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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 50
“Ancestor…?”
I turned toward the voice.
A woman with silver hair and striking blue eyes stood there, looking at me in shock.
Those wide, round blue eyes.
I knew them.
Rachel Bonaparte.
The S-rank Hunter has been making waves across Korea lately, and is a prominent ambassador for Magoo.
Privately, she was a descendant of Napoleon, and someone I'd once cleared the Toulon Gate with.
She was the one who’d called out to me.
The surprise hit me for a moment, but I quickly calmed myself.
There was no way Rachel had recognized me.
After all, I had never once shown her my face.
Feigning confusion, I looked at her and asked,
“Do I know you?”
“My apologies. There are too many eyes here.”
“……”
Her words delivered with a calm assurance, as if she already understood everything threw me slightly off balance.
‘Did she really recognize me?’
She didn’t look like she was fishing for a reaction.
“If you don’t mind, could we move somewhere more private?”
“Very well.”
I left the hall with Rachel.
The auditorium was loud with the aftermath of the battle cleanup, chatter, chaos.
There were too many people near the main entrance, so we followed the corridor toward the back exit.
Dead bodies lay sprawled along the hallway.
Some had limbs cleanly severed, as if sliced by an extremely sharp blade.
Was this… all Vanessa’s doing?
Stunned, I kept walking until we reached the back exit.
“This should be far enough.”
Rachel stopped beneath a quiet tree and looked back at me.
The dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves lit her blue eyes, making them gleam like still lakes.
“It’s been three months since we last met.”
She looked straight at me as she spoke.
“Connector.”
“……”
So she recognized me.
Of course she had.
But how?
Reading my silence, Rachel offered an explanation.
“I saw the blonde girl from Toulon Gate with you inside the auditorium.”
When Rachel had broken through the barrier, it wasn’t Wang Wei or the masked assailants who caught her eye.
It was the girl.
The same golden-haired girl who had stood beside the ancestor that saved her life during the Toulon Gate.
And scattered throughout the hall, she had seen marks.
Familiar bullet holes from magic rounds.
Any ordinary person might’ve missed them.
But Rachel had been searching for her ancestor.
And the combination of the magic bullet patterns and the blonde girl could only mean one thing:
The person she was looking for was inside the hall.
She had scanned the surroundings carefully—
And then spotted someone emerging from the emergency stairwell.
A man.
His face was new to her.
But somehow, Rachel knew.
After all, the magic bullets had come from above.
And more than anything else—
“…Your eyes. I recognized your eyes.”
Rachel asked once more.
“Are you the Connector?”
“Yes.”
I finally admitted it, acknowledging that I was indeed the Connector.
With the confidence she spoke with, there was no way I could deny it.
But then...
She’s speaking Korean.
To my surprise, Rachel was speaking Korean.
When we had met before, Jeanne had been translating for us, so we could communicate then.
My transcendent connection’s language abilities are only activated in the Otherworld.
Jeanne and Vanessa understood Korean only because this place was an Otherworld to them.
They were both ‘Distorters’, beings that didn’t truly belong to any world.
By the way, the dimensional connector ability capable of creating a ‘door to the marketplace of all things’ could also only be used in the Otherworld.
Yet here was Rachel, speaking fluent Korean without needing a translator.
It seemed Rachel noticed my confusion, as she eagerly asked,
“How’s my Korean?”
“It seems good.”
There was a slight awkwardness to her pronunciation, but it was clear enough to understand.
Maybe it was the praise, but Rachel smiled with a look of satisfaction.
“I’m glad to hear that. I’ve been working hard to learn. I’ve always wanted to have a conversation with you in person.”
Rachel explained that she’d bought Korean textbooks and even hired a private tutor for weekly lessons to be able to speak Korean.
Her trip to Korea had been delayed because of her language studies, and she shared that story with me.
I was a bit stunned.
To think she had gone to such lengths just to converse with me it was difficult for me to fully grasp.
I had helped her once, but still...
“Did you really need to go that far for me?”
“Of course.”
It seemed this was an important matter to her, unlike me.
Her blue eyes, like a lake, stared at me resolutely.
“You are the reincarnation of my ancestor.”
“...”
I was speechless at the unexpected answer.
A brief silence followed.
Whoosh...
The wind rustled the leaves as it passed by.
I stared at Rachel for a while, trying to process what she had said.
“Excuse me?”
It was a question, a reflexive response.
It was just too ridiculous to believe.
“So, are you saying that I’m your ancestor’s reincarnation?”
“I understand your confusion.”
