Going back home…
Just thinking about going home had the girl sighing.
She had been sitting in the cafe for a while now. She searched through the crowded passersby as she kept stirring her tea. Sometimes, her eyes would linger at the mirror on the opposite side of the street, staring at her own sad face.
The wounds from the dungeon still hurt.
Or maybe, they all healed… but this was a new one.
She thought of the A-rank dungeon where the Plague Doctor was the boss. Who would have known riding the underground train that time would lead to a dungeon. It reminded her of a conversation she had with someone. The thought of it made her heart race uncontrollably every time.
'What's your name!?'
'Min… Minnie.'
'Minnie! There's only you left now. Kill the skeleton!'
How could he trust me when I'm so weak? Minnie thought. Then, she tightened her lips. Her heart skipped a beat. But he was the only one who believed in me.
The face of the person popped up in her mind.
She slowly sipped her tea, sitting still for several minutes before making up her mind. It was time to face the reality, which was going back home.
When Minnie walked out of the cafe, she saw a black car parking there waiting for her.
Her face did not show any reaction. As she got closer to the car, the driver rushed over to open the door for her. He wore a black suit and a black glasses, completely standing out from everyone in the area. Her mother demanded that their servants always be fully dressed, so people knew their family's status.
Minnie got in the backseat of the car and was met with a cold air inside.
"Little miss, do you want to head home?" the driver asked.
I can't take the underground train home by myself again, she thought.
"Yes." Minnie nodded.
She rested her head against the window as the car took off. It was quiet inside. Only the low humming of the engine could be heard. Minnie checked her phone and saw no messages from anyone. She was used to this silence now. She knew she was not the kind of person who socialized that much anyway.
She barely had any friends.
The girl closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the car was taking a turn toward a rural area.
On the hill in front of the car appeared a luxurious three-storey house. It hid behind a grand, towering wall. When the car drove past the gate, the chaos and noises of the city were left behind. The large garden revealed before her made this house look exactly like a villa in some other provinces.
Minnie could sense the loneliness residing in this place.
The car stopped, and the girl sighed once more. She got off and quickly walked into the house. Her destination was her bedroom on the second floor. She tried to walk as fast as she could, her heart racing. Has she already got home? she asked herself in fear.
She may not arrive yet.
Minnie could already see the stairs. She heard a soft humming coming from the living room on her left-hand side. Mother? She thought. Her mother and she seldom talked to each other, so the thought of stopping by to say hello did not even cross her mind. She stepped on the stairs. Then…
"You said I'd get to meet him!?"
The voice stopped her midway.
Her face instantly became pale. She knew exactly whose voice it was. Every time she heard the voice, it would turn her into a stone. She would be standing still, too afraid to move because she knew if she 'moved' even just a little, the owner of the voice would run right to her with hands high up ready to….
The sound of someone's knees hitting the floor startled Minnie. She held onto the handrail and peeked at what was going on in the living room.
There were two women in the room.
One was middle-aged. Her hair was let loose, its length reaching the middle of her back, looking all sparkling and mesmerizing. She was sitting on a sofa that looked extremely expensive in a calm and estimable manner. Another woman was clinging to her waist. Minnie was not sure if the latter was crying, but her shoulders were trembling from time to time and she sounded like she was struggling to breathe.
"Mother, you said I'd meet him," Minnie heard her sister say, "at the Hunter Guild! You said you saw him and me together. Then why didn't I meet him!?"
"He wasn't there?" their mother asked.
"No, I didn't see him. His name should be at the top of the scoreboard." Christa whined. "But it wasn't his name. It was the name of some asshole!"
"It wasn't 'Han'?"
"No. It was 'Raydel Klein.'"
Mother's face remained calm as she raised her eyebrows just a little.
"Really?" she mumbled.
Christa looked up and hit the sofa with her fist.
"And now I failed the test! You told me if I pass the test, I'll meet him. But because of that bastard… that… ARGHH!" she screamed like she had lost her mind. "I hate him. Why was it him and not Han!? This is supposed to be the story of Han and me. You told me that yourself. Why? Why, why, why?"
"It's okay, Christa. Don't worry about failing the test. I'll take care of it," their mother said. "You just go to the third round and you'll definitely find him. It's impossible for you two to not meet each other. It's written in the stars. Nothing can change or prevent that."
Christa cried softly and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I don't lie," their mother said, narrowing her eyes. "You two are going to meet. Definitely going to."
Who's she talking about? She's talking about that man again? Minnie thought. Her heart was pumping fast. She no longer wanted to hear any of this, but as she was sneaking upstairs, she heard their mother speaking.
