Chapter 306
Im Haekyung twisted the head slightly to move my thumb away, then said in a hoarse voice,
“Why are you always so short-sighted, Jehyun.... I could pretend to obediently listen to you, then brainwash you whole the moment my mana fills back up.”
“.......”
“Besides, I don’t know how confident you are in your own condition right now, but I watched you vomiting blood until just now. Your body can’t possibly be fine either, can it? No, yours is probably worse than mine.”
That was true. With my Rank lowered on top of everything else, it was not as though I could actually do anything to Im Haekyung, who was only a little sleepy.
Still, the fortunate part was that I had somehow put the suppressor cuffs on, and on top of that, they were serving as excellent handcuffs.
When I silently hooked my finger into the suppressor cuffs and slowly pulled them upward, Im Haekyung raised an eyebrow. I looked steadily at the bastard and said,
“I want to cooperate.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“You should say that properly. I’m always the one cooperating, aren’t I....”
Im Haekyung trailed off and briefly turned the gaze toward the ceiling. Since it seemed like Haekyung’s thoughts were drifting elsewhere, I immediately put strength into the suppressor cuffs and pulled them tight.
“Ah.”
CLANK, came the sound of metal striking metal as the bastard’s wrists were dragged upward. Im Haekyung made a rather dry sound for someone who had just felt pain and lowered the gaze again.
“That hurts.”
“There’s something I’m curious about. May I ask?”
“You’re asking permission now?”
Haekyung had seemed quite displeased when I had fired off words earlier, but now the expression had gone calm again. Im Haekyung’s gaze, body relaxed and slack, lingered somewhere on my face.
'I’m curious how much Haekyung knows.'
I understood the context of what the bastard had said. However, that did not mean it made intuitive sense. It was absurd, wasn’t it, to say Haekyung had known from birth that the world would flow this way?
But after seeing the deleted timelines come pouring in just now, I also felt like I could roughly accept it.
Either way, it was true that the things called gods had assigned purpose to existence.
'Purpose? Should I call it a role?'
For example, to Kwon Taehan... or to me. In the same way, some kind of role may have been given to Im Haekyung too.
But at the same time, this question came to mind.
'Why bother?'
Was there any reason Im Haekyung specifically had to know all this? Whether in the original work or the deleted timelines, there had always been a clear limit to Im Haekyung’s intervention.
And had the bastard not just said that the one who had touched my mind was either a god or Haekyung personally? Even if it did not mean the real Im Haekyung had done it, it meant Haekyung had that level of ability. If this had been intentional, then what was the reason?
“How much are you certain of? That instinctive thing. You said you thought the world would be destroyed ever since you were born. And you knew I would be connected to the Cataclysm too.”
“.......”
“How?”
“I don’t know that either. I was just born with it.”
“Then how much do you know?”
Im Haekyung closed the mouth and only met my gaze quietly. Around the time the silence had stretched rather long, the bastard’s mouth opened.
“There are instinctive certainties, and there are conclusions I reached after thinking for a long time. Or things I noticed from your attitude, Jehyun. You pretend to think a lot, but you don’t account for every way you appear to other people... so you become a major hint.”
“.......”
“But if you ask me now to clearly distinguish between the two, that’s difficult. Still, if I were to tell you... it’s that the world will someday be destroyed. I don’t simply mean the Cataclysm.”
“Ah, so it’ll just be destroyed completely?”
Instead of nodding, Im Haekyung blinked about twice in a row.
“I have more information than most people. First of all, I also have the authority to view Gate information from all over the world.”
Well, of course. Haekyung was the Guild Master of Haeseong. On top of that, the bastard ran the Night Market, so there had to be a lot of information flowing through that side too.
'And Haekyung is a mental-type Hunter.'
Im Haekyung spoke calmly.
“Recently, Dungeons with patterns that didn’t exist before have been appearing one by one. For instance, the variable Dungeon in Sokcho that you and I entered together... and the quest-type Dungeon I entered with you as well. Aside from those, there have simply been more high-rank Dungeons. You went to two of them in a row too, didn’t you?”
“‘Went to’?”
“Thanks to me. Without me, would you have even gotten to see a high-rank Dungeon?”
I kneaded the wrist beside the restraint I was holding once, meaning for Haekyung to keep talking.
“Anyway... I think patterns like that will continue repeating in the future too. More and more unpredictable Dungeons will appear.”
“And ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) eventually there’ll be a situation we can’t respond to?”
“That’s a little different.”
Im Haekyung moved briefly, trying to push my hand away with a finger, then quickly gave up.
“Move your hand.”
“Keep talking. I’m listening attentively.”
“Why don’t you start by attentively listening to me telling you to move your hand?”
I simply ignored Im Haekyung’s words and asked,
“Your position, Guild Master, is that the world will be destroyed, but that destruction isn’t impossible to respond to?”
“That would be right, wouldn’t it? Think about it. If god really wanted to destroy the world, why would he go through the troublesome work of making Gates?”
“To drive people into despair?”
