Overpowered Reincarnation Perks! - Chapter 15.4
A pleasant excitement arose. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt such elation in battle.
The life of a person with a goal is different. It’s no different even if that goal is death.
The short time he spent meeting Ju-in was the most meaningful moment in his life compared to the countless meaningless hours he had let pass by. Having known the joy of being alive and the happiness of pressing flesh with someone who understood his heart, he had no more regrets.
He could gladly die to the monsters.
If he could buy time until the sun set and darkness covered the sky, by then Ju-in would already be in a safe place, so he could die with a light heart.
That judgment was a mistake.
“…Brother?”
The monster collective, which had been larger than any of the destroyed buildings in the village, disappeared in an instant. In the midst of the emptiness, as if that part of the scenery had been erased with an eraser, his brother suddenly appeared.
“Brother, how…”
“….”
“Where’s Ju-in?”
He had found a goal in life, and a goal in death.
But that was arrogance.
The moment he was certain he had found it, his only goal scattered like mist.
***
What happened after that? He couldn’t remember well. Callion consciously tried to distance himself from traces of Ju-in. The village where she had been, the cliff where she died, the mountain paths they had walked together… He wanted to erase everything from his memory.
Even himself.
When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of Ju-in. Sometimes she smiled or cried at Callion, and sometimes she got angry. And in the end, she always disappeared to a place beyond his reach.
As he repeatedly fell asleep from exhaustion only to wake up as if having a seizure, Callion became afraid of falling asleep. After vomiting everything he ate, he couldn’t even bear to look at food.
Callion clutched his throbbing head. Fearing he might fall asleep if he sat still, he staggered along the mountain path.
Because he didn’t conceal his presence, monsters quickly discovered Callion. He exhaled loosely. Through his distorted vision, he saw the black forms of monsters surrounding him.
‘Monsters.’
Ju-in died because of the monsters.
‘I’ll eliminate them all.’
The trembling in his hands stopped. When he gripped the sword handle, all his distant senses became clear. Callion mercilessly cut down the monsters rushing towards him.
Callion wanted to die. He thought it would be good if he could stop breathing right now and forget this pain.
But he couldn’t die to monsters. Weren’t they the ones that killed Ju-in? He couldn’t tolerate the existence of monsters.
‘All this suffering is because of monsters.’
His anger and resentment with nowhere to go moved in a twisted direction. Although he was aware it was a leap in logic, it was necessary to protect himself.
Callion cut down monsters indiscriminately. Originally, it was an unspoken rule among hunters to avoid overlapping hunting grounds, but Callion no longer followed the rules.
Callion unhesitatingly cut down monsters that other hunters were targeting, and entered monster habitats alone to eliminate all the monsters.
“Hey. Did you wipe out all of these by yourself?”
Someone spoke to Callion as he stood on top of the shredded corpses of monsters.
“The rule is to gather people and go on raids for monster habitats, isn’t it?”
He could see men with weapons gathered in small groups on the other side. They had come to raid the monster habitat, but because Callion had swept through first, their eyes were fierce from coming up empty-handed.
“….”
Callion turned around without replying. He didn’t collect the core stones. He just wanted to cut down monsters, so he didn’t care whether other hunters took the core stones or not.
“All the core stones are still here?”
“Hey, wait. You’re not taking these?”
The hunters called out to Callion, seemingly surprised that he was leaving the core stones. Callion didn’t look back.
His supplies were running low. If he took the core stones to the village to exchange, he could get money and food, but Callion had no intention of doing so. There was no reason to continue living anymore.
“Hey, wait! Let’s talk for a bit.”
One of the hunters chased after Callion and grabbed him. The contact after so long was still unpleasant. When Callion shook off the hand, the hunter seemed a bit flustered and stepped back.
“Wow, you’re a prickly one. Alright, alright.”
The hunter raised both hands in surrender, then proposed that Callion work with them. Even when Callion silently refused, he was more persistent than expected.
“No, think about it. If the guys inside the castle start exterminating monsters, we’re all done for. It’s already hard enough to hunt with those guys causing monsters to behave strangely so often.”
“Strange behavior?”
“Apparently they’re doing all sorts of experiments to lure monsters. If they fail and the monsters go berserk, they just run back into the castle and that’s that.”
“….”
“With monsters moving in groups and attacking villages, making a mess, hunting is already difficult, and now the places to sell magic stones are disappearing too.”
He recalled the monsters that had come down to the foot of the mountain, loitering on paths that people used. The sight of people who had been horribly mauled when the Guardian Corps’ effects didn’t work came to mind.
‘Was that because of experiments done by the castle?’
The monsters changed because of the investigators from the castle. He remembered not being able to keep his promise with Ju-in because he was busy dealing with monsters suddenly showing strange behavior.
If it hadn’t been for that, he could have met Ju-in earlier, and perhaps they could have escaped together.
“I’ll go to the castle.”
“Haha. I like how straightforward you are. Good thinking!”
The hunter laughed loudly and introduced himself. His name was Durak. He said he originally lived in the castle but was framed and driven out, so now he’s living as a monster hunter.
“What’s your name, brother?”
“….”
“I’m not trying to pry into your personal life. But if we’re going to work together, we need something to call you by.”
“310.”
“Huh?”
“That’s enough.”
Callion didn’t want anyone to call him by his name. He wished for Ju-in to be the last one who had called him.
But when he tried to give another name, nothing came to mind. So he gave the first number that came to him.
The inn in the village at the foot of the mountain where Ju-in stayed. Room 310, her space that he first set foot in.
“Well, as long as we can distinguish each other, a number is fine too. Should we all go by numbers then?”
Durak burst into laughter and ran off to call his group.
It’s not that he particularly wanted revenge on the castle’s investigators. He was just tired. He wanted to erase all traces of the world that reminded him of Ju-in and leave.
‘This is the last hunt.’
Callion decided to take his own life after this was over.
***
Finishing his reminiscence, Callion raised his head. His head throbbed, perhaps from being too deeply immersed in gloomy thoughts.
‘Not anymore. Because Ju-in is here.’
He no longer needed to think about death. He no longer needed to fear the moment of waking up shuddering every time he closed his eyes.
He let out a light sigh and turned his gaze back to the window. The lights in the two-story house were off.
‘I wonder if Ju-in has gone to bed. I hope she can rest comfortably, even if just for tonight.’
Callion leaned against the window, endlessly gazing at the darkened window of the two-story house.
Rather than sleeping, he wanted to look a little longer at the world where she was alive.
Volume 2 End
T/n: I believe we can all agree: Callion is truly the best boy. :’) Goodness, that last part really tugged at my heartstrings. ༶ඬ༝ඬ༶
MeryS28
I love Callion 😭🤧💘