Roy knew he hadn’t done anything wrong.
He had been lucky enough to come to this place and heal from his severe injuries, but he still worried about the other comrades who might be enduring harsh trials back on the Continent of As.
Yet here he was, living with new comrades in a strange form he had never seen before, even as himself in another world.
“Wait a moment, I’ll go talk to Heis. You guys eat your late-night snack.”
Thanks to the late end of practice, everyone planned to quickly satisfy their hunger and then sleep.
After pointing lightly at the salad spread out in the dining room, Roy signaled Heis with his eyes.
Heis stood up from his seat and followed Roy.
When the two suddenly disappeared into Roy’s room with serious expressions, Lee Hajun’s worried voice broke the silence.
“…They didn’t fight, did they? The atmosphere is so tense.”
Hajun, being shy, had only quietly observed Heis after their first greeting.
Thanks to Song Doyoon’s active conversation with Heis, there was no chance to speak up himself.
Just as he was about to say something, Roy vanished with Heis.
“Don’t worry. Let’s go eat the salad.”
Seeing Hajun’s worried face, Lee Doha gently patted the top of his head before standing up.
Then Doha exchanged secretive glances with Kim Chan, who was sitting in the front seat.
Both knew exactly where Roy had come from.
They also knew that Roy only had one blood relative, a younger sister.
That meant Heis was one of Roy’s former comrades.
Curious about what the two were discussing, but knowing now was the time to give them space, they stayed silent.
***
The moment the door closed with a soft click, Roy let out a long breath he had been holding back.
Since reuniting with Heis, sighs had become more frequent.
Their reunion should have been a joyful event, but the circumstances felt strange.
“Let’s sit over there. Ris, make sure our conversation doesn’t carry outside.”
“Feee—.” (Understood, Contract Holder.)
A gentle breeze swirled around Roy and Heis before slowly dispersing into the room.
Heis kept his mouth tightly shut even as he sat down in the chair Roy indicated.
His usually gentle face, which could look like a boy’s when smiling, hardened into an aura that made him untouchable.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“…You know what I’m thinking.”
Heis repeated Roy’s words to himself, roughly rubbing his face.
His skin was flushed red, but the complicated thoughts did not fade—they only grew larger inside him.
“Boss, do you know how the other comrades are doing right now…?”
Unlike his earlier bright demeanor, Heis’s voice trembled slightly when they were alone.
Rationally, he knew Roy had done nothing wrong, but strangely, feelings of hurt kept swelling inside him.
He had held back, trying to avoid heavy topics, but eventually, the words escaped.
At the same time, Roy’s face tightened sharply at Heis’s question.
***
After a moment of silence, Roy finally spoke.
“…I know. That’s why I debuted as a Hunter Idol. Do you remember the Pendant the master gave me?”
“The dark, dull-looking one?”
He should have had a heart-to-heart talk with Heis long ago.
Time flowed differently between this world and the Continent of As.
***
After Roy disappeared, Heis had endured cruel torture for over a year.
Though he had joked about the iron chains that pierced through his body, it was never something to laugh about.
You could grow accustomed to pain, but never completely numb to it.
Roy felt an unspoken debt toward Heis.
“Thanks to that Pendant, I was able to come here. But the Pendant broke. To restore it, I need a mineral called Oriharcon.”
Roy took out the Pendant from his inventory and held it out to Heis.
The Pendant, stained with Roy’s dried blood from back then, was covered with spiderweb-like cracks across the gem.
“At that point, the fastest way to get Oriharcon was to debut as a Hunter Idol.”
No matter what he said, it wouldn’t erase the pain Heis had endured.
“…You made new comrades. You forgot about us.”
“That’s not true!”
Not a single day had passed without remembering them.
Even in deep sleep, Roy would thrash in nightmares where he helplessly watched his comrades being tortured.
Roy still struggled to wear the Hunter Idol expression.
Though he could handle powerful choreography, the softer wave-like movements that highlighted the body’s curves made his face flush every time.
Still, he worked hard every day because he wanted to save his comrades as soon as possible.
“I wanted to rescue you and the others as fast as I could. And get revenge on that Kairus bastard. Make sure we settle everything with interest for what he did to us.”
As Roy spoke to Heis, he silently asked Earth for help.
‘Is there a summary video I can show Heis to help him understand this place?’
Roy lacked the words to properly explain the situation to Heis.
He wanted to concisely explain what this place was, why he had no choice but to become a Hunter Idol, but his mind was a complete mess.
“I know it’s confusing. I felt the same when I first came here.”
He clearly remembered feeling as if a sword had pierced his heart, then opening his eyes in a strange place.
The wounds on his body had disappeared without a trace.
Heis must have been even more bewildered.
Despite that, he had bravely found Roy through a smartphone and come all the way to Bada Entertainment.
