Chapter 91 - The Lee Man Corps – 4 (2/2)

“Your total is three silver and thirty-eight bronze.” I went ahead and paid for both of our meals, leaving the restaurant as I expanded the range of my senses. It was second nature to me by now, although I had to laugh at myself for being so cautious. I was too used to the dungeon where there were monsters around every corner. Comparing this place to that experience, or even the tower or the garden, this world was overly peaceful.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing in particular.”

“No?”

The elves. The Knights of Elakatra. Even in this world, we still had to be alert. I had Lee Chan-yu use a flying creature to scout around for us as we moved about.

“We should’ve done that in Seongbuk-gu as well.” The Elakatra were pretending to be cooperative with the humans and couldn’t just betray them. That would jeopardize their already strained alliance. So they wouldn’t do anything flashy in a place like this, at least. As I wondered what their plan was here with these monsters, a hypothesis came to mind.

‘On the Rookie’s Battlefield…’ I destroyed hordes of monsters on the battlefield enough to create quite a void. Even one of the knights died. I wondered if they were in disarray right now, trying to get things back under control. Maybe that was why they hadn’t shown up to help the humans earlier. The thought made me happy that my enemy could be so hurt right now.

“Lee Chan-yu, can you find  a place to stay for a bit?”

“I’ll go find a room in this neighborhood.”

“Alright, let me know by message when you do.” I waved him goodbye and continued down the street. Using the power of Reaper, I slowly erased my presence and floated in the air. No one around me noticed as I vanished, unable to register this power born from a higher system. I floated alone in the air, wanting to reach a place away from all the city noise. But that was just my desire to escape. I already ran away once. Not this time.

‘I have to move forward.’ I took a step through the endless sky, making full use of Ubiquitous to move. It let me jump several kilometers forward at once. While returning to Seongbuk-gu wouldn’t be instantaneous like this, it was faster than riding in a car. The distance I could leap kept growing longer as my control increased, and I became accustomed to using it in the sky. The mana consumption was massive, but my recovery was able to keep up with it. As I became used to it, the amount it consumed decreased as well.

[Ubiquitous became Lv2. The power of the skill has been amplified.]

The notification popped up when I reached the halfway point, a welcome sight. Not much longer, I already reached Seongbuk-gu. The place where I had lived. It was completely gone.

“…” I landed there, looking around. Initially, it had been a place where apartments and houses had been built, but now, it was little more than a vacant lot. There had even been some popular restaurants nearby, and a supermarket that you had to use because it was so close, even though the prices were high. Now, a clean stone wall was placed in the space, several tombstones standing within the walls—a cemetery.

I jumped over it, passing right by a young guard who couldn’t sense me. I paid him no mind as I passed through the tombstones, one after another. It didn’t take me long to find them, although I was hoping I wouldn’t. My parents, the two great people who had raised me. One tombstone, their names written upon it in black letters.

“…Ugh…” Even though I knew that I wasn’t originally a human, it was impossible for me to forget the ones who raised me, who loved me. No, rather it was because I wasn’t human that I knew how noble they had been. I thought I couldn’t cry anymore, but the tears flowing down my cheeks and onto the ground proved that wrong. I sobbed for a few minutes, unable to even apologize. Even after my tears stopped, my emotions didn’t calm down at all. Only a sliver of reason returned to my mind.

‘Why is this tombstone so large?’ My parents hadn’t been great heroes or celebrities. They were just ordinary citizens.

“Who are you?’ The voice of a young woman came from behind me. This was someone who could tell me the answer.

“I came here to visit after the battle, but a strange person is crying in front of the tomb of another’s parents.” I didn’t turn to look at her, unwilling to see her with my own eyes. I was afraid of being caught by the past; my eyes were fixed on the tombstone as I responded.

“My father’s name was the same. I must’ve been mistaken.”

“Ah.” I sensed her behind me and could only marvel at her strength.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a bit tired after the battle. I thought I would come to see my parents.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize. I’m the one at fault.”

“I want to apologize still…”

“Excuse me.”

“Ah.” I stepped away from the tombstone, walking to the other side of it, so I didn’t have to meet her face to face. This girl, who had an ordinary bandit as a partner, had succeeded in attaining a level above 150 in such a short time. I didn’t know how, but I knew it must have been incredibly painful and incredibly difficult for her. All I wanted to do was hug her and comfort her.

But I didn’t.

Ignoring her gaze upon my back, I left my sister in the cemetery and went outside.