NOVEL NEXT Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Si-hyun blinked a few times with a dazed expression.
As the places he’d wake up kept changing, it felt like he was on some dimension-hopping adventure, making it hard to regain a sense of reality.
After lying there on the hospital bed in a daze, Si-hyun slightly raised his body and looked around.
It was definitely a modern hospital room.
He had returned to reality.
“Ugh….”
Finally back, but Si-hyun’s face was filled with disappointment.
There were so many things he wanted to ask Po-ahim.
He thought his body had recovered quite a bit, but why wasn’t he getting stronger all at once? Why wasn’t his magic power increasing? Why did items and skills unlock one by one? And what on earth were those inactive skills marked with question marks…?
As he pondered, it seemed he had endless questions.
But he returned to reality without even having had a proper conversation.
Still, it felt like he heard something important just before coming back.
“To hate to death….”
His head started to ache.
He thought that Hyris had saved him because of the Sword Master.
But Po-ahim…?
Thinking back to what he heard directly from Po-ahim, it seemed impossible.
She would have just left him to die without a second thought.
If he learned that she struggled to save Po-ahim by feeding him the Fruit of the World Tree with her own mouth…
He would surely go completely mad with anger.
His eyes would definitely turn bloodshot.
In that state, if he unleashed some magic…
“….”
Si-hyun seemed to understand why Po-ahim had given such advice.
She must have been worried about the Awakened Being.
…Thank you, Po-ahim-senpai.
It looked like he needed to think carefully about everything concerning her.
Just then, he heard the sound of a door opening, and someone entered.
It was his younger sister, Ha-young.
Si-hyun’s eyes met Ha-young’s.
“Uh? Oppa?”
Without answering, Si-hyun waved his hand once.
Ha-young quickly pulled out her phone and made a call.
“Mom, Oppa’s awake!”
◈ ◈ ◈
Si-hyun was sitting on a bench in his patient gown.
He felt stifled in the hospital room and was tired of hearing his mother and Ha-young subtly scold him for hiding his Awakening from the family. So, he stepped out, saying he felt unwell.
His body truly had no issues.
It was odd to think he had been unconscious for two days.
If he discharged right now, he felt he could jump back into work without any problem.
However…
Just thinking about work darkened Si-hyun’s face.
Many of his coworkers had lost their lives in this incident.
There were quite a few seriously injured as well.
Even if some were only mildly injured, they might suffer from trauma so severe that they could hardly return to normal social life.
That day’s events left behind nothing but tragedy.
“Haah.”
As he took a sip of vending machine coffee, Si-hyun let out a short sigh.
He had done everything he could that day.
If it hadn’t been a detention center, and if he hadn’t been a correctional officer, he wouldn’t have been able to step forward and fight with his life on the line.
And that life-risking effort was not in vain.
If he hadn’t, all the staff might have died before Hyris arrived.
Because Si-hyun had risked his life, many employees managed to survive before Hyris showed up.
His actions had been reported as the brave deeds of a heroic correctional officer by the media.
People didn’t want to only see negative and gloomy news.
Amidst it all, there was a desire to see something positive and hopeful.
This time, Si-hyun’s actions were fitting for that something.
And that’s why he was continuously referenced in the news and newspapers.
“A hero, huh….”
Si-hyun forced a smile.
Honestly, if so many people hadn’t died, he might have been able to genuinely rejoice.
However, right now he was only filled with complicated feelings.
Taking another sip of coffee, Si-hyun took out his phone.
His phone was flooded with missed calls.
Well, since his name had been all over the news, his acquaintances probably knew what had happened to him.
Contacting each one would definitely take a significant amount of time.
As he pondered while looking at the phone screen, he suddenly heard someone calling him.
“Hyung-nim!”
At first, he thought someone was calling someone else.
But then he heard it again.
“Hyung-nim!”
That voice sounded somewhat familiar.
Si-hyun looked up.
Kang Baek was walking over, looking like he had come to visit him after hearing he was here.
“What’s up? Why are you here instead of at work?”
“Oh, our Hyung-nim lost consciousness for a few days, and it seems your sense of time is a bit off. It’s quitting time, quitting time.”
“I was just saying that for fun, you idiot.”
Si-hyun chuckled.
Then he waved his hand.
“Come sit here.”
“Yes, yes.”
Kang Baek approached and plopped down beside Si-hyun.
“By the way, there must be a huge manpower shortage. How are you managing work?”
The reason Si-hyun thought it was surprising that Kang Baek was back at work just a few days after such a horrific incident was clear.
Correctional facilities are different from other government offices.
In a place where inmates are locked up 365 days a year, they can’t leave even a single day without staffing.
However, suddenly losing dozens of correctional officers to death means that the remaining officers would have to fill those gaps.
So, they couldn’t just leave a resource like Kang Baek, who wasn’t injured, sitting around.
“Chungseong was hit pretty hard too. Even the temporary personnel have been grumbling that they weren’t even given time to find housing. It’s not like they’re coming from the capital; they’re just thrown into the provinces and it’s overwhelming.”
