Chapter 830: The Last (63)
‘Do you think I will lose?’
“f.u.c.k…”
“Hyung-nim, hyung-nim… Are you okay? W-What’s wrong?”
“You stay away, b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
“I mean… what…”
‘Do you think I will lose again this time?’
“What is this…”
“Hyung-nim!”
“Gosh! I told you to stay away! Pig b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Stay away for now!”
I pushed him away with a bang.
‘No, f.u.c.k, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m strong now.’
I forgot I had Cho Hyejin’s strength right now. A few steps away, his gaze on me was smeared with concern. His face was pale, and he looked like he didn’t know what to do.
Hayan was no different. After flinching for a moment, she quietly glanced at me. She seemed to be trying to reach out to me, but she couldn’t and quietly looked up at me instead.
Han Sora quietly pulled Jung Hayan’s hand as if she was startled.
“U-Um. Er… uh… so… Oppa…”
I heard her murmuring. The tears welling up in her eyes overlapped with what I had seen before.
‘He… he will come… cough… to save me… Oppa… will come…’
“What…”
‘You came. You came… to save me.’
“What is it really…”
‘I’m… glad… now… we… can finally… be together…’
Without realizing it, I reached out my hand and patted Jung Hayan’s head. It was then that I saw her smiling as if she was relieved. I felt like the anxiety that she was holding had subsided a little. I most likely didn’t look normal now, even to Jung Hayan and Park Deokgu.
In particular, Han Sora had an expression that told me she was staring at a maniacal psychopath.
My breathing was shallow, and my head was throbbing. It was hard to understand why this had happened.
The simplest hypothesis was probably…
‘Is it because it’s Hyejin’s body?’
I didn’t know exactly what kind of side effects causing an advent had, but I understood that what was happening to my body wasn’t normal. When I saw the memories of the first round I saw before, it felt like there was something wrong with the main system in my head.
It was funny to self-diagnose that there was something wrong with my own head, but I couldn’t explain the current situation except through that.
‘Did the memories of the first round flow in? If not… Is the masked hero in my head…’
I was pretty sure it had something to do with it. I remembered that something similar had happened once before. I thought it was the bluffing of that trash scammer Lee Kiyoung, but I didn’t throw out the possibility that there might still be remnants of the masked hero in my head.
At the end of the war with the foreign people, the image of a guy pointing to the sky with his hand on Kim Hyunsung’s shoulder crosses my mind for some reason.
The guy who spoke to me… certainly had some omens.
I was just ignoring it and putting it on the other side of my head. I could think that Park Deokgu had pushed the switch b.u.t.ton when I was in an unstable mental state.
There was nothing certain, but I judged that it was better to draw a conclusion.
Of course, that wasn’t something I could focus on right now.
‘This demon summoner b.a.s.t.a.r.d.’
Jin Qing was quietly looking at me.
Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan watched me from a little distance away, realizing that it wasn’t good to provoke me. As before, after taking measures so that my voice was not heard, I looked down at the board again.
Park Deokgu was struggling with his whole body imprisoned.
‘I was too agitated.’
My mouth was bitter because I thought I showed a side of me that I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t happy because I felt like he caught my weakness.
‘d.a.m.n it. You’re a stupid and mean b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Lee Kiyoung, no, masked hero. I was too agitated.’
There was no reason to be so agitated since the game wasn’t over yet.
Even if the fake pig died here, the real pig wouldn’t die unless we lost the game.
It was a reasonable decision to let it slip. There was no reason to openly make him think that I had weaknesses.
No, there had to have been many problems with how I acted after I came here.
‘Did I drink too much coffee?’
I couldn’t help it. f.u.c.k, the coffee tasted so delicious.
Did I perhaps show too much emotion?
It might have been unnatural to appear with Dummy Hyejin’s death in the first place.
It could have been that I looked too happy to see Deokgu and Hayan, but… perhaps it was a coincidence that they captured Park Deokgu.
There was a possibility that he might have heard information from Lee Jihye, but there was no way that she would have given any useless information like me cherishing the pig.
From his point of view, I had overreacted when he was just testing me without thinking.
