Moon's Labyrinths

Sungyoon was dazed for a brief moment.

Before his marriage, he had been handsome and popular with girls. However, he had never experienced this before.

And he never experienced this after he married and became an ahjussi. Not to mention he never experienced this after he was betrayed and fell to the bottom of society.

However, Jimin and the man from the British government took it in stride. It was as if they didn’t consider it to be out of the ordinary.

Sungyoonsoon came to realize this was only the start.

Since London had taken severe damage, a lot of the injured were in this hospital. The lobby was full of them and their family members.

Sungyoon felt a bit sad looking at them, but that was it.

He had given his everything, and he could have done nothing more.

In the beginning, he faced no problem. The place was crowded, so it was a bit hard to navigate through the crowd at times. But this wasn’t some rush hour traffic where the traffic wouldn’t budge.

However, it all lasted only for a brief moment.

“Hmm?”

An old man sitting in a chair caught sight of Sungyoon. He immediately turned his eyes back to the front page of the newspaper he was reading.

Hiseyes went to the picture of Sungyoon, which had been plastered on the front page of the newspaper for the past couple of days. Then he stared at Sungyoon.The old man had a hard time distinguishing Asian features, but he was finally able to match Sungyoon’s face to the pictures in the newspaper.

“Oh! It’s the Knight!”

The old man suddenly stood up and he shouted. The lobby had been like the marketplace. There had been a lot of noise, but the old man’s voice was so loud that it cut through all the noise.

The old man looked unconcerned by the attention the crowd in the lobby gave him as he pushed through. Naturally, everyone tracked him.

They saw the old manstop next to Sungyoon, who had been about to exit the hospital.

“Knight! Aren’t you Knight Woo!”

The old man grabbed Sungyoon’s hand as he spoke.

“Excuse me?”

Sungyoon was so shocked that he unintentionally spoke in Korean. However, his shock was premature.

“Knight?”

“Didn’t they say the knight was hospitalized in this hospital?”

“Is he really THE Knight?”

Everyoneturned their gaze from the old man onto Sungyoon.

Knight.

Knight was a moniker given to the silver knight with the red cape. It was a nickname given to Sungyoon, who had saved London with style.

He would receive the GBE, but he wasn’t a British citizen. Therefore, people couldn’t add ‘Sir’ to his name, but it didn’t matter to them. They had seen his actions and how he carried himself. Sungyoon was like the ideal knight that everyone imagined in their heads.

It started when the BBC showed live footage of Sungyoon’s battle. The reporter kept referring to Sungyoon as Mr. Knight whenever he had to deliver information about Sungyoon to the audience. The nickname stuck, and it spread in an instant.

Fortunately, the people didn’t mob Sungyoon as if he was a celebrity.

The fact that he was in the hospital lobby had a large influence on why the people weren’t clamoring toward him. If he were anywhere else, the crowd would react as if an international star had appeared.

“Thank you! Thank you very much! We are alive thanks to you!”

The old man stroked Sungyoon’s hand, and tears appeared in his eyes.

“Ah. It’s fine.”

Sungyoon had no idea what he should say, so he turned to look at Jimin and the official from the government.

Sungyoon was always cold, calm, and collected. He was known for it. Yet he couldn’t treat this old man in a heartless manner.

The official from the government took a step forward. If everyone rushed Sungyoon liked the old man, it would cause a big delay, and an accident might occur.

Then the official noticed the press outside. The hospital had kept them outside, but they were filming what was going inside through the windows.

“I understand how you all feel right now. However, Mr. Woo has to go meet Princess Grace and his other party members. He has to investigate the cave where the monster appeared. Please thank him at a later time.”

“He’s going to investigate that place as soon as he is discharged from the hospital?”

The old man spoke in surprise.

“Yes.”

“I see. I shouldn’t be shameless like this and hold him back.”

Hegave a firm squeeze to Sungyoon’s hand before retreating.

“Please do your best.”

“Ah. Yes.”

