Chapter 595

Unlike the way in, the journey back was long and hard.

Exhaustion made my body feel like waterlogged cotton, and my eyelids kept falling shut.

I want to collapse right here.

But I couldn’t. I still had somewhere to go. First, though, I had to drive off the hyenas who had caught the scent of trouble and gathered in front of me.

Quite a crowd.

I staggered out of Area A and looked around through half-closed eyes.

I was back in the spacious hall on the top floor. Around two hundred Ares Guild members waited there, their faces tense.

Then I spotted a familiar face at the front and sighed.

“Maybe I should’ve just killed you.”

The middle-aged man at the front, Head of Security Go Se-won, answered in a calm voice after hearing my mutter.

“Yes. That wouldn’t have been a bad choice either.”

He looked fully recovered. He must have received treatment while I was gone. Gazing at the sword in his hand, he went on.

“It must have been thirty years ago when I first picked up a sword. I was trained even before I awakened. And on the day I awakened as an A-rank Hunter, the former Vice Guild Master gave me this sword as a gift. The other members of the security team probably received theirs the same way.”

That didn’t surprise me. Team Leader Choi had told me Lee Jungryong took in war orphans after the Great Cataclysm and trained them as his personal guards according to their mana affinity.

The man in front of me was one of them.

“So, are you going to avenge that grudge now?”

“……That grudge.”

Go Se-won murmured the words, then asked, “Before that, tell me one thing. Why did you spare me?”

I thought for a moment.

“I figured you should at least get to answer the phone.”

“What?”

“You should at least have told your family you were working late. Or that you weren’t coming home. My father couldn’t do either. I thought he’d come home when the time came, but…… he never did. Now I can barely remember his voice.”

“…”

Maybe I was tired. I’d said more than I needed to. I clicked my tongue, and Go Se-won studied me for a moment before asking, “What about the Vice Guild Master?”

Instead of answering, I shrugged. It had been a fight that could only end with one of us dead. But I was the only one who had appeared.

“He’s dead, then,” Go Se-won muttered.

“Go up and check. It’s quite a sight.”

The Ares Guild members surrounding us stirred at once. Several executives who were plainly loyalists urged Go Se-won on through clenched teeth.

“Team Leader Go, what are you waiting for?”

“Eliminate him immediately!”

“I’ve already told you. Kill Jin Taekyung, and we won’t hold you responsible for revealing Area A’s location. The Guild will reward you handsomely, too. You could even put yourself forward for the next Vice Guild Master.”

Anger and temptation mingled in their voices.

As Go Se-won stood silently among them, I rubbed my stiff, tired eyes and spoke.

“I’m exhausted. If you’re done asking questions, let’s get this over with. I’ve got somewhere to be.”

His sharp gaze traveled over me.

“Even someone like you seems to be having a hard time in your current condition.”

“That’s my problem, not yours.”

“…Fair enough.”

Go Se-won replied quietly. Then, just as his fingers toyed with the hilt of his sword—

Whoosh! Slice!

Blood sprayed. One of the executives fell, eyes wide at the unexpected strike. It was the man who had just offered Go Se-won the Vice Guild Master position.

“You crazy—!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“T-Team Leader Go!”

As the executives shouted, Go Se-won turned the area into chaos in a single instant and spoke in an even voice.

“Subdue them all. The fight is over.”

The executives here had plenty to lose. The other Guild members didn’t. They had no direct ties to Go Jun and no reason to take a needless risk—especially against a monster who had wrecked Ares Guild headquarters single-handedly.

Clatter-clatter-clang!

“…!”

Weapons were leveled from every direction the moment Go Se-won spoke. Realizing they had no chance, the loyalist executives lowered their own with a groan.

Go Se-won turned to me. “That was quick enough, wasn’t it?”

“You…”

I was about to say something, but then I nodded.

“Looks like sparing you paid off.”

“Thirty years,” he said. “That’s how long I’ve lived as a hunting dog. I’ve done enough.”

“A late change of heart?”

“I don’t know. I’m not that good a man. But it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s been more than I could bear for a while now.”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was tired. Go Se-won surveyed the chaos with weary eyes, then stepped aside.

“Go. No one will stop you.”

I didn’t refuse and began walking. Just as I was about to pass by Go Se-won, a quiet murmur reached my ears.

“…Thank you for the call.”

That was enough. I gave him a small nod and walked past him and the two hundred or so Ares Guild members.

Step. Step.

I dragged my exhausted body onward, walking and walking. I had to meet someone before sunset.

I don’t remember how I reached my destination. Only fragments remain.

The troops surrounding the devastated Ares Guild headquarters. Combat drones filling the sky.

President Baek Hanseong’s rigid face as he arrived under heavy guard, despite his aides’ attempts to stop him.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung, what in the world…?”

