Faith vs. Conviction (1)
I looked down at Yohan, who lay sprawled across the cold wooden floor.
His right hand still clutched his sword, while his left was locked around his own chest.
I pried open the fingers of the dead man.
A symbol of Cheonyang-ji came into view.
A skull-shaped cross necklace.
“…….”
I wondered what Yohan had been thinking in his final moment.
Had he regretted choosing the wrong path?
Had he died hoping to reach God?
There was no way to know now.
“Guh!”
A sudden bolt of pain ripped through me, and I let out a groan as I dropped Heoksikdo.
Looking more closely, I saw that the ring finger and little finger of the hand that had gripped the sword were half severed, hanging by a thread.
It was the exact opposite of what had happened when I fought Nike.
And that wasn’t all.
My shoulder blade, my side, and the Achilles tendon in my right foot had all been cut.
The side of my abdomen felt tight and wrong, so I pressed a hand against it—and found a shallow dent there.
…A rib’s broken.
I hadn’t even been able to tell when I’d been attacked.
Impressive.
He’d done this much damage to me even after I’d used a hero’s power.
It drove home all over again just how terrifyingly skilled Yohan had been.
Awakener's Balance
￦924,321,998
Awakener's Balance
￦924,203,457
Awakener's Balance
￦924,113,049
…
Time after time, the money kept draining away.
At the same time, the wounds carved into my body slowly began to heal.
It would still take a long while before I was fully restored.
Regeneration from Speeder wasn’t invincible.
All it did was regenerate a wounded body.
It couldn’t bring the dead back to life.
What if my neck had been cut, or my heart had been mangled?
I’d have died on the spot.
In the end, it had been my victory.
But if I judged only by swordsmanship alone…
I got beaten cleanly.
Yohan had overwhelmed me with pure skill.
Only because I had Purchase had I managed to eke out a win.
If the dead Yohan wanted to accuse me of cheating, or go wandering the earth as a resentful spirit, there was nothing I could do about that.
Na Sang-min’s voice drifted through my mind.
“Kill them by any means necessary. That’s what Ilcheon-illyu is.”
He was right.
A true duel wasn’t a contest.
It was a fight for life and death.
“Khuk!”
I coughed hard, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out.
My vision blurred white, and the floor seemed to sway beneath me.
…
My body was in terrible shape.
No—worse than terrible.
Regeneration was still working, but that skill only dealt with external wounds.
The internal damage shaking my organs had piled up without restraint.
“Kgh!”
My ragged breathing showed no sign of settling down.
I thought I understood why.
I’d activated too many hero abilities in too short a time.
It was the first time I’d ever pushed myself like this.
The backlash had gone straight through my body.
So four really was too many.
Heroic power was limitless, but my body was still only that of a D-class hunter.
If you force a heavy object into a small vessel, of course it’s going to crack.
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and gave a thin smile.
But you could also read it the other way.
Go Ju-hun, the S-class hunter and former representative of the Dio Guild.
If I compared Go Ju-hun and Yohan’s strength…
Yohan, the swordsman, might have been stronger than Go Ju-hun.
So he was around S+ class, then.
In other words, if I poured my hero abilities into a swordsman with that level of power…
I could win!
I lifted the mask from Yohan’s face.
There was a blade scar slashed across his left eye.
It had been hidden while he was wearing the mask.
His pupil looked cloudy, as if he’d been blind in that eye from birth.
He had won because even the most perfect shield had developed the tiniest crack.
But I’d broken through from the right.
So blindness wasn’t the reason for his defeat.
If I had to name the true cause…
Gray smoke billowed up from Yohan’s gelatinous right hand.
The flesh began to melt away almost at once.
It was the curse he’d received from the cult leader, a mark he’d taken upon himself to push past his limits.
I’d started feeling like less force was being put into the right side of his swings…
He must have overloaded the curse while forcing open the limiter.
What would have happened if Yohan had not depended on the cult leader, and instead walked his own path?
