D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 70

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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 70
“How did I become a Constellation?”
“Yes….”
Ha Gyuhyuk seemed worried that perhaps he’d crossed a line he shouldn’t have.
I shrugged lightly and brushed my fingers through his hair.
Should I tell him?
About how I, as a Constellation, climbed through the ranks until I reached a seat among the stars.
The story of how a Constellation is born has become legend in some worlds, even transformed into fairy tales.
“But you knew my name—didn’t you ever think to search for me online?”
As I spoke playfully, Ha Gyuhyuk slowly lifted his gaze.
He met my eyes and murmured softly.
“You only told me, Se-um. I didn’t want to know anything more without your permission. If you were going to tell me, I thought it best to wait for that moment….”
“Unnecessarily honest, aren’t you.”
True enough—if Ha Gyuhyuk had looked into it himself and discovered the truth, he surely would have asked me directly.
Whether this one missing person was really a Constellation.
I understand now why I hesitate to speak openly with him.
‘I’ve lived through such grueling ages, yet I despise seeing the human Se-um disrespected.’
The life of the human Se-um has become a story from the distant past.
And yet I still resent that a C-rank Awakener whose name no one remembers is pitied.
Ha Gyuhyuk, misinterpreting my expression, hurried to continue.
“If you don’t wish to speak of it, Se-um, you don’t have to tell me. I was overstepping.”
“No.”
I can bear it when the Constellation Se-um is insulted.
I know well that I am not an entity easily dismissed.
But the human Se-um—I’m not so certain.
Especially because I never loved that existence.
“Do you have your phone on you right now?”
“Of course.”
“Search for Se-um.”
Yet there are moments when I find myself hoping.
That even if I am a human I don’t love, someone else might see me differently.
Is this lingering hope—to believe despite betrayal—all the ‘humanity’ I have left?
There was a child I supported with every karmic debt erased, knowing them to be precious, who became a Demon King.
There was one who spoke so earnestly of love that I was moved to help, only to murder the woman they claimed to cherish.
Beyond those, I’ve lost count of clients who deceived me.
“Your name, Se-um?”
“Yes, search for it. Then you’ll know.”
So even if Ha Gyuhyuk learns my identity and pities me afterward, I won’t be freshly wounded by it.
The human Se-um was never a hero—merely a pitiful sacrifice.
Forgotten by all, dying without recognition for anything she accomplished.
Even now, the corpse cannot disappear—it’s being used to block the Landquake.
[ Se-um: But the fact that a Gate appeared there means my body’s condition must be deteriorating, right? ]
[ Tasha: Yeah, it’s disappearing. ]
[ Tasha: Not rotting, but the corpse itself is gradually being pulled deeper into the Dungeon. ]
[ Se-um: I like that option even less. ]
Ha Gyuhyuk still wore a skeptical expression, but he obediently searched for the name Se-um.
What appeared would be only a handful of news articles at most.
Ones that didn’t even fill a single page.
“The sole missing person from the Landquake….”
“Right? My name shows up, doesn’t it? Yeah, that’s me.”
His murmuring voice reached my ears.
I spoke with an air of indifference, as though none of it mattered to me.
Without realizing it, my voice had risen. I wanted to project the impression that I didn’t care about such things at all.
“Se-um….”
“I stopped the Landquake. With this body alone.”
But no further bravado followed.
All I could do was smile gently and look at Ha Gyuhyuk.
It wasn’t particularly sad or painful. What if it had been someone else?
If it hadn’t been Ha Gyuhyuk who learned that I was Se-um, the one who stopped the Landquake.
Then I wouldn’t have cared whether they ignored the human Se-um or not.
“A C-rank Awakener happened to get caught up in it and ended up trapped alone in a Gate.”
….
“There was no pain. But even as my mind grew hazy, the sensation of death approaching slowly was terrifyingly vivid.”
I thought how fleeting life truly was.
I endlessly questioned who had ever created the notion that hard work brings reward.
The loneliness and injustice of dying so pointlessly with no one knowing.
There was no nobility about sacrificing myself to save the world.
“But compared to me, you’re truly remarkable, Ha Gyuhyuk.”
“Se-um.”
“I prevented this world’s destruction by accident, yet I’ve never once believed that choice was right.”
For fifty years after becoming a Constellation, I spent every day imagining I should have avoided that place, that moment.
I endlessly regretted it, envisioning every possible scenario where I could have escaped the Landquake’s eruption.
That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to log into Earth.
I lacked the confidence to witness those who sustained their lives through my death living happily.
“Yet you don’t hesitate to sacrifice your own life to save others.”
“Back then, it was because I had no will to live either. I’m not someone so noble or remarkable.”
“No, Ha Gyuhyuk. Even if a human has lost the will to live, there’s a chasm between one who would sacrifice that life to save another and one who steels themselves to create a companion in death rather than die alone.”
“But you never died with someone, or did anything like that, Se-um.”
“I didn’t have the chance to choose death.”
I was so terrified of my own death back then that I had no room to entertain thoughts of dying together with someone or saving anyone.
But Ha Gyuhyuk chose a different path—one where he sacrificed himself to save another.
Even now, with his own safety completely assured, he still reaches out to save others.
“You’re different from me.”
That’s why I chose you.
I gently traced my name displayed on his screen.
The name of that sole victim, whose body was never even recovered, felt both achingly familiar and strangely distant.
Perhaps I became a Constellation back then because ending my life that way felt too sorrowful to bear.
If I had been someone who wished to end my own life, would I have harbored even greater malice?
Would I have desperately clawed and fought to drag others down with me?
No. I shouldn’t dwell on things that never came to pass.
“Se-um.”
I turned my gaze toward the window when Ha Gyuhyuk called out to me.
My expression surely wasn’t particularly melancholic, yet his voice carried a sadness all its own.
Perhaps Ha Gyuhyuk was pitying the end of the human Se-um after all.
“That’s remarkable.”
“Hmm?”
But what came from his lips was something different.
“To have stopped the Landquake alone, to have become a god in a situation where no one acknowledged you.”
“Is that remarkable?”
“And you’ve never sought vengeance against this land since then.”
That was simply because I despised returning to this place.
Before I could excuse it as my revenge, his resolute words followed.
“And you came back to save me.”
He said he would never have returned if he were in my position.
“That’s only because you pleased me.”
“Returning to a world that left you lonely and abandoned, extending your hand to people—not just anyone can do that.”
“….”
“Of course, I realize it might sound absurd coming from someone like me, who hasn’t even lived that long.”
He lowered his voice, gauging my reaction carefully.
“What? Did I seem lonely to you?”
“Se-um, you’re sublime and remarkable. A hero—both to this land and to me as a person. But you’re lonely.”
That’s why I can do anything you desire.
If it brings you joy, if it’s something you can enjoy and smile about, I’ll do it no matter how difficult.
His whispered voice was utterly earnest. I shouldn’t grow accustomed to this.
If I become dependent on this, and then you die as time passes later….
“If you keep this up, how can I ever let you go with peace of mind?”
The murmur escaped my lips.
Ha Gyuhyuk met my eyes directly for the first time.
When those dark eyes gazed upon me, I felt clearly for the first time what he was thinking, without needing to read his mind.
“So from now on, I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re never lonely again.”
“So you won’t be alone….”
[ The origin of the star trembles. ]
The karmic source that constitutes Constellation Se-um.
It was loneliness itself.

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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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