Chapter 182
Chapter 182. Trauma (3)
Yoo Ji-han’s short remark caused Kim Hyun-tae’s eyes to widen in disbelief.
His lips were also pursed in disbelief, clearly struggling to accept what was happening in front of him.
“You, you must be crazy!”
“Sadly, I’m perfectly sane right now.”
“Stop messing around! If you were sane, you wouldn’t say something like that to me!”
“Why not?”
“……What?”
“You curse at me every day; can’t I say something back?”
Yoo Ji-han looked at Kim Hyun-tae with a look of incredulity.
Back when he was in Keroes, he constantly received jabs and criticisms from Kim Hyun-tae.
He had expressed dissatisfaction, but improvements were limited to a meager bonus added to his salary.
Yet, Yoo Ji-han stayed in the party.
In truth, saying he ‘stayed’ was more accurate to say he ‘endured’ it.
As someone who had put up with it for so long, he had ample reason to confront Kim Hyun-tae.
“You arrogant brat, completely oblivious of your place…!”
“Hyun-tae.”
“……?”
“Your breath stinks, so shut up.”
Yoo Ji-han waved his hand in front of his face as if trying to fan away Kim Hyun-tae’s stench.
It seemed almost like he was mocking him.
Kim Hyun-tae’s face flushed with shame at that gesture.
“Yoo Ji-han! Are you seriously out of your mind?”
“Are you going to apologize to us or not?”
Hwang Joon-ho and Lim Si-yeon demanded an apology from Yoo Ji-han.
Regardless, Yoo Ji-han dug his fingers into his ears and looked around.
‘They’ve disappeared.’
The once abundant Blood Snakes were nowhere to be seen.
Despite his vigilance, they had all vanished.
‘Is this the answer?’
It was hard for him to believe.
He concluded that the confrontation with his party members had somehow influenced the surrounding environment.
After failing to find a single monster in sight, he glared at Hwang Joon-ho and Lim Si-yeon.
He was sure he needed to deal with them first to escape this illusion.
“Hwang Joon-ho.”
“What?”
“Do you remember the day we first met?”
“……The day we first met?”
“When I was nervously fidgeting in the office, you approached me first. You said we would be together in the party for a long time and even asked to shake hands.”
It was the day Yoo Ji-han officially joined Kim Hyun-tae’s party after entering Keroes.
The first hero to welcome the new recruit was none other than the tanker, Hwang Joon-ho.
At that time, Hwang Joon-ho had been quite friendly toward Yoo Ji-han.
He hadn’t been dismissive from the start.
“Wh-why are you suddenly bringing that up…?”
“You’ve changed a lot because of Kim Hyun-tae.”
“Changed because of Hyun-tae?”
“You think I wouldn’t notice how you always watch what he thinks and act accordingly?”
“……!”
In the party, the ultimate authority was the party leader, Kim Hyun-tae.
Hwang Joon-ho always acted in accordance with what Kim Hyun-tae wanted.
He followed Kim Hyun-tae’s desired manner of movement and judgment in battle, and even his attitude toward Yoo Ji-han gradually mirrored that of Kim Hyun-tae.
While Hwang Joon-ho was Kim Hyun-tae’s comrade and friend, he was also quite a fervent follower.
“And Lim Si-yeon, you’re not much different either.”
“Hah, you’ve got to be kidding!”
Lim Si-yeon scoffed at Yoo Ji-han’s words.
She glared at him and said, “I didn’t like you from the moment I first saw you.”
“I would’ve expected that. You hated everyone here.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I happened to overhear a phone call you had with a friend. I think her name was Ji-min?”
“……!”
Lim Si-yeon’s face turned to shock.
She had definitely grumbled about the Kim Hyun-tae party while talking with her friends in the past.
Those complaints included Yoo Ji-han, Hwang Joon-ho, Lee Mi-a, and even Kim Hyun-tae himself.
She had expressed dissatisfaction with all the party members while being invisible and unheard.
“I clearly remember what you said back then.”
“Don’t lie!”
“If you hear it, you’ll remember. You called Hwang Joon-ho a ‘big dumb can’!”
“……I-I never said that.”
“Do you want me to remind you of what you said about Kim Hyun-tae? Oh, by the way, mentioning this could cause the Kim Hyun-tae party to collapse right here…”
“Shut up!!”
Sensing her anxiety, Lim Si-yeon yelled.
In response, Yoo Ji-han shrugged his shoulders.
If she was reacting suddenly like this, there was no need to explain who was right here.
“…….”
Meanwhile, Lee Mi-a remained silent, just watching Yoo Ji-han.
She wasn’t openly criticizing him like the other party members, nor was she stepping forward to defend him.
Her attitude was as if saying, ‘You deal with your own problems.’
‘Honestly, this is better.’
Yoo Ji-han smirked at the response he had somewhat expected.
Even the illusion of Lee Mi-a wasn’t that different from her true personality.
“What is it that you want?”
“What I want, huh…”
Yoo Ji-han glanced at Kim Hyun-tae, who appeared extremely angry, as if he might draw his sword any second now.
It was truly a rare sight to see him like this.
Though he could have pointed his sword right back at him.
Instead, Yoo Ji-han let the tip of his sword drop to the ground.
“What could I possibly want after all this? It’s not like you’re going to listen to me anyway.”
“…….”
