The Otherworldly Magic Swordsman Who Disciplines the Hunter World Chapter 49

One way or another, dying was the same. In that case, there was no reason not to try stabbing.

The sword vibrated with a faint hum. A name he hadn’t called in a very long time pooled at the tip of his tongue.

A long, long time ago, there was a friend he had trusted without a doubt that they would spend their entire lives together. The sword that friend left behind before departing was named after him.

“Igni, you know what you have to do, right?”

As if in answer, mana billowed from the sword. Unlike the blue mana that bloomed when Julian used magic, a bright red color resembling flames wriggled. When he let go, the sword—no, Igni—floated up.

“Once I get out of here first…”

The message on the green status window was still there. A nosebleed trickled down. Along with the fishy smell of blood, a terrible, acute pain was felt in his chest.

The sword, glowing bright red, pierced exactly into his solar plexus. When he let out a cough, a surge of blood welled up.

His consciousness gradually grew hazy. The message on the status window that spoke of responsibility turned into a blur.

Every time he closed and opened his eyes, the world spun round and round.

The last thing caught in his eyes was the sky, a clear blue without a single trace of mist.

‘…so, run!’

‘Not yet—.’

‘…and! …so, go forward! Run!’

Voices were heard from very far away. Amidst the fragments of a broken conversation, confusion was clearly felt.

The sounds grew close and then distant again, repeating that way until, at a certain point, they cut off abruptly.

From then on, there was only silence. How long had he been in that dark, empty world? At some point, Julian found himself standing atop a ruined temple.

The floor was covered in all sorts of debris. Stained glass and the statues that once decorated the temple were shattered and rolled around like trash. The smell of dust and the smell of blood mixed in the air.

Occasional sobbing sounds were heard. The broken temple and collapsed walls had crushed the furniture and crushed the people. Tragedy takes everything away root and branch without warning.

Blood dripped, drip, drip, from the divine statue where prayers were offered every morning and evening.

A monster perched upon the divine statue, modeled after the face of the Lord God, chewed on something with a crunch, crunch. Stench and blood flowed from the monster’s mouth. Thud, a single severed leg fell.

Bright yellow pupils turned slowly. Soon, the monster discovered Julian and grinned, tearing its mouth wide. A messy, tangled red lump was visible between its teeth.

‘Run!’

Someone pushed him while he was standing dazed. The scruff of his neck was pulled roughly.

The monster moved its body slowly. Thump, the ground rumbled every time it took a step. Its massive body swayed and staggered.

‘Run, Lian, run!’

Wielding a broken piece of wood, Ignis stepped forward to block the path. At the urgent cry, Julian finally snapped to his senses.

As he slowly backed away, Ignis, who was glaring at the monster, grabbed his hand. They ran without looking back.

Together they ran and ran. They didn’t stop until they left the temple, crossed the forest, and until they were so short of breath it felt like their hearts would pop out of their mouths.

They climbed the hill to the very top. Only after realizing the monster wasn’t following did they stop walking.

Julian sucked in ragged breaths. He didn’t look back for a single moment. No, he couldn’t look back. The temple burned, and the people vanished. The monster that struck without warning had devoured everything.

The reason they could live was because enough people had been present at the temple. Because the monster had filled its belly, because it had eaten enough people, it did not pursue. That was why they could live.

‘How… how could this happen…’

Ignis’s murmur was heard. Red pupils shook restlessly with shock. Grief and hatred boiled in those eyes watching the tragedy of friends, the tragedy of family, and all those tragedies. The fisted hands trembled violently.

‘I won’t forgive them… never… absolutely…’

Hatred rose in a face that was crumbly and dry, unlike a child’s. It wasn’t just the temple that was burning. A terrible flame burned inside Ignis’s heart as well.

‘I’m going to kill the monsters. All of them… I’ll wipe every single one of them from this world.’

Often, the same words became a declaration and became a conviction. Ignis resolved to devote his life to eliminating monsters. The tragedy of that moment drove him toward another tragedy.

That was why Julian could not forget that moment for a long time. That night when the temple where he spent his childhood burned, the tragedy of that day.

“…Ah.”

Blink. Focus returned every time he blinked his eyes. Reality returned only after he stared at the pure white ceiling for a long while.

Julian sat up abruptly and felt his body. The blanket that had been resting on his waist slid down to the floor.

With a bewildered face, he fumbled over his body and face for a long time.

“What… what happened?”

Where is this? A temple? But that was a long time ago?

The question marks wouldn’t leave. His fumbling fingertips caught on something. When he looked down to check, he saw a string hanging from his wrist.

