It was instantaneous.
Lee Hye-won drawing her sword and aiming at Yoo Seon-je’s back with that sword.
It was such a short time that no one could react, but there was someone who did react. Someone who pulled Yoo Seon-je and threw himself in place of Lee Hye-won’s sword.
Blood splattered.
Kang Yi-sin, who grabbed Lee Hye-won’s sword, coughed up blood.
That scene was clearly engraved in front of Han Seo-hyeon’s eyes.
Kang Yi-sin grabbed Lee Hye-won who was trying to pull out the sword and shouted:
“What are you doing! R-run…!”
It was a shout towards Yoo Seon-je who was standing like an idiot behind.
And at that shout, Han Seo-hyeon came to his senses. No, did he come to his senses? I don’t know. Because his reason was paralyzed the moment he saw the boss covered in blood in front of him.
Han Seo-hyeon’s black magic dyed the world.
Light disappeared and there was only black light all around. The sand that had been calmly settled until now all rose into the sky at once.
Han Seo-hyeon’s sand pulled Kang Yi-sin. As the sword was pulled out, blood once again soaked the floor with a plop. Perhaps because he had already lost a lot of blood, not much blood came out compared to the wound.
Han Seo-hyeon, holding Kang Yi-sin in his arms, gritted his teeth.
“Why on earth!”
Han Seo-hyeon shouted, forgetting that he shouldn’t speak. Even at Han Seo-hyeon’s shout, Kang Yi-sin’s gaze didn’t reach him. His gaze was towards Yoo Seon-je exposed in front of Lee Hye-won.
“Y-Yoo Seon-je… save, must save.”
“You’re still saying such things.”
Did you do all this just to save that guy? Threw your body again?
“You promised me. You said you wouldn’t do such things again.”
Han Seo-hyeon gritted his teeth. Lee Hye-won’s target wasn’t Kang Yi-sin but Yoo Seon-je. Kang Yi-sin just unluckily got in the way. The moment he realized that fact, he got more angry. Why on earth.
Han Seo-hyeon took out the potion tied to his waist and sprinkled it.
Kang Yi-sin’s face had already turned pure white. His lips were blue, and his body began to cool.
He couldn’t protect his brother either. He wanted to save him somehow by dedicating everything he had, but the world took Han Jo-hee away without giving Han Seo-hyeon any chance.
It must have been the most painful and frightening death. Even so, Han Jo-hee only worried about Han Seo-hyeon.
Death was familiar. He had never feared death. But after his brother’s death, Han Seo-hyeon also gained a fear of death.
While being a necromancer who dominates death, and having a talent that should welcome death more than anyone else, Han Seo-hyeon was deathly afraid of someone’s death.
Han Seo-hyeon carefully touched Kang Yi-sin’s face.
Although he sprinkled the potion, the wound didn’t heal easily. When he took off the mask, Kang Yi-sin’s face appeared, turned pure white without any blood.
“This can’t be.”
He wasn’t breathing. His heart wasn’t beating.
Is it really over like this?
So futilely?
Saying he would save this world, saying he would avenge my brother with me. And then dying like this, how could this be.
Han Seo-hyeon put his ear to Kang Yi-sin’s heart, but there was no sound that should normally be heard from a living person.
Only quiet silence.
He’s dead.
He died.
At that moment, light flickered in front of Han Seo-hyeon’s eyes.
The moment he saw Lee Hye-won’s blood-stained sword, Han Seo-hyeon thought.
“I’m going to kill her.”
The sand gathered by Han Seo-hyeon’s will all began to fly towards Lee Hye-won at once. Lee Hye-won belatedly cut down the sand rushing at her body, but it was no different from cutting water with a sword.
I’ll kill her, I’m going to kill her.
The sand changed shape according to Han Seo-hyeon’s will. Sharp feathers flew towards Team Leader Lee Hye-won’s body.
There was a limit to deflecting with the sword.
