SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 110

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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 110. The Way She Loves (2)
2
And Raphael Ivancia tightened her grip. To kill the man. To infect him with an eternal wound.
A choked cry, a gasp, a strangled sound…!
The man’s body convulsed. Raphael Ivancia’s blade drove deeper still, piercing straight through his heart. He screamed—a sound of pure agony that tore through the narrow space between them.
‘I don’t want to kill him.’
Raphael Ivancia bit her lip.
‘I don’t want to lose him.’
Yet contrary to that longing, Raphael Ivancia drove the blade deeper still. Every sensation flooded through her palms with vivid clarity. The textures of his rupturing chest. The splitting of his flesh. His heart pierced through, endlessly spilling blood.
All of it became her wound.
‘More.’
Harder still. Now, to carve this moment into her own trauma. So that someday—she didn’t know when—the man she loved would glimpse this sight.
So as the man was about to cough blood, Raphael Ivancia stole his lips.
A sharp intake of breath…!
A metallic, fetid breath flowed from his heart into her mouth. A red, viscous exhalation. This is my man’s warmth. This is my man’s blood. This is my man’s heart.
Raphael Ivancia sealed his mouth, not letting a single drop escape.
…….
The man was dying.
Raphael Ivancia did not blink. She refused to miss even a moment of the man she loved fading away. Each instant his complexion paled, each flicker as his presence dimmed, each breath growing fainter—all of it became agony for her.
Not to lose him.
She wanted to scream to the heavens.
Not to lose this man.
If this moment doesn’t engrave itself as trauma? If all her schemes come to nothing? Then I will forget him, and he will forget me. Nothing remains.
Raphael Ivancia was afraid.
‘More.’
To fear something was, for a person like her, humiliation. Degradation. Yet Raphael Ivancia compulsively replayed the fearful sight. The cruel imaginings. She deliberately deepened the wound.
The image of him failing to persuade the Tower.
Of me forgetting him, living as I did before.
Of us passing each other in the Corridor with indifference.
Layering wound upon wound.
…….
And Raphael Ivancia saw it. His death.
…….
Raphael Ivancia understood. This was time like residue. A moment suspended before the man’s Regression, only briefly. In perhaps a few seconds, he would Regress. She too would be caught in his time and Regress identically.
Only a few seconds. Mere seconds.
Yet those few seconds felt like eternity to Raphael Ivancia.
She slowly drew her lips away.
“Kim Gongja?”
No answer.
“Kim Gongja.”
Ah.
In that very moment, Raphael Ivancia understood. Yes. This final sight. The absence of a reply.
His gaze, robbed of direction. His lips, stilled as though they had forgotten how to speak. Through this, the present moment became an indelible trauma for Raphael Ivancia.
Everything became clear.
She had never left a scar more brutal than this.
…….
Raphael Ivancia embraced him. She held his body close. Now, with only seconds remaining in this final time. This last moment—she spent it holding him.
I trust.
[Trauma Recreation complete.]
As I trust you, so too will you trust me.
Kim Gongja.
[Target’s sense of self confirmed as maintained.]
So we can wait for each other.
[Penalty terminated.]
It will be so.
[Your current Immersion Rate is 98%.]
* * *
Strangely, opening his eyes was difficult.
“Butler?”
The Geumsamae Young Lady across from him looked startled. It was odd. Her face, which always seemed to shine brightly, appeared dimmed today.
“What’s wrong? Why did you suddenly…?”
“Hmm?”
“You’re crying. Right now.”
Only then did I realize I was weeping. The shock of it stopped me cold. Just moments before, Geumsamae Young Lady and I had been chatting idly together.
I’d only blinked.
In that single instant, tears had spilled down my face.
“I… what?”
Worse still, they wouldn’t stop.
“B-Butler? I’m a little frightened, you see. I’m not easily scared—there aren’t many things that scare me—but this is unsettling. Why did you suddenly start crying while talking to me? Did I do something strange again?”
“No… I… I’m not entirely sure myself.”
“You’re crying for no reason? Have you lost your mind? Good heavens, you’re really sobbing now…. Wh-what do I do? I haven’t seen our butler cry like this since you got hit when I was five….”
