WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Returned Zenith Wants to Rest ◈
Episode 23:
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Baek Dohee replied to Yoo Kangmin as if she could not believe what she was hearing.
“That isn't what I'm talking about right now!”
Only afterward did Baek Dohee realize she had raised her voice.
Yoon Seoha flinched.
The Association employees nearby also watched the two of them carefully.
Baek Dohee let out a long breath.
“Are either of you hurt?”
“I'm fine. She's probably just tired.”
“Just a little? I feel like I might collapse at any moment.”
She had not noticed while she was inside, but once she came out, her legs were trembling as if they did not belong to her.
“Seeing as you're talking back, you must be fine.”
“I'm not...”
“Haah. Please get treatment first.”
At Baek Dohee's gesture, the medical team waiting nearby approached.
Yoon Seoha accepted the blanket they offered and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Even so, she did not let go of the sword in her arms.
“You can put the sword down for a moment...”
“Ah, I'll hold on to this.”
“We need to examine your arms.”
“Then I'll put it on my knees...”
She seemed determined not to separate from it no matter what.
Yoo Kangmin clicked his tongue.
‘At this rate, she'll sleep hugging it too.’
The Sword Empress had been the same.
Whenever she acquired a fine sword, she would place it beside her bed, stare at it for a long time, and then fall asleep.
An employee nearby approached Baek Dohee.
“Branch Chief.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Headquarters is demanding a situation report.”
“Tell them to wait.”
“Y-Yes, ma'am!”
Baek Dohee was furious.
The Association was always like this.
They were always late.
Even now, not a single person who should have been directing the scene was present. They were simply waiting safely elsewhere for a report.
‘I'm sick of it now...’
She wanted to overturn the rotten Hunter Association right then and there, but now was not the time.
‘Just wait a little longer.’
After losing her mana circuit, she had half given up. But now, hope had returned that she could stand again.
Once she recovered her strength, Baek Dohee intended to purge the rotten Hunter Association.
Until then, she had no choice but to play along with this shitty situation.
“Let's talk inside first.”
“Fine.”
Before reporting to headquarters, she needed to learn for herself what had happened inside.
‘Master's existence must never be exposed to the outside.’
Yoo Kangmin and Yoon Seoha were already known to have survived an S-rank gate despite being D-rank hunters.
However, Baek Dohee was certain the Hunter Association's higher-ups would not publicize this incident.
It was an issue that could bring trouble down on them.
After bringing the two to the temporary command post, Baek Dohee sent everyone else outside.
“It seems the situation is quite bad.”
“It is, honestly.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“Before that, I'll explain the current situation.”
“Go ahead.”
Baek Dohee showed the two of them the measuring device on the table.
The recorded figures had risen sharply.
From D-rank to C-rank.
Then through B-rank and A-rank, all the way to S-rank.
At the end, a warning appeared instead of a number.
[Measurement limit exceeded.]
“This is what happened immediately after the two of you entered the gate.”
“Hmm.”
A D-rank gate had somehow become an S-rank gate. It must have caused utter chaos.
“Do you have any idea what might have caused it?”
“I think I affected it when I passed through the gate.”
“Pardon?”
Baek Dohee's hand froze.
Yoon Seoha was the same.
“You mean it happened because of you, Master?”
“I can't be certain, but the gate reacted to my qi when I entered. It seems the inside changed after that. More importantly, the altered interior was a place formed from my memories.”
“Th-That phenomenon has never been reported before.”
“Of course not. It's not like there could have been anyone else like me.”
“Who exactly are you, Master?”
“You see, I was dragged into another world and returned.”
Yoo Kangmin told them about what had happened at the convenience store that day.
As he continued, both Baek Dohee and Yoon Seoha froze.
“I learned something called martial arts there. Whether it was to survive or to return here, I had to grow stronger somehow.”
Yoo Kangmin continued calmly, but the desperation, anger, regret, and sorrow within that calmness reached them both.
Having to grow stronger to survive meant he would have died if he had been weak.
Having to grow stronger to return meant he had been unable to return until then.
“Then the Martial Emperor...”
“I met him there.”
Yoon Seoha could not bring herself to ask more.
Had she not seen firsthand how powerful the Martial Emperor was?
He had brought her down with nothing but his voice.
Yoo Kangmin had surpassed him now, but she could not imagine that had been true back then.
‘He fought people like that... and became this strong...’
Yoon Seoha suddenly realized how much she had been indulging herself.
Before someone who had crossed the line between life and death countless times, her own hardships seemed like nothing.
Yoon Seoha squeezed her eyes shut.
On the other hand, Baek Dohee carefully asked one more question.
“How long were you there?”
“About sixty years.”
“...”
Neither of them could speak.
It was not a number they had expected.
A few years.
At most, perhaps ten.
Even that would have been terrible.
Having to survive alone in a world where you did not know a single person.
But sixty years.
‘Just how strong is this man's mental strength...?’
Baek Dohee thought of the five years since she had been injured.
The nights she had spent unable to sleep, wondering if she would never wield a spear again.
Those five years had felt as though they would never end, yet the man before her had lived through far more time while waiting only for the day he could return.
She could not even begin to imagine how difficult those years must have been.
“Then what about your family...?”
“They don't know. When I returned, time hadn't passed here. I was back just before I disappeared.”
Yoon Seoha's eyes widened.
“D-Don't tell me, at that convenience store...”
“Yes. The day you were struggling with that goblin.”
“You really didn't have to mention that.”
“So your family knows nothing.”
“Right. I went out in the morning and came back in the evening.”
Yoo Kangmin spoke evenly.
“It just took me a long time.”
Yoon Seoha pressed her lips together.
