# 044. The King’s Arrival (15)
“Jeongwoo!”
It had only been a week since meeting Jeongwoo, but the joy was indescribable, as if they were reuniting after years apart. This was probably the happiest Jaehee had ever been to see Jeongwoo.
“And who are you?”
Kim Shin addressed Jeongwoo with a bewildered expression as he suddenly appeared, but Jeongwoo didn’t even glance in Kim Shin’s direction. Jeongwoo was still wearing the same trench coat he had on at Hongdae Station entrance before entering the tutorial, and for once, it actually looked cool.
I won’t tease you anymore about looking like you’re in a cult. Jaehee made this promise to himself as he glanced at Kim Shin.
Jeongwoo strode purposefully toward Jaehee.
“What happened to you?”
Jeongwoo helped Jaehee up from where he had fallen to the ground. Seeing Jaehee’s arm trembling in pain, Jeongwoo’s expression hardened. He took out a potion from his inventory and poured it directly onto Jaehee’s arm.
As the potion made contact, smoke rose and a pain so intense it nearly made Jaehee lose consciousness washed over him. His body shook uncontrollably. Suppressing the urge to curse at Jeongwoo, Jaehee clenched his teeth.
“Hey, J-Jeongwoo… If you’re going to pour a potion, at least say something first… Urgh.”
“Well, why didn’t you listen? I told you not to go. Why do you make everything so complicated by not listening?”
“When did you say that?”
“I called you, and when you didn’t answer, I even left messages! But you did the right thing by contacting me. Thanks to that, I was able to find you.”
At Jeongwoo’s words, Jaehee glanced furtively at Park Yong-pil and Kim Ji-su. The two of them didn’t know that he had contacted Jeongwoo using the leaf. Fortunately, they seemed too distracted by the current situation to pay much attention.
Jaehee gently shook his arm as the pain gradually subsided. But it wasn’t completely healed. His fingertips were numb, and his arm still trembled slightly.
“Jeongwoo, this…”
“It won’t heal perfectly at once. Nothing we can do about that. When we leave the dungeon…”
“Jeongwoo!”
Angered both by Jeongwoo’s sudden appearance interrupting the flow and by being ignored during their conversation, Kim Shin swung his sword. Jaehee screamed in surprise, but Jeongwoo dodged with ease, as if he had anticipated it.
“Insolent brats. Let’s see how long you can keep this up.”
Kim Shin displayed the greedily flickering black flame. Just facing the black flame gave one an inexplicable, uneasy feeling. But Jeongwoo seemed to pay no particular attention to Kim Shin. Kim Shin swung his sword. The black flame left a long afterimage as it moved.
Jeongwoo extended his arm. He grabbed Jaehee’s wrist and pulled while simultaneously spinning his own body. It was almost like they were dancing a waltz. Having already synchronized with Jeongwoo like this in the tutorial, Jaehee relaxed his body and followed Jeongwoo’s lead with practiced ease.
Considering that others were watching, it was embarrassing, but Jaehee knew he couldn’t dodge the sword as cleanly as Jeongwoo did on his own.
“You little…! I’ll make you suffer eternally with this black flame!”
“Sure. That black flame is impressive, I’ll give you that. But tell me, do you even know what you’re wielding? If you knew what it really was, you wouldn’t be brandishing it so proudly.”
Kim Shin flinched at Jeongwoo’s words. Jeongwoo snickered.
Even to Jaehee who was on the same side, that smirk of Jeongwoo’s looked particularly annoying. At times like this, he was truly grateful that Jeongwoo was on his side.
“Seeing how friendly you are with him, you must be the one who came out last from the tutorial. Fine, I can see you have some hidden talents. I don’t know how you entered the dungeon or appeared so suddenly, but that doesn’t mean you can do anything against this black flame. Prove that you’re more than just all talk! Otherwise, I’ll burn even your souls with this black flame.”
Kim Shin glared at Jeongwoo with a venomous expression. In contrast, Jeongwoo looked at Kim Shin with a somewhat languid expression. As Jeongwoo cracked his neck from side to side, there was a cracking sound. Given Jeongwoo’s large build, when he did this, it almost looked like he was bullying Kim Shin.
