To be honest, Yujin had occasionally wondered if he might run into people from Earth someday.
The problem was that he had never expected it to be someone he actually knew.
Of course, if asked whether this was a difficult situation, he wouldn’t say so… but still.
“…Wait a second, what did you just…?”
Hearing Lee Han-cheol’s words beside him, Yujin had a feeling that things were about to get a little complicated. Mostly because of Reina’s presence.
As she turned toward Yujin, doubting her own ears, he scratched the side of his head.
“? Are you talking about Mr. Yujin? What all of a sudden…?”
Meanwhile, Hugo’s party who were standing beside Lee Han-cheol also turned in the direction he was looking. A moment later, they wore expressions of surprise.
“Mr. Yujin?”
“Oh, it really is Yujin!”
“……”
They too had never expected to run into Yujin here. While all of them, except for one, looked pleasantly surprised, their shock was unmistakable.
But there was another problem. At the moment, Yujin was working, and he had a duty to guide the students back to the academy. Personal connections weren’t unimportant, of course, but now was hardly the right time to abandon his responsibilities just to have a conversation.
At the same time, Reina also stiffened slightly when she recognized Hugo’s party. Her thoughts continued.
I was already planning to look for them, but to run into them so suddenly… And that man…?
Her gaze landed on Lee Han-cheol who had joined Hugo’s party, and she fell deeper into thought.
She clearly remembered that the man had called Yujin in a rather familiar tone while looking directly at him.
He’s not mistaking him for someone else. The name matches, and he was definitely speaking while looking straight at Han Yujin. Even now, his gaze is still locked on him…
Reina felt her mind racing as she grasped onto an unexpected clue.
Another dark mage? No, he doesn’t look like one. If that were the case, it would be strange for him to act so familiar. Is it simply a personal connection?
But before joining Hugo’s party, Yujin’s whereabouts had been incredibly vague.
Moreover, Yujin himself had claimed that he had spent his time away from society, solely focused on research, and had only recently set foot in the labyrinth city.
Of course, Reina had already judged that this statement was likely a lie. It was far too convenient of a story.
However, the fact that Yujin’s past was unclear remained true. She had assumed he was simply a “fabricated persona” who had suddenly appeared one day…
But was that not the case?
A man had shown up who completely shattered her assumption. Someone who seemed to know Yujin quite well.
No, actually… he doesn’t seem to know him that well. He looks like a straightforward warrior, and if he truly knew Yujin was a dark mage, he wouldn’t be acting so openly connected to him. After all, even those who do have ties to dark mages always firmly deny any association.
Even if he didn’t know Yujin’s true identity, perhaps he was someone who knew part of his past.
The past of Yujin, which had remained completely hidden despite all her investigations.
Reina, having reached this conclusion, decided that she needed to make contact with Lee Han-cheol…
“Y-You bastard! What the hell are you doing here? No, do you have any idea what a mess our guild was in after you suddenly disappeared?!”
“Wait a second, raid leader, please calm down first—”
“Calm down?! How the hell am I supposed to calm down?! No, I got suddenly thrown into some game-like fantasy world, and—mmph!”
Before he could finish, someone quickly covered his mouth.
Yujin quickly covered Lee Han-cheol’s mouth. To casually start talking about being thrown into a game world out of nowhere….this guy had absolutely no sense of caution.
Besides, no matter how he looked at it, now was hardly the right time to catch up.
Yujin had plenty of things he wanted to ask Han-cheol as well, but he had responsibilities to take care of first, making it difficult to act recklessly.
He turned to Hugo who had approached him in the meantime.
“Mr. Hugo, could you take this man to Aunt Mary’s inn for now? I have some things I need to take care of at the moment.”
“Ah… understood. It seems you’re quite busy right now.”
Hugo who noticed the academy students lined up behind Yujin nodded and led Han-cheol over to his group.
“For now, Mr. Han-cheol, it looks like Mr. Yujin has work to do, so why don’t you come with us for the time being?”
“A-Ah, wait a second… this is…”
“I understand that you’re happy to see each other after so long, but it’s only proper to respect his duties, don’t you think? Besides, you’ll need a place to stay anyway, so why don’t we head to the inn first?”
At those words, Han-cheol seemed to calm down a little. Yujin gave Hugo a small nod of gratitude, to which Hugo responded with a glance that seemed to say, “Don’t worry about it.”
[Raid leader, please wait at the inn for now. I’ll come to you as soon as I’m done.]
Yujin conveyed his message to Han-cheol through telepathy. Han-cheol flinched slightly at first but quickly recognized Yujin’s voice. His expression shifted to one of disbelief, as if to say, “What the hell did this guy just do?” Even among Earth’s awakened magic users, he had never seen anyone pull off something like this before.
Yujin, reading his thoughts, continued.
[I understand you’re surprised, but I’ll explain everything, including this.]
Uh… a-alright, for now.
Han-cheol instinctively responded in his mind, only to immediately wonder if Yujin had actually heard his thoughts. But when he saw Yujin nod in acknowledgment, he realized that his message had gone through. His expression turned to one of mild shock.
