Chapter 166: The Habit He Can’t Hide
After the dramatic reunion with Jenna.
The two of them headed straight back to the Coral Cave Shelter.
The people inside the shelter cleared out of the way as naturally as if they’d all agreed on it beforehand. As if giving the pair, reunited after so long, some space.
[Papa. I’ll wait outside too.]
Elsa was no exception.
And so the two of them were left alone.
Walfred quietly patted Jenna’s back as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed.
A while later.
"...Walfred."
A whisper broke the silence.
It was Jenna’s voice.
"I missed you. So, so much..."
A few words brimming with sincerity.
Those words alone made every hardship he’d endured getting to Key West melt away like snow.
"Same here."
Walfred answered with a faint smile.
A moment later, Jenna rubbed her eyes with her sleeve and pulled back from his chest. Then she looked at his face and smiled in relief.
"I’m so glad this isn’t a dream."
"A dream?"
"I had this incredibly vivid dream recently. So I was worried this might be one too..."
"Don’t worry. This is real."
"Yeah. It sure seems like it."
Jenna grinned.
Once she’d settled the emotions that had briefly overwhelmed her.
She sat down beside Walfred. Then, naturally, she began sharing everything that had happened.
The first day of the school trip, when they’d arrived in Key West.
The catastrophe that struck out of nowhere along with the news of the Antarctica Gate being unleashed. How they’d barely made it to the resort and survived thanks to their teachers’ sacrifice.
How a shelter had been established under the leadership of the S-rank hunter, Shelter Chief Elma. And the tragic incident that had occurred at dawn that very day, all of it.
"But honestly, it was bearable."
"..."
"I got through every single day thinking that someday I’d see you again. And now, here I am with you..."
Just as she was wrapping up her story.
Big tears welled up once more in Jenna’s clear eyes.
Maybe the memory of everything she’d suffered had come rushing back, or maybe she was simply overwhelmed by this miraculous reunion. He couldn’t say which.
Walfred carefully wrapped an arm around her trembling shoulders and spoke in a near whisper.
"You’ve been through so much."
"Ugh, Uncle Walfred..."
"From now on, we’ll always be together. So don’t worry."
"...Mm-hm! Sniff."
Maybe it was thanks to the warmth in his voice.
Jenna calmed down quickly.
A moment later, as if trying to lift the heavy mood, she forced a cheerful tone.
"There were some good things about it too, believe it or not."
"Good things?"
"Yeah. Since we only got rations once a day, that diet I could never stick to before? Total success. Look."
Jenna spun around in place.
Her cheeks, and really her whole frame, looked far thinner than before.
"..."
Walfred, on the other hand, clamped his mouth shut.
Hearing that she’d been given food only once a day, and barely enough to keep her alive at that, made his heart wrench.
Seeing Walfred’s eyes redden, Jenna hurriedly waved her hands.
"I-I’m kidding. It’s a joke, Walfred."
"But still..."
"I’m seriously joking. I’m fine now!"
She looked flustered, at a complete loss.
Kicking herself for saying something so careless, Jenna quickly tried to change the subject by bringing up a recent development.
"Oh, right. Walfred."
"What?"
"I awakened as a hunter."
"...What?"
The moment he heard that.
Walfred’s eyes went wide.
"Awakened? Seriously?"
"Yeah. Dream attribute, apparently."
Jenna nodded again.
Then she explained the status window information she’d seen right after regaining consciousness, her two passive skills, and her unique skill, [Future Sight].
When her detailed explanation ended.
Walfred murmured with an astonished expression.
"A skill that lets you see the future through dreams..."
"Wild, right? I was shocked too."
Jenna smiled brightly.
Watching her quietly, Walfred recalled a question he’d temporarily forgotten.
Back when he’d found Jenna buried in the snow.
The area around that pit had been nothing but corpses.
The only survivors had been Jenna and the children she’d shared her body heat with. At the time the situation had been too urgent to think about it, but afterward it had nagged at him.
’Everyone else froze to death...’
So how had Jenna, buried in the snow just like the rest of them, managed to survive? Until now, he’d simply chalked it up to a miracle.
But if she’d awakened as a hunter, that changed everything.
As he’d experienced firsthand, awakening as a hunter caused a dramatic leap in physical ability. Perhaps that was why she’d been able to endure the cold longer than the others.
As he was mulling that over.
"Anyway, that’s my whole story."
Jenna shrugged.
As if she’d said everything she had to say. Then she looked at Walfred intently.
"Now let’s hear yours."
"My story?"
"Yeah. I want to know how you’ve been."
At that, Walfred hesitated.
Where should he even start?
’No, more importantly...’
How much should he reveal?
If he mentioned coming back from the brink of death, Jenna would only worry, so he’d leave that part out for now.
As he continued censoring himself.
"You know."
Jenna spoke up out of nowhere.
Wearing a wide grin.
"You’ve got this habit where your brow furrows whenever you’re deliberating too long."
"Huh?"
"Meaning stop agonizing over how much to tell me and just tell me everything. Every single thing that happened over these seven months, without leaving anything out."
"Uh..."
"You never lie to me. Right?"
Jenna asked with a beaming smile.
Recognizing he’d been thoroughly cornered, Walfred let out a sigh.
"There might be some things that are hard to hear..."
"It’s fine, so just start talking."
Well, if she insisted, there was nothing for it.
Walfred nodded.
And he laid out everything he’d been through, from the moment the Antarctica Gate was unleashed up until now.
Starting with the world freezing over, and his failed attempts to contact Jenna from the middle of a city that had descended into pure chaos.
All the way through scraping by day after day on a search team at the Newark Galleria Shelter, and nearly losing his life to a pack of Snow Wolves.
"Then I fell into a hole over a hundred feet deep, and I was so thirsty I started shoveling snow into my mouth. That’s when I found this strange potion."
Just as he was wrapping up the part about drinking it and awakening as a hunter, Jenna suddenly threw out a hand and cut him off.
"Hold on, Walfred."
"...Huh?"
"You drank it without even knowing what it was?"
"I did."
"Why would you do something like that..."
"Because I figured I’d die if I didn’t."
Recalling that moment.
Walfred answered calmly. Back then, he really hadn’t been in any position to be picky.