124 – 124. Interlude
—–
[ Delivered from the angel Arael. ]
[ Please come alone to the designated place on the designated date and time to receive your reward. ]
[ Date: Monday, April 20, 2020, 02:30 am. ]
[ Location: In front of the clock tower at Yeongrangho Lake Park. ]
[ This message will be destroyed after 20 seconds. ]
—–
The message that suddenly popped up just like it said, after 20 seconds, it disappeared like a flurry of powder. Fortunately, it wasn’t complicated, and An Su-ho was able to memorize it right away.
‘Next Monday at 2:30 am. In front of the clock tower at Yeongrangho Lake Park.’
A call from the angel Arael.
Ansuho remembered Arael. An angel who threatened when he got the breath of the morning star. He did remember, but he had almost forgotten about it, and I didn’t expect him to contact me until now.
‘Trap…… Would not be If the Heavenly Demon of Pleasure was trying to do something to me, he wouldn’t have bothered to set up a trap for me.’
There was little chance that it was a trap. However, it was impossible to be so optimistic.
When Arael was threatened, Ahn Soo-ho said this. If the Heavenly Demon of Pleasure tries to do something nasty, he asks me to tell him in advance.
Since then, many hardships have befallen Ahn Soo-ho, but Arael has not appeared. So he lived half-forgotten. Why did she finally appear when she couldn’t even see her nose?
‘What the hell is going on?’
Ahn Suho thought. He wondered if an ordeal incomparable to the past would befall him.
Starting with the unidentified rosary given by Wilhelm, it was very complicated in my head. He looked into the air and let out a deep sigh.
‘…… Now that the attack is over, I have to return the ability to Haneul first.’
The timer displayed in the corner of the field of vision had less than 10 minutes left. Even if the fight had been a little longer, it would have been a big deal.
—–
[ Will return the ‘all abilities of a superhuman’ borrowed from the caster ‘Kang Ha-neul’. ]
—–
After accepting the return of his powers, his whole body suddenly lost all strength. It felt like he had a bunch of sandbags hanging all over his body.
“Cool!”
At the same time, my stomach felt twisted and my blood gushed out. Aggravation of injury due to decrease in endurance ability. Ahn Soo-ho realized this belatedly and laughed.
Standing out among the best hunters. The fight against Wilhelm was established and I thought it was something, but in the end it turned out to be nothing more than borrowed power.
He smiled dejectedly when he realized that fact. But there were no complaints. What about borrowed power? He himself defeated Wilhelm, the master of the overrank dungeon, the monster.
‘I’ll have to clear the smoke first.’
f*ck! As he snapped his fingers, the thick black smoke around him dispelled it. At the same time, the scenery of the open battlefield was revealed.
“Mr. Suho!”
At that moment, Seol Ah-hyun ran towards him with an urgent cry. However, the pace gradually slowed down. As the distance narrows, surprise slowly spreads across her face.
“…… Uh?”
At last, when Seol Ah-hyun arrived at Ahn Soo-ho’s side.
In the center of that field of vision was Wilhelm, who was lying down with the placenta of his body armor, including the breastplate, blown off. His corpse, which had lost its vitality and cooled down.
– Keying.
Seol Ah-hyun’s eyes were dyed red. As if the results in front of her are unbelievable, she tries to peek into her future.
However.
“…… It’s okay. Ah Hyun. You don’t have to.”
Ahn Suho’s words brought her mind back from the future to the present. When Seol Ah-hyun looked at Ahn Su-ho with surprised eyes, he replied with an awkward smile.
“You defeated Wilhelm. The attack is a success.”
“Eh…… ?”
– Plopped.
Seol Ah-hyun, who was relieved of tension at that one word, sat down on the spot. Those eyes of hers scan the remains of Wilhelm as if suspicious.
Wilhelm didn’t even move. Only then does her perception begin to catch up with reality.
“Down, down, yes, yo…… ?”
“As you can see.”
“Did Suho do it…… ?”
“Hey, I just hit the last shot.”
“But. That, that what? Really? We really won, right?”
The outcome of the fight was clearly presented before my eyes. Because she was looking at her own dying future right before her death, Seol Ah-hyun could not easily believe in their victory.
“Yes.”
