D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 136
He stared into empty space with an expression layered in conflicting emotions. As if he knew full well that I was watching him.
Yes, I was watching.
[ This isn’t something we should discuss here. Let’s finish the training. ]
[ Every second counts right now—don’t waste it on idle talk. ]
― …Yes.
Ha Gyuhyuk clearly understood that I was buying time with this excuse, yet he let it slide.
Not that he had much choice in the matter anyway.
Training continued in silence. Though occasionally he adjusted his stance based on my feedback.
[ Tasha: I want to offer some advice, but it’s an emotional matter, so I’m not sure what to say. ]
[ Tasha: Wouldn’t Franson be better at this? He’s good at empathy. ]
[ Franson: Honestly, I’ve never lived as a short-lived species like that, so I’m not sure ]
[ Franson: But if someone you cared about had been keeping a major secret from you… ]
[ Se-um: If they had been? ]
[ Se-um: If they had been????? ]
I’d never waited for Franson’s words with such tension before.
Without thinking, I sent several messages urging him to continue.
Franson typed slower than I did.
[ Franson: You’d feel betrayed, tears would come, you’d wonder if you were really worth so little to them, you’d feel sad and try to understand their reasons, but the act of trying to understand would feel so pathetic and painful that you’d just stop thinking about it altogether and break whatever expectations or affection you had for that person, wouldn’t you? ]
[ Se-um: Stop. ]
[ Se-um: Please stop. ]
I was curious, but I hadn’t wanted the truth laid bare so brutally.
So Ha Gyuhyuk was currently in a state of betrayal and everything that followed?
I stared intently at the monitor, but his form as he continued training didn’t seem to reflect that at all.
Perhaps it was his sense of duty—doing what needed to be done regardless. I appreciated his integrity.
Truth be told, I was already dreading the barrage of questions he’d eventually throw at me.
I frowned and leaned against the wall, killing time aimlessly.
[ Se-um: I want to come up with a solution, but I’m not sure if I should go this far. It’s complicated. ]
[ Tasha: You’re struggling because you think you’ve wronged him. ]
[ Tasha: You wouldn’t go to such lengths for someone you didn’t care about or weren’t interested in. ]
[ Se-um: That’s true, but… ]
[ Se-um: But I’ve never dealt with someone so fragile before. What am I supposed to do? ]
As I was steadily typing ‘ㅠ’ until I reached the character limit, I heard the sound of Gyuhyuk’s training ending.
When the training ground rental time expired, the avatar was automatically transferred back to its server.
Constellations had the option of returning to the server via their avatar, or remaining in the Constellation System.
It was petty and cowardly, but disappearing into the Constellation System for a while seemed tempting.
[ Se-um: Going dark right now would be too much, wouldn’t it? ]
[ Franson: Yeah, get out of there. ]
[ Tasha: I’d normally take your side, but pulling a stunt like that would make you the worst Constellation imaginable. ]
[ Se-um: I was born with an avoidant temperament, so I can’t help it. ]
[ Se-um: I’m over three hundred years old now. I suppose I need to accept that there are some things I can’t avoid. ]
I shuffled toward the Server like someone boarding the subway at 8 AM on a Monday morning for work.
The moment my eyes opened, I was in the TouchOne Guild Master’s Office.
I’d intended to just randomly pick some coordinates in Korea and teleport there.
If I’d ended up somewhere strange, I could’ve used that as an excuse to buy myself some time—but I’d grown so accustomed to this place that I must have set it as my destination without thinking.
And of course, Ha Gyuhyuk was waiting in this space.
He stood motionless with a dark expression, as if he’d been yearning for my arrival.
“What’s with the gloomy atmosphere? Turn on the lights, will you? Ugh, it’s so depressing in here.”
I flicked on the lights while making light conversation.
I felt a bit embarrassed using lines I’d only heard back when I was a high school student in my human days.
Ha Gyuhyuk smiled faintly, as if responding to my jest.
But I couldn’t tell if that smile was a positive sign.
“Se-um, I’m not sure I have the right to ask, but there’s something I’d like to know.”
“If I said I didn’t want to hear it, would you drop it?”
“I would, but it would torment me terribly.”
….
He’d figured out exactly how to shake my resolve.
I imagined Ha Gyuhyuk suffering from wounded pride, drowning in betrayal and everything that followed.
No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t want to see him like that.
After everything I’d done to transform his self-worth and life into something of quality, I couldn’t become the very person who dragged him back down.
Sensing the resignation that crossed my face, Ha Gyuhyuk’s expression brightened instead.
“I apologize for being stubborn. But there are things I really want to hear. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to know or if I have the right to ask, but….”
I’d long since abandoned rational judgment when it came to Ha Gyuhyuk.
Sometimes the boundary between human and Constellation seemed to blur.
So just as he distinguished between the Constellation of the Entangled Apocalypse’s Finalizer and Se-um, I sometimes felt my “client” and my “Ha Gyuhyuk” as separate entities.
The dizziness I often felt was probably because of my Ha Gyuhyuk.
Before he could speak, I raised my hand preemptively. I needed to say this first.
He stopped with his lips slightly parted.
“From now on, if you have questions, I’ll answer exactly three of them.”
“Exactly three.”
“Yes. Regarding those three topics, I’ll answer whatever you’re curious about. But if new doubts arise from my answers, I won’t take responsibility for them.”
It seems I’m still a Constellation bearing the soul of a Korean.
There’s a reason the saying goes “best of three.”
I believe he deserves three chances, and that should be enough.
“Then my first question is: is a Constellation’s death something that inevitably happens?”
“It’s a choice. When the reason you became a Constellation is fulfilled, you can choose whether to vanish or continue existing as a Constellation.”
Once a Constellation achieves that goal, that choice always remains available.
You can stay as a Constellation and enjoy it, and if you suddenly grow bored, you can choose to vanish.
Of course, the source of your Constellation status could regenerate during that time. In my case, I didn’t vanish, and then I felt loneliness again.
“So your… that….”
He opened and closed his lips several times, apparently unable to bring himself to ask why I had become a Constellation.
If he was going to ask anyway, he should ask boldly—why hesitate like this?
I laughed as if sighing and continued speaking.
“The driving force sustaining Constellation Se-um is loneliness. And if that loneliness is resolved, then I can choose the path of dissolution.”
Two chances to ask questions had vanished like this.
Now Ha Gyuhyuk had only one opportunity left to hear something from me.
He rolled his eyes with a serious expression, as if aware this was his final chance.
He still didn’t realize that even if he acted as though he could never ask again, I would gladly yield the moment he tentatively spoke next time.
My client still lacked cunning.
How weak you make me.
Does he think that if I say there are three chances to ask, he won’t be allowed to ask anything after that?
“Then… ah… now that you mention it’s the last question, I’m torn. Actually, I already know what I want to ask.”
“So what do you want to ask?”
Should I ask if he ever intended to tell me? Or why he hid it?
If neither of those, should I ask if he’s going to die in the end?
Trying to predict what he’ll ask is quite exhausting.
I kept my eyes half-open, desperately searching for a way to break through this situation, when Ha Gyuhyuk’s voice reached me.
“When I’m with you… aren’t you lonely?”
“Huh?”
“Have I… eased your loneliness at all, Se-um?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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