The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 629: The Alps (1)

A large limousine pulled up in front of the mansion. It was a luxury car, complete with a driver. I appreciated the arrangement, but…

“Um, what are you planning to do, Mister Vantes? And could I ask where Guild Leader Seong is right now?”

“He went to Switzerland.”

“Huh?”

Don’t tell me he already went off to watch sheep. Did he give up on getting away from Crescent Moon? I didn’t think it would come to that this fast, but a little worry crept in again. Quit making me worry, seriously. Why does it have to be Switzerland again.

“He took his cell phone with him, so if you call, he’ll answer.”

“Nah, it’s enough just knowing where he is. He’ll have to come back to pick up his items anyway…”

“I also plan to stay in Europe for a while. If you need anything, please feel free to contact me anytime.”

Vantes took a business card out of his inventory and handed one to me. It was simple, just his name and contact information. Looked expensive, though.

As I slipped the card away, I glanced at Gray standing a little behind him. I definitely couldn’t say we were on good terms… and I had no idea how things would go from here. To ordinary people, Marisa’s side would probably feel like a kind of heroic group, after all.

Right or wrong, once I let Seong Hyunjae go, it meant I’d interfered with saving the world. There would be people who said sacrificing someone wasn’t right, sure, but in reality there’d be way more on the other side. Well… if I was the type to get dragged around by that kind of thing, I would have asked them to save the world instead of regressing. It’s not like I don’t feel bitter or guilty, but in the end, I’m still me.

“To be honest, I’d prefer if we didn’t have to run into each other again. Let’s be real, you don’t exactly like me either.”

I did get in their way, after all. Gray spoke with a picture–perfect smile on his face.

“Lady Marisa holds you in high regard, Mister Han Yujin.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ve been told you care for the people around you more than anything and are highly self–sacrificing. She values that very much.”

“…”

It sounded like a compliment, but it left a weird aftertaste. I wanted to find out more about Crescent Moon, but no one here, including Gray, even seemed to know the details of the wedding, so I didn’t get much. Maybe I’d have to meet Marisa Moore again… I’d liked her at first, but once I learned what she really was, she just felt unsettling.

I climbed into the spacious car and told the driver to take us to the nearest Hunter Association branch.

“Even though the European Hunter Union said they’d cooperate, there probably won’t be many Hunters who actually step up.”

Chief Song took a small notebook out of his inventory as he spoke.

“With the opponent’s power level, anyone below S–class Hunter won’t be of any real help, so it’s all the more reason to finish this on our end.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

As if that would be a problem. I smiled, and Chief Song looked at me with obvious unease. No, I am not planning to cause trouble. The moment I open my mouth he starts worrying.

“Yeah, we just lure them to the beach and I’ll wipe them all out!”

“This time I’ll make sure I cut their heads off. So they can never lay a hand on my brother again.”

“No, no. Why would we bust our butts in a strange country? It’s not like there’s only one or two of them.”

Let’s just keep it simple.

“I just have to announce that I’m Chatterbox’s heir. It’s going to get out soon anyway. Then I give them one nice interview.”

“…Mister Han.”

“I’ll say something like, ‘Everyone, I was supposed to head to the States to hand out S–class items to the participants, but some S–class group is holding me back~’”

‘On top of that, they even went as far as a plane attack, so we can’t distribute the prizes until we catch every last one of them, everyone! There are even SS–class items in there!’

“And wouldn’t all the S–classes roll out a nice red carpet for us after that?”

While they take care of those clinging bugs for us. Of course, a few who got powers from Chatterbox, like Cho Hwawoon, will be ours to deal with, but the rest will push hard on our behalf. I’m kind of curious how many will come running.

On a steep mountain slope, feet in red heels hopped lightly down. Each time, her long, trailing blond hair swayed and flashed in the sunlight. Like a golden mountain goat, Mari tapped the tips of her toes on the edge of rocks, bounding freely up and down, then spun around to look back at the man behind her.

Overnight, snow had fallen hard, and the frozen rocks gleamed with a slick, dangerous sheen. Even so, Seong Hyunjae walked as calmly as if on level ground, taking in the scenery around him. He had thrown away the blood–soaked white ceremonial suit, but his dark suit still didn’t match a trackless mountain. Mari, too, was wearing a light dress more suited to a lazy spring day in the park. The two of them looked less like people in the middle of the actual Alps and more like models standing in front of a hyper–realistic studio backdrop.

“Are you really just going to wander around like this with no plan?”

After leaving the wedding hall, Seong Hyunjae had started issuing orders like he owned the mansion. Marisa had told them to cooperate with him before she left, and with Mari at his side as well, the mansion staff were flustered but still obeyed his instructions.

