Chapter 252: The Monarch’s Tomb 2

‘What do I do about this?’

Based on their conversations, nobody seemed to know yet.

Nobody seemed to know that his memories had been completely restored.

That did indeed happen.

Dan had recovered his memories just like the rest of the team members.

The only difference was that he had recovered his memories without the Raven’s Tears.

Of course, he had not done it on his own.

There was something that pushed it to happen.

It had happened just a few days ago.

Ding.

“Hello, welco……ah! Mr. Ju-Heon!”

A casually dressed Ju-Heon had come to the butcher shop.

The first person to greet Ju-Heon was none other than Soo-A.

“Hello Ju-Heon oppa!”

The pretty Soo-A had ran over with her short legs and hugged Ju-Heon.

She had hidden behind her dad at first probably because she thought Ju-Heon was scary, but that was no longer the case.

She must have become familiar with him since Ju-Heon stopped by the last few days to teach Dan about artifacts.

It was at that moment.

“Ju-Heon oppa is not the only one here.”

Yoo Jaeha walked in behind Ju-Heon carrying a bunch of toys.

Soo-A’s face lit up after seeing so many toys. Her reaction made Yoo Jaeha snicker as he started to speak.

“Soo-A, say thank you very much~ and give me a kiss!”

Yoo Jaeha turned his cheek toward her. But what did she do?

“Thank you very much!”

Soo-A kissed Ju-Heon on the cheek.

Yoo Jaeha could not believe it.

“Whyyyyy?!”

‘I was the one who brought her presents!’

Yoo Jaeha persistently turned his cheek toward her but Soo-A must have gotten scared as she started to cry and hugged Ju-Heon.

Ju-Heon kicked Jaeha for making her cry.

“You are banned from getting close to Soo-A. Just carry the presents in.”

“Damn it!”

Yoo Jaeha, who had instantly been turned into the baggage carrier, had to go back and forth to the car to bring in all of the toys.

There were some duplicates of the same toy.

The reason for the duplicates was because of Yoo Jaeha’s damn mouth.

‘Wow, Captain-nim, you really have no sense at all. Are you only picking the pink ones because it is for a little girl?’

‘Why? Is there a problem?’

‘She might like blue! What if Soo-A doesn’t like pink? Pick an assortment!’

He had said that to see Ju-Heon struggle, but…

‘Then we’ll buy one of each color.’

‘……E, excuse me?’

‘By the way, you’re the one who needs to carry them.’

‘#$&#*!’

That was how Yoo Jaeha, who had dug his own grave, ended up having to carry a ton of toys inside.

Ju-Heon had taken out the Monarch of Fate’s camera after having dinner with them.

“I want to slowly teach you but I don’t think we have the time for that.”

There was no way that the monopolizers aiming for Ju-Heon would leave Dan alone.

He would keep protecting Dan and fuck those monopolizer bastards over, but still…

“You never know what might happen.”

That was why he had used the Monarch of Fate’s camera artifact to have Dan experience the sensations from his past life.

Dan ended up experiencing the odd feeling of being sucked into a picture.

He was in an unfamiliar tomb with familiar faces that were older than now.

[Captain! I will take care of this area. All of you use that opening to escape!]

[Dan, no! It’s too dangerous! There are thousands of them!]

He could physically experience things from his past life that would not happen in this life.

Of course, they were not random experiences.

Ju-Heon had thought hard about the pictures to choose and even took some away without telling him about what they were.

In addition…

“Everything you are about to see is fake. You can consider it virtual reality created by the artifact.”

He sternly said that to Dan as well.

However, Dan had felt an odd sense of déjà vu while experiencing those memories of his past life.

It was an extremely strong sense of déjà vu.

He was feeling extremely emotional about Ju-Heon and the others even though his memories had not returned.

It felt as if he saw people he thought he would never be able to see ever again.

It had been so weird that he asked if they had been a part of the same team in the past.

“Captain-nim, the members at that time and you…!”

Ju-Heon seemed to be having a difficult time figuring out what to say before he finally responded.

“I’m not your Captain-nim.”

“Excuse me?”

Ju-Heon sternly responded to Dan.

