EFME 103

The prophet, Valeria Serda, entered Korea. Because she entered as quietly as possible, almost no one knew the news of her arrival.

Sunyul came to meet Valeria, who had entered so secretly.

When he first heard about Valeria, he had vaguely imagined a mystical figure because she was a prophet. But the actual Valeria was a woman who wasn’t much different in age from Sunyul. Her tanned skin, toned body, short crop top, and the accessories she wore here and there were very impressive. Naturally, those accessories would all be items.

The Valeria he had seen in various media gave off a confident impression. But the Valeria standing in front of Sunyul right now looked incredibly intimidated.

“H-Hello, Mr. Lim Sunyul.”

Even though she clearly must know that Sunyul had the [Communication] skill, Valeria went out of her way to prepare Korean and spoke awkwardly.

“Uh, hello.”

“I’m sorry. I know you suffered because of me. I, I… sincerely apologize like this.”

Valeria suddenly knelt on her knees. Flustered, Sunyul waved his hands.

“You don’t need to do this.”

Sunyul felt uncomfortable around Valeria. Because it was true that Sunyul had suffered due to Valeria’s prophecy. Honestly speaking, he didn’t have good feelings toward her either. But he didn’t expect her to abruptly drop to her knees.

“If I could, I’d even bow my head to the ground. But I thought if I went that far, it would be too burdensome for you.”

Valeria spoke in her own country’s language. Just as Valeria said, if she had done such a thing, he might have run away right then and there.

“I have to apologize. Not just me, but everyone who hurt you should live the rest of their lives feeling sorry to you.”

“No, you don’t have to go that far…”

“We owe this world to you. It’s only natural that we should.”

Sunyul thought those words were excessive, but Valeria thought it was far from enough.

“I can’t express it all in words. I wanted to find a more proper expression, but my eloquence is lacking. But one thing is for certain.”

“…What is it?”

“I don’t believe in God, but if God sent a savior to the modern era, it would be you.”

Sunyul’s face turned so bright red that it couldn’t possibly get any redder.

“I-I get it, so stop.”

“I’m really sorry. Because I acted rashly, you went through such great hardships. You deserve to be praised by everyone.”

“Forget it… You were just telling the truth.”

“Really, you are an angel.”

“…”

Sunyul seriously debated whether it would be better to just shut his mouth and run away. Sunyul grabbed Valeria and pulled her up. Only then did Valeria stand up from her spot.

“Anyway, I will take responsibility. I’ll compensate you as much as possible.”

“It’s fine. Something like that…”

“Of course, you don’t particularly need my help. So for now, I prepared it with items. Items with high liquidity in cash…”

“No, it’s really fine.”

“The more money, the better, so please accept it.”

Words went back and forth for a moment between Sunyul saying he didn’t need it and Valeria telling him to take it. As a result, Sunyul decided to accept what Valeria gave. Once that was decided, Valeria smiled with a face that looked just a little bit lighter.

“You’re a really good kid. You’re extremely young, but your thoughts are mature.”

“…I’m not extremely young.”

“Didn’t you go missing at twenty? Or twenty-one?”

Since twenty-two was his age counted the Korean way, he was even younger by his international age. Although Korea had now switched to using international age, Sunyul preferred to be even a year older, so he went around claiming to be twenty-seven.

“Five years have passed. I’ve aged that much.”

“It doesn’t look that way. No matter how young Asians look, well… you look like you wouldn’t even be able to drink alcohol yet.”

“No, I can?”

“Alright.”

Valeria nodded helplessly. It was an appearance that would never have been easily convinced if she hadn’t felt guilty toward Sunyul. Sunyul pouted his lips.

“Excuse me.”

“Please call me Valeria.”

“Um… Valeria. Did you come here just to apologize?”

Valeria had expressed her desire to meet for quite a long time. However, when Valeria’s schedule worked, Sunyul couldn’t make it, and when Sunyul was available, Valeria couldn’t make it. Then, Valeria suddenly cleared her schedule and came to find him this time.

“Of course, the first reason I came here is to apologize. But there is a second reason as well. That is to warn you.”

