A top-class hotel in Switzerland, where they returned after being tormented all day by a banquet held in Suho’s honor—without Suho.
Before going to bed, Lee Danbi sank into deep thought in the bathroom she had entered to wash up.
Suho’s transformation—from national scale, to global scale, and now from beyond Earth to a scale encompassing the entire universe—only left her feeling empty.
Because she thought of Suho as someone special and liked him, she had tried in every way she could to grow closer to him until now,
and Danbi had been satisfied, in her own way, simply by being at the side of such a mysterious figure who was growing at an unbelievable rate, but...
Now, there seemed to be no reason for her to protect Suho, no need for her to help him, and no room left for her to be of any use to him.
It wasn’t only herself. To him, did Ultimate Line as a whole hold any meaning beyond being conversation partners to stave off boredom?
The louder the voices of the whole world chanting Suho’s name became, the more it felt as if he were drifting away to someplace beyond her reach, and a corner of her heart ached.
“Haa......”
As water poured down from the showerhead, Danbi wiped away the tears that spread pathetically across her face. And at the same time, she was shocked at herself.
‘Crying over something like this...? Me? Lee Danbi, the Frost Sword of all people?’
She felt like a stranger to herself, but what could she do?
Facing mighty monsters that seemed impossible to defeat, encouraging raid team members amid hopeless battles, and reorganizing the front line—all of that seemed easier and less distant than winning over one man named Suho.
Danbi looked at herself reflected in the large bathroom mirror.
Her naturally gifted looks, her tall height, even her firm figure without an ounce of excess fat thanks to relentless training.
Her appearance was enough to make Hollywood stars take a step back, but...
She knew it too. That exceptional beauty was not absolute.
Standards of beauty differed according to each person’s tastes, and depending on how one looked at it, there were plenty of beauties more outstanding than herself.
With something like that, she could never be unrivaled anywhere.
Then what about being an S-rank Admity?
Yes, in truth, among the women of South Korea, she might be the strongest.
If women around the world were ranked by combat power alone, she could probably make it into the top twenty for certain.
Ha. A bitter laugh escaped her without her realizing it.
Was that supposed to be attractive? The strongest woman in the country?
Did that kind of thing have any competitiveness?
Then, what about her feelings for Suho?
She was confident that her affection for Suho and how much she cherished him would not lose to anyone else, but...
In truth, was there any human woman in the world who would refuse Suho?
The man with the greatest wealth on Earth, the owner of mysterious resources with no end in sight, the world’s greatest creator. The world’s only EX-rank Admity, the savior of the world, and not only that, but now probably the world’s greatest and strongest Admity in terms of force as well.
Was that all? The owner of Elysium Heights, the owner of the artificial island Bigyeongdo, the owner of the sky island Laputa, the owner of TDM—and on top of that, Jeong Suho, whose looks could put celebrities to shame, a man for whom every single one of those things was world-class. What woman in the world would dislike him?
She didn’t know for sure, but even if Suho simply recruited women to go on a one-day date with him, the waiting list would reach a million.
‘...A million... Did I estimate too low...?’
By contrast, she was covered in nothing but penalties.
First of all, she was old. Before she knew it, she was thirty-four.
Of course, she did not look that way at all.
It was partly because of her powerful physical condition as an S-rank Admity, and partly because she had been born with a youthful face,
but more than that, thanks to the “Elixir of Anti-Aging” Suho had casually handed out to clan members like drinks from time to time, Danbi’s physical age and appearance were no different from when she had been twenty.
But, whatever the case, she was thirty-four. A full two years older than Suho.
Didn’t they say men all liked much younger women...
Moreover, the women who were already in the same clan—Baek Yuri, Park Seoyeon, Ava Mitchell, Emilia Rossi... and so on—were all much younger than Danbi herself, and all outstanding S-ranks.
They were all beautiful too... and she was certain they admired Suho as well.
Whenever she thought of that, her heart shrank endlessly again.
“Phew...”
Bubububub...
Danbi entered the water filling the large, luxurious bathtub and, carrying her complicated feelings, sank deep beneath the surface.
She hoped all the useless thoughts would settle to the bottom and simply be forgotten.
* * *
Inside the subspace warehouse, there was actually no need to eat. Because one’s metabolism slowed drastically, one almost never felt hungry.
Fatigue did not accumulate, so there was no need to rest or sleep, and there was no need to wash or excrete either. That was the kind of place this was.
