Chapter 213

After that, Joo Seowon threw a light fit asking what the hell I meant. I soothed the bastard roughly and got up from my seat to deal with what I had left to do.

“Anyway, it’s better to get your Awakening Rank measured again. Having to explain it to other Hunters every time you use a Skill is fucking annoying, too.”

“Then you really had it written down as F-rank?”

“It’s not like I wrote it down that way—it was F-rank to begin with. Seowon, before you tell me not to lie to you, maybe think again about whether you’re taking even true things like they’re lies.”

“No, that makes no sense! I watched you use Skills and your physical ability right next to you! No, in the first place, what kind of F-rank is like you?!”

“I can’t tell if this is you having a ton of prejudice, or you having not a fucking shred of prejudice.”

I talked while ignoring the nonstop bullshit Joo Seowon kept spewing.

“Sometime soon, I’ll either go to the Center and get measured again, or get measured at the guild and submit the data. I’m more tempted by the second one. Seems more convenient, too?”

“.......”

Only then, after listening to me in silence, did Joo Seowon ask, a long while later.

“If your Rank went up... how much did it go up?”

“To the point a total small fry like you can stand to look at me. Check the data later.”

Judging by how Joo Seowon was acting, even if I told him now, it didn’t seem like he’d believe me properly anyway. Well, it’s not like I have any obligation to convince him in the first place.

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I walked toward the door. We’d finished the big talk, so I figured it was fine to head back now.

Right as I was about to leave the room, Joo Seowon suddenly called out to stop me.

“Seo Jehyun.”

“Why?”

“...Never mind.”

Even though he had a face that looked like he had a lot to say, in the end Joo Seowon didn’t say anything.

Normally, if he had something to say, I would’ve pressed him to spit it out, but this time I just nodded without saying much and quietly looked at him.

I don’t know what Joo Seowon was thinking as he looked at me, but as I stared back at him, I fell into a few other thoughts.

For example, about Joo Seowon as a person in the original.

Maybe because I’d been shown that “deleted round” where he was with Kwon Taehan in the Dungeon, there was suddenly a lot more to think about regarding the original.

Joo Seowon. Kwon Taehan’s companion in the original, and a guy who did his job as an information source in full. It’s just that Kwon Taehan is the narrator, but Joo Seowon’s physical ability wasn’t completely pathetic either, and his tracking Skills were useful in a lot of ways. His sense of purpose—bringing his younger sister back—was also clear.

Of course, I also knew what he did after that. How Joo Seowon got close to Kwon Taehan, what he did after that, and even what kind of ending the character “Joo Seowon” met.

At first, it was a relationship they met for mutual dealings. Kwon Taehan guaranteed protection for Joo Seowon, who was being chased by a guild, and in return, Joo Seowon dug up information for Kwon Taehan. If needed, he’d even use his tracking Skills.

Up to that point, it was perfectly understandable.

Either way, each of them had something they needed, and if they could reliably supply it to each other, then accepting someone as a companion was always possible.

But the interesting part was that, the more rounds repeated, even though there shouldn’t be any new information Kwon Taehan could get through Joo Seowon, Kwon Taehan still brought Joo Seowon in as a companion every single time. Like he was repeating a fixed behavior out of obligation.

That point was exactly where an explanation was needed. The psychology behind why Kwon Taehan traveled with Joo Seowon every time wasn’t described in detail. If it was because even Kwon Taehan himself didn’t ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ know why he acted that way, would that be the realm of the unconscious rather than the conscious?

Maybe he didn’t not want to follow a routine because he had existing data based on a certain level of “success.”

Like repeating it because the rounds where he accepted Joo Seowon as a companion were closer to success, or maintaining the phenomenon because it was tiring to calculate the possibility of a worldline where he didn’t accept Joo Seowon as a companion.

And I’d never thought about his psychology that deeply, but up until now, I’d more or less accepted it in that way and moved on. Probably because that was the easiest explanation.

But as I quietly watched Joo Seowon, another possibility came to mind.

Before even judging success or failure, Kwon Taehan might have wanted some fixed something that didn’t change. For example, in a life full of variables, a constant that stayed the same—someone who would always remain a companion and, in the end, affirm Kwon Taehan’s will.

Because Kwon Taehan is the kind of bastard who always thinks that sort of thing is important.

The fact he could get the back of his head smashed in like that and still think to come find me every time was proof he was already beyond saving.

And then, naturally, I started thinking about the relationship between me in the original and Joo Seowon, too.

