Free Web Novel“I’m not that crazy.”
“No, Hyungnim, you are not in your right mind. When you asked me about Cheonmyeonggyo back then—was it so you could pull this stunt? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have answered.”
He really was pissed. Do Yehyun’s voice kept breaking, like his anger was boiling over. I sat on the sofa and gave the bare-bones rundown.
“I don’t know the full situation. Out of nowhere this bastard said, ‘Let’s go meet the cult leader,’ then pulled a knife on me. That’s it.”
“If you hadn’t gone there in the first place... none of this would’ve happened.”
“Maybe. But it was just a chapel. My luck is trash for running into this kind of guy there, sure, but no matter how much of a cult it is, who expects this after a single visit?”
I’d thought I was having a run of bad luck at the time too, but how the hell was I supposed to predict that the psycho I saw there would tail me around and then suddenly try to stab me in front of my house?
I pushed back the hair that kept falling into my face and looked at Do Yehyun.
“...I don’t get it. You said you brought me along because you needed a healer, but you always...”
“...Yeah, Yehyun. I can tell where your grievance is coming from, but this was not something I could’ve predicted. I’m serious.”
Sure, if we were entering a dungeon I’d bring him along, but this was a cheap little outing that turned sideways... What was I supposed to do?
Grinding his lips, Yehyun stared at me with a face full of ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) pent-up complaints.
Then Joo Seowon, who’d been quietly listening, cut in.
“Hold on. You’re saying the guy on the floor here is the one you met in Busan, and he told you to go meet Jin Haedo?”
“Yeah.”
Strictly speaking, he babbled that Jin Haedo was looking for me.
Frowning like he couldn’t process it, Joo asked:
“Wait... You said Busan. So why is he here?”
Exactly. I repeated the bastard’s ridiculous claim word for word.
“He says he followed me from Busan.”
“What the—what? You got back from Busan way more than a week ago, didn’t you? No, it’s been over ten days!”
“Right.”
How do you tail someone like that without getting caught all that time? Honestly, I was impressed.
Joo was so dumbfounded he couldn’t speak for a while. When he finally did, it was a weird kind of admiration.
“...Psycho. Well, of course he lives like that—he’s insane....”
Yeah, he’s a psycho. Muttering to himself, Joo looked between the guy on the floor and me, then suddenly asked something else.
“But why do you look like that?”
I hadn’t checked a mirror, so I didn’t know exactly how wrecked I looked. But considering how Yehyun recoiled the second he saw me out there in the dark, I was pretty sure it wasn’t pretty.
'I must be a mess.'
I met Joo’s eyes and answered.
“I told you he pulled a knife on me. That’s why I called Yehyun.”
“...You got stabbed?”
“Well... to be precise, I didn’t technically get stabbed.”
I took the Reflective Sword I’d scooped up in the alley out of my coat and set it down on the coffee table with a thunk.
“It’s a Reflective Sword. An item that inflicts a wound on the same spot on the attacker’s body.”
“Oh, then you weren’t stabbed—... Wait, what? Hold up, it injures the attacker’s body in the same spot... Did you stab this bastard?!”
“He made himself the victim with my hand. You think I stabbed him? Christ, Seowon—what do you take me for?”
“What the hell am I supposed to think?!”
Bold. Love the confidence.
“So the wound... Yehyun treated it?”
“Yeah. No more wound.”
Joo’s gaze dropped to my abdomen. I obligingly lifted my shredded T-shirt to show a perfectly fine stomach.
“No scar now, either.”
“So it wasn’t that deep then...?”
“Right.”
I was answering casually when Yehyun suddenly cut me off.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“......”
“I don’t think you understand how bad it was, Hyungnim.”
His voice was much colder than usual.
“The skill took several times longer to apply than normal. The worse the wound, the longer my skill takes to apply. And just now...”
He bit off his words, pressed his lips tight, looked at me with raw reproach, and continued.
“...It was serious. It was a severe injury.”
“What? Severe? You just said it wasn’t deep.”
