Chapter 142

It had been a while, and Sung Eunha looked a lot more tired than usual. I offered a brief greeting.

"Have you been well? You look even more exhausted."

"I can’t say I’ve been well."

"Something happen?"

"Something did, but...."

Her words trailed off. Either something personal or a guild matter.

Given the timing, odds were high it was internal guild business. Whenever Neo Core surged upward, there was always a chorus of noise.

'Well, none of that’s my business.'

What I cared about was Sung Eunha’s brain, not Neo Core’s internal affairs. I dropped the subject quickly and got to the point.

"If you can’t say, I won’t ask."

"......."

"So what I brought today is... this."

"This is...."

The sword I set on the table flashed. The weariness vanished from her face and interest bloomed in an instant.

Aquarion’s Heart (A)

A sword made using the Dragon Heart of the water dragon “Aquarion.”

It bears an immortal heart, enabling endless growth potential.

She didn’t even know exactly what it was, but was immediately intrigued—definitely someone with a feel for artifacts.

I cut her off to warn her first.

"You’ll need to keep this secret."

"...Ah, of course. It’s not like I have anyone to tell."

I already knew she could keep her mouth shut, but when people get excited, words can slip, so I gave a formal request that sounded a little like a warning.

She nodded readily, though her eyes kept dropping to the item. I answered that reaction with an explanation.

"This is Aquarion’s Heart."

"Hunter Tae’s...!"

"Knew you’d recognize it."

"How could I not. S-ranks who actually use weapons are rare, so... even if I don’t go on field ops, I keep up with that much. Besides, anything gear-related interests me."

For her, she was talking a lot.

Makes sense. S-ranks have such broken skills that artifacts sometimes get in the way of their activations.

Im Haekyung and even Sung Uijae are the sort who just trust their skills and go in barehanded.

Though, aside from minor performance quirks, watching them use skills with no artifact at all is far more terrifying.

I naturally pictured Im Haekyung clearing a dungeon, then brought my eyes back to Sung Eunha.

She seemed to chew on something for a moment, then asked,

"Where did you get this?"

"I bought it."

"...At a price point you could actually purchase?"

"Well, it wasn’t cheap."

I paused on purpose to build anticipation, then added,

"But since there’s a real Dragon Heart inside... it seemed worth the investment."

"...Excuse me?"

At first she frowned like she’d misheard; then her mouth slowly fell open. I gave her a generous five seconds to process the shock, smiled, and said lightly,

"Then let’s take it apart!"

"......."

***

After that, I clocked in at SH Guild for a few days straight and, shamelessly, holed up at Neo Core to focus on processing Aquarion’s Heart.

Grinding away at Neo Core paid off; I got to hold a finished product I was satisfied with.

“Do you have a desired form?”

“No. But I do have a rough guide.”

“What kind?”

At first, I planned to use it as a weapon like Tae Hyunjin had. Preferably ranged—something that could fire.

But at the last moment, I changed my mind.

“I’m thinking armor. We can iterate to balance hardness and coverage.”

“Armor? I mean, it’s your call, Jehyun, but... isn’t that a waste? In my opinion.”

“Right now I need armor more than an offensive weapon.”

“...Ah, if that’s the case, then it can’t be helped.”

“Also, I’d like it to be wearable gear. If possible... for the arm?”

“Wearable... armor. Hm. Got it. Let’s try.”

After a good bit of head-scratching, she layered her engineering on top of my shabby machining and produced an arm-guard style piece of armor that was actually usable.

No—more than usable... it was something I genuinely needed.

Minimize coverage to the extreme, maximize hardness.

"In short, you could call it bodily reinforcement."

"As long as the armor itself doesn’t break... it’ll be effective."

Thanks to Sung Eunha, my body could now endure a skill for quite a while. Beyond merely controlling the beast under my palm, that alone was a huge gain.

I toyed with the gear, smiling in satisfaction.

It was a vivid, alien set of sensations. Like layers of life force stacked over my body that I could feel one by one—indescribable in words. My whole body felt stifled, like wrapped in film; my palm burned too hot, then cooled to a chill. All of it was unfamiliar.

But as time passed, the strangeness eased. As if it had harmonized.

'Or is it... afraid?'

I stared at the now-quiet mark on my palm and let my smile creep back up.

Just in case, I double-checked for risks with the guard. For now, nothing major. Of course there’s always risk to factor in, but this was a far more stable—and safer—way to use it for the time being. There’s no such thing as a method with zero risk anyway.

Good.

I squeezed and opened my fist, basking for a moment. I’d knocked off several objectives in one go—wasn’t I allowed to enjoy that much?

Then came a knock at the door.

These days, I didn’t need to pull up the Status Window or check a tracker to know who it was. Footfalls, the rhythm of the knock—plenty to read from.

Instead of telling him to come in, I yanked the door open.

