Chapter 479 Chapter 479. Where Did They Go |
It was still far from cool enough for the weather to drop like this, yet here I was, feeling my skin temperature sink so drastically.
“What is this…?”
I stood there for a few seconds, lost in thought, but I still couldn’t make sense of it. Above all, there was no magical-scientific basis for it. The interior of the gate matched the concept and spatial structure of the “feeding box” that appeared on Alphauri.
Judging by the fact that the monsters there appeared to have also lingered on the boundary between living and non-living, they were exactly like the offspring of the Gisimche. But what the…?
“The only thing I can think of right now… is that the technique, which the Gisimche were famous for copying, might this time have been stolen by a third party.”
A burst of laughter almost escaped me. I restrained it and lifted the telescope once more. Yet the image in the lens remained exactly the same.
“There’s no trace at all.”
The involvement of a species other than the Gisimche was almost certain.
If this is really the case, how is a mage supposed to live in this terrifying world?
“Honestly, I didn’t really think much when I told Seo Woo-yeon about the planet.”
Of course, the universe had been famously vast since the beginning of time, but did it really need to be this absurdly immense and unpredictable…?
“Learning facts beyond your comprehension really does hit you mentally.”
For now, at least, I couldn’t linger forever in cosmic horror. I hurriedly closed the nearby dungeon, which I had reserved under my own name, by using a ‘Boss Snipe’ method. Then I immediately began devising a new plan.
I need to eat something.
After all, I had to fill my stomach and sustain my life before I could get anything done. Besides, when a situation got really tangled, it wasn’t such a bad idea to quietly rely on someone else’s help. But, of course, there wasn’t really a reason to naturally summon someone just by inviting them to a meal…
***
For the sake of peace of mind, I soon chose a small restaurant.
Tuk.
I took a seat there. For reference, due to the unexpected discoveries in the dungeon, all related work of the [Kim Giryeo Guild] had come to a complete halt. In other words, the guild members were generating no income, yet I still had to pay rent and other essential expenses. Despite being in such a poor financial situation, I had rented out the entire restaurant.
“Welcome, Customer! Your party that arrived first is currently waiting at the inner table.”
The person I was about to meet was a tremendous figure. So if the surrounding seats weren’t cleared, the attention of the other patrons would make it impossible to have a proper conversation.
I saw online that this person likes Western cuisine, so I went ahead and picked a place like this for the meeting…
I was lost in various thoughts at the time.
Tak, tak.
With the rhythmic clicking of polished dress shoes, the acquaintance arrived at the pre-reserved table.
“—Hunter Esther!”
As the name just announced suggests, the person I had hurriedly called was, in fact, an S-rank hunter from Korea.
“Rich. Powerful. If you cross them the wrong way, it could be the end—but other than that, this person is a golden contact.”
I had something to consult her about, using the meal as an excuse. Ah, by the way, sitting here in the restaurant, I suddenly couldn’t help but think of a certain young man.
“Come to think of it, lately every time Jeong Haseong meets me, he keeps passing along that his mom said we should have a meal together someday…”
For reference, since a colleague in the industry had ended up hospitalized like that, of course the top-ranked hunter had at least once dropped by my hospital room.
Yet all of this information was already in Kim Giryeo’s mind. That in Korea, when someone says, “Let’s have a meal sometime,” the likelihood of it actually happening is extremely low—mostly just a polite gesture. So I casually let Jeong Haseong’s meal invitation slide, and welcomed only the guest who had actually shown up.
“Although I sent the message in a hurry, thank you for taking the time so willingly.”
“-_-”
“I’ve pre-ordered all the Western dishes you like, Hunter Esther.”
“-_-”
“The food will be out shortly. For now, please sit wherever you feel comfortable.”
Etiquette followed perfectly, from start to finish. But despite my rare effort to speak politely, the person in front of me immediately grimaced.
“Sorry, but there’s really no comfortable seat here.”
“Hmm?”
“Anyway, I’m so uneasy that it’s unbearable. Even if you brought a really expensive chair, honestly, it wouldn’t make me feel any better.”
Esther seemed to get angry the moment she saw me. Well, since I had rented the entire restaurant, there was no worry about being reported for shouting. Thus, the S-rank hunter in front of me began raising her voice without holding back.
“Now I see why this Kim Giryeo has been groaning all this time.”
