I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 64

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

Chapter 64
Yu Ho-yeon and I entered a café located within Hunket.
Hunters had sharp hearing. In an ordinary café, one could pick up every word spoken around them.
Since Hunket was a facility built for Hunters, it gave careful consideration to such matters.
Despite being a café, the seating was arranged in private rooms, which stood out immediately.
Though the space efficiency was poor, Hunket apparently managed just fine since foot traffic was sparse.
And by the time we’d made our way here, I’d endured far too much internal conflict.
‘Did I make a mistake pulling him aside like this? No, still—I should probably say something about it. But did I really make a mistake?’
If someone were to chronicle this internal struggle, they could fill an entire book on the spot.
Unfortunately, even amid all this, my body went ahead and dutifully sat down in the café.
A coffee cup ended up in my hand.
Yu Ho-yeon took a sip of his own coffee before asking me.
“So, why?”
“Well… a friend said they regret the mistake they made in a moment of haste.”
Yu Ho-yeon frowned for the second time.
“Even so, the moment a similar situation arises, they’ll act the same way again.”
The conspicuously absent subject of his sentence bothered me.
It felt like he was refusing to call them a friend—though maybe I was just being oversensitive.
“Perhaps they’ll move more carefully this time?”
“Even if their acquaintance ends up injured or killed?”
Now it was my turn to furrow my brow.
“There’s no need to be so extreme about it. I mean they’d save both people by being more careful.”
True, the original mistake was mine to bear, but it was another matter entirely that my acquaintance got caught up in it because of me.
Why should someone else be weighed on the scales because of my carelessness?
“About what happened on the Beach—honestly, the whole thing wasn’t really about whether it was someone I knew or a stranger. The problem was that my short-sightedness kicked in because someone I cared about was in danger.”
“And that problem will only escalate.”
I’d encountered that unwavering, certainty-laden tone from Yu Ho-yeon before, but I still hadn’t grown accustomed to it.
“That tendency toward short-sightedness when someone close is involved—that’s not just a strategic issue. It’s a matter of character.”
There was a saying that caring for others was itself a form of intelligence, so his point wasn’t entirely wrong.
If one’s body moved before one had time to consider another’s wellbeing, it amounted to a lack of compassion.
But…
“Still, you don’t need to weigh acquaintances and strangers on a scale every single time. They’re not that different anyway.”
What, would knowing someone make them me?
An acquaintance is still another person, ultimately.
Looking after someone you know is also a form of compassion!
Yu Ho-yeon was about to say something. But I beat him to it, raising one hand to stop him and speaking first.
“I understand what you’re saying. I see this as a matter of carefulness, but you see it as a character issue—someone who only looks after what matters to them personally.”
Though it stung a little to admit it, seeing Darya Gorden made me concede the point.
That was what a truly remarkable person looked like—a Hunter of genuine nobility.
He despised seeing anyone suffer because of Dungeons, whether he knew them or not.
Suffering caused by Dungeons—that was Darya Gorden’s true enemy.
If every Hunter carried that conviction in their heart, how peaceful the world would be.
It was something to aspire toward, but…
I had no desire to forge enemies.
I was an ordinary citizen, and I preferred to live life smoothly.
Even if I had enemies, I wasn’t prepared to throw my life away trying to destroy them.
Because I had too much to lose.
A life where you have much to lose—that’s a happy life.
People paint a life with nothing to lose as noble and strong, but the truth is quite different.
I paused for a breath.
“Actually, what you don’t realize is that people with nothing to lose tend to be even more selfish.”
I decided to steel myself to face Yu Ho-yeon’s arguments.
“If there’s no one in this world to stand alongside you and live with, there’s no reason to act for the world’s sake.”
Someone who only needed to keep themselves safe had no reason to conquer Dungeons or slay Demonic Beasts.
They could fight for money if they wanted, but then it made sense to earn big and quit fast.
In fact, Hunters often did retire that way. Some faced criticism for it.
Yet before long, everyone acknowledged it.
Everyone knew most couldn’t do what they asked—fight and sacrifice their whole lives.
“Having someone precious to your friend—isn’t that actually good news?”
So I held my head high, stiff with resolve.
“From now on, I’ll tell my friends to look not just at your contacts, but at your contacts’ contacts, and their contacts after that.”
The world is small.
There’s an old saying that if you cross just three bridges, you’ll know everyone.
That old saying has flown far and wide on the wings of the global age.
Now you could know everyone without crossing a single bridge.
“Does that put your mind at ease a bit?”
……
Yu Ho-yeon’s eyes darkened.
