Apocrypha (6)
Secret File, Dark History – 6
The next morning, Yoo Il-Han, who got up early and washed up, hurriedly ate breakfast and was normally sandwiched between his classmates.
After listening to the teacher saying that the gathering time will be 30 minutes later, Il-Han went back to his room and finished brushing his teeth diligently. He changed into clothes that were comfortable for activities and came out of the dormitory.
“Oh, well, you really came out.”
“Oh? Huh?”
There was Min Ha-Yul, who freaked him out.
Il-Han couldn’t even run away since Min Ha-Yul was approaching him.
How did Min Ha-Yul find him this well? It seemed like this girl was particularly likely to find him.
“I told you not to run away alone,” Ha-Yul remarked.
“What? I just came out for a morning walk,” il-Han replied, avoiding her gaze.
“You lie every time you open your mouth.”
Min Ha-Yul said with her lips pouting.
“I saw you with a pretty woman yesterday.”
Yoo Il-Han had to try hard not to look surprised the moment he heard it.
See? When the Angel uses angelic powers, she is invisible to humans, but Ha-Yul has seen her before.
“What is it? Are you going to see her again today?” Ha-Yul asked.
“Do you think I can seduce such a pretty woman?” Il-Han asked back, tilting his head.
“No.”
Min Ha-Yul’s honest answer made Yoo Il-Han a little depressed. It would not be as bad as it is if she had said that Il-Han had potential.
But he soon composed himself.
“So what? She just ran into me yesterday. She was a friend of my father,” il-Han lied.
“I see.”
At his skillful excuse, Min Ha-Yul gave a small sigh and nodded.
If Yoo Il-Han were an ordinary high school student, he would have asked Min Ha-Yul questions like ‘Are you relieved to know that I had nothing to do with her?’ or ‘Do you like me?’ But he might have misunderstood since he had made his AT Field stronger with the Angel the previous day.
“I was worried that a gold digger might have caught you,” Ha-Yul confessed.
“Thank you very much.”
Il-Han replied, but he didn’t appreciate it at all.
He thought that it might have been inappropriate to talk about gold diggers with a high school sophomore.
“Also, looking at your style, I don’t think you are going out with a girl,” Ha-Yul remarked.
“It’s good for moving. Do you have any complaints?” ||-Han asked.
“What are you talking about?”
He had only picked out a pair of clothes to move around easily, and Ha-Yul just concluded that his style was a mess.
Of course, he knew his only fashion sense wasn’t that good originally, but it still hurts.
“Anyway, get in there first. I’ll be back later,” Il-Han remarked.
“You can’t go. I’ll drag you.”
Min Ha-Yul threatened, but Il-Han said firmly.
“No.”
“Damn, boy.”
Even though Min Ha-Yul said it, he didn’t pull in Yoo Il-Han.
She wasn’t so interested in Yoo Il-Han.
“You owe me one,” Ha-Yul declared.
“Owe what?” il-Han asked confusedly.
“Buy me something delicious later. Oh, the macaron looked delicious in the cafe in front of my school. Ma-ca-ron,” Ha-Yul replied with a sweet smile.
Yoo Il-Han tried to say no, but her eyes seemed to say that she would tell the teacher if he didn’t buy it, so Il-Han had to nod his head.
“Yay! Well, see you later, then. Macaron, macaron…” Ha-Yul chanted happily.
“Can you squeeze water from a stone?” Il-Han asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. I am going! Bye! Macaron, macaron…”
Min Ha-Yul, who liked macaron, went back full of excitement.
Of course, Il-Han could afford one or two bowls of macaron because he had a part-time job. However, he felt it was unfair that he should pay for it.
Then, the Angel appeared.
“Oh, holy shit!” il-Han shrieked.
“What did I tell you? You’ve even got a date scheduled,” the Angel remarked.
“What?”
Yoo Il-Han blinked at Angel’s words. Date? What?
“You’re supposed to go to the cafe with her, aren’t you?”
“That’s not a date! She is stealing my money. In other words, I’ve been tricked.”
However, since Yoo Il-Han did not come on a school trip and take personal action to protect the Earth or whatever, it would be not that bad to play with Min Ha-Yul.
Of course, it should only be a one-time thing.
“Do you think she’ll do that only for macaron? How could you not appreciate the girl’s pure…”
But the Angel, who was looking at Yoo Il-Han and trying to continue, shut up with a regretful expression so blatantly that Yoo Il-Han could see. Then, the Angel made a remark that seemed to deny everything she had said a little while ago.
“Maybe it’s okay.”
“Let’s hurry up and go.”
“Yes. Let’s go. I’m sorry.”
Yoo Il-Han had no idea of what she was sorry about, but he nodded at the Angel.
It was easy to find and kill the first two.
