Chapter 240. Guardian (10)
Even after I waited for a long time, no other voice rang out. The last time I defeated a world’s enemy, the response was much more chaotic. This time, however, made me doubtful that the one we defeated was a real world’s enemy. However, the power in my hand was undoubtedly a world’s power.
I asked Lin.
“Lin, we defeated a world’s enemy… Isn’t there anything more?”
“Don’t be stupid. Where do rewards come from?”
“Well, it’s obviously the dun… Ah!”
The reason we were here was to allow the dungeon to operate normally. Of course there wouldn’t be any rewards now! At that moment, Sipua’s face shone as she shoved her face towards me.
“Master, if it’s stat or skill points, I can give them to you!”
“You shut up, Sipua. Don’t waste any more of you power!”
“Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking to Master, Lin!”
“Sipua shut it.”
“Yes!”
I was beginning to understand how the dungeon operated. Once Sipua became quiet, Lin looked at her dumbfoundedly and turned his attention towards me.
“Even if Sipua is weak, turning her into this… What are you?”
“I’m wondering the same thing.”
“… Serves her right.”
Daisy glared at Sipua with disdain as she approached me.
“Thanks, Kang Shin. Promise, you already kept.”
“I’m not the one who killed the world’s enemy. It was Lin. If you want to thank someone, thank him.”
“Dragon Horn, good job.”
“Why are you thanking him sincerely and treating me like a pet dog!?”
I’ve been thinking this for a while, but could Daisy really be thinking of Lin as an animal…? Maybe she just liked his horn. It seemed I needed to warn Lin to be wary of his horn being cut off while he’s asleep.
“Found hope… Though, before those weaklings grow, it’ll take some time.”
“Sorry. So many people died because of us…”
“It’s not Kang Shin’s fault. No one expected it… It’s my fault for, believing in a human too much.”
With that, she seemed to ponder momentarily before she shook her head and spoke.
“But Kang Shin is different. I trust Kang Shin.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Don’t have the brains, to trick people…”
“That’s too harsh! At the very least, I’m not stupid!”
Daisy said she was just joking and laughed lightly.
“Kang Shin likes me, so you don’t try to trick me.”
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘like’… You know that I didn’t mean what I said before, right?”
“Kang Shin hiding his embarra.s.sment, annoying but slightly cute.”
“So you really want to leave it as a misunderstanding, huh?”
I told myself to lecture her later. For now, there was something else I needed to do. I held the white sphere of light on my palm towards her.
“It’s time to keep my other promise. Daisy, I’m going to make you a Hero. Are you prepared?”
“From the moment 90 years ago, when I was chosen as a Hero candidate, I was ready.”
“I already knew this, but you’re old, Grandma Dai— Kahak!”
I almost absorbed the world’s power accidentally. Daisy waved her foot near my shin as she glared at me.
“I’m a maiden in her prime. Apologize for your rude remark.”
“Sorry…”
First, I made Daisy into a Hero on the spot. Watching this happen, Lin made a bitter smile.
“You’re pretty skilled at handling that power. Wielding a foreign world’s power so easily and bestowing it to someone safely, it’s almost like I’m watching the Savior Hero…”
“Savior Hero?”
“Let’s go back. We can’t let the dungeon stay like it is any longer.”
Savior Hero, that was one of my t.i.tles. Did Lin know something about it? Lin didn’t seem to want to say anything as he turned back silently.
In the dark and silent underground base, the only ones left were me, Lin, Daisy, Sipua, and the headless corpse of the world’s… Hey!
“Good undead material… Good rival for Laki.”
“Hey!”
“Very, very good material.”
“Even so, that was your world’s enemy… Do you really want to make control someone like him?”
When I asked dumbfoundedly, Daisy looked at me like I was crazy.
“Corpses… have no sins. All corpses are good corpses.”
“Don’t say that like it’s some profound truth!”
With that, the search for Sipua ended and everyone deployed to the Sylon continent returned to the dungeon. Although short, the event remained an unforgettable memory.
For helping to find Sipua, Revival became an A ranked guild, and Daisy and I both received a top-cla.s.s accessory each to make up for the reward we missed out in defeating the world’s enemy. The dungeon’s power for defeating the world’s enemy and the power for bringing Sipua back would both be included.
“Why do I have to make them when I worked my a.s.s off too!?”
“That’s obviously because you didn’t bring Sipua back immediately after you found her! Because you showed mercy to Sipua, do you know how many worlds were placed in danger!? Two of them almost fell!”
Furthermore, it was the first time I had seen Loretta this angry.
“The moment Sipua left the dungeon, she became our enemy! She was our ally for 2,500 years!? You pitied her!? She trampled on all these years we spent together! Lin, how can you do something so stupid!?”
“N-No, Noonim… You see…”
“And that even led you to fight a world’s enemy!? It thankfully worked out well, but what if something happened to Shin-nim!? Tell me!”
Loretta was so scary that I wanted to run away. However, I couldn’t escape as Loretta was hugging me tightly. Kuk, at the same time her fragrance and touch led me to heaven, my breath… my breath…!
“If I could, Lin, with my own hands…!”
“S-Scary! Noonim, your expression is too scary!”
This was the first time I had seen Lin so frightened! I was wondering what kind of expression Loretta was making… but I felt like I would regret it, so I quietly stayed trapped in her embrace.
“I was so worried… For you too, Lin! How can you be so immature? Didn’t you say you almost died!? What if Loka gets left alone!?”
“No, she has a kid now, so she won’t be alo… Sorry!”