Kang Baek replied, clicking his tongue.
Chungseong is known for having a significantly lower inmate-to-officer ratio.
It seemed they hastily pulled people from there for temporary staffing.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Hard work? Just being alive and healthy is worth bowing to heaven a hundred times.”
“…That’s true.”
Si-hyun’s voice fell.
“They say it’s the first time so many correctional officers have died all at once.”
“That makes sense….”
Seeing Si-hyun’s troubled expression, Kang Baek spoke.
“If it weren’t for you, many more people would have died.”
“….”
Si-hyun silently drank the remaining coffee.
“Or maybe all those hunters who came for rescue might have died too.”
Kang Baek’s words shifted Si-hyun’s gaze as if to say, “What do you mean by that?”
“You know, even though I’m a low-level hunter, I can tell that that strange man is incredibly strong. If that lady hadn’t shown up, they all would have died.”
He seemed to be talking about Hyris.
“But what does that have to do with me?”
“Whatever the relationship, that lady seemed to come to meet you. If you weren’t around, she probably wouldn’t have had any reason to come to the Special Detention Center.”
“…She came to see me?”
“Yes, she also had something to pass on to you.”
“What is it?”
“Hyris told me to let you know that she would visit again. Is that lady’s name Hyris?”
“Ah… I see. Thank you for passing that on.”
Si-hyun wore an ambiguous expression.
He had expected as much.
After using the Fruit of the World Tree to save him, there was no way she wouldn’t come to see him again.
Considering she had even gone so far as to convey that message, he figured she’d be visiting soon.
He hadn’t even organized his thoughts on how to deal with her yet, and if she were to show up unexpectedly, it could create a baffling situation.
“That lady….”
“Oh, sorry. It’s a private matter.”
Si-hyun apologized, interrupting Kang Baek.
“Ah… I see. Well, when she kissed you, her expression was completely longing… Ah, I’m sorry! I blurted that out.”
“Ah, no… It’s fine. It’s fine.”
Si-hyun made an awkward face.
It seemed they were talking about the kiss Hyris had given him just before heading off to kill someone.
It was a deep kiss that anyone could tell was reserved for lovers.
“More importantly…”
Si-hyun quickly changed the subject.
“Yes, Hyung-nim.”
“Don’t you have anything to say about me? Like how I opened the inmates’ doors independently without the Department Head’s permission?”
“Oh, that? I don’t think you need to worry about it.”
Kang Baek replied nonchalantly.
“Really?”
“Yes, there’s an exception for using weapons too. You have to follow the orders of the warden or the acting officer, but if there is no time to receive orders, you’re not obliged to.”
“Now that you mention it, I seem to recall that.”
When working normally, unrelated clauses only come up when preparing for promotion exams, so he hadn’t remembered.
“Opening the door for inmates isn’t that different. If the situation is urgent and there’s no time to get permission, you just have to do it. What else can you do? And also…”
“And what is it?”
“I heard that not only the media but also the Correctional Headquarters is currently trying to turn you into a hero.”
“What are you talking about?”
Si-hyun asked, confused.
“You know about the hunter correctional officers, right? They were supposed to be the ones tackling the emergency first, but instead, they were too scared and retreating.”
“Kang Baek… you’re also a hunter correctional officer.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t in a position to fight at the frontlines. Still, it wasn’t that bad. When you collapsed, I rushed in without a care! Oh, you wouldn’t know because you were unconscious. What a shame… Anyway…”
“Yeah….”
“In this incident, you were the one who truly fulfilled your duties as a correctional officer and acted as a role model, okay? The other hunter correctional officers are getting ripped apart online. People are saying things like, ‘Those guys who usually had the inmates completely under control are worse than prisoners,’ or ‘Typical Public Servants in Hell Joseon, when a crisis shows up, they’re just looking out for their own lives.’ With such opinions out there, how can they restore the image of the Correctional Headquarters and the officers without shining you up?”
Kang Baek explained matter-of-factly.
“Well, I understand how the situation is unfolding, but it doesn’t feel nice to see the correctional officers being insulted like that since we’re all family.”
“I think the decisive factor was that the inmates took the initiative to fight. The inmates were out there fighting, while you guys are what? So, it turned into a vibe like that.”
“So, it’s ultimately my fault, huh?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“This is something.”
Si-hyun crunched the empty paper cup in his hand.
He did his best to save people, yet that became a reason for the correctional officers to be cursed at.
Si-hyun didn’t have any particular feelings for them.
Given the level of the enemies, he knew well that no matter how courageously they stepped forward, it wouldn’t have made much difference.
This was an unforeseen calamity that had hit without warning.
In a scenario where stepping out meant certain death, only a handful of people could have gone.
Even the netizens who were bashing the correctional officers would probably be too scared to act if they found themselves in that situation.
Of course, since being a correctional officer comes with responsibilities, they’d likely face disciplinary action and can’t avoid criticism.
“By the way, do you happen to have any contact with the warden or the Security Department Head….”
Kang Baek was about to ask something when someone called out to Si-hyun from afar.