Each one was disguised as a rock and a tree. Since those were in the form of an inanimate object, all he had to do was stab a spear at a still target.
“But didn’t you say the evolution of animals causes monsters?”
After completing the “hunting,” Yoo Il-Han relaxed and tilted his head to the Angel, handing over his haul.
The Angel smiled bitterly and nodded.
“That’s the problem. We need a more special trigger for monsters evolved from inorganic substance to appear.”
She waved her hand once to clear the tree falling on the ground with a strange-colored fluid.
The Angel looked around carefully and worriedly and gave Il-Han an additional explanation while sighing lightly.
“You can’t see it in the first cataclysm, but that’s what’s happening here on Earth. That’s why we have to do something to stop it from escalating.”
“Why do we have to concentrate here?”
“This is because a core monster was born here in Jeju Island.”
Core Monster
Yoo Il-Han tried to pronounce the word, which has a very sinister tone.
“A core?” Il-Han asked.
“And it’s also the first monster to mutate on this planet. Can you guess how terrible that potential would be? Just being there affects a lot of other things, and that’s caused six extra monsters.”
The Angel also said that it had never happened, even in the long history of Earth.
“So you have to stop it now before the future of the Earth is ruined, with your own hands.”
“Then, the last monster to catch from now on…”
“That’s right. From now on, we’re going to catch the ‘first one.”
Yoo Il-Han thought that they’re catching monsters just to observe it, but he was wrong.
By killing a total of six monsters, Yoo Il-Han now knew how to wield and stab a spear.
It made him physically and mentally prepared for dealing with the strongest enemy.
“Is it dangerous?”
“No, not at all. I told you, just lightly stabbing that spear will kill all the monsters on Earth right now.”
She continued with a vague smile.
“If you miss your first stab, it’ll be very dangerous. I’m trying to make sure you don’t make such a mistake.”
“You’ve made me experience it by letting me deal with the other monsters.”
“Yes. And you’ve adapted better than I expected. Really… You’ve got great talent. As expected…”
The Angel didn’t finish her words.
To be honest, Yoo Il-Han didn’t feel very good about her knowing something about him, but he didn’t argue.
Because he was sure, it was better not to know right now.
“Then shall we go catch him now? Are you ready?”
“Of course.”
Yoo Il-Han was ready to be carried by the Angel.
Then, he suddenly became curious as the Angel fluttered her wings and flew up.
“So, where is he?”
“Baengnokdam Crater Lake.”
“Yes, I thought so.”
And of all things, today, the high school students who came on a field trip were supposed to climb Mt. Hallasan Mountain.
He won’t be found anyway, so that it would be okay, but…
He sighed and entrusted himself to the Angel.
“It’ll be over soon. After catching the monster, you can join your friends.”
“I don’t have any friends.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, so don’t make any more facial expressions.”
Soon, they arrived at Hallasan Mountain.
Since it was already afternoon, few people were going up, and people were coming down one by one, but Il-Han did not see any of his high school classmates.
Everyone seemed to be going up or coming down from the top.
“The monster. It doesn’t attack people, does it?” Il-Han asked curiously.
“Maybe. It will be uninterested in a man without mana, at least for now.”
“Do you have to put such an ominous clue? In that way, 100 percent, a mana holder we don’t even know might show up and get hurt!”
“You always say something strange.”
But the Angel, who spoke calmly and flapped her wings, at one point, made an angry look.
“Mana holders… No, even if he doesn’t have mana, but he is a talented person like yourself, he might have a skill or a fragment of power before coming into contact with Akasic Records, given the Earth’s unique environment. Then…”
“Oh, I’m doubly anxious.”
“Let’s go quickly.”
“Three times more anxious.”
As if because Yoo Il-Han said ‘three times,’ the Angel’s wings flapped three times faster.
In an instant, they reached the top of the mountain and saw the most famous lake on Jeju Island.
“Pretty…”
“Hoo-hoo. Flying in the sky is pretty good, right?”
Baengnokdam Crater Lake could be seen by anyone as long as they climb on the Hallasan Mountain, but it must have much less fabulous than looking down from the sky at a glance.
“It’s true!”
“You will be able to fly someday soon, too… Oh, no!”
The Angel, who had been talking calmly, suddenly shouted.
As her body twirled, so did Yoo Il-Han’s body.
He saw a white deer big enough to see at a glance was chasing a girl beautiful enough to be noticed everywhere. It was Miss Blind!
“Why is she there?”
Besides, no matter how vast the Baengnokdam Crater Lake is, Il-Han never imagined that there would be a white deer!
“I’m going straight for it! Can you catch him?!”
“Yes, yes?!”
“Here we go!”
The Angel folded her wings and descended simultaneously as Yoo Il-Han answered reflexively.
Yoo Il-Han clasped the Longinus’ spear and screamed.
