Lv.99 Princess of Dark Flames (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 12
Shin Si Woo visited Eun Ha’s room early in the morning. They both had many questions for each other.
First, Eun Ha asked how he had managed to enter the Unknown Gate. According to Shin Si Woo, it had been pure coincidence.
“I entered a Class B Gate. I clearly saw a green fissure.”
“Really?”
In March 2001, the gate Eun Ha had entered had been a Class C Gate.
Perhaps the Unknown Gate in which Eun Ha had been trapped was the type that disguised its entrance as an ordinary gate. That seemed the most plausible explanation.
“So how did you get out? How did you escape?”
“Through the exit.”
Watching Shin Si Woo answer so casually, Eun Ha fell deep in thought.
During their battle, Eun Ha had obtained all five items. It was highly likely that the moment she did, an escape route had opened.
Eun Ha, who had been quietly stroking her chin, lifted her head.
“Why did you call me ‘Black Flame Princess’?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious? You’re cosplaying as her quite openly.”
Cosplaying?
It was something she’d only just realized. “Black Flame Princess” was a ghost story passed among hunters.
“A ghost story… you say.”
Beside Eun Ha, who stared intently at her black parasol with an odd expression, Shin Si Woo slowly turned his head to scan the surroundings.
His eyes suddenly fell upon a nearby glass table. On it sat an almost untouched breakfast and, beside it, an open Hunter Registry.
“You’ve checked the registry, I see.”
At Shin Si Woo’s words, Eun Ha—who had been lost in thought—also shifted her gaze to the registry.
“…Everyone’s dead. Except for one person.”
Her voice was flat, devoid of inflection, and her expression remained calm, as if utterly unmoved. It was Shin Si Woo whose face showed deep distress.
“I’m truly sorry to hear that.”
A brief silence passed. Shin Si Woo, watching Eun Ha’s profile as she remained silent, cautiously spoke again.
“…If you’d like, Senior, I can look into it. That one person—I could quickly find their contact information or address.”
He wasn’t just offering empty words. For Shin Si Woo—and for the Wolf Guild—it would be easier than eating cold porridge. Besides, meeting her comrade might also reveal more about her true identity.
“No.”
But Eun Ha shook her head.
“Knowing they’re alive is enough.”
She’d surely be overjoyed to see Lee Jun again—but equally unsettled.
‘Thirty years have passed, so Baek Lee Jun must be… fifty-four now.’
Even though in her mind, he remained a fair-haired young man in his twenties.
The one who’d run to her with a first-aid kit even over a minor scratch, who’d smiled warmly while telling stories about his pet dog, who’d always spoken of tomorrow even amid the blood-soaked horrors of the Gate.
A simple, kind, and gentle person.
Eun Ha slowly brushed back her hair, recalling his dear face. She doubted their reunion after thirty years would be particularly beautiful.
Baek Lee Jun had been a sensitive soul.
That incident must have left him with significant trauma. She didn’t want to appear before him just to reopen old wounds—especially not after thirty years.
“Then is there anything else you’d like? I’ll help you however I can.”
“No. This is already enough.”
“Please don’t say that—just tell me what you need. Anything—items, food, people you’d like to meet—anything at all.”
It was slightly uncomfortable how he kept insisting on offering things, even though she said she was fine. He’d always been like this. Eun Ha believed there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
“…Why?”
“Yes?”
Her pitch-black eyes, so dark the iris and pupil blurred together, stared piercingly into his face.
“Why go so far for me?”
It was a natural question. Shin Si Woo had been treating her almost like an honored guest—with no conditions, no price, and no deadline.
Yet his reply was surprisingly brief and straightforward.
“Because you’re a First-Generation Hunter.”
First-Generation Hunter.
The term referred literally to the original hunters who’d lived through the dawn of this era of upheaval.
“…So what?”
Eun Ha asked, her expression puzzled.
“Is that really such a big deal?”
“Of course it is.”
Shin Si Woo answered immediately.
“Most First-Generation Hunters either died in the line of duty, went missing, or became vegetative—consciousness intact but bodies unresponsive. Simply surviving that harsh and horrific period makes you worthy of admiration.”
Hearing Shin Si Woo’s words, Eun Ha felt strangely conflicted. In her own view, she wasn’t someone so extraordinary.
She’d merely awakened by chance and been conscripted at twenty. After that, she’d vented her rage and vengeance upon monsters—literally like a madwoman. That was all.
“Modern hunters are truly inadequate. Even I, rated as an S-rank Hunter, nearly lost to you. Had you not lost consciousness, I’d have been utterly helpless.”
“That’s true.”
Shin Si Woo gave a small cough as he watched Eun Ha nod without even thinking deeply.
But she wasn’t being arrogant.
Even if she fought him again right now, Eun Ha was confident she could win. Had her condition been good—and had she known he could manipulate not just ice but water as well—it would have been a fight she simply couldn’t lose.
“Your strength surpasses that of current S-rank Hunters, and you’re a survivor of the Unknown Gate. If the media learns of your existence, it’ll become a nationwide sensation.”
Gates, and monsters.
Even with all of humanity’s scientific knowledge, their true nature and origins remained a mystery.
Especially the Unknown Gate—it was shrouded in enigma, just as its name suggested. Unlike other gates, it had no fixed strategies, rules, difficulty levels, or spawn locations.
Eun Ha’s survival in the Unknown Gate for thirty years would be immensely compelling to Gate researchers.
