Chapter 328

"Achoo!"

Come to think of it, the seasons are already changing.

Facing the rising morning sun as he looked down over the ground below, the alien fell into thought. This time, however, the subject of his reflections was entirely different from the evaluations he had been recording in his notebook.

"Also, since the hospital food is ridiculously bland, maybe I should go out for lunch today?"

Indeed, the solar system where he had settled was one in which the saying "Even Mount Geumgang is best appreciated after a meal" was widely known.

And yet, here he was worrying about food while facing the possible extinction of an entire species.

What exactly did that say about him?

Wrapped in blond flesh, the alien continued indulging in one outrageous thought after another—the sort that would make any native Earthling recoil in disbelief.

And while he remained at the rooftop railing, lost in thought, several people elsewhere were, at roughly the same time, finding themselves caught up in rather peculiar situations.

***

Several hours earlier—to be precise, 8 hours and 13 minutes before a certain blond extraterrestrial bought a spiral notebook at the convenience store in front of the hospital.

"Heheugh."

"Hunter Esther, would you like a handkerchief?"

Drmmm.

The sliding door at the end of the white corridor suddenly moved.

Several people were trying to leave the room at once.

Room 301, located on the top floor where a faint floral fragrance lingered, was the hospital's most private suite—a room normally reserved for important figures such as corporate chairmen.

And at that moment, the temporary occupant of that prestigious room—the patient—had just shouted for everyone to get out.

"I only just got here, and I'm already being kicked out..."

Jung Haeseong and Seo Esther.

The country's highest-ranked Hunter and the head of one of South Korea's major guilds had both been driven out without offering the slightest resistance.

The sight was strangely amusing.

They were probably accustomed to being treated as "VIPs" wherever they went.

Having been expelled from the hospital room, Gu Seohyeong stepped into the hallway and looked around with a defeated expression.

But really—what else could she do?

"He really must be feeling terrible. Giryeo isn't normally the type to get that angry."

Even if the person lying in that hospital room hadn't been the great Hunter Kim Giryeo, visitors were ultimately at the mercy of the patient's wishes.

So the three of them, including the Enchanter, sensibly decided that the best thing to do for now was simply obey.

"Excuse me, Seohyeong-ssi..."

"Yes, yes, Director Seo."

"Excuse me, but there's something I heard earlier that I'd like to ask you about."

Kim Giryeo hadn't exactly told them they had to remain silent on the way out.

"Just so we're clear, I already heard during the Go Byeongdo incident that the two of you were old classmates. Putting that aside—what exactly was that conversation about just now?"

"Yes?"

"Me, memory... loss? Are you saying Giryeo-ssi has amnesia?"

"Ah, that's..."

"It was already shocking enough that he had to be brought here by ambulance! And now you're telling me he has some soap-opera illness on top of that?"

"First, please calm down."

The Awakened who had been thrown out of the room began chatting as they made their way toward the elevator at the end of the corridor.

"Judging by your reaction, it seems Hunters like you, Director Esther, hadn't heard about this."

"Haa..."

"Have you really never heard anything about Giryeo being injured badly enough on the job to develop memory problems?"

"Yes!"

"I, I just thought... I mean, if Giryeo had even told me about it, I assumed he'd obviously told the people in the industry he sees more often than me..."

A brief sigh slipped into the conversation.

"But I guess I misunderstood. What if this was something he genuinely wanted to keep secret?"

While Ahn Yoonseung remained awkwardly beside the patient's bed, the other three Awakened had already reached the elevator.

"It's okay."

Esther was the one who took the lead in the conversation.

"It's not as though Giryeo is the kind of person who'd endlessly berate an old classmate over one slip of the tongue."

"Hmm."

"Even if he kept it secret because, as a Hunter, he didn't want to show weakness... honestly, given the situation now, memory loss doesn't even feel like the biggest issue anymore."

"Amnesia, you said?"

"There was something like that."

For reference, the incident they were talking about was the discovery on Kim Giryeo's lung CT scan.

And when that particular secret had come to light, both S-rank Hunters had been present.

Haeseong and Esther.

Their expressions darkened almost immediately.

"Is this about the lung problem you overheard in the hospital room earlier?"

Watching their faces fall, Seohyeong chose not to press them for details about something she knew nothing about.

Still, no matter how much she wanted to stay quiet and simply read the mood, there was one thing she couldn't avoid doing if they intended to return to the hospital's first floor.

Ding.

At the end of the corridor, Gu Seohyeong pressed the round button on the wall and waited.

A moment later, the elevator arrived with a soft, subdued hum.

"Hmm?"

Now all they had to do was get in and go home...

"Aren't you getting in?"