Sungyoon was dazed as he replied, and he headed toward the hospital entrance.

“Do your best!”

“Please solve this problem in a cool way once again!”

People cheered and clapped from behind him. Sungyoon awkwardly waved his hand once and then exited the hospital.

Puhng! Puhng! Puh-pung!

The camera flashes immediately went off. Sungyoon covered his eyes to shield them from the powerful light.

The flash used by media popped. For the first time, Sungyoon thought they sounded like cannons going off.

“Knight Woo! Are you being discharged from the hospital now?”

“You looked awesome saving London! What emotions were you feeling during that time! Please tell us!”

“Mr. Woo Sungyoon!”

Someone shoved a mic in front of him. In fact, it wasn't just a single mic.

“I’m sorry, but please try to interview him at a later time.”

It seemed the government official was used to this. He took the lead, and they barely escaped the crowd of reporters. Then the official signaled his people, whom he had positioned around the hospital. They moved to keep the reporters in check.

A wall of men blocked the reporters, who desperately kept calling out Sungyoon’s name. But Sungyoon didn’t even turn back as he got out of there.

“Whew~!”

He took a deep breath and let it out. He couldn’t think at that moment.

“Were you taken aback?”

“Very.”

Sungyoon shook his head from side to side.

“Did you know about this, Ms. Jimin?”

“Do you mean how the people would react? You are the odd one for not expecting this reaction. There was even a person who wanted to shoot a movie with you as the main character.”

“… Someone wants to do that?”

“You didn’t know about it? I thought you watched the news.”

Sungyoon had been watching news nonstop in order to catch up on what was going on in the world. So Jimin assumed Sungyoon knew about his popularity.

“… I changed the channel as soon as they started talking about me.”

Sungyoon looked sheepish as he avoided her gaze. Jimin was dumbfounded.

“Mr. Sungyoon is really popular now. You might be more popular than most war heroes and celebrities. People saw how much you sacrificed for London through the screen.”

“Is it really that much?”

He was self-aware of the fact that he had pulled off something amazing, but he never expected himself to be so popular, not to this extent.

“It isn’t just the people of Britain. The whole world knows your face now. You should buy some masks and glasses. You’ll have to wear them every time you go out now.”

“… I never expected such a day would come.”

“I feel the same way.”

Thankfully, no one approached him afterward. It seemed there was some truth to the fact that foreigners had a hard time differentiating Asian people.

Some people occasionally stole glances at him, but that was all.

The party got inside the car prepared by the British government, and they left for their destination.

Sungyoon looked at Jimin, who sat next to him. It seemed she had some work to do. Her laptop was open, and she was busily typing on the keyboard.

After their conversation from before, Jimin never mentioned the idea of him not going to the Great Labyrinth. No, it was as if she had gotten something off her chest. Her expression and actions looked a bit brighter to him.

“What’s wrong?”

She could sense Sungyoon looking at her, so she looked up from the screen to ask Sungyoon.

“It's nothing.”

He didn’t want her to unnecessarily think about that conversation. He didn’t want her to feel down once again. It was a good thing that her mood had brightened, so he just looked out the window.

How long had it been since they were on the road? Sungyoon’s eyes started to turn sober.

Hehadn’t been able to see the damage since the hospital was in East London. However, they had to travel northwest to get to the cave, and he saw the aftermath of his fight against the Behemoth on the way.

Broken buildings and broken stones were everywhere, and a grayish layer of dust that had settled over everything. Even places where the battle hadn’t directly taken place were affected.

“As expected, the damage is quite severe.”

“The fight was very violent.”

Jimin didn’t look up from the laptop as she answered him. Sungyoon silently looked at the heavily damaged section of London. As he was doing so, he caught sight of something.

“… Could you stop the car for a brief moment?”

They were still quite far away from the cave, yet Sungyoon made that sudden request. Jimin turned to look at him. Sungyoon was looking out the window toward something.

“I forgot we were near there.”

