Ch.63. Celestial Horse Combustion Chamber (1)

After losing the ability to use mana, my senses became sharper than before I lost consciousness.

The Ancient Gear Ruby that fused with my mana heart—it must be the effect of that S-class weapon.

‘Things really are different from before I left.’

The arrangement of items in my room had changed. It could just be my imagination, but…

Ever since I started living alone—no, even before that, when I was hospitalized—I’ve been extremely sensitive to changes in my surroundings.

‘I always had to stay vigilant.’

I don’t think they would be interested in someone like me who can no longer use mana.

But I killed a high-ranking member of the Red Lake, a villain group still considered the most dangerous terrorist organization.

Red Lake. They were the ones behind the tragedy at Ains Academy. And they were also the targets of my revenge.

So I hurriedly got out of bed and surveyed my surroundings, but soon let out a deflated sigh.

“Oh, it was just Arin.”

Perhaps because I rushed home due to my panic attack, I didn’t have the presence of mind to notice it at first.

As my tension eased, I could smell Arin’s scent filling my apartment.

“Sigh, how did she figure out my password?”

I absent-mindedly opened the refrigerator. It was filled with all kinds of side dishes I hadn’t bought.

And it seemed Arin had cleaned up, which explained why things were rearranged.

Just to check, I opened my dresser drawer. Sure enough, everything there had been neatly organized too.

‘She even organized my underwear? What’s that about?’

Feeling defeated, I flopped back onto the bed.

It was only three subway stops from Flame headquarters to here.

But I had spent quite some time with Yuri, and because of my panic attack, I missed my stop and wandered around for a while.

‘By the time I got back, it was already evening.’

Arin had left Flame much earlier than me, so she must have come straight to my place. When I checked my smartphone, it was filled with messages from her.

┗ Sunbae, when are you coming? lolol You’re so late!!

┗ Are you still with that woman?

┗ When are you coming home?! lolol

┗ I got bored waiting and cleaned up. Men living alone need to clean regularly! lol Otherwise you’ll smell like a widower lol

┗ I stocked up on side dishes in case you were just going to eat ramen!! Even if you’re too lazy to cook, at least heat up some instant rice. It’s better than ramen.

┗ Minsu sunbae… when are you coming…

There were nearly 100 similar messages piled up.

┗ Sunbae… I’m leaving after waiting for you. Maybe you want to be alone today. But I’m worried, so please message me when you see this! ♡♡

I quickly scrolled to the bottom of the messages and replied to her.

I’m home. ┛

The read receipt appeared immediately. My phone rang. Of course, it was Arin. I answered.

“Sun—”

“I need to eat! I’ll call you later!”

I said that and quickly hung up. A barrage of messages came in immediately, but I ignored them.

There were also messages from Yuri, but I didn’t feel like reading them right now. No, I didn’t have the energy for it.

I ate dinner with the side dishes Arin had prepared. They were delicious, as expected. Since Arin knew my taste perfectly, there was no way her cooking wouldn’t be good.

I suddenly thought about Arin. Unlike me, she was perfect as a person.

Her sister, Professor Sung Chaerin, might have more pure genius, but she was awkward in her personal life due to her dedication to research.

At least as a person, Arin received much better evaluations from those around her.

‘Among the people I know, she’s the most sociable.’

As in today’s personality interview, she could blend in quickly even when attending a gathering for the first time. And she was pretty on top of that.

Even if thrown into the midst of villains, Arin was someone who could make allies.

That’s why I always tried to push Arin away. I knew that when it came to me, her personality sometimes changed to something close to obsession.

‘That’s all because of me.’

While I was thinking about Arin, I noticed that a photo on the table had been turned face down. Arin must have done that.

I picked up the small framed photo and lay down on the bed.

***

The frame had “19th Student Council” written on it. And in that photo were my classmates and juniors from my time at Ains.

‘Why did I put this up?’

There were two small stickers attached to the glass surface of the frame. When I removed them, two familiar faces appeared.

Yuri Tarkovskaya. And Yeon Soso. Arin must have covered those two.

‘She must really dislike someone who’s about to become her boss.’

Of course, I too couldn’t look at those two, not even their photos, for a long time. But now I was okay. The medication I took after leaving Flame was still working.

