Vol 5 Chapter 27

The doctor, looking perplexed as he examined Kapros's neck, carefully asked.

"...Were you bitten?"

"..."

As Kapros nodded once more, he saw the veins on the back of Jin Je-hwan's hand, which had been silently gripping the railing since the doctor entered, bulge blue with tension.

"That area is severe too, but anyway, the important thing is your right leg."

At those words, Kapros jerked his head around. Jin Je-hwan was beside him. If he had been alone, it might have been different, but he didn't want to hear about his leg with Je-hwan present. Looking straight into the doctor's eyes, he spoke.

"That story, later, please."

Speaking with clear pronunciation despite his hoarse voice by tensing his stomach muscles, the doctor nodded compliantly.

"If that's what you want, I'll explain later. For now, since you've regained consciousness, we need to run a few more tests. Please contact your family as well. I'll see you again later."

After the doctor left, Kapros turned his gaze to Jin Je-hwan. His expression still seemed calm, but now Kapros could feel that it was suppressing emotions that were about to explode.

"Thanks for staying with me until now. I'll contact my family next, so..."

Just as he was about to ask Je-hwan to leave, a cool gaze touched him. Faced with that expression of anger, bitterness, and pity, Kapros stopped speaking.

"You... really don't know anything."

'What...'

Meeting those eyes, it felt as if all the pain in his body and the memories from just moments ago were flying away. As the noisy sounds of the emergency room faded to white, creating a quiet space, Jin Je-hwan embraced Kapros.

"You don't give others a chance to worry about you. You try to solve everything alone."

The part of his chest that touched Je-hwan's embrace, which didn't hurt, felt hot. Je-hwan's voice, holding an anger without a target, trembled slightly.

"Until now, I wasn't any different from you..."

"..."

"...It's strange. I don't know what to say, but what's certain is that I feel bad about you trying to solve things alone, even if I don't care about others."

"..."

"It's only you."

That voice, low enough to crack, suddenly fell into his heart like a large water droplet, spreading into infinite concentric circles.

"Only you..."

"I always felt hatred and pain when I saw you... I wished you were dead. Is that what you came to hear? Is that right, Kang Mu-heon?"

The heart that had returned with hatred, venom, and burns shared strangely began to settle. Kapros quietly closed his eyes.

Some time after Jin Je-hwan left, Kapros's parents and his master and his wife came and shed tears. He was very surprised that even his always-busy parents had come, but he was truly grateful that he had already had his dislocated finger bones properly set and his wounds treated before they arrived. After undergoing a few more general tests, he was moved to a private room where he could finally relax and breathe easy.

Originally, he had planned to get treatment and go straight home, but he had to stay in the hospital until the test results came back, as they said there might be a problem with his brain.

He gave vague answers to his parents who asked what had happened, and said nothing to his master and his wife, who seemed to have guessed the general situation. Even so, it was so difficult to dissuade all four of them from wanting to stay by his side...

This hospital was not only the closest to his home but also where he had his regular check-ups, and it was also the place where he had been hospitalized for over a year in the past. Lying there gave him a feeling of going back to the past, which wasn't particularly pleasant.

'Still, it's fortunate that it will only last about 3 days.'

If they had told him to stay hospitalized longer than that, he would have absolutely refused. If he had to be hospitalized for that long, it would be impossible to properly access MIST, where he currently had a mountain of tasks to do. It was fortunate that he had finished the fourth Superior quest alone after sending Kran and Un-o away.

"Sigh..."

It had become night without him realizing, as it was dark outside the window. As the surroundings quieted down, he naturally thought of Jeong Seung-jo. That appearance that had seemed equally unstable in both the game and reality...

Although he had prepared himself, he hadn't known it would be this difficult to face those eyes again, filled with madness. The memory of his heart throbbing in response to that indescribable emotion, which was even stronger than the hatred and anger, was still vivid. He closed his eyes again, feeling his blood run cold and his head throb.

He tried to sleep, but this time, Jin Je-hwan's words from a few hours ago came to mind again.

Je-hwan had said that Kapros didn't know anything... but honestly, he didn't know what it was that he didn't know. The only thing certain was the feeling that things he had taken for granted until now were becoming jumbled. Until now, he had thought he was handling everything smoothly, but looking back on today's events, it felt like he was doing something wrong.

He felt the need to seriously reconsider these matters right away, but as he pondered, the drowsiness from the fatigue accumulated over the day overtook him. As the effects of the medicine kicked in and his mind began to dull, he eventually had no choice but to fall asleep, promising himself to think about it later.

It would be better to think about it properly when his head was a bit cooler.

Yoon Seok-ho was focusing his gaze on a large hologram screen with a serious expression, unlike his usual smiling and smooth demeanor. Several faces were floating on the screen, and the hologram was so exquisitely three-dimensional that it felt as if there was a real conference table in front of him.

A middle-aged man with graying hair, sitting about halfway to the right in Yoon Seok-ho's view, frowned as he twisted his mustache.

"I heard that project was already over 90 percent successful. I don't understand why you're saying you still can't apply it."

"I agree."

Another man beside him opened his mouth, expressing agreement.

"You've only been talking about special capsules for the disabled, but what have you actually revealed? At this point, there are growing voices of suspicion that everything might be a lie."