The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 312: I Am Tired, But (2)

A short but heavy silence settled in. I groped around and hugged Peace, trying to turn my head toward Yuhyun… This way? I didn’t usually notice it when using the Teacher skill, but with my own vision completely blocked, the dizziness was real. Fortunately, Peace was looking at Yuhyun.

His eyes, sunken with a dark crimson hue, were aimed at me like a dagger. Because it was Peace’s line of sight and I had to look up from far below, he felt even more imposing than usual.

“…It’ll get better if I rest a bit.”

The moment I opened my mouth, Yuhyun’s stiff face turned even colder. He exhaled slowly, as if trying to calm his anger.

“If I rest, I’ll be fine.”

Don’t grind your teeth like that. You’re going to flood the dentist’s appointment list.

“Yeah. I mean, it didn’t last that long before either, right?”

“You didn’t go completely blind last time.”

“Uh, well…”

“Using the power of an S-rank Hunter—it takes a toll, doesn’t it, hyung.”

When I couldn’t answer right away and hesitated, Yuhyun’s eyes sharpened. If I were to be completely honest, I worried he’d draw his sword and go straight for Seong Hyunjae’s neck. Though, back then, there really was no other choice but for me to act.

“I’ll be totally still until tomorrow. I’ll eat, sleep, and rest quietly.”

“Only until tomorrow?”

“…If I rest too long, Chuseok’s coming up soon. There’s a lot to do.” (TL Note: It’s a Haverst Festival)

My younger brother firmly pressed his lips together. Then he reached out and casually picked me up. Wow, this brings back memories.

-Kkiang!

“Hey, Yuhyun!”

Through Peace’s eyes, I saw myself being carried away by my younger brother. Peace, tilt your head just a little—where are we going? My bedroom?

“It’s the holidays! We still have to go get hanbok for you and Yerim. And the gifts, we have to deliver Chuseok gifts!”

“Leave that to Haeyeon.”

“No way, it’s our first holiday since the breeding facility opened. I should take care of it myself. For the Hunters taking care of the facility, and the folks over at the building. It’s not that many, I’ll be done quickly!”

“Stop talking nonsense. You can’t even see.”

Yuhyun spoke coldly. But I had high hopes, you know. I’ve got money now—I was going to go full premium Korean beef. The Hunter shopping mall has a new potion gift set—I was planning to buy those for the Hunters.

“Don’t even think about going outside.”

“Wait, wait. Just calm down!”

I flailed until my hand caught the doorframe. I tried to hang on, but all it took was a light pull from my brother for my fingers to slide right off. At this rate, I’d be locked up until my vision came back. And there’s no one here to back me up… Only a crowd ready to nag and smack me on the back.

“We need to prepare the ancestral rites table too! We don’t even have a single ceremonial item at home.”

“We always just put out rice and soup before.”

“That was then. It’s different now. And we have to take care of Yerim too. Just something simple—some fruit and rice cakes. I’m good at frying jeon. Let’s just make one meat dish. Yerim likes meat. Should we steam a fish? No, we can just slice it. We’re making songpyeon, right?”

“…Hyung.”

With a sigh, Yuhyun set me down. Peace followed behind, still staring only at me. I suddenly realized how terrible I looked. My clothes were a mess, my wounds were still visible, and since I couldn’t see properly, I was hunched and awkward. Even with the Teacher skill, it wasn’t my own vision, so it was bound to feel unnatural. Not to mention, Peace only ever looked at me…

I turned my gaze roughly in the direction Yuhyun’s voice had come from.

“These aren’t things you have to do. Can’t you just rest quietly for a few days?”

My brother said, trying to soothe me. And he was right. These weren’t obligations. There was no need for me to do them. There were plenty of people I could ask, or even hire, to take care of it all. But still.

“I want to do it.”

“Hyung.”

“Yuhyun, we don’t know when we’ll be able to spend another Chuseok all together. Sure, maybe next year we’ll have more time—but we could be too busy. Maybe a dungeon pops up that we urgently have to raid, and you or Yerim won’t be around. Maybe a dungeon break hits, and we won’t even be able to celebrate.”

That’s a year away. It might seem short, but who knows what will change in that time? It hasn’t even been half a year since my regression. In just those few months, so much has happened. In a year, even more will.

“And besides, Yuhyun, it’s just a holiday. Things will be quiet for a while. We can take our time with the dungeons too. The investigations aren’t finished yet, but I heard the saturation rate of Korean dungeons has slowed a lot.”

“…Saturation rate?”

“Yeah. Almost three times slower. Dungeons that used to need a raid once a month, now it’s more like once every three months. So let’s celebrate Chuseok together. Like there’s no dungeon, nothing.”

I reached out. My hand fumbled until it found his arm, then moved up to gently pat his shoulder.

