I Don’t Want This Reincarnation

“We’re not even inside a gate—what do you think will happen if you summon fire! Please don’t do that!”

“Well, the hotel will probably get burned a bit.”

In the midst of arguing with Cheon Sa-yeon, a large table flew over.

Crack!

“Hehe.” Hong Si-ah broke the table in half and stood up. What she took out was a bright red snakeskin whip. “Those Daegu bastards keep throwing shit this way. If we keep ignoring it, we’ll lose face*.”

“Master, come back victorious!”

Kim Na-yul clenched her fists and cheered for Hong Si-ah. Crack! Hong Si-ah’s whip left deep cracks in the floor. Cold air seeped out of the cracks.

“Master Lee Joo-ha, what are you waiting for? Take out your weapon!”

“Uh, me?”

“Of course. Follow me quickly. Masters must set an example!”

Hong Si-ah forced Lee Joo-ha, who was sitting quietly, up to drag her away. Lee Joo-ha said hesitatingly, “Wa-wait. These sorts of things…”

Kwagwang!

“Gasp.”

At the same time, Cheon Sa-yeon grabbed my waist from behind and pulled me away—our table split in half. A man with a huge sword exclaimed triumphantly, “Haha, bring it on! You unfortunate Seoul bastards!”

It seemed he was the main culprit who threw the chairs and tables earlier. As I looked at him in shock, I heard a gloomy voice next to me.

“That little…”

Lee Joo-ha, coldly spitting out those words, pulled out two guns that were hidden in her suit jacket.

Lee Joo-ha’s ability was infinite debuffing bullets. Lee Joo-ha, holding guns that were specially made for her own ability, ran towards the man and opened fire.

Baang! Bang!

Even though she was wearing formal pants and heels that looked to be around 10 cm tall, she was surprisingly able to run around.

“Everyone, stop fighting. We have called security personnel. Right now… Haa, there’s no way you can hear me.”

Choi Mi-jin, who was warning us with her cold eyes, sighed and threw her microphone away. It really was a mess. Now that there were a lot of crazy people, I understood Cheon Sa-yeon’s words to stick close.

“Hmm.”

With the sword that Cheon Sa-yeon drew, he cut down various things that were flying. Participants from other regions continued to send provocative acts towards us as if they were not satisfied with only Hong Si-ah and Lee Joo-ha.

“Requiem Master, were you hiding because you were afraid?”

“Roheon Deputy Master! Let’s compete fairly!”

They were all men with huge weapons. Cheon Sa-yeon pretended to not listen to their challenge, and Ha Tae-heon only drank champagne without replying. They were completely disregarding them.

“Really, why are they all like that?” Kim Na-yul asked, looking pitifully at the people who were arguing with Ha Tae-heon. Even so, I wanted to applaud her because she took advantage of the chaotic situation to sneakily approach Ha Tae-heon.

“This kind of situation, will it be cleared up when the security personnel arrive?”

“To some extent. Gate issues are important, and we can’t fight all day.”

In short, it meant it’ll end when the security personnel arrive. These people really did just come to fight and have fun.

“…do you have meetings like this often?”

“About two or three times a year. It’s been a while for this many people to gather.”

Finally, the huge statue in the centre was cut in two by someone’s ability. Rumbling, the collapsing statue shook the floor.

Now, everything inside of the party hall was crumbling and collapsing except around our table.

As I looked around, I met Ha Tae-heon’s eyes. Ha Tae-heon was staring at me without pretending to listen to Kim Na-yul, who was chattering next to him. It was like his eyes were looking at a bad student with bad behaviour. Why were you doing that?

“…ah.”

I could only awkwardly look around in response, but then I noticed Cheon Sa-yeon’s arm wrapped around my waist. He had grabbed me earlier to pull me away from an attack. Was it because of this?

“How long are you going to hold on to me? You can let go now.”

“Aha. I forgot,” Cheon Sa-yeon answered skillfully, but did not let go of my waist. This punk.

“Let me go.”

Then his arm released me. I straightened the slightly crumpled jacket and sent Ha Tae-heon a meaningful look. I wasn’t the type of person to be friendly with Cheon Sa-yeon. You see? Don’t misunderstand.

Perhaps because he understood me, Ha Tae-heon turned away. Thank goodness.

“Deputy Master!”

Hong Si-ah, who was running among the attendees with her whip, called out to Kim Na-yul.

“Yes?”

“Please give me the item I entrusted to you earlier!”

Kim Na-yul took out a necklace that was hidden under her shirt. From the Baroque-styled necklace with an amber gem in the centre, she retrieved leopard-skin gloves.

“I’ll be back after handing this over.”

Kim Na-yul, holding the leather gloves with both hands, walked and ran into the battlefield. I wondered if she’d be able to reach Hong Si-ah in that mess, but seeing her dodge flying attacks put my worries to rest.

As expected, S-rank is S-rank. While watching Kim Na-yul, who effortlessly evaded the attacks coming her way, curiously, I saw a man I had once seen among the tangled crowd.

‘Who is that?’

The man, who was half-hiding his body at the entrance to the terrace and watching the party hall, looked like bad news from this distance. Where did I see him? After thinking for a while, I realised who he was.

“Master Kang Seung-geon?”

“Hm?”

I was wondering who he was. Was he attending the party because he was a master? But was he hiding away instead of coming to the table?

