The next thing was my hair.
The wavy light brown hair was gone, replaced by jet-black, long straight hair in my hand.
Even after checking again, there was no sign of the light brown—my hair was now completely black.
I ran my hands over my face in disbelief.
I could feel the corners of my eyes, which should have been gently lowered, sharply raised.
Where my bangs used to be, I could only feel the cool expanse of my exposed forehead.
Somehow, even my eye level seemed much higher than before.
I slowly looked around at the people surrounding me, all staring back at me with shocked expressions.
“Today is… the seventh, right?”
And then, to the guild members from the previous possessed dimension whom I hadn’t seen in so long, I asked the date first.
I’ve returned to the place where I used to live.
There was no strange omen, no notification window indicating a dimensional shift—nothing appeared.
I didn’t even have time to mentally prepare before I was back, and the world I returned to was in complete chaos.
It was only natural, since the number one ranked Saint from the leader board had entered a level 5 Gate and vanished without a trace.
“You mean the Gate just disappeared suddenly?”
“Yeah! Everyone was relieved and happy, and since you didn’t show up, we just figured you went home alone as usual.”
“But then, when you didn’t answer any calls and still didn’t appear after a few days, that’s when we started looking for you?”
“You do spend a lot of time holed up at home alone. We thought it was just one of those times. But with all the interviews and schedules you were supposed to have, and you never showing up…”
Kim Minsoo, a member of my guild ‘Dawn,’ scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
He seemed to feel pretty guilty about not realizing right away that I had disappeared.
But I didn’t really mind.
It was understandable for others to think that way.
“I do hardly ever go out unless it’s for guild stuff or interviews.”
If there was a guild matter or an interview scheduled, I’d go out, but otherwise, I rarely made plans or left the house, spending most of my time alone at home.
I didn’t really have any close friends to hang out with, and home was always the most comfortable place for me.
The guild members were all happy to see me return, but strangely, there wasn’t a huge sense of relief.
I’d thought I’d be thrilled to be back, but instead, there was only a lingering discomfort.
‘Is it because I came back so suddenly?’
I stared blankly out the window at the drifting snow, taking in the familiar scenery.
Time here had passed the same as it had while I was gone.
As much time as I had spent possessed in the other world, the same amount had passed here, and before I knew it, even here the end-of-year atmosphere was thick in the air.
After chatting with the guild members and briefly catching up on what had happened, I stepped outside the building.
Fortunately, no high-level Gates requiring my presence had appeared while I was gone.
But since I had returned after worrying everyone, there were now plenty of opportunities to explain what I’d been through while I was away.
With my schedule suddenly packed, my head was already starting to throb.
As I walked through the falling snow, I saw students in school uniforms gathered here and there, walking along with cheerful expressions.
It must have been the day of the end-of-term ceremony, since they were out in the streets at lunchtime instead of at school.
Without realizing it, my gaze kept drifting toward the students.
[What is this place? It looks the same, but it’s different.]
[This is the place where my Lord originally lived. To think you came back from that strange place… it feels like a dream.]
Red and Bishap, hiding in my shadow, each made a comment as if looking around at their surroundings.
[That’s right. It really feels like a dream.]
I replied quietly so others wouldn’t hear, and looked up at the tall apartment building.
This was the wide, familiar home where I used to live alone.
“There was a building here, not an apartment.”
I’d felt so empty when I saw a building instead of an apartment in that other dimension.
But now, it felt even stranger to see an apartment here again. How odd.
For the first time in a long while, I enjoyed some time alone at home without my parents.
I even had spicy tteokbokki, which I used to eat often before being possessed, but my parents in that other world never let me eat.
After eating nothing but home-cooked meals for so long, having something so spicy made my stomach feel like it was spinning.
“It’s a relief you two can eat food.”
[It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve had this!]
[Ugh! It’s so spicy!]
“Hey! Where are you breathing your Breath?!”
I hurriedly used my shield to keep the house from burning down.
Having always eaten dinner with all three of us together, I didn’t even have time to feel lonely eating alone.
[It’s spicy, but delicious.]
Even in the middle of all this chaos, Shahin was elegantly eating tteokbokki.
He seemed completely unconcerned with what the two dragons were doing.
Even after crossing dimensions and returning to my original world, he remained calm and composed, just as always.
That was so like Shahin.
For the next few days, I was truly too busy to even breathe.
