“I don’t regret the drink at all. As for things like this, I have a few hundred bottles in my warehouse.”
Although it was a teasing tone, Junhwan knew it was by no means a bluff.
Passing by Junhwan, who was standing still, Yuhwan walked confidently toward the rooftop exit.
Creak.
With a rusty sound, the door opened. Yuhwan, who turned around to look back, saw Junhwan.
“It’s okay to convey the message, right?”
“…”
“I, Jecheon Daesung, will let him know that Yuhwan is eagerly looking for him.”
He said that he would prepare liquor worth more than the pendant value from before, even more expensive than this.
After class, Eunhan took a taxi straight to her mother’s place instead of heading home. The destination was a quiet hill where she had arranged to meet her mother.
Stepping on well-maintained grass, using the chirping of crickets as a background, Eunhan recalled her conversation with Junhwan just now. Jecheon Daesung is looking for Eunha and the Black Flame Princess.
“…Perhaps, it seems to be related to the Association’s work that I mentioned before.”
Eunha responded with a simple acknowledgment.
After ending the call, Junhwan conveyed the phone number of the Immortality Headquarters through the messenger. He also mentioned that he did not provide Eunha’s contact information to Immortality.
[Immortality] 02[Dash]XXXX[Dash]XXXX / Extension Number XXXEunha stared at the phone number on the screen and then put her mobile phone into her pocket.
Dry leaves were rolling along a stone path through the grass. Stepping on them, she soon began to see her mother’s tomb in the distance.
However.
“…?”
Eunha, who suddenly stopped walking, tilted her head in confusion. In front of her mother’s grave, someone was there.
‘Who is it?’
It was a stranger, a man. A mourner?
Although it was not clearly visible because of the trees, he was wearing a black suit, and his hands were neatly folded. The sight definitely looked like that of a mourner.
While staring at the man’s back, Eunha suddenly recalled the incident when she first visited her mother’s grave in the real world, right after coming out of the Unknown Gate.
During the 30 years Eunha was trapped in the Unknown Gate, in real-time, the tomb, which she thought would have been left unattended for a long time, was strangely clean.
The ashes left around the gravestone were clearly traces of visitors. Someone other than her had come.
Piecing together the puzzles in her mind, Eunha stood some distance away from the mysterious mourner, observing him.
‘Blond…’
“As the existence of Awakened Beings emerged, the hair and eyes of modern humans changed in various colors regardless of nationality. Judging someone as a foreigner just because of blond hair was a hasty judgment.
As she tried to take a closer look at him,
Rrrrr…
The ringtone of a mobile phone echoed. It wasn’t Eunha’s.
The man, who had his hands neatly together and closed his eyes, took out his mobile phone from the front pocket.
“Hello.”
Eunha stood still in her place. English. The language the man was using was clearly English.
“Yes, I’ll be there soon. Got it.”
Click.
After ending the call and putting the mobile phone into the front pocket, he raised his head.
A somewhat dimmed eye area, as if wearing makeup. In the middle, ashen-colored irises with an empty light. Light beige hair with faint pigmentation.
Eunha remained frozen in place.
‘…Baek Ijun?’
There was no mistaking it. The man standing in front of her mother’s grave was undoubtedly Ijun.
‘Why is Baek Ijun here?’
A faint confusion flickered in Eunha’s black eyes.
Not long ago, after meeting Ijun at the party, Eunha was convinced that he had completely changed. The Ijun she knew was nowhere to be found. But…
“I’ll stop by again.”
Ijun, who politely bowed his upper body in front of the cold gravestone, muttered quietly.
Stepping back a few steps in place, he soon turned around calmly. Then, standing on the other side of the hill path, he gradually disappeared.
“…”
Rustle—
Eunha, who had been hiding her body under the tree shadow, slowly revealed herself only after Ijun’s back was completely out of sight.
A bouquet of flowers coming into view in one corner of her sight. The incense stick, producing white smoke along with the wind, was still burning.
The look in Eunha’s eyes as she gazed at them was complicated.
Was it Ijun who had been taking care of the grave all this time, no one else? But he was supposed to be in the United States.
Staring silently at the bouquet meticulously tied with a white ribbon, Eunha slowly raised her head. Ijun’s figure had already disappeared beyond the hill path.
‘He’s trying to adapt to the modern era, playing the role of a hunter in such a ridiculous outfit, but is he really determined to be a concept hunter?’
‘I exist, you know. I don’t like the fact that a person like you is a hunter.’
Ijun from that night. And…
‘But still, I want to be like you. I mean, I like your current appearance… No, I mean…’
Shuaa—
Under the calm wind covering the gentle hill, Eunha’s jet-black hair fluttered as if tangled.
“…Who the hell are you.”
He probably hadn’t gone far yet. Eunha, led as if compelled toward the direction where he disappeared, started to move her steps.
Thud—
The slow steps gradually began to quicken.
She had to ask. Did he really take care of her mother’s grave? If so, why did he do that?
Eunha, who descended the hill path, quickly scanned her surroundings. Ijun was nowhere to be seen. Did he enter an alley?
Eunha took a shallow breath and slowly closed her eyes.
[Passive ▶ ‘Cat’s Whiskers’ activated.]…….
No, it wouldn’t work. There were more than a few people around to detect any presence.
Quickly giving up, Eunha opened her eyes again. Then, she took out the pendant hidden in her T-shirt.
“Track.”
[Cast Spell ‘Location Tracking’ detected.] [You have requested ‘Location Tracking.’ Would you like to activate the artifact ‘Black Rose Pendant’?]“Acti─.”
At the moment when her lips were about to form the words.
“……Cha Eunha?”
Pause. Eunha, in the state of holding the pendant, stiffened.
Someone called her.
Not the reason, not even the Princess of Dark Flame… Clearly, it was ‘Cha Eunha.’ Eunha turned her head sharply toward the direction where the voice came from.
“……!”
And then, she froze stiff in place. The person standing there was not Ijun, who had disappeared just now.
‘Cha Eunha. Everyone here has lost their family. I, too, lost my daughter.’
─Collector.
‘I hope comforting yourself with the fact that there will be many more people you’ll save in the future than the ones you couldn’t save.’
‘That would be a consolation for you.’
Thirty years ago.
Trainer Gyen Won-chul, who took care of her during her trainee days, stood there with white hair.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
