Chapter 294
All the five king candidates who had once dominated the Hala Forest died. The final fenrir survivor, Hurodvitniru, also pa.s.sed away and returned to the moon, leaving one child responsible for the future of her species. With this, one could consider this expedition a success. There was no longer any possibility of a king being born in the Hala Forest, and they also retrieved a being who could start the revival of the fenrirs. Once again, humanity achieved what the Ca.s.siubia League failed to do. It was a truly celebratory event, yet no one looked happy.
They didn’t even have the luxury to dwell on their victory. Almost the entire expedition team was critically injured, and there were several who had fainted like Chi-Woo. Those who didn’t lose consciousness yet carried their team members in their injured states and returned home. Survival was the key goal right now, and the team left in a hurry.
When they gradually disappeared out of sight, another group soon revealed themselves. The members of this group exchanged looks with one another and stared intently in the direction the expedition team left in. The figure who looked to be the leader of the group nodded, and the rest of the group began to chase after the expedition team.
Though they didn’t say a word out loud, there was a vicious air about them that made it clear they didn’t have good intentions. It was then the swiftly running leading figure came to a sudden stop. Following the leader, the rest of the group also stopped. Shuddering, the leader turned around and bolted. It was as if they were running away from something. It was hard to tell why they had suddenly stopped their chase and chose to run away.
Where the group had turned away, one figure stepped out of the darkness. It was the pigtail girl with freckles. She walked softly across the ground and murmured in surprise, “…You guys have good intuition. You have quick senses and move swiftly too…”
‘What should I do~’ She wondered with her finger on her chin. “But I still have to kill you.” She smirked and said in a sweet voice while flicking her finger, “I can’t have any witnesses, can I, guys?”
Not long afterward, eerie screams rang out all over the forest. Though she had planned to let them go in peace, she made them pay the price for seeing something they shouldn’t have.
Then the freckled girl clicked her tongue and turned around. “They went so far in that short time,” she said and followed the path the expedition team had taken.
“But besides that, he really is completely different,” she murmured to herself and nodded. “If it was the legend…”
If Chi-Hyun had come to the Hala Forest and encountered the same situation as Chi-Woo, what would he have done? For sure, he would’ve started things off by killing Hurodvitniru first before she even gave birth to her baby, thus preventing the worst-case scenario of the last king candidate achieving G.o.dly status right off the bat. He would’ve also utilized the compet.i.tive nature of the relations.h.i.+ps between the king candidates and defeated them one by one. He would’ve joined hands with the enemy without hesitation and used all means possible to achieve his goal while limiting possible dangers. Prioritizing pragmatism utmost. That was how the hero called the legend operated.
The freckled girl had no intention of arguing whether Chi-Hyun’s method was right or wrong, but she was sure of one thing—Chi-Hyun’s method limited danger to achieving his goal, but it also resulted in low returns. Chi-Woo’s method was the exact opposite. He risked such great dangers that the expedition team almost failed and died, but they reaped rewards that matched their risks. And he managed to succeed in doing things Chi-Hyun would’ve never even considered doing in the first place, such as saving the baby Fenrir and…
“Ah, that’s right.” The freckled girl stopped walking. It was as if she had suddenly recalled something she forgot.
***
Chi-Woo opened his eyes a little bit past noon. His body felt as heavy as soaked cotton, and the effort of pulling himself up was enough to make his arms shudder.
—You are awake?
Philip came in flying first.
—How is your condition?
Chi-Woo scanned his body before letting out a big sigh. He was in no state to even lie that he was fine, but his condition was at least better than the time he collapsed. He had worried if he would ever be able to fight again, but he didn’t need to worry about that. He recovered to the point that he could move around now, and it had been good that he didn’t put back his first-stage restriction. Thanks to his Divine Blood ability, his inner injuries were slowly healing, and eventually, time would help him recover the rest. Yes, time…
—Ha, look at this guy.
Philip tilted his head, watching Chi-Woo sitting with his head hanging low.
—Why the long face?
“…”
—You faced a strong enemy—the strongest you had ever fought so far.
Philips seemed to be insinuating that Chi-Woo should simply be glad of this achievement.