“How about this, then?”
Jeongwoo drew his sword in an instant. There was something different about the sword Jeongwoo materialized. If what Jaehee did was bringing a fictional object from his imagination into reality, Jeongwoo’s sword seemed more like retrieving an actual, existing object.
Is this the difference in skill level?
Jeongwoo’s sword had a much longer blade than other ordinary swords. Because Jeongwoo was tall, it wasn’t immediately noticeable at first glance, but after seeing it a few times, Jaehee could tell. The long, sleek blade gleamed with an ink-like sheen. It was closer to a murky ink color rather than pure black.
Kim Shin’s eyes fixed on Jeongwoo’s sword. Even at a glance, it looked extraordinary. Jeongwoo swung the long sword quickly, as if wielding a toy. It made a whooshing sound as it cut through the air. If you heard it briefly, it sounded like the wind on a typhoon day.
Jeongwoo brought down the sword in front of Kim Shin. With a heavy sound of air being sliced, the ground right in front of Kim Shin was gouged out. Kim Shin jumped back in surprise, only then realizing that Jeongwoo had deliberately avoided cutting him. In short, he had been toying with him.
Kim Shin’s face turned so red that Jaehee thought steam might hiss out if someone poked a hole in it.
In contrast, Jeongwoo stared at Kim Shin with an expressionless face.
“I’ll show you no mercy.”
With Kim Shin’s words, the black flame surged up. Now it looked like the black flame was overflowing. Kim Shin swung his sword. The black flame moved up and down, leaving pitch-black afterimages. Each time, Jaehee felt nauseated. Though he didn’t know the true nature of the black flame, it was certainly nothing good.
But no matter how much Kim Shin swung the black flame, he couldn’t get close to Jeongwoo. Instead of counterattacking, Jeongwoo dodged with ease, even guiding Kim Shin toward less populated areas to make it easier for others to avoid him.
Jaehee glanced at Jeongwoo. Jeongwoo was toying with Kim Shin.
In truth, Jaehee had expected Jeongwoo to bring out a red flame to counter the black flame. But judging by what he was doing now, he didn’t seem to have that intention. Could it be that he couldn’t bring out the red flame, or was it that he could handle Kim Shin sufficiently without it?
As Kim Shin chased Jeongwoo, he stumbled and fell a few times on his own. But instead of striking him down, Jeongwoo continued to flee here and there, taunting him.
After this continued for some time, Kim Shin began to tremble all over.
At first, Jaehee thought it was because Kim Shin was overcome with anger. After all, what Jeongwoo was doing was like an adult teasing a child. If he were in Kim Shin’s position, he might also get upset.
But upon closer inspection, Kim Shin’s condition seemed strange. Kim Shin, who had been panting, gradually became glassy-eyed. Then he collapsed on the spot.
“W-what’s happening?”
The fallen Kim Shin trembled as if having a seizure. Meanwhile, the black flame didn’t extinguish but continued to flicker, gradually moving toward Kim Shin.
“Jeongwoo, what… what is that? What’s happening?”
“The end of a greedy man.”
The black flame flickered greedily and began to burn Kim Shin’s body. Kim Shin writhed in pain, but to Jaehee, he seemed completely unconscious. It didn’t take long for the black flame to completely envelop Kim Shin’s body. Now Kim Shin looked like a person wrapped in a black cloud.
Jaehee couldn’t hear anything, but somehow, he felt as if Kim Shin was screaming.
“The real thing starts now. Prepare for battle.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“What was hiding is now removing its mask and revealing its true form.”
There was no time to ask why. Kim Shin’s body began to change, bending in grotesque ways.
It was similar to what they called the End Baptism, but somewhat different. Kim Shin’s skin seemed to be bubbling. By now, it was questionable whether it could still be called Kim Shin, as something began to emerge from inside him.
“That’s…”
“Do you think a Constellation would lend its power without a price? This is the end of a fool who used power without knowing what he would have to give in return. That is now the avatar of the Constellation itself.”
At Jeongwoo’s words, Jaehee unconsciously grabbed Jeongwoo’s sleeve.
