Resurrection Chapter 107 - Hyung, Get a Grip

I held my breath, worried that Heesoo hyung and Min Gongchan might get into another huge fight, but then let out a sigh of relief. Then I looked toward Heesoo hyung. Just then, Heesoo hyung strode forward into the spot where Min Gongchan had been standing.

“Are you alright?”

My feelings about him had become complicated, so I spoke brusquely.

“There’s no reason I wouldn’t be.”

“Min Gongchan is a vampire now. He’s even had a taste of your blood, Mr. Yitae, so it’s dangerous for you two to be alone.”

“Not really. It doesn’t seem very safe being with you, either, hyung.”

At my seemingly cold words, Heesoo hyung was silent for a moment. An uncomfortable stillness flowed between us, and I sighed and tried to leave the tent to get away for a bit. Heesoo hyung blocked my way, but he didn’t grab my arm or anything. He just stood in my path, blocking the way with his body, and spoke with a guilt-ridden expression.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me earlier.”

“If you’re apologizing, you’ve done plenty of that already. I’m not asking for an apology. I want you to get a grip, hyung.”

“By ‘get a grip,’ you mean…”

“I mean don’t get swept away by Ulfheðinn! The way you’re acting now, hyung, it’s not normal. You aren’t really going to tell me you’ve developed some kind of special feelings for me, are you?”

At my shout, Heesoo hyung’s eyes turned somber. The shadow he cast over my head was dark. I was aware that he was close to me, but I didn’t want to back away, so I looked up at him defiantly. Meeting my gaze, Heesoo hyung asked.

“Why can’t I think that way?”

I raised my voice as if to ask how he could not know.

“Because there’s no way it’s real! Before Ulfheðinn appeared, you were fine, hyung. In fact, you acted like you were pushing me away. You changed after Ulfheðinn showed up. So it’s not your true intention! If you think it is, you’re gravely mistaken!”

“You speak so definitively about my own feelings, as if you know them better than I do.”

“Sometimes, other people know better than the person themselves.”

As I said that, Heesoo hyung retorted as if he had been waiting for it.

“Then what are you so afraid of, Mr. Yitae?”

I frowned.

“What?”

“You’re unconditionally denying my feelings that even I don’t know.”

My lips parted. I felt like the words were suddenly jumbled in my mouth. I couldn’t grasp the truth of what Heesoo hyung had just said. Heesoo hyung’s feelings that even Heesoo hyung didn’t know.

It was awkward to press him about what kind of feelings he meant when he said even he didn’t know, and it was also awkward for me to unilaterally make assertions. It was like a trap.

When I couldn’t give an answer, Heesoo hyung continued speaking without hesitation.

“If you don’t believe what Min Gongchan said, then you have no need to fear it. So why are you afraid?”

This was definitely a trap. I could answer neither that I was afraid nor that I was not afraid. If I said I was afraid, it would mean I didn’t trust him, and if I said I was not afraid, I would lose my justification for stopping his actions.

I couldn’t use Ulfheðinn as an excuse anymore. Even if I said he was being swept away by Ulfheðinn, Heesoo hyung would clearly deny it. If he said he was sincere and came to desire me, from that point on, even I wouldn’t know what I would do.

That was right. If there was something I was truly afraid of, it wasn’t the destruction of the world that Min Gongchan had mentioned.

It was my own heart.

I was afraid that I would come to desire Heesoo hyung.

I swallowed a dry gulp. That must never happen. Heesoo hyung was not a person who existed for my sake. He was a person who existed for this world. He was a noble and sublime savior that I could not dare to covet, something I must never do.

As if he had seen through my fear, Heesoo hyung took a step closer to me. As the distance between us narrowed, my knees suddenly felt weak.

My legs trembled, and I felt the urge to lean on him. As I clenched my teeth to endure it, Heesoo hyung spoke in a tone so gentle it seemed cunning.

“It’s too early to be afraid. I haven’t said anything yet.”

“…”

He raised his hand. I desperately wanted to run away. But he was blocking the entrance, and behind me was an enclosed space. Above all, I couldn’t allow myself to run away.

He was my partner, the person I had to make reach max level. Running away wouldn’t help in the slightest. It would only weaken my position.

Heesoo hyung gently stroked my chin with his fingertips. The hand that had been fierce when it held my waist and bit my neck earlier was now endlessly gentle. It grazed my skin as faintly as a gentle breeze.

“If you don’t want me to, Mr. Yitae, I won’t say anything. But just because I keep my mouth shut doesn’t mean the feelings I have will cease to exist. Denying them is the same. Because denial sometimes has a greater power than affirmation.”

His last words sounded almost like a threat. It was close to meaning that the more I denied it, the more he would affirm it. Because of that, I couldn’t say anything, and Heesoo hyung lowered his hand. He stepped back from me, lifted the tent flap, and said.

