EFME 71

But Sunyul couldn’t offer any reply to that.

It wasn’t that he thought badly of Yoonjae. In fact, Sunyul thought he was a decent person. However, that didn’t mean he trusted him.

Above all, Yoonjae belonged to the Office of Special Abilities.

Whatever the past everyone talked about might be, to the current Sunyul, the Office of Special Abilities was simply an uncomfortable place.

“You really don’t have any memories.”

At the lack of a reply, Yoonjae muttered listlessly. All the energy was gone from Yoonjae’s voice, which had been bright the entire time.

“I was…”

Yoonjae’s voice trailed off as he let out a deep sigh. He had an attitude that seemed to say he knew exactly what Sunyul was thinking. Seeing Yoonjae like that, Sunyul felt a sense of guilt.

“…Sorry.”

Maybe I should have just lied. If I had, Yoonjae wouldn’t have had to be so hurt.

But if he had lied and been caught, he had a feeling that Yoonjae would have been even more hurt.

“No, it must be harder for you.”

Whatever he was feeling inside, Yoonjae quickly recovered his spirits on the outside. Then he approached Sunyul in a friendly manner and put an arm around his shoulders. As Yoonjae put his weight on him, Sunyul’s body staggered.

“Ugh!”

“We were such close friends. You completely forgot and said something so disappointing, so I was just a little upset for a moment.”

Yoonjae blew a puff of air into Sunyul’s ear. When Sunyul flinched and struggled, Yoonjae let him go with a mischievous laugh.

“Should we get going? I’ll take you home.”

“I can use a skill to go.”

Although he wasn’t used to it yet, Sunyul had the [Studious Magescholar: Warp] skill. It was a skill that allowed him to move to a place within his line of sight or a place he had been to once before.

Muyoung had given him a ride on the way here, but it didn’t matter if he used a skill on the way back. However, Yoonjae made a pitiful face at Sunyul’s words.

“I want to take you home. If I give you a ride, I can skive off work a little too…”

“…Okay.”

Having finally given in, Sunyul headed to the parking lot with Yoonjae. After getting in the car and fastening his seatbelt, Yoonjae, instead of starting the car, began to grumble in earnest.

“No, but it’s upsetting, for real.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Do you know how many cases we solved together? Dungeons are dungeons, but besides that, we took on all sorts of miscellaneous jobs.”

“We did?”

“Yeah. We handled almost all of the Awakened crimes.”

“Awakened crimes…”

“Since crimes by the Awakened can lead to pretty serious situations, it’s best to catch them as quickly as possible, even if it means pouring in excessive manpower and resources. There were quite a lot of heinous criminals we caught… but if I told you about all our exploits, your ears would rot.”

Yoonjae shrugged his shoulders.

“There were minor things too. Like, remember when that weird pervert broke into your house, we did a stakeout together and caught him.”

“…A pervert?”

“Yeah. You had more than a few stalkers attached to you.”

Stalkers. At the unexpected word, a shiver ran down his spine.

“Why did I have a lot of stalkers?”

“You’re pretty, kind, gentle, and a good listener. Those perverted bastards just get the wrong idea all on their own and start hitting on you.”

“…”

“Anyway, I should have killed them all… but I never got the chance.”

Yoonjae said it as if he were genuinely disappointed. Sunyul looked at Yoonjae with a nonplussed expression.

“Don’t say weird things just because I don’t have my memories.”

“How unfair. I’m just telling you things that all happened.”

“…”

“You really don’t remember any of it, do you? All the numerous incidents that happened because of your popularity…”

“…I don’t know, anything like that.”

“Then you don’t remember this either? That prince or whatever he was, he had a ring made from a fist-sized S-rank mana stone and offered it to you.”

“Are you joking?”

“It’s true. He proposed to you while giving you that.”

“…”

“He even said he would take you as his first and last wife, but you rejected him, so he ended up leaving in tears.”

“…Stop talking nonsense. Me, for me to be so…”

“So popular?”

Sunyul, his face turning red, nodded.

“Wait a second.”

Yoonjae seemed to be fiddling with his smartphone, then promptly held it out in front of Sunyul.

“What is this?”

“Lim Sunyul’s unofficial fan cafe.”

“…”

“It hasn’t even been that long since you became known, but you already have 40,000 members. And… look at this too.”

“…What is this?”

“Your impersonator Outstagram. This is an impersonation account, right?”

Sunyul dazedly nodded his head.

“It’s got several hundred thousand followers.”

“Several hundred thousand?”

Sunyul recalled the twelve thousand ‘likes’ from people who had wanted to kill I—21. The number, several times larger than that, made his mind go blank.

“Want to make a real one? If you make a real one, you’ll hit tens of millions in no time.”

“Ah… no.”

