Chapter 33
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: And You're Still Human?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rimon Asfelder.
The man he'd thought was out of touch with the times.
The hero once called humanity's guardian deity in the past.
And seeing how this figure, who had achieved the superhuman feat of toppling a monarch, still claimed to be nothing more than a mere human—Lee Cheongi finally understood.
Sword Master.
A being who had reached the realm of immortality without borrowing power from constellations or any other mysteries or abilities—solely through wielding the sword.
Superhumans among superhumans, true monsters feared even by dragons and demon gods.
Absolute rulers who had once reigned at the pinnacle of this world.
And the last survivor among them was the man standing before him now.
"...So, the one who doesn't want to flaunt his power takes the president hostage and wreaks havoc?"
For some reason.
Even though it was a fact he already knew.
Unable to bear the surging tension any longer, Lee Cheongi unwittingly took a jab at him.
Rimon smirked at the words.
"I said I didn't want to become a monster. I never said I wanted to be a pushover."
He could overlook clueless kids putting on a show.
But kids who committed murder, rape, and looting, exploiting the leniency toward minors? They needed to be beaten to death—that was basic human decency.
Holding back his power even now would just be like playing some pathetic game of pretending to be weak.
Rimon spoke without hesitation.
Watching him, Lee Cheongi thought:
'His mindset is fundamentally different from an ordinary person's.'
This wasn't some medieval notion that even a child should be killed if they showed signs of going rotten.
It didn't matter if the target was the president, a monarch, or even an entire nation.
Ultimately, he was saying they were all just like children in his eyes.
Lee Cheongi could sense it.
This wasn't a perspective one could gain simply from living long enough to witness the rise and fall of nations.
It was like an old man who had tended a garden his whole life treating every flower and tree there as his children.
It was a viewpoint born from seeing even a nation of tens of millions as something he had to protect, nurture, and raise himself.
'The absolute one's gaze...'
Had he himself ever once viewed the world from such a perspective?
Lee Cheongi mused idly, then let out a wry chuckle.
No, he knew better than anyone that he hadn't.
He was a monarch before he was an absolute being.
No matter how high his level, as Rimon had said, he was ultimately just a player who had lived thinking only about how to use his own power.
"May I ask one last thing?"
"You funny bastard. You've been asking away excitedly this whole time, and now you ask for permission?"
Rimon ribbed him incredulously.
But Lee Cheongi didn't stop.
He took the lack of denial as permission and asked softly.
"The principle and meaning of the True Demon Dragon Slaying Sword you spoke of—does understanding it mean I can wield a sword like that too?"
It was a sudden question, if anything.
But Rimon wasn't fazed.
As if he'd known it was coming from the start.
Or perhaps impressed that he'd held back this long.
He cackled, then put on a mischievous expression as he answered.
"No. It just means you'd gain the minimum qualifications to learn it."
"I see."
"Disappointed?"
"Just hearing that answer is more than enough."
Lee Cheongi replied calmly.
It would be a lie to say there was no regret.
Rimon's sword trajectory had been so enchantingly beautiful that the mere fact he couldn't learn it brought a pang of sorrow.
But he wasn't disappointed.
Because Rimon's answer had confirmed one thing for him.
He who'd superficially acquired the True Demon Dragon Slaying Sword and faced Rimon's ever-changing blade countless times could vaguely sense it.
The leeway contained in that final strike.
'...A real monster.'
It pierced through a thousand skills.
It shattered the Immortal Sword in a single blow.
It felled him, the Infinite Monarch.
He could boldly declare it the ultimate strike.
A sword no monarch could withstand—he was certain of that.
Yet even that fantastical blade was merely one of the best ways Rimon had to subdue him.
Not his strongest trump card, squeezed out with every last drop of power, like his own 【Overlord】.
If a strike with power to spare was this devastating, how terrifying would a full-force one be?
No—did an opponent even exist who could draw out Rimon's full power?
'If all the other monarchs attacked at once... could they even force him to go all out?'
