Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Conscience Can Be Bought with Money
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"We're here."
Baek Seorin's voice brimmed with excitement.
Like a lover who'd reserved a fancy restaurant, leading their partner to the door with eager anticipation.
But the scene unfolding before Han Jaewoo's eyes was far from romantic.
No, it was the polar opposite—a vision of hell.
A crimson-black sky.
Twisted, withered dead trees stretching out like screams through the forest.
And the nauseating stench of blood and demonic energy stabbing at his nose.
Gangwon-do sealed zone.
S-Rank Gate: Black Forest.
The very place where, just days ago, he'd fled in terror for his life.
"...Ha."
Han Jaewoo let out a deep sigh.
It had only been thirty minutes since he'd pulled a waiting ticket at the bank counter.
He'd dreamed of a simple future: opening a minus account, ordering chicken, slipping pocket money to his little sister.
Yet here he was again.
Hand in hand with Korea's strongest human weapon, no less.
'Mom. I really just want to go home.'
He wanted to cry, but he couldn't.
The woman beside him was staring at him with such a resolute expression.
Baek Seorin didn't release his hand.
No, she slipped her fingers between his, interlocking them tightly.
A martial artist's hand—hard and calloused.
But that grip was stronger than any iron shackle.
"Ready?"
She asked.
Han Jaewoo wanted to shake his head and say, "No, not at all."
But the Northern Grand Duke filter wouldn't allow such a feeble reply.
"...If that's your desire."
A resigned response.
But Baek Seorin interpreted it as a vow: 'I'll follow you anywhere.'
Her cheeks flushed faintly.
"I've deeply engraved your teachings from last time."
Baek Seorin said, placing her hand on her sword sheath.
"You said the sword isn't a tool for slaughter, but a guiding hand for its partner."
Her eyes blazed with resolve.
"Watch closely. I'll prove with my sword that your guidance wasn't wasted."
She had completely misunderstood the concept of a date.
For ordinary lovers, it was movies and meals, learning about each other.
For a martial artist like her, a date meant 'showing how much stronger—and more grown—she'd become, then basking in praise.'
"Don't stray a single step from my side."
She urged, tightening her grip on his hand.
"I'll lead."
With that, she stepped toward the forest.
Han Jaewoo was dragged along like a cow to the slaughterhouse.
Beneath his luxury coat, the ragged Mithril Frock Coat clung to him like sweat-soaked thermals.
Hot, uncomfortable, heavy.
But it was his only lifeline.
'Please... just let us make it out alive.'
His desperate prayer went unanswered as monsters poured from the forest entrance.
Grrrrowl!
Kieeeek!
Ogre, troll, wyvern.
The S-Rank Gate's elite monsters charged to welcome the intruders.
Han Jaewoo's legs shook.
One graze from those muscle-bound hulks would rip bone from flesh.
But Baek Seorin didn't so much as blink.
Shing.
Her sword slid free.
"Let's begin."
Her sword dance commenced.
It was different from before.
Not the brute-force crushing or killing-intent trampling of crude slaughter.
Red haze rose from her sword tip.
Soft like spring petals, light as butterflies.
Plum Blossom Sword Dance.
The Huashan Sect's secret art, uniquely refined by the Heavenly Demon.
A swordsmanship that concealed killing intent while maximizing elegance unfolded.
Slice.
The charging ogre's head fell silently.
No blood sprayed.
The sword aura had cauterized the wound in an instant—or severed it before the blood could even spurt.
A faint fragrance wafted through the air.
Thick plum blossom scent overwhelming the blood and rot.
A aroma she'd artificially conjured with her inner energy.
"..."
Han Jaewoo stared blankly at the scene.
Beautiful.
He had no choice but to admit it.
Monsters butchered before his eyes—it wasn't cruel; it was like an artistic performance.
Baek Seorin danced through the monsters.
One hand firmly clutching his, the other wielding the sword—zero openings.
Even with her path restricted to protect him, her movements flowed as naturally as water.
Each time she felled one, she glanced sidelong at Han Jaewoo.
"How is it?"
She asked after lopping off a troll's head.
"Is the rhythm good?"
