READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 32
Chapter 32
“Wh-what…?”
Si-hyun couldn’t hide his surprise. He was taken aback by an unexpected remark from an unforeseen person in a totally unexpected situation.
“Looks like you’re a bit surprised.”
“Not a bit, but a lot!”
“Wow, to the inmates, you’re the Iron-Blooded Guard, yet you still get surprised like this.”
He flinched.
“…Cough, cough.”
Si-hyun, who was sipping water, started to cough violently. Seeing that, I-seol adjusted her glasses with a slightly flustered expression.
“Oh my, did I say something wrong?”
“Cough, no… I just accidentally swallowed wrong… cough.”
Si-hyun waved his hand as if to say it was nothing at all.
But internally, he was soothing his racing heart. It had genuinely been a long time since he felt this flustered.
Iron-Blooded Guard.
The moment he heard that, it felt like something had really been figured out, and he panicked terribly. Fortunately, from her expression, it didn’t seem like that was the case.
“Phew, I’m sorry. I’m calm now.”
After a little while, Si-hyun wiped his mouth with tissue and spoke.
“No, I’m the one who should be sorry. It seems I caused this…”
“No, really, it’s not.”
Si-hyun unconsciously denied it rather strongly.
Then perhaps realizing this, he subtly adjusted his expression.
“Now that I’m fine, please continue.”
“Ah, yes.”
I-seol shifted in her seat and opened her mouth.
“Actually, even though I’m an Awakened Being, I’m only E-rank, so it’s not something that great. But that’s what aroused my interest in being an Awakened Being in the first place.”
“I see.”
“I awakened a bit earlier than most, and when I looked at my status window, it felt really magical. Especially the reputation part, which is like a nickname, gives you a rough idea of who that person is. I grew up thinking Earth was the only world until college, and then I discovered that there are other worlds with various people living in them. It’s just so shocking and fascinating.”
“I understand.”
Who wouldn’t be shocked back then? Monsters they never knew existed. The fact that there’s another world called the Demon Realm. The very existence of life forms they’ve searched for in the universe.
It was all astonishing.
“For instance, in that world, someone who had strength similar to mine was a monk. Their job title was a nun.”
While clerics and monks had similar roles participating as healers in raids, there was a clear distinction. The group categorized as clergy at the top of the status window consisted of priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. They could use healing and buff skills like Blessing and Invocation.
Conversely, those categorized as monks were jobs like friars or nuns. They could only use healing. And at the same rank, the clergy typically had superior abilities or skills compared to monks. It’s reasonable to assume that capable people belonged to higher positions among the clergy.
I-seol continued.
“But being E-rank, what can you expect? Just an amateur monk. My reputation is ‘The Sleepy Nun of the Melecio Monastery.’ Apparently, it came from my daily habit of falling asleep while praying.”
“Guess she was always short on sleep.”
Si-hyun forced a smile.
Just hearing the title gave a sense of the kind of abilities she possessed. If she couldn’t even pray properly, then she probably couldn’t utilize the divine’s powers scarcely at all.
“Hehe, isn’t it charming? While we’re all so focused and enamored with Awakened Beings who are knights and wizards, there are actually an incredible variety of powers that have come from different people. That’s what’s interesting. I believe there are probably many fun jobs among Awakened Beings that have yet to be discovered.”
“…Yes, I agree.”
Si-hyun replied slowly.
Is being a guard a fun job? Probably not, right?
“Now you probably understand why I’m so interested in Awakened Beings?”
“Yes.”
“Have you heard of the continent of Reiter?”
“Isn’t that the otherworldly continent?”
“You mentioned you were a bit interested in Awakened Beings earlier, so I figured you might know. I’m really curious about the history over there. Analyzing the shared status windows reveals there’s a huge empire, several kingdoms, principalities, and various countries all gathered in that place, but I can’t figure it out completely.”
I-seol had a genuinely disappointed expression.
“Everybody must be curious. I certainly am.”
“Exactly. But what’s disappointing is that many Awakened Beings are reluctant to share their status windows. I understand their feelings, but it makes researching this other world quite difficult, which is a real shame.”
“There are complicated circumstances involved.”
Si-hyun thought of the Face-Avoidance Technician, a notorious serial killer known for skinning people alive. Even he felt that he would never be able to talk about such a profession.
“That’s true. But you know, I have a theory I support?”
I-seol’s eyes sparkled behind her glasses.
“There are many theories on why the Gate phenomenon occurred. But I think it’s connected to the religion of the Reiter continent.”
“Religion?”
“Although there is religion here, it’s primarily an age of science. So it could be hard to understand, but over there, the priests can nearly bring dead people back to life using divine power. If that’s the case, just how powerful would the true power of a god be?”
After a short moment of thought, Si-hyun opened his mouth.
“Probably unfathomably strong. But there are many individuals who doubt the existence of a god. Atheists argue that things like healing are just a type of magic.”
“Scientifically, can it be proven? So it must be a god. And things like magic and Sword Aura can’t be scientifically proven either, so why do they believe in that? Just because they can see it? But healing can be seen too. It just happens that gods aren’t visible?”