Lee Cheongi thought idly.
Surprisingly, in that scenario, he couldn't imagine Rimon's defeat.
Not even when placing every monarch—each with near-invincible skills—on the scales opposite him.
The Rimon he'd faced was that bottomlessly profound.
And so Lee Cheongi realized.
This was a true absolute being.
Unlike them, who had pretended to be absolutes through power built on cheat skills, this one had reigned at the world's peak by his very existence.
"...How ridiculous."
"What? Your sorry state?"
"Something like that."
Lee Cheongi answered Rimon's mockery calmly.
It was true—his own efforts seemed laughable now, scrambling to surpass 'that one' without even knowing such a monster existed.
Perhaps because he'd shed pointless obsession.
Seeing Lee Cheongi's strangely serene face despite being covered in blood, Rimon smirked.
"No regrets left, then?"
"I'd be lying if I said I had no lingering attachments, but I'm prepared."
He coughed,
spitting up another bowlful of blood.
Lee Cheongi met Rimon's golden eyes straight on and said softly,
"End it now, please."
His body had already surpassed its limits.
That he was still alive was only possible because he possessed dozens of survival and healing skills.
But even that could only barely cling to his lifeline.
He no longer had the strength to fight Rimon—let alone flee.
And so, having asked all his final questions and accepted his end, Lee Cheongi prompted Rimon—who seemed slightly surprised—to respond.
"You're not groveling for your life like a coward."
"Even I have my pride as a monarch."
"Not many monarchs or nobles cling to pride right up to the end."
No matter how proud they claimed to be,
he'd killed plenty who offered money and daughters the moment a blade touched their throats, begging for mercy.
An anecdote born of experience.
Lee Cheongi's simple rebuttal to Rimon's point:
"They're not me."
"Touché."
Rimon chuckled and rose from his seat.
He drew the sword from its sheath and said languidly,
"Anyway, since you're prepared, I'll grant your wish and end it."
As if the prior laughter had been an illusion, Rimon's face turned icy cold as he extended his blade.
Lee Cheongi didn't avert his gaze.
He simply met Rimon's eyes calmly.
It was right then.
Shhh.
Rimon's vision went black as he held the sword to Lee Cheongi's throat, suddenly making the invisible... visible.
It was a phenomenon he'd experienced several times before.
One he'd grown somewhat used to.
But this time was different.
Not just because Lee Cheongi's form vanished entirely from view, unlike before when he could only see the constellations contracted to players.
And not because something rippled where Lee Cheongi had stood.
—Gazes.
Gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes, gazes.
Thousands, tens of thousands of eyes he hadn't sensed moments ago—but now felt vividly the instant his vision blackened.
As numerous as grains of sand on a beach.
As clear as the candle flame before him.
Yet black and sticky as marsh mud.
Prickling his entire body like needles.
Tracing those gazes, Rimon slowly raised his head.
And understood instantly.
The countless stars shining in the night sky.
They were the source—and identity—of these innumerable gazes he felt.
These were the gazes of constellations.
At this very moment,
countless constellations—tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, perhaps trillions—were watching him.
It was pure terror.
Enough to drive an ordinary person mad just imagining it.
The gazes of transcendent beings like constellations carried that much power and weight.
"...I see."
But the one receiving them
didn't falter.
He merely slowly scanned the night sky, as if etching each starlight into his eyes, and quietly spoke.
"Unlike words you can just toss away, a monarch is too precious a piece for even you to lose, huh?"
In the past few days, the number of players who'd died by his hand numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Yet he'd never felt such dense gazes before—nor the pressure they carried. Rimon twisted his lips into a sneer.
"Or is watching the fight not enough? You want a public execution for entertainment too?"
It was less a question than mockery.
Unilateral scorn for those who turned even another's death into spectacle, expecting no reply.
Right after.
As if answering Rimon's question,
starlight fell from the night sky,
and a pale white hand emerged from the writhing shadow where Lee Cheongi had been.
