Chapter 30: If I Call You Nuna (5)

Yoon Bom grew up in an affluent environment.

Until her mother became addicted to gambling, and her father left.

Yoon Bom’s mother became increasingly consumed by gambling, and there were more days she didn’t come home than days she did in a year.

‘Still, Mom didn’t abandon me.’

Yoon Bom overcame the difficult times with her bright disposition.

Though a shadow had fallen over her heart, she wanted to move forward.

She matured early and started her social life quickly.

‘Mom said she had a really good feeling this time.’

Most of her first salary was taken by her mother.

The next salary too.

Her daughter’s salary, secured loans, the house, and eventually even private loans.

The mother and daughter ended up on the streets.

‘Stay put here and save money. Don’t even think about meeting Mom.’

Even in the midst of misfortune, an adult reached out to Yoon Bom.

The owner of the hair salon who took her in when she was a minor.

She stepped in and stopped Yoon Bom’s mother.

Yoon Bom began to diligently save her salary and even got a small room with a security deposit.

‘Bom-ah. Mom’s really having a hard time. Mom said she won’t gamble anymore, okay?’

Was it because of the shackle called blood ties?

Yoon Bom pitied her mother.

She accepted her as someone she had to take care of.

So she did.

She let her mother into her home even knowing she was lying.

‘Wh-who are you?’

One day.

Unknown men came to her house.

Yoon Bom was betrayed by her own mother.

Because her mother had borrowed money using her daughter’s name and then ran away.

Nevertheless, Yoon Bom did not react actively.

‘Oh dear, you foolish thing. That’s just stupid. Why…’

The salon owner tried to soothe and reason with Yoon Bom, but it was no use.

Because all Yoon Bom had left was her mother.

Ordinary people couldn’t understand her heart.

---

Yoon Bom first met Lee Hyeon shortly after she started working at the hair salon.

The first moment she saw Lee Hyeon, she thought he was a very cute and pretty child.

‘Please take good care of me.’

Yoon Bom knew to some extent that Lee Hyeon was different.

Because his mother had told her directly.

That’s why Lee Hyeon concerned her more.

Because she believed such a pretty child was living with his own hardships.

Yoon Bom considered Lee Hyeon someone she had to take care of.

Even while going through her own difficult times, she never lost her smile when she met Lee Hyeon.

That might have been what kept her alive.

Because watching Lee Hyeon grow, she thought that even someone like her might have been helpful to someone.

Around the time Lee Hyeon became a high school student.

Yoon Bom’s salon owner expanded the business, and Yoon Bom was managing the original salon by herself.

‘You have to pay back the money, don’t you.’

Loan sharks came to the store.

Demanding she pay back her mother’s debt.

Three men intimidated her, and just then, Lee Hyeon, who had an appointment, entered the salon.

Chwaak

Lee Hyeon grabbed a pair of scissors and fought the three men.

The loan sharks ended up in the hospital.

‘Lee Hyeon-ah. Why did you do that? They would have just messed around a bit and left.’

‘Because Nuna is my hairstylist.’

Yoon Bom instinctively sensed Lee Hyeon’s twisted possessiveness.

That made her incredibly happy.

As time passed, Yoon Bom began to pour more affection into Lee Hyeon instead of her mother, whose face she couldn’t see.

‘Someone like me can’t be loved anyway.’

Yoon Bom thought that men were a luxury for her.

Because she had the heavy burden of a gambling-addicted mother.

So she did.

She was a little greedy with Lee Hyeon, who had grown up so wonderfully.

‘Lee Hyeon-ah. Want to sleep with Nuna?’

‘Yes, Hairstylist-nim.’

‘No, can’t you call me Nuna?’

‘No.’

She was satisfied with sharing their first experience together.

She vowed that if Lee Hyeon remained alone, she would be by his side.

Perhaps even if Lee Hyeon found someone he loved.

---

The day of the cataclysm.

That day, Yoon Bom met her mother for the first time in months.

“I don’t have money to give you, Mom! I really don’t! Don’t ever come looking for me again!”

For the first time, Yoon Bom fought back against her mother.

Because it was miserable.

Because she found out that her mother had also gone to see Lee Hyeon.

“Do you really have to talk to your mother like that when you see her after so long?”

The fight between mother and daughter ended when monsters appeared.

The two desperately fled and, with the help of the Revival Association, managed to enter the market.

“Daughter. Just close your eyes tight, okay? They say you can just do it for a few days and then quit.”

“Is that something you say to your daughter?”

Her mother, telling her to sell her body for gambling funds.

Yoon Bom could never do that.

Because her body belonged to Lee Hyeon.

‘If it’s Lee Hyeon… he’ll definitely survive. If it’s that boy…’

She endured with that hope.

Doing the barrier construction work that even men found difficult, every day from dawn till dusk.

At least catching one Goblin had been helpful.

“Yoon Bom!”

