Ch.125The Thing I Cannot Give Up – 1

“Ugh….”

Dasom Yoo slightly opens her eyes at the sound of groaning coming from beside her.

Could she have made the noise herself, unknowingly, from a nightmare?

But she had been sleeping so soundly until just now. A nightmare? That’s absurd.

“Ughhh….”

Listening again, she realizes this isn’t her voice.

It’s Hana Kang’s voice, who fell asleep with her last night.

‘Huh?’

Hana Kang was struggling, tightly embraced in her arms, almost buried.

It seemed she had fallen asleep pulling Hana close instead of a pillow.

No, to put it nicely, she was “embracing” her, but in reality, she was practically crushing her.

‘Ah… s-sorry, unni. My sleeping habits are pretty terrible.’

She could have woken her up and asked her to move.

Perhaps feeling bad about that, Hana had endured in this state.

The fact that she was whimpering but not struggling at all was proof of that.

As she gently released Hana, her groaning finally stopped.

Worried about waking her, Dasom Yoo softly covered her with the blanket.

“Hmph.”

After getting out of bed, Dasom headed to the shower first.

Even after she finished showering and came out, Hana was still traveling in dreamland.

‘Come to think of it, Hana unni did say she likes to sleep a lot.’

Nodding to herself, Dasom quietly left the room.

Just then, she ran into Hyunwoo Lee, who was coming in after finishing his morning training.

“Oh. Junior. You’re up?”

“I like to get up early and work up a sweat in the morning. Are you going to exercise too, senior?”

“Ahaha! No, not that. I just got up early and thought I should at least eat breakfast.”

“I see? Let’s go down together. I just saw the Arbiter and my Bronze comrade getting up too!”

“Bronze… comrade?”

When Dasom questioned this, Hyunwoo laughed with an “Aha!”

“Soohyun Kim, Soohyun Kim.”

“Huh? Wait. Junior Soohyun Kim isn’t Bronze anymore, is he?”

Hyunwoo began by saying, “That’s right.”

Although he had escaped Bronze now, he decided not to forget those Bronze days.

He promised himself never to let his guard down and to keep getting stronger.

With that promise, they formed an eternal Bronze comradeship between themselves.

“…”

After hearing Hyunwoo’s explanation, Dasom nodded. And then she thought:

I have absolutely no idea what this junior is talking about!

“Good morning, Arbiter! Did you sleep well?”

Going downstairs to the first floor, she saw Seojin Baek sitting at the table.

When Dasom greeted him, he responded, “Yes. Did you sleep well too, Dasom student?”

“Come on. I told you to be more casual outside the Academy.”

“Maybe it’s become a habit, but this feels comfortable to me.”

“But it makes me uncomfortable! I wish you’d consider my feelings too!”

“Well… if you insist, would it be okay if I called you Dasom?”

“What! That sounds reasonable enough! Please call me that!”

Saying this, Dasom sat down at the table.

Since they would be working together as a team, she couldn’t keep being called “student” forever.

It would be nice if he could address her casually, just like he did with Soohyun Kim.

Thinking this wasn’t too bad either, she glanced around.

The staff said they would prepare breakfast soon, so she could have a hearty meal and start the day…

‘Huh?’

Seated at the table, Dasom narrowed her eyes slightly.

She rolled her eyes around, scanning her surroundings.

She had noticed a strange atmosphere flowing between the people at the table.

‘What’s this atmosphere?’

First, she glanced at Hyunwoo Lee sitting right next to her.

“Hup! Hah!”

He was busy wrestling with a grip strengthener.

It probably wasn’t coming from him. It would be too strange to be an act.

‘Then?’

This time, she turned her head to the opposite side to look at Seojin Baek.

Then she checked Soohyun Kim sitting next to him.

‘Oh. Ohh. Oho?’

Hyunwoo, who had arrived before her, probably hadn’t noticed anything.

But she was different. Noticing this kind of thing was easier than eating rice cakes lying down.

The way they sat so close together while subtly avoiding each other.

But it wasn’t that they were avoiding each other because they disliked each other—there was something else.

Just seeing that much was enough to explain this strange atmosphere.

‘Something happened between those two yesterday! Hehehe!’

If asked directly, they would both probably hurriedly deny it.

But if she made them face each other and asked, “Did nothing really happen?”

She was certain both of them would struggle to answer.

‘What? Don’t tell me, Junior Soohyun. Is this why you invited the Arbiter?’

Dasom inwardly giggled as she looked at Soohyun Kim.

Though they had just met and didn’t have much connection,

Hana Kang, who was very close to her, had said she cherished Soohyun as a younger sibling.

Because of that, Dasom herself had wanted to look after Soohyun.

But now it seemed there was no need for that.

It looked like Soohyun had someone better than herself or Hana.

“Breakfast is ready, everyone.”

Just look at them now. The moment the staff brought out breakfast,

Soohyun was the first to attend to Seojin Baek, and though Seojin seemed embarrassed, he accepted the gesture.

Really. Usually, both of them showed such composed appearances.

But at times like this, they seemed to have quite a few weak spots.

