Chapter 132

“Tell me in detail.”

Ji-eun immediately started telling the story after hearing my question.

Among the memories Snow Flower showed, there was a person trapped in a place made of ice and rocks.

It seemed like the person couldn’t move due to an injury on their leg.

Around their neck, there was something like a fire lizard, possibly keeping their body temperature stable.

“A fire lizard, a salamander?”

Hearing Ji-eun’s description, I immediately realized it was a mid-level fire spirit, a salamander.

At the same time, it became clear that the trapped person was a spirit user.

“Yoo Woo-jung, perhaps?”

“No, not Jeroni.”

Yoo Woo-jung told me about Hunter Jeroni.

A psychic ability user and a hunter who had contracted with spirits.

As a psychic ability user, he was in a very rare situation.

Immediately after awakening as a hunter, he was swept into a dimensional gate and sent to another dimension.

The place he was sent to was classified as Spirit Realm No. 6.

There, he used his awakened psychic abilities to communicate with spirits.

Since spirits are closer to mental entities, he could communicate with them using psychic abilities rather than human speech.

As a result, he contracted with the Spirit King and, after many twists and turns, safely returned to Earth.

Now, he lives as a hunter affiliated with Alters.

Yoo Woo-jung had a connection with him during her time at Alters, which is why she suggested this method to Ji-eun.

“That girl looked about my age.”

According to Ji-eun, the girl was a spirit user but didn’t seem to be Jeroni.

There was someone in urgent need, though I didn’t know who.

If that was the case, we had to help.

“Let’s go help. Si-ho, can you get the location from Ji-eun?”

“Yes, I’ll do that. Ji-eun, please.”

“Got it!”

Ji-eun immediately began transmitting the scene she saw to Si-ho through bonding.

After a while, Si-ho looked at me as if she was ready.

“Manager, I’ll move us right away.”

“Please do.”

Upon hearing that, Si-ho moved us all at once.

The scene that greeted my eyes was a space made of ice and rocks.

“An ice cave.”

Realizing where we were, I quickly glanced around.

The ground didn’t seem weak enough to collapse or anything.

“Here, is it here?”

At that moment, I heard Ji-eun talking.

She seemed to be communicating with Snow Flower.

“Ji-eun, what did Snow Flower say?”

“Yes! She says the girl is right here!”

Ji-eun pointed at the wall and shouted.

It seemed Si-ho had brought us to the right place.

“The wall.”

If we break through this wall, the person on the other side might get hurt.

“Si-ho will handle it.”

Si-ho then approached me with small steps.

I was relying on her a lot, but there was no one as reliable as Si-ho.

Si-ho immediately placed her hand on the ice wall.

“Come.”

At that moment, a woman fell in front of us.

With dark skin and black hair, she had a mid-level spirit salamander wrapped around her neck, just as Ji-eun had described.

She was startled by the sudden space movement and opened her eyes wide.

“Kamu siapa? (Who are you?)”

She shouted, trying to get up quickly but winced in pain due to her injured leg and sat back down.

“Are you okay? We’re not bad people.”

Ji-eun quickly spoke, but the girl, not understanding Korean, just looked at her with wary eyes.

Since I had a translator, I handed it to Ji-eun.

I thought it would be better for a girl her age to give it to her rather than a strange man.

Ji-eun, receiving the translator, put it on her ear and showed it to the girl, then handed it to her.

The girl, still wary, eventually put it on.

“Can you hear me? We’re here to help you.”

“You’re here to help me? How?”

She looked at us with a confused expression.

Of course, she had just been stranded at the bottom of this ice cave, so it was natural.

“Snow Flower told us.”

Ji-eun showed Snow Flower, who she had been carrying in her chest.

“…A Slichter. You’re a spirit user.”

“That’s right. This little one told us you were stranded, so we came to rescue you.”

Hearing that, the girl finally relaxed, the tension leaving her eyes.

She must have been exhausted from being stranded, her nerves on edge.

“Can I take a look at your leg?”

Eva approached and asked, and the girl obediently showed her leg.

It seemed her guard was down because there was another spirit user present.

“How is it? Can you move?”

Her leg had several talismans layered on it.

“Uh, it doesn’t hurt at all. Are you a healing hunter?”

“No, I’m a Returner. This is just first aid, so let’s get you proper treatment when we get back.”

“A Returner?”

She asked in surprise.

Well, there are unusually many Returners around me, but in reality, Returners are something you rarely see in everyday life.

The number of Returners is extremely small.

“May I ask your name and how you ended up like this?”

I asked, and she looked at me and answered readily.

“I’m Laura Saran, a disciple of Master Jeroni. I came here knowing a new spirit realm dimensional gate had opened, to make a contract.”

