"Hmm."
A funeral hall, huh. But now that the word had co to mind, Kim thought it was a good mont to sort sothing out.
The blonde man lowered his head. Having already delved into the deceased's mind, he knew the whereabouts of the electronic device he had been curious about.
"I was wondering where Ahn Yoonseung's phone had gone..."
The ones who attacked Ahn Yoonseung with items were low-rank Awakened. After all, they weren't the trained profes sionals you'd see in movies or the like. They first knocked out the defensive hunter and then dealt new bruising to the victim's head. The problem, however, was that despite all the blood he had shed, the target still didn't die.
"They probably weren't as accustod to violent cri as I thought..."
The money-obsessed drifters seed utterly flustered by the gate's exit coordinates. After all, portals to other dins ions often appeared in remote locations. They couldn't think of the simple solution of returning to the cri scene, an d likely convinced themselves that everything had gone well as they fled far away.
anwhile, Ahn Yoonseung, who had barely regained consciousness inside the subspace, made his way to a nearby entrance. As the magical pathway began to emit signals, he quickly accessed the contacts nu on his phone and pre ssed "2" firmly.
"-_-"
Who would've thought there was a way to call soone imdiately without having to press the dial pad ten tis.
"If I'm number 2, then who's number 1?"
After that, his mory is fragnted, like an old wooden bridge, making it difficult to piece together.
"Parents?"
But in any case, he had already seen, through magic, the scene where the victim himself called (Kim Giryeo Hyung), s o now it was easy to speculate. Ahn Yoonseung had simply dropped his belongings during the escape, overwheld and disoriented. To make matters worse, the ergency supplies (potions) he had were already taken...
"What on earth is the point of all this?"
No matter the species, the mont life ends is always mournful.
Soon after, the recollection ended, and a sentence with a double aning slipped out. Kim Giryeo. No, to be precise, t he alien inhabiting that body had harbored a certain devotion from the start.
A life cannot progress by dwelling only on past glories.
For soone like that, though, he often bragged with lines like, "Back in my day, I did this and that..."
Until now, it had rely been a mild expression of his inherent arrogance. The foreign mage had never hesitated to e mbrace a new culture—as long as it was efficient.
"What's the point of sothing like a funeral anyway?"
But when the news of a funeral reached the spaceti miser who was half-obsessed with progress...
#############
O Will holding such an event bring my friend back to life?
> No.
#############
Dressing up in a full suit for the deceased—well, fine, he can accept that much.
"After all, since it's an alien, it has no sense for clothing. Even if it follows the body owner's taste, there's no real loss."
But carefully cremating an A-rank hunter like this was truly incomprehensible. Funeral costs in the country had skyroc keted, now easily exceeding ten million won on average. On top of that, Ahn Yoonseung, having awakened as an A-ra nk, required special patented techniques for the cremation. Ultimately, each step of that complicated process was a m ajor factor in draining the finances.
"Doing this won't make the spirits up in heaven say thank you or anything."
"Yes?"
"Co to think of it, did I really have to co to an event that's just ant to lift the spirits of the living...?"
After finishing his thought, Kim Giryeo spoke quietly. Of course, his own actions—rushing abroad to avenge an injured friend—were, in a sense, of the sa nature. Yet the alien regarded attending a funeral and observing proper etiquett e as nothing more than a waste.
"Having experienced it once already, I can say this with even greater certainty."
The evidence of a creature's accumulated growth—naly, the culture of burning the body—was judged even more n egatively.
"What, what did you say?"
These series of claims seed quite alien to the locals. As a result, Seonwoo Yeon, who had approached nearby, was so startled that her voice nearly rose. Of course, a short, black-haired woman standing in front of Kim Giryeo didn't re act much differently.
"-_-"
For reference, Seonwoo Yeon knew that the blonde man was an outsider, which is why she hadn't voiced any harsh cr iticism. But if such remarks were directed at the bereaved family, wouldn't the outco be obvious?
"Any ordinary person would obviously get angry if they heard that."
