Chapter 284. Dissolution (3)
"No matter how I think about it, it really does seem like I made a mistake—ended up going after the wrong person."
"..."
"Well, since I live believing that nothing in this world is absolute, I still have this lingering suspicion deep down that so maybe might actually be a monster."
"That's..."
"If you shoot a beast that's gotten this good at pretending to be human, well, that kind of thing could easily end up being the hunter's co in its own right. You get what I'm saying?"
Kang Changho turns around as he finishes the sentence.
"And this may not quite count as an apology for the misunderstanding, but still..."
He picked up the remaining docunts from the drawer beside the hospital bed.
The surface was rough, brown like soil, and thick.
This was the material Kim Giryeo had seen before—a docunt-type artifact known in Earth's hunter community as the [Knight's Oath].
Contract Contents
1. Kim Giryeo shall transfer all rights to his entire body to Kang Changho on the day he turns 34 (based on 20XX-01-01, 00:00 GMT 9), and Kang Changho shall not use the transferred rights for any purpose other than activating / improvent.
Of course, the parchnt is no now different from an ordinary scroll, as its effect has already been activated and ended. However, Kang Changho, as a party to the agreent, shows the artifact he has kept.
Smk.
Moreover, by tearing the original docunt in front of the sole concerned party, he visually demonstrated his intention.
"That's all for the promise."
Kang Changho officially gave up using [improvent].
"What?"
"Not only for the next 10 years but for the rest of your life as well, Hunter Kim Giryeo will never again be targeted as a sacrifice."
"..."
"Since the price you owed has disappeared, naturally, there's no longer any obligation for 5-rank personnel to tail you around and protect you."
No complaints, right?
"You've recovered quite a lot in terms of your powers anyway."
The patient in the hospital bed stared blankly at Kang Changho as he spoke. The being wearing Kim Giryeo's skin soon shouted in disbelief.
"No, wait. Are you really saying you're going to give up that contract this easily?"
Is it any wonder the other person's attitude changed completely in just a few hours? But contrary to the archmage's thoughts, Kang Changho had already foreseen this situation long ago. In fact, the contract they made was structured so that its full execution could be indefinitely postponed.
"...I was originally planning to spare you whenever I felt like it."
After a brief pause, Kang Changho spoke in a sowhat blunt tone.
"If you look closely at the [Knight's Oath], you'll see that it never says how long the transferred rights have to be used."
"..."
"If I decide to use the [improvent] four days later, just that alone can extend the sacrifice's lifespan indefinitely."
The large hunter shrugged his shoulders and continued this explanation with a casual tone.
"Originally, those clauses were drafted with all kinds of situations in mind."
"Huh."
"But as it happened, the hunter bound by the contract kept pulling off rare feats almost every other day..."
Drink.
Kang Changho spoke as he tossed the torn parchnt pieces into the hospital room's trash bin.
"Honestly, until I started having doubts because of [Justitia], I really was planning to let you live a few more years just on a whim—for free."
The man who always had a smiling face had an unusually calm expression.
"But that's enough now. I'm just sick of it all."
"..."
"A peculiar kind of fun only lasts a day or two. How am I supposed to keep watching over a foul person who's constantly splattered with their own blood for years to co?"
He shook his head and then showed this behavior.
"..."
He turned his gaze with those characteristic vertical pupils and watched the pine tree outside the window for a mont.
"I want to live seeing only good things."
An ordinary thought that sohow didn't match the were dragon's eyes.
"So for the sake of this peace, I suppose I'll have to remove the man nad Kim Giryeo from my sight."
"Ah."
"Sorry for repeating myself. Anyway, to get straight to the point—I'm just I'll let it go and stop expecting you to be so kind of idiotically good guy."
"It, really."
"Anyway, I've found a replacent recently, so there's really no need to cling to [improvent] anymore..."
Kang Changho once again firmly declared the termination of the contract.
"What's wrong?"
However, the alien could only find the situation astonishing. In truth, he had swaggered around relying solely on a wall although it had read in his previous life—and ended up getting badly burned for it.
"Could it really be because of that?"
What seed like a foolish mistake ended up saving his life. Looking back, all the boastful words he confidently spat out in victory quickly took on a completely different aning, intertwined with the dungeon's altered design. Every statent he made to mock the trapped enemy was forcibly reinterpreted as he suffered a grievous chest wound.
"Um, then does that an the reason I concealed the contract's invalidity was...?"
Giryeo cautiously asked, worried that the other might suddenly change again and such luck. However, even with just a light provocation, he received a very firm answer.
"I just said the contract is null and void, didn't I?"
"..."
"Then of course, you won't hold responsible for anything regarding the [Knight's Oath] we made back then. In a lawful society like this, who would ask for a penalty after ending a contract properly?"
Kang Changho turned his gaze back to the patient.
"Moreover, the surveillance you hated so much ends today as well."
"Huh?"
"It's such an annoying form, honestly I can't promise I'll completely take my eyes off that magical fluctuation."
"Magic?"
"I'll try my best to ignore that."
It was a clean ending.
"So here's a warning. Don't ever interfere in my life again. If you start poking around recklessly, next ti I really will kill you."
Yeah, that sounds a bit too clean-cut, doesn't it?
"Let's just live without bothering each other, alright?"
"Wait a mont. Uh, then... at least, I could make that skill stone I ntioned before for you..."
"Forget it. To be honest, I've already used up skill stones to their limit anyway."
"Yes?"
"What? Hunter Kim, you didn't know there's a limit of 20 skill stones that an Awakened can obtain?"
"...Ah, no. Of course, I knew that."
"Hmm."
"But I just felt like it was definitely confird that we're on the sa side now. So I wanted to help you. Right. How about exchanging information about the gate monsters while we're at it?"
