Chapter 59
"Kim Jia."
Someone called me from behind.
This wasn't the time to stop and...
"I have a skill."
His strangely calm voice made me turn.
Park Seungjun stood there with an expressionless face.
Or perhaps he looked a little sad.
Maybe he was desperately suppressing his frustration.
When he spoke again, his voice trembled.
More than a little.
"I've never used it before because I think it'll kill me... but I think I have to use it now."
"..."
"Five seconds. Will that be enough?"
I knew that look.
It was the look of someone prepared to die.
I'd seen the same expression on my brother's face a year ago.
I didn't know what kind of skill Park Seungjun possessed.
But there was a very high chance that using it would kill him.
And yet...
I couldn't tell him not to use it.
If we did nothing, all those people would die.
That wasn't merely a possibility.
I was absolutely certain.
And Park Seungjun was someone I barely knew.
I opened my mouth.
Despite the anxiety in my heart, my voice was firm.
"Yes. That's enough."
"Thank you."
Park Seungjun smiled.
For some reason, my chest ached.
At that moment, something changed about the Minotaur.
Its movements gradually slowed, as though it had been paralyzed.
Crackle.
Sparks began dancing around its body.
The same thing was happening to Park Seungjun.
But I didn't have time to think about his skill.
We had been given five seconds.
I had to finish everything within those five seconds.
I immediately started running.
I didn't calculate whether I could do it.
There wasn't even enough time for that.
For a moment, it felt as though even the ground had stopped shaking.
Or perhaps I simply didn't have the attention to spare for something like that.
I ran.
Then I jumped as high as I could.
I landed higher than I had managed before.
I drove the scythe into the Minotaur's body and used it as a foothold.
Then I pulled myself upward.
Climbing desperately, I finally managed to reach its backside.
"Haa... haa..."
I didn't even have time to calm my pounding heart.
I immediately raised the scythe.
But apparently, five seconds had already passed.
The Minotaur, which had been completely still, suddenly began thrashing wildly.
Standing on its violently shaking body, I swung the scythe.
BOOOOOOM!
Something shattered.
The sound hadn't come from where I was.
But I had no strength left to think about what it meant.
My trembling body collapsed.
Then brilliant light erupted in front of me.
It gradually spread across the Minotaur, swallowing its enormous body.
Something this simple...
And I couldn't even do it until now...
The Minotaur's horrific screams stabbed at my ears until they almost went numb.
[Dungeon Raid Successful.]
We did it.
I smiled weakly and turned my head.
"Park Seung..."
My smile froze.
So did my thoughts.
I stared blankly and muttered.
"Healing..."
[Skill 'Healing Lv.10' activated.]
[※No target has been designated.※]
It was a message I'd never seen before.
I was about to activate the skill again when...
CRUMBLE.
The Minotaur's body beneath me gradually lost its shape and began falling apart.
Then everything tilted.
I was falling toward the ground.
As the floor rushed toward me, I squeezed my eyes shut.
But what caught me wasn't the impact of hitting the ground.
When I opened my eyes, a familiar face was right in front of me.
"O-Oppa?"
"Urgh... You seriously need to lose some weight."
My brother had caught me.
I stared at him blankly.
Was this a dream?
Was I hallucinating?
No.
It couldn't be.
Even in my dreams, there was no way he'd be this annoying.
Something warm swelled inside my chest.
Or perhaps it was my eyes.
Maybe both.
It didn't matter.
A long smile spread across my face.
A perfect happy ending.
I turned toward the place where the person who had fought beside me should have been.
My brother and Choi Jiwoo were both completely fine again.
So naturally, I thought Park Seungjun must have recovered too.
How foolish of me.
"Kim Jia!"
"Noona!"
My teammates' voices grew closer.
Yoo Mina was the first to reach us.
She bent forward with her hands on her knees and gasped for breath.
"Haa... haa... What happened? We defeated it, right?"
Her eyes were filled with satisfaction.
Relief.
Confidence.
As though victory had been the natural outcome all along.
Seeing her expression finally made me understand the situation.
I lowered my head.
Apparently, those who had been turned into stone didn't remember anything that happened while they were petrified.
Then who would remember the final moments of the person who died?
Who would remember his heartbreaking sacrifice?
Only me?
"What's wrong? Is there something you want to say? More importantly, where's Seungjun oppa? Why can't I see him?"
She looked around rapidly.
My silence only made her questions more specific.
"Wasn't he with you earlier?"
"..."
"Did something happen?"
Her expression gradually hardened.
I opened and closed my mouth several times.
There was only one thing I needed to tell her at that moment.
But I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"Please say something. Anything. Okay?"
