Chapter 231: Traitor (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 231: Traitor (6)
Saturday morning.
I was just lying in bed with Chae-ha.
Our lips met.
We kissed deeply.
“Mmph…”
Our warm skin pressed together.
“You’re so warm…” Yoon Chae-ha murmured, pulling her lips slightly away from mine to look up at me with dazed eyes.
She buried her face in my chest, nuzzling against me like a cat.
“Can’t we just stay like this all day?”
Yoon Chae-ha pleaded sweetly.
There was no reason we couldn’t.
“I’d like that, too.”
I brushed aside the bangs clinging to her slightly sweaty forehead and kissed her again.
Things had been pretty relaxed since I got the Fragment.
The others seemed to have their own plans, too.
Let’s just laze around in bed like this today.
I pulled Yoon Chae-ha in tighter.
It was the beginning of a lazy day, one where time seemed to stand still.
Until a message arrived.
– Ping.
A message arrived on my watch.
I didn’t bother looking at it. I figured it was nothing important.
“…Aren’t you going to look?”
Yoon Chae-ha, nestled in my arms, lifted her head and asked, staring at me.
“It’s fine.”
“Still… you should look…”
Worried it might be something important, she urged me to check.
“What if it’s something important?”
“…Alright.”
I checked my watch right away.
A hologram screen materialized in the air.
The sender… was Kang A-rin.
[RIN]: Arcadia's main gate is closed.
[RIN]: Yeo-wool is confirmed to be inside.
“……!”
My eyes wavered.
Arcadia’s main gate was closed.
This was… a Heretic Judgment.
According to the lore, when a Heretic Judgment occurs, one faction is destined for annihilation.
They wouldn’t lock the gates over just a few traitors.
But Cheon Yeo-wool was inside?
Did she cause this, or did she get caught up in it?
Either way, I should have been prepared.
I immediately sent a reply to Kang A-rin.
[belief_]: Can you contact her?
[RIN]: No. All communications are cut off. Because of the barrier.
“……”
…There was no time to waste.
“Let’s go.”
Before I could even make a decision, Yoon Chae-ha was already getting out of bed.
She had been clinging to me, reading the watch over my shoulder.
“I don’t know what’s going on… but we need to get up, right?”
“Yeah, we do.”
As I got out of bed, I gently bit Chae-ha’s lower lip.
“I’ll take care of it quickly.”
We got dressed.
“Let’s head straight to Arcadia…”
I was just about to open the door and leave when it happened.
– Zing.
A strange sensation shot up my spine.
A signal, sent to me by someone.
“Flapper…?”
I stopped Yoon Chae-ha, who was heading for the door.
“Wait a second.”
“What is it?”
I took her with me and rushed out to the penthouse’s front yard.
There, in the middle of the empty air.
– K-k-krak….
A crack began to form.
– FWOOSH!!
With a great beat of wings, a black peregrine falcon burst forth.
“Bam!”
What was going on?
This was the first time he’d ever summoned me.
– SKREEEEE!!
He circled in the air, letting out a powerful cry.
He’d definitely gotten bigger after absorbing that curse.
As he began to descend toward me, I noticed something.
On top of his black head.
A small, white… contrasting something… was stuck fast to him.
It was a small bird.
“Gani?”
Why was Cheon Yeo-wool’s divine bird here?
Gani descended to the ground, clinging tightly to Flapper.
“What’s going on?”
The moment Flapper landed, the little bird hopped off as if it had been waiting.
And then.
– Chirp! Cheep! Chirp-chirp-chirp!!
It began hopping around frantically, flapping its wings, trying to explain something to me.
“…I don’t.”
I don’t really understand. I wore a troubled expression.
I didn’t have a talent for understanding the language of beasts.
Just then.
– Swoosh.
Flapper, who had been watching the scene, quietly touched his wing to my head.
[Master.]
His words flowed into my mind.
[My companion begged me to open a path. She said her master is in danger.]
“……!”
Gani’s master was Cheon Yeo-wool.
Cheon Yeo-wool was in danger.
It seemed the situation had already become serious.
“Let’s go.”
I made an instant decision…
But, wait a minute… what did he say?
Companion?
I glanced sideways, looking back and forth between Flapper and Gani.
Were they… dating?
A fist-sized bird and… a giant falcon. Of course, Flapper could shrink his size, but still…
No, let’s deal with this later. It wasn’t important right now.
I asked Flapper.
“Can you get us there? There should be a barrier.”
– SKREEEEE!!
Flapper cried out confidently, as if my worries were absurd.
“Okay.”
I immediately turned to Yoon Chae-ha, who was clutching my sleeve.
“Chae-ha, go join A-rin. They’ll need resources on the outside.”
“I want to go… too…”
Just then, Flapper turned his head, stared at Yoon Chae-ha, and shook his head firmly.
[She’s too heavy. The passage will collapse.]
So he says.
He probably didn’t mean her physical weight. It must have been about the density or weight of her mana having grown so much.
But there was no time for a lengthy explanation.
I summarized it mischievously.
“He says you’re too heavy.”
– Pyaak?
“……?”
She looked down at her waist and stomach, blinking with an expression of utter disbelief.
Her indignant expression was cute.
I shrugged as if to say ‘what can you do,’ grabbed Flapper’s wing, and climbed onto his back.
“See you in a bit.”
I pulled Yoon Chae-ha, who was pouting, toward me and kissed her on her pale forehead.
– Mwah.
“Let’s go.”
The moment I gave the short command.