And Yoon Bom’s hope and faith were rewarded.

Today.

Lee Hyeon came for her.

“Pfft. I told him to call me Nuna.”

Lee Hyeon, appearing covered in blood.

He has the same look in his eyes as when he protected her from the loan sharks.

Her heart pounds at the sight.

Because he looks just like the prince on a white horse she saw in fairy tales when she was young.

At the same time, her own appearance felt so pathetic.

So much so that she didn’t want to show it to him.

“Hairstylist. Come with me.”

“Nuna. If I call you Nuna. How many years has it been already?”

“Yeah. Nuna. Let’s go together.”

“I didn’t say you could speak informally…”

So she threw a tantrum she had never even tried before, out of nowhere.

Because she was embarrassed.

Warak

Lee Hyeon didn’t care and pulled her into an embrace.

Her, who smelled terrible from not having washed for a long time.

All of this felt like a dream.

But it didn’t end there.

“Because Nuna is mine now.”

Yoon Bom found reality hard to believe and just kept staring at Lee Hyeon’s face.

She knows what he’s saying isn’t love.

Still, it can’t be helped.

If she can be treated like a precious object to him.

That alone is enough for her.

It felt like today would be remembered as the happiest day of her life.

Until her mother appeared.

“Oh my, is that Lee Hyeon?”

Yoon Bom woke from her dream and despaired.

She realizes once again that even this is a luxury for her.

To her, Lee Hyeon whispered.

“Abandon it. That’s not your mother.”

It was a sweet whisper.

At the same time, Lee Hyeon’s companions came into Yoon Bom’s sight.

‘Lee Hyeon’s going to have a lot of those. Me too….’

She nodded her head.

Thinking that now, one person was enough for her to take care of.

Yoon Bom chose Lee Hyeon.

Yoon Bom chose the dream.

---

Nuna nods her head.

Then there’s no need to hesitate further.

“Lee Hyeon is really amazing. Looking at him…”

The ajumma approaches, smiling at me.

Her own daughter seems to be out of her sight.

“Right? Your situation is a bit better now, isn’t it? Thinking of this girl…”

It’s detestable.

The sight of her, with matted hair and hollow eyes, targeting me.

She seems excited at the thought of sucking my blood after her own daughter’s.

Peok

I struck the chin of the ajumma who came close.

She collapses, unconscious.

“Don’t mind it. Just look at me.”

“Eung.”

I turned Bom Nuna’s head.

Nuna says she understands and clings tightly to me.

“Let’s go.”

The group members approach.

I held Chairman Park’s ankle in one hand and wrapped my other arm around Bom Nuna’s shoulder.

“Please step aside. We’re passing through.”

Jang Hoseop steps forward and clears a path through the crowd.

“No, isn’t that Chairman Park over there?”

“I can’t see well either.”

Most people still haven’t grasped the situation.

Only a few people quietly move towards the building where Chairman Park was staying.

“It’s going to get chaotic here too.”

After leaving the market, Jang Hoseop mutters quietly.

Bom Nuna is still looking only at me.

“Hyungnim. But why did you bring that ajussi?”

“I thought he might be useful.”

Chairman Park, with his limbs twisted.

He’s been unconscious at some point.

“Isn’t he going to die if you drag him like that?”

“This person’s skill is skin hardening. He’s fine.”

“Ah, right. Why such a Fundamental Skill… Was he originally flabby?”

Strange.

It seems Chairman Park flinched at Jang Hoseop’s words.

“The Revival Association seems to be all dealt with, right?”

“Yep. It seems they all came out earlier. There was no one armed.”

I remember two.

The man who drew our faces at the entrance and the man who took a bribe from Jang Hoseop.

I definitely killed those two.

“Nuna. These are the people who are with me. Say hello and wait for a moment.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“To pick up Mana Stones.”

I gestured to Jang Hoseop with my eyes.

“I’ll go check their emotions too.”

“Yep. Go ahead.”

He receives my eye signal and speaks to Nuna first.

“Hello! I’m Jang Hoseop. Hyungnim’s right-hand man… aspirant. I’m 25 this year, so please speak comfortably.”

It seems Lee Yuna is scared, but Nuna is fine.

“Ah, I’m Yoon Bom. It’s a single character name… I’m sorry for my appearance. Please take care of me.”

“Not at all. You must have suffered a lot, right? This is our mom…”

Seeing the group members taking care of Nuna, I turned around.

I enter the market again.

‘Just in case.’

Actually, I had already checked everyone who came out to the market street.

As Jang Hoseop said, there was no one armed.

So, they are all people who were being overworked by the Revival Association.

“Eum…”

My business is with this woman.

Bom Nuna’s mother, lying on the floor.

Kwajik

I brought the axe down on her neck in one swift motion.

I finished her off just in case she might come looking again.

‘She only ever caused her daughter pain.’

I hope she gets to gamble to her heart’s content in hell, since she liked it so much.