As I examined those nostalgic faces, my gaze stopped at one spot. And this time, instead of panic, the guilt I still couldn’t wash away came rushing back.

‘Kwon Siwoo.’

A male cadet with a kind face. And next to him, a cadet wearing a nun’s habit. I silently repeated their names.

Kwon Siwoo and Chae Mina.

Yes. Siwoo was the protagonist of the original work, “Aka Hunter.” And Mina was Siwoo’s childhood friend and lover.

She would become a saint and lead the story of Part 3 of the original work with Siwoo. A very important character. And those two no longer exist in this world.

Both of them died in my place, to save me, a mere supporting character. I bit my lip hard. I wanted to look away from them.

But I forced myself to endure. I had the duty to continue what they should have done in the original work.

‘Red Lake. Those guys. In your place, Siwoo, I will…’

I also had the duty to never forget that couple, the most beautiful at Ains. I made that promise to myself again.

Then my gaze shifted sideways. I saw another cadet next to Siwoo and Mina. It was me.

But unlike the other student council members who were already posed for the photo, only my posture was awkward, as anyone could see.

And next to me, Arin had her arm linked with mine.

I recalled the moment the photo was taken.

I wasn’t part of the student council, but Arin, who was the council secretary, had dragged me there to take the photo together.

‘She wasn’t wearing a nun’s habit back then.’

Arin wasn’t part of the White Cross from the beginning. She had originally entered Ains as a close-range fighter. It was Arin who always complained that Mina’s nun’s habit wasn’t pretty.

Arin was childhood friends with Siwoo and Mina. All three were war orphans from an orphanage sponsored by the White Cross.

‘Professor Sung Chaerin was in a different facility when she was young…’

So Arin had lost those two people who were like a real brother and sister to her.

She might be projecting them onto me. It wasn’t a good thing, and I should have kept my distance from her because of it.

But I was the one who couldn’t do that.

Right after I regained consciousness, I developed severe social anxiety to the point where I had difficulty meeting not only academy officials but also ordinary people.

But Arin was the only one I could face properly.

And Arin had always been by my side during that year when I was unconscious and until just a few months before I was discharged.

Suddenly, I remembered what Uncle Donghyuk had said to me at Flame Guild today.

‘Arin seems to like you a lot. If you start dating her first…’

But the word “dating” was the most luxurious word for me right now.

And in fact, I knew that Arin wasn’t thinking of me as a mere substitute for her childhood friends.

Two people who unconsciously licked each other’s wounds had probably let each other into their hearts deeper than the boundaries they had set.

But with only five years left to live, and if I were to unseal the Ruby and use mana again, that lifespan would rapidly decrease.

‘And even if it’s not me, there are many people who would like Arin.’

Not only that, but the thought of me—who had ruined the fate of a perfectly matched couple—liking someone else felt intensely repulsive.

At that moment, many emotions rushed in again, and I decided to stop thinking. And I suddenly felt tired. It was the day I had returned from an interview that had lasted from morning until late afternoon.

I changed my clothes roughly and lay down on the bed.

The bed was filled with Arin’s scent. A soft, non-stimulating fragrance like body lotion. But at the end of it, there seemed to be Arin’s own scent.

Perhaps Arin had gotten into this blanket and waited for me.

That familiar and comfortable scent quickly calmed my mind, which was confused by too many things that had happened today.

I fell asleep just like that.

***

A few days later. Monday of the third week of January. Finally, my first day at work arrived.

As if considering the hellish morning commute, Flame Guild’s working hours started at 10 AM. After eating a hearty breakfast, I finally entered the headquarters.

During the interview, I didn’t have the leisure to notice, but as I entered the office entrance, I had a moment to look around.

There were already employees working busily. But those employees were office workers. It seemed that office workers arrived earlier than field workers.

‘I already know the guild’s organizational chart, but…’

I thought briefly about Flame Guild before considering the organizational chart.

Although its headquarters was in a luxurious building in Gangnam, Flame was a medium-sized guild in terms of scale.

The number of employees was about 50. Since contract workers who weren’t regular employees came and went frequently, there could be fewer or more at times.

So when Yuri first created the guild, I heard that the employees handled various tasks without department distinctions.

But now that the scale had grown considerably, the departments had become more specialized.

‘The office workers are in the finance team, HR team, and operations team.’

