I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 14

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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 14
I swallowed hard, unable to hide my nervousness.
Baek Mun-il approached me and asked.
“Can you support?”
“I’ll try.”
Because it feels like I’ll die if I don’t.
The moment Baek Mun-il heard my answer, he stomped on the railing and leaped toward the Stage.
In that brief instant, a thin voice emerged from the smoke that had taken form.
“[Those who have not yet fallen asleep……]”
Crash—!!
Before the thin voice could finish its sentence, a deafening sound accompanied a massive sheet of ice that engulfed the smoke.
He then created an Ice Spear in midair and pierced the smoke clean through, ice and all.
Watching that sight, I found myself questioning his earlier request.
‘I… don’t look that necessary. Why did he even ask if I could support?’
I blinked, watching him carefully.
He landed on the Stage and turned to look at me.
He waved his hand toward me as if urging me to come quickly.
“Over here.”
“Isn’t it over?”
“No.”
As I spread my wings and descended onto the Stage, Baek Mun-il pointedly tapped the ice.
Ripple—
At the tap of his hand against the ice, the black smoke clumped together and dispersed, revealing its presence.
“That’s probably not the main body. The true body must be elsewhere. It won’t disappear until we deal with that.”
“That’s actually possible?”
Even trapped in ice and pierced through with an Ice Spear, it could still live as long as the true body remained.
Seeing a setting that I’d only ever read about in manga become possible in reality felt absurd.
Perhaps this was how the turtle felt upon learning the rabbit had left its liver behind.
Baek Mun-il, noticing my bewilderment, laughed silently.
My Synchronization Rate crept upward.
I see. So I’m clueless and foolish? That’s because I’m a beginner. Please bear with me.
I managed to regain my composure and analyze the situation calmly.
“So how do we find the true body? There’s no way to tell if it’s real or not. Do we just destroy everything in sight?”
If so, wouldn’t Henket file a damage claim lawsuit against us?
Of course, I could also sue Henket for negligent death during work.
Wouldn’t a settlement be possible then?
While I mentally conducted a legal battle with Henket in my head and even wrapped up a settlement, Baek Mun-il shook his head.
“We need to find where this smoke is flowing from. And given the way it’s clinging to sleep, it’s likely related to something connected to that source.”
“Ah, I see.”
I vaulted over to the Audience Seating and pulled a Catalog from the hand of a fallen person.
“Wouldn’t it show up in here?”
Baek Mun-il, apparently not having thought of the Catalog, murmured “Oh” from behind me.
Flip— flip—
“Found it. It’s the Succubus Tiara. This seems to be the problem.”
As I turned the Catalog around to show him, Baek Mun-il confirmed the shape of a tiara adorned with gold and crimson jewels.
He gave a short nod and immediately moved deeper onto the Stage.
I also climbed back onto the Stage to follow him.
By now my wings had grown so familiar that flying came easily.
Just as I pushed through the curtain deeper inside, the black smoke trapped in ice rippled ominously.
‘What’s happening?’
Through the gaps in the ice-bound smoke, I glimpsed red lips curved in a sly smile.
At the same moment, Baek Mun-il’s voice came from deeper within the Stage.
“Yes, it’s here just like you said. The Succubus Tiara.”
I reflexively turned toward Baek Mun-il.
A tiara with dark-red jewels and black thorn-like branches now rested in his hand.
As he examined the tiara and tilted his head curiously, something behind him caught my eye.
“But there’s no magical power emanating from it, so it seems…….”
“Duck!”
I shouted the warning at him, stretching my arm forward urgently.
“Block!”
Ah, this cursed incantation.
“Flowers, block it!”
Forgetting my shame, I cried out again in haste, speaking the activation words.
Yet the wooden floorboards of the stage rose as if resurrecting, shielding his back.
Crack!
But the attack pierced through the wood and flew straight toward Baek Mun-il.
“Tch.”
Baek Mun-il responded swiftly to the incoming assault.
He kicked off from the wood’s remains, instantly widening the distance, then raised an Ice Barrier to block the attack.
Shatter—
“What—!”
“There! That person!”
Before I could even point and shout, Baek Mun-il’s eyes had already fixed on him.
The staff member rose unsteadily, lifting his head to look at us.
His face was vacant, as if his soul had fled, his eyes devoid of focus.
Even to someone like me who knew little, it was clear he was being controlled by something.
He moved about like a zombie, sluggish and jerking.