“I don’t know what you saw about me but it is a delusion in your mind. You were too immersed in it. We are strangers with no connections whatsoever.”

It felt as if Ju-Heon was stabbing a wedge between them.

Ju-Heon left after only teaching him how to use artifacts.

Dan, who had been thinking about Ju-Heon’s odd expression, had reactivated the pictures that Ju-Heon left behind.

He activated them over and over.

He continued to activate them after putting Soo-A to bed.

The number of times passed from tens to the hundreds.

Unfortunately, nothing popped up in his mind and it was just tiring for him, but Dan kept thinking that there was something he needed to remember.

The ‘Dan’ in the picture was doing everything he could to protect Ju-Heon and the others.

The image was too vivid to be fake.

He felt as if he was missing something important.

He thought that he would never get the chance to recall it if he gave up on it.

And after a while…

Something weird had happened.

“What is going on?”

After he had activated the pictures hundreds of times…

[Human, stop.]

Something completely different from what he had seen until now had appeared.

Normally, he should have been transported to what seemed to be them wandering through a jungle.

[Your mind will be destroyed if you keep this up.]

A Crow had suddenly appeared in the jungle.

The crow was perched on a tree and staring at him with his glowing red eyes.

It was covered in a chaotic aura.

He felt an immense amount of pressure and spirit coming from it, even though it was a single Crow.

He had run into many artifacts until now but it was much stronger than anything he had seen before.

It was much more savage and stronger than even those so called Divine-Grade artifacts.

He was scared.

However, the Crow that was giving off this scary aura showed no murderous intent.

It actually seemed concerned for Dan.

[Do you plan on wasting the life that the human saved?]

It seemed to be talking about Ju-Heon.

[So stop. You won’t be able to figure anything out no matter how many times you come in here.]

It said that he would not be able to tell the difference between what was real and what was fake.

[Your brain will be destroyed.]

But Dan shook his head.

“I can’t stop. I feel like I’ll figure out something I’ve forgotten about if I keep it up a little longer.”

[Your brain is playing tricks on you.]

Dan desperately shook his head.

He was saying he knew it wasn’t a trick.

“I’m sure of it now. I know the Captain.”

He was certain of it.

The Crow was saying it was his brain playing tricks on him, but he knew Ju-Heon.

He knew Ju-Heon in the past.

He also knew the others who were with him as well.

But something was weird.

Although he knew them, he had no idea how they became close or why he teared up every time he saw them.

He started to shout in frustration.

“Mr. Ju-Heon saved my life and my daughter’s life. I can’t just brush this aside if there is something I’ve forgotten!”

[Even if that may lead you down a path of regret?]

“It doesn’t matter! That is my choice as well. Both my daughter and I would be dead without Mr. Ju-Heon anyway!”

He didn’t know what it was, but he couldn’t just let it go without doing something about it.

He wanted to resolve this frustration and pay Ju-Heon back for his generosity.

‘Although I don’t know if doing this will help him at all.’

As Dan was about to activate another picture…

[Humans truly are stupid creatures.]

The Crow gasped.

But the Crow seemed to be smiling as it sighed.

Then there was a bright flash of light.

Dan screamed inside the light.

“Aaah!”

Dan clearly saw it at that moment. He saw all of his memories that he could not see through the camera artifact.

Losing his daughter, meeting Ju-Heon for the first time…

How Ju-Heon saved him.

How Ju-Heon had given him a reason to live when he was a mess because his daughter had died.

He started to cry once he was out of the picture.

It was to the point that his daughter woke up in shock and started to shake him, asking him what was wrong.

“Daddy, daddy?”

Dan had cried so painfully.

A shocked Soo-A didn’t know what to do before she tried to call 911.

But Dan just grabbed his daughter and cried. Dan just cried after getting all of his memories back.

He cried from sorrow remembering how he had lost his daughter and he cried from joy knowing that he did not lose his daughter again.

He was extremely thankful to Ju-Heon for saving his daughter before he lost her again.

He was thankful that Ju-Heon helped him to keep his reason to live.

“I’m so relieved, so relieved.”

Dan tightly hugged his daughter while continuously thanking the Crow and Ju-Heon.

He had almost forgotten about it.

He had almost forgotten about everything Ju-Heon had done for him in the past.