For only an instant, Yohan had blocked every attack I threw at him.
He’d even launched a counterattack of his own.
In the end, Yohan lost because…
he doubted himself.
I picked up Heoksikdo and slid it back into its sheath.
“Hah.”
Yohan lay there with his eyes still open, as still as if sleep itself had abandoned him.
I let myself think about it for a moment.
At last, I had successfully eliminated Yohan.
The strongest of the Twelve Apostles—the First Disciple.
I wonder how the cult leader’s going to react.
I hoisted Yohan over my shoulder and walked out of the kendo hall.
The cloudless night sky was absurdly beautiful.
The corpse resting on my shoulder grew colder with every step.
I reached out and closed Yohan’s staring eyes.
To the one who had made him this way, I said, “I’ll take care of the revenge instead.”
Meanwhile, at that very moment, Jo Jeong-hwan, who had been dragged away by the overseer, was utterly stunned.
No—only for a brief moment.
The shocking scene before him left him shutting his mouth tight in silence.
What Jo Jeong-hwan felt was horror, sorrow, and rage.
“You fucking bitch! Move faster, damn it! Why the hell are you so slow?”
A burly man was whipping the back of a woman with a lash.
Where the whip had skimmed her skin, flesh split open and blood flew.
“Aagh!”
The gaunt woman screamed and collapsed.
“Oh? Not getting back up?”
The man lashed her again without mercy.
She couldn’t have been much older than twenty.
The young-looking woman was being brutally beaten.
Other women nearby had pressed themselves against one wall, trembling.
Terrified out of their minds, none of them dared step forward; they only looked away.
Then someone seized the man’s wrist.
“That’s enough! Cut it out!”
It was the overseer who had brought Jo Jeong-hwan here.
“Fuck. What are you grabbing at? Let go!”
The man jerked her hand away with an irritated snarl.
His lips twisted in dissatisfaction, but he didn’t dare lay a hand on the overseer.
He lifted his chin and growled at her.
“Listen here, you little bitch. The moment the cult leader throws you away, you’ll end up looking just like this.”
He seized the woman by the hair and dragged her off.
“Get out here!”
Once the commotion died down, silence swallowed the hallway.
It was an odd place.
A central corridor ran through the middle, with a room on either side.
Anyone walking the hall could see straight into the rooms from the outside.
At the far end, a sign hung from the ceiling.
Cheonyang Palace
Despite the word “palace,” the place looked more like a prison.
Jo Jeong-hwan realized where he was.
This is where they lock up women.
The overseer approached him.
“You were pretty shocked, huh? Don’t worry. You won’t end up like that for a while.”
The woman with the unnaturally pale skin tried to comfort Jo Jeong-hwan, who now wore the face of a seven-year-old girl.
Jo Jeong-hwan caught the meaning hidden in her words.
For a while.
Which meant that if the cult leader grew bored, or if she made the slightest mistake, that would be her fate too.
There were women everywhere in Paradise Garden.
And if the cult leader simply gave the word to one of his Apostles, they could bring in new women from outside whenever they pleased.
There were no human rights here.
Like chewing gum spat out after the flavor was gone, the cult leader replaced women as easily as changing clothes.
“Where are they taking that person?”
Jo Jeong-hwan asked in Ji-ye’s voice.
“To the work detail. She’ll be out in the fields for more than twelve hours.”
The overseer turned her gaze away.
“Still, you’re lucky. You’ll get proper meals here, and you’ll even be able to shower.”
The cult leader liked healthy, youthful women.
The women who stayed in Cheonyang Palace were guaranteed the bare minimum for living.
What, then, was the overseer’s role here?
The answer came almost immediately.
“Everyone back to your rooms. Heesu and Yunjin, give her a bath. Change her clothes too. And….”
The overseer pointed toward a room.
“Take her to Room 17.”
It was the room where the woman who’d just been beaten and thrown out had been staying.