“It wasn’t necessarily fatal.”
“It could have been. And even if it wasn’t, the aftereffects could’ve been bad. My skill can’t bring the dead back to life.”
I stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded. At this point, no matter what I said, he wasn’t in any state to listen.
'First time I’ve been worried over like this.'
When worry goes too far, it comes out sounding like resentment. I hadn’t known, because this kind of thing had never happened before.
I waited calmly for him to work through it.
“Yehyun.”
“......”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“......”
“But I called you right away. That’s why I’m alive.”
“......”
“Thanks.”
I didn’t know whether he wanted an apology or a thank-you, so I gave him both.
'He’s fussy in a lot of ways...'
But I wasn’t annoyed. Maybe because he’d saved me. I watched him settle instantly and let the corner of my mouth tick up.
“...Seo Jehyun.”
From beside me, where he’d been standing quietly, Joo called my name. I turned; he cleared his throat once and looked down at the cultist on the floor.
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Dunno.”
I looked at the guy on the floor too, sorting through a few thoughts. Even putting aside how to dispose of him, there were a handful of things gnawing at me.
'Did Jin Haedo really tell him to bring me?'
If I assumed, for the sake of argument, that everything the bastard said was true, then this would be a much faster way to meet Jin Haedo than having Joo approach Ryu Taeyoung’s little brother.
Seems we’d been sent a one-on-one invitation on this side.
Of course, there was the minor issue of me having beaten the living crap out of the sender of Jin Haedo’s invitation.
'It’d be nice if I could get Jin Haedo’s location out of him.'
But after the beating he took, I doubted I’d get a straight answer by just asking.
'No, there is a way.'
There’s a classic interrogation method that’s worked since antiquity and still does in modern times.
'Hm.'
After a brief think, I let my gaze fall to the guy lying on the floor. Catching that at once, Joo asked:
“...You’re thinking something weird again, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to ask him a few things.”
“Like what?” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
“He seems to know where Jin Haedo is... If that’s true, it’ll be faster to squeeze it out of him than to pry it from Ryu Taeyoung’s brother.”
Joo nodded, looking sour.
“...Yeah. That would be faster. But you think he’ll answer just because you ask?”
“I’ll make him answer.”
“...What are you going to do?”
Quiet till now, Yehyun finally asked. I glanced at the bastard lying there like he didn’t have a care in the world and made a simple request.
“Yehyun. Where you pulled the Teleport Box from, there were some restraint items too. Can you bring them?”
“Why do you... need restraints?”
“...I’ll go get them.”
While Yehyun left to fetch the restraints, Joo looked between me and the guy sprawled on the floor with a worried face and lowered his voice to warn me.
“Seo Jehyun.”
“...What?”
“Please... take care of yourself. I’m not just saying that.”
“I am taking care. It’s just that outside forces keep interfering with how much I love my body.”
“Stop talking bullshit, for fuck’s sake. Please...”
Messing up his own hair, Joo lifted his head.
“When you do this, I...”
'When I do this, you...?'
But he didn’t finish. A moment of silence later, Yehyun came back with a rope-type restraint.
“...This the right one?”
“Yeah. Good job.”
I praised him and tied the bastard’s wrists and ankles tight.
“...Why are you so good at tying knots?”
“You never served?”
“...I was exempt.”
Ah? Well, yeah—no parents, a sibling to support—you’d get an exemption.
'And I heard Awakened can do alternative service anyway.'
Thinking idle thoughts about the military, I finished the bindings and tossed him back on the floor.
“So what now?”
“First we wake him.”
“With a potion?”
His question was full of confusion, and I couldn’t help a laugh slipping out. Ah... Mr. Dungeon-Brain.
'There’s plenty you can do without items or skills.'
It’s wild how quickly people’s thinking has shifted, considering how recently the Gates opened.
“...Why are you laughing?”
Instead of answering, I raised my hand and smashed it into the cultist’s face.
Thwack!
A crisp sound rang through the room.