But at the same time, inside the subspace warehouse, one could eat, rest, and sleep. So activities like pretending to eat or pretending to sleep were merely “for the mood.”
It was a place like a dream, where one had a body, but none of the body’s original consumptive functions existed.
Even so, all the results produced there were real.
Moreover, thanks to the time ratio of one ten-millionth, one year in this place amounted to only about three seconds outside.
In many ways, it was a place of supreme efficiency.
Suho took his time neatly organizing Dream Village, where in truth not even a speck of dust accumulated,
and once again sorted, catalogued, and organized the countless supplies he had brought in from Earth.
Then he looked around at the cosmic wealth piled up like mountains—no, like planets—and also carved and arranged them to his liking.
He spent quite a lot of time doing this, but it was not particularly meaningful.
Because he got tired of it quickly too.
And outside, almost no time would have passed anyway.
Just as it was fun to organize one’s inventory, storage, or bank alone while playing an RPG, but ultimately more fun to hang out and play with other people,
after spending some time in the subspace warehouse, he began to miss people.
And so, turning his back on the subspace warehouse where he had spent several weeks, he headed for the real world.
* * *
“Did everyone have fun?”
“Wow... Clan Leader, seriously...”
“No, how could you run off like that?! Huh??”
“I thought we were going to be trapped at the European Union’s banquet forever...”
“I drank so much over the past week, I feel like my stomach’s been completely punctured... Uwegh...”
The clan members he met after a long while scolded Suho, while also exaggerating how much they had suffered from the excessive celebratory banquets.
They all said things like that, but every one of their faces was bright. It must mean they had been treated that lavishly.
They also took out and boasted about the various gifts they had received, and listed the many special privileges they could enjoy throughout Europe.
“Visa-free travel and permanent residency in any of the twenty-seven EU countries?”
When Suho widened his eyes, everyone rushed to brag about it.
“Yes, they said it would apply to all of us in Ultimate Line.”
“And they’ll exempt all taxes related to clan activities within the EU.”
“That’s right. And they said we can use the high-speed transportation network connecting all of the EU for free too.”
“They said private jets were included as well.”
“Whoa... At that point, those are already rights beyond EU citizenship.”
“We’re benefiting enormously thanks to having a good Clan Leader.”
“That’s right. Honestly, all we did was take a hypersonic jet to Switzerland and stand in front of the Tower... Haha.”
It was truly so. A perfect victory obtained without fighting a single battle, and without a single person getting hurt.
The European Union had wanted to pour out all its praise and recompense upon Suho, who had made that miracle possible, but because he had vanished without a trace, Ultimate Line had received it in his stead.
Amid the boisterous clan members, who still seemed to be feeling the lingering afterglow of the festival, Suho suddenly felt something out of place.
Danbi, who always had a lively air and took the lead in setting the mood, was nowhere to be seen.
No matter how much he looked, he could not find Danbi.
“By the way, where did Team Leader Lee Danbi of Team B go?”
When Suho asked out of curiosity, they looked at one another, puzzled.
“Huh... Now that you mention it, where did Danbi go?”
“Did she go to the bathroom?”
“No, she wasn’t here from the start.”
“Ah, Unni said she wasn’t feeling well. She said she wanted to rest a bit.”
At Seoyeon’s explanation, everyone laughed and chatted noisily as if it were nothing serious.
“Hahaha! There’s no way Danbi isn’t feeling well.”
“Kkeuk, did Team Leader Danbi drink too much?”
“Come on, from just that? She’s not the type to pass out from drinking a lot. She drinks like a whale.”
Not a single person was worried, but Suho felt an even stronger sense that something was off.
There was no way Danbi’s body was unwell.
An S+-rank close-combat type, the number one swordswoman in the country?
On top of that, she should have a tremendous number of top-grade healing potions and disease-curing potions that Suho had given her. And she was feeling sick?
And could a woman like her—cheerful, lively, humorous, independent, self-directed, strong, and even charismatic—be hurting emotionally?
He could not tell.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt there were many things that did not sit right. Suho quietly slipped away from the clan members, who were deep in reminiscing at the restaurant in Elysium Heights, and headed for Danbi’s home.
Ding-dong—
[Yes, who is it?]
“It’s me. Jeong Suho.”
[Ah... Clan Leader!? J-just a moment...]
With Suho’s sensitive ears, he could hear the sound of things crashing and thumping around inside for quite a while.
The time was so long that, just as he was beginning to think she might simply not open the door, Danbi appeared, opening the front door and poking her head out.
