Chapter 338
Chapter 338
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 338
Chapter Title: Black Sky (2)
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Returning to the group, Oh-jin shared the information he'd heard from Cassia.
From the fact that the Heavenly Demon was currently sealed in Niflheim, to the ritual that would be held in a month to break that seal.
“A ritual… you say?”
“A-A month?”
The shocking news that there was only a month left until the Heavenly Demon's seal was broken caused Ha-eun's and Isabella's expressions to harden.
Listening quietly, Riak turned his head toward Oh-jin and asked.
“Where on earth did you get that information, brat?”
“I found this while going through Deimos’s body.”
Oh-jin took out a communication relic from his pocket.
As he channeled mana into the relic, a stiff voice emerged, relaying a directive related to the sealing ritual.
A directive ordering Deimos to provide support in the form of tributes or relics for the ritual.
Of course, the voice coming from the communication relic was a fake directive Oh-jin had recorded beforehand, but he couldn't exactly admit that he'd heard about the ritual from the Queen of the Serpent Constellation.
“Th-Then isn't this a huge problem? We only have a month left?!”
“We have to stop the ritual.”
They couldn't just let the Heavenly Demon break its seal and crawl out.
“How do you plan to stop it?”
“First, I plan to gather as much strength as we can.”
They would need the help of the Beastkin and the Dragonians.
No matter how strong Oh-jin's party was, they were far too few in number to attack an entire 'kingdom'.
“Me too! I’ll help the good guys too!”
Baek Mu-gang raised his hand high and smiled brightly.
Oh-jin let out a small laugh and nodded.
“I’m counting on you, Elder.”
“Yeah! You can count on me!”
Pounding his chest, Baek Mu-gang drew the holy sword of Deneb hanging from his waist.
Having recovered the powerful relic, the holy sword of Deneb, Baek Mu-gang would surely become the formidable force Oh-jin had hoped for.
With Baek Mu-gang readily accepting the proposal, all that remained was to inform the Dragonians and Beastkin of the plan and ask for their cooperation.
“The Dragonian Kingdom is relatively close, but… the problem is the Khan Kingdom.”
A limited time of one month.
To gather the forces of the Khan Kingdom within that time, several conditions needed to be met.
One, they needed someone who knew the path through the Sky Mountains and could cross them.
Two, they needed someone fast enough to reach the Khan Kingdom within a week.
Three, they needed someone with enough influence that the Beastkin would willingly lend their strength, even if they appeared out of nowhere and demanded they invade Niflheim.
Among the group, there was only one person who met all those conditions.
“It has to be… Riak.”
“Ugh.”
Riak furrowed his brow as if he had a headache.
His superior senses allowed him to perfectly remember any path he'd taken once, he possessed incredible speed, and he had the powerful influence of a former 'Khan'.
There was no one better suited than Riak to rally the Beastkin of the Khan Kingdom.
“Haa, alright. I’ll go.”
“Will you be okay alone?”
“Hmph, who’s worrying about whom, brat?”
Riak snorted, looking at Oh-jin with a dismissive gaze.
Oh-jin chuckled and nodded.
“Then go back to the Sanctuary for now. I’ll call you when we get out of the volcano. Oh, and tell Vega about this too.”
“Understood.”
A silver haze of light flashed from Riak’s body, and he vanished into thin air.
“Let’s pack our things and get out of here too.”
“Oh-jin, are you okay? You said you still have some aftereffects.”
“I’m not fully recovered, but I can still move around without any problems.”
In truth, even the slightest movement brought on a wave of fatigue, and he wanted to rest inside the castle for a few more days.
But with barely a month left until the ritual to unseal the Heavenly Demon, he didn't have the luxury of resting peacefully.
“Want me to carry you on my back?”
“Carry me? No way.”
“Why not? I might not look it, but I’m strong.”
Even though Ha-eun was an Awakened who specialized in long-range attacks, as a high-ranking Awakened, carrying one person like Oh-jin would be a breeze.
“No thanks, you old hag.”
The thought of being carried on Ha-eun’s back filled him with an indescribable sense of self-loathing.
At Oh-jin’s sharp refusal, Ha-eun clicked her tongue with a disappointed look.
“I was just hoping to grope my Oh-jin’s butt on the way.”
What is this woman talking about.
“Just kidding, you punk.”
Ha-eun giggled and lightly pinched Oh-jin’s cheek.
“Don’t worry too much. Everything will be fine.”
Was this Ha-eun's way of trying to ease his tension?
Whatever the method, it was effective.
Oh-jin let out a dry laugh and looked at Ha-eun.
On the outside, she was acting nonchalant, feigning composure and cracking silly jokes.
But to Oh-jin, who had lived his entire life with her, it was painfully obvious how much she was worrying about him.
‘Noona.’
A single ray of starlight that had descended into his life, which had been like a black, empty sky.
An infinitely precious and endlessly lovely woman.
For her, he felt he could do anything.
'You, too, must feel the same.'
Thinking of the young man with the same face as his, Oh-jin smiled bitterly.