“If we were to meet in reality, I wouldn’t waste my time on petty arguments like this. That’s just too valuable for my time. So…”
Yoo Ji-han threw his sword to the ground.
“This should be enough; everyone just get lost.”
The moment he finished that line.
The surrounding scenery turned completely white.
Like a blank canvas untouched by anything.
Slicing—
Then, Lim Si-yeon and Hwang Joon-ho’s bodies melted away like cotton candy dissolving in water.
Even Kim Hyun-tae, who had been glaring at Yoo Ji-han with a furious expression, vanished similarly.
It wasn’t some magic that rendered them transparent; rather, their very existence had been completely erased.
The only one left was Lee Mi-a.
“You’re not much different from reality.”
“…….”
The fake Lee Mi-a silently gazed into Yoo Ji-han’s eyes.
Yoo Ji-han directed his words toward her, who hadn’t vanished yet.
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“I am.”
“……?”
“I’m glad you left Kim Hyun-tae’s party.”
“Why?”
“You should have left the party long ago. Someone like Yoo Ji-han could be recognized somewhere else.”
Yoo Ji-han scratched his head.
The Lee Mi-a in front of him was based on his memories.
So, could her behavior now be interpreted as ‘the Lee Mi-a Yoo Ji-han envisions’?
He found it difficult to ascertain.
“But one reason I didn’t leave was because of you.”
“Because of me?”
“It’s because you were the only one in the party who kept it together for me that I lasted seven years. Otherwise, I would have gotten fed up and left.”
Lee Mi-a was essentially Yoo Ji-han’s only conversational partner in the party.
While their conversations weren’t plentiful, she had, in some unspoken way, become a pillar for him to lean on.
If she had also belittled him like the other members, he would have given up and exited the party long ago.
Upon conveying that thought, Lee Mi-a sighed.
“That’s undoubtedly my fault.”
“It’s a bit harsh to call it a fault.”
“No. It is a fault. So, if you ever meet the real ‘me,’ just give me a light slap on the back of the head.”
“……If I do that, I feel like I’d get smacked instead.”
“If we share what we’ve just talked about, that wouldn’t be possible.”
“Hmm.”
Yoo Ji-han gazed at the fake Lee Mi-a with curious eyes.
She was aware enough to engage him while recognizing she wasn’t the real Lee Mi-a.
If only there were enough time, he would want to conduct research on this phenomenon.
At that moment, the fake Lee Mi-a said.
“I have one last favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Come over here for a moment.”
Following her request, Yoo Ji-han moved closer to her.
Still, he felt a bit anxious inside.
‘She’s not going to suddenly attack me, right?’
The fake Lee Mi-a was behaving entirely different from the other fake party members.
Even so, it was clear this was a trap set by the people from another world.
Yoo Ji-han remained on guard, ready to counterattack if an assault came.
“Stand still and don’t move.”
At that moment.
The fake Lee Mi-a suddenly hugged Yoo Ji-han tightly.
“What…!”
Yoo Ji-han was startled, his body bristling with surprise as he checked the areas where their skin met.
Was she attempting a surprise attack with a hidden blade?
Continuously suspecting, thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.
She simply pulled him into a tight embrace.
“If I were the real ‘me’… I wouldn’t be able to act like this. The real Lee Mi-a is more bashful than you might think.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“You don’t need to understand. This is just my personal desire.”
With their breaths intermingling so close together.
While Yoo Ji-han desperately tried to decipher the intentions behind the fake Lee Mi-a’s actions, she whispered softly in his ear.
“Take care.”
The fake Lee Mi-a, still holding on to Yoo Ji-han, vanished.
Left alone in the pure white space, he touched the neck where her breath had just reached him.
Even though everything was an illusion.
The warmth of her breath felt as real as reality.
“……I have no idea.”
An illusion created based on past memories.
Suddenly faced with an embrace from Lee Mi-a.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t uncover any meaning behind it.
Soon, his previously empty vision faded to black.
*
“……!”
Yoo Ji-han opened his tightly shut eyes.
He was lying on the ground in a comfortable position.
Rapidly sitting up and looking around, he saw his party members were also lying on the floor.
—They’re awake!
“Silph!”
Silph was moving around unscathed.
It seemed she hadn’t been affected at all by the Magic Power emanating from the supreme-grade Magic Stone.
“What just happened?”
—Suddenly, over there, the magic went kaboom! and everyone lost consciousness!
In reality, far less time had passed than he had perceived in the illusion.
Yoo Ji-han eyed the glowing Magic Stone cautiously and checked on the states of his party members.
None showed visible injuries, and their breaths were steady, indicating they seemed fine.
‘How do I wake them up?’
One basic method to escape the influence of specific magic is to move away from the location where that magic is cast.
So, if he took care of his party members and created some distance from the supreme-grade Magic Stone, would that awaken them?
Though it was a textbook approach, Yoo Ji-han shook his head.
He didn’t feel confident they would wake up.
‘It seems the correct answer lies in making choices completely different from the past.’
Yoo Ji-han realized everything around him was fake and even argued with Kim Hyun-tae to shatter the illusion.
If his party members were in a similar situation, they should be able to resolve it in a similar manner.
But he couldn’t convey that to those who were asleep.
While a little frustrated, he was then aware.
—Ji-han! You want to wake your friends up, right?
“Exactly.”
—I can help a little with that!
“You have a method?”
—But it might be a bit dangerous. …Are you still up for it?
“What do you mean? Of course, I have to do it.”
