The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C74
$74
‘It’s hiding because it knows I’ll kill it if it reveals itself. How cunning and meticulous of the species.’
Seo-heon quickly thought of a way to catch the succubus and escape the dream. He needed to find the incongruous parts within the dream. Succubi usually transformed into humans or objects related to him.
Seo-heon rather wished for the dream to progress quickly.
[I am the succubus who governs memories.]
A soft voice resonated in Seo-heon’s head. The honey-sweet voice didn’t stir any emotion in him.
[Noble succubi and above all share dreams. Among the memories I’ve shared, there’s one that suits you perfectly.]
Seo-heon, who had been calm until now, frowned. He was surprised that noble succubi shared memories, but he also had a bad feeling.
[It’s the memory of someone who thinks of you very desperately. I hope you have an interesting dream.]
What unfolded in the empty space was the familiar front of Seo-heon’s house. Unlike Woo-hyun, who had been completely entranced with his skills turned off and defenseless, Seo-heon clearly grasped the situation from the start.
‘Do they think they can shake me with this?’
Seo-heon sneered. It was hard to think that he would break down mentally and suffer just because they showed him the past with Woo-hyun, as the succubus said. He was confident he wouldn’t lose his mind in any hallucination.
However, contrary to his expectations, what appeared before him wasn’t Seo-heon’s past.
‘Woo-hyun?’
There was nothing strange about Woo-hyun standing in front of Seo-heon’s house. However, the sight of people lined up watching like spectators and hunters in military uniforms surrounding him was not a scene Seo-heon knew.
[We heard you awakened as S-rank.]
The soldier at the forefront spoke to Woo-hyun. Woo-hyun, looking dazed, nodded obediently.
[You won’t have anywhere to take you in anyway, so how about coming with us?]
Woo-hyun slowly raised his face. His eyes were lifeless. Seo-heon instantly grasped what he was seeing. This was Woo-hyun’s appearance just before leaving Seo-heon’s side.
[Me… in the military?]
Seo-heon thought Woo-hyun would immediately agree, wanting to avoid the hellish situation. However, Woo-hyun showed a moment of hesitation. Seo-heon, knowing what decision Woo-hyun would ultimately make, found himself hoping he would refuse.
[Were you thinking of living comfortably in such a nice house when your family committed such a big crime? You should prove your repentance through community service at least.]
The soldier pressuring Woo-hyun was disgusting.
‘What community service? It’s just a place that uses kids as means to build their own power. They mainly take children thrown into society who need help, train them as hunters, and make them obey.’
In fact, even calling it a military was too generous.
[I… need time to think…]
[Are you planning to make all these people wait? If you just say yes, we’ll handle all the procedures, so don’t make yourself suffer unnecessarily and come along.]
It was like human trafficking, but at a thug-like level. It would have been good if there was a trustworthy adult nearby. But the spectators around were busy making a fuss among themselves and pointing fingers at Woo-hyun.
‘Refuse, Baek Woo-hyun.’
When Seo-heon heard that Woo-hyun had joined the Hunter Army without saying a word to him, he experienced a great anger like hellfire for the first time in his life.
‘Why didn’t you trust me more?’
He should have felt betrayed at the moment his efforts crumbled. He thought Woo-hyun’s inability to care for himself was lovable, but he hated it just as much. The fiery emotions that only Woo-hyun could provoke were sometimes so intense they were painful.
‘You like me.’
Yet he couldn’t understand Woo-hyun thinking of leaving his side. In the end, he had to suppress the desire to criticize, asking if that was all his love amounted to.
Watching this scene, those emotions resurfaced as if they had never disappeared.
Woo-hyun’s face as he followed the Hunter Army was incredibly dark. If only he hadn’t been so busy at the time, he wouldn’t have let him go like this. It was something he still regretted thinking about now. Seo-heon thought that if he were given a chance to go back to the past, he would choose that moment.
The scene before his eyes quickly moved to the next. He knew he should find the succubus, but he couldn’t overcome the desire to see with his own eyes what Woo-hyun had gone through. He didn’t realize he was gradually falling into the succubus’s trap.