“What do you plan to do from here?”
“I’m not sure.”
Though Eun Ha herself had now accepted reality, it still felt less real than a dream. The world she knew—Seoul—no longer existed.
Watching Eun Ha sit motionless like an empty doll, Shin Si Woo carefully spoke.
“Would it be alright if I made a suggestion, Senior?”
“…A suggestion?”
“Yes. It’s something I’ve been considering for a while.”
Seeing how weary Eun Ha looked, Shin Si Woo rose from his seat.
“For now, it might be best to rest a bit more. Whenever you’re ready to hear what I have to say, just let me know.”
He wanted nothing more than to grab her ankle right then and cling to her, but understanding and empathizing with her situation—suddenly thrust thirty years into the future—came first.
“If you need anything, feel free to call for someone at any time.”
Click.
Left alone in the empty room, Eun Ha instinctively rubbed her left wrist. The worn wish bracelet always calmed her like magic.
They say mountains and rivers change in ten years—in thirty, they’d changed three times over.
Alone in the room, Eun Ha quietly closed her eyes. The world had changed, and so had everything around her. It felt as vivid as a dream.
The neighborhood she knew was gone,
the people she knew were gone,
and even the Eun Ha she knew was gone.
So what was she supposed to do here, in this modern year of 2031?
For what purpose, in what way, and with what dreams should she live?
She thought she’d once faced a similar dilemma.
Probably around her second year of high school. Before submitting her “Career Aspiration Form” to her homeroom teacher, she’d shown it to her mother.
“Eun Ha, you…”
Her mother had looked at her in surprise after reading the form.
“Mom, I don’t want to go to college. I just want to find a decent job and earn money.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’m not struggling so much that you’d need to give up college.”
“Mom, but—”
“Listen carefully. What I want… is for you to live your own life.”
Yes, that’s what her mother had said. Eun Ha walked endlessly atop the slowly clearing waves of memory, dust brushing away to reveal sharp clarity.
“What even is ‘my life’?”
She must have asked that.
And her mother—she probably smiled. Without answering, she’d simply patted Eun Ha’s head, sitting beside her, both holding pens as they looked at the Career Aspiration Form together.
“That’s something we’ll figure out together, you and me.”
A lie.
One day, her mother—who’d said those very words—suddenly left Eun Ha’s side.
And even now, Eun Ha still hadn’t found the “life of her own” her mother had spoken of.
No matter how little she’d considered the question before, she now realized that the life forced upon her—unwanted awakening, compulsory conscription, and endless hunting—wasn’t truly hers.
Slowly opening her eyes, Eun Ha rummaged through her clothes and pulled out two crumpled bills.
She’d always kept cash tucked in her clothing—a habit born of her hunter profession, which made carrying a wallet impractical.
Most of it had been lost somewhere during battles inside Gates; only these two bills remained.
Eun Ha carefully smoothed out the portrait of Master Yi Hwang on the bills with her palm.
“2,000 won should be enough.”
Since it was the same neighborhood, the base fare would suffice. On impulse, Eun Ha immediately got out of bed and left the room.
Shin Si Woo’s house was so vast it truly deserved the word “mansion.” After a long search, Eun Ha finally found the front door.
Just as she was about to step outside, she paused briefly. The full-length mirror on the shoe cabinet reflected her appearance clearly.
—It’s black. Extremely black.
Eun Ha glanced back slightly. Servants were wandering around the mansion.
“…Should I ask to borrow some clothes?”
But she quickly shook her head. That would be too much trouble. She’d already received so much kindness from this household.
After much deliberation, Eun Ha finally grasped the doorknob.
“I’ll just take a taxi.”
That would be better. Quietly, she slipped out of the mansion.
Outside lay a quiet residential area. Unlike her old neighborhood, the scenery was impeccably tidy—clearly an affluent district at first glance.
She walked past the tree-lined street and reached the main road. The landscape, both familiar and unfamiliar, greeted her.
Shin Si Woo’s house was in Banhadong, Seoul.
The place where Eun Ha had lived until she was nineteen. She’d attended elementary, middle, and high school all here. Though the scenery had changed greatly, she could still tell her old home was nearby.
The house where she’d lived with her mother for over ten years after her parents’ divorce—a time so distant she barely remembered it.
Though she could easily walk there, Eun Ha stuck to her earlier decision and took a taxi. It would cost only the base fare anyway, and she had enough money.
She waved from the roadside, and soon a taxi pulled over.
“Number 287-dash-14, right?”
Eun Ha, climbing into the back seat, stated her destination briefly. The two 1,000-won bills in her hand were crumpled.
“You’re wearing such a pretty outfit, miss. Heading to a festival or something?”
The taxi driver chuckled good-naturedly, glancing at her through the rearview mirror.
“…Ah, well.”
Mumbling vaguely, Eun Ha fixed her gaze out the window.
The Seoul scenery, utterly foreign to her, flashed past like a reel of film.
As expected, they arrived at her destination in under five minutes—exactly the base fare distance. Confirming the taxi had stopped at the curb, Eun Ha handed the two bills to the driver.
“Keep the change.”
Just as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the rear door—
“Miss, are you joking right now?”
Huh?
Suddenly, the taxi driver grabbed her shoulder.
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Well, after finding out about the monster that attacked Lee Jun, I can understand why he would be initially wary around Eun Ha but he definitely went way to far and handled everything very poorly.