The Otherworldly Magic Swordsman Who Disciplines the Hunter World Chapter 48

Woo Yujin opened his mouth blankly. His trembling fingers pointed toward the three of them.

“What! What is it! What’s going on! What is this!”

He hopped around restlessly like a person whose feet were on fire. Gu Jayoung, unable to watch any longer, subtly tripped him. Woo Yujin fell flat on his face and began flailing his legs while prone.

“Wow! Am I dreaming right now? Is this a dream? Is this for real?”

Myeong Haejin subtly covered his ears at the thunderous voice. Gu Jayoung clicked her tongue and helped him up.

“It seems you held out for quite a while. You’re quite resourceful.”

Having faced a Julian who was attacking with intent, she couldn’t help but be impressed. No matter how caught off guard or flustered they were, they had died within minutes. Woo Yujin, however, seemed to have put up quite a fight.

“What happened? What is it! Is… no, no, no! No, then does that mean everything Hunter Yuri said is true? That this is the real reality and that was a dream?”

Since this was the third time the situation had repeated, the reactions were lackluster. Gong Siyoung, who had been watching Woo Yujin’s fuss with a bored face, grabbed his shoulder.

“Gah! It hurts, it hurts!”

Woo Yujin let out an ambiguous groan and slapped the back of Gong Siyoung’s hand repeatedly. Regardless, Gong Siyoung was busy spitting out what he had to say.

“Where is Hunter Julian?”

“Yuri, Hunter Yuri…! No, no, but wait, seriously? Really? Is this really reality? Then, no, then…!”

Woo Yujin acted like a person who had forgotten every word except for “No, but wait.”

After rolling his eyes in confusion for a long time, he gasped for breath.

“Then, then what about Hunter Yuri?!”

“What do you mean ‘what about him.’ We saw him last. What happened there…”

The hand slapping the back of his hand grew slightly faster. Woo Yujin made a tearful face.

“Hunter Yuri has no one to kill him! He said the only way to get out of there is to die by someone else’s hand! He clearly said so with his own mouth!”

“…What did you say?”

Must, definitely, by another’s hand—only a death met by the hand of another was the way to escape Minos’s dream.

The one who told Woo Yujin that was Julian.

Gong Siyoung’s face turned deathly pale. He whipped his head around to look at the sleeping Julian’s face.

“…What on earth are you thinking, you.”

“Wow… seriously, how persistent.”

Julian, sprawled on the ground, shook his head. He stared blankly up at the ambiguously clearing sky and pressed a hand to his forehead.

He had sweated a bucketful from the massive spectacle he’d put on. He exhaled a sigh while brushing back his dizzy head.

It hadn’t been very difficult to send back Gong Siyoung, Myeong Haejin, or even Gu Jayoung. They were all caught off guard, and he had deliberately avoided giving a proper explanation to exploit that.

Julian had felt quite proud of himself as he watched their bodies disappear one by one.

However, from the moment he found Woo Yujin, unexpected events occurred one after another.

Even though Woo Yujin was flustered, he slipped away as skillfully as a loach. He made a huge fuss, asking why Julian was doing this as if teasing him, but he wouldn’t be caught. Because of that, Julian’s physical strength was rapidly depleted.

To make matters worse, his stomach turned and a nosebleed began to stream down.

At this rate, he might die himself before he could send Woo Yujin back. If he died here, it was the end for him, of course, and for Woo Yujin as well.

With the single-minded determination that he couldn’t close his eyes before killing that guy, Julian pulled out every last bit of his strength.

Ultimately, it was only after causing all sorts of chaos that he was able to deal with Woo Yujin.

He persuaded him with words as he tried to run away until the end, coaxing and soothing him, and when that didn’t work, he even went as far as using magic excessively to bind his feet. That guy’s survival instinct was more tenacious than an S-rank hunter’s.

“Still… he’s gone, so it’s fine, I guess.”

He had safely sent back Gong Siyoung, Myeong Haejin, Gu Jayoung, and finally Woo Yujin. That meant an 80% survival rate. Compared to the past where one out of three died, it wasn’t a bad number.

“Heave-ho.”

A cold wind blew around him as he stood up. The mist that had been clearing little by little had almost completely vanished after Woo Yujin disappeared. Even without the sun, the clear sky was clearly visible.

He had realized long ago that Gong Siyoung had killed Minos. The wriggling bugs in the mist and the giant stone statue had all disappeared.

So, what happens now?

Something trickled from his nose. When he wiped it with his sleeve, a red stain remained. It wasn’t even a massive hemorrhage, but his head was so dizzy he couldn’t keep it steady.

