The S-Rank Character Is My Alt

Chapter 44

Nari jolted upright from the bed. Maybe it was because so much had happened today, or because her state of mind had shifted so sharply.

Or maybe, after shedding the Lude avatar, she still felt a lingering tension. Sleep wouldn’t come.

She changed positions again and again, yet even when the Lord of Chaos counted sheep for her, sleep still wouldn’t come, so in the end Nari snapped and sprang up from the bed.

[“Nari Nari, are you lying awake because you’ve got too much on your mind? The Lord of Chaos worries about you.”]

“Maybe.”

She had plenty to think about. She told herself again and again to heat up, to cool off, but it wasn’t a problem she could slip out of so easily.

If Nari had been able to sever attachments cleanly, she would’ve cut off her father first.

Muttering, Nari sprang up from the bed and drew in the spirit energy around her to form the Lude avatar.

Lude pulled a device from the inventory, slid it into his coat pocket, and let out a long sigh.

[“Heading out? The Lord of Chaos looks at you.”]

“I don’t know. I’ll at least catch some cold air and clear my head.”

Lude stepped out of the room and glanced around the living room. Their quarters were a suite with one living room and two bedrooms in a row, so after confirming that Kang Ihyun in the adjacent room was still asleep, Lude slipped carefully out.

[“It’s cold outside, so buy a warm drink on your way, says the Lord of Chaos, pointing at the vending machine next to you!”]

“Ah, okay.”

Cold air pooled inside the guild at dawn. He tapped the device against the vending machine in the corridor.

Beep. With the prepaid cash already loaded on the device, Lude bought a hot chocolate and headed for the roof.

There was a reason the Wargod’s core members had their suites on the very top floor. The roof was directly above, so it was easy to come and go.

[“Even here, you still get veteran perks, says the Lord of Chaos, shaking his head.”]

“Well… I should at least get that much treatment.”

[“Nari. Ever since you joined the Sanctuary, you’ve changed. Hm? The Lord of Chaos looks at you.”]

Shin Bitnari at twenty-five would have blasted this kind of nonsense without mercy, but Lude, a number 1 S-rank rank, had grown used to all the conveniences the Sanctuary gave him, and with blurred eyes that overlooked the nonsense, he opened the roof door.

Screeeech, the metal door barely budged open. It was the typical school roof scene, a chain-link fence set up so no one would fall.

Maybe because there weren’t any dizzying city lights, the stars up above looked pretty. It was quiet, not a single car sound.

Now and then, “Kyaaaah!” a scream rang out, but it still felt like a good place to pass some time.

“Maybe because the gate’s under management, the monsters are in a lot of pain. Sounds like human screams.”

[“Not monsters. That’s a water deer.”]

“Waaah, you scared me!!”

Lude had a hand on the can’s pull tab to pop the hot chocolate lid when the AI’s cool voice cut in, and he jumped, startled, and glanced around.

“W-What, what, what was that!”

Jeong Suho stood right beside him in a white short-sleeved shirt. He seemed startled too by Lude’s shout, eyes gone round, frozen on the spot.

“Ha, seriously, I thought my heart was going to stop.”

[“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. You seemed mistaken, so I thought I should tell you.”]

“I got it, I got it. Still, make some noise when you walk, okay. Please.”

[“Yes, understood.”]

Looking abashed, Jeong Suho scratched the back of his head and went to the spot he’d been occupying, dropping into a seat.

It looked like they had set out a few chairs and a small table or two so people could relax. On the table beside the chair where Jeong Suho had been sitting, a few beer cans sat.

Lude thought about just going back down, but that felt like he’d be avoiding him, which would look lame, so he took a different chair a little ways away and sat.

“No, I’m good. I’m fine.”

Jeong Suho held out a beer can as if to ask if he wanted one too, but Lude only shook his head and popped his hot chocolate.

Warmth filled both hands, and he let out a deep breath. Jeong Suho wasn’t the type to talk unless someone spoke to him first, and Lude had nothing in particular to say either, so they sat quietly.

‘I’ll just kill a little time and head down.’

They’d spent enough hours together that he seemed to have grown some tolerance. Just being together didn’t send his temperature spiking. After a long silence, when the hot chocolate in his hands had gone cold, Jeong Suho’s AI voice sounded.

[“Thank you for agreeing to help us. I should’ve said this first. I’m sorry.”]

“Ah.”

He sneaked a sidelong glance and saw Jeong Suho looking at him with his face faintly flushed in embarrassment. Fidgeting, he typed into the device again, then gave Lude a sheepish smile.

[“By nature I was the kind of person who got fooled easily, so I thought I had to be consciously suspicious, and I must’ve come off rude. I’m sorry for being so frustrating. I heard from Jisung hyung.”]

“What did he say?”

At that question, Jeong Suho’s gaze slid around. It felt like he was wondering whether to say it, so Lude widened his eyes a bit.

When Jeong Suho met Lude’s eyes, he started typing furiously again.

[“He said you’re prickly on the outside, but soft inside.”]

“Cough,” Lude choked on the hot chocolate and coughed over and over. The device kept talking.

