Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 138
#138. The Spring That Never Returned
2022.12.16.
Roje, who had been flustered at the sight of the fruit, belatedly straightened her expression and said.
"What... are you talking about, I don't quite..."
The hand that tucked her hair behind her ear was trembling faintly.
Through her tattered clothes, Roje's white nape was faintly visible.
"..."
At that moment, Eunha's gaze subtly changed.
It was only for a split second, but Eunha had clearly seen it.
The small, red scar on her nape.
It didn't look like a burn or a scratch.
Eunha had seen a similar scar before.
From a distance, it looked just like a red dot—.
'A scar that looks exactly like the one I saw on Minju's right nape.'
Minju, who had returned from the dead in the Unknown Gate, had returned with that unknown scar.
"That thing on your neck."
Eunha slowly opened her mouth.
At that, Roje tried to cover her neck by pulling her tattered gown together.
But Eunha had already confirmed the scar.
"It looks like the same scar that was on Minju's nape."
Minju.
At that name, Roje's gaze changed in an instant.
"Minju! Where did Minju go? I'm sure I saw him come near my unit... He might be hurt."
If I don't treat him soon...
Roje, trailing off, began to look around.
Was it her imagination?
Roje seemed to have become a different person.
Eunha's gaze, as she stared at her, also changed.
An act?
It was too realistic for that.
Eunha, who had been staring blankly at her, fiercely clenched the fruit in her palm.
"...Am I to take it that you have nothing to do with this fruit?"
At Eunha's words, Roje, who had been looking around, glanced over.
The golden fruit.
Looking at it, Roje's gaze changed again.
Roje, whose expression changed several times in a short period, did not look normal even at a glance.
Eunha, putting a little more strength into the hand holding the fruit, said.
"Then I take it you don't mind if I crush this right now."
As force was applied to the fruit, it was clear that cracks were spreading across Roje's face.
Eunha, watching Roje's changing expression carefully, thought.
'As expected.'
She was definitely hiding something.
Whether it was of her own will or someone else's, she had 'something'.
Doctor Plant Keum Roje was the only one, besides GIA's Fortune Teller, who had predicted the South Coast incident.
Of course, it could be thought that it was thanks to her long research on Unknown Gates.
She wasn't just suspicious of her for that.
It was after the Bokgye Mountain incident that Eunha started to feel something strange from Roje.
To be precise, it was after her conversation with Roje at the impromptu departure ceremony held at the Association.
'How were you able to not have your name taken by the boss?'
Thinking back on it, it was a strange question in many ways.
That wasn't the only suspicious thing.
Before entering the 'Scales of Choice', Roje was the only one among the S-Class hunters who had voluntarily declared that she would remain at the root.
It might seem natural for her, a healing hunter, to assist the unit members in battle, but... well, what was it really?
'At least when I was remaining near the root, the number of unit members hadn't decreased.'
Meaning, the time when the unit members began to fall into the 'Stem of Circulation' one by one could be seen as after more than half of the S-Classes had entered the 'Scales of Choice'.
Moreover, as soon as Eunha tried to destroy the field, tree stems shot out from around the goddess statue as if in defiance.
Since this gate was made of a giant tree, it might have been the will of the gate.
However, Eunha also knew that Roje, Doctor Plant's, unique ability was also 'plants'.
'Could all of that be a coincidence?'
To confirm that, she had presented the fruit to Roje.
And from Roje, who faced the fruit, a 'reaction' had definitely returned.
The more she provoked her, the more so.
"Stop... it..."
Roje muttered in a voice too low to be heard.
At that very moment.
Swoooosh!
Something that shot out quickly from the debris of the collapsed inner wall fiercely squeezed the hand of Eunha that was holding the fruit.
A tree stem.
It was similar in shape to when it had shot out from around the goddess statue a little while ago.
"Sunbae, your hand—"
Siwoo approached Eunha.
It was to do something about the tree stem wrapped around her wrist.
However, before he could finish his words,
"Do you know what that is, to say you'll destroy it? With that, just with that...!"
Roje, who had been muttering faintly, slowly lifted her head.
Her eyes, visible between her disheveled hair, held a vivid, strange light.
"They said even the dead could be brought back to life...!"
Squeeze.
The tree stem tightened as if to crush Eunha's wrist.
However, Eunha, without her expression crumbling once, stared intently at Roje before her.
Fwoosh!
