[Chapter 127]
[Your Heart is Heard (7)]
"Why are you here..."
"Why. Are you surprised I'm here?"
"..."
"Hm?"
"...You're late."
"What? What are you saying?"
"I'm asking why you came so late."
"...Huh? Oh... um... sorry."
Han Seo-hyun is Han Seo-hyun.
I really can't handle her.
Eun-ha, who heard something completely different from what he expected, apologized unknowingly at their meeting after several years.
But then she suddenly said:
"No, you came at the right time."
"Huh?"
"I said you came at the right time, just in time."
"..."
"Hm?"
"...You should say it."
"What did you just say?"
"Then you should say thank you."
She really plays with people.
Eun-ha didn't want to be defeated like this, so he decided to counterattack this time.
He'll try to stand above Han Seo-hyun.
But she was even higher.
"─Right, thank you for saving me."
"..."
He never thought she would comply so easily.
Eun-ha was at a loss for words seeing her show a gentle smile.
He really can't handle her.
It's Han Seo-hyun's victory.
Eun-ha sighed.
"Why are you like that?"
"...I don't know. Forget it."
As if she knows everything.
Han Seo-hyun asks as if testing.
No Eun-ha exercised his right to remain silent.
Then he looks down at her with as objective eyes as possible.
...She's in a terrible state.
She's in a terrible state.
Not only is her hair messy, but she's not wearing shoes.
Her black stockings are torn and look awful.
Nevertheless, his eyes keep going to her.
It's been almost 3 years now.
She's still pretty, that one thing hasn't changed.
Meeting her after 3 years, he didn't think she had changed unrecognizably.
Just that she seemed to have become prettier than before.
No, she has become prettier.
But he deliberately swallowed those words.
Surely because she would tease him.
And because it's not something to say now.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"...I wonder."
They can catch up later.
Eun-ha decided to check Han Seo-hyun's physical condition first, as she likely got injured while being chased by monsters.
She moves her body this way and that.
Then she tries to move her leg and frowns saying "Ah".
It seems she sprained her ankle.
"Now that I look, your feet are badly scraped too. This is what happens when you run without shoes. Does it hurt a lot?"
"I couldn't run in heels, could I? Yes, it hurts quite a bit."
"How much is quite a bit?"
"Are you going to keep joking around?"
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any major injuries.
Eun-ha placed her foot on his knee and used healing magic.
It was just first aid.
As a dealer, he couldn't use specialized healing magic.
I'll have to ask Eun-woo later.
Or ask the supporters downstairs.
He roughly finishes treating her.
Eun-ha who put her arm over his shoulder supports her.
He was planning to go down like this.
Just then.
"─No Eun-ha!!"
He heard a voice calling him from up ahead.
Eun-ha turned his head.
Shin Seo-young who chased after Eun-ha who ran off without a word arrived belatedly.
It wasn't just her.
Hoshimiya Kaede was there too.
"How can you act so recklessly without saying anything? Do you know how surprised I was!?"
Shin Seo-young got angry.
Eun-ha couldn't argue with her who flew right in front of him and scolded him.
Then her anger seemed to gradually subside.
Her gaze turned to Han Seo-hyun.
"So. Is this child the reason you suddenly ran off?"
"...Yes."
"Sigh... Who is she?"
"...Han Seo-hyun."
"Han Seo-hyun? What? Oh, wait... Oh, now that I look, her face..."
Shin Seo-young who was examining Han Seo-hyun closely. Soon she heard Eun-ha's explanation and widened her eyes.
Though it was an old story now, she who had connections with Sirius Group had naturally met Han Seo-hyun before.
She who found her memory of Han Seo-hyun said "Ah" and nodded.
Then she gets flustered.
"Wh-why is she here..."
"We were lucky."
"How is this lucky... Nevermind. I can hear the explanation later, for now let's go down─"
─Boom!
Just then the building suddenly shook.
Building debris that couldn't withstand the impact fell overhead.
Eun-ha protected her by pulling Han Seo-hyun close, and Shin Seo-young quickly deployed protection magic.
"Wh-what..."
Shin Seo-young looks flustered.
Eun-ha was just as flustered.
Hoshimiya Kaede was the same.
A huge presence suddenly caught in the detection net.
That presence is very close by.
The three turned their heads towards where the presence was felt.
"""..."""
The direction where the coast is visible.
It was standing there.
"Are the Japanese kids even doing their job?"
"...I know, right."
A giant with a head resembling a cow.
The one-armed monster was holding a huge club in one hand.
3rd rank monster Gyuki.
