Chapter 161: Two-Way Street (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 161: Two-Way Street (4)
The Righteous-Demonic War.
An era when blood and slaughter ran rampant every single day.
After slaughtering the masters of the Righteous Faction who had surged forward like a tidal wave, Baek Joong-hyuk looked at the Mad Demon, who was drenched in blood.
"…Pant, pant."
The Mad Demon heaved, struggling for air.
His breathing was ragged, as if something had ruptured in his lungs. A mixture of his own blood and his enemies' flowed continuously down his face, which he roughly wiped away with his sleeve. Though his battered body stumbled repeatedly, his eyes burned with a beast-like intensity as he drove his sword into each and every corpse of the Righteous Faction.
"Gah!"
Occasionally, there was a survivor.
Only after completely eliminating every potential variable did the Mad Demon drop to one knee, his face tight with exhaustion.
"Are you alright?"
"…I am fine."
The Mad Demon straightened his posture.
Baek Joong-hyuk had merely asked about his condition, yet the Mad Demon strove to show no weakness. Pain surged through his entire body. No matter how superhuman his recovery abilities were, he had to grit his teeth to keep from losing consciousness, which threatened to slip away at any moment.
It was truly a pity.
If this child, who had once possessed nothing, had never met him, would he have lived a slightly more ordinary life?
Baek Joong-hyuk spoke.
"The life of a warrior can never be peaceful until the day they die. Only by constantly testing yourself and struggling desperately to survive can you exist as a human on the boundary of death. Do you regret your choice to follow me?"
"I do not regret it."
"Bound by the shackles of fate, we embarked on the Murim Conquest. Unless someone rises to the absolute apex, the conspiracies and schemes threatening our lives will never end. As the Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult, I have a duty to fight for those who follow me. But you do not. If you wish to return to an ordinary life, even now, I will prepare everything for you. I will give you enough gold and treasures to last a lifetime, a comfortable home to settle in, and I will erase your past so that no one will ever dare touch you."
He looked at the Mad Demon.
People called him crazy, but in Baek Joong-hyuk's eyes, he still overlapped with the boy he had met on that very first day.
Back then, the Mad Demon had no other choices.
Following Baek Joong-hyuk was his entire world, and after fighting day in and day out, he had eventually earned the moniker of the Mad Demon.
The Mad Demon shook his head.
"As my Lord says, I may have no duty. But the justification for the Righteous-Demonic War, and the interests entangled within it, do not matter to me in the slightest. In the depths of my despair, my Lord was the only hope who reached out a hand to me. That is all. I only act because it is my Lord's wish, and I will risk my life to fight anyone who threatens you."
He smiled brightly.
His bloodstained teeth revealed the reality of his present.
"Please do not abandon me. The simple fact that my Lord trusts me is enough for me to want to stay by your side for the rest of my life."
At that moment, Baek Joong-hyuk made a promise to himself.
To the people who believed in him—just as they showed him blind faith, he would show them the exact same level of trust in return.
He did not care about the possibility of betrayal at the end of it all.
Because the present was what mattered.
In the life of a warrior who could die at any moment, Baek Joong-hyuk remained true to what he saw and felt in the present.
That was all.
Baek Joong-hyuk.
No, Roman Dmitry.
Because he remembered his past life, he refused to turn away from the sincerity of those who believed in him.
* * *
Hans returned to his quarters.
It was a small space, barely large enough for a single person to live in.
In truth, the Dmitry father and sons had offered countless times to provide him with a larger room, but Hans had adamantly refused, insisting he did not need it. To others, it might have looked cramped and shabby. However, this place, where he had stayed ever since he first entered the Dmitry family, gave him profound peace of mind.
Thud.
He sat down on the floor.
Looking around the room, which did not even have a bed, he saw traces of Roman Dmitry everywhere.
A broom leaned diagonally against the wall.
Since Roman often went for walks in the morning, Hans would wake up earlier than him to sweep the path. No one had ordered him to do this. Even on days when Roman skipped his walk due to other duties, Hans always kept the path clean just in case. And when he returned to his quarters, he would prepare the items in the cabinet next to the broom. Towels for when Roman sweated heavily, or toiletries in case he wanted to wash up. Things that had absolutely nothing to do with Hans himself filled the cabinet.
A futon was laid out on the floor.
His body could not get used to a soft bed. Near his head hung a calendar densely packed with Roman's schedule.
Tomorrow is the day of the regular meeting.
He recorded everything about Roman's schedule.
On meeting days, he organized and presented the necessary documents, and he prepared extra supplies in case the office ran out of ink or paper. He also checked the current status of the attendees to see if there were any unexpected changes. These were minor details Roman might never notice, but Hans strove to manage everything so that his liege would not experience even the slightest discomfort.
There was a reason why Hans's successor, Murphy, groaned in exhaustion.
At first, Murphy had thought it was just simple chores, but Hans's day was far more packed, leaving almost no time to catch one's breath.
Suddenly, Hans's gaze stopped.
A gentle smile spread across his face.
It was a worn-out toy.
In his childhood, touched by Hans's devotion in taking care of him every day, Roman had once gifted him his favorite toy.
Roman probably did not remember it.
Noble children had countless toys, and this was merely one of them.
But Hans could never forget that moment.
"…Young Master."
The child who had once been Dmitry's greatest worry.
Roman's childhood was heartbreaking.
