“Ha-Yan?” I called out.

“O-Oppa,” she said.

‘I knew it…’

What I saw was worse than I imagined. Jung Ha-Yan was smiling quietly while Park Hye-Young was rolling on the ground with her arm and leg cut off. I almost retched after seeing her struggling, but I forcefully suppressed it because I saw Jung Ha-Yan’s eyes waver.

There was a strange feeling of anxiety when I saw the wall made out of magic, but it was worse than I imagined.

‘What…should I do?’

I wasn’t really sure how I should deal with this. I tried to quickly find Jung Ha-Yan because I thought finding her before something untoward happened to her was the best solution, but it was no use.

‘If only Park Deok-Gu was here.’

He couldn’t feel magic. Coming here alone after telling him to watch the left road was a big mistake.

“Eup…Eup!” Park Hye-Young was struggling.

During this time, strange and unknown magic was covering her mouth. I didn’t know what to say when I saw the pleading look in her eyes.

I had no idea what kind of reaction Jung Ha-Yan was going to have, so when I slightly looked at her, she looked as if her soul had left her body.

I guess she stopped thinking because all this happened so suddenly.

Honestly, I was in the same situation as her because I was currently contemplating between two options.

‘Is running away the right choice?’

Or…

‘Is pretending not to know the right choice?’

It was a problem that I had to think about at least once.

When my body felt the threat, it kept yelling at me to turn back, but my brain didn’t agree.

I started thinking about the pros and cons. Jung Ha-Yan definitely liked me, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that her feelings for me had long surpassed infatuation. There was a good chance that I was the reason why she wanted to kill Park Hye-Young, no, I was sure that I was the reason.

It was possible to think that she had malice towards Park Hye-Young before this, but based on the reactions she showed so far, there was only one answer.

If I evaded Jung Ha-Yan here, she may start attacking me. I didn’t want to start fighting with a crazy woman that could use spells that I was unfamiliar with but letting time pass by like this was suspicious.

In the end, I had no choice but to speak carefully.

“What happened…to Miss H-Hye-young?”

“Excuse me?” she asked.

I was really hoping that she wouldn’t betray the opportunity that I was giving her and would simply tell me the truth. There was nothing more I could do to help her.

“What happened to her…arm and leg?” I asked.

I didn’t forget to cover my mouth with my hand and reacted as if I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

That was when Jung Ha-Yan’s expression brightened up a bit. I guess my reaction was different from what she expected and that made her think that she avoided the worst possible situation. I was sure that she was thinking that I still had no idea that she was the one behind this.

The things that she could say were very simple and if it was her, I was sure that she knew the answer.

“I’m not sure either. Oppa…s-suddenly…” she started.

Her hands, legs, lips, and voice were all shaking, but it wasn’t because she was scared. She just didn’t want me to know this was her doing.

It was also possible that she reacted this way because she wasn’t used to lying, but despite that, Jung Ha-Yan continued talking. “When I opened my eyes, I was separated from everyone, so I-I don’t really know what happened. When I arrived here, Miss Hye-Young…s-she was already like this.”

‘Not bad.’

It wasn’t a bad excuse. Using my trembling hand, I grabbed Jung Ha-Yan’s hand and pulled her into my arms.

“Did you get hurt anywhere?” I asked.

“O-Oppa.”

I wasn’t worried that she got hurt somewhere.

My heart was pounding like crazy.

Not only did I keep checking to see if she was currently chanting a spell, but I tightened my grip around my spear.

During that time, Park Hye-Young looked at Jung Ha-Yan with fear in her eyes.

“Eup! Eup! Eup! Euup! Eup!”

I had an idea about what Park Hye-Young was trying to say.

‘Run away.’

Or…

‘Save me.’

There was a good chance that it was the latter, but unfortunately, there wasn’t anything I could do. If I became hostile towards Jung Ha-Yan or neglected her right now, it was the same as committing suicide.

Her mind must have been more exhausted and damaged than I thought.

I knew she liked me, but her obsession led to her turning hostile towards others and murdering them, so I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she was going to have if I rejected her, but I was certain that she would release that anger on me.

Jung Ha-Yan was a bomb that was difficult to deal with but between a talented person that I could use and a piece of trash that barely had the potential to grow, who was I supposed to choose?

The answer was simple. No matter how you looked at it, picking Jung Ha-Yan was the reasonable answer, but that wasn’t the only problem.

‘I can’t save her.’

I didn’t have the power to save the dying Park Hye-Young. Even if she really was a useful card, I had no choice but to abandon her right now. I understood what she was feeling, but I was desperate too.

“Eup! Eup! Euup! Euuup! Eup!”

Park Hye-Young looked at me desperately, asking me to help her, to not abandon her and it was difficult to avoid her gaze. I quickly approached her and started tying around her wounds using my clothes. I saw Jung Ha-Yan’s surprised expression, but I’m sure she knew.

‘Park Hye-Young is going to die. She’ll die soon.’

She had lost too much blood, which caused her to slowly lose her mind. Even now, her eyes had started to become out of focus.

“I think that the traps in this dungeon have been activated, but I’m sure that you haven’t noticed it just yet since you are in a wall made out of magic,” I told her.

Jung Ha-Yan was the one that created the wall.

