<Episode 58>
“Mom!!! Please! Listen to me! Dad!!!”
I desperately screamed as I stepped in front of them.
But my parents passed right through me.
It seemed they could neither see me nor hear my voice.
Despite my pleas, the two of them carefully entered the old mansion, relying on each other for support.
“H-Huff!”
But disaster had already struck that place.
A gigantic praying mantis-like monster was there, crunching on something as it ate.
As though it had discovered fresh prey, the horrific creature slowly turned its head.
Its gaze landed directly on my parents.
‘No!! Run away!!!’
I screamed until my throat felt torn apart, but not even an echo answered me.
I had to do something.
I tried opening my inventory to pull out a gun, but unlike reality, the system didn’t respond.
In desperation, I looked around frantically.
‘Anyone… please, anyone help them!!’
I was stamping my feet helplessly, overwhelmed by the frustration of being unable to do anything.
Then…
A man emerged from behind my parents, cutting through the haze of smoke.
“Ah…! Hunter!”
“Honey, we’re saved!”
Relief filled my parents’ eyes.
The man wore black combat gear from head to toe.
Anyone could tell he was a Hunter dispatched to eliminate monsters.
“Tch. There’s one here too. Disgusting bastards.”
The moment he spotted the monster, he spat on the floor and casually twirled his sword with a youthful flourish.
Kieeek!
A black liquid sprayed from the praying mantis monster’s mouth.
“Hah, so it can do that too?”
The dining table where he had been standing moments ago hissed and melted away.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he swung his sword toward the monster.
The giant creature’s body silently split in half.
“So that’s it? Something this pathetic was acting all high and mighty?”
Black liquid dripped from his blade.
Seeing that the monster had stopped breathing, my parents let out sighs of relief.
“Thank goodness, honey.”
“Th-Thank you! Hunter Lee Hyunwoo!”
Wait.
The one who saved my parents was Lee Hyunwoo?
But cruelly, all I could see was his back.
“…Lee Hyunwoo, huh.”
The man’s head turned toward my parents, who were still sitting collapsed on the floor.
They smiled in relief and were about to thank him again.
At that exact moment…
“Mistaking me for that insect? That’s really unpleasant.”
Slowly, he pointed the tip of his sword toward my parents.
I covered my mouth.
“W-Wait…! What are you–!”
“You should learn what happens when you run your mouth carelessly.”
The huge sword slicing through the air looked as though it were moving in slow motion.
I desperately reached out toward them.
But…
‘No!!!!!’
A flash filled my vision.
At the same time, enormous flames swallowed everything.
“M-Mom… Dad…”
As the smoke blocking my view gradually cleared, I saw my parents lying on the ground.
It was the exact horrific final image I had seen in photographs.
“Hmm. If I play this right, this could be fun.”
Humming to himself, he wiped the dirty blade on my father’s outer jacket.
After that, without correcting the misunderstanding that he was Lee Hyunwoo, he began slaughtering people mercilessly.
“H-How can you still call yourself human after this?!”
“AAAAAH!!! Honey!!! Open your eyes!”
“Waaah! Mom! Mom!!”
The people who didn’t know his true identity seemed amusing to him.
He kicked away an elderly man who clung to his pant leg, then turned around as though he had finished his business.
‘…Ah.’
At last, our eyes met.
The moment they did, I forgot even how to breathe.
He was…
***
“…Huff!!!”
I opened my eyes with a ragged gasp.
My heart pounded so violently it felt as if it would break through my ribs.
Above me was the familiar dormitory ceiling I had seen before drinking the potion.
Yet I could still smell the acrid scent of fire lingering in my nose.
Breathing heavily, I hurriedly looked around.
Hanyang, who had been pacing beside me, asked worriedly,
“Are you okay, nya? You looked so bad that I woke you up, nya.”
“…Thank you.”
With trembling hands, I touched my face.
I had sweated so much that my hair clung damply to my cheeks.
“What did you see that made you suffer so much, nya?”
“…What I saw was–”
The moment I tried to recall the scene from the dream, the horrifying images surged back up with my stomach acid.
My stomach flipped violently.
I leapt from my seat and rushed into the bathroom.
“Ugh! Urgh!”
Clutching the toilet, I vomited for what felt like forever.
I couldn’t believe the truth I had seen.
‘The one who killed my parents wasn’t a monster!’
