WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 101: Cursed Contract

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This was enough to call it a scam sightseeing trip.

The old castle, once so picturesque, had collapsed as if it had been under concentrated bombardment. Smashed, sliced, ground down, and burned. It had been cleared away so neatly that it looked as though a professional demolition crew had been called in.

The tranquil lake was no different. After Riette had fallen into it a few times, the blue surface had turned a murky gray. The salamanders underwater had floated up in terror at the poisonous aura, only to be shredded by the aftermath of the fight. The first floor’s boss monster, which had appeared once the number of monsters fell below a certain point, met the same fate.

The water dragon had lifted its head rather impressively, only to become Riette’s foothold and get driven into the water. Then it was grazed by Seong Hyeonje’s lightning, charred black, and split vertically with the words, “You’re in the way.” It had taken less than three minutes.

It was still an A-Class dungeon’s mid-boss. Watching it die as collateral damage almost made me feel sorry for it.

Anyway, the tourist attraction Seong Hyeonje had recommended had become something I wouldn’t want to see even if I were paid. Just look at all those corpses piled up around the lake. Thank goodness the dungeon would reset. Otherwise, Sudam Guild would be in serious trouble... Right, they had already beaten up the guildmaster. There was no more trouble left to cause them. Were they even alive?

‘There are two more people like that.’

Who were the remaining two? There were a few people I could guess, but I couldn’t be sure. They were probably high-ranking in the rankings, though they might not have participated at all. Competing in the rankings was largely about the benefits that came afterward, so a lone Hunter with Riette’s personality might not have been interested.

Fighting by the rules in a prepared ring must feel entirely different from that dogfight.

“Do you think they’ve calmed down now?”

At my question, Noah tilted his head slightly.

- It could still be dangerous to approach carelessly.

“If we’re going down, it should be toward the Sesung Guildmaster.”

Seong Hyeonje would be less ruled by his emotions than Riette. For one thing, he was older.

- You seem closer to the Sesung Guildmaster than I expected.

Noah spoke as he turned by moving the tips of his wings. What kind of misunderstanding was that? It was enough to make me grab the back of my neck.

“We only have a strictly business relationship. The moment neither of us has anything to gain, we’ll be complete strangers.”

If I had still been an ordinary F-Class Hunter like before my regression, would that man have even glanced at me? Back then, we had never crossed paths in the first place. Seong Hyeonje wouldn’t have had the slightest interest in me, and I’d thought he was pretty cool but annoyingly arrogant, the number one ranked Hunter. That was it. Now, he was someone who was irritating because he was irritatingly capable.

Why did his skills have to work so well with mine? No, they were useless to me, but... It would be better if they only benefited me. The problem was that they benefited the kids.

Ah, this was annoying.

“Would you like more cheesecake?”

Seong Hyeonje had brought an entire cake, so maybe he liked it. I fed him one piece and put the remaining slice in my own mouth. Then I tossed the empty box and tray into the air. The dungeon reset could handle the trash disposal.

A few F-Class dungeons were actually used instead of garbage dumps. There were concerns that this might cause side effects, though.

Seong Hyeonje and Riette stood more than a hundred meters apart on the site where the castle had been. This was one of the less thoroughly destroyed areas, so pieces of buildings remained here and there.

If I had to state the result, Seong Hyeonje had won by a modest margin.

Riette’s attack power was no joke, but it only mattered if her attacks landed. Her speed didn’t overwhelmingly surpass his, and as long as Seong Hyeonje had that absurd combat foresight skill, she couldn’t inflict meaningful damage on him.

Meanwhile, Seong Hyeonje could predict his opponent’s movements, which made it a much more unfavorable fight for Riette.

If not for the poison.

‘An S-Class poison skill isn’t something to take lightly.’

Yoohyun could have burned it away, but it seemed Seong Hyeonje’s skills couldn’t cleanly wipe it out. The poisonous aura spread like mist, making it an area-of-effect attack that foresight did nothing against. Seong Hyeonje couldn’t properly approach, while Riette was more than capable of avoiding attacks coming from afar. In the end, the surroundings had suffered more than either of them.

Still, Riette’s injuries were worse. Seong Hyeonje was irritatingly fine. Even that damn white coat of his wasn’t dirty. Did it have some kind of cleaning skill attached to it?

“May I come closer?”

I asked after landing a short distance from Seong Hyeonje. The eyes he turned toward me were cold and fierce. Noah, who had released his beast transformation, instinctively took a step back.

“Of course. I’d rather beg you to come.”

His voice was lower than usual.

“Leave the baby dragon where he is, and don’t move. The poison gave me trouble, so he’s getting on my nerves.”

There was probably a stat difference as well. Noah looked uneasy, but I had an idea why Seong Hyeonje had called me over, so I walked toward him.