It was an incredibly double-standard statement, but as an archmage, being spoken to so bluntly in casual speech felt… oddly unsettling.
“You’re young, you show off, and you rely only on your remarkable recovery to perform hunts that are basically acrobatics every time—of course your body would break down.”
“Acrobatics…”
“By the way, Giryeo-ssi, do you even ever look at the Internet?”
“I do.”
“Then later, when you get home, try looking it up on your phone. These days, there are so many young people who get into serious trouble from overworking!”
“Hmm.”
“Besides, a normal person would panic and run to the hospital even from a nosebleed, let alone coughing up blood. How on earth does someone with no proper guardian even get discharged in the meantime…?”
It was just as the restaurant staff, hands trembling, brought over the pre-meal bread.
“Honestly, you liar.”
A sharp remark poured out. Esther didn’t even glance at the food laid out on the table.
In addition, she continued muttering her complaints in a low voice.
“Every time this person opens his mouth, it’s nothing but pure lies!”
“What did you say?”
“When you reversed your retirement, you clearly said we wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”
Of course, I felt sorry that what you had confidently promised didn’t turn out as expected. But if such suspicions kept going, it was a bit troublesome.
“It’s really strange. Giryeo-ssi, you say you’re an ordinary person who went through the same compulsory education as me, so how do you keep working yourself to the point of breaking your body every time?”
“Well, that’s…”
“If dangerous things kept happening at the field site, I would have panicked and run away long ago.”
“Ah.”
“Humans aren’t some kind of pain-immune beings, after all.”
Any living creature would naturally be afraid of pain. But since I maintained my life as a hunter so nonchalantly, perhaps it looked strange to a native of this world. I hastily tried to think of something to say in response to her unexpected remark. But her next words came faster than I could form an answer.
“—And just to be sure, are you annoyed that I launched into all this scolding as soon as we met?”
I shook my head to indicate that I wasn’t bothered at all. At this, the person with the unusual name gave a faint, ambig uous smile.
“Yes. Well, if what I said so far hasn’t upset you, that’s good. Anyway, I’ll get straight to the point now.”
“Hmm.”
“Actually, there’s only one thing I want.”
“One thing you want?”
In response to my question, Esther calmly fixed her gaze on me.
“It’s something everyone who knows me already understands, but I was born with a sharp temperament.”
The person speaking now was wearing what’s called nail art, a kind of Earth-style adornment. It seemed she had finally taken the time to redecorate her hands, though the tip of her ring finger’s nail was slightly chipped. It was probably I he recent [Sadie] incident that had left such small blemishes in her everyday life.
“Living while only acknowledging unrealistically ideal personalities, well… even at my age, I’ve ended up with almost no close acquaintances—”
The hunter with the chipped nail kept smiling, as if making a self-deprecating joke. However, the sentence that followed had little to do with that pleasant smile—it was more like a blade thrust straight in.
“But recently, I finally found someone whose abilities and personality genuinely impressed me. And if that person were e to die, wouldn’t that naturally put someone like me—already an outsider—in a very difficult position?”
“Wait, was that ‘acquaintance’ you just mentioned supposed to be me?”
“Yes.”
“Ah.”
“And to add, it’s also been a bit bothersome that you keep threatening the dominance of the [Korea Magic Tower] with the guild you built yourself.”
“Oh.”
“I’d feel a lot better if you just left the industry again, right this instant.”
Her words came out bluntly, without warning.
“By the way, Giryeo-ssi, why did you even come back to the hunter industry in the first place?”
Esther tilted her head as she added these remarks.
“Seriously, why?”
“Well…”
“Don’t tell me it’s just because that tumor in your body disappeared? So now that you’re healthy and have some free time, you decided to just keep hunting like before…?”
“-_-”
“I… don’t think it’s that simple. Someone as thoughtful as you wouldn’t act that straightforwardly.”
The question was why I had returned to being a hunter. A few months ago, I could have answered Esther’s curiosity with a single, short sentence—above all else.
—Money.
Of course, things were a little different now. And since this wasn’t the kind of statement that would make me sound like an alien, I didn’t hold back, explaining my situation to keep things smooth-going forward.
“I have a dream I want to achieve with this job.”
Tuk.
With that first sentence, Esther set down the cup of water she had been about to sip.
“To be more specific, my immediate goal is to eliminate the phenomenon known as the Gate, and ultimately, my dream is to achieve world peace.”