He couldn’t finish. I offered to surrender peacefully on one condition, and after giving it some thought, President Baek agreed to my request.

That was why I was here.

“Hey, you!”

“T-Taekyung!”

Familiar faces approached through my blurred vision. I wanted to smile and wave, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.

My legs buckled. Song Song and Im Kkeokjeong hurried to catch me.

“Sorry. My legs gave out.”

“How can you say that right now…?”

Song Song pressed her lips together before she could finish. She rubbed at her reddened eyes.

“What about my family?” I asked. “They’re not here, are they?”

“Are you insane?”

“I sent Guild members to bring them somewhere safe,” she continued, her voice hoarse. “Luckily, your mother was in the middle of cooking and didn’t know anything. Hayeon, who’s with her…… is pretending she doesn’t know.”

Relief washed over me. I couldn’t imagine how badly the news about me would have shaken my mother.

Hayeon was there, though. She’d handle it. She had always been more thoughtful than I was.

“And Team Leader Choi is safe,” Song Song added. “He still hasn’t regained consciousness.”

“Thanks. For looking after him.”

“You…”

Song Song was looking at me with a complicated expression when Im Kkeokjeong’s shoulders began to shake.

“I’m sorry, Taekyung. I’m so sorry…”

What did he have to be sorry for? Why was he so sad?

I wanted to answer his sobs, but my throat closed up. I knew exactly how he felt. The helplessness and guilt of being unable to do a thing—there were no words for it.

Song Song had turned away, too. Tears slipped down her cheeks.

Damn it.

I clenched my teeth and tried to ignore the heat in my eyes. Then I managed to force out a question.

“What about him… Butler Kim?”

“He’s been waiting. All this time.”

The answer came from neither Im Kkeokjeong nor Song Song. I turned my head and saw a blond foreigner standing in front of a door.

“So you’ve come, wicked human.”

The Skeleton King’s voice sounded far away. I had seen the sign before I saw his face.

Morgue

My heart sank. As I stood frozen, the Skeleton King opened the door.

And through the gap in the open door…… I saw the body of a person covered in a pure white sheet.

“It is impolite to keep the dead waiting, human.”

“…!”

“Do you intend to send him off like this?”

At those words, I left Song Song and Im Kkeokjeong behind and forced my unmoving feet forward.

The door closed quietly behind me. In the chill of the morgue, it was only him and me. Just the two of us.

Swish.

With trembling hands, I drew back the white sheet.

Kim Hwajong had died with a faint smile on his face.

He looked as though he were having a pleasant dream. But I knew that dream would never end.

He would never again greet me in a pressed suit, smiling gently. He would never again get up early and offer me coffee.

Today, he had said goodbye to us. Now we had to let him go.

Drip. Drop.

Something hot rolled down both my cheeks. They were the first tears I had shed today, and tears I must never shed again.

I swear.

It felt like being taken back three years. Regret came with a vow.

I’m sorry. I won’t let anyone else go the way you did.

So please…

“Rest in peace.”

With those quiet, heartfelt words, I took Go Jun’s head out of my Inventory and set it on the floor.

So the monster who had died with his eyes wide open might understand what he had done. So Kim Hwajong might rest a little easier.

It was the promise I had made to myself while holding the old butler’s hand as it slowly grew cold on the snow-covered mountain.

Fwoosh.

As if in answer, Kim Hwajong’s face flushed red. Violet sunset light streamed through the morgue window.

I gazed at its beauty through blurred eyes and felt the strength leave my body.

Ah.

I had reached my limit, body and heart alike.

I leaned my back against the wall and sank down as if collapsing. Accepting the sleep pressing down on me with a weight greater than Taishan¹, I thought:

Today was a long day.

Click.

The firmly shut door opened with a faint sound.

A slender beauty, a middle-aged man who looked like a bandit, and a blond foreigner who might have stepped out of a magazine saw the severed head first and startled. Then they saw the peaceful face of the dead man and felt sorrow. Last, they saw the young man asleep where he had collapsed, and fell silent.

Jin Taekyung.

Indescribable emotions filled the three pairs of eyes gazing at him.

What more could they say?

Today, he had fought desperately against disaster and threats. He had made himself an outlaw and exacted the price for an innocent death.

There was only one thing they could do for him now.

Sleep well. Don’t worry about what comes next.

The fire would spread in every direction. No one knew where it would die down.

Even if the whole world condemned him for what had happened today—even if the authorities branded him a criminal—they would stand beside Jin Taekyung.

They would protect him, no matter what.

Just as you did for us.

Warm sunset light spread through the morgue.

One person’s long day had ended, but the day of the other three had not. No—in fact, they were about to become even busier.