Rachel began speaking calmly as she explained further.
In order to handle Napoleon’s relics, she explained, the ‘magical wavelength’ had to be perfectly aligned, and only someone like Napoleon himself could freely control them.
Yet, I had been able to handle Napoleon’s rifle with ease.
It was an odd conclusion, but unexpectedly logical.
Without knowing my awakening abilities, anyone could come to the same conclusion as Rachel. After all, who would think that someone might have received a rifle from Napoleon, who died centuries ago?
‘...So this is how it is.’
It was a misunderstanding due to not considering the magical wavelength.
To make Rachel understand, I would have to reveal my awakening abilities, but of course, I had no intention of doing that.
“It could have been a coincidence, right? Maybe the rifle was just well-suited to me...”
“A coincidence doesn’t even make the medal react.”
“….”
Now that she brought up Napoleon’s medal, I had nothing else to say.
“It can’t be a coincidence.”
“I see.”
Rachel smiled gently, seeming to accept what I was saying, but…
‘She doesn’t understand at all.’
Her gaze was already certain that I was the reincarnation of her ancestor. She was only humoring me with her words.
No matter what I said, Rachel’s belief in her conclusion wouldn’t waver.
I rubbed my aching temple and spoke up.
“Rachel.”
“Yes, Connector.”
“Just call me Seojun. That’s my name.”
“I understand, Seojun.”
“You don’t need to be so formal.”
“Okay.”
Despite my words, Rachel continued to address me with great respect.
It seemed pointless to insist further on this, so I decided to leave it be.
That aside…
‘This is a good situation.’
Rachel was an S-rank Hunter from France.
Not only that, she was the head of the vast Bonaparte family.
And now, the head of the Bonaparte family was showing me not only goodwill, but also a loyal attitude.
While I felt a bit guilty for taking advantage of her, I decided to use this situation to my benefit.
After all, I was in a rather difficult position due to the events at the hall earlier.
“Two unidentified individuals appeared to help deal with the assailants at the hall today.”
“I heard. One of them was the girl who was with you, right?”
“That’s right. Is it possible to leak the idea that those two are connected to the Bonaparte family? Just as a suggestion, not directly.”
“That’s not difficult. Understood.”
Rachel agreed without any hesitation.
I felt a sense of relief.
This way, any suspicion regarding Jeanne and Vanessa could be somewhat alleviated.
It wouldn’t be surprising for a family like the Bonaparte family to secretly train a few such talented individuals.
‘I’ll just say they appeared out of nowhere and probably used spatial movement or something like that.’
The assailants had suddenly appeared, so it wouldn’t be odd for two more people to appear out of nowhere as well.
Fortunately, not many had seen them due to the remote location of the incident.
“Thank you, Rachel.”
“It’s nothing. I’m happy to be of help. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”
“This is enough for now.”
I felt a bit guilty for asking her for more, so I decided to leave it at that.
I’d have to find a way to repay her later.
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Oh, yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I instinctively nodded but then tilted my head slightly in confusion.
“Tomorrow?”
“I plan to stay in Korea for the time being.”
“Aren’t you going back to France?”
“It’s fine. I’ve been having enough arguments with the elders. I just wanted to get away for a while.”
She smiled, and there was a hint of relief in it.
‘But why does she want to meet tomorrow?’
I was just about to ask Rachel when a deep voice interrupted.
“There you are.”
Turning around, I saw Marquess Cunningham approaching.
“I’ll be going now.”
“Oh, yes. Please go ahead.”
Rachel bowed politely and turned to leave.
As Marquess Cunningham came closer, he glanced at Rachel and then asked.
“Do you know each other?”
“We’re just acquainted.”
“Is that so? For just acquaintances…”
I decided to change the subject.
“By the way, it seems like we won’t be able to purify Eudes today.”
Since Jeanne had already been sent back, I couldn’t purify the sword.
However…
“Oh, that’s already done.”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you hear? Your woman already purified it for you.”
I was taken aback by the strange way he referred to her, but that wasn’t the important part.
In his hand was the cursed sword, Eudes, already purified.
It seemed that while I was heading up to the fourth floor, Jeanne had purified the sword and handed it over to the Marquess.
‘No wonder the Marquess was going crazy earlier…’
The sword had been changed.
It was truly Jeanne she knew exactly what needed to be done without anyone telling her.
“She took care of it, didn’t she?”
“Indeed. And now I’ve come to deliver the essence.”
The Marquess opened a small wooden box and pulled out a transparent glass bottle containing a glowing liquid.
The liquid inside shimmered gently.
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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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