Chapter 40
“Is that not to your liking?”
“Ah, no. It’s… good.”
I nodded awkwardly, then quickly regained my composure as I glanced at the blood-stained bandage wrapped around Baek Yi-heon’s abdomen.
“I think we’ll have to go in there and find Choi Yu ourselves. The question is how to infiltrate…”
As I pondered deeply, Yu asked in a puzzled tone.
“Well, is there really a need to ‘infiltrate’?”
“What?”
“They randomly kidnap non-awakened people. I heard even women aren’t exempt if they look young and healthy.”
“Then…”
Quickly catching on to her plan, I hastily replied.
“If we loiter around downtown, there’s a high chance they’ll take us first.”
Then we can infiltrate the guild and find Choi Yu.
Yu nodded at my words.
“Let’s go together. Two is better than one.”
Just as we quickly reached this conclusion…
“Stop this nonsense.”
Baek Yi-heon, who had been lying down, sat up and interjected with a stern face.
“How can just two women… Ugh.”
When I pressed on Baek Yi-heon’s side with an indifferent expression, he groaned and bent over.
He’s someone who wouldn’t show any sign of pain for most injuries.
The poison must have progressed significantly.
His internal organs were probably rotting bit by bit, causing severe pain.
Seeing me poke at the wound with an indifferent face, Sehun muttered quietly,
“Noona, I’m scared…”
“Isn’t two women better than taking a patient and a child?”
“But… No, don’t press again!”
Baek Yi-heon shouted urgently as he saw me raising my hand silently instead of replying.
It must have really hurt.
I put my hands on my hips and said in a firm tone.
“The patient will stay safely in the camper van. Sehun, can you take care of your hyung?”
“Yes! …But, Noona.”
Sehun looked up at me, anxiously grabbing the hem of my clothes.
“If, if something goes wrong… How will we meet again?”
We don’t have smartphones now, and phones don’t work.
Communication devices using magic stones haven’t been invented yet.
Once separated, we would have no means of contacting each other.
After a moment of hesitation as I looked at Sehun’s worried face…
“…One week.”
I murmured softly as I placed my hand on the child’s head.
“I’ll definitely come back. Just wait for one week.”
Only then did Sehun release my clothes with a relieved expression.
He must have been worried that I might run away without him.
I turned my head to look at Baek Yi-heon.
His skin, once smooth and clear unlike a soldier’s, was now slightly flushed with fever.
The inflammatory response had begun.
‘Can Baek Yi-heon last a week?’
I’m not worried about him.
This is… well, yes. It’s a kind of responsibility.
It was me who brought Baek Yi-heon to Busan earlier than in the original story, and who mistakenly took him to the temple in search of a healer.
‘Even if I’m a psychopath, I’m not such trash that I lack all sense of responsibility.’
Yes, that’s it.
Having quickly sorted out my emotions, I looked at Baek Yi-heon and said quietly:
“I’ll definitely return within a week. With the antidote.”
At those words, he smiled slightly, his reddened eyes narrowing.
“You don’t need to worry about me. …Please, be careful.”
💎
06. Destined to Meet From Thousands of Miles Away
Yu and I headed straight for the downtown area where the huge barrier stood.
Of course, Yu was wearing everyday clothes instead of her monk’s robe, which we’d taken from an empty clothing store.
“…There’s no one in the streets.”
I muttered quietly as I looked around.
The cityscape, with buildings damaged here and there and not a soul in sight, was desolate beyond words.
Even monsters, which usually appear where people gather, were nowhere to be seen.
“They’ve either been captured already, or they’re hiding somewhere to avoid being caught.”
Yu replied with an uncharacteristically hardened face.
“To fear humans more than monsters. This is clearly something wrong.”
“You’re right…”
Just as I was about to reply, that’s when it happened.
“Hey, you there.”
When we heard a thuggish comment behind us, we turned around to see a man with bleached hair standing with his hands in his pockets. He wore black clothes with a yin-yang ornament hanging at his waist. He was a member of the Dowonhyang Guild.
‘It really worked!’
Yu and I exchanged a secretive glance.
But then, seeing my face, he whistled.
“Wow. I didn’t know such a beauty was still left in town. Hey pretty, got a boyfriend?”
What the hell is this guy saying?
My expression quickly hardened.
One reason I had planned for Yu and me to infiltrate the guild alone was because it was made up of Awakened Ones. Being contracted with a benevolent god meant they shouldn’t pursue evil, at least.
‘But why are all the guild members like this…?’
As I was puzzling over this, I suddenly noticed a cold aura rising beside me. I hurriedly turned to see Yu’s previously calm face twisted in anger.
I whispered urgently.
“Yu, hold back.”
There didn’t seem to be any monsters around, but it would be disastrous if she went berserk again. She still couldn’t fully control the power of the goddess Kali.
At my words, Yu’s tense facial muscles twitched as she struggled to say.
“…My patience wasn’t this short before. It seems my personality has changed a bit since Awakening.”
Personality changes after Awakening? Was that in the original story?
As I pondered in confusion, the Messenger’s voice suddenly chimed in my head:
[(Messenger) Indra mutters embarrassedly that Kali has always had some anger management issues.]
…Damn it.
‘Why are you only telling me this now?!’
A psychopath, a child, and now a monk with anger issues. It feels like our team is running out of normal people.
I quickly whispered to Yu, who had started to emit an uncontrolled aura.
“Yu! You can’t kill humans carelessly. You don’t know what karma consequences you might face due to causality.”
Karma. According to the worldview of “TOAA,” if an Awakened One breaks their contract with a god and uses their power for personal gain, they will inevitably face consequences.
The book stated that these consequences vary based on the judgment of causality. It could range from a few days of power restriction or mild pain to death in severe cases.
With great power comes great responsibility. Since Yu had contracted with Kali, a powerful war goddess, the price for killing someone carelessly would be much higher.
“Besides, we were planning to get caught anyway, so this is good, right?”
So please don’t kill him, okay?
As I kept whispering soothingly, Yu furrowed her brow and struggled to contain the aura emanating from her body.
However, the bleached-hair man in the distance seemed completely oblivious to this. He muttered something into a walkie-talkie.
Soon after, a blue truck came racing towards us. In the truck bed, along with daily necessities that seemed to have been stolen from town, were two men with their hands and feet bound.
They kept glancing nervously at the guild members with terrified expressions.
Seeing this, both Yu and I simultaneously hardened our expressions.
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