In the end, he lay back down. Lying still made him feel a bit better. Julian subtly hugged his sword.

“Still, I’m glad you’re here.”

No one who hasn’t experienced it would know how comforting it is to not be alone.

Even so, wouldn’t this be a somewhat beneficial death? In a world where you die if your luck is bad, his luck has simply run out now.

Julian calmly reached a hand toward the sky. He moved his fingers as if caressing the cold air that slipped through them, almost touching it.

There was nothing around him. No people, no monsters. Minos, who maintained this illusion, was dead. Nevertheless, in the continuing illusion, the only way out was death. There was no one left here to grant him death. At most, maybe his precious sword?

Julian glanced at the sword he was hugging.

“Hmm…”

He sat up properly and placed the sword on his knees. Although he called it his precious sword, it was a blade with its own story.

Julian looked the sword over.

“If you kill me, will that count as being killed by another?”

The sword did not answer. It was natural since it had no mouth. In the silence, Julian scratched his head.

“I can’t exactly test this out…”

Should he fix the sword in place and charge into it? Is a death by willful negligence a homicide or a suicide? Should that also be judged by Minos’s standards?

Many thoughts came to mind, but since he only had one life, there was no way to verify. If he messed up, it would just be a dog’s death. Would he be crazy enough to do such a thing in a place where there wasn’t a single person to cast a recovery spell?

Isn’t there any other way? Julian looked around. The loathsome mist had cleared, and the blue sky was gradually revealing itself.

Let’s move for now. A new path might appear if he walks, and even if it doesn’t, sitting still didn’t suit his personality.

He tucked his sword into his waist and started walking.

When he had walked exactly five steps, a twinkling light appeared before his eyes.

“…Status window?”

The status window, which had been discriminating against him by remaining invisible, appeared without warning. In place of green text, handwriting that Julian knew very well unfolded elegantly. A sentence appeared that he had seen once before.

[ Why are you there? ]

He didn’t know how to react. No, before that, he wasn’t even sure if that thing would understand him if he spoke to the status window.

As he just blinked his eyes, another sentence appeared.

[ You shouldn’t be there. ]

“Do you know me?”

The designation of “you” and the certain expression that he shouldn’t be here felt exactly like a person speaking.

No one had ever told him that he could converse with the status window. The screen that had always provided information unilaterally was now speaking to him in the language of his homeland. Could this really be a normal phenomenon?

‘I’m sure it’s absolutely not.’

The words appearing hazily in the air instantly plunged Julian into confusion. Doubt, curiosity, hostility, and anxiety mixed together.

“What are you?”

Was even this a monster’s hallucination or its influence? Was it even real?

There was not a single person here to verify the status window for him. He wondered if even this was something that had approached him by design.

[ Come back, Julian. You shouldn’t be there. ]

“…I guess you really do know me?”

A status window that mentions his name. Is there a person inside that thing, or what?

He glared at the words with narrowed eyes. A long silence followed in front of the status window, as if they were in a battle of nerves.

To come back. The meaning contained within that simple sentence was extraordinary. It meant that, whatever that thing was, it could at least distinguish between “there” and “here.”

It even knew that Julian was not a person of “here.”

“Before telling me I shouldn’t be there, don’t you have any intention of telling me how I can get out of here? I’m trapped here, as you can see.”

The status window flickered and blinked. What, did it bolt?

He’d asked since he had nothing to lose, but he didn’t expect it to run away. He felt a surge of dissatisfaction, wondering what kind of thing would do that.

“Gosh. If it doesn’t know, it should just say it doesn’t know. Why bolt so pathetically…”

Before he could finish, the status window reappeared. A glint of interest appeared in Julian’s eyes as he read the green text.

[ ※ Method to escape Minos’s domain: Meet death by the hand of another. However, in this case, the meaning of “another” includes all objects excluding oneself (weapons imbued with a soul). ]

Julian’s gaze shifted slightly toward the sword. It might just be his imagination, but the sword tucked quietly at his waist felt triumphant.

As if giving in, he drew the sword and pointed the tip toward the status window.

“Are you confident enough to take responsibility for those words?”

[ The results of all actions based on choice and judgment are one’s own responsibility. ]

“Somehow, you’ve become quite short-spoken, haven’t you?”

Well, whatever the reason, since it was being so kind as to inform him, he couldn’t not try it. If doing it or not doing it both resulted in the end, it suited his personality to try it and then end it.

Whew, he let out a sigh and gripped the sword in reverse. Perhaps due to nervousness, sweat gathered in his palms. The coldness of the sharp metal touched his chest.

“Yeah, that’s life, I guess. I take responsibility for my own life, who else would?”