Han Jaewoo swallowed dryly.
Discussing rhythm with troll guts spilling out in the background.
But saying "It's gross" here might turn that sword on his own neck.
"...Not bad."
He replied as casually as he could manage.
"Good tempo. A touch softer."
'Please don't let any blood splatter. I'm gonna hurl.'
At his praise (really a plea for mercy), Baek Seorin's face lit up.
The expression of a puppy praised to the hilt—tail wagging furiously if she'd had one.
"I'm glad you approve."
She swung her sword with even more enthusiasm.
Wyvern wings shredded, ogre legs severed.
Each time, she asked like a kid desperate for validation.
"How was that one?"
"Was that turn alright?"
"I tried slicing more elegantly."
Han Jaewoo nodded mechanically.
"Excellent."
"Perfect."
"Beautiful."
Soulless reactions, but to the Heavenly Demon in the throes of love, they were the ultimate acclaim.
She unleashed bolder, flashier techniques, and the forest soon became a mountain of monster corpses.
How far had they gone?
Before long, the monsters in the area had been wiped clean.
Baek Seorin sheathed her sword and surveyed the surroundings with satisfaction.
"This should clear the path."
She led Han Jaewoo onward.
"Come. There's something I want to show you."
"Something to show me?"
"Yes. I made a nice walking path."
A walking path?
In a place like this hellhole?
But Han Jaewoo soon grasped what she meant by "walking path"—and he couldn't hide his horror.
The road deeper into the forest.
Lining both sides at regular intervals were massive ogre and troll corpses.
Not sprawled haphazardly.
Heads jammed into the ground, legs pointed skyward—planted upside down like stakes.
Like street trees.
And the blood flowing from those corpses trickled along grooves in the ground, forming red streams on either side of the path.
"..."
Han Jaewoo couldn't shut his mouth.
This wasn't a walking path.
It was a devil-worship cult's ritual ground.
Monster beasts as trees, blood as babbling brooks.
But Baek Seorin pointed at it with pride.
"How is it?"
She asked shyly.
"No need to envy the tree-lined streets. It's just for us."
Han Jaewoo felt dizzy.
Crazy woman.
No doubt about it.
Her brain was wired differently from normal people.
Romanticizing a row of inverted corpses.
He wanted to scream and bolt right then.
But their hands were interlocked, and there was no path of retreat behind him.
Ruin the mood here, and he might end up joining that tree line.
He took a deep breath.
He had to survive.
Get it together, Han Jaewoo. You're the Northern Grand Duke.
This bloodbath? Just a wine party venue.
He forced the corners of his mouth upward.
It nearly cramped, but he managed an elegant smile.
"...Romantic."
His voice trembled ever so slightly.
"A path with red streams flowing. Your taste is quite refined."
'Guegh, this is insane, right? Please just send me home.'
Baek Seorin's eyes sparkled.
As expected.
He understood.
What others would scream at in horror, he saw as art.
They were on a different level.
"I'm thrilled you like it."
She pulled Han Jaewoo along that gruesome tree-lined path—no, monster-lined avenue.
To keep him from stepping in the squelching blood puddles, she even used air-stepping to lightly float his body.
Half out of his mind, Han Jaewoo let himself be led.
There was nowhere safe to look.
Glance left: ogre ass. Right: troll soles.
Down: flowing blood.
That's when something glinted in the blood.
'Huh?'
Han Jaewoo's eyes widened.
In the red puddle, gems rolled about, gleaming iridescently.
Mana Stones spat out by the dying monsters.
S-Rank Gate monsters.
Those stones were at least A-Rank—S-Rank if he got lucky.
A fist-sized one fetched billions.
And they littered the ground everywhere.
In that instant, fear evaporated from his mind, replaced by the whirring of capitalist calculus.
'How much is all that worth?'
One, two, three...
Just gathering what he could see would buy a Gangnam apartment.
End the kangaroo lifestyle, live large. A lottery jackpot rolling at his feet.
Fear? Grossness?
Money made it irrelevant.
Han Jaewoo's gaze sharpened.
His eyes, muddled with terror moments ago, now gleamed with greed—no, a burning zeal for survival.
