Chapter 24: One of the Two Must Die (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 24: One of the Two Must Die (5)
Leon received an urgent summons from Choi Seol-ah.
He had been in the middle of selecting the representative candidates for the first-year cadets, feeling frustrated because no particularly eye-catching cadets had appeared.
Then, over the phone, Choi Seol-ah’s voice burst out in an off-beat, frantic panic.
―I won't mince words. Hurry and—
She hung up before she could even finish the sentence. The master-servant relationship between her and Kang Geomma was still very much alive.
Furthermore, after ten whole years, she had been thoroughly gaslit by him.
The only ones who knew the inner truth were the two of them, a secret they would take to their graves.
That was why Choi Seol-ah had notified the strongest hero she knew that her 'lord's' life was hanging by a thread.
If things went wrong, her lord might just pass away today and become a star in the night sky.
At the hands of his two wives, Ryozo and Abel...
Weapon might get caught in the crossfire and die too, but she didn't care about that.
Come to think of it, Weapon was the one who had brought this danger upon her lord in the first place, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he kicked the bucket here and now.
Tucking away her dark, villainous mindset, Choi Seol-ah conveyed the sheer urgency of the situation to Leon.
―You must come as fast as you can.
Sensing an ill omen, Leon stopped what he was doing and immediately hurried straight to the principal's office.
*
Episode. One of the Two Must Die
My body is tingling.
That was the thought that struck Leon the moment his hand gripped the doorknob. The aura seeping through the principal's office door was anything but ordinary. This needle-sharp aura was undoubtedly killing intent.
The owners of this killing intent—which made even him, a Hero (candidate), tense up—were...
Abel and Ryozo.
Just what on earth was happening inside?
Leon hardened his expression and opened the door.
“Ugh.”
Instinctively, he raised a hand to shield his eyes. The concentrated killing intent had blasted him full force.
Squinting, Leon scanned the principal's office. Four people were seated around a U-shaped couch setup.
The first to catch his eye was Ryozo, sitting in the head seat. Dark shadows hung beneath her eyes, and a light glinted in her gaze like a dokkaebi fire.
The Sword Princess Abel didn't look much different. She glared across from her with a gaze filled with sharp aura.
Rumble...
Whether he entered or not, neither woman seemed to care. Then again, their entire focus was fixed on the couch opposite them.
Leon turned his head as well.
Weapon looked pale enough to die on the spot. His two fists, resting demurely on his thighs, trembled so pitifully it made anyone watching feel sorry for him.
What on earth did you do, Weapon...? Huh?
Leon blinked, his eyes suddenly widening.
It was because of a young girl. It was a face he had never seen before, yet he felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he had just seen it this morning.
Wait, she looks way too much like Kang Geomma.
The girl exhaled a stinging scent similar to blood and iron. It was the distinct odor of Gehenna.
Having been born, raised, and until recently residing in the Demon Realm, Leon recognized it instantly.
And with that, the puzzle pieces of the situation began falling into place on their own.
A girl who looked just like Kang Geomma. The thick, unmistakable scent of the Demon Realm, Gehenna. And his two wives making no effort to hide their fury...
So you were the one who committed the deed, Geomma.
Run away. Gehenna won't be far enough. Run all the way to the moon, where we fought that desperate battle ten years ago.
Otherwise, Weapon is going to die.
At least one person should live. Leon believed that for the sake of humanity, it was only right for Weapon to be sacrificed.
Shift.
His eyes met those of the black-haired girl, who was sitting at the low table munching on sweet red bean jelly sweets.
A strange sensation seized Leon.
Staring into those unrealistically beautiful eyes felt as if his very soul was being sucked into the Abyss.
Deep, tranquil black eyes.
It was as if hell itself had been condensed into a pair of orbs, making it impossible to gauge their depths.
He had encountered countless top-tier cadets today, yet none of them could even compare to such a profound gaze. An avant-garde potential flickered within them.
Ryozo and Abel shifted their gazes to Leon as well.
Weapon, hanging his head like a condemned prisoner, peeked upward.
A brief silence ensued.
“Bal... dor?”
The girl finally spoke.
* * *
Even without hearing the full details from Weapon, I sensed the gravity of the situation. It was thanks to that specific sixth sense possessed only by married men, coupled with the divine authority inside me clanging warning bells nonstop.
I chose the workshop of the blacksmith, Wieland, as my first sanctuary. I knew it sounded like something a crazy person would do, but I wanted to see with my own eyes the material Weapon had brought back from the Demon Realm.
A material I had been desperately waiting for. If I missed the chance to witness the birth of my new armament, I would regret it.