“Ah, people? If that were the case, Awakened came out, didn’t they?”
“There has to be a little hope for despair to be maximized.”
“Mm.... I’m not sure?”
At my words, Im Haekyung crookedly lifted the corner of the mouth.
“Leaving aside whether one worships god or not, if god is capable of that much, I don’t think he would be so... full of malice as to maximize despair. That sounds like the sort of thinking you would do, Jehyun.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m saying it’s the kind of thing a psychopath would think. Like you.”
Ignoring the useless comment, I returned to the main point.
“Then god’s purpose isn’t to destroy the world?”
“Yes. More like giving a trial.... And Awakened are the countermeasure. A trial severe enough to approach destruction will come, but wouldn’t people with the ability to treat that as a kind of drama appear too?”
“For example?”
“I don’t know that much. But recently, I did witness one dramatic moment....”
What was that?
I tried briefly to guess what Im Haekyung meant, then gave up and asked,
“What is it?”
“There’s a Hunter who dramatically cleared an S-rank Dungeon, isn’t there? Someone who doesn’t get along with you.... Suspiciously. And yet, not so much that he wouldn’t save you from an S-rank Dungeon.”
'Ha.'
The bastard’s explanation was clearly pointing to one person.
“Kwon Taehan?”
“I suppose you’re close enough to call him by name?”
Watching Im Haekyung round the eyes and raise an eyebrow, pretending to be sly, I let out a small laugh.
'Did this bastard seriously see it?'
Purely as an act of inference, that level of ability was impressive.
There was no point adding some strange excuse to someone who would instinctively grasp the meaning behind either my silence or my lies. I quietly looked down at the bastard and asked,
“Then what am I?”
This was something I was fundamentally curious about too.
If the world was going to flow toward destruction anyway, and Kwon Taehan was someone capable of overcoming it, was there any reason I specifically had to exist between them?
It was ridiculous that I was asking Im Haekyung, not god.
But at the same time, the fact that my impression was not all that different from when I faced god made the bastard feel like a similar sort of existence. Though it did feel like an excessive description to attach to someone quietly looking up at me from underneath.
After hearing the question that dropped down from above, Im Haekyung smiled for a moment, then said,
“You, Jehyun... are someone who knows.”
“.......”
“You simply aren’t aware of it. Those pieces of information must be packed densely inside your Mental Restriction.... if god was the one who did it.”
“You said Guild Master could’ve done it too. Did that simply mean your ability is on that level?”
True, how would Im Haekyung place a penalty on me? Either way, Im Haekyung was not the system or god.
However, instead of answering my question, Im Haekyung asked,
“Do you understand what I’ve said so far?”
“Yes.”
“And do you agree?”
Everything had been right from beginning to end, so there was nothing to agree or disagree with. I pressed my tongue against the inside of my strangely aching cheek.
Should I do it, or not?
The pain built up from the penalty and the lowering of my order were all bothering me. If I took another penalty here, the damage would be considerable. Kwon Taehan, who could solve all this, was not beside me either.
But did I really need to weigh rationality?
Leaving aside the alien, uncomfortable nature of Im Haekyung’s humanity and my relationship with the bastard, there were still things only Im Haekyung could accept. For example, the future to come, or the past... deleted timelines.
While countless deleted timelines piled up, part of “Seo Jehyun” had faded and fallen away, but either way, I felt as though the current me had recovered all of it.
It would probably be similar for Im Haekyung too. The bastard was used to other people’s lack of understanding.
There had to be a reason Haekyung, who had built a reputation while erasing other people’s memories, had deliberately brought up a future no one else would believe to me.
'Mm....'
I narrowed my eyes slightly and met Im Haekyung’s gaze.
“You’re expecting something.”
“.......”
I had not actually thought Haekyung would expect something, but Im Haekyung did not exactly deny my words.
Was the sensation of being able to understand someone else special?
“As if you’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“Of course.”
I laughed shortly and said,
“I can’t tell you everything.”
“Because of the Mental Restriction?”
“Even so.”
I cut myself off for a moment, then looked straight at the bastard and raised the corner of my mouth.
“All of your guesses are correct, Guild Master.”
The moment my words ended, a familiar warning window appeared. But right now, something like that did not enter my sight. Blood gathered once again over skin already thickly smeared with it.
Blood whose exact source I could not identify fell, drip, onto Im Haekyung’s cheek. Im Haekyung stared quietly at my face, then let out a small laugh.
“Ha ha....”
The broken-off sound of laughter grew stronger with time. Eventually, Im Haekyung burst into laughter that was almost lighthearted and laughed for a long while as though truly delighted.
I quietly stared at that Im Haekyung and, for the first time in a very long while, smiled sincerely. A thrill sharp enough to pull at the back of my skull rose through me.
“Ah, truly....”
“.......”
“I knew it would be like this....”
Im Haekyung whispered softly, still with laughter lingering in the voice. Instead of answering that mutter, I wiped the blood on the bastard’s cheek away with my thumb.