Yoonjae said with a gentle smile. Sunyul shook his head back and forth as if he absolutely did not want to create one.

The ‘tens of millions’ he mentioned probably referred to the number of people who liked Sunyul, but on the day Sunyul made even a single mistake… what would happen?

As if he didn’t even want to imagine it, Sunyul quickly erased the hypothetical from his mind. Forcing himself to shake off his sinking mood, he repeated his refusal.

“I’m really fine.”

Yoonjae chuckled at Sunyul. Then he put his smartphone away and frowned.

“I was trying to tell you that you and I were close, so why am I talking about your popularity.”

“…”

“I got sidetracked somewhere weird…”

At that strange, dorky quality, Sunyul let out a small laugh. At that, Yoonjae’s face brightened.

“Shall we get going now?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s the happiest you’ve been this whole time.”

Wondering if he had shown his happiness too obviously, Sunyul felt a little awkward.

At Yoonjae’s incredulous expression, Sunyul quickly added.

“Home is just the most comfortable place, you know.”

As he spoke, Sunyul began to enter Muyoung’s home address into the navigation system. Yoonjae glared at the address being entered into the navigation as if it annoyed him.

“That’s not your home. It’s the home of some suspicious guy.”

“Why is he suspicious? The Guild Master is someone with a solid identity.”

“…Why do you fall for that guy whether you have your memories or not?”

The choices his past self made were none of Sunyul’s business. Though it seemed Bada and Yoonjae placed a lot of meaning on them. Starting the car, Yoonjae began to grumble.

“I don’t like him. He’s old, has a rotten personality, looks down on people, and is a jerk.”

“The Guild Master isn’t like that.”

“Kwon Muyoung is fundamentally a person who stands on top of others. A person like that doesn’t suit you.”

“Don’t speak ill of the Guild Master.”

“Fine. But he doesn’t suit you. I’d rather you be with Lee Bada… no, that bastard isn’t great either. Ha, he acted like Sunyul was the only one for him, but I wonder how many people he dated over five years. And only with people who look like you… it’s creepy.”

Yoonjae started muttering like a crazy person. Sunyul ignored him. Regardless, Yoonjae continued to mutter unintelligible words while holding the steering wheel.

Then, around the time Yoonjae was starting to quiet down.

Suddenly, a loud warning alarm began to sound.

“…What, is it a dungeon?”

Yoonjae clicked his tongue with a tsk.

“They’ve been popping up way too often lately.”

Sunyul opened his smartphone and checked the message. The location where the dungeon had appeared was a short distance from here.

“I have to head over there, so you should…”

“I’ll go with you.”

Sunyul said it before he knew it.

“What?”

“I can use my skills. I’ve practiced a bit, too. It’ll be convenient if we go with my skill, right?”

He had said it without thinking deeply, but Sunyul didn’t regret it. Just like that day when he stepped forward in front of people to block the monsters, he felt no great hesitation in saving someone.

At Sunyul’s words, Yoonjae’s face became contemplative. Yoonjae hastily parked the car nearby and finished his deliberation.

“…Don’t get too involved at the scene.”

“Okay.”

Sunyul got out of the car and grabbed Yoonjae’s hand.

[Using the ‘Studious Magescholar: Flight’ skill.]

The effect of this skill was simple. It allowed one to fly at a considerable speed.

The reason the previous Lim Sunyul had preserved this seemingly insignificant skill was simple. Being able to move quickly in a straight line over a forest of buildings was a huge advantage when operating in Seoul.

However, there was a limit that it allowed up to 300kg, including Sunyul and anything touching his hands… but it was more than enough for Sunyul and Yoonjae to fly.

Flying at a speed slightly faster than a car, they reached the dungeon’s location in no time. The place they arrived at was a quiet residential area, but it looked like the monster was quite large and tough, as buildings were broken here and there.

Right in front of the dungeon gate, two Hunters were in the middle of a tough fight. It seemed they hadn’t been able to set up a proper barrier, so monsters were continuously escaping the gate and spreading to other places.

Letting go of Sunyul’s hand, Yoonjae earnestly requested.

“It’s dangerous, so don’t get involved!”

Even if Yoonjae said that, he couldn’t just stand by. He had just received his Hunter license a moment ago, so there was no problem with him stepping up.

Seeing the monsters, his heart pounded with tension. He had seen plenty of monsters last time, but the fact that he was more nervous now seemed to be because he thought he would have to fight directly this time.

Yoonjae would take care of the gate area. The number of roaming monsters probably wouldn’t increase. The problem was the monsters that had already escaped the dungeon and were wandering the residential area. Most people had evacuated, but he could occasionally see some who hadn’t completely evacuated yet.

Even if he didn’t fight, he had to evacuate even one more person. He was trembling, but… Sunyul harbored no doubt or hesitation about that fact.