[“Suspicious of everything yet oddly gullible, easy to trick, but if you’re given responsibility you push through to the end, so you’re the type who’s easy to use, and that must be why Kang Ihyun always sticks to you.”]

“S-Stop. That’s enough. I got it, knock it off…”

At that, Jeong Suho hurriedly turned the device volume down. The conversation looked likely to run long, and he wanted to hide his expression too, so Lude rummaged in the inventory, found his sunglasses, and put them on with a long sigh.

‘Some things never change, like how you never filter what you should or shouldn’t say.’

Beside him, Jeong Suho wore a worried look.

“No, it’s fine. I was pissed and my mouth ran rough too.”

[“It’s fine. Anyway, you were right. Thinking back on it, I was fixated alone on a plan that wouldn’t work and kept digging into the impossible. If you hadn’t said it like that, I wouldn’t have come to my senses.”]

Jeong Suho gave an embarrassed smile. It was exactly the same pure expression he had worn in middle school, no, even younger, and behind the sunglasses Lude blinked.

“…Then why did you insist on doing it alone? Are you the type who can’t see anything else once you start drilling down in one place?”

[“There’s that, and I was desperate. I had it in my head that I had to clear the gate no matter what.”]

“Why?”

He tossed back the last of the hot chocolate and asked without thinking. No answer came. Chewing his nail and shaking his leg, he wrestled with something. Then Lude realized it.

‘Ah, that habit when he’s anxious.’

If you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to. He was about to say that, when the device spilled something he didn’t much want to hear.

[“There’s someone down below. Should I call her a friend, or family? She’s more important than either. Because I couldn’t go down, I couldn’t see her. So I got frantic.”]

Lude’s mind went blank for a moment. A story he didn’t want to hear, or perhaps one he desperately wanted to hear, flowed out right before him.

Before his head could sift through questions, his mouth was already asking one.

“You could’ve contacted her. There’s got to be letters here or something like that.”

[“Ah, I can’t because of a status ailment.”]

“…What kind of status ailment?”

Jeong Suho hesitated for a moment and bit his nail again. He looked at Lude for a long time, then started typing.

Tap, tap, tap. Lude thought, this is taking forever.

[“There’s something about me that’s a little different from other people. Because of that, I hurt her badly. Right before I came to the Wargod, the last thing she said to me remained as a status ailment as-is, so I can’t contact her.”]

‘Me? What did I say again?’

Lude dug back into the past.

Right, they had fought after that. But what did she say? He couldn’t quite remember. All he recalled was Jeong Suho’s letter about entering the Wargod and the explosive emotions then.

With a dark look, Jeong Suho typed another line.

[“If you’re going to keep acting like that, then just never show your face to me again.”]

And Nari remembered what had happened then.

* * *

“Get out!!”

Thud, a roll of toilet paper smacked into Jeong Suho’s face. In a school uniform, he sat down on the floor in shock, wearing a flustered expression.

He tried again in a voice that didn’t know where to go.

“Nari, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was really going to tell you, and there’s a reason for all of this.”

“What are you going to tell me? Tell me what! I have nothing to say to you. You too… I never thought you too would do this to me of all people. How could you? How could you!”

“N-Nari. Calm down. I’ll come back. I only have to be there for two years. Okay? I’ll earn during that time. Money…”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You think I needed money?! All I needed was a quiet, quiet space of my own. A quiet home where nobody knew me!! And all I needed there was you!! Then why…!”

“Right now we do need money until we’re adults. Your father took your account and…”

Objectively, he had been right. And aside from that, sacrificing his studies to enter the Wargod was an enormous sacrifice.

But the Nari of that time wasn’t in a mental state to process that. She didn’t even have the bandwidth to factor in the realities that you needed money to live and had to pay rent.

After a few rounds of heated back-and-forth, Nari spoke quietly in a dark tone.

“Don’t make me laugh. You’re the same as before. You never put your life in order, you never paid attention in class, and the moment it got hard, you gave up. That’s what you’re doing now, right? You’re trying to give up on everything. I’ve never seen you start something and see it through.”

At that, Jeong Suho flinched and chewed his nail. Shaking his head anxiously, he tried to explain.

“Th-That’s not it. O-Of course the Hunter work fits me and it’s something I like. But even if that’s true… that’s not the real reason. I, I’m…”

“I haven’t known you for only a day or two. I’m sick of it. I was an idiot to trust you. Fine, I’ll be the one to leave. Money? I don’t need it, don’t send it. It makes me sick. I’ll disappear from your life, so do what you want and live well.”

“Please. That’s not it. Please listen. Nari!!”

Gathering her clothes and heading for the front door, Nari ran with Jeong Suho crying behind her. She crushed her heel into her shoe, grabbed the door, and Jeong Suho caught her shoulder.

Crying as he pleaded, Nari looked up at him and spoke through gritted teeth.

“If you’re going to keep acting like that, then just never show your face to me again. No, just never come near me. I’m sick to death of it.”

The strength went out of his hand on her shoulder. Wearing a cold expression, Nari stepped out the door. And that was the end. That was the last time.

Nari’s last words became a blade and stuck in Jeong Suho. And they became the first status ailment, tormenting him for a very long time.