Sand feathers pierced into her flesh here and there. In an instant, Team Leader Lee Hye-won became covered in blood.
“Why on earth!”
Why did she suddenly betray them? She had never been mean to them even once until now.
Lee Hye-won with her pupils dyed yellow didn’t listen to any words. She only moved to cut Yoo Seon-je.
There was something eerie about her movements, moving only to cut someone while throwing away even her own safety.
Sand rushed in and bound Lee Hye-won’s body. Lee Hye-won, whose neck was strangled, twisted her body for a while and then went limp as if she had fainted.
A huge spear floated in the air. Han Seo-hyeon’s pupils wavered like shadows behind a candle flame.
With just a flick of a finger, he could kill that person.
Lightning fell in front of the sand. The sand scattered from the huge impact.
Han Seo-hyeon glared at the person who interfered with him, burning his black pupils.
“Yoo Seon-je.”
From the beginning, Han Seo-hyeon didn’t like that arrogant bastard.
“Why are you stopping me? Huh? You saw it all too.”
Why? Why did they have to come here and go through all this hardship? Just to save someone like him?
Yoo Seon-je wasn’t virtuous. He wasn’t a good person. A selfish egotist, dogmatic and arrogant, a bastard who runs wild relying only on his talent.
Did the boss die just to save someone like him?
Thump.
Han Seo-hyeon thrust his staff into the ground.
And drew out all his mana. Black magic spread like a stain inside the magic stone of the tiger’s eye.
“To save someone like you. The boss ended up like that to save someone like you, but you…”
You’re even stopping revenge? Why? Even though you saw everything in front of you, why are you protecting that woman?
“Move aside, if you don’t move I’ll kill you first. I don’t care if the boss gets angry.”
Yoo Seon-je narrowed his eyes at Han Seo-hyeon’s words. The voice was younger than expected, but what was this tremendous magic power?
“You can’t kill her. We need to hear her story first…”
“Shut up!”
He forgot everything about the boss saying he should keep that guy alive.
It’s the boss’s fault for dying and leaving me.
But it’s okay. If I revive him, he’ll always be by my side like my brother.
It was when Han Seo-hyeon drew up black magic.
“W-wait a moment!”
Someone intervened. Lee Jae-eun, who swallowed her breath at the gaze focused on her, barely managed to shout.
“He’s still a-alive!”
“What?”
Oh Hyo-jun, who had turned pale behind, pointed at Kang Yi-sin. His chest was clearly beating.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, what I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling… no, a familiar tent ceiling.
—Damn you. You’re getting more reckless believing in your super regeneration.
My chest felt tight.
—Even you would die if important organs like the heart are pierced. You’re lucky it missed, if the sword had pierced your heart directly, you would have just died without being able to do anything.
‘Ugh, of course I aimed it at an angle that would miss.’
—Ha, your mouth is still alive.
Still, thanks to Ray taking care of my body, my physical condition was good. Looking over my body, I smiled awkwardly seeing Han Seo-hyeon sitting next to me, asleep. Whether he was worried about me, there were tear marks all over the face of the rough-looking middle-aged man.
—That kid, he didn’t sleep well taking care of you. You woke up after three days.
‘Urgh. Was the condition serious?’
—Yeah! Because you lost a lot of blood. If treatment had been a little late, even I wouldn’t have had time to do anything. You need something like mana or stamina to regenerate!
Well. I had a lot of wounds after the luring operation. Ray poured out nagging without rest. He said not to do such a thing ever again.
It seems I hurt that fragile kid once again.
Come to think of it, it seems that kid shouted at me too. Is it okay that the lie was exposed?
—Is that what you’re worried about? It was chaos after you collapsed. Especially because of that woman.
‘Ah, what happened to Lee Hye-won?’
—Han Seo-hyeon half-killed her. They talked about taking her to prison or something in the middle, so they must have handled it on their own.
‘It’s fine as long as she didn’t die.’
