HIF 74

What Should Be Resented

Raen immediately pulled his hand away, looking startled.

“…I’m sorry.”

His voice sounded strained, as if he were suppressing something. It wasn’t something to be sorry about. He seemed to be reacting to my scars, and I was actually grateful that he was checking on me.

Raen snapped his fingers, creating a sphere of light around us. Even though the light was white, for some reason, Raen’s face looked a bit flushed. Without a word, Raen pressed the tube of ointment into my hand, as if telling me to apply it.

“I want you to do it, Hyung.”

“…….”

I would have to use clean magic to wipe away this sticky ointment, so I wondered if it was necessary for me to get it on my hands. Besides, I didn’t dislike the idea of Raen doing it.

Raen bit his lip hard and placed his slightly trembling hand back on my shoulder. Perhaps because he had grown a bit more accustomed to my touch, the ticklishness was now bearable. Raen gently stroked my skin as if tracing the wound until the ointment was fully absorbed, then pulled my collar back up.

“Yi-han, will you be okay to move right away? I heard the bleeding was severe.”

“Yes, I’m fine. Let’s go to the dungeon.”

In truth, I wasn’t going to be fine for much longer. There wasn’t much time left on Min Joo-hyuk’s quest. Still, that wasn’t something to worry about too much right now. Raen wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

Whoosh.

We teleported and arrived in front of a small building. Raen opened the door and stepped inside. Torches burning at the ends of wooden sticks mounted on the walls were driving away the darkness of the building’s interior.

I followed Raen down the stairs leading downward. There was a damp smell of mold. As we descended, the blurred voices of several people began to intertwine and reach my ears.

“As I told you, we only wish to confirm the condition of the children. So, are those two children all of them?”

“That is correct. …Damn bastards, there was no mention of someone who could make a Confession Agent.”

“There was no need to mention it. Now, the final question. Where is the other child’s house?”

“It is the third house on the right path from the center of the village. …Ha, is there anything I can do that will make you leave? Just leave quietly without stirring up rumors. This village has no need for Heroes.”

“Representative, how could you do this? If such a thing happened, you should have informed the village instead of hiding it. And to try and harm the Heroes…”

I stepped onto the final stair. It was a narrow space. Seeing the long cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, it seemed it hadn’t been used for a long time. The village representative was kneeling behind wooden bars, his hands tied behind him with Azure Light.

Park Yul, Song Ha-gyun, and Min Joo-hyuk were standing before him. I saw one other person. It was the middle-aged man who had guided us when we first arrived in the village.

“Seon Yi-han, you….”

Sensing a presence, Min Joo-hyuk whipped his body around toward me. Our eyes met for a moment.

Min Joo-hyuk took a step back, his eyes scanning me up and down as if checking my condition. Then, before I could even react, he vanished instantly from before my eyes using teleportation magic.

‘Min Joo-hyuk, he really just left like that.’

I noticed just now that he had bandages wrapped around his hand. It even looked as though they were stained with blood. If he had given me just a moment, I could have healed him. I felt concerned. I should find him as soon as this situation is resolved.

After conveying to Park Yul and Song Ha-gyun that I was completely fine now, I stepped forward to stand before the village representative. A piercing gaze filled with deep hatred shone even in the darkness. The village representative gnashed his teeth.

“What, the Priest is fine too. In the end, I didn’t achieve anyth—”

“Yeon Seo-ah.”

The village representative snapped his head up toward me. His shaking pupils locked onto me.

“That’s the child, right?”

“How….”

The village representative’s eyes widened. Soon, bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes as if capillaries had burst. He struggled to rise from his spot, his body heaving.

“How do you know that name? Tell me right now.”

The representative’s breathing was ragged. It really was that child. I still vividly remembered the hair that had been carefully and neatly combed. And the eerie black areas that had spread across the face.

It was justifiable for this man to be angry. However, it was not justifiable for that anger to be directed at the Heroes. I could distinguish between what was justifiable and what was not. This man, however, seemed unable to do so.

“Open your mouth. How do you know my daugh—”

“The child is fine.”

“…What?”

I gripped the wooden bars with both hands and looked down at the village representative. The hard, cool texture touched my palms.

I couldn’t reveal that I had healed the child with my own power. Because I wouldn’t be able to heal anyone other than the Heroes from now on. In that case, the best answer I could give right now was….

“God has bestowed a blessing.”

All of the village representative’s movements stopped abruptly. He looked up at me silently, like a man who had forgotten how to move. Beside us, the sound of the torch crackling echoed.

Park Yul, Song Ha-gyun, and Raen likely knew that my words were an excuse. Still, I was grateful that they seemed willing to wait until I finished my conversation with the representative.

I’ll have to think carefully about how to explain this to everyone later. I can’t simply tell them it was a reward for a quest.

