Chapter 326

Oh my god. I finally got my strength back, and now this whole ordeal ends with a scene like this?

Potion, bring a potion—now!

No, but his airway is blocked, so...

Tsk!

The road of this planet beneath me feels strangely warm today.

Hmm.

Of all things, it had to be my precious lungs that were injured, leaving me completely helpless. At this rate, there's a 90% chance I'll lose consciousness within five seconds.

I'm worried.

Still, I'd already put several safeguards in place on this body. Even if I ended up being carried straight into Earth's space age like this, it honestly wouldn't matter much.

Soon after, I lost consciousness.

...

...

...

...When I opened my eyes again, the familiar sight of a white ceiling greeted me.

This is a hospital.

Of course. Naturally, someone who had just brushed past death would be brought here. But the magical power I've been sensing beside me for a while now... it doesn't feel ordinary at all...

Heuk!

Gryeo-ssi!

He's awake.

Nurse, over here!

Please bring the doctor!

Flash.

I lifted my monolid eyelids and finally took in my surroundings. It was a hospital room awash in unfamiliar shades of white—an entirely new kind of ward. And beside the bed stood several familiar faces, lined up side by side.

If I were to list the Hunters by rank, they were Jung Haeseong, Seo Esther, and Ahn Yoonseung.

They're all high-level personnel, yet they've been pointlessly standing guard here until now.

It would've been too much for every Hunter who had been at the scene to come, so it seemed that only a few high-ranking Hunters acquainted with the patient had been allowed in under the pretext of a hospital visit.

I assessed the situation and slowly raised my upper body to sit up. But the instant I moved, the Hunters standing nearby all began speaking at once.

H, huh! Please don't get up!

Are you coming to your senses?

Hunter Kim, please calm down for now. We've already dealt with most of the aftermath, and this is a medical center run by a religious foundation Esther-ssi regularly supports. You're completely safe here.

Then, now that the patient has regained consciousness, what comes next?

How predictable.

Roughly speaking, the guardians who'd been waiting at the bedside start making a fuss. The medical staff rush in as though there's some kind of emergency. They even drag out all sorts of cursed equipment just to measure an Awakened person's blood pressure (seriously, why do they insist on checking that at the slightest opportunity?). And so on.

This is annoying.

The doctor who rushed in examined my condition. Meanwhile, the other three Hunters sat clustered together in silence on the long fabric sofa in the corner of the room.

Hmm.

Of course, the expert opinion that followed was—as you can see.

Well, for now, there doesn't seem to be... anything seriously wrong.

I suppose not.

As for the leg and head injuries everyone had been so worried about, the doctor had just confirmed that the patient was perfectly fine. And yet, for some reason, the Hunters sitting on the sofa still looked uneasy, breaking into cold sweats or clenching their teeth so faintly that I could hear them click.

What is it?

Unable to suppress my curiosity, I asked.

By the way, why are they acting like that?

Yes?

Could they be the ones suffering from trauma or something? From where I'm sitting, those people over there look like the ones who ought to be getting examined.

But the moment I said that, something strange happened.

An unusual reaction followed immediately.

Ah, that's...

The doctor started to answer, then abruptly closed his mouth in an unnaturally stiff manner. Wiping the sweat from his nose and pushing up the glasses that threatened to slip down, the Earthling hurriedly brought the conversation to an end. It was obvious that he was in a rush.

Ahem, hmm-hmm. Anyway, the patient's external recovery appears to have gone well. Please rest for now. I'll come back around the end of visiting hours to give you some additional instructions and information.

Hmm?

Hurriedly!

I watched the doctor's retreating back as he left the room, wondering what on earth was wrong with him.

H, Hunter Kim Gryeo...

Ahaha. W, well, I'm really glad the potion worked so well.

Hyung-nim, we were seriously worried...

But the reason behind their strange behavior turned out to be surprisingly simple.

Ah! I can't keep quiet about this anymore. The person involved has the right to know, doesn't he?

Clap!

The head of the Korea Magic Tower Guild, who had been sitting there with both hands neatly clasped and holding herself back so awkwardly that the corners of her mouth were practically twitching, finally burst out. And what the violet-haired woman said next proved even more explosive than her outburst.