With these thoughts, Dasom began her breakfast in an extremely cheerful mood.

*

“Huff, huff…!”

Sujin Hyun, breathing heavily, stumbles and collapses.

Leaning against the wall, she struggles as if her breath might stop at any moment.

Her entire body was covered with terrible wounds.

Cuts, stabs, bruises, and even severed parts—fatal injuries.

If they had gone just a little deeper, she would have lost her life long ago.

Even now, it was only thanks to emergency treatment that she hadn’t crossed death’s threshold.

“Cough, cough.”

Spitting out dark red blood from her mouth, Sujin Hyun looked to the side.

There lay one of the Elders who had been fighting with her until recently.

More precisely, with the body and head separated.

“Damn bitch. If you’re going to die, at least die gracefully.”

Though Elders compete for interests, check each other, and sometimes fight,

They don’t threaten each other’s lives fatally.

That’s the only rule that Elders have kept until now.

But that rule no longer exists. As the world changed, so did the Elders.

More precisely, it started with the assassination of the S-rank in England.

The suspect in the S-rank’s murder was obviously an Elder. The world couldn’t not know that.

The Elders, who had maintained some boundaries until now, crossed the line themselves.

The moment that happened, all countries and ability users who had been keeping silent rose up.

Immediately, a massive attack on villains began, and the Elders’ territories were trampled.

S-ranks, fearing they might be next, charged in without looking back.

Even for Elders, even for demigods, it was beyond what they could handle.

“Damn it! Why did you have to do something stupid and destroy my territory!”

“You caused this mess, so you clean it up. Why should I suffer for it?”

“Let’s cut off the heads of all those bastards involved. I’m sick of their crap.”

Since they never truly cooperated in the first place, there was no chance they would unite now.

On top of that, the gate crisis and monster cataclysm hit the entire world at the same time.

Monsters trampled all over the Elders’ territories and their villain forces.

Outside, S-rank ability users were coming in with rage.

Inside, gates and monsters were pouring in, destroying the kingdoms they had built.

Naturally, this led to fractures.

The Elders involved in the British S-rank assassination and those who opposed it.

And those Elders who were waiting to see which way the wind blew—all entered into civil war.

For normal people, it would be right to say “let’s not fight.”

With S-ranks attacking from outside, fighting among themselves would be foolish.

But Elders are all people with at least one screw loose.

They think and act in ways that are simply incomprehensible from a rational perspective.

Of course, in that chaos, they all jumped in with the attitude of “screw it, let everyone die.”

Even though the S-ranks had halted their offensive due to the gate crisis and monster cataclysm,

They continued the civil war with the mindset of eliminating annoying competitors.

And Sujin Hyun was an Elder no different from them.

She had sought out an Elder who had been provoking her and finally ended their life.

Everyone was killing each other anyway, so who would hold her responsible?

Better to cut off the legs of someone who keeps getting in your way.

‘Thanks to that, I almost died.’

Their skills were almost evenly matched. She survived only because she had a slight advantage in compatibility.

If she had insisted on a head-on battle like Hyuk Kwak, she would have died nine times out of ten.

Catching her breath, Sujin Hyun tried to stand up by pressing against the ground.

At that moment, she heard someone approaching from the darkness.

Clank!— Thud!—

“…”

Sujin Hyun bit her lip and gripped the dagger she had carelessly thrown aside.

Like all Elders, she too was a target for elimination by other Elders.

They constantly provoke, stimulate, and belittle each other, so it’s natural to be surrounded by enemies.

She had tried to fight as quietly as possible, but it seemed word had spread quickly.

‘Am I going to die?’

That can’t happen. Not yet, not when she hasn’t even started her revenge.

Just when the path was finally becoming visible. Just when the world’s chaos made it the perfect time to act.

As Sujin Hyun gritted her teeth and prepared to strike first:

“Sujin Hyun.”

“…Hyuk Kwak?”

The figure that appeared before her was, unexpectedly, Hyuk Kwak.

She had heard he was staying back from this civil war, just observing the situation.

It made sense, since he was obsessed only with Rina Lee.

But now, that same Hyuk Kwak had suddenly come looking for her.

“…What. Why are you here?”

“I want to ask a favor.”

“A favor?”

Instead of answering, Hyuk Kwak took something out from his pocket and handed it to her.

“I’d like your help.”

“…Are you finally making your move? For real?”

What he handed over contained several photos of Rina Lee and information about her movements.

“I can feel it. This is my body’s peak condition.”

“Well, well. Didn’t you just get injured by some strange guy not long ago?”

“That’s right. But thanks to that, I’ve become sharper. And I’m certain. I feel confident that now, I can really land a solid hit on that woman.”

Sure you can. Do you really think you can beat that crazy woman?

Sujin Hyun grumbled inwardly while examining the materials Hyuk Kwak had handed over.

It seemed Rina was currently providing security for certain individuals…

“…Hey, Hyuk Kwak.”

“Speak.”

“I’ll help you catch Rina, that crazy bitch. But in return.”

Sujin Hyun pointed at something in the materials she was holding and continued.

“Hand this bastard over to me.”

As she said this, her eyes were burning with madness.