Chapter 741: Sleeping Beauty (1)
The plane touched down, and gunfire aimed at the monsters started cracking outside. An announcement came over the cabin speakers asking everyone to remain seated for a moment. Not long after, the doors opened and people came rushing in.
“Dad!”
Gyeol was right at the front. He ran straight to me and threw his arms around me.
“Gyeol! When did you get here!”
“I’m only here to see you for a second, Dad. Gyeol brought the Saintess.”
Emily Spence stepped forward from behind him. Smiling, she lifted one arm and gave us a broad wave.
“A dream really is a wonderful thing. My body couldn’t beat time with F-rank stats.”
“Hello. Your Korean is incredible.”
“It’s an item.”
“Gyeol brought the Saintess so she could use both her skills and her items! I can only do that for one person at a time.”
Sliding out of my arms, Gyeol gave us all a quick glance—then very obviously looked at Seong Hyunjae.
“There are a lot of monsters, so I thought she could heal anyone who got hurt.”
Apparently he’d been pretty bothered by Seong Hyunjae’s ear. Our kid was just too sweet, even when people acted prickly with him.
“Thankfully no one’s been injured. A lot of people helped out. Mister Seong Hyunjae, what are you doing? Hurry up and get over here.”
Making a kid worry like that.
As I turned toward Seong Hyunjae with the words still leaving my mouth, I caught those golden eyes fixed on Gyeol with open interest. It was a look I knew well. I’d been on the receiving end of it plenty of times myself. Reflexively, I pulled Gyeol back into my arms.
“How admirable.”
“Stay the hell away from Gyeol.”
“I was only complimenting him.”
Looking mildly aggrieved, Seong Hyunjae headed over to Emily.
“I never laid a hand on children to begin with, but now, out of consideration for my beloved partner’s wishes, I’ve become even more careful. I’ve even played the part of a fine guardian.”
“How thoughtful of you to voluntarily observe a thirty-year restraining order.”
“By that standard, Han Yujin would count as a child as well. Shall I make the offer to be his guardian again?”
“I’m thirty-one. Besides, your own kid is still a baby to you even when they’re a hundred. Thirty is already being generous.”
Our Gyeol was already sharp as a tack. Give him another thirty years of life experience and he’d probably be able to wipe out even a giant old serpent without breaking a sweat. The Saintess caught sight of Seong Hyunjae’s missing ear and clapped her hands.
“Oh my, you really did lose an ear. You should take better care of your face. What a waste.”
Especially now, when his face was about all he had left. Emily activated a skill. Mana gathered over one side of Seong Hyunjae’s face like thick mist.
“It won’t regenerate instantly—it’ll take about five minutes. Now then, everyone, line up. Even if you aren’t hurt. I’m told the skills will stay in effect even after I wake up, so this should help a little.”
A soft but powerful current of mana washed over us. Protective buffs, enhancement buffs, healing-type support skills that boosted regeneration—they all began pouring down over us. She said she’d extended the duration and weakened the effects, but even so, my body felt dramatically lighter.
“And these are potions made with materials from the dream world.”
One of Emily’s bodyguards held out a bag. It was packed full of little plastic water bottles.
“We didn’t have any dungeon byproducts, so I used purified water, added vitamin C, and cast healing skills on it. That means they’re probably only mid-to-low grade.”
“Thank you. So potions use vitamin C, huh.”
“No. It’s winter.”
The Saintess smiled.
“They’re good for preventing colds too, and they taste like lemon.”
“If you warm them up, they’re kind of like lemon tea.”
By then Seong Hyunjae’s ear had already grown back. Honestly, he did look better intact. Gyeol looked a little disappointed, but then he woke from the dream alongside the Saintess, and people from the Hunter Association and other government agencies approached us carrying laptops.
“This is what we found in our advance survey of the Alps.”
As fluent Korean flowed from the speaker, a video played on the laptop screen. At the edge of the snow-covered mountain range stood a massive castle.
“This castle did not originally exist. It closely resembles Di○ney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.”
…Sleeping Beauty? In this case, should that make him Sleeping Prince? Though, to be fair, Park Hayul absolutely did qualify as the beauty in question. Thick thornbushes had also overgrown the area around the castle.
“People skilled in lucid dreaming attempted spatial movement into the castle, but every attempt failed. Within roughly a one-kilometer radius of the castle, dream-based imagination powers become weakened.”
“So this is definitely the place.”
At least he’d made it obvious. Nice of him to put up a giant sign saying I’m right here. If he’d hidden himself somewhere off in a corner and gone to sleep, we would’ve wasted all our time just trying to find him.
“We’ve prepared body armor. We’re advising the use of cold weapons whenever possible, but this area has a high concentration of civilians carrying firearms compared to Korea. They’ll be able to imagine and use guns very easily. Because of that, stray rounds and explosive fragments may pose more danger than the monsters themselves. The vehicles are also bulletproof.”