“Fast! Too fast!”
“You have to catch it at once, so you can save her!”
The Angel’s remark brought him to his senses.
There was no one around the girl being chased by the white deer.
Miss Cool and the black-clad bodyguards who followed her instructions seemed to be trying to do something, but it didn’t work.
“You can’t deal with that with human power.’
Only Il-Han could deal with that.
Only the spear in his hand could finish that monster.
“Argh!”
“A big deer is mad!”
“Run, run, run!”
The high school students who came to the top of the mountain ran away just in time.
Among them, Min Ha-Yul was seen moving with the girls.
No, but it was not the time to worry about her.
Il-Han concentrated only on the deer chasing Miss Blind desperately in front of him.
‘Hoo-hoo.
He squeezed the spear.
Il-Han tightened his whole body to hold the spear steadily, but he shouldn’t be tense too much.
He, who repeatedly killed monsters, instinctively mastered the best posture for hunting.
“Arghhhh! Mirae!”
“Na Yoo-Na, run! Why isn’t the bullet working?”
“I’m sorry, Miss. We don’t know why… Miss Yoo-Na!”
Yoo Il-Han ignored the people who said that bullets didn’t work in a country where private firearms were illegal. He focused only on the white deer, specifically, the white deer’s neck.
“Il-Han, the time’s now!”
“Hoo!”
Just the moment the Angel said, he threw the spear out.
As if sucked in the blade of the spear stuck the white deer’s throat.
“Argh!”
Yoo Il-Han bounced right away and rolled on the ground. But surprisingly, until that moment, all the shocks he received had spread to the spear, and there was no wound left on his body.
How come…
Suddenly, he heard a voice.
I-I have to die?
“I’m sorry.”
The Angel, who landed beside Yoo Il-Han, spoke quietly.
“It is for the sake of the Earth, but I’m really sorry for you.”
Me, too. I am part of the Earth!
That was the voice of the white deer. Yoo Il-Han realized it belatedly and widened his eyes.
I’ll curse you and human beings!
It was its last words.
The white deer fell to the spot, and the Angel made the spear disappear.
Yoo Il-Han, who expected there would be a more grand change, looked flustered.
“Wow!”
Then, Il-Han realized that Miss Blind, who had survived, was looking at him.
“Waaaaaah!”
“No.”
He tried to look away, but it didn’t work at all.
“Waaaaaaah!”
Miss Blind came running to him and hugged him!
“Calm down! It’s not me!”
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Are you crying?”
The scent and touch from Miss Blind, and the tears that moistened his shoulders, made him feel uncomfortable.
Il-Han looked around the Angel to ask for help, but she had already disappeared, to his surprise.
“It was the Angel…”
“Huuuaaah!”
And it was weird for people to pay more attention to him.
As soon as the deer died, other people in Baengnokdam went down the mountain as if they had never been chased by a monster before, so they couldn’t see Miss Blind crying on Yoo Il-Han’s shoulder.
“This is… What’s going on?”
“I want to ask that.”
It was Miss Cool. She had ordered the bodyguards to block people, and then she came in and found Yoo Il-Han and Miss Blind.
The bodyguards looked like they didn’t understand the situation, but they seemed to move as their owners told them.
“Why and where the hell did that monster come from, and how did you kill it?”
“Oh, that’s…”
“But first of all, thank you very much for helping Yoo-Na.”
Miss Cool bowed her head politely.
Then she took Miss Blind away from Yoo Il-Han, a little more strongly perhaps because of her mood.
“Until when will you cause trouble, Na Yoo-Na.”
“Huh, but, hush.”
“Say thank you right away. Thank him for saving you.”
“Hik! Thank you. Oh, I’m scared… Suddenly… The big deer.”
She didn’t seem to thank him very well due to the shock, but Yoo Il-Han, who was convinced that he would be tired if he would be more involved with these people, nodded.
“Oh, well. I’ll get going.”
“Are you going to deny our compensation again? You’ve helped us a lot, and…”
Miss Cool looked at him and requested, “I’d like to know your contact number.”
But Yoo Il-Han shook his head firmly.
“It’s supposed to be my job, so… I need to go.”
“Hey. I don’t know what’s going on, but now Miss wants more conversation…”
“He’s the one who helped Yoo-Na. Don’t interfere and get out of his way.”
“Yes!”
The bodyguard, who was trying to stop him, disappeared by order of Miss Cool.
Miss Cool, as well as the sobbing Miss Blind, seemed to have more to say to him, but Yoo Il-Han, who has shortness of breath when noticed by many people, hurriedly left the place behind.
“What is it?”
Surprisingly, however, it was not over yet.
“Yoo Il-Han, what just happened?”
While everyone else was unconscious of what had just happened, Min Ha-Yul caught Yoo Il-Han and successively asked questions.