“People might say, ‘What’s the point of a holiday when the world’s falling apart,’ but still. It’s okay, right? Everything I went through—I did it so we could live like this. To spend Chuseok and Seollal with you guys.”

Chatterbox would seek revenge, Crescent Moon had awakened, dungeon monsters would only grow stronger. It was overwhelming—but even so, no, all the more because of that, I wanted to do everything I could. In apocalyptic movies or disaster dramas, I always thought it was so cliché and forced when they had the characters celebrate holidays or anniversaries.

That must be what it means to live. If you let go of everything just because it’s hard and overwhelming, that’s when it really ends. But at the same time, it’s lonely to let life slip by while you’re struggling just to stay afloat. Just being alive doesn’t mean you’re truly living.

“Since I can’t see, can you pick out my hanbok for me?”

“Hyung.”

“Yeah.”

“…You have to promise not to move a muscle until tomorrow.”

My brother spoke as if unwilling—but he still gave in to me.

“Even if a dungeon opens right next door, I won’t budge an inch. You and Yerim will take care of it.”

“And you’re only allowed to do Chuseok-related stuff. Until your vision fully recovers, nothing else.”

“Got it, got it. Only Chuseok things.”

I nodded, and my little brother pulled me into a hug like a sulky child. He seemed to have cooled down, but still mumbled in a pouty voice.

“You’re not cooking. Even if someone’s cooking, it’s gonna be me.”

“You? Cooking?”

“Why not. It’s not like I never did it. Before you came back.”

“…Huh?”

I quickly swallowed down the words that almost slipped out—What are you talking about? Yuhyun didn’t know. He still believed things had been okay between us.

“Uh, well, it wasn’t the kind of situation where we could celebrate the holidays.”

I hugged him back and continued.

“Things were a lot rougher than now. You were really busy. Really.”

“Yeah, guess so. Without the monster mounts, dungeon raids would’ve taken a lot longer. And Yerim wasn’t around either. What about Hunter Kim Seonghan?”

“I’d heard he was close to S-rank, but he still stayed at A-rank. Maybe if a year or two had passed, he might’ve become S-rank.”

“Then I guess you didn’t get to see him as often as I thought.”

“Right. I mean, think about it—would Korea’s top Hunter have any free time?”

I didn’t get to see him. Only caught glimpses of him on TV. Still, I watched him as much as I could through the screen, but… what about you?

“If you go to sleep now, you think you’ll wake up around dinner? Want to take your meds and sleep? Bit early though.”

“I don’t know. If I can fall asleep, it’d probably be better to just sleep deeply.”

“Then let’s get you cleaned up and take your meds. I’ll book a dentist appointment before the holiday.”

Isn’t that a bit obsessive about the dentist? I really don’t want to go.

-Daddy, I’m home.

I heard Changeling’s voice as I was drifting in and out of sleep. Using drowsiness as an excuse, I kept my eyes closed and gently petted the little dragon. It was something she wanted to do—something she did to help me—so I didn’t want to burden her with guilt over my condition. She’s still just a kid, after all.

“You did a great job.”

-Yup. I’m going to sleep too. Good night, Daddy.

The small weight beneath my hand quietly vanished. I drifted back into a deep sleep.

“You really can’t see? Really?!”

Yerim suddenly shouted. Since she’d gone to bed early the night before, she woke up at the crack of dawn. She’d finally gotten a good night’s sleep, but even waking up early, there was nothing to do. Figuring it was best to avoid using the Teacher skill unnecessarily, she was just lounging in bed with Chirp and Belare when Yuhyun came in to check if I was awake.

And then, just as he was helping me into the living room to get breakfast, Yerim spotted us. It wasn’t like I’d been trying to hide it.

“It’s just temporary. Yesterday I couldn’t really hear either, but now it’s fine—”

“Hyung!”

“Mister!”

“It’s just a little muffled now. Everything else is totally fine.”

Yuhyun and Yerim both sighed deeply at the same time. Even Peace let out a grumbling groan like he understood. As I tried to soothe a worried Yerim, their sighs never seemed to stop. Seriously, you two are going to crack the floor at this rate.

“Even if it’s just temporary, you couldn’t see at all. Then why did you say Mister should go Chuseok shopping with you yesterday, Han Yuhyun?”

Even if Mister tried to go out, you should’ve locked him in the house! Yerim probably glared at Yuhyun. I couldn’t see, but I could practically feel her expression. Yuhyun didn’t answer and was probably just staring at me.

“It’s fine if I use the Teacher skill. Peace is hard to bring along, so I was planning to rely on Belare. She’s got good eyesight and thermal sensing too.”

Unlike Peace or Chirp, Belare could still help me perceive my surroundings even if she wasn’t looking directly where I needed. And if she was wrapped around my neck, her eye level would be close to mine.

“…Mister, seriously, take better care of yourself.”

