EFME 124

Muyoung looked down at Sunyul, who had cried himself to sleep. He had cried so much that the skin around his eyes was red and raw.

He knew how much Sunyul must have worried. He had entered the dungeon knowing full well what would happen. He had no choice.

To get what he wanted, Muyoung had undertaken a quest that required clearing an S-rank dungeon completely alone.

It was something the Muyoung of five years ago had needed. He wasn’t sure if it would still be necessary in the future… but it didn’t hurt to have it.

Five years ago.

Muyoung thought back to the Lim Sunyul of the past. That final moment when Sunyul had come to find him.

Sunyul had approached Muyoung while caked in blood and dust. He had looked half out of his mind. It was only natural, considering that the battle had dragged on for so long and a significant number of Sunyul’s teammates had already perished.

‘Hunter Kwon Muyoung… I have something I want to tell you when I get back.’

Even though Muyoung found Sunyul’s words incredibly abrupt, he couldn’t completely brush him off. So, he briefly paused his own fighting and turned back to look at Sunyul.

‘Tell me now.’

‘I can’t, not right now… I’ll tell you when I return safely.’

‘Where do you think you’re going.’

‘Inside the rift.’

Muyoung doubted his own ears at the calm reply.

Sunyul’s eyes were calm yet clearly unhinged. It was the gaze of someone who was about to pull a reckless stunt at any second.

‘Are you insane?’

‘I’m not insane.’

Having said that, Sunyul glanced up at the rift hovering above them.

The rift looked strangely unnatural, resembling a glitch on a computer screen manifested into reality. It was a deep darkness nested within a shattered space that tore and twisted the sky. Sunyul’s eyes sank deeply as they reflected it.

‘There’s no other way.’

‘Do you have some brilliant plan if you go in there? What if you just die a dog’s death?’

‘But really, there’s no other option.’

No matter how hard he tried to reason with him, Sunyul remained unyielding. Muyoung grew frantic. It really felt as though Sunyul would vanish into that rift. If Sunyul truly made up his mind, Muyoung had no way of stopping that skill of his.

‘Stay here. I’ll figure something out.’

‘….’

Muyoung caught a tremor in the softly spoken response. Sunyul wasn’t unfazed; he was terrified but simply holding onto his stubbornness.

Muyoung let out a sigh.

‘Where do you think you’re going when you’re trembling like that?’

‘I am scared, but when I think of you, Guild Master, I feel like I can do it.’

The moment he heard those words, Muyoung felt as though Sunyul had struck him hard over the head with a hammer.

‘What is that supposed to mean?’

‘Even if I die… if I can think that you’ll live because of it, Guild Master, I feel like I’d be okay with dying.’

Muyoung felt a sudden wave of nausea.

It was the absolute worst.

The fact that Muyoung himself was included in the reasons why Sunyul was trying to enter that place, and that Sunyul could draw courage because of him… was utterly horrifying.

He never desired to survive by consuming Sunyul’s blood. The blood of Sunyul, out of all people…

Muyoung grew anxious. Desperate to make him back down, he grabbed Sunyul firmly. As he held him with a tight grip, Sunyul smiled bitterly.

‘Stop talking nonsense.’

‘I’m sorry for saying something so selfish.’

‘If you know that, then stop.’

Sunyul shook his head. Then he forced a smile. His eyes were pooling with tears as if he might cry at any moment, yet he manually tugged up the corners of his lips.

‘If I die, please live on for my share too.’

‘Lim Sunyul!’

‘I’ll tell you what I really want to say when I come back.’

Listening to those absurd words, it was only at that exact moment that it finally clicked.

Kwon Muyoung, toward Lim Sunyul…

“….”

It was truly the worst memory. Muyoung felt his hands trembling faintly. Lim Sunyul, who had left like that, vanished for five years, only to reappear last year as an item. Forgotten by everyone.

For five years.

“….”

No, it wasn’t five years.

‘Things that are alive in that place do not change. You don’t age, and you don’t feel hungry. That must be how you survived for several weeks…’

Sunyul’s words were half right and half wrong. If an immensely long period of time passes, things do change—dramatically enough for a human to turn into a non-human entity.

What was an unimaginably vast stretch of time for Sunyul amounted to a mere five years out here. For the sake of a mere five years, Sunyul had suffered through countless ages.

To think that during that time, he himself had lived a completely normal life, forgetting about Sunyul without knowing a single thing…

His mind went dizzy. It felt like plummeting into a bottomless abyss of despair.

Some might say it couldn’t be helped. Others might say it was a relief that countless people survived for five years at the cost of just one person’s sacrifice.

But Muyoung did not agree. A world that ran on the sacrifice of someone could never be right.

