Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Frankly, if he had just tried to kidnap me and that was the end of it, I might have felt some sympathy for him. But the person who suffered direct harm from him is currently in my arms.

“Guess that’s why they call him a son of a bitch. He’s quick on the uptake.”

Jeong Seojin, who had called Andres a ‘son of a bitch’ instead of a wolf, tilted his head as he retrieved the weapon he had sent Andres flying with. Andres, the one who had been called a ‘son of a bitch’ by Jeong Seojin, merely twitched once amidst the rubble of the collapsed wall, showing no noticeable reaction.

Seeing that, I wondered if a person had actually become a corpse. Even setting aside my purely personal sympathy for Andres, I didn’t want Jeong Seojin to become a murderer who had killed someone.

“Um, Mr. Jeong Seojin. Wait a moment. He’s going to die at this rate.”

“He won’t die.”

Jeong Seojin stated it with absolute certainty, as if declaring an undeniable truth.

“Hey.”

Thud, thud.

His footsteps, reminiscent of a reaper’s stride, headed toward Andres. Approaching right in front of him, Jeong Seojin looked down at him with an expression devoid of sympathy, pity, or even contempt.

“Get up. It’s not over yet.”

True to his words, Andres had neither fallen nor died.

For a moment, his blue eyes, covered in rubble and dust, flashed, and then blue mana began to burst forth from around his body like an explosion. The blue mana erupting from Andres’s body started to coalesce on its own, forming a single shape.

“…A final technique, or something like that?”

What the mana, clumping and mixing on its own, created was a total of twelve blue wolves. As the wolves formed a circle around Jeong Seojin, lowering their bodies and growling silently, Andres, still coughing dryly, slowly rose to his feet.

“Cough, cough… Ha. I heard your alias was related to swords, so I thought you only used swords.”

“I use whatever I can. I just mainly use a sword.”

But if I used a sword, the opponent might end up dead in one blow. Jeong Seojin spoke in an utterly indifferent tone as he pulled another sword from thin air. This time, unlike the one he had drawn earlier, it was a silver sword with a proper aura of energy.

“I have no intention of sending a bastard like you off in one hit. I’d rather make an example of you, so that from now on, no one dares to target my es—… escort target.”

“Ha, haha… hahaha. You sure put on a good show of cherishing that woman.”

“…A show of cherishing?”

For the first time, Jeong Seojin, who had shown little emotional reaction while dealing with Andres, wore an expression of displeasure.

“Yeah, a show of cherishing. …Ha, seeing monsters like you try to act human, pretending to mingle with people, makes me want to vomit.”

“…Acting human, you say.”

“Yeah, acting human. Ha, monsters should act like monsters.”

A twisted sneer hung on Andres’s face. He was genuinely mocking Jeong Seojin. The sight of a monster, unable to become human no matter how hard it tried, struggling to fit in with those around it. Hoping for the impossible, thrashing about, and in that thrashing, humans ended up dead—the whole comedy of it.

The blue wolves lowered their stances further, growling silently. Jeong Seojin swept his indifferent gaze over the twelve wolves surrounding him, then lightly raised his sword.

“They say it’s just a plus sign attached to the rank, but I know. S+-Rank bastards aren’t human.”

“……”

Jeong Seojin said nothing, merely looking down at Andres quietly. But his gaze was not the usual emotionless, indifferent kind.

“Closer to monsters… monsters born from human flesh.”

“……”

“That’s what you all are. Isn’t it? Jeong Seojin.”

Cough. A drop of blood fell between Andres’s dry coughs. Beyond his blue eyes, something that hadn’t been there before was now flowing, thick with intensity. Watching Andres’s eyes from a distance, I read the names of the emotions overflowing, threatening to reach even my feet.

Hatred, rage, despair, and—

Contempt.

“At the very least, I had some thoughts while seeing the only known S+-Rank awakener in this world right in front of me.”

Whoosh. With the sound of wind being cut, the blue sword that had flown far away landed back in Andres’s hand as if sucked in. Using the sword in his hand as a support, Andres rose to his feet, then stared at Jeong Seojin with eyes brimming with crimson hostility.

“The greatest mercy a human can show a monster is to kill it as quickly as possible — nothing more, nothing less.”

The blue sword in Andres’s hand began to glow even brighter. As if in response, the wolves surrounding Jeong Seojin also bared their sharp fangs. Blue light flooded the surroundings. It was a blue far removed from the sea or the sky. It was the color of a lake.

