WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈
Chapter 35
──────
* * *
At the words of the woman who had introduced herself as Irina Sørensen, Park Tae-eun could only blink her large eyes. In the end, she asked blankly,
“...Pardon?”
“You seem quite shaken. Well, something like today would be far too intense for an ordinary person. But you’re safe now, so don’t worry, Park Tae-eun.”
“Uh, then... how do you know my name?”
Irina smiled faintly.
“You’ve been through much to come all the way to the land of a father you never knew, Park Tae-eun. Still, your actions in seeking your father were not entirely upright. But that’s all right. You never would have demanded that of him in the end, even if he had lived.”
“Pardon...?”
Park Tae-eun made a blank sound, unable to understand what this white woman in half-finished goth makeup was talking about. Irina laughed at that, then turned and approached Dohyeon, who lay collapsed on the ground.
Watching her, Park Tae-eun suddenly realized something and stiffened. A moment later, she thought she understood what Irina had meant.
As Irina knelt on one knee before Dohyeon, Park Tae-eun snapped at her without meaning to.
“Are you from Ohwa? Do you work for them?”
“They cannot be my masters. No living person can be my master. My master is the thread of fate. That is why I seek the way to cut that thread.”
“...You’re not with a corporation?”
“No. As I said, I came looking for this warrior of rage.”
Park Tae-eun’s expression grew baffled.
“What have you been talking about this whole time? Who are you? Do you know me and him?”
Irina Sørensen touched the back of Dohyeon’s neck and answered without turning around.
“You have many questions, daughter of Park Kangseok and Tran Thi Mai. I can see your thread. That is why I know you acted at the behest of corporate people when you came seeking your father. They told you to meet Park Kangseok and use the secret of your birth to extract corporate information from him, didn’t they?”
Park Tae-eun’s face went pale.
“It’s all right, Park Tae-eun. You did not do that in the end. You only wanted to find your father. You simply did not know he was this much of a piece of trash. It is over now.”
At that moment, Dohyeon’s eyes suddenly flew open beneath Irina Sørensen’s fingers.
“You’re awake? I’m-”
“...!”
Dohyeon rapidly got to his feet. He looked from Irina to Park Tae-eun as if trying to grasp the situation, then swayed as though dizzy.
As he staggered and clutched his head with both hands, he realized his hands and body were soaked in blood.
His gaze followed his hands down to the torn remains of Park Kangseok on the floor.
The moment he saw the corpse, scenes flashed before his eyes.
Himself and Park Kangseok striking each other. His long nails, and Park Kangseok’s reinforced suit splitting beneath them.
And rage.
His left index finger burned hot, and it felt as though the nerves throughout his body were sizzling along his spine.
A fury like boiling magma blazed deep in his gut.
But the rage soon subsided, as though this was not the time for it to burn.
After the flames vanished, what remained was the refreshment of a deep sleep and the cool clarity of having a bucket of cold water dumped over him.
As Dohyeon swayed, he saw the woman standing before him again.
She was slightly shorter than average, but her extremely high heels made her look much taller. Her skin-tight clothes were mostly black and leather, with silver chains and accessories dangling here and there.
Her skin was so pale it held a faint grayish tint. Her black lipstick and mascara made that pallor stand out even more.
She looked like a pattern drawn in black ink upon white paper.
Unlike the colorless rest of her, her hair was a dark, messy blond, and her eyes gleamed amber.
Their owner opened her mouth.
“That’s quite a heated look. I do have a nice figure, but it’s a little embarrassing when you inspect me so thoroughly.”
Despite her words, she stood crookedly with her chest thrust out, looking up at Dohyeon. Her expression resembled a cat that had found something interesting.
After catching his breath for a moment, Dohyeon spoke.
“...Who are you?”
“Irina Sørensen. And you?”
“...Kang Dohyeon.”
“Nice to meet you, Kang Dohyeon.”
She held out her hand. Dohyeon only glanced at it and did not take it.
Irina smiled.
“You’re not going to shake it? That’s embarrassing.”