Interviews, broadcast appearances, fan club meetings, Dungeon raids—my days were packed to the brim, and during that time, I barely thought about what had happened while I was possessed.
But as time went on, I only felt more and more empty inside.
“Ugh.”
After running around all day taking care of my schedule, I plopped down on the sofa and stared blankly out the window.
The Hangang view I had missed so much stretched out before me.
The city lights and car headlights brightened the dark Seoul night, and the moon hanging high in the sky helped calm my heart a little.
I sat there, staring out the window for who knows how long, then glanced at the clock.
It was already 3 a.m.
“Is it because there’s no one telling me to go to bed early? When did it get this late?”
I just couldn’t get used to how quickly time seemed to pass.
When I went into my room, the two dragons were already fast asleep on my bed.
As I tried to quietly climb onto the bed between them—
“Huh?”
For an instant, my bed overlapped with the one from the house in the world where I’d been possessed.
It was such a brief moment that I almost wondered if I’d imagined it.
“Am I feeling like this because I miss that world?”
I brushed it off and lay down to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come.
It hadn’t even been half a year.
I had been possessed right as summer vacation started, and stayed in that world until the end of the second semester.
It was a short time, if you thought about it.
I’d spent years living here, and yet after only that much time over there, could I really be missing it this much?
「Pull yourself together, Dana. You’re a person from here.」
With my eyes closed, I kept repeating the same words to myself.
-You have to forget about people you’ll never see again.*
I tried hard to erase the faces of friends and parents that wouldn’t leave my mind.
Only after shaking my head several times and forcing those memories away was I finally able to fall asleep.
I tried to forget that other world by throwing myself into every Dungeon I could, keeping as busy as possible.
“Don’t you think you’ve been hogging everything lately?”
“Guess she’s trying to make up for all the Dungeons she missed while she was gone.”
“I always knew she was money-hungry, but now it’s like she’s obsessed. How many Dungeons has she cleared? Don’t we need to earn a living too?”
“Why are you even in a guild if you’re going to act like this? You might as well just work solo.”
I even overheard the other guild members gossiping about me behind my back.
I was never close with them anyway, so it didn’t really bother me, but for a moment, I thought of the Blood Fragrance guild members.
So I threw myself into work even harder.
Time passed so quickly.
Every day flew by, so much so that I wondered if things had always been this hectic.
Once, when I was on a Dungeon raid with the guild members and things started to go badly, I instinctively summoned my undead.
When the undead appeared, everyone was relieved to have more allies, but at the same time, I saw unmistakable fear on their faces.
Ah, right. They weren’t welcomed here.
An underage student at the top of the rankings, using Necromancy that no one else used to clear Dungeons—I’d gotten used to all the judgmental stares.
“You stay here. Remember, we’re not revealing your ability just yet, right?”
“You’ve got a great skill.”
Suddenly, I heard echoes of my friends’ voices.
They’d called my Necromancy a great ability, and said we should reveal it properly later.
The faces of the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon, who had left me behind to close the Gate, came to mind.
“Hey, Dana!”
“Dana!”
“Hey, squirt! What are you doing here?”
Just then, the faces that had been swirling only in my head appeared before me.
“Huh? Wh-what…”
I couldn’t even speak properly.
On one side were the Dawn guild members, on the other, Yeon Ha-yeon and the Four Heavenly Kings.
Han Ji-bin ran over with open arms, beaming.
Yeon Ha-yeon grinned and waved.
Ban Eun-hyeol walked over with his arms crossed, and Ji Gang-han and Eun Ba-da also walked over, smiling.
“Why are you in here by yourself?”
“Yeah! You should’ve come in with us! Ji-bin gets worried if Dana gets hurt.”
“Did you want to try clearing the Dungeon alone? Well, you do have the skills for it.”
“Dana, it’s still dangerous to go in alone.”
“Looks like you’ve killed a lot already! Since you worked so hard, I’ll fill your fridge with yogurt when we get out!”
Everyone was talking at once, so I couldn’t get a word in.
Just then, a monster appeared, bursting out of the ground between me and my friends.
A massive stem danced wildly, attacking us.
Immediately, Bishap, who’d been lurking in my shadow in a small form, unleashed Ice Breath and froze the monster in an instant.
I shattered the frozen monster at once with my spear.
Beyond the collapsing stem, I saw the faces of my friends, staring at me in disbelief.
My vision blurred with tears.
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