100 – You Too, Now – 4

He had not expected Ye-min to enter before him and run wild, though.

While thinking that, Gi-jun calmly smashed the heads of the vampires one by one as he examined his surroundings.

First, there was a group of unknown humans, and Shin was teaming up with a strong-looking, unfamiliar man to deal with the vampires… Could he be a new party member they had brought in while Ji-hye was away?

Ye-min looked quite drained, as if she had used ‘that skill’ from the first round, but despite that, he could feel a magic power more powerful than anyone else present, indicating that she too had made remarkable growth in the second round, just as Gi-jun had during the past ten years.

‘Then Brother Su… Ah, he has really become a barbarian who could rival Conan.’

Meanwhile, as for Mok-su—the eldest brother of the group, who had sometimes been a reliable support, an advisor, and sometimes Gi-jun’s drinking buddy—he was blocking all the onslaughts of the few surviving vampires with his abnormally swollen muscular physique.

Of course, he had originally been a man of outstanding senses, but seeing him now parry the enemy’s attacks with movements that recalled Gi-jun during the tutorial and defeat them focusing on definite counterattacks with each and every blow, it was clear that Mok-su had reliably played the role of the party’s tank in his absence.

‘Right… Everyone has been doing well.’

With a chuckle, a smile naturally formed on his lips.

Relief, joy of reunion, and various other emotions jumbled together in an instant, so he honestly could not tell what was what himself.

“Jun-i Oppa!”

At that moment, Ye-min ran hurriedly toward Gi-jun, calling out his name.

He had changed a lot from before, and since he was currently wearing full plate armor and even a helmet, there should have been no way to recognize him by his appearance, but she had somehow managed to recognize him.

He had always imagined a more dramatic reunion, but reality was always like this.

When he reunited with Ji-hye, had it not been even more anti-climactic?

―Contractor, is she by any chance the companion you mentioned?

‘Yeah. Isn’t she pretty?’

―She is beyond my imagination in many ways…!

Gi-jun looked around for a moment and, with Lucy’s help, expanded his sensory perception to scan the surrounding situation.

With a whoosh, the shield he threw again sliced through the air as if cutting between Ye-min and Gi-jun, embedding itself in the chest of a vampire who was targeting Ye-min from behind.

While Ur growled, leaped off the ground, and pounced to trample the enemy, Gi-jun looked back at Ye-min and spoke briefly.

“There are eyes watching. Let’s clean up the situation first.”

“Y-Yes!”

For some reason, Ye-min looked extremely flustered, but she quickly came to a halt on the spot and nodded.

Gi-jun observed Ye-min through the visor of his helmet and inwardly marveled at her evolved beauty, but just as he had said, he focused on completely securing this place first.

Explosions and screams resounded from all directions, as if battles were taking place not only in the warehouse where he was but all over the guild’s territory…

―You don’t need to worry about it. You already killed all of their main forces, Contractor.

The main forces Lucy spoke of referred to the group that had moved separately to escape the city when the explosion occurred inside the Union Guild earlier.

Indeed, there had been quite strong vampires and those considered the backbone of the Union Guild among them, but at this point, it did not matter.

Because they had all died by Gi-jun’s hand.

―What would the guild members left here think if they realized they were all just disposable pawns meant to draw attention…?

‘They were guys played by the vampires, so there is nothing to be surprised about. More importantly, Lucy, the situation seems mostly settled, so could you check on the fallen humans over there?’

―Okay. I will save them all, so don’t worry—!

While Lucy fluttered off to check on the wounded and heal them, the two royal knights finally arrived at the scene as well.

“It is almost over. I express my gratitude to—”

“It is not over yet. Do you know that the backbone of the guild has slipped away in secret?”

By now, he could tell who was John and who was Smith just by the order in which they spoke.

Anyway, these bastards had no intention of calling him by his codename either.

Gi-jun replied indifferently to Smith, who was stubbornly rambling on even as his junior stared blankly at him.

“I tracked and killed them before coming here. You guys are the ones who are too late.”

“There is a reason for that. Originally, the carriage we rode—”

“You killed them all? Amazing. Is there any way we can verify that?”

“I don’t remember all of them. If you have documents, show them to me.”

When Smith gestured with his chin toward John, John sighed once more, approached Gi-jun, and handed him a briefly compiled document.

In the meantime, Smith dealt with the vampires who were still holding out; fitting for a royal knight, the sword strikes he swung were disciplined yet powerful and fierce, so no one dared to easily stand against them, only hesitating before being cut down.