"Minnie, are you there?"
Minnie froze, her voice instantly becoming raspy.
She considered not answering, acting like she did not hear it and running upstairs, but Christa had already stopped crying. Instead, she heard her footsteps walking toward her.
"Yes…," Minnit stuttered, only staring at the floor like a trembling bird. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop…?!"
But it was in vain. Christa pulled her arm and threw her onto the floor of the living room.
When Minnie was younger, she believed being born into a wealthy family with high social status was the luckiest she could wish for.
She got anything she wanted. Her parents took her everywhere she wanted. She received presents from her relatives every day. Her clothes and everything in her bedroom were all the things she liked. Her sister was so nice and kind. It was a beautiful life and one most people were jealous of.
She wondered when that beautiful, dreamy life ended.
…was it since the day her parents got into that accident?
That day, they went out to celebrate their wedding anniversary. On the way home from the restaurant, they drove along the steep street down the hill. Her father drove too fast and did not see the curve. They both found themselves flying off the cliff and fell to death from the height of a skyscraper.
The force they must have hit the ground with probably led to an instant death. If they survived, they would die from the cold water surrounding them anyway.
It took several days before they could recover their bodies.
The surprising thing was even though her father's body started to decay because of time and environment, but their mother's body remained exactly the same.
And that was because she was still breathing and alive.
She survived even though she was stuck in a crushed car and surrounded by freezing cold water.
Minnie recalled how happy her sister and she were when they learned their mother survived. It was only light in a dark tunnel. The maids rushed both of them to the hospital to visit their mother. When they saw that she was fine and had only some bruises, Minnie cried out loud and hugged her tightly. She kept saying how glad she was that their mother was alive.
At least, she still had her mother and sister.
Everything will be alright, Minnie at the time thought, everything will get better.
…
No.
Everything got worse.
Her peaceful life was no more.
Minnie had always wondered when exactly it all went wrong. Everything began when their mother started getting better. She smiled serenely which was the opposite of her old personality.
It all started when she would not eat and let the food all slowly rot away before actually eating it.
Or, was it when she started whispering something to her? After getting out of the hospital, she would come into Minnie's room in the middle of the night and whisper a word into her ear.
'I want you to meet him,' she said. 'I want you to embrace God.'
Her voice faded away.
'Azathoth, Yok-sothoth… remember their names….'
Those were not the Gods Minnie knew.
She believed their mother whispered those words to Christa as well. She herself tried not to listen, acting like she was asleep and never really embracing anyone. Minnie did not know how her sister reacted but she also started to change as time went by.
Because their mother loved to eat food that was almost or already rotted, they had to wait for their food to expire before cooking it. Their family chief could not bear to do this, so she quitted. Christa took the role because no one wanted to do it. She bought all the ingredients and cooked food for their mother.
After a while, she started buying living sea creatures to kill them herself and keeping them till they rotted.
The nasty smell of those rotting ingredients permeated the entire kitchen. Sometimes, the smell reached even the second floor on which Minnie was sleeping.
Their mother loved squid the most.
Minnie did not know if she loved it when they shot ink hopelessly at her. But probably because of how much their mother loved squid that were rotting, Christa always cooked it for her. And their mother would always wander around watching Christa cooking and the helpless animals struggling and writhing to their death in their own blood. She would smile and say…
'I know someone that is just like this thing. Soft-hearted, annoying, and always messing up everything…'
Minnie never really knew who their mother was talking about.
All she knew was as she tried not to listen to what their mother kept whispering into her ears, Christa became much closer to her to the point Minnie felt like a stranger in her home.
So much so that their mother stood there watching calmly as her own daughter was being beaten up in front of her.
Minnie groaned softly as she touched the bruises on her face.
A new day had arrived. Minnie woke up with her entire body screaming in pain. Yesterday, after Christa was done hitting and slapping her, Minnie recalled that she cried alone in her room for hours. Everything hurt. It hurt that their mother only stood there looking at her begging for Christa to stop but did nothing. Still, she was used to it now.
She sighed and thought, we have to go to church today, right?
Every Sunday, she had to go to church with her family.
Minnie got dressed absent-mindedly. She wore a formal dress and a braid. The maid spent an hour doing her makeup to cover up the bruises. She did not want anyone to know what went on inside this house. She did not want to explain or even think of it. She wanted to forget everything and act like nothing happened.
Once it was done and no bruises could be seen, Minnie forced herself to smile in front of the mirror.
