D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 144

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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 144
Fake Se-um burst into laughter right behind him.
‘Se-um will definitely help me.’
That being resembled the one he loved dearly, yet was decidedly not Se-um.
He remembered Se-um’s tender voice and gentle touch directed at him back then.
Se-um would never harm him, so she had insisted he flee and find her—that voice echoed in his memory.
‘Remember how the apocalypse came to pass.’
In truth, could this place be inside a Dungeon?
Ha Gyuhyuk’s mind raced furiously as he sprinted forward.
He catalogued every conceivable possibility.
Perhaps they had been conducting a normal Dungeon raid when some form of hypnosis took hold.
Simultaneously, Ha Gyuhyuk realized his messaging function to Se-um had gone dead.
“Se-um!”
Only then did dread seep into his heart. What if something had happened to Se-um?
Se-um possessed the power to interfere with Dungeons.
‘Se-um, can you do that often?’
‘No, every time I do it, my body feels like it’s being torn apart piece by piece. It’s proof of how much I cherish and love you.’
Back then, he had simply laughed it off.
What if Se-um had exhausted her Karma excessively trying to save him, which was why she couldn’t be reached?
Or what if this entire situation itself was wrong?
His head suddenly throbbed as if it might shatter, as though rebuking him for daring such thoughts.
Before he could even question it, Ha Gyuhyuk reflexively drew his blade.
He sensed an intense force surging toward him.
“No…”
“Your reaction speed is acceptable. But you remember, don’t you? You’ve never defeated me even once.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Blade met blade, and Ha Gyuhyuk’s body was driven backward.
No matter how firmly he planted his feet, the ground cratered beneath him as an overwhelming force pushed him into a corner.
The one before his eyes was not Se-um. Ha Gyuhyuk repeated this to himself countless times.
“Ugh…!”
“The fact that I’m going through all this trouble is because of you.”
Fake Se-um smiled gently.
Seeing that face—dressed in clothes splattered with blood on all sides, wearing an expression of false compassion—Ha Gyuhyuk felt nausea rise in his throat.
The face was identical, the swordplay identical.
Merciless attacks came in rapid succession.
Ha Gyuhyuk blocked what he could, then kicked off the ground and hastily retreated into the air.
Screech! Tap!
His shoes scraped against the gravel with a grating sound as his body lifted skyward.
Fake Se-um watched him ascend with an amused smile, curious to see how far he would go.
Ha Gyuhyuk’s blade caught the sunlight, gleaming white, and transcendent radiance bloomed brilliantly around him.
“Please send me back to her side.”
He made the request politely, sword raised.
White light grazed past Fake Se-um’s cheek and tore through the floor.
With a thunderous CRACK, a long fissure split the ground as if an earthquake had struck.
Fake Se-um gazed at the enormous chasm beside him and smiled coldly. Mockery gleamed in his golden eyes.
“You’ve grown dull.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Se-um appeared behind him and drove her blade deep into Ha Gyuhyuk’s back.
A horrific tearing sound accompanied the searing agony that surged through him.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he grasped the blade embedded in his own flesh with his bare hands.
“Your fingers will be severed.”
“That doesn’t matter. What I must do is… wait.”
As long as I remain alive, my Se-um will come to save me.
Even now, she must be desperately searching for a way to find me.
The Constellation of the Entangled Apocalypse’s Finalizer would never abandon this Earth.
Se-um would never abandon Ha Gyuhyuk.
This is a fake.
“You still think I’m a fake?”
“I don’t think it, I—ugh—I know it for certain.”
The sensation of the blade carving through my body was vivid and clear.
Paradoxically, the greater the pain became, the sharper my mind grew.
My body, pushed to its limits, began to collapse.
Kneeling on one knee, I barely supported myself with the blade driven into the earth.
The blade refused to penetrate deeper, as if it had struck bone.
“Even kneeling on one knee now. Why not both? You did that often enough before me.”
“If it were before her, I would kneel as many times as needed.”
But you are not Se-um.
Even as my vision blurred, that single truth remained absolute.
When I saw Se-um, my entire body responded.
Every cell in me—cells I never knew existed—would rush toward her like a tide, surpassing thought and reason.
Finally, she had come. The one I longed for so desperately had come for me.
Yet from this beautiful and frigid omnipotent being, I felt none of that.
“You are not the one who would cut down the world that I love.”
“You truly believe a Constellation would abandon her will merely because you love her? Do you honestly think such a thing is possible?”
Now Se-um’s tone carried something like curiosity.
A questioning wonder—as if she genuinely doubted whether such a thing could ever occur.
Ha Gyuhyuk smiled very slowly. The smile blooming on his pain-twisted face was unmistakably that of someone in love.
There were words he could only speak precisely because it was not before Se-um.
“I didn’t believe it either, but it was possible.”
Though you refuse to acknowledge it yourself.
Because she truly loves this Earth.
At first, I harbored resentment, but now it seems Se-um cherishes this incomprehensible life on Earth as well.
“That’s why I’m ashamed of myself. I begged him to take pity on this land and to save so many lives, yet I fret endlessly that he might favor someone else over me…”
Whenever such anxiety surfaced, Se-um would reassure me, saying I was his favorite.
But Ha Gyuhyuk believed himself to be utterly inadequate.
No matter how many times I heard it, the unease persisted—I craved confirmation, my mind spiraling with worry, yet I desperately wished my anxiety wouldn’t be discovered.
I agonized endlessly over how to stand beside Se-um when he saw me as nothing more than a child.
Yet Se-um would open his arms as though he’d known of my struggles all along.
At some point, the voice of Fake Se-um ceased to reach me.
I thought, perhaps he’s gradually dying, and continued speaking without concern.
“I trust him. I believe in the eyes and heart of the one who chose me and recognized me.”
Had it truly been Se-um who pierced me, I could never have remained so composed.
I would have had to agonize over what final words could possibly convey this love.
Desperately wrestling with words to reassure Se-um, I might never have confessed at all.
Since he already knew my heart, I came to regret the things I never spoke aloud.
‘I must endure until Se-um arrives. I cannot die before then…”
Yet for someone struck at a vital point, my life clung on far longer than expected, and I gazed blankly up at The Sky.
I wished it weren’t daytime.
It was a shame that not a single star was visible in the heavens.
‘Se-um must be desperately rushing to reach me now. So I cannot die.’
I gripped the blade lodged in my body with all my strength, forcing myself to stand.
“If you pull that out now, you’ll die.”
“No, I won’t die. I never will.”
I have no intention of dying before he arrives.
Supporting my trembling arms, I rose once more.
Fake Se-um abandoned the sword embedded in my body and drew a new one.
An infinitely regenerating blade—how unfair. Ha Gyuhyuk laughed, facing him and steadying his breath.
“I won’t let him feel lonely.”
When I first heard that my presence had dispelled his loneliness, how joyous I felt.
How happy, how exhilarated.
I believed it was a responsibility bestowed upon me by The Sky, a place carved out for me alone.
So I will not die.
Even if Se-um’s lack of loneliness foreshadows an eternal parting between us.
‘What matters now is that he is happy.’
As I gazed into Fake Se-um’s face,
I spoke toward my true star, who might be watching this very moment.
“Because I love him.”

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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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