# 028. Long Live the King (12)
“Jeongwoo!”
Jaehee screamed. The massive cave that had seemed absolutely unbreakable collapsed in an instant. For a moment, his mind went blank. He couldn’t comprehend what he had just witnessed. In the blink of an eye, it became impossible to locate where the cave entrance had been.
“Jeongwoo, Woo Jeongwoo!”
His heart pounded madly as everything before his eyes turned bright red. He couldn’t think of anything else. Only Jeongwoo filled his mind. Shouting Jeongwoo’s name until his throat was raw, he frantically ran to what he thought was the entrance and began clearing away the rocks. He didn’t know where he found such strength. Even as he lifted and threw huge boulders, he didn’t feel their weight at all.
“Calm down. You’ll hurt yourself.”
Just as he was frantically moving stones, something grabbed his wrist. Involuntarily, a sigh of relief escaped him. As he saw the hand holding his wrist, time, which had seemingly stopped, began to flow again.
“Hey! Seriously! I thought you were buried under there… Do you know how scared I was!”
He quickly looked Jeongwoo over. Though covered in dust, he didn’t appear to be injured anywhere. Jaehee’s legs trembled and blood rushed to his cold fingertips. Thinking about it rationally, he could have guessed that Jeongwoo would be safe. Telling everyone to leave the cave must have been part of his plan to collapse the entire structure. But facing the collapsed cave and thinking Jeongwoo might be inside, he couldn’t think straight. In that brief moment, he’d felt like he’d gone from hell to heaven and back.
“Were you very scared?”
“You could have given me some kind of hint or warning! That’s not something to just spring on me! Really… I thought something had happened to you. I thought I was going to lose the baby!”
“Baby?”
Jeongwoo approached Jaehee with a small smirk.
Jeongwoo’s face had scratches with beads of blood, and his hair was covered in pale dust. Combined with his languid expression, it created a strangely alluring atmosphere. Jaehee swallowed hard. A peculiar heat flickered in Jeongwoo’s eyes.
Jeongwoo brushed Jaehee’s hair back. Despite being in worse shape himself, his hand swept away the dust from Jaehee’s hair and grazed his ear. Something ticklish circulated in his chest. Unconsciously, Jaehee held his breath.
“Look at this. You’re hurt. I sent you out specifically so you wouldn’t get hurt.”
Jeongwoo took Jaehee’s hand as he spoke. Scratches covered it everywhere, probably from frantically moving the rocks.
“Ah…!”
Jaehee’s mouth fell open. Jeongwoo had taken his hand and put it directly into his mouth. The soft sensation on his fingers made him feel like even his hair was standing on end. He tried to pull his fingers away, but they were held firmly and couldn’t move. A soft tongue licked over the wounded areas. A chilling sensation enveloped his entire body. The wet, slurping sounds seemed incredibly obscene. Watching Jeongwoo’s mouth moving as if to devour him, Jaehee’s face turned bright red.
“Hey! S-stop it! What are you doing, that’s disgusting… Why, why are you licking my fingers…!”
“You’re hurt here. And, Jaehee.”
“Huh?”
After a long struggle, he finally yanked his hand away with all his might. Only then did Jeongwoo release Jaehee’s hand with a grin.
“That baby you mentioned in your belly, it’s mine, right?”
“Hey!”
Jaehee stared at Jeongwoo, wondering what he was talking about, before finally understanding and letting out a sharp yell. His face became so red it felt like it might burst. He was incredibly thankful that the others hadn’t regained consciousness yet.
“We can’t let the baby drop. That would be terrible. I’ll be good. I should be a good father.”
“Hey! Woo Jeongwoo!”
“Tut-tut, anger isn’t good for prenatal care. The mother needs to be at peace for the child to grow well. Just a moment.”
Jeongwoo picked Jaehee up in his arms and moved him away from where they had been standing. His movements were so quick that Jaehee had no time to protest.
Jeongwoo went back to the pile of rocks and began removing the large stones. After clearing a few, the head of a white snake appeared.
As Jeongwoo drew his knife, flames blazed up from the blade. Without hesitation, he cut off the snake’s head.
Thud.
The severed head twitched feebly. Jeongwoo put his hand into the head. Having seen this with the Cheonsan-jiju, Jaehee knew what Jeongwoo was doing, but it was still disgusting.