“Young Lady, perhaps you could see fit to let that particular incident go. After all these years.”
“But Butler, even if I forgave you for hitting me when I was five, you were hit by me at six, and again at seven, and then right through age fourteen, and to be honest you still get hit occasionally now—if I had to forget all of that, I’d develop amnesia, wouldn’t I? The truth is, your entire life has been nothing but a string of blows delivered by my hand.”
Amnesia.
……
“Ugh, I thought your crying might stop, but now you’re at it again? I’m sorry! I apologize for all the hitting! I won’t do it anymore. And when I do, I’ll make it less… demeaning. That should settle it, shouldn’t it?”
“I believe I was having a nightmare, Young Lady….”
“A nightmare? Was I being torn to pieces by some monster?”
“No. There was a woman… and she wept endlessly as she looked at me. I wanted to wipe away her tears, but I couldn’t. It grieved me terribly.”
“I see.”
Geumsamae Young Lady’s expression shifted to one of deep understanding.
“So that woman was me.”
“Never, Young Lady. You could never wear such an expression—so sorrowful and refined. Your nature forbids it….”
“Ah. Shall I hit you?”
Geumsamae Young Lady fixed me with a narrow-eyed glare. Under normal circumstances, I would have lowered my head at this moment and said, “I beg your pardon,” and she would have responded with a look of resignation: “Well, generous as I am, I suppose I must forgive you.” That was how it always went.
But this time, I stood from my chair.
“Butler?”
“There is somewhere I must go.”
“What? At this hour? I was going to tell you—I’ve made an evening appointment with the Crown Prince for tomorrow. I was so excited to boast about it to you. You have a duty as my butler to listen to my triumphs.”
I bowed deeply.
“Forgive me, Young Lady. But there is somewhere I must go.”
……
Geumsamae Young Lady narrowed her eyes, letting out a small hum. She rested her chin on the back of her chair and studied my face intently.
“Very well. You have a mind of your own, so you must think sometimes. But don’t return empty-handed, understand? Stop by the kitchens and steal some muffins for yourself.”
“Tomorrow, the Crown Prince will give you the Blue Coral Ring.”
Geumsamae Young Lady’s eyes went wide.
“Pardon?”
“I shall take my leave now.”
I walked out.
Behind me, she cried out: “Butler! Was that really true?” But I paid it no mind. “Wait—at least answer me before you go! You insufferable fool!”
Since arriving at Solmeuwin Academy, Geumsamae Young Lady had grown far more refined, but her essence remained unchanged: the queen of the streets. The girl who once lorded over the neighborhood children back home.
‘My mistress.’
I quickened my pace.
Though this path was new to my feet, my steps felt familiar.
‘As if I’d walked this very road before, long ago.’
The Silver Lily Young Lady’s Residence stood with its gate hanging open. There were no guards. It should have seemed strange, yet I thought only: ‘I had a feeling it would be this way.’ My footsteps did not hesitate as I crossed the garden.
The corridor.
“You’ve come.”
A single point of moonlight.
“…Were you waiting for me?”
“Yes. This is the second time.”
Questions and answers without context. A conversation that made no sense drifted through the night air. With a full-length mirror at her back, the Silver Lily Young Lady was smiling.
“Look into the mirror.”
……
“What do you see?”
+
■■: ■■■
■■■: ■■
■■ ■■: [무■], [■■스], [■■], [■■]
■■ ■■: ■■
■■ ■■■: [Master], [Lover], [■■■ ■■], [■■■], [■■■], [■■Child], [■■], [■■■ ■■■ ■ ■■ ■], [■■■■ ■■■■ ■], [■■ ■■■■ ■]
+
“…I can see the words ‘master’ and ‘lover.’ The word ‘child’ as well. There appear to be fragments of smaller characters, but their meaning is difficult to grasp.”
“Call me by name.”
“So…….”
I started to say “Your Grace,” but stopped myself, my lips sealing shut.
It was the most respectful way to address Raphael Ivancia, yet I could not speak it.
‘Never again shall those lips call me ‘Your Grace.”
‘I will tear out your heart and end you.’
A conversation we had never once shared came flooding back—as though I were glimpsing a dream from a previous life.
I was confused. No matter what, I must not call her that.