Up close, Seong Hyeonje wasn’t entirely unharmed. That was why he had called me. It seemed he hadn’t completely avoided the poisonous aura and had been poisoned. The color of his left hand, which had a shallow direct wound, was particularly different.

“It seems the antidote item isn’t as effective as expected.”

“If it were ineffective, I wouldn’t be this well. Even among S-Class poison skills, those of the cursed poison dragon species are far deadlier. It becomes even more dangerous when the stats are there to support it.”

Seong Hyeonje spoke as though wrapping his left arm around me. That made sense. Attack skills were heavily influenced by stats, so Riette’s poison would be stronger than Noah’s. The types of poison might have been different from the start. Even an S-Class antidote item would take quite a while to work.

Mention of the cursed poison dragon species brought back something I had set aside, making me frown. Just then, Riette strode over. Her clothes were torn in places, and some wounds had yet to be fully healed. With an empty potion bottle in one hand and a faint flush on her face, she looked somewhat like a drunk.

Her mood certainly seemed as good as if she were drunk.

“What? The poisonous aura is completely gone. That’s a little disappointing.”

Riette stopped about five meters away and grumbled.

“Do you need to borrow some potions?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart. I have plenty. It’d be a shame to erase everything right away, wouldn’t it? The potions work so well that they don’t leave behind a single pleasant memory.”

Pleasant memories, my ass. I shouldn’t have asked.

“More importantly, how did you get into the dungeon where Dio Valshecis appeared?”

The timing was too good for it to be coincidence. Riette took out a new potion and answered.

“Pebble told me.”

Noah did? Noah, who had been slowly approaching while watching Riette and Seong Hyeonje like a cat with its fur raised, stopped short. Then he glanced at Seong Hyeonje.

I had a rough idea. One of Seong Hyeonje’s investments in Noah must have been the title, Dio Valshecis’s Twin.

I looked up at the man standing right in front of me. At my silent question, he gave a picture-perfect smile with his eyes.

“I’ll tell you that you’re correct.”

“When you told Noah about the dungeon, didn’t you know you would be discarded?”

“I’m not a prophet.”

So he hadn’t caught on at the time. It was certain that the cult had given the siblings the Dio Valshecis title through Seong Hyeonje. They must have intended to eliminate Seong Hyeonje and create an S-Class Hunter to use in his place.

Once Riette was ready, they had even brought MKC and Sudam into it and made it seem as though they intended to deal with Seong Hyeonje. Most likely, the cult had deliberately made it obvious. They had known him for a long time, even before my regression, so they must have expected Seong Hyeonje to react like this.

The unexpected factor was probably me.

‘Do they not know about my title?’

If they had, they would have waited until I was absent. Then they might have succeeded in dealing with Seong Hyeonje.

I had said Seong Hyeonje held the advantage in the fight between the two, but if Riette poisoned him and dragged things out, she had a good chance of winning. If she had coordinated with the other Hunters and received support, the fight would have favored Riette even more.

‘If Riette had taken the lead, while Choi Seokwon and Yoon Gyeongsu protected the healers, support Hunters, and ranged Hunters, and they had formed a proper team, it really would have been dangerous.’

But Riette had escaped the command of a higher cursed poison dragon species. And that higher cursed poison dragon species...

“Riette, can you tell me in detail what happened when Dio Valshecis appeared? Was there anything unusual?”

“Anything unusual? Other than the dungeon disappearing... Ah, there was another boss monster before Dio Valshecis appeared.”

“Another boss monster?”

“It was like a huge tiger. We were about to kill it when a black dragon suddenly appeared and tore the tiger apart. A golden dragon appeared too. And then...”

Riette tilted her head as she continued.

“Dio Valshecis was easier to catch than expected. It barely attacked us. That was strange. Maybe it was sick.”

Easier to catch. At her words, I unconsciously clenched my teeth.

I had found it a little strange. Five years later, an S-Class dungeon’s cursed poison dragon species. Riette and Noah had safely hunted Dio Valshecis by themselves in a place that must have been more difficult than it was now.

Of course, Riette was strong enough, and Noah’s skills were useful. But it shouldn’t have been enough to make up for a five-year difference.

‘And if there was even a separate original boss monster, did someone from a higher cursed poison dragon species deliberately make Dio Valshecis appear in the dungeon for the Riette siblings’ title...?’

A cursed poison dragon could be made to appear in a dungeon. Deliberately.

The moment I recognized that fact, the blood throughout my body ran cold.

It had been a D-Class dungeon. Even during the period when unrelated monsters had started appearing more often, the disparity had never been that extreme. Raucitas, which had appeared in the dungeon I entered, and Han Yoohyun, who had come to rescue me as though they had planned it together.

As puzzle pieces fell into place and formed a conclusion, my throat felt as though it were drying out.

“...Mr. Seong Hyeonje, tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Anything. Everything you know about those bastards.”