Gi-jun judged the junior, John, to be around low-Unique grade, and Smith to be around mid-Unique grade.

If all royal knights possessed a strength of at least Unique grade—he could not help but admire the power of the Gratia royal family.

“That’s correct. I killed all the guys listed here. I gathered the loot that dropped; should I hand it over?”

“No need. We thank you for your active cooperation. Even though we could have missed the main targets, with your outstanding tracking ability—”

“We have confirmed the situation is concluded. From here, we leave it to the Ars Mercenary Guild.”

Smith declared.

While John glared at Smith, the former approached Gi-jun and said.

“With this, the commission is fully complete. Once we return to Cor, His Majesty will personally commend you.”

“Ah, before that, a moment.”

“What is it?”

“I ran into the former companions of my party member.”

As Gi-jun said that and pointed toward Ye-min, who was tending to her companions in the back, John and Smith looked back at her simultaneously and flinched in surprise.

“I-Is that so?”

“Do you plan to say hello? If so, we shall go together.”

“No, it could get somewhat personal, so I would like you to step aside. Or would you rather return to Cor first?”

“We will wait. Go ahead and have a sufficient conversation.”

“Yes, we can wait as long as you need. For your sake.”

It was a moment when the junior’s and senior’s minds perfectly aligned.

What “for your sake”—they just wanted to look at Ye-min for even a bit longer.

Realizing that the royal knights were captivated by Ye-min’s beauty, Gi-jun even felt a strange sense of nostalgia.

Back when he was with Ye-min in the tutorial, how many people had he met who fell into a stunned state like this in front of her?

“Well then.”

He chuckled and headed toward the group.

The group was now facing Choi Kang.

No, the word ‘confronting’ was a bit off—Choi Kang was shuffling his feet and hanging his head in front of Ye-min, exuding the vibe of a middle schooler who was about to confess his love.

“T-Thank you for helping me so many times… Did you come all this way on purpose because you were worried about me?”

“What? Ah, yes? What did you say?”

Meanwhile, Ye-min’s mind had been elsewhere since a while ago, so she did not respond properly to Choi Kang’s words.

Choi Kang was struggling to see a green light somehow, Ye-min was not even listening to him, and Mok-su and Eun-shin had been glancing at Gi-jun since earlier.

Whether they had heard it from Ye-min or not, it seemed the two had also realized Gi-jun’s identity.

‘That man doesn’t seem to be a party member, after all.’

As Gi-jun approached them, Ye-min, Mok-su, and Eun-shin all turned toward him at once, as if drawn to him.

“Huh? The one who dealt with all the vampires earlier… Gasp! You, trying to look good in front of this woman…!”

While Choi Kang, who still had not grasped the situation, was spouting nonsense,

Gi-jun took another step closer to the group and took off his helmet.

Of course, since he was still wearing a mask, his face could not be fully recognized—but it seemed that was more than enough for Ye-min.

“Oppa!”

Ye-min lunged like lightning, wrapped her arms around Gi-jun’s neck, and clung to him.

Frankly, it was a reaction that exceeded his expectations—but he calmly caught and held her.

The power of time was great.

He had never had proper physical contact with Ye-min in his life, but perhaps because they had missed each other so much, holding her like this felt extremely natural.

No, actually, he was a little embarrassed.

Since he had never properly hugged a woman in his entire life.

“Oppa, Jun-i Oppa…! I found you, I’ve been looking for you all this time…!”

“Yeah, Min-i. I’m sorry I’m late.”

“Ah…!”

The moment she heard those words, Ye-min’s eyes widened.

Seeing tears stream down from her eyes, Gi-jun was flustered but patted her back as he spoke.

“Instead of doing this, shall we find a place where we can talk comfortably by ourselves first?”

“There is a suitable place this way.”

Eun-shin, who had infiltrated first, led the group.

With Ye-min still clinging to his neck, Gi-jun followed behind, and Mok-su also followed with a doubtful expression.

Left alone in an instant, Choi Kang could only blink. He finally remembered his companions and turned around, but his companions, who had been completely cured by Lucy in the meantime, only glared at him with disillusioned eyes.

* * *

The place Eun-shin found was a subterranean passage; although it was not very spacious, it was secretly hidden, making it a suitable place for the four of them to talk away from others’ eyes.

“Instead of a place like this, we could just go to our lodging together.”

“No, I have to leave soon.”

“What?”

Perhaps her throat had gone hoarse from crying, but it felt as though Ye-min’s voice had become slightly lower.

“We’ve only just met, so why are you leaving already…?”

“I have work to do there.”

