Chapter 275: Opening the Eye (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 275: Opening the Eye (2)
I glanced down at Hon. Lips glistening with beef fat, the corners of her mouth curled up in satisfaction, a swollen little belly. She looked every bit the victor standing triumphant after a fierce battle against SSS-rank Korean Beef.
I shifted my gaze away from Hon and looked straight ahead. The winter night sky was filled with stars. Staring at the full moon filling the sky, I felt oddly melancholy. It was because the small fortune I’d just spent was flickering in my mind like those distant stars.
‘To think she ate twenty servings all by herself.’
SSS-rank Korean Beef. Fitting for a grade boasting three S's, it was the most delicious meat I had ever tasted in my life.
The savory fat melted evenly throughout, and the meat was so tender you could chew it with your gums. What’s more, every bite released an endless wave of umami. A flood of flavor, so to speak.
The problem was the price. Three hundred thousand won per serving. Hon had devoured twenty servings of that devilishly expensive beef in the blink of an eye.
I had put my chopsticks down after about an hour. No matter how delicious something is, you're bound to get full or tired of it after a few pieces.
Hon, on the other hand, unabashedly picked up three pieces at a time. For over five solid hours, her chopsticks never rested.
Seeing her ferocious feast, the restaurant staff watched Hon out of the corners of their eyes. The owner came over with a beaming smile, asking if we needed anything else—a thoroughly mercenary gesture.
I knew that look all too well, having been there myself. So, as cheeky as it was, I couldn't really complain.
‘Well... as long as she enjoyed it.’
Besides, spending a mere seven million won didn't even make a dent in my bank account. The money I had accumulated while resolving various incidents was astronomical. Roughly seventy billion won.
In my previous life, I hadn't earned even a fraction of that amount in my entire lifetime, but in this life, I became rich at eighteen. The funny thing was, this was just the beginning.
That seventy billion would snowball in the future until my sense of money went completely numb. In truth, from the moment I rose to the position of the Seven Stars, money ceased to be a particularly valuable commodity. It was merely a tool to maintain the dignity that accompanied my honor.
However, accepting that reality was another matter entirely. Perhaps because of my memories of desperately scraping by, seven million won was still a large sum to me. I figured I’d have to gradually adjust to it as I lived on—or just keep living frugally with my stubborn pauper mindset.
‘Let's look on the bright side. I should live generously like this. I can't stay a cheapskate forever.’
My eyes suddenly drifted to the black bag in my left hand. It was SSS-rank Korean Beef. Choi Seol-ah had whined so much about wanting to eat it that I felt bad and bought two servings for her.
"Two servings should be enough."
That thought turned out to be rather naive. How could I have known there would be uninvited guests?
When I arrived at Choi Seol-ah’s place, two guests were sitting at the table. One was a familiar face, while the other was a stranger. Meanwhile, Seol-ah, the actual owner of the apartment, was hiding in a corner, shivering violently.
"I have been waiting for you, Heavenly Sword."
The familiar face was Al'tair. My eyes darted across him, quickly checking his condition. It was an instinctual reflex rather than a conscious action.
‘Limbs intact, no injuries.’
He was safe. His bright expression suggested that no one among the Auditore family had suffered serious injuries either. Having completed my assessment in an instant, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
My only question was how he had returned so quickly. It took at least eight hours to travel from Hawaii to Korea. Even with a Subspace Gate at the airport, it was puzzling.
Still, welcoming him back came first. I could ask my questions later.
"You've worked hard, Head of the Family."
I gave a faint smile. He smiled back. But just as my gaze naturally shifted toward the man sitting beside the Head of the Family—
Hon grabbed hold of my sleeve—or perhaps the black bag beneath it—and hid behind my back. I could feel the trembling at her fingertips. The man staring at Hon eventually let out a deep, heavy sigh.
"You are healthy."
The man spoke. Direct, without any unnecessary pleasantries.
"...Yes. As you can see," Hon replied in a voice barely above a whisper. "I've been doing well thanks to Lord Geomma and the others taking good care of me, Lord."
"Lord...?"
I unconsciously muttered as I raised my eyes toward the sofa. A silent-faced man sat there with crossed arms, looking in our direction. Looking closer, I realized he wasn't human. His ears were long, just like Hon’s before she used magic.
"I failed to report this to you beforehand, Heavenly Sword. This individual arrived seeking an audience with you. Should any issues arise from this, this old man will take full responsibility," Al'tair quickly spoke up. "As an aside, he was the one who brought our Auditore family back here."
Relying on those few clues and my meager gaming knowledge, I deduced the man's identity.
The Dragon Lord, Valerion the Red Dragon. The leader of the Dragon Clan and the pinnacle among them.
And now, having crossed into the Human Realm, he was sitting side by side with Al'tair on a sofa. In the apartment of Choi Seol-ah, Hon's contractor, no less. It was like something out of a sitcom.
"..."
The dragon hailed as the strongest stared at me quietly. In that split second, I saw it: a cross-shaped light forming in his pupils. A Demon Eye.
Rising from the sofa, Valerion walked toward me. In the heavy, settling silence, he spoke.
"Had I known you were in the Human Realm, I would have visited much sooner."
He spoke in polite, respectful speech.
"It has been seven hundred years."
"..."
Without a word of reply, I tossed the black bag I was holding. With a mood-ruining "Ack!", the bag landed squarely on top of Choi Seol-ah's head.
