Chapter 743: Sleeping Beauty (3)
“Han Yuhyun’s turned into a pillar of salt.”
Park Yerim muttered as she stared at the castle gate. The thornbushes wrapped around the castle had vanished, and the gate that had opened for a brief moment shut again the instant Han Yujin went inside. Han Yuhyun stood in front of it without moving. Moon Hyunah had tried saying something to him, but got no response. Until Han Yujin appeared again or someone brought word of him, it was as if Han Yuhyun had been cut off in a world of his own. Han Yujin had always been his only bridge to other people, so it was not much different from the truth.
“Mister will be okay, right? That weird guy did say he liked him.”
“Honestly, he did seem pretty strange to me too.”
Hwang Rim said it while looking up at the castle, its flags whipping in the wind. Park Yerim pinched her brows together.
“Oh, right. You were with him in China, weren’t you?”
“We weren’t close or anything. I don’t know how to put it exactly, but you know how there are people who never think about consequences?”
“You mean he’s reckless?”
“More like the type who doesn’t feel danger. Most people live with a basic sense of cause and effect. If I do this, something will happen because of it. But Park Hayul acted on impulse, completely. He liked Han Yujin, so he had to save him! And he just… did it.”
“…Even though Mister would hate that.”
“He did get mad, yeah. But Park Hayul didn’t seem to think much of it even then. His head was either unbelievably empty, or he was absurdly confident. If he’s a seed of a Transcendent, I guess that makes some sense.”
Hwang Rim rolled his neck and went on.
“Maybe deep down, he doesn’t feel any need to consider other people.”
People called small pets cute and adorable all the time, but they did not spend much time seriously wondering what the animal itself wanted.
“If you compare our Yujin to a hamster, then Park Hayul’s basically just the kind of person who’d chase away the cats circling around it and lock it up in a nice safe cage. From his point of view, there’s nothing strange about that, and the hamster squeaking in protest doesn’t really matter.”
“Do you really think that’s it?”
“Could just be that he’s dumb. Or maybe it’s both.”
Either way, it was bad news for Han Yujin.
“Mister really does attract way too many weird people.”
“He’s insanely popular.”
“Exactly. There’s one right next to us too.”
“You mean the Sesung Guildmaster.”
“The Chinese guy.”
“Wow, discrimination by nationality. Not okay.”
Park Yerim let out an exasperated sigh and started walking.
“I’m going to wait in front of the gate too.”
As Park Yerim headed for the castle gate, Peace followed after her. Soon the three of them stood side by side in front of it. Hwang Rim stretched lazily, then turned away.
“I’m gonna go find a bathroom.”
Anyone could tell he had other intentions, but no one stopped him. In the silence, the occasional metallic click of weapons being checked broke through. Song Taewon slowly shifted his gaze away from the castle. Beyond the heavy equipment, he saw people taking brief rests. There were hunters among them, but there were even more ordinary career soldiers with no awakened abilities.
“Normally, they’d be the ones we were meant to protect.”
Seong Hyunjae’s low voice slipped into Song Taewon’s ear. When Song Taewon turned, those golden eyes were faintly smiling.
“And all those people too.”
The people they had passed on the way here. Most of them had been civilians. Some had never held a weapon in their lives. They had swung whatever they knew—baseball bats, golf clubs, metal rods torn from hangers. Some were dressed in interview suits, others in pajamas and slippers, some still wearing aprons.
No one had ordered them to come. Even if they could not die or be injured here, they had stepped forward of their own will.
“I…”
“They looked like they were having fun.”
Instead of the sneer Song Taewon had expected, Seong Hyunjae answered with an easy smile.
“Just because people are weak or ordinary doesn’t mean they want to spend their lives being protected. There’s a good example of that standing nearby, isn’t there?”
“…”
“So you should try enjoying it a little too, Song Taewon.”
Song Taewon said nothing.
For a moment, the faces of the Awakener Management Office hunters rose in his mind. The expressions they wore when they had stood in front of him, thrilled beyond measure to block his way.
But he was not someone who deserved protection.
“Oh.”
In the middle of Song Taewon’s silence, Seong Hyunjae lifted his head and looked up at the sky. Song Taewon followed his gaze.
The moonlight was growing stronger.
As though held back by an invisible barrier, unable to approach the castle before, the moonlight now slowly spilled down over the pointed roofs. Song Taewon’s jaw tightened without his meaning to. Seong Hyunjae watched with amused interest.
“Do you think Han Yujin can handle a lunatic drunk on moonlight?”
“We shouldn’t have sent him in alone. He never should’ve come here so carelessly in the first place—”
“He would have had to come eventually. Better sooner than later.”
“What?”
“The longer time passed, the stronger Crescent Moon’s hold over Park Hayul would have become. Right now, he can still be reasoned with. But if they’d been even a few days later, he would’ve become a perfect puppet.”
