The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 584: Preparing the Ingredients (6)

The map where dozens of little dots had been zipping around was quiet now. Moon Hyunah vanished, then after Seong Hyunjae approached Liette, Liette disappeared as well. Noah seemed to have attacked a couple more Hunters and then forfeited.

‘No way Liette got taken out by Seong Hyunjae.’

There’s no way Noah would just sit there and watch that happen. Yerim had stayed with Chief Song for quite a while before she disappeared. Looked like she’d pestered him for sparring over and over again, just like when she fought Seong Hyunjae last time.

“Didn’t expect you to actually socket elemental resistance gear into your traps, seriously.”

The Hunter dangling between two thick trees clicked his tongue. Specialty – high speed. A–class Flame Spear skill. Low raw Strength. Visual enhancement, dash and jump skills. Uses bow and spear, relies heavily on an S–class detection skill. Has hit–correction on targets, making him hard to dodge. Weak in close–quarters, but because of that, tends to rush weak opponents in melee instead.

After setting the trap, I scattered mist to confuse his senses. The mana of the trap itself was hidden, but the fog was thin enough that he could see me ambling around beyond it. Result: as you can see, he got tangled and left hanging in a thick web–like snare. I’d attached a fire resistance item to the trap, so you couldn’t just burn through it with an A–class fire–attribute skill.

The Hunter swung his body hard. The line bounced up and down, but not enough for him to reach the ground.

“With my feet off the ground I can’t use my skills to power up either. Mr. SF, you planned all this, didn’t you? How the hell did you make it so I couldn’t sense the trap?”

Ssshhk, flames crawled along the line, leaving black scorch marks. The Hunter kept chattering, like he was deliberately stalling for time. Give it three minutes tops and he’d be able to rip or skill his way out. It was a good item, but not enough to hold an S–class Hunter unless the conditions were set up like now. Under normal circumstances he would’ve broken free instantly.

“Hunter stats are obviously classified. Thanks for playing~”

I pressed the muzzle of a fully charged gun to his forehead. The Hunter shrugged. Bang – at the sound, the Hunter’s body vanished. I looked back down at the map again.

“…Seong Hyunjae.”

He’d taken out multiple Hunters and then met up with Song Taewon. Song Taewon disappeared soon after. Maybe he’d talked him into forfeiting. I bit my lip without thinking.

‘Is he planning to wipe out every other Hunter?’

I had no idea what he was aiming for. Now, other than the two of us, there was only one Hunter left. Seong Hyunjae was heading straight toward him. Not especially fast. The way the two moved closer looked like they’d just happened to bump into each other on a walking trail and then – blink. The Hunter’s marker disappeared.

I let out a long breath. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen this coming. To be precise, I’d been aiming for this kind of situation too.

‘Liette or Seong Hyunjae. Those two are the best fit.’

Assuming I survived to the very end, anyway. Yuhyun was a problem as the grand finale – he was my little brother. People would absolutely say, You went easy on him because he’s family, You fixed the match. The stream had been painting our relationship way too nicely the whole time too… Yerim was too young; no matter how you cut it, putting an S–class kid in the final didn’t look great. Chief Song was a government official on top of that. Moon Hyunah and Noah would make a decent last opponent if we staged it right, but compared to Liette and Seong Hyunjae, they were a bit lacking.

‘Hyunah fits more as the hero who slays the final boss than as the final boss herself anyway.’

In the end, it was Seong Hyunjae. And whatever was going on in his head, he was clearly trying to leave only me standing. I studied the map. His movement stopped.

My fist clenched on its own. Against the other Hunters, my mist–based stealth skill had worked great. But Seong Hyunjae would sense me coming with Battle Precognition even if I dulled his senses. Ambush was impossible. Traps were hard to use for the same reason. I ran through the list of items I had in my head.

‘Poison should at least work. But he’ll definitely have poison resistance gear, and antidotes too. He’s got Silekia – is he going to wear it?’

I took out an electric resistance item and strapped it around my wrist. Even with Grace, he’d be able to interfere with me using low–level currents. He could shatter potion bottles, for one. I regretted not having Yuhyun’s formalwear a bit, but unlike the sword I’d practically stolen, if I took the fancy outfit too he’d definitely complain. Plus, in that situation, if I didn’t have anything besides the formalwear…

‘…he’s gotten so tall.’

