WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 84: The Temple (1)

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Jihan set the glass vial down in Eunyoung's hand.

"What's this?"

"Elixir."

"Real prince charming, giving me a wound then a cure."

Whose fault was it she got hurt in the first place.

Eunyoung grumbled but tipped the elixir into her mouth.

It tasted like the fever medicine she'd had as a kid.

The stinging ache in her hands and feet gradually faded.

It took a while for the elixir to spread through her system.

A while turned out to be about five minutes, not that long in the end.

Eunyoung caught her breath and finally looked around.

Calling it a cave felt wrong, the walls and floor were far too springy for that.

Honestly, it felt more like she'd stepped inside some massive animal's body.

"Ugh."

Thinking about it that way didn't exactly improve her mood.

"By the way, where's Jung Hyeonseong?"

"What's that?"

Anyone could tell that was a person's name, and here he was calling a person's name "that."

At the very least, if you don't know who someone is, ask who they are.

Eunyoung realized just how much a single word choice could make someone sound completely clueless.

"The Hunter who came in with us."

Jihan opened his mouth like something had just come back to him.

"Ugh, why do I even expect anything from you."

Jihan shot Eunyoung a sharp glare.

She worried for a second he might attack again, but nothing happened.

Glaring at people like he wanted to eat them alive was just a habit of his.

Jihan had no idea how he looked at other people.

The problem was that everyone who got intimidated by his stare just shut their mouths, never realizing it was simply a habit, which meant nobody ever told him.

"Where the hell even is this place?"

Every time she spoke, her voice echoed inside her own head like she was trapped in some glass tube, and it was setting her nerves on edge.

"A dungeon?"

"A divine temple."

"What's a divine temple?"

"One of the more disgusting examples of one, as far as divine temples go."

"Hey! Are you ignoring me? What's a divine temple!"

Jihan glared at Eunyoung again in response to her irritation.

He sighed.

"No idea what happened to the Hunter."

Eunyoung learned that there was, in fact, a way to make "why don't you know something this basic" sound even more infuriating than it already was.

She pouted.

One thing was clear, at least.

Between attacking Hangyeol and whatever happened at the amusement park, this guy was definitely not right in the head.

She had no idea how Hangyeol had ended up tangled up with a lunatic like this.

She pulled the hair tie from her pocket and tied her hair back.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Eunyoung followed after Jihan, who'd already started pulling away.

The only light was the one floating over his shoulder, and she couldn't even imagine what would happen if she got separated from it.

She stuck close to his side and glanced back.

The path behind them was a continuous stretch of pitch darkness, so thick she couldn't even tell what it had looked like.

Darkness itself didn't scare her much, but this situation did.

While Eunyoung kept glancing back nervously, Jihan walked forward like he was out for a stroll around the block.

"Not scared?"

"Of what?"

"...Uh, never mind."

Eunyoung found herself apologizing without meaning to, just from how unbothered Jihan seemed.

They kept walking down the endless path.

The darkness ahead felt even more unsettling than the path they'd already walked.

It felt like her sense of time had disappeared entirely.

"Had to choose."

"Choose what?"

"When we all fell in here. Between you and that guy."

So he'd been playing dumb the whole time.

It irritated her a little, realizing Jihan had lied to her face so calmly.

Eunyoung tried to take in what he was saying without letting her hurt feelings show too much.

"Why me?"

Jihan slowed his pace and glanced sideways at her.

Her question carried more than one meaning underneath it.

Yu Jihan had tried to kill her.

And it wasn't just a choice between Jung Hyeonseong and Song Eunyoung either. There'd been a third option, abandoning them both and surviving alone.

Eunyoung wanted to know why Jihan had changed his mind about killing her, and why, between her and Hyeonseong, he'd chosen to save her.

"You get one question."

"You said you had to choose between the two of us, so why'd you save me? You were trying to kill me."

Unlike Eunyoung, who clearly held some resentment, Jihan felt disturbingly nothing at all toward Hyeonseong, who'd actually been there on the scene.

At her confused tone, Jihan's brow furrowed and he clicked his tongue.

"Whim."

"You kill or spare people based on your mood?"

"Not mood. A rational choice."

"Saving me was rational?"

"Yeah. That eyeball thing said there were two."

Her memory was hazy from the chaos, but she was pretty sure it had said something like that.

The troublemaker it meant had to be Jihan.

"I hate things that call themselves gods."

"The god Soter?"

"That one's just the most obnoxious of the bunch. I don't like any of them, basically. If I let you die, it'd only benefit that guy. Why the hell would I do something like that out of my own mind?"

Jihan stomped his foot against the ground, irritated.

He seemed to be talking to the floor and walls as much as to her.

"So then why'd it go after me and Hyeonseong?"

"Get your facts straight even if your mouth's crooked. This thing's target was that Hunter guy from the start. You were just extra."

"That's a horrible thing to say right in front of me!"

Eunyoung mulled it over.

Jung Hyeonseong was a Hunter she'd only met through this project.

No matter how she looked at it, there was no reason some unidentified god would target him specifically.

And yet the thing had grouped her and Hyeonseong together.

Which meant something connected the two of them.

"I don't really see what we have in common... oh, Unaffiliated! I heard Hyeonseong doesn't have a god yet."

Eunyoung jabbed her elbow into Jihan's side.

There were only two people here, and the fact that he'd heard her and just ignored it didn't sit well with her at all.

"Say something too, would you."

"Even if I know something, doesn't mean I owe you an explanation. Fair warning, once we get out of here, I'm not holding back."

"Why? Planning to kill me again?"

A chill ran down Eunyoung's spine when she realized he wasn't joking.

Jihan had said he wouldn't kill her until they got out of this place.

