The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 306

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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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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 2, Episode 127

Snowflakes still clung to the hem of Kang Han’s uniform—evidence that he’d rushed straight from the Gate to the Hospital without delay.
“Yeo Joo.”
“Yes?”
“Yeo Joo.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I’d been about to playfully wave my IV-connected hand, but I obediently lowered my arm and closed my mouth instead.
The atmosphere didn’t seem right for jokes.
“…Are you alright?”
It was a heavy question that Kang Han posed from the Hospital Room doorway, where he’d been standing motionless, unable to bring himself to enter further.
“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just like a cold or body aches, they said.”
Even after hearing my explanation, Kang Han’s complexion didn’t improve at all.
Only after he swept his large hand across his face—which had turned even paler than mine as I sat in the Hospital Room—did he shuffle inside.
When Kang Han collapsed into the chair beside the bed, the scent of winter wind clung to him.
“On the way here, I heard from Ryu Sang Eun that you got sick starting last night, but refused to go to the Hospital because you needed to watch the strategy broadcast.”
“Well…it wasn’t exactly refusing.”
His gaze was so piercing that I felt my profile might bore right through.
After a moment of reflection, I opened my mouth.
“I was being a bit stubborn….”
“Thank you for watching.”
I turned around wondering if he was joking, only to find those solemn green eyes fixed on me.
“Because of you, I was able to push forward.”
It was just a simple phrase.
The kind of polite remark anyone could make to anyone, yet surprisingly, it lifted my spirits.
As my fever climbed and I’d endured those hours weakened by body aches, those words suddenly gave meaning to it all.
The regret of not entering the Dungeon together, the sense of responsibility, the guilt—it seemed far more emotions were tangled up in this than I’d realized.
“I thought you’d scold me, but you’re not?”
“It seems you already knew you deserved to be scolded.”
“No, it’s just that the Guild Master is usually so overprotective….”
“Overprotective?”
A smile suddenly flickered across Kang Han’s eyes.
“If I had my way, I’d wrap you up in a blanket and carry you around with me everywhere.”
The image of Kang Han rolling me up like kimbap and tucking me under his arm made me burst into laughter.
“Don’t say such ridiculous things.”
“I was worried about you.”
“How can someone who was just fighting monsters inside a Gate be concerned about someone with a mere cold?”
Kang Han let out a faint laugh at my words.
Something about him seemed weak, so I checked his wrist and noticed the darkness addiction rate displayed on the scanner had risen considerably.
I reached out to purify him, but Kang Han grabbed my right arm—the one connected to the IV—and tucked it back under the blanket, shaking his head.
“Let’s do this after you’re fully recovered, Yeo Joo.”
“This much is fine.”
“It’s not fine for me.”
His tone was so resolute that anyone watching might have mistaken it for anger.
I had no choice but to nod.
“Anyway, congratulations on winning the Round of 16, Guild Master.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Yeo Joo.”
“Come on, what did I do? You and your guild members were the ones who went in and suffered.”
“That’s true. But.”
Kang Han held my hand firmly over the blanket as he spoke.
“We won because you told us about the Dungeon.”
An awkward silence settled over the Hospital Room.
My hand, held by Kang Han, flinched without my realizing it.
He hadn’t asked the question aloud, but Kang Han had asked it nonetheless.
How had I known the internal details of the Jeonju Glacier Dungeon beforehand?
In a normal conversation, this would be the moment to answer.
I imagined it for a moment.
Telling Kang Han everything.
It would certainly feel like a weight lifted.
More than anything, if there were even one other person who knew the future this world would face, perhaps I wouldn’t feel quite so alone.
‘Should I tell him?’
The thought suddenly surfaced.
Kang Han would willingly share the heavy burden on my shoulders.
Or perhaps he would try to bear it all himself.
Because he was that kind of person.
A tiny impulse swelled into something massive in an instant.
But.
“From now on, you’ll probably become curious more and more often.”
The image of Kang Han from the previous timeline flashed before me—the one who had fought with everything he had but ultimately failed to prevent the apocalypse, watching helplessly as the world was consumed by Gates.
“And I won’t be able to answer you until the very end.”
I hoped Kang Han would never know.
Eventually, he would naturally learn of the crisis approaching this world, but I hoped he would never know that it was a future predetermined from the beginning.
“Will you still trust me anyway?”
It was a stubbornness incomparable to refusing to go to the Hospital even with a fever.
Asking him to trust me without explaining how I knew.
I had prepared myself to accept his anger if it came, but Kang Han squeezed the hand he’d rested on the back of mine and met my eyes.
“I will. No matter what happens.”
“Thank you… ow, that stings.”
I was trying to have a serious conversation!
Ever since Kang Han arrived, the back of my hand where the IV needle was inserted had been growing increasingly uncomfortable, and now it was unbearably painful.
Curious, I pulled my hand out from under the blanket to find it swollen and bruised a pale purple.
It seemed something had gone wrong at the injection site.
“Where’s the call button?”
Without much thought, I found the nurse call button hidden near the bed rail and pressed it.
“I… ”
Kang Han’s face, which had been holding that hand just moments before, had gone completely pale.
“Did I… break it…?”
“No, you didn’t!”