As black smoke poured from his body, the black smoke trapped within the ice responded in kind, beginning to writhe with increasing violence.
The smoke, energized, clawed at the ice like thorny vines, beginning to fracture and spread through the cracks.
A harsh, ominous sound spread rapidly.
Boom—!
The ice shattered, fragments scattering in all directions.
Baek Mun-il dove toward the audience seating, while I flew quickly out of the debris’s range.
The moment I caught my breath, Baek Mun-il conjured an Ice Spear and charged back onto the stage.
The black smoke, unlike before, spread wide and thin, dispersing among the fallen people.
But his target was not the smoke.
He hurled the Ice Spear at the staff member.
I cried out reflexively.
“Guild Master, that person is—!”
Bang!
The moment the Ice Spear made contact, it burst outward in all directions.
It became a net in an instant, binding the staff member.
Baek Mun-il didn’t stop there. His foot came down hard—Thump!—against the floor.
From where he stood, a mist charged with cold energy spread, mingling with the smoke.
The mist and smoke wrestled for dominance, the mist pushing the smoke back.
I dimly grasped that he was displaying something remarkable, yet at the same time, I couldn’t understand why.
As I stood blinking, Baek Mun-il approached me.
“For now, I’m preventing it from seeping into anyone, but I can’t hold the smoke for long. This kind of application consumes a great deal of mana. Healer.”
Should I be impressed by his skill application with ice-mist and his delicate control?
Lost in that thought, I responded to Baek Mun-il’s call a moment late.
“Y-yes?”
“Do you happen to have a Debuff Removal skill?”
I checked my Synchronization Rate by moving only my eyes.
Somehow, it had already climbed to 65%.
I was still short by 25%.
“Um, ah, not yet? I don’t have it.”
“Not yet?”
Baek Mun-il’s brow furrowed slightly.
I’d been deliberately vague, so it wouldn’t be easy for him to grasp my skill’s capabilities—
“A Conditional Skill?”
—or so I thought.
“Well, um, yes, I suppose.”
As I fumbled my affirmation, Baek Mun-il looked at me with something like pity.
“We’ll consider the ‘conditional’ part unknown, then.”
“No, it’s fine. Really. Even if you didn’t know about the condition—we’re fighting together anyway, so it’s difficult if we don’t understand each other’s abilities.”
Baek Mun-il chuckled, shoulders trembling.
“That’s true enough. These days, there are too many people who can’t manage that. I wish more of our guild members had learned it.”
Well, thanks for that. Then would you mind stopping thinking of me as a naive fool? My Synchronization Rate keeps climbing.
I muttered my complaint silently to myself.
Baek Mun-il’s expression hardened immediately, and he turned his gaze toward the smoke crawling through the Concert Hall.
“The Mongma has an ability—if it’s inside someone’s dream, even if you destroy the body in reality, it simply returns. This Tiara might be its true form, but the moment it’s inside a dream, even this isn’t the true body anymore.”
As he spoke, he grumbled that Mongma-type creatures were a real nuisance.
Coming from a guild master, it wasn’t exactly dignified.
The emcee near the stage and the people in the first row began stirring, rising unsteadily to their feet.
Their eyes were still unfocused.
Baek Mun-il urged me forward with slightly quickened speech.
“So Debuff Removal is the priority. Once you state your condition, I’ll meet it. What’s the condition? Usually for a healer it’d be something like injuries to allies, right?”
“Ah, my condition is a bit different.”
I opened my mouth as if I were about to name the skill condition, but said something else entirely.
“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding earlier—I thought you were attacking the controlled staff member. I didn’t realize that as a veteran guild master, you’d have figured it out first.”
Baek Mun-il’s face flickered with the question: ‘Suddenly?’
But separate from that, my apology had its effect.
In the midst of an urgent situation, I apologized sincerely for something that didn’t warrant an apology at all.
It was an innocent, kind-hearted gesture. ……Almost foolish, really.
And so.
‘This is it!’
My Synchronization Rate shot up in one smooth climb.
[Current Synchronization Rate]
95%
“So now that we’ve cleared up any confusion, let me lift that debuff for you.”
It didn’t matter if I genuinely aligned with the role—only that the other person perceived me as fitting the role they’d constructed.
With that thought, the ability felt suddenly easier to wield.
I smiled softly and called out the skill name in a short, clean voice.
“Gaehwa.”

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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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