The End and the Beginning (14)

I sat on the sofa and propped my chin on my hand.

The cushion felt good—must be expensive.

‘Pretty sure I absorbed it.’

I was startled for a moment, but once I calmed down and thought it over, there was only one guess that made sense.

A clone is just a skill, and the body would have been made only of mana…

The moment I realized it wasn’t a big deal, I sighed and flopped onto my side. The leather against my cheek felt soft.

I should enjoy this brief peace while I can. Since I absorbed the clone as-is, it’s obvious Lee Yul will come storming in any minute. Then how long is he going to nag again. My ears already hurt.

‘Status window.’

Still lying down, I called up the status window, and a tilted, translucent panel rose aligned to my view.

Given I’d absorbed an entire clone, the mana that had caused the ruckus hadn’t increased by much. It was just a little extra added onto my base amount.

Maybe because it was someone else’s mana, the efficiency was poor. Or maybe that core back then was busted overpowered.

“It was busted…”

Judging by the power, it definitely wasn’t a normal core. Mulling over this and that, I let out a small yawn.

My eyelids were heavy. As the tension eased, a deep fatigue swept over me. I guess I was, in a way, worried whether Yul could accept it.

The morning sunlight was warm, which made it even harder to stay awake.

* * *

That OO-dong Gate

The Association’s PR is saying they cleared it, right?

I heard actually MHJ did it.

└Wtf how do you know?

└Friend of a friend is a hunter, word gets around.

└lol figures. They must think the whole country’s dumb.

└? MHJ went into a different Gate that morning. Not propaganda

└How would you even know that.

└I live in that neighborhood, watched. Dude’s handsome.

└So is it true he cleared it or not

└@CHOI give us the correct answer~~

“Guild Master, are we just letting this slide? We’ve been getting questions since last night.”

The bespectacled man hurried after Min Ha-jun as he asked. His hands were full of folders and stacks of paper. Even in times like these, when told to submit e-approvals, he insisted paper eased his mind.

“Yeah. I even signed a security document. If it leaks, we’ll owe damages.”

“Yikes, if it costs money, we should take a step back.”

Watching the guild member immediately backpedal at the mention of damages, Min Ha-jun turned his head and kept walking. He didn’t have the energy to respond with his usual smile.

‘Why isn’t she picking up.’

After getting out of the Gate safely, he’d called Kang Yu-ha right away, but she didn’t answer. Maybe she still hadn’t come to, maybe he could trust Wind, and if those two really were that close…

‘And if they are close, so what?’

Startled by the displeasure that flashed up, he frowned at himself. Whatever they were to each other, he had no room to intervene and obviously shouldn’t.

At best, they’d only just become people who knew each other’s full names.

He pulled out his phone again and tapped the screen.

“Hunter Yuha.”

The call tone rang. But this time, too, it went to a beep and voicemail cut in.

An unknown urgency swept over him, but he told himself this feeling was anxiety over not knowing whether Yuha was safe.

Tapping the phone’s corner with his finger, he opened his messenger this time.

—When you wake up, message me firs

‘That’s a bit much.’

For someone he wasn’t close to, it felt excessive, so he erased the sentence. After several drafts and deletes, he finally sent a single short question.

How’s your body doing?

But again, there was no reply.

“Right, she couldn’t take a call either…”

At the very least, if she saw it she’d answer. Thinking that, he still couldn’t turn off the screen and just glared at the helpless time display.

* * *

It had already been days since I told Lee Yul the truth and asked for his cooperation.

I sat in a park grandly named “forest in the city” and stared at the peaceful scene.

Kids splashing in the fountain, students on bikes, couples walking hand in hand.

“Hey, quit sulking and eat this.”

Something cold pressed against my cheek. I turned my head to see Lee Yul, expression flat, holding out ice cream to me.

The familiar cat mask was nowhere to be seen; instead, he had his hood pulled deep to hide his face, and unless you looked up from below you probably wouldn’t see him well.

When I asked why he’d bothered to take off the mask, he’d given the sensible answer that there was no need to go around broadcasting he was an S-rank hunter.

Looking at the sharply upturned eyes, I tossed a line.

“I like the chocolate flavor.”

With the same cola-flavored ice cream as mine in his mouth, he answered.

“They didn’t allow mix-and-match discounts.”

“Then it can’t be helped.”

The day I woke up at Lee Yul’s place and absorbed his clone, he’d come storming in just as expected and unloaded a nagging bomb on me, and I even promised never to absorb a clone again. Not that I could without his permission anyway, but he made a fuss.

And after we talked about this and that, we were able to set short-term goals.

First, stock the mana vault by using the 「Absorption」 skill.

Since we’d decided to move together no matter what, boosting a partner’s firepower was essential. On that, even Lee Yul agreed.

Plus, realizing that absorbing from people wasn’t efficient, we planned to go after Gate cores while clearing Gates.