* * *

“No, there’s no need to sit that far away!”
“Still, one can never be too careful. I think it’s best to maintain a safe distance.”
Kang Han pushed his chair back and answered from a spot far across the room.
After moving the IV line from my troublesome right hand to my left, he seemed to have calmed down somewhat.
But ever since hearing the nurse say, “It seems your blood vessels are weak, which is why it burst,” he’d been like this the whole time.
“As expected, you’re just too fragile, Yeo Joo…”
“Stop.”
I was already dealing with overprotectiveness, and at this rate, I’d end up being treated like a dried-up autumn leaf.
I definitely needed to change the subject.
“Was there anything strange inside the Gate?”
“…The number of monsters was excessively high. Even accounting for the field being larger than predicted…”
Fortunately, bringing up the Gate seemed to work.
This man only understands dungeons.
“The Gate Prediction Division will likely take measures, but I suspect there may be a problem with the prediction system itself.”
“I don’t think that’s it. There’s something that caught my attention.”
“What is it?”
“Bishop Yi appeared at Deokjin Lake.”
“Bishop Yi… you mean from the Apocalypse Cult?”
“Yes. That’s why Ryu Sang Eun and the hunters tried to catch him, but he used a scroll to escape. And he’s loaded with money too.”
People who fall into the Apocalypse Cult donate their entire fortunes.
It was under the guise of “end-times preparation funds.”
That scroll was definitely purchased with money from cult members who’d been deceived.
“I’m not certain, but I saw an item Bishop Yi was carrying just before we lost him. There’s a high probability that it affected the number of monsters in the Jeonju Gate.”
“Shouldn’t you inform the Association Director?”
Kang Han spoke with a grave expression.
An item capable of altering a Gate’s difficulty level.
For a single individual—especially someone like Bishop Yi—to possess such a dangerously powerful artifact was far too risky.
“Precisely. Such an item couldn’t possibly be used infinitely, but regardless, there’s no harm in everyone exercising caution.”
Gates are spaces where the laws of causality apply with particular strictness.
Moreover, there were limits to what a mere lower-tier administrator like Mollig could actually accomplish.
And it was utterly implausible that someone who despised humans would perform Bishop Yi’s bidding without reservation or hesitation.
“I have something to report as well.”
“What is it?”
“Immediately after clearing the Gate—more precisely, after eliminating all the Hydras—something unusual occurred.”
I watched as Kang Han’s fist clenched against his knee.
“Something was trapped within the ice of the Mountain of Hardship.”
“Trapped, you say?”
Wait. Could it be…?
“I don’t know what it was. All I saw was a pair of eyes. But the moment our gazes met, time seemed to stop.”
Kang Han furrowed his brow, searching for the right words to describe it.
“I felt as though I was being assimilated into that entity.”
…Oh, lottery gods above.

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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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