Selfish and unpredictable as he was, once he said something out loud, he kept it. Probably.

Eunyoung forced herself to calm down.

Lamenting the fact that the only person she had to rely on in this pitch-black darkness was this lunatic was just an added bonus of misery.

"So? You already knew what me and Hyeonseong had in common? That he was an Unaffiliated Hunter, and that I was Unaffiliated until recently too."

"Let's talk about something else."

Hey? Was he even listening to her?

Jihan changed the subject unilaterally, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

He obviously knew something and just as obviously didn't want to say it.

He looked perfectly normal, but the second you actually tried to talk to him, you'd be better off talking to a wall for how good he was at grating on someone's nerves.

"Fine. I'll drop it."

"Kang Hangyeol."

"What the hell even is that guy?"

Before meeting Eunyoung, Jihan had gotten thoroughly beaten by Hangyeol.

Everything Jihan had experienced firsthand about Kang Hangyeol reeked of suspicion, way too much of it.

Kang Hangyeol was weaker than him.

The problem was the sense of wrongness he felt every single time he looked at the guy.

Song Eunyoung had experienced an overwhelming gap in power and felt genuine fear toward Yu Jihan.

Jihan felt nothing like that when he looked at Kang Hangyeol.

It felt like his body just wouldn't cooperate.

He'd heard Hangyeol had only been a Hunter for a little over a year, but between his growth rate and how he fought, there was no way that was the skill of a one-year rookie.

He couldn't say for sure, but the guy was hiding something.

If that interference hadn't shown up back then.

His jaw clenched.

Just remembering it made his blood boil.

"Oh, right, you lost to Hangyeol, didn't you?"

"I didn't lose! If that bastard Bang-hae hadn't interfered!"

"Bang-hae?"

"You don't need to know."

Jihan bit down on the corner of his lip again.

Since when did the Covenant Oath even matter here.

The fact that the god Soter, who'd stayed silent no matter how much anyone searched, had actually spoken up to protect Kang Hangyeol was already surprising enough on its own.

"You said you were curious about Hangyeol, right?"

"Yeah. If you know something..."

"Not telling you."

"You didn't answer my question either and just said whatever you wanted. And now you're asking me to tell you about Hangyeol? Me? Why?"

She was being sarcastic, but there wasn't anything wrong with what she'd said.

"Fine, I'll answer what you're curious about. Within what I can answer."

"You said this place is a divine temple. What's a divine temple?"

"A god's private personal space. No, a dimension."

"Are all divine temples like this? Nothing visible, pitch dark?"

"Depends on the god. And this isn't a normal divine temple, either."

"Not a normal divine temple?"

"That's as far as I can answer."

Jihan cut himself off, deciding there was no point saying anything more.

He kept his mouth shut and looked at Eunyoung.

He'd answered enough, so now it was her turn to show the same courtesy.

Should I even tell him this?

Yu Jihan had tried to kill Kang Hangyeol. And it didn't look like that had changed even now.

The strange thing was.

When she actually tried to think of something to say about Kang Hangyeol as a person, there wasn't much there.

At first she'd thought, what an insolent little punk, but honestly that was pretty much it.

"I don't really know either."

"You really don't know!"

"Weren't you two close?"

"I thought so, but... I'm not even sure about that. All I know is that Kang Hangyeol is the first follower of the god Soter."

Jihan looked at Eunyoung.

There wasn't anything hidden in his tone or expression.

If anything, he seemed to be blaming himself for knowing so little about a person called Kang Hangyeol.

"Wait. Kang Hangyeol is the first follower of the god Soter?"

Setting aside Choi Suhyun, a prospective follower, the god Soter only had two followers, Kang Hangyeol and Song Eunyoung.

Since she'd become the second after joining, who else could the first one be but Kang Hangyeol.

He'd never said it directly, but there was no need to even question it.

"Did he say that himself?"

"Do you have to confirm that to know it?"

Eunyoung frowned at Jihan's suddenly serious expression, not understanding what the problem even was.

"Ow!"

Walking along without paying attention, Eunyoung smacked her head straight into a wall.

She'd been walking forward this whole time, so a wall suddenly appearing out of nowhere to block the path caught her completely off guard.

Jihan had stopped in place like he'd already known the wall was there.

Eunyoung rubbed her stinging forehead.

"You could've at least told me there was a wall there!"

"You should've been able to avoid that much on your own."

Jihan shifted direction slightly.

A faint light appeared in the direction he'd turned toward.

Up until now, the only light had been the little orb floating over his shoulder.

Come to think of it, what even was that thing bobbing over his shoulder anyway?

It had felt so natural she'd never even gotten the chance to ask.

The single point of light slowly grew larger as it drew closer.

"Eunyoung-ssi?"

"Ah! Hyeonseong!"

The light watch in Hyeonseong's hand was glowing.

"Weren't you hurt? Are you okay?"

"Haha, yeah. I'm fine."

"Thank god."

Relieved, Eunyoung moved toward Hyeonseong.

Jihan stepped forward, shoving her back by the shoulder as he drew his sword.

"Hey, what are you doing...!!"

Before Eunyoung could even stop him, Jihan's drawn sword swung mercilessly toward Hyeonseong.

Thunk.

The arm the blade passed through fell to the ground, severed clean.

Eunyoung stumbled to her feet and grabbed Jihan by the collar.

Even so, trying to kill him out of nowhere was too much.

Even from Jihan, this was unforgivable.

"What are you doing!"

"Calm down."

"You expect me to calm down right now? No matter what, suddenly cutting off someone's arm, where, where would that ever be..."

Eunyoung's grip on Jihan's collar loosened as she looked at Jung Hyeonseong, and her eyes went wide with shock.

Footnotes:

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