He would think that way even if it weren’t Sunyul. Though it was also true that he felt it even more desperately because it was Sunyul.

Muyoung could not forgive his past self.

If only he had stopped Sunyul back then, by any means necessary.

If only he had managed to prevent Sunyul from sacrificing himself…

They might have found another way to resolve the rift somehow.

Entertaining those hypotheticals made his chest ache.

Muyoung reached out and gently stroked the sleeping Sunyul.

Regardless, Sunyul had sacrificed himself, and humanity had bypassed the rift in a relatively comfortable manner because of it. A mysterious danger was approaching once again, but this time, he would not let Sunyul sacrifice himself.

Because Muyoung would never let such a thing happen again.

No matter what.

⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹

For some reason, Haemin had actually left the Melior Guild to visit the Cheongyeon Guild in person.

Dakyung, who happened to be with Sunyul at the time, waved her hand in welcome.

“Wow, look who broke out of prison.”

“Prison? What kind of nonsense are you spouting about my comfortable guild?”

As Haemin raised his fist as if to give her a light smack, Dakyung quickly defended herself.

“You’re the one who called it a prison before…”

As if remembering something, Haemin lowered his fist. He then nodded sadly and let out a sigh.

“It does feel like a prison… in the sense that you can’t leave until you finish your commissions.”

With his shoulders slumped, Haemin handed Dakyung a plastic bag with a convenience store logo on it.

“I bought ice cream.”

“A rich guy like you bought stuff from a convenience store?”

“Give it back.”

“I said I’ll enjoy it!”

Dakyung quickly snatched the ice cream. Sunyul pulled one out too. It was actually quite an expensive brand of ice cream.

“Thank you, I’ll enjoy it.”

“Sure, eat up, Sunyul.”

Haemin put on a gentle, benevolent expression, displaying an attitude completely different from how he treated Dakyung.

“What brought you all the way here?”

“I wanted to check out the market downstairs since it’s been a while.”

Haemin pulled something out of his inventory. It was a box wrapped in black velvet cloth.

“I came to give Sunyul his final commissioned item.”

It seemed the commissioned items he had requested before were all finished. Delighted by the completion of the items he had briefly forgotten about, Sunyul eagerly accepted the box.

“Thank you so much.”

“Thanks for doing business with me. I put the leftover materials in here.”

Haemin grinned as he handed over another box. Sunyul stowed the fairly large box away in his inventory and decided to open the first box he was given. Dakyung peeked from the side and let out an exclamation of awe.

“Wow, this is insane. How much is this worth?”

“I used materials I already had, so it didn’t cost that much.”

“Whoa, isn’t this Borni’s Mana Stone? The drop rate for this is atrocious, to think you had one.”

“Turns out I did. I don’t really remember getting it, though.”

Sunyul laughed awkwardly. Even though he was told it was an incredible item, it didn’t quite register with him. That was why he could use things so lavishly.

As Sunyul quietly stared inside the box, Haemin leaned in close. He lowered his voice completely and whispered.

“You’re going to give that to the Guild Master, right?”

“Ah, well…”

Sunyul’s face flushed bright red in an instant. He hadn’t given an answer, but his reaction spoke volumes. Haemin burst out laughing, finding it highly amusing.

“You are giving it to him, aren’t you?”

“What is it? Really? Are you really giving it to the Guild Master? Why?”

Clueless about what was going on, Dakyung looked horrified as if she thought it was a massive waste. Looking at Dakyung, Haemin clicked his tongue.

“There are just things a kid like you wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m an adult too, you know?!”

At the mention of Muyoung, Sunyul snapped the box shut and glared slightly.

“The Guild Master…”

“Yeah?”

“Is seriously so annoying.”

“What? Why?”

As Haemin looked puzzled, Dakyung mouthed ‘S-rank dungeon’ to him. Only then did Haemin nod his head in understanding.

“Well, that’s enough to make anyone mad. He’s not a lunatic, so why would he clear that alone?”

“Exactly. He’s seriously… so annoying.”

“So, did you guys have a lovers’ quarrel?”

When Haemin asked with a sly grin, Dakyung let out a groan of disgust.

“Ugh, old guys always make the weirdest jokes.”

“Who’s an old guy? I’m still in my twenties?!”

Sunyul merely let out a sigh as he watched Haemin get angry over someone stating facts, and Dakyung counter that he was an old guy if his mindset was like one.

It was true that he had made it to give to Muyoung.

But could this be considered a fight? Rather than a fight, Sunyul had just unilaterally lost his temper. On top of that, because it had ended awkwardly with Sunyul crying himself to sleep out of exhaustion, things had become somewhat strained between them.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give it to him, but it just felt awkward. He had wanted to present it in a much better atmosphere, not hand it over awkwardly in a situation like this.