CH 33

Chapter 33 – It’s always night here, but…

Park Yul:

Sun Yihan fell asleep in an instant; he laid there motionlessly, with a pale face. Park Yul stood up from his seat after some long contemplation.

He had no choice but to cut off his ever-lengthening thoughts; there were whispers outside. It seemed everyone had returned, and it was time to exit the tent.

Swish–

Park Yul left the tent with a confident stride. Cold air rushed into the tent for a small instant before dispersing.

The sky outside was still completely dark.

“Yihan-ie fell asleep just now,” Park Yul said.

Raen confirmed Sun Yihan’s condition with worried eyes.

Stroking Sun Yihan’s forehead, Raen summoned a small table right next to the bed. He then placed warm water inside a cup on it.

Min Joo-hyuk carefully covered Sun Yihan with a blanket and held his hand.

After touching the young man’s icy hands, Min Joo-hyuk materialized soft gloves out of thin air. The white gloves were shaped like mittens–with the thumb separated from the rest of the fingers.

“Hey, Sun Yihan. Don’t even think about using healing magic as soon as you wake up.” Min Joohyuk said in a playful tone before putting the mittens on Sun Yihan’s pale hands. There was plenty of room for the slender fingers; the cloth was soft and light like raw cotton.

Song Ha-gyeon looked at the sleeping young man silently before tying a bag of herbs to the bedside post. A grassy scent spread around and filled the space. Song Ha-gyeon was the last to leave the tent.

A little later, Sun Yihan woke up.

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Sun Yihan:

I opened my eyes; the air was warm. My surroundings were dimly lit, and the faint scent of grass settled around my area. I was also laying under covers.

‘So many comforts…’

I felt refreshed, but this refreshed feeling was still somewhat disconcerting. How many times have I slept so deeply like this in recent times? I couldn’t even guess how much time had passed.

I definitely found it easy to stay up multiple nights just a few months ago… Why did I suddenly run out of energy like this? Should I exercise or something? I’ve been okay without it until now.

The healing bar gauge blinked to the side– without a hint of red light inside.

That’s right, it was like that the last time I checked. Because of the Treatment Gauge Emptying Tutorial. And, Park Yul saw me vomit blood.

It made me dizzy to recall that scene. Next time, I’ll have to empty the gauge in a place isolated from everyone else.

‘First things first, I should go outside.’

I needed to exit the tent and figure out the current situation. I slowly rose to a seated position. There was a glass of water on my bedside table. As I reached for it, I saw a white pair of mittens on my hands.

Mittens? I didn’t even realize they were there since it didn’t feel like anything was covering my hands. The cloth covering my skin was soft and warm. Still, why was this here?

‘Was there a reason?’

I thought it would be best to ask before I took them off–just in case. Perhaps there was some magic cast on these gloves; I should be cautious since I was still ignorant of basic magical matters.

After taking a sip of the warm water, I stepped out of the tent. The cloth at the entrance was already drawn back, letting the cold air touch my face.

It was dark outside, but a bonfire burned in the distance. I saw a human shadow perched over a log next to it.

‘Ha-gyeon Hyung?’

The light of the bonfire made his neatly-tied hair glimmer. I walked to the older man who sat still–without any movement.

The campfire wasn’t far from the tent–but it wasn’t that close either.

He didn’t notice my presence until I was nearly upon him. As I approached, I could see he was writing slowly in a notebook. Something that appeared to be a hand drawn map was in its pages.

‘He looks busy.’

""

As soon as I took another step, Song Ha-gyeon raised his head. His eyes focused on me. “…Sun Yihan.”

After quickly covering his notebook, Song Ha-gyeon jumped to his feet. He then clasped my shoulder tightly. In the blink of an eye, he sat me down where he had just been a minute ago.

“You don’t feel uncomfortable anywhere?” he asked.

I nodded. Song Ha-gyeon continued to speak, informing me he had heard what happened from Park Yul. He stood still, right in front of me and looked down with a clearly worried gaze.

‘I was always fine–rather, you all were the ones that were prone to injury and pain.’ I don’t know how many times I’d thought this, but I was exhausted from repeating the same words and thoughts.

I looked straight into his eyes; I had something to ask. “That’s right, Ha-gyeon Hyung–“

“Last time you–“

Ah–our words overlapped. I opened my mouth once more to speak, but Song Ha-gyeon opened his mouth cautiously as well. I looked at him as if to urge him to continue, but he shook his head.

Since he remained silent, I had no choice but to speak first. With my hands outstretched, I asked, “Can I take these off?”

I had a duty to complete–If I wanted to ‘heal’ Song Ha-gyeon, I would need to take off these gloves.

Come to think of it, Song Ha-gyeon was the first person I had ever healed. At the time, the system window appeared even if my hand was blocked by clothing, but now the window would only manifest if I touched bare skin.

Why? Did the system go easy on me because it was my first time? Well, not that it mattered. It wasn’t exactly a hardship for me to touch their skin. Though I had been thinking for quite some time, Song Ha-gyeon had yet to answer my question.