Master Jeroni.

Realizing she was a disciple of the spirit user Jeroni, I glanced at Yoo Woo-jung.

She shrugged as if she didn’t know much about it.

“I know Jeroni, but I didn’t know about the disciple relationship.”

“You know Master?”

“A little?”

Hearing Yoo Woo-jung, Saran’s eyes widened.

She didn’t expect to meet someone who knew Jeroni here.

Looking at Saran, I decided to get to the main point.

“Miss Saran, does that mean Jeroni is here with you?”

“…No.”

She hesitated before answering.

It was clear she had come here secretly.

If Jeroni had been here, she wouldn’t have been trapped alone.

“I came without telling Master. He always treats me like a child and doesn’t take me seriously. I thought if I could contract with a high-level spirit, it would be okay… but…”

She hesitated and spilled her story.

As she mentioned Jeroni, there was a hint of affection in her eyes.

“My, Jeroni is popular. Isn’t this similar to someone else’s situation?”

Yoo Woo-jung covered her mouth and laughed.

“I understand that feeling!”

I was about to scold Yoo Woo-jung when Ji-eun grabbed Saran’s hands and spoke.

Her eyes were shining brightly, as if she had found a kindred spirit.

“I understand. I keep thinking about how to make him see me as a woman, and if I grow more, maybe he’ll notice me.”

“That’s right. That’s exactly it. You have someone like that too?”

“Yes, I do. Oh, by the way, I’m Yoon Ji-eun.”

Ji-eun was already talking as if she and Saran were best friends.

Thanks to that, Saran’s face, which had been gloomy from causing trouble, brightened up.

Except for the fact that the person in question was right in front of her.

“Ahem, Miss Saran.”

I called Saran to calm them down.

Ji-eun stopped talking and looked at me.

“Can you tell us how you ended up trapped here?”

Saran knew why she came here but didn’t know why she was trapped.

“Actually, I’m not sure either. I was trying to contract with spirits using my psychic abilities, but they suddenly got angry and trapped me here.”

She also spoke with a troubled expression.

From her words, it seemed the spirits were not in a normal state.

“Something seems to be wrong among the spirits. The strange climate in Iceland might be because of that.”

Is it causing climate issues too?

“Manager.”

Si-ho, who was next to me, tugged at my sleeve.

I turned to her, and she looked somewhere and spoke.

“That spirit realm dimensional gate is nearby.”

Si-ho, being sensitive to spatial senses, seemed to have felt the location of the dimensional gate.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Spirits are hard to sense spatially, so I’m not sure exactly what state they’re in.”

Si-ho spoke with a vague expression.

Since spirits are essentially mental entities, Si-ho’s spatial senses couldn’t grasp them well.

“Ha-chan, if you’re concerned, let’s check it out, okay? With this team, what’s there to fear?”

Hearing Yoo Woo-jung, I thought about it again.

It’s not good to get close to danger, but in Iceland, there’s no one as far from danger as us.

“Alright. Let’s check it out. Is everyone okay?”

Everyone agreed to my question.

“Can I come too?”

Saran raised her hand slightly and asked.

“I’m a spirit user. I might be of some help in understanding the situation.”

It seemed she also wanted to know why the spirits were in such chaos.

Hearing that, I nodded.

As she said, Saran was the most expert on spirits.

“Si-ho, can you move us?”

“Yes, I’ll move us a bit further away.”

Si-ho raised her hand and spoke.

At that moment, our vision changed again.

As Si-ho said, when I opened my eyes, I could see the dimensional gate faintly in the distance.

But that wasn’t the problem.

“Ugh.”

Ji-eun was about to open her mouth in surprise, but I carefully covered it with my hand.

Because what we could see in this space now was filled with spirits.

From low-level ice spirits, Jack Frost, to high-level ice spirits, Glaciers.

Countless spirits filled this place.

So much so that even the ice walls were completely hidden, packed tightly without gaps.

And the movements of these spirits were unusual.

They were slowly gathering, having noticed our intrusion.

“…Si-ho.”

I quietly called Si-ho.

Si-ho was already reaching out to us.

She was ready to get us out at any moment.

‘If there’s a gap.’

We could create one if needed.

The spirits were wary of us but didn’t seem to be attacking immediately.

It seemed they also wanted to avoid causing a commotion here.

“Ha-chan oppa, one of them is crying.”

At that moment, Ji-eun spoke to me as if she had heard something.

It seemed something had caught her attention through her bonding.

When I looked at Saran, she, being a psychic ability user, shook her head with wide eyes.

She didn’t sense anything.

“Ji-eun, what do you mean by someone crying?”

“I’m not sure, but it seems like a little kid. They keep crying, asking to be sent back. What should I do?”

