SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 102

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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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Episode 102. A Play (3)
“I…….”
I fought to keep my words from stumbling.
“For now, I intend to remain at the Silver Lily Young Lady’s side.”
Silence.
“…That’s quite an incomprehensible thing to say, isn’t it?”
The corners of Geumsamae Young Lady’s eyes lifted and froze in place. Perhaps from the chill of emotion turning to ice—even the Crown Prince felt the coldness in his beloved’s voice, and he stopped walking.
“I asked you to come with me just now, Butler. Even if showcasing wounds isn’t my preference, I endured something rather humiliating to free you from under the Young Lady’s care.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“And yet you refuse my request?”
A bitter taste rose in my mouth.
I couldn’t say with certainty whether this bitter feeling came from my distress at losing the Heresy Inquisitor, or from the defiance of a butler refusing his original master’s plea. What I knew was only that looking into those blue eyes—eyes that now belonged to Geumsamae—was agony.
[Immersion in this character is intensifying.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 42%.]
So I lowered my head and averted my gaze.
“My apologies.”
…….
“There is still work I must do.”
“A catch-all phrase. Tell me, it’s not simply that the butler has been enchanted by the Young Lady, is it?”
I held my composure in silence. A scoff escaped from Geumsamae—not directed at me, but at the Silver Lily Young Lady.
“I understand. Young Lady, whatever grand scheme you’re plotting this time, you won’t be able to shake the friendship between me and my butler. I entrust my butler to your care.”
“Misunderstanding is a freedom you possess. Disappear from my sight, Baroness.”
“Very well, I shall.”
Geumsamae Young Lady reached out while nestled in the Crown Prince’s embrace. Then she stroked his cheek and spoke in what seemed a whisper—though it was pitched loud enough for everyone else to hear as well.
“Would you disappear with me, Your Highness?”
“Ah, ah… yes.”
The Crown Prince’s face flushed scarlet.
[Immersion in this character is intensifying.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 43%.]
The two of them departed with their guards.
The commotion that erupted past midnight had thus reached its conclusion for now.
3
The Garden fell silent in an instant.
“Young Lady…….”
The servants looked upon their mistress with sorrowful faces. It was the Duke’s household that had issued the eviction notice, yet judging by the atmosphere alone, one would think it was our side that had been turned away.
“The night has grown late.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady spoke.
“You’ve all worked hard. Now, go inside.”
“But Young Lady, what do you intend to do……?”
“I’ll stay here awhile to look at the flowers, then retire. I wish to be alone, so all of you withdraw.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady, dressed in her nightclothes, tilted her face toward the night sky. As though she had been born not in daylight but in darkness, her form blended seamlessly into the gloom. The attendants could not disobey their mistress and returned to the quarters.
“Young Lady.”
I alone remained and drew near to her.
—Zombie, look at this person now! She’s weakened, don’t you see? The whole atmosphere reeks of despair, doesn’t it? She looks expressionless, but she’s actually vulnerable. Perfect! The goalkeeper’s gone. This kind of high-skill romance is hard enough as it is—hurry up and get close now while you can!
‘Silence, please.’
The spirit remained unchanged. Unchanged in her failure to read the atmosphere.
“You should go inside and rest as well, Butler.”
“I’m perfectly fine even if I go without sleep for a day or two. Isn’t it you who’s exhausted, Young Lady?”
“I want to deny it… but yes, I am somewhat worn out.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady sighed.
“Already the fourteenth cycle. For 140 days, I’ve striven to set the Crown Prince on the right path. I accept that my love will not be fulfilled—it is my fate—but His Highness will ascend to the Imperial throne. If I cannot steady him, the Empire’s future will be in peril…… This is exhausting.”
“You’re not alone anymore.”
There is only one Regressor in the world—you. I meant it in that sense.
“I am here. If there is but a single person at your side who truly knows you, humans can endure almost anything.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, surprisingly, it is.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady turned her gaze from the night sky.
Her eyes met mine.
“You are laboring under one particular misunderstanding.”
A misunderstanding?
“I repeat the final ten days. When you die, you return to the day before. At first glance it looks like the same Regression, as though we share time together, but the truth is we don’t.”
I didn’t interrupt the Silver Lily Young Lady. The conversation we were having now would likely be broadcast live to the people in the Tower.
Still, it didn’t matter.
