The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 258

“What? Yoojin-ssi!”

Noah was so surprised that he jumped up from his seat. Sigma also stopped using his fork. On the other hand, Yoohyun and Moon Hyuna looked puzzled, as if they didn’t know what was going on.

“You said you didn’t want to get a seal.”

“I’m talking about the seal that connects to that person. Noah-ssi, do you know about that seal?”

“…Yes. Not the whole thing, but about a third of it is often done at Mede. I also have a seal engraved from the back of my neck to between my shoulder blades. But that’s usually the limit for ordinary people. Even if you mobilize healing-type guards, anything more than that is life-threatening.”

“Hyung!”

Yoohyun shouted reproachfully, and Moon Hyuna frowned.

“You should take care of your body, Chief Han. Your brother is worried.”

“I’m saying I’ll do it because I have spare lives. Yoohyun, this will continue to apply even when I go outside. So, I think it’s too wasteful to miss the opportunity. It may be a burden on my body right now, but if my magic control ability increases, I might be safer afterward. Skill utilization will also increase, and maybe even my rank will rise. Raising the rank of an advanced skill with my stats is almost impossible otherwise.”

If you continue to use a skill, it will become more familiar and the rank will increase. However, with my insignificant magic stat, it was impossible to become familiar even with intermediate skills. This was because I couldn’t properly feel the movement of the skill or the flow of magic.

“If my stealth skill goes up one more rank, how much easier will it be to avoid danger in an emergency?”

“Still…….”

Yoohyun, still looking unconvinced, turned to Noah.

“Is it very dangerous? What about side effects?”

“Up to one-third is definitely safe. There have been cases where awakened people with self-healing skills have succeeded even up to the middle of their backs. Mede has never tried anything more than that. Yoojin-ssi, even about one-third is effective. Your magic control ability alone will increase close to D-rank.”

D-rank. It was high for me. But.

“Yoohyun, I’m going to be stubborn just one more time. This is really the last time.”

Even after deciding to get the seal, I hesitated several times. More than anything, I thought I should stop for the sake of my brother. I was also shaken by Irin’s words, who came to protect me instead of Yoohyun.

But at the same time, I wanted to have more power to protect myself. So that I can be safe even in the more distant future.

After a few more words, I finally decided to get the seal only up to my waist, not the whole thing. With the condition that I would only use one spare life.

“The flow of mana is maintained for an average of 30 minutes after death. If the flow of mana stops, the procedure itself becomes impossible. So, if something goes wrong with Yoojin-ssi, we will finish the procedure within 20 minutes. Even if the seal is not engraved as much as you want.”

“I have to hope my body lasts as long as possible.”

Resurrection was scheduled to take place 25 to 30 minutes after death.

Preparations for the seal procedure were carried out immediately. After being anesthetized and losing consciousness, how long had it been?

“I think one visit here is enough.”

The dark vision in front of me brightened dimly, and a familiar face came into view. Sung Hyunjae was looking down at me.

A gloved hand was extended. After hesitating for a moment, I took his hand and got up.

“I guess I’m dead. Do I come here every time I die?”

“Currently, Han Yoojin-gun’s death is going through a systematic process. To be precise, I’m the one who came here.”

Come to think of it, he couldn’t appear last time unless I called him. Is it okay this time? At the end of my gaze towards Sung Hyunjae, I noticed his missing arm. He said he lost his arm back then.

“Are your eyes okay? You didn’t bet your eyes for nothing this time, did you?”

I waved my hand in front of Sung Hyunjae’s eyes. Both pairs of golden eyes followed my hand. It seems fine, but is he pretending to see? This guy is capable of anything.

“Close one eye. How many gaps is this?”

“Two.”

“The other side too.”

“Five.”

Fortunately, he seemed unharmed. He didn’t blow away anything other than his eyes, did he? Two ears, the remaining arm is fine, two legs, and he speaks well, so his tongue must be fine too. Sung Hyunjae looked at me with a slightly embarrassed expression as I turned around to examine him. That’s a strange expression.

“The person who should be worried right now is not me, but Han Yoojin-gun.”

“I have all my limbs intact. Even if it’s not my real body, please take care of it since you’re using it now. Why can’t a grown adult take care of their own body?”

“I’ll return those words to you.”

Sung Hyunjae grabbed me and turned me around. His hand reached the back, which was wide open for the seal procedure.

“The seal has already been engraved up to here.”

It was near the area where the heart is. Suddenly, I remembered something from the past.