""

“… Ha-gyeon Hyung?”

He looked down at me with a wordless expression, his eyes wide open. He remained frozen in his spot.

A strong wind blew from the side; the bonfire flames leaned towards us. The heat drew momentarily near before leaning away once more.

The light-purple eyes staring into mine seemed to tremble lightly. Was I…not allowed to take these mittens off?

This time, I stretched out my arm and waved it in front of his face; Song ha-gyeon’s eyes slowly shifted over.

He blinked several times before raising his own hands. He then deftly grabbed my wrist and gently peeled off the mittens. Though his grasp wasn’t tight, I could clearly feel his touch.

Song Ha-gyeon folded the mittens into a neat pile and placed them in my hands. In a slow voice, he answered, “…Yeah. You can take them off.”

…Was this really something he needed to think about for a long time? Well…maybe that was normal for Song Ha-gyeon–he was always quite deliberate and slow. Still, I didn’t hate that about him.

I placed the gloves beneath my arms and held Song Ha-gyeon’s hands again. His fingers were cold and rigid, but perhaps that was just the contrast I felt after my hands had been warmed by the gloves.

I chose to heal him as I gazed at the system window that manifested.

「 Heal, Success!」

Song Ha-gyeon hurriedly pulled his hands away, but the healing had already completed. When he saw the light being absorbed into my body, he spoke faster than usual, “You don’t have to do that for me.”

I knew they would hate to take the initiative and ask me to heal them, but why were they avoiding my help so much? It wasn’t just Song Ha-gyeon–it was everyone. I planned to go with the flow unless they were going to fight me on a rather big injury.

A while ago, Raen asked what cost or price my healing demanded from me. Don’t tell me.. does everyone else also think that there was a price? Even so…

“Ha-gyeon Hyung has a role he must fulfill, right?” I was doing what was needed. “This is something I must do.”

“…Why is that something you must do?”

“Because it’s a job only I can complete.”

I wanted to do what I could–because that was the right thing to do. At first, that was my only reason.

But, I’ve gained other reasons now. I didn’t want to see you guys sacrifice yourselves for the world. I still didn’t know much about saving the world, but I didn’t want to see the Warriors suffer.

“And, it’s not too difficult for me to heal you all. So, if you’re hurt, please tell me, Hyung.”

“…You’re overdoing it.” Song Ha-gyeon stared at me. The gleam in his eyes revealed he was unconvinced.  I couldn’t really understand Song Ha-gyeon’s response.

“    Hyung, you know it’s you and not me who’s overdoing things. Everyone is too busy to take breaks…”

“We made this choice for ourselves. Mm, well, except for Park Yul Hyungnim. But, did you?” Song Ha-gyeon stared straight at me.

Ah, I see. So he had surmised that I had no choice when the temple had recommended I join the Warriors.

That was true–I hadn’t chosen to join them at first. The system had unexpectedly appeared in my life. Similarly, I had no choice in whether to stay and live with everyone here, but…

“Hyung. Is that so important?” Whether I chose to be here from the very beginning or not, that wasn’t something to worry about from my perspective. After all, all I wanted to do now–what I was capable of–was to help the Warriors. Wasn’t that reason enough? “The present is what matters. So, it’s alright.”

“……” Song Ha-gyeon said nothing more. He was still, as if he were in a deep reverie. I wondered as to the subject of his contemplations–what required such a serious expression?

I took a deep breath. The heat of the bonfire had strangely permeated through the air; the surroundings were almost hot and cold at the same time.

The area was still dark–it would probably continue to be dark. After all, it was always night in this forest. Still, perhaps the sun was rising, heralding the day, outside the forest.

I knew without seeing the sunrise with my own eyes. Not everything in life needed to be confirmed by one’s eyes.

It was night–a deep night ignorant of the sunrise in the far distance.

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The burning bonfire crackled quietly between us. Song Ha-gyeon, who had been silent for a long while, slowly opened his mouth. He said that after everyone had returned from their ventures into the forest, they were able to confirm an open crack. The distorted phenomenon wasn’t left unattended for a very long time, but, nonetheless, everyone wanted to deal with it quickly.

My nodding was reflected in his eyes. His gaze was searching, as if he were checking on my physical condition. Once he leaned his head forward, Song Ha-gyeon began to speak again, “Sun Yihan. If you would be amenable to it, let’s walk together.”

His tone sounded nonchalant.

His tone seemed to belie complete indifference. However, the meaning behind his words was clearly conveyed despite the ambiguous trappings.

“I want to walk with you.”

I had wanted to take a look around in the first place: I had wanted to see if I could sneak to a secluded location to empty the healing gauge.

Song Ha-gyeon turned to look at me; his dawn-colored eyes seemed to ask if I was really all right with his suggestion…even though the man remained silent.

I nodded almost automatically.

Song Ha-gyeon continued in a relieved voice, “…Alright. I’ll tell you about the limitations of defense magic.”

His monocle seemed to glimmer and shine in the light of the nearby flame.