"You'll get to move out when you enter university," she told herself. "Only a few years left."
She was still in high school.
I could do it. She told herself. I could do this.
She felt as if her eyes were burning.
Minnie swallowed her crying noises and walked downstairs to wait for the others in the living room. Today, Christa and their mother dressed beautifully. They both walked out arm in arm. Only their mother smiled at Minnie. Her sister acted as if she did not exist, which, of course, Minnie was used to now. She walked with her head hung low, following the two into the car.
The church that their family went to was located on the eastern side of the neighboring town.
Minnie could see the church's nameplate from afar. West Borough Baptist, she repeated the name in her mind. She knew the name by heart because she had to visit the place since her first memory. Even though their father had already died, their mother still brought her here even when she acted so distant with the church.
Minnie was not sure if their mother still believed in Christianity because she always put on this cold expression. On the other hand, Christa who had been visiting the church since she was younger looked more engaged and faithful. Minnie did not have to do much. She just needed to follow them around listening to the one-sided conversation from Christa with their mother. She said she was not really fond of today's society.
"Why do people stray out of the right life path? Have they all lost their respect toward God?" She would go like this and smile. "Do you think I'll really meet him?"
Talking about 'him' again, Minnie thought.
Several months ago, her sister, out of nowhere, fell in love with someone.
It seemed the person was a hunter that always cleared dungeons alone. He started getting famous because many people met him and told others about meeting him. Minnie knew about the hunter world well enough, since she herself also went into dungeons sometimes, to know that soloing a dungeon was an impossible mission. But this man, he was a solo player that cleared dungeons all by himself. This story amazed a lot of people.
Someone managed to take a picture of him, and when her sister saw his face… she reckoned she could call it 'love at first sight'.
Is it possible for someone to fall in love with a person just because of a picture? Minnie used to wonder, but Christa was the evidence.
With the power of her family, Christa found out who this man was in no time. It was no surprise that she could get support from the Hunter Guild easily. It seemed the guild also wanted to track the man. They probably thought that Christa just wanted to sponsor the test, not that she was crazily obsessed with him.
When Christa set her heart on this man, she started to tell their mother all about it.
She might actually fall in love when their mother said that word.
'Hm, he's just like you. The same kind of person as you.'
Christa was stunned for a moment.
'What do you mean?'
'Only people that are alike attract each other.' Their mother smiled. 'If you love him, he'll love you back. It's a love buried so deep within it can't be destroyed.'
In other words, he's dangerous just like Christa, Minnie at the time thought but said nothing.
Back to the present, Minnie stopped letting her mind wander around because whatever they were doing in the church was finished now. She had sighed several times but tried to make sure it was as quiet as possible because she did not want Christa to hear it and turn around to yell at her.
"The next test is a C-rank dungeon. I don't think there's anything to be worried about," Christa was talking to their mother but with a voice that weirdly trembled.
"We're Christians, so, of course, we will be worried. It's a bad thing, a flock of bad spirits with wickedness surrounding them," their mother said. She started 'predicting' the future again. She probably was talking about the monsters and the boss Christa would find in the dungeon.
The woman held her daughter's hands and placed something in it.
"Take it. You'll definitely need it."
"An artifact…?"
"A legendary artifact."
"What power does it have?"
Their mother smiled.
"You'll know."
They stared into each other's eyes for several minutes.
Before getting home, Minnie had to wait for their mother to finish her talk with 'her worshippers.'
The mother that always acted cold and distant toward the church and its religion would only smile when her worshippers approached her. These people were actually those who usually came to the church on the same day. When they met their mother, they would be so humble and respectful with her. They always gave her food and stuff and talked to her like she was some kind of important person.
Their mother loved having people listening to her like this.
She probably liked that people worshiped her like a God.
'I want you to meet him. I want you to embrace God.'
'Azathoth, Yok-sothoth… remember their names….'
But were those names the names of the Gods their mother worshiped?
Several minutes later, Minnie followed her family back to the car. Some of the followers ran after them to talk with their mother, so Minnie got in the car to wait. She did not expect that her sister would get into the car as well. She sat beside her in the backseat and made such a wicked face. Christa pulled her in, her nails clawing at the bruises.
"I told you to only stay in the house, didn't I?" Christa asked angrily.
"I'm sorry," Minnie mumbled.
"Why did you go out yesterday? If I tell you to stay at home, you must stay at home."
"Yes."
Bang!
Christa pushed Minnie against the window. Her mouth twisted because of the stinging pain.