Baron Romero was not a man of great ambition for power, but during his days as a commoner, he had worked day and night to transcend the limitations of his status. He had no time to spare for his only son. His days were a repetitive cycle of traveling between the iron mines, the forge, and business clients, while Rihanna spent hectic days supporting her husband. Naturally, Roman was neglected. Though they did their best in their own way, Roman had no choice but to learn how to survive on his own at an age when he desperately needed affection.
And then, they became nobles.
Baron Romero showered his son with gifts to make up for the lost years, but by then, Roman Dmitry had already gone astray. Power and money became the fuel for his rebellion. A child living on the boundary between commoner and noble, he drank and raised his voice to assert his presence, trying to fill the gaping void in his heart.
Hans knew this.
Since he was also a father raising a son, he had cared for Roman until the very end, no matter how much of a fool the boy acted like.
Even when people criticized Roman, Hans could never forget the boy who had smiled brightly while handing him that toy.
"…Sob."
Tears began to fall, drip by drip.
A surge of emotion welled up inside him.
He was a servant.
Since typical nobles looked down on servants, Hans had thought himself incredibly blessed just because Roman acknowledged his hard work. It was more than he deserved. Hearing stories from servants of other families, their masters never appreciated them like Roman Dmitry did; instead, they would glare with fury at the slightest mistake.
Yet today, Roman had spoken from the heart.
He had acknowledged that Hans was not someone who only gave, but someone who deserved to receive as much as he gave.
"Sob, hic."
His tears would not stop.
A servant.
Lowborn by birth.
It was a fact everyone knew, a reality no one could deny.
And yet, Roman had treated such a person as an equal human being.
Perhaps because he had poured out his devotion blindly, never expecting anything in return, the realization that a day like this could come made it impossible for Hans to stop crying. The carriage sent to pick him up, the Adelian guards escorting him, the shower of gifts from the nobles of the Northeast Association, the recommendation letter for his granddaughter to enter the Glory Academy...
The things that had happened to him were not what mattered.
It was the emotion behind them.
The fact that Roman Dmitry had recognized his sincerity caused Hans's long-suppressed emotions to burst forth.
He wasn't sad at all.
He wasn't sad in the slightest, yet he couldn't hold back his tears.
He sobbed aloud.
A servant who would normally hold his breath for fear of being heard outside was now pouring out his emotions, completely disregarding what others might think.
Until late that night, Hans could not fall asleep.
And by Roman Dmitry's order, no one disturbed Hans's long night.
* * *
The birthday party incident.
The rumors spread.
Though unintentional, the incident once again proved how deeply Roman Dmitry cherished his people.
At the Phoenix Magic Tower, the leadership gathered for a meeting and brought up the birthday party incident.
"…Honestly, I don't know how to put this into words. When we first set foot in Dmitry, I had many complaints about the Tower Master's actions. I wondered why we had to come to such a remote territory just to make money, and if the prestige of the Phoenix Magic Tower had fallen, surely it hadn't fallen this low. But looking at what has been happening lately, I feel deeply that my foresight was lacking."
It was Nox.
Meeting the eyes focused on him, he spoke his honest feelings.
"Roman Dmitry, our new Lord, has done so much for the Phoenix Magic Tower. He meticulously oversaw our relocation, allocated a massive budget, and even secured a site for our tower's future. Yet, we have done nothing for him in return. Quite cynically, I thought that perhaps this was just an investment for what he expected to receive in the future. Wasn't the Kingdom of Frank the same? They acted as if they would give us their very hearts and souls, but the moment the Tower Master went missing, they treated us like useless trash that only sucked up money."
His negative outlook stemmed from past wounds.
The man in his fifties, who believed every act of kindness had an ulterior motive, felt as if he had been struck over the head after hearing about the birthday party incident.
"Lord Roman Dmitry is different. The eldest son of a noble family has nothing to gain from a servant. Cruel as it may be, that is the reality, yet our Lord threw a grand party for Hans simply because he is one of his people. Whether it was sincere or not doesn't matter. At the very least, he is a man who makes an effort for his people. That alone makes him worthy of our loyalty."
For the past three years, the Phoenix Magic Tower had rotted from the inside.
The former Tower Master had gone missing, Felix had fallen short as the acting leader, and there was no hope for the future of the Phoenix.
But everything had changed.
Since arriving in Dmitry, Nox had never been this happy.
"Tower Master. I am truly sorry for my past behavior."
Until now, Nox had addressed Felix by name.
He had used honorifics, but he had never called him 'Tower Master.'
"Your foresight was correct, Tower Master. You guided the crumbling Phoenix Magic Tower onto the right path, and we have finally found the way forward. From now on, I will follow you unconditionally. I want to become someone trusted by you, Tower Master, and by our Lord. So, please forget my past mistakes and lead me and the other mages well."
He bowed his head.
Nox was the core of the mages.
His oath of loyalty meant that the Phoenix Magic Tower was now fully under Felix's control.
Felix smiled.
He could fully understand Nox's actions.
Knowing that Nox also cared deeply for the Phoenix, Felix accepted his sincerity.
"I understand. Here in Dmitry, we will live a different life than before."
On that day, the Phoenix Magic Tower united as one.
People had declared that the Phoenix had no future, but now they had a core they had never possessed before.
Under the name of Roman Dmitry.
And so, the Phoenix Magic Tower began to regain its original glory.
* * *
Time passed.
One year later.
Finally, the moment Roman had foretold arrived.