Chapter 111.

Rachel contacted the Royal Court as soon as she returned home . Then, she revealed everything that happened today to her butler .

That Lancaster had appeared and murdered the agent protecting her, but had returned without hurting her for some reason .

—Can you describe the situation before Lancaster appeared in more detail?

The butler asked with a serious face .

“Yes? Ah, um… I was in the middle of receiving a present from a friend . ”

—By the way, Princess, you can use English when you’re talking with me .

“Ah, right, sorry . So um, about the situation… . ”

Rachel reported what happened in English . The butler rubbed his chin in thought, then continued in a low voice .

—Hm… perhaps Lancaster wants Princess to suffer the same pain he has .

“Yes?”

Rachel tilted her head .

—Lancaster lost the people precious to him in the London Incident . He must want Princess to share the same pain . He must have misunderstood Princess’ relationship with this friend .

“Ah… . ”

Looking back, it seemed fairly believable .

After all, Lancaster said he saw an ‘amusing’ scene .

“But that’s not it… . ”

Rachel looked at the bracelet on her wrist .

If that’s what Lancaster thought, he was gravely mistaken .

In Rachel’s mind, she wasn’t in any position to be intimate with someone else .

—Anyways, Princess, I can see that you’ve changed a lot .

“Eh? In what way?”

—In the past, you used to love eating and playing around like a child . But now, you’re calm and collected .

“T-That was before I matured . ”

In truth, Rachel was quite playful until she was six .

But she was always responsible . Because she finished all her work before she went out and played, the queen, the royal consort, and Rachel’s butler could all only watch her with a smile .

It was only after that incident that her playfulness disappeared .

—Anyways, it’s getting late, Princess . You should go to sleep . We will let you know soon whether we will deploy another agent or hire a skilled mercenary .

“Yes… . By the way, did that agent… have a family?”

Hearing Rachel’s careful tone, the butler smiled bitterly and shook his head .

—No, he didn’t .

“…I see . But please treat him well . I will also participate in the funeral . ”

—Yes, understood .

Someone had died to protect her .

Although that put a heavy burden on her heart, Rachel hung up the call without showing a weak appearance .

“Haa . ”

However, she couldn’t prevent a sigh from escaping her complicated emotions .

Rachel took out her earphones to soothe the suffocating pressure she felt . After putting the Bluetooth earphones in her ears, she looked at the music app on her smartwatch .

[If – Kim Hajin]

[Now I Wish It Was So – Kim Hajin (karaoke)]

[You In My Arms – Kim Hajin (karaoke)]

[To J – what I sang (karaoke)]

…

…

On it were several recordings she secretly made when she went to the karaoke with Kim Hajin .

Thanks to Kim Hajin’s tender voice, she was able to deal with her insomnia to a certain extent .

On a side note, she also found out that she was a terrible singer through listening to her own singing .

“Today, let’s go with… . ”

Now I Wish It Was So .

Rachel hit the play button and hopped into bed .

**

[I can start tomorrow . ]

Seemingly encouraged by my positive reply, Boss contacted me the next day with a new mission .

==Apprentice Mercenary Mission==

[Difficulty: D]

[Reward: 400,000,000 Korean won or an item of an equivalent value]

[Goal: Attacking the Djinn group Jehon’s human trafficking truck]

[Once every week, Jehon operates a human trafficking and human smuggling truck . At 10 P . M . , two guarded trucks will cross the Weike Bridge . Attack them and rescue the hostages . ]

==

The mission location was China .

To be more precise, it was a road connecting China to Mongolia .

It was a trafficking and smuggling route often used by Djinns .

According to my setting, the Russian region neighboring Mongolia was a lawless zone, where strength reigned king . It was also the lair of Djinns who committed all sorts of crimes .

However, this ‘lawless zone’ had a society of its own operated by Djinns .

Although the UN refused to recognize it, this place was called Pandemonium and had the size of a small city .

When classes ended the next day, I went to Beijing through Seoul .

Once I arrived in Beijing, I made sure to always have a mask and sunglasses on .

Northern region of Beijing, an intermediate rank danger zone where monsters often appeared, and a worn-down bridge built above a river .

I arrived there after an hour of driving .

“…It’s kinda creepy . ”

In intermediate rank danger zones, intermediate rank monsters appeared with high frequency .

So although the region would have housed a whole city in the past, not even a single person could be seen .

“Let’s see . ”

I knocked down several short trees and blocked the bridge’s sole entrance .

Soon, I received a message .