That was the nature of the seeds of Transcendents. Seong Hyunjae spoke as he sifted through faint memories.
“Especially if he’s awakened by Crescent Moon, rather than by Han Yujin.”
Seeds of ruin that swallowed the world whole after losing their original selves. Once filled to the brim, they would be born anew as Transcendents.
But Park Hayul was still Park Hayul. Seong Hyunjae tilted his head slightly as he watched the moonlight wrapping thicker and thicker around the roof of the castle.
“Crescent Moon has its own objective as well… so it likely left him in an imperfectly awakened state on purpose.”
Even so, now—while some possibility still remained—was better. Song Taewon frowned deeply and turned to Seong Hyunjae.
“You should’ve told Han Yujin that in advance!”
“It’s only speculation.”
“You think all of this is just—”
Rumble—
The air shuddered with a heavy vibration. The sky trembled, clouds and moonlight mixing together before splintering apart. The sky cleared smooth and bright, and a sharp image appeared across the face of the moon.
[Hello, everyone!]
It was Park Hayul. His smiling face was projected huge across the sky. And not just here. The image appeared above military bases waiting on standby, above concert venues, above crowded airports. People everywhere looked up at him. His clear blue eyes curved into crescents.
[I’m the master of this world! Ta–da!]
Park Hayul spread both arms wide and spun in a circle.
[Apparently I was supposed to destroy Earth. But then I ended up inside a dream instead. I have no idea who pulled that off, but hey, it means Earth got saved! Was that you, hyung?]
The image, which had been showing only Park Hayul, widened to reveal his surroundings.
“Hyung!”
“Mister!”
– Grrrr!
Han Yujin came into view. Dressed in a tailcoat, he was tied to a pillar in front of a round window. Moonlight poured in through the glass, silver threading through his black hair. Han Yujin glared at Park Hayul like he was looking at a complete psychopath.
[I wasn’t alone, you lunatic. Is that hair actually grass?]
[Huh? Should I dye it green? Do you like green?]
[With your skull full of clear water, no wonder it grows so lush.]
[Oh, Peace ripped out this much once! It grew back really fast! It grows great. How’d you know?]
Park Hayul beamed. Han Yujin looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.
[This is Yujin hyung, who I really, really love! He saved the world, and he saved me too! He became my prince and woke me from my sleep!]
[No, I didn’t! I wasn’t trying to wake you up!]
“If he’s Sleeping Beauty…”
Seong Hyunjae murmured. From by the castle gate, Moon Hyunah let out a quiet, impressed sound, and Park Yerim’s eyes went round in disbelief.
[You got smacked awake with a bouquet, that’s what happened!]
[It moved me, hyung.]
Park Hayul put on a dreamy expression. Then he spun back toward the people again.
[Yujin hyung is so cool, I think that’s why he’s so popular. Even bad people keep clinging to him.]
[You are one of them!]
[So I wanted to take good care of him, but my nice hyung saved me all over again.]
[I said no! Try listening when people talk!]
[Hyung, you’re going to lose your voice like that.]
The vines binding Han Yujin suddenly covered his mouth. Han Yujin bit down on them and growled.
[But since I went to all the trouble of setting up a whole castle and everything, I figured I should at least give people a chance!]
[Mmph! Mmph!]
[To the people who really care about hyung!]
Thunk.
The shut castle gates swung open. Han Yuhyun rushed inside as if he had been waiting for that exact moment.
“Hey! Han Yuhyun!”
Park Yerim froze for half a second in surprise, then ran after him, with Peace following close behind. The gates immediately began to close again. Moon Hyunah clicked her tongue, then looked back at Seong Hyunjae and Song Taewon, who were too far away to make it in time.
“Handle things out here!”
Moon Hyunah slipped through at the last possible second, and then the gates slammed shut.
[These are the people who were waiting for hyung outside the gate~]
Han Yujin kicked uselessly at the air.
[Come to think of it, I figured hyung should have friends too. Of course, I couldn’t make it easy for them to get all the way here!]
Rumble.
The castle began to grow.
The upper levels, wrapped in moonlight, shot upward in an instant, impossibly high. Stairs appeared along the outer walls as they stretched into a tower, and gargoyle–like monsters dropped onto the roofs.
[Looking pretty good. Oh, and one more thing!]
Park Hayul clapped his hands once.
– Grrrroooowl.
A massive dragon appeared, half–coiled around the castle. Its red scales flashed as it opened its jaws wide.
Fwoooosh—
Flames poured out. The long stream of breath tore through half the gathered army in an instant. Sparks drifted over ground scorched black.
[Now hyung’s all set! So I guess it’s time for me to get to work.]
Park Hayul looked down past the image.
