Chapter 120

Chapter 120

The evening glow, beginning to burn a deep red, cast shadows across the man’s chiseled face. I stared blankly at his jet-black hair, untouched by any hint of gray despite the sunset’s crimson tint, and his black eyes with faint traces of gold bleeding through them. When his long strides brought him right in front of me, I snapped back to my senses.

“You vanished without a trace, so I wondered where the hell you’d gone.”

He looked closer to the future Jeong Seojin I had personally faced than the childhood version of him. In an instant, his large hand grabbed my wrist.

“And this is the place you ended up going?”

“I’m sorry, but I think you’ve got the wrong idea.”

Instead of shaking off Jeong Seojin’s hand, I released the woman who had been cradled in my arms. Then I immediately lifted my head and met his gaze.

“I’m not the person you’re looking for.”

“I never thought I’d live to see the day you’d use formal speech with me.”

Predictably, Jeong Seojin showed no sign of believing me at all. If anything, he seemed to think my current behavior was just a temporary whim of “Princeps.”

“I don’t know what change of heart you’ve had, but how about you stop pretending to be human so clumsily?”

“Well, that’s not it, I’m telling you… Ugh.”

As he said that, Jeong Seojin added the slightest bit of force to the hand gripping my wrist. Because of that, I narrowed my brow slightly at the faint pain radiating from my wrist.

From the look of it, even while emotionally agitated, he was trying to control his strength, but maybe because he hadn’t been Awakened for long at this point in time, his control seemed pretty clumsy.

He tilted his head, fixing his unfocused gaze on my face, which was twisted from the faint pain, and spoke.

“Your voice, the mana I feel, even the thickness of this ridiculously slender wrist — it’s all the same… Don’t you think it’s pretty unconvincing when you yourself say you’re not me?”

“Well, that’s— no, wait a second.”

Isn’t there something weird about the way this guy is talking? Forgetting even the faint pain in my wrist, I looked up at Jeong Seojin. He was still staring at where I stood with those unfocused eyes. …No, that’s not it. He wasn’t looking at me.

Just in case, I quietly tilted my head to the side.

And I realized.

‘This bastard, no way.’

Without warning, I grabbed his collar with my free hand. Jeong Seojin looked genuinely startled by my sudden action, wearing an unusually flustered expression. Of course, I couldn’t care less whether he was flustered or not. His embarrassment wasn’t what I was concerned about right now.

“Jeong Seojin, you.”

I spoke in a rough tone, like a beast growling, toward Jeong Seojin, whose face had been pulled right up to mine by my grip.

“Can’t you see?”

“…What are you suddenly talking about?”

His voice still carried a faint tremor, as if the shock hadn’t worn off. Jeong Seojin let go of my wrist, which he’d been holding, and immediately grabbed my hand that was gripping his collar.

“Don’t dodge the question and just tell me, Jeong Seojin. Can you see or not?”

Of course, whether he did that or not, what mattered to me right now was whether Jeong Seojin’s unfocused eyes could actually see or not.

‘Right, something was off.’

It was strange that he was looking at me with unfocused eyes, but what had felt odd earlier was that when he listed the commonalities between me and Princeps, he didn’t mention appearance — he mentioned other things.

‘If he’d seen my face, he should’ve brought up my face first.’

He mentioned “voice,” “mana,” and “wrist thickness” as common points between me and Princeps. All three of those shared the trait of using senses other than sight.

‘Right, I’m sure he mentioned that once. That he went blind as the price of using a skill.’

No, was this guy really insane? It was already crazy enough that an S-Rank Hunter with so many enemies around him would casually mention a penalty like blindness, but I really didn’t know that the time he went blind was none other than that day five years ago when the Monster Parade broke out.

‘What the hell am I supposed to do with this guy.’

If that was really the case, I had no idea how to even scold this crazy bastard. No, right after the Dungeon incident broke out, he would’ve just Awakened and not even adapted to his own body yet — and in the middle of all that, he endured a blindness penalty just to test his skill? Was this some new kind of suicide method?

I felt my vision go red with surging rage as I tightened my grip on Jeong Seojin’s collar even more.

“Answer me, you stubborn fool! Can you really see, huh? I’m asking if you can see!”

“L-let go of this…”

“Let go, my ass! Just answer me! Stop dodging the question!”

Just moments ago, it had been Jeong Seojin cornering me with questions, but somehow the tables had completely turned.

Of course, I wasn’t paying close attention to that detail. Right now, my top priority was getting an answer from Jeong Seojin’s mouth about whether his eyesight was fine.