"Good evening, Yehyun."

"...Hyung."

"Mm."

Do Yehyun flinched at the sudden door, but spoke steadily.

"You were here."

"Mm."

"I figured you wouldn’t be—seems like you’ve been busy."

"Ah... that’s done."

"What was it?"

I could explain that much. But rather than launch into it, I opened the door wider and let him in.

"Come in."

As soon as he stepped in, he tossed another question.

"It’s resolved?"

It was a subjectless question, but easy enough to get—his eyes were on my cheek.

"I was going to tell you anyway. Figured you’d be curious."

But before I could get the words out, he reached up and put his hand on my cheek.

Touching my cheek wasn’t going to show him anything. I snorted at the transparent ploy and wrapped his hand.

"You can’t tell by touching."

"......."

And if we’re being precise, what he should be wary of isn’t a cheek that only left a mark and vanished—but my right hand now covering his. Quiet at the moment, yes.

I watched him, then lifted his hand off my face and set it on the arm guard.

"It’s basically a suppressor. There’s one more function baked in, but explaining that gets long."

"You were away to make this?"

"Yep. Smart boy."

"...Any side effects?"

"Nothing’s one-hundred-percent safe. I picked what felt safest and most usable of the options."

"......."

He nodded a beat late.

"I understand."

"Good timing you came. I only got the finished piece today."

Come to think of it, if this guard helps reinforce my body, maybe I’ll get hurt a little less. Having a useful healer in front of me makes thoughts like that crop up.

'Still, for now it’s more efficient to take him along.'

Even S-ranks use healers. For a scrub like me to leave Yehyun behind just because I’ve got some reinforcement would be insane.

"So, is that all you were curious about?"

"......."

"Or was this not why you came?"

He was quiet for a moment, then shook his head and said evenly,

"I came because I wanted to see you."

"Hm, not shy about affection."

"You said I could keep liking you."

"I did."

I answered calmly, and the same Do Yehyun who had just said he wanted to see me fell silent again.

When the pause stretched, he spoke.

"Can I kiss you?"

"No."

"......."

I tossed out the refusal with a playful smile, but he didn’t look particularly disappointed.

I took a step back and looked at him. He flinched, but didn’t look away. Did one lip-suck make him this bold?

I tried to parse his tangled head, then gave up fast and glanced at the calendar on the desk.

January was already nearly over. For a few of my plans... that meant a tight schedule. I looked back at him and said without hesitation,

"Soon I’ll be going somewhere with Haeseong’s guild master... and I want you to come with me, Yehyun."

"...Soon?"

"Yeah."

His expression dimmed a little. Funny thing—he has no reason to dislike Im Haekyung, but every time his name comes up, Yehyun’s reaction isn’t great.

'Or is there another reason I don’t know?'

Could just be primal discomfort. My own memories are scrambled; maybe his subconscious finds him off-putting too. In any case, that’s his issue to sort out, and I had no intention of fussing over it.

What mattered to me now was the ‘next’ that was finally within reach.

Kwon Taehan wakes up in April. And right now it’s the tail end of January. With a little /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ over two months—what should I do?

The answer was simple.

Rather than chase sluggish level-ups, meet the head of Cheonmyeonggyo and figure out how they’ve been stirring up high-rank hunters.

I added a brief explanation.

"For reference, we’re going to an island."

"An island?"

"A place where Cheonmyeonggyo believers are. I want to check it out."

"...Why on earth?"

I cupped his face and tilted it up. In his expression was something—discontent, or maybe unease.

My reason for going all the way to Jinsando? I could explain it. But even if I did, would he accept it?

'Do I even need to explain?'

He’d said once he’d cooperate with me unconditionally. And even now, explaining wouldn’t be to convince him. It’s not like I’m someone who needs to persuade him anyway.

I watched him quietly and, a little impulsively—but slowly—opened with,

"Well... do I have to explain that too?"

Rather than go into detail, I kissed him. His lips opened reflexively; I slipped in like I’d done it a thousand times and thought:

How much do I hide, how much do I share, to keep the noise down? A kiss or sex is easy enough to use to dam up feelings, but love... love tends to splash into places you don’t expect.

Love always has a shelf life. There’s no love without term, no love without conditions. What you can control with love might be useful now, but one day it’ll hit a limit. So do I lay contingencies before then?

I pressed him to the wall and pushed deeper, more deliberate. My hands gripped his shoulders hard, then hurriedly eased off. His breathing kept kicking up—maybe the whole situation had him rattled.

"Hhn...."

Until now, every kiss and bout of sex had been pure impulse. This time, it was deliberate—no different from kissing with a purpose. Wondering if this could stand in for an explanation.

Intent guided action with tight stitches.

And yet, when my tongue traced his palate, I had a different thought for a moment.

Can a mouth really be this soft?