Ian watched the mage setting up the magic circle and slowly curled his fingers.
Let’s think about what he’d done since being dragged to this other world.
Killed the Demon King. Saved people. Protected world peace.
Even though he’d been forcibly brought here, he’d fulfilled all his duties as a Saint. Now that damned god just needed to keep his promise and send him back to his original world.
Ian glared at the magic circle, which was beginning to glow, with an anxious expression.
“Can’t you go any faster?”
“I’m doing my best. I’d even stake my life on it!”
The mage answered, sweating profusely.
“Everyone does their best. The problem is the results.”
Ian tapped his foot on the floor. As time passed, his heart grew more anxious. Because he was afraid that crazy bastard who always clung to him like an octopus sucker would come barging in.
The Emperor had promised to hold that guy back, but even if he and the entire knight order rushed at him, they wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
‘Uselessly strong bastard.’
Thanks to him, they’d taken the Demon King’s head, but that was it. Even without that guy, they would’ve taken the Demon King’s head eventually. It was only a matter of time.
“Faster, faster!”
Ian forgot his polite speech and urged the mage on.
“It’s, it’s done!”
How much time had passed? Finally, the mage answered, panting.
“Now we just need to place the magic stone!”
Ian snatched the magic stone from the mage’s hand and threw it into the magic circle. At that moment, the magic circle was completed.
‘Success!’
The problem was that the crazy bastard arrived at the same time.
BOOM!
The temple’s massive door collapsed with a loud noise.
The crazy bastard’s entrance.
“What kind of Holy Knight destroys a temple?”
As he clicked his tongue, that guy walked forward. The armor that usually gleamed white was stained with red blood, and binding chains of gold were wrapped around his torso. They were sealing chains said to bind even Ancient Dragons, but they didn’t seem to work properly on this bastard.
“Saint-nim!”
The strongest Holy Knight, Dragon Rider, ruler of the northern territories, descendant of a hero who inherited angelic blood, wielder of the Holy Sword. He was a guy who received all kinds of praise, but to Ian, he was different. The pain he’d experienced while traveling with that bastard came flooding back in sequence.
Thinking about it, he felt like he could curse a bit at the end.
“Fuck! I’m free now! Fuck off!”
Ian’s terrible stalker, despite being a Saint.
Vermouth El di Roxtean.
Ian quickly threw himself into the magic circle before he could approach. Goodbye forever, you bastard.
—
Choi Ian. He was an ordinary college student. In his childhood, his parents had passed away, so he lived a bit harder than others, but it wasn’t miserable. Because his kind hyung, four years older, was there for him.
His hyung gave up college for Ian.
“My head’s better than yours, so wouldn’t it be better if I work?”
When Ian seriously proposed this, his hyung Choi Jaeheon grabbed his younger brother’s nose with his finger and twisted it.
“What are you going to earn money with?”
“Anything.”
He could work at a fast-food place, or enter a factory in the provinces. He didn’t want to be separated from his hyung, but he’d heard the pay was pretty good.
“I’ll send you to college, hyung.”
“Forget it.”
Choi Jaeheon smiled and shook his head. Then he coaxed his immature younger brother into studying. The problem was that Ian’s head was worse than his hyung’s. Still, effort doesn’t betray belief. Somehow, he managed to get accepted to a university in the Seoul area.
How happy his hyung had been then. Ian also became triumphant and shouted.
“Great, just wait. I’ll graduate early and let you live without working!”
“Little brother, let’s talk after you get a scholarship first.”
“Ugh.”
Who was it that said life would change once you passed the high school senior year? Changed my ass. The life of sitting at a desk and only studying didn’t change. On top of that, he wasn’t particularly smart either.
“I must be an idiot.”
One night when he was staying up studying before exams, Ian left the house with a gloomy expression. He thought maybe breathing some cold air would help clear his head.
“There are a lot of stars tonight.”
After staring blankly up at the night sky for about ten minutes, he turned around to go back inside to study when suddenly something glowing fell from the air. He was startled and tried to dodge it, but with his terrible physical condition from sitting at a desk all the time, it was impossible.
‘I should’ve exercised when hyung asked me to.’
He regretted it later, but it was already too late.
When the light faded and he came to his senses, he was already in another world. Tall pillars, a white ceiling carved with baby angels—before he could admire the massive structure, people wearing clothes you’d only see in comics approached.