But what could I do? I'm Korean. We are a species that will happily wear threadbare clothes in real life so long as our in-game weapons don't look inferior.
With my brain thoroughly marinated in the DNA of that warrior race, even I couldn't resist.
It's darkest right beneath the lamp. Even if Ryozo sends out instructors, she'll most likely skip Wieland's workshop.
Walking on thin ice on one hand, but full of excitement on the other, I made my way to Wieland's workshop.
Was it responding to one half of my feelings?
Wieland only opened the door halfway, refusing to let me inside.
“I'm sorry, but I can't take you in today.”
“…Huh? Are you feeling sick or something?”
“……Orders came down from the academy principal. If you show up, I'm supposed to contact her immediately.”
“Hah.”
I thought I was being clever, but her reach had already extended this far? Just what in the world happened for Ryozo to take such swift measures?
I vowed that I wouldn't go home today, at the very least.
“Thanks, Old Man.”
I expressed my gratitude to Wieland. Though he turned me away, he had, for my sake—
“I'm sorry, Heavenly Sword.”
“…?”
From behind, the sound of trampling feet thundered against the earth.
Thump-thump-thump-thump!
I turned around to see a swarm of instructors charging toward me, raising clouds of dust. Desperately, they shouted:
“Heavenly Sword! The principal wishes to see you!”
“P-Please come with us, we beg you!”
Their faces were filled with helplessness and dread. And for good reason—everyone knew that even if they swarmed me in a mob, capturing me was impossible.
They were merely personnel deployed against their will by the principal's orders. They were in a position where if ordered to jump, they had to ask how high.
She intentionally sent the instructors so I couldn't lay a finger on them.
She was exploiting my nature never to harm the innocent.
That's Ryozo for you. She knew her husband's psychology inside out. The number of deployed personnel would only grow, and the dragnet would keep tightening. 'Surrounded on all sides' was the perfect description.
On top of that, the screams resembling desperate wails and the footsteps echoing from all directions gave the scene an impossibly vivid sense of presence.
The only person to trust in this situation was...
“Huh?”
When I turned my head back around, a 'CLOSED' sign was dangling like a broken clock pendulum on the workshop door.
“Old Man?”
“Sorry.”
Wieland apologized through the closed door, his voice raspy like dry metal.
“I am merely a small business owner. I have no choice but to follow the principal's orders. It's unfortunate, but please rectify your own mistakes yourself.”
Instead of hiding me, he betrayed me. To think this old man's self-preservation instinct went this far.
You are no God-land.
Welcome back, Ball-land.
Ball-land tried to soothe my anger. He was probably sweating more right now than when he worked the forge.
“I promise to pour my heart and soul into making your armament the absolute best! So please, survive!”
“Dammit! If you turn it into a rag like Murasame again, you're dead meat!”
“…You still hold a grudge over that...?”
I didn't reply. I intended to leave a lingering sense of guilt in Wieland's mind so he'd put everything into crafting the armament. It wasn't as if we had secrets from each other anyway.
Snap!
I sparked lightning magic and lightly leaped. In an instant, I shot far away from the ground.
From an altitude so high it almost touched the clouds, I looked down at the crowd of instructors. Watching them crane their necks so hard it looked painful was truly pathetic. But who was I to worry about anyone else?
Muttering bitterly, I snapped my fingers once more.
SWOOOOOSH!
Transforming into a beam of light, I sliced through the vast blue sky. My movement was accompanied by a sonic boom and the thunderous roar of parting cloud masses.
The landscape beneath my feet shifted as if by magic. Cadets looked up, letting out bewildered gasps.
“Isn't that the Heavenly Sword?!”
“Whoa! Heavenly Sword! I love you!”
I didn't have the luxury to wave back warmly. I accelerated even faster. I breached subsonic speeds, but the speed at which my brain was spinning easily outpaced my movement.
I have to survive.
To escape the inescapable net laid by Ryozo and Abel, even Gehenna wouldn't be enough.
“Leaving the atmosphere like this would probably be the safe bet.”
But that was too much of an overreaction.
It might actually raise suspicion where there was none.
After all, I didn't even know why Ryozo and Abel wanted to see me. Earlier, I had panicked and run like a guilty thief, but I intended to clear things up by tomorrow. Running off into the middle of nowhere was a terrible strategy.
In that case...
The second place of refuge could only be there.
Gutt-t-t-t.
I engaged my core muscle pressure.
Changing direction while moving at near-light speed felt as if my muscle fibers were tearing apart. Still, compared to the scolding of my wives, it was a tolerable pain.
