135 – Returned Alive Twice

Immediately after witnessing Rohan and Ichinose caught up in the monolith.

Sion and Clara reacted reflexively.

Sion took the equipment he had and searched everywhere, in case any traces remained that could be used for tracking.

Clara immediately contacted Jooyeon, whose number she had obtained while receiving immigration assistance in the past.

With a mind consumed by panic, she moved her trembling lips with all her might and relayed the situation.

Jooyeon, having grasped the gravity of the matter, arrived at the scene faster than the security officials.

“…”

Arriving at the scene, Jooyeon frowned at the ominousness conveyed by the lingering traces of mana.

Negative emotions surged, threatening to spill out like sparks.

However.

Jooyeon had no time to properly taste the bitterness or the despair.

Sion and Clara were there, their minds seeming to teeter on the brink without Rohan’s presence.

The elf girl from the monolith video was right before her eyes, but it hardly seemed like a situation to bring up past events.

“Jooyeon… Jooyeon-nim… My brother… My brother…”

“It’s alright. Rohan will return alive. He has the ability to do so.”

Jooyeon spoke those words while embracing Clara, but deep down, she couldn’t be certain.

It was true that Rohan possessed outstanding survival skills and Ichinose Yui was highly skilled, but that was only when measured against the average academy student.

No matter how much they excelled amongst students, they were still lacking to be called true masters.

And above all else, so few people returned alive from the monoliths.

Moreover, Rohan had been caught up in them twice.

A cadet who’d already lost their country to the Void Whale disaster. What misfortune was this?

“…”

Juyeon, cradling the two girls paralyzed by panic, instead conveyed the situation to the constables who’d arrived, alerted by the energy surge.

Based on Juyeon’s testimony, surrounding security cameras were examined.

Official missing persons reports were filed.

The missing were two first-year students from the Orion Academy.

Ichinose Yui and Rohan.

Juyeon directly contacted Ichinose Jun, Ichinose Yui’s father, who was likely engrossed in managing his enterprise in Samhwa.

Even Noah Frozenheart, who usually arbitrated the pecking order among the academy city’s stray cats, heard the news.

Noah, disregarding all concerns for pacing himself, sprinted at full speed, arriving on scene breathless.

Seeing the vacant gazes of Sion and Clara, he finally grasped the reality of the situation, the disappearance of his friend sinking in.

Eyes, usually brimming with life, turned as lifeless as a dead fish’s.

He blamed himself, lamenting how he should have been with them, that he would have gone too if he had not left. The others barely managed to placate his self-deprecation.

Four hours since the Monolith’s emergence.

Ichinose Yui’s father and mother arrived at the academy city.

The renowned tycoon, Ichinose Jun, embracing his wife, had rushed all the way from Samhwa.

A ripple of murmurs spread among the constables and officials, but no one dared approach him easily.

They knew Ichinose Jun was in a profoundly unsettled state.

The one holding Ichinose Jun’s reins was his wife.

Restraining Ichinose Jun’s movements, whose expression grew clumsy the deeper his emotions ran, Ichinose Yui’s mother approached Juyeon.

A woman of classic beauty, with lustrous black hair that drew the eye.

“General Juyeon. Ah, I suppose I should call you Instructor here.”

“It’s been a while. And I am truly sorry… Despite my duty to protect the students, such a thing has happened…”

“It’s not your fault, Instructor. These disasters cannot be avoided no matter how hard anyone tries.”

“…”

“Could you please provide a detailed account of the situation?”

In Juyeon’s memory, Ichinose Jun’s wife had always been a composed and demure woman, but today there was a jarring incongruity.

Juyeon noticed the trembling of her neatly clasped hands.

Was it truly comforting to hear that the male cadet who fell into the dungeon with them was dependable?

Juyeon simply couldn’t decide.

Nine hours had passed since Rohan and Ichinose Yui went missing.

The magistrate and scholars were swarming the site.

Noah, of course, but also Sion and Clara, were still there, rooted to the spot.

Noah, completely drained of energy, was cradled in Juyeon’s arms, his eyes closed.

Sion and Clara, however, had recovered some semblance of composure.

They knew Rohan’s capabilities. They believed that even without skills, Rohan would somehow survive and return from the dungeon.

In the two girls’ minds, Rohan and death simply couldn’t coexist.

“Huu…”

Ichinose Jun relit a cigarette, one he’d quit for over twenty years.

Clutching his sword, he stood in a corner, chain-smoking and maintaining a rigid silence. His wife didn’t utter a word about it.

All they could do was wait.

Inside the dungeon, time had lost all meaning.

Those who had fallen into the dungeon through the monolith must be teetering on the edge of life and death, but those outside, unable to provide substantial aid, were withering away with worry.

