Chapter 70

Joo Seowon’s sudden proposal froze the atmosphere for a moment.

When I kept staring at him in silence, he nervously licked his lips before speaking again.

“So, what I’m saying is I can nullify it. I’ve got a skill that can break contracts—”

“Why the hell are you telling me this?”

“What?”

It made no sense at all. Tilting my head slightly, I met his gaze.

We’d signed a Trust Covenant with mutual terms, and now he was openly telling me he had a way to slip out of it?

That’s handing me the card that screws him the most.

“I don’t get it. You’re saying ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) you’ve got a contract-breaking skill?”

“...Yeah.”

“Then you could undo the one you signed with me too?”

“......”

“Then why the fuck are you telling me that? What do you gain from letting me know you can tear up my covenant?”

For once, I wasn’t annoyed—just genuinely curious. What advantage could he possibly see in exposing what should’ve been his biggest trump card, only to turn it into his worst weakness the moment I knew?

“I hired you with money. Aside from that, all you’ve got is a single covenant sheet. So why admit this?”

“I’m not trying to break my covenant with you, damn it! If that were the case, I wouldn’t have gone into the dungeon with you in the first place...!”

“Who I signed a covenant with—why the fuck does that matter so much to you?”

Seowon clamped his mouth shut and glared at me, as if his words had run dry.

'Seriously... I don’t get this guy.'

Sure, sometimes I’d take a small loss just to satisfy my curiosity. But Joo Seowon wasn’t that type of person... was he?

Or maybe the dungeon really scrambled his head.

“Come on, Seowon. Are we that close? I paid you for your ability, you agreed in exchange for finding Minha and getting protection. That’s it.”

“......”

“So why the hell are you telling me something like this? What’s your angle? You got something else you’re hiding?”

“You son of a bitch...”

His fist clenched tight as he stared at me. For a second I thought he might swing, but instead he opened his hand and muttered bitterly.

“I really don’t get what’s going on in your head.”

That’s my line. I lifted an eyebrow, and he started ranting.

“Look—we’ve been seeing each other every damn day for almost two months, haven’t we? Not just bumping into each other—we’re together all day, almost nonstop. Even in the dungeon just now, your gear—”

He trailed off, then quickly picked up again.

“...You even did that hand-off.”

“......”

“You act like a psychopath, but sometimes you just seem like a crazy bastard. I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking, but when I remember all the ridiculous terms packed into that covenant, honestly...”

Somewhere along the way he stopped talking to me and started mumbling to himself. I could’ve cut him off at any point, but I let him go on.

I wanted to know what brought on this sudden change of heart.

“It’s unfair. I might have a contract-breaking skill, but you don’t.”

“So what?”

“Maybe you don’t care, but to anyone else that shit sounds insane...”

So... he heard about how lopsided the covenant was for me, and then he actually thought about nullifying it for me?

'Honestly, that’s surprising.'

I’d skimmed over Seowon’s personal episodes when reading the novel. But thinking about it—if he stuck by Kwon Taehan to the very end, then yeah, his core nature had to be good.

'Aside from the obsession with money, his motive’s clean too. Everything he does is for his missing sister.'

Maybe I’d pegged him wrong from the start. Either way, having a “good guy” next to me was always welcome.

Instead of answering, I just stared at him. Flinching under my gaze, Seowon hesitated, then said,

“And... you know, I looked into you.”

“Yeah.”

“...Just like you know Minha’s all I’ve got, I know your family history.”

Family history? Not exactly shocking. I tilted my head and smirked.

“And?”

“You’ve got no parents. Your mom was the only one, and she died leaving you an inheritance.”

“So what?”

“I’m just saying, whatever your personality’s like, I get the background. Even if you’re the bastard sitting on hundreds of billions in your account...”

So he’s trying to say he feels some kind of kinship? Whether he could really “understand” a guy with hundreds of billions, though... doubtful. More like, whether I could ever understand him.

Not that it mattered. The family history he dug up was all twisted, fabricated bullshit anyway.