What Jeongwoo pulled out from the head was a white orb. The translucent orb emitted a strange light.
When Jaehee approached, Jeongwoo showed him the orb he had taken from the Ouroboros’s head. The translucent white orb was fascinating. Seeing Jaehee’s interest, Jeongwoo wiped the orb once and placed it in Jaehee’s hand.
He had expected it to feel like glass, but it was surprisingly soft and rubbery.
“Wow… this is really amazing. What is it?”
“Sort of like a yeouiju… a kind of sacred object. Since it’s from a young Ouroboros, you probably can’t do much with it itself, but being a sacred object, it should fetch a good price.”
“Oh…! A yeouiju? That’s so cool…!”
“Seems like you like it. Then it’s yours.”
“Huh? Is that okay? You’re the one who caught it.”
“When raising a child, you need all sorts of things, you know.”
“Child?”
“We need to raise the baby in your belly well.”
“Hey! Woo Jeongwoo!”
As Jaehee shouted, Jeongwoo giggled.
“Wait, I need to find something else here.”
Jeongwoo went back to the pile of rocks and began lifting them. After removing a few, a corpse with its face covered by a mask appeared. Only then did Jaehee remember the group of intruders who had attacked Instructor Jang In-ho. Jeongwoo hadn’t been concerned about the intruders because he had planned to collapse the cave at the end anyway. No matter where they were hiding, they wouldn’t survive if the entire cave collapsed.
Jeongwoo tore off the intruder’s mask. At that moment, the intruder’s body began to burn with red flames. At first, Jaehee thought Jeongwoo was using the flame sword from their confrontation with the Ouroboros, but that wasn’t it. The intruder’s body was creating its own flames and disappearing as it burned. It was like watching paper burn. After the intruder’s body had completely burned away, a single white paper was left fluttering in its place.
“Tch, how annoying.”
“W-what is that?”
“A Shikshin. They sent a Shikshin with a spell. No wonder they said they got in without being detected. This means we don’t need to look for the other bodies. They’ll all be Shikshin anyway.”
“Who would do such a thing…”
“Probably someone trying to spy on us.”
“On us…? For what reason…”
Just then, a light notification sound rang.
[!EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION! : Due to the Constellations’ interest in Channel Earth, there will be a brief server maintenance!]
[Server Maintenance Extension Notice! Server maintenance has been extended. Please wait a little longer.]
[Server Maintenance Extension Notice! Server maintenance has been extended. Please wait a little longer.]
[Server Normalization Guide ** The server has been normalized. Thank you for your patience. As of this time, Channel Earth is reactivated.]
[Dungeon Rank Upgrade Alert! The dungeon rank has been changed from D → A. It is recommended that you adjust the number of people for the conquest according to the dungeon rank.]
[Entering the Boss Area! You have entered the domain of Ouroboros, the master of this dungeon. Within this domain, you are under the influence of the dungeon master.]
[A-rank dungeon, Ouroboros Cave has been conquered! Congratulations!]
A series of notifications appeared with incessant ding-dong sounds in a short period. It was enough to give him a headache. After a while, when the sounds and text stopped, Jaehee examined them one by one. It had been quiet for some time, so it seemed the server had been down.
Seeing the dungeon rank upgrade message, Jaehee was dumbfounded. What was the point of sending that message now that they had already completed the dungeon? If it weren’t for Jeongwoo, they might have attempted the conquest without knowing the dungeon rank had been upgraded.
[˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚]
Could this be responding to my thoughts? Jaehee frowned. If so, that made him feel even worse. Just then, more notifications began to sound.
[Channel Earth has been normalized. Conversations between Constellations can only be seen by Constellations by default. By purchasing items with points, you can send messages to desired Earthlings. ※Note: Channel Earth is currently protected under a temporary protection rating. If unfair actions are detected, severe penalties will be imposed.]
[Constellation, The One Who Swallows Its Tail, requests to whisper to Shin Jaehee.]
“Huh? W-what is this?”
[Constellation, The One Who Swallows Its Tail, requests a trade with Shin Jaehee.]
[!WARNING! It is illegal for a Constellation to speak directly to a resident of a planet under temporary protection! Warning!]
[Warning! War…War…]
As the warning sound gradually faded, a sound like metal scraping against metal was heard.
[Hand it over to me, human!]
Jaehee looked at the white orb he was holding. It seemed that this was what the Constellation was referring to.