All this time, I had believed my parents died at the hands of monsters that emerged from the Gate.
Just as the police had concluded after their lengthy investigation.
But the Potion of Truth had shown me something entirely different.
‘They were murdered.’
‘And the murderer was Hunter Park Jaemin!’
The man who swung his sword at my parents and turned away afterward.
Most of his face had been hidden beneath a mask and a hat.
But the moment I saw those chilling eyes, I knew exactly who he was.
I had spoken with him face-to-face several times.
There was no way I could fail to recognize him.
“…And all this time, I never knew.”
Water dripped from the sink.
Plop. Drip.
The days I had spent speaking to him as if nothing were wrong… without knowing how my parents had truly died… felt horrifying.
I turned the faucet all the way and splashed cold water onto my face.
The icy water gradually restored the sense of reality my mind had lost.
“…Stop blaming yourself, Jung Haneul. Crying won’t solve anything.”
I slapped my own cheek hard with my palm.
The stinging pain cleared my head.
After I managed to compose myself somewhat and came back out, Hanyang rubbed its face against my leg.
“Are you okay, nya? Your face is frighteningly pale, nya.”
“…In that dream, I saw the worst truth I could never have imagined.”
“Don’t tell me Lee Hyunwoo was really the culprit, nya?”
Slowly, I shook my head.
I crouched down and gathered the soft Hanyang into my arms.
As its warmth seeped into me, my frozen body relaxed ever so slightly.
“…No. He wasn’t the culprit. There was someone else who murdered my parents.”
“Your parents? What exactly did you see with the Potion of Truth, nya?”
I told Hanyang everything I had seen.
The collapsing buildings.
The streets were engulfed in flames.
My parents were wandering through the devastation.
And their final moments.
I remembered the day I lost them.
The image of myself sitting alone in the empty shop, crying all night.
The days when I talked every day to the smiling faces of my parents on my phone screen.
“…I won’t let him get away with it.”
To think that after murdering people so cruelly, he was still living shamelessly while pretending to be a righteous Hunter.
My whole body trembled with betrayal and rage.
Grinding my teeth, I grabbed the phone lying on my bed.
I needed someone who knew the Incheon Gate Incident well.
“Hunter Lee Hyunwoo. It’s Jung Haneul. Could I see you right now?”
Hearing that my voice was different from usual, he immediately sensed the seriousness of the situation.
He said he would come right away and hung up.
I paced anxiously around the living room while waiting for him.
Ding-dong.
“You’ve arrived. Sorry for calling so late.”
“It’s fine. More importantly, are you alright? You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine… No, sorry. Honestly, I’m not. I’m not in my right mind right now.”
Without even taking time to catch my breath, I got straight to the point.
When I asked him to tell me about the Incheon Gate Incident, he frowned.
“I was dispatched to that incident, but why bring it up all of a sudden…?”
“Please, Hunter. It’s urgent. Please…”
The arm clutching his sleeve trembled slightly.
He covered my hand with his own, sharing his warmth, and guided me into a chair.
“You look like you’re about to collapse. Sit down and tell me.”
His calm demeanor eased the heartbeat that had been scraping sharply against my arteries.
After taking a moment to steady my breathing, I slowly began explaining.
I started with everything that had happened at the shop that day.
Seah’s phone conversation.
The story she had told me.
When I reached the part about the person who had killed Seah’s fiancé, one of his eyebrows twitched.
“…Don’t tell me you called me here because you think I’m a murderer?”
“Of course not. There’s someone else I suspect.”
The culprit had looked similar to Lee Hyunwoo, but he was definitely different.
Most importantly, when my father called the killer “Hunter Lee Hyunwoo” in the dream, the man had reacted with mocking irritation.
If he truly had been Lee Hyunwoo himself, such a reaction would never have happened.
“The person who killed my parents is…”
“Wait. Your parents, Hunter Haneul?”
“Yes. My parents also died during the Incheon Gate Incident. Not at the hands of monsters, but at the hands of another person.”
His expression turned grave.
Looking up at him desperately, I continued.
“Now do you understand why I want to know about the Incheon Gate Incident?”
“So please tell me. What happened there that day?”
A brief silence followed.
Lost in thought, he sat quietly for a moment before slowly meeting my eyes.
“There should be detailed records in the Management Bureau’s incident archives.”
He extended a large hand toward me.
“Would you like to go check them together?”
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