Ch.15151. Awakening of the Glass Sage (1)

I remained silent for a moment at Yuri’s words.

‘The thing you wanted to say after the graduation ceremony?’

Of course, I knew exactly what Yuri was talking about.

Back then, I hadn’t imagined the tragedy of Ains at all. Through the original “Aka Hunter,” I knew there would be a villain attack during the graduation ceremony.

In the original story, it was a light attack, almost like an episode commemorating graduation. But an attack is an attack nonetheless.

I had planned to meet with Yuri separately once the attack was over and the graduation ceremony ended.

I had something I really wanted to tell her, so I asked her to make time for me.

Of course, with the appearance of the Doubt Demon, everything changed from the original story. And then Ains’s tragedy occurred.

‘In the end, I never got to tell Yuri.’

But Yuri’s words brought back those memories, including what I had wanted to say.

Yuri was now waiting for me to say those words again.

“Ahem. Just a moment. Should we move somewhere else?”

I was feeling shy about bringing up something from almost three years ago.

“Why! Can’t you just tell me right here?”

Yuri urged, looking up at me repeatedly. Feeling even more embarrassed, I gently took her hand and led her away.

We climbed a bit higher to a spot with a better view of the village.

Yuri created a simple bench for two using an ice spell. I took her hand again and we sat side by side.

Both of us were silent. But Yuri seemed very eager for my answer, fidgeting with our joined hands without stopping.

Then the surroundings began to change. No, the mana energy around us began to change.

‘Could it be that?’

When Yuri’s emotions ran high, and when her desire to be alone with me reached its peak—the spell she unconsciously activated.

The Eternal Barrier was forming around us.

Come to think of it, a few months ago at the hotel in Busan, Yuri had tried to confine me with this Eternal Barrier.

A purgatory from which there was absolutely no escape if Yuri’s will was firm.

Moreover, that summer barrier had been eerie.

It reflected her frightening obsession—keeping me confined and refusing to let me go to any other woman, whether Soso or Arin.

But today’s Eternal Barrier was different from that time.

Like when Yuri did this at Ains, it felt warm and cozy. A private space where we could be together without interruption.

Perhaps Yuri was both excited and embarrassed about what I was about to say.

Finally, I overcame my shyness and told her.

“Back then, I wanted to ask you to wait for me.”

“Hik!”

When I finally spoke, Yuri flinched in surprise. I smiled slightly and tightened my grip on her hand.

“W-wait for you… What do you mean…”

“At that time, you were set to join the Snow Knight Order. But I couldn’t join the Snow Knight Order with you since I wasn’t a citizen or noble of the Slavia Kingdom. You were planning to return to the Slavia Kingdom.”

“Yes… that was the plan.”

“Even so, I was confident I could join a major corporate guild and become an S-rank hunter faster than anyone else. I was going to ask you to wait for me until then.”

By that time, I had already been scouted by a major corporate guild. I was planning to join Mansong, which was the top guild even back then.

As a main raid party member of Mansong and with the title of youngest S-rank hunter, I thought I would at least be qualified to stand beside Yuri—qualified to be her boyfriend.

“Well, you ended up taking the title of youngest S-rank hunter instead.”

I said with a slight smile. But Yuri’s reaction was heavier than I expected.

With a serious expression, she hurriedly exclaimed:

“There was no need… no need to ask me to wait!”

Her words reminded me of what Director Maria had told me.

Flame’s official guild name, Phoenix Flame. And why Yuri had created Flame instead of joining the Snow Knight Order.

I stroked Yuri’s hand briefly before speaking.

“I know. Director Maria already told me. You had registered the guild even before graduation?”

At that, Yuri lowered her head and said:

“Yes… I had no intention of joining the Snow Knight Order… my father’s order. Being one of the world’s top three guilds or whatever wasn’t important to me then. I just…”

Yuri’s voice caught. She continued with a tearful voice:

“I just wanted to stay with you. The flame spell that first connected us… Phoenix Flame. I wanted us to be in our guild, named after that spell.”

I wrapped my arm around Yuri’s shoulders. She leaned into my embrace. I patted her back as her emotions intensified.

“It ended up happening just as you wanted. We’re in the same guild now, aren’t we?”

“That’s true, but… I never planned to accept Soso or Arin too!”

I stroked Yuri’s white hair as she pretended to be upset. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she urgently asked:

“But you haven’t told me everything yet. Why did you want to ask me to wait for you?”

Yuri was right. That was the core of what I had wanted to say at the graduation ceremony.

The moment had come to be honest with Yuri.

“If I had asked you to wait… what were you going to say to me?”

As Yuri pressed me again, I finally said:

“Because I liked you. I was going to confess and ask you to date me.”

At those words, Yuri lowered her head deeply.

Then, after sniffling again, she raised her head and kissed me.

***

The two of us shared a long, deep kiss inside the Eternal Barrier.

I didn’t check the time, but it certainly wasn’t brief.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

Our mixed saliva stretched like a thread between our lips. We briefly separated, but Yuri pressed her lips to mine again.

And so we explored each other’s lips once more.

This wasn’t our first kiss, but our recent conversation—my words that were essentially a confession—seemed to have flipped a switch in Yuri.

