“If I could just hit him once, I really would have.”

The thought alone was enough to make me long to see our Seong Hyunjae again. I should treat him well when we meet. For about three minutes.

“It’s my business, so why doesn’t it matter if I know? Why were my kids fighting! And what on earth happened to me?”

Before Song Taewon died. Around that time, I had finally managed to establish myself.

After the dungeons appeared, the hardest period for me—aside from right after my brother ran away—was when I had just awakened. The hope I’d clung to, just in case, was shattered, and I’d even made the wrong contract. If it had been just that, Yuhyun might have helped me, pretending he couldn’t help it. Of course, I would have refused my brother’s help, but he would have ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) tried to protect me by force anyway.

But at that time, the Awakening Center crisis broke out.

The influx of low-rank Hunters and insufficient education led to casualties that increased exponentially, and the blame was directed squarely at the high-rank Hunters. In fact, it was impossible not to feel dissatisfied seeing the successful high-rank Hunters thriving. That dissatisfaction, which had been suppressed by the image campaign of protecting the country by clearing dungeons at the risk of their lives, suddenly poured out all at once.

At that time, the Haeyeon Guild was attacked the most. Having established a guild at such a young age without the backing of a large corporation—how unsightly it must have looked. And all for the simple reason of being lucky enough to awaken as an S-Rank.

Sesung and Sudam also received some criticism for being self-made, but it was nothing compared to what Yuhyun faced. If a chaebol wins the lottery, it becomes a light topic of conversation, but if a commoner wins, people flock from all over to take a bite. That was the difference between Han Yuhyun, who had started as a minor orphan, and the adults who had already established themselves in society.

And since I could be linked to it, I was perfect for the Hunter Association—the root of the problem—to use as a shield.

‘Still, it eventually died down.’

I had a hard time for quite a while, and even after that, people who clung to me kept popping up, but in my third year of awakening, I could finally breathe a little. Of course, I was still an F-Rank who didn’t belong to even a small guild, and just as I was about to build up my career as a Hunter, my leg broke.

…My life, really. This is why I didn’t want to think about the old days. To think that even those messy memories aren’t complete—what is this, really?

‘Around that time, did I drink quite often?’

It wasn’t that I didn’t drink before, but after I injured my leg, it increased. There were various reasons, but the main one was that painkillers didn’t work well. Did Yuhyun feel more at ease because I was just drinking? I had to go to relatively easy dungeons for experience, too.

I looked up—no, slightly down—at Seong Hyunjae. If it was a bar.

“Did you happen to buy me a drink? There are those places that low-rank Hunters frequent.”

“I offered to buy you one, and you threw a cup at me.”

“…I’m sorry. I had a bad temper back then.”

And since it was that kind of place, some bastards would bring up Yuhyun, so I must have been on edge. Wait a minute—could Seong Hyunjae have mentioned Yuhyun too? I wouldn’t have thrown a cup at someone who spoke nicely. In the first place, he came to confirm things about Yuhyun, so there’s no way he wouldn’t have mentioned him. I take back my apology.

“So you had fun watching me? At that time, Ms. Soyeong would have been the acting guild leader, so you were half-retired?”

The Seong Hyunjae from around that time… instead of quietly going out like before, he had openly declared he was aiming for overseas expansion. That was about two years from now. After the Awakening Center issue was resolved and the Haeyeon Guild had stably become a giant guild. The Sesung Guild Leader had announced that he would focus more on overseas affairs.

It turned out he had already established many connections overseas.

“I wasn’t that free, but I did visit often.”

“You should have worked a little. Leaving everything to Ms. Soyeong, who’s like your daughter.”

“If Soyeong had known, she would have welcomed it. Is it different now?”

“Uh, well. It’s still like that now.”

She had even openly said to me, “I’m so happy that I don’t have to worry even if the Guild Leader’s mood is gloomy these days!” Because she could just pass it on to me. …Ms. Soyeong is a bit much.

“If you visited often, how many cups did I throw? The way you’re talking, Mr. Seong Hyunjae, I think I would have thrown a bottle too. You must have been probing about my relationship with Yuhyun from the very first meeting.”

“I apologize for making you cry.”

What did this man do! Seong Hyunjae added that I had also thrown a bottle, of course.

“I paid for it.”

“Of course you should! How much did you harass a poor F-Rank? An S-Rank is too much.”

If Seong Hyunjae put his mind to it, he could have been as sharp as Seok Gimyeong, so it might be a relief that I don’t remember. Did this man cause trouble and then erase my memory?

“You probably didn’t just meet at bars, did you meet elsewhere too? Did Yuhyun not notice?”

“The Sesung Guild Leader was on an overseas tour. I noticed Song Taewon’s approach right away, but that wasn’t something to worry about.”

