Chapter 154

I didn’t know it back then, but it was the time when gates appeared simultaneously across the country.

Back when I didn’t even know they were gates.

News from places outside Seoul was delayed, so at the time, it was just seen as a problem at Eunryeong High.

She regretted it back then.

Because the bright, cheerful images of those two kids kept coming to mind.

Even knowing it was something she couldn’t stop, their pointless smiling faces lingered.

She felt sorry for the kids who must have been hurt when the final kindness they offered before she walked into hell was returned with cold indifference, without even a single word of thanks.

“…”

The two had said they’d head to school together starting that afternoon.

If I had just held them back here until lunchtime, would they have been swept up in it?

If, since she was sick, I had told her not to go to school and to go home instead, could Hunter Shin Yuri have avoided losing her family?

What had I done for the kids who treated me so kindly?

It was too late to regret.

…No, it wasn’t too late.

“Do you have something to say?”

I could see Shin Jae-heon asking with a puzzled look on his face.

I could also see Shin Yuri pressing down on his head as if telling him to wait a bit.

I knew because I’d seen it dozens, hundreds of times in my dreams.

Originally, after she spoke coldly, the two would leave the hospital room with awkward expressions. And that would be the end.

But this was a situation I’d never seen before.

“Ah.”

A chance to speak. The two were waiting for her words.

The slight sound that escaped her lips was full of life.

Until just moments ago, she’d only been watching her past self, but now it felt like she was fully part of this moment.

So she forced her reluctant lips to open.

She had to.

“Thank you.”

She said softly. She could see Shin Yuri and Shin Jae-heon widening their eyes.

It was what she had wanted to say dozens, hundreds of times in her dreams.

But it was also words she couldn’t even say in those dreams.

She turned to look at the window again. She’d shoved her hair back entirely and tossed aside her hat because it was too bothersome.

She thought her gaunt, ugly appearance was too repulsive, so she avoided mirrors.

She didn’t even want others to see her name, so she only parted the curtains enough to hide the name tag under the bed.

Not satisfied with that, she’d even scratched lines over the ‘Lee Jin-ah’ name tag on the door.

So no one would recognize her.

So no one would come looking for her.

It was so different from how she was now.

How much she must have hated that appearance for such a passive skill to awaken the moment she did.

Back then, she felt ashamed, embarrassed, and sorry. Only after the two left the room did those thoughts hit her late.

If she could meet them again, she resolved to repay the kindness she’d received at the hospital several times over.

She thought she’d return that precious pure goodwill to Shin Yuri, who had offered it selflessly in her darkest time.

…Yet she couldn’t hide her shame.

That’s why she hadn’t said it for ten years.

That her inventory still held that hole-ridden parasol.

That the grumpy person Hunter Shin Yuri had helped back then was her.

“What for?”

I could see Shin Yuri scratching her head.

Her awkward smile resembled the ones I’d seen recently.

It wasn’t in her memories.

But if she’d thanked her back then, Shin Yuri surely would have smiled like that.

How heavy could these words be that she couldn’t bring them out?

“Be careful.”

So Yeri said without thinking. The two, about to leave the room, turned back with puzzled looks.

So Yeri’s heart ached because she knew the future.

The Eunryeong High they were returning to would soon have a gate outbreak, and in that hell, the two would awaken as hunters.

…And by the time they emerged, Eunryeong Apartments would turn into a gate, and their family would go missing.

Don’t go to school.

Or call home and tell your family to get out.

She wanted to say it, but the words wouldn’t come. It seemed this space didn’t allow even that.

So Yeri felt like her chest would burst. Her eyes grew wet without her realizing.

Sorry, pity, and gratitude crystallized and flowed down.

“It’ll be tough ahead, but hang in there.”

She squeezed out the words.

The system window glitched and twisted like it had an error.

Beyond it, she could see the two looking at each other. Then they smiled and waved goodbye.

“Yes, get well soon!”

This time, she didn’t snap at them with sharp words as they waved.

And the moment they vanished from sight.

With the clear system window, So Yeri’s vision went pitch black.

***

Thud.

It felt like a sound echoed in her mind. So Yeri opened her eyes.

She could see the name of the item in her hand. It was the item that had just shown her the past.

More precisely, the item that had tried to bind her to the past.

“…”

So Yeri touched her red hair, which she usually tied up high.

If there was a mirror, her sparkling golden eyes would be visible too.