“…I don’t really feel like I won,” Chi-Woo turned around and murmured in a low voice. Philip swallowed what he was about to say. He knew how Chi-Woo was feeling. The situation was clearly different from before; Chi-Woo had trained by dying hundreds and thousands of times and got his hands on sizable power. This was the power that he achieved with pure effort and grit; yet such power had failed to work on their enemy. It didn’t even allow him to put up a proper fight, and he got pushed back one-sidedly.
In the end, he borrowed the power he had locked away. Perhaps he couldn’t call it ‘borrowed’ since the power was originally his, but he had tapped into the power he had tried not to use at all costs and achieved an overwhelming victory. Because it didn’t really feel like he had done the deed, though, he felt like he’d lost. Of course, he could say that was just how the circ.u.mstances were, but Chi-Woo couldn’t help but feel this way.
Philip wondered whether he should comfort Chi-Woo, scold him, or crack a joke to lighten up the mood. But in the end, he didn’t choose to do any of those.
—It’s not like I don’t know how you feel…but don’t make it so obvious.
He said with a sigh.
—You are the expedition team’s captain. Everyone already seems dejected. You can’t show this long face to them.
“…What?’ Chi-Woo asked.
—You…will know what I’m talking about once you see them.
Philip shrugged. Chi-Woo licked his lips and forcefully raised his head. This was no time for him to dwell on his feelings. The expedition wasn’t truly over, and they still had some things left to do.
“First of all…” Chi-Woo got up with a stagger and stopped because he saw something that looked like a white fuzzy peach curl up in the corner of the room. It was the baby fenrir. Seemingly having noticed Chi-Woo’s gaze, the baby Fenrir raised their head and stared at Chi-Woo.
“You…” Chi-Woo approached the baby fenrir and extended his hand, but then the fenrir immediately got up and bared their fangs. Their ears and tail were raised stiffly into the air, projecting a clear sense of wariness.
—It won’t be easy.
Philip let out a humorless laugh.
—They are solitary species by nature, and this one went through so much right after its birth…
Hearing this, Chi-Woo quietly dropped his arm back down.
***
Chi-Woo thought at most one or two days had pa.s.sed during his stay in the hospital, yet it had been four whole days since the expedition team returned to the outpost base. Evelyn jokingly told him that she would’ve started to worry a bit if he hadn’t woken up today, either. And thus, the expedition team gathered in a restaurant to have a meal and discuss. Chi-Woo was stunned to see the expression on everyone’s faces. As Philip said, the majority of them looked completely dispirited.
“Um…everyone, you’ve all done great work,” Chi-Woo smiled and tried to lift the mood.
“No,” Yeriel cut him off and said in a weak voice, “It was you who did the work.”
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Chi-Woo felt a bit taken aback by her response and tried to think of ways to lighten up everyone. “Haha. Now that I think about it, since it’s an expedition, we should divide the rewards—”
“It’s fine,” Emmanuel responded this time. “We know we are in no position to even ask for rewards...” Though he covered his face with interlocked fingers, the aura that oozed out of him was dark and gloomy. Chi-Woo wondered what was up with him. Even Yeriel didn’t look as depressed. But even more than Emmanuel, Ru Amuh was in the worst condition. His usually neat and clean-shaven face looked unkempt and haggard now.
“…Stop it.” Similarly, Apoline didn’t look good as she gritted her teeth and said, “We know…we also…” Rather than angry, she sounded mad at herself. Chi-Woo became speechless, and all he could do was blink a bunch of times.
“T-Then, should we order food first? I bet Chi-Woo is hungry,” Evelyn laughed and looked at him awkwardly. Getting her signal, Chi-Woo said that they should do that and quickly looked around. It was then he noticed something strange. The tavern that had been bustling with people before they left was quite empty. He didn’t see a single person besides them.
“What? Where is everyone else?”
“Do you even need to ask? They went to the Hala Forest.” Chi-Woo heard the answer from behind him.
“Everyone changed jobs to cleaners a couple of days ago, as if they had been waiting for the chance.” A freckled girl walked towards them while smirking. ‘Cleaners’ referred to latecomers going to dungeons that somebody else had found. These cleaners looked for anything that the expedition team might have missed and sc.r.a.ped off any valuables. Since Chi-Woo’s expedition team had removed the biggest dangers of the Hala Forest, they could clean up the remnants of the defeated enemy with relative safety now. But besides what this term meant, everyone looked at the freckled girl curiously. They all seemed to wonder who she was.
“Is this the time to try it out?” the freckled girl said expectantly with all the attention on her.
