WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Retuned Zenith wants to Rest ◈
Episode 9:
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Baek Dohee’s office was more modest than one might expect for a branch chief’s office.
A desk, a sofa, filing cabinets covering an entire wall, and a broken spear standing in one corner. That was all.
‘So that’s why they call her Spear of Thunder?’
Looking at the broken spear made Yoo Kangmin think of his own sword, broken in the Valley of No Return.
‘Didn’t think I’d miss it at all. But without a sword, something feels empty.’
Of course, there was nothing he could do. Even if he had kept the broken sword on him, there was no guarantee it would have crossed the gate with him into this world.
“Please, sit.”
“Fine.”
While he was lost in thought, Baek Dohee slowly made her way to the sofa with the aid of her cane and sat down.
Kangmin took the sofa opposite her. Perhaps because it was in a Hunter Association branch chief’s office, it was incredibly soft.
“Do you prefer tea, or would you like coffee?”
“Tea.”
Baek Dohee did not look like someone who enjoyed coffee. The lingering scent in the office was tea, not coffee.
‘Great Master...’
For some reason, he suddenly remembered the abbot’s chamber of Shaolin’s Great Master Hye-gwang, whom he had killed.
Whom he had been forced to kill.
Perhaps it was because the room carried a scent similar to that place, where Great Master Hye-gwang had personally brewed tea for him.
Trickle.
Baek Dohee poured the tea herself.
Her hand was steady as she set down the cup, but her eyes were sharp.
“I’ll ask again.”
“Ask what?”
“How did you know there was a problem with my mana circuits?”
“I told you. I could see it.”
“Do you have a skill that lets you see through the human body?”
“I don’t have a skill like that.”
Baek Dohee narrowed her eyes.
The moment Yoo Kangmin entered the Association, she had received a report that no mana at all had been detected from his body.
Of course, not everyone who awakened an ability became a hunter. Some fell into crime and became villains. Others did not work as hunters, but acted as vigilantes instead.
One of the Hunter Association’s primary duties was recruiting such people or responding to their crimes.
‘But this man...’
Yoo Kangmin belonged to none of those categories.
‘Is he really an unawakened person? But an unawakened person overpowered a D-rank tank with sheer strength? And that’s not all. He saw right through the damage to my mana circuits?’
The discrepancy was too great to dismiss everything as luck.
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Ha. Why do I need to explain myself?”
“This is a serious matter. Depending on the circumstances, we may have to take you into custody.”
“Right. I suppose so.”
Yoo Kangmin was not offended.
If he thought of the Hunter Association as the Martial Alliance, the Unorthodox Hegemony Alliance, or the Demonic Cult, it was obvious how they would treat an anomaly like him.
‘If I were still the man I was back then...’
To put it crudely, there had been something twisted about him in the martial world.
Obsessed with becoming stronger for the sole purpose of returning home, he had never stopped to consider how others saw him.
Drip.
Drip. Drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The result had been the bloodbath at the Valley of No Return.
The sight of the valley, filled with blood and corpses, remained vivid in Yoo Kangmin’s mind even now.
‘I won’t repeat that mistake.’
To do that, he first needed to dispel Baek Dohee’s suspicions.
“Show me your hand.”
“My hand?”
“If you really can’t believe me, I’ll let you confirm it yourself.”
After hesitating for a moment, Baek Dohee held out her right hand.
“If you try anything strange...”
“Then kill me or boil and eat me. Do whatever you want.”
“...”
Yoo Kangmin took hold of Baek Dohee’s wrist.
Her shoulders flinched at once.
A thin stream of qi had flowed from his fingertips into her body.
‘What is this qi?’
It was clearly different from mana.
Their origins might have been similar, but the mana Baek Dohee felt was cold and dark, while the qi flowing from Yoo Kangmin’s fingertips was soft and warm.
‘It’s warm...’
The qi passed through her wrist, up her arm and shoulder.
The instant it neared her heart.
Thump!
Baek Dohee’s heart slammed against her chest.
“Ugh!”
Her face went pale.
Dormant pain awakened.
It felt as if a red-hot iron rod had pierced her heart, then churned all the way down into her right leg.
Seeing her reaction, Yoo Kangmin immediately released her wrist.
“As I thought. It’s worse than I expected.”
“Hah... Hah!”
Baek Dohee struggled to catch her breath.
“What... did you just do?”
“I checked the paths.”
“Paths?”
“The routes your mana travels through.”
They called them mana circuits here, but the concept was familiar to Yoo Kangmin.
The paths through which qi flowed were called meridians.
Mana and internal qi accumulated in different places and had different natures, but their underlying principles were not too different. The paths they flowed through were the same as well.
“More than half the circuits around your heart are damaged. The path leading to your right leg has been completely severed.”
“...”
“The problem is that mana is still gathering in your heart even in that state. With nowhere to escape, the qi is slowly eating away at everything around it.”
Baek Dohee’s hand trembled faintly.
It was exactly the same diagnosis the Association’s medical team had given her.
No, it was even more precise than theirs.
“Not many people know that.”
“Is there a reason to hide it?”
“To prevent unnecessary unrest. Hunters must always be symbols of hope.”
Baek Dohee looked down at her teacup.
Five years ago, a gate collapse in West Incheon had unleashed hundreds of monsters into the city.
Baek Dohee had been the first person to arrive at the scene.
[You need to retreat! We don’t have enough manpower! You can’t hold them off alone!]
[If I retreat? You want me to abandon them all?]
