Chapter 41: The reunion with the redhead was the worst (2)

There’s such a thing as a gut feeling.

Some people disregard it, but it’s surprisingly one of the few remaining animalistic parts of a human.
Animals often use their sharp and keen senses to avoid threats.

What if that was genetically passed down to humans, who were once animals, to help them?
At first, I had no thought about it, but after rolling around in a fantasy world.

Yoo Shin realized that it too was a kind of truth.
And in actual combat, Yoo Shin had relied on his gut feeling quite a bit, and it had saved his life countless times.

Of course, entrusting everything to a gut feeling is a foolish choice.
Some people’s gut feelings aren’t good.
But it wasn’t something to be completely ignored as unrealistic.

“I hope my gut is wrong this time.”

But even Yoo Shin was reluctant to reunite with the Sage.
It wasn’t a matter of being strong or weak.
That guy, the Sage, was incredibly tiresome to deal with once you met him.

Usually, you could call this kind of situation a mismatch.

Currently, Seol-yeon and Yoo Shin were searching for traces of Hyun-woo, just the two of them.
It was inefficient for the whole group to move together, so they had split up.

[Then I’ll go alone.]

[No, you can’t do that.]

[What do you mean?]

[The opponent is a threat beyond imagination. You must not go alone.]

Yoo Shin gave advice born from experience.
The Sage was proficient in magic, but more importantly, he could easily break people’s minds and reshape them to his liking.

Of course, a strong person like Kang Seol-yeon was no exception.
They were already at a disadvantage with no information, so they couldn’t afford to hand over a considerable asset like Seol-yeon to the other side.

And hadn’t that guy, Hyun-woo, also gone missing?
Based on Yoo Shin’s experience-based prediction, the guy would definitely use that to his advantage.

‘Is he worried about me? This is the first time I’ve met someone like this.’

However, Seol-yeon couldn’t help but misunderstand Yoo Shin’s intentions.
She felt as if Yoo Shin, who only wanted to avoid losing a valuable asset, was worrying about her.

This was a first in Seol-yeon’s life.

She was the upright Head of the Disciplinary Committee, a strong individual who could fight on equal footing with Student Council President Park Ha-yeon.
A being at the top of the food chain.
Who would worry about someone like her?

It was like a herbivore worrying about the lion in front of it.
For Seol-yeon, who had been numb to such things, it was a fresh shock.

But Seol-yeon soon shook her head to clear her thoughts.
This was not the time to dwell on personal feelings.
Finding her precious younger brother was the priority.

“Are you sure it’s okay for you to come with me?”

“This is the most efficient way.”

He had left the other side to Athena.
In terms of pure strength, she was the strongest in Yoo Shin’s party, and she even had experience fighting the Sage.

She would never be easily defeated by the Sage.
In fact, assuming a direct confrontation, she could probably subdue the Sage without much difficulty.
At least for now.

Of course, all these predictions could be wrong.
It could be someone similar to the Sage.
But Yoo Shin was hoping his predictions were wrong.

Surprisingly, tracking the missing Hyun-woo and Meina wasn’t that difficult.
Especially for Athena and Yoo Shin.
There were traces only they could recognize.

“Are you sure this is the right way?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“But isn’t this place too out in the open, on a main street?”

Seol-yeon’s question was valid.
The place Yoo Shin was leading them to was the middle of downtown.
It was a kidnapping, so wouldn’t they have chosen a dark back alley or something?

It was only natural to think that way.

But Yoo Shin, who had fought the Sage all this time, knew all too well.
The Sage’s nature.
This guy was someone who felt a useless sense of superiority in these kinds of things.

[Catch me if you can. I will never hide.]

“This is the right direction.”

“Alright. I’ll have to trust you.”

Seol-yeon wasn’t slow on the uptake.
She could tell that Yoo Shin had noticed something, and that his attitude and atmosphere had become very heavy since then.

He seemed more lighthearted before.

And Seol-yeon’s judgment was accurate.
Having moved from a dark fantasy world to a comfortable academy setting, it was true that he had naturally relaxed and was taking things easy.

It was a kind of reward mentality.