I-seol spoke passionately. Clearly, she was more engaged since it was a topic of her interest.
“Even if you believe in that god, people here can’t gain any power, right? So why would atheists have a reason to believe? And it’s true that even in just ten years, the power of religion has grown here. Apocalyptic theories have become popular. It’s not strange that people rely on religion in a situation where unrealistic things like Gates and monsters are rampant.”
Si-hyun took a sip of water and continued.
“Honestly, I find it remarkable how humanity has built a civilization that operates so smoothly in this kind of situation.”
It’s true that after the tremendous damage caused by the initial Gate wave, aside from S-rank gates, ordinary people haven’t faced significant damage, lessening the sense of crisis. Many people had become desensitized to the dangers of Gates.
Still, to witness society functioning so smoothly despite having undergone such experiences is nothing short of admirable.
“It’s about adaptation. Humans are creatures of adaptation, after all. If this were the past, where there was talk of magic and monsters, they would’ve been treated like lunatics, but now it’s just accepted as the norm. Now if you hear that an Awakened has died at a Gate, people accept it as if it were something as ordinary as a car accident.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
Si-hyun nodded.
“I was going to say earlier that I think the entity known as the god of the Reiter continent might be related to the cause of the Gates.”
“You think the god created the Gates?”
“Not necessarily that, but maybe the being that created the Gates is related to the god. For instance, if there’s a god, wouldn’t there also be a being that is its enemy?”
I-seol asked as if inquiring.
“Um… I suppose there could be.”
“Then that enemy created the Gates, and the god sent Awakened Beings’ powers to stop it. Doesn’t that fit into place? This is my thought; what do you think, Guard?”
“Well…”
Si-hyun trailed off, momentarily lost in thought.
The cause of the Gates. No matter how much he thought about it, it was a question he couldn’t arrive at an answer for, a topic that just stirred debates everywhere. So most people just set it aside and lived their lives.
[Po-ahim advises you: ‘The Silver Saintess’ or ‘The Dual-Eyed Great Sage’ may hold the key to uncovering the cause of the Gates.]
“Whoa!”
Startled by the sudden pop-up notification, Si-hyun’s eyes widened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. Just overthinking things too deeply.”
Si-hyun mumbled.
This wasn’t a quest. Just like when he met the Great Sorceress Hyris, Po-ahim seemed to be trying to convey something to him.
Could he truly learn the cause of the Gates? That he could understand, but who were the Silver Saintess and the Dual-Eyed Great Sage?
It felt like they were pointing to specific individuals, but he couldn’t get a grasp on it.
Could this relate to awakening? If so, what about reputation?
His curiosity surged tremendously, but the message had ended there.
◈ ◈ ◈
After parting with Han I-seol, Si-hyun immediately searched for keywords relating to the Saintess and the Great Sage on his smartphone.
However, nothing came up connected to awakening. Just a flurry of links related to religion and other topics.
Upon arriving home, Si-hyun washed up and flopped onto his bed. Staring at the ceiling, he drifted into thought.
“How absurd.”
To think he was expected to find something with such scant clues. No, even with more clues, how could a mere guard possibly find two individuals among billions?
At least it wasn’t a quest. Yet if Po-ahim’s advice was indeed factual, it held an immense piece of information; although it was something nobody would believe if he shared it.
“…I should jot this down.”
Si-hyun sat up and opened his notebook.
– Po-ahim said that finding them could potentially reveal the cause of the Gates.
– The Silver Saintess? Since she’s a saint, that must mean she’s a woman, right?
– The Dual-Eyed Great Sage? No idea about the gender here.
He wrote down the three brief lines. Then he lay back down on his bed.
“Wait a sec.”
Si-hyun’s eyes sparked with realization. Upon reflection, he thought about how Po-ahim seemed to watch over him and occasionally spoke to him.
If that were the case, could communication be possible?
“Hey, Po-ahim.”
No message appeared.
“Mr. Po-ahim, please respond.”
“Mr. Po-ahim?”
“Respected Guard.”
“Iron-Blooded Guard.”
“Fanatical Executioner?”
“You are the utmost Guard.”
“….”
Ugh… what kind of ridiculous nonsense was that?
Kicking the blanket with his foot, Si-hyun squirmed in frustration.
◈ ◈ ◈
“Oppa?”
Ha-young, who had come to Si-hyun’s house to go to their parents’ house, widened her eyes when she saw her older brother’s fatigued face.
“I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me up until we arrive.”
As soon as she buckled up in the front seat, Si-hyun immediately took a position to sleep. The previous night, he had been out drinking with the guild members until late.
This is why the saying about being cautious around pretty women has been around since old times. Normally, he would never drink like this. But when Eun-hye smilingly poured him a drink, he felt an irresistible urge to drink, almost like the taste of sublime nectar.
I’m crazy, I’m crazy. I’m entranced by a beautiful fox.
“What the heck did you drink like this?”
Seeing her brother’s state, Ha-young sighed knowingly, clearly unimpressed since she knew how much he disliked alcohol.
“…I just lost my mind for a moment.”
“Oppa, you drank with a girl, right? One who’s really pretty too.”
Ha-young’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“…I’m going to sleep.”