Baek Seorin saw that look and misunderstood once more.
'So intently appreciating my gift—the path.'
She smiled warmly and squeezed his hand tighter.
The two walked that blood-flowing hell-path like the world's most affectionate lovers.
One intoxicated by love, the other by dollar signs.
The end of the path.
There waited the gate's boss monster, its master.
But its fate was already sealed.
Just a tactless interloper ruining their date.
"Wait just a moment."
Baek Seorin released his hand and stepped forward.
The boss had no time to roar.
A red flash streaked, and the massive bulk crumbled to dust.
An absurdly anticlimactic instant kill.
Baek Seorin picked something up from where the monster had vanished.
A fist-sized red gem.
The top-grade Mana Stone from the boss's heart.
Its self-radiating crimson glow was more beautiful—and perilous—than any jewel in the world.
She approached Han Jaewoo, clutching the gem in her bloodied hand.
And shyly offered it.
"Take it."
"...This is?"
"A souvenir from today's date."
Her expression wasn't that of a killer specter, but a girl handing a gift to her first love—cheeks flushed bright.
To others, it might look like a blood-smeared heart in a curse ritual.
But to her, it was the ultimate proposal.
"My heart... no, spoils of war."
Han Jaewoo stared at her in a daze.
Her flushed cheeks. Trembling eyes.
And that tentative touch.
'Wait... is that expression for real?'
It wasn't mere respect or a warrior's curiosity.
This was unmistakable 'affection.'
The kind of love a woman sends a man, impossible to hide.
Suddenly, a sharp pang stabbed one corner of his chest.
Guilt.
The romance-world fiancée who'd gazed only at him for ten years, then discarded the moment she accepted his proposal.
Emperor Edelgart's illusion overlapped behind Baek Seorin.
'What am I doing right now... wearing the clothes Edel gave me, on a date with another woman?'
Wearing his fiancée's gifted Mithril coat, holding another woman's hand on a date, accepting gifts?
This was trash-tier behavior.
Absolute waste-of-space double-dipping.
'Survival or not, I can't give away my heart too.'
He wavered.
Should he accept it?
The moment he did, wouldn't this relationship cross an irreversible river?
Beneath the Northern Grand Duke mask, he felt the sting of his hidden conscience.
But.
The instant his eyes locked on the gem in her hand, every doubt vaporized.
'S-Rank boss Mana Stone...'
'At least ten billion... twenty at auction...'
Twenty billion.
The number flashed through his mind, and Edelgart's illusion melted away like spring snow.
Guilt? Edible?
Conscience? Twenty billion could buy a new one.
The instincts of capitalist slave and kangaroo-lifer Han Jaewoo overrode his reason.
With trembling hands (feigning emotion), he took the Mana Stone.
It was heavy.
The weight of money.
He lifted it with the world's most ecstatic expression, holding it to the light.
Then he unleashed the ten-year ropan veteran's ultimate technique.
He lowered the hand clutching the stone, brushing her cheek ever so gently.
Cold gem met her feverish skin.
"...Beautiful."
His deep blue eyes stared into her orange ones, as if devouring them.
"However."
He curled his lip slyly and whispered.
"It pales next to your orange eyes."
Critical hit.
Baek Seorin's face flushed crimson, as if it might burst.
Her heart felt like it would shatter her ribs and leap out.
A line she'd never heard in thirty years—cringeworthy, yet impossibly sweet.
She staggered.
The Heavenly Demon, who could tank an S-Rank monster barehanded, had her legs buckle from mere words.
"Y-you..."
She couldn't continue, clamping her mouth shut.
It felt too good; she might scream.
Inside, Han Jaewoo flashed a victory V.
Hooked.
Twenty billion was his.
Dinner: chicken—no, beef.
He tucked the Mana Stone preciously into his pocket and gazed fondly at the flustered world's greatest, her face beet red.
Of course, he had no idea.
This stone wasn't just a gem—it was a 'token' of accepting the Heavenly Demon's heart, engagement-ring significance.
And far off, beyond dimensions, his real fiancée was gnashing her teeth and pounding at the dimensional barrier.