Free Web NovelWhat was it that I supposedly didn’t know this time? At this point, it was really...... getting sickening. I stared silently at Kwon Taehan.
The longer our gazes crossed without a word, the more twisted my mood felt. Without hesitating any longer, I asked Kwon Taehan,
“Then why did you come all the way here?”
Kwon Taehan’s fifth life.... Right, that was something I already knew too. Just as Kwon Taehan said, his mind wore down horribly as he died over and over.
And his fifth life was the life right before that mind wore down. The round where his hostility toward me had reached its peak.
In fact, on the day we first met, hadn’t he grabbed me by the collar and driven me into a corner as if asking whether I was even human?
And yet he didn’t hate me....
'Ha, fuck, this isn’t even a joke.'
Putting everything else aside, by common sense, I was the bastard who had killed him four times. How could he not hate me? That was questionable too. Or had his hatred gotten so huge that something had gone wrong with his head? Or maybe his mind had already collapsed.
Of course, I wasn’t unaware that he had something like friendship toward me. That friendship was, well...... to some extent, it felt like an itchy sort of attachment too. In any case, in the sense that it was a positive emotion.
But that affection had remained until he died four times? When he even remembered every single place I had stabbed him.
'There’s no other word for him but pushover.'
Whether I insulted him internally or not, as if he did not even consider that kind of thing, Kwon Taehan stared at me silently for a long while before saying,
“Do you know where you went today? It was an S-rank Gate.”
“Do you think I went in without knowing?”
“If you knew, why the hell did you go in?”
“Right. Why did I do that?”
What the hell was so good about it? My train of thought again bounced around however it wanted. The one who cut off that flow was Kwon Taehan again.
“It was a foreign country’s S-rank Gate, you hadn’t coordinated combat with the other Hunters at all, and Chase Holt was even there. I had no guarantee you wouldn’t provoke Chase.”
“.......”
“I also know the offer went to Haeseong first. Then that means Guild Master Im sent you, so how am I supposed to take that?”
“Ah, you’ve gotten pretty close with Im Haekyung.”
When I answered half-heartedly, Kwon Taehan’s expression hardened at once as he said,
“It sounds like Haekyung wanted to get rid of you. You know what kind of place the inside of a Dungeon is. Why do you think Chase was able to kill so many Hunters and still keep operating just fine until now?”
“Because his companions are the same sons of bitches and keep their mouths shut?”
“...No one knows anything about what happens inside a Dungeon. If Chase had decided to kill you this time, do you think you could have come out alive?”
“He already tried to kill me. I came out just fine, didn’t I?”
I raised one corner of my mouth crookedly and faced Kwon Taehan. He looked at me with an expression that seemed to have a lot to say, then abruptly turned his head away.
I looked at Kwon Taehan’s profile for quite a long time. His twitching mouth was rigidly set. As if he were nervous.
Watching that naturally made a question arise.
“This is really strange. I really... don’t understand this.”
“.......”
“How can you worry about me? Taehan. If it were me, I would have thought it was a very convenient justification to get rid of you without using my own hands.”
“.......”
“Because it’s a good chance to achieve your goal.”
I was speaking sincerely, but Kwon Taehan slowly asked back,
“...What?”
“Isn’t it? It really seems like an opportunity.”
Kwon Taehan, who had looked somehow complicated until just now, looked slightly dazed. He slowly asked,
“Are you saying it would be rational for me to let you die? Right now?”
“You came and saved me like some hero appearing at the climax, fuck. Then you should’ve come a little earlier.”
“I did come early. As soon as I heard about your situation...!”
He had looked as if he might raise his voice at any moment, but he slowly let the strength leave his body.
“...So do you know me?”
“.......”
The topic changed again in an instant. No, from another perspective, this was probably what Kwon Taehan was most curious about, so perhaps we had returned to the beginning.
He stayed quiet as if waiting for my answer, then suddenly asked,
“Do you remember what my end was like last time?”
What?
I quickly searched through my head. If he said last time, did he mean the end of the fourth life?
Kwon Taehan’s fourth life....
'What was his fourth life like again?'
Based on the circumstances, I knew Kwon Taehan had died after being stabbed in the abdomen, but I knew nothing besides that. Naturally. It was his life that had not been described.
It must have been a life that was not particularly important. I didn’t know how desperately he had struggled to survive, but in any case, it had ultimately been an omitted point.
I didn’t know exactly what answer Kwon Taehan wanted, but I could answer well enough.
“I killed you....”
Warning.
Do not damage indiv■duality.
Right, that was true.
But Kwon Taehan’s expression remained stiff.
“You killed me....”
Pain started slowly rising again. It seemed that the moment Kwon Taehan’s intervention was cut even a little, it recurred.
I stared silently at Kwon Taehan and added,
“That’s why you hate me.”
“...Say something else.”
“What else?”
“Anything. Proof that can make me certain you know me.”
“You need more certainty?”
“Yeah, I do.”
How was I supposed to give him trust any further?
'No, is there any need to?'
Actually, if I thought about it, wasn’t even this ultimately a kind of lie? Was there really...... any reason I had to go so far as to lie to him and take his side?