I had already decided on the next cycle.
“Butler, one of us will Regress first and disappear.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady bent at the waist.
“If I Regress first, you’ll forget your current life. If you Regress first, then I forget everything that happened here. One of us has time devoured by the other.”
Swish. Swish.
She drew a straight line across the ground with her whip.
“We are parallel lines that will never meet for eternity.”
My chest ached.
“I can understand you. You can understand me as well. But only that—understanding alone. It’s impossible for us two to live together. You cannot take responsibility for me, nor can I for you.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady’s voice was steady.
“Your confession that you wanted to share the same time with me was fierce and beautiful. But it cannot actually come to pass. Perhaps that’s precisely why it sounded so beautiful.”
“What if it could be done?”
I looked directly into the Silver Lily Young Lady’s eyes.
“What if? There is no what if.”
“I keep my word, absolutely. I didn’t use impossible things in a proposal just to win the Young Lady’s heart. It’s not in my nature to inflate empty words like balloons and draw people in with them.”
……
“What if I could help the Young Lady escape the eternal ten days? If I could help, what then?”
A night bird cried out sharply.
“…How arrogant. I am enough for my own life.”
“I’m sure that’s true. It’s the same for me. And yet I wish to help the Young Lady. Is it arrogant to want to help someone you love? Then I’ll gladly be an arrogant man.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady closed her lips. She too was trying to help the Crown Prince in her own way. Whether we admitted it or not, we were cut from the same cloth.
“What is it you ask of me?”
“Stay with me when this world ends.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
Watching the Heresy Inquisitor’s Immersion Rate hit one hundred percent, I understood it then—the secret to destroying this Stage. A rather unorthodox and tricky solution, but… it could work.
If only I kept my head on straight.
“And if you wouldn’t mind, I’d be grateful if you could guide me to like you even more than I do now. It would be perfect if I became so enamored with the Young Lady that I couldn’t escape.”
“You’re asking me this now?”
“It’s fine. I’m an easy man. My heart races just from the Young Lady holding my hand.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady stared at me as if utterly bewildered.
“You’re shameless…. Very well. I said I would teach you love, so I suppose I must take responsibility for those words.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady took my hand. It was soft. Her hand was bare. The touch of her skin wrapped around my right hand. The memory of last night, when the Silver Lily Young Lady’s perfume had brushed against me, came flooding back, and my heart began to race.
“Is this enough?”
[Your Immersion with this character is deepening.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 44%.]
Heat rose to my face.
“Yes. M-more than enough.”
“Good heavens. It’s not my place to say this after bewitching you, but… aren’t you being a bit too pure? How have you managed to survive in such a harsh world?”
“I’ve died. Many times.”
……
“Does showing weakness like this make your heart skip a beat, Young Lady? I read in a magazine once that sometimes you have to play weak to make it work.”
“Ha.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady let out a scoff. Though her eyes didn’t laugh, laughter was still laughter. She must have been quite depressed by the Crown Prince’s blundering. If I could lighten her mood even a little, that was enough.
“A child who learned love only yesterday dares to provoke me?”
“I learned it from watching you fight with Geumsamae earlier. You’re wise, Young Lady, but when someone provokes you, you never let it slide. Is it pride? Even if it costs you, you stamp out provocation. So I wanted to try provoking you too.”
“…You’re rather clever after all.”
“Shall I provoke you more?”
“Go ahead. Try if you dare.”
We were close.
Closer still.
Our shadows overlapped.
Neither of us had any thought of stepping back.
“You speak as though you’re a master of love. But are you really? Isn’t being loved just as important as loving? Loving the Crown Prince, drawing out his love—both matter. But you failed at the latter.”
“Hmm.”
“In that sense, perhaps Geumsamae Young Lady is better at love than you are. After all, she’s being loved by the Crown Prince, isn’t she? If we’re comparing who’s more skilled at love, Geumsamae Young Lady might actually be the more sophisticated one.”
“Ho.”
“You know how to love, Young Lady. But you don’t know how to be loved. At least not as well as Geumsamae does. So…….”
Then.
“So?”
Silver Lily Young Lady’s hand seized my chin.
“…….”
“Continue. Your voice—it’s not unpleasant to hear.”
[Your immersion in this character deepens.]
[Your current immersion rate is 45%.]
