“Could I make a request, sir?” Ru Amuh abruptly asked.
“A request? Why are you suddenly...urgh. Please give me a moment.” Chi-Woo stopped speaking and focused on climbing the boulder. From above, streams of water flowed down and soaked the top of his head. He heard the clear sound of rain coming from near him, indicating that he had almost made it to the top.
‘It seems it’s raining outside.’ The rocks were slippery from the rain. He climbed a short distance at a time and soon the top of his head was touching the ceiling. He lowered his head and looked above. Between the cracks, he saw water leak out from a worn-out, faded iron gate. Although the bars looked rusty, it didn’t have a lock and looked like it would open with a strong enough push.
“I found a door. It seems like we can open it. It’s slippery because of the rain, so please be careful when coming up,” Chi-Woo warned.
But instead of responding to Chi-Woo’s warning, Ru Amuh just replied with what he had to say. “Among the seventh recruits, there’s a person named Ru Hiana.”
“Ru Hiana?” Chi-Woo answered carelessly and pushed the iron gate with great force.
Creeeak!
It let out an unpleasant, metallic sound, but thankfully, the door opened easily.
Shaaaa!
As soon as the door opened, water poured down from the heavy rain. Chi-Woo couldn’t see clearly because it was dark, but he still looked around. After making sure that there was no one there, Chi-Woo gripped the open iron gate tightly and lifted his body with great force to get out. Although he was soaked with rainwater, Chi-Woo felt free.
“I will hold onto you. Come out.”
“Ru Hiana is my ultimate best friend. Although she didn’t need to come, she still insisted on following me.”
“Ru Hiana?”
“If she’s alive, she’s probably looking for me ardently. Since not a lot of time has passed, I’m sure that’s what she is doing.” Ru Amuh sounded certain.
Chi-Woo turned around. Through the open iron gate, he saw Ru Amuh. He had stopped after climbing the last boulder.
“So, you’re asking me to look for this Ru Hiana together, right?” Chi-Woo said and knelt in front of the gate, hanging his body over it like an oyster. “Okay, let’s go together. I also have two people whom I want to look for. We can look for them together, too.” He stretched out his hand below him. “Please come out.”
Looking at Chi-Woo’s hand, Ru Amuh made a faint smile. Then he said, “Ru Hiana is a girl with a ponytail, and her hair is the same blonde as mine. She can come off as a bit rough, but she’s cute and kind.”
“No,” Chi-Woo muttered.
“I am not asking you to go out of your way to find her. If you meet her by chance or find a way to contact her, please just pass on a couple of words to her.”
“Mr. Ru Amuh?”
“Tell her that if she doesn’t have a foolproof and safe method, she shouldn’t even attempt to find me. Tell her that she shouldn’t risk such danger, and should instead return safely back home.”
At this point, Chi-Woo felt an unsettling sensation. “Are you perhaps…”
“I’m sorry for not telling you beforehand,” Ru Amuh’s voice shook. “When I regained my consciousness, I saw some stranger dragging my body.”
It felt like someone had hit Chi-Woo with a hammer. This meant that the sound he heard at the storage room—the sound of a body getting dragged across the floor, and the long trail of blood was…
“I didn’t think you would be able to see me,” Ru Amuh said quietly but clearly. “I didn’t think you could even hear me, either. That was why I had been staring at you blankly when you suddenly spoke to me…”
Chi-Woo licked his lips a couple of times. “…Were you attacked?”
“Yes. Right after I was transmitted,” Ru Amuh said with a grave expression. “I was dragged to this place without knowing what had happened to me.”
Chi-Woo closed his eyes. No wonder he had known the directions around this place so well. “I thought you were a living person.”
“That’s something I don’t know for sure, either. I don’t really know if I am dead or alive. When I opened my eyes, I…” Ru Amuh trailed off, “I could no longer get out.” Ru Amuh shut his eyes tightly to repress his indignation. “I would like to go out even in my current state, but I can’t. I don’t know why, but it feels like my soul, in addition to my body, is entrapped.”
Ru Amuh was about to say something more, but his body trembled. Visibly petrified, he looked below. “If you keep going straight, you would see pieces of a crushed boulder. Go past that place for a bit and turn left; you would then reach a point where not only I, but a couple of others had been transmitted to.” Ru Amuh spoke fast while looking below him. “Once you reach that place, please try looking for Ru Hiana once. If you do find her, Ru Hiana might not believe you since she’s naturally doubtful. If that happens, please tell her this: ‘Listen to what this person has to say carefully. It’s my last wish, Ruana.”
Ru Amuh looked up at Chi-Woo and added hurriedly, “If you fail to find her, you can just go on your way, so please leave.” His tone grew urgent. “Right now!” Again, he shouted, “That guy is coming! I can feel him looking for my soul! So please…!”
“I understand.”
Ru Amuh, who had been shouting hastily, fell silent. Chi-Woo was bafflingly calm. Ru Amuh was sure that Chi-Woo had heard him, but Chi-Woo couldn’t have been more poise.
