S-Rank is My Side Character - Chapter 53

“Nari!!!”

“Ah, get off me!!”

“Nari! We were so scared. We thought we were going to die! What is this place? I barely found my way here. And what’s with my clothes?! Is this your taste?!”

“What?! Can you please be quiet!!”

Kang Ihyeon, dressed in a white rabbit outfit, started bawling while clinging to her.

Nari sighed deeply, patted his head a few times, and pushed him away. Kang Ihyeon sniffled.

After hearing a rough explanation of the situation from Kang Ihyeon, Nari hit her own forehead. It was time to escape from the fairy tale and return to reality.

“Anyway, let’s hurry and get out of here. We can take Jung Sooho with us too, right?”

“We can take him even though Sooho isn’t here?!”

“As long as it recognizes that we were trapped together. It was the same with the Lord of Chaos.”

Kang Ihyeon nodded. He wasn’t sure if it would work, but this was Nari’s deep inner world after all.

Nari firmly grasped Kang Ihyeon’s hand and slowly approached the white door.

Suddenly, as Nari grabbed the white doorknob, she looked back.

Kang Ihyeon, who was fiddling with his rabbit ears with a puzzled expression, looked at her and smiled awkwardly. Hmm, Nari cleared her throat.

“Those, they’re nice clothes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I said… only the person I trust the most looks like that.”

Kang Ihyeon didn’t respond to the mumbled words. Feeling a little embarrassed, Nari slightly lifted her gaze and looked up.

Kang Ihyeon was staring at her, blinking his eyes.

“I said it’s the appearance of someone who seems like they would protect me no matter what happens.”

Nari stammered and turned her head again as Kang Ihyeon stared at her intently.

Judging by her reddened ears, it didn’t seem like a lie.

The person she trusted the most. The person who seemed like they would protect her no matter what. At those words, all of Kang Ihyeon’s inner conflicts vanished as if washed away.

In Kang Ihyeon’s eyes, Shin Binnari was truly amazing.

She said exactly what he wanted to hear. She reassured him without even knowing he was feeling anxious.

“……Nari.”

“Yeah?”

Nari turned to look at Ihyeon.

Her short stature and black eyes shone. For some reason, Nari’s expression seemed more relaxed than usual.

“I, well.”

Actually, he had intended to say it right here and now.

About Nari’s constellations, about the Creator, that the Lord of Chaos may not be treating her with just good intentions.

But for now, he decided to keep it buried. He could finally see Nari with such a bright expression.

So in this state, he couldn’t possibly say that the constellations she had trusted for years were trying to use her.

So instead, he decided to act in a way befitting the person Nari trusted the most.

“I’ll protect you no matter what happens. I’ll definitely find it for you. I, I can do it.”

There was no response. Hiding his anxious heart and pressing firmly on his chest, Nari, who had been looking at him, was now smiling brightly.

Ihyeon met the overflowing smile.

If he could create a smile like that, that alone was enough. Only then did Kang Ihyeon feel like a part of him was being acknowledged.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Huk……!”

Jung Sooho collapsed on the floor, panting.

After firing the final 30th silver dagger at Nari, Kang Ihyeon collapsed on the spot, saying he had found Nari.

At that time, when he was fighting with Nari while protecting Kang Ihyeon for a long time.

[Trait :: ‘The Little Explorer in Dreams’ is activated!] [You have already cleared this floor. Exiting this deep inner world.] [Total personnel: 3, 1st place]

With the message window, the world shattered and broke. After the black darkness completely covered his vision, what he saw was the maze of the gate where screams were heard.

Thud, the footsteps of the Minotaur rang out, and Jung Sooho frowned. His whole body ached.

Facing Nari was much more difficult than facing the Minotaur.

He felt like he would collapse from exhaustion at any moment. They had barely returned to square one. This feeling was all too familiar.

[2nd-grade Gate Boss Monster :: Encountering the Prince of Misfortune!]

Thud! Right in front of him stood the giant Minotaur with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

Kang Ihyeon and Nari must not have arrived here yet. Then he had to face it first.

‘But…….’

He lacked confidence. Jung Sooho gripped the pistol tightly inside his cloak, the repeated failures already deeply ingrained in his body.

The pain and mental shock he had felt countless times while facing this monster overlapped again.

[Kuoooooo-!]

The Minotaur raised its axe. Jung Sooho focused mana into his eyes.

His blue eyes shone in a bright blue color. Maybe he could do it. No, he had to do it.

Kwang-! The axe struck the floor at a fast speed. The floor of the labyrinth was destroyed, and fragments scattered. A hazy mist swirled around.

“Urk……!!”

[Ranger Basic Skill :: ‘Declare Territory’]

Jung Sooho, who had also focused mana on his legs in an instant, ran swiftly using the fragments as footholds.

Clack, he aimed two muskets at the silhouette visible through the mist.

‘Once the mist clears like this……!’

Shoot right away.

While staring at the thinning mist with that thought, a second axe flew towards him, cutting through the air.

‘……?!’

Huh, it had never used a second axe until now.

But it was always like this. That damn Minotaur grew even more while fighting him. It felt like teaching an AI.

Right at the moment he thought, surely, surely I’m going to die.

“Jung Sooho!”

Clang!! Someone stepped in front of him to block it. Kang Ihyeon, dressed in priest’s clothes and holding silver daggers in his hand, blocked the axe with one hand.