That side had nothing to do with the internship program I was entering. In an officially certified hunter guild by the Hunter Association, the departments where the association’s standard internship program applied were field positions.

That is, in Flame’s case, the raid team and the information team. In my case, I was naturally assigned to the raid team. But because of my operator position, my work also overlapped with the information team.

As I entered the office, the employees’ gazes briefly turned to me. And just as I was about to head toward HR Manager Park Hyungwoo, I heard the female office workers whispering.

“That person. He must be the new intern, right?”

“I think so? The one who came in as an operator.”

“Then is he the one who’s… you know… with the Guild Leader? No way. It was just a rumor after all. That guy looks too ordinary.”

“Hmm. He looks decent enough, I guess. But compared to Guild Leader Yuri, the difference is too stark.”

I almost laughed out loud. Those employees had no way of knowing how sensitive my senses were. So they didn’t realize I could hear even their quiet whispers.

‘Well, I am ordinary, but what’s this about Yuri and me being “that way”?’

Perhaps because among the three successful candidates, only I was called separately by Yuri. And we spent quite a long time alone together.

In a small guild, that might have become gossip material.

“Oh, right. Not that intern, but the tanker who came in with him is totally an old man, right? I was hoping for a handsome new employee. But I guess this intern is better than the old guy.”

“Hey, are you compromising already? Wait. Come to think of it, that female intern was really pretty. Did you see how excited the male employees were?”

“Yeah. They’ve been talking about her for days. But that new female intern has a really nice personality too. She greets all of us properly. I thought she’d be more rigid since she’s a White Cross nun, but she seems like a really nice person.”

Ignoring the voices I heard, I went to Manager Park Hyungwoo. He was already at work and greeted me cheerfully.

“Good morning, Lee Minsu.”

“Please speak comfortably, Manager.”

“Ah, no. The field team is a separate department from ours. And as with any hunter guild, it’s right to give more respect to field workers.”

Saying that, Manager Park handed me an employee ID. It looked like a credit card with my name on it.

“This is your Flame employee ID. Since our guild is officially certified by the Hunter Association, this ID alone will give you access to many benefits provided by the Association. But you can learn about the details later. For now, would you follow me?”

He guided me. Interestingly, we went down one floor through stairs inside the office.

“The 32nd floor has the offices for the administrative teams and the executive office. The floor below, the 31st floor, is used by the field teams.”

I remembered that there was no button for the 31st floor in the public elevator. It seemed there was a separate dedicated elevator for the field team.

A moment later, I stood in front of a door labeled “Raid Team Waiting Room.”

“You can wait in here. The team leader in charge of intern training in the raid team will be here soon. Ah, Minsu, you said you were classmates with the Guild Leader at Ains? Then you must also be classmates with Team Leader Yeon Soso. Do you know her?”

I hesitated for a moment. Cheonma Yeon Soso. I couldn’t not know her. Soso, like Yuri, was a person who had given me trauma.

But it was the same for her too. Soso was also living a life completely different from the original work because of my selfishness.

Hiding those feelings, I answered.

“Yes. I know Soso… I mean, Team Leader Yeon Soso.”

“Then it will be easier for you to adapt. Team Leader Yeon is a bit, hmm, unique. Anyway, I’ll be going now.”

Manager Park left. And when I entered the waiting room, there were two familiar people.

“Sunbae! Why are you so late?”

“Good morning, Minsu.”

Of course, it was Arin and Uncle Donghyuk, my fellow interns.

“Sunbae! I told you we should come to work together this morning, so why did you ignore my messages? Huh? Explain yourself!”

“That’s because I didn’t want to cause any misunderstandings on the first day of work…”

Arin slightly linked her arm with mine.

“Oh my. What misunderstandings could there be? If there are misunderstandings that would trouble Minsu sunbae…”

Just as I pushed away Arin who was clinging to me, the waiting room door swung open. And someone entered with great momentum.

“Everyone’s gathered. Are you the new field team recruits?”

The three of us focused on that person, her. Black long hair, wearing a tank top and leggings, as if she had come to a fitness center.

And over that, she wore an aviation jacket covered with dragon patterns—a very unique outfit for a young woman.

When the three of us answered affirmatively, she introduced herself.

“I am Cheonma Yeon Soso. Team Leader Yeon Soso.”