Two women in white dresses led Jo Jeong-hwan away.
“Ah, hello.”
“This way.”
For some reason, they seemed to have no strength left in them at all.
Should I call it listlessness?
They were like dolls with their souls pulled out, obeying whatever they were told and doing exactly as they were instructed.
The overseer bent down to Jo Jeong-hwan’s level and asked, “What’s your name?”
“I’m Ji-ye. Lee Ji-ye. My nickname is Jeje.”
“……All right. Ji-ye. You must be tired. Rest well today. As for your training….”
She hesitated.
She swallowed words she could not bring herself to say to a child.
“Let’s start tomorrow.”
Sharp as ever, Jo Jeong-hwan guessed what she meant by training.
She’s talking about teaching me all kinds of filthy things.
To a little girl of seven, no less.
The overseer lowered her head.
“I’m sorry, Ji-ye. I don’t want to make you do something like this either. At your age….”
She had a beauty that could enthrall anyone just by looking at her.
…She’s beautiful.
Jo Jeong-hwan thought so even as he stared.
But at the same time, she looked unbearably sad.
The overseer’s eyes, when they met his, trembled like candle flames.
She feels guilty.
She herself hated this so much it must have been killing her.
She’s probably being threatened, or someone’s got leverage on her.
With a voice clear as spring water, Jo Jeong-hwan said, “Run away. We can all run away together!”
The man with the whip had vanished.
Wasn’t this the perfect chance?
No matter how brainwashed they might be.
They couldn’t possibly want to live like less than human beings.
“Don’t be ridiculous! We can’t do that.”
For a moment, the overseer’s face hardened as she looked up.
Above them were countless CCTV cameras, like the eyes of heaven itself.
“There are cameras inside the rooms too. They run twenty-four hours a day.”
The outcome would be obvious if they tried to escape this building in secret.
“Not long ago, one of the girls who was helping with bath duty died. She was such a sweet child—she always listened to me and called me older sister, like an angel.”
The overseer’s voice trembled.
“The only thing I can do is… make things hurt less for you.”
Tears welled in her eyes.
She’d tried to look firm in front of the cult leader, but even she was barely holding on.
After letting out a long breath to force down the boiling anger in his chest, Jo Jeong-hwan took her hand with his tiny one.
“Okay. Then I’ll wait.”
“For what?”
Ji-ye’s reflection trembled in her wet eyes.
“For Super Force! You know them, right?”
They were the comic-book heroes in helmets and bright, colorful tights.
“The purple main character is going to come save us!”
At that resolute little face, brimming with absolute confidence, the overseer finally snorted a laugh.
She must have thought: She’s really just a child.
Jo Jeong-hwan remembered the words of a certain man.
“Purple. That’s the signal. Hide well until then.”
His eyes had been fierce and rough.
But he believed in himself, and he never stopped turning that belief into action.
The overseer soon gave a bitter smile.
“He’ll save us?”
She remembered a man who had once tried to save her.
A member of the work detail, he had fallen in love with her and tried to smuggle her out of Paradise Garden.
But the plan was exposed, and the Apostles caught him.
The cult leader cast horrible dark magic on him.
It was a brutal torture in which his internal organs came spilling out through his mouth.
The overseer had seen that scene herself, the blood and screams splashed across her eyes.
The cult leader had cackled as he shouted, “Try running again! Try defying me again! I’ll make your family—everyone here—look exactly like this!”
Waking from her memories, the overseer let her shoulders sink.
“Ji-ye. Give up on hope. If you expect anything, all you’ll get is disappointment.”
Even after being rebuked like that, Jo Jeong-hwan only smiled sweetly.
This time, it wasn’t an act.
“Pretty overseer sister!”
At the fearless voice of the little girl who called her sister without the slightest hesitation, the overseer stopped crying.
Jo Jeong-hwan gently wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks.
“Listen to Jeje and keep hoping, okay?”