If he still couldn’t accept it after I’d said all this, there was nothing more I could do.
My apology had reached its limit.
For me, Awakening was an uninvited guest that arrived suddenly, and I’d ventured into that Dungeon out of curiosity.
I couldn’t now be expected to fulfill a Hunter’s duty and throw my life away in battle.
Let my belly split open.
Of course, if it actually does split, I’ll run—so feel free to catch me if you manage it.
“……If you think that way, could you sacrifice anything for those people?”
Why does this conversation keep getting so heavy?
Is this a gym? You keep piling on the weight.
“Well, that depends on what it is, doesn’t it? People don’t even co-sign loans for family.”
My eyes darted back and forth.
Unlike when I’d spoken boldly before, my words had grown muddled again.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have offended Yu Ho-yeon.
If anything, he looked lost in deep thought.
I hadn’t even brought up anything difficult, so I couldn’t fathom why he seemed so contemplative.
I sucked on my coffee straw.
‘I guess I can ask what I’ve been curious about now?’
After chewing the straw once, I finally broached the question I’d been holding back.
“By the way.”
“Yeah.”
Yu Ho-yeon answered in a much softer tone than before.
Whether he’d lost his edge or understood what I was asking, I couldn’t tell.
“Do you happen to have a twin or… family that looks like you?”
“Not at all.”
His blunt answer confirmed what I’d suspected.
So was the Hunter who saved me really Yu Ho-yeon himself?
My throat felt dry, but I didn’t want to drink the coffee.
Even sipping it felt like it might catch in my throat and choke me.
“Then when did you Awaken?”
I was careful not to sound like I was pressing him, but given the subject matter, Yu Ho-yeon’s expression grew strange.
“In the early stages of Awakening, I couldn’t control my skills well, so I don’t remember much. I was almost entirely in a delirium—confused between the future and present as I stumbled around.”
So he must have been discovered by the Hunter Association while wandering like that.
It made sense; the Hunter Association oversaw the management of Awakened individuals.
“But it wasn’t that long ago.”
Yu Ho-yeon scratched his head, then answered as if the calculation had settled in his mind.
“About a year to a year and a half?”
The encounter with the Hunter that Choi A-rin and I remembered was eight years ago.
On the face of it, the timeline simply didn’t match.
But thinking back on what Choi A-rin had told me, it seemed there were cases where power manifested even before Awakening.
Though I couldn’t be certain with only one example—myself.
‘Could that have applied to Yu Ho-yeon too? If it did, why would it? Just me and Yu Ho-yeon? Would there be more cases like this if I searched?’
I posed the question and fell into my own thoughts.
Yu Ho-yeon pulled me back out.
“Why do you ask?”
I’d barely broken free of my thoughts when I awkwardly averted my eyes.
‘Should I just brush it off?’
But that wouldn’t be fair to someone who’d answered my prying so honestly.
I decided to be truthful.
“A while back, I was saved by a Hunter who looked like you. So I was just wondering.”
“How long ago?”
Yu Ho-yeon asked as if trying to trace his own memories.
He seemed to be searching for something from his early Awakening days, though the timeline clearly wouldn’t match anyway.
I fumbled for words before answering.
“That was… about eight years ago?”
Yu Ho-yeon rolled the number eight around in his mouth.
He seemed to want to murmur it silently, but a faint sound escaped anyway.
Then came the soft sound of him swallowing.
It was the sound of someone arriving at a realization.
I tilted my head and studied Yu Ho-yeon’s face.
“Is something clicking into place?”
Yu Ho-yeon couldn’t avoid my gaze meeting his straight on, and stared back hard.
His dark brown eyes, untouched by any yellow gleam, trembled with confusion once more.
He always looked at me this way — as if bewildered.
Standing before me, he seemed to struggle as though he couldn’t grasp anything solid.
It happened whether he was confusing me with my Delirium or not.
That’s why being around Yu Ho-yeon sometimes made me feel like a deeply mysterious woman, and yet at the same time like someone who couldn’t hide a thing.
That feeling was unfamiliar to me.
So I couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly.
To keep from being swept away by an emotion I’d never experienced before.
At that, Yu Ho-yeon sprang to his feet as though burned.
I half-rose from my chair in confusion.
“What? Why?”
Yu Ho-yeon shook his head frantically, then hastily gathered his things.
“I think I need to go — something’s come up.”
“What? Just like that? But the drink’s still—”
The speed of an S-rank Hunter is truly remarkable.
Yu Ho-yeon vanished beyond my line of sight before I could grab hold of him.
He ran off without a word, leaving me sitting alone.
“What?”
If he was the one who saved me eight years ago, why not just say it clearly!
Why act like something’s clicked into place and then just leave me wondering!
There are two ways to anger someone, and one of them is to start speaking and then stop mid-sentence!
I compressed all the words churning inside me into a single short outburst and spat it out.
“What?!”

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