“...What are you doing here?”
“That is a question I should ask you, Kang Dohyeon. What were you doing here?”
“I...”
Dohyeon frowned.
Until a moment ago, he had been fighting Park Kangseok. Why?
Because it had been obvious Park Kangseok would kill Park Tae-eun, then try to kill him as well.
Why had Park Kangseok tried to kill Park Tae-eun? Because she was his shame.
Then why had Dohyeon tried to protect Park Tae-eun?
Because of the little girl next door.
A child who might have lived if someone had given her even a little care. A small life that had died so pointlessly, who might have survived if Dohyeon had stepped forward just once, like he had for the Yang siblings last time.
He had seen the same future in Park Tae-eun, whom he had turned away from before learning that child had died.
If he saved Park Tae-eun, it would be the same as saving that child.
No. It would not.
Saving Park Tae-eun would not bring that child back. That was only cowardly self-consolation. Saving one person would not revive another who had died.
Dohyeon knew that truth painfully well.
The white bones of those who had already died stretched in a long line behind the path he had traveled. The dead could never be replaced. That was what death was.
And yet Dohyeon had come here.
He had escaped the grasp of assassins targeting Park Tae-eun and faced an A-rank hunter trying to kill his own daughter.
Why?
[Raise your head, warrior. Raise your head and look upon the person you saved.]
Dohyeon raised his head.
Behind Irina Sørensen, who still held out her hand, stood a woman with slightly dark skin.
Park Tae-eun.
The woman who had almost been killed by her own father moments ago.
Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at Dohyeon. She had looked confused until just before, but now nothing else seemed to matter to her.
She spoke.
“...Your name. I only learned your name now.”
“My name?”
“Your name, Mr. Dohyeon.”
“Ah...”
Had he not told her until now? He had given her his phone number but not his name.
As Dohyeon thought that, he swayed. Park Tae-eun and Irina Sørensen hurried forward to support him.
At that moment, Irina Sørensen’s amber eyes flashed.
Then she recoiled as though burned.
“...?”
While Dohyeon and Park Tae-eun watched in confusion, Irina Sørensen backed away hesitantly. Her gaze seemed fixed on something behind Dohyeon, precisely behind his back.
“What is this? It has borrowed the form of a dís, but... where are Odin and the gods? The forms of the gods and spirits of the nine divine worlds...
What shattered the round world and summoned a phantom world of trunks and branches... A child begins preparing to love their parent from within the parent...”
What nonsense was she suddenly spouting?
Leaning against Park Tae-eun, Dohyeon looked at Irina Sørensen with a tired expression.
He was already exhausted from the nonsense he heard from Yggdrasil inside dungeons and the Valkyrie’s incomprehensible words.
Park Tae-eun, supporting him at his side, whispered.
“Whatever she did, it made you become yourself again, Mr. Dohyeon.”
“...Was I something else?”
“What? Just now, um, you changed into something huge and scary...”
Huge and scary?
Dohyeon sighed quietly. His gaze naturally fell to his left index finger.
[Vargband]
The ring, now a tattoo, remained engraved there.
His gaze moved from the ring to Park Kangseok’s remains, which he had just examined.
It was obvious who had turned an A-rank hunter, one heavily armed with modern combat equipment, into those chunks of meat.
The person who had been fighting Park Kangseok until moments ago was Dohyeon himself, and fragmented scenes kept returning to him like a damaged film.
So it really was a transformation ring...
[It is fortunate that you overcame this crisis with that power, warrior. I worried terribly that you would be hurt and die.]
The Valkyrie’s voice echoed in his mind.
Dohyeon gave a bitter smile. Was it really enough to call it fortunate just because he had survived? He had transformed into something that did not even know who it was.
As such thoughts crossed Dohyeon’s mind, Irina Sørensen’s expression changed as though she had encountered an impossible problem.
Yet she still wore a smile, which gave her a strange charm.
“Then why a berserk? No, did it not need to be a berserk? If every parent is merely the same kind of parent... But that would surely be close to favoritism...”