Before it became known that hair color could change upon awakening, she’d lied and said it was dyed.

Did her hunter team still think her hair was dyed?

“…”

She didn’t want to lie, but she couldn’t show her original appearance to Hunter Shin Yuri and Hunter Shin Jae-heon, if no one else.

It felt too sorry, too embarrassing.

She kept thinking she’d tell them someday, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

That parasol from back then—she was truly grateful for it.

And sorry she couldn’t hold them back…

So Yeri set down the orgel and picked up the hole-ridden parasol. The name was familiar.

The day the hospital turned into a gate.

The day she awakened as an S-rank support.

The wish that no one recognize her sick, ashamed self had blossomed into the hidden passive skill ‘Glamorous Transformation (L)’.

Even knowing illness wasn’t shameful, she couldn’t bear it.

Yet living on with a new appearance and name as if she had no past, she took something else instead of compensation from the hospital.

She couldn’t turn away from them twice.

That was this parasol.

So Yeri examined the handle of the cherished parasol she rarely took out.

She could see the name firmly taped on.

As So Yeri put away the parasol, she spotted a plated necklace belonging to someone next to it.

It was the item that had been around Shin Yuri’s neck. But So Yeri knew the secret.

That was Hunter Shin Jae-heon’s cherished item.

And next to it was a wooden sword. She’d wondered where it was from—it was the one the PE teacher had in the school RP dungeon.

“This is Yuri Hunter-nim’s…”

Neatly placed beside the sword was a notebook.

“And this is Joo Hunter Yian-nim’s, right?”

To think it had been snatched away. It must be that precious to her.

Once they exit the RP dungeon, she needed to help frame this painting quickly.

That was when she felt a surge of pride.

The party window flashed.

“!”

Startled, So Yeri checked the party window.

As if time that had stopped suddenly started flowing, the rapidly updating party window now reflected the current situation.

“…!”

One skill stood out especially.

“Field Hospital?”

Joo Hunter Yian’s L-rank skill that pours maximum-efficiency heal skills on all nearby party members.

The problem was that it wrecked her own stats each time.

A skill used only briefly in emergencies, yet Joo Hunter Yian was using it to her heart’s content.

Even receiving improved heals from Field Hospital, Shin Jae-heon’s condition was dire.

From the start, a critical injury Joo Hunter Yian couldn’t fully heal kept his HP at 50% or below.

Meaning one wrong hit and he was done.

“Wha-what is this?!”

So Yeri freaked out. How long had she been trapped in that memory?

Shin Yuri’s status wasn’t good either.

All three had HP bars scraping bottom.

Of course, they were laden with L-rank debuffs.

And the debuff names were far from normal.

‘Strict Reprimand’? ‘How Dare You’? ‘Venomous Words’?

Everything pointed to one person.

“No way…”

Until So Yeri went underground, Mrs. Maiden’s favorability was negative.

She must have blossomed into the boss.

An L-rank one, at that.

She didn’t know what happened in the meantime, but the important part was that three people were facing an L-rank-marked boss in an SS-rank dungeon.

Plus, after defeating Epe, they’d entered a hidden route, so effectively a rank above L.

Then what rank was Mrs. Maiden?

“Nooo!”

This wasn’t the time!

As So Yeri tried to store her items in her inventory and rush out.

“I never should have let such undignified things into my home!”

Mrs. Maiden’s bellow pierced even So Yeri’s ears.

“Dign…ity?”

No, you seemed pretty playful yourself!

So Yeri thought, recalling the toy sword at her feet.

Playing around didn’t make one undignified, of course. But Mrs. Maiden was insisting it did.

Playing made one undignified.

But the lady’s old toys clearly looked like ones an active child would play with.

If she showed them and said, You used to play like this!, would it help?

As she pondered and picked up the toy sword.

―Nella, don’t fall!

An adult’s worried voice and a young girl’s giggling laughter rang out.

It was the past voices from the ‘Orgel of the Past’ in her other hand.

“…!”

So Yeri’s eyes widened.

“I can’t let my son associate with the likes of them!”

“That child must grow up with dignity!”

Mrs. Maiden’s voice boomed repeatedly, shaking the entire mansion.

Was that how it dropped to summon an L-rank?

The moment she saw the favorability, So Yeri had her answer.

The way her hunter team suffering under an above-L-rank boss could survive this dungeon unscathed.

She gripped the orgel and toy sword tightly.