EVS Chapter 69

He had only been gone for a little over three hours, but in that time, he had gone quite far.

Following Geon-joo’s traces into the forest, overlapping footprints were visible about 300 meters ahead. They were traces of someone running to avoid something while moving. Thinking this might be the source of the running sounds he had heard earlier, Sa-yoon inhaled deeply.

Footprints extended lengthwise to the left and right, as if he had backtracked once along the way. A faint scent of the sleep-inducing perfume he had sprayed on Geon-joo was detectable from the right path. It was lucky that the scent remained despite being sprayed quite a while ago.

Following the scent and footprints led to an area thick with vegetation. The diverse sizes of plants clustered together seemed perfect for hiding. Taking another deep breath, a very faint floral scent characteristic of the sleep perfume was detectable amidst the monster odors, grass smells, and scents of deadly poisons. As flowers rarely bloomed within the field, there was only one thing that could produce such a scent.

Sa-yoon swung his dagger while still in its sheath to part the vegetation.

With a light slicing sound, leaves fell to the ground. After walking for about 5 minutes like this, a crouched figure became visible among the foliage. There was no need to confirm who it was – it was clearly Han Geon-joo just by looking.

Such a body line wasn’t very common, after all.

“Pretty boy.”

“……”

“What are you doing there, Han Geon-joo?”

When there was no response, Sa-yoon called his name, and the person crouching in the vegetation curled up even more tightly, like a pill bug. Seeing this behavior that seemed to be avoiding him, Sa-yoon approached closer.

“I’m asking what you’re doing there.”

“……”

“You’re not answering?”

Slash!

Sa-yoon’s sword menacingly cut through the vegetation. The leaves concealing Geon-joo’s body all fell away. In the cleared space, a man with his head turned away was revealed. Geon-joo had buried his face between his knees, hiding it from Sa-yoon.

“Han Geon-joo.”

Approaching right in front of him and kneeling on one knee, Sa-yoon called out to Geon-joo with one arm resting on his raised knee. Geon-joo flinched at the voice but didn’t raise his head.

Tsk. Clicking his tongue, Sa-yoon grabbed Geon-joo’s hair.

“Do you want me to lift it, or will you do it yourself?”

He had no intention of indulging his stubbornness any further. Thinking that the three hours of enduring Geon-joo’s one-sided silence in the fortress was enough, he grasped the black hair between his fingers. Geon-joo didn’t answer. When Sa-yoon coldly called his name one more time, the man finally realized he wasn’t bluffing and reluctantly raised his head.

Geon-joo rolled his eyes to the side as if avoiding Sa-yoon’s gaze, then looked at him. Finally seeing what he had wanted, Sa-yoon’s eyes widened as he unconsciously grabbed Geon-joo’s cheek.

“Have you been crying?”

“…Let go.”

When asked with his cheek held, Geon-joo answered quietly and tried to avoid Sa-yoon’s hand. In response, Sa-yoon roughly held onto his cheek and asked again with furrowed brows.

“I told you to guard the fortress, what have you been doing alone? What happened that you’re here crying pathetically?”

He felt frustrated. Geon-joo’s eyes were red, and most of all, still moist. Anyone could see it was the face of someone who had just had a good cry.

“…I didn’t cry.”

“Your face looks exactly like when you fell in the water, what do you mean you didn’t cry? Should I throw you in again if you don’t remember?”

Thinking that someone else had made his pretty boy cry, when he himself had only made him cry once, Sa-yoon’s anger rose and his words came out harshly. If Geon-joo denied it once more with his pointless stubbornness, Sa-yoon really intended to throw him in the water once and then talk. Han Geon-joo’s temperament was water-soluble, so throwing him in once should be enough to have the desired effect.

Perhaps sensing Sa-yoon’s determination, Geon-joo finally dropped his sharp demeanor and lowered his eyes. He glanced at Sa-yoon’s palm and then stared at the ground, his lips moving several times. The impatient Sa-yoon barely restrained himself from grabbing Geon-joo’s collar and urging him to speak quickly.

Opening his mouth and swallowing his words three times.

Opening his mouth again but failing to say anything four times, finally Geon-joo spoke up.

“…I lost it.”

“Lost what?”

“…The base.”

I thought so.

Having expected this since seeing the footprints, Sa-yoon kept his mouth shut. Geon-joo, not daring to look at Sa-yoon’s expression, buried his head down and bit his lip. Seeing he was about to draw blood, Sa-yoon put his finger between Geon-joo’s lips to stop him.

Geon-joo neither pushed away the finger that entered between his lips nor bit it, and remained quiet for a long while. At some point, his shoulders began to tremble slightly.

“…Why did you bring me here in the first place?”

I brought you because it’s a place where you can rapidly increase your skills.

“It seems like I’m not helping at all, so why did you bring me?”

I didn’t bring you for help.

“Every time I feel the gap between us, and it seems like I’m just being a burden to you. I wasn’t much help during the wave either.”

“……”

“Losing even the base just makes me feel like a loser.”