The constellation blessing the Infinite Monarch intervenes in reality.
'The Observer of All Reflected Phenomena' toward you...
"Annoying."
Slash!
It happened in an instant.
The moment the constellation's hand seemed to write a system message against the backdrop of starlight.
Rimon severed it before he could even finish reading.
To most, it would be futile.
Like slashing at light with a sword—merely swinging at empty air.
But Rimon's sword produced a different result.
Crackle!
[System error, error code k51e0i4. Bug occurred due to forced system severance during contract process.]
[Damaged fragment of the constellation is absorbed by the target.]
[The 'Observer of All Reflected Phenomena,' having lost a finger, is aghast.]
A sharp rupture echoed.
The system messages shattered into pieces.
The hand, severed at the finger, recoiled in horror back into the shadow.
What remained were scattering fragments of light.
Proof that a mortal's sword had wounded a great constellation.
Watching the light particles swirl in the air before falling at his feet, Rimon quietly spoke.
"This is my karma. The blood debt I must claim with my own sword, decided solely by my will."
It had begun with slashing Yuna Kyung.
Deciding from whom and how to exact that blood price was entirely his choice—and something to be fulfilled with this very blade stained by her blood.
It was his duty, responsibility, and right as the one who had such incompetent subordinates.
"Consider this a warning: don't interfere in my affairs, constellations or otherwise."
He could guess what the constellations wanted to say.
Spare Lee Cheongi like a cherished pet,
or execute him like gladiatorial fodder.
It would boil down to one or the other.
Offer a contract for compliance with a monarch-level constellation, or retaliation for refusal—a tempting carrot and stick.
But you're going to kill him anyway, right? So why not get a reward from the constellations?
Nonsense!
If a constellation offered a contract to spare Lee Cheongi, would he abandon claiming the blood debt?
Conversely, if killing him earned a contract, would he gleefully take extra rewards while settling the debt?
No matter the proposal, rejecting it would taint things.
The pure blood debt on his blade would vanish.
It would become mere murder for gain, weighing rewards and acting with an eye on the constellations.
He didn't care if it made every constellation his enemy.
With the sword that pierced Yuna Kyung in hand, he could not tolerate wielding it with any will unrelated to the blood debt.
There was only one exception.
After proving the constellations were not uninvolved.
Dragging them down from the stars and holding a blade to their throats to settle the blood debt.
"I seek no aid or hindrance in this matter, nor even permission to watch."
It might be outdated thinking.
Foolish stubbornness, perhaps.
Didn't matter.
This was how Rimon Asfelder lived.
"Withdraw your hands if you try to meddle, and turn away your eyes if you peep."
And so Rimon declared.
To skills, constellations, fate, or anything else: no interference would be tolerated.
A warning not to a specific individual, but to the world itself.
Arrogant words threatening even constellations.
"If not..."
Clang.
As if sheathing a sword.
Rimon pulled his blade back at an angle.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, he gazed up at the night sky with chillingly sunken eyes.
"I'll cut you down."
At that moment.
The stars closed their eyes.
An expression inapplicable to stars, which weren't living beings to begin with.
Yet Lee Cheongi could describe it no other way.
The stars that had twinkled thickly in the night sky vanished the instant Rimon's words ended.
After the last hesitant flicker faded,
the world plunged into darkness, save for the hazy city lights filtering in.
Seeing Rimon standing aloof in the center of that darkness, Lee Cheongi murmured blankly without thinking,
"...And you're still human after that?"
"Too bad, but your Q&A time's over. Now it's my turn to ask."
Are you really human?
A genuine doubt, earnestly voiced.
Rimon cleanly ignored it.
Instead, he rested his sword on Lee Cheongi's shoulder and spoke in a chilling voice.
"Choose your words carefully."
Golden eyes as heavy as those that silenced the world—nay, heavier still.
Harboring an unfathomable black ripple within, they fixed on Lee Cheongi as Rimon curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Your answer will decide just how painfully you die."