Hunter Kim Gryeo, please don't be shocked—just listen. As soon as you're feeling even slightly better, you need to undergo a complete medical examination.

Y, yes?

Y, you... it's your lungs. They suspect non-small cell lung cancer. So when the doctor comes back, they'll probably recommend a biopsy...

No, why are you suddenly saying that?

Calm down and explain it properly.

After calming them down and piecing together their accounts, I learned that when I'd suddenly collapsed while coughing up blood for no apparent reason, the Hunters had panicked and ordered a full battery of premium medical tests at the facility—all without even obtaining my consent.

And this hospital's so-called premium examination apparently consisted of a full-body CT scan and other screenings, taking advantage of the fact that Awakened people suffered minimal harm from radiation in order to inspect every organ from multiple angles...

So naturally, they ended up finding the tumor in my lung again!

Esther went on to explain that they'd overheard it when the doctor, reviewing the scan results with a medical technician, casually muttered, 'Huh? Isn't this cancer?'

In other words, this was yet another case of that flustered doctor from earlier accidentally leaking a patient's private medical information.

Hey, you jerk—ever heard of medical ethics?!

Though it would be ridiculous for someone from a planet with the weakest concept of ethics imaginable to get hung up on details like that.

It's okay.

Without thinking, I explained the truth.

There's no need to waste money on more tests. It really is a tumor, and I already know about it. But the thing is, this is actually...

Correction.

I was going to explain the truth.

What?!

It's a tumor...

Just a moment.

Yes?

But no sooner had I steeled myself to reveal the extraordinary abilities of this soul than the casual words I'd just spoken somehow became the fuses that set off every bomb in the room.

Ahhhhh!

Startled.

One of them suddenly screamed.

Seo Esther, as though she'd just realized something terrible, began trembling violently, her face drained of color.

Her scream had been the opening salvo, but the first actual words came from someone else.

So this was the reason all along...

Jung Haeseong.

The young man whose hair was streaked with gray spoke with an expression of utter shock.

Was this why you've been subtly putting off forming a regular team with me all this time?!

What?

Whenever an Awakener develops an autoimmune disease or cancer, the news makes a huge deal out of it—did you really think we wouldn't know what that means?

Wait a second, something's—

You even admitted, while we were eating budae-jjigae not long ago, that you were thinking about retiring because your condition was getting worse!

That's... tsk. No, that was...

I have a bad feeling about this.

Something is going terribly wrong.

Because you've been sick... You were already sick. Ugh! Then could it be that even when you were seriously injured on the job, you always seemed fine because of that...?

Mumbling.

I was still trying to put together an explanation these Earthlings might understand, but Haeseong didn't wait. He fired off his conclusions one after another like a rapid barrage.

If you were already taking painkillers regularly, then it would make sense that minor injuries wouldn't hurt much... R, right. People suffering from chronic pain are sometimes prescribed opioid painkillers. I never imagined you'd be one of them, Hunter...!

What do you mean, that makes sense? It doesn't!

How could I have been so clueless? Oh my goodness. Now that I think about it, Hunter Kim always took a bottle of water back to his room after eating with me at home.

For the record, that particular behavior was simply because the bottled water in Jung Haeseong's refrigerator happened to taste unusually good, so I would take one with me to rinse my mouth.

That's all.

It's a misunderstanding.

I absolutely never took those bottles to swallow medicine.

Damn it!

But before I could properly explain the situation, yet another problem arose.

That.

As if things weren't bad enough already, the violet-haired woman standing beside the hero suddenly spoke in a trembling, goat-like voice.

She poured fuel directly onto the fire.

A, as expected...... that's what it was all along.

No, what's wrong with you now, Hunter Esther?!

You vaguely told me that your condition got worse while you were working, so I assumed it was some kind of dungeon curse... but to think it was an ordinary illness all along. Could it have been caused by overwork or stress, maybe?

Flutter.

Esther, true to her reputation as a curse specialist, was known for being exceptionally mentally resilient.

But now, completely unlike herself, she began trembling and tearing up from the shock.