As she continued muttering to herself, Dohyeon looked around before speaking to her.
“So who are you? Where did you suddenly come from?”
“...As I said, I am Irina Sørensen. I came to meet you. My interference just now was, perhaps, a lone thread that blossomed amid the complex weaving of chance and fate. It was fortunate that I stopped another person’s regret before it could unfold.”
“...?”
What nonsense had she been talking about this whole time?
As Dohyeon tilted his head, Park Tae-eun, who was supporting him, spoke again.
“She fell from the sky. I thought she was a bird, but it was her.”
“A bird?”
At the continuing stream of incomprehensible words, Dohyeon frowned. Irina Sørensen took something from her pocket and held it out.
He accepted it without thinking.
It was a small card, a business card.
[Counseling, Rituals, Records
Asatru Traditional Seiðr Practitioner Irina Sørensen]
On the back, runic script read:
[The owner will come if needed.]
Dohyeon narrowed his eyes. More than anything else, he saw the most important word.
Asatru.
“Why is Asatru looking for me?”
“Shouldn’t you be asking the opposite, considering the being that stands behind you?”
“...!”
Dohyeon looked at her in surprise. Irina Sørensen smiled again and slowly began stepping backward.
“Unfortunately, I think our meeting must end here for today. I need to unravel the new facts and questions I have found. Besides, it is becoming difficult to remain here.
Keep that card safe. The General Affairs Department at the main temple had one made for me when I said I was coming to Korea.”
Come to think of it, that white goth woman spoke Korean as fluently as a native.
As Dohyeon watched her with his lips pressed together, she gave a small bow.
“Until next time, Kang Dohyeon.”
Then her body swiftly curled into a small shape and transformed into a crow, which flew into the sky.
Dohyeon and Park Tae-eun stared blankly at the crow disappearing into the night sky, or perhaps at Irina Sørensen’s retreating form.
“Um, just now... Mr. Dohyeon, you saw the same thing I did, right?”
“...The blond white goth woman transforming into a crow and flying away?”
“Yes. That.”
“Unless we both went crazy at the exact same time, I think it was real.”
“Could it have been some kind of hologram?”
“There must be a proper explanation. A magic trick, maybe...”
[There is no point trying to deny it, warrior. If this were inside a dungeon, would you not have accepted that sight without question?]
That was because it would have been inside a dungeon. Nothing would seem strange there, no matter what happened.
But this was the middle of a factory site reduced to ruins. It was a place far too connected to reality.
Of course, Dohyeon himself had escaped danger by using a dungeon artifact.
“...I’m tired.”
“Ah, I’ll support you.”
As Dohyeon let out a weary sigh, Park Tae-eun pressed close to his left side and supported him. Her ears were red.
Only then did Dohyeon realize he was naked.
When he stiffened after noticing, Park Tae-eun took off her coat and gave it to him. It was too small to wear, so he simply wrapped it around his waist to cover himself.
“Then, um, shall we go back to the car first?”
“Okay.”
Dohyeon, whose legs had gone weak, and small Park Tae-eun, supporting him, began to walk.
Dohyeon was growing increasingly tired and could barely think, while Park Tae-eun tried her best not to look at what lay beneath their feet, so their steps were slow.
Then something caught on Dohyeon’s toe.
Looking down, he saw a sword with a pitch-black blade.
“...I can’t leave this behind.”
He picked it up and used it as a cane as he walked. After leaving the battlefield, they reached the place where they had parked the car upon first entering the factory grounds.
Then both of them had no choice but to stop at the sight before them.
A man looking at them spoke.
“Hmm. The fact that you walked out means Park Kangseok is dead.”
A young man stood there with a proper cane, unlike Dohyeon.
Behind him, a PAV, a Personal Air Vehicle, stood with its engine roaring Vvvvv! and blowing wind around it.
Dohyeon knew that man.
He had appeared frequently in the media, so it was difficult for any Korean person not to know him.
And the reason he appeared in the media was simple.
He was considered the next-next successor of the major corporation Samgyeong.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