It that suddenly appeared was raising the corners of its mouth with glowing eyes.
It moves its huge body.
Unfortunately, it was in their direction.
─Boom!
Then there was something blocking its way.
It's the Minatomirai Bridge.
As if annoyed by that, it struck the center of the bridge with its club.
The bridge collapsed.
Now there was nothing blocking its path.
"This is crazy..."
Shin Seo-young chewed her lips.
She wondered if the Japanese players really drained its power.
But this was no time to just watch.
"If it's coming in this direction... we need to quickly evacuate people nearby."
There wasn't much time left.
Shin Seo-young quickly finished calculating and was about to move busily.
Just then─.
"─Wait, noona."
Eun-ha called.
Shin Seo-young hesitated.
Eun-ha showed a playful face towards her who expressed doubt.
"Rather than moving in a rush... Why don't the two of us take it down?"
"What!?"
But the words that came out of that mouth were certainly not a joke.
Shin Seo-young was dumbfounded.
Eun-ha still proposed a raid to her with a confident face.
"Hey, you're really crazy..."
"Let's do it. There's nothing we can't do, right?"
"...This is really crazy. You're going to subjugate a monster around 4th rank fearlessly with just two people?"
"Then should I do it alone?"
"...No. Let's do it together. Hah..."
Shin Seo-young messes up her hair.
Eun-ha led Han Seo-hyun whose hand he was holding to Kaede.
Kaede frowned.
Her face said "What are you planning to do?"
"You heard too. From now on, noona and I are going to subjugate that thing."
"...Are you really going to do it?"
"Have you seen me fail?"
"Somehow I feel like I'll see it today."
"That will absolutely never happen."
"Hah..."
Kaede didn't try to stop him.
She knows it's useless even if she tries.
Instead, she glanced at Han Seo-hyun beside her and asked:
"Then what should I do?"
"Could you take her somewhere safe? Can you do that?"
"It's not that I can't..."
Kaede trails off.
Soon she seems to contemplate and then blurts out to him:
"Is this person the one you said you'd serve?"
"No."
"Then who is this person?"
"You heard earlier too. Sirius..."
"What is she to you?"
Eun-ha blinked.
He examines Han Seo-hyun's expression.
She's deliberately avoiding the topic.
So Eun-ha chuckled.
"There is. Even matching one temper is really trou...!"
"Oh my, sorry."
Han Seo-hyun pinched Eun-ha's side hard.
It didn't hurt, but.
Eun-ha pretended it hurt and exaggerated.
"...Do I have to join a party this guy is making?"
Meanwhile, Kaede says she suddenly felt skeptical.
☆
He couldn't send Han Seo-hyun barefoot.
Eun-ha put the shoes he was wearing on her feet.
At that time, Shin Seo-young and Hoshimiya Kaede looked at Eun-ha as if looking at a strange guy.
Of course, Eun-ha ignored them.
"Eun-ha. I've been thinking since before..."
"Yes?"
Kaede and Han Seo-hyun left.
Now with only the two of them left, Shin Seo-young opened her mouth after hesitating.
He who landed on the 6th floor riding her wind turned back to look at her.
She has a serious expression.
"Aren't your standards too high?"
"What?"
"You can't use someone just because their face is bright."
What nonsense.
Eun-ha frowned.
While casually killing monsters reacting to the mana they were leaking.
"Ah, I see."
Then Eun-ha agreed.
While she deployed resonance cutting lines and tore monsters to shreds with wind, Eun-ha continued as if understanding:
"My standards can't help but be high because my noona is so pretty."
"...You're really disgusting."
There's no one more of a true siscon.
Shin Seo-young who spat with a face of contempt hunted monsters without speaking to him.
Eun-ha also swung his sword.
Conquering the 6th floor area like that ended too easily.
They came up to the 7th floor.
"What are you going to do from now?"
There weren't many monsters on the 7th floor.
Shin Seo-young opened her mouth after a long silence while clearing debris blocking the way.
Eun-ha shrugged his shoulders.
It meant he'd show through actions.
Then she followed Eun-ha advancing towards the direction where the coast is visible with a sick expression.
"It's quite big."
"Not quite big, but extremely big. If something like that disappears and appears, it would truly be a disaster."
Eun-ha pointed at the 3rd rank monster Gyuki slowly moving its body.
Shin Seo-young answered while shuddering.
Nevertheless, there was no fear in the words they exchanged.
Because they had both experienced greater terrors than this, though they didn't say it.