Ahn Soo-ho calmly replied to Seol Ah-hyun. He knelt on one side of her and brought her to eye level with her, whispering softly to her with her still bewildered face.
“We won. It is over now.”
“Ah… ….”
That little whisper. That insignificant word that everything is over.
“It’s over, sir… ….”
Seol Ah-hyun couldn’t be that relieved. Seol Ah-hyun, who had been staring down at her floor in dismay between her relief and collapse, slowly raised her head.
I can assure you, she was destined to die the moment Wilhelm’s sword struck.
Whether she evaded, blocked, or counterattacked the sword, nothing changed. At that moment, the dozens of futures she had glimpsed all pointed to her death.
Nevertheless, I did not give up. But at the same time she gave up.
Her own life would end here. She implicitly thought so. She accepted it that way.
She said that it was the first complete death she faced since returning to the past, unable to see anything like a bow.
However.
Even so, now, she herself is alive like this.
“…… Mr. Suho.”
It must be because the man in front of him saved him. It must be because she changed the future.
“Thank you. For saving me If it wasn’t for Suho……. I’m probably dead.”
Seol Ah-hyun said in a blank tone, feeling blessed from her belated self-awareness. Ahn Su-ho held out her right hand to Seol Ah-hyun.
“Me too. Thank you for trusting me.”
Seol Ah-hyun, who had been staring blankly at the hand, quietly took it. Soon, Ahn Su-ho raised Seol Ah-hyun to his feet.
However, even when Seol Ah-hyun stood up, he did not let go of his clenched hands. He clenched his grip even tighter as if he would never let go.
He didn’t even know why.
However, Seol Ah-hyun felt an unknown emotion towards Ahn Soo-ho in front of her. He wasn’t grateful. He wasn’t even in love. It was a complex feeling that was difficult to explain in one word.
Still, if I had to define it in one word, it was camaraderie.
The same way she felt towards the hunters of the Black Dragon. A camaraderie that you can trust and rely on on the battlefield where life and death come and go.
Even though it hasn’t been long since we met. We had very little time together.
“Me, Suho.”
The heart of Seol Ah-hyun, who was saved from her predestined death, deeply accepted An Su-ho.
“Please take good care of me in the future.”
Seol Ah-hyun smiled. She has a bright smile as bright as the color of her hair.
“…… I wish you well too.”
Seol Ah-hyun nodded slightly at Ahn Su-ho’s answer. She let go of Ahn Soo-ho’s hand, which she had been holding tightly to her all along.
Although she let go of her hand, the two were connected by an invisible bond.
***
After the battle with Wilhelm.
The raid team quickly began to recover from the war. In connection with the personnel waiting outside, the injured were escorted, and the recovery team rushed in to recover the remains of the monster or artifacts. Wilhelm’s remains were no exception.
Seol Ah-hyun led the entire process. She, too, despite her considerable injuries, did not lose her role as leader of the raid.
“…… The knight ran away?”
Thanks to that, she was the first to hear the news among the hunters in the task force.
“Yes. Didn’t a lot of black smoke come out at the end? Until then, he was definitely fighting with us……. When the smoke clears, it disappears nowhere.”
The Last Four Knights. First Lieutenant of the Frost Knight Scout Captain. Ain Dietrich.
Unlike other knights, a slim silhouetted knight who used a bow. She said she ran away. She said as if the Hunters of the aggressor group had no face.
However, Seol Ah-hyun did not reprimand her greatly. How could she blame her for missing the enemy in a blinding smoke screen.
‘If you ran away, are you still hiding somewhere around here? Or go beyond the gate and into the labyrinth…… ?’
Seol Ah-hyun thought about it for a while, but she soon thought it was not a big deal. Monsters cannot leave the dungeon unless a Crisis occurs. And the Gate Administration reported that at least two weeks were left before the Crisis of the Knight’s Tomb would occur.
Thus, even if Ein Dietrich escaped, he would be at best in a labyrinth. When hunting the other remaining monsters, you should be able to hunt them together. She thought so
However.
“Hoe Lord. According to the people on the retrieval team, the green knight came out of the gate before the news of the success of the subjugation of Wilhelm spread. They say they fled into the mountains, but isn’t this a big deal?”
“Yes? How is that possible? There are still two weeks left until Crisis?”