Is it an injection rather than a string? Lines were connected in a row to the IV fluid hanging on the pole.

While he was trying to pull the line slightly, a voice flowed out from behind without warning.

“Don’t pull it.”

Julian’s eyes widened. Gong Siyoung, with a stiff face, uncrossed his arms and approached.

He gave the pole a light flick with his fingertip, pushing it back. Julian’s eyes rolled along with the pole as it rolled away silently. Gong Siyoung’s eyebrows twitched at the vacant expression.

“It only ends once you finish the IV, so don’t pull the line and just lie still. If the needle gets pulled out while you’re moving, there will be blood.”

The touch as he organized the tangled lines was strangely irritable. Julian, who was still just watching him with a stupid face, slowly opened his mouth.

“But… weren’t we in, that, a dungeon?”

Is this a dungeon too? He looked around, marvelling anew.

Wow, I thought dungeons were places only crawling with monsters, but there’s a clean place like this too…

“We passed through the Gate and returned. This is a hospital, and you… are currently receiving treatment. Do you really not remember? You killed and sent back all the hunters, including me, Myeong Haejin, Gu Jayoung, and Woo Yujin.”

“Eh? Ahhh… Oh, then what about the others? Is everyone okay?”

Seeing Gong Siyoung say such things, it seemed Minos had definitely been dealt with. Then, had he also escaped safely at that time?

Only then did he remember what happened at the final moment. A flustered Julian fumbled at his waist.

“My sword? Did the sword come out too?”

“I set it over there. And I told you not to move like that? I said the needle will come out, seriously.”

He grabbed the fluttering hands and folded them over the knees. He picked up the fallen blanket and covered him meticulously. Unlike the delicate touch, his appearance was full of sulkiness.

“Really… I have a lot to say too, but I’m holding it in. Because I don’t want to get angry at a sick person.”

Julian looked at the sword leaning diagonally against the window and then turned his head. He was surprised because Gong Siyoung’s face was closer than expected. When he just blinked without a word, Gong Siyoung backed away slightly.

Gong Siyoung, having kicked a side chair with his foot, stared intently at Julian. He took a seat in the chair at a place that was neither close to nor far from the bed. Only after crossing his legs and even crossing his arms did his lips slowly open.

“Because of you… Hunter Julian, thanks to your rescue, we cleared the dungeon. In the meantime, we were able to escape safely… no one was hurt. Except for you.”

The fact that everyone was safe from Minos’s hallucination was entirely thanks to Julian.

However, even after waking everyone up, Julian did not wake. Speculations followed that he might never wake up.

At that moment, Gong Siyoung’s mood rolled through the mire beyond description.

But he couldn’t just stand by dazed. Since the boss monster was dead, the dungeon would be halted for a while, and if they were to flee, now was the only time.

The time remaining until the reset was around 12 hours. They had to escape this place within that time no matter what.

144 hours remained until the opening of the Gate that appeared again. Myeong Haejin recorded the time and then took the lead to open the way. Gong Siyoung ran while carrying the sleeping Julian on his back.

However, a problem occurred in an unexpected place. Everyone had overlooked the fact that the dungeon was not just one until then.

When they returned to the place that was the very first dungeon they entered—the D-rank field—everything had changed.

The rank of the dungeon displayed on the restored status window was A. It took longer than expected to escape that dungeon while protecting the unconscious Julian.

Around the time Gong Siyoung beat down the boss monster there, Julian’s sword began to tremble. The sword, which was making a humming sound, emitted a red light. Along with that, Julian, who had been fainted as if dead, spat out a dry cough.

Gong Siyoung could not forget the moment he met Julian’s blue eyes, the moment light and consciousness filled those eyes.

Julian, who was blinking his hazy eyes, poured out a nosebleed without being able to utter a single word. And then he just collapsed. Gu Jayoung tried using a recovery skill belatedly, but it was of no use.

By that point, Gong Siyoung’s face was paler than the fainted Julian’s. As soon as they barely cleared the Gate, they ran straight to the hospital.

With the help of the Yeollak Guild, who followed to settle the situation, Julian was able to receive treatment quickly. They performed various tests, suspecting acute cerebral hemorrhage, but fortunately, there were no major problems.

“I really have a lot to say… but I’ll ask this first.”

Gong Siyoung clenched his fist tightly. When he last saw Julian, the memory of him driving the sword into his own chest was vivid. Even the sense of betrayal at that moment and the bewilderment upon waking up.

“That only you might not have been able to wake up from there. You knew that, right?”