The Saint Wants to Rest - Chapter 8.1
It was Yu Na-bi who stepped forward first to speak.
“We don’t enter Gates just to die. We do it for the people precious to us. So, Guild Leader, please stop lingering and let’s head out together. If you barely make it out this time, I don’t think Hong Seo-yun or Yoon Tae-gyeom will let it slide.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
Although their meddling had decreased since Choi Jae-heon re-awakened as an S-rank, they remained by his side as friends. They still constantly tried to intervene in Choi Jae-heon’s life. He was grateful for their hearts, but sometimes it felt intrusive.
‘My life has already lost its light.’
Someone might scold him, asking how he could go to such extremes just because he lost a younger brother. However, to Choi Jae-heon, Ian was not simply family. He was the sole reason he continued to live in this world.
There was a person who had come looking for Choi Jae-heon while he was drifting through orphanages after losing his parents.
“Hello. I am Choi Hyuk.”
Choi Hyuk said he was a very close friend of his father.
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I received a lot of help from your father, so now it’s time for me to repay that debt.”
He took Choi Jae-heon in. The environment was much better than his time in the orphanage, yet Choi Jae-heon still didn’t know why he had to live. It was during that time that he met Ian.
Ian, who had lived with his grandparents due to his weak health, smiled brightly the moment he saw Choi Jae-heon.
“Are you my hyung?”
He felt like he understood what it meant to fall in love at first sight. Choi Jae-heon grew to love his new younger brother. He granted whatever the boy wanted and raised him with doting care. Seeing this, Hong Seo-yun once even uttered the nonsense that Ian might actually be Choi Jae-heon’s biological child.
“Hey, the age! The age! How old would Choi Jae-heon have to be to get a woman pregnant to have Choi Ian?”
Fortunately, Yoon Tae-gyeom punished Hong Seo-yun for speaking such absurdities. Misfortune visited them once more after that, but Choi Jae-heon overcame it. Unlike before, Ian was by his side. He could do anything to protect him. Choi Jae-heon was able to stand back up even after the death of his foster parents.
‘I’ll make sure Ian graduates high school and send him to university.’
He intended to delay military service as much as possible. In fact, if he had his way, he never wanted to send him at all. How could he send a child as fragile as Ian to such a harsh place like the military?
By the time Ian was approaching adulthood, Choi Jae-heon luckily became an Awakened. No matter how low the rank, a Hunter earned more money than an average office worker.
Since Ian hated Choi Jae-heon doing dangerous work, he couldn’t push himself too hard by entering high-level Gates. Still, life gradually improved. It seemed happiness would continue—until Ian went missing.
Horrible days followed. He had to find Ian somehow, but not a single clue appeared. Even with the help of Yoon Tae-gyeom, whose family was quite influential, and Hong Seo-yun, who had awakened as an S-rank Esper, they couldn’t find him.
To Choi Jae-heon, this world felt like hell. And that has not changed even now. As he finally exited the Gate, he thought about his next task. First, he had to track down that strange entity that had vanished in an instant. Then, he had to report the Gate rank fluctuation to the Management Bureau and find out if similar incidents had occurred elsewhere.
Perhaps all of this could become a clue to finding Ian.
Choi Jae-heon pulled himself together, clutching onto a thin thread of hope.
Inside Hong Seo-yun’s car, Ian looked out at the world. Even though five years had passed since he disappeared, the world hadn’t changed as much as he expected. Then again, the Gates had opened much earlier than that. While many advancements had been made since the emergence of Gates, it wasn’t as if something miraculous would happen in just five years.
“When will we arrive?”
Hong Seo-yun replied to Ian’s question.
“Very soon. Ah, I see the Stigma kids over there.”
“Stigma?”
“The name of Choi Jae-heon’s guild. I told him I’d recommend something cooler, but he insisted on that one.”
Hong Seo-yun grumbled as he turned the steering wheel. Stopping the car, he immediately opened the window and shouted.
“I’m here!”
“Huh?”
The only person in the group wearing a suit pushed up his glasses and approached. This was Secretary Kim .
“Mr. Hong Seo-yun, what brings you here?”
“What do you mean! I came to see my friend!”
“That is true, but did you perhaps come because of what happened today?”
“There’s that, too.”
After getting out of the car, Hong Seo-yun immediately opened the back door. He then picked Ian up and placed him gently on the ground.
“I can get out by myself, you know?”
Ian voiced his complaint, but Hong Seo-yun didn’t listen to a word of it.
“So, is the Gate raid finished?”
“It seems they just finished. They are coming out of the Gate right now.”
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