Chapter 49 – Moon Walk

The next day.

While the students spent their free time, Hayeon and I took a stroll around Hanok Village. 

As I continued to walk in the same area, Hayeon asked me with a frustrated tone, “Han Sijoon. Just what are you doing?”

“Shh, wait.”

“I’ve been waiting for 30 minutes already…?”

That much time went by already?

It was 11:35 right now.

When the cuckoo sound rang out in the Hanok Village, it announced that it was 12 o’clock.

It also acted as a signal for the opening of the gate in V. AGE episode 2.

There were about 25 minutes left.

So that we wouldn’t get caught up at the center of the gate, we were at a small mill at the outskirts of Hanok Village.

I just felt disappointed that the only thing I could do was this.

“Hayeon. What do you think would happen if I shouted out loud right here that a gate is going to open?”

“Did you eat something bad yesterday?”

A remark where not even Hayeon believed me.

Why would a gate open in Jeonju Hanok Village, when it hasn’t for decades?

Even if I yell out, “A gate will open! Everyone, run away!” they wouldn’t believe me and would treat me like a nutcase.

As long as the gate for episode 2 was cleared quickly, people wouldn’t be harmed at all. So all I could do was to clear the gate without saying a word.

I need Seolha in order to do that.

The reason why I was hanging around the same place in the outskirts was to find Lee Seolha.

Seolha felt inferior to the students spending money and playing in their free time.

If I had money too, would I be able to play around that excitedly like them…?

She came from a poor family and was on a scholarship while paying off her debt. She envied the students who were playing around without a care in the world, and fled to the outskirts which was out of sight.

Before 12 o’clock, she’d be around here.

I asked Hayeon, “Hayeon, if there’s someone who hates you, what would you do?”

“Hmm… I’d just ignore them. There must be something wrong with them for them to not like me.”

“Where do you get that confidence from…?”

“Hehe…Also even if someone doesn’t like me, it’s okay. Since you can just like me that much more.”

Give her as much love as the hate she got.

That comment was quite strong. 

She’s coming in hot.

Hearing that from Hayeon shook my heart a little.

After she said that to me, she came straight at me as if something awakened her.

It looked like the reins of us being “family” were undone.

Afterwards, Hayeon and I tenderly flirted with each other while waiting for Seolha to come.

She couldn’t even imagine that I was waiting for Seolha.

10 minutes before the gate opened…

I began to see the somber Seolha from a distance.

When my eyes sparkled upon seeing her, Hayeon tapped me and asked, “You. Don’t tell me you were waiting for her…?”

She knew since she heard the rumors.

The rumor that the first place, Lee Seolha, despised her.

They were rumors that stemmed from inferiority and jealousy.

You could tell how outright hostile Seolha was to Hayeon.

First things first, I should explain.

Because Hayeon wore a disappointed look, I quickly told her.

“How would I know that she’d come here and wait for her? It’s a coincidence. A coincidence.”

“True… It’s not like you know the future, I misunderstood. Sorry for that!”

“I’ll forgive you this time since you apologized quickly.”

I unintentionally got an apology.

I looked at Seolha, who was getting closer.

Having exceptional senses, she noticed my gaze, 

I raised my ducked head.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw us.

“You guys…”

“It’s been a while. Seolha.”

“…A while?” 

Hayeon didn’t even know I talked with her before, so she was a bit puzzled that we were acquainted.

Seolha looked at us back and forth with her navy blue eyes, and scowled.

“I guess you’re not childhood friends for nothing, you’re always stuck together. Like gum stuck on the floor.”

“Why are you provoking us? If you have nothing to say, why don’t you just get lost?”

Wait no, it won’t be good if they fight.

The gate was going to open soon and they’d need to cooperate.

Were the gears creaking already?

Hayeon didn’t hesitate to turn down a fight, so she was reacting to Seolha’s provocation.

“The way you speak is quite unladylike. Your childhood friend probably detests women like you. He may be enduring it, you know.”

“She’s asking for a fight right now, don’t stop me Sijoon.”

“Seeing as how you’re getting angry, I must’ve hit a sore spot. Sorry, sorry~ I didn’t know it was actually like that~”

Hayeon was getting angry at Seolha’s mocking sarcasm, it seemed like a fight would break out any moment now..

I pointed my finger at the sky to mediate their fight.

It was the center point of Hanok Village.

The place where the gate opened.

“How about leaving the fight for later? Look at that.”

“…?”

Only then did they pick up on the strange flow of air in the sky, and Seolha, who had better senses than other people, could identify what it was.

“A gate…? Why is that…”

She had seen a gate form a long time ago.

It seemed she immediately grasped what it was.

Hayeon also read the air flow. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

“L-Let’s run away! Sijoon!”