“Ah... C-Clan Leader, what brings you to my home...”
It was Suho’s first time visiting Danbi’s home.
As one of the earliest members, Danbi had been assigned quite a spacious home even within Elysium Heights, probably around 360 square meters, but in truth, he had never once visited.
The same was true not only of Danbi, but of the other clan members’ homes as well.
Ah, now that he thought about it, he did seem to have gone to Taewoong’s and Thomas’s homes a few times.
“You didn’t come today, so... I wondered if something had happened.”
Since he already knew the excuse that she was not feeling well was only an excuse, Suho did not even mention that he had heard it from Seoyeon.
Unable to meet Suho’s eyes, Danbi lowered her gaze and murmured.
“I just... wanted to be alone for a bit.”
Her snow-white face, high, delicate nose, and the eyelashes over her downcast eyes felt incredibly alluring and yet sorrowful.
“If you don’t have anything in particular... to say...”
“May I come in for a bit?”
At Suho’s attitude, not backing down but instead pushing in more actively, Danbi’s eyes grew round.
“I-it’s not tidied up... Th-the house is, r-right now, a-a, a-a, a mess...”
“It’s okay. Give me a cup of tea.”
“J-j-j-just a moment...”
As Suho smiled and strode in, Danbi’s anxious steps as she followed him into the house were urgent.
“Come on, you said it was a mess, but that was a total lie.”
Danbi’s house, which she had said was not tidied up, was truly nothing but spotless.
It was as if she cleaned every single day; the house was over 330 square meters, yet so clean.
On top of that, perhaps because she was not the type to collect household items, the house was simple and spare, without any superfluous things, like the home of a minimalist.
“S-s-sit here, please.”
After guiding Suho to the lone sofa in the center of the living room, Danbi hurriedly disappeared into the kitchen.
Hmm, so this is what it feels like.
For Suho, who was entering another person’s home—especially the home of a woman living alone—for the first time, the sensation was quite fresh.
Compared to the sky island, the artificial island, or other enormous places Suho possessed, it was only one person’s home, incomparably small... but that place was a world in itself.
A world in which that person’s patterns and ways of living, habits and daily life, scent and design—all of it had melted together.
It truly felt fresh.
So much so that Danbi, whom he had seen for years, seemed entirely new to him.
“Eek...?”
After quite some time, Danbi emerged from the kitchen, and on the tray she held were more than twenty kinds of teas and beverages.
“No, what’s with all the drinks... Is someone else coming as a guest?”
“...I didn’t know what you liked...”
Sitting across from Suho while awkwardly fiddling with the cup of tea he had chosen, Danbi felt as if her heart would burst in this situation.
Suho had come to her home!
And to her home, where she lived alone, at that!
She was at the point where she had to use the proper breathing techniques honed through training just to calm her pounding heart.
Suho likewise did not know what to say in this unfamiliar situation.
He had come over blindly because he was worried about Danbi, but she did not seem physically ill, and it did not seem as if she had some enormous worry either. Yet she was clearly different from before, and he was at a loss for what he should say to her.
“How was, uh, the sky island last time?”
“Pardon...? Ah, Sky Island Laputa?”
“Yes, it was pretty fun, right?”
“Of course... It’s like a dream there... You’re truly amazing.”
The conversation between Suho and Danbi, which began with such trivial talk, went through this and that, all sorts of miscellaneous subjects, and eventually flowed into old stories that could now be called memories.
“Meeting Sanarae back then was truly good luck for me.”
“What are you saying? We were the ones who encountered an unbelievable blessing. After meeting you, Suho-nim, our clan grew rapidly.”
“Haha, since we both think that way, it’s win-win and nice. But... Danbi-nim.”
“Yes?”
“By any chance... have you been worrying about something recently?”
At Suho’s sudden, direct question, Danbi lowered her head deeply again. And she pressed her lips shut.
Jeong Suho, who had never dated anyone and whose only experience with romance was spending his whole life in one-sided love with Cheon Yangwon, did not understand at all what that meant. He simply waited blankly, not knowing what to say.
Lee Danbi clenched her two hands tightly.
Her hands, which had never trembled even when she faced boss monsters in battle, were now shaking faintly.
The pounding of her heart seemed to ring in her ears, and her chest throbbed as if it would burst.
A brief moment of hesitation passed through her, but Danbi drew in a long breath.
After a long while,
Danbi, who had squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, looked at Suho with eyes shining transparently and asked,
“Suho-nim... what do you think of me?”