Her superiors ordered Baek Dohee to withdraw.
But she ignored them.
If she retreated, the citizens who had not yet evacuated would surely be slaughtered.
[Your life could be in danger!]
[I know.]
Crackle.
Baek Dohee turned off her radio.
Then, she blocked the route alone.
Reinforcements would arrive in twenty minutes. All she had to do was endure until then.
During those short twenty minutes, she fought hundreds of monsters. At the end, she even used a skill beyond her limits to kill the boss.
“Cough!”
Baek Dohee collapsed, vomiting blood, and barely turned her radio back on.
Then, a jubilant voice reached her ears.
[I-It’s a miracle!]
[Zero casualties! Everyone evacuated safely!]
[Hunter Baek Dohee! Can you hear us?]
[Hunter?!]
That was the end.
The civilians survived, and in exchange, Baek Dohee’s mana circuits were shattered.
[A-rank Hunter Baek Dohee single-handedly stops a monster wave.]
[Zero casualties. The miraculous Spear of Thunder saves West Incheon.]
People called her a hero.
Broadcast stations covered Baek Dohee’s story all day long, and flowers and letters wishing for her recovery piled up like mountains outside the hospital.
―That’s what a real hero looks like.
―I can’t even imagine how many people would have died without Hunter Baek Dohee.
―Please recover and show us yourself holding a spear again.
―You are South Korea’s pride.
But the praise did not last long.
[Spear of Thunder Baek Dohee diagnosed with permanent mana circuit damage.]
[Specialist: “A return to hunting is unlikely.”]
[Government announces full support for Hunter Baek Dohee’s treatment.]
At first, everyone felt sorry for her.
For days, her name ranked among the most searched terms online, and footage of her old raids received attention again.
A month passed.
[Hunter Baek Dohee begins her first rehabilitation treatment.]
Three months passed.
[Can Spear of Thunder stand again? Rehabilitation treatment continues.]
Half a year passed.
[Hunter Baek Dohee’s return to the field is effectively uncertain.]
The articles grew shorter.
The voices that had cheered her on vanished one by one.
New gates and new heroes filled the empty space.
[South Korea’s youngest A-rank hunter emerges!]
[Guilds compete to recruit the next-generation S-rank candidate.]
[Which hunter gave this year’s greatest performance?]
At some point, no one looked for Baek Dohee’s name anymore.
Then, three years later.
[Former A-rank Hunter Baek Dohee appointed branch chief of the Sinyeong-dong Hunter Association.]
Her name appeared in an article again after a long time.
But the reactions were different.
―Can someone who can’t even fight be a branch chief?
―Looks like they made up a position as a reward for her service.
―Honestly, isn’t that just a patronage appointment?
―I know she did well in the past, but how long are we supposed to treat her like a hero?
Once, she had been a hero who risked her life to save people.
Everyone had prayed for her recovery and urged her to return.
But when new heroes appeared, people forgot Baek Dohee with terrifying ease.
The world was not idle enough to wait long for a hero who had stopped moving.
“A symbol of hope, my ass. Who the hell cares about that?”
“...”
Healers from Korea and abroad had worked on her.
She used the highest-grade potions and underwent surgery time after time.
The conclusion was always the same.
Beyond recovery.
She had been told that her heart might not endure the moment she used mana again.
The promising S-rank candidate had become unable to fight overnight.
The Association recognized her accomplishments and gave her the position of Sinyeong-dong branch chief.
It was presented as a position prepared for a hero ruined while fighting for her country. In truth, it was little more than a way to keep Baek Dohee, driven from the battlefield, tied to the Association.
“So.”
Yoo Kangmin set down his teacup.
“Have you given up?”
“Given up on what?”
“Fighting again.”
Baek Dohee’s expression hardened.
“You just said it yourself. I’m lucky to be alive.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Even if I’m not on the battlefield, I can still protect people.”
She had spent all this time persuading herself that she could protect people without standing on the battlefield.
That was why she had accepted the hollow position of branch chief. She believed there must be something she could do here.
In fact, since she took office, the rate of incidents in the areas managed by the Sinyeong-dong Hunter Association branch had fallen significantly.
Yet every time, the emptiness in Baek Dohee’s heart remained unfilled.
“Really? Then why do you still have that broken spear?”
“That is...”
“If you had no lingering attachment, you would’ve thrown it away long ago.”
“It’s just a broken spear.”
“Save that excuse for yourself.”
Baek Dohee’s fingers slowly curled.
Her tightly clenched fist trembled faintly.
“Have you given up?”
“No. I haven’t given up. No, I can’t give up.”
Even after being declared beyond recovery, she had searched everywhere for a treatment.
She personally contacted foreign healers and even clung to unproven methods.
“But nothing changed. My body is already ruined.”
“Calling it ruined over that much is a stretch.”
“Over that much? You have no idea what kind of pain I’ve suffered.”
“I’ve saved people whose meridians were severed and whose dantians were shattered.”
“...”
“I’ve even made someone whose sinews in all four limbs were severed walk again.”
Yoo Kangmin spoke as if it were nothing.
But to Baek Dohee, every word sounded absurd.
“Are you making fun of me right now?”
“Why would I?”
“Even the best healers in the world said it was impossible.”
“Just because they can’t do it doesn’t mean I can’t.”
“W-what does that...!”
Baek Dohee stopped breathing.
Hope she should never have dared to entertain raised its head.
As if trying to suppress it, she gripped her cane tightly.
“Can you heal me?”
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