“…Young Lady.”
“Much better.”
Silver Lily Young Lady drew closer. Her crimson eyes fixed upon me—merely gazing, her lips pressed firmly closed.
‘What dream did you have?’
And yet it felt as though she were speaking to me. Her sealed lips seemed to move. It was too vivid to be hallucination, too distinct to be mere tinnitus.
“You were… weeping, Young Lady.”
‘And?’
“You kept calling for someone. There was a man bound before you… I think you were calling out to him. But I cannot recall his name.”
‘And?’
“You were stabbing him with a blade, tormented by it all the while.”
It was strange.
Why did I pour forth endless words to one who remained silent? Why did Silver Lily Young Lady listen to me so quietly?
It was truly strange.
The strangest part was that my heart found no discomfort in this strangeness itself.
“How touching.”
Silver Lily Young Lady brushed my hair gently. “How touching.” Those words resonated deeply in my chest. “How touching.” Long, long ago—before I was even born into this world—I felt as though I had heard such words somewhere.
I thought I had caught the scent of something blue.
“Look.”
Silver Lily Young Lady withdrew something from her bosom.
It was a Card.
“…What is this?”
“Proof that you have labored for my sake. You may take pride in it.”
Upon the golden Card, dense characters were inscribed.
+
[A Returner’s Love]
Rank: EX
Effect: For a Returner, love is poison. No matter how you struggle, you cannot share time with the one you love. So one Returner made a wish: “Protect my lover’s memory.” That wish reached the Tower and was granted.
You share a timeline with your beloved. When your lover turns back a day, so do you. When you turn back a day, so does your lover. This is the Covenant of Rings. This is Temporal Marriage.
May fortune walk with you both.
※However, it activates only when you and your lover love each other.
+
“…….”
Words failed me for reasons I could not name.
“To ask me to protect my lover’s time…”
Silver Lily Young Lady laughed softly.
“A proposal made in such a way is hardly convenient. I love your voice. Do you understand? I will not listen unless you speak to me directly. So come, return to me quickly.”
My heart lurched within my chest.
“I will kill you. Again and again, I will kill you. Until you return—if showing you my wounds means you might return, then I shall show them to you, over and over again.”
“Young Lady…….”
“So witness my scars and suffer. See the wounds you left upon me. Look at them, again and again. Your traces are there.”
Silver Lily Young Lady reached out and grasped my throat.
“In this world, only you can kill me.”
Softly.
“And know that only I can kill you.”
And then I saw it.
[You have died.]
[Trauma Recreation of the enemy who killed you activates.]
I saw it, and saw it again.
[Your current Immersion Rate is 97%.]
I watched as the Silver Lily Young Lady shed tears.
I saw her kill a man—saw it countless times over.
Each time a day looped, I lived in her dreams.
[You have died.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 96%.]
We loved each other in a past life.
[You have died.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 95%.]
And we would love each other in this life too.
Perhaps even in the next.
[Your current Immersion Rate is 94%.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 93%.]
[Your current Immersion Rate is 92%.]
The fact that I wounded you. In the moments I couldn’t see, in the hours I failed to stand beside you—that you wept silently, without a sound. If I do not forget such things.
If I do not let them slip away.
If I hold them in memory.
[Your current Immersion Rate is 91%.]
Then we can love forever.
[Your current Immersion Rate is 90%.]
And.
And.
And.
And I come to you.
I open the door. I cross the Garden. I run down the Corridor.
You were born the illegitimate daughter of House Ivancia. With a sorrowful mother, you lived a sorrowful life. Your betrothal was sealed before your birth, and from the moment you were born, your entire existence was devoted to that one man.
You were a white flower.
You were called the Moon of Ivancia, and also the Young Duchess, and more briefly still, the Young Lady.
“You’ve come.”
“…….”
You stand in the Corridor. Standing in the darkness of night, you are like an island in the middle of an endless sea. The boundless waters surround you. I hear the crash of those waves.
Not the Young Duchess of Ivancia, not the Young Lady, not even the Young Lady in the shorter form.
“Raphael Ivancia.”
The white flower smiles.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
I.
Love you.
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, Daeryung Post Tower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noah 2019
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of 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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