Chapter 8
After the dungeon incident, I began to have one fundamental question.
……
It was simple.
Has all of my power really disappeared?
Something doesn’t feel right.
I hadn’t thought too deeply about it at the time.
I had simply assumed that being able to temporarily summon a Halloween Knight inside the dungeon, and being able to use that one undead to instantly defeat Devourers, Revenants, and Skeleton Archers, was all thanks to my own abilities.
It wasn’t exactly an unreasonable thought.
After all, my skill as a Necromancer had genuinely been extraordinary.
However, looking back on it now, there was still something suspicious about the whole situation.
No matter how amazing I was, could a mere beginner Necromancer really accomplish all that with just a handful of death energy?
The issue wasn’t skill.
It was resources.
If I thought about it rationally, it made more sense to assume that some other factor had been involved.
And so, I came up with a hypothesis.
“What if my power didn’t actually disappear?”
What if it was simply in a state where I couldn’t perceive or use it?
……
For example, suppose there was a canvas completely covered in white paint, and that white paint represented my power.
Then imagine that the entire thing had been painted over with black paint, making the original white impossible to see or perceive.
I believed something similar had happened to me.
Of course, it could simply be speculation.
But I didn’t think it was completely impossible.
In the first place, it would be stranger for that much power to simply vanish without a trace.
That was the part I had never been able to accept.
Regardless of the reason, could such an enormous amount of power really be completely erased in an instant?
Absolutely not.
If so, then perhaps some kind of trick or loophole had been applied.
Once I took my thoughts that far, reaching a conclusion was easy.
……It makes sense.
Wrapped tightly in my blanket, I nodded.
I’d come up with the idea while suffering from the emptiness of failing my promotion match, but it was a hypothesis I could accept well enough.
And once I’d realized it, what I needed to do was simple.
Roll.
“So what? Nothing changes in the end.”
Even if my power hadn’t disappeared, it meant nothing if I couldn’t find a way to remove whatever had been painted over it.
With a gloomy expression, I turned my computer back on.
Click.
Whirrrrr.
But……
There was one thing I had become certain of.
If I ever awaken.
Then I would probably be able to perceive at least the original form hidden beneath that layer of paint.
“Great work today!”
“You’re seriously amazing. This is the first time I’ve cleared one so comfortably.”
“Hehe. It’s nothing.”
Baek Eun-ha’s online disciple, Song Ha-yeon, had recently begun gaining quite a bit of fame.
Murmur. Murmur.
“That’s her.”
“Wow, she cleared another one in four hours?”
“At this rate, she’ll be entering B-rank dungeons soon……”
Only three months had passed since she’d lost her apprentice designation, yet she was already C-rank.
There were even widespread rumors that although she lacked sufficient achievements, the Association had already tentatively classified her as B-rank.
Furthermore, she was a rare type of Awakener in Korea—a practitioner of necromancy.
Naturally, the attention surrounding her was even greater.
[C-Rank Hunter Song Ha-yeon! Surpasses 50 Dungeon Clears!]
[Terrifying Growth Rate—Something Is Definitely Going On.]
[How Does She Compare to Current S-Rank Hunters During Their Low-Rank Days?]
Some impatient experts had already gone so far as to confidently declare that she would eventually surpass A-rank and reach S-rank.
Even so, I think that’s an overestimation……
Honestly, Song Ha-yeon herself was simply bewildered by all the attention.
It was difficult for her to believe that she genuinely possessed the genius or talent everyone talked about.
It’s all thanks to him.
The teachings of Hell Lord 12 were truly astonishing.
Now that quite some time had passed since she’d first asked him to teach her, she could vaguely understand just how extraordinary his position was.
He must have truly absurd abilities.
The more she learned about necromancy, the more certain she became that he was an existence far beyond her imagination.
To be honest, Song Ha-yeon was now convinced.
She knew the identity of Hell Lord 12.
“S-rank Hunter. Helena.”
The woman whose name came from Hel, the goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology, was probably Hell Lord 12.
Someone with this level of necromantic ability has to be her.
That was why Song Ha-yeon couldn’t help being genuinely flustered.
Ba-ba-ba-bam!
[Helena has donated 80,000,000 won!]
“Wow! Thank you so mu—huh?”
It happened during a broadcast she held the following day as a break.
A person who appeared to be her suddenly showed up.
“Uhh? Wait, how much is this……? No, more importantly, are you really that person?”
At first, it was difficult to believe.
But while Song Ha-yeon was struggling to process what had happened, viewers who had already verified the account began telling her that it really was Helena herself.
And Helena spoke to the thoroughly bewildered Song Ha-yeon.
