr. Seong-chan is deep, you shouldn’t act like this!”

“Hmph, it’s not something like a grudge!”

“Then what is it?”

“That is…”

Cheon Se-ah mumbled, unable to answer. Then Go Yu-jin spoke while operating her mana.

“Don’t try to hide it without even a plausible excuse. And since there isn’t much time left until the closure, let’s not do things where we both lose.”

“Your environment, the situation, the reality makes me angry…”

Cheon Se-ah spoke like a small growl, and Go Yu-jin, realizing that Cheon Se-ah’s momentum was rapidly growing stronger, warned her while pulling up her mana together.

“Solving things with force is an old-fashioned idea. Now the world has stabilized and changed. How about solving it amicably through conversation?”

Go Yu-jin thought Cheon Se-ah was trying to cause trouble because of a grudge she held against Geum Seong-chan.

Conversely, Cheon Se-ah disliked this situation itself.

If the person in front of her hadn’t been Go Yu-jin, she wouldn’t have had a reason to be this excited.

Perhaps it was because she might have been excited in a different sense that she expressed deep regret and anger.

Upon awakening, every Awakener has a screw come loose.

And now, the two with the loose screws were about to clash.

Cheon Se-ah began to freeze the surroundings instantaneously; at the feast of power that perfectly fit the name Cold Witch, Go Yu-jin eventually operated her mana to pull the surrounding remnants and create a golem.

Because the remnants were full of cold air, just wrapping them around her body was quite an ordeal, but since she could roughly push back the cold with mana, she began to respond defensively while accepting a certain amount of damage.

“What can you even do with a mere corpse golem!!”

As she reached her hand into the air, a huge pillar of ice was created, then soon shattered.

Then it became small spear blades and stretched toward the corpse golem.

However, Go Yu-jin also had no intention of being defeated, so she immediately lifted the golem’s foot and slammed it hard onto the ground.

Boom!! It was the fragments of the earth surging up with the sound, and she showcased the feat of shooting down the flying ice spears by swinging the golem’s arm in time to strike them away.

“Trivial tricks!”

Cheon Se-ah, enraged that her technique was blocked, emitted cold air again and formed countless huge pillars throughout the air, and Go Yu-jin warned her as she saw this.

“If you want to do this for real, you’d better be prepared. I won’t hold back either.”

As soon as Go Yu-jin’s words ended, an immense amount of mana was emitted, and the already huge golem’s size began to grow rapidly.

At this, Cheon Se-ah couldn’t help but be startled, but just as she grit her teeth and was about to drop the cold air, thinking she couldn’t be pushed back by the momentum—

Snap! Along with the sound, a massive mana swept through the area, and as if calculating the power in reverse, it scattered it, literally dispersing Go Yu-jin’s mana and Cheon Se-ah’s cold air.

Afterward, two gazes gathered toward the voice that was heard.

“Phew, I’m busy enough with work as it is, and you’re making me use my strength in a place like this?”

“Mr. Seong-chan.”

“…Geum Seong-chan.”

Go Yu-jin deactivated the golem and stepped back with both hands raised, and Cheon Se-ah also stared at Geum Seong-chan for a long time, then spoke with her cheeks slightly flushed.

“I have committed a discourtesy. Because I got excited easily…”

“Thanks to that, the schedule has become a bit tight.”

Cheon Se-ah felt somewhat disappointed by Geum Seong-chan’s answer, but because she knew what kind of work Go Yu-jin and Geum Seong-chan were currently doing, she had no choice but to admit the fact that she had caused him trouble.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t intend for it to be like this… As expected, I get excited easily…”

“I’ll hear the story only up to there. Since the subjugation seems to be finished, you can lead your people and withdraw from the Gate.”

“…Won’t you accept my apology?”

Cheon Se-ah looked at Geum Seong-chan with a pitiful expression like a puppy in the rain, but Geum Seong-chan spoke after letting out a sigh.

“Now as then, your appearance after making a mistake remains unchanged.”

‘He remembered me…!’

Cheon Se-ah couldn’t contain her joy inside, but she soon had no choice but to feel dejected again at Geum Seong-chan’s words.

“Please, leave immediately. You’re an interference.”

In the end, Cheon Se-ah had no choice but to tuck her tail.

Meanwhile, Go Yu-jin, who was watching this situation closely, quickly came to understand that Cheon Se-ah was not acting out of ‘grudge’.

‘…Does she like Mr. Seong-chan?’

Because it felt like that kind of emotion, Go Yu-jin felt unnecessarily nervous, but just then, when her gaze met with the dejected Cheon Se-ah, she had no choice but to let out a sigh after grasping the burning torrent within Cheon Se-ah’s eyes.

‘It’s for real. Mr. Seong-chan… Certainly, a person with this level of ability isn’t common. There must be a story too…’

Thinking she should ask him once later, Go Yu-jin settled the situation by stepping back with Geum Seong-chan.

Watching Cheon Se-ah also move to where her teammates were with a much softened expression thanks to Go Yu-jin’s actions, she slyly asked Geum Seong-chan.

“Have you known Ms. Cheon Se-ah for a long time?”

“We were active together on the battlefield at the end of the 3-year war.”