– SKREEEEEE!!
He spread his wings powerfully.
– THOOM!
– FWOOSH!
He kicked off the ground and shot straight up into the air.
Before me, I could see the dimensional rift Flapper had torn open.
Beyond it… the sky over the Arcadia grounds shimmered.
I lowered my stance and wrapped my arms tightly around Flapper’s neck.
Entering the battlefield.
– WHOOSH!
The first thing I saw upon passing through… was a vision of hell.
The corpses of infested followers and shattered buildings.
And at the center of it all.
Cheon Yeo-wool and…
“Yohan.”
I spat his name under my breath, blinking slowly.
I had his location.
“There!”
I commanded, kicking off Flapper’s back.
– WHOOSH!
I threw myself into the air.
A free fall from dozens of meters up.
My gaze was fixed on a single point.
In that brief moment of falling, my voice reached her.
“Yeo-wool.”
Our eyes met in midair.
I could see her trembling pupils.
“I’ll get the explanation later, okay?”
I grinned, readjusting my grip on my spear.
I channeled all the mana in my body into the tip of the spear, adding it to the velocity of my fall.
Jade-green mana began to condense around Catastrophe.
“Phalanx.”
– KWAAAAAAANG!
A green meteor, falling from the sky, slammed down toward Yohan.
A thick cloud of dust and debris flew in all directions.
As time passed and the dust slowly settled, a massive crater was revealed.
And at its center.
Dozens, hundreds of writhing black tentacles were tangled together, having seemingly blocked the attack.
Yohan.
Even in the original story, he was an extremely tricky character from the player’s perspective.
I’m not talking about his combat difficulty or power. It was a matter of management.
As the story progresses, he inevitably gets involved with Yeo-wool… and Yohan can’t stand the sense of alienation and jealousy that arises from it.
Therefore, it takes a great deal of effort to keep Yohan as an ally.
However.
I didn’t make that effort.
So perhaps… this was inevitable.
The tentacles slowly receded.
– Gurgle… gurgle….
From within, Yohan revealed himself.
His left arm, which he’d used to block the spear strike head-on, was nearly torn to shreds.
But instead of blood, black tentacles poured from the wound, forcibly holding the arm in place.
Even in that state, Yohan’s gaze wasn’t on me.
It was fixed solely on Cheon Yeo-wool.
“…Yeo-wool…”
Ignoring his dangling arm, he staggered one step forward.
“We… we weren’t like this…”
Yohan’s expression grew more and more distorted.
“You’re the Saintess!!!”
He screamed, his voice raw.
“Licking the Hero’s wounds from behind, comforting me with your body and soul whenever I wanted… that’s your role! Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?!”
His voice was changing, from that of a human…
To that of a monster.
The black veins that had crept up to his chin writhed.
“Why are you hiding behind that bastard? You’re mine. My plaything… my possession…”
– CRUNCH!
The spinning spear I threw tore off his dangling arm and slammed it into a wall.
And in that exact moment.
Cheon Yeo-wool, who was behind me, grabbed my arm and spun me around to face her.
– Mwah.
Then, without hesitation, she stood on her tiptoes and crashed her lips against mine.
Right in front of Yohan, whose eyes were wide with shock.
She sucked on my lower lip, pushing her hot tongue deep inside my mouth.
“Mmph… schlick…”
The wet, explicit sounds echoed across the battlefield.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her body against my chest until it felt like she was crushing herself against me.
Beyond her, I could see Yohan’s eyes, frozen and bloodshot, looking as if they would tear apart.
But Cheon Yeo-wool didn’t seem to care about him in the slightest.
She was focused only on me.
“Mmph… I’m sorry, Hae-in. Nngh… I didn’t want to… rely on you…”
As if overcome with guilt, she pressed herself even closer.
– Schlick….
Cheon Yeo-wool’s tongue explored every corner of my mouth, mixing our saliva.
“What are you talking about.”
I pulled her waist in tighter and gave her another light peck on the lips.
“Don’t say that.”
She pulled her lips away, as if disappointed.
I took a step toward Yohan, letting Cheon Yeo-wool lean against my chest.
Then I smiled and said, “This is her answer.”
As I spoke.
– Sluuurp….
A long, silvery thread of saliva stretched between our lips.
Cheon Yeo-wool licked her red, swollen lips sensuously.
Then, with ice-cold eyes, she looked down at the dumbstruck Yohan and whispered.
“Idiot.”
That single word completely severed what little sanity Yohan had left.
“Gh… Ghhhhh…”
His throat swelled grotesquely.
– Crack, crackle….
With the sound of his jaw dislocating, his mouth opened abnormally wide.
“GRAAAAAAAAH!!”
Black demonic energy erupted from Yohan’s body.
The tentacles writhing behind him expanded, indiscriminately destroying the surrounding buildings.
His eyes clouded over, losing their focus.
“Wow, it worked.”
Amidst the storm before us, Cheon Yeo-wool looked at me and smiled brightly.
“Looks like it.”
I let out a small laugh, too.
As expected, she’s a quick thinker.
Cheon Yeo-wool had deliberately provoked Yohan.
In the way he would hate the most.
The best way to subdue an infested entity…
Is to make it lose all reason.
Its movements become simpler, and the way to defeat it becomes clear.
We reached our hands out to each other.
– Clap!
A crisp high-five.
“Alright… then…”
I readjusted my grip on the spear and turned my head.
“Shall we finish this?”
And then, we kicked off the ground at the same time.