UDLR 03

Chapter : 03

The Moment It’s Needed Most

Bang, bang, bang—

Na-hyun flinched at the sound of knocking on the door. It wasn’t a very loud or hard knock, but the old house always accompanied even small impacts with big sounds.

The wallpaper was worn and peeling in places, and the LED light on the ceiling was stained yellow with years of accumulated dust. It was definitely an old, worn-down home.

Having finished changing out of her school uniform into comfortable clothes, Na-hyun cautiously walked toward the entrance of the two-room house.

And then…

“…Who is it?”

“Ah! Na-hyun, you’re back from school? Could I talk to you for a moment?”

A deep voice resounded from beyond the door. It was the landlord of the two-story detached house where Na-hyun lived.

His name was Kim Kang-baek.

Word was that he used to work as a day-labor foreman before hitting a big sum of money and retiring to live comfortably doing light work.

Renting out rooms in this detached house was just a side income.

Perhaps because he had worked in construction, he had a rough personality and spoke bluntly, but he wasn’t a bad person by nature.

After all, even though her rent was already three months overdue, he had been waiting patiently.

However, it seemed he had reached his limit now.

“Could you open the door? It’s just that the rent is getting too far behind. I know your situation and I’ve been trying to be lenient, but isn’t this a bit too much?”

“Ah. Just a moment…”

He was, after all, her landlord. On top of that, since he was bringing up the rent, keeping him standing outside didn’t look right. It wasn’t polite to an adult, either.

Creeeak—

When she opened the door, a muscular man with a tough-looking impression was standing there. Leaning against the railing, the man checked to see Na-hyun, put out the cigarette he was smoking, and threw the butt into the yard.

And then…

“Look, I really didn’t want to bring this up, but you know my situation, right? I can’t keep giving only you special treatment. The other tenants are talking. People are even spreading weird rumors that I’m favoring only you! Ah, damn it. I need to clear the air sooner or later. Anyway, don’t misunderstand me. You get what I’m saying, right?”

“Ah, of course! Naturally…”

At Kim Kang-baek’s words, Na-hyun shrank back.

She knew.

She knew how other people were kicked out when their rent fell behind.

They were mercilessly thrown out, without exception.

Kim Kang-baek was not the type of person to let overdue rent slide.

That made her feel all the more apologetic.

Because he had set aside his usual harsh demeanor for her and waited several months.

However, being grateful was one thing, and being out of money was another.

“Could you please give me just a little more time?”

“Hmm. How long? No, instead of that, can’t you try contacting your relatives?”

“My relatives are… well, they don’t answer my calls anymore anyway. It’s been a long time.”

“Sigh, damn it. Still, how can grown-ups act like that? No matter what, you’re blood. Dammit, the world really is too tough to live in.”

Knowing that his swearing came from a place of worrying about her, Na-hyun gave an awkward nod.

And after exchanging a few more words like that:

“Phew. Anyway, I’m asking you, Na-hyun. Got it?”

“Yes! Have a good day!”

“Ah. Also, I heard there are a lot of perverts roaming around this area lately, so be careful. If anything happens, call me right away. Fuck, I’ll run over and give ’em a dropkick! BAM! You know what I mean?”

“Yes! I definitely will! Hehe! Thank you!”

“Anyway, study hard.”

Kim Kang-baek shrugged his shoulders and walked down the stairs with a swaggering stride.

Na-hyun watched him leave for a long time before letting out a sigh and locking the door.

Walking into the narrow living room and sitting on the sofa, she felt all the strength leave her body.

Kim Kang-baek had given her a few days, but she was still completely lost.

It was a situation with no clear answer.

“…How did things turn out like this?”

Life felt overwhelming.

At school, her homeroom teacher was pressuring her about the school trip fee, and when she returned home, her mind was weighed down by the rent.

‘I shouldn’t have lent that money.’

Na-hyun bit her lower lip tightly.

In truth, things hadn’t been this difficult from the very beginning.

The problem started four months ago with a phone call from a relative.

Her eldest aunt.

After her father went missing and her mother passed away, she was one of the few kind people who helped her during the funeral.

In her childhood memories, her eldest aunt was a gentle, kind, true adult.

Though they hadn’t been in touch even once after the funeral, Na-hyun assumed she had her own circumstances. She never held a grudge against her. She was always grateful to her for helping clean up after her mother’s accident.

However, that eldest aunt had called her, saying she needed money.

She said something urgent had come up and she had no one else to call, so she reached out to her.

“…Haa.”

Na-hyun couldn’t bring herself to refuse that voice crying and begging over the phone.

So, fully believing her promise that she would pay it back next month, Na-hyun sent all the money she had.

Believing her words that she needed every single penny.

That money was 7 million won.