“A warning?”

“You will fight with your comrades.”

Valeria spoke with a serious face. Sunyul blinked his eyes at the warning, which didn’t resonate with him at all.

“…Why would I?”

“I don’t know that. It’s a prophecy I saw two days ago. The content was, ‘Lim Sunyul will oppose his comrades.’ It was definitely a prophecy pointing toward the future.”

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Yeah.”

The prophecies Valeria saw about the future didn’t always come true. Sunyul thought this prophecy might be one of those cases, but just in case, he decided to remember it to prepare for a one-in-a-million chance.

Having finished her second business, Valeria bowed her head once more.

“I’m sorry once again. To make an excuse, I kept seeing things about the rift, so I was anxious.”

“Do you see it a lot?”

“Yes. Since I can see the past too, but what I see isn’t accurately distinguished into the past, present, and future. So I’m confused. Constantly receiving sentences that a massive rift will generate… should I say it’s scary. I don’t know if that really means just the past… or if it will happen again in the future.”

“That makes sense.”

Sunyul immediately felt bad for Valeria. Not many people firmly believed that a rift would occur again. Of course, there were quite a few people saying that they should prepare, but they wouldn’t be as anxious as Valeria, who saw prophecies about the rift from time to time.

“We must prepare for the rift. There are fools who believe that a second rift won’t ever happen… but there’s no harm in preparing, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Lim Sunyul, you keep it in mind too.”

“…You can just call me Sunyul, too.”

“Alright, Sunyul. Thank you.”

Valeria laughed as if happy while calling Sunyul’s name. Then, she left with a face that was considerably lighter than when she arrived.

Meeting Valeria made him a little tired. He must have been inwardly tense.

For peace of mind and body, Sunyul went to the lounge attached to the Guild Leader’s office and lay down, taking up a spot. Even though Muyoung was inside a dungeon and wasn’t there, he felt reassured by the feeling that this was Muyoung’s space.

While lying down and playing Malang Farm, he dozed off briefly, but woke up because a phone call came in.

—Is this Mr. Lim Sunyul?

What was heard across the receiver was a foreign language. Sunyul straightened his posture and replied.

“Yes, that’s right.”

—By any chance, are you together with Ms. Serda?

“No. What’s going on?”

—…Ms. Serda has disappeared. It seems she has been kidnapped.

“What?!”

Sunyul was startled, and his sleepiness vanished.

—Could you perhaps help us? We did submit a request to the Cheongyeon Guild as well but…

“I’ll check through the guild and call you back!”

He said that right before answering, because it might be a scam.

Upon checking, a formal request had indeed come into the Cheongyeon Guild side. Sunyul immediately checked the client’s number. It matched the number that had contacted Sunyul a moment ago.

Sunyul called the client back. The client was extremely glad at Sunyul’s contact.

“So, where did Valeria disappear from?”

—She said she was heading toward Hongik University Station with her bodyguard because she had something to purchase. I don’t know a more detailed location than that.

“Isn’t the bodyguard a hunter too?”

—Yes. He is an A-class combat-type hunter.

That meant she was suppressed enough to kidnap an A-class hunter. It was not an easy opponent.

“I understand. I’ll look for her too.”

“Thank you.”

Sunyul first set the vicinity of Hongik University Station as his coordinates. Because he used the skill aiming near a place where there weren’t too many people, his mana suddenly drained out at some point.

[Researching Magic Scholar: Warp skill is being used.]

The skill worked properly. Sunyul landed on the rooftop of a building. Then, he soon used the Flight skill to circle the area, utilizing his Eagle Eye trait to look for Valeria.

“That’s…”

Sunyul came down to the ground halfway through. The place he came down to was a dead-end alley.

“I don’t think it would be around here…”

Even while thinking that, the reason he went out of his way to come down here was because a flashily colored piece of jewelry was dropped on the ground. It was brand new enough to feel a sense of dissonance. Wondering if it might be Valeria’s item, the moment he was about to pick it up—

Sunyul felt a chilling sensation and looked forward without realizing it.

A stark white hand was floating in midair, holding something.