Chapter 403
Chapter 403
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 403
Chapter Title: The Fall of the Poison King
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Night had deepened.
Kim Il-su was still sitting in his own room.
In front of his desk, sheets of paper lay scattered haphazardly. They were all resignation letters from the executives declaring their intent to leave the guild.
A lonely night.
In the moonlit room, Kim Il-su was with someone.
He had tried his best to ignore it, but Kim Il-su could no longer do so.
"Having fun?"
It was the moment his patience hit rock bottom.
Beneath the previously empty windowsill, someone bathed in moonlight revealed themselves.
The instant Kim Il-su spoke, Ye-ryeong made her presence known.
"Huh."
Ye-ryeong's pupils curved thinly in the moonlight.
"Fun as hell. You're being totally played."
She had been watching Kim Il-su from this spot all along. Naturally, she had witnessed Blue Zone's executives leaving the guild one by one.
She was watching openly, yet Kim Il-su could do nothing about Ye-ryeong.
Most guilds had already turned their backs on him. Public opinion was firmly on Blue Eyes' side.
In such a situation, if a fight broke out with Ye-ryeong, what would everyone think?
With the moral high ground on their side, fighting would be a problem, and not fighting would be a problem too. Above all, if Ye-ryeong were determined to flee, even Kim Il-su wouldn't find it easy to catch her.
"Watching to make sure I don't run?"
"Yeah. You look like you're about to bolt."
"Do I look cornered to you?"
"It's not just looking that way; it is, you idiot."
Irritation twitched between Kim Il-su's brows.
He整理ed the pile of resignation letters on his desk and recomposed his expression.
"Open surveillance now, huh."
"No need to hide anymore."
"Ever think you might die by my hand?"
"Me? By you? Hilarious. Got the confidence to catch me? Wanna throw down?"
Ye-ryeong kept provoking Kim Il-su.
She wanted him to snap and attack her. For the revenge to finally begin that way.
But Kim Il-su didn't fall for it so easily.
"Gotta endure. You're the almighty Poison King, after all."
His patience, on the verge of boiling over, settled once more. He was summoning a level of restraint he'd never used in his life.
But his opponent was Ye-ryeong.
Someone who knew Kim Il-su as well as anyone.
She could assassinate with words alone, striking right at his most painful spot.
"Soo-hyuk will be here soon."
Freeze.
Kim Il-su's hand, sorting the resignation letters, stopped.
This time, he couldn't help but react.
"Heard he woke up. Be honest. You prayed for it inside, didn't you? Please, don't let Soo-hyuk wake up. Before that, you hoped the Heavenly Demon would win."
Ye-ryeong kept needling him.
"But too bad. Soo-hyuk..."
"That damn Lee Soo-hyuk, Lee Soo-hyuk, Lee Soo-hyuk!"
Crack-!
In the end, Kim Il-su exploded.
The desk he slammed with his fist splintered apart. One of his eyes, blazing with fury, glared at Ye-ryeong.
"Enough with that damn Lee Soo-hyuk already. Before I rip your mouth open."
He radiated an aura like he might draw his blade and charge at any second, but Ye-ryeong just beamed.
"Yeah, this is the real you."
It was the moment Kim Il-su's true mask slipped off. This was the Kim Il-su Ye-ryeong wanted to see.
"Not just thinking this now, right? From way back until now, Soo-hyuk's always been a thorn in your side?"
"Yeah. He pissed me off to no end."
"Why? 'Cause you had to be the protagonist?"
"No."
Kim Il-su shook his head.
"Because your little friendship game's got limits. I could see it all falling apart."
"You thought you'd do better than us?"
"Yeah."
A confident answer. He truly seemed to believe it.
But Ye-ryeong's response to his resolute reply was mockery.
She giggled, eyes crinkling above her mask.
"What a load of crap. When you couldn't even do shit."
Shooo-.
Killing intent spread thickly through the room. Ye-ryeong braced herself to counter Kim Il-su's attack at any moment.
A powder keg ready to blow.
"What happened?"
Two rankers burst through the door, alerted by the commotion inside.
The Blue Zone rankers who entered froze in shock. Ye-ryeong stood masked at the windowsill—who knew when she'd slipped in.
Infamous as the ultimate assassin. And known to be completely at odds with Kim Il-su.
One thing was clear: she wasn't here with good intentions.
"Still some holdouts, huh?"
Nearly half the guild had already quit, but Ye-ryeong figured it wasn't enough yet.
"You decided to stick around? Or still on the fence?"
"Th-that's..."
Their eyes flicked briefly toward Kim Il-su.
They were caught between a rock and a hard place. The pair still gauging Kim Il-su's mood.
But their indecision didn't last.
Puk-.
Blades pierced straight through their chests.
"...Huh?"
The two men collapsed with baffled looks. Hearts run through, they perished pointlessly.
Ye-ryeong's eyes narrowed.
Beyond the wide-open door, familiar faces appeared.
"All gathered now."
A crowd poured into the spacious room.
Normally, the sight would make him want to puke, but in this moment, they couldn't have been more welcome.
They were all the ones from the Hydra raid.
