Creeeeak— Thud!
Along with the sound of the heavy castle gate closing, they entered Hesse’s Castle. As the castle gate closed, the outside sounds were cut off, and the inside of the castle was eerily quiet. The atmosphere was creepy, and the sulfur smell became even thicker. It felt like entering a different dimension.
Nevertheless, Igyeol walked as if nothing was wrong. Sung Yohan stole glances at Igyeol. The boss door had opened and it had clearly become a B-rank dungeon, yet this man had no fear. His striding gait, his aura without a single weapon.
Sung Yohan narrowed his eyes and looked Igyeol over before speaking in a low voice.
“You’re an unregistered hunter.”
“I’m not? I’m a C-rank gathering hunter?”
Igyeol curtly retorted without even turning around.
“A lie.”
“I said I’m not. Look it up at the Association. Want to see my license?”
“Then why are you so fine right now? When the contaminated energy is this strong?”
“As you said, maybe I’m enduring it because I’m a curse mage.”
“You spout nonsensical talk like it’s everyday conversation.”
“Ha, how would you know if I’m spouting nonsense or not?”
“You can tell by listening. Whether it’s a lie or not.”
There was a strange certainty in Sung Yohan’s voice. Igyeol smirked and stopped walking. He crookedly turned his head to face Sung Yohan.
“Do you have some kind of skill? No matter how sacred you are, even if you’re like that whatchamacallit holy lady thing, you can’t detect people’s lies and all that, right? Do you use mind reading or something?”
“I have it, a skill.”
“……What?”
“Ears of Truth and Agreement.”
Sung Yohan answered clearly with an expressionless face.
“When you tell a lie, I hear static in my ears. Very noisily.”
“……”
Igyeol just shut his mouth. Damn it, does this really exist?! A lie detector skill—he’d never heard that such a fraudulent skill existed. But Sung Yohan’s expression wasn’t the face of someone joking.
‘…What kind of bastard is this?’
Can’t even lie freely. Igyeol pursed his lips and whipped his body around. If he talked back any more, he felt like he wouldn’t even recover his initial investment.
Igyeol strode past the corridor. The interior of the old stone building was eerie. An unidentifiable sticky liquid was plastered on the walls, and there were clear traces of monsters having gnawed everywhere.
The sulfur smell was getting thicker. Following that smell, they arrived at a room entirely decorated with glass, connected to the castle’s central hall.
“……This is.”
Igyeol’s brow furrowed as he entered the room.
The once-splendid stained glass was shattered into pieces and scattered on the floor, and ominous bloodstains dotted along over those glass shards. And at the end of those bloodstains, under a corner pillar, a familiar object had fallen.
A black student backpack.
Sung Yohan quickly approached and picked up the bag. The strap was torn and ragged.
“……It’s that child’s.”
Sung Yohan’s voice hardened stiffly.
“Kang Yeongwon……”
Igyeol also frowned. It was indeed the backpack of that kid he’d saved in the alley. After being saved, he actually went and entered the dungeon and caused this mess. He knew the kid was reckless, but even losing all sense of fear has limits.
“Isn’t what I said correct? That he entered the dungeon.”
Sung Yohan gripped the bag tightly. Veins protruded over the back of his hand.
“We have to find him. Right now.”
“Wait, just wait. Calm down.”
Igyeol raised his hand to restrain him.
“The boss room just opened. They said monsters poured out. Are you going to search blindly without knowing where the kid is hiding? Stay calm.”
“Is this the time to be calm!”
Sung Yohan shouted angrily. His usual cold-headed appearance was nowhere to be found.
“That child just turned 16! He’s a civilian who hasn’t even awakened!”
“Hey! I know too! Who doesn’t know?”
“If you know, you let that child come here?”
“Hey, did I send him? You think I knew that kid would go to a dungeon?! I saw that kid for the first time today! You’re too worked up.”
“You should have caught him!”
Igyeol didn’t back down and shouted too. His voice naturally grew louder from the injustice. The agitated Sung Yohan began dripping Holy Power. Igyeol frowned. The guy approaching step by step was threatening.
“When I should be receiving gratitude or even a bow just for saving him, who are you venting your anger on now?”
“You should have caught him then! You should have caught a child going to a dangerous place!”
“This guy, really, I’ve been patient but….”
Sung Yohan’s pupils rippled blue. Due to his agitation, his Holy Power wasn’t being controlled.
Woong— Woooong—
The air vibrated heavily. Centered on Sung Yohan, a faint white light rose like a heat haze. To ordinary people it might just be a dazzling light, but to Igyeol who harbored Demonic Energy, it was no different from deadly poison.
“Urk…!”
