I Don’t Want This Reincarnation
chapter-21

Even while holding me, who was limp like I passed out, Cheon Sa-yeon moved between the monsters with light movements. I left only the wind that wrapped around Cheon Sa-yeon’s body and cut off the rest. As the energy escaping decreased, the headache subsided slightly.

Beyond the darkness, the screams of monsters and the sound of fire spreading vividly could be heard. As I took a deep breath, I took in a cool and bitter scent. Did he put on cologne in a place like this?

“Han Yi-gyeol.”

I twitched my eyelids and opened my eyes with difficulty. With a blurry vision, I could see the edge of Cheon Sa-yeon’s chest I was leaning on.

“…are you done?”

I could no longer hear the monsters that disturbed my ears previously.

“Yes, turn off your power.”

Immediately after saying that, I removed my wind. That alone made breathing a lot easier. The pain in my head was still there.

“You did a great job,” he said, rubbing my forehead.

If there was any reason for him to suddenly act so kindly, then of course—it must be because it was refreshing to him to drain others of their ability to this extent.

“Thanks to you, I’ve dealt with the monsters without much damage.”

“I went through such hardship, so it’s only natural. Even though I wanted to hit you in the middle.”

“You’re so cold,” Cheon Sa-yeon, who took my words playfully, looked at me with a gentle smile.

“…what are you looking at?”

“I had a very good experience.”

It was only a brief moment, but something deep and dark passed by in his eyes.

“I had never thought of using it this way. It’s much better than expected. It was only for a short time, but enough to make me covet it.”

“……”

Oh, um. I guess you’re serious.

I didn’t know if I should be happy that I was recognized by Cheon Sa-yeon or if I should be angry at how he treated me like I was an object.

With a trembling feeling, I replied, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not very interested. You're not the kind of person I can handle.”

“That’s too bad. You definitely don’t have enough energy. It would’ve been nice if I could use it longer.”

“This is normal for an A-rank.”

SS-ranks seemed to have a different level of energy. It was kind of disgusting to see him looking fine even after dealing with monsters all day.

“If we’re done, please let me down. It’s uncomfortable.”

“I’ll take you to Min Ah-rin.”

“I will go on my own.”

Cheon Sa-yeon didn’t even pretend to hear my request to get off. Fine. How could I even beat you anyway. I gave up on being released and asked another question, “Is everyone okay? Min Ah-rin-ssi and Kim Woo-jin.”

“Of course. I recommend taking care of yourself more than anyone else. You were the most in danger.”

“Pardon? No way. I’m not hurt at all.”

“An ability user is most endangered when they’re out of energy.”

Is that so? It’s hard to endure a bad headache. But it’s a lot better than getting hurt.

“You seem to have gotten along quite well with those two.”

I glanced sideways at Cheon Sa-yeon’s face, who was looking ahead. I didn’t expect him to ask such a question.

As we entered the gate and suffered together, we got closer than before, but it was difficult to confidently say that we were close. Above all, I didn’t think Min Ah-rin or Kim Woo-jin would think that I was close with them.

“I don’t know. We’re not really that close.”

“You’ve been sticking around people you’re not close to. Don’t you care about them?”

It was true I cared, so I nodded my head.

“I care that much, of course I do. How can we say we don’t know each other when we know each other’s faces? It’s better to clear the gate without any problems.”

“That’s right,” Cheon Sa-yeon muttered under his breath. “I was expecting that.”

“What…”

“Yi-gyeol-ssi!”

As I was about to ask what he meant, I turned my head to Min Ah-rin’s voice. Min Ah-rin and Kim Woo-jin ran through the guild members who were cleaning up the monster corpses.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Next to Min Ah-rin, who was worried, Kim Woo-jin shouted in amazement, “Damn, look at your pale face! I thought you were dead.”

You punk.

“I’m fine…”

“You’ve used a lot of your abilities, so you’d better get your energy back.”

Cheon Sa-yeon intervened before I could even say it was okay. Cheon Sa-yeon, who sat me on the rock, sheathed his sword and put on his jacket.

“Let Healer Min Ah-rin restore Han Yi-gyeol as the top priority. I’m going to sort things out.”

“Alright.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who heard Min Ah-rin’s answer, turned his back without hesitation. Min Ah-rin looked at me with a sympathetic expression and asked, “It hurts a lot, doesn’t it? You’ll feel better when you get your energy back.”

“It’s bearable.”

“There is nothing to hide. I’ve been through it too. Could you give me a hand?”