“What’s the monster? Who’s the sister? Who the hell is that pretty girl? What are you?! Were you sneaking out and doing such a dangerous job? I just thought my whole heart was going to stop beating!”
“Hey, calm down. Calm down…”
But suddenly, MinHa-Yul’s expression changed dramatically when Il-Han tried to stop her, agonizing over what he would say to her.
“Oh, they’re gone already! You cold-hearted bitches. I’ll get you!”
And then, as if Yoo Il-Han turned invisible, Ha-Yul ran to the girls who were going down.
Yoo Il-Han looked at her go away as if she had been hypnotized. He turned his gaze to the side, and Miss Cool and Miss Blind were also holding their bodyguards back, talking to each other, and watching the Baengnokdam.
“Wow, it’s so pretty. I want to build a house here.”
“Don’t you even know it’s forbidden to go in there now?”
“You are not romantic, Mirae.”
“But did you cry?”
“Why would I cry… For what?”
They were chatting as if they had forgotten everything that had just happened a little while ago.
It was like the moment before.
In the end, everyone but Yoo Il-Han returned to their normal lives.
He whispered.
“Is it you?”
“Yes.”
Il-Han sighed at the Angel, who naturally appeared beside him.
“That’s why you were so serious and sorry… Are you going to erase Min Ha-Yul’s memory?”
“Yes. I’m so sorry. Maybe that kid won’t even remember asking you out.”
“It’s not a date.”
She smiled again at Il-Han.
“But I’m surprised. I didn’t know there were three other kids like that who had great potential besides you. Especially that Min Ha-Yul, the one who found me.”
“If I ask you to explain it in detail, you won’t. Right?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you going to erase my memory, too?”
“Yes. Now that all the work to be done is done.”
I knew it.
It was like a short story that Il-Han dreamt about.
A mid-summer magical thing happened over the days at a travel destination.
Isn’t it perfect that the main character will not remember what happened then?
“But I promise you, not only has the Earth completely stabilized, but what happened today will be a great help to your future. The ‘experience’ of clearing the seven monsters will amplify your potential and make it easier for you to resist them in the coming future.”
“I will not even remember… If you’re going to erase it, just erase it quickly.”
Il-Han tried not to look disappointed.
But the Angel didn’t finish the work quickly and stared at him strangely.
“Well, can I ask you the last favor?”
“You’re utilizing me frugally until the end.”
Unlike the retort with a simple tone, Yoo Il-Han was a little nervous due to her red cheeks, wiggling fingers, and restless manner.
It was like a girl-like response when falling in love.
The Angel said to Il-Han, who was disillusioned with strange expectations in his mind when he thought, “What the hell is that?”.
“Uh…”
“Uh?”
“Could you just call me ‘Mom’ once?”
“What?!”
At that moment, something popped up in Yoo Il-Han’s mind.
“Maybe you are…?!”
“No, no! Your real mother is Kim Ye-Seul!”
What a relief! Il-Han almost killed himself with her words.
“Just! … because I like Yoo Yong-Han a lot!”
“Wow…”
Yoo Il-Han was embarrassed, but he managed to build a wall of pretense until the end, so it looked like he was unaffected.
“Besides, I’ve met him earlier than Kim Ye-Seul… No, I’m sorry. Forget it all! I’m sorry!”
The Angel quickly retracted her statements.
‘How the hell can I forget this… Huh?’
Suddenly, Yoo Il-Han looked around.
He could see the beautiful lake and Baengnokdam at a glance in the crater of the volcano. But no other human being was seen, not even the high school students that came up here with him.
“Damn!”
‘I am falling behind again.’
It happened so often that it didn’t bother him anymore. He turned away, ignoring it, even though he felt guilty.
“I’ll eat alone when I go back.”
A loner doesn’t need others. Others don’t have to expect him. He doesn’t expect anything from them. He will just live alone.
Recalling again that he was that kind of person, Yoo Il-Han began to climb down the mountain.
“Mommy…”
“Uh!?”
When Yoo Il-Han said it, Uriel, sitting at the table with him, stood up in surprise.
“Uh. Uh. Lord. What did you just say to me?!”
“No, forget it.”
He answered in a carefree way and appeased Uriel and Gabriel’s daughter, Yoo Yi-soo. The baby was already a fan of her brother, so she grabbed his finger and was laughing.
“Well, Lord. If you don’t mind, just say that again…”
“If you’ve heard it once, that’s enough.”
“Ha?”
Uriel, with a look of great regret, stretched out in place. Yoo Il-Han showed up and snorted, and suddenly thought.
‘I knew it now, but she had the potential to be comparable to Yoo-Na as well as Mirae.’
But how come there’s no record of Min Ha-Yul on Earth?