Damn Hunter Life Chapter 46
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The first thing I saw was my hair scattered on the wooden floor.
‘How did I lose consciousness? Now I’m even passing out in the middle of talking.’
My temple touching the floor felt cold. I waited obediently without getting up right away to deal with low blood pressure, and at the edge of my vision I could see someone’s crouched knees.
It was Yang Pyo with a stern expression. Even seeing that I was awake, Yang Pyo didn’t say much.
“If you were going to bring me here, you should have laid me on a bed. My arm is numb…”
“…Don’t you understand the situation?”
“What?”
Only then did I look around at the gloomy voice.
This was my house. However, it wasn’t the living space but the storage room. The only door was firmly closed and Yang Pyo’s large back was blocking it.
Yang Pyo had put me down in an empty corner and blocked the door with his threatening bulk, trapping me inside.
Crucially, the phone with the recorded conversation was also in Yang Pyo’s hands.
“You can’t leave until I let you go. Got it? I’m being honest – if we get into a physical fight, it’ll be harder for me not to hurt you.”
Speaking rather ominously, Yang Pyo had a more resolute gaze than ever before.
So Yang Pyo, this bastard—
“You wrote a script for what to say while I was unconscious, didn’t you?”
“Ah, really…”
The ultimate coward tried to act tough. I giggled without any sense of tension. Yang Pyo got annoyed.
“I knew you wouldn’t be scared, but I wish you’d at least have some sense of danger.”
Whether he complained or not, I felt very cheerful.
It’s kidnapping, not fainting! I didn’t just faint by myself. I’m happy.
“You should have tied me up if you wanted to do this. If you want to make it realistic, you should have tied me up.”
I sat up. I raised both arms and pretended to be tied to the wall. Yang Pyo’s incredulous gaze followed my spread arm joints.
The reaction was funny, but this position would make my arms hurt, so I decided to try self-bondage in a different way. I knelt down and put my hands behind my back. Yang Pyo looked down at me in amazement.
“Don’t do that.”
“If you say don’t, I shouldn’t. It’s a kidnapper’s demand.”
Yang Pyo’s jaw twitched. Though he was the one who had confined me, his resolve was crumbling at a rapid pace.
He doesn’t even have the guts to threaten anyone.
‘Still, he did use his head in his own way.’
“The mindset of confining a kidnapped person in their own house. That’s smart? The only place you can’t escape to even with a return skill is your own home.”
Strictly speaking, there was also the method of teleporting to another successor, but let’s not point that out.
I had no reason to run away in the first place.
It’s not because Yang Pyo isn’t the type to harm me.
Just like Yang Pyo is trying to silence me even while doing this, I still have things to talk about with Yang Pyo too.
“But why couldn’t you do anything against your friend earlier? …Is he really a friend?”
I brought the topic back to the starting point.
Yang Pyo, who realized who I was talking about, avoided my gaze. Still, unlike earlier, he seemed to have collected himself somewhat and was quiet.
Since he had calmed down too, it seemed okay to make progress.
“What can you do? You can’t hit my head with a hammer to erase my memory. So tell me the whole story. With just the conversation I heard, the information is limited, so I might misunderstand you badly. But Yang Pyo, you’re not someone who would do bad things.”
While approaching as a stranger, I chose the most gentle expressions possible.
This matter was a sensitive topic from the start. If this were ordinary Korean society, it would be something to consider telling a teacher about, or calling the police.
Moreover, he carries the fate of being a successor. I, as an outsider, can’t fathom how much Yang Pyo’s insides have been rotting over this.
I’m definitely the one who should be cold, but Yang Pyo was trembling more than me. It didn’t really suit his robust body like a judo athlete.
Yang Pyo, with his head deeply bowed, began to stammer out his story.
Half wanting to feel relieved by letting out what he’d been suffering alone, half trembling in fear of the consequences of confessing to a third party.
“I really, I didn’t know that bastard was like that, and he did have a tendency to speak harshly and unpleasantly… But I really didn’t know he was a school bully, we even went to different high schools…”
This guy with no talent for eloquence rambled the whole time. Yet surprisingly, he explained quite properly from the beginning.
His timid and fearful nature, asking Kim Sang-ju for help to improve the phobia and insomnia he got from gates because of that, the weakness that was grasped that way, turning a blind eye to Kim Sang-ju’s behavior because he didn’t want rumors to spread…
Drawing out all of his shameful parts in front of someone else, and in that process facing those things himself, would definitely not be easy. Yang Pyo admirably didn’t stop talking while holding back his surging emotions.
And perhaps he had unconsciously taken a step of growth through this, as some of his speech habits that tended to subtly blame others had partially disappeared.
