Chapter 541: Sincerest Apologies (1)

Craaaaaaaash!!

With an ear-piercing sound, I felt the boat float back up to the surface. It sounded like an explosion, but it didn’t feel all that unpleasant.

It was almost reassuring. The water that had splashed up with the boat began to fall from the sky while the guild members, who held onto the railing tightly, breathed a sigh of relief.

After coming from a space that they couldn’t understand for so many hours, their response was natural.

Before we could settle the situation, the only one among the guild members who wanted to be a pirate, Ahn Ki-mo, vomited.

“Baaarrrrrf!”

‘Ah, we really can’t use him…’

“Baaaarrrrf!”

It was such an awful sound. I thought he would make a mess on the boat, but he at least ended up throwing up his wastes in the clean lake. It looked like he was in great pain, but I couldn’t help but be happy that even he was safe.

‘Everything proved to be too unexpected.’

Truthfully, besides Sun Hee-young’s incident, there wasn’t anything that could be considered dangerous, and I wanted to celebrate everyone’s return.

After all, we had just cleared a Mythic-level dungeon.

‘But when I think about it, reaching that place was the Myth-grade quest itself.’

If it wasn’t thanks to the boat that Park Deokgu had brought in by coincidence, we would’ve fallen into the wormhole and could have drifted down into the bottom of the sea forever.

The fact that we had come back from such a space was already a Myth-level achievement.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

I looked around slowly and observed my surroundings.

“It seems that we’ve arrived back safely.”

The one who spoke up was Unicorn Cho Hyejin, who could be considered one of the guild’s three most influential members. She looked at me like she was worried.

“Are you alright, Vice Guild Master?”

“Yes, well, I’m fine. I’d like for you to check the conditions of our other guild members just in case. If any guild members have abnormalities, please talk to them separately. Especially Hee-young-ssi, please tell her to take a rest and have someone to take care of her… I’d also appreciate it if you check if there are any other errors.”

“Yes, he probably…”

“There may be some side-effects. He keeps staring blankly too…”

“I’ll take action, Vice Guild Master.”

“…”

“…”

‘It seemed like she had something to say.’

I could tell what she was going to say just by the way she hesitated. When I thought about it, it had been a while since we had shared a drink.

However, since we had been friends for so long, I could instinctively tell what she was planning to say.

“Why? Are you going to buy me a drink?”

“No, not that, but…”

“Then, what?”

“I would like to speak with Guild Master…I think he’s in more shock than I thought.”

‘No, he definitely can be in a bit of a shock.’

I shifted my eyes a bit and saw Kim Hyunsung, still looking taken aback.

His shoulders were slumping, and without even looking in my direction, he was ordering the guild members.

He looked like an abandoned puppy, but what could I do? He had to reap what he sowed and resolve his own problems.

‘He probably thinks our bond has been broken.’

It was something I just spitted out, but it probably pierced into his heart. That could even be more of the case, considering the lovely regressor and I were bound by an unexplainable trust.

Of course, it’s not like we had declared our trust in each other, but somethings didn’t need to be said to be known.

I also hadn’t said much about Kim Hyunsung’s behavior since I wanted to show that I believed in him, and that emotion was strengthened after our unconscious dream.

I wondered why I hadn’t used that card before.

‘Why can’t you trust me?’

It was almost a magical card. It was a bit different from ‘You don’t know why I’m angry,” but the things it enforced proved to be similar. The kind of thoughts he was harboring was indeed quite obvious.

He probably thought that he had to fix the misunderstanding that I had muttered, ‘I know why you have locked me up now,’ which had given him great critical damage.

He would probably try to make a situation where he could talk to me sooner or later. Like Cho Hyejin had said, there was no need for me to make him feel better.

In fights like that, the one who approached the other first was bound to become the loser.

It already felt like Kim Hyunsung had lost, but I had to act like I was still upset to make my victory more certain.

‘My bag collection will increase again.’

Like Kim Hyunsung had said, I had been bothered by an empty space in my room’s decorative space, but I could finally fill it.

“What are you thinking about when someone is talking to you?”

“Ah, no, just a couple of things… I will take care of the problem between Hyunsung-ssi and I, so you don’t have to be so concerned.”

“You don’t have to go that far… Besides, are you satisfied with the item you have brought?”

“Ah, yes. It isn’t too bad. Actually, I’m not completely satisfied, but while it isn’t the best, it’s not the worst either. You know, I guess I’m a bit sorry.”