In the original, even if me and Joo Seowon weren’t as close as we are now, we weren’t that distant, either. There were times we greeted each other and got along under the name of being Kwon Taehan’s companions.

If you looked at it as fellow companions, maybe Joo Seowon trusted “me” more than Kwon Taehan did. Kwon Taehan naturally lost trust in me as he repeated rounds, but Joo Seowon stayed the same.

As rounds piled up, at a certain point Kwon Taehan decided not to be with me anymore. We did end up meeting again anyway, but at least it meant we wouldn’t face each other again as companions.

And every time they split, Joo Seowon chose Kwon Taehan. Even if, when he met me again, he’d talk about this and that, and even try to persuade Kwon Taehan in his own way, in the end he always followed Kwon Taehan’s opinion. That was a kind of trait Joo Seowon had.

However, this time will probably be different.

It was a relationship that started with a covenant I forced him into, but that wasn’t all. I knew Joo Seowon had trauma about Dungeons, and I knew that even though his family attachment was big, it didn’t all come from a pure place. I knew he was more dependent than he looked, and that he liked being controlled in moderation.

It was the same for a more private sphere. Favorite fashion brands, food preferences, habits, his voice and speaking style, how his expression changed depending on the situation—every little thing like that, I knew it all.

And, even if I couldn’t tell the degree, I also knew that Joo Seowon liked me.

By now we’d strayed pretty far from the original, but it didn’t matter at all. If anything, it felt good. The fact that the original’s derailment I’d made with my own hands was sitting right in front of me like this...... it was satisfying.

But was it really true that we’d broken away from the original?

It was a question that came up like a habit.

Even while Joo Seowon was facing me with that kind of expression, no warning window appeared.

If so, did that mean this level of variables was fine? Or, if not, did it mean that even if it looked like we were deviating like this right now, as time passed, things naturally returned to their original place?

I was curious whether, as time went on, a day would come when Joo Seowon decided to remain Kwon Taehan’s companion, but this was also something I couldn’t know until I went through it.

Joo Seowon, who’d tried to speak and ended up unable to say it, just quietly stared at me.

I didn’t know exactly what emotion he was feeling right now. But out of habit, observation naturally inferred a reason.

‘Worry?’

Whether it was Joo Seowon, Do Yehyun, or Kwon Taehan—when I looked at them, I kept wanting to take apart their emotions, the ones that kept getting violent, and understand them intuitively.

I grabbed the doorknob, then slowly let go, leaned my back against the door, and looked at Joo Seowon.

“Time flowed differently inside the Dungeon and outside.”

“.......”

“I’m saying I didn’t know that much time would’ve passed.”

Then, instead of nodding, Joo Seowon stared at me in silence and asked.

“How long were you in the Dungeon?”

“Less than a week, I think.”

“...Yeah.”

After saying that, I finally left Joo Seowon’s room.

All the way to my room, I thought of a few things that were pointless and inefficient but fun, then stopped. Even in an uncomfortable Dungeon, and even in a cheap motel, my body hadn’t really felt tired, but when a comfortable home and bed were right in front of me, for some reason, I started feeling fatigue.

***

After Awakening, there were overwhelmingly more busy days than free days, but lately, it had reached a peak.

If you listed the reasons Im Haekyung was this busy, it would never end, but really, coincidentally, a large portion of those reasons were connected to one person. Now, they were at the point where, even with their eyes closed, they could draw that person’s face clearly.

And the Dungeon they’d visited because Seo Jehyun asked for help was also, unfortunately, a Dungeon where the flow of time was completely different from the outside.

They’d thought they’d only carved out about a day, but when they came out, three days and half of that had already passed. So, to make up for that absence, they spent double that time reorganizing the guild and finished all outside schedules that had originally been planned.

That wasn’t all Im Haekyung had to pay attention to.

As soon as the guy who’d re-measured Seo Jehyun’s Rank came back, Haekyung erased his memories to an appropriate degree, then meticulously checked the data he’d measured. And there were numbers printed there that, in theory, didn’t make sense.

‘Is it possible... for mana capacity to jump this much?’

Of course, there was no need for doubts like that about something that had already happened.

‘It must be because of the fiend merge.’

Even factoring that in, the numbers were spiking to a strange degree. Im Haekyung stared silently at the paper with Seo Jehyun’s data on it, then checked a message that had arrived earlier on their phone again.

There, along with a simple greeting, a file was attached. The file title was simple and intuitive.

[Medical Certificate (Song Hwayoung).pdf]

‘Hm....’

With indifferent eyes, Im Haekyung flipped through the medical certificate and reached a simple conclusion.

‘The SH Guild ends here.’