'What the hell am I supposed to do now?'
There were a lot of things I had set in motion. But all of that had been about building my forces in order to respond to Kwon Taehan, not anything I had done under an independent pretext.
Even my purpose was entirely related to Kwon Taehan.
Only then did I realize what emotion I had felt earlier.
It would be a lie to say there was no anger, but that was not all of it. Rather than that, it was emptiness...... or powerlessness? Boredom, faint irritation.... All of them were explosive emotions to me.
Explosive enough that I could hardly endure it without pouring them out right now.
So why exactly did someone like me need to convince Kwon Taehan right now?
I slowly lowered my gaze and swept over his whole body. Unlike Chase, his extremely dark red hair looked almost black when there was no light. And eyes where emotions I could not understand swayed. Because he had just come back after cleaning up the Dungeon Break, he was dressed in uncomfortable tactical gear, and he wore artifact gloves. And....
I moved my gaze to his shoes, stared at them for a long while, then spoke dryly.
“I told you. Your shoes are really... pretty.”
“.......”
“Did I make you pick up some of my habits?”
“.......”
“I interfered with your tastes a little.”
When I lightly kicked the tips of his feet, his gaze rose at the same time. Kwon Taehan stared at me intently for quite a long time, still with those eyes where complicated feelings swayed, then let out an empty laugh.
“Why.”
When I asked immediately at his incomprehensible reaction, Kwon Taehan shook his head and shoved my shoulder back. When I let myself be pushed, he chewed on his own lip a few times before saying,
“...Your memories are incomplete.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how the hell... you know those things and are acting differently from before.... But you don’t remember everything. Instead, you’re trying to piece together the empty spaces by watching my reactions.”
“.......”
Amazingly, that was almost exactly the truth.
'How did he know?'
Regardless of my question, Kwon Taehan continued.
“What changed, and how... I’ll have to find out. But you don’t remember me right now.”
“I know you, though?”
“You only know me. ...That’s all.”
As Kwon Taehan said that, he looked somehow desolate. But it was not the unpleasant look of someone who felt deceived.
Amazingly...... he looked a little relieved. Was this also me “misreading” him?
As I only stared at him silently without knowing how to react, Kwon Taehan nodded.
“As for Chase, I’ll block it for you. ...I know that from your point of view, it was a rational action. I shouldn’t understand you, but... really, sometimes....”
“Sometimes?”
But his words did not continue beyond that.
Kwon Taehan looked at me for a long while, then soon turned and headed toward the door.
“You’re leaving just like this?”
“The conversation is over.”
“Then now you’re going to tell me not to act like I know you again.”
“.......”
“Ha.... This fucking bastard.”
At those words, he did flinch for a moment, but he grabbed the doorknob as if nothing had happened.
I stared silently at the floor, then strode toward him.
Bang—!
I slammed the door, which had opened slightly, shut hard and pressed Kwon Taehan tightly from behind while his back was turned to me.
“What are you....”
After shoving his back hard against the door so he could not turn around, I whispered quietly just before he could start struggling.
“I’ll tell you something interesting.”
“Move.”
“You’re going to move with Seowon, right? You did every time. Seowon’s useful personnel. Smart... and good at work. Of course, there are a few risks. The grudge relationships stuck all over them, for example.... Actually, grudge relationships doesn’t really fit. Guilds on the level of Damyeon or Cape Prime probably don’t have such extreme resentment that they’d search the world just to catch one Seowon.”
“What are you trying to say?”
I raised the corner of my mouth and reached out, naturally snatching the wrist of the guy who had tried to open the door. When I held his wrist and fixed it against the wall, Kwon Taehan lost any further will to leave and stayed quietly caught.
'Good thing he isn’t shaking me off.' fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Or should I call it fortunate that he was drained after the battle?
I looked at Kwon Taehan’s neck, where faint goosebumps had risen, then naturally swept my gaze to the scar beside it.
“Anyway... if you’re going to stay with Seowon, I thought I’d tell you something interesting.”
“.......”
“I wrote a covenant with them.... The collateral is my life.”
“What?”
When Kwon Taehan twisted his body at those words to look back, I drove him into the door again.
“Ugh!”
“Fuck, stop showing off your strength.”
“Why the hell would you make a covenant...!”
“I don’t know whether they’ll break it or not, but if possible, make sure they can’t.”
“What....”
The two of them would fit very well from a moral standpoint. Since they were both ridiculously good-natured bastards.
'Really great companions.'
I raised the corner of my mouth and added,
“It guarantees Seowon’s safety, so if they die... I die.”
“What...?”
“If the moment ever comes when you really want to kill me, think about it. Mm, like taking out a lunchbox to eat.... It’s nice to have one certain thing, right? As a final resort, something like that.”
“Explain what the hell that means...!”
With those words, I let go of Kwon Taehan’s wrist and immediately flung the door open. I grabbed him so he wouldn’t lose his balance, then pushed him out the moment the door opened.
I enjoyed Kwon Taehan’s expression as he looked at me from the other side of the door, then raised the corner of my mouth even higher and said goodbye.
“Well then, take care.”
Creeeak— click.
The door closed, and at last, boring peace arrived.