Just as Seonwoo Yeon wore a worried expression, Choi Jin, who had been slumped like a half-dead body, slowly lifte d her head.
"-_-"
What the bereaved family mber said next was sowhat unexpected, even from the compatriot's perspective.
"Now, I know that you're not a bad person."
Without getting angry or uttering a single insult, they had simply spoken a few heartfelt words—and that was all.
"But you shouldn't say it like that."
She seed to have talked occasionally with her relative, Yoonseung, in the past. This was evident because she took a stance that showed so understanding of Kim Giryeo's temperant. As soon as the A-rank Dragon Hunter fell sil ent, the conversation flowed no longer.
"-_-"
"-_-"
After that, events moved incredibly quickly. They went to the Ahn family's funeral hall to complete the various formaliti es, then withdrew cash from a nearby ATM and, in order to uphold that person's tradition, placed the money in envelo pes...
After so ti had passed, today, really finally sank in for Seonwoo Yeon. The days spent searching for the culprit who had hard Ahn Yoonseung had acted as a grace period for accepting the tragedy, and at last, tears stread fr eely from her eyes.
"Oh my, my grandson."
And by the latter part of the funeral proceedings, he was finally able to et the elderly he had only heard about.
"If I had known it would co to this, I would have stopped you from doing what you wanted at least once."
"Are you here?"
"This poor child must have worked so hard all this ti. I shouldn't have made him repeat school. I should have taken him out to see the world instead."
An elder from the family, who had cherished their grandchild since childhood. The elderly woman with white hair, dres sed in a funeral hanbok, carefully held a porcelain object to her chest.
"Mother, but do you really plan to keep the urn at ho?"
The elderly woman handled the object—which the archmage had so despised—as if it were a jewelry box and spoke.
"How many more years do you think I have left to live?"
"Mother..."
"Normally, people say it's best to forget such things quickly, but I don't think I have the strength to pretend not to care for the rest of my short life. I'd rather keep the altar close, so I can see it often."
"-_-"
"Then, my grandchild, you've really been through a lot. Now, let's go ho with grandma..."
That was the end of it. mbers of the Ahn family, dressed in black, hurriedly dispersed, and even Choi Jin returned t o her hotown to regain both body and mind. What remained were the completely external officials, the unemploye d, and others like them.
"Hunter Kim Giryeo didn't cry a single tear again."
At that mont, the woman with long black hair paused to think.
"I'd heard that he could control his expressions at will, but he always spoke so calmly and gracefully."
To be precise, it was a thought about the alien beside her.
"It didn't seem like he was experiencing any emotional disturbance, even magically. Could it be that he's actually in bet ter condition than I thought?"
Neutral and unremarkable—just a glance was enough to interpret the outsider's deanor that way.
"Co to think of it, we're much less saddened by the death of other animals, aren't we...?"
Seeing his calm deanor, like the surface of a lake, Seonwoo Yeon made the above inference. But just a few hours l ater, she would co to realize that her assumption was wrong.
Two months later. That is, more precisely, until sumr arrived in her own country, soone had suddenly gone missi ng.
***
[Ding-dong. Ding-dong ]
Sowhere, the clear sound of a chi bell rings.
"E, excuse ..."
Perhaps due to reduced environntal pollution, the cicadas were still properly dormant in the very early days of sum r. An outsider sets foot on an unmanaged road sowhere.
"Hunter Kim Giryeo... right, co to think of it, you're not a hunter anymore."
She was a governnt employee for the Hunter Association, and she had sacrificed her precious weekend to drive all the way to a distant location.
Why? Because a familiar acquaintance hadn't been in contact for a full 60 days.
"Anyway, Kim Giryeo I know everything that's inside."
Perhaps out of habit from her usual work, an almost unconscious tone like that of a prosecutor's investigator slipped o ut.
"Gasp."
And by the ti she realized this and widened her eyes...
"I, I used the [Searcher]. So I really know the hoowner isn't absent, but, excuse ... could you at least let confi rm their voice just once?"