Kim Il-su included—essential players in their revenge. The thought of finally killing them brought a smile to Ye-ryeong's lips.
"Might as well be perfect."
Cornered as they were, they had only one choice.
Among those encircling Ye-ryeong warily, one uttered words he shouldn't have.
"If we capture this bitch and use her as a hostage, we can reopen negotiations. Like with Lee Hyo-min—"
Slice-.
A soft sound of something being neatly severed.
His head tumbled downward. It happened the instant her name left his lips.
"Talking out your ass."
Ye-ryeong's dagger had lopped off his head. She didn't wait patiently for distasteful words.
With one down before the fight even started, tension spiked. But hope lingered.
"Even you can't slip out of here."
They had Kim Il-su, plus a bunch of rankers and high-rankers. No matter how masterful Ye-ryeong's stealth, escape wouldn't be easy.
"True. That'd be your best play."
Ye-ryeong didn't condemn their cowardice.
Quite the opposite—she watched their actions with satisfaction. Like the final throes of the dying, it pleased her to no end.
"But you're already screwed."
Because.
"That 'all' I mentioned includes our crew too."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a flash erupted outside the window.
Kwarung-!
Lightning shattered the window and swept through the room. Whether they reacted or not, everyone got caught in it.
Screams drowned in the thunderclap. Of the thirty-odd people, half collapsed unconscious.
Two figures entered through the broken window.
"Lots of familiar faces."
It was Soo-hyuk and Hyo-min.
At their appearance, the few survivors who'd dodged the lightning spun around.
They figured they needed to escape this place first.
Crackle-.
Pristine white ice blanketed the walls.
From the opposite door, Si-woo emerged, exuding frigid chill.
Outside the window, divine beasts were visible.
Fox spirit Yora prowled the room, while monkey god Marukan clung to the exterior. Hyo-min rode a magnificent white tiger with lustrous fur.
In that instant, everyone in the room knew instinctively.
Escape was impossible. If judgment had an order, it was first come, first served.
That was when the situation reached this point.
Swoosh-.
The first to move without fear was Kim Il-su.
His target: Si-woo. He judged the lone figure across from the window as the most manageable.
Without letting his guard down, he sprayed poison first. In an instant, a wall of venom rose between the three and Si-woo.
The judgment itself was sound.
But Si-woo was no pushover.
Clang, clatter.
Si-woo's spear clashed with Kim Il-su's thrust sword. As the two poison-dripping blades danced, the spacious room felt cramped.
Kim Il-su's sword mercilessly carved the building's walls. Beyond the poison barrier, Soo-hyuk watched the fight impassively.
The others might not have been able to cross, but Soo-hyuk could have if he'd wanted.
'No need for that.'
He could tell at a glance. Kim Il-su wasn't in his right mind.
Sure enough, after a few exchanges of spear and sword, Si-woo remarked with disgust.
"You think I'll go down to some bastard not even trying to kill me?"
Clang-!
"......!"
One of the two blades flew off, embedding in the ceiling.
With only one sword left, Kim Il-su retreated like he was fleeing, then hesitated.
Create distance? Then Soo-hyuk would link up with Si-woo?
A torrent of thoughts tormented his mind.
This fight was far too favorable for Si-woo.
Kim Il-su had to take Si-woo hostage—he couldn't go for the kill. He needed him alive, and he wasn't fighting with focus solely on Si-woo either.
A one-on-one that wasn't truly one-on-one. Kim Il-su was imagining himself up against everyone alone.
And Si-woo could read those thoughts plain as day.
"You piece of shit."
Crackle-.
Pure white frost filled the room.
The temperature plummeted in seconds.
"What, am I not even on your radar?"
Pop-!
Ice flowers bloomed across Kim Il-su's body. On the third bloom, he finally reacted.
Sizzle-.
The ice melted away in an instant. Black smoke billowed from the poison-dissolved frost.
Whoosh-.
A spear sliced through the smoke, flying straight at him.
Thud-!
"......!"
The long-range spear lodged into his ribs. With a crack, bones snapped, and his body lurched.
In that brief window, Si-woo's neck entered his view. A fleeting thought crossed his mind: take him along as a companion in death.
But the hesitation didn't last.
Puk-.
A dagger pierced his lung.
The agony halted all his thoughts.
"Kim... Ye-ryeong."
"Ever tell you? We'd kill you with our own hands."
Beyond the poison barrier, Ye-ryeong's thrown dagger had precisely impaled his lung.
"Even if I didn't, you'd figure something like this was coming."
Thud-.
With shattered ribs and a dagger in his lung, Kim Il-su staggered and sank to the floor. His mana tangled chaotically, and even the poison barrier thinned.
Three figures approached from beyond the barrier.
No one stood to block them. No one fled. A few simply slumped in despair on the floor.
And Kim Il-su was among them.
"Kuh... heh heh......"
Kim Il-su laughed like a madman for a stretch.
The one his gaze fixed on wasn't Si-woo, whom he'd just been fighting, nor Ye-ryeong, who'd thrown the dagger from behind.
It was Soo-hyuk—utterly unrelated to his wounds.