The moment the woman with the round glasses stepped inside, however, the other two remained inexplicably rooted in place.

Holding down the button to keep the doors open, Gu Seohyeong glanced back at her companions.

"Giryeo is the patient."

Yet even after the Enchanter asked whether they were coming, silence lingered for several seconds.

"And on top of that, he just went through something so difficult to deal with."

Just as that thought suggested, several people around this time were still trapped in the aftermath of the shock.

Esther, ordinarily so quick both in thought and action, found herself standing motionless in front of the waiting elevator.

"Oh my..."

"Isn't this just... unfair?"

Esther hesitated.

The world was full of vile things that deserved to disappear.

And yet, out of all the countless possibilities fate could have chosen, why did it have to be Kim Giryeo who ended up in danger?

As she thought through the situation again, another tear formed at the corner of her eye.

"He's genuinely a good Hunter..."

But amid all that grief, another emotion stirred within her.

"He's practically indispensable to this industry—what are we supposed to do without him?"

Ironically, it was surprise.

It was a little embarrassing to admit, but the truth was that Esther had never felt this devastated over another person's misfortune before.

Despite being the head of the Tower Guild and having spent years dealing with high-level criminals and, in a broader sense, managing Awakened individuals in the name of public safety...

Those actions, however admirable they might have appeared from the outside, had all grown from a rather distorted ideology.

And the source of her sense of duty was, in truth, surprisingly simple.

"Ah... how can something like this happen?"

Seo Esther was, at heart, an Awakened supremacist.

To elaborate, Korean curse-users like her had already taken certain ideas for granted since the days of the false aura sightings in the Northern Mariana Islands—back in the earliest stage of the Dungeon Shock, when the world still knew nothing about mana and strange streaks of light would briefly appear without any visible spatial connection.

Psychics are superior beings.

Because that belief sat firmly at the center of her worldview, she had always treated civilians kindly.

Of course, the ideology of Awakened superiority was something most people would condemn without hesitation.

If someone strong like me doesn't protect those weak, unlucky, powerless people, then who will?

Yet because of that unwavering conviction, Esther paradoxically cared for non-Awakened people with genuine sincerity.

She was generous to them and looked after them in countless ways.

Even the incident in which she'd used her skill to pressure former Hunter Association President Go Byeongdo into stepping down could, in a way, be traced back to that same arrogance.

The comparison wasn't perfect, but somewhere deep down she'd harbored a resentment of that sort, and it had allowed her to attack Go Byeongdo even more mercilessly for his own arrogance.

Viewed coldly, an ordinary person wouldn't usually resort to outright violence without some such emotion driving them.

In short, once all the factors were laid out, it became clear that this woman in her twenties was by no means an especially compassionate person.

"Ha."

And yet, somehow, the day had come when even someone so lacking in sensitivity found herself crying.

"..."

Just before stepping into the elevator, Esther stopped once more and fell briefly into thought.

All this time, she'd thought of S-rank Kim Giryeo as someone she was still "a little distant from," or as someone with whom "it would be a stretch to say she was close."

Those were labels she'd repeated to herself many times.

But...

Had she, somewhere deep down, considered Kim Giryeo a little special?

Or had all those gloomy attempts to curry favor with him—trying to secure ties with a powerful Awakened in advance—suddenly begun to feel petty and shameful?

"And now, all of a sudden, I'm getting angry too."

Whatever the truth was, the curse sorcerer's conclusion remained the same.

"I'm still so young—why am I already having to think about condolence money for someone I know?"

The situation had shaken her deeply.

Even Esther, who had secretly suspected for some time that something like this might happen, couldn't keep her composure.

Drmm.

And that made her wonder—

if she was this shocked despite having seen Kim Giryeo cough up blood before, how must the others feel?

"Director Seo?"

Because the D-rank Awakener was holding the open button, the elevator doors remained apart.

Esther pushed aside her thoughts and finally stepped inside.

Once the doors closed, the elevator panel quickly indicated their descent toward the first floor.

There had been a brief hesitation, but after that, nothing else delayed them on the way to the lobby.

Esther simply exchanged a few more words with Gu Seohyeong, and with each one, her conviction only deepened.

"A perfectly healthy-looking adult who didn't even seem like the type to suffer from anemia suddenly had blood pouring from his nose in the middle of a hallway."

At that moment, the national hero standing in one corner of the elevator remained silent.

"The scariest illnesses in the world are the ones involving the brain. How would you feel if, in your mid-twenties, you suddenly lost your memory so badly you couldn't even remember your own name?"

Of course, the two women in front didn't particularly care whether the country's Rank 1 Hunter was staying quiet.

