My head was spinning. I had lost too much blood. Baek Tae-beom urgently supported me, pressing down on the wound with his hand to stop the bleeding. The pain intensified the more he pressed, and I let out a scream without realizing it. A soothing voice tried to comfort me.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Hyung, you’ll be fine… What about the healing-type Hunter?”
“They’re on their way now.”
“Tell them to hurry!”
“Hyung, try drinking this. Hm? Just a little.”
The murmuring of voices surrounded me. Something slid between my parted lips. My vision blurred into darkness. The bitter liquid mixed with the taste of blood, pooling in my mouth. Swallow it, hyung. That’s it. Good. There you go. A soft voice praised me. Every time I blinked through the haze, I saw my room in ruins. The crumbled walls, overturned furniture, the floor wrecked into chaos, and the void painted by long, splattered streaks of blood. Guilt.
They say words have power. Maybe moving into Room 666—a number steeped in bad omens—was the first mistake. How else could this have happened? No. The mistake was my very existence. I clenched what was left of my consciousness through the searing pain that felt like my flesh was being burned away.
Where did it all go wrong…?
Things were fine at first when I brought Kang Si-hoo to my room. We just needed a place to talk, and my dorm was the only place Baek Tae-beom and Kang Si-hoo could meet privately.
Baek Tae-beom suggested we use his room instead, but I refused. That idea didn’t stand a chance.
Kang Si-hoo remarked with a smirk.
“Nice place you’ve got here.”
“Would you like to join Hansung too, Mr. Kang Si-hoo?”
“Aw, too bad. I’ve already got a guild.”
The clueless air he had when we first met was gone. Now he lounged there calmly behind a mask, completely shameless. Baek Tae-beom snapped, voice sharp.
“What the hell are you? What do you want?”
“I already told you. I’m interested in Choi Ga-hyeon.”
“You think saying that will make hyung care about you?”
“I think he already does. Isn’t he, right now?”
Kang Si-hoo said it shamelessly and looked straight at me as if to confirm it. The white mask he wore had two small black dots where his eyes should be—it felt like we were making eye contact.
“Well, I guess I am interested in Mr. Kang Si-hoo… for now.”
“Hyung!”
“Tae-beom, just calm down for a sec.”
“How can I?! You promised to stay with me forever!”
Did I? With how often Baek Tae-beom insisted on staying together, I almost nodded without thinking.
“No, I didn’t. And why would you even bring that up here? That’s not the kind of ‘interest’ I meant.”
“Then what kind of interest is it?!”
“Obviously, it’s interest in his Constellation.”
I steered the conversation back on track. Only then did Kang Si-hoo uncross his arms.
“So you’re not interested in me at all? That’s kinda sad~.”
“Then how about I give you some attention, Mr. Kang Si-hoo? We can talk about how you stalked me, even going so far as to create a fake identity despite already having a perfectly good name.”
“……”
Kang Si-hoo went silent for a moment.
“When did I ever stalk you…?”
“Then what would you call this creepy act of hiding your face behind a mask and tracking me down?”
“Harsh words, don’t you think? Isn’t that a bit much?”
“You should be grateful I haven’t reported you to the Association yet—for forging an identity and infiltrating just to approach me.”
Kang Si-hoo lowered his hands onto his knees, turning toward me completely. A model pose for active listening.
“What exactly do you want to say?”
“That’s my question. What do you want? You didn’t come here just because you were curious.”
I glanced at Baek Tae-beom. His face was grim, like he was ready to leap on Kang Si-hoo and tear him apart.
“If you don’t want to talk, we could resort to force. We have an S-Rank Hunter right here.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Obviously. Of course it’s a threat. You’re a suspicious individual who not only forged an identity but snuck in here claiming to be interested in me.”
Not that he was actually a complete unknown. As far as I knew, he was the protagonist of this world. Kang Si-hoo raised both hands like he was surrendering.
“Alright, alright, no need to paint me like some monster.”
“Take off that mask and maybe I’ll try not to.”
“Then… where should I begin?”
Kang Si-hoo smoothly changed the subject, leaning back into the couch as he began to speak slowly.
“I’m looking for someone.”
That was when I couldn’t help but feel a flicker of confusion—even if I kept it inside. Because in The Apocalypse Chronicles of Another World, there was never a single mention of that.
