Yoon Jeha arrived after the exhausted Dan Yeoun had gone to rest.
Kwon Taehyuk, who had lent Dan Yeoun a guest room where he could sleep comfortably, looked once at Yoon Jeha and then at J on her back before saying,
“If it’s all right with you, I can have your younger brother treated by a healer as well.”
Yoon Jeha hesitated briefly at the offer, then soon shook her head.
“We both know this isn’t an ordinary injury. Just... I’d be grateful if you could lend me somewhere to catch my breath for a while.”
Kwon Taehyuk sensed a deep exhaustion from Yoon Jeha as she answered.
To begin with, Yoon Jeha had been taken hostage and had only barely been released, and immediately afterward, she had gone through that chaos. It was only natural for her to be worn out.
Looking calmly at Yoon Jeha, Kwon Taehyuk warned her.
“It could be dangerous if you two are alone.”
J was unconscious and quiet for now, but no one knew when he might regain consciousness and attack again.
The person presumed to be the cult leader and the black tree had collapsed together with the research lab, but unless even a corpse was found, their deaths were not certain.
If J, who had been mentally controlled under the cult leader, continued to act hostile, then Yoon Jeha, exhausted and left alone in a room with J, would be in the greatest danger.
“I don’t care.”
Yoon Jeha must have understood the meaning behind Kwon Taehyuk’s warning, but the way she shook her head was firm.
Deciding that persuading her would be meaningless, Kwon Taehyuk let out a short sigh and said,
“You can use the same room as last time. The door lock password is the same too.”
“Thanks.”
Yoon Jeha, who rarely gave thanks, left with J still on her back.
Kwon Taehyuk then turned and entered the sickroom again.
Beside Cha Seohu, who was sleeping with even breaths, Ryu Sunghyun, Eun Woojeong, and Kang Haeil remained.
“If the three of you would like to rest as well, I’ll show you to rooms.”
“I’m fine.”
Ryu Sunghyun dry-washed his face and sat down on the simple chair beside the bed.
Kang Haeil stared only at Cha Seohu’s face without answering, then left the sickroom. Seeing him take out his phone, he seemed to be going to report to the district.
When Eun Woojeong gave no particular answer either, Kwon Taehyuk gave up early and said to Ryu Sunghyun,
“Standing guard °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° like this the whole time will only drain you. Let’s set an order and take turns instead.”
“...Understood.”
“I’ll take the first shift. The employees will be coming to work soon anyway, so I need to stay awake. There are a lot of matters to sort out too.”
Kwon Taehyuk looked in turn at Ryu Sunghyun, who was gazing at Cha Seohu with a complicated expression, and Eun Woojeong, whose face was hidden behind a mask, then continued.
“Both of you, go rest. Especially you. When you come down later, get rid of that mask.”
Eun Woojeong’s identity no longer held much meaning for Kwon Taehyuk and Ryu Sunghyun. As if Eun Woojeong acknowledged that as well, he only gave a light shrug.
After telling the two of them the guest room numbers and door lock passwords, Kwon Taehyuk was left alone in the sickroom and only then relaxed his tension.
“Haa......”
Kwon Taehyuk sank into an empty chair as if collapsing and let out a deep sigh, pressing firmly against his aching eyes with his hand.
The aftereffects of everything he had gone through over the past several hours still remained in his head.
That brief moment when he had not been able to hear Cha Seohu’s heartbeat still made his back go cold when he thought of it, even now that everything had been resolved.
There were many things he would have to hear explained once Cha Seohu woke up. And he also needed to confirm whether Dan Yeoun’s warning was true.
But first......
“Sleep well and wake up.”
It was time to rest.
For Cha Seohu, and for them as well.
Cha Seohu opened his eyes late at night, when the night sky was spread out.
He had slept for nearly more than fifteen hours.
During those fifteen hours, Cha Seohu had received a blood transfusion and one more treatment from Dan Yeoun. He had also been moved to the best sickroom in the guild.
Thanks to meticulous treatment and catching up on the sleep he had missed, his body had recovered perfectly.
“......”
Cha Seohu quietly opened his eyes and stared blankly at the dark sickroom ceiling for a while before slowly coming back to his senses.
'Fuck.'
The first thing to spread through his head was a curse packed full of sincerity.
'What is this?'
Since Cha Seohu’s last memory was of refreshing himself with the item drug before he could be devoured by some monstrous tree root, he could not help being bewildered by his current situation, lying in this clean, spacious sickroom.
At least, fortunately, he could not sense killing intent anywhere.
