Orphanage 5

Beyond the Gate.

A place known as the source of monsters and mana.

For people, it was an unknown space.

Related records are absurdly few.

Even as the Team Leader of the Guild Support Team in the Hunter Management Bureau, there’s little known.

Even for Han Yu-seol, who prides herself on having gone through her fair share of chaos, it’s utterly unfamiliar.

Hell.

Thus, the place Han Yu-seol saw could be defined in one word.

It wasn’t in a figurative sense.

It was a literal landscape.

Ground thickly covered with light red grass like a carpet.

Huge stones of unknown reason are strewn about.

While there’s no sun or moon hanging in the sky, it’s not completely dark due to pools of lava bubbling here and there like puddles of rainwater.

“…The mana is dense.”

Han Yu-seol frowned.

She was currently constrained in her basic life activities as a human.

She can’t breathe properly.

The air is heavy.

It’s been less than 20 years since the human body started accepting mana.

Even then, it’s only been gradually accepting diluted mana flowing in from beyond the Gates.

Mana is an omnipotent substance.

It can replace all resources in this world.

A powerful, pure force in itself.

That’s why mana above a certain concentration is harmful to the human body.

An awakener’s body is just a medium that stores mana and filters it to manifest abilities.

It certainly doesn’t function for any purpose beyond that.

Unless artificially modifying the body, absolutely not.

And the space Han Yu-seol was in was beyond the Gate.

Pure, undiluted mana stabbed directly into her lungs.

“…5 minutes might be the limit of endurance.”

Even for her, an A-class awakener, 5 minutes is the limit.

…For the orphanage child, it was an obvious story.

There wasn’t even time to hesitate anymore.

Han Yu-seol used her ‘Eyes’.

Eyes that read the flow of mana.

The child’s thin mana continues like a single thread.

Those eyes flickering with golden light closely resembled those of the hero.

No, they were the hero’s eyes themselves.

Han Yu-seol ran following the line.

With each step, her childlike fragile body was strained, but it didn’t matter.

“So you were here.”

Beyond the sulfurous hell, where she headed was a rotten, crumbling great tree.

“Let’s go back, Suyeon.”

“No…”

Yu-seol’s eyes turned to the owner of the voice.

Black hair neatly cut and a band-aid on the nose.

A somewhat boyish-looking girl is there.

Grass was stuck to her body as if she had rolled on the ground several times, and her breathing was rough.

“I have to meet mom…”

“…”

“She promised, after a year, she’d come to get me. But it seems she forgot, so I have to go find her. Mom sometimes has memory loss…”

Han Yu-seol knew what the girl’s words meant.

‘Big sister told me! Mom and dad are so busy these days, they only come when I’m always asleep!’

Whose story was that?

Was it a friend’s, a sibling’s story?

No, it’s not just that.

In that living hell where Gates appeared and monsters appeared, dyeing the world in darkness, it was a common, all too common experience that everyone must have gone through at least once.

Even though we’ve reached today where peace has been achieved, those nail marks remained too deeply embedded.

Her comrades, her precious friends, society changed like that.

“I, with mom…!”

“Let’s go back.”

Then, as an adult, there was only one thing Han Yu-seol could do.

“Let’s go back, Suyeon.”

Han Yu-seol reached out her hand.

“I’m an outsider. I might not have the right to meddle in Suyeon’s affairs. But, even someone like me can say one thing.”

That’s right.

She’s an outsider.

She doesn’t have the power to fundamentally resolve the situation.

In the end, it might just be someone else’s business, perhaps excessive meddling.

“Endlessly waiting for a precious person. There’s nothing more painful and cruel than that.”

She too, for Lily,

“There was a child worried about you, Suyeon. At the orphanage.”

“…Ha-yeon, sister.”

Because she knew the pain of losing someone precious.

“You know well how sad Ha-yeon would be if she lost you, don’t you? Do you intend to inflict that sadness on your sister too?”

Han Yu-seol couldn’t leave the child alone.

“You can still turn back, Suyeon. So.”

She can turn back.

Because no one has died yet.

“Let’s go back. Together.”

“…Okay.”

She held the child’s hand.

At that moment, she couldn’t exert strength.

They need to go back quickly.

Even one more minute, and the two won’t be able to maintain their sanity.

■■─!

In a situation where every second counts.

Very naturally, a monster appears from behind.

The grade is roughly below C.

However, being inside the Gate is fatal.

…Although not widely known to the public, unlike humans, monsters.

That is, when they are beyond the Gate, they exert their true power in an environment rich in mana.

Most of the monsters that appeared beyond the Gates were weakened by the influence of Earth’s environment.

Limited to this environment, Han Yu-seol, who also has to protect the child, can’t guarantee victory.

“This is troublesome. At a time like this…”

It was a matter of speed.

A race between Han Yu-seol carrying the child returning to the Gate first, or the monster catching up to her before that.

Originally, the conclusion of this race would be a hair’s breadth happy ending.

The two would succeed in returning by a narrow margin, evading the monster.

That narrow margin is really, really close.

It might be reversed if there’s even a small butterfly effect.

─Lightning Flash.

So, the girl decided to swing her sword.

Because the munchkin protagonist, even if destined for a happy ending, wasn’t of a docile character to tolerate frustrating developments.

“…!”

With black hair fluttering.

The red-eyed girl bisected the monster.

“Cut.”

Han Seoyeon shook off the blood on her sword and sheathed it.

“Let’s hurry back. Don’t just stand there blankly.”