Gi-jun said so firmly and took off his mask.

It was because he did not like talking while disguised as a Flame Human to the companions he had shared the tutorial with, and when he took off his mask and revealed his face, the atmosphere changed slightly once again.

“That’s why I wanted to talk, even if only for a moment.”

“Oppa…?”

Ye-min, who had been planning to cry and cling to him, saying they could absolutely not part like this, froze completely in that position.

Feeling the great bewilderment in the way she looked up at him, Gi-jun spoke with a bitter smile.

“I’ve changed a bit, right?”

“A bit?!”

Instead of Ye-min, who was speechless, Mok-su cried out in shock.

“Gi-jun, you punk! I wondered why I hadn’t seen you in a long time, and you’ve completely overhauled your face from the foundation up!”

“The foundation is the same, you know? Brother Su will also understand once his Charm rises. You should think of it as a natural remodeling.”

“Stop joking, this is on the level of reconstruction!”

“No, Jun-i Hyeong—!”

Eun-shin also shouted, looking at him with an expression as if looking at a traitor.

“Is it really you, Hyeong? That is Jun-i Hyeong’s face?!”

“Well, you look exactly the same, Shin. Anyway, it’s so good to— Ah.”

Gi-jun chuckled at the reaction he had inwardly expected and tried to greet them, but there was one miscalculation: Ye-min, who had been clinging tightly to him since earlier, would not let go.

“Uh… Min-i? Just a second, let me talk to Brother Su and Shin too.”

“Nn-nh.”

Ye-min made a nasal sound and instead buried her face deeper into his chest.

Gi-jun sent a pleading gaze to Eun-shin and Mok-su, but the two only avoided his eyes.

In the end, Gi-jun shrugged, hugged Ye-min, and patted her back.

Ten years was a very long time.

The fact that Ye-min was doing something she had never done before must have been because of that.

He wanted to believe that.

‘If I had known she would suffer this much, I should have contacted her somehow.’

Even if he could not join them immediately, he could have easily explained the situation.

He had postponed it, thinking he would be able to visit them with a lighter heart once the quest related to the vampire raid was completed.

Looking at Ye-min now, he could not help but think that it might have been a selfish decision made entirely for himself.

“I’m sorry I didn’t contact you first.”

“Sniff, it’s fine… I understand how you feel.”

Wiping her eyes and drying her tears, Ye-min finally calmed down, pulled away from his embrace, and quietly added,

“But I’m going to kill Hye-ji.”

“Wait a second, Ji-hye didn’t do anything wrong. Min-i?”

Gi-jun was startled and explained in detail the reasons why he could not contact her first, but Ye-min was already not listening to him.

Listening to their conversation from the side, Eun-shin and Mok-su glared at Ye-min as if she was saying something different from before, but they immediately cast their eyes down at the sharp glare she shot back.

Confirming that there was no change in the party’s hierarchy even after ten years, Gi-jun chuckled and spoke.

“I should get going now.”

“Already?!”

“I can’t keep the knights waiting forever, either.”

“No way. Oppa, at least spend tonight with us.”

“I also have many things I want to tell you and many things I want to hear.”

He placed his hands on the shoulders of Ye-min, who was looking at him with an earnest expression, and met her eyes.

“You might already know, but I am currently challenging a dangerous quest. I even have a party formed for that. Min-i, you’re a party leader too, so you know, right? I have a responsibility to lead them.”

“Oppa…”

“So once this quest is over, let’s rejoin then. Promise.”

“The quest… how long will it take?”

“Originally, I thought it would take about a year.”

“A year?!”

“No, don’t worry. Actually, it’s not something to be relieved about, but because so many things happened at once, it seems the schedule will be moved up a bit.”

Soothing the startled Ye-min, Gi-jun took something out from his inner pocket.

A flat, sleek, rectangular object.

Recognizing its identity, Ye-min’s eyes widened.

“Oppa, this is…”

“It’s the latest Letaphone model. Take it.”

“Ah…”

Of course, it was a Letaphone 15 obtained by using the exchange voucher for the latest Letaphone model that he had received from Viv earlier.

Receiving it with slightly trembling hands, Ye-min rejoiced upon confirming that Gi-jun’s ID was already registered in the messenger, but… halfway through, she knit her brows.

“Why is it [Master Worshiper]…?”

“I’ll tell you about that later as well. If anything happens, contact me anytime. Got it?”

Gi-jun, who was explaining with a bitter smile, belatedly noticed the presence of the two men looking back and forth between the Letaphones in his and Ye-min’s hands, and felt slightly embarrassed.