“It’s too late.”

Black spaces were gradually emerging in the clear open sky.

A gate which connected to a different dimension.

It opened little by little, spreading mana as it blanketed the sky.

“Ahh…” 

Perhaps Hayeon judged that we could no longer run away, she stood still while looking at me.

Then she said, “I promise I’ll protect you this time.”

“…Thanks.”

As someone who was being protected, what I could do was thank her and use the information I had to target the gate.

It was safe to say that my life depended on Hayeon. 

I spoke to Seolha, who was staring at the sky in a daze. 

“You know what’s going on, right? We’re going to be inside the gate any minute now.”

“So?”

“Let’s go together. It’s safer with the three of us than just one.”

I put my hand out to indicate for us to go together.

The Hero Academy’s Response to Gates: if you get swept up in a gate incident, hold the hand of the person next to you. Then, you won’t lose them.

It was a basic response method for gates, and Seolha, who studied harder than anyone else, was well aware of that information.

But since she had a phobia of men, she kept glancing at it as if she couldn’t hold my hand.

It can’t be helped.

I gave her a signal with my eyes.

A signal to hold Hayeon’s hand who was next to me.

When she made eye contact with Hayeon, she frowned, looking aghast.

“Ugh shit… I don’t want to hold hands with her…”

“Who said I’d let you hold it? Unbelievable…”

Seolha was forced to hold Hayeon’s hand.

Displeased, she made a face as if she ate something sour.

That was how we held each other’s hands so that we wouldn’t lose each other.

The black void covered the blue sky as ominous mana gushed out.

It didn’t take long before we were swept up by a violent manastorm, and sucked into the black gate.

 ***

The inside of the gate was dreary.

The white moonlight illuminated, and there was debris from old buildings and broken tiles of Hanok houses everywhere.

It’s more ominous seeing it in person.

The white moonlight bore down at us.

I felt like it was showing me the destroyed world of V. AGE from the rubble of the collapsed buildings. 

I approached Hayeon whose head was bent down.

“Are you feeling a bit better now?”

“W…Wait… Nngh…!”

Hayeon turned her head away so that I couldn’t see her, and expressed her nausea.

She had always been prone to motion sickness, and because she had a high amount of mana, she couldn’t get a grip of herself.

I patted Hayeon on the back and then approached Seolha, who was on her knees in the distance.

“Do you want me to pat your back?”

“It’s…fine… Don’t touch me… I’ll die…” 

She also couldn’t get a hold of herself.

Yeah, who told you all to have a magic core in the first place?

For a moment, I felt really down that I was the only one who was normal.

First things first. Blue stone. 

I turned the Golem’s core to the blue stone, supplying my body with mana.

I’d be put in quite a difficult position by not having mana in this place, so I had to keep the blue stone activated at all times.

After some time passed, Hayeon and Seolha finally regained their senses, and I quickly said to them, “Guys, we’re running out of time. Let’s hurry up and go.”

The party’s main characters managed to pull themselves together and stood up.

Hayeon saw that my eyes were blue due to the blue stone, so I roughly summed it up as it being the “gate’s influence”.

I led them towards an area with the most shade possible so that the moonlight wouldn’t shine on us.

“Lee Seolha.”

“…What.”

“Can you use your ability right now? If you can’t right now, then as soon as possible.”

“…For what reason?”

Seolha asked me with a dubious look on her face.

Because I didn’t appear particularly strong to her, it looked like she didn’t deem it necessary to heed my order.

How frustrating.

Tsk.

Displeased, I clicked my tongue and said to her, “We’re not the only ones here. Use your ability.”

“…?” 

She had a look which read, “How can you sense something that I can’t?”

Obviously I didn’t sense it, I just experienced episode 2 beforehand.

Seolha decided to listen to me for now, activating her innate ability.

[Wild Beast] 

The ability to have beast-like senses and possess as much power as one.

She concentrated and strained her ears, listening to the surroundings.

“People…? Are crawling…and walking… What… What is that…?”

When she listened to the sound, it sounded like a person.

But it was a creature like a human and a monster.

Judging from her reaction, those things didn’t seem to be near us.

“Keep it activated as long as you can. Since we’ll be in big trouble if those things come nearby.”

“O-Okay…”  

She looked bemused at how I noticed them first.

Her reaction was understandable since her innate ability was unparalleled in terms of tracking and searching. 

Hayeon looked at me as if I was amazing.

Perhaps she sensed something odd with my body, she asked me, “Sijoon, were your clothes always that big…?”

Was it like that already?

I had less mana than them, so it seems that I was the only one who progressed faster.

My regular-fit clothes turned into oversized clothes.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

I smiled as if there was nothing wrong and hastened my steps.