Lin kowtowed. However, Loretta didn’t seem satisfied.
“You should know more than anyone else that you should never let your guard down against any world’s enemy! Even I have to be extremely cautious. I told you multiple times to protect Shin-nim, but you fought the world’s enemy together? You came back feeling proud of that? Hm? You want me to praise you?”
“Kang Shin was actually pretty usefu… Spare me, Noonim!”
“Loretta, I can’t… breathe…”
“O-Oh. Sorry, Shin-nim. I got a little excited…”
I didn’t think anyone else would call it ‘little’, but I closed my mouth. Loretta who had let go of me slightly had embraced me once again from the front.
“I was so worried…! Thank G.o.d you’re safe, thank G.o.d…”
“I’m sorry for making you worry, Loretta.”
“You came back alive, so it’s fine. If something happened to Shin-nim… I might have put myself in a position where I couldn’t blame Sipua anymore.”
As she said that, Loretta’s expression was strange. Almost as if she had discovered something new, her face was pale. Then, she let me go. While I was feeling dizzy, drunk on her fragrance, Loretta put her hand on her forehead and sighed as if to spit out something buried deep inside her heart.
“For… For a long time, we maintained the dungeon like this. For a long time… Right, for a very long time. Something like this was bound to happen.”
“Couldn’t it have been prevented somehow?”
“Should all the administrative guild masters be put in a coffin? If we’re sealed with the Lord’s power, we won’t have to worry about something like this happening.”
“Sorry, Loretta. I didn’t mean that.”
Loretta shook her head.
“For us, the power of the dungeon within us can’t be detached unless we die. To maintain the dungeon, we had to stay within it. Unable to bear the stress built up from countless years, two masters had even given up their seats to others…”
“Wait, doesn’t that mean…”
“They killed themselves.”
I stopped breathing. While I was frozen, Loretta continued.
“The weight of the pa.s.sing time had strangled them. There was simply no stimulant. Things were looking too dangerous, and one by one, we began to receive the positions the Lord’s power used to maintain. That was truly a saving grace. More and more people were beginning to require the dungeon’s power, and no matter how amazing she was, she had her limit. We made contact with the dungeon’s explorers and through them, we found a new life. However, that had its own problem.”
“A problem like what happened this time…”
“Yes. I told you something like this happened before, right? The person who first caused trouble was the administrative guild master of Lost Valley. He had fallen in love with an explorer. To save her and her world, he focused too much of the dungeon’s power to her.”
Lost Valley’s guild master, I had already met that person. And she…
“She became very powerful and succeeded in defeating her world’s enemy. Because of the amount of power given to her, the dungeon had reached a point where it ceased to function. The Lost Valley’s master then attempted to escape to her world to live with her.”
“Loretta, wait…”
“Eleine killed him.”
Loretta continued without pause.
“She returned the dungeon’s power to its normal state and became the new guild master of Lost Valley. A power that could protect her world, she believed that other worlds needed it as well.”
“For that, she killed her lover…”
“Their relationship was more one sided than mutual. Plus, Eleine has a tough spirit, though she may not look like it.”
“She looked like a girl who just liked to play around.”
“That’s not wrong either. Didn’t I tell you? She’s completely into Lin right now, so she’s constantly chasing after him, but in the past, it was much worse. She’s the type of girl who doesn’t fall deep into love. To be honest, Eleine’s personality is the most fit for an administrative guild master.”
Loretta’s main point was what followed.
“After that incident, all administrative guild members including the guild masters began to use puppets instead of their real bodies. Although communicating with explorers was nice, everyone realized that they couldn’t be affected by their encounters too much. Only few became exceptions to this rule. For example, Eladel and Maladel.”
“Even so, nothing could stop Sipua from falling in love.”
“There just couldn’t be a perfect solution… Just like how I, who had only contacted Shin-nim through a puppet, had fallen in love with Shin-nim.”
Loretta sighed once again.
“Harboring feelings for or against explorers isn’t encouraged. With this incident, you can see the ending. Even so, I…”
“Loretta…”
“Please, Shin-nim, always stay the way you are… Shining, as you always are…”
She shook her head and mended her words.
“No, nevermind. Shin-nim should do what Shin-nim wants to do. I won’t pressure Shin-nim anymore, I won’t… That’s the way it should be.”
“It’s fine if there are other women. I won’t be selfish, so… If you only look for me, I won’t stray from my path. I won’t become like Sipua. It’ll be fine.”
I silently embraced Loretta. With that, Loretta, who was talking nonstop as if she was drunk, became quiet. Lin widened his eyes, Daisy covered her face with her hands, and Sipua shouted something before getting silenced by Daisy’s kick.
With a blank expression, Loretta spoke.
“Shin-nim…”
“One day…”
“One day…?”
“No, sorry. It’s a secret for now.”
“Then until Shin-nim is ready to say it, I’ll wait…”
That day, I set a seemingly unpredictable impossible goal. That was the only solution. Now that I had come to know, I couldn’t stop. I could only continue running infinitely.
“Oh, by the way, Loretta… There is something I need to say.”
“Yes?”
“I like Loretta too… I love you.”
That day, I was almost raped in front of Lin. It was scary.
Author’s note:
I threw several plot points, but the readers will probably only focus on Shin’s confession… right?
That’s right! Congratulations! (Official) Heroine has been decided! And our protagonist’s th.o.r.n.y future has been decided! What will happen to the other heroines!? Will they be thrown away? Will they!? Will the popularity contest’s result be ignored!? For now, no one knows the answer. Follow me to the end! You won’t be disappointed!