Chapter 163 The Sea of Fog Family (4)
My younger brother had been a mature child, and he had rarely cried or thrown a tantrum. Since he had been such a child, he became an even more inexpressive adult after going out on his own. He had become an unshakable adult from a young child at the time I only could see him on TV.
“Yoohyun.”
I hugged his shaking body and felt him take in a breath. How had I done this when we were young? I did not remember much, but Yoohyun used to say that he was all right after a while when I tried and failed to console him.
“It’s only a scratch.”
I had wanted to comfort him by going out without any wounds, but those monsters had blocked me.
“He died, so you don’t need to worry.”
“……”
“Are you all right?”
“Hyung.”
“It’s all right, Yoohyun.”
“…Nothing’s all right!”
I heard a wet voice speaking to me.
“It hurts so much inside…”
Yoohyun stopped to breathe, and I felt something well up inside. I again did not know what to do but remembered that I had his memories. I stroked his back while taking out a bottle with only Yoohyun’s memories inside from the inventory.
“This contains your memories, and things will become better once you get them back.”
He would know that I had someone who could help me in the dungeon, and I hoped that would be at least some relief. Yoohyun raised his head, and I saw that his eyes were red while he had bit his lips. His eyes were filled with sorrow but happy at the same time. It was much better that he would show such emotions rather than bottling them up.
“Let’s go back home after you get your memories back.”
“…Home?”
“Yes. It’s not where we had lived, but it’s still home.”
Home. I opened the bottle, and the marble disappeared into Yoohyun’s body. His eyes blinked a few times.
“You remember, right? What I did wasn’t that dangerous.”
Yoohyun did not speak for a minute, and he stared at me with closed lips. However, his face slowly turned back to normal, and his gaze was calm now.
“…I still don’t like it.”
His voice was sulky, and his brow furrowed.
“People get wrinkles even when they are S class…probably.”
I could not be certain as everyone’s skin had been smooth, even Hyunjae Sung after five years.
“I thought I was going to go crazy.”
“Yes.”
“He may have changed his mind before going in, and if you hadn’t had help, then…”
His voice shook again as he went on speaking.
“Everything fades away when in a dungeon, and I…”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t say that. You’ll do this again.”
“Sorry. But I won’t die, Yoohyun.”
While I was arrogant, I was also sincere.
“I can’t die now no matter what happens.”
I had worked hard to survive and still had things left to do.
“I do want to see you marry, and Yerim finds someone.”
I had a duty to see him through, and I took a handkerchief out from the inventory and wiped the tears off his face in quite a few years.
“I know that I’m weak, but I’m not reckless. I won’t go into hopeless situations and only act when I know I will live.”
The lizard came out of nowhere and nipped the tip of the handkerchief to swallow it. I allowed him to since he had done much today.
“You told me you would help me whenever I needed it. I believe you.”
My brother’s face relaxed, and he was easy to read in situations like this. I had thought I did not know him for such a long time.
“I’ll survive knowing you have my back, and you know that I’m useful. I’ll make anyone who tries to kill me let me live, so you will have time to prepare and rescue me.”
I had survived somehow despite having nothing in the past, and now I had more than enough.
“…You can just avoid such situations from the first place.”
“I want that too, but the world never does anything we want it to. Who knew that guy would revive as an SSS class today?”
“Why does Seokwon Choi’s contractor want you?”
“That zombie you met wanted me to agree to a contract saying that it will let my loved ones live, but I refused. That things seem to be interested in you, so refuse any offer since I did too.”
Yoohyun hesitated before nodding, and I repeated the warning again before standing up.
“Let’s go before the gate closes.”
“You said home, right?”
Yoohyun stood up, and I saw that he had bled from shoulder to toe. Seokwon Choi had died too easily.
“Stay close.”
“All right.”
Yoohyun smiled at those words.
“Didn’t you have to stay at Sesung?”
“I ran. You know I stayed there as much as could.”
“You went by alone?”
“I wasn’t. I had Velare and a hiding skill. You went to meet Seokwon Choi without letting me know, so let’s not have any secrets.”
“It depends on you.”
We went out of the gate and found familiar faces among a desolate background. I was relieved to see that everyone was all right, and Soyoung Kang was still unconscious in Riette’s arms, and Velare was on her owner’s shoulder.