Helpless and unable to do anything for the missing, they couldn’t bring themselves to leave, clinging to the faintest hope.

A truly wretched situation.

Then, just before the tenth hour of their disappearance…

Wee-ing──!

Jee-ing──!

Sion and Clara’s smartphones vibrated in unison.

“!”

Their breath caught, a familiar sensation occurring at a time when it shouldn’t be possible.

They frantically pulled the devices from their pockets.

A message had been posted in the group chat, breaking the heavy silence.

Blinded, Perhaps it was a mirage that made them rub their eyes and for a moment they did not trust what they read.

Sion and Clara stared, mouths agape.

[Rohan: Where are you both?]

*

Phee-ing──!

Ichinose swung his blade, the arc passing over the monolith erected within the mansion.

A clean cut.

A jet-black monolith slides apart diagonally.

[Quest Complete.]

[Acquiring Rewards.]

[Initiating Full Party Recovery.]

Kugugugu──!!!

Mana swirled around Rohan and Ichinose like a raging storm.

The dungeon floor crumbled and their bodies lifted.

[No Designated Return Point.]

[Returning to Residence – Random Location.]

The notification window, subtly different from before.

Rohan, his healing complete and dizziness banished, opened his eyes with a clear mind.

‘Oh…?’

Unlike when he returned from the dungeon with Sion and Clara, this wasn’t some restaurant rooftop.

Not that kind of place, but somewhere familiar.

Lying flat on his back, all he could see was a ceiling devoid of any strangeness.

Rohan and Ichinose had fallen into the Orion Academy’s boys’ dormitory.

More specifically, Rohan’s room.

“Ichinose? We’re back.”

Rohan gently tapped the girl nestled in his arms, waking her.

Ichinose slowly raised her head, opened her eyes, and dazedly looked around.

It seemed she hadn’t fully grasped that they’d returned alive from the dungeon.

“Where…is this?”

“The Academy dormitory. My room.”

Just Rohan’s room. Vitality returned to the girl’s eyes.

Pushing away the rising thoughts, Ichinose remembered what was most urgent.

“Ro-Rohan! We can report later…! Let’s go to the hospital, quickly!”

“It’s okay. I’m all better.”

“…?”

Rohan, seeing she didn’t understand, held out his arm to show her.

The academy uniform, stained with blood and ripped to shreds, lay neatly underneath him.

“What…is this?”

“Check Ichinose for any wounds.”

The torn academy uniform hadn’t returned, but as Rohan said, all the wounds that had marked her flesh were healed.

At the same moment, Ichinose remembered the information Rohan had left with the Public Safety Bureau.

“…Come to think of it, Rohan said this happened to him before, didn’t he?”

“Indeed. Perhaps others have experienced this too?”

Rohan asked with feigned innocence, but Ichinose shook her head.

Among the survivors, Rohan was the only one with such an occurrence.

“Shall we get up, then? There must be plenty of people worried. We should contact them.”

“Huh? Ah…!”

Ichinose realized she had been straddling Rohan all this time.

In a position that evoked the image of lovers, the girl was struck speechless.

Springing up as if launched, Ichinose backpedaled until her back pressed against the dormitory wall.

Rohan smirked at the sight, plugging a charger into his phone, the battery teetering on its last legs.

“…R-Rohan.”

“Yes?”

“During the investigation… you understand, right?”

“Only mention what’s necessary?”

Ichinose nodded fervently at Rohan’s response, then pulled out her smartphone.

As the girl placed a call to someone, Rohan continued to ponder.

‘Clara? Sion? The instructor? The Public Safety Bureau?’

Wondering who to call first, Rohan sent a message to the group.

Less than three seconds later, a call came through immediately.

[Clara]

After some hard times, I miss Sion and Clara.

Unlike the dungeon, not much time has passed here, but I’m worried about how they’ve been.

A smile played on Rohan’s lips as he answered the call.

— Oppa!? Where are you? How’s your body? Are you alright?

— Rohan! Where are you? I’m coming right now!

“Zion and Clara’s urgent voices spilled forth in a rush.

“It’s the dorm here. My room. I’m alright.”

— D, dorm? I’m coming right away!

— Don’t move, wait there!

A crashing sound, and the line went dead.

Likewise finished with her call, Ichinose poked Rohan.

“What is it?”

“…M, my parents are here in the academy city.”

“Of course they are. They must have been terribly worried.”

Rohan’s lips curved upward.

Ichinose, trying to hide the heat rising in her cheeks, lowered her head.

Rohan and her parents meeting face-to-face – it was inevitable.

That single thought painted a future in the young woman’s mind.