It had fallen, yet its enormous body could be seen from all directions. Just the sight of its corpse was capable of intimidating others. It was the Behemoth, which Sungyoon had killed.

***

The area of the city around the Behemoth’s corpse had been completely destroyed.To preventpeople from getting close to the corpse, two ropes marked with numerous ‘Keep Away’ signs were bound around the area. Then there were the policemen standing guard with their backs toward the corpse.

Sungyoon’s party got out of the car, and they approached the corpse.

One of the policemen caught sight of them.

“You're not allowed to enter....!”

The man’s eyes widened as he was about to give a warning.

“K... Knight Woo!”

Sungyoononce again heard that embarrassing nickname. His body shook from the horror of it all.

When he turned to look at Jimin, she was silently laughing. He had no idea why she was enjoying this so much.

“Ah. This person has permission to enter this place.”

The government official handed over his ID as he spoke. When Sungyoon said he wanted to look at the Behemoth’s corpse, the official had contacted the British government, and he had received immediate permission.

“Yes. We were contacted about your arrival.”

It seemed the British government had already contacted them. The policemen opened up a path.

As soon as Sungyoon’s party approached the corpse, the researchers focused their attention on Sungyoon.

“… So this is what I fought.”

When he saw it once again, it really brought home the fact that this monster was massive. Sungyoon had to crane his neck to look up at the Behemoth.

“Yes. This is Mr. Sungyoon’s achievement.”

“I never want to do it again.”

Sungyoon shook his head from side to side. He wondered how he was able to win against this monster. It amazed even him. However, he only stared at it for a brief moment and asked the most important question.

“So why isn’t it disappearing?”

Monsters disappeared after they died, leaving moonstones behind. But the Behemoth, which had decimated London, hadn't yet disappeared for some reason.

“We have no idea. Not much information is known about monsters from the labyrinths, so we have no idea why the corpse is still here. We have no idea why it showed up on Earth, and we have no idea why the Behemoth was capable of moving on Earth where there is no magical energy here.”

“It seems the researchers will be put under a considerable amount of stress once again.”

He thought about Chelsea working within the research facility on the Moon. She was working on her research like a possessedwoman.

“That might not be the case. Researchers always wanted to study the corpse of a monster, yet they were never able to obtain a sample. Most of the research community around the world are salivating at the thought of getting their hands on a sample.”

“I see.”

Sungyoon looked up at the Behemoth’s corpse once again and then turned around. It wasn’t as if he wanted to do anything to the corpse. He just wanted to check on the monster that he had killed since it hadn’t disappeared.

“Let’s go to our destination.”

He had his fill of observing the Behemoth’s corpse, and it was time to finish what he came to England to do.

***

Unlike the area around the Behemoth’s corpse, the cave located near the mountain was being heavily guarded. They had even dispatched armored units just in case.

Of course, they wouldn’t be effective if a monster showed up. However, they might be able to distract and slow down the monster.

It was quite apparent that the region around the cave was also heavily damaged.

Large footprints leading out of the cave and the destruction nearby was proof that the Behemoth had exited from this very cave.

When Sungyoon arrived, he saw a fully geared party guarding the cave.

“Mr. Sungyoon!”

The first one to catch sight of him was Grace. She called out his name as she ran toward him.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s a great relief.”

Tim and Emily followed up behind her.

“I heard you went through a lot of hardship, Mr. Sungyoon.”

“It was the first time I missed having you by my side, Mr. Tim.”

There was truth mixed in with his idle remark. It caused Tim to laugh out loud.

“Don’t worry about it! As long as I’m next to you, you’ll never have to dodge monsters like that ever again!”

Tim was full of confidence as he pounded on his chest.

Emily quietly stood next to Tim. She looked worried as she looked up at down at Sungyoon's body.

But she became relieved when she saw that he was fine.

“I’m glad you are safe.”

“Yes. I was very fortunate. Thank you for being worried about me, Ms. Emily.”

Emily smiled in a shy manner at Sungyoon's reply.