RG 181

We walked on in silence for quite a while. After about ten minutes, the sound of particles colliding disappeared, and Cha Sahyeon also dispelled the shadow shield. We had emerged from inside the monster’s body. I looked up at the monster, which was still shifting its form every moment by moving its particles, then turned my steps toward the forest where the dungeon entrance was. Cha Sahyeon simply followed behind me without a word. He looked deeply hurt by my sarcasm earlier, so he probably didn’t want to open his mouth unnecessarily. Maybe he was angry at me. If that was the case, then this was clearly my mistake.

‘Idiot…’

Cha Sahyeon might be putting on a brave face in front of me, but in the end, he was a calamity. Just because his seed’s progression hadn’t changed since we ran into each other again at the church didn’t mean I could optimistically assume it would stay that way forever. This incident was the same. What if my words hurt him and raised the seed’s progression? I’d be the one who had to deal with the aftermath.

‘And…’

I glanced back. Cha Sahyeon’s expression was blank, but judging by his shoulders drooping lower than usual and the way he worried at his lips, he looked like he could burst into tears at any moment.

‘There’s no way I can bring myself to curse him.’

I wasn’t some piece-of-trash human being or a psychopath. How was I supposed to keep hurling abuse at a kid who looked that crushed? It would only make me feel worse. 

Once I reached that thought, a bitter smile came to me on its own.

‘If you couldn’t even last an hour, you should’ve just held it in from the start instead of losing your temper. Seriously, what a dumb bastard I am.’

Whenever memories from before the regression surfaced, I became especially stupid, and though I found my own behavior painfully pathetic, it wasn’t something I could easily fix.

“Haah.”

When I let out a deep, pent-up sigh, Cha Sahyeon, who was following behind, flinched at the fingertips. He blinked several times, clearly at a loss, and it was obvious he was watching my mood.

Seeing even that made me lose any remaining desire to snap at him. With a bitter feeling, I opened my mouth. “Cha Sahyeon. Come here.”

When I beckoned to Cha Sahyeon, who was keeping some distance as he followed, his round green eyes wavered. Afraid I might take my words back, he hurried over on his long legs.

“I was venting.”

“Huh?”

“I was taking it out on you. I was in a foul mood after getting hit by a mental-type skill.”

At my words, Cha Sahyeon parted his lips slightly and replied in a rush, “It’s okay, Brother.”

“What’s okay about it?”

“You can… you can do it to me. Venting. As much as you want.”

“…”

Cha Sahyeon had said the same thing earlier. You can tell me. It’s okay if you vent on me. I understood why he said things like that. 

We shared secrets we hadn’t told anyone else, and just as I knew a lot about Cha Sahyeon, Cha Sahyeon also knew a lot about me. When he asked me to tell him why I’d cried, that must have been what he meant too. We knew many things about each other. But just because he’d seen so much of me didn’t mean I was going to bare everything to him.

“Cha Sahyeon.”

And that… went for Cha Sahyeon as well.

“There’s a lot I want to ask you.”

“…”

“Honestly, you’ve been deliberately avoiding it all this time too. You knew exactly what I was curious about.”

The black robe draped over him fluttered in the wind. His green eyes, fixed on me in the darkness, glimmered faintly.

“If you want my attention, and you want to hear what’s really on my mind…” I stopped where I was and met Cha Sahyeon’s gaze. “Then you be the one to put what’s in your head out there first.”

I knew what kind of emotions were contained in those eyes that looked only at me. Back when I lived in the district, Kwon Seoyul used to look at me with a similar gaze. They weren’t exactly the same, but the part where he craved affection from me was especially alike.

“The one who wants it more should be the first to tempt the other with a gift.”

To lighten the mood, I smiled and lightly tapped Cha Sahyeon’s cheek a couple of times with my fingertips.

“That’s the basics of seducing someone.”

Cha Sahyeon, who had been staring at me in shock, swallowed dryly. After confirming that he fully understood what I meant, I turned away.

***

As we drew closer to the dungeon entrance, monsters began to appear little by little, just as I’d expected. Fortunately, I didn’t see anything as strong as the knight monster that had attacked Eun Woojeong, but troublesome ones like insect monsters that hid underground and crept closer, or winged gargoyles, showed up from time to time.

‘…Though, of course, they all die before they even get close.’

Kiiiiiik! Kiiiik!

I shook my head as I watched pitch-black shadow spears rain down like a bombardment and the pile of monster corpses steadily grow. I’d brought Cha Sahyeon along knowing this would happen, but seeing the monsters fare even worse than I’d expected was honestly a bit absurd. At this point, it wasn’t hunting; it was a massacre. Then again, how could A-rank monsters possibly stand a chance against our Great Calamity? Thanks to that, we were able to reach the dungeon entrance comfortably without me having to lift a finger.