An unexpected melancholy was dissolved in the gaps between his intermittently uttered words. Having never imagined this development, Sa-yoon was at a loss for words and looked down at Geon-joo. Rebuttals to each of Geon-joo’s statements came to mind, but none were suitable to voice, so he just listened.

Geon-joo, who had been reciting his powerlessness in a low voice, let out a self-deprecating laugh. It was a laugh tinged with self-loathing. Sa-yoon, not knowing how to comfort him, fell into silence for a moment.

This was the first time he had seen someone like this.

Among the guild members who had come to the field with Sa-yoon, none had failed to realize their own powerlessness.

However, perhaps because the Night Rat guild members were composed of hunters who were either crazy or on the verge of insanity, none of them blamed their powerlessness on themselves.

As is often the case with those who are lacking, the Night Rat guild members mostly blamed others or time. They would boast, saying things like if they had awakened as hunters 10 years earlier, dealing with dragons would have been a piece of cake. That’s how they maintained their self-esteem. In other words, there had never been anyone like Han Geon-joo who would burrow into the ground and agonize over why they couldn’t do more, why they were still at this level, or why they were brought to the field when they were of no help.

Geon-joo was already more difficult for Sa-yoon to handle than others, and now showing this side made it even harder to know how to deal with him.

Is he the type who has guts and tenacity, but actually has a soft heart?

At least it seemed certain that his mental fortitude was weak.

He might survive somehow if thrown onto a deserted island, but his mind would likely be broken when he returned. As Sa-yoon was pondering this, a faint cry was heard from somewhere.

Han Geon-joo’s shoulders, which had been hunched over, shook.

“Really, fuck…”

As if about to dig a hole to crawl into, he started cursing and crying. Startled, Sa-yoon first grabbed Geon-joo’s cheeks to force eye contact. As he wiped away tears with his fingertips and asked why he was crying, his pretty boy shed more tears and even got angry.

His voice, full of resentment and frustration, shouted asking if Sa-yoon really didn’t know, saying he had pathetically lost even the base. Sa-yoon’s eyes suddenly gleamed. Judging that there would be no time when Geon-joo would speak more honestly than now, when his emotions were overcoming reason, Sa-yoon calmly asked, unlike the crying man.

When asked what had happened and how he ended up fleeing here, Geon-joo answered everything in an aggrieved voice, tears falling steadily.

About 30 minutes after Sa-yoon left, a person claiming to have an injured leg appeared and approached the fortress. Peeking through the door gap, Geon-joo saw a man collapsed on the ground, groaning and clutching a bloodied leg on top of the trap hole filled with monster corpses, with a woman crying beside him.

How could his pretty boy, with his unnecessary altruism still intact, refuse these people pleading that they had come this far with difficulty and begging for help if anyone was there?

Claiming to be a couple and promising to discard all weapons, they first put down the weapons they were holding, kneeling and begging for help. Geon-joo had no choice but to open the door. The development after that was predictable.

“Arrows flew, and the companions of those pretending to be injured rushed at you, right?”

“…How do you know that?”

Geon-joo, who had been speaking with gritted teeth as if angry at the memory, opened his eyes wide. To his question of whether Sa-yoon had been watching nearby, Sa-yoon chuckled and replied, “As if I would have,” and tightened his grip on Geon-joo’s cheek.

“I know because I’ve experienced it too.”

First, they appeal to compassion to lower your guard, and if you’re alone, they overwhelm you with numbers.

That was the main tactic of humans living in the field, in the ruined world.

When Sa-yoon first fell into the field, he had also fallen victim to a similar tactic. Back then, he was still young and didn’t know how despicable humans could become, so he was deceived far too easily.

Thinking Geon-joo must have been the same as him, Sa-yoon patted his shoulder once, and after a moment of silence, the man quietly apologized.

“Why?”

“…You told me to guard it, but I lost it.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s actually better this way.”

“…What?”

Hearing these unexpected words, Geon-joo raised his head in disbelief. Sa-yoon, finally making complete eye contact with his pretty boy, smiled, raising the corners of his mouth.

“We needed to raid a base anyway, so it’s easier for us if they act like this.”

“Base raiding? You mean the one in the clear conditions?”

“Yes, from the moment you fled the fortress to survive, the ownership of that base probably passed to the group that invaded. If we take it back, we’ll fulfill the base raiding condition. Isn’t it fun, pretty boy?”

Sa-yoon added in a low voice, facing the crying Geon-joo. In the course of conversing with Sa-yoon, Geon-joo’s tears had completely dried up, and he blinked his eyes, which now only had a slight hint of moisture.

Sa-yoon released Geon-joo and gazed at the fortress visible in the distance.

It was obvious without even measuring who would be stronger between humans living in a ruined world and someone with the karma to destroy the world.

Being underhanded and vicious was his specialty.

Confident that he wouldn’t lose in a contest of inhumanity, Sa-yoon helped the crouching Geon-joo to his feet and spoke.

“Let’s go, pretty boy.”

To crush those who bullied you.

Speaking crudely like a street thug, Sa-yoon’s words made Geon-joo, who had risen to his feet, throw him a look of disbelief. Regardless, Sa-yoon picked up Geon-joo and flew in one breath to the stolen base.