And they shouted.
“Oh, the Saint-nim has arrived!”
Isn’t this story too cliché? Just as common as being hit by a reincarnation truck was being summoned to another world as a saintess or saint.
“Crazy.”
That day, Ian broke his promise to his hyung for the first time. He’d promised never to curse no matter how much his friends swore. But it was a situation where curses had to come out. The priests who served Regnasia, the goddess of war and love, explained everything to Ian.
Kill the Demon King and save the world. If he just did that, they said he’d be able to return. His blood boiled at their shameless behavior of dragging over a perfectly fine person and asking him to save the world, but there was no other way.
Ian chose to adapt quickly instead of turning away from reality.
That’s when he met that crazy bastard, Vermouth.
The tall man wearing full-body armor that gleamed silver looked down at Ian, who was much shorter than him. Then he removed his helmet, which still had blood on it.
The face revealed when he removed his helmet was impressive. Strangely glowing blonde hair, deep purple eyes, a well-shaped nose bridge, red lips. He was a person who seemed to embody the word “beauty.”
“Hello, Saint-nim.”
On top of that, he greeted him with a gentle voice, so at first Ian thought he was a normal guy.
“I am Vermouth, the commander of the Holy Knights who serve the goddess Regnasia.”
Vermouth’s purple eyes looking at him sparkled strangely. He didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, but later Vermouth told him it was the first moment in his life he’d fallen in love.
“Is it possible to fall in love when you first meet someone?”
When Ian asked in disbelief, Vermouth answered.
“Nothing is impossible in this world.”
Systematically crazy bastard. After that, Ian became the center of Vermouth’s world. What about the goddess? That might have been a natural question. But Vermouth was a somewhat unique case.
Born in a world with gods and able to use divine power, so he believed in god. For him, the top priority wasn’t god but the person he loved for the first time. In other words, Choi Ian.
“Is that okay?”
“The goddess is merciful.”
More precisely, rather than merciful, she seemed to scrape together talented geniuses and use them. Anyway, using that as an excuse, Vermouth stuck right next to Ian and interfered with everything. His interference became even worse after he learned that Ian’s ability was to recover power through contact.
“You must not make even the slightest contact with any other bastard.”
“Why? That’s my ability though?”
“If you make contact with someone else, I’ll kill that bastard. Then the forces fighting the Demon King’s army will decrease, won’t they?”
Just don’t kill them! It was truly novel logic. Thanks to that, he didn’t have to throw his body around here and there, but that didn’t mean he could comfortably slack off either.
“Please bestow your blessing only on me.”
This bastard made himself the exception to the contact rule.
“Would you like to kiss me first?”
“What are you saying, you crazy bastard?”
By this point, Ian was cursing freely. Sometimes he’d even flip off Vermouth with his middle finger. It would be something his hyung in the original world would lament if he saw, but he couldn’t endure it without doing at least this much.
That’s how broken Regnasia’s world was. Monsters constantly attacked people, and demons destroyed cities.
“If you don’t like lips, how about the cheek?”
Ian made a face like he was going to vomit, then kissed Vermouth’s cheek. Vermouth was a great beauty, and on top of that, he helped Ian not waste his ability. But the reason he hated him so much was—
Because right in front of his eyes, he’d torn apart another noble who’d tried to molest Ian without knowing his place. Not a description—he really tore a person apart.
“Uuuueeegh.”
At that time, Ian vomited along with tears. Of course, 90% of the people who were there at the time went through the same process as Ian. Only in that situation did Ian realize the cruelty of this other world and Vermouth’s extraordinary mental state.
“Fuck!”
“Cursing isn’t good, Ian.”
“From now on, if you’re going to tear people apart, do it where I can’t see!”
Ian raised his middle finger vigorously.
“Hahaha.”
Vermouth laughed out loud refreshingly.
“You’re not telling me not to do it.”
Even if he told him not to, would Vermouth listen? That bastard had his own firm beliefs and didn’t listen to others’ words even with the edge of his ear. Knowing this, Ian just glared at Vermouth.
“For Ian-nim’s sake, I can even bend my beliefs.”
I don’t need it, you son of a bitch. Someone might fall for Vermouth’s face and words, but Ian wasn’t one of them. Anyway, once he killed the Demon King, he’d return to his original world. What did it matter how Vermouth acted?
Ian had no intention of reforming Vermouth.