He said it all at once.
“It’s my fault. I was stupidly manipulated by that fucking bastard and made things worse. I should have somehow told people around me when I first saw it…”
I neither affirmed nor denied it.
I cleared my throat slightly so my voice wouldn’t be buried in Yang Pyo’s anxious breathing.
“When you say ‘people around you,’ where do you mean?”
“Huh? Oh, the association…?”
Yang Pyo unconsciously answered his thoughts without understanding.
‘Woo Sae-geon’s name didn’t immediately come up.’
Strictly speaking, Woo Sae-geon would be someone more reliable in daily life than the association.
To properly solve this incident, it would be urgent to find out whether Woo Sae-geon was aware of the despicable acts happening among regular students.
This was a situation where I couldn’t rely on the original work. Whether such things didn’t happen in the original, or happened but weren’t shown, they weren’t written about anyway.
Even in the original work, there wasn’t trivial information like what they ate on which day, who they met, what time they slept. That was natural. The original was a story centered on Ja Hyeong-woo, operating within the scope of what Ja Hyeong-woo knew.
Yang Pyo seemed to have nothing more to say. So additional questions were my job.
“Is the insomnia severe?”
Instead of opening his mouth, Yang Pyo did something else.
Earth energy swirled around Yang Pyo’s face. No, had it been there from the beginning, not just appearing now? When Yang Pyo moved his hand, the earth energy smoothly peeled away following that movement. Like taking off a mask.
The moment I saw Yang Pyo’s real face that he’d been hiding, I was speechless. His eyes were sunken and his dark circles were deep.
‘Are these guys conspiring? Ja Hyeong-woo too, why do they all have mask skills? Who else among the Twelve Zodiac is using one?’
Yang Pyo seemed to have given up all pretense in front of me. With a face that said whatever happens happens, he put his skill back on like wearing a mask.
“Hunter School store doesn’t sell sleeping pills. It seems to classify them as drugs. I was shocked when I searched for them.”
“What about the skill you used to knock me out earlier?”
“It doesn’t work on myself.”
Then how do you cure insomnia?
Hunter School has healers, but no psychiatrists. Even if you get examined by an outside doctor remotely, prescription drugs can’t be brought in.
‘Isn’t there anyone among the Twelve Zodiac with sleep skills?’
As I became lost in thought, the conversation reached a conclusion.
Then it must be time for a conclusion. Yang Pyo looked at me with a devastated expression.
“Are you going to spread it around?”
I didn’t beat around the bush.
“Yeah.”
Then, before Yang Pyo could jump up, I immediately continued.
“I’ll gather evidence, request a report to the association, and leave the judgment to the people too, making a very noisy public issue of it. That bastard, not you.”
And while we’re at it, let’s sort out the factional fighting among water attribute hunters all at once.
Yang Pyo looked conflicted. Looking at his innocent eyes that were on the verge of breaking, I felt a heavy sense of responsibility for a moment.
If my voice right now couldn’t give Yang Pyo trust, I might regret the choice I’d made to maintain a delinquent image until now.
“That bastard is trash. You’re not without fault either, but… I see you as a victim.”
You really tried hard to prevent that bastard from hitting others, even if it meant catering to Kim Sang-ju’s whims. Even helping Kim Sang-ju embezzle points while suppressing your nausea.
Yang Pyo fixed his gaze on me. Those shiny pupils suddenly gave me slight goosebumps.
The biggest among the Twelve Zodiac, but a very tender guy.
“Yang Pyo. Once you have fear, it’s hard to shake it off. Sometimes, external contact is necessary.”
This was comfort for everything currently tormenting Yang Pyo.
Why were we faced with such a fate?
Children saving the world – this should have just been a story that only appeared in fairy tales or comics.
“From now on, ignore all of Kim Sang-ju’s contacts and leave it to me once. You’ve suffered alone enough already. Just hand it over. I’d stake my life on not betraying you.”
The whites of Yang Pyo’s eyes became slightly bloodshot. He bit his lips hard, then carefully nodded while lowering his head.
Good. With this, I’ve obtained victim number 1’s consent.
Moreover, regarding other problems, I intended to reach out my hand.
“You can’t sleep before and after going to gates?”
“That, yes.”
“Then you won’t be able to sleep tonight either?”
“…”
Until now, thanks to Kim Sang-ju staying by his side at night, he seems to have somehow endured without being discovered by others.
But recently, Kim Sang-ju’s help would have disappeared too.
But if that’s simply a problem of needing someone to be there… wouldn’t I be able to do it too?
“I’m sleeping at your house tonight. I won’t accept refusal.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
