Chapter 376
Chapter 376
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 377
Chapter Title: The Prophecy's Child
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“......Are you seriously saying that? That you'll kill the king before the year's out?”
Seonhwa reacted with utter bewilderment to my statement.
Her response was, in a way, only natural.
With early winter already approaching, there wasn't much time left until the end of the year.
“I can do it. The Ten Demon Society is basically on the brink of collapse anyway, isn't it?”
Of the four S-Rank demons remaining in the Ten Demon Society right now, only two were left if you excluded Seonhwa and Hareung, who harbored hostility toward the king.
On top of that, ever since the demon gate incident, the Association's net was tightening around the Ten Demon Society, which had to be restricting their movements.
“......True. Six S-Rank demons have died by your hand in just the past one or two years. If we're being precise, it's not impossible.”
She continued, flashing a smile tinged with slight fear.
“But still, to say you'll kill the king before the year's out... Your decisiveness is something else. It looks like that person's prophecy wasn't wrong afte—
Seonhwa muttered to herself before continuing.
“I'm starting to think you might've made a mistake somewhere. I can't help worrying that because of you, our entire clan might be heading down the path to ruin.”
I chuckled at her words.
“No need to worry about that. I don't harbor any real malice toward demons themselves.”
Seonhwa gave me a puzzled look at my words.
“No real malice?”
“My targets are solely the demon king and his loyal followers. Once this is all over, I'll be done with demon hunting.”
This was sincere.
Demons might be a race that sustained themselves on human blood, but they were still part of nature, just like humans.
I wouldn't go out of my way to exterminate mosquitoes just because they were harmful to humans. There was no reason to hunt them down unless they directly got in my way.
“That's unusual. You hold no grudge against demons, yet killing the king is your goal. So why target the king?”
I pondered how to respond before speaking.
“Because that's my role.”
“......What?”
Seonhwa blinked blankly before chuckling.
“You mean it's your fated destiny?”
“You could think of it that way.”
I shrugged.
Right then, a thick demonic energy emanated from somewhere. As time passed, a man emerged from the darkness.
“Hareung. You're here?”
“Seonhwa.”
Hareung called her name curtly, then turned his gaze toward me.
“......So you're the child of prophecy.”
Complex emotions filled Hareung's voice.
In the original story, Hareung was a villain, but one known for having quite a few backstory elements and secrets.
He came into possession of knowledge about the future through the previous king.
And to get revenge on the current king who had driven that previous king to his death, he exhibited unusual behavior by providing hints and assistance to 'Lee Seo-jun' and 'Yoon Ha-young'.
If you had to pin down Hareung's position, calling him a character straddling the line between villain and ally would be accurate.
I calmly studied his face before asking.
“You wanted to meet me?”
“Yes. You are the final words of the liege I served my entire life... and the only key to killing the current king. I've long awaited the chance to meet you.”
Deep sincerity laced Hareung's voice.
I nodded and told him.
“I'm not curious about what you think of me. What I want is a lead on Jin Cheonwoo's fourth journal.”
Hareung stared straight at my face before speaking.
“Before that, I want to know why you're so obsessed with the fourth journal.”
I fell silent at his question.
The reason for my obsession with the fourth journal.
It was simple.
Because I suspected it held Jin Cheonwoo's true purpose for summoning me to this world—or secrets about me.
But I couldn't just lay all my cards on the table.
Explaining that would require revealing that I came from another world.
At that moment, Hareung spoke.
“You wouldn't happen to possess the same power of prophecy as that person, do you?”
......Huh?
I looked at his face at this unexpected remark from Hareung.
His eyes, meeting mine, held an unprecedented seriousness.
“Knowing of the Ten Demon Society's existence. Anticipating our clan's movements in advance... You learned those through the power of prophecy, didn't you?”
Well, he wasn't entirely wrong.
It was true that I knew certain future events to some extent.
How should I respond to this...
“I can't exactly call it the power of prophecy, but you're right that I do know some things about the future.”
“......As I thought.”
Seonhwa, who had been quietly watching, looked shocked.
“What? You have the power of prophecy too?”
“Yeah, but it's not complete.”
“......Prophecy means you have the same ability as that person.”
Deep confusion crossed Seonhwa's face. Then she narrowed her eyes.
“Wait, something feels off.”
“......?”
“How could a human possibly have the power of prophecy? And come to think of it, you have super regeneration too.”
“Super regeneration?”
Hareung's gaze turned to me.
“Yeah, this guy's human, but he can use super regeneration just like us.”
At those words, Hareung's eyes—which had maintained their composure until now—trembled for the first time.
“......How can a human have super regeneration?”
I clamped my mouth shut. There was no way to explain it.
I couldn't talk about the privileges of an outsider.
“There are ways. But I can't answer that, so don't ask.”
“......I see.”
Muttering that, Hareung opened his mouth again.
“Child of prophecy, I have one request.”
“What is it?”
“I want to see your face.”
My face?
