Resurrection Chapter 111 - Who Are You?

“Take out your phone and record this. Tell the world what I’m about to say… or to be precise, tell Kim Yitae.”

The moment Kim Yitae’s name was mentioned, his heart dropped, wondering if the man knew he was his colleague. But that didn’t seem to be the case. It seemed he was just saying it because Park Sikyung was the most noticeable living person in that spot.

As Park Sikyung stood there, dazed, Yaksha raised his head and glared at him. Park Sikyung, his face pale, fumbled to take out his phone. Half out of his mind, he started a video recording, and only then did the weapon Yaksha had newly drawn come into view.

Park Sikyung knew what it was.

Lævateinn, the divine artifact of the Golden Emperor that Kim Yitae had received.

It looked unfamiliar, wrapped in what appeared to be chains of ice, as if it were sealed. Still, it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t recognize it. Park Sikyung was confused as to why Yaksha had it. Then, as if to show it off, Yaksha swung Lævateinn lightly and spoke.

“From now on, until Kim Yitae appears before me to retrieve Lævateinn, I will kill one person every hour.”

He spoke in an emotionless tone, sending a shiver down his spine. Park Sikyung knew he was serious. There was no reason for him not to be.

As if to prove it, Yaksha raised Lævateinn above his head again and swung it down hard. Even though it was undoubtedly sealed and unable to display its full power, the barrier created by the high priests shattered as the sword fell. At the same time, the statue of the goddess cracked with a splitting sound and collapsed.

Rumble!

Seeing the statue of the goddess turn into a mere pile of rocks, Park Sikyung turned deathly pale. Then he began to tremble in fear, thinking, Surely I won’t be the one to be killed in an hour, will I?

👑

Imae teleported us to a nearby underground parking garage. We transferred to a van that was there, and he took the wheel himself and drove off.

Before long, the van left Sejong City and headed toward Daejeon. Watching the scenery of a local road with scattered residential areas pass by, I threw a question to Imae.

“Where are we going?”

Imae didn’t answer, and neither did Kang Cheoljun, who was sitting in the passenger seat. I figured I would only find out our destination when we arrived, so I stopped pestering them. Instead, I leaned back against the seat and glanced at Heesoo hyung.

I couldn’t stand the awkward atmosphere flowing between us. It was abundantly clear that I needed to keep my distance from him, but it made no sense that partners couldn’t even make small talk comfortably.

I studied his expression, then looked at Kladenets, which was placed between us as if to block the way. It was large and long, making it conspicuous, but Heesoo hyung didn’t want to part with it. It was probably better to have a weapon on your person when an urgent situation arose.

Since he hadn’t gotten a scabbard for it yet, Heesoo hyung was just carrying it in his hand. It looked quite cumbersome, but Heesoo hyung didn’t seem to mind. Even though the tip of Kladenets was pushed deep under the front seat, it was still about to pierce the roof of the van.

As I looked up at the sword, I shrugged my shoulder and pushed it. The sword fell toward Heesoo hyung and hit his shoulder. Heesoo hyung, likely thinking the sword had shifted because the van shook, simply set it upright again. Only after I nudged it with my shoulder again and made it fall did he realize it was me and look my way.

I feigned innocence, pretending not to notice his steady gaze. Heesoo hyung set the sword upright again.

Just as I was about to hit the sword with my shoulder once more, Heesoo hyung nudged the sword faster. As it fell toward me, I was nearly crushed by its immense weight.

“Agh, it’s—it’s heavy!”

The sword, which was imprinted on Heesoo hyung, became drastically heavier when touched by anyone other than him. As I exaggerated and made a fuss about how heavy it was, Heesoo hyung took the sword away.

I saw a gentle look in Heesoo hyung’s eyes. The fact that he had played along with my prank made my troubled heart feel as light as a feather.

I suppressed a rising smile and started fiddling with the hand resting on his thigh. I tickled the back of his veiny hand, then rubbed his neat fingernails, and he flipped his hand over to try and grab my fingers. As I dodged back and forth to avoid being caught, he snatched my hand and gently pressed it down on his thigh.

I squirmed, trying to pull my hand away. Heesoo hyung suddenly let go of my hand. I brought my freed hand back to his thigh and started messing around again. But this time, Heesoo hyung didn’t play along as he had before and gently pushed my hand away with the back of his.

Getting a little stubborn, I kept drumming my fingers on his thigh as if playing the piano. Heesoo hyung repeatedly pushed my hand away, but I avoided it and poked his rock-hard thigh. Then I suddenly felt a stinging gaze and looked up.

Imae, sitting in the driver’s seat, was looking at me through the rearview mirror. As I tilted my head at his somehow strange gaze, Kang Cheoljun, who apparently wasn’t the only one watching what I was doing, said something.

“Kim Yitae, stop hitting on him. Can’t you see you’re making Seo Heesoo uncomfortable?”

“What do you mean, hitting on him? I was just messing around…!”