Remember this: such is the reality of a married man.
Splitting the clouds in two, I executed a U-turn. Then, I immediately headed toward the destination that had popped into my mind.
There is a saying that a woman scorned brings frost in midsummer. Sure enough, snow began fluttering against my face.
Of course, that was purely a metaphor. It was simply because the destination I picked happened to be in perpetual winter year-round.
* * *
Research was in full swing at the Antarctic Base. Victor Poison and Medea Poison had put their heads together for the first time in a while.
If one were to name the highest intellects of humanity, it would be the trio of Victor, Medea, and Ryozo. Two of them had spent days on end analyzing the cause behind a 'certain phenomenon.' The subject of their study was self-evidently a dilemma far beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.
Because Antarctica was such an isolated location, the two were completely oblivious to the Exchange Meeting between Joaquin and Parsi. In fact, that was a mild oversight; the Poison father and daughter hadn't even eaten properly. For an entire week, no less.
Regardless, after immersing themselves to the point of forsaking food and drink...
“At last.”
“At long last.”
The two Ancients bore fruit.
However, it did not seem encouraging.
“This is...”
Victor Poison let out a low groan as he looked at the displays covering the entire wall. Standing beside him, his daughter's face was equally grim.
“The cause behind the heroes' prolonged lifespans.”
Medea roughly ruffled her hair, which was pushed up past her brow.
It had started with the visual ages of the Sword Emperor and the Spear Saint.
Even considering that heroes naturally possessed long lifespans, her friends' wrinkles were actually diminishing. Sensing something amiss, Medea came to the Antarctic Base to borrow Victor's intelligence and experience, and together with her father, she engaged in intense research for a week.
But the result was...
“The reason aging heroes are growing younger... is because they've been draining the lifespan of the world to use as their own...?”
“……”
―Yes.
The margin of error was narrower than a single thread. It had been calculated by Vixbig, the artificial intelligence created by Ryozo.
“The world was breaking down.”
―Pardon me for speaking up, but...
Vixbig chimed in.
―This world is heading toward its most definitive apocalypse precisely because of humans—or more specifically, heroes.
“Is that truly a destiny we cannot escape?”
―...At least according to my calculations so far, yes. If you command it, I can continue running simulations until a desired outcome is reached, however...
“It has already surpassed the realm of possibilities that can be calculated by numbers. Vixbig, you have done your best.”
Victor shook his head.
“So this... is an inevitability.”
―Perhaps 'That Person' could do something about it?
“If it's him... If it's the hero who saved the world...!”
Medea reacted to those words. The spark returned to her eyes, which had been dim a moment ago.
“Even so, I doubt even he could pull that off.”
What a pathetic father, crushing hope like that. Medea, whose nerves were frayed from lack of sleep, snapped at him.
“Why are you always so pessimistic?! Dad, you haven't changed a bit! What, you think just because you've lived long enough, it's fine?! Putting aside me, Zieg, or Richard—what about the academy cadets?! Are they supposed to collapse along with the world like this?!”
“…Medea.”
“We have to try everything we can! We have to ask for help with everything we've got! If there's someone who seems capable, we should grab onto their pant legs if we have to!”
Moisture welled up in Medea's eyes.
Having failed to make any notable contribution during the 2nd Human-Demon War, a heavy weight had always pressed on her heart.
For ten long years, she had rationalized her inaction, telling herself that it was fine as long as the world was at peace. She had endured by occasionally visiting Joaquin Academy to listen to the bright laughter of the cadets.
But to hear that even that would soon come to an end...
This damn world, this absurd reality, never gave humanity a single moment to breathe. Even during peace, it artificially engineered crises to push mankind off the edge of a cliff.
“We could at least fight against the demons! But they're saying this apocalypse can't be stopped by human hands! Then..., then we have to ask a person who has surpassed humanity! We have to ask the god of this era for help...!”
―I apologize for interrupting, but...
“If you're sorry, hold it in for a second!”
―Well, an intruder has breached the facility.
“…What...?”
―Biometric registration confirmed.
At that exact moment—
BOOOOM!
With an explosive roar, a swirl of snow rushed into the interior of the Antarctic Base.
Medea's overheated mind instantly cooled.
Clack. Clack.
Footsteps resonated chillily from within the thick white dust.
“I'm sorry for dropping in unannounced.”
The man walking out through the dancing snow haze was the very name Medea had been desperately invoking—a man who was, in truth, no different from a god.
“Could I crash here for just one day?”
The Heavenly Sword.
“I can't go home today.”
Kang Geomma's current identity was that of a fugitive.