“Mr. Kang Cheoljun is looking for you. He probably intends to tell us to evacuate. Let’s go listen to him together.”

I barely managed to nod.

👑

“Preparations are complete.”

At Team Leader Go Jae-yi of Team Rose of Sharon’s report, Kim Piljoong lifted his head.

The scenery before his eyes was desolate. It was gray in every direction. The flames spewed by the Scorching Archdemon had turned Dungeon 77 into a sea of fire. Nothing remained in the place where the flames that had fiercely burned everything had died down.

Wandering around the ash-strewn mounds, the apostles of the White Goddess who had come for support were performing purification rituals here and there. It didn’t seem likely that any materials for undead would remain, but Yaksha was a necromancer. He could wield sufficiently powerful strength with just the resentful spirits of those who had died here in Dungeon 77, so Kim Piljoong had ordered the area to be cleaned thoroughly.

The priests were not the only ones who were busy. A total of three teams—Rose of Sharon, Moss Rose, and Narcissus—were preparing to face Yaksha. The tension was palpable on everyone’s faces at the thought of confronting Yaksha.

Currently, a first-class public warrant was out for Yaksha’s arrest for seizing Shin Lion’s body and turning the living, including Hwang Chi-hong, into undead servants. He was already facing multiple charges for repeatedly violating the Awakened Management Act, but now he had become an undeniable public enemy of the state.

Being a public enemy of the state meant that anyone who was an Awakened was required to arrest or report Yaksha upon discovery. More directly, it meant that even summary execution was not a crime. In fact, since a reward was given, he would become a target for bounty hunters who lived off prize money.

Of course, there was no way any sane person would try to catch Yaksha just to make a bit of money. Catching Yaksha was a job for the Special Operations Unit, the fangs of the state. Since they had laid a trap in plain sight with Trishula, Yaksha would surely come looking for the divine weapon.

His mouth went dry with excitement and tension at the thought of fighting Yaksha. Kim Piljoong took out his canteen to wet his lips and asked Go Jae-yi.

“What about the Wild Goose?”

“I’m told he just departed for Elysium with the Rose of Sharon team.”

Elysium, humanity’s last refuge, was located in the Hawaiian Islands. Since most of the waters, like Seoul, were dark zones teeming with monsters, traveling by ship was quite dangerous. It was better to travel by air, so they had decided to transport Kim Yitae—codename: Wild Goose—by special operations helicopter.

With Kang Cheoljun as the temporary team leader, the Rose of Sharon team was in charge of escorting the two. In truth, the members of the Rose of Sharon team had wanted to come to Dungeon 77 and participate in the operation to catch Yaksha. They had expected Hwang Chi-hong to come with Yaksha and had intended to retrieve him.

But Kim Piljoong had dismissed their request. Due to transporting the Wild Goose by helicopter, they couldn’t assign many personnel as escorts. If it was to be a small elite team, it was right for the Rose of Sharon, the best force in the Special Operations Unit, to go.

Above all, he didn’t want them to get caught up in their emotions and ruin the operation. Since Hwang Chi-hong’s body was intact, everyone seemed to think they could get him back just by performing an exorcism, but Kim Piljoong’s thoughts were different.

Based on what Kang Piljoong had found out from Min Gongchan, it was difficult to expect Hwang Chi-hong’s soul to remain in that body. Even if they were lucky enough to capture Hwang Chi-hong and perform an exorcism, he guessed he would become an empty shell without a soul, or at best, be in a coma.

Hwang Chi-hong was a promising talent, so it was an extremely regrettable matter. But Kim Piljoong was cool-headedly thinking about the future. If Kang Cheoljun performed his role as the temporary Rose of Sharon team leader well, he thought it might be good to entrust that position to him.

Kang Cheoljun, known as Fisherman, didn’t have particularly outstanding abilities, but he was an all-around capable person with excellent application skills. Although his lack of leadership or charisma was a flaw, his judgment and reflexes didn’t seem bad.

With the thought of waiting and seeing, Kim Piljoong habitually fiddled with the Lævateinn resting on his knee. It was freezing cold as it was sealed with ice chains, but that coolness helped him to stay sharp.

Kim Piljoong was holding Lævateinn as bait or a hostage, but in a situation where he was preparing for a decisive battle with Yaksha, it was a comfort to have someone else’s divine weapon.

Kim Piljoong’s patron god was not a combat type, so his divine weapon was not in the form of a weapon either. Although he was in a position to use nationally reported items as he pleased, everything there was state property, so he couldn’t use them with a clear conscience.

If he took one out and something went wrong, he’d have a bundle of apology letters to write. If things went badly, he’d have to compensate with his own money, and to pay off that debt on a poor civil servant’s salary, he’d end up in a state where he’d have to eat rice dipped in soy sauce.