In his blurred vision, Sehyun saw what was left behind: the severed head of another albino beast, caught in the door’s gap. Its jaws were stretched wide in a grotesque grimace that made it clear just how close they had been to being devoured.
A second slower, and they would have been dead.
“…Jaeyoung-ah.”
Sehyun’s trembling hand touched Jaeyoung’s burning cheek. It was scorching, like molten rock. Holding that blazing skin, Sehyun pressed his face against Jaeyoung’s chest. The faint pounding of his weak heart tormented him more than anything else.
He clenched his teeth, but he couldn’t stop the sobs. It was his first time feeling such raw despair, such utter helplessness. And it hurt.
***
“…Mr. Sehyun. You should eat something.”
Sehyun’s reddened eyes shifted sideways. Gwak Junghan stood there, holding a bowl of porridge in the night air. Sehyun’s gaze drifted past him, sinking toward the ground.
“…Is Jaeyoung… any better?”
Gwak Junghan said nothing. That silence spoke enough. Only a few tens of minutes ago, the sub-class healer of the village had visited Sehyun’s quarters. She had once worked as a nurse, and though her class was not specialized in recovery, she had insisted she could help, that she was confident in treatment.
Sehyun had stepped outside when he saw the shadow fall over her face as she examined Jaeyoung’s state.
Hours had passed since then, and still the healer had not come out. Nor had Sehyun gone back in.
“…Please. Tell me honestly.”
With a heavy sigh, Gwak Junghan sat beside him, his cool skin brushing Sehyun’s shoulder.
“…His eyes and spine have melted. He regains consciousness now and then, but… they said it would be best to prepare yourself. The healer’s skill can only reduce pain. At most, he has four days.”
“…And the village head?”
“He’s punishing those men.”
Interrogating them, more likely. At the word “punish,” Sehyun let out a bitter laugh. Someone had nearly lost his life, and yet the ones who abandoned their companions and ran were facing nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
He understood the headman’s position—he had to balance fairness and logic when assigning punishment. But what burned was the lie. They had deceived both the head and the villagers.
“It won’t be a light punishment. To prevent this from happening again, the headman knows how serious this is.”
“Maybe so.”
The three who abandoned Sehyun and Jaeyoung had assumed he would die in that cave. They had fled back to the village and twisted the story in their favor.
On Elix, abandoning your comrades was one of the gravest sins. Even if the king let it slide, retainers would not. Sehyun understood why, now.
He could not forgive them. He could not forgive the expressions they wore, the guilty avoidance in their eyes, when he came back carrying Jaeyoung on his back.
“So three days without food is considered proper punishment, is it?”
When Sehyun and Jaeyoung appeared and the truth came out, the elaborate lies of those men collapsed instantly.
Worse still, they had the audacity to justify themselves even then. Clinging to Village Head Kim Gapjun’s leg, they protested without shame, never once concerned about Sehyun or Jaeyoung.
‘W-we almost died too! We only ran away! They stayed behind to fight, that’s why they lived—we ran, that’s all! Our only crime is trying to survive, so why punishment?!’
‘Headman, we’ve never even hunted a deer in our lives—how could we fight a beast? What, were we supposed to die there?!’
‘Headman, please… we didn’t lie! They hogged the magic stones, then got caught by the beast, that’s all! W-we’re the ones wronged! What, should we have come back missing an arm and a leg to satisfy you?!’
Sehyun and Jaeyoung had brought back seven magic stones. The others brought three. No, not even that—those three had certainly already gone to the Daegong in secret, hidden from the headman’s eyes.
And soon, the Daegong would eliminate them to silence them. Even villages were nests of intrigue. Elix was that kind of place. The Daegong was also a power the king had to guard against.
“…It’s all my fault.”
“This is not your fault, Mr. Sehyun.”
“No. It is. All of it is my fault.”
From the moment Jaeyoung became a magic-stone carrier because of him, to gritting his teeth and fighting to protect him—it all felt like his fault. Reaching out to the crying boy, failing to push away the trust directed at him, keeping him close… every single choice seemed like a mistake.
The guilt strangled him. Even surviving and returning felt wrong.
“Mr. Sehyun. Jaeyoung is stronger than you think. And if it had been me in his place, I would have made the same choice. He keeps calling for you. Go in to him.”
Sehyun closed his eyes heavily. Then he wiped his tears and rose. As he turned to enter the hut, he spotted Kim Gapjun approaching, waddling at a faster pace than usual. Hands clasped behind his back as always, but his face was rigid. Clearly, he had just received news of Jaeyoung’s condition from someone who had gone in with the healer.
Sehyun hesitated, then stepped inside first. Inside the cramped room, people were gathered around Jaeyoung. They all looked up as Sehyun entered, but no one spoke. The silence was filled only with ragged breathing.
“Hy… hyung…”
“…I’m here, Jaeyoung.”
Forcing calm into his voice, Sehyun sat where the healer had been and gripped Jaeyoung’s molten-hot hand.
“Hyung… you… okay…?”
“Yeah. I’m not hurt at all. Now we just need you to get better.”
“I… I don’t think…”
“No. You will. Hyung will make you better.”
At his words, the healer bit her lip with an anguished expression.
Moments later, the door slammed open. Two men rushed in, followed by Kim Gapjun and Gwak Junghan.
At the sight of Jaeyoung, Kim Gapjun clicked his tongue. His gaze moved to the healer sitting by Sehyun. A look that told her to step aside. She yielded without protest.
“You, move too.”
Kim Gapjun pulled back the blanket and pushed Sehyun away. The hand Sehyun held slipped into his own grip. Jaeyoung whimpered, resisting, but soon fell quiet at the man’s scolding tone.
“A brat should be whining from pain, not calling for his hyung like a baby.”
Muttering, Kim Gapjun examined him, from his charred, blackened legs up to his ruined eyes.
“How did this happen?”
“…Because of a skill. It was an albino beast.”
“An albino… tch, it’s a miracle you made it back alive. Why in hell did you end up in that kind of dungeon…”
“Albinos… are they that strong? Even in a level 1 dungeon?”
The healer asked carefully. Everyone except Gwak Junghan nodded.
“They’re boss beasts that spawn at random. Even ten men might not take one down. If you see one, best not to touch it. They’re usually calm unless provoked. If it attacked first… then this kid’s trait or skill must have set it off. It felt threatened.”
‘Monster Domination.’
That was what Jaeyoung had said. It must have been related. But Sehyun said nothing.
“If it was a skill that caused this… then it was a conditional skill. If he’d been level 30 or so, he wouldn’t be like this. But using a skill you can’t control at level 3? This is the result. If he’d used it at level 1, he’d have died instantly. Odds are he knew, and used it anyway.”
Kim Gapjun shook his head with pity. Staring at Jaeyoung’s burnt hand, he delivered the heavy truth.
“…Without an Elixir, he won’t make it. Left as he is… he doesn’t have long.”
There was nothing to be done here. Faces fell. Only Gwak Junghan kept his eyes open, his expression grave, as he looked at Kim Gapjun.
“You mean… an Elixir could heal him? Where can I get one? I’ll bring it.”
“Elixirs only drop past the 50th floor. And even then, you could clear a hundred times and never see one. It’s that rare. The marketplace has some listed, but the price is outrageous. They’re not for sale, they’re bait. If you contact them carelessly, you’ll walk into a trap.”
The marketplace system was an exchange between empires, a trade network where items were bought and sold freely. But with no set price, abuses were rampant.
And many listings were traps to lure out empires, opening them up to invasion. Approaching blindly would reveal the village’s location.
“…So what you’re saying is—there’s no way.”