"And Kim Giryeo—that man was injured badly enough for something like that to happen, yet he still went back to hunting. How does someone even find the nerve? If it were me, I'd be terrified of everything."

Their conversation continued.

"...Well then, I think that's enough unpleasant talk for now. Hmm, come to think of it, Seohyeong-ssi, how did you get to the hospital today?"

"By car."

"Did you drive yourself?"

"No. Unfortunately, I'm completely hopeless at driving. I always travel with a bodyguard who's very good at it."

"Then where is that bodyguard now?"

"Right outside on the first floor. This elevator connects directly to the VIP floor, you know. The hospital staff insists on getting approval for every single visitor, so... there wasn't really any choice."

"Hmm?"

Although her reserves of magical power were low, the safety of a Rare Enchanter was naturally a serious concern.

So the Tower Guild Master remained beside Gu Seohyeong, protecting the comparatively weak Awakener.

Ding.

But according to the Enchanter herself, she'd already come with proper security personnel.

Anything beyond that would simply be needless interference.

"It's the first floor."

The elevator carried the group down several dozen meters, and they soon arrived at their destination.

But a hospital was, by nature, a busy place.

There were naturally plenty of people around.

Gu Seohyeong disappeared toward the parking lot with the security team waiting for her on the first floor.

Esther, saying she still had a great deal to handle regarding the Beast incident, headed off as well.

And the country's Rank 1 Awakener, who had remained silent until then, naturally followed suit with a similar attitude.

The superpowered individuals who had briefly gathered in that small space soon dispersed, mindful of the burden their presence might place on the elderly and infirm.

"Oh! Guildmaster—are you finished with your visit?"

"Yes—but my work isn't done yet. The Chief told me to come over as soon as possible."

"Yes, yes. Please get in. We'll leave right away."

"Phew."

But even after returning to familiar surroundings, she couldn't shake the restless unease inside her.

Why?

The Awakener's eyes drooped.

Esther sank into the passenger seat of the car driven by her secretary.

As she lowered her eyelids and closed her eyes, she quietly admitted the truth to herself.

"Looks like I got unexpectedly attached to that Hunter—"

That would explain why she'd started caring so much about another person's health.

***

[Ohhow can I assist you?]

Your recent search list

: Awakener cancer

: Awakeners and Cancer

: A case involving mana patient awakening and...

***

I hope the fourth S-rank gets treated.

Driven by that thought, she searched for a while, and soon several documents appeared on her phone.

Esther, fluent in both English and Japanese, had no difficulty reading material from several different countries.

Unfortunately, none of it strayed far from what she'd already expected.

"Basically, they're all saying that once a Hunter gets sick, they're screwed..."

She'd wondered whether the outcome might differ depending on when the person Awakened.

Maybe looking up symptoms on the internet had been a mistake after all.

"I shouldn't have looked."

Seventeen-year-old Jang-ssi.

Passed away after Awakening rendered the prescribed targeted therapy ineffective.

Twenty-nine-year-old Namgong-ssi.

In his case, he'd believed himself to be perfectly healthy, only for a previously hidden pancreatic mass to be discovered too late—and he, too, had died.

The emergence of superpowered individuals occurred primarily among younger people.

Cancer, by contrast, did not begin rising sharply in incidence until around the age of fifty.

The two trends were almost exact opposites on an age-distribution graph.

As a result, cases of Awakened individuals developing tumors were exceedingly rare.

Only two had ever been officially reported in Korea.

And yet.

"It's still only a hypothesis, but apparently Awakeners don't catch colds and have abnormally strong immune systems, so their chances of cancer cells developing into an actual disease may be lower. Maybe that's why there are so few cases...? No, wait. What good is a paper like this to someone who's already sick?"

The real problem was that every documented case so far had ended in death.

No matter how long she searched, modern medicine seemed unable to overcome humanity's ancient enemy once it became entangled with supernatural abilities.

So, grasping at straws, Esther typed into the search bar the one word that had so often represented a patient's final hope.

[Elixir]

A word once pursued through alchemy in the medieval era—and today better known as the name of a certain dungeon item.

"Hmm."

Elixir.

And at the very moment the head of the Tower Guild recalled that particular word, somewhere else in the city, another person found himself following an uncannily similar train of thought.

"If that item really exists..."

A man in his twenties, lost in thought, had also arrived at that same possibility.

The highest-ranked Hunter in the country.

Even on the global stage, an Awakener who was practically the face of the S-rank.

"No, but an Elixir... now, of all times..."

Someone who possessed so much—

and yet, in this situation, was the only one who hadn't received any warning about the disaster that might be coming.

In other words, unlike Gu Seohyeong and Esther, he was the only one who had never witnessed Kim Giryeo's abnormal bleeding.