Seonwoo Yeon first confessed to a certain criminal act. Since [Searcher] is a skill whose results can only be known by the user, its re use isn't punishable, of course.
"Without the party's consent, searching for the location of a complete stranger and making an unauthorized visit?"
This situation was undeniably stalking. The official, who had never received a single derit in school and had lived e xemplary as an adult, felt a brief pang of self-reproach.
"I... I've committed a cri..."
But, of course, there was a reason she had acted this way.
But honestly, being completely silent for this long is a bit serious. It's not like they're just ignoring ssages for a little while out of fatigue."
① Sent a client ssage using a ssaging app.
② Kim Giryeo replied that he was tired and would talk later, then went completely off the radar for nearly two month s. Because of this, she recently recalled that Ahn Yoonseung had been involved in an unfortunate incident.
③ Wondering if the Wi-Fi had disconnected, she asked about his recent situation again via a regular text ssage.
④ When there was still no response, she visited under the pretext of checking on his safety—and had carefully notif ied him of this three days in advance.
Seonwoo Yeon slowly reflected on her thorough considerations in her mind. As these actions show, the official had pl enty of grounds to justify herself. Moreover, having gone so far as to co to this seaside mansion, she was fully pre pared to face legal consequences for the mistakes she had committed.
"Huh?"
But even if she had already made up her mind—did the world really have to shove her forward this hard?
"Wait a minute... I thought sothing was off, and the main gate isn't even unlocked..."
Clang!
She had only tried knocking lightly, but the door imdiately moved. In this age of automatic door locks, it was a sight hard to even imagine.
"They probably left it sitting for a long ti without changing the batteries."
Moreover, thinking it over, would soone who constantly bragged about being an archmage really live openly withou t any protective barriers around their residence?
"Looks like he hasn't replaced the [Infinite Power Core] since its energy ran out!"
With the main gate wide open like this, could it be that thieves had co in at this ti? Seonwoo Yeon stopped givin g any further notice and began entering the private property. Once inside, the first thing that caught her eye was the o vergrown weeds.
"The last ti I ca, the front yard was definitely well-kept and looked great..."
But contrary to her worries, she didn't end up trespassing into the interior of soone else's house.
"Here."
The coordinates sensed through her skill pointed outside, not inside the building. Moreover, recalling the tis she ha d co to grab a al, a structure had been set up sowhere in the shaded area behind Kim Giryeo's mansion.
"The swimming pool."
But the very mont she arrived at the location in question...
"Huh?"
Inside the water that filled it, a familiar silhouette was reflected.
"H, huh!"
At first glance, it looked like a scene where soone had drowned. Seonwoo Yeon turned pale and ran toward it, but seeing the aura of magic, the one who had been asleep finally surfaced to the water's surface.
"I was definitely going to... later..."
"Ah! You scared !"
The only fortunate thing was that he wasn't a normal modern human. The other person, fully dressed, had been in the water, and then Seonwoo Yeon attained man surfaced at the edge of the pool.
"I said I'd respond later."
The alien seed to rember the visitor's last ssage, judging by the circumstances.
"Ah! But you didn't contact for weeks, so I was worried..."
"I understand. But I just needed ti to recover."
"I see. I'm truly sorry for disturbing your rest."
"Please leave alone for another ten years or so."
"Yes?"
It was surprising and shocking—definitely not a ti to be laughing. Yet, the situation had taken a sowhat comical t urn, leaving Seonwoo Yeon frozen, unsure of what to do. Furthermore, standing still and observing, sothing finally caught her eye.
"Um, excuse ... but may I ask you just one question?"
"You don't need permission."
The cheeks were excessively hollowed out, far too much to be explained away as just losing baby fat. Seeing this, Se onwoo Yeon asks a question with a skeptical attitude.
"Kim Giryeo-ssi, why have you lost so much weight?"
At that mont, her first encounter with the alien flashed faintly through her mind.
"Because I hadn't eaten, perhaps?"
"How long?"
"Maybe..."
But the flashback didn't last long. The strange figure, who had spent so long in the water without any sign of bloating, finally raised two fingers in front of her.
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