The space with only the two girls was awkward.

“…A talk.”

The subject was no different from what was already decided.

For Michaela and Han Su-ho, there was only one common denominator.

“How are things with Seoyeon these days?”

“…I have no obligation to tell you that.”

“Yes. That’s true, I suppose.”

Han Su-ho said with a relaxed smile.

“But I’m curious. How was it, the first night?”

“…!”

The first night.

Hearing those words, Michaela’s eyes widened.

“How did you…”

It was a fact she hadn’t told anyone.

Could it be she was being followed?

“So it was true after all, I was just taking a shot in the dark.”

“…”

Michaela’s deduction was off the mark.

It was entirely Michaela’s mistake, falling for Han Su-ho’s poker face.

“So.”

Michaela composed herself and answered nonchalantly.

“What of it?”

It was an expression of confidence.

The realization that it was none other than her who conquered the girl.

“It’s none of your business.”

No matter what other inferior females might say, Michaela won’t be shaken.

“No. It is my business.”

“Even so, you’re just a friend in the end,”

“─Because I’m her younger sister. I am.”

“…What.”

While it didn’t shake her, it was still words that couldn’t help but shock her.

“The Firefly Group chairman, Han Jun-hyeok, had two daughters. One S-class awakener and one powerless. …I believe you understand what that means.”

“…”

This country despises, even hates the weak.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how parents would have treated a child with the title of powerless.

Only then could Michaela understand what meaning Han Su-ho and Han Seoyeon’s embrace had last time.

Also the reason why Han Su-ho was obsessed with Han Seoyeon.

“I love my sister.”

The reason for being wary of Michaela too.

“You must know too, senior. The meaning of me saying I love my sister.”

Han Su-ho wishes.

Not just a simple sibling relationship, but something more.

“But I couldn’t protect my sister.”

It was a dream that could never come true.

Because she had already failed her sister twice.

“When my sister was driven to the slums, when she was struggling and suffering, I couldn’t do anything for her. I’m an incompetent, inadequate sister, far inferior compared to my sister.”

If Han Su-ho were to confess her true feelings, Han Seoyeon would hesitate.

Kindly.

That’s precisely what shouldn’t happen.

It’s no different from troubling her sister again, who has finally achieved happiness.

So, it must be folded away.

Han Su-ho’s one-sided love must not bloom.

“So, selfishly as a form of atonement, I just want my sister to be happy from now on. I want her to walk only on flower paths.”

However, contrary to her wish, her sister won’t try to be happy.

“But as you know, senior, my sister is stubborn. She definitely won’t try to be happy easily.”

Her sister is a sucker, always trying to shoulder something.

“My sister is shouldering many things.”

Han Su-ho revealed a secret known only to the sisters to a third party.

The Falling Star Sword.

Her most shameful memory.

“Michaela Wittelsbach.”

The foolish younger sister who dumped everything on her sister and ran away alone asks.

“…Can you promise to protect my sister from any hardships to come and make her happy?”

“Of course.”

Michaela declared without the slightest hesitation.

“I will protect that child. I will make that child happy.”

“…Then, that’s enough for now.”

A single tear,

“Like my incompetent face,”

rolls down her cheek and falls.

“If you make my sister cry, I won’t forgive you…!”

“…”

Putting herself in the other’s position, able to guess to some extent what those feelings were like.

Michaela silently, but surely, accepted those words.

“…By the way, this doesn’t mean I’ve given up on my sister. If you let your guard down, I’ll snatch her away, so keep that in mind, okay?”

“I declare, that will never happen.”

Han Su-ho, who had wiped away her tears at some point, pretending to be nonchalant.

She uttered a joke that couldn’t be ignored.

“I’m truly grateful, student Han Seoyeon.”

“Don’t worry about it. I did it because I wanted to.”

After safely escorting the child back to the orphanage.

Han Yu-seol repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Han Seoyeon.

“By the way, beyond the Gate was a terrible place. I never want to go there again…”

“…Yes.”

Beyond the Gate.

At those words, Han Seoyeon suddenly recalled.

It was a fact known only to Yeon as a human, even within the story.

The place they just visited wasn’t beyond the Gate.

Gate.

Door, in other words, a passage.

That place was just a path connecting space to space.

The true meaning of beyond the Gate.

What lies beyond that space is not just monsters.

In a dark cave, or more precisely, somewhere underground that resembles a cave.

A voice echoes in that place called a dungeon.

[It’s me.]

Leaving behind the coldly cooled corpse.

Yeon answered the phone.

[I’ll get straight to the point, what are you plotting?]

“…That’s quite a rude way of speaking. Major General Kim Wan-seung.”

[Don’t play dumb!]

The middle-aged man’s shout echoes through the dungeon over the phone.

[The Homunculus Plan, there’s no way you don’t know about it. What, is it Han Jun-hyeok this time?]

“…No.”

To Kim Wan-seung’s sarcasm, Yeon said easily.

“As always, everything is just for the people.”

The conversation ended there.

There’s no need to discuss anything more.

“…Huh.”

Kim Wan-seung laughed dejectedly.

“The people, you say? There’s no way that’s like you.”

Nationalism is a self-righteous color.

Looking down on and hating the outside.

If one who has watched Yeon’s course of action so far were to evaluate, most might call her a nationalist.

But Kim Wan-seung’s thoughts were different.

“There’s no way you could have forgotten that child, Lily.”

Lily.

For Yeon to forget that name, in his thinking, was impossible.