As our intense kiss continued, my mind began to go blank.

Yet, even as we kissed, even as my heart was being captivated by Yuri, there was a thought, or rather a scene, that kept appearing in my mind.

‘This feels… like it’s not the first time.’

I wasn’t talking about the experience of kissing. I wasn’t referring to the soft touch of Yuri’s body in my arms.

This moment of confirming our feelings for each other—I felt a sense of déjà vu about these two people.

‘The headache… again…’

And then, panoramic scenes flashed through my mind once more.

A deep mountain covered in snow. A rural village.

Yuri in traditional Japanese attire, just like now. Yuri falling into my arms with eyes full of affection for me.

And me, looking at her, feeling both the greatest love and sadness simultaneously.

It was as if I had experienced this scene long ago, and now it was repeating right before my eyes.

‘The words I wanted to tell Yuri at graduation… this must be the first time I’ve actually said them…’

Yet the sense of déjà vu remained incredibly vivid.

And in fact, I had felt it since entering Setsunomura. Even this mountain village I was visiting for the first time felt strangely familiar.

‘Then could my hypothesis be…’

At the temple of the Myth Religion, when I accessed memories of my past life in that quartz cave.

I had once hypothesized that perhaps I was regressing through the world of the novel, the world of Aka Hunter.

And the conclusion I reached from that hypothesis momentarily took my breath away.

‘If I’m really regressing, then because of the resurrected evil god, the novel must be… heading toward a bad ending…’

Every event has a cause and effect.

If the novel had reached a perfect happy ending, there would be no reason to go back to the beginning of that story.

‘Even so… why me and not Siwoo, the protagonist…’

With these thoughts, I momentarily lost focus on our kiss.

“Mmm… haa… Are you thinking about something else…? Don’t tell me… another woman… uwp?!”

I silenced Yuri’s lips as her gaze began to turn cold. We continued to share our saliva a bit longer.

Both of our bodies were burning with heat, but thinking of our wedding four days later, we somehow suppressed our desires.

“On that day… take all of me.”

Yuri shyly lowered her head after finishing our kiss.

A little while later, we returned to the mansion in the village, holding hands.

***

The next day, Yuri and I woke up shortly after noon.

We met with Yukiyo, the village chief, for lunch. After the meal, while sharing tea brought by someone from the mansion, I asked Yukiyo a few questions.

“I’d like to ask about the energy blocking the path to the shrine.”

“So even though you two went there, that massive energy… no, that entity hasn’t disappeared.”

Yukiyo explained. The heavy snowfall that began right after the dimensional fusion.

The people of Setsunomura were terrified, wondering if the snow woman’s curse had returned.

“So the villagers were desperate to find the cause of the snowfall.”

And the two of them discovered a dungeon not far from the village.

“Although our villagers have lived quietly, almost cut off from the outside world… we’re not completely ignorant of world news. Naturally, there are awakened ones in this village, and I am one myself, so we know about the existence of dungeons.”

But the villagers couldn’t conquer that dungeon.

“Since gates occasionally appeared in our village, we do know how to conquer dungeons in our own way. But that particular dungeon was impossible to conquer no matter what we tried…”

As I continued listening to Yukiyo’s explanation, I became certain.

“It’s an ancient dungeon. It would be difficult to conquer for people without much dungeon experience.”

“Do you actually know about this dungeon, Minsu-nim?”

When I nodded, Yukiyo was greatly surprised.

“As expected of the man who will become Yuri-nim’s husband! This Yukiyo was absolutely certain of Minsu-nim’s extraordinary nature from the moment you entered this village!”

Despite saying that, I clearly remember the village chief Yukiyo being wary of me.

Anyway, now that I knew the ancient dungeon was related to whatever was blocking the path to the shrine, there was no time to hesitate.

When Yuri and I finished conquering the ancient dungeon, it was night again.

Yuri, emerging from the dungeon gate with me, asked:

“This book… is it a prophecy book of the Cross Society like the ancient text we found on Mount Seorak?”

I shook my head. The prophecy book that we had discovered with Jerfield was from a much earlier era by Ailetan standards.

It was written in archaic sacred text, almost like an ancient language. But the book we had just found in the ancient dungeon was relatively closer to Ailetan’s recent history.

“By Slavia Kingdom standards, it seems to have been written about 300 years before the dimensional fusion.”

Unlike the prophecy book, much of this book could be immediately interpreted using the ancient text translation software that Jerfield had given me.

The next day, I spent the entire day translating the book. The title of the book translated into human language was:

[Records of the Surviving Clan]

Surprisingly, the book contained information about the clans of the Four Divine Beasts, except for the Phoenix clan, which were believed to be extinct.

“So the entity blocking the path to the shrine is the Black Tortoise divine beast?”

I nodded at Yuri’s words. That Black Tortoise was undoubtedly related to the Sage’s awakening.

“So it’s related to you, Yuri.”

Yuri’s Ancient Gear, Nivis’s third form awakening. To achieve that awakening, she absolutely needed to make contact with that divine beast.

But I couldn’t tell Yuri another fact I had discovered.

That the surviving divine beast clan might be related to Siwoo, the original protagonist.