Yuhyun and I – Yuhyun had changed, but somehow, we were starting to look more and more alike again. There was a good chance the current Yuhyun would grow even taller than that, but before that, there’d be a point where we were exactly the same height.

…I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and opened them again. This was not the time to be thinking about that. I didn’t know how well it would work, but I needed to prepare. I activated a mist item and pulled out the staff.

[Leaves and Branches of the Red Mist Tree ? SS (Replica)]

A white staff hung with long, metallic crimson strands. It was a replica of the weapon the King of Harmless used to wield, with far worse performance. The dark red thread–blade could only do short–range teleportation, not actual spatial movement. It probably didn’t have the ability to ignore Battle Precognition either.

I jammed the staff – tied to me and slated to vanish when this whole event was over – into the ground. In that time, Seong Hyunjae had drawn closer. He emerged from the forest where mist rolled up past the ankles.

“…You changed clothes.”

“Got blood on the old ones.”

He answered as he finished pulling on his gloves. His shirt and pants underneath were the same, so apparently he hadn’t done anything that needed censoring on stream, but the fact that he’d taken the time to change his outer coat in the middle of all this annoyed me a little.

“You’re disgustingly relaxed.”

“I’m glad it comes across that way.”

“So where’d you pawn off Silekia?”

“Facing its owner with borrowed gear would be poor form, don’t you think?”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at the white coat. Maybe that thing had high poison resistance. He’d definitely predicted I’d use poison. In contrast to the white coat, his black gloves brushed lightly through his faded hair. My eyes were drawn for a moment to the way his hair fell loose over his forehead after his hand passed through it.

“…What’s going through your head?”

“That’s what I’d like to ask you.”

He caught the edge of his coat and gave it a little shake. The breeze from the fluttering hem set the mist rippling.

“Chatterbox, is it.”

“Yeah.”

“Han Yujin, you’ve never liked fighting this way.”

“That kind of leisurely line only works on relaxed people like you. I’ve always been the type to use whatever I can grab. Start picking and choosing methods and it’s your head that goes flying.”

If you’re desperate, you don’t have the luxury of worrying about whether you’re throwing dirt or sand. Seong Hyunjae took a step forward. At the same time, I took one step back. There was a hint of a smile in his golden eyes. His face looked kind enough, but from experience, I could tell he was not in a particularly good mood right now.

“Doesn’t the young master get mad?”

“What’s it to you?”

“For someone you adore that much, you’re being awfully lenient with your big brother.”

“…What the hell are you talking about.”

The words left my mouth and I immediately threw myself flat on the ground. At the same time, I snapped the staff’s threads forward as a shield.

Claaang!

Chains and threads tangled together. A faint crackle of current jumped between them. I rolled through the mist and threw my teacher skill at Seong Hyunjae.

“…!”

The violent rejection slammed the breath out of my chest. My vision didn’t just swim, it blacked out for a split second. I barely held onto the thread between us and forced his field of view into focus. He was still standing exactly where he’d been. The chains, bound by the threads, rattled and broke apart with a clatter, then rejoined and shot toward me. I tried to dodge, but my body wouldn’t move right.

“Ghh!”

The chain tightened around my throat and yanked me forward. Hauled upright, I met Seong Hyunjae’s gaze.

“Talk.”

“…You know you’re insufferable every time we do this? Like you’re the only competent person on earth.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m the only one, but I am competent.”

A helpless laugh leaked out at that – he even sounded offended at being criticized too much. A string of curses almost followed it.

“I seriously must’ve been out of my mind, worrying about you.”

“But Han Yujin is, even now…”

His gloved hand reached out, raking through my hair and dropping down toward my ear, checking. Looking for Grace.

“…still pitying me, I imagine.”

“Well, yeah! It’s a fact you got dragged into all of this too. Just like you being hot shit is a fact. You got kidnapped, robbed, and everything.”

His hand brushed my neck, wrapped in the chain. He didn’t find Grace, but he did snap the translation item with a crisp crack.

“Hey, why!”

“You could pretend it’s some other item.”

