The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 493

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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 3, Episode 97

“Lee Yu Eul?”
“Sister, sister…….”
Lee Yu Eul’s voice and body trembled faintly.
“Yu Eul, are you…….”
Crying?
The question hung unfinished in the air.
“No, it’s just. I’m just happy about it.”
Lee Yu Eul spoke in a murmur, her face buried in my embrace.
“It’s been so long…… I really couldn’t do anything…….”
Moisture crept into her voice.
“Sister and Kang Han and Lee Yu Chan and everyone else are fighting so hard, but I’m weak, so I can’t do anything…….”
“Oh, look at you growing up, Lee Yu Eul.”
I patted her back lightly, speaking with deliberate playfulness.
How much she must have suffered all this time.
I never believed that just because she laughed and chattered and appeared cheerful as always, there was no pain beneath the surface.
She must have felt hurt.
While the other hunters at the Justice Guild grew stronger through Re-awakening, Lee Yu Eul remained stuck at A-rank.
She must have felt herself slowly falling behind while standing still.
Yet I found myself newly proud of Lee Yu Eul, who had genuinely celebrated and cheered for her advancing comrades despite it all.
“You’ve worked hard. You’ve endured so much, Lee Yu Eul.”
“……Hnng.”
The moment I patted her backside, Lee Yu Eul finally broke down crying.
Enough to soak my clothes.
“Huh, now me too……, sniff, why does every Gate keep becoming S-rank……, dammit.”
Everything that had built up over such a long time burst forth at once.
My shirt probably bore teardrop marks forming eyes, nose, and mouth.
“That’s right, that’s right.”
The moment I took her side, Lee Yu Eul cried even harder and burrowed deeper into my arms.
She was taller and broader than me, so it was quite a handful, but I decided to simply accept her without protest.
She wasn’t usually the type to genuinely crave body warmth like this, always full of jokes and coy gestures.
But now she seemed to need comfort and encouragement.
Just then, Jang Su Ho arrived a step late, entered the room, saw me nestled in Baek Ho’s arms and Lee Yu Eul nestled in mine, and let out a snort of laughter.
“Well, well. You went running off like that on your own, and this was why?”
“Jang Su Ho, you’re here.”
“Yeah, I’m dead tired.”
Jang Su Ho, shaking his head in exaggeration, pulled out a dining chair and spoke.
His posture as he flopped into it looked exhausted, but what caught my eye more was the wide grin spread across his face.
“Yeo Joo.”
“Huh?”
“Did Yu Eul tell you?”
Jang Su Ho gestured with his chin at Lee Yu Eul, still clinging to me with childish affection, and asked.
“Yeah, Lee Yu Eul Re-awakened, right?”
“And?”
“And what else is there?”
“Wow! Lee Yu Eul, that’s so sneaky!”
Having barely sat down, Jang Su Ho suddenly sprang back to his feet and exclaimed.
But Lee Yu Eul paid him no mind.
“Be quiet, Su Ho. I’m having a cozy moment with my sister right now.”
Still with her head buried, she chattered away easily.
“Why, what’s going on?”
“She wasn’t the only one who Re-awakened. I did too, Yeo Joo.”
“Really?! Really for real?!”
“Yeah! I’m S-rank now too!”
Hahahaha!
His loud laughter made the ceiling ring.
It was sharp enough to make my ears ache, but I didn’t feel like reproaching him.
Besides, I didn’t have the mind for it.
“Not one, but both of them Re-awakened……?”
Two more S-rank hunters?
How many S-rank hunters are there now?
Is this even allowed?
Isn’t this what Rank Inflation looks like?
It felt like a strange mixture of joy mixed with alarm, relief tangled with fear.
Click.
The sound of the refrigerator door closing snapped me out of my endless spiral of thought.
I turned my head slightly and saw Kang Han gulping down a bottle of cool water.
He crumpled the now-empty bottle in his grip, and the sigh that escaped him was unusually long and deep.
“Guild Master.”
“I’ve succeeded.”
Kang Han smiled refreshedly as he spoke.
“I’ve uncovered the secret of Re-awakening.”