It was money she had painstakingly saved by working part-time jobs during every school break. Living frugally, holding back everything she wanted to eat or buy, she had scraped together that living allowance.

It was always like that. For Na-hyun, summer and winter breaks were not vacations, but preparation times to survive the coming year.

It was indispensable money.

Yet, the eldest aunt who borrowed the money completely cut off contact ever since.

That was the current situation.

“What should I really do?”

In truth, the answer was already set.

Even if she gave up on the school trip, she had to pay the rent. Even now, while Kim Kang-baek was showing her consideration for a few days.

With cautious hands, Na-hyun fumbled through her pocket and pulled out a business card.

<Daeheung Errand Center – Director Jeong Mu-won>

Her first impression of him was that he was a man emanating a fiercely violent aura that was terrifying. It was a dense bloodlust so palpable that even a normal person like her could feel it clearly.

He was no ordinary person.

Operating an errand agency was already far from ordinary, but he was a middle-aged man who exuded a far more dangerous stench.

The kind of person you wouldn’t want to get involved with if you could help it.

However…

“How can a person live only doing what they want to do?”

It will be okay.

For now, she wanted to believe that.

On her way home from school on the bus, she had searched the internet and looked around online communities.

About magic ingredients.

About what bad issues might arise if a normal person’s hair was sold as a magic ingredient.

To put it briefly, in the case of a normal person who wasn’t a Hunter, there was no big issue.

Of course, if one were a Hunter, the story was different.

If a Hunter sold their hair as a magic ingredient, they would experience mana dehydration lasting from two days to a week at most.

Naturally, normal people were fine. They hadn’t made a contract with the White Night Tower, after all.

“…S-Should I try it just once?”

After agonizing over it for a long time, Na-hyun finally pulled out her smartphone and dialed the number.

Ring— Ring—

The dial tone felt louder than usual.

And after a brief moment passed:

• Yes. Daeheung Errand Center, Director Jeong Mu-won speaking.

  A cool voice echoed through the receiver.

  A low, deep voice.

  It was definitely the voice of that middle-aged man she met on the street back then. The one with the skull tattoo on his neck.

  “Um, I’m the student you met on the street. The one you asked if I was interested in selling magic ingredients…”

• Ah. Is it that student?

  “Yes. By any chance, if I sell more hair, can I get that much more money?”

  Na-hyun cautiously asked, fiddling with her long, straight hair.

  She didn’t feel comfortable making a deal twice.

  Since she had decided to cross the line anyway, she wanted to finish everything in this single transaction. To do that, she had to secure as much money as possible.

  At the very least, she wanted to make back the 7 million won her eldest aunt had borrowed from her.

  However, the response that came back was…

• Hmm. That has become a bit difficult.

  For reasons unknown, his voice sounded noticeably cautious.

  He was even using formal honorifics.

  It was surely just her imagination, but she could even feel tension coming from the person beyond the receiver.

  And then:

• Just to be clear, it’s not that I dislike the trade. From my perspective, it’s something to welcome. Hair holding pure mana like yours, Student Na-hyun, is extraordinarily rare. Even more so given that you are a normal person, not a Hunter.

  “Eek! But does that mean we can’t trade? Was I too late in contacting you? I needed some time to think…”

• It’s a misunderstanding.

  “A misunderstanding?”

• Today, I felt a certain ‘gaze’ in the Outer Layer. It was the gaze of something truly absurd… Hmm. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure it out. Did I do something worthy of attracting the gaze of such a being?

  “…The Outer Layer?”

  Na-hyun knew about it too. Nowadays, topics regarding the Tower, Hunters, and the Mysteries were legally mandated to be taught in the school curriculum.

  There were even separate subjects dedicated to them: White Night Tower, Mysticism, Thaumaturgy, and other specialized Hunter-related courses.

  For reference, the Outer Layer was a place dangerous enough to be counted on one hand. Though the level of danger varied depending on the outer layer, most were designated as forbidden zones.

• I feel terrible since I was the one who brought it up first, but I believe we must call off the deal. No matter how much I reflect, I have no memory of doing anything recently to draw the gaze of such a thing. If there were anything, it would be proposing the trade to Student Na-hyun… Hmm. Well, it’s just a guess, so I know this might be an overreaction. At any rate, I am sorry, Student Na-hyun.

  “What? W-Wait a moment!”

• Mm. It’s hardly a proper substitute, but if something happens that you find difficult to resolve on your own, please contact me. Since I feel apologetic toward Student Na-hyun, I will help you once without taking an assignment fee. Well then.

  The call ended just like that.

  Dejected, Na-hyun dropped her smartphone and leaned back on the sofa as if collapsing onto it.

  “…Figures. Has anything ever gone smoothly for me?”

  Na-hyun bit her lower lip tightly and stared up at the ceiling.

  It was always like this.

