I fell asleep with Yoohyun’s faint voice in my ears. You b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

* * *

-Peep, peep.

The little bird sitting on Yoojin Han’s chest sang softly. Yoohyun looked down on his brother deep asleep.

One of the pills was a painkiller and fever reducer, but the other was a sleep inducer. It dropped from S cla.s.s dungeons, and expert hunters would use them for sleep when their senses had become too sensitive after completing a dungeon.

The pill was known to relax the body and have psychological effects for deep sleep, but Yoohyun had not used it after he had bought the medicine. While he was allured to an intensive rest, he did not like his body to be out of his control.

“You shouldn’t take them so easily.”

Yoohyun gently admonished his brother, but he would have been more bothered if Yoojin had suspected and resisted him. Yoohyun pressed the call b.u.t.ton, and the call was answered shortly.

“What happened?”

[Why are you asking me this instead of your brother?]

“He’s asleep.”

[You must have put him to sleep.]

Yoohyun did not comment on Hyunjae Sung’s piercing words.

“What happened to Taewon Song?”

[I wonder how you were at that place.]

A question answered his question, and Yoohyun responded indifferently.

“I’m asking because I was not there.”

[Can you send an S cla.s.s scallion from your kitchen? I want to see one.”

“What are you talking about?”

[If you really weren’t there, there must have been an S cla.s.s scallion.]

Yoohyun’s brow furrowed in Hyunjae Sung’s strange words.

“Tell me about Taewon Song since I need to decide what to do in the future.”

[You don’t have to worry about chief Song.]

Hyunjae Sung continued leisurely.

[He could not protect Yoojin against me. That would firmly fix Yoojin Han’s place for Taewon Song.]

He would have been disturbed to see a sheep playing with a wolf and wonder if the sheep was a wolf in sheepskin. However, a sheep is a sheep if he was taken by a wolf despite a sheepdog’s protection.

[Of course, since a wolf is a wolf even if he’s pretending to be a sheepdog, a sheep could get hurt during protection.]

Maybe I should send leader Song a comforting message. Yoohyun opened his mouth as he let Hyunjae Sung’s slow laugh pa.s.s.

“What did my brother ask you to not say to me?”

[So, he did keep it a secret from you.]

Yoohyun breathed softly to control his anger as he heard Hyunjae Sung’s pitying voice. He knew something that Yoohyun did not. That bothered him to no end, and the back of his neck stiffened.

However, even if it was possible, Yoohyun could not remove Hyunjae Sung. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d held some meaning to Yoojin, and if he disappeared, his brother would push himself even further than he had been up to now.

Since Hyunjae Sung was efficient and useful, Yoohyun had to tolerate him if he was cooperatived with Yoojin.

“Please tell me.”

There was a coherent reply this time to Yoohyun’s subdued voice.

[His chest wound.]

“A wound?”

[It was a scar that a B cla.s.s healing skill was useless on.]

If it were a flesh wound, healing skills lower than a B cla.s.s would remove it cleanly. So, it was not an ordinary wound.

Yoohyun unconsciously clenched his teeth as he reached out to Yoojin.

-Peep!

The little bird pecked at his hand as if to let his nurturer sleep. The chick rolled and moved right next to Yoojin’s face and peeped as if to complain.

-Peep! Peep!

“Be quiet.”

Yoojin would not wake easily, but if that chick incessantly peeped, who knows what would happen. Yoohyun tapped the little beak and unb.u.t.toned his brother’s pajama top. There was a wound, as Hyunjae Sung had said. It was a cut near the heart, a recent one he had not seen.

Yoojin frowned and picked up a high-cla.s.s potion to try, but even that could not remove the little scar.

“What is this?”

[Yoojin Han seems to be behind something fun again, but he’s keeping it a secret for now. I only know that it has to do something with a magic stone. If you concentrate, you can feel a faint aura of the magic stone from the wound.]

Yoohyun placed his fingertips on the wound and concentrated as Hyunjae Sung had said. There was faint, strange magic.

He remembered that the monsters would only rush at Yoojin. Monsters are more aware of magic stones compared to humans. The magic stone detector was made using a monster’s skill. So, to monsters Yoojin Han was

‘a prey with an F cla.s.s body but with a high-cla.s.s magic stone…”

If Yoohyun could feel a faint aura, the magic stone was not a low to middle cla.s.s magic stone. Even an S cla.s.s hunter who is sensitive to magic had difficulties knowing the magic stone in a monster. Even an S cla.s.s stone could not be felt if it was deeply embedded.

So, if the aura was anything to go by, the magic stone was at least an S cla.s.s or stronger…

“What are you trying to do, Hyung?”

Yoohyun ended the call uneasily, and the phone fell on the bed with a thud.

* * *

My view was filled with white snowflakes falling when I opened my eyes. It was then that I knew this was a dream, as snow fell incessantly, and white branches reached out endlessly.

A tree from which snow fell.

‘I knew I would see this sooner or later.’

Maybe because of my fear resistance skill, I had seldom dreamed of my little brother before my return.

However, my fear resistance level was lowered and dreams attacked you viciously as soon as you lower your guard.

I will probably get no sleep for a while. They had said that the skill would last for about four days, and since it was going to be twice as effective, it might last longer. I had so much to do and now everything was going haywire. Taewon Song, it is too much. Can you cancel the skill?

‘At least this place isn’t too bad.’

Since it was a dream, the place would be different from reality, but I looked around to confirm in advance. While I could not move my body, I could shift the view. The snowfields were wide and barrenly empty. I seemed to be standing in the middle of a snowy field in the middle of nowhere.

I saw something then. A body that seemed too small was between the thick roots of the tree.

I take my words back. It was a nightmare. But I could not take my eyes off it, as I would in a common nightmare.