“Can you keep people away from the castle?”
“Yes. Since the dream power is weak there, it’s possible. People experienced with lucid dreams can fly or teleport, so in other areas it was impossible to control.”
“Everyone’s pretty worked up, too.”
It was still chaos outside even now.
“Yes. That’s why concerns are starting to surface. If this world continues, some people may choose to abandon reality.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. It’ll be over in a few days at most. It might be a good idea to announce it ahead of time too—that the dream world will disappear in about a week.”
If the system took hold, it should be more than enough to stop things from getting out of hand. This place wasn’t the real world. It was a virtual space created by the power of a Transcendent. Rookie or the other Unfilial Children would probably make sure it settled into an ordinary dream.
“Understood. Then people will start racing to take vacation time.”
I just hoped nobody got in too deep. It’d be nice if people treated this like a strange little holiday and nothing more.
“Have you heard anything from Hunter Noah or Hunter Liette?”
Everyone shook their heads. Still nothing. What the hell happened to them? At least thanks to Myungwoo, I could still check my status window. The keywords were all still listed there just fine, so it probably wasn’t anything catastrophic.
The prepared vehicles pulled up in front of the plane, and we headed down the stairs. The moment people saw us, cheers erupted from all sides. Monsters were still being summoned nonstop, but they barely had time to appear before the crowd swarmed them. From the monsters’ point of view, this had to feel like getting cast as extras in a zombie movie. Since nobody could really die in a dream, people threw themselves in without caring about their lives—and even if they died and woke up, they could just go back to sleep and return.
“SF! SF!”
“Reveur!”
“Get lost! Feet!”
Whether it was SF or dream or any other curse word starting with F, I could catch the gist well enough. That last one sounded like somebody yelling that they were a hunter too. Translation items really were ridiculously convenient. Yerim, Mister dreams of uniting the whole world under Korean too.
“Don’t worry about the monsters!”
“We’ll get them all! All kill!”
I could hear a good amount of Korean too. Because of his size, Peace had no choice but to ride separately in a larger vehicle, and the rest of us split between two cars. The convoy began to move. My fear resistance was turned off, monsters still filled the area, and violent noise exploded from every direction, but none of it felt scary. Then again, everywhere I looked outside the windows, all I saw were happy faces. It felt like we were rolling through the middle of a festival.
Even the broadcast networks seemed to be working in the dream. The TV mounted in the car was showing the news. People with painted faces and their arms slung around each other’s shoulders sang together. Elderly men and women raised their canes and transformed them all at once into old-fashioned rifles. Other people were handing out balloons and candy.
‘As long as this ends well.’
If everyone could go back carrying good memories with them, I wouldn’t ask for anything else.
[A massive concert is being prepared in front of the Eiffel Tower.]
A voice came through the radio.
[We’ve lined up as many major stars as possible. The plan is to draw public attention there while increasing the number of soldiers on site, so people will be steered away from monster hunting.]
“I want to see it too!”
“Then should we go?”
At my words, Yerim scowled hard.
“Mister, you’re still planning to face Park Hayul alone, aren’t you?”
Yuhyun silently grabbed hold of my arm. Hyunah clicked her tongue.
“I keep telling you, Director Han never changes.”
“I’ve gotten a lot better than I used to be. Back in the old days, I would’ve already disappeared without saying a word. Ow—Yuhyun. That hurts.”
“We can tie you up right now.”
“Well, he’s not exactly wrong.”
Moon Hyunah gave a small nod and continued.
“If this were reality, and you were F-rank while the rest of us were S-rank, that’d be one thing. But right now there’s not that huge a gap.”
“Exactly.”
“Cold truth? The rest of us are more likely to become dead weight. Park Hayul’s especially favorable toward you. If it were me, I’d go alone too.”
“Unni!”
At Yerim’s shout, Hyunah hooked an arm around her neck and hauled her in. Yerim thrashed around, but Hyunah didn’t budge an inch, just rubbed her head roughly.
“Our Yerim is still young.”
“Ah, unniii!”
“It’s a dream, so I get to follow your Mister~.”
“That’s not fair!”
“If any of you got captured, your Mister wouldn’t be able to do a thing.”
Yerim stopped struggling. She blinked slowly, then opened her mouth.
“…I know. I know I can’t get caught. Back then too, Mister was definitely thinking something bad.”
She seemed to be talking about when the Mermaid Queen had captured her. I was just wondering if I should say something comforting when Yerim let out a long sigh.
“I made it out, but I was terrified too. Hey, Han Yuhyun.”
Yuhyun, who was practically clutching my arm, looked at Yerim.
“I think this time we have to leave it to Mister.”