Igyeol reflexively stepped back.
It stung. No, it hurt. It felt like his skin was sizzling and burning away. The Demonic Energy inside his body was reacting to the high-concentration Holy Power that Sung Yohan was emitting and absorbing it directly. And colliding violently.
Zzt, zzt!
At the pain like electric current flowing through his blood vessels, Igyeol’s face instantly turned pale.
‘Th-that crazy bastard…!’
Igyeol broke out in cold sweat and retreated step by step. But Igyeol’s condition didn’t seem to register in Sung Yohan’s eyes. He was losing his reason solely to worry and anger over the missing child.
“I’ll ask once more.”
Sung Yohan took a step closer, unaware of Igyeol’s condition.
“Are you an unregistered hunter?”
“Urk— Hey, I said no…!”
“You…!”
“…Don’t come closer…!”
Igyeol retreated as if fleeing. The cold glass wall touched his back. There was nowhere left to retreat. Sung Yohan extended his hand. It was a simple action to grab Igyeol who was trying to escape.
“I said don’t come…!”
Sung Yohan’s hand strongly gripped Igyeol’s right forearm. That was the moment.
Fwoooosh—!
“Hrngh…!”
A suppressed groan burst from Igyeol’s mouth.
It was like grabbing a high-voltage power line with bare hands. No, it felt like injecting lava into his veins. The enormous amount of Holy Power that had overflowed from agitation was sucked into Igyeol’s body through Sung Yohan’s hand.
Conversely, Sung Yohan’s eyes widened.
‘……!?’
The splitting headache, the uncontrolled rampaging waves of Holy Power, that precarious overload state that could explode at any moment—the moment he grabbed this man’s arm, it disappeared like a lie.
Like plunging a hot piece of metal into cold ice water.
Shwaaaaa—
The blue flame-like aura surrounding Sung Yohan’s body was instantly sucked into Igyeol.
The Holy Power that had risen enough to spark blue flames in his eyes rapidly calmed down. Sung Yohan felt tremendous pleasure. The feeling of stabilizing in an instant was… tremendous.
“Haah…. Huk….”
Igyeol’s legs gave out and he collapsed right there.
“Ah… ugh….”
It was hell. The Holy Power that rushed in all at once was burning, purifying, and stirring up the Demonic Energy in his body indiscriminately. Tears squeezed out from the pain of his organs twisting.
[Warning! High-concentration Holy Power has been injected excessively!]
[Colliding with internal Demonic Energy.]
[……..The fragment is squirming.]
[Curse alleviated]
[Curse alleviated]
[Curse alleviated]
[Curse alleviated]
The system window flashed crazily before his eyes.
‘Alleviated or whatever… I’m dying here….’
Igyeol gasped for breath roughly, pressing the floor with trembling hands. The pain was terrible, but ironically, his body was becoming lighter. The feeling of rotting flesh being forcibly revived. Was this torture or treatment?
On the other hand, Sung Yohan was blankly looking down at his own hand. Then he stared at Igyeol who had collapsed on the floor, panting.
What just happened was not an illusion.
He had absorbed his excessive Holy Power in one go without any side effects (from Sung Yohan’s perspective). It was an amount that would have made an ordinary person burst and die. No one could handle it. But this man was perfectly fine… no, he looked a bit strained but he was alive.
This is ‘that’ he’d been searching for all along.
His cursed blessing, the only vessel that could receive this unbearable power.
“Ha……”
A deflating sound came from Sung Yohan’s lips.
Igyeol looked up at Sung Yohan through his blurry vision. His eyes were reddened from holding back tears.
‘This crazy bastard….’
Sung Yohan was smiling. Despite half-killing the person in front of him and making him collapse. Very brightly.
With eyes so sacred they were beautiful enough to be chilling, yet somehow unhinged.
“It seems….”
Sung Yohan slowly bent his knees to meet Igyeol’s eye level.
“Something is connected between you and me.”
Igyeol glared at him while swallowing the curse that had risen to his chin.
“Don’t you think we need to confirm it?”
Sung Yohan’s eyes gleamed persistently.
‘This crazy bastard…’
Igyeol screamed internally. What fucking confirmation! He just wanted to tell him to please ignore him and fuck off. But what came out of his mouth was only a groan mixed with a metallic sound.
“……Fuck off, you lunatic.”
Even in this situation, the oblivious system window continued to ring out cheerfully.
Ding!
[Curse alleviated]
[Curse alleviated]
[Curse alleviated]
[Physical condition recovering]
Igyeol panted with the feeling of wanting to bite his own tongue.
‘Damn it, fucking bastard. It hurts like hell but the effect is killer.’