“Seokwon Choi is dead.”
Everyone looked at me in surprise, and it was only natural when I had disappeared with a monster that nearly killed everyone and returned to report its death.
“Of course, I didn’t kill it, and while I cannot be specific, I had borrowed someone’s skills.”
Noah and Taewon Song looked relieved, and while the latter seemed suspicious, he seemed to believe me after seeing Yoohyun and me coming out of the dungeon. On the other hand, Riette seemed sorry and then suddenly spoke to me.
“Darling, be kind to your brother.”
Why in the world is she saying that?
“You should act better to Noah.”
“You don’t know because you weren’t-”
“Hunter Riette.”
Yoohyun stepped forward and stopped her in mid-sentence.
“Don’t say such nonsense.”
“I’m taking your side, you know.”
Why is she taking my brother’s side? I did not know, but it was better than her being on another side. Did she find him interesting? I wanted to say something, as she really would be a bad influence.
“I also think that Mr. Yoojin…”
Noah mumbled but quieted down when Yoohyun glared at him, and even Taewon Song was staring at him. What did he do…?
“Don’t pay attention to them.”
“They’re overreacting because they don’t know us.”
I had been surprised to see Yoohyun cry in a long time, but Riette and Taewon Song were acting too strangely for my taste.
“I’m tired.”
“Oh?”
“I want to go home.”
“Then let’s. Director Song, please have these.”
I gave him the other memory marbles.
“They are memories of those who had been involved in the fog and will be automatically absorbed by its owner. I think yours is included there, and Mr. Noah, you should check also.”
They took their memories back, and they had been quite trivial. I left Taewon Song to take care of the mess, and since this had been quite an incident, I thought he would try to make us stay once. However, he only nodded and told Yoohyun, an important witness, to come by tomorrow.
I took back Velare and came back to the breeding facilities with Noah’s help, and I welcomed it. I almost fell asleep in the shower, and we both almost fainted when we got to bed.
***
“He was useless to the end.”
Luga Peya’s disappointed voice rang the foggy bath, and he rubbed his chin with a long and soft tentacle. It had not been difficult to lead that S class human to give himself over, but Luga Peya had not thought that there would be some being that could defeat one of his race.
“I thought he would ask for help, but he slipped away.”
He had tied that man with the traces of the crescent moon since he was certain that the man had been chosen by the depraved in this life. So, he thought that they would not be able to intervene if the man could not move.
“Is the nurturer their choice? Why?”
Peya tilted his fifth tentacle. While nurturers were rare, there had been a number of them over time and worlds. The depraved had never paid much attention to the nurturer all those times.
Actually, they had thought nurturers an obstacle, as useful S classes tended to act strangely due to nurturers. It had been common to murder nurturers and begin managing the world before.
While the S classes had been unnaturally sad, they had returned to their original state after a while. Even if nurturers had raised them, they were radically different, and affection was limited between them.
Therefore, Luga Peya thought this time would be the same. While the nurturer having Diarma’s skill was unexpected, he thought Hyunjae Sung had given it to the nurturer.
Hyunjae Sung was taking care of the nurturer with the magic stone, but the nurturer had taken an SSS class of his race to the dungeon and took care of him. While Luga Peya could not know what had happened inside, the depraved must have intervened.
So, the depraved had chosen the nurturer in this world.
“It’s not quite right.”
It was interesting, and Peya called his teatime friend by pretending to call someone on an object that looked like a smartphone.
“Hey, Chatterbox.”
[What’s up? King.]
“I’m called jellyfish here.”
[Haven’t you been called that wherever there was one?]
“That’s not the important thing. Help.”
[Why? You said you would do just as much as you could.]
“There’s something special here. I feel that this time is real.”
[You said that too much. Also, the newbie in that world is bothersome because she’s talented, and I’m at a disadvantage.]
“Then, find me one thing.”
[One thing?]
“The human corpse that the white bird took.”
That was what the nurturer thought the most about.
[The white bird? It won’t be easy.]
“Since the bird went into hiding, it’s stored somewhere. Probably where the snowing tree is.”
[It’s too wide and will take time.]
“I’ll reward you well, so please do it as quickly as possible. Humans die too easily.”
Luga Peya was curious why the white bird had taken the corpse, and he cut the connection.