After surveying the area around the dungeon, thick with undergrowth, I asked Cha Sahyeon a question, “Where’s the source of the energy?”

“We need to go in farther. It seems to be inside the dungeon.”

“Can’t be helped. Let’s go.”

As I stepped into the portal, a gust of wind swept over me. Feeling the air change, I slowly opened my eyes, and the dreary, gray interior of the dungeon came into view. With Cha Sahyeon following behind, I walked deeper inside the dungeon. While he dealt with the monsters rushing at us from all sides, I examined the state of the dungeon.

“…This is strange.”

Was this really a dungeon where a break had occurred?

Normally, a dungeon that’s undergone a break is total chaos. The monsters pile up and grow agitated, fighting among themselves, so there should be corpses and blood everywhere. But even at a glance, there were no bodies and no blood inside. More than that, there were far too few monsters appearing. If a break had happened, there should have been several times more than this.

I frowned uneasily, and then Cha Sahyeon suddenly turned to the right.

“This way.”

The path was so narrow that only one person could barely pass through. Since no human footsteps had reached it, the ground was thick with moss and grass. That made sense. Raid teams that came to clear dungeons didn’t bother going down paths like this to clean out monsters. As long as 80% of the monsters inside a dungeon were dealt with, a break wouldn’t occur. So it would have been enough to kill only the monsters that appeared along the main paths.

Walking along the path with Cha Sahyeon, we soon arrived at a wide clearing.

At the center stood a stone monument with nothing carved into it, and a single beam of light streaming through a crack in the ceiling shone down upon it.

If it hadn’t been inside a dungeon, it would have been beautiful enough to feel almost sacred.

“Brother, here.” 

Unmoved by the atmosphere, Cha Sahyeon strode straight in and pointed beside the stone monument.

“Just as I thought.”

At the tip of Cha Sahyeon’s finger, a single flower was blooming. A flower with deep green leaves, one I’d already seen several times before. I frowned at the unsettling energy emanating from it. The flower-shaped image shown by the monster I’d encountered in my dream must have been pointing to this.

Without hesitation, I stepped forward and pulled the flower out. When its roots, buried in the ground, were exposed, an even denser aura surged out.

Feeling like I might throw up if I held onto it any longer, I quickly stuffed it into my inventory. As I tried to settle my churning stomach, I asked Cha Sahyeon, “This flower. Do you know what it’s used for?”

After looking at me for a moment, Cha Sahyeon answered without resistance, “It depends on the case. In a situation like this… it amplifies a specific target’s power and makes them lose their reason.”

“Ha…”

It was obvious who the “target” Cha Sahyeon was referring to. Last time it sent the King into a frenzy, and now it was driving the monsters inside the dungeon berserk? Monsters that had been lying low all this time?

‘Come to think of it, this flower was there during the Gwanghwamun incident too. Don’t tell me the targets it drives berserk include ‘rifts’ as well?’

Damn it…

If my guess was right, this wasn’t something I could stop on my own.

‘Is that why the system told me to make allies?’

This time, everyone except Cha Sahyeon had fallen helplessly to a mental-type skill, but in a different situation, we might have been able to pool our strength and fight together.

‘It’d be better to come up with countermeasures for mental-type skills.’

I’d also need to go to the Circle Guild and meet the fake.

‘For now, let’s get out of the dungeon and check whether those three have woken up.’

Just in case, I turned to Cha Sahyeon. “That’s all we need to take care of, right?”

“Yeah. I don’t sense anything else.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”

Even though Cha Sahyeon had left shadow guards behind, it still bothered me that we’d left only unconscious people there. I turned around in a hurry, but before I could even take a step, my arm was grabbed.

“Why?”

Cha Sahyeon, looking down at me with an unreadable gaze, pulled on my arm. Curious about what he was trying to do, I let myself be tugged along, and he wrapped an arm around my waist. Pressing close to me, Cha Sahyeon kept studying my expression before hesitating and lowering his head.

A soft touch brushed against my cheek. Even without looking, I could tell his lips had touched me. It was a silent peck, so quiet, and the first of its kind I’d ever received.

‘What the hell was that, out of nowhere?’

I raised one eyebrow in disbelief. Flustered and fidgeting, Cha Sahyeon lowered his head again.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

I tilted my head away, avoiding Cha Sahyeon’s face as it came closer. No matter what, lips colliding was a bit much. I’d nearly been kissed by the kid while spacing out.

“What are you doing?”

At my question, Cha Sahyeon’s ears and the corners of his eyes flushed red as he answered hesitantly, “…Seducing.”