# Chapter 62
As soon as Dohyun entered the gate, he found Haegang unconscious on the ground.
“Choi Haegang! Choi Haegang, wake up!”
Dohyun shook his body, but there was no response from Haegang. No way, it can’t be. No way. Dohyun struggled to suppress the negative thoughts rising in his mind and placed his ear against Haegang’s chest. Thump, thump. He could hear his heartbeat.
Feeling like he might burst into tears at any moment, Dohyun tightly closed his mouth and carefully placed his trembling hand under Haegang’s nose.
“Ah…”
Thankfully, he was still breathing. Now they just needed to get out of here. Once outside, they could treat him. Since it seemed Haegang had only lost consciousness, Dohyun quickly changed water into a barrier potion. Planning to secure their safety first since monsters could appear at any moment, Dohyun had a sudden thought and instead of drinking the barrier potion, he sprayed it around to create a protective barrier.
‘I might need to attack.’
Dohyun’s ability was one that any Esper would envy, but it had a drawback. Once he drank a potion to use its ability, he couldn’t use another ability until the effects of the first one completely disappeared. The potion would become like ordinary water to Dohyun. Since he didn’t know exactly when the potion’s effects would end, he couldn’t drink it directly.
‘I still don’t know the duration.’
That was another thing he needed to figure out after escaping from here.
Dohyun changed water into a healing potion and sprayed it on Haegang. With the potion’s effect, Haegang soon opened his eyes.
“…”
“Are you alright?”
Haegang, who had been slowly moving his eyes, sat up.
“Is this an emergency gate?”
“It seems so.”
Though there was something suspicious about it. Clearly, that Esper with the yellow eyes had grabbed only Dohyun, as if they knew in advance that a gate would appear.
“What about that Esper?”
“Over there.”
Dohyun stood near Haegang and surrounded them with a barrier. An Esper who had somehow entered was now glaring at Dohyun from outside the barrier.
“You! What did you do to my sister!”
She was thrashing wildly, pounding on the barrier as if trying to shatter it. Despite the pain she must have been feeling from hitting the solid barrier—like punching a wall due to its strength—she didn’t seem to care, which was terrifying. Dohyun gritted his teeth, afraid she might break through the barrier at any moment.
“Did you drink it?”
Haegang asked, looking at the barrier. He too knew the limitations of Dohyun’s potions, which is why he asked. When Dohyun shook his head, Haegang nodded as if to say he’d done the right thing. While they needed to be prepared for monster attacks inside the gate, dealing with the Esper standing guard at the entrance was worrying.
The best solution would be for other Espers to enter the gate before the barrier disappeared. It would be ideal if Somyeong Guild’s people entered, but it wouldn’t matter either way. If the woman was in the same state as Jiwhan, she would be an unregistered Esper.
“Standing next to a Guide like that will make my sister sad.”
The opponent, who had stopped striking the unbreakable wall, now carefully placed her palm against the barrier and raised the corners of her lips. Having gone from angry to calm, and speaking such words with an expression that didn’t look sad at all, it was rather chilling.
Dohyun, watching the opponent who couldn’t approach because of the barrier around him, couldn’t bring himself to remove it. Staying passive without attacking even once wasn’t good, but removing it right now…
-KEEEEEEEEK!
The monsters that had started gathering seemed to be closing in on Dohyun. He still couldn’t decide which ability to use. The best would be Handam’s ability. It was familiar since he’d seen it most often, and it was good for attacks. Especially since the monsters resembled animals, it would be quite effective. But the Esper standing before them and Haegang were the problem.
No, he could somehow defend against the Esper’s attacks. But if he used Handam’s ability, protecting Haegang would become impossible. Even though he could create a barrier, he wouldn’t be able to respond to attacks.
However, he couldn’t just drink the barrier potion and keep defending forever. After drinking the potion, creating a barrier would use Dohyun’s energy, which would burden Haegang during Guiding. Even though Haegang had plenty of Vigor and could receive enough Guiding…
‘She’s an A-rank Esper.’
Because of the amount of energy he felt from the opponent, Dohyun couldn’t make a hasty decision. In a prolonged battle, he, as an S-rank, wouldn’t lose. But he hadn’t been an Esper for long, had only awakened his ability for a short time, and had never used his ability in battle. To prepare for any unexpected situation, he needed to avoid confrontation.
“Won’t you remove this barrier? Then I’ll spare our youngest.”
Nonsense. From the start, nobody would remove the barrier after hearing such words. Dohyun checked his energy mixed in the barrier. Still… He still had enough to endure.
“It sounds like she won’t spare me.”
“…It seems that way.”
“Can you guess the reason?”
Dohyun shook his head. He himself had no idea why they were trying to take him away. Both Jiwhan who had come before and this Esper standing in front of him now—he couldn’t understand them, and it left him with nothing but questions.
“What’s her name?”