Given Chief Song’s personality, Yuhyun might have been rather relieved. Because he was the only S-Rank who sincerely tried to protect F-Rank Hunters. And since he was someone who thoroughly prioritized public duty, even if we got a little closer, the boundaries would be clear. Unlike the Haeyeon Guild Leader, there would be no one who would approach me to target Song Taewon… right? There’s nothing to gain.

“But he was wary of Park Yerim. Although she wasn’t an S-Rank, she was an outstanding A-Rank at a young age. Maybe it was jealousy.”

“So the two of them almost fought? Yerim, uh, because she was close… with me?”

“You’re going to leave anyway. You’re an A-Rank. There’s nothing to gain from being close to me. You’re just lonely now, and you’ll soon find many good people. That’s what he said. Han Yujin.”

The back of my neck flushed slightly. Th—that, well, that’s true. Before the regression, I was a really unremarkable F-Rank.

“Ah really, I don’t remember at all. What do you mean it affected me too? This is a story related to me, isn’t it?”

At my look that pleaded for him to tell me, Seong Hyunjae slowly lowered his eyes. His golden eyes were slowly hidden under his eyelashes, then rose again. The gaze that moved to me sent a momentary chill down my spine.

“Yujin-ah.”

Unlike the friendly call, his voice was cold.

“There was nothing you could do.”

“What……”

“An F-Rank is an F-Rank. Even if you were certainly unique, one of a kind, and had influenced me. That was all.”

…I remembered when I had just regressed and gotten to know Seong Hyunjae. No, it would have been worse than that. Before the regression, I wouldn’t have even been a useful tool.

To put it in perspective, I was probably like a dog or a cat. And even then, just a pet to be petted for a moment and then left alone. Or a rare collectible that was of no help in real life, only to be glanced at from time to time.

I unconsciously ground my teeth. I was angry, but I had to accept it, and that made me even angrier. Seong Hyunjae grabbed the end of one of his gloves and pulled it off. His bare hand, revealed from under the black leather, cupped my chin. His thumb pressed against my cheek, parting my clenched teeth.

“It’s a bad habit.”

“Is an F-Rank not even allowed to grind their teeth?”

“Still, I’ll say that I cherished Han Yujin.”

“Should I wag my tail for you?”

I know that there was nothing I could do besides just holding on. Unlike now, what could I have done even if something happened to Seong Hyunjae? No, in the first place, I would have just heard the news of Song Taewon’s death and the Sesung Guild Leader’s disappearance without knowing anything.

“There’s no need to feel resentful for being ordinary. You were just born that way.”

“Yes, fish can’t run and mice can’t fly. But there’s also the story of the lion and the mouse, right?”

“If the net had been a chain, it would have ended with the mouse’s teeth breaking.”

It was a story without dreams or hope. Right, a normal F-Rank’s teeth probably wouldn’t even scratch an S-Rank. In the end, the pre-regression Seong Hyunjae had one-sidedly approached me, been nice to me as he pleased, then suddenly disappeared and sent me a postcard, right?

If I had those memories, damn it, I wouldn’t have even looked at him.

‘Although he was always that kind of person.’

What can you expect from a person who gets tired of even S-Rank Hunters in no time?

“Let go. If you don’t want to see me bite you and break my own teeth.”

“I don’t know why you’re growling like this.”

Seong Hyunjae said in a soothing tone. What do you mean you don’t know?

“It’s okay. If I disappear, this world will go towards its normal destruction. The probability of preventing the destruction is also high.”

If Seong Hyunjae disappears.

Then there really might not have been any problems. I recalled the memory of Diarma that I had seen. That dragon bastard had tried to find Seong Hyunjae after he had broken the contract. The reason that incredibly dense guy had found out about me and tried to bind Yuhyun even more might have been because of Seong Hyunjae. When the high-rank contract was broken, he might have become anxious and dug deeper into Yuhyun.

If that hadn’t been the case, if he hadn’t noticed me until the end.

I also remembered what the Unfilial Children had said. Our world had been evaluated as having a high possibility of preventing destruction. If Crescent Moon and Whitey hadn’t intervened, would it really have been like that? Could we have cleared the dungeons safely without Seong Hyunjae?

And if we had escaped destruction, would Yuhyun have come to find me? Even after several years, or more than a decade. Would there have been a chance for me, close to forty, and my brother, over thirty, to meet again and slowly fill the deep gap? Was there a possibility?

‘I’m sorry, Hyung, for all this time.’

The thirty-something, but not much different from when he was twenty-five, brother might have said that. Not me, but my brother would have apologized first, and I would have been angry. I wouldn’t have been able to accept it right away even after hearing the circumstances. But in the end, it would have slowly gotten better.