Now everything makes sense. Honestly, I couldn't believe it at first, so I looked it up on my phone earlier... and it said that symptoms of lung cancer include coughing up blood and having a hoarse voice.

To that Earthling, everything from the past must have seemed to fit together perfectly.

Even if we ignore the voice, Gryeo-ssi, you, you often vomit. Blood, I mean.

The group was shocked all over again.

So that's why you said there was no point in using [holy water] or anything else. Of course—once someone Awakens, there's no hope left for someone in Kim Gryeo's condition!

Hunter Esther, may I ask you something? Are you saying that Hunter Kim has been coughing up blood regularly?

That's not—

Yes, that's right. I saw it with my own eyes. When Gryeo-ssi and I went into a dungeon together, he definitely coughed up bloody phlegm... sob sob. You shouldn't hide things like this from us!

Oh my.

There isn't a single damn person here actually listening to me.

Next, Seo Esther began feeding distorted information to Jung Haeseong.

I was overcome with the urge to use magic to shut the curse sorcerer's mouth.

But I couldn't.

Only minutes ago, my lungs had been shredded into roughly thirty pieces, and even an Archmage needed absolute rest today.

And so, the situation rapidly descended into catastrophe.

H, Hyung-nim... Hyung-nim was in that condition...?

Unlike the two S-ranks, Ahn Yoonseung had never personally witnessed any of the supposed evidence, so his shock was several times worse.

I've never in my life seen anyone wipe out a dungeon while just standing still. But someone with abilities that powerful had never once properly used his skills until now...?

Wasn't that obvious proof that something was wrong with the Awakened person's condition?

Then all those dungeon clears... Hyung-nim managed them while he was sick the entire time...?

I fell silent in utter disbelief and could only watch as their suspicions spiraled further and further out of control.

At this rate, Ahn Yoonseung wouldn't merely lose the color in his face—he looked liable to collapse from anemia at any moment.

So I tried to raise my voice and scold them, telling them to stop overreacting—but then...

Clatter, bang!

It happened at that exact moment.

Someone suddenly burst into the hospital room, panting heavily and completely out of breath.

Gryeo-ya!

A familiar vibration soon reached my ears.

It was none other than the voice of Asia's first Enchanter.

Which meant only one thing.

Ms. Do Seohyeong had come to the hospital room.

What's going on?

For a moment, that idiotic thought crossed my mind.

But the sight of Seohyeong drenched in sweat as she rushed inside quickly snapped me back to my senses.

Ah.

Right.

What do you mean, 'what's going on?'

Obviously, it was me.

I'm the reason.

Hesitantly.

Inside this hospital room were no fewer than three Association-certified S-rank Hunters, with an A-rank thrown in almost like a garnish.

So it was only natural that the newcomer drew a deep breath the moment she entered.

After steeling herself, the D-rank Awakened walked farther into the room, her short boots clicking against the floor with every step, and spoke.

Normally, by the time an incident involving even a D-rank Hunter appeared on television, several hours—or even days—had already passed.

But this time...

Hey, Kim Gryeo! The announcer just said on a live breaking-news report that you collapsed while coughing up blood. I seriously couldn't decide whether I should come or not, but I couldn't just sit there doing nothing, so here I am! So what's going on? Is the surgery over or what?

How did you even find out which hospital I was in?

Glance.

The young-looking woman in round glasses continued.

I heard you'd regained consciousness, but I still needed to see it with my own eyes before I could feel even a little reassured... but...

Did I bother you?

Seohyeong's voice gradually shrank, close to faltering beneath the overwhelming presence of the high-ranking Hunters.

At that, the Awakened around her hurriedly suppressed their auras or equipped gear designed to reduce their pressure, showing consideration for the weaker person in the room.

Oh. T, thank you.

No, it's nothing.

Excuse me, but how do you know Hyung-nim?

Oh! I'm Kim Gryeo's old classmate. We went to the same middle school.

Ahhh, your face looked so familiar—I almost thought you were a Hunter for a second...

Haha. You probably saw me in an old commercial.

Once the introductions between the strangers were more or less finished, Gu Seohyeong turned her gaze away from Ahn Yoonseung and spoke in an almost inaudible voice.

But the atmosphere feels a little strange.

Should I come back later?