How to Seduce S-Class Hunters with Bungeoppang - Chapter 58

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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 58】
‘Mother!!! Please! Listen to me! Father!!!’
I cried out desperately, positioning myself in their path. But my parents passed right through me as if I were nothing. Neither my form nor my voice seemed to reach them.
Despite my pleas, the two of them leaned on each other for support and cautiously stepped into the Old Mansion.
“Hah, haaah!”
But disaster already lurked within. A colossal mantis-like creature was there, crunching on something with its terrible mandibles.
The grotesque thing slowly turned its head as if discovering fresh prey. Its gaze fixed directly on my parents.
‘No!! Run!!!’
I screamed until my throat burned, but not even an echo returned. I had to do something. I tried to open my Inventory to draw my gun, but unlike reality, the System refused to respond.
I looked around desperately, grasping at straws.
‘Anyone… please, anyone help!!’
Just as helplessness rooted me to the spot, a man emerged from behind my parents, parting the hazy smoke with his stride.
“Ah…! Hunter!”
“Dear, we’re saved!”
Relief washed over my parents’ faces at the sight of him. A man clad entirely in black combat gear from head to toe—unmistakably a Hunter dispatched to deal with the monster.
“Tsk. Here too, huh? Disgusting bastards.”
The moment he saw the creature, he spat on the ground and twirled his sword with childish flourishes. Screech! Black liquid sprayed from the mantis-creature’s mouth.
“Huh, it can do that too?”
The Dining Table where he’d dodged melted away with a sizzle. Muttering a low curse, he swung his blade at the monster, and its massive body split silently in two.
“Nothing special. So this is what you’ve been bragging about all this time?”
Black liquid dripped from his sword. Seeing the creature’s life extinguished, my parents clutched their chests in relief.
“Thank goodness, dear.”
“Th-thank you so much! Lee Hyun-woo Hunter!”
Wait. The one who saved my parents was Lee Hyun-woo Hunter? But cruelly, I could only see his back.
“…Lee Hyun-woo Hunter, huh.”
The man’s head turned toward my parents, who had sunk to the floor. They were about to offer their thanks with relieved smiles when—
“Mistaking me for that vermin really pisses me off.”
He slowly pointed his blade at my parents. I clamped my hand over my mouth.
“W-wait…! What are you…!”
“Let me show you what happens when you run your mouth carelessly.”
The massive sword cut through the air in slow motion. I reached out desperately toward them. But—
‘No!!!!!’
My vision flashed white as a towering inferno consumed everything.
‘M-Mother… Father…’
As the smoke obscuring my vision gradually cleared, I saw my parents collapsed. It was the horrifying final image I’d seen in that photograph.
“Hmm. This could be fun if I play it right.”
He wiped his blade clean on Father’s soiled coat, humming to himself. Then, without correcting the misunderstanding about being Lee Hyun-woo Hunter, he began slaughtering people mercilessly.
“H-how can you call yourself human…?!”
“Aaaaah!!! Honey!!! Open your eyes!”
“Waaaaah! Mother! Mother!!”
He seemed to find those ignorant of his true identity utterly amusing. He turned his head as if his business was finished, having kicked away the elderly man clinging to his pant leg.
‘…Oh.’
The moment our eyes finally met, I forgot even to breathe.
He was none other than―
* * *
“…Gasp!!!”
I opened my eyes with ragged breaths.
My heart hammered against my ribs as though it would shatter them. The familiar ceiling of the Lodging greeted me—the same one I’d seen before taking the potion.
Yet the acrid stench of flames still lingered at the tip of my nose. Gasping frantically, I spun around to survey my surroundings. Ha-nyang, who had been pacing beside me, asked with concern.
“Are you alright? Your condition seemed poor, so I woke you.”
“…Thank you.”
With trembling hands, I touched my face. My hair clung damply to my cheeks—I’d sweated so profusely.
“What on earth did you see to suffer so?”
“…What I… saw,”
As I grasped at the images from the dream, a horrifying vision surged back with bile. Seized by the sensation of my stomach turning inside out, I bolted from the bed and rushed to the Bathroom.
“Retch! Ugh!”
I gripped the toilet, retching violently for what felt like an eternity. I couldn’t possibly accept the truth I’d witnessed.