Vantes, who’d been contacted before dawn, arrived at the mansion, and Seong Hyunjae announced he was going to take a walk in Switzerland, then left. Mari, who had been debating whether to go see Han Yujin once it was light out or return to her mother Marisa, ended up grabbing just her clutch and her phone and following after him. She couldn’t yet explain to herself why she’d decided to go with him.

“Somewhere they raise sheep. But I doubt it’s a normal ranch.”

Seong Hyunjae said, eyes resting on the dried grass and branches poking through the snow here and there.

“Why sheep?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the only clue we have.”

The place he was searching for was presumed to be where Seong Hyunjae had stayed before the regression. When he’d first heard the story from Han Yujin, he had brushed it off lightly. He couldn’t guess why he’d chosen Switzerland as a quiet place to live after leaving Korea, but there could have been something in those five missing years he’d liked. Besides, he’d never really believed he’d done nothing but raise sheep in Switzerland.

But the location of the wedding hall and Marisa’s claim that she’d been killed by him before the regression had driven him to come here. Seong Hyunjae spread his senses wide. His mana turned into an extremely faint current, flowing out in all directions. The winter mountain was quiet. A small bird hunched on a branch, a squirrel in hibernation, the icy spring water running beneath a thin sheet of ice.

“So we have no choice but to search slowly.”

“But it was before the regression. How do you even look for that?”

Mari tilted her head and asked. All Seong Hyunjae had explained was that he was looking for the place he’d stayed before the regression. But any traces should have disappeared by now.

“The information from before the regression didn’t vanish. Especially if it was tied to beings from outside, there can be traces left behind. Like the dungeon that appeared in this timeline even though it shouldn’t have existed.”

Liette and Noah had raided that dungeon. If it were just a place where Seong Hyunjae had lived, of course nothing would have changed. But Marisa had clearly said that she’d been connected to Crescent Moon by being killed by him. In other words, Crescent Moon’s interference from outside had occurred somewhere here in the Swiss Alps.

The information from before the regression had merged with the present. Most of it had been absorbed and melted into the current data, but traces of Transcendents were highly likely to remain, with nowhere to be merged.

He had guessed that Crescent Moon had fallen asleep immediately after killing Song Taewon due to the strain, but maybe she had been awake a bit longer. Once Seong Hyunjae had gained the power of the lunar eclipse, she wouldn’t have been able to look away right away out of sheer anxiety. At the very least, she would have had one of the Transcendents under her command keep watch. In any case, it was something worth investigating for Seong Hyunjae.

Even if he was probably the only one capable of sensing any traces from before the regression, meaning he’d have to personally walk the ground.

“So wide, though.”

Mari jumped onto a boulder with her arms spread wide and grumbled.

“It’s going to take months.”

“I’m narrowing it down to places I would have liked. At most, it will take about a week.”

“It’s almost lunchtime.”

“Then we can head down to the village for a bit.”

Seong Hyunjae changed direction without a moment’s hesitation, as if he had memorized the map in his head. Standing on the rock, Mari stared at his back for a moment, then hopped down and followed behind.

“If you’d acted like this from the start, Mister Seong, I think the wedding might have been at least a little fun.”

“I’m honored.”

“But I’m not interested anymore!”

Mari declared flatly, but still checked his reaction. His golden eyes curved gently.

“Don’t worry. I was never interested in kids to begin with, and now I need to be even more careful.”

“…Why?”

“You must not have seen Han Yujin’s face that day. If I had actually wanted to marry you, Mari, he would have not only kicked me out of the partner seat, he’d have tied me up, thrown me away somewhere, and taken Sesung as emotional compensation for the damage to my public image. You could see it in his eyes.”

Seong Hyunjae hunched his shoulders in exaggerated fear. Walking beside him, Mari cocked her head.

“Really? He seemed like a good person. Besides, it’s not like you’d actually lose to him, Mister Seong.”

“In that situation, there wouldn’t be a single person on my side. Even Chief Song Taewon would look at me coldly. Just imagining it is painful.”

His long sigh somehow sounded lonely, and Mari spoke without thinking, as if to comfort him.

“But the members of Sesung Guild are on your side, Mister Seong. They came looking for you right away, too.”

“They believe in me, and precisely because of that, they don’t worry about me. The only one who really worries about me is Han Yujin. Chief Song takes care of me as well, but that’s out of duty.”

Mari glanced at him and nodded.

“Yeah, I guess worrying about you does feel weird. You’re that strong, after all.”

