The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C95
The entrance was reached quickly. One of the people standing there stopped me as I tried to enter abruptly without any climbing equipment or Sherpa.
“Are you trying to go like that?”
I couldn’t tell their nationality, but fortunately my translation item worked. Meanwhile, another person in the group chimed in:
“Leave him be. He looks like a hunter, he’ll manage fine on his own.”
“Even so, he’ll freeze to death going like that.”
The group members had differing opinions. I stood there, unable to ignore them or respond.
“Hey you, what’s your hunter rank?”
“I’m A-rank.”
Even with a mask on, saying I was an S-rank Asian hunter would narrow things down too quickly. But if I claimed too low a rank, I’d clearly receive these people’s concerns.
“An A-rank wouldn’t have any trouble with this. Just worry about yourself.”
The man advised his companion who had first stopped me, then said to me:
“Still, take this coat at least. The cold shouldn’t be underestimated.”
“Tsk, why give things away to outsiders.”
“I’m afraid of bodies rolling down. You talk a lot for someone not spending their own money.”
The man waved the coat at me, urging me to take it quickly. After hesitating, I finally accepted it saying “Thank you,” and the man laughed heartily.
“How did someone so timid think of coming here alone?”
“He’s an A-rank hunter, remember? I said this guy didn’t know the ways of the world, but I didn’t expect to this extent.”
I quickly searched through my inventory. Though I had sorted out most items before coming, there was one useful thing.
“I’m sorry for only receiving. Please take this at least.”
What I handed over was a buff item, quite valuable as it was A-rank. They might accept it without hesitation now, but it would fetch a good price if sold.
“Why give such a thing? Oh, I saw another hunter going up alone earlier. Maybe you can travel together. Unlike you, they seemed well-prepared?”
“I’ll try that, thank you.”
Though I answered that way, I had no intention of traveling with anyone. However, when I met that person less than 10 minutes after starting my climb, my mind changed.
After walking alone for a while, I found a man in his 30s lying unconscious at the first base camp. Recalling what the people at the entrance said, this seemed to be the hunter who started climbing alone.
The problem was that he looked like he might die if left alone, making it difficult to just pass by. His sprawled posture despite having plenty of cold weather gear and luggage made it seem even more so.
“Are you alright?”
I eventually approached the man and gently shook him awake. His face was covered in tears.
“Who are you?”
“I’m just passing by, but it’s dangerous to stay here like this. You should go back down instead.”
Seeing someone exposed to danger, my urge to flee quickly subsided and a desire to help arose.
“I’m a hunter, so I won’t die from something like this.”
Life gradually returned to the man’s previously empty eyes. Then, as if the remaining tear stains were a lie, his face became clear. I looked the man up and down. Though I couldn’t perfectly gauge his strength just by looking, I could estimate his general level of power. This person wasn’t strong enough to overcome all natural disasters or unexpected situations. That meant there was every possibility he could get hurt if left alone.
But he doesn’t seem like he’d easily give up his stubbornness.
I secretly sighed inside and approached the man.
“I’m a hunter too, but I’m scared to go alone now that I’m here. Would it be okay if I accompany you?”
“You should have prepared your equipment properly then.”
The man clicked his tongue as if he’d seen the most pathetic person. I felt indignant – who was he to say that when he was just lying there unconscious? But I held back, thinking that arguing would undo my careful persuasion.
The companionship that started this way was more comfortable than I expected. Unlike his sprawled appearance earlier, he was a sharp person.
“By the way, why did you come here?”
“I ended up here somehow. I guess I remembered a beautiful sunrise I saw recently.”
“What sunrise could be so amazing to come all the way here? You could just go to a local mountain.”
Unable to truthfully say I was running away, I just laughed. I was curious how Seo-heon and Lee-han were doing, but I had no phone. Thinking about it, this seemed better. If I kept hearing news, I might dash out of here and go back.
“What are you thinking so deeply about? Young people are so empty-headed.”
I couldn’t help but smile at those words from someone who probably wasn’t much older than me.
“Then why did you come here, Mr. Hunter?”
“Don’t call me Mr. Hunter, it’s embarrassing. Call me K. It’s the first letter of my name.”
Seeing that he didn’t reveal his full name, I thought maybe he was being chased like me, but shook my head. Many hunters used code names after all.
“Okay, Mr. K.”
Mr. K looked at the sky, then down at the ground, and let out a deep sigh. He opened his mouth only after countless breaths of cold air had passed:
“It’s a farewell trip.”
I instinctively sensed it. The light conversation was crossing into an excessively personal area.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that. Rather, I feel like talking a bit. Would you mind listening if that’s okay?”
“Sure. Please say as much as you’d like.”
Listening wasn’t difficult. I had no intention of forcibly prying into someone else’s story, but there was no reason to refuse a man asking to listen as if grasping at straws.
“I say farewell, but we didn’t break up – it’s a bereavement. My partner died six months ago.”
Mr. K spoke as if it was no big deal, but I saw an overlap with him lying on the ground in tears earlier. I had no idea how to respond. It was too serious an issue to comfort with simple words, but his pain seemed too great to ignore. In the meantime, K spoke again:
“They say the living should live, so for three months after it happened, I just tried to live as usual. I decided to think of it as a temporary separation.”
“I see.”
“But then I found a note they had given me in my coat pocket. It was nothing special. Just ordinary words saying to stay strong today, but at that moment I couldn’t hold back anymore. After that, I lived like a wreck. Then, hearing people around me say I’d follow them at this rate, I came to my senses and decided to go on a trip while I was at it.”
Mr. K’s face contorted. Though he tried to close the lid on his emotions, his overflowing sorrow reached even me.
“So I came to a place they once said they’d like to visit. I thought I had prepared thoroughly and steeled my heart, but with each step I took, they kept coming to mind.”
He stopped walking and spoke. His eyes, looking at the sky, were moving busily as if counting something.
“But no matter how much I walked, I was alone. No matter how much I thought about them, the fact that I couldn’t see them became too real. When I looked back and saw only my footprints, it felt miserable.”
“Is that why you were lying there?”
K nodded.
“I sat down thinking I’d rest for a bit, but sitting there made me think of them again, feel sorry for things I couldn’t do, and resent why they left first.”
Six months.
Too long to call it just half a year, yet far too short a time to forget a person.
“How did it…”
I stopped myself mid-sentence. It could be a hurtful thing to say to Mr. K. However, K started walking again.
“An accident happened while I was out on a dungeon conquest. If I had been outside, I would have tried to find a healer no matter the cost, but the timing was bad. Of course, it might not have made much difference even if I was there.”
I understood his guilt. In the face of any farewell, it’s natural to think “What if I had done this differently then?”
“If… you could have saved them by using half your life force, would you have done it?”
Mr. K laughed loudly as if it was absurd.
“You call that a question? Even if I could give them 3 years of life by taking 30 years off mine, I’d do it. I realize that now after losing them.”
“You must have loved them a lot.”
“I loved them ordinarily.”
The word “ordinary” struck me. I had thought it was abnormal for Seo-heon to try to save me by giving his life force. It was probably because I couldn’t believe his feelings. But hearing this person say “I loved them ordinarily,” my throat choked up.
“Don’t you have someone you love?”
“I did.”
“Then, someone you loved enough to die for?”
“I did.”
“Then why ask such a question? From your use of past tense, does it all seem trivial now?”
K made an accurate observation.
“I’m not afraid to die for that person, but I didn’t want them to risk their life for me.”
“That’s selfish.”
“I’m doing it out of love, but they’re just obsessed. They’ll probably regret it later.”
“Unless you’re that person, you can’t know that.”