As soon as I reached out to her hand, Min Ah-rin took my hand without hesitation. I felt cool energy on my palm. Min Ah-rin’s energy flowed through my arm and soothed my ability.

“That’s amazing.”

My soothed energy now gradually increased in size. Originally as small as a fist, my energy gradually grew in size and returned to its original size. My headache was gone and my droopy body was filled with strength.

“As your energy becomes unstable and weaker, your physical condition also deteriorates. Natural recovery takes a long time, so most of them come to a healer.”

“You’ve been working hard.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Yi-gyeol-ssi is always welcome.”

Seeing how much better I was than before, Min Ah-rin let go of my hand and smiled. She looked a little tired because she gave me energy.

“So, if you get hurt or feel weak, please don’t worry and come to me.”

“I will try,” I replied with an awkward smile. Fortunately, Min Ah-rin nodded her head without saying anything, although it was a subtle answer.

“Hey, Han Yi-gyeol.” Kim Woo-jin, who was standing behind Min Ah-rin, called to me in a slightly low voice.

“What?”

“…you,” Kim Woo-jin hesitated, unable to continue speaking. What’s wrong with him?

“What. Say it.”

Kim Woo-jin opened his mouth with a very complicated expression when I prompted him out of frustration. “What is going on between you and the Master?”

…what are you talking about.

I rubbed my neck at the sudden rush of fatigue. “Why all of a sudden?”

“You didn’t get along with the Master.”

That’s still the case.

“You know it too.”

“Whenever you saw the Master, you cried until you were out of breath. You broke everything around you because you couldn’t control your abilities. You trembled and made a mess and tried to make it right…”

“…”

Did he? I was reminded of the original owner’s body. Han Yi-gyeol was a very weak person.

Most scenes in the novel only showed his movements according to Cheon Sa-yeon’s orders, so I didn’t know that it was that much. Come to think of it, after becoming Han Yi-gyeol, I cried a lot in the first dream I had with Cheon Sa-yeon.

‘It’s a little weird.’

Why did Cheon Sa-yeon abandon Han Yi-gyeol so relentlessly? If it was to take advantage of Han Yi-gyeol’s ability, it would be way more beneficial to keep him by his side rather than throw him away.

When I was reading the novel, I was so focused on Ha Tae-heon that I didn’t know it was weird, so I just skipped it, but now that I thought about it calmly, there were many odd things.

I guess I had to spend some time looking into it. If I disregarded it, there might be a problem later.

“Really? Yi-gyeol-ssi? I can’t even imagine.” At Kim Woo-jin’s words, Min Ah-rin made a surprised face.

“I was really annoyed at the time… And even with his ability, all he could do was whine.”

“Oh my.”

Min Ah-rin rolled her eyes as if imagining something and she immediately smiled brightly with red cheeks. Why was she so happy to hear that I cried?

“…people are supposed to grow up.”

“Hah, what growing up? It was all a show, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t you rather be an actor? And not waste time here.”

“I know, right. It’s a great skill to be able to fake cry. You’d look good as an actor! I’ll be your number one fan.”

“Then I will be the manager.”

“I won’t be an actor, I won’t!”

You two sounded like actors yourself. Either way, these two weren’t normal.

“Anyway, you were afraid of the Master until then. Besides, your little sis… ahem.”

Kim Woo-jin hurriedly closed his mouth and looked sideways at Min Ah-rin. I didn't mean to hide my sister’s story from Min Ah-rin, but I answered moderately because it wasn’t something to talk about.

“It’s still the same. I don’t like him very much.”

“But earlier…”

“It was an emergency, so I had no choice. How could we argue when monsters were coming? They should be wiped out quickly.”

Despite telling the truth, Kim Woo-jin and Min Ah-rin looked skeptical.

“I’m telling you the truth. Don’t you know I’m exhausted? I’m just a good tool for him.”

It was then that Kim Woo-jin’s expression softened slightly. Were you jealous because your boss seemed to be close to me? A narrow-minded guy.

“Yi-gyeol-ssi seems uncomfortable with the Master. I think that the Master cares about Yi-gyeol-ssi quite a bit.”

“No way. Don’t say such scary things.” As I shook my head with a straight face, Min Ah-rin didn’t say anything else, but she was still unsure.

From Park Geon-ho to Kim Woo-jin and Min Ah-rin. After hearing the same question three times already, my heart pounded nervously.

‘This isn’t good…’

I guess I had to come up with a plan to get away from Cheon Sa-yeon as soon as possible.

There was more than one thing to look into. I let out a sigh at the dark days ahead of me.