“There’s no need to push away someone who worries about me. So I must decline anyone younger than Han Yujin. The age line is a bit vague, though. He calls himself thirty. Thirty–one now.”

“Not under a specific age?”

“Han Yujin has a habit of regarding anyone younger than him as someone to protect. Even if they were over a hundred, anyone he’s taken into his arms would always be a child to him.”

“…That guy seems normal, but when you look closely he’s actually really unusual.”

Mari said, thinking back to Han Yujin at the wedding. F–rank. Not just his rank, but his overall vibe wasn’t anything special. He was clearly different from the S–classes around him. Unlike S–classes, who stood out wherever they went, he seemed like the kind of ordinary person who could blend in anywhere. And yet.

“If Mister Seong likes him that much, he has to be special, right?”

“There’s far too much piled up on Han Yujin’s shoulders to call him ordinary.”

The number of prying eyes around them dwindled. The terrain gradually softened, and faint traces of a path began to appear.

“My liking him isn’t what makes him special. People often misunderstand, but I like ordinary people too.”

“You don’t really seem like you do.”

“More precisely, I enjoy watching people who live their own lives. I’ve simply grown tired of seeing the same thing repeated over and over, but my fondness for those who live remains unchanged.”

No matter how good something is, if you encounter it constantly, you inevitably get used to it and sick of it. But his long–standing taste for that essential part hadn’t changed.

“So sometimes ordinary people are actually more interesting. S–classes are generally simple and dull. There’s not much left that can collide with them and force them to change.”

“Was that how it was with me too, because I’m S–class?”

“In your case, Mari…”

Following the now clear path downhill, Seong Hyunjae turned to look at her. His calm gaze made Mari flinch and look away.

“You weren’t really there in front of me. Not the way you are now.”

“…That’s because…”

“If it had been a forced marriage you orchestrated yourself, it would have been more entertaining.”

There was no need to pay attention to people who were like puppet dolls. He only watched the one pulling the strings. Mari mumbled and spoke.

“I only followed you, Mister Seong, because I didn’t know what else to do. I was torn between going to Mister Han or following my mother. Neither of those ideas were really mine, either.”

“You chose this, Mari. Out of many branching paths that no one laid out for you. For a first step, that’s more than good enough.”

It sounded like an incredibly gentle compliment. Mari’s cheeks flushed slightly.

“Even so, I don’t think I’ll like you anymore, Mister Seong. Not as a prince.”

“I have nothing but a human interest in you either, so I’d appreciate it if you could explain that to Han Yujin later. He tends to misunderstand.”

“So you can see me clearly now, right?”

Mari beamed. Her path was still completely unclear, but she felt as if she’d shed one heavy shell and could finally breathe. The lack of any real plan was almost fun. If there was nothing set in stone, she could do whatever she wanted. There was nothing she absolutely had to do, so why not.

The road widened and a fence came into view. A small flock of sheep and a big dog sprawled in a sunny patch. A local who spotted the two of them from afar quickly turned his head away, as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t. People coming down a snow–covered mountain in light clothes, without any gear, were either ghosts or at least mid–grade Awakened.

“It’s better to avoid Hunters traveling alone, or in tiny groups, in remote places like this.”

“Really?”

“Especially in rugged mountains. There’s a high chance they’re involved in something illegal. It’s a very different atmosphere from the noisy dungeon raids.”

Seong Hyunjae kindly explained that people pretended not to see them for fear of being silenced.

“Europe had pretty severe conflicts between Hunters, too. With so many countries packed together, there were constant fights over Awakened and dungeons before the European Hunter Union formed and things settled a bit.”

On top of that, there was competition over African dungeons, so fights broke out almost daily. In the cities, people watched themselves, and after the Union was formed, they worked hard on management, so the image improved. But in sparsely populated rural areas, people were still very wary of Hunters.

The scattered houses gradually grew more frequent, and when they reached a road wide enough for plenty of cars, Mari’s phone rang. She frowned slightly as she checked the message.

“…It’s from Mother. She says she’ll be here soon. I think she tracked my phone.”

“Then we can at least get a restaurant recommendation.”

“Is that okay?”

“There’s no particular reason to avoid her.”

Seong Hyunjae replied casually, like he was talking about a guest they’d agreed to meet. Following his lead, Mari smoothed out her frown and texted back, Okay. Not long after, a car stopped in front of them and someone got out.

“Hello, Lady Mari. And should I say it’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Guild Leader Seong?”

“Oh? You’re, um, the prince from Isabella’s side?”

“Samir.”

Samir put on an exaggeratedly dejected expression, then opened the back door of the car in invitation.

“Somehow, I ended up in charge of escorting Miss Mari, so I’ll be in your care.”