The Otherworldly Magic Swordsman Who Disciplines the Hunter World Chapter 45

“…What antennae?”

“The antennae were feeler-feeling!! They were feeling up my lips!!”

Even as he spoke, he obsessively rubbed his lips hard with his hand. The skin-crawling sensation still lingered.

Gong Siyoung grabbed the wrist of the rambling Julian.

“Calm down a bit.”

“How can I be calm right now?! I’m telling you, the antennae were just feeling around! They were feeling all over my body!”

It must have been truly horrific, as a few tears welled up while he spoke. It was only after Julian repeated the story about the antennae five more times that he finally shut his mouth.

“Are you done? Can we move now?”

At the calm reaction, Julian’s heart finally settled down a little. Julian nodded silently.

Gong Siyoung pulled his wrist as if he had been waiting for this.

“Is the injury alright? It doesn’t hurt much?”

At those words, Julian looked down at his hands belatedly. From the back of his hands to his entire arms, the skin was mottled red and angry.

Julian checked the wounds with a dazed face.

“Why is this… Ah, because of that back then?”

The memory of throwing fireballs a moment ago to burn the bugs to death surfaced.

For someone who had resolved that he might burn to death, the injuries weren’t that large. A burn of this degree… well, he could just grit his teeth and endure it.

“But why is it cold? It doesn’t hurt?”

By the look of it, the area should be throbbing and stinging, but the actual sensation he felt was nothing but cold.

Julian examined the wounds here and there. Only then did something previously invisible enter his sight.

From Gong Siyoung, who was holding his wrist tightly, a pale blue mana was flowing out little by little. It was spread so thin and faint that one wouldn’t notice without looking closely.

The cold energy flowing from there was cooling the heat of the injured area.

He looked back and forth between the wound and Gong Siyoung. Gong Siyoung had a face that said ‘What about it?’, but he did not let go of the wrist until the end.

“Uh… thanks.”

Though he didn’t know for sure, utilizing a skill in this manner must be twice as difficult.

It was the same when he thought about it by substituting it with magic. Attack magic, structurally, did not require precision, whereas healing magic made precision its lifeblood even if its destructive power was weak.

To forcibly control magic with a completely different purpose required a mental strength that was beyond the average person.

But Gong Siyoung was doing exactly that. Controlling mana to the point where it was almost invisible was an act of madness in itself.

“If you’re thankful, don’t pull your hand away. If I make a mistake, I might freeze it as it is.”

Julian quickly interlaced their fingers. He didn’t want to get frostbite on top of a burn.

“Then shall we walk like this?”

He overlapped his fingers between the other’s, meaning for him to use the skill more comfortably. Gong Siyoung’s shoulders flinched noticeably.

Thinking it might be uncomfortable, Julian loosened his grip slightly. He glanced at the hands held in a halfway-overlap, but there was no further mention of it.

“…Anyway, let’s move quickly. It’ll be a disaster if we lose the group while dazing out here.”

“But do you know the direction?”

Because of the thick mist, he couldn’t see even an inch ahead properly. That massive stone statue had also vanished, perhaps hidden by the mist.

Even when he looked up at the sky, it was just a dull grey-white. If they weren’t careful, it would be perfect for losing their sense of direction and wandering aimlessly.

“What if we try going up instead?”

Since they flew here, shouldn’t they be able to fly back?

The mist was the same whether looking forward or up. Then wouldn’t the sky, where they could move quickly, be better?

However, Gong Siyoung shook his head firmly.

“Let’s check the direction while walking first. Since we don’t know the way, if we fly far off to the wrong place, it’ll be harder to fix.”

“Mmm… that’s true too.”

“Myeong Haejin must be looking for us too. Even if you get lost in a dungeon, you’re still inside the dungeon, so don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worried.”

“It’s just a figure of speech, a figure of speech.”

A laugh broke out at the irritable reaction. Objectively, it was a situation where he should be anxious, but perhaps it was because the person next to him was Gong Siyoung. He didn’t feel a great sense of crisis.

He felt like even if something happened, Gong Siyoung would resolve it with an annoyed face.

When he playfully swung his arm back and forth, strength was applied to the hand as if telling him to stay still.

“We aren’t out on a picnic right now.”

“I know that too.”

“Then, stay quiet. Stop swinging your arm.”

“Consistently prickly, aren’t you.”

A sharp gaze immediately followed the muttered words. Julian quickly glossed it over with a laugh.

“But you know. I’ve been through all sorts of things, but I never thought the end of my life would be a funeral pyre with bugs? But I really almost died like that, you know?”

It wasn’t a joke; he truly thought he was going to die. In terms of the degree of the sense of crisis, it was about equal to when he first crossed over to this side.

If Gong Siyoung hadn’t appeared then, it truly would have decorated the final page of his life. Julian trembled at the chilling hypothetical.