At this point, Esther widened her eyes and interjected.
“You said… world peace just now?”
“Is it too ridiculous because my dream is too big?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then why that reaction?”
“It’s just… I reflexively thought, ‘How could eliminating the Gate bring peace?’ and that’s why I reacted that way…”
For reference, her nails were already chipped from dealing with monsters. How could someone treat a space like the Gate as casually as if it were just a gold mine?
“Looks like humans’ sense of danger has gotten a bit dulled after the prolonged Dungeon Shock phenomenon.”
I slowly began to explain to Esther, who had furrowed her brows with a somewhat negative expression.
“Yes.”
“But in this world, there’s no such thing as something for nothing.”
“Oh—suddenly you’re talking like an elder.”
“You shouldn’t think of dungeons the same way as the primitive nature humanity has exploited one-sidedly until now. Dungeons are genuinely dangerous…”
At that point, I reached out and pulled one of the pieces of bread from the center of the table toward me.
“Besides, that’s a variable so unstable it might never be controlled even in a lifetime. How can anyone sleep soundly with the birthplace of monsters right beside their head?”
A dungeon that could turn at any moment and wipe out humanity. Of course, when I had first settled on Earth, I’d thought it would be fine even if about 95% of the natives died.
“As long as a minimal number survived, the species could be restored. Even if a [Descent] of the Gisimche occurred, I figured extinction wouldn’t happen anyway, so it was fine.”
But as time went on, I found myself unable to simply overlook a few seemingly insignificant lives. After all, death is a part of nature’s order. Originally, I hadn’t planned to care whether the natives died of old age or by accident. But now, I wanted at least the acquaintances I’d met during my early days of settling here to live out their natural lifespans before they died.
Esther in front of me, for instance. And Seo Woo-yeon. Jeong Haseong, and the others as well.
Following and protecting their children and grandchildren would, of course, be excessive—but at the very least, I thought it would be fine for me to keep this current generation safe. Even if it was selfish, there was no way that I had moved quickly to devise countermeasures against the Gisimche.
Of course, in the process, the absence of those cosmic worms had been revealed—meaning the Gate was no longer just a problem for mammals alone.
“Looks like I’m in trouble now too, guys.”
The phenomenon known as dungeons appearing on Earth had become something even an Archmage could no longer afford to take lightly. And so, at the very least, I wanted to arm myself with a way to fight back against what I feared. That was how I came to make the request that followed.
“Anyway.”
At that moment, Esther met my eyes again.
“But to achieve the goal I just mentioned, there’s someone I need to meet first.”
“Who?”
The next sentence was the concrete reason I had invited her to the restaurant.
“By any chance, could you use your connections, Director Esther, to find out the whereabouts of someone named Cha ngho?”
Kang Changho. South Korea’s third S-rank Hunter.
Of course, judging by combat power alone, he wasn’t someone important enough for an archmage to go out of their way to track down. But more than anything else, that Earthling had seen a great deal.
[…Still, I was surprised.]
[Because every case I’ve seen so far couldn’t even properly form a single word out loud—let alone speak Korean…]
Just like that, I recalled Kang Changho’s words from that day in the basement.
‘At the time, I naturally assumed what he was babbling about had to be an explanation of the mind-eating worms.’
Of course, it’s not as if every mammal ever said comes back to me in perfect detail. But tracing through the memory cells, I could at least arrive at this much of a conclusion.
—Kang Changho has encountered something with traits strikingly similar to a Gisimche [possessed] entity. I need to obtain that information from him directly.
Therefore, if possible, I had to find the whereabouts of the third S-rank Hunter.
“Hm?”
But what kind of misunderstanding did that human get in the meantime?
“Why does she look so uneasy?”
Esther suddenly furrowed her brows. She wore a grave expression, pondering something for quite a while. Only when the restaurant’s main dishes were finally served did she cautiously finish her thought.
“Then… for the sake of world peace, does that mean that man has to be eliminated…?”
What on earth was she talking about?
“I’m not looking for Kang Changho to kill him.”
I added an explanation, making it clear that I genuinely just had something I needed to ask. Hearing that, Esther clicked her tongue and gave a vaguely ambiguous response.
“Why is she even checking for me?”
Fortunately, the sequence of requests was accepted without trouble.
“All right. I’ll start making inquiries on my end right away.”
“Thank you.”