“I want to help you, but…” Chi-Woo said in a low voice and raised his hand simultaneously. “I have so little information, so I’m not too confident.” He lifted his body. “I understand that it will be troublesome and difficult… but please endure in this place.” Chi-Woo grabbed onto the iron door and said, “I can’t promise you anything, but when I’m confident enough, I will come to save you. That’s all I can tell you.”
Ru Amuh looked shocked to hear this. He said, “But I could be dead.”
“You can’t be too sure. You could still be alive.” Chi-Woo flung his bag onto his back with one hand. “And at the least, you have to get your soul saved.”
Ru Amuh squeezed his eyes shut twice, and his body trembled.
“I have to pay you back for telling me the directions. I don’t like being indebted to others,” Chi-Woo said and made a bitter smile. “But of course, it’s only if the situation allows me to do so. If I can’t, I will at least do what you asked me to do.”
“Thank…you.”
“I’m going now. If you are having a hard time enduring in there, just think of my name: Chichibbong.” Chi-Woo winked and closed the iron gate. Then he got away from the area. Ru Amuh smirked for a moment, but soon his face darkened, growing stiff and tense. Simultaneously, his body dropped like he was getting sucked from below; as if someone had grabbed onto his feet and pulled him down.
Shaaaaa!
Rain continued to fall in a downpour. Furthermore, since it was night time, Chi-Woo couldn’t see what was in front of him clearly. He ran. That was all he had been doing since being separated from Ru Amuh. He was running out of breath when he found a trace of something. It was like Ru Amuh had told him. Rocks were in pieces and scattered all over the place.
‘I just have to go a bit further from here and turn left…’ After collecting his breath, Chi-Woo suddenly stopped walking. There was a faint voice. Although he couldn’t hear well due to the rain, he could hear somebody crying desperately. Chi-Woo quickly moved toward the source of the sound.
–Ruahu—!
After hearing the sound more clearly, Chi-Woo became certain that someone was calling out a name.
–Ruahu—! Where are you—! Ruahu—!
It sounded like Ru Amuh’s name but not quite. The shouting soon became distant again.
After hesitating for a moment, Chi-Woo shouted in response, “Ru Hiana!” He didn’t like the idea of making a loud sound in this place, but he thought, ‘Well, they were already shouting on their end…’ Furthermore, since their eyesights were limited because it was night-time, he judged that it would be better to check each other’s location by sound.
–Ruahu? Is that you?
Fortunately, it seemed the other party had heard him, and Chi-Woo heard a faint voice. Chi-Woo yelled at the top of his lungs, “Ru Hiana! Come this way!”
“Ruahu! It’s you, right? Yeah? Ruahu!” The voice quickly approached Chi-Woo, but as the footsteps came closer to him, his heart grew heavy. As Ru Amuh said, his friend was looking for him. When Chi-Woo met her, he would have to relay to her what had happened to Ru Amuh, which filled him with mixed emotions.
“Rua…!” Soon, a figure jumped out like a panther. “…hu?” Her voice faltered as soon as she got a good look at Chi-Woo.
“What is it? What happened?”
“Did you find him?”
It seemed that the woman hadn’t been moving by herself. Chi-Woo heard two voices a moment after her appearance. As expected, he saw two more figures emerged. One of them was someone he hadn’t seen before, but the other man looked familiar. He tried to recall where he had seen the second figure and remembered that the man was the long-headed hero who had pointed Chi-Woo out during Laguel’s explanation.
“Uh, you are…” The long-headed man also recognized Chi-Woo and lowered the thick book covering his head. “Perhaps—”
Even before the long-headed man could finish his sentence, the woman asked, “Who are you?”
Chi-Woo carefully looked at the woman—she had the same blond hair as Ru Amuh. He wasn’t really sure about the cute part, but she fit Ru Amuh’s description.
“Are you Ms. Ru Hiana?”
“How do you know my name?” Ru Hiana asked sharply.
“I have a message from Ru Amuh.”
“What?”
“Please listen to me first. Mr. Ru Amuh has…” Chi-Woo relayed Ru Amuh’s message without forgetting a single word.
Ru Hiana listened to him in a daze, but her expression soon darkened. “Where did you meet him? Is he alive? He’s alive, right? Yeah? Just like what he did for us, he told you to relay that message to help you escape, right?”
Chi-Woo sighed. Most people would have understood by now after he’d said this much. No, she probably knew what had happened to Ru Amuh by now, but she didn’t want to believe it, and would continue to search for him.
“Tell me. Please.”
“Miss, the situation is really not good. That guy could be chasing us. Let’s first escape and decide what to do.”
“You can just give me a rough explanation. I’ll listen well. Please, please…”
Chi-Woo let out another sigh at Ru Hiana’s desperate pleas, and then finally relayed to her everything that had happened since he was transported and escaped the cave.