‘Let’s watch a little more.’
Woo-hyun never complained about his painful past. Therefore, all Seo-heon knew about what Woo-hyun had experienced was from articles or written documents.
The Hunter Army was indeed harsh. No, it was even harsher than Seo-heon had thought. While everyone else was terrified by the oppressive atmosphere, only Woo-hyun seemed calm. He even looked much more comfortable than when he was taken away.
One day they would treat him kindly, and the next day they would rage like madmen. Only Woo-hyun seemed to adapt well among these crazy people. For a moment, Seo-heon even doubted if he might be enjoying such a situation.
‘For this… Did you leave my side just to receive such treatment?’
Seo-heon gritted his teeth again. Woo-hyun’s days repeated a painful routine. He would wake up at five in the morning, eat food so meager it was hard to tell if it was a meal or a snack, and then train. Getting punished or experiencing violence during this was the norm. In the remaining time, he would either explore dungeons or deal with criminals on business trips that happened more than three times a week. It was a workload bordering on abuse.
On days when he failed even slightly in his work, he had to enter the punishment room. Woo-hyun often pretended to have committed others’ mistakes and took punishments in their stead. His targets were usually newcomers or young children.
‘He was just a kid himself.’
The impact of actually seeing it was different from just reading reports. Woo-hyun struggled especially more when dealing with criminals than when conquering dungeons. It was painful for him to use his power against humans.
Moreover, the Hunter Army aimed to make young children feel guilty and then train them to rationalize it, so they didn’t even tell them the crimes of the criminals. Woo-hyun, being kind-hearted by nature, couldn’t help but suffer more.
‘I should have finished those people off more thoroughly.’
Seo-heon had consistently worked to round up the Hunter Army, and he thoroughly tormented those who came out of prison to make their lives miserable. It was also the power he had cultivated for that purpose. However, watching this, he couldn’t help but think his revenge had been insufficient.
Nevertheless, Woo-hyun endured well. Rather, it was Seo-heon who couldn’t contain his rising anger.
‘There’s no point in getting angry over something that’s already passed.’
Instead of despairing, he decided that after rescuing Woo-hyun, he should squeeze more out of those who had tormented him and were still alive.
‘Let’s find the succubus and get out.’
[Should I tell you a more interesting story?]
The succubus, noticing that Seo-heon had changed his mind, hurriedly pulled out another memory.
It was a moment Seo-heon remembered clearly.
***
At that time, Woo-hyun had improved a lot in Seo-heon’s perception. He still seemed to have guilt about his father’s actions, but he wasn’t afraid to show his emotions to Seo-heon.
‘This should be okay…’
Seo-heon thought so too. Seeing Woo-hyun improve, he even started planning to change the method he had long planned to keep Woo-hyun by his side. It was a slightly more roundabout method, but he thought Woo-hyun would hold out until then.
[Baek Woo-hyun!]
Unfortunately, that was an illusion. Seo-heon despaired seeing Woo-hyun throw himself at a monster’s blade, supposedly to protect him.
‘You knew I wouldn’t die.’
If left alone, Seo-heon would have been slightly injured but not to the point of life-threatening. However, because Woo-hyun threw himself in, he sustained injuries that endangered his life.
‘Are you saying your life has no value? That it doesn’t matter if you die?’
Seo-heon realized that Woo-hyun’s fundamental problem of not valuing his own life had not been resolved. So he became impatient.
‘I need to return Woo-hyun to his original state as soon as possible.’
The fear that Woo-hyun might try to abandon him and die again if left like this consumed Seo-heon. So he decided to implement the plan he had put aside. Because the fastest way was ‘that’.
He was aware that their recovering relationship would become somewhat distant because of this. However, fear disguised as anger gradually ate away at Seo-heon’s reason and patience. He himself didn’t realize it, but that’s how it was.
‘I need to make Baek Woo-hyun want to live. To do that, I need to put everything back the way it was.’
Seo-heon became obsessed with this thought. He thought that if Woo-hyun knew the truth, he would regain hope for life and be happy.
‘But why are you dying now?’
He felt like he wanted to vomit blood.