GBP Chapter 114 : Chapter 114
Chapter 114 : Chapter 114
Chapter 114: The Storm Leaves an Aftermath (4)
A quiet evening as the sun was setting.
On a cliff of a nameless mountain, Baek Ha-seong sat alone, gazing at the sky. Clad in a black hood that contrasted with his snow-white hair, his purple eyes stared vacantly at the heavens. That sight… yes.
It would not have been out of place to call it a masterpiece of a painting.
Unfortunately, this painting was not something that would be strictly preserved in an art museum.
"So, you were here."
The painting vanished in an instant as Baek Ha-seong reacted to a voice coming from behind.
However, since there were no artists present, no one cared about that. It simply transitioned naturally into a conversation.
"What is it?"
Baek Ha-seong replied in a calm voice to the call of Hwa-ryeon, who had come looking for him. At that, Hwa-ryeon frowned for a moment, but soon relaxed her expression and continued.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Do not pretend to be ignorant! You ruined the entire plan!"
Hwa-ryeon rarely raised her voice. However, she eventually did so because of Baek Ha-seong's reaction, as he acted as if he knew nothing. Perhaps realizing she had lost her temper, she looked startled, but it was already too late.
Fortunately, there was one saving grace...
"Ah. I am a bit sorry about that."
Baek Ha-seong did possess a conscience. He seemed to realize he was at fault and did not particularly mind Hwa-ryeon's reaction.
However, that was only for a moment.
"But the plan was bound to fail from the start, so is it really my fault?"
Baek Ha-seong spoke shamelessly, as if it were the plan itself that was flawed.
"What?"
Hwa-ryeon was so appalled that she forgot her usual way of speaking and replied in disbelief. However, there was a clear point to Baek Ha-seong's following words.
"From what I saw, the cadets were already grouped up and handling the situation well from the beginning."
"Even so, they were merely cadets in the end."
"They were in a standoff for over an hour or two, yet your people could not kill a single one?"
"Th-that is..."
Indeed.
She had nothing to say regarding that matter. Although all the villains inside had died, Hwa-ryeon had a way to obtain information from that time, so she also knew what had transpired. Moreover, had they not only put in crude thugs who were expendable from the start? Under the circumstances, she had no room to argue.
Seeing Hwa-ryeon's flustered reaction, Baek Ha-seong pressed his point further.
"Actually, should you not be thanking me?"
"......?"
"I tied up the one person who could have been the mainstay for the group of cadets. Yet you could not do anything and now you are throwing the blame on me? That is a bit pathetic."
"B-but was the cadet you caught not just some low-ranked nobody?"
At those words, Baek Ha-seong could not help but scoff inwardly.
'How can someone be so narrow-minded?'
No matter how easy an enemy seems, conducting a thorough investigation is the absolute basic of military tactics. Considering that, even a little bit of research would have revealed that Choi Yu-seong was not a typical low-ranked cadet. Yet she reacted like that. How could he not laugh?
'In the end, it is the limitation of one who merely serves.'
Those who blindly rely on someone else do not know how to think for themselves. Hwa-ryeon constantly called herself the chosen Saintess and served the boss of a shadowy organization whose identity was unknown. Ultimately, that was her limit.
'Well, she is not someone to be ignored, though.'
Despite her short-sightedness and lack of initiative, she was someone who had reached this position. No matter how frustrating she acted, it was not the right choice to underestimate her. And as he had just said, preparing thoroughly even for an easy-looking opponent is the absolute basic of basics.
'Even if we are not enemies now, one never knows when that might change.'
The world where villains live is like that. It is a place where yesterday's ally can become an enemy who stabs you in the heart today. It is a place where one must never let their guard down and must keep all possibilities open. Therefore, Baek Ha-seong replied to Hwa-ryeon's words as follows.
"I suppose it is a matter of people's thoughts being unable to be the same."
He spoke in a very vague manner. There was no need to go out of his way to fix the shortcomings of an opponent who might become an enemy. Baek Ha-seong's judgment was correct, as Hwa-ryeon looked puzzled for a moment before continuing the conversation.
"I understand what you are trying to say for now."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"...It is. However, my dissatisfaction has not ended. If the situation was like that, would it not have been enough for you to help from the start?"
Hwa-ryeon spoke in a rebuking tone. Baek Ha-seong replied with an indifferent voice.
"Why should I?"
"What do you mean, why..."
"Did you forget our initial terms? I believe I said I would move as I please if the situation called for it."
"......"
He was right. Baek Ha-seong had certainly said that at the beginning.
"And it is not like I ruined the plan you built from the very start."
"......"
"So, why don't we end this talk here? For the sake of our smooth relationship."
Baek Ha-seong asked as if she had a choice. However, Hwa-ryeon knew. This was a question, but there was no such thing as a choice.
'It is not a good idea to make him an enemy.'
If it were the Puppeteer, it might be different, but clashing with Baek Ha-seong was not a wise move. They might become enemies one day, but that day should not be today. If they faced each other as enemies, the losing side would obviously be destroyed, but the winning side would surely bleed heavily as well. Therefore, Hwa-ryeon reluctantly accepted Baek Ha-seong's non-question.
"...I understand."
"Right. Since I am not entirely without fault, I will take your side for a while if an argument breaks out."
It was not a bad deal. For someone who had accepted a question she could not refuse, it was a sufficient offer. At any rate, the conversation ended there. Baek Ha-seong stood up as he watched the sunset fade and darkness settle over the sky.
"Then, you have nothing more to say, right?"
"I do not."
"Then I will be going. I have a mountain of work to do."
