Chapter 84: S-ranker Yeon Hwawoo (1)

I had asked Peika to destroy all electronics within and around the pension. As a lightning elemental, she was skilled in detecting electricity. It was something that only she could do.

Smartphones, cameras, security cameras, monitors, etc. Not a single electronic device was spared. Although it required a lot of mana, it was easily solved with two bottles of Mana Potions. Unfortunately, even Ye-Eun and my phones were destroyed.

Although the Blood Succubus must have put some effort into removing the evidence, I wanted to be sure. Peika was perfect for the job. As an elemental, cameras could not see her, and as a lightning elemental, she had talent in easily breaking electronic gadgets.

What I was most worried about were the memories of the students that were controlled by the Blood Succubus. Depending on the circumstances, I might need to completely modify my plans. Thankfully, I managed to rouse and question a student, who could not remember anything. In fact, the student could only barely remember coming to the MT.

I was glad I didn't need to silence all the witnesses. Ah, the student I woke up? I made him chug alcohol until he passed... I mean, slept. He would probably not remember the questions I asked.

Next, we created our alibis. First, while the students were sleeping from the aftereffects of being under the succubus' control, I made Ruyue clean us up. As an ice elemental, she cleaned us as following.

[Eit, freeze!]

Like that, she froze everything (blood, dust, etc) on our bodies except our clothes. We then wiped off and threw everything in the toilet. With that, we didn't need to take a shower or wash our clothes. After experiencing the power of elementals, Su Ye-Eun touched her body with a blank expression, then became excited.

"Amazing! I want one too!"

[I hate you! Scary!]

After retorting to Ye-Eun, Ruyue flew toward me and hid behind my head. She couldn't hear or see you anyways, Ruyue.

"Drink this. We have to get rid of your injuries too."

As I patted Ruyue, I gave Ye-Eun a potion. It was the potion I chose when the Floor Masters didn't drop elixirs or the equipment parts I wanted.

Since I couldn't give the potions from the Floor Shop to others, I had to give her one of these potions, of which I only had a little amount.

"What's this?"

"A potion. You'll find out if you drink it."

As expected, Ye-Eun made a fuss soon after. I ignored her and healed my own injuries. With this, we were perfectly clean.

What? It would be weird if our surroundings were a mess and we were perfectly clean? Of course, it would. But there was a reason for us to be this clean. We had to pretend we were never here tonight. When people began to investigate, the people at the scene of crime would be questioned first. Although we might just be burying our heads in the sand, we had to try to avoid it first.

"People usually sleep in other rooms anyways. We should pretend we did that too."

"I-In another room... with just us two!? Uuu, I'm nervous."

"No, we're obviously going to be with others..."

"..."

Hey, why were you making that clearly disappointed face? Even as I was lost for words at her expression, I cleaned the room that became a mess from the fire, ice, and lightning.

Although no one would find out I did it, it was best to get rid of as much evidence as possible. I also picked up the students I threw out into the hallway and threw them back in. With that, everything was more or less done.

"Alright, now we just have to go to some other room, pretend to have fainted, and act surprised when we wake up in the morning."

"Shin, you're evil..."

"It's for our peaceful lives, so cooperate."

My plan was as followed. Tomorrow, people would freak out when they saw that people had died and that Chloe Blanc had disappeared. New Moon Agency would deploy Guardian to investigate without being able to obtain much information. At least, I hoped they wouldn't. I had used two elementals to get rid of the evidence. If they found dirt on me, they would reassess my ability as an Elementalist.

Anyways, I would then appear a few days later as Yeon Hwawoo. I would tell the New Moon Agency that I coincidentally met a succubus that claimed to be the owner of a dungeon beyond the Gate, and promptly took care of her. Although the plan seemed full of holes, the succubus' disguise ability was real, so I could just play around it.

The whole world had to find out about this incident. They needed to understand that dungeon bosses had spread out across Earth, so they could prepare themselves for it.

The things I had to be wary about were how to explain me running into the succubus who had left the pension, or the people from Guardian that would get on my back trying to get the corpse of the succubus from me. Of course, I would insist that I met the succubus by chance and I had no reason to give them the succubus' corpse. Beginning from the succubus' eyes Ye-Eun took out, I would not let even a single hair of the succubus fall into the hands of the government. Anyone that dared to covet my belongings would get a beating from me. I would have no mercy.

For the record, I exchanged the eyes Ye-Eun took out for taking her out for fries five times. Although I thought I was taking advantage of her, she was the one who offered. Just like that, the succubus' golden eyes ended up in my hands. I decided to give something to Ye-Eun later to make up for it. In fact, I already knew what to give her.

It was time to carry out my plan. Ye-Eun and I found a room to go into. As the succubus' charm had reached this place, everyone was lying on the ground fainted. We found a place to sit and leaned against each other. Once I sat down, the tension built up in my body released, making me sigh naturally.

"Huu... I want to lie down and sleep."

"Give up."

"Yeah, I did."

