The Novel's Extra (0-100)

Chapter 28 - The Djinn and Gari Mountain (1)

Lying on the ground, I stared up at the ceiling. Scorching heat dug into my clothes. The dungeon's boss had been killed, but the heat remained.

Bored, I tilted my head to the side. Chae Nayun's team was talking some distance away. They offered me to join them but I refused. I was too tired to answer the questions they'd inevitably ask.

"Huum."

At that moment, Chae Nayun, who was stealing glances my way for a while, took a deep breath and got up. Then, she walked over.

"..."

She cast a shadow over me and looked down at my face.

"What."

I curled up with only my upper body. Seeing sweat dripping down, Chae Nayun frowned slightly. But after straightening her expression, she sat down next to me. Of course, she was still about ten feet away.

"...I thought I should I say this."

I wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or ashamed, but Chae Nayun spoke with great difficulty while looking up at the ceiling.

"T-Thanks."

"..."

I was genuinely at a loss for words. I stared at Chae Nayun in a daze. That word was one I thought I'd never hear from her.

Chae Nayun.

Age 17 to 27 in the story.

She was only 16 by American age.[1] Despite how young she was, the life she lived was far from normal. It was one filled with tragedies.

The first tragedy should have occurred on her sixth birthday. On what should have been the happiest day for a six year old child, her mother was killed by a Djinn.

After that incident, her personality developed in a completely different direction.

The child, whose dream was to "become like her Mommy", cried tears of blood and sought to become a Hero. While other children her age laughed and played around, she trained in hitting and breaking targets.

The scar from that day was etched in the deepest part of her heart. As a fourth generation chaebol, even having a 'true friend' to mend this wound was a disgrace. Revealing one's deepest thoughts was akin to revealing one's weakness, and the hyenas infesting the outside world would jump at their chance to take advantage.

As such, the only person she could trust and rely on was her blood relative who also shared the same pain, Chae Jinyoon. Because her father had been too busy as the successor of a chaebol family, she rarely saw her father.

But this cruel world had even taken Chae Jinyoon away from her.

The emotions she must have felt... I had no way of knowing because I didn't write them.

But if I were to make a guess, Chae Nayun most likely honed her conviction to be even sharper. Only believing in herself and taking the pursuit of strength as her way of life, she must have ignored the worsening wound on her heart. Telling herself that she will overcome everything on her own and not opening her heart to anyone else, she must have put herself through arduous and painful physical training...

Because of this, there weren't many people who had received her thanks. I knew this better than anyone, even Chae Nayun herself, because I was the one who purposely wrote "sorry" rather than "thank you."

But just now, she had said "thanks".

That was the greatest praise she could have given.

But at the same time, the goal I had to accomplish tightened my heart.