* * *

It took quite some time before the three people who had just returned from the Gate could sit down and have a proper conversation with me.
Each needed to withdraw to the dormitory to wash and change clothes.
And I was no exception, having spent considerable time with Lee Yu Eul clinging to me.
“You’re saying we need to recreate the exact conditions from when they first Awakened?”
I asked in surprise, handing a towel to Kang Han, who had returned with wet hair.
“Not perfectly identical conditions, but roughly so, yes.”
“But that’s…….”
That’s all?
The answer was so much simpler than I’d expected that it left me flustered.
I’d never asked Kang Han about the various Re-awakening methods he’d been trying.
It seemed he wanted to keep silent about it.
But because he kept failing, I’d assumed it must require a far more complex method.
Like adequate skill proficiency, or defeating a boss monster, something along those lines.
But the key to Re-awakening was the first Awakening itself?
“Hasn’t that method already been attempted by many people?”
Hunters were creatures that always craved greater strength.
Those of lower ranks were even more so.
So the Hunter Community was rife with all manner of ‘Re-awakening hypotheses,’ and recreating conditions similar to those of the first Awakening was one of the oldest theories circulating.
Yet there seemed to be no successful cases to speak of?
“I think it’s less about conditions and more a matter of trauma, actually.”
At that moment, Lee Yu Eul, who had been lying with her head on my lap on the sofa, spoke up.
“I Awakened when I was in a car accident, right? My brother Lee Yu Chan was unconscious, and I was trying to drag him and get us out of the car—there was a fire in the front seat. But the car doors were all crumpled, and when I finally managed to break the window and get out, concrete debris and other rubble blocked me in every direction. I thought I couldn’t get out.”
“That…… must have been terrible.”
Not knowing what to say to Lee Yu Eul as she described the most horrifying moment of her life, I simply stroked her soft hair and forehead.
“Anyway, in that situation, I kept thinking ‘I want to clear everything blocking my way,’ ‘I want to live,’ and that’s when I Awakened. This time was the same. Kang Han and Su Ho couldn’t save me, and when I was surrounded by an A-rank monster, I couldn’t help but…….”
“Wait, why couldn’t both of them save you?”
“Because I was the only one who went into the Gate.”
Looking at Lee Yu Eul’s innocent face as if she didn’t see the problem, I raised my head.
“Guild Master?”
“…….”
Kang Han’s eyes slipped away from mine.
“……Jang Su Ho?”
“That, well…… I went through something similar! It wasn’t just Lee Yu Eul!”
Jang Su Ho hastily waved both hands in excuse.
“I even had to hold my ground with Lee Yu Eul behind me…….”
“We’ll discuss yours another time, Jang Su Ho.”
My sharp gaze, which had made Jang Su Ho droop, turned back to Kang Han.
Judging that he could no longer evade, Kang Han explained in a measured voice.
“I believe the reason so many hunters have failed at Re-awakening is due to a lack of desperation. In typical clearing situations where multiple hunters work together, it would be difficult to recreate the same urgency as during the first Awakening.”
“So?”
“So I utilized the A-rank Gates that opened in Chungju and Wonju to create an environment where Lee Yu Eul and Su Ho would inevitably feel primal danger. As a result, both successfully Re-awakened.”
“Fine, the Re-awakening itself is good.”
I asked in as measured a voice as Kang Han’s.
“But what if that wasn’t the right answer? What if Yu Eul and Jang Su Ho had failed to Re-awaken even in that dangerous situation? You’d have had a real disaster on your hands.”
“There would have been no risk of death. I was stationed outside the Gate.”
“……Why don’t you two go rest.”
At my words, Lee Yu Eul and Jang Su Ho promptly nodded and disappeared.
I felt sorry for them—they deserved to be celebrated all day for their S-rank Re-awakening—but this was something I needed to address now.
Silence settled over the common space, with only Kang Han and me remaining.
I couldn’t speak for Kang Han, but I was busy sorting through the turbulent mess in my own mind.
“Congratulations on finding the answer to Re-awakening, Guild Master.”
“……Yes.”
“But I don’t think that’s actually the right answer.”
Kang Han countered my statement.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it’s too dangerous. One wrong move and…….”
“If they succeed, they become stronger.”
Kang Han cut me off abruptly.
It was the first time.
I stared at him with eyes widened in surprise.
It wasn’t just the first time he’d interrupted me.
The face of Kang Han as he gazed at me was unfamiliar—so cold and harsh.
And in a voice just as frigid, he posed his question to me.
“Do you believe that by not even attempting Re-awakening out of fear of danger, you can live safely?”

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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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