*Whirr.* The sword named ‘Arondight’ shone even brighter, receiving Andres’s magical power.

“Knight’s Sword Arondight, activate.”

*Whoosh!* In an instant, a light so dazzling it was hard to keep one’s eyes open eroded the surrounding environment. The touch of the light caressed the floor, the wallpaper, the ceiling, and even the broken window far away. When I hurriedly opened my eyes again, the scenery around me, where the bright light had passed and caressed, looked distinctly different from before.

‘A lake?’

The moment I recognized it, rough spray surged. Blue light scattered through the violently churning spray. I reflexively hugged Hunter Joo Minju in my arms. Amidst the raging currents of water, the blue-clad man, battered and torn, stood upright.

Even as my entire vision was dyed blue, the man’s blue held an incomparably vivid hue. His eyes were still beautiful, still sorrowful, and at the same time, desperate and pitiful. I paused, momentarily flustered after thinking that far.

‘Pitiful? What part of him?’

There was no time to think further. Amidst the surging spray, the man who had stood upright raised his sword. An instant later, his figure vanished. *Bang!* Only after hearing the sound of immense forces colliding did I realize the man had charged right up to Jeong Seojin.

The blue sword and the silver sword met without yielding an inch. Yet strangely, even after being blocked by the silver sword, the blue sword kept pushing forward, and forward again. At first, I thought it was cutting through the silver sword and advancing, but that wasn’t it.

Andres’s sword was clearly ‘ignoring’ the obstacle in front of him and aiming for his target. Jeong Seojin seemed to realize the same thing I did, and he threw the sword blocking Arondight at Andres, retreating backward.

“Do you think I’ll just let you go?!”

But Andres charged at Jeong Seojin again. And that wasn’t all. The twelve wolves Andres had summoned just moments ago all began rushing toward Jeong Seojin at once. One started spewing poisonous mist at him, another breathed fire. Yet another charged with a body covered in thorns, and another rushed in with lightning crackling all over its body.

All twelve wolves, each possessing a different ability, were aiming for Jeong Seojin’s life.

“M-Mr. Jeong Seojin!”

Only then did I urgently call his name. The anxiety that had been simmering inside me was amplifying into something far greater. No matter how high-grade a hunter was, it didn’t mean they were completely immune to injury. I was someone who had witnessed that with my own eyes.

“It’s fine.”

But as if to suppress my anxiety, Jeong Seojin’s voice was utterly calm. A flash of silver. Hundreds of swords materialized in the air, hundreds more sprouted from the ground as if rising from the earth, and the final one he held in his own hand.

As the view was dyed in blue, the silver was cutting through the blue.

“I don’t lose to someone like this.”

With those final words, the blue light surrounding Andres and Jeong Seojin’s silver light clashed violently. Magic against magic, power against power, a massive backlash erupted. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, holding Hunter Joo Minju firmly in my arms.

In the midst of the colossal collision, the silence that had descended like the eye of a storm subsided. The sound of dripping water, the sound of wind blowing, the clatter of stones falling, all came sporadically.

Only then did I open my eyes and stare at the opposite side. Sunlight was streaming in through the hole blown open in the ceiling, pushed through by the violent clash of forces.

“Ah, *koff*… *cough*.”

The winner and loser were clear. Jeong Seojin dismissed the hundreds, thousands of silver swords he had summoned, leaving only the one in his hand, and walked toward Andres. Andres, on the other hand, was hunched over, vomiting blood amidst all the wounds Jeong Seojin’s silver swords had inflicted. He was still glaring at Jeong Seojin with fierce, blue eyes that hadn’t lost their hostility, but with his body in tatters and crushed under the pressure of Jeong Seojin’s magical power, there was nothing more he could do.

“Don’t, come closer…!”

As if refusing to give up until the very end, Andres threw a dagger at Jeong Seojin, one that was clearly coated in a lethal poison. Of course, Jeong Seojin easily neutralized it. Then, a newly formed silver dagger in the air blocked the sword Jeong Seojin had shot. Thanks to that, the last dagger Andres threw was deflected by Jeong Seojin’s greatsword, flying through the air and embedding itself into the ground.

“I’ll give you credit for that persistence… but well. It seems your strength can’t keep up with it.”

“D-don’t come… you monster…!”

“And one more thing.”

Thud, thud.

Jeong Seojin’s dress shoes soon came to a stop in front of Andres.