Unable to utter even those simple words, I barely managed to turn my head.
The enormous club the Minotaur had been swinging earlier lay pathetically on the ground.
Why didn't that disappear too?
Beneath the massive club, I could see a person's foot.
A considerable amount of blood had spread across the ground.
Seeing the red liquid soaking into the hard floor filled my chest with misery.
It was so gruesome that it didn't feel real.
It looked like something from a movie or a game.
I had seen scenes like that countless times in fictional stories.
But those stories, no matter how brutal their images were, could never convey the desolate atmosphere or the pain that tore through your chest.
That was the difference.
"Ah... ah..."
Someone finally seemed to understand.
A faint groan escaped their mouth.
I didn't turn my head.
I didn't think I could bear to see their expression.
"H-Hyung...?"
Jo Kangjun's voice sounded hollow.
He collapsed onto the ground.
It was strange.
The vibrations from the dungeon had definitely stopped.
So why wouldn't the hand I'd placed on the ground stop trembling?
I stared blankly ahead.
Aside from the occasional uneven breaths of the people around me, silence filled the area.
It lasted for a while.
Not particularly long.
Not particularly short.
The one who finally broke that silence was Yoo Mina.
She slowly dragged herself toward the enormous club.
"No, right? That's not it, is it? It can't be. Right?"
The hope in her voice sounded painfully out of place.
"Everyone, please come help me. It's too heavy. I can't... I don't think I can lift it by myself."
With trembling hands, Yoo Mina tried to lift the Minotaur's club.
The others watched blankly for a moment.
Then, almost as though they were in a trance, they approached her.
Working together, they lifted the enormous weapon.
BOOM.
They were Hunters.
Their strength had already surpassed that of ordinary humans.
Had it really taken so many of them combining their strength just to lift it?
Once the club was moved, Park Seungjun's body was revealed.
Everyone instinctively looked away.
Everyone except Yoo Mina.
She stared at me with the expression of someone whose entire world had collapsed.
Then she spoke in a voice that sounded close to breaking.
"Y-You said you were a healer, right? Oppa... I think he's hurt really badly. Could you help him?"
"..."
"I know I was really rude earlier. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be. It's just... my personality... Hic. Please help him. Please."
"Mina..."
Jo Kangjun gently patted her shoulder as she lowered her head and began trembling.
But the shaking wouldn't stop.
I don't know how the time passed after that.
The only thing I could explain with any certainty was that I was now at a funeral home.
"Oppa. Oppa... Hic... Uuugh! You idiot! Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to confess? Do you?!"
Park Seungjun wore his usual smile even in his memorial portrait.
It was the same expression I'd seen only a few days earlier.
Yoo Mina dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
She looked utterly exhausted.
Her eyes were terribly swollen.
It wasn't difficult to imagine how much she had cried.
I looked away.
A Center employee stood directly in front of me.
It was the same woman who had guided us during the raid.
Her expression was indifferent.
No.
Perhaps accustomed was a more accurate description.
She walked past me and approached the memorial portrait.
Then...
"...May he rest in peace."
She quietly offered her condolences.
Beside her, Yoo Mina began blaming her.
The woman accepted every resentful word without arguing.
As though she believed it was only natural.
I stood farther away and watched.
To be honest, Park Seungjun's death had shocked me.
But that was all.
We had only just met.
Even if we'd developed a sense of comradeship while fighting together, feelings built over such a short time could disappear just as quickly.
At least...
That was what I decided to believe.
A Hunter dying inside a dungeon.
Was there anything more common?
Perhaps more Hunters died in dungeons than ordinary people died in traffic accidents.
Just because it hadn't happened near me didn't mean it wasn't happening.
And I had only truly realized that now.
That was why this incident had shocked me so much.
If it had been a death I was genuinely prepared for, perhaps I wouldn't have been so shaken.
"Can I ask you something? Oppa's final moments... could you tell me about them?"
Her voice was so hoarse that it sounded like metal scraping against metal.
How many people could refuse a request like that?
I searched through memories I desperately wanted to forget.
The moments when we had fought together rushed back like a series of images.
They weren't particularly long memories.
So there weren't many moments to recall.
After struggling to decide what to say, I finally settled on an ordinary answer.
"He was a brave man."
Yoo Mina gave a small laugh.
"I know. He was brave, kind, wonderful... and amazing."
Her expression softened, as though she were remembering happier times.
Looking at her, I realized there was something I wanted to say.
I didn't know whether it was my place to say it.
But I wanted to tell her anyway.
"He really loved you, Mina."
Yoo Mina stared at me for a moment, her expression blank.