It might have been like that. But.

“Just because you disappear, nothing is solved now.”

Not now.

“Regression. It’s a nice word, regression. But in the end, that—it didn’t become something that didn’t happen. If it had become something that didn’t happen, then things shouldn’t have changed. In the end, it’s just—it seems like everyone except me doesn’t remember. No, the transcendent beings all know, don’t they? So what do you mean it didn’t happen?”

I remember, I changed, and so my surroundings changed. The changed surroundings were in turn changing the surroundings again.

“This time, that chaos with the Awakening Center didn’t happen. Because I remembered the fact that the low-rank Hunters had been sacrificed. Although they died in vain, this time, something like that didn’t happen. We even made the dungeon status detector in Korea this time, and we’ll find out about dungeon creation in Korea too. And I’ll tell everyone and let them know. The Hunter Association has been cleaned up, and MKC has already gone bankrupt. There’s no more room for them to be tyrannical. That bastard Diarma is dead too, but if it hadn’t been for the events of the pre-regression, how would we have fought back?”

I looked straight at Seong Hyunjae. Song Taewon was dead, and Seong Hyunjae had only a short reprieve before being retrieved by Crescent Moon. Han Yuhyun was dead, and Han Yujin was left alone, unable to reconcile with his brother and with his corpse even stolen.

“You and I are both screwed. But what—what can we do? To say you’ll end it beforehand just because it seems like we’ll be screwed again is real bullshit, isn’t it? We’ve changed so much thanks to being screwed, so what do you mean you’ll solve it simply? Isn’t that just running away on your own?”

After saying that, I felt a little guilty. It must have been quite an annoying thing to say, but Seong Hyunjae was still just smiling faintly.

“Are you saying I’ll change too?”

“You’ve already changed quite a bit. And the method.”

My gaze rested on the swaying moonlight around Seong Hyunjae’s body.

“It won’t be that there isn’t one. In the first place, you’re not the type to give up easily. Mr. Seong Hyunjae.”

Is it because the current Seong Hyunjae is in a hopeless situation? To cut himself off rather than be used by Crescent Moon like this might be more like Seong Hyunjae, but still. Seong Hyunjae picked up the gloves that were on the table and put them on again. His long fingers bent slightly and then straightened.

“As long as I exist, as long as Crescent Moon exists. This world has no choice but to be destroyed.”

“…What?”

“It means I can save the world while I’m at it, as I wrap up my own problems.”

“Is the world a bonus?”

What a grand scale. Crescent Moon would try to retrieve Seong Hyunjae no matter what. Is the act of retrieving itself what destroys the world? Because it’s an excessive intervention? Or maybe there’s another reason.

I pressed my lips shut. To be honest, it was hard to shout confidently, “I’ll take care of it somehow, so please send off the current Mr. Seong Hyunjae peacefully!” I had caught two transcendent beings, but a transcendent being was still a transcendent being. With Diarma, the Rookie and the Mermaid Queen helped, and with the King of Harmless, there was the help of the Changeling. And if I hadn’t caught Diarma, that Changeling wouldn’t have been born either.

If I were told to face Crescent Moon without any of that, I would just be at a loss. Nine times out of ten, I would just end up watching Seong Hyunjae be dragged away. Or I would be in a position where I couldn’t even watch.

‘Thinking rationally, it would be better to stay out of the business between Crescent Moon and Seong Hyunjae……’

Crescent Moon was still on the Unfilial Children’s side, for now. There’s also Chatterbox, so making more enemies here would be a stupid thing to do. But how could I do that? Even if it’s like hitting a rock with an egg, still.

Still, shouldn’t I try to do something? I was about to open my mouth.

[Fixing the error in the Sesung Guild area!]

A system message window appeared. At the same time, the surroundings began to shake violently. It wasn’t a simple earthquake. The collapsed buildings and the piled-up debris were still there. Without any fragments rolling down, it was literally the whole thing—the space itself was shaking.

And then.

“…Keuk.”

Seong Hyunjae’s form blurred and contorted. The spread moonlight, the silver chain, also blurred. Darkness spread in the space where we were, and CRACKLE, with the sound of something breaking, fragments scattered. I opened my eyes wide and stared at the scattering fragments.

They were fragments of memory.

Fragments of Seong Hyunjae from before this world. The accumulated information was being forcibly scattered.

[Removing error! Do not move!]

Is that an error! Just then, something came into my view. A white-feathered bird.

‘Whitey!’

The thought and the movement were simultaneous. I reached out my hand with all my might. The transcendent being who had taken my little brother. The being who would have been deeply involved in all of this with Crescent Moon.

My fingertips barely touched the fragment of information that was rapidly scattering. Seong Hyunjae’s memories poured in like a waterfall.

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