“A blessing… what do you mean….”

“It means both children have been healed. They are all better now.”

“How… how can I believe that? I’ve never heard that divine power could heal such a thing. Explain properly—”

“You’ll find out once you see the children, so I have no reason to lie.”

“That’s….”

“If you don’t want to believe it, then don’t.”

The village representative looked at me with trembling eyes, his lips quivering, before he slowly bowed his waist and pressed his forehead to the ground. It was as if he were prostrating himself in apology.

“I am sorry. I am truly sorry. Please do not take back the blessing. I beg of you. The children did nothing wrong.”

The children did nothing wrong. That was true. However, the Heroes had done nothing wrong either. Why didn’t this man realize that?

“You are not in a position to ask for my forgiveness. Nor am I in a position to forgive you. The ones you tried to attack were the Heroes.”

“Heroes, I am sorry. Please forgive me. I will accept any punishment. I thought there was no solution as the children were being infested by magical energy. I thought it was all over. I was momentarily blinded. I was short-sighted.”

The village representative immediately poured out his desperate voice. For some reason, I didn’t want to hear any more of it, so I spoke immediately.

“It is only natural that you pay for your crimes. And God does not take back a blessing once it has been bestowed.”

I think I just wanted this man to be quiet. I didn’t want to see him apologize and seek forgiveness. If it hadn’t been for me, Min Joo-hyuk would have been pierced through the flesh….

As soon as I thought that, it felt as if my heart dropped to the very bottom. I clenched my fist and struck the wooden bars hard, and a dull thud echoed quietly.

“I’m not telling you to ask for forgiveness; I’m saying you were wrong from the start. Why did you turn your arrow of anger toward the Heroes?”

But wait. The moment the words left my mouth, shivers ran down my spine. Come to think of it, wasn’t I similar?

When I heard that the Rifts in the valley had been neglected for too long, making it difficult to deal with the monsters, I resented this man. It was because he hadn’t reached out quickly enough. It hurt my heart that the people precious to me were suffering, so I hated him.

‘Was the direction of my resentment justifiable?’

No, it wasn’t. I, too, had failed to consider the fundamental problem. I had simply looked for a target of resentment right in front of me.

Then, am I any different? The only difference was that I only hated him, while he actually drew a blade. That was the only difference. Of course, it was a very large difference. Without realizing it, my voice came out.

“Neither you, nor I… the one we should have truly resented wasn’t each other.”

That was the fundamental problem. If Rifts had never existed in the world from the beginning, if monsters had never existed. Then the Heroes wouldn’t have had to sacrifice themselves. The children wouldn’t have had to suffer.

“It’s the world that is wrong. What we should resent is a world like this.”

But even as I spoke, I wasn’t certain. Wasn’t this too convenient a phrase? Was I simply shifting all the responsibility onto the world right now?

My mind was too complicated. By speaking the thoughts that had been stagnant, I realized that the things I believed to be right were merely a tangled mass of contradictions.

I leaned against the bars for support. Nothing was clear, as if my thoughts had been violently scrambled. However, amidst the dizzying flow of thoughts, there was one fact that remained clear.

“But right now, you are the one who is wrong. You tried to kill Min Joo-hyuk… you tried to kill a person.”

“I am sorry, Priest. Please, your forgiveness….”

“No one can forgive you. Because you have already committed an irreversible act. If Min Joo-hyuk had been the one hurt instead of me, if I had possibly lost Min Joo-hyuk, I….”

The mere imagination of it was horrific.

“I resent you.”

Perhaps because I wasn’t used to venting such intense emotions, my legs suddenly gave out, and my knees buckled. It wasn’t that I lacked the strength to stand up again, but right now, I didn’t want to stand so stubbornly upright.

I sank down and placed both knees on the floor. With the bars between us, the village representative was right in front of me. I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.

“Still, the fact that the child suffered… is too painful. If even I feel this heartache, how much more must you have felt?”

Perhaps because my heart was heavy, it felt as if my body were sinking into the floor. A cool chill rose from the uneven surface of the hard stone floor.

“I am sorry to the child. I am sorry.”

My eyes grew hot. Small, transparent droplets fell, wetting the stone floor.

I didn’t know who I was apologizing for, or for what. My apology wouldn’t erase the time the child had suffered. Nevertheless, my voice leaked out on its own.

“Yi-han-ah.”

I heard Park Yul’s voice right beside me. Park Yul was sitting next to me with one knee on the floor. As if trying to calm me down, he slowly stroked my back with a gentle touch.

“Yi-han-ah, let’s talk for a moment. I know it’s very hard right now. But….”

As I was listening to Park Yul’s voice, a ding sound overlapped. When I forced my head up, a blue Quest Window was floating before my eyes.