As I retorted at his words, which were perfect for causing a misunderstanding, I suddenly thought that what I had been fiddling with might not have been just his thigh. My gaze dropped down without me realizing it, and, perhaps it was my imagination, but Heesoo hyung’s left thigh looked thicker than his right.

I was taken aback and looked up at Heesoo hyung. I noticed that the nape of his neck, as he looked out the car window, was reddish. Not only the nape of his neck, but even the tops of his ears were burning red, and my own face flushed hot in response.

I clamped my mouth shut and curled my hand into a tight fist. Why did I do that? While I was filled with regret, I also felt deeply wronged. I didn’t understand why the atmosphere had gotten even weirder when I was just trying to break the awkwardness with a prank. I felt like I was going to go crazy, and I wanted to tear my hair out.

As the atmosphere in the van became extremely awkward, I took out my phone with a sense of resignation. The moment I turned on the screen, intending to browse Hunter Log, a warning sound went off and a message popped up.

It was none other than an emergency alert. Thinking a monster break must have occurred somewhere, I tapped the message, and a breaking news report streamed out as a hologram.

—Currently, the Level 1 publicly wanted criminal, Yaksha, has taken over the Grand Temple of the White Goddess and is holding hostages. There have already been numerous casualties, and significant damage has occurred, including the partial collapse of the grand temple.

Seeing the news, I was shocked and shouted at Kang Cheoljun.

“What, why is Yaksha there? What happened to Kim Piljoong?”

Kang Cheoljun, who had turned his body sideways to watch the news, said with a grim expression.

“The operation has failed.”

“Failed is one thing, but Yaksha looks completely fine! Even if Kim Piljoong has lost to Yaksha before, he’s an S-rank just like him…!”

Kang Cheoljun didn’t reply to my words. In truth, no reply was needed. Yaksha, in Shin Rion’s body, no longer had any weaknesses. Even if they were both S-ranks, not all S-ranks were the same.

“And why the grand temple, of all places?”

Hearing me mutter in dismay, Heesoo hyung reached out and covered my phone. As the hologram disappeared and the anchor’s voice faded, he said.

“It is not our concern. Now that Yaksha has retrieved his divine weapon, our priority is to get to safety.”

Heesoo hyung was right, but the place where Yaksha was rampaging bothered me. Of all places, wasn’t it the Grand Temple of the White Goddess, where he had once belonged? The thought that the people bleeding there now had been his colleagues made it bother me even more.

“Park Sikyung might be there right now. I sent him there to come find Gemma. I don’t think Yaksha knows that, but he’s definitely doing this to provoke Heesoo hyung.”

Heesoo hyung gave a slight nod to my words as I bit my lip. His reaction was not unusual. Still, I couldn’t shake my anxiety. Wouldn’t he rush over there right now to save Park Sikyung or his old colleagues? Then what would I do? Should I stop Heesoo hyung?

As worries washed over me, Imae, who had been driving without a word until now, suddenly spoke up.

“Even though Kim Piljoong was defeated, they should still have the capacity to deal with Yaksha. There is another S-rank Awakened, Moon Iseon, at the grand temple.”

His manner of speaking was gentle, contrary to his appearance. I briefly thought his voice sounded familiar. But this was not the time to be trying to recall where I had heard it.

“Did Kim Piljoong lose because he wasn’t an S-rank? Even Moon Iseon can’t handle Yaksha alone.”

Imae replied to my words with a strange nuance.

“If he were alone, that would be the case.”

Just as I was about to voice the guess that suddenly came to mind, Kang Cheoljun spoke first.

“If the Captain was defeated, the remaining S-rank Awakened agreed to form an alliance.”

“The remaining…?”

There are a total of five S-rank Awakened active in South Korea: Yaksha, who is currently running wild; Kim Piljoong, who was defeated by him; Moon Iseon, the First Apostle of the White Goddess; Cheongeom Ryu Jinjoo; and the Magic King Imae, who is sitting behind the wheel right now.

He took his hands off the steering wheel and flung open the driver’s side door. The van drove on its own along the road, as if he had cast some sort of spell on the wheel. Still looking uneasy, Kang Cheoljun reached out and grabbed the steering wheel. Then, Imae leaned his body out of the car and said.

“Get out where the car stops and go straight. There will be a guide there, so follow that person. I have to go meet Yaksha.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Imae’s form vanished abruptly. It didn’t seem to be teleportation. It looked like he used some item to conserve his magic.

The driver’s side door closed on its own with a slam. Kang Cheoljun hastily moved into the driver’s seat, but the van continued to speed toward some unknown destination on its own.

Amid the unpleasant feeling of leaving my work to someone else, I was about to put my phone away. But before I turned off the breaking news, the words flowing from it caught my ear.

—Yaksha is demanding that Kim Yitae come forward, holding Lævateinn, which is known as the divine artifact of the Golden Emperor. He has declared that if he does not come, he will kill one hostage every hour, and as time passes, the tension at the scene is rising.