…Wow, look at Mr. Smart Guy. His fingertip pressed on a button at the collar of my shirt and – pop – ripped it off.

“Or pretend it’s not an item at all.”

“Wow, what a brilliant idea. You could also just cover my nose and mouth, you know.”

“I do enjoy listening to your voice.”

Bullshit.

“So the explanation.”

“Go eat shit?”

“There was a time you threatened to strip my clothes off, remember.”

For a moment, I forgot how to speak. The hell? Is he insane? When did I ever? The mic is off right now, right?

“What the—”

What kind of bullshit are you spewing, I was about to yell, then it hit me. The yarn. The time I said I’d unravel the yarn.

“You have no shame, do you!”

“My small, pink, adorable conscience left first.”

Another button popped off, and the chains spun my body around. Through Seong Hyunjae’s eyes, I could see the engravings peeking through the gaps in the chains. And I had a very good idea of what that bastard was about to pull.

“Hey!”

I whipped the staff’s threads. One of the teleporting strands stabbed into the ground near his feet and—

BOOM!

A bomb went off. It wasn’t enough to meaningfully damage an S–class Hunter. But the force erupting up from underground would be hard for a human body to shrug off. Seong Hyunjae stepped back a beat early, dodging the spray of dirt, while my body floated up with the chain.

Fwoosh!

At the same time, the remaining threads shot toward him. Dozens of teleporting strands. No matter how good your Battle Precognition is, it’s hard to avoid a rapid chain of attacks like that. The Seeker’s Chain gave up on me and fell away with a clatter, dropping to protect its owner instead.

While the chains and threads tangled, I twisted midair and landed. Seong Hyunjae didn’t move. Looked like he was still waiting for my explanation. He raised an eyebrow slightly, eyeing the staff.

“This kind of presentation isn’t good for you, Han Yujin.”

“…You think I don’t know that? I’ve pretty much figured out that psycho Chatterbox is trying to drape the King of Harmless over me.”

To refine Ru Ga Pheya’s legacy into something more perfect. More precisely, to mold me into the image of the King of Harmless as Chatterbox imagined it. This party had boosted my standing. Ru Ga Pheya was a king who was bold and supremely confident.

And this whole circus now was just set dressing. Dressing me up in the King of Harmless’s items and sticking me on the winner’s throne.

“As you probably guessed, the condition I got was that he wouldn’t touch the people around me.”

Seong Hyunjae didn’t answer. His silence said he’d expected as much. Honestly, what else could be used as a condition to move me? Even if it wasn’t him, even Chirp could’ve figured that out.

“If I beat all these Hunters like this and take the overall win, Chatterbox won’t be able to go after the people important to me first.”

“In exchange, you become the version of you Chatterbox wants. That about right.”

“More or less.”

I let out a long breath and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Even without the contract, I’d still be clawing for a win.”

Regardless of Chatterbox.

“Just…for myself.”

The mist stirred. The white staff came into view, and my mouth tasted bitter.

“…Even if I look like this right now.”

It felt like Chatterbox’s hand was resting at the back of my neck. This wasn’t how it was supposed to start. Somehow, I felt a little cold.

[But with your own strength, you’ll never win.]

That’s what he’d said. While promising to help me under the terms of the contract. That on my own, I definitely—

“I see.”

Seong Hyunjae’s reply was short. His voice was dry. Crackle – electricity flared.

KRA–KROOM!

“…Ngh!”

Everything went stark white. The sudden burst of lightning flicked all the threads wrapped around the chain away in an instant. A clear, chiming sound rang out. The resistance that had briefly eased on my teacher skill surged back again. I clenched my teeth and barely endured.

Unlike me, gasping for breath, Seong Hyunjae still looked composed. In the forest shade draped over his tall frame, the light of chains and electricity mottled him chaotically. It was nothing short of dazzling.

“First, let’s clear everything…out of the way.”

All the annoying bits. The chains lashed toward the staff. Screech, screeech – a racket of metal grinding on metal. Golden chains wrapped fully around the staff, ignoring the way the threads tangled and knotted.

And then again—

KWA–BOOM!!

Light exploded. Cracks raced down the white staff, splitting it with a jagged rip as fragments flew high into the air.