He carefully raised his upper body.
“You’re awake?”
The sickroom door opened, and Ryu Sunghyun came in. Having bought bottled water from the vending machine in the hallway, he approached the startled Cha Seohu and handed it to him.
“This is a sickroom inside Yesung Guild. Hunter Cha Seohu, you slept for more than ten hours. Water first. And we only changed your clothes, so you can wash if you want. I checked in advance, and the bathroom is spacious and nice. There are clothes prepared for you to change into too.”
Listening to Ryu Sunghyun’s calm explanation, Cha Seohu took the bottled water in a daze and drank first. Once he heard that he had slept for a long time, thirst belatedly hit him.
“How did I end up coming to Yesung Guild?”
“It’s long if I explain everything, but to summarize briefly, after Hunter Cha Seohu left for Sector T-27, we followed you. We found an old church and went down as far as the basement.”
“Ah.”
He could roughly understand what had happened from that simple, shortened explanation alone.
'Honestly, I drank that item expecting to lose everything.'
When he calmly recalled it with his recovered body, he realized just how reckless he had been when he drank the drug.
He had staked everything on the cult leader’s single statement that the “divine tree wanted you vividly alive.”
Most of all, that drug only disguised him as a corpse for fifteen minutes. It had no other additional abilities.
It did not heal injuries, nor did it resolve dangerous situations. It merely let him sleep and wake up after fifteen minutes, and Cha Seohu had not been certain what situation he would wake up in either.
“Um... thank you.”
Cha Seohu awkwardly thanked him and rubbed his cheek.
According to Ryu Sunghyun, he owed his life to the group who had followed after him. He found himself at a loss for how to express gratitude to the people who had saved his life.
However, as if Ryu Sunghyun had little interest in the thanks, he nodded briefly and immediately said,
“Your injury was severe. On the way... your heart stopped once too.”
At the part where he said “stopped once,” Ryu Sunghyun’s jaw muscles briefly pulled taut.
“Ah, that was......”
Ryu Sunghyun cut off Cha Seohu, who was about to answer that it had been an item.
“Hunter Dan Yeoun handled your treatment. We were able to because he came running as soon as he received the call.”
“Ah, uh, yes. That really is something to be grateful......”
“You had excessive bleeding, so you also received a blood transfusion once.”
“R-right, I see.”
“......”
“......”
A silence suddenly fell.
Even Cha Seohu, for all his lack of tact, realized that something about this silence was strange and broke into a cold sweat.
Standing beside the bed with his arms folded, Ryu Sunghyun stared at Cha Seohu for a moment before letting out a sigh as if giving something up.
“Go wash, Hunter Cha Seohu. I’ll leave a new patient gown out front, so change too. While you wash, I’ll bring food. You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
“P-probably?”
“Go wash. With warm water. It’s fine if you take a long time, so be comfortable.”
After adding that firmly, Ryu Sunghyun briefly left the sickroom to get a new patient gown from an employee.
Cha Seohu blankly scratched his forehead and thought,
'...Looks like I’m screwed.'
When Cha Seohu washed, changed into a new patient gown, and returned, Ryu Sunghyun was setting out food on the table.
Steaming abalone porridge and several side dishes.
“Even if a healer treated your injury, you had a blood transfusion from excessive bleeding and went a long time on an empty stomach, so it would be best to start with porridge for now.”
“Thank you.”
He did not know how many times he had already thanked Ryu Sunghyun.
Cha Seohu sat down and picked up his spoon. Once he smelled the savory porridge, hunger came rushing in belatedly.
The porridge slid easily into his empty stomach, but in contrast, the atmosphere remained calmly sunken.
Ryu Sunghyun, who always wore a faint smile when dealing with Cha Seohu, had been completely unsmiling from earlier until now.
Perhaps to avoid making him feel pressured while Cha Seohu was eating, he stood in front of the window and looked outside. A somehow chilly air lingered around his back.
'This is driving me insane.'
Cha Seohu, who was pretending not to notice as he ate the porridge, also had a complicated mess inside his head.
He was at a loss over where to begin explaining, but as Ryu Sunghyun stayed silent while still taking care of everything that needed to be taken care of, he felt terribly uncomfortable.
If he had rather questioned him first or gotten angry, it would have been easier for Cha Seohu to react.
'What do I do?'
Going into a dungeon and fighting monsters seemed like it would be a hundred times more comfortable.
Meanwhile, afraid Ryu Sunghyun’s mood would sink even lower if he left any porridge behind, Cha Seohu diligently moved his spoon and forced the porridge down.

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