For some reason, those brief words weighed heavily on her heart.
“Just in case, don't tell my family this. I'll tell them myself someday.”
“Of course.”
“Absolutely.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Baek Dohee was the first to speak.
“But is it really all right to tell us this?”
“You've already learned.”
“You mean martial arts?”
“Yes. You should at least know where it came from. Besides, this incident seems related to me. I can't leave you two knowing nothing. Since we need to deal with this, you should know at least this much.”
“Thank you.”
Baek Dohee thanked him because she knew he had told them this out of consideration for her.
“Thanks to you, I can more or less see the whole picture.”
Even if she reported exactly what had happened, that the two had completely cleared a gate elevated to S-rank and emerged alive, headquarters would never accept it.
In that case, it would be better to say they had been trapped in an altered gate and had happened upon a gate leading outside.
‘Of course, they won't believe even that at face value...’
She did not think they could get through this without any suspicion.
The point at which the gate changed.
The two who had entered just before that.
And the gate that vanished as soon as they returned.
Anyone assigned to investigate would naturally suspect a connection.
‘And if they check Master's hunter registration...’
His D-rank hunter ID had been issued on her recommendation.
There had been no procedural problem, but to those looking for one, that alone could become sufficient pretext.
After gathering her thoughts, Baek Dohee spoke.
“First, someone will probably ask to question the two of you.”
“About what happened inside?”
“Yes. They'll ask how you returned and why the gate disappeared.”
Yoon Seoha looked down at the Martial Emperor's Sword.
Baek Dohee's gaze lingered there briefly as well.
“They'll ask about that sword too.”
“Th-This too?”
“It's different from the sword you brought in.”
Yoon Seoha pulled the Martial Emperor's Sword closer to her chest.
At the obvious reaction, Baek Dohee gave a faint smile.
“I don't mean that we'll take it. Fortunately, the item-grade appraisal chart lists it as an F-rank weapon.”
Apparently, the Martial Emperor's Sword Yoon Seoha had received appeared to be F-rank, as though it were a replica.
‘It seems he took precautions.’
The Martial Emperor had likely done something.
The Martial Emperor's Sword Tomb and the Martial Emperor himself had both been formed from Yoo Kangmin's memories. Perhaps the Martial Emperor had also glimpsed this real world.
“This will become troublesome.”
“I'll handle as much of it as I can.”
“Don't overextend yourself. This concerns me too. You don't need to bear it alone.”
“...”
“Tell me if you need anything.”
Baek Dohee looked at Yoo Kangmin for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes. I will.”
Those words alone eased her mind somewhat.
Of course, that did not mean she intended to put Yoo Kangmin forward from the start.
She had not taken him as her master just to burden him with matters she could resolve herself.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the command post door.
“B-Branch Chief.”
The employee who had gone out to deliver the report earlier entered with an urgent expression.
“What is it? Are they pressuring us again?”
“N-No, it's not that... Someone from the Association has arrived.”
“Have the rescue personnel finally arrived?”
“W-Well... they're not rescue personnel...”
The employee looked troubled, glanced around, then spoke carefully.
“The Audit Office has arrived.”
“...!”
The smile vanished from Baek Dohee's face.
Headquarters had done nothing but tell them to wait when rescue was requested.
Yet the moment the gate vanished, they sent the Audit Office.
“Who came?”
Before the employee could answer, an unfamiliar voice came from behind them.
“I did.”
“Ah.”
The employee hurried away.
Instinctively, they had realized this was not a place for them.
Step. Step.
A man in a gray suit appeared.
His hair was neatly swept back, and he wore thin-framed glasses.
It was Seo Myeonghoon, Head of the Hunter Association's Audit Office.
“It has been a while, Branch Chief Baek.”
“I didn't expect the Head of the Audit Office to come in person.”
“We couldn't send only junior staff for an incident of this scale.”
Seo Myeonghoon entered the command post as if he belonged there.
His gaze passed over Yoo Kangmin and Yoon Seoha in turn.
“Are these the survivors?”
“Yes. They are still recovering.”
“That is fortunate. There were no casualties.”
Seo Myeonghoon pulled out a chair across from them and sat down.
An accompanying employee placed a tablet before him.
“I'll just verify a few things.”
“I will submit the field report.”
“Ah, we'll get to that later. I have something to ask you as well, Branch Chief Baek.”
Seo Myeonghoon swiped through the tablet screen.
Only then did Baek Dohee recognize the document he had opened.
It was not a field response record.
It was Yoo Kangmin's hunter registration file.
‘He's already checked it.’
After confirming the name in the file, Seo Myeonghoon looked at Yoo Kangmin.
“Mr. Yoo Kangmin. You received a D-rank hunter ID today.”
“And?”
“You had quite an experience on your first raid. You must have been very startled.”
“More or less.”
“More or less? You are remarkably calm for someone who returned alive from a gate that exceeded the measurement limit.”
Baek Dohee cut in.
“Director. These two are survivors caught up in an accident.”
“Which is why I am verifying the circumstances.”
“Then you should begin with the gate's abnormal reaction.”
“I am.”
Seo Myeonghoon turned the tablet around.
Yoo Kangmin's registration documents filled the screen.
Below them was the name Baek Dohee, listed as his recommender.
“Registered the same day. Granted D-rank under the branch chief's recommendation, with no separate evaluation.”
“Registration by recommendation is within my authority.”
“I know. That means you personally verified his ability.”
“...”
Seo Myeonghoon looked at Yoo Kangmin.
Then his gaze returned to Baek Dohee.
“Which is why I ask.”
The smile at the corner of his lips faded slightly.
“Can you guarantee that this man is D-rank?”
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