“What…?”
“Ah, you know, when somebody reveals who they are in a situation like this, and everyone goes “Wow!’ in surprise. I like things like that.” The freckled girl chuckled in glee, and Chi-Woo’s companions looked at her in bafflement. Chi-Woo quickly got to the point.
“This is the Last Dragon.”
“Wait—!” The dragon in the guise of a freckled girl quickly intervened, but it was too late. She complained to Chi-Woo for taking away the shock factor, but everyone was already shocked as it was. The Last Dragon was the central figure of the Ca.s.siubia League and was comparable to the legend, Chi-Hyun, in status.
“Why is the…Last Dragon…”
It seemed the Last Dragon was satisfied by their response and cleared her throat. “Hm. Well, I was requested to stay close by in case things went wrong. Of course, I no longer have to wait.” Then she flicked her finger at Chi-Woo. “But take this first.”
Chi-Woo was shocked to see something that looked like a black bowling ball pop out mid-air.
“It became complete because the guy you cut to pieces absorbed the queen and became the final king candidate. How could you forget the most important thing after doing all the work?”
Ah, it was the Core of Solitude.
“Oh, that’s right, you fainted at that time. You couldn’t have helped it then.”
Chi-Woo was about to thank her, but smiled bitterly in lieu of a response in the end. As usual, she spoke after reading her addressee’s mind.
“By the looks of it, you also got the Canine of the Mad Moon. And I gave you my breath that time. With this, I kept my promise.”
Chi-Woo frowned. He had the canine now, but he was supposed to get the breath after succeeding in conquering the Hala Forest.
“What? I gave it to you at that time.”
Chi-Woo skeptically rummaged through his memories again, and his mouth gaped open. He recalled the time the freckled girl walked up to him and blew into his face. That was it? But that didn’t seem right.
“If you don’t believe me, why don’t you go ask?”
Hearing this, Chi-Woo immediately visited La Bella for confirmation.
“…”
He chuckled in disbelief after the meeting. It was as the Last Dragon said. That was really the breath. Then why had she talked about conditions and whatnot at that time—!
“Let’s skip over the menial details,” the Last Dragon clapped and changed the topic. Then she s.h.i.+fted her posture and expressed her thanks, “To be frank, I want to thank you all.” Chi-Woo lost his chance to complain because she suddenly became serious. “Thanks to you guys, we were able to overcome a great crisis. I’m genuinely grateful for that.”
For the first time ever, the Last Dragon spoke like an authoritative figure in a soft voice. Then, she was stunned to see the expedition team’s response. Rather than ignoring her, they avoided her eyes in shame and stared intently at the ground.
“…I am telling the truth, you guys. With this, I have something to say in the meeting with the elders. They won’t be able to say that humanity is useless. After all, you’ve managed to wipe out those who used to bother us…” Still, the expedition team didn’t respond, and the Last Dragon scratched her head, thinking this wasn’t the reaction she had expected.
“Of course, I don’t plan to express my thanks with only words,” she said in a slightly less confident tone. “We will have to repay you for all the work you guys have done. Let me see…” She rummaged through the air as if she was looking for something. Then she gave Chi-Woo a sidelong glance.
“What are you planning to do from now on?” she asked Chi-Woo.
“…We have to return home.” Chi-Woo opened his mouth for the first time since conversing with the Last Dragon.
“To holy city, Shalyh? Already?” The corners of the Last Dragon’s mouth rose. “Why don’t you take a look around since you came all the way here?”
“?”
“With all the hard work done, you guys need time to recharge. There are also some people I’d like to introduce to you all, and…oh, here it is.” Her hands stopped moving and made a gesture, like she was calling something to her. Then an item flew in the air in a set trajectory and landed on Chi-Woo’s hand.
‘It’s…a gem.” It was a bright red ruby that looked like it encapsulated the sunset. It was big enough to fill his palm and appeared quite pricey. This was good. Chi-Woo had been apologetic because it felt as if he had monopolized all the rewards, but he could sell this gem and share the money.
Yet the Last Dragon told him, “Just in case you don’t know, don’t even think about selling that in a store.”
‘It wasn’t for selling? Then for what?’ Chi-Woo thought, and the Last Dragon read him loud and clear.
Unbefitting of the freckled, country-girl appearance she had, the Last Dragon gave him a foreboding smile as she said, “You’ll know once you get there.”