Who would find a nice place to lie down and sleep in this mess? I decided to be happy that I could at least be clean as I leaned against Ye-Eun. Just like that, we stayed silent for a little while. Ye-Eun was the first one to break the silence.

"... You won't ask?"

"You can talk about it when you're ready."

"..."

She went silent again, then as if to say everything she had been holding back, she opened her mouth again.

"You see... I fought against monsters in front of my family."

"Family, huh?"

"Yeah. For some reason, whenever I see monsters, I get the urge to fight them. That time... before I realized it, I was pulling out the monster's heart with my bare hands."

"..."

I imagined a pretty girl laughing as she took out a monster's heart. It was indeed not the most pleasant image. In any case, she had an innate gift. An innate gift for fighting. Even while she was usually perfectly normal, whenever she saw monsters, she would want to shred them to pieces.

Monsterphobia? Absurd. She was a monster slaughterer.

"I can't forget the way they were looking at me then... it was as if they weren't looking at a human being, much less their own family member. Even though I saved them, even though I was their daughter and sister... In the end, I couldn't stand it and left the house to live by myself."

Apparently, ever since that day, she would freeze when she saw monsters because she remembered the way her family looked at her. I never imagined something like that could have happened to Ye-Eun.

"But the day I met Shin, watching you fight... I thought, 'wow, so you can be this cool and beautiful while fighting'..."

"What? I didn't hear that towards the end."

Plus, I didn't think I was that cool. If I remembered right, I just pierced a pigeon with an iron pipe.

"A-Anyways! I thought good things would happen if I stayed with you."

"You should have said it earlier and asked for help."

"H-How could I...? It's hard for me to say it, even now."

"Sorry, I was too thoughtless."

Ye-Eun stopped talking for a moment. I waited silently. Soon, she continued.

"But today, because you... looked like you would get killed..."

"I would have, if not for you."

"I wanted to continue pretending like I had monsterphobia. I didn't want to show you my ugly side."

"Like I said, you were cool."

With a light smile, Su Ye-Eun continued.

"... When the thought of you dying crossed my mind, I forgot my parents' faces for an instant. Before I noticed, with my hands... I was digging out that woman's eye."

"So you knew where to attack instinctively. I can't believe I didn't realize you had such talent before. As a martial artist, I'm ashamed."

"And because Shin kept saying I was cool... I forgot my parents faces forever."

"Forever!?"

'You're sure you won't remember them for life!?' At my question, Su Ye-Eun nodded her head vigorously.

"From now, I think I'll be fine if I'm with you. Yup, I'm sure I will."

"... Good to be of help."

I was happy that such an ability user of such caliber could finally use her full potential. I was happier that that person was my friend, and I was extremely happy that she had stepped up to protect me. Though, because the amount of contact her body was making with mine kept increasing, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"So take good care of me... forever."

"Like I said, forever is exaggerating too much. Regardless, take good care of me too. As ability user comrades."

"Hehe... I really like you."

"Yeah, well, me too."

Then, Ye-Eun suddenly shot up and held my shoulders. Her eyes, which had turned black after the fight ended, were expanded to a scary size. The shoulders she grabbed onto hurt. Then, she said some nonsense that I would never forget about for the rest of my life.

"Then is today our day 1!?"

"No, that's a bit... I don't have any plans to date for a while. I have to run the dungeon."

"..."

Ye-Eun paled and froze in place. In truth, I froze too. What just happened? Although I rejected her on reflex, did she just confess to me!? What kind of a confession was that? That was the second confession out of the blue since the one from my third year of high school! Was it a prank? But I should have broken all the cameras already! I fell into a state of panic.

Ye-Eun fell on the ground.

"I thought you liked me..."

"That's called being overconfident."

"But you bought me fries..."

"I think your standard of judgement has long passed a normal person's level."

Although I liked her, I had never thought of her as a member of the opposite sex. To think that was what she thought this whole time, it seemed Ye-Eun has also been single her whole life. Ren, be happy. I found another comrade!

"D-D-D-Do you maybe have someone you like?"

"No."

"Good... Then I'll wait! I can wait!"

"No, that's a bit pressuring..."

Ye-Eun ignored what I said and openly looked relieved. When I was watching her, the back of my neck began to itch. I couldn't believe that a girl this pretty liked me.

Of course, compared to the days when I was gorilla-bodied, I looked much better now. But back then, I had once given up, thinking, 'in this world, it might be impossible to date without taking appearance into consideration.' Just because someone said she liked me, I couldn't just say, 'Oh, really? That's what I thought.'

I felt like I was dreaming, like I was floating among the clouds. As such, although I was a bit sorry, I couldn't accept her confession.

Thus, I gave her an offer.

"I can't really say it's in its stead, but Ye-Eun."

"Y-You want to start out as just friends? But we're already friends..."

"No, it's not something dumb like that."

"Something dumb!?"

"There's something I want to offer to an Awakened full of talent and desire to beat monsters."

"...?"

Looking at Ye-Eun who was frozen without understanding what I was saying, I spoke with a smile.

"Do you want to try becoming a First Dungeon explorer?"