“Alright then, Mr. Hugo, I’ll head to the inn once I’m done here. I’ll see you there later. And that goes for you as well, Mr. Krom and Ms. Mirien.”
“Understood.”
“Hmm, sure thing.”
“……”
Hugo and Krom each responded while Mirien gave a small nod. She still wearing a slightly uncomfortable expression on her face.
Yujin watched as they stepped back before shifting his gaze to Reina and the students, who were looking at him with slightly puzzled expressions.
“First of all, I apologize, Professor Sahart and everyone. I got held up by some personal matters.”
“…It’s fine. It’s not like you kept us waiting for long.”
Reina answered, and the students also nodded. Strictly speaking, Yujin hadn’t done anything seriously wrong.
If anything, the problem was Han-cheol, who had approached Yujin so abruptly. Of course, since Yujin seemed to know him, the students chose not to comment on it.
“Then, let’s get going again.”
With that, Reina spoke, and the students began moving once more.
“Huh? Elly, what’s wrong?”
“Ah… It’s nothing.”
Meanwhile, as they resumed walking, Sera glanced at Elly and asked, but Elly simply shook her head.
…I… I wanted to at least say hello too…
Eri glanced toward Hugo’s party, feeling a bit disappointed that she hadn’t been able to exchange greetings. But in the end, she could only swallow her feelings, realizing that they hadn’t even noticed her presence…
***
After quickly leading the students back, Yujin exchanged a few brief words with Reina before leaving the area immediately. Since professors were generally free to do as they pleased as long as they handled their lectures properly, Reina had no reason to stop him.
Of course, it wasn’t as if she had intended to follow him right away. But still… a certain thought lingered in her mind.
Could Han Yujin be planning to eliminate that man?
She couldn’t shake the thought that Yujin had moved quickly to eliminate the unfamiliar man—someone who had acted as if he knew Yujin well, yet was not part of Hugo’s party.
Of course, that might not have been the case. But if it was, then something that could have been an important clue would be lost, which only made her feel increasingly uneasy.
No, it’s fine. I’ve already placed someone on Hugo’s party.
It wasn’t as if she had done nothing to prepare.
She had already instructed the investigator she had previously tasked with tracking Hugo’s party to continue following them.
Since she had planned to ask Mirien, the elf and scout of Hugo’s group who had been acting suspiciously, about Yujin anyway, she decided not to hurry and just wait…
***
Meanwhile, Yujin arrived at Mary’s inn, a place he hadn’t visited in a while.
As he pushed open the door and stepped into the first floor of the inn, he spotted Mary standing in her usual place. She looked the same as ever. But somehow, it felt like it had been a long time since he last saw her.
“Welcome— Oh! Yujin, welcome! Feels like it’s been a while!”
“Haha, hello, Mary. Have you been well?”
“Oh, of course! My husband’s back and helping out, so things have been a little less busy. Oh, and did you know? Hugo’s group is here, along with another friend of yours.”
“Yes, actually, that’s the reason I came by today.”
“Then go on up. I gave your friend a room on the second floor. Hugo and the others stepped out to settle things at the guild, so you’ll have time to talk. Oh, and the room number is 205!”
“Got it.”
Yujin silently thanked Hugo’s party for their consideration. He thanked Mary before heading upstairs.
After making his way to the second floor, Yujin knocked on the door of Room 205 and spoke.
“Raid Leader? Are you inside?”
“You’re just getting here now?!”
Bang!
With a loud voice from inside, the door suddenly swung open. Lee Han-cheol stood there, his face full of questions, and immediately spoke to Yujin.
“Hey, hey, what the hell is going on? Why are you here…?”
“You seem quite worked up, but rather than standing around, let’s go inside and talk. There’s no need to be in such a rush. We have plenty of time.”
First, Yujin calmed Han-cheol down. It was clear that he was overwhelmed by the frustration of not knowing what was going on, but there was no need to hurry. Taking the time to talk things through wouldn’t change anything.
“Ah… yeah. Sorry. I guess getting thrown here has me all kinds of confused.”
Han-cheol scratched his head awkwardly at Yujin’s words and stepped back into the room.
“Alright, like you said, let’s talk inside.”
“Then, excuse me.”
Following Han-cheol inside, Yujin glanced at the two chairs and the table between them. Naturally, Han-cheol took a seat.
“Have a seat. Let’s talk properly.”
“Understood.”
With that, the two sat across from each other, the table between them.
Yujin felt an odd sense of novelty. He hadn’t expected to see his raid leader again like this.
Meanwhile, Han-cheol, looking slightly conflicted, finally opened his mouth.
“First of all… Ah, now that I’m trying to start, I don’t even know where to begin.”
Still unable to sort through his tangled thoughts, he scratched his head furiously and mumbled. Yujin spoke up.
“Take your time. Or would you rather I start with a question?”
“Yeah, that’d be better. Maybe listening to you will help me get my thoughts in order.”
“Understood. In that case…”
After a brief moment of thought, Yujin turned to Han-cheol and asked,
“Raid Leader, how exactly did you end up here?”
Leave a Reply