Seong Hyeonje put on an exaggeratedly troubled expression.

“Did I not say I couldn’t tell you?”

“If you were silenced by some kind of contract, I’ll remove it.”

“As expected, you have Curse Resistance too.”

...As expected? That helped clear my head a little, and I stepped back. Seong Hyeonje was looking at me with eyes full of interest.

“Did you suspect it?”

“If you have something superior to the SSS-Class title Dio Valshecis’s Twin, then you must have at least an SSS-Class title. Poison Resistance is certain, so there’s a high chance Curse Resistance came with it. And don’t you have one or two more? You don’t seem to possess related offensive or special skills, so they should be resistance or support types, and high-grade ones at that. Dio Valshecis primarily has beast transformation skills, so its other skills only reached S-Class. Han Yujin, your resistance skills are probably SSS-Class, perhaps even L-Class. Something like that.”

“You said you weren’t a prophet.”

“It’s only a guess. I’d be pleased if I was correct.”

He really was a person I didn’t want anything to do with. I wanted to ask my past self whether I had lost my mind when I spoke a Keyword to him.

“Before making that guess, didn’t you wonder how I obtained such a title? Normally, you’d conclude it was impossible.”

“As long as the performance is good, I don’t care about such trivial history.”

Did he really not care? I’d bet a picnic basket that he had already dug through every inch of my past. Still, since he knew, persuading him would be easier.

“My Curse Resistance skill is L-Class. Will you tell me now?”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not enough.”

...What? I was startled for a moment, but then I finally understood Yoohyun’s behavior from a while back. After asking whether Curse Resistance was L-Class too, he had looked strangely downcast. It seemed Yoohyun had also been silenced by an L-Class cursed contract, one of the same grade as Seong Hyeonje’s.

“An L-Class contract document? What was the price?”

“My right arm and an eye. One of each.”

...Damn it, Yoohyun. You shouldn’t sign a crazy illegal contract document like that!

“You accepted a contract like that?”

“High risk, high return. All I have to do is watch what I say, so it isn’t particularly dangerous. More than anything... People who obviously intend to plot behind the scenes are throwing their calling cards around, and pretending to be blind would be too boring.”

“So did you have fun?”

“...No.”

Seong Hyeonje answered dejectedly. He didn’t look like he was acting. He seemed genuinely disappointed.

“I gained something, but it wasn’t very entertaining.”

“Then use this chance to cut ties with them for good.”

“As I said, it’s an L-Class cursed contract document. The same L-Class resistance will have difficulty breaking it. A conditional curse personally agreed to and signed becomes stronger than its grade suggests.”

“I also have a skill that doubles the effect of skills when facing a cursed poison dragon species.”

His slightly surprised gaze moved between Riette and Noah.

“Does that apply to doubled offensive skill effects too?”

“That shares my skill rather than using it on a cursed poison dragon species. The doubling applies to the sharing skill itself.”

So even an L-Class cursed contract could be broken. If the other party really was a cursed poison dragon species.

“It’s good to be confident, but you haven’t tested it. More importantly, we don’t even know whether the person who wrote the contract document is a cursed poison dragon species.”

“Are you going to keep being silenced because of that? Is that all you are? One eye and one arm. If something goes wrong, I’ll take responsibility no matter what I have to do. I’ll even wring an elixir out of Breaker Guild for you. Or I’ll compensate you with anything else until you’re satisfied, so tell me.”

Tell me who used me to kill my little brother.

“I do cherish Han Yujin very much, but.”

As his voice slowly trailed out, Seong Hyeonje’s hand closed around my throat. Then he lightly pulled me toward him.

“Yujin!”

“It’s fine, please stay still.”

I stopped Noah and looked Seong Hyeonje directly in the eye. If I hadn’t had Fear Resistance, that gaze, which seemed to peer through me, would surely have made me shudder. No, I might have been frightened beyond that and looked away.

But I could face him without a tremor. It wasn’t normal, but I was fortunate it wasn’t.

“I don’t cherish you enough to give up a part of my body.”

“Do you truly think so? It’s not your life, only an arm and an eye. Mr. Seong Hyeonje, I still have much more hidden away.”

I smiled, lifting the corners of my mouth.

“So it’ll become even more interesting from here on.”

Would he miss an opportunity over a mere part of his body? I threw the words at him like a provocation, to a man who might know my value better than I did.

The eyes that had coolly assessed me softened for an instant. His hand released my throat, and he lightly tapped my cheek.

“I hope those aren’t merely words.”

“You’re the one holding the reins, so don’t worry. I’m more concerned you’ll keep your mouth shut even after the contract is safely broken.”

“Would I do something so dull? But Han Yujin, remember one thing. Even if we successfully break the curse, I wagered my arm and eye for you.”

He lowered his head toward me and continued.

“I expect this debt to be repaid properly.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

After I first complain to the gods about why it had to be this man.

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