“We're having an important conversation. Shouldn't we at least confirm each other's faces?”
Fair enough. From his perspective, that made sense.
Right now, I had my face completely covered with a hat and mask.
He probably couldn't trust me like this.
Besides, they already believed I was Kim Seonwoo.
At this point, where I might be able to win over these two demons as allies, there was no need to sow seeds of distrust.
......But first, there was something I had to do.
“I have a condition.”
“......”
“Swear that you won't tell anyone about what happened today. And swear that you'll answer my questions with nothing but the truth.”
This was insurance for any unknowns.
Especially in Hareung's case, since he was collaborating with Jaun regarding the fourth journal, if my identity as Kim Seonwoo got out, it could lead to a real headache.
“Fine. You mean a blood oath, right?”
“Yeah. Seonhwa, you too.”
I turned to Seonhwa.
She nodded as if she had no choice.
“Guess I have to do this again. Fine.”
Afterward, Hareung and Seonhwa performed the blood oath.
Their black demon blood rose, forming small runes on their forearms before vanishing inside.
Those runes had likely been imprinted on their hearts via their demonic energy.
“......Is this good enough?”
“Yeah.”
“Then show us your face.”
I nodded and removed my hat and mask.
At the same time, their gazes turned to my face.
Seonhwa examined my face with a stiff expression and said.
“I knew you were Kim Seonwoo, but... seeing you like this, you really are young. How did you gain that kind of power at your age?”
I shrugged in response instead of answering.
Then I glanced subtly at Hareung. He was pursing his lips, lost in thought.
At that moment, he spoke.
“Kim Seonwoo, I have a personal question.”
“What?”
“Is Kim Jinwoo another identity of yours?”
My heart sank in an instant.
I hadn't expected Kim Jinwoo to come up out of nowhere.
“Why does Kim Jinwoo come up all of a sudden?”
“You're dodging. Did you think I wouldn't know?”
Hareung's tone was filled with certainty. And at his words, Seonhwa's eyes widened in shock once more.
“Kim Jinwoo...... Now that you mention it...
This guy seemed to know quite a bit about me subtly.
I hadn't anticipated the Kim Jinwoo topic coming up here. And his question wasn't just a probe.
It carried the weight of conviction.
Well, thinking back, every time I acted as Kim Jinwoo, messages had popped up about Hareung taking interest in me, so it was possible he'd figured it out.
“......Yeah, that's right. I'm Kim Jinwoo.”
Half-baked lies could erode trust.
At my words, Hareung's expression hardened before he let out a low chuckle.
“......So you really were the same person.”
He muttered in a voice so quiet it was barely audible.
“Now things are starting to make sense. Kim Jinwoo and Kim Seonwoo... acting like you know the future... So that's how it was...
Hareung stared at me in a daze, murmuring.
With that, I'd revealed all my cards.
Now it was my turn to ask.
“Answer my questions now.”
“Fine.”
“First, tell me about the whereabouts of the fourth journal.”
Hareung nodded.
“Alright. But first, do you know anything about the laws of the world?”
“Yeah, I know some. Go ahead and explain.”
“Then this'll be quick. To start, the fourth journal was created by exploiting a loophole in the world.”
A loophole in the world.
That phrase immediately brought back what the Apostle of Observation had told me during the Seongmu Festival.
—The future is set in stone, and even regressors can't change it.
—Ah, but it's not like there's zero way to avoid it. You just exploit the world's loopholes.
—I can't go into detail. But as an example, that 'Frame of Incantations' you just saw exploits a loophole in the world.
So, a loophole meant recording things like journals or paintings to circumvent the world's laws.
“For that reason, the journal was hidden in a virtual world, away from the world's gaze.”
“Virtual world.”
Thinking about it, the Frame of Incantations had been in a virtual world created by the Demon of Observation too.
“And it's probably concealed within a mystery that generates virtual worlds.”
Like the [Virtual Reality Generator] relic from the Choi family.
“How do you find that mystery of the virtual world?”
“No idea. That's why we're searching. But there's a clue somewhere on the African continent. Jin Cheonwoo sought the king's counsel while he was alive.”
I decided to ask my next question.
It was something I'd been curious about for a while.
“I heard about the outer god from the Prophecy King. But outer gods aren't bound by the world's laws, so they can't be observed through prophecy. How did he prophesy that an outer god would appear?”
“The Prophecy King didn't learn of the outer god's descent through the power of prophecy.”
“Then how?”
“It was a deduction from Jin Cheonwoo's fierce ambition to gain freedom and become a god... and from observing his actions.”
What? It wasn't a prophecy?
“But that person said an outer god that would disrupt the world and very likely bring destruction and chaos would surely descend. And he warned that if it did, it must be stopped before it could cause even greater turmoil.”
I couldn't make sense of those words.
“If an outer god descends, everyone would break free from the world's laws and gain freedom, right? Wouldn't that be a good thing?”
“No.”
Hareung spoke in a firm tone.
“The laws of the world are what protect us from destruction and chaos.”