He had almost forgotten about things that he should never forget about.

Returning to the present…

‘Hmm, what to do… I already got my memories back.’

Dan was not sure about what to do.

He had been a chaotic mess when it had happened, but he had quickly returned to being rational.

Of course he wanted to go back to where Ju-Heon was.

However…

[The number you are trying to reach……]

“This is driving me crazy. Did the Captain-nim break another cellphone?”

Dan continuously wanted to tell Ju-Heon that he got his memories back. He wanted to tell Ju-Heon to let him back into the tomb raiding team.

That was what he had wanted to say.

However, there had been no good timing to say it.

He even tried to contact his old teammates but……

“Ah, umm… Hey Jaeha?”

[Oh, it’s nice to hear you call me in such a friendly way! I can call you hyung-nim too, right? Ah sorry, something urgent just came up!]

Click.

“Umm, Chlo……”

[Oh, hello Mr. Hae Jin. Did you call because of Soo-A? Please don’t worry. Soo-A is very healthy.]

“Ah, e, excuse me? No. The reason I called today……”

[I’ll give you a list of drinks and food that would be good for Soo-A. Do you have something to write on?]

“Ah, no, that’s not it… Ah yes. Yes, yes. Ginger and…”

Click.

“Excuse me, Vice Captain-nim.”

[Ah, thanks for calling me. There’s some documents I need you to fill out for your testimony, Mr. Hae Jin…]

“Ah umm, I sent it via text as well but I got my memories back. So could you please give me an application…”

[My goodness. Mr. Hae Jin. I understand how you must be feeling, but you still shouldn’t lie.]

Click.

“………….”

Why did these damn team members of his have to be like this?

He knew that returning to the tomb raiding team meant that he would have to be a meat shield against the monopolizers again.

Unlike the past, he had no reasons to get involved with artifact users in this life.

Artifacts would probably be everywhere in the distant future, but he had no reason to join Ju-Heon’s excavation team.

There was an easier path he could take.

Even Ju-Heon had told him to just live happily with his daughter.

However…

[The world is in shambles after the Monarch of Fate’s prophecy.]

[People were questioning whether this is a scheme by Seo Ju-Heon or it truly is a prophecy from the Monarch of Fate……]

[It is even more shocking because Pandora has indicated that even Monarchs would not be able to use Divine-Grade artifacts if they do not manage to get their hands on an Heirloom…]

[The United States is forming an excavation team to send to the Middle East…… Japan’s JSDF …… China is starting to move centered around Zhen Cai Yuan.]

[The suspicion that Seo Ju-Heon is planning on looting all of the Monarch’s Tombs is making excavation teams all around the world rush…]

[The number of factions searching for and tailing Seo Ju-Heon are increasing…]

The whole world was chaotic right now.

All monopolizers were aiming for Ju-Heon.

‘I need to go back into the Captain-nim’s tomb raiding team.’

Recovering his memories helped him realize why Ju-Heon had let him go.

But he could not stay away.

The monopolizers were strong.

Ju-Heon was overwhelmingly strong now too and had all of the main members by his side, however……

‘How can he do it without a Hunter?’

And most importantly…

[Protect him if you do not regret your decision.]

The Crow had said that to him.

He recalled everything the Crow said to him at the end.

[Those bastards would come after that human again.]

He didn’t know who ‘those bastards’ it was talking about, but it was proof that Ju-Heon would be in danger.

[Also.]

The Crow had continued on.

[Please stop letting him get so distracted.]

He had no idea what that meant either.

“Captain-nim! I’m here!”

Dan chose to go see Ju-Heon face to face. He knew that speaking face to face was the fastest way to take care of things. But his efforts were for naught!

“Huh, do you know the people who had stayed here?”

The housekeeper handed Dan a bag.

“They left something behind. Please give this to them.”

“……Excuse me, what happened to the people staying here?”

“Ah, they checked out early this morning. They said they’re rushing to enter a tomb or something… I think they said they were going to Korea.”

‘Damn it!’

Dan put a hand against his forehead.

There were two days left until the Monarch’s Tomb appeared.

It made sense that they would rush over, but……!

“Those damn artifactphiles!”

Dan made a call while fuming with anger.