“How many times did I tell you not to recklessly push your body! Well, sure, at this point you wouldn’t have heard it yet. But still! You, with no regard for your own body—!”

“W-why are you suddenly so concerned about my eyes of all things—!”

“U-um, you two!”

In the end, what broke this bizarre standoff between me and Jeong Seojin was none other than the woman who had been in my arms just moments ago. Still locked in our confrontation, both of us immediately turned our heads to stare at her.

The woman, now bearing the weight of both mine and Jeong Seojin’s gazes, wore an expression that seemed deeply uncomfortable, yet she quickly brought up the reason she had called us.

“Um… there’s another monster behind us now…”

—Krrrrrr!

I wasn’t sure whether to call him oblivious or good at reading the situation. Either way, the monster launched its attack the moment he finished speaking. *Kwaang!* The monster’s spiked forepaw slammed down where me and Jeong Seojin had been standing.

“Ah, hey! Jeong Seojin! My stomach! You’re crushing my stomach!”

“Just bear with it!”

Of course, Jeong Seojin wasn’t just taking the monster’s attack lying down. He swiftly hoisted me onto his shoulder like a sack of rice, then tucked the pale-faced woman watching from the side under his arm. With that, he quickly kicked off the ground and dodged the monster’s strike.

The problem was that in the process, his muscular shoulder pressed into my stomach, and it hurt.

“How am I supposed to bear it when your rock-hard, muscle-packed shoulder keeps grinding into my belly!”

“Then get crushed under the monster’s paw and turn into a meat patty instead!”

“You have such a sharp tongue!”

“Ugh, uuugh…”

As much as I was yelling, he was right — getting squashed into a pathetic pulp under the monster’s foot was worse than a sore stomach. …Though it wasn’t just ‘a little’ sore, which was why I was screaming like this. But wait, hold on. Wasn’t that woman tucked under his arm about to throw up?

—Krrrrrrk!

Maybe the monster didn’t like our conversation. This time, it swung its spiked tail at us. Groaning from the pain of Jeong Seojin’s hard shoulder pressing into my gut, I somehow managed to use the Monster Encyclopedia system to read the creature’s name.

‘Desert Thorn Dragon… that thing was a dragon?’

It looked like a hedgehog with massive forepaws and a tail, but it was actually a dragon. As a rule, any monster that carried the ‘dragon’ species category in any dungeon was at least an A-Rank or higher dungeon’s final boss or hidden boss.

And considering that, the creature we were facing now was not something an S-Rank Hunter who had only recently Awakened and couldn’t even see could easily handle.

—Krrrrrr!!

Maybe it was annoyed that Jeong Seojin kept nimbly dodging its attacks. The creature hurled its entire body at us. Of course, Jeong Seojin skillfully dodged again. The problem was that there was no follow-up attack afterward.

‘What, what’s going on. Normally by now, he should be floating that silver sword in the air and attacking, shouldn’t he?’

Thinking that far, I realized that the sword currently sheathed at his waist wasn’t the ‘Second Tarik’s Old Sword’ that I knew. And unlike his future self, the man awkwardly carrying me on his shoulder was still a rookie Hunter who had only just Awakened.

‘A rookie Hunter who can’t even see, at that. Ah, seriously!’

Why on earth had he done something so reckless! Gritting my teeth in frustration, I racked my brain for whatever I could do. For starters, among the items I had, the ‘Gardener’s Scissors of Life’ — the key to summoning Avan — still showed no reaction. The only items remotely useful in combat were Mana Orbs of various attributes.

‘For now, I’ll just have to throw a Mana Orb or something.’

Whatever the case, Jeong Seojin needed a brief opening to properly fight that monster. A gap wide enough for him to leave us and attack that thing. I immediately rummaged through my Inventory and pulled out the item I was looking for.

<Mana Orb (Fire)>

An orb containing concentrated fire-attribute mana.

If the orb shatters, there is a risk of fire spreading across the area.

I poured as much mana as I possibly could into the Mana Orb in my hand. Then, right after, I shouted an explanation of my actions to Jeong Seojin and hurled the object in my hand.

“I’ll make an opening, so you handle it somehow! But don’t overdo it!”

“What, you—”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for him to say more. The orb I threw struck the monster’s head dead-on. Yeah, I was pretty good at throwing things, I had to admit. Feeling a sense of pride that was completely out of place, I stared at the flames that began spreading *whoosh* from the orb I’d thrown.

—Kiiiiieeeeeek—!