  To the point where she wondered if life had ever been easy, whenever things seemed to be going well, they would get twisted somewhere.

  Ever since her father went missing.

  In fact, she felt that maybe since then, her life had been cursed.

  No—she even thought that she was the one who made her father turn out like that in the first place.

  Ever since she was little, Na-hyun had uniquely poor health.

  She was congenitally unhealthy.

  The reason her father went out to dangerous sites, risking his life to run around, was all to build up achievements and have his contributions recognized so he could request compensation from the Management Bureau.

  He wanted to obtain a special medicinal herb that would restore the health of his frail daughter.

  The result of that was his disappearance.

  Her mother, left behind all alone, struggled bitterly until she passed away as well.

  “Would things have been a bit different if Uncle were here?”

  Na-hyun let out a bitter smile, pulled out a photo from her wallet, and stared at it blankly.

  The black-haired man in the photograph.

  Even though he must have been well over thirty at the time, the man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, was captured in the photo looking bothered.

  Na-hyun stared at Do Min-hyuk in the photograph for a long time.

  And then…

  “…Uncle. I really miss you.”

  Leaving those words as her last, Na-hyun closed her eyes. Perhaps because she had worried too much, her body felt pleasantly languid and drained.

“Hmm. Did she live in a place like this?”

Stepping out of the taxi, Do Min-hyuk let out a low chuckle. The hill was excessively steep—so steep that he almost felt sorry for the taxi driver.

It was a place where buses didn’t even run. It was a rugged, steep hill where one had to walk down to the middle of the slope just to catch a bus.

It wasn’t a good place for a high school girl to live. If she were walking home late at night after studying, it was bound to be even more dangerous.

“I should have returned a little sooner.”

If he had known Na-hyun was living like this after losing his brother and sister-in-law, he would have wrapped up Ignorheim and returned to the modern world much sooner.

If only he had known she was living like this.

Of course, he knew this wasn’t his fault.

Yet, even so…

『…Uncle, if other kids bully Na-hyun, will you protect me?』

It was an old memory.

Yet it came back to him crystal clear.

It was a question she suddenly asked after he calmed her down when she was startled by a stray dog while riding piggyback during a walk.

To which Do Min-hyuk naturally replied:

『Why ask something so obvious? Of course your uncle will protect you. Just trust your uncle.』

『Waaah! Really?』

『Yeah. Na-hyun just needs to trust her uncle. Got it? I’ll definitely be by your side when you need me most.』

He had definitely said that back then.

That he would protect her.

That she only needed to trust her uncle.

He couldn’t be by her side during the moment she needed him most, but he wanted to keep that promise now, even if it was late.

A normal, everyday life in the modern world was the kind of life Do Min-hyuk had always longed for.

And having his niece, Na-hyun, together in that life…

‘ …Wouldn’t be too bad.’

Sorting out his thoughts, Do Min-hyuk let out a slight smirk and set off. Toward the old detached house.

A narrow single lane flanked by concrete walls on both sides.

Beyond the alley was a terrain containing nothing but the single detached house where Na-hyun lived.

However, at that moment…

“Gah! You scared me! What are you, creeping around without a sound? Hm. But who are you to be loitering in front of my house?”

Far off in the yard of the detached house, a tough-looking man could be seen frowning.

The alley was a single-lane road, so it wasn’t surprising for the man to have such a misunderstanding. After all, there was nothing at the end of this road except his house.

Before Min-hyuk could say anything, though:

“Huh? Wait a second. You look like a college student, but a grown man holding a rabbit doll? I heard rumors that the local pervert carries a doll around… Was that a rabbit doll?”

The man examined Min-hyuk closely, then gasped in shock and picked up a baseball bat that was leaning against the wall. Judging by how firmly he held the grip, it didn’t look like his first time swinging it.

“What are you? Are you really a pervert? You look way too handsome to be a pervert though…”

Tsking his tongue, the man stayed on guard.

It didn’t make him feel bad.

Rather, it felt like a pleasant, refreshing experience.

It was a situation he had never experienced in Ignorheim. Over there, people were always intimidated by him, wary of him, drawing an invisible line that they never crossed.

To them, he was a special existence.

However, to that man…

“Did you just laugh? This wet-behind-the-ears kid… Hahaha, what do you take an adult for?”

Thinking he was being looked down upon, the man let out a dry laugh and spat on his hands.

‘…Other people reacting like this isn’t so bad either.’

Do Min-hyuk thought to himself once more as he looked at the man.

Indeed, coming back to the modern world was the right choice.

For the first time in a very long while, he felt as if he had returned to being an ordinary human being.

This was the kind of life he had longed for all this time.

Not an transcendent being known as the Black Calamity, the Disaster of Disasters.

Just a normal, everyday human life.

It was the ordinary life Do Min-hyuk had missed for so many years.