I couldn’t have done anything if she had died, but misunderstandings almost piled up.
‘By the way, why didn’t we leave the Gate after killing the monster?’
—Well, because a traitor appeared.
‘Lee Hye-won is not a traitor. Ugh.’
I tried to get up, but failed. There was no strength in my whole body at all. Seeing that my chest area was particularly throbbing, it seems the wound hasn’t completely healed yet.
“B-boss!”
Perhaps because I stirred.
Han Seo-hyeon was looking at me with round eyes. Tears immediately welled up in his eyes.
“I thought you really died this time.”
“Hmm. I’m sorry.”
“Why again! Why did you try to save that guy again, why.”
“Because I couldn’t just let Yoo Seon-je die.”
At that time, Yoo Seon-je was full of openings. He was even carelessly off guard thinking everything was over, so if he had been hit by Lee Hye-won’s sword in that state, he would have died without being able to do anything.
“You almost really died this time, you know? Your heart stopped.”
“Uh…”
I didn’t expect that.
‘Did my heart stop?’
—You were out of mana.
Damn, did I really almost die? Cold sweat ran down my back. Naturally, I had no intention of throwing away my life for Yoo Seon-je. If it were the opposite, I might understand, but why would I die for that annoying guy?
If I say I didn’t know I was out of mana, that I thought super regeneration would somehow work, Han Seo-hyeon would look at me like even more of a trash.
I decided to gloss over it.
“It’s fine since I didn’t die, right?”
Ahem. As I reflexively rubbed my face, I realized. My fingertips felt empty. No wonder! The air I breathed through my nose was too clear and my face felt refreshed.
“My, my mask?”
“You vomited a bowlful of blood. So we had no choice but to take it off.”
“Who saw my face?”
Realizing the seriousness in my voice, Han Seo-hyeon said:
“Y-Yoo Seon-je and, the conquest team…”
“That’s everyone! No, Lee Hye-won. What about her? Did she see my face?”
“She probably didn’t. She was unconscious.”
“Haah.”
That was at least fortunate.
—What’s fortunate when your face has already been exposed anyway!
‘Other people can be silenced with just that, but it won’t work for Team Leader Lee Hye-won.’
Team Leader Lee Hye-won is currently brainwashed by Seol Rok-jin. Even if the signal is cut off inside the Gate, when we go outside, she’ll transmit my face as it is.
‘I told you. My identity must never be exposed to Seol Rok-jin.’
—You said that last time too. That you absolutely can’t let Seol Rok-jin know your identity. Why are you so afraid of that guy?
The fear towards Seol Rok-jin was instinctive. After working under him for ten years, seeing what that guy does, how could I not be afraid?
Seol Rok-jin is seriously broken somewhere.
In fact, Seol Rok-jin’s method of controlling South Korea is very simple. It ends by brainwashing the president. But what Seol Rok-jin considers most important is fun. Fun. That’s why he takes roundabout ways despite having the easiest method. For fun.
And that fun was quite different from what ordinary people call fun.
Just look at how he subjugated me, who brainwashing doesn’t work on, as his dog by binding me in other ways, his tastes are quite nasty.
So if my identity as Kang Yi-sin is exposed, things will happen that will make being wanted for murder seem like nothing. Especially since ‘Kang Yi-sin’ has made Seol Rok-jin eat dirt once, he’ll dig in more persistently.
And the first start will be…
‘Jeong Ho-san will be in danger.’
—Hasn’t it been quite a while since you distanced yourself?
‘Was Han Jo-hee in that state because he had contact with me?’
In that sense, it’s fortunate that Team Leader Lee Hye-won didn’t see my face. I think I can somehow gloss over the supporter side with lies…
The problem is Yoo Seon-je.
I don’t know if he’ll remember me, but… he probably will.
He’s not stupid, just uninterested in me.
I said to Han Seo-hyeon:
“I need to go meet Yoo Seon-je first.”