—I’m interested. In you.
“Huh?”
—I’ll be visiting Korea next week. Would you be willing to meet me?
Just like that, a massive bombshell was about to explode.
“……A party?”
“Yeah. It might be a little different, but it wouldn’t be wrong to call it that.”
Apparently, an event attended by influential figures from several countries was going to be held in Korea.
“You’re going too?”
“I didn’t really want to leave the house at a time like this, but they specifically asked me to come……”
“……”
Apparently, another trial was about to come my way.
It was the middle of summer, so I already had to take out the food waste frequently.
My future suddenly looked bleak.
Perhaps she noticed my dark expression, because Seo-ha hurriedly thought about something before speaking.
“Ah, then how about you come with me, Oppa?”
“……Me?”
That was absolutely impossible.
If I went somewhere crowded with so many people, I would undoubtedly be unable to withstand the pressure and my mind would break down.
“You can just rest in the hotel, Oppa. Wouldn’t that be okay?”
“Hotel……”
When I thought about it that way, it didn’t sound too bad.
A leisurely life, enjoying the air conditioning in a luxury hotel.
As long as I had a computer and smartphone, it would probably be more comfortable than I could imagine.
“……Should I go?”
“Yeah! I’ll take care of you, so let’s go together.”
Seo-ha answered with an excited expression, as though she hadn’t expected me to accept.
And so, after quite a long time, I finally left the house.
Dragged along by Seo-ha’s hand.
Murmur. Murmur.
“Why are we suddenly coming somewhere like this……”
“Even if you’re not participating in the event, you can’t exactly dress like an unemployed shut-in like you normally do, can you?”
Thankfully, it wasn’t a department store.
I’d sensed what she was planning and rejected that idea with my entire body.
But even a clothing store in a busy district naturally had plenty of people.
So I had no choice but to bury my face against Seo-ha’s shoulder as I walked.
Surely the fact that she seemed to be in such a good mood was just my imagination, right?
“We won’t stay unnecessarily long, so let’s just quickly buy what we need and leave. That should be okay, right?”
“……I’m not wearing anything too flashy.”
Without even lifting my face, I picked out clothes and ignored the sales clerk’s explanations, mindlessly trying on whatever clothes Seo-ha handed me.
The shopping trip ended in less than forty minutes.
I wondered if I’d been too unresponsive and looked at Seo-ha apologetically, but apparently, she was satisfied enough even with that.
“Oh, I can see the car over there.”
Seo-ha said she had something to take care of for a moment, so I went into the car and decided to rest.
No matter what, she was still far too overprotective.
Feeling a little dissatisfied, I turned on my smartphone.
Ding.
[JP: Look at this. Doesn’t it look delicious?]
A notification had arrived on the messenger at just the right moment.
In truth, the only people whose contact information I had were Seo-ha and some people from the hospital.
But I did have an Internet friend.
I clicked on the message and saw an extremely luxurious parfait.
It was the sort of food bragging friends commonly did with each other.
Tap. Tap-tap.
As I typed out a half-hearted reply, I happened to notice an ice cream shop in the corner of my vision.
……
I did feel like eating something sweet.
After thinking about it for a moment, I opened the car door, pulled my hat firmly down over my head, and headed toward the ice cream shop.
I intended to buy one for myself and another for Seo-ha, who had worked so hard.
I can at least do that without any trouble.
My condition was partly my own fault, but my little sister worried far too much.
I walked in confidently and placed my order.
“P-Pistachio and, um…… one strawberry, please……”
“Ah, yes! Your order is confirmed.”
The fact that the clerk seemed to suppress a small laugh was surely just my imagination.
Afterward, I walked back toward the car, completely exhausted.
But because my hat obstructed my vision, I lightly bumped into a passerby.
“Ugh.”
It wasn’t a particularly strong collision, but while trying to regain my balance, I accidentally dropped the ice cream I was holding in my right hand.
My pistachio!
At that exact moment, a fair, delicate hand shot out and caught the ice cream while simultaneously supporting me.
“Are you all right?”
When I fell silent at the sudden foreign language, the woman changed languages and spoke to me again.
“Your appearance is rather unusual, so I was wondering. Are you Korean?”
“……Yes.”
Blue-tinted green hair.
Eyes of a similar color.
I met the gaze of a woman with a youthful yet sophisticated beauty and instinctively sensed it.
This woman is dangerous.
She’s different.
As I’d said before, I couldn’t sense death energy or anything similar in my current state.
But regardless of that, there were certain things that could be recognized at a glance simply by looking at someone.
This was one of those cases.
From the woman standing before me, I could sense the lingering traces of lost souls.
And they were incredibly strong.