As I tilted my head at the incomprehensible behaviour, Kang Seung-geon pulled something out of his arms with a pale face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Over there, Master Kang Seung-geon…”

While I turned my gaze to Cheon Sa-yeon for a moment, Kang Seung-geon disappeared in an instant.

“…I don’t see him.”

Cheon Sa-yeon, who had lost his smile, looked at the place where Kang Seung-geon had just been with a sharp gaze.

“I really did see…”

Kugugugung!

It was at that moment that everything started shaking violently with a loud roar. I barely managed to balance my body and looked around.

“What’s going on?”

“Who has this kind of ability…!”

“Look out!”

The chandelier, which had been hanging from the ceiling, fell to the ground with a sharp rupturing sound that echoed in my ears. The floor shook as if there was a strong earthquake, and a strange sensation soared.

“Ugh…”

“Han Yi-gyeol?”

Feeling sick to my stomach, I covered my mouth and gagged as Cheon Sa-yeon grabbed my shoulder to check my condition. A mere earthquake wouldn’t have made me feel this nauseous.

In the midst of this, the earthquake was getting worse and worse, and now the walls of the hotel were shaking unsteadily as if the hotel itself was about to collapse.

“Damn it. Who’s doing this? That item-using bastard!”

“First, stop the building from collapsing!”

“Wait, the floor…!”

A strange light flickered through the cracks in the floor and the various attendees. Like the Milky Way, there was black and dark blue mixed randomly. It looked like an opening gate.

“It can’t be—”

Kugugung! The floor collapsed under them as the light grew brighter. The attendees, who lost their footing, fell into the light as they clutched their weapons.

“This—it can’t be—a gate…”

“Han Yi-gyeol, use your ability first.”

Huung, as soon as I summoned the wind at Cheon Sa-yeon’s words, the floor collapsed. Then, a shimmering, dark blue light appeared, growing larger by the second..

‘Crazy…!’

An unknown force pulled my body down. Falling. Thinking it was dangerous, I hurriedly reached out to Ha Tae-heon.

“Ha Tae-heon-ssi!”

Ha Tae-heon’s black eyes, whose hair was ruffled by the wind, turned towards me. At the same time, I grabbed his hand, my body was drawn into the light and my vision was eaten by darkness.

* * *

“…Yi-gyeol. Han Yi-gyeol.”

“Uh…”

I felt a hand patting my cheek. Through the haze, I remembered what had happened at the party.

“…what the…”

“You woke up.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw Cheon Sa-yeon with slightly dishevelled hair. I quickly sat up.

“This is…”

“It seems we have entered the gate.”

Entered the gate?

“Is that possible?”

“With a high-ranking spatial ability, it is possible.”

“Then… everyone at the party came through this gate.”

“That’s right.”

I looked around. There were densely populated trees covering the ground and sky, as well as the faint chirping of insects and birds. Were we in the middle of a forest?

Just in case, I asked Cheon Sa-yeon, “What about Ha Tae-heon?”

“He went to take a look around.”

“Is there anyone else?”

“Not with us.”

Were you saying only the three of us fell here?

‘Wait. The three of us?’

Cheon Sa-yeon and Ha Tae-heon. And then me? Feeling goosebumps, I was horrified.

I asked, just in case, “…when I passed out, the two of you didn’t fight or anything, right?”

Perhaps because it wasn’t an interesting question, Cheon Sa-yeon smiled halfheartedly**.

“If I had known you had such expectations, I would have woken you up after we fought a round or so.”

“No… I was just asking.”

I was glad they didn’t fight. I got up and brushed off the dirt on my pants, but Ha Tae-heon, who had gone out for reconnaissance, came back.

“You woke up.”

“Yes. Ha Tae-heon-ssi, you’re not hurt, are you?”

He silently nodded at my question.

Maybe because Ha Tae-heon found it bothersome, he took off his tie and unbuttoned a couple of the buttons on his shirt. Cheon Sa-yeon, who was standing with his arms crossed looking at me and Ha Tae-heon, intervened with a smiley voice, “You didn’t ask me if I was hurt.”

“You look fine just by looking at you.”

“Forget about being worried, you went straight to asking if I fought him. The treatment is so different.”

“…all right, I heard you.”

I couldn’t really say anything. Looking at how annoyed I was, Cheon Sa-yeon seemed like he was going to die of amusement.

Ha Tae-heon, who was looking at me and Cheon Sa-yeon unamused, opened his mouth. “Let’s move. We should find out how the other attendees are doing.”

“Mh, but…” I said, touching the nape of my neck. “Where are we going?”

There were only trees and bushes all around. We couldn’t move recklessly since we didn’t know what kind of gate it was or where the road was.

“It can’t be helped.” Cheon Sa-yeon smiled brightly at me, pointing upwards. “Han Yi-gyeol.”

“Yes?”

“Go up and check it out.”

“……”

I was rendered speechless from his natural attitude. Like I was a dog he was raising that would bite when he said, “Bite!”

“Aren’t you being too proud of yourself?”

“Is there any other way then?”

…that was true. Inwardly, I cursed the awful Cheon Sa-yeon and raised my ability. Huung, enough wind gathered that the branches swayed.

“I’ll be back after checking things out.”

Pasasak, through the lush leaves, I rose up. A wide forest spread beneath my feet, and I saw something at the end.

“……?”

I squinted my eyes at the unfamiliar building. What was that?