Ji-eun asked with a panicked expression, and I looked at the spirits.

“…Miss Saran, do these spirits seem like they’ll attack us?”

“No, they won’t. They don’t seem to have any intention of attacking. It’s clear they don’t want to cause a commotion here.”

Just as I expected.

“Ji-eun, can you try bonding more?”

I didn’t know for sure, but I had a feeling.

The kid Ji-eun mentioned crying might be related to this situation.

“I’ll try.”

Ji-eun answered with a determined expression and immediately started bonding.

This time, I decided to trust Ji-eun.

As Ji-eun started bonding, she soon found herself standing on a dark path.

She realized this path was connected to the target she was bonding with in her mind.

Following the path, she found a child sitting there.

The child, tinged with a faint golden light, was covering their eyes with their hands, slumped over.

Ji-eun approached the child carefully and asked.

“Hey, why are you crying?”

[ I want to go back. ]

“Where do you want to go back to?”

[ To where I used to live. ]

The child seemed lost.

The child was trembling in fear, crying, and Ji-eun sat down carefully beside them.

‘This child is a spirit.’

Ji-eun knew well that the child in front of her was similar to a spirit.

The refreshing energy emanating from the child was clearly that of a spirit.

But that spirit’s energy was entirely colored with fear.

Ji-eun felt sorry for the child.

‘Lost, lost.’

How do you usually comfort a lost child?

Ji-eun thought hard.

At the same time, she recalled her own experience of being lost.

When she was very young, she lost her mother’s hand, got lost, and cried her eyes out.

In that memory, she had been very scared.

But it was such an old memory that it was only vaguely remembered.

So Ji-eun started recalling more recent memories.

And those memories were related to Ha-chan.

Lost, to Ji-eun, that word wasn’t just used when you lost your way.

People can lose their way even as adults.

Not physically, but when they lose the path they should walk.

Ji-eun recalled being bullied at school.

At one point, she thought she wouldn’t care about the kids who bullied her at school, thinking she would become someone great.

But her path was truly just vague.

There was no one to walk that path with Ji-eun.

Due to school violence, the teachers had completely turned their backs on her.

And she couldn’t ask her parents, ordinary people, about this path.

With no friends, teachers, or parents to rely on, Ji-eun had lost her way.

She just habitually went to Rodri Company for hunter training.

‘Lost.’

That word fit perfectly.

Then Ji-eun met Ha-chan.

He seriously faced the dreams Ji-eun had vaguely dreamed of and came up with ways to achieve them.

Unlike the teachers, Ha-chan never mocked her dreams.

He didn’t give her the ‘You?’ look that the teachers did, but truly believed in her dreams.

He was a good person.

When he found out she was being bullied, he told her it was okay to quit school.

He would make her a hunter, so she didn’t need to be confined by the school system.

Ha-chan declared that boldly.

To think, a rookie manager at the company would say that to his new team member.

But his sincerity was clear, and Ji-eun started walking her path through that sincerity.

Ha-chan walked that path with her.

He carefully watched the path, walking with her, making her forget about school life.

‘That’s why I leaned on Ha-chan oppa too.’

Because it was too good a place for her lost heart.

That’s why she came all the way to Iceland.

She wanted to grow more and become someone worthy of Ha-chan.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to take you back to where you want to go.”

Ji-eun reached out to the small child.

The child flinched, afraid of Ji-eun’s touch, but stayed still, sensing no malice.

Ji-eun hugged the child.

The tiny child fit snugly in her arms.

This child was trembling in fear.

So Ji-eun spoke in a very gentle voice.

“But at least I’ll stay with you until you’re not scared to go back.”

[ Really? ]

“Yes, someone stayed with me too. Until I could find my own path and walk it.”

That person is still doing that for her.

Even coming all the way to Iceland with her.

Ji-eun felt warmth in her heart as she thought of Ha-chan.

And she conveyed that warmth to the child through bonding.

Gradually, the child’s trembling stopped.

Ji-eun, who had once been a lost child, had grown enough to comfort another lost child.

“So let’s go together. It’s too lonely to be here alone.”

[ You’re right. It’s lonely… ]

There was hesitation in the child.

Ji-eun thought a little more talking would do it.

[ No, no. They’re coming. ]

The child suddenly turned pale and shouted.

Ji-eun was about to speak quickly to the child when she was suddenly pushed out of the mental world.

“Kyahk?!”

With a scream, Ji-eun was thrown out of the bonding, complaining of pain from the mental shock.

“Ji…!”

At that moment, she barely opened her eyes to the voice echoing in her ears, and there was Ha-chan.

He was holding her, looking at her with a surprised expression.

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