Chapter 4

"──Juna. Juna."

Juna, who had been sitting dazed in the airport lounge, turned her head.

Her unfocused pupils seemed empty and hollow. As she gazed into her silver-toned eyes, it suddenly seemed as if they were filled with fog.

Juna's mother looked at her son with a heavy heart and then patted his shoulder.

"Let's go. It's almost boarding time."

"……Yes."

Juna walked with his mother inside the airport. A passenger plane bound for the United States was visible through the window.

The moment he stepped into that, it would be hard to return to Korea. Thinking this, his steps became even heavier.

"Oh, look at me. What gate was it again?"

His mother began rummaging through her handbag. Juna, who had been standing quietly beside her, suddenly lifted his head.

〈Gate 21〉

The gate.

The moment he saw those words, his heart sank.

His hollow eyes began to shake violently. The trembling that started from his shoulders spread helplessly to his fingertips and toes, and finally, Juna could no longer stand and collapsed.

"Yes, Gate 21. Fortunately, it's right in front of us. ……Huh? Juna?"

She was startled to see her son shaking like a leaf and grabbed his shoulder.

"Are you okay? Juna, Baek Juna!"

"……I'm here."

A transparent glass bead fell from Juna's eyes.

"I left it behind."

There it was again. Juna's mother sighed deeply.

Unlike South Korea, which conscripted hunters with activated unique abilities, the United States did not.

Moreover, Juna's father was a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, soon to be promoted to colonel, and had already awakened as a hunter.

It was frustrating that his son, who refused to stay by his father's side, insisted on staying in Korea. She pretended not to notice when his ears turned bright red at jokes about having a girlfriend. But.

"Juna……"

After the last gate, her son was broken. He would have a seizure at the sight of a stray cat and would be dazed when he saw someone in a hunter's uniform.

He was already a sensitive boy. It was understandable that he had witnessed the massacre of all his comrades right before his eyes.

If she had known this would happen, she would have ignored his resistance and taken him to the United States. She regretted it now.

She tightly embraced her son, who was writhing with anxiety and guilt, and kissed his cold, sweat-soaked forehead.

"Juna, let me say this again: it's not your fault. It was an unavoidable accident."

"But……"

"The hunter system in the United States is more systematic and safer than in Korea. Take a break from hunter life for a few months, and then start again in the guild your father will soon create. Got it? There, you won't have to do anything you don't want to."

She repeated what she had said yesterday. Juna slowly lifted his wet eyes instead of answering.

〈Gate 21〉

The yellow sign above his head seemed to shine brightly, as if pulling him in and blaming him. It was as if the sparks of a vanished galaxy were spreading in his blurred vision.

'Galaxy.'

Until the elevator doors closed, Juna couldn't take his eyes off it.

＊＊＊

Tap.

It's cold.

Tap.

Something cold kept tapping his cheek.

He barely managed to lift his heavy eyelids. Galaxy realized he had lost consciousness and struggled to get up.

"Ugh."

And he fell again.

His right shoulder throbbed. It wasn't just throbbing; it felt as if his arm had been cut off.

"……"

Galaxy then remembered that he had lost his right arm.

Obviously, a hunter's self-healing ability couldn't fully regenerate a completely severed arm. Fortunately, the bleeding had stopped due to the cauterization.

The burned skin stung, but with a hunter's self-healing ability and the ointment from the first aid kit, it would be manageable.

If he were the type to worry about scars, he wouldn't have lost his right arm along with the flame bomb.

Galaxy wobbled to his feet. Once he stood up, he found he could walk better than expected. It was strangely good for someone who had lost a lot of blood and suffered severe burns.

'This body condition seems too good for someone who has been through that……'

As he thought this and slowly took a step forward, something caught his foot.

It was a black umbrella.

Galaxy slowly blinked.

Congratulations! You have obtained the 'Elegant Umbrella' of 'Princess of Black Flames'!