“...”

“Considering how I felt magic at the entrance that led underground, there could be similar trap-like devices around here, but I didn’t take that into account,” I explained.

I was sure that there wasn’t a device like that on the first floor of this dungeon.

“There’s a good chance that the trap activated while I was reciting my spell, so it’s most likely that the spell that’s covering her mouth is from a trap that we are unaware of…thankfully, I don’t feel any other magic around us…” I said.

Jung Ha-Yan was the one that activated the spell.

“Yes…yes…” was all she said.

“Eup! Eup!”

A suitable scenario was already created for Jung Ha-Yan, but the problem was whether Kim Hyun-Sung was going to buy this bullshit.

He had already come here once, so I was sure that he was aware of the fact that there weren’t any traps on the first floor of this dungeon.

If I talked bullshit to him, he would surely be suspicious of me.

I had no idea how I should deal with Park Hye-Young, who was currently on the ground because I wasn’t sure how Kim Hyun-Sung was going to react once he saw her.

Falling for a trap? He knew there weren’t any traps here.

The monsters attacked? The cuts were too clean. No matter how you looked at it, the monsters didn’t attack Park Hye-Young. The faint traces of magic around her body and the unknown magic covering her mouth were proof that Park Hye-Young was killed by a different power and not by a monster. I was certain that Kim Hyun-Sung would notice these.

I continued tying my clothes around her wound, but this wouldn’t be enough to treat her. I had never learned basic hemostasis or first aid, but pretending like I was doing something was my limit.

‘Damn it.’

In the end, I noticed that Park Hye-Young’s struggle and squirming were slowly weakening.

‘He can’t find out.’

I couldn’t let Kim Hyun-Sung find her, so the best method would be to let the monsters find her before the former could, but I had too many things to think about.

Most of all…

‘I don’t want to do it.’

But I thought it was the least I could do.

I saw Park Hye-Young panting, and I realized that she was losing her breath, so I quietly recited a spell.

“Lord. Hot flame, the power to stop,” I said.

Jung Ha-Yan looked at me with a puzzled look as I started reciting.

“Fire Wall.”

I used this spell by scraping whatever remaining mana I had. I instantly felt dizzy, but I bit my lips and focused my mana on maintaining the spell.

“O-Oppa,” Jung Ha-Yan called out.

“It’ll be difficult for us to take her back since she already lost a lot of blood and even if we took her with us, we might die with her too. She’s already gone, and I can’t lose you too…so let’s get out of here as soon as possible. Since we can’t recover her body, this is the least we can do. Yeah, this is the least we can do for her,” I said.

The fire enveloped Park Hye-Young, who had finally stopped breathing. The flames consumed her body. The fire flickered, making it look as if we were having a party.

I stared absent-mindedly at the fire.

‘This was the best decision.’

When I slightly looked over at Jung Ha-Yan, she looked as if she had a hard time holding back her laughter. Even though I was feeling nauseous, she wasn’t the only one that had turned into a monster. We were in the same boat.

I couldn’t help but feel ashamed.

I wanted to watch the fire a bit longer, but staying here was an act of suicide.

Maybe it was because of the fire that I created, but the magic wall that Jung Ha-Yan created had started to break down.

When I immediately started moving, I saw Park Deok-Gu waiting for me.

“Where’s Miss Hye-Young? Is noonim safe…” he asked.

When I shook my head instead of answering, I saw him nodding as if he understood the situation. He displayed a small smile when she saw Jung Ha-Yan, but once he got the hint that Park Hye-Young died, his expression turned slightly serious.

“And the other monsters that were nearby?” I asked.

“Seeing as how there weren’t that many, I think Mr. Kim Hyun-Sung led them towards the other side…he’s a fast dude, so I’m sure he’ll survive somehow,” Park Deok-Gu answered.

“That’s a relief,” I commented.

I was really relieved. The fact that he was far away from this place was a relief.

“Anyways, w-what happened?” Park Deok-Gu asked.

“It’s a long story, so I’ll explain later. There are also things that are hard for me to say…” I answered.

“I-I understand hyung-nim,” he said.

It wouldn’t matter even if I gave him a vague explanation.

When I started running while thinking that it would be best if I didn’t tell anyone about Jung Ha-Yan’s story, I saw a few monsters charging towards us.

“Hyung-nim, are you okay?” Park Deok-Gu asked worriedly.

“I’m out of mana,” I answered.

“Don’t push yourself,” he said.

As Park Deok-Gu ran while pushing away the monsters, we were able to get farther away from that place. I felt like my lungs were going to burst, and it was the same for Park Deok-Gu and Jung Ha-Yan. Everyone looked exhausted.

Honestly, I felt like I was going to pass out, but I knew that I must not lose consciousness. I had to finish this.

When I looked back with a slightly dark expression, Jung Ha-Yan softly opened her mouth.

“A-Are you…s-sad?”

She looked like she was feeling anxious, and I knew very well the answer that she wanted to hear from me.

“I’m just glad that you’re not hurt.”

The corner of Jung Ha-Yan’s lips went up when she heard my answer, and I saw a bright smile on her face.

“O-O-Oppa,” she said.

“I’m really glad that you’re safe,” I told her.

Only half of that was the truth.