“Oh, you made a reservation there, right? I’m sorry. Should I ask if it’s okay to physically damage the seal?”

He probably wanted me to raise the ride-type skill he would use. Sung Hyunjae withdrew his hand instead of answering. At the same time, the surrounding scenery changed. The empty space turned into a garden with a gentle breeze. A tea set was placed on a table with wisteria flowers hanging down. Purple petals fell one by one.

“Please sit down.”

Sung Hyunjae said, politely pulling out a chair.

“…What is this, suddenly?”

“I thought I’d offer you some tea.”

“Can you even drink in this state?”

“It’s similar to eating food in a dream.”

I guess so. I sat down, feeling uncomfortable about why he was suddenly doing this. Sung Hyunjae, who was standing next to the table, lifted the teapot. Tea was poured into the teacup, and a soft fragrance spread. I haven’t had much tea before. Maybe citron tea, Job’s tears tea, or barley tea, but this must be an expensive kind.

“If you didn’t like me getting the seal, you could have sent a quest. You could have avoided engraving it above my heart.”

“I would have sent it if I thought you would listen to me.”

Sung Hyunjae placed the teacup in front of me. He must have never done this kind of serving before, but his movements were precise. This kind of tea was unfamiliar, but I was captivated by the scent and took a sip.

“…It’s, delicious.”

“You can be honest.”

“…I’ll just say the sincerity is delicious.”

What is this, it tastes weird. The scent is good, and the color is pretty. I looked down at the tea and tasted it again. Ugh, Sung Hyunjae handed me a cookie as I frowned. I took it and it melted on my tongue. The subtle taste and rich aroma of the tea mixed in my mouth, making it feel softer and sweeter.

“This is delicious, but it’s too sweet.”

“Then try drinking the tea again.”

Is it delicious when you eat it together? I picked up the teacup and drank, ugh!

“It’s even weirder!”

Sung Hyunjae laughed. I quickly took the cookie he offered. Wow, the cookie is really delicious.

“Can’t you send me a few of these as a quest? I want to give them to the kids too.”

“I’ll send them. But it will taste different if you eat them separately.”

Does that mean you have to rinse your tongue with this weird tea to get this taste? I thought about drinking the tea again, but I stopped. I felt like I would throw up if it tasted even weirder than before.

“I’ll stop tormenting my tongue here.”

“That’s a relief.”

Sung Hyunjae handed me a cookie and sat down on the opposite chair. The cookie was moderately delicious. There’s no need to be tormented, this is enough…….

“Wait a minute, don’t tell me this is a lecture telling me not to sell my body for rewards?”

“It’s a rest time until you wake up.”

“I don’t think so.”

Under my suspicious gaze, Sung Hyunjae drank his share of tea. He’s really disgustingly elegant. If he were someone I would never meet on TV, I would have purely admired him.

“I also hesitated this time. I didn’t give up my body easily. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future.”

“Even if Do-ryeon-nim [young master] is in danger?”

I closed my mouth for a moment and then opened it again.

“They say Yoohyun can be happy if I’m around.”

“I guess so. Of course.”

“I just wanted my brother to be safe.”

I hoped that he would never put himself in danger for me again, or… leave me again. But.

“But still, I think it’s better for him to be happy.”

If the same thing happens again, I will never be able to endure it. I’d rather do it myself. Don’t protect me, because if you do and I lose you, I won’t be able to live either. I wanted to receive even a threat-like promise.

But how could I do that? Rin’s words that he didn’t know lingered in my head. I wanted to keep not knowing. Things like why my brother was smiling.

“Anyway, I think I should live at least longer than my brother. …Why am I saying this? So, well, I need to take better care of my body. S-ranks have long lifespans, so I’m worried. I need to take care of my health.”

“The tea has cooled.”

Huh? It’s still warm. A new cup was filled with new tea. This time, the scent wasn’t as strong. It had no bitterness at all, was slightly nutty, and went down easily. It’s kind of like barley tea, but surely not. It seems more luxurious than that.

“Sung Hyunjae-ssi, you’re an S-rank too, but take good care of your health. You have to live a long time.”

“I’ll try to live longer than Han Yoojin-gun.”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

The more I drank, the warmer I felt inside. More than that, there’s not much time left, but I’m just talking nonsense. There were many things I wanted to ask Sung Hyunjae if I met him again.

“About Sigma. Has he really become real? You sent the quest, right, Sung Hyunjae-ssi?”