The tree stem burst into flames from the pitch-black fire.
Eunha, easily freed from the pressure, slowly stepped forward.
"Who said that?"
Eunha, standing before Roje, asked, looking down at her.
It didn't seem like a proper conversation was possible, but she asked again.
"Who said that if you have this, you can even bring the dead back to life?"
"..."
As expected, Roje said nothing.
Eunha's irises, looking at such a Roje, also began to take on a strange light.
Her eyes slowly turning golden.
And on her shoulders, a black flame flickered like a flicking tongue.
'I just wanted to confirm something.'
Siwoo's blue gaze, which had been on Eunha, slowly shifted sideways.
Doctor Plant Keum Roje.
It was clear.
Sunbae was suspicious of her.
Siwoo knew that rumors about Doctor Plant had circulated among the Wolf executives.
Had they said that Doctor Plant, exhausted from searching for her lost daughter, had gone mad?
However, on the surface, she was very sane.
At least, that's how it seemed to Siwoo.
Doctor Plant, with the healing hunters of the Rose Guild she led, went to various gate damage areas and spared no personnel or resources for volunteer work.
She was also a figure like a great person in the current Korean hunter world, who had prevented much damage in advance by immersing herself in Unknown Gate research.
In Siwoo's eyes, she seemed much more sane than Gwihoon, who would do anything for the revival of Wolf.
And what if Roje wasn't sane?
That was not a very important matter to Siwoo, who had no particular interest in the hunter world.
That's why he had never paid much attention to her until now.
'But.'
Siwoo lifted his gaze and looked at Roje.
Her deep purple irises were gradually turning blood-red.
Vividly, as if being dyed.
"With that... it's possible. Something no awakener could do, something even the best healing hunter in Korea couldn't do, is finally..."
Roje, with her bloodshot eyes, was muttering in a monotonous tone, as if chanting a spell.
Watching such an unfamiliar side of Doctor Plant, the words Yijun had said before the gate collapsed suddenly flashed through Siwoo's mind.
'I used a skill on her earlier. My 'domination' didn't work. It means one of two things. The opponent is stronger than me, or the target is already in a 'dominated' state.'
If so, Doctor Plant was—.
It was the moment Siwoo's speculation reached that point.
Fwaaaak!
The black flame that had been burning on Eunha's shoulders, without warning, turned towards Roje.
The black flame, which was expected to charge in a straight line, whooshed past Roje and slammed into the wall.
Pop, pop, pop!
Black balls of fire bloomed again.
No spell or command was needed.
Eunha, standing still, began to destroy the ceiling and walls using her black flame.
"Stop it! Doing that won't make this gate disappear!"
Roje shouted as if screaming.
Not even a speck of her usual elegant and gentle atmosphere remained.
"Stop it...!"
Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!
A tearing shriek.
However, Eunha did not stop.
Pop, pop, pop!
More black flame orbs were created in succession and flew relentlessly towards the inner wall of the gate.
The field, made of a wooden structure, burned helplessly from Eunha's black flame.
The gate was collapsing from the inside due to the pouring flame attack.
Like firewood burning.
"No, don't..."
A crumbling voice.
Roje, who had been staring blankly at the surrounding scenery where embers were spreading, soon kicked off the ground and ran towards the flames.
"No, no, no...!"
She took off the gown she was wearing to smother the pitch-black embers stuck to the inner wall and covered it there.
However, that alone was useless.
The flames that had spread from the branches to the white gown turned it to ash in the blink of an eye.
"It's almost... it's almost done..."
Roje, who had been muttering like someone who had lost their mind, covered the flames on the inner wall with her own hands.
She didn't care at all that her hands touched the flames.
Burns?
That wasn't the problem.
Fwaak!
When her hands weren't enough for a perfect evolution, this time she threw her body.
There was no trace of hesitation in such a Roje.
"...!"
Rather, the ones who were surprised were Eunha and Siwoo, who were watching her.
To throw oneself into a fierce flame so casually was an act a normal person would find hard to do.
The fiercely burning black flame relentlessly moved to Roje's body.
However, Roje did not scream once.
She was literally 'burning her body' to extinguish the black flame.
She couldn't use her ability.
Her unique ability was plants.
If she used her ability here, it would be no different from throwing firewood on a bonfire.
So what she could do now was just this, to throw her body.
'Even if this body turns to ash and disappears.'
Right before her nose, the black flame flared up.