“I don’t even know. But I’m sure he ran out of the dungeon. There were plenty of eyewitnesses, and the character matched the archer the guerrillas used to fight.”
Ein Dietrich fled beyond the gate into the outside world. He had no idea how that was possible. Only that fact exists as a fact.
The escape of the monster in the overrank dungeon. No matter how low the level of the knight’s tomb was compared to an overranked dungeon, it was never a situation to sit idly by.
“What did the gate management say?”
“First of all, they said that after issuing a wanted order in the nearby area, they would use all available means such as manpower, CCTV, and satellites to find them. They’re very fast because they’re monsters in overrank dungeons.”
“It’s fortunate…… “
“Honestly, I don’t know if I’m lucky. Catching the runaway monster is not an easy task. Isn’t he even as intelligent as a human? Besides, if we make a mistake and even become a civilian victim, aren’t we, who supervised the attack, using poison poison?”
“That will never happen…… There won’t be…….”
Ahyeon Seol could not give a definite answer. However, as a leader, he only said that to reassure the people below him.
In an unexpected situation, the mind that had been relieved due to the success of the attack calmed down again. But he didn’t show it outwardly.
‘I hope it doesn’t matter… ….’
Seol Ah-hyun let out a shallow sigh while looking at the gate shining blue.
***
Meanwhile, at that time.
– Perseok. Perseok.
Ain Dietrich, a knight in green armor, was climbing the mountain path while cutting through the thick forest. Compared to other knights, it is light, but it is unbelievable agility even though it is wearing metal armor that covers the whole body.
She, like her mountain beast, skillfully climbed the mountain, glanced at her and looked behind her. After making sure several times that her pursuer was not on her, she hid herself in the shade of a rock and caught her breath.
“Huhhhhh…… Uh?”
I caught my breath.
Ein Dietrich felt strange at the disparate behavior that Living Armor would never do.
-Click.
She lifted her gauntlet. The essence of her being called into this world with her mysterious power is Living Armor. When her gauntlet was removed, the inside should be empty.
However.
“Oh my God… ….”
What was exposed under the gauntlet was immaculate skin. Apparently, in the dungeon, only the soul existed inside the armor, but she had acquired a body made of flesh and blood before she knew it.
Soon she lifted her helmet. Her insides were also made of flesh, just like her hands. A cool mountain breeze blew through her sweaty hair.
It was a truly mysterious phenomenon. But it was also a good thing. If it wasn’t a living armor, but a normal human body, it would be more suitable for carrying out the orders given by Wilhelm.
‘Ein Dietrich. If I am defeated by the intruders, escape to the outside world through the transfer door in front of me. You alone.’
Before the hunters arrived at the altar, Wilhelm ordered Ein Dietrich to do so.
At first he replied that he could not follow orders. He died early without fulfilling his duties in the original world, but through a mysterious miracle, he got a chance to fight under Wilhelm again. However, it was unreasonable to abandon Wilhelm and run away alone.
However, following Wilhelm’s orders, Ein Dietrich changed his mind.
‘It’s not about running away. I’m telling you to escape and look for opportunities.’
Wilhelm said.
To the evil god who brought them to this strange world and tried to use them as he pleased, and to pay the price to the nasty god who disturbed the master’s sleep.
He said that he must never forgive the god who tarnished the honor of the Frost Knights in his master’s name, so he said that you too should survive and look for an opportunity to avenge yourself.
Ein Dietrich couldn’t help but nod his head in the end at the desperate emotion felt in that name. In his heart, even if he lost, he wanted to fight and die alongside Wilhelm, but orders were orders.
“…… However, Captain. How on earth do you mean revenge on an invisible god…….”
Wilhelm didn’t tell me a specific method. Just survive and seize your chance. He just said that
Thanks to Ein Dietrich’s escape from the dungeon, he was at a loss even though he obtained a new body. He had no idea how to carry out his last command.
…… In fact, Wilhelm just wanted Dietrich, a child who died unjustly in his previous life, to live a new life.
She has been living as a knight since she was young and has lived a life of only receiving orders, so she couldn’t possibly infer Wilhelm’s true intentions.
He, who had run away unseemly even at the command of his superior, said what the hell was he supposed to do now?
From nob le mt l dot com
Looking up at the green sky, Ein Dietrich let out a low sigh.