“It was Han Yoojin-gun who acknowledged him as real. I sent the quest, but I can’t say much about that guy.”

“…Does it make sense that he becomes real just because I acknowledged him?”

“What’s clear is that this world is trying to eliminate him. It’s only just beginning.”

…The monsters swarming is just the beginning? Isn’t the difficulty level too high?

“Oh, what happens if Sigma dies? We won’t fail the quest and never get out, will we?”

“It will be possible to escape once all the discs are installed. But.”

Sung Hyunjae closed his mouth and smiled silently. This is a part he can’t talk about right now. Information that will be marked with □.

“It’s my responsibility, so I won’t give up easily, but is it very important? Sigma’s problem, I mean.”

“Usually, special main quests have special and big rewards.”

The reward was just a dungeon攻略key [dungeon key], but is there a hidden additional reward?

“Besides that, everything else I can tell you is…….”

Koo-roo-roong, suddenly the surroundings shook. A large crack appeared in the blue sky. Sung Hyunjae looked up at it.

“It has begun to move.”

“Yes? What?”

“Of course, information about the parricide and the filial piety addict remains in this world. And among them.”

Kwa-jik, kwa-doo-doo-deuk. The crack became even bigger, and pieces of the sky shattered. Sung Hyunjae took off the coat he was wearing and lightly waved it towards the fragments falling in all directions, even above me. Countless fragments were swept away. The coat landed on my head.

“If I were to advise you, go find the little miss.”

“Yerim?”

“She is the most powerful Awakened in this world right now.”

Yerim? Our Yerim was strong to begin with, but to have the words ‘most powerful’ attached to her. Even from Sung Hyunjae’s mouth.

Koo-goo-goong!

The hole in the sky became even bigger. Darkness was shaking outside the blue fragments. It’s night. A night sky with faint moonlight seeping through.

[I found you, System □□□□□□□□□□□.]

A low voice echoed from beyond. A parricide or a filial piety addict? My body trembled involuntarily at the pressure emanating from the gap in the sky.

“I hope this is the last time we meet here.”

After pouring tea into the empty cup, Sung Hyunjae disappeared. The broken sky and the garden all scattered in an instant, leaving only the teacup, chair, and coat in my hand.

I sat there blankly for a while and then drank the tea. It’s still warm.

“…What are you doing all alone, really.”

He’ll be okay, that guy. Judging by what he’s doing, he must have entered the body of one of the two forces. He always jumps out alone. He even lost an arm, so I can’t help but worry even if he doesn’t die because it’s not his original body.

I sipped the tea in the silence. It’s lonely being alone. When can I go back? After the teacup had completely cooled, the surrounding scenery finally changed. The seal procedure room I saw before being anesthetized…….

“Approaching within 500 meters!”

“Prepare to move at high speed again.”

“Yes!”

But there were more faces I hadn’t seen before. Mede guards in uniform were moving busily, and Noah stood tall in the middle. Yoohyun, who had finished modifying the seal, was sitting next to me in a surgical gown. Even though he knew I would be resurrected, his face was dark.

First, I immediately pressed the resurrection message.

“What…….”

“Hyung!”

I stiffened before I could finish speaking. Goosebumps rose all over my body. It wasn’t that I couldn’t feel magic or mana at all, but now all the flows were too vivid. Not only the sensations in my body, but also the air was heavy. It was as if I was drowning. Or in a typhoon.

Especially around Noah, mana was moving frighteningly.

“Are you okay?”

“This feeling is strange.”

I’ll be fine once I get used to it. Wow, I could feel the presence of the surrounding guards without even looking. I thought S-ranks were being sensitive. I got up, supported by my brother.

“What’s going on?”

“An SSS-rank monster appeared in the Akates Mana Hall.”

“What?”

“If we had faced it head-on, the situation would have been that Akates City would be destroyed, let alone winning, so we moved immediately, and as you can see.”

Yoohyun gestured to a large monitor set up on one side. Something huge that didn’t even fit on the screen was moving there.

“It’s following us obediently, so we’re luring it as far away as possible.”

An SSS-rank monster. There were several SS-rank guards, so they wouldn’t be unable to deal with it, but it was still a burden. Was this what Sung Hyunjae meant by ‘just beginning’? Surely L-ranks won’t pop out.

“Noah-ssi, Hyuna-ssi!”

At my call, the two turned their heads and looked at me.

“Where would Yerim be?”

Then should I go find Yerim according to his advice? …Surely I won’t be treated coldly again.