“Wh-What? Why are you staring so intensely? It’s making me uncomfortable.”
Ha-eun flinched, her shoulders trembling as her cheeks turned red.
Had she sensed something in Oh-jin’s gaze?
With a look full of anticipation, she kept stealing glances at him.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go get our things packed.”
“How anticlimactic.”
Her expectations deflated, Ha-eun pouted and returned to her room.
Oh-jin watched her retreating back with a faint smile.
“…Oh-jin.”
A cold, subdued voice called out.
Flinch.
This time, it was Oh-jin’s shoulders that flinched.
Unlike with Ha-eun, however, he was trembling in pure fear.
“Could we speak alone for a moment?”
“Uh, huh? Uh, yeah. Of course.”
Swallowing dryly, he followed Isabella.
Click.
Once inside the room, Isabella locked the door.
“Um… Isabella?”
He watched her with a tense expression, wondering if her jealousy toward Ha-eun had exploded again like last time.
“The information you heard earlier… you got it from my sister, didn’t you?”
The words that came from Isabella’s mouth were not what Oh-jin had expected.
“…How did you know?”
“I figured they wouldn’t send such an important directive through a communication relic. And…”
Isabella’s eyes narrowed.
She strode up to Oh-jin and sniffed.
“You smell of another woman.”
“……”
What, is she a dog?
Oh-jin stared at Isabella with a look of disbelief.
Come to think of it, he remembered Cassia saying the exact same thing before.
'Why are the sisters so similar in this regard?'
How could she detect a scent like a ghost when even Riak, a Beastkin, couldn't?
“You met with my sister, didn’t you?”
“……Haa. You’re right.”
After a moment of hesitation, Oh-jin nodded as if in defeat.
I knew it!
Isabella stomped her foot in frustration and moved closer to Oh-jin.
“Sh-She didn’t do anything to you, did she?”
As she spoke, Isabella began to grope Oh-jin’s thigh.
'Why is she groping there of all places.'
Oh-jin let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
“Nothing happened, so don’t worry. She just gave me the information about the Heavenly Demon and left.”
“…Really?”
Isabella looked at Oh-jin with suspicious eyes.
Oh-jin looked at the tense Isabella, who was like a cat on a hot tin roof, and asked.
“But weren’t you and Cassia on good terms?”
“We were in the past, but…”
Isabella’s voice trailed off as she bit her lip.
She recalled the last time she had faced Cassia before coming to the Demon Realm.
-Or perhaps… I’ll take him?
The look in Cassia’s eyes as she stood before her, declaring with a sinister gaze that she would boldly steal Oh-jin.
In that moment, the gentle sister of the past was nowhere to be found.
And even if Cassia had approached her affectionately like when they were children, Isabella wouldn't have been able to simply accept her.
“My sister… tried to kill you, Oh-jin.”
“That was because the Heavenly Demon had control of her mind…”
“I know.”
She knew Cassia wasn't in her right mind back then.
But even though she understood it logically, the memory of Oh-jin nearly dying at that time still made a thick killing intent rise within her.
Oh-jin stroked the cheek of Isabella, who was biting her lip with a complicated expression.
“In any case, nothing happened, so don’t worry.”
“…Yes.”
As he caressed her cheek, Isabella’s murderous expression softened completely.
He briefly considered telling her that Cassia had been worried about her, but he quickly dismissed the thought.
'This is something the two of them have to resolve.'
Their sisterly bond was tangled in all sorts of ways.
But with the right catalyst, he believed they could return to how they once were.
“With a chest that small… what’s she going to take?”
They can return… right?
“Ahem. We should start packing too.”
The Dragonian Kingdom wasn't that far away, but they didn't have enough time to be leisurely either.
There was one month until the ritual.
And there was a mountain of preparations to be made in that time.
* * *
A space filled with black storm clouds.
“Haa.”
A low sigh echoed emptily in the vast darkness.
His eyes were filled with deep exhaustion.
A dry smile formed on the man’s lips.
“Still… it was a relief to be able to talk.”
The man muttered in a subdued voice as he lay down on the black storm clouds.
Rumble.
The black clouds drew near and enveloped his body.
“Keuk…!”
The man let out a pained groan.
Wrapped in the black clouds, his body gradually began to melt away.
Like ink dissolving in water.
The man’s body began to be slowly consumed by the black clouds.
As he was being consumed, he thought of the other ‘Oh-jin’ he had just met.
'If, like you… I had the Stigma of Lyra, would things have been different?'
A low, dry laugh escaped the man’s lips.
It was a meaningless hypothetical now.
No matter how much sturdy rebar you add to a building that has already started to collapse, you can't stop it from falling.
But.
“Just a little, longer.”
There wasn't much time left until the seal was broken.
A dry smile touched the man’s lips.
“Now… the preparations are all finished.”
Rumble.
Even as he was consumed by the black clouds, the blue will-o'-the-wisps in the man’s eyes burned fiercely.
“It’s time to keep my promise, Vega.”
His low voice echoed in the darkness.