“Han Yeonhwa. I remembered as I entered the gate.”
Ironically, what made Dohyun recall Yeonhwa’s name was the appearance inside the gate. Lotus flowers blooming all over the gate. Unlike lotus flowers that grow in water, the lotuses in the gate were growing on land. And through them, wolf-like humanoid monsters were approaching, watching Dohyun.
Dohyun suddenly broke into a cold sweat at the monsters’ behavior. Why…? Pressing his lips tightly, Dohyun turned his head to look at Yeonhwa. The monsters weren’t looking at Yeonhwa. They had fixed their gazes only on Dohyun and Haegang.
“I said I’ll spare you, youngest.”
Yeonhwa even showed the leisure to smile brightly. The monsters surrounded the barrier as if they had no intention of attacking her at all.
“Uh, I’m not seeing things, am I?”
“…I’m seeing the exact same scene as Baek Dohyun right now.”
The monsters weren’t attacking Yeonhwa. No, they weren’t even showing any interest in her. What on earth was going on?
“The barrier option seems better.”
Haegang, who had noticed what Dohyun was contemplating, placed his hand on Dohyun’s and spoke. Given the situation, that seemed right. Stalling for time until another Esper arrived while Guiding would be the safest option.
If Dohyun had been caught alone in the gate, he would have used every method to attack first. But since it was clear that Yeonhwa was targeting Haegang’s life, Dohyun retrieved the power contained in the potion and changed it to a black potion. Dohyun, who was about to drink the potion that had changed into a barrier ability, felt uncomfortable at the sight of Yeonhwa grinning.
“But why does she look so confident?”
“Confident?”
“It’s an emergency gate, so other Espers will definitely come… Then she’ll be outnumbered.”
“Maybe it’s because she’s realized the monsters won’t attack her.”
This was a situation neither Haegang nor Dohyun had ever seen before, making it impossible to comprehend. Unable to predict what would happen, both Dohyun, who was receiving Guiding, and Haegang, who was providing it, were cautious. Could there be something else? Dohyun tried to recall his memories of entering other gates.
When a gate is created, it sucks in things nearby. For a normal gate, since it gathers energy slowly, they check the gauge, cordon off the area, and keep people from getting close until the gate opens, after which ability users who can attack enter. But emergency gates rapidly gather energy, which causes problems. Previously, hadn’t Dohyun detected the sudden influx of energy and pushed Haegang out of range?
“Um… I didn’t know a gate was opening this time.”
“Isn’t it normal not to know about an emergency gate?”
“Of course you wouldn’t know if energy gathers suddenly. But I knew last time.”
Remembering that an Esper’s energy resembles gate energy, Haegang met Dohyun’s eyes. Last time, Dohyun had detected the energy, but this time, he couldn’t detect it at all and had no choice but to watch as Haegang was sucked into the gate. Faced with these completely opposite situations, Haegang’s expression became strange.
“I couldn’t feel the energy properly. Different from the last gate.”
Dohyun had felt the energy even when the gate opened during their mission with the guild. Ultimately, Dohyun didn’t drink the potion but sprayed it in the same place to reinforce the barrier.
“Why didn’t you drink it?”
“If the energy couldn’t be felt, other Espers might not be able to come.”
Energy waves need to be confirmed for communication to be sent and Espers to gather. But if what Dohyun felt was correct, other Espers wouldn’t come.
“You’ve gotten a lot smarter, our Seonwoo.”
Yeonhwa plopped down on the ground, sat cross-legged, and grinned. One of the wolf humanoid monsters approached Yeonhwa and lay down beside her, and Yeonhwa placed her hand on its head, stroking it.
“These are my babies. Say hello.”
“Other people aren’t coming,” Yeonhwa added, causing Dohyun to grit his teeth. As he suspected, this wasn’t an ordinary gate. Monsters obeying an Esper? Does that make any sense?
Usually, monsters attack Espers. To devour them because they possess similar energy. But these monsters were acting as if Yeonhwa was their master, showing affection and rubbing their faces against her.
“Come with us, Seonwoo. We just need Seonwoo.”
He couldn’t understand why they were targeting him like this. Dohyun turned to sit protectively with Haegang behind his back.
“We left you outside for too long. We should have kept you properly, right? Don’t you miss your brother and sisters? How much we loved our youngest.”
It was a chilling statement. To Dohyun, they were violent abusers who had inflicted trauma that couldn’t be erased. How could such a person so casually say those things?
Dohyun had never been angry. Having only seen people who got angry at him, even when rage welled up inside him, he would swallow it down and maintain his usual expression on the outside. It was the same with everyone.
For the first time. For the first time in his life, Dohyun lost the way to contain this anger that was growing and trying to burst out.
How can you say such things? How did I endure those hellish days? Even now, I’m struggling because of memories that still appear in my dreams.
“Baek Dohyun!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