The 3-year war refers to the Great Cataclysm.

‘That must be when I left the battlefield…’

In fact, she had no memory of seeing Geum Seong-chan on the battlefield. It was because their areas of activity were different.

In Geum Seong-chan’s case, he was said to have mainly been in charge of rear support.

On the other hand, Go Yu-jin was active at the front lines, performing the role of clearing a path of blood.

It meant it was a connection that was by no means easy to meet. And it seemed Cheon Se-ah was also active in the rear around this time and formed a bond with Geum Seong-chan, but judging by Geum Seong-chan’s reaction, it could be expected that he had more bad memories than good memories of Cheon Se-ah.

“Did she… happen to make a lot of mistakes?”

“Rather than a mistake, it was a nuisance. Because there were many times she went on a rampage due to not being able to handle the cold properly.”

“Ah…”

She immediately understood what kind of situation it was. For someone with power like Cheon Se-ah, it was enough to be active at the front, but she realized the meaning of her being in the rear.

Watching the dejected shoulders of the retreating Cheon Se-ah, she felt unnecessarily sorry, but Go Yu-jin flinched while thinking that there was no need to build up a competitor as much as possible.

‘A competitor…’

She glanced at Geum Seong-chan while sorting out her complex thoughts.

The work proceeded smoothly.

We were able to collect all the remnants with exactly 15 minutes left until the Gate closed.

The Gate itself was large, but the work ended up being prolonged because a large amount of mana was wasted once in the middle.

In comparison, the two people, who never dreamed that all the remnants would be collected, were staring at the mountain of remnants with vacant faces, and I approached them, thrusting a piece of paper forward and said:

“Work complete. Please sign?”

“…What are we supposed to do if you leave it like this…?”

I gave a smirk to the government official Jo Seong-bin and said:

“I’m the type who doesn’t forget a debt. Sign.”

At my short command, Jo Seong-bin pulled out a pen with a reluctant expression, and soon after finishing the signature, he was the one urging the transportation operators.

In reality, one wouldn’t be able to express dissatisfaction toward an Awakener who had accomplished a task of this magnitude.

The world is a meritocracy.

“Is it over?”

While the signature was being finalized, Go Yu-jin was seen wiping remnants off her body, and I asked her.

“Clean?”

“I don’t want to?”

“You smell. The smell of Orc blood and feces lasts a long time.”

“I know. But if I receive that again… you know, right?”

“Well… I don’t dislike it though?”

Upon hearing my words, Go Yu-jin blushed. Thinking I might have teased her too much, I casually moved on, saying to tell me whenever she needed it, and just then, Cheon Se-ah came toward this side.

“I was sorry about earlier. When I get excited easily, my emotions become intense. I almost caused a huge loss, so I wanted to apologize…”

“It’s fine. It’s not like an accident happened, and the work was finished well somehow. It’s fine as long as you don’t repeat the same thing next time.”

“…Yes.”

She seemed to have come with courage, but in the end, Cheon Se-ah withdrew with a dejected expression, and Go Yu-jin, who had been listening to the conversation, said to me as she watched the retreating Cheon Se-ah.

“Did you really have to treat her so coldly?”

“If you give an opening, the same accident repeats. One must be as strict as possible with things that require strictness for accidents to not happen.”

Go Yu-jin looked at me with a complex expression, but after finishing the situation, she and I moved our steps toward the office.

Afterward, the media began to talk day after day regarding the Orc remnants piled up in Yongsan, and although there was the fact that the officials didn’t handle the work properly, rumors together spread about the collection company that recovered a volume several times higher than the originally planned recovery volume, becoming a hot topic day after day and leading to being publicly shamed here and there despite not having committed a crime.

‘To receive this kind of treatment just because I’m a black mage—do they not know what a terrible situation this society would be in if black mages decided to turn into villains?’

Two people were seen getting stressed because of the news that continued at a level of persecution.

Go Yu-jin and An So-mi; in fact, the two are women with ‘girly’ sensibilities who have many dreams and good abilities.

They are of a different grain from a person like me whose emotions are beyond dull and are hard.

They seemed to be under quite extreme stress from every single comment attached to the articles.

“Why don’t you practice instead of looking at articles?”

“Aren’t you bored, Mr. Seong-chan?”

I answered An So-mi’s question immediately.

“If the work of increasing mana is boring, shouldn’t one quit being a mage?”

“Seriously. As expected of a madman, you’re relentless.”

“Aren’t those words too harsh?”

“Think about it objectively. Whether you, Mr. Seong-chan, are a normal human.”

“I am extremely human though?”

An So-mi grumbled, saying only he doesn’t know. And then she spoke while looking at Go Yu-jin.

“Yu-jin, how did you happen to pick that man up?”

“I told you before, he’s a capable employee. He’s an incredibly great mage.”

“That’s why I’m asking why such a person is at our company.”

I cut into the conversation between the two and said:

“Even on the battlefield, people didn’t particularly welcome me. After the 3-year war ended, I played around for a bit with the rewards I received, and then I felt like I should earn some money. That’s just when this job caught my eye.”

“Ugh, he’s really businesslike but a strange person.”

An So-mi was absolutely revolted, but I couldn’t understand well why she was like that.