"If people saw these bruises, what would you tell them? You want them to gossip around that the little miss of the Wangs was beaten up?"
Minnie did not answer, so Christa used her fingers to push her head till it hit the car window with a loud bang. She would not stop even when Minnie started crying. Christa needed to see her bleed first. When she saw blood seeping out of the wound on Minnie's temple, she smiled contentedly and stopped before looking the other way.
Christa crossed her arms, her eyebrows twisting. She was thinking about something, and when she thought of the face of a man, her body became cold. Her heart calmed down as she pondered over him.
I'm definitely going to kill you in the next test.
She was not aware that Minnie was glancing at her.
The girl was thinking the same thing, a dark thought she had been hiding in her heart for several years.
I want to kill her so bad… I want to… strangle her to death. Who would need a sister like that?
Minnie trembled at the thought. She sighed and closed her eyes.
But I'm too weak. I don't think I can do it.
…she could only hope a hero would come into her life and get rid of her sister.
If there really was someone like that, she owed him her life.
Raydel sneezed.
He hugged himself tightly. Even when wearing 'the Three-Layered Cloak' that Han bought for him, he still found the weather extremely cold.
He was standing in front of the entrance to the C-rank dungeon, the third stage of the hunter test. It was in the evening and the dungeon popped up on the weekend in the downtown area. Raydel was not surprised that a huge crowd was there surrounding the dungeon's gate acting all interested. They were even more excited when they realized it was a part of the hunter test. No one seemed to be scared of it at all. They treated it like a festival of some kind.
It was not just the ordinary people that were interested in it. The failed hunters were also there.
Raydel was relieved to see those who failed like Nina even though she immediately ran away when she saw him. It meant that nobody died. They all just looked a mess from all the fights in the dungeon. They probably came today to learn how to prepare for the next hunter test.
Talking about the next hunter test, Raydel could not help but think of the person from the Hunter Guild. On the day of the second test, Raydel rushed to tell him about Christa's behavior. He got annoyed when he heard the reply.
'Just forget it.'
She tried to hurt the other hunters!
Raydel could do nothing. He knew that rich people had influences and connections, but when he experienced it firsthand, he could not help but get angry. He himself almost got stabbed as well. He should be considered a victim but he wasn't compensated at all. All he could do was hope that she would be banned from the test for several years. But if he were to guess, he knew he would meet her again real soon.
Raydel looked at the buildings with beautiful lights around the dungeon and put his hands in his pockets.
He got to rest for only two days. He did not know if his energy had fully recovered yet. Raydel could only hope that he had enough to summon both of the bosses.
"Dear all of the examinees, the dungeon is about one hour old. It's our third and final test. You have twenty-three hours to clear it. If no one succeeded, everyone would be considered failed."
Raydel heard the announcement from the Hunter Guild.
He looked around inspecting other hunters and took a deep breath. Even though they had to get into a real dungeon, there probably would not be anything too dangerous in it, so he was not really concerned.
He started stretching and saw Shane in the crowd from afar. He waved at Raydel and rushed toward him.
"Shane."
"Do you know who I met?"
"Who?"
Shane pointed behind Raydel. His eyes widened when he turned around.
"Sheryl?"
Sheryl…, the woman he met in the Plague Doctor's dungeon, was standing behind him with her arm crossed. Although she still was dressed like an office worker in shirt and trousers, she also wore two daggers on her waist and agile-looking harnesses on her thighs. She seemed to be the most prepared person around there.
"You're also here for the test?" Raydel asked, shocked.
"Yes," she replied. "I didn't think I'd meet you two here. We probably took the second test on different days."
Sheryl looked around before staring right into Raydel's eyes.
"I came here because I want to officially be a hunter. And I also want to be in the top ten as well. If I'm lucky enough, I want some nice artifacts from this dungeon. Even though I still have no idea what the dungeon is like, I think there must be a powerful artifact in there."
Then, she looked at the dungeon's gate. It was in the shape of an ancient vine. That was the only clue they got. It was not enough for Raydel to guess what the inside would be like.
"Since we already knew each other, should we team up?" Shane asked happily.
Sheryl shrugged.
"We need to work together to clear the dungeon. Just because it's a C-rank dungeon doesn't mean we could solo it. I think people will only fight just to get their hands on the artifacts like the last time. You guys just don't try to take anything from me. I really want it."
"Fine, fine. It's all yours, madame."
The area became colder. Raydel heard the countdown announcement.
"Shall we?" Raydel asked them.
Sheryl and Shane nodded. The three of them headed toward the dungeon's gate.
The third test was about to start now.