“…So it was inevitable that the Crown Prince would be stolen by Geumsamae. You should have analyzed his tastes and interests more precisely. Planned your approach with greater care.”
“Your teeth are remarkably white.”
“…You didn’t. You were careless. That’s why Geumsamae has become so brazen. In part, that’s your responsibility, Young Lady.”
“Your tongue is red, and shaped so prettily.”
Silver Lily Young Lady pulled my chin toward her.
Her gaze traced the inside of my mouth.
“Why do you fall silent again? If you close your lips, I cannot see your tongue. But there is pleasure in the sight. Keep speaking.”
“…….”
“Do you concede?”
“Yes…….”
“[Once she has me charmed and ensnared by her, I’ll never escape.]”
Those were my own words, spoken just moments ago.
“How fearless you are. You choose only the most frightening things to say, plucking them like flowers. I cannot fathom what brilliant scheme you’ve devised to be so certain of yourself, yet you show no fear whatsoever.”
Silver Lily Young Lady pulled my chin further toward her.
I found myself drawn by her touch as though I had lost all gravity.
“After fourteen cycles of repetition, perhaps I deserve a brief indulgence myself.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“My law is this: treat a bastard as a bastard. Reflecting on what transpired tonight, it seems His Highness the Crown Prince has become something of a bastard toward me. I cannot simply endure it.”
My heart began to race.
Could it be.
“Are you finally willing to abandon the Crown Prince?”
“No—my heart is a star fixed in the night sky. How could I abandon it?”
Rather, Silver Lily Young Lady whispered.
“I thought I might become a bastard myself.”
A bastard.
The only face that came to mind was Yeom Je’s disagreeable sneer. Whenever I heard the word “bastard,” Yusu Ha appeared in my thoughts unbidden. But becoming that sort of bastard was no simple feat either. What was Silver Lily Young Lady trying to say?
“An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.”
Silver Lily Young Lady’s index finger brushed my lower lip.
“Starting tonight, I’ll have an affair with you.”
“…….”
Wait.
“Do you love me?”
“No.”
“Is there any part of you that wishes to be with me?”
“No.”
“Then…….”
“But you are the butler whom Geumsamae cherishes. By her own words, you are her one and only retainer, her childhood companion. I am curious what expression Geumsamae will wear when she learns that you have become my lover. His Highness the Crown Prince will surely be quite flustered as well.”
In other words.
“You’re saying you’ll pretend to be with me just to spite those two……?”
“Why?”
Her breath grew closer.
“Does it displease you?”
I could not answer. Thump-thump. No words would come to my mind. Thump-thump. My heartbeat thundered so wildly that my head spun. This was my love. My first love. Thump-thump. Not like this. An affair should be. Something far more romantic than this.
“Sit.”
I sat carefully in the Garden. The moon was obscured by clouds, and the ground lay in darkness. It felt as though I were kneeling in a bog without a bottom.
Our eyes were now at opposite heights.
“I offer you a choice.”
Silver Lily Young Lady gazed down at me.
“If you wish to refuse my proposal, close your eyes tightly. I will slip away quietly before you open them again. But if you wish to accept my proposal—if you wish to pretend to be my lover and play this role until the end of this life…….”
The red moon in the night sky had vanished behind the clouds.
But before my eyes gleamed eyes far more crimson than any moon.
“Speak my name aloud.”
A name.
I am.
“Raviel…….”
Wait.
“Raviel Ibancia.”
Why is my mouth hanging open.
“Yes, when I said I would teach you love, do you remember the first lesson I gave?”
“Love begins with experiencing a bastard…….”
“How well you remember.”
The Silver Lily Young Lady’s hands covered both my cheeks.
And then.
“I shall be your first bastard.”
The moon swallowed fire.
“…….”
Lily perfume.
Soft and sweet.
A fragrance that feels like drowning.
[Immersion in this character deepens.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 50%.]
I can’t breathe.
She’s beautiful.
-You two lunatics are perfect for each other. Besides, even if you dated, how could you ever be with some ordinary person? Birds of a feather — that’s an eternal truth.
The Backhoe Spirit’s voice drifted from far away.
-Congratulations on day one, you little sparrow.
Magnolia leaves scattered and fell.
-Though it’s an affair.
S-Rank Hunter Must Die to Live (Serial Publication)
Author │ Shin Noah
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelung Posttower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noah 2019
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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