"Start grilling that," I said to her, my eyes remaining fixed on Valerion. "I'm going to have a chat in the next room."
* * *
I entered the adjacent room with Valerion. I locked the door behind us in case anyone wandered in mid-conversation. That was how sensitive our topic was.
"If you are concerned about our voices leaking out, you need not be."
Valerion spoke as he snapped his fingers. A translucent barrier instantly enveloped the room, which was barely five pyeong in size. Silent Magic. I recognized it at a glance, as it was the same spell Meain had cast right before the Joaquin Terror.
"A Majin displaying goodwill toward humans, I see."
I turned to look at him. He was looking back at me as well.
"It is not that I am particularly friendly toward humans. We dragons merely adjust our attitude depending on who we are dealing with."
The Dragon Lord replied, maintaining his characteristic bluntness.
"To put it simply, I am courteous because it is you, Lycan."
My mind grew tangled. Judging by how distinctly he enunciated that name at the end of his sentence, he seemed entirely certain that the original owner of this body was the 1st Corps Commander, Lycan.
How should I react? As I agonized over it for a moment, the Lord sat cross-legged on the floor first. Overflowing with composure, he looked as if he were sitting in his own master bedroom. Was adaptability a dragon trait, or was it just him and Hon?
"I do not know the full circumstances, but I can tell you dislike 'that name.' Therefore, I shall call you Heavenly Sword, like the others. Furthermore, I will not ask why you are here or what you intend to do. After all, there seems to be a disconnect between you and That Person in my memories."
I scratched near my eyebrow with my index finger before nodding. The Lord was silver-tongued and remarkably sharp. This was why conversations between real men were so convenient—they cut out useless explanations. I liked that.
I sat down in the same posture across from Valerion. Silence blanketed us once more. Sitting face-to-face as two grown men felt subtly strange. Neither of us intended it. The Lord was a man of few words, and so was I.
But someone had to draw the blade first.
"So, what brings you all the way here, Lord?"
I took on that role myself. I was a swordsman, after all. In that moment, I cut through the silence.
"My original purpose was to repay my debt to you, Heavenly Sword. You saved my granddaughter when she was on the verge of being sold off."
"That wasn't my intention, but... well, I suppose that's how it turned out. However, using the word 'original' implies that your purpose has changed."
"Indeed. Truth be told, I had occasionally heard rumors about you. Hearing that you moved like lightning made me wonder, and my suspicions proved correct."
The Lord straightened his back and rested his clenched fists on his knees. He posed his question in a solemn posture.
"From what I can see, you seem to have lost both your power and memories from seven hundred years ago. Will you answer me?"
I nodded. Admitting it outright would be better than playing dumb. It was a judgment based on intuition.
"Your guess is mostly right, Lord. It seems I lost my memories and magic power before drifting into the Human Realm. I only learned recently that this body originally belonged to a demon."
I mixed lies into my words. I couldn't tell him the truth, after all. Doing so would only multiply the things I’d have to explain, including things that were impossible to explain—such as the fact that I was a possessor, or that I had received the Blessing of the Sword God.
Even if he held no hostility toward me, letting my guard down prematurely was difficult. After all, we had just met. It was far too short a time to build trust, even if he was Hon's grandfather.
If the Dragon Lord tried to use his Demon Eye to discern truth from falsehood, I'd just have to deal with it and leave it to luck.
"I see."
Fortunately, the Lord didn't use his Demon Eye. Now I felt like the only bad guy here. Damn it.
"Then your Demon Eye must still be sealed as well."
I flinched at his murmur and immediately asked him:
"Did you just say 'Demon Eye'?"
The Lord looked bewildered.
"Have you forgotten your Demon Eye as well? I assumed you would at least remember that much."
"I told you, my memories are entirely gone. More importantly, about the Demon Eye... isn't that an ability unique to dragons? How could I possess one? Don't tell me I used to be a dragon or something?"
The Lord shook his head. He paused briefly, as if gathering his thoughts, before opening his mouth again.
"The Hero of the Origin inherited the Evil Eye of the Loop from the previous Lord."
"I somehow managed to know that much."
"It is the same with you," the Lord replied. "You too inherited a Demon Eye, just like him. The second most powerful eye after the Evil Eye of the Loop—the Demon Eye Defying Heaven."
Dumbfounded, I couldn't utter a single word. The Lord continued in a low, heavy voice.
"I have come here to assist in awakening that Demon Eye."
"...Why are you going this far for me? Simply because I used to be the 1st Corps Commander before losing my memories?"
The Lord chuckled softly. Seeing an emotion other than his usual impassive expression was surprising.
"It may sound ridiculous, but seven hundred years ago, I disliked you. That included Balor Joaquin, the Hero of the Origin. The previous Lord had eyes only for the two of you. It was mere childish jealousy. But standing here now, I finally realize why Lord Ouroboros acted as he did."
He slowly closed and opened his eyes. A restrained crimson light lined the edges of his pupils.
"War is not far off. Not just a war between humans and demons, but a war against the entities beyond."
The Demon Eye of Valerion that I remembered was the Demon Eye of Insight. Future sight like Medea's [Poet's Blessing] was usually predictive sight. But the Demon Eye of Insight was different.
It was closer to prophecy. Therefore, the Dragon Lord's words were equivalent to a prophecy.
"The only one capable of cutting them down and severing them is you, Sword Demon."
The prophecy pointed directly at me—as the adversary to the gods.