With those words, Baek Ha-seong left the spot without any regret. Watching the place where he had disappeared, Hwa-ryeon felt a brief sense of doubt.
'A mountain of work?'
Did he, who always lived so freely, have work piled up? However, that doubt did not last long. Hwa-ryeon also had many things to do since the plan had ended in failure. In short, it was not the time to worry about other people's business.
"I must also leave quickly."
Therefore, Hwa-ryeon cleared her doubts and departed. Thus, on the cliff of a nameless mountain where the two had left, a red flower on the corner of the mountain, which had held on until the end of spring, finally withered.
***
Thud!
Late at night, when the sun had completely set.
I threw my exhausted body onto the bed. No, to be precise, my heart was so weary that my body felt exhausted too. The conversation with the others had been that much of an ordeal.
"To think Kim Su-hyeok had a side like that."
Is it not said that silence is golden? That was a lie. Silence was the sharpest weapon. The way Kim Su-hyeok had just stared at me at first without saying a word was... whew. It was terrifying just to think about it again.
"Still, it is a massive relief that the conversation ended well."
I thought I would be scolded blindly at first, but that was not the case. The others also sufficiently understood that it was an unavoidable situation. However, it seemed they had called me separately because they could not help but feel disappointed.
'...But were they really just disappointed?'
Kim Su-hyeok aside, the reactions of the others were... Ryu Jin-oh just stayed silent with a displeased look, and all the others were making dark expressions as well. If Kim Su-hyeok had not told me that everyone stepped up when I fainted, I would have been the one feeling disappointed instead.
'...Actually, there is no reason for me to feel disappointed anyway.'
After all, is my goal not to protect them? Even if they did not step up, there was no reason to be disappointed. On the contrary, I felt nothing but gratitude.
"I never dreamed that everyone would step up."
I had sufficiently realized that Kim Su-hyeok would step up. He is that kind of person, after all. But I never imagined that the others would do the same.
"To be honest, there was no reason for them to go that far."
It was easier to understand if I thought about the connection between them and me. We had not known each other for that long, had we? Perhaps Do Gang-ho was understandable? Since he is the type who cannot live with a debt, he must have thought of the favor he received during the Lee Ho-jae incident.
"The most surprising ones were Ju Ha-yeon and Ha Eun-ha."
I excluded Oh Jin-eon because I cannot say I know his personality well. And Ryu Jin-oh might have stepped up because he has some hidden sense of camaraderie or perhaps because of his pride, so I excluded him too. However, Ju Ha-yeon and Ha Eun-ha were different.
"It was the first time I even spoke with Ju Ha-yeon, and as for Ha Eun-ha..."
It is because she still has a fragile nature right now. It means the moment for her to be called a true hero has not yet arrived.
"The trigger in the novel was definitely when Im Seong-cheol died..."
Excluding the talent I possess, I remembered it accurately. My goal is to protect heroes, so would it not be strange to forget when a hero died? At any rate, the trigger for Ha Eun-ha's awakening was definitely at that time.
"The name of the talent she awakened then was Rising Dawn, right?"
It was the biggest reason she was able to become a figure worthy of the epithet Saintess. Just as Kim Su-hyeok has World's Protection and Shin Yu-hwan has Black Spear Summon, it was the talent that represented Ha Eun-ha. But...
"The problem is that I have no intention of standing by and watching Im Seong-cheol die."
Then what happens? Does Ha Eun-ha end up being unable to awaken? After continuing to worry deeply about that, I soon shook my head and brushed the thoughts away.
"There is nothing I can do even if I worry about it now."
For now, I should find meaning in the fact that the fragile Ha Eun-ha was able to step forward, even if she was trembling. That alone was a great improvement. Therefore, I pushed the thoughts about Ha Eun-ha aside for the moment. Then, what was left was...
"Ju Ha-yeon."
To be honest, I never imagined that Ju Ha-yeon would go that far. Moreover, the words Kim Su-hyeok had given me at the end after the others left were quite surprising.
"To think Ju Ha-yeon even gave advice to Kim Su-hyeok and used Sensory Opening."
She is not an outstanding player yet at this stage. Despite that, the fact that she used Sensory Opening while accepting the penalty for my sake was quite touching. After all, even if Ju Ha-yeon is soft-hearted on the inside, she is not exactly the self-sacrificing type. So I thought about it for a while, but...
"Hmm. I still don't really know."
It was still puzzling. After all, the person I know is the Ju Ha-yeon who appeared in the novel. I do not know Ju Ha-yeon herself. Unless I possessed her thoughts, there was no way for me to know.
"Still, it is something that can be viewed quite positively."
In any case, it is a fact that Ju Ha-yeon stepped up for me, is it not? At the very least, there is no way that would act negatively in my relationship with her. It would be a ridiculous story for her to hate me now after she stepped up and accepted a penalty for my sake.
"So, should I just go to sleep now?"
Nothing would change even if I thought about it more. It was enough to just be happy about the fact that the heroes I admire, both externally and internally, have grown. And the fact that my relationship with them is quite good.
"If there is any issue worth thinking about, it would be Baek Ha-seong, but..."
Even that was not appropriate to worry about now. After all, the story will only proceed when I meet Baek Ha-seong again. Therefore, I decided to clear my mind and prepare to sleep. I heard there is a schedule at the auditorium tomorrow, so it would not be good to stay awake any longer. However, as always, the world did not go according to my wishes.
[The deferred settlement begins.]
"...Huh?"
The sudden System message told me that there was still a mountain of work to do. It seemed this cute System had no intention of letting me sleep tonight.