‘It wasn’t a monster that killed my parents!’
Until now, I’d believed my parents had fallen to a monster that burst forth from the Gate. Just as the Police Officer had said after their lengthy investigation.
But the potion of truth had revealed an entirely different scene.
‘They were murdered. By Park Jae-min’s hand!’
The man who’d swung a blade at my parents and turned away. Though his face was mostly hidden behind a mask and hat, I recognized him the instant I saw those sinister eyes.
I’d spoken with him face-to-face countless times. There was no way I wouldn’t recognize him.
“…And I didn’t even know.”
Water droplets fell—plip, plop—onto the sink. The days I’d conversed with him so casually, never knowing how my parents had truly died, felt utterly abhorrent.
I twisted the faucet fully, letting ice-cold water pour over me. As I washed my face with the freezing stream, my mind—which had lost all sense of reality—gradually began to function again.
“…Don’t blame yourself, Jung Ha-neul. Crying won’t solve anything.”
I slapped my cheek hard with my palm. The sharp sting jolted my senses awake.
Once I’d composed myself somewhat, Ha-nyang approached and rubbed against my leg.
“Are you alright? Your face is terribly pale.”
“…In the dream, I saw a terrible truth I never could have imagined.”
“Surely Lee Hyun-woo wasn’t the culprit?”
I shook my head slowly. Bending down, I cradled the soft Ha-nyang in my arms. As warmth seeped into me, my frozen body began to thaw ever so slightly.
“…No. He’s not the culprit. The person who murdered my parents was someone else entirely.”
“Your parents? What exactly did you see with the potion of truth?”
I told Ha-nyang everything I’d witnessed. The crumbling buildings, the streets engulfed in flames. My parents wandering aimlessly through it all. And their final moments.
The day I lost them. I remembered sitting alone in the empty Shop, crying through the night at the top of my lungs. The days I’d spoken to my parents’ smiling faces on my phone screen.
“…I won’t let this slide.”
To commit such heinous murders and then brazenly live on as a righteous Hunter—my entire body trembled with betrayal.
I clenched my teeth and picked up my phone from the Bed. The Incheon Gate incident. I needed someone who knew that day well.
“Hunter Lee Hyun-woo. This is Jung Ha-neul. Could we meet right now?”
He caught the gravity in my voice—so different from my usual tone—and immediately said he’d be there, hanging up. I paced the living room anxiously, waiting for him to arrive.
―Ding dong.
“You’re here. I apologize for calling so late.”
“Not at all. More importantly, are you alright? You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine… I’m sorry. Honestly, I’m not fine. I’m not in my right mind.”
I launched into the matter without pause, asking him about the Incheon Gate incident. His brow furrowed at my question.
“I was dispatched to that case, but why are you suddenly asking about it…?”
“Please, Hunter. I’m desperate. Please….”
My arm trembled slightly as I gripped his sleeve. He wrapped his hand around mine, sharing its warmth, and guided me to sit in a chair.
“You look like you might collapse at any moment. Let’s talk while you’re sitting.”
His composed demeanor calmed my heart, which had been clawing at my chest like a blade. I steadied my breathing and slowly began to speak.
I started with what happened at the shop today—Se-ah’s phone call with someone, the story she’d told me.
When I mentioned the person who killed Se-ah’s fiancé, he raised an eyebrow.
“…Surely you didn’t call me here thinking I’m the murderer?”
“Of course not. There’s someone else who’s suspected as the culprit.”
He resembled Hunter Lee Hyun-woo but was distinctly different. Most importantly, when Father called the murderer “Hunter Lee Hyun-woo” in my dream, he responded with a sneer of displeasure—a reaction the actual culprit could never have shown if he were Lee Hyun-woo himself.
“The person who killed my parents―”
“Wait. Hunter Ha-neul’s parents?”
“Yes. My parents also died in the Incheon Gate incident. Not by monsters, but by human hands.”
His expression hardened at my words. I looked up at him desperately.
“Now you understand why I’m curious about the Incheon Gate incident, don’t you? So please tell me. What happened there that day?”
A brief silence fell between us. Lost in thought, he slowly met my eyes.
“The Management Bureau’s case records should have detailed information.”
He extended his large hand toward me.
“Would you like to check it together with me?”

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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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