But that goal got wrecked right out of the Gate.

The reason I was lazily eating ice cream in this park.

‘You can’t do anything if you can’t even get into a Gate.’

Right. I was hitting trouble at the very first step of passing through a Gate entrance.

Out of nowhere, they were cracking down hard.

We’d head out all enthusiastic and the Association folks would be checking whether hunters were registered, so after a few attempts where I couldn’t even try and just slipped away…

“I can’t register either.”

A deep sigh escaped me. Since I couldn’t trust anyone, I wanted to hide my skill and my movements as much as possible.

“Honestly, I figured they’d do this a few times and quit, but they were posted even today.”

Dropping down beside me, Lee Yul spoke. Since I couldn’t get in, he’d ended up idle too.

“Can you get a list of people with Purification skills?”

Second goal, find hunters who have the Purification skill.

It was information we needed to have in advance.

But even that was running into trouble.

“I’m trying, but you know me. No connections.”

“I know…”

We sat side by side on the bench, staring into empty air.

Bzzz.

A small vibration buzzed in my pocket.

Min Ha-jun

By any chance, are you in a park with a big horse sculpture?

A single short line popped up on the screen.

For a sudden message, it was out of the blue.

‘Why horses all of a sudden?’

I looked around. Fountain, trees, bikes, a horse statue…

There it was. Two white horses, backs pressed together in a dynamic pose—how did I miss that?

“Hey, hey. Did you know there’s a horse statue here?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden.”

When I tapped his shoulder—he was still spacing out—he snapped his head around to look at me.

I pointed toward the sculpture with my finger.

“Holy—what the— Why make a statue that big…”

Apparently, he’d only just noticed too, because he flinched back.

The size and detail were startling.

Min Ha-jun

On the left.

The phone buzzed again.

At the words glowing on the black screen, I reflexively turned my head left.

“Long time no see.”

A few steps away, Min Ha-jun was smiling and waving. When our eyes met, he naturally came closer.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Lowering his body, he asked, his voice full of concern.

“Yes. Thanks to…”

But I trailed off instead of answering that gentle voice properly. The unexpected meeting threw me, and even more so because Lee Yul and I had decided to hold off on telling Min Ha-jun the truth for now.

There were many reasons, but to begin with, I wasn’t sure he’d believe it even if I told him.

With Lee Yul, I’d known his temperament and already knew his secrets and little things, so I was confident I could persuade him, but Min Ha-jun was different.

So, I’d been giving minimal answers to his messages and subtly avoiding him.

“Guess I’m invisible.”

I heard grumbling beside me. Summoning the familiar mask to cover his face, Lee Yul lifted the head he’d had deeply bowed.

“Ah, long time.”

“‘Long time,’ my foot. We saw each other not long ago.”

“Haha.”

Shielding the prickly Lee Yul behind my back, I dipped my head slightly and offered thanks.

“I meant to thank you in person, but it’s late. Thank you for your help back then.”

“Help? You saved my life.”

“And I hear we also owed you. He’s not a bad guy, but… sorry for the trouble.”

“That’s not something you need to apologize for, Ms. Yuha.”

The content might have sounded coolly detached, but his tone and expression were warm.

“So, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, just…”

Maybe because of the sudden change of topic, I didn’t notice anything and let my answer trail off again.

How was I supposed to say we came to enter a Gate but got bounced and were zoning out.

‘He’d just tell me to register as a hunter.’

“And what’s that to you.”

“I wasn’t asking you.”

His attitude toward Lee Yul seemed oddly cold, but given the recent Gate incident, it was understandable.

“Did you come because of a Gate that popped up nearby?”

“Something like that.”

“Hmm, I was thinking of checking it out too—want to go together?”

“I’d love to, but…”

“If we go in under Transcendence’s name, it should be fine.”

“Pardon?”

It was an answer that made it seem like he saw right through the situation. Reading the wariness in my eyes, Min Ha-jun raised both hands and explained.

“The Association keeps contacting me asking who you are, Ms. Yuha. So, I figured you hadn’t registered.”

“…”

“Ah, I haven’t passed along anything, so don’t worry.”

Can a person be this cooperative?

Bracing myself against the unexpected push, I bared a few thorns.

“It’s illegal to operate without registering, but you’re not telling me to go register?”

“I figured you must have a reason.”

“And you’re not even asking what the reason is?”

“If it were a reason you could tell me, you’d have said so already.”

It was almost textbook. I did think he followed instructions well, but still.

“You saved my life. I don’t think it’s a bad reason.”

Looking straight into my eyes, he spoke with sincerity.

“You definitely could’ve gotten yourself out alone back then, or left everything to me, but you helped to the end. I believe in people’s goodwill.”

I looked at him silently.

‘Believes in people’s goodwill, huh.’

In his clear eyes I felt that straight backbone unique to people whose convictions are firm.