"Once is enough. Looking at it, that thing might be repeatedly appearing and disappearing because the mana composing its existence is unstable from breaking through the Cocoon to enter. It could perish right away if it takes an attack wrong."
"That's right. Everyone said that. But do you know what the problem is? One is that it's too big so there are too many ambiguous points to deal damage, and the other is that it scatters into mana and disappears at important moments."
Just calmly.
The two exchanged dialogue on how to take down the monster while watching it approach.
There were no instances of straying to other topics in between.
Because the two were veterans.
They pinpoint only the essentials quickly and concisely.
Thus Eun-ha drew a conclusion Shin Seo-young could accept.
"...Can you really do it?"
"Don't you know after seeing me?"
"Okay, fine. Let's try it once."
Shin Seo-young soon sighed with a face of resignation.
Because her burden is the biggest.
Nevertheless, she jumped from the high-rise building without hesitation.
Strong winds blow from below, and she flew up into the sky wrapped in wind she visualized.
Crack!
Lightning struck in the clear sky.
Shin Seo-young caused it.
The monster whose foot was struck by lightning for a moment stopped walking.
It rolled its red eyeballs and soon discovered Shin Seo-young creating huge flames in the air.
Its footsteps quicken.
"...Its toughness is no joke!"
Gyuki didn't mind receiving attacks.
She clicked her tongue at it charging without hesitation even after being engulfed in flames repeatedly.
The ground rumbles thud thud.
She broke out in cold sweat each time that sound got closer.
Not because she's scared of that monster, but because if she dodges wrong from now on, damage will spread to the surroundings.
Nevertheless, Shin Seo-young didn't back down and deployed magic.
"...Is this your first time?"
A wind barrier was constructed.
Wind going back and forth between buildings gradually restricts Gyuki's actions.
When it tried to touch the wind, the wind changed into sharp blades and shredded its hand.
Gyuki's eyes narrow.
The more it advances, the more the wind completely binds it.
When it could no longer move─.
"─I knew this would happen!"
It dissolves its existence.
It's thinking of escaping like this.
But Shin Seo-young wasn't flustered. This is what she had been expecting.
Rather, she had been waiting for this moment.
She raised resonance cutting lines greatly from below to above.
──!!
Soon wind enveloping the whole area binds it at her command.
There's no place wind doesn't pass through.
It wraps around Gyuki's entire body like invisible iron chains.
She temporarily put Gyuki's mana under her control with magic belonging to high-level control techniques.
It was possible because she's the
Otherwise, it would be impossible to control a high-rank monster's mana alone like this.
"...Do it quickly!"
Of course, it's a strenuous task for her too.
Because she was interfering with mana of an existence other than herself.
It can't not be strenuous.
She who poured all her nerves into blocking Gyuki shouted at the top of her lungs.
And Eun-ha─.
"─Whew..."
Eun-ha had been waiting for this moment.
For the monster to come as close as possible to where he's standing.
At the same time, for its existence to be bound.
Once was enough.
There was no need for a next time.
─Platina Cross
Mana compressed three times through the black thorn shines golden.
The blade dyed in intense light gradually loses the sword's form.
It's an aggregation of light.
Eun-ha who raised his hand holding the hilt above his head swung the sword down vertically towards it.
───!!
Platinum-colored magic that flew as if splitting the world in half swallows Gyuki.
The world is dyed platinum.
──....
After the light that swept through the world for a moment disappeared, there was only a monster falling with its body split in half.
Soon the mana composing its existence dissolves into the atmosphere and announces the army commander's death to the whole city.
"─Yes, this is it. Just right."
The city sparkles blue.
It's a signal declaring the end of the disaster.
Amidst people's cheers gradually starting to be heard here and there─.
"─But it can't even withstand three times... I need to ask Hae-su hyung to make a new sword, geez..."
Eun-ha calmly examined his beloved sword.
The fine cracks on the blade have now grown large enough to be visible.
It seems beyond repair.
Eun-ha put the sword he was accustomed to in its scabbard while regretting.
☆
"...What? Gyuki was subjugated?"
"
"What are you talking about? How can you suddenly start talking about subjugation when it's only been a short time since they appeared?"
"It disappeared again?"
"That's it, all of a sudden there was a flash of light…."
"Light? That flash just now?"
"After the light disappeared, Gyuki was collapsing!"
"So who took it down? ... What? A Korean? Why is Korea there, why!?"
Although it is technically a third-tier monster, it is actually a fourth-tier monster.
That day, news spread throughout Yokohama that two players from Korea had defeated Gyuki.
One of them was
Another one was Eun-ha Noh, a student at the high school.