"I don't want to."
"No, what?"
"No matter how you found out, unless you're that monster itself, there's no way you could have more information than ."
"Yes?"
"If we both reveal all our cards, one side will end up at a disadvantage. Besides, to be honest, I'm not really that eager to actively invade the Gates..."
"Yes?"
"The problem was that there happened to be a suspect within Korea. Normally, doing deep into dangerous matters just because you're bored is like jumping into boiling water just because you're cold, Hunter Kim."
A brief silence passed between them. The 5-rank Awakener leaning against the locker near the hospital bed finally nodded quietly and spoke.
"So, you agree to cancel the contract, right?"
To this, Kim Giryeo responded eagerly—after all, lifting the lifespan restriction was exactly what he had hoped for.
"Okay."
That was the mont.
As soon as he heard the patient's answer, the third S-rank hunter from Korea suddenly asked a new question, as if his curiosity hadn't been fully satisfied yet.
"Oh, by the way, I didn't ask this—since when was that?"
"Yes?"
"I was just wondering, since when did you co to know about your own physical condition?"
Honestly, if he could remain that calm even after seeing the dical report, it was obvious that the symptoms had been there for so ti. But this ti, the conversation took a turn that Kang Changho hadn't anticipated.
"Originally, I was going to reveal again that I'm an alien, just to explain that the diagnosis has nothing to do with my actual lifespan..."
Anyway, the other person already seed to have made up his mind to spare the sacrifice—so was there really any need to attract the attention of a thrill-seeker and create a whole new problem in the midst of this positive turn of events?
"Hmm."
This place wasn't Aphasia. So, he couldn't just improve a convincing lie that would fool an Earthling. Thus, the Archmage finally answered.
"The first ti I thought that might be the case was when I was around 21."
To be exact, he told the truth as best as he could.
"And then soti after that... it was during a winter day when I got bitten by a dog-shaped monster and awakened. That's when I beca certain. I kept coughing up phlegm which mixed blood."
Though he couldn't quite understand why Kang Changho was curious about such details, the man on the hospital bed figured that silence might disturb the fragile peace they had just reached—so he simply shared the real experience of his body's original owner.
"Uhm."
But the mont Kang Changho heard that, his eyes widened in clear surprise.
"Not just a year ago, but four years ago? Then why didn't you get a proper dical checkup right then and there?"
Noticing a problem with his lungs even before his awakening, yet still missing the proper window for treatnt—to an outsider, such behavior seed almost foolish. To Kang Changho, it was simply beyond comprehension.
"Detailed tests... it would've been nice if I could've gotten them, but unfortunately, the circumstances just didn't allow it."
"What circumstances?"
But like all lives, he has his own circumstances too.
"I didn't have money."
In so ways, it was so obvious. Now, it almost feels boring.
"Really."
"..."
"I only beca sowhat financially free after I awakened as a superpowered individual. Back when I was living day to day, if I just got 10,000 won for a dical bill, I'd have to eat plain rice with water for the rest of the day without any side dishes—so I had no choice."
"..."
"Even if my body was strange, I didn't think about going to the right area... well anyway."
The soul inhabiting Kim Giryeo's shell recounted from mory. At first, the symptoms were mild enough to think it was just the harshness of cigarette smoke causing the cough. Moreover, being so young, he figured it couldn't possibly be a serious illness, so he postponed getting checked—which turned out to be a critical mistake.
"When I beca certain, it was already after my awakening, so when I tried to figure it out on my own, there was no answer. That's right. I just rembered this now too."
He briefly explained the life that the rest owner of the na Kim Giryeo had gone through.
"Hmm."
Unless one is born lucky like so heir to a limited industry business, how rare it is for a young person without money to exist in this world? The mage from the binary story thought that the diagnosis has no such thing as a perfect party unlucky at all.
But the man with the dark purple hair, after hearing the story, seed to have so judgnt.
After a rather long silence, he finally spoke his last words.
"Kim Giryeo."
Kang Changho made an unexpected suggestion.
"I have sothing to promise separately, apart from breaking the contract."
That damn promise had tornted him through four whole seasons, making his shoulders instinctively slump. But the next sentence that Kang Changho uttered wasn't so bad from the alien's perspective.
"I will help Hunter Kim Giryeo just once, whenever you need, no matter what kind of situation it is."
Why all of a sudden?
"Of course, that's only within the limits of what I can do. If you suddenly start asking to fetch an Elixir or so other impossible thing, you'll probably get blocked, you know?"
Giryeo, genuinely puzzled, asked back, "Unpaid work, you say? Why on earth would you make such a generous promise here?"
But the answer he got was aningless.
"Just because."
Just because he felt like it.
"This ti, besides having tortured you, I also owe you a debt."
"Debt?"
"You got shot and fell in the dungeon instead of . I doubt you hit your head—don't tell you've already forgotten that?"
"..."
"Honestly, I'm not the type who can live with a debt on my back—but still, there are days like today when I just feel like settling the score."
An indecisive S-rank—co to think of it, there may be no expression more terrifying than that.
"No, just what is an idiot anyway...?"
Kim Giryeo, not understanding one of the words that had co up in the conversation, muttered it to himself in confusion. Kang Changho calmly prepared to leave the hospital room as if he had nothing else to do since he had already everything he wanted to say. He took out the car keys and wallet that he had taken out along with the docunts.
"Rustle."
He didn't think this was how this annoying bad relationship would end.
"Wait a minute."
It was that mont. The blond Awakened suddenly called out to the mammal who had been about to leave the hospital room.
A complex conversation had passed, sowhat blurring the line between truth and doubt. But strictly speaking, wasn't Kang Changho moved with pity for his contracted partner and completely changed his mind?
"That much even a weary soul like can understand."
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