[But this is a dream, right? So what do I do?]
The world he was supposed to destroy was not here. This place was only a shadow of the original world, reflected in the Mermaid Queen’s sea—a dream, nothing more. As Park Hayul hesitated, people began appearing one by one on the blackened ground.
“I know Park Hayul. He was a celebrity, right? Then he vanished over half a year ago.”
“How are we supposed to kill a dragon?”
“Hace frio aqui!”
“Who is 바카율?”
“Um, Korean?”
“Hey, tell them with those blue eyes and light hair, nobody’s gonna assume he’s Korean.”
“So what? The one tied up over there is Han Yujin anyway.”
Now people could apparently move directly to the area around the castle too. More and more nonmilitary people flooded the wide clearing. Among them were a few familiar faces.
“Chief! Are you safe!”
“Huh? Where’d our guildmaster go? Breaker Guildmaster! Sis!”
“Our guildmaster’s missing too… and Director Han’s the one tied up there…”
“Guildmaster, cold medicine. Hunter Kang Soyeong asked me to bring it.”
Seong Hyunjae politely declined the offered cold medicine, saying he was fine. The Sesung Guild hunters stepped forward too, awkward but determined.
“Never thought I’d see a day like this.”
“Never in my life imagined our guildmaster would be the one stepping up to the front.”
“We dreamed about it plenty, though.”
An Awakener Management Office hunter cut into their whispers. The Sesung Guild and the Awakener Management Office had crossed paths often enough that they were half friendly, half mortal enemies.
“Directoooor Haaaan!”
With a booming shout, Shishio dropped to his knees, looking at Han Yujin in the image like the sky had just collapsed on him.
“I’m finally getting used to killing monsters!”
“Kid, dreams and reality are different. Don’t wake up and start acting cocky because you think you can be a hunter now.”
As monsters began spilling down through the moonlight again, people raised all kinds of weapons. Confident, triumphant, they charged straight ahead. Park Hayul looked down at them.
[Right, hunters!]
He nodded to himself as if remembering something, then continued.
[Though, those two over there aren’t dream versions. They’re the real thing.]
Park Hayul pointed at Seong Hyunjae and Song Taewon.
[I was already getting annoyed anyway. So if you get rid of those two for me, I’ll give you a present~.]
“…What kind of nonsense is that?”
“It’s a dream anyway.”
[I’ll make the dream you want into reality!]
Throwing his arms wide, Park Hayul grinned.
[I can do that.]
All eyes snapped back to the image at once. A few people shouted that there was no way they believed him. Park Hayul shrugged theatrically.
[I’m serious. Not anything huge, obviously. If I could do that, I would’ve destroyed Earth already~ But personal wishes? I can make those real.]
Behind him, Han Yujin started struggling even harder than before. The murmur spreading through the crowd swelled.
[You could have lots of money. Or become handsome like me. Get smarter, stronger…]
Park Hayul kept rambling excitedly. While people listened in spite of themselves, Song Taewon quietly moved closer to Seong Hyunjae.
“We need to be ready to evade.”
At the low whisper, Seong Hyunjae only smiled.
“Didn’t I say they looked like they were enjoying themselves?”
“…What?”
“To be protected is, in the end, to have things done to you. But to protect someone means placing yourself at the very front.”
And they had already protected them.
“I’m protecting the Chief!”
An Awakener Management Office hunter barked the words out. It was the kind of yell that sounded like someone trying to wake themselves from sleep. At that, one of the Sesung hunters nodded too.
“Honestly, this is going to be my bragging rights for life.”
For the nonhunters, even more so.
“Damn right I protected him.”
“I followed all the way from Gangnam. I’m literally still asleep on vacation.”
“We saved the world and saved the S–ranks too.”
These were the people I protected. The people I kept safe. Not strangers. Not untouchable S–rank awakeners they had only ever looked at from far away. This was their achievement, their pride. Of course, some were tempted by Park Hayul’s reward. But more than that, there were plenty who valued their own pride—who valued themselves.
“People like giving help more than you’d think,” Seong Hyunjae said.
“Some of it may be pure goodwill, but giving to others is also an act that elevates the self. And no matter who they are, everyone enjoys being praised.”
People wanted to become someone great. It was a desire everyone had. And right now, they were protecting the strongest beings in the world—people who had saved that world.
“…But I—”
“And here—”
Seong Hyunjae lightly vaulted onto the roof of a nearby vehicle. Song Taewon looked at him. So did everyone else. Facing the crowd, Seong Hyunjae gave them a graceful bow. A gesture of thanks.
An S–rank hunter, a man called stronger than anyone else.
The expressions on people’s faces changed. Hunters and nonawakened people alike. In that moment, they became the ones protecting the person who stood at the very top. They stood equal to him now—or rose proudly above him.
–TL Notes–
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