“Seowon. What’s your point?”

“......”

He went quiet for a bit, then finally spoke.

“Just tell me the terms of the covenant and where it is. Then I’ll—”

“No, Seowon.”

I cut him off immediately. As much as this noble-sounding nonsense tugged at me, I couldn’t just let the Status Window vanish.

This time, he actually looked shocked.

“...Why not?”

“Because it’s not just a covenant.”

And before I could stop myself, I spoke further.

Warning.

Do not tamper with the chara■■.

For the first time in a while, the warning screen flared before my eyes. Acting like nothing was there, I stared straight at Seowon through it.

“It’s a kind of restriction your skill can’t break.”

“......”

The Status Window flared, dumping pain straight into my skull. A sudden, splitting headache—like it was warning me not to expose the penalty. But instead of despair, a strange euphoria bubbled up.

'Goddamn. Fascinating.'

“You’re insane!”

Seowon lunged forward, covering my mouth—well, not quite. His palm scraped under my nose.

“What the hell is this?!”

Ignoring the panic in his eyes, I wiped the warmth from under my nose. Sure enough, blood smeared my fingers.

“Hey! Seo Jehyun!”

“There’s a reason I dance around my words.”

“So this is a covenant—no, a restriction? Who the fuck put this on you? Someone did this? To you? What the fuck—”

“Shut it, Seowon.”

I snatched some tissues from the front seat and wiped the blood.

'Fuck, my head’s pounding.'

I kept quiet to endure the pain, while Seowon fidgeted anxiously.

“Do you need a potion? Is it internal damage? You can’t say? Fuck, what the hell is this...”

I pushed him back into his seat and downed another potion myself. Penalties or not, at least the nosebleed stopped.

'Goddamn Status Window piece of shit.'

The pain still gnawed at my brain, but I could handle it.

When it dulled a little, I looked at Seowon and said,

“I’ve spilled one of mine now.”

“......”

“Fair exchange. Your turn.”

I hadn’t planned on revealing anything about the penalty. But his random act of goodwill made me blurt it out. Not entirely impulse—I needed something from him too.

Do Yehyun’s trauma I expected. But Joo Seowon’s sudden dungeon trauma? That caught me off guard.

Especially since we had to deal with Damyeon and Cape Prime soon. Leaving a trauma like that unresolved would just be trouble.

He hesitated, lips opening and closing, before finally muttering,

“...Yeah, I’ve got trauma with dungeons. Guess I do.”

When exactly did it start? I asked, already recalling the most likely incident.

“Since you were trapped with your sister back then?”

“...Yeah. Ever since then, I just hate going in. I’ve gone in a few times after, but every time it just reminds me of that. Even though nothing as bad as today ever happened again.”

“Today wasn’t that bad either. You’re a B-rank hunter.”

A B-rank dying in a D-rank dungeon? Please. I said it flat, and Seowon instinctively touched his lips.

“But I almost did. That’s why you... passed it over with your mouth, right?”

“No. Even without that, you wouldn’t have died. I only did it because you were panicking.”

“......”

Hearing the plain truth, his gaze wavered. I tilted my head, telling him to keep talking. He stammered but continued.

“...I don’t know why, but—even though I awakened, even though I’ve been in dungeons since—whether it’s fear of dying or something else, I don’t know. It’s just... complicated.”

“You don’t know what your problem is?”

“......”

His eyes darted everywhere. I met them, thinking.

'Bottom line, he can’t handle going into dungeons.'

I weighed it over. He could still be useful in the field, but his value outside was more than enough too.

“Maybe you won’t get it, but—”

“No, Seowon.”

“What?”

He bit his lip and started again, but I cut him off.

If he was truly useless inside a dungeon, was it worth dragging him along? The thought crossed my mind—but the answer was already obvious.

'I have to take him.'

If not now, then eventually. After all, the sister he was so desperate to find—Joo Minha—was stuck in a dungeon somewhere.