[There will be multiple enemies, but not all will be Djinns . Some are people drawn by evil and became the dogs of devils, and others are evil people who lead despicable lives . These are your targets . ]

“…Hm . ”

Djinns were existences whose negative emotions were amplified through contracts with devils . As a result, weaker Djinns tended to commit harsher crimes, employing all sorts of methods .

Their instincts to become stronger and desires to be recognized weren’t being met, leading to rage and being expressed in pure evil .

“That’s nice to know… . ”

They were easier and less mentally burdening to deal with .

I looked around to find a cover .

The area around the bridge was like a desert . Although there was a forest nearby, the trees were all short .

There was no other choice .

I had to face them directly .

I got on my bike and drove about 600 meters over the bridge .

Then, I faced the bridge directly . The bridge and everything around it was in full view .

I checked the time .

9:35 P . M .

Their expected time of arrival was 10 .

I weaved Aether into the shape of a chair and sat down on it . Then, I took out a cloth and wiped the Desert Eagle’s barrel clean .

After about 30 minutes of killing time, I could see two trucks and four escort vehicles driving to the bridge .

“Here they come . ”

I slowly got up and infused the Desert Eagle with Aether, transforming it into a vicious sniper rifle .

Holding the sniper rifle up, I aimed at the truck drivers .

The truck driver in the front seemed to be drunk or high on drugs, as he was snickering with an unpleasant face .

I had no reason to hesitate .

I pulled the trigger .

TANG!

My clothes fluttered from the raging wind pressure . The bullet flew with great intensity, blowing up the truck driver’s head .

There was no screaming or howling .

The truck window shattered and the driver immediately scattered into black dust . The bullet still didn’t stop and even pierced the truck’s cargo compartment .

Click—

I ejected the bullet casing .

The next target was the second truck driver .

He was still clueless as to what was going on, making him an easy target .

I aimed at the second truck and fired . Immediately, a white bullet pierced through the truck .

Kiiik—

With the drivers gone, the trucks skidded to the side and crashed into trees .

Only then did the escort vehicles notice the situation and come to a stop . The doors shot open and a total of 18 Djinns equipped with various weapons ran out .

Three with swords, four with spears, two with axes, three with bows, and the rest with assault rifles . I observed their movements as I took out a medicine from my pocket . It was a ginseng pill with its effects modified to my liking .

[Medicinal energy fills up your body . ]

[For 5 minutes, all variable stats except magic power increase by 1 . 5 points . ]

Only 5 SP was needed to make this modification . The low cost was likely because a permanent stat increase was changed to a temporary one .

I swallowed the medicine, activated the Under Armor’s Haste effect, and transformed the Desert Eagle into assault rifle mode .

In the next moment, I could feel my body swirling with energy .

“Huu… . ”

After taking a deep breath, I stared at the incoming Djinns .

—他媽的是什麼？

—你想回去嗎？嘿！你這個婊子的兒子！

They were rambling to themselves . Of course, I had no way of understanding what they were saying since I didn’t speak Chinese .

To be honest, I wasn’t that curious .

“Shut up, will you?”

I aimed my gun at them leisurely .

Only then did they stop talking and rush toward me . Kicking up a cloud of dirt, they charged at me like enraged bulls .

However, within Bullet Time, they were moving like snails .

I first targeted the Djinns with the assault rifles .

Six bullets, each to their head .

As they were unable to use even magic power reinforcement, they couldn’t withstand the firepower of my bullets and scattered into dust .

My next targets were the ones rushing in with spears .

Although they managed to close in until they were only 200 meters away, they would be unable to step any farther .

“…Hm?”

However, they were clad in magic power reinforcement .

Although I was surprised, that was it .

Magic power reinforcement was different than qi reinforcement . The former was only a low-rank defensive skill that was the result of releasing magic power randomly .

Such an elementary skill could be easily broken through .

I fired three bullets simultaneously at the foremost Djinn .

The first bullet made the magic power reinforcement unstable .

The second bullet destroyed a part of the unstable magic power reinforcement .

The third bullet pierced through the gap in the magic power reinforcement and destroyed the body .

Only three bullets were needed to kill the spear warrior .

The world was still slow, and I was the only one maintaining a normal speed .

In Bullet Time, I continued to fire without stop .

Multiple sparks of light flashed from the barrel .

A barrage of bullets that slaughtered only weaklings .

I aimed like a sharpshooter and fired like a machine .

“… . ”

Just like that, I fired a total of 30 shots .

With exactly three for each, ten warriors were killed .

Not even a minute had passed since they got out of their cars .

Now, there were only two left, the two Djinns with bows .