“I couldn’t say it earlier because I was so distracted, but thanks for saving me. I lived because of you.”

They said just anyone couldn’t be an S-rank hunter. This was already the second time since entering the dungeon that he was indebted to Gong Siyoung. Now that things had turned out this way, he couldn’t help but look back on the past when he had mistrusted him.

This is why one shouldn’t judge a person based on appearances alone. He had wondered what he could actually do besides being handsome and cute, but who knew he would end up receiving help multiple times like this?

“There’s no need to be thankful. It’s not like I saved you because I like you, but because we are one team. As long as we entered here together, I have no intention of watching anyone die.”

Julian raised an eyebrow at the long-winded explanation.

The more he chewed on it, the more fascinating it was. It was even more so because he hadn’t expected him to say such a thing with an attitude that suggested he had never done collaborative work before.

It was the same as when he got angry while talking about comrades, but Gong Siyoung looked unexpectedly used to group activities.

Just seeing how he obediently followed Myeong Haejin after entering the dungeon, despite hating him so much, proved it. That kind of attitude was difficult to even imitate.

It was impossible without a spirit of obedience to superiors carved into one’s bones. Even when pushed into a crisis, there were more people than one would think who went to their graves by being pointlessly prideful.

“You’re more responsible than you look.”

“…Than I look?”

He quickly added the following words to the cool counter-question.

“Hey, it’s a compliment, a compliment. Not everyone can follow principles and rules when they’re capable of doing everything perfectly on their own.”

Thinking it over, Gong Siyoung was the optimal human archetype to work with. His own abilities were outstanding, yet he didn’t particularly act superior or show off, and he had no inferiority complex about Myeong Haejin—who was lower in rank and on bad terms—being the leader.

He prioritized the safety of his comrades and took the lead without backing out even in dangerous situations. His tone was a bit crooked and sharp, but looking only at his actions, there was no more excellent talent than this.

“They say just anyone can’t be an S-rank hunter. Is that why?”

He almost lost his grip while trying to give a thumbs-up. A cold gaze followed immediately. Julian smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry.”

“…If you know, then please be careful. This isn’t a situation where we can comfortably have a conversation. We don’t know when a monster might appear.”

“I know. I’m looking around with my eyes wide open, yeah.”

The grey-white mist still obstructed his vision. As his sight blurred, his other senses sharpened to fill the void.

The scent of moisture-drenched grass blades lingered at the tip of his nose. He suspected there were forests or trees in this vicinity.

“But being like this reminds me of the old days. When was it? The atmosphere was exactly like this when I first participated in a monster subjugation battle.”

The first experience of anything tended to be intense. For Julian, it was the first subjugation battle.

Was it the 67th expedition? He didn’t remember the exact number, but that was the first time he crossed the canyon. Perhaps because of that, the experience of that day still came to mind vividly.

The names for that place were myriad. Generally, it was referred to collectively as ‘Beyond the Canyon,’ but anyway, that area was an unknown territory to ordinary people, and Julian set foot near the canyon for the first time then.

He did not know where it began. At some point, a field filled with thick mist unfolded.

No matter how far they went, it didn’t end. It was a mist so dense it was difficult to see even an inch ahead. Because they lost their sense of direction, it took several days just to pass through that area.

During those few days, more than a third of the subjugation party lost their lives. Just to pass through a single field, that is.

“I might not know for sure, but that was probably the time we took the greatest damage from a single entity. They said they had never met a Gatekeeper before that.”

“A Gatekeeper?”

“It wasn’t actually guarding a door. Just a symbolic kind of Gatekeeper? I only found out after leaving the field. That wasn’t a field, but…”

The sensation of treading on the ground changed little by little. The fluffiness of the wet grass that had been brushed by his toes vanished without a trace before he knew it. In its place, he felt a hard and dry floor.

Julian’s steps slowed down. Having come to a stop, he firmly squeezed the arm holding Gong Siyoung. Following Julian, Gong Siyoung also stopped walking. His face, facing him, was full of questions.

“What’s wrong?”

Thick mist still clung around them. Julian, his lips flickering for a moment, whipped his head around to look once around the surroundings.

“About that stone statue earlier. It certainly didn’t look like a monster, right? The bugs too… Monsters don’t attack people in that way.”

There was a clear difference from monsters that possessed hostility toward humans.

That was also why they hadn’t responded until the statue made an attack. Because they thought it wasn’t a monster. No murderous intent had been felt at all.

“About this mist. Doesn’t it seem too strange to be a normal natural phenomenon? When we were next to the statue, the mist wasn’t this thick. Do you remember?”

As if time had stopped, the mist had maintained a constant density from the beginning until now. Despite having walked for a long time, it showed no change whatsoever.