From the other side of her memory, from a very distant place, a forgotten voice rose up with it.
'Want to save your daughter── use the fruit—.'
Whose voice was that?
'My name is ──.'
'The blessing of the stars will be with you.'
When had she heard that voice, and what exactly had she heard?
In a short moment, Roje's eyes, which had turned blood-red, returned to their original color.
But it was only for a split second.
After blinking a few times, her irises were completely stained with a brilliant red.
Roje willingly threw herself into the black flames.
Finally, in her vision that was completely turning black, Roje thought.
Whose voice it was, and when it was from, none of that mattered anymore.
Everything was for one person, her beloved daughter Narae.
That was all.
Crackle... crackle...
The black flame had almost died out.
The remaining embers were making a faint sound.
Roje, charred black, lay collapsed on the floor, motionless.
Fwoooosh—
A shower of water poured down on her.
It was Siwoo's ability.
Of course, that water only neutralized the heat of her body and had no healing power.
However, Eunha had asked Siwoo to do so.
"Cough..."
The drenched Roje coughed softly.
Siwoo took a step back, and Eunha, who had been standing a short distance away, slowly approached Roje.
"..."
Eunha looked down at Roje with deeply sunken eyes.
Seen up close, Roje's state was even more disastrous.
Having thrown her body into the blazing black fire, it couldn't be helped.
Though Eunha had withdrawn the black flame that had covered Roje, she couldn't take away the burns on her body.
Roje's chest was rising and falling slightly.
She was still breathing.
Eunha, who had been looking down at her, slowly opened her mouth.
"How many hunters have you dragged here so far?"
Rumble...
The ceiling collapsed with a heavy sound.
Then, fragments of stone like hail rained down.
Roje did not answer, and Eunha asked again.
"When did you start planning this?"
"..."
"Was it your own decision? Or were you instigated by someone?"
"..."
Roje, who had been silent, slowly lifted her eyelids.
Her irises, which had been flashing red, had now subsided to their original color.
Roje let out a slow, thin breath.
She, who seemed as if she would keep her mouth shut until the end, finally, slowly, opened her mouth.
"Forgiveness, I don't, ask for..."
Her voice, which seemed as if it would break at any moment, was very faint and tragic.
However, her face alone was as gentle as if she had found peace.
Roje very slowly closed and opened her eyes.
A tidal wave of memories was raging in her mind.
They were fragments of memories that had disappeared from some point.
Narae's one shoe, found at the gate appearance site.
Her own figure, holding it to her chest and sobbing.
And... the man with a scorpion tail, who had appeared before her.
Roje barely turned her head, which wouldn't move as she wished.
At that, her gaze met a pair of golden eyes that were staring blankly at her.
Eunha was still holding the 'Abundant Fruit of Life' in her hand.
Roje, who had discovered that fruit, stiffened her body.
"..."
Scrape, scrape—
Roje, who hadn't moved an inch, began to move, dragging her body.
At first, it was a very sluggish movement, but it gradually became desperate.
With a body burnt like firewood, she dragged her arms across the dirt, as if she were trying to move somewhere.
An anxious gaze, as if there was something she absolutely had to find.
"Aren't you going to kill her?"
Siwoo asked.
It was directed at Eunha.
"..."
Eunha kept her gaze fixed on Roje's retreating back.
Siwoo, who had been silently waiting for an answer, asked again.
"Shall I do it?"
At that question, her gaze, which had been fixed on Roje, momentarily turned to Siwoo.
Her pupils, which had been slit long like a beast's, slowly returned to a circular shape.
Siwoo was proposing.
That he would execute this traitor before them in Eunha's place.
Of course, in this 21st-century modern society, for a person to kill another was a serious crime among crimes.
However, hunters were different.
Most of the general laws could no longer fully bind hunters, who had abilities that surpassed human limits.
That was precisely why special laws for hunters were proposed almost every day.
Anyway, from outside the gate, there was no way of knowing whether a hunter inside had been eaten by a monster, or attacked and killed by a person.
If there were no witnesses, it could be said to be a more perfect environment than any locked-room murder setting.
No, this was closer to an execution than a murder.
Siwoo, and the Wolf he belonged to, was a place that did not regard traitors as 'human'.
As much as he hated Wolf, the environment he had grown up in and the values that had been hammered into him proved it.
"If you can't do it, Sunbae, I will."
He was, after all, a son of the Wolf.