They pulled their bowstrings courageously, but unfortunately for them, I only needed to flick my finger .

White light flashed from the gun barrel .

The two Djinns scattered into dust .

“…Haa . ”

Time returned to normal .

Feeling a bit lightheaded, I slowly walked over the bridge .

Of the two trucks, I opened the lock of the right truck and opened the cargo compartment .

It was then .

“Uaaaaaa!”

A man charged toward me with a dagger .

Caught completely off guard, my head turned blank for a moment .

The man’s eyes flickered with killing intent and his dagger glowed blue with magic power .

But before it could reach my heart, a giant wolf shot out of my chest and bit his neck .

“AAAK! AAAAAAAK!”

The wolf was the size of two adult men put together .

While the wolf was restraining the Djinn, I raised my hand and rubbed my chest .

I… wasn’t hurt .

“Whew…”

I breathed a sigh of relief .

Although I wasn’t hurt, I ended up making a potentially fatal mistake .

I should have been more careful .

“Kuaaaak… . ”

Crunch .

With his neck broken, the Djinn scattered into dust .

Next, I looked around the cargo compartment .

It was full with people who were presumably kidnapped . Their eyes were filled with fear and sorrow .

“… . ”

[Mission completed . ]

After sending Boss a message, I threw a smartwatch that a Djinn was wearing to them .

“The Djinns are all dead . You can use that to call Heroes . You can go home now . ”

Then, the wolf that saved my life approached me . He was panting, seemingly asking for my praise, so I stroked its head .

At that moment, Boss replied back .

[Confirmed . We’ll deal with the cleanup . ]

**

6 A . M .

I stayed up all night at the Beijing Hotel and returned home around the time Cube’s Portal opened up .

For some reason, the dorm room felt warm .

Was it because of Hayang, who was lying on the couch, and Evandel’s ghost nightingales perched up on the TV?

With a thin smile, I walked into the bedroom .

Evandel was sound asleep on the bed .

I sat down on the edge and stroked Evandel’s head .

As I was feeling Evandel’s soft hair, I came to a realization .

This child has been my emotional support .

At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder when I had turned so weak that I needed to rely on such a young child .

“Ehew . ”

I sighed .

Only a year had passed since I fell into this world .

I reached this point after only a year .

Once I spent another 10 years like this and returned to Earth…

Would I be able to go back to how I was?

Would I be able to forget everything about this world like it never happened?

“Haam~”

At that moment, Evandel yawned and opened her eyes .

She stared at me with narrowed eyes, then came into my arms with a warm smile .

“It’s Hajin . Hajin, Hajin… . ”

She murmured as she rubbed her cheeks against my chest .

“Oh right, Evandel, you saved me today . ”

“Yummy, yummy food… . ”

But it seemed like Evandel didn’t care about that .

“…We can eat yummy food later . For now, sleep a bit more . ”

I said as I rubbed Evandel’s back .

**

Three hours later, inside Veritas class .

Currently, I was slouched over the desk . Because I slept less than an hour, I was mentally and physically exhausted .

“Auu… . ”

When I was struggling to stay awake, someone sat down next to me and tapped on my shoulder .

“Yo~ Kim Hajin~”

I could tell who it was by her voice .

It was Chae Nayun .

Still slouching down, I turned my head to the side and looked up at Chae Nayun .

It looked like she was in a good mood .

In fact, she was beaming with joy .

“…What . ”

“You didn’t forget your promise for tomorrow, right?”

“Promise?”

When I asked, Kim Suho joined in .

“You forgot, Hajin? We said we’d eat together . ”

“Hah?”

Only then did I raise my body . Looking at Chae Nayun, I spoke .

“I thought you said you were eating together with Kim Suho . ”

“Uh… ah, didn’t I tell you we were all eating together?”

“I’ll be there too . ”

Even Yoo Yeonha appeared and stood next to Chae Nayun .

“Jonghak and Yi Yeonghan will be there too . ”

“Yeah, it will be for all members of the time travel group . ”

Chae Nayun placed her hand on my head as she said that . Startled, I stiffened up . Meanwhile, Chae Nayun straightened my hair with her own hand .

“There . ”

Then, she smiled in satisfaction .

Dumbfounded, I glared at Chae Nayun . Even my mom stopped doing this to me after I hit puberty .

“Anyways, don’t forget to come . We’re going karaokeing afterwards . ”

“But I’m busy that day—”

“Otherwise, we’ll invite you to a group chat . ”

“That’s…”

I furrowed my brows .

Please spare me from that… .

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