“Why are you speaking to me so informally all of a sudden? Well, you don’t have to worry about that. Even if we were to have picked the Longinus’ spear, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it properly anyway. To tell you the truth, I was a little upset too. Seeing how you so obviously thought that I wouldn’t be able to use such an item, I realized that my judgment was a bit twisted… but I thought I leveled up a lot…But as expected, you don’t seem satisfied.”

“No, it wasn’t to that degree.”

“How can you say that? I could see that you obviously thought that such an item would be too good for me to use. Of course, you don’t have to worry that I will keep this in mind. Once again, I would have only disappointed everyone if we brought that anyway.”

“Are you upset?”

“Upset? Who is up…”

“Well, you are.”

“I’m not upset. I’m not the type of person who will get upset by things like this… Isn’t it natural to think of the guild’s interests first? That much is just the basics of the basics.”

“Ahh… It seems to me that you’re indeed angry.”

“I told you already, I’m not.”

“But you really are upset, aren’t you?”

“No! I am not upset! What is up with you?!”

“You are up- “

“-No, I am really not upset!”

Cho Hyejin shouted so loudly that all attention went to her. Everyone seemed surprised to see me tease Cho Hyejin while laughing and talking so outspokenly to her. Now that I thought about it…

‘Do they not know that I am close to her?’

The only one who knew her well in the guild was Jung Hayan, who was half-wary of her. However, we had spent some time together and met each other for business.

We ate food! Yeah! And drank! Played games! Yeah! We went to the Sauna! And went to other places…

‘But we really didn’t look like a match.’

Even from a normal blue guild member’s perspective, I probably would’ve thought that we left together strictly for business things.

We were both the types to perform our personal and business works together. We also spoke to each other formally unless the mood called for it too.

Cho Hyejin recognized that her voice had been a bit loud and looked around her surroundings.

Ahn Ki-mo and Yoo Ahyoung were watching with their eyes wide open. Other people were the same. And Kim Hyunsung. He looked half surprised with a mix of annoyance and disturbance.

‘Hyunsung, sh*t… also gets jealous. Hyejin, there may be hope for you.’

After showing how close we were, Cho Hyejin looked like she had an uncomfortable feeling.

She stared at me for guidance, and I couldn’t help but mutter quietly.

“Hyejin. I don’t usually encourage like this, but I think you have a chance.”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Even recently, I didn’t think it was possible, but I think the proverb that ‘no tree can’t be turned over after ten strikes’ is true. Have you perhaps done anything that could’ve changed his mind…?”

“There wasn’t anything like that. I was half giving up, and after that, I hadn’t talked to him in private.”

“That dream you threw away… Let’s bring it back just in case.”

“No thanks.”

“I think he’s somehow jealous…”

“Who…?”

“Hyunsung-ssi.”

“Really?”

“I’m certain.”

“Well… It doesn’t really concern me anymore.”

“You say that, but I think you are secretly excited.”

“No.”

“No, let’s be a bit more honest. You were honestly excited, right?”

“I told you I’m not.”

“You were excited.”

“No, seriously. I said no!”

I tapped on her shoulder jokingly, and she began to shake in anger. It was really funny how she was holding in her anger.

“Whether you’re excited or not, it’s undeniable that you’ve taken a step forward. I’m really good at reading people. Oh, we should’ve used some jealous tactics that time.”

“Please don’t say stuff like that…”

“Well, I didn’t think that you’ve given up in the first place…even if you’re focused on what you’re doing right now, isn’t it good to still have some hope?”

“…”

I started to see hope in her face, and when she saw Kim Ye-ri approach her, Cho Hyejin brightened even more.

“Hyejin Unni.”

“Yes?”

“Hyunsung Oppa wants to see you. He has something he wants to say.”

“Oh… Really?”

‘What did I say, Hyejin? Look at her running… She even tried to lie that she was no longer interested.’

“Also, Ahjussi.”

“What?”

“Oppa asks you to leave some time for him. He wants to talk to you

“What things?”

“Important things.”

“What important things?”

“I also don’t know. I think it’s some business… um, I think that’s why he called.”

“Uhh…”

“Since I relayed that message, I am going back to help clean up.”

“Okay, then please take care.”

“You too.”

I glanced at the front like I wasn’t interested and saw the back of Kim Hyunsung and Cho Hyejin conversing.

I didn’t know what he had suddenly called her for, but it was obvious. He might have wanted to apologize for the things that had happened at the dungeon or slowly reveal that he was actually a Regressor.

He probably thought that since we saw the Outer God, he couldn’t drag his secret any longer… Regardless, the edge of my lips naturally curved upwards, seeing Cho Hyejin smile.

‘Hyejin, sh*t. Those two can finally be happy.’