I’ve suffered so much until now.
Isn’t it okay to rest comfortably at least for now?
But that leisurely thought vanished with the Sage’s appearance.

He didn’t know the specifics, but the Sage was deeply involved in this incident.
And that thought was proven right not long after.
The first one to spot it was Seol-yeon.

Was it because they were family?
At first, it felt like she was seeing things.
But it wasn’t.
The red hair, the gentle and kind smile he always showed his family.

“Hyun-woo?”

Hyun-woo was waving from a distance.
Reflexively, Seol-yeon walked towards Hyun-woo.
As if bewitched by something.
Yes, Hyun-woo.
So you were there.

It’s okay now.

Noona will save you.

But someone’s hand strongly grabbed Seol-yeon’s as she was walking towards Hyun-woo.
Thanks to that, Seol-yeon couldn’t move forward.
Who dares to stop me?

“Wait.”

Naturally, the one who stopped Seol-yeon was Yoo Shin.
While tracking the Sage’s traces, Yoo Shin had been keeping a close eye on Seol-yeon.
Thanks to being on guard beforehand.

Yoo Shin was able to stop Seol-yeon in time this time.
But Seol-yeon, unaware of the situation, wore a cold expression for the first time and glared fiercely at Yoo Shin.

“Let go of me, my brother is over there.”

“Open your eyes wide and look again.”

“…….”

“Is that really your brother?”

Yoo Shin’s single remark pierced Seol-yeon’s heart like a dagger.
Seol-yeon, who had been glaring at Yoo Shin, lifted her head again.
Only then could she finally see it.

The thing that looked exactly like her brother was, in fact, a monster wearing her brother’s skin.
The red hair was already grotesquely twisted here and there.

The eyes and mouth were completely empty.
And inside, there was only a deep void.
It was still beckoning, and the sight of it was incredibly creepy.

It was as if a non-human being was mimicking a human.
Yoo Shin clicked his tongue.
Even though it had been a while since they last met, it wasn’t a very good impression.

“W-what is that thing?”

“A doppelganger. A type of golem made with magic.”

“A g-golem? That thing?”

“To put it simply, you can see it as a monster.”

A doppelganger is a golem that can take on the exact appearance of another person.
But the difference from a generally known doppelganger is that it is not a living being.

In the past, when Yoo Shin was in the fantasy world.

In the fantasy world, countless people died day after day.
Countless talents who hadn’t even had a chance to blossom, and even famous heroes, all of them.

In other words, the loss of talent was very severe.

The Sage felt that was a pity, so he came up with a way to stop it.
It was the opinion to clone the talents and use them on the battlefield.

[If we can clone them with doppelgangers, we can use as many talents as we want.]

[It’s the only way to minimize the loss of talent.]

[Why doesn’t everyone agree?]

He was right.
If only it wasn’t used for the Sage’s private purposes.
And when it comes to cloning a being identical to oneself, how could everyone agree?

“This confirms it.”

The Sage is here.
A being he’d rather have erased from his memory.
If he had his way, he wanted to run over and tear him apart right now.
But he couldn’t do that right now.

Seol-yeon, who thought she had finally found her brother again, was visibly disheartened.
Watching her, Yoo Shin let out a deep sigh and said.

“Calm down, your brother is still alive.”

“Is that really true?!”

“Of course.”

The doppelganger was a golem created to prevent the loss of talent.
But it had a fatal flaw, which was that the cloned target had to be alive.

If the cloned target dies, the doppelganger that copied the original likewise loses its function.
In other words, that meant the original, Kang Hyun-woo, was also definitely alive.

However, Seol-yeon, who didn’t know that fact, could finally let out a sigh of relief.
In fact, Seol-yeon still thought the Hyun-woo in front of her was the real Hyun-woo.

But she thought he had fallen prey to the dirty tricks of monsters and had been reduced to the same existence as them.
But that wasn’t it.
That thing was just a dirty fake.

The moment she realized that fact.

Seol-yeon was already moving.

Kwang! Kwang!!

Seol-yeon’s fist, which had closed the distance in an instant, smashed the doppelganger’s head.
The doppelganger couldn’t do anything and collapsed on the spot as its head was shattered.

“Keep moving.”

But Seol-yeon didn’t even glance at it.