Chapter 77

77

Soon, we landed on the island.

"Are you ready?"

Kim Yoo-Jeong took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"Yes."

"Let's go in."

As we entered the gate, I started to smell the scent of salt and the ocean.

"Wow..." Yoo-Jeong exclaimed. Her amazement and wonder was understandable. The view around us was beautiful, like Atlantis.

Kim Yoo-Jeong and I walked along the shore slowly, trying to find some clues.

After a moment of searching, we found one. We had gone into a collapsed building on the shore, where we found some paintings. It was more like a giant mural along one wall.

Yoo-Jeong and I stepped forward to inspect it.

Ash offered that Emilia could accompany us, but I told him that I wanted to go in with Yoo-Jeong alone.

Anyway...

"Do you have interpretation skills?"

"Yes. I bought a lot of skill stones, and interpretation was one of them."

"Good."

Kim Yoo-Jong smiled awkwardly. "But don't expect too much. I'm not an expert."

I smiled and asked her what rank her skill was. She answered and said that it was only D-rated. I didn't really need interpretation; all I needed to do was smash everything here.

Kim Yoo-Jeong, after inspecting the mural, told me what it meant. "I think this was the place where they conducted rituals. They sacrificed humans as tributes."

"Tributes?"

With this, Kim Yoo-Jeong pointed at the part of the mural where a human was lying down on the temple, a gigantic sea serpent eating it. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the person had an elongated ear, just like an elf.

"Is that the altar?"

While I was looking at the painting, Yoo-Jeong pointed somewhere beyond the collapsed building. The structure Yoo-Jeong pointed to looked like a pyramid with an altar on top. She looked around the area before we headed to the top of the pyramid.

As expected, we found an altar at the summit of the pyramid. Seeing that, I finally understood this gate. This was like the gate that I had cleared in London.

There was a tombstone here as well, explaining the legend of Tiamat.

The boss of this gate was Rahab.

"I guess that's Rahab."

"...Yes."

I read the other inscriptions on the tombstone.

"It says here that this place is called Atlantis."

"It really is Atlantis. Interesting."

Gates certainly were interesting.

"This one is especially fascinating."

"Why?"

"Every gate we have entered had a monster that was revived from death, but this one never died."

"...Huh?"

The monster lying in the blue ocean was so large that it was hard to see its whole body all at once.

"It's far away. Also..."

I smiled. I was very much certain.

"It's the strongest gate that I've ever been to."

"Huh?"

"Raul and my brother would have to fight together to hunt this one down."

The monster's size was about thirty to forty meters. Even larger than that, I suppose.

"It's sleeping right now. Shall we walk for a while?"

She blinked in surprise. "How can you be so confident?"

"That's just how I live."

"......"

"Let's walk so that you can relax for a bit."

She nodded, and we went out of the building to look around. It was quite interesting to see Atlantis from the famous legend with my own eyes.

Yoo-Jeong exclaimed, "It's so magnificent!"

She was right. This was amazing for me as well.

It was literally a big, marine city. With the sun shining beautifully in the sky above us, I felt like we were in a scene from a movie.

"Can we take a photo of it?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're my boss."

That made me laugh.

"There's no need to ask. Do what you want."

So she did. I looked at her as she happily took photos of the scenery. To be honest, I had never taken photos by myself. Even when I saw beautiful scenes in Valhalla, I couldn't take photos of them because there were no cameras in that place.

I just kept the memory of those places in my mind.

Kim Yoo-Jeong noticed my look and asked, "...Would you like to take a photo with me?"

That sounds alright, so I nodded. But...

"I don't really know how to pose well. Would that be alright?"

She smiled awkwardly. "I don't pose well either. I don't take photos that often."

"But don't girls enjoy taking photos? It may just be my stereotype, but a pretty woman like you seems like you'd take good photos."

I meant it. She really was a pretty woman.

"I'm not flattering you; I'm always honest. Besides, pretty people know that they are pretty. Don't you agree?"

Kim Yoo-Jeong smiled awkwardly again. See? I was correct.

She then touched her watch and stood closer to me.

"Smile, Hwan. This place is great."

So I smiled, and our photos were taken. The result was quite impressive.

"You can take good photos. Were you lying?"

"It's because of the view. Don't flatter me too much."

There was suddenly a strange atmosphere between us. Kim Yoo-Jeong turned to me and asked.

"What's with that look?"

I felt this from the hotel before, but...

"Are you still nervous?"

"......."

"You don't have to hide that from me."

I didn't ask anything more and just observed her.

"I still remember that day vividly. The day my parents were murdered."

She was talking about her past. Because of the shock, she had to stay in the hospital for a long while. That was her trauma.

Her hands were shaking as she continued to speak.

"You told me you were going to give me a chance. I promised myself not to let that chance go... but it's too complicated."

It was understandable. Her trauma was quite deep.

She was like a younger version of me; I also had to suffer from a painful memory.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and looked around the water, looking for a nice spot. In an instant, I lifted her up and threw her into the sea. She splashed into the water, and I walked towards her. She rose up in surprise and asked why I did that.

"Is it still complicated?"

"Huh?"

"If you still feel that way, it gets better when you get in the water."

She then laughed and pulled me in. I didn't resist, letting my body fall and splash as well. I stood up and noticed that the spot was much deeper than I had thought.

Kim Yoo-Jeong was still smiling as she came closer to me.

"What's with that face? Got something to ask?"

"How many women have you slept with?"

I didn't need to think about it too much. "I've slept with three women."

"Just three?"

"One was the princess of a country. She betrayed me, so I broke up with her. The other was my companion. We dated for a long time, but we eventually broke up as well. And the third one is you."

She did not expect to hear that. She probably thought that I had slept with more women than that.

I smiled. I never lie and don't have any secrets as well. There was no need to hide.

"Why? Do you think I've slept with a lot of women?"

She nodded and whispered. "...I'm sorry. That was rude of me."

I shook my head.

"You had the right to think so. After all, I took your first time. At least you now know that the man who took your first won't lie to you."

Her heart was beating so fast, I could hear it. She then looked at me and said, "I want to forget everything."

"What do you want to do?"

"...Will you sleep with me?"

That made me smile. I knew her emotions well.

We were about to make love in the ocean. This was new; I had never done this before.

I touched her skin. It was as soft as I remembered.

She took off every piece of clothing she had on, baring her body to me. She hugged me tight as if she wanted to forget everything.

Her breath was hot as she looked at me clearly.

And with that, we made love.