“…I can’t believe it,” Ru Hiana mumbled as she listened to his brief summary. “That can’t happen. Ruahu…would never….”
Chi-Woo didn’t say anything because he knew no words would reach her.
“In the first place, can we even trust this guy? Does it make sense that a dead Ru Amuh guided him out?” the other hero besides the woman and the long-headed man asked out loud.
“Yeah, good point. Maybe it’s because he’s been too succinct, but the story doesn’t really make sense from…”
Chi-Woo added, “He also told me to relay this message. Listen to what this person has to say carefully. This is my last request, Ruana.”
As soon as he mentioned Ruana, Ru Hiana’s face paled, and her legs gave out.
“Are you all right?” The other hero quickly supported Ru Hiana before she fell.
“Hey, you. Did he really—”
“…He’s telling the truth,” Ru Hiana replied with a hoarse voice as she frowned at Chi-Woo. “Ruana and Ruahu are our nicknames for each other. We only call each other that when we are by ourselves, and we’re the only ones who know them…” Ru Hiana faltered, but she suddenly pushed away the hero supporting her with a resolved expression. “Please tell me his location,” she fixed her stance and asked with a firm voice. “Since he was the one who guided you earlier, he might still be alive.”
“Miss, I really don’t recommend it.”
“I’m not asking you to help me. Even if it’s a rough estimate, you can just tell me his location.”
“I understand your concern, but you should only go looking for him after making a solid pl—.”
“I said it’s fine, so just tell me where he is!” Ru Hiana cut off his words and angrily replied.
This is the reason why Chi-Woo hadn’t wanted to accept a request like this. “I can’t really remember it.”
“…What?”
“Why do I have to tell you?”
Ru Hiana looked startled as she pointed her fingers at him. “You, how can you…say that after receiving help from Ruahu…”
“I received his help, but Mr. Ru Amuh is asking a favor from me; not from you.”
Ru Hiana became speechless at Chi-Woo’s cold reply.
“Moreover, if I consider Mr. Ru Amuh’s request, won’t it make sense for me to not tell you his location?”
“…Ugh!” Ru Hiana’s face became red with anger. She tightly clenched her fist and glared at him with annoyance before pushing past him.
“Hey!” Even though the long-headed man tried to stop her, Ru Hiana quickly disappeared into the darkness.
“…Ah man. It’s not like you’re wrong but…” the other hero butted in. “I understand why you didn’t tell her, but weren’t you too cold?”
“I know.” Chi-Woo felt bitter as he continued, “She lost her family…I think I would have acted the same.”
“Then why?”
“It’s because of Ru Amuh’s request,” Chi-Woo calmly said. “Even though I can’t force her to not look for him, I have to try my best to fulfill Ru Amuh’s request.”
“…Well, yeah. Rather than leaving her to die after telling her Ru Amuh’s location, there’s a higher chance for her to live if she tires herself out after wandering around to look for him.”
“I also think so. It doesn’t seem like she’ll calm down, and seeing how agitated she is right now, there’s a high chance that we’ll also get swept into danger.” The long-headed man also added in his two cents.
The two heroes definitely had different thoughts and plans than Ru Hiana.
Chi-Woo asked, “But are you two not going to chase after her?”
“Hmm? Ah. I was following her because I received help from her just before but…what the hell, I don’t know.”
The other hero scratched his head in annoyance. “I was interested in Ru Amuh, so I joined them to look for him, but if your words are true, there’s no reason for me to look for him anymore.” The long-headed man firmly stated his perspective and crossed his arms. “Anyway, a hero at his level has already….it’s a really frightening world. No, since we don’t have the protection of the World, I guess it can’t be helped.”
“Was he that strong for a hero?”
“What?”
“He told me that he was just a beginner that saved one world.”
“He said that?” The long-headed man let out a humorless laugh.
“Is that wrong?”
“No, he’s right. But.” The long-headed man continued, “The planet he saved was hit by a star-cluster Crisis.”
“Star-cluster Crisis?”
“Hmm. It had been a while since an event of that level happened, so it was quite the news for a while in the Celestial Realm. Were you not aware of it?”
‘He was a greater hero than I thought.’ Chi-woo clicked his tongue silently.
“Anyway, I’m going to stop following her. It’s unfortunate that Ru Amuh died, but even then…” The long-headed man stared at Chi-Woo and continued, “Since it turned out like this, why don’t we move together? Why don’t we find a suitable place to rest while avoiding the rain?”
Chi-Woo and the other hero nodded. Having a companion was better than not having one, and being a company of three was better than two.
“Uh?” At that moment, the other hero widened his eyes and stared past Chi-Woo’s shoulder. “Ru Hiana?” he called out. “What? Did you come ba…Who are you?”
Chi-Woo and the long-headed man quickly turned around at the hero’s cries. As the other hero had said, they saw Ru Hiana, but she was being held by someone, her mouth muffled and her body tied with a rope.