“…Sorry. I guess I just couldn’t help it… I guess I was a little hurt hearing that the boss had new comrades.”
Seeing Roy’s lost expression, Heis let out a heavy breath.
Roy, who they thought was dead, was alive and well, and he had regained his original abilities.
It was a miracle worth thanking every god in existence.
But before gratitude, what he felt most was anger and hurt.
Roy cared deeply for his comrades.
Even as the leader, he treated his subordinates as equals, never recklessly.
That was why so many, including Heis, had followed Roy without hesitation, even risking their lives.
“I’m sorry for bringing you here first when you must have been really confused.”
Roy regretted that he should have sent Heis back and calmly continued his conversation even if Han Jihoo had doubted him.
But time gone by could never be reversed.
{Hero, I just sent you the summary video on your phone!}
Roy pulled his phone out of his pocket.
A video from an unknown number was waiting in his message inbox.
“You know this place is different from the Continent of As, right?”
“Yeah. The transportation is really amazing too.”
Heis nodded, recalling the car that moved fast despite having no magical power felt.
He had been stunned when he first saw the smartphone, needless to say.
“Watch this. It’s a summary video about this place.”
On the smartphone screen played a video compressing Earth’s formation and the rapidly changing history after monsters appeared—all in 20 minutes.
“But why did the boss and I come here?”
Near the end of the video, Heis, who had been focused, suddenly asked an obvious question.
It was amazing that such a world existed, but the comrades to save and the enemies to take revenge on were in the other world.
He understood why Roy wanted to find Oriharcon and return.
What Roy had experienced and what he had to do next was something that might be seen only in prophecies or novels—crossing dimensions.
[There’s a Part 2 of the video!]
As Roy tried to explain the overlapping dimension phenomenon, Earth’s voice echoed.
“There’s someone trying to destroy both the Continent of As and this place.”
“What?”
“Let’s finish watching this first.”
Fortunately, myths about the world’s destruction were more widespread on the Continent of As than on Earth.
Even the atrocities of the dragons, said to be extinct now, were recorded in very old history books.
***
After watching all the new videos Roy showed, Heis gave a bitter smile.
“Well, I can’t not believe it, but the scale is just too big to believe.”
The information revealed was even more absurd than the idea that Kairus had unified the Continent of As by himself.
If Roy hadn’t been the one to tell him, and if he hadn’t crossed dimensions himself, he would have dismissed it as nonsense.
“Heis, there are others who came from the Continent of As besides you.”
“Is that true? Who else came?”
Heis jumped up from his seat at Roy’s words.
He had thought it was only the two of them here.
***
After being imprisoned, Heis had not seen even a single strand of his comrades’ hair.
“Did Elisha come too?”
At the mention of the person he worried about most, Roy’s face darkened.
Roy was more desperate than anyone to know if Elisha was alive.
He had heard from Joel that his sister might still be alive, but hearing about the hardships Heis endured only deepened his worries.
“…No. The person I found is Joel Lothas. You remember him, right?”
“Joel Lothas? That annoying good-for-nothing bastard?”
At the thought of Joel’s face, Heis’s expression twisted into a fierce scowl.
If Joel were here, Heis looked like he would separate his head from his body right away.
The intense dark aura radiating from Heis made the spirits cautiously drift away from him.
“Ah, you heard about ‘Earth’ in the video too, right?”
{Ahem.}
Earth even sneakily promoted himself in the video.
“Earth? The god-like entity that governs this world?”
“Yeah. Earth is currently controlling Joel’s body. It’s almost like he’s a puppet.”
Joel was still following the traces of the Continent of As on Earth’s orders.
Earth had been unusually quiet lately.
That was because Earth was focusing all his attention on investigating using Joel’s body.
Heis only calmed his anger after hearing that Joel—the target of his fury—had become a mere puppet.
If he was useful, they could squeeze every drop from him before disposing of him.
Besides, Joel was the one who personally drove a chain through Heis’s wrist.
Thinking about returning the favor he received the day they reunited even helped relieve his long-held frustration.
“So according to the boss, there might be more comrades who crossed over besides me?”
“Right.”
“Then we can’t just sit here! We don’t know where they are or what form they’re in. We have to find them quickly!”
Thanks to his quick wit and good speech, Heis managed to reunite with Roy without much trouble, but that wasn’t the case for the others.
“Just imagine if Charles came here.”
Heis’s mention of the name made Roy’s expression serious.
“If Charles came…”
“You don’t even have to say it, boss knows better than anyone that the situation will get complicated.”
Charles was simple-minded in a good way, but stupid in a bad way.
Roy recalled Charles’s shining bald head that sparkled especially brightly in the sunlight.
He also remembered how Charles freely moved his long arms, cutting through enemies recklessly.
“…This is really bad.”
If anyone was likely to cause serious trouble, it was Charles.
And the two men’s instincts were right.