Kang Si-hoo’s parents were long dead, and he had no surviving relatives. The only person worth “looking for” in his life had been Baek Tae-beom. Just thinking about how earnestly Kang Si-hoo had once tried to reform Baek Tae-beom made me feel like crying.
And now that same man was saying he was looking for someone? It was clear something had gone awry from the very start.
“Who are you looking for?”
“…My parents died one year and nine months ago, on the day of the First Monster Calamity.”
The air suddenly turned heavy. I shut my mouth. A strange chill crawled up my spine. My chest tightened. Kang Si-hoo stared quietly at his toes as he continued in a slow voice.
“I remember the weather being oddly clear that day. My father was driving, but just our luck, we got caught in a fissure. Our whole family ended up trapped inside a dungeon.”
“……”
“There were lots of people in there. We tried to escape, but monsters blocked the entrance—it was hopeless. People were slaughtered, corpses piling up all around.”
I realized what this strange feeling in my chest was.
[The Constellation, ‘One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction,’ is synchronizing with the Holy Vessel.]
“My parents and I tried desperately to survive… but it was impossible. They were slaughtered, right in front of me. Do you know what happened next? The moment they died, I awakened as an Awakened. As if awakening was some kind of reward for their death.”
The weight pressing on me was, without question—
Guilt.
“It was there that I made a contract with a Constellation.”
I looked up. It felt like we made eye contact through the mask.
“That Constellation told me they wanted revenge too. That they wanted to get revenge, just like I did.”
“Revenge?”
Baek Tae-beom blurted out the word, and Kang Si-hoo let out a short laugh.
“My Constellation said this: the First Monster Calamity was orchestrated by someone.”
“……!”
My heart dropped like a stone.
“They told me they’d help me take revenge—and asked for my help in return, to get revenge on their behalf. I said I would.”
I could feel my heart racing out of control. My gaze slowly dropped to the floor at my feet. My head was flushed with heat; I couldn’t concentrate. My ears were ringing. My fingertips felt cold.
“And with the help of my Constellation, Choi Ga-hyeon.”
Kang Si-hoo looked me straight in the eyes as he spoke.
“I found out you were connected to that incident.”
“That’s not possible, hyung would never…!”
“So you’re saying my Constellation is lying?”
Baek Tae-beom seemed completely lost for words. It looked like he wanted to say, That’s not possible, hyung died back then… but couldn’t bring himself to speak it aloud. It wasn’t something you could say to someone that easily. When Baek Tae-beom failed to respond, Kang Si-hoo chuckled dryly and turned back to me.
“So, Choi Ga-hyeon? I’m interested in you. What do you say?”
“……”
“You know why that incident happened, don’t you?”
Of course I did. That incident—at least half of it—had happened because of me. My death, which was originally supposed to occur during the “original” Monster Calamity, had been brought forward due to Oh Kwon-hyuk’s skill. And because of that premature death, the Calamity was triggered earlier than scheduled. That was why the protagonist Kang Si-hoo’s parents had ended up dying.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. Everything had veered off course. The reason Kang Si-hoo came to the <Tomb of the Awakening One> in the first place wasn’t because of anything to do with his parents—but to meet me.
The thought made me feel heavy. My mind was a tangled mess.
“Choi Ga-hyeon.”
Kang Si-hoo’s voice pressed me like a weight, urging me to speak. I found myself bowing my head further and further.
What would happen if I told him the truth? Would he try to kill me? Or would he go after Oh Kwon-hyuk? Kang Si-hoo was no longer the same man I had once known.
That realization oddly brought me a sense of calm. I could no longer treat these people like characters from the original work. The righteous Kang Si-hoo, who once tried to change the world—and Baek Tae-beom, who tried to destroy it all in despair—were no longer here.
“I…”
I lifted my head.
“I’ll speak to your Constellation.”
“What?”
“We clearly need to have a conversation.”
Kang Si-hoo went silent for a moment, then asked with a serious tone,
“Are you out of your mind?”
“No.”
“You’re going to talk to my Constellation? Since when did the world become so convenient that you can just chat with someone else’s Constellation like a phone call?”
Well, it was something close to that.
I suddenly stood up. Kang Si-hoo flinched back at my sudden movement, and Baek Tae-beom looked up at me with concern.
“Then I’ll be back.”
“Back? Where to?”
“To see your Constellation.”