“Ugh……! Sooho! Are you okay?!”

[Trait :: ‘One Versed in Good and Evil’ is activated!]

The yellow magical energy attached to Kang Ihyeon’s hand, which was clearly bent and trembling, and soon, with a creaking sound, it returned his body to its original state.

Jung Sooho looked ahead. Kang Ihyeon was taking out two or three more silver daggers and unleashing a yellow sacred barrier from his body.

And then, behind him, the wind blew.

Whoosh, the black wind swept away all the mist.

No, it wasn’t wind, but black spiritual power. Jung Sooho turned around. Thud, the sound of footsteps rang out.

Swoosh, a chilling hand grasped his fallen shoulder. With jet-black hair and eyes, and a dizzying appearance.

Rude, no. Shin Binnari was supporting him as he was about to collapse.

“……Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Jung Sooho nodded at Rude’s question.

How should Nari act once they knew each other’s identities?

He had pondered it many times, and Jung Sooho had also been concerned about how to treat the ‘real’ Nari when he faced her, but in front of the actual situation, it was all useless.

“You, can talk now?”

“Yeah. This, this is a status condition I ori, originally had……”

“……You’re really amazing.”

Rude firmly grasped Sooho’s shoulder. He had to say it now, or he wouldn’t be able to. Kang Ihyeon was confronting the Minotaur, as if trying to buy time. Rude whispered in Sooho’s ear.

“……I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

As Sooho looked at him with wide eyes, Rude blocked his view. Now was the moment when Rude’s voice gradually became higher and thinner.

“You don’t have to do that, you don’t have to meet me after fixing everything. I still don’t know what’s different about you, but you can tell me whenever you want to talk about it.”

In the voice that Jung Sooho heard the most during his school days. Nari’s voice muttered to him.

“It was all my fault. I had no right to say such things to you. I’m sorry, it wasn’t my true feelings.”

Anyway, Jung Sooho was amazing.

He never did things he wasn’t interested in even if it killed him, and he would delve into things he liked for days on end if the environment supported him.

He fumbled every day and couldn’t tolerate things that bothered him. He had to quickly get rid of them.

Although it often caused him pain, maybe that’s why he got rid of his own status condition. That’s what Nari thought.

Nari looked up at Sooho. Jung Sooho was a short-term type of person. A straight-line type of person you couldn’t find anywhere else.

He had many strengths. And he was suffering because of her.

Nari took her eyes off Jung Sooho. After 7 years, blue eyes and black eyes met. Nari smiled apologetically and said,

“You’re an amazing person. Sooho.”

Suddenly, Nari’s body was pulled down. Sooho was hugging her tightly with force.

The 7-year misunderstanding and conflict were resolved so ridiculously easily.

Of course, Nari had countless internal conflicts before apologizing to Jung Sooho.

Nari slowly pushed away Jung Sooho, who was hugging her as if he would never let go again.

“I, I’m Nari.”

“Later, Kang Ihyeon is working hard right now. He’s in a lot of pain doing that.”

Nari looked at Kang Ihyeon fighting the Minotaur with a slight frown. He was confronting it with small daggers and sacred mantles.

Every time he was injured, magical energy enveloped him, but Nari could see it. Unlike spiritual power, it couldn’t heal him perfectly.

She didn’t know how Kang Ihyeon came to use magical energy, but that wasn’t important right now.

“I’ll use Lucid Dream, so you……”

“No. It’s okay.”

Jung Sooho sat Nari back down and stood up. The cloak with the mark of Gunshin fluttered once.

Jung Sooho tended to speak slowly, but when he was endlessly serious, he would spit out words quite quickly. His blue eyes shone brightly, filled with mana.

“I can do it alone.”

“What?! No, we came together because it’s too much for you to do alone!”

“I’ll finish it quickly.”

Ignoring Nari’s words, Jung Sooho took out a Gatling gun from inside his cloak.

He turned his head back to look at Nari sitting there.

Underneath his feet, dense blue mana slowly welled up. He slightly furrowed his brows and made a confident expression.

He was usually docile, but sometimes he made a charismatic expression. When he was truly confident.

“And, you said I’m amazing. So it’s okay.”

He focused mana on his legs again and leaped up from his spot, looking ahead once more. Nari said he was amazing. She said it was okay to meet like this.

Jung Sooho’s face turned fierce. He couldn’t stand seeing something bothersome right in front of his eyes.

He wanted to make up for the time he couldn’t meet Nari right now. But, this thing was interfering.

Kwang!! The Minotaur swung its axe again. Fragments flew in all directions. Two brightly shining eyes, and the shape of an eye drawn on its forehead came to mind.

[Status Condition :: ‘Over-concentration’ disappears!] [Trait :: Acquired ‘Over-concentration’! Concentrating excessively. Everything around is invisible. High-purity mana is concentrated!]

And all the elements interfering between the Minotaur and Jung Sooho’s Gatling gun disappeared like a mirage.

The high-purity mana created by the terrifying concentration was condensed into the Gatling gun.

In this very moment, nothing remained in the world except the Minotaur, himself, and the desire to get rid of this thing.

And when the Gatling gun became so hot that it couldn’t get any hotter.

“Annoying.”

[Sniper’s High-Tier Skill :: ‘One-Point Shot’]

Bang-!! He pulled the trigger.