Yerim grumbled and sat beside me. I felt the sofa shift beneath her. I’d meant to ask her about what I said before the regression… Ah. I forgot to check whether I’d told her about the regression itself. I also should’ve gotten more details about the dungeon situation. My mind was so jumbled from Chatterbox that I’d missed a lot.

Yuhyun went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and Yerim turned on the TV so I’d at least have something to listen to. Right then, a report about the destruction of the Sesung Guild Leader’s home came on.

“Look at that, Miste—sorry.”

“It’s fine. I can’t see for now, so don’t worry about it.”

Yerim went quiet for a moment before cheerfully chattering again.

“About the Sesung Guild Leader’s hair color! It’s pink! It’s kind of silver with a hint of pink, but still—pink!”

Oh dear. So in the end, Changeling’s hair color ended up looking like Seong Hyunjae’s.

“I thought it was, like… beige? Did he dye it? Isn’t it hilarious? It actually suits him, which makes it funnier!”

“Record the live broadcast. I want to rewatch it later.”

“Of course I recorded it! Everyone was talking about it yesterday. It even hit number one in the search rankings—bigger news than the house blowing up.”

Whew, Seong Hyunjae sure is popular. I wonder if he’ll wake up, even briefly, around Chuseok. I should bring him some holiday food.

“I heard the gist from Han Yuhyun, but you should’ve called me too.”

“I actually wanted you there, Yerim. Did you hear about the new beast?”

“Yes, just a little. They said the details were classified. Where is it?”

Then she probably didn’t hear about the Seong Hyunjae impersonation either. Well, she did assume the silver hair was from dye, after all.

“He’s asleep right now. Used up a lot of energy. We caught Seong Hyunjae using your skill with Changeling’s help, remember?”

“Really?”

Yerim stomped her feet and burst into laughter. She was genuinely frustrated—I should’ve been there to see that! No, I should’ve used the skill myself!-If she had been there, I still would’ve had to strike with the sword and use the S-rank power, but it would’ve gone much smoother.

Breakfast took quite a while since both of them kept arguing over who would feed me. Yuhyun had to head straight to the guild, but Yerim said she only had plans in the afternoon today.

“Then tomorrow, we’ll go out, buy Chuseok gifts, have lunch~ Shouldn’t we also tell the others that you can’t see?”

“There’s no benefit to getting found out, so I’ll wear sunglasses when I go out. I do have to tell Myungwoo and Mr. Noah though…”

“Mister’s gonna get nagged again.”

“Mm.”

Mr. Noah would probably just worry, but Myungwoo… I need to ask him to check my Mark again. And I also have to ask Yuhyun to implant the Black Dragon’s Heart shard. Let’s wait until I can see a little better.

“Today is a full rest day.”

“Still, at least take a walk in the garden. Just staying shut indoors isn’t really resting. Should I ask Hyunah unni to bring something tasty? She said she was stopping by the lab.”

It should be fine to let Hyunah know about my condition. I nodded, and Yerim immediately called Moon Hyunah.

Even though it was just the rooftop garden right nearby, I still wore sunglasses and had Belare wrapped around my neck when stepping out. Her thermal detection was impressive, and once I adjusted, I felt like I could move around just fine.

“Hyungnim! I heard you blew up Seong Hyunjae’s house?”

We were just starting to stroll through the rooftop garden when Moon Hyunah suddenly appeared. It looked like she didn’t take the elevator—she must’ve jumped straight up to the rooftop. The ceiling was high; that had to be at least the height of the third floor.

“Must’ve been fun.”

“Fun? It was intense!”

“Was it really-not fun? Honestly?”

Well, to be honest…

“It was kind of thrilling.”

At my reply, Moon Hyunah laughed and set down the basket she’d brought on a table in one corner of the garden. Out came pie, sandwiches, drinks, and more, one after another.

“What’s in that container?”

“Seaweed soup. I got it specially.”

She poured it into a cup. Tastes good, but seaweed soup in a cup? Still, it’s delicious. While eating, I gave her a brief explanation about how my vision deteriorated due to yesterday’s events. Moon Hyunah already knew that S-rank Hunters had clashed while dealing with the S-rank monster.

“There’s no way a place would end up like that just because an S-rank monster showed up. I asked Soyeong, and she tried to cover it up, but I didn’t buy it. Even Seong Hyunjae looked a little off during the broadcast—what really happened?”

“I can’t say.”

“Aw. Ah, that must’ve been so-fun.”

“Right, unni. Seriously, it must’ve been so-fun.”

If both Yerim and Moon Hyunah had been there, the entire Sesung Guild might’ve been blown sky high, not just the mansion. Well, maybe it would’ve been kind of fun. But still, can’t let the damage get too out of hand.

“So you’re on break today?”

“Yeah. I promised Yuhyun I’d stay put.”

“Lying around the house isn’t a real break. Come on, let’s go out together.”

Hyunah tried to coax me. I kind of wanted to go out too… but I did promise my little brother.