“…”
There was no way Yuhyun didn’t understand that too. It was just that, to him, being by my side mattered more than any risk. If the choice were die together or live apart, the Yuhyun of now would choose the first one. He’d hesitate a little because it would put me in danger too, but still.
“Let’s at least get close first and then decide. For all we know, I might be the only one who can enter the castle in the first place.”
“That’s true. Maybe the door only opens for you, hyungnim.”
Or maybe for Seong Hyunjae. But letting Seong Hyunjae inside was way too dangerous. It wasn’t like I could suddenly go, Yes, by all means, please take your precious little moon back. No, maybe I really should just bury Seong Hyunjae in some bunker somewhere.
As the road narrowed, the number of people around us gradually thinned out. In their place came fighter jets, helicopters, and infantry units. Under a sky that looked neither fully day nor fully night, the moonlight remained aloof and untouchable. It made me think of another moonlight I’d once faced in a past so ancient it was beyond counting. The eyes of the night that had looked back at me.
‘There’s no way this ends with a conversation.’
Neither of us could back down. Neither of us could compromise. I couldn’t let go of the people beside me. I had to get my brother back. Crescent Moon wanted to save the world. She was trying to create a new source and prevent the world itself from being swallowed whole.
‘…Put side by side like that, I really am being insanely personal about this.’
If it weren’t my own problem, I probably would’ve told myself to back off. It wasn’t like the thought never crossed my mind. But no matter how many times I turned it over in my head, the answer never changed. Even if I had to regress not once but dozens of times and repeat the same thing over and over, I’d make the same choice every time. I’d struggle to pull all of them into my arms—the people I met again and again, the brother who kept multiplying into dozens.
That’s just how I’m built.
“Anybody got something to eat?”
I don’t know. Might as well have a snack.
“This is as far as we go.”
After I got out of the vehicle, a commander who looked East Asian spoke to me. He wasn’t wearing a Korean uniform, but was he Korean? Could a foreign national even be a military commander here? I didn’t think so. Maybe he’d been naturalized.
“That ahead is Sleeping Beauty Castle.”
The castle rose at the end of the mountain range. A towering wall of thornbushes surrounded it, and in the middle of them stood a great gate. Even the road leading up to it was broad and neatly laid out, like something from a storybook illustration. I stepped forward. Tilting my head back toward the sky, I saw moonlight falling at an angle like curtains drawn and tied back—avoiding the castle.
‘In this place, is Park Hayul’s power stronger than Crescent Moon’s?’
Maybe he wasn’t completely under her control yet. The monsters weren’t going near the castle either.
“Let’s approach slowly.”
We switched from the bulletproof vehicle to an open-topped military truck and moved forward at a crawl. The moonlight circled just beyond a fixed boundary. The monster summons had stopped too. We came to a halt about a hundred meters from the castle.
“For starters, Mister Seong Hyunjae and Chief Song—you absolutely do not come in.”
Those were the two people Crescent Moon most wanted either to claim or erase. Nothing good would come of bringing them into Park Hayul’s castle.
“Hwang Rim, you stay put and behave too.”
“I already had plenty of grown-up time on the way here.”
Hwang Rim grumbled that it hadn’t been very fun anyway. Leaving aside Seong Hyunjae, Chief Song probably ignored him completely. Seong Hyunjae didn’t seem especially interested in Hwang Rim either. It wasn’t that surprising. Unless I was there to keep the exchange going, the two of them weren’t exactly each other’s type.
“Peace, take care of Yuhyun and Yerim.”
– Khrrng.
Peace smacked his tail down in annoyance, apparently realizing I was leaving him behind. Yuhyun looked sullen too.
“I’m going with you to the gate.”
“Me too, Mister!”
“Only to the gate.”
Things had been quiet here too, so it should be fine. Chief Song looked at me with heavy eyes.
“Be careful.”
“I will. I’m counting on you, Chief Song.”
I felt bad sticking him with Seong Hyunjae and Hwang Rim on top of everything else. At least the various government offices, along with Korean hunters from Haeyeon and Sesung, were getting ready to enter again as well. Apparently Gyeol and Mari had teamed up, and though weakly, they’d made skill use possible.
We started toward the castle gate. Since death didn’t stick in dreams, Hyunah took the lead, and a few other hunters formed up around us.
“Do we knock or something?”
Hyunah said it while staring up at the approaching gate. It didn’t look like the kind of place that would have a doorbell—
Crrrk—
A harsh, grating sound sliced through the air. I moved before I could even process what was happening.
Crunch!
“Hyung!”
Yuhyun shouted, and heat flared through my shoulder. The thornbushes were writhing. A vine bristling with sharp thorns had shot straight for Yuhyun—and I’d intercepted it. That bastard Park Hayul. Seriously.
“Block them!”
The hunters shouted, and the thorns came pouring down.
–TL Notes–
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