---

Although I rescued Bom Nuna, we can’t go home right away.

Because I haven’t yet recovered the Mana Stones from the corpses of the Revival Association members I killed.

We all moved to the street where we fought the Revival Association.

“Nuna. Is it hard?”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about Nuna, just do what you need to do.”

“Yeah. Just endure a little longer.”

Bom Nuna is not in normal condition.

She worked hard without eating properly.

If her mother hadn’t been around, she would have at least eaten her meals properly.

“Mana Stones… Do Mana Stones originally come from people too?”

“No. Because of my skill. Normally, they don’t.”

The street is packed with corpses.

The spilled blood soaks the ground.

The group members are burdened by the sight and smell.

Despite that, Bom Nuna sticks by my side, watching the Mana Stone extraction with fascination.

As if she can’t see anything else.

“I see. Lee Hyeon is amazing.”

I collected Mana Stones with Bom Nuna clinging to me like a keychain.

The group members checked if there was anything to salvage from the corpses.

However, the discomfort I had been feeling since earlier gradually worsens.

‘Fever?’

A feeling of my head getting hot and dizziness.

And slight nausea.

During the battle, I thought it was because of the heat of the fight.

“Are you okay? You don’t look well.”

“I think I’m a little dizzy.”

“Huh? Ah… Because of me.”

Bom Nuna jumps back in surprise.

She seems to think it’s because of the smell coming from her.

It’s not like that.

I quickly found the cause.

“Hyungnim? Are you okay?”

“No. The skill isn’t working.”

Mana Stone Extraction isn’t working.

And the presence of the group members, which I could feel without looking, disappeared.

Target Detection is also off.

“Ah… Hyungnim must have run out of mana too.”

“Mana?”

“Yes. When I use invisibility for a long time, I get dizzy and stuff too.”

The other group members approach and say they’ve felt that way too.

“So I was using mana too.”

“Yes. It seems so. Since Hyungnim’s level is so high, your MP pool was probably large too. Relatively speaking.”

Jang Hoseop states his guess.

“We can’t compare the absolute amount, but Hyungnim’s skill might have had low mana consumption.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Warrior types tend to be like that. Also, Target Detection feels like a passive… Did Magic Resistance consume a lot of mana?”

Anyway, what’s certain now is that I can’t use Mana Stone Extraction anymore.

There are still many corpses left.

“It takes time to recover… Should we come back tomorrow?”

And I don’t feel good either.

With Target Detection off, it feels like one of my senses has disappeared.

As I frown, Bom Nuna reaches out and gently rubs my brow with her thumb.

“Nuna can help.”

Then she said something unexpected.

“Huh?”

“Nuna has a Fundamental Skill too.”

Bom Nuna takes my hand.

“I’ll give you what Nuna saved up. Take it.”

An unknown power flows into me from her.

I can only express it this way.

“What is this? It feels good.”

The dizziness quickly subsides.

My stomach also feels better.

“Thank goodness… Nuna was helpful.”

Bom Nuna explains her skill.

‘Mana Reservoir’

Nuna’s Fundamental Skill is that her mana capacity increases significantly.

“And I can share the stored mana.”

“Ah. So that’s why I feel better.”

“Yes. I have a mana filter. So you can rest assured.”

Thanks to Nuna, I learned a new concept.

The nature of mana possessed by each person can be slightly different.

Bom Nuna passes mana in its pure form through a virtual filter.

“Um, Nunim.”

“Yes. Hoseop-ah.”

“So Nunim is type O, then?”

“Huh? Ah, kukkukkuk. Yes, that’s right.”

I tried using Mana Stone Extraction again.

The skill works well.

“Since Nunim is a hairstylist, I thought it would be a skill that cuts things. If so, then another support type…”

Jang Hoseop looks somehow disappointed.

“Huh? Sorry…”

“Ah, no. Nunim’s skill is really good too. I misspoke. Having mana recovery in the party is so good.”

Jang Hoseop praises Bom Nuna’s skill to make up for his mistake.

I also think Bom Nuna’s skill is good.

Thanks to Nuna, I was able to extract Mana Stones from all the corpses.

---

That night.

After safely returning home, when everyone was asleep.

Lee Jangsu stands up while on watch duty.

He heads to the second floor and opens a door.

“Yuna-yah, wake up.”

“Eueueum. Dad?”

Lee Yuna opens her eyes with difficulty.

The aftermath of a long and arduous day is clearly visible on her face.

“Yeah, it’s Dad. Hurry up and pack your things.”

Nevertheless, Lee Jangsu hurried his daughter.

He looks around with an anxious and restless face.

Then he picks up a backpack.

“No, why? What’s wrong?”

“Shh. Be quiet.”

“What’s wrong? I’m sleepy.”

“Let’s go with Dad. I’ll explain on the way, so hurry and get up.”

Lee Jangsu was planning an escape.