“I gave it to her because Min-i is the party representative. I wanted to get one for you two as well, but this isn’t easy even for me to obtain…”

“No, no, Hyeong. We were just looking because we were surprised. Just as you said, it must have been extremely hard to obtain.”

“Gi-jun, what on earth have you been doing and where for the last ten years…? This isn’t some hidden camera prank where you say, ‘Actually, I was an NPC!’ at the end, right?”

“NPCs are people like us, too. Stop talking nonsense and just take this.”

Chuckling, Gi-jun pulled a large storage container out of his inventory this time.

It was a dish he had prepared in advance in preparation for the day he would meet the three of them, and there was a reason for that as well.

“You three share this nicely. It’s curry made with extremely delicious meat.”

Because the meat in this curry was none other than Divine Beast meat.

“Curry!”

Eun-shin readily accepted it, his eyes welling up with tears.

“You heard from Hye Nuna!”

“Of course. Next time, I’ll make you something even more delicious.”

“Hyeong…!”

Eun-shin’s eyes welled with tears, moved by Ji-hye not forgetting to mention that he wanted to eat curry, and grateful to Gi-jun for having made and kept the curry.

Mok-su chuckled, thinking that Eun-shin was a very easy man, and… clearing his throat with a dry cough, he asked Gi-jun softly.

“Uh, is there any alcohol?”

“Alcohol is Brother Su’s specialty, isn’t it?”

“Tsk, fine. Instead, you’re the one preparing the food to go with it.”

Exchanging glances with Mok-su and laughing lightly, Gi-jun stepped back slightly and put his mask back on.

His skin exposed outside the armor turned red, and steam rose faintly.

“I will really head off then. All three of you take care, and like I said earlier, if anything happens, contact me right away on the messenger.”

“Oppa…”

“See you next time. Stay healthy.”

Gi-jun smiled brightly at Ye-min, who was looking at him with an expression dripping with regret, and left the place.

Soon, the fire cat sitting on his shoulder grew larger, carried him, hopped up, and vanished into the darkness.

“He really left… Even though it was our first time meeting in ten years.”

“Probably because lingering would only make it harder to leave. When did that guy Gi-jun develop that kind of decisiveness?”

Eun-shin and Mok-su exchanged words, met each other’s eyes, and shrugged their shoulders at the same time.

“Anyway, he was no joke.”

“He was no joke indeed…”

The fact that the Flame Human’s identity was actually Gi-jun felt like nothing compared to the other changes that had occurred in him.

Changing his face was of course surprising, but had his atmosphere not completely changed?

And if asked if that was bad, it absolutely was not; rather…

“…Min-i Nuna, are you alright?”

“Ah…”

Ye-min was still tracing Gi-jun’s shadow with her eyes, clutching the Letaphone in both hands.

Looking at her in a semi-dazed state, Mok-su shook his head.

To express it in one word, she was currently spellbound.

Looking at the completely changed Gi-jun, it was understandable that she would be spellbound.

“The great Ye-min is in a terrible state, a terrible state.”

“We’ve been betrayed by Jun-i Hyeong… The Solo Alliance is disbanded!”

“Shin, you punk, look at the curry you’re cradling in your arms and say that again.”

Afterward, the two somehow led Ye-min, who had completely lost her mind, back to their lodging; fortunately, Ye-min snapped back to her senses the moment she smelled the fragrant curry wafting out when Eun-shin opened the container.

―You have consumed a dish that challenges legend. All stats below Legendary grade have increased by 1. Mana (U) has increased by an additional 2.

―The power of the moon dwells within your body; for the next month, cold will never invade your body.

―You have consumed a dish that challenges legend. All stats below Legendary grade have increased by 1. Mana (U) has increased by an additional 2.

―The power of the moon dwells within your body; for the next month, cold will never invade your body.

And after devouring the curry without even taking a breath, she fainted again upon seeing the messages that appeared before her eyes.

* * *

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): You met the kids who were in the same party during the tutorial?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Hmph.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Hmmmmmm.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): No, it’s nothing. It’s just that I didn’t remember it well, that’s all.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Right, I remember now. There was that girl. The one you said was uglier than me.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Waiting Room): Right?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): Right??]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): I have horns, too, you know?! I can also sprout cool wings, and…]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): It’s too late to compliment me now—.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): No, this is a signal to compliment me more. Do you still not know?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): Okay, pass. Keep working hard.]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): Huh? You’re entering the ruins alone?]

[Biche♥ (Dimensional Rift): …You aren’t going to wander around in there for another few years, are you?]