‘I can’t be like this.’
—Now we can talk.
“What do you want?”
—I’m sure you know…
“It will have no value as a hostage. Are you going to kill him?”
—Well… Does it matter? After all, if you win this war, it doesn’t really matter whether that big idiot dies or not. Are you not confident? If you look at the war situation alone, doesn’t it look favorable to you? You’re acting strange.
“…”
‘This son of a b.i.t.c.h.’
“I don’t like your eyes, demon summoner b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
—Me too. I didn’t expect you to have personal problems like that… well, it’s none of my business. Don’t change what I said earlier. Looks like you’re already gone crazy.
‘Crazy psycho b.a.s.t.a.r.d.’
I had no idea what this b.a.s.t.a.r.d wanted. No, of course, there was something that came to mind.
‘You want to fight properly, right?’
That was the only reason I could think of right now.
Of course, there was also the possibility of a trap since we weren’t warriors.
It was neither appropriate nor right to fight with all the cards out. It was rather stupid.
Saying that he liked to talk might itself be a build-up for an attack from behind.
But on the other hand…
‘It’s plausible.’
The Republic’s commander wanted to protect his pride. It might be disgusting to see me trying to cloud the issue…
And he might have felt as if I wasn’t really going to war, which led him to have the conversation he was talking about.
Instead of revenge, he might want to choose to correct the mistakes of the past. In conclusion, he probably desired to create a situation where I had to fight. Only then would he be able to restore his self-esteem.
If I thought about it from that perspective, it could be said that he had also revealed himself.
I didn’t think he would a.s.sume I didn’t realize what he wanted.
As I slowly turned my gaze back, I saw him slowly looking at me once again.
—Keep going.
I also didn’t have time to reconsider and think about it. For now, I had no choice but to bite my lower lip and immediately pay attention to the board.
The battle continued. I taunted, pushed, and pulled, but he was concentrating solely on the board. I didn’t know if he decided that it wasn’t beneficial to talk anymore, but I thought I could get a rough idea of what he was trying to say.
‘Are we going to talk right here?’
The huge battle continued. It wasn’t a pure tactics-against-tactics clash.
I knew that there was no chance of winning with the conventional method. Damage gradually acc.u.mulated for each side. As time went by, he grew more nervous. Finally, it became evident that he didn’t want to lose his troops.
I didn’t want to lose either. We didn’t have much left.
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that it was a situation in which we had no choice but to be sensitive even with the smallest damage?
The melee began when Magic Swordsman Jung Jinho and Kim Hyunsung collided against each other with their swords, and their forces started to get tangled up.
Troops repeatedly retreated and trapped and continued to change camps to catch up with one another. I could see the way he tried to control even the smallest details.
‘He’s smart.’
The defeat on the winning front intensified, and the victory went off on the front that I thought I had no choice but to give up.
It was impossible to capture the flow of the organic battlefield at a glance. But I felt like my eyes were opening up.
‘f.u.c.k, I’m growing during the battle!’
After all, f.u.c.k, the light should be like this.
It seemed that my eyes that weren’t defined by the stats or attributes were opening.
The way I was hanging on this little board looked funny, but I became more focused.
After wiping the blood flowing from my nose, I looked down at the board again.
The demon summoner frowned. He’d be concerned about the broken fronts since there would be a trap there.
‘Did you notice? Then how about this?’
This…
‘How about this?’
What else?
‘This is fun. I can only express it like that. In any case, that woman would have been better. I thought it would be a little different if I met you like this, but with you… I still don’t feel like I’m having a conversation with you.’
‘There are so many things you want when you’re dying. I don’t think that’s something to say outright to someone who came all the way here to share their last moments with. You should keep basic manners, right?’
‘…’
‘Actually, something happened. Jihye also wanted to come with me, but… I think that if she came with me, we would fight.’
‘…’
‘I think she would want to keep you alive. She would think about where we could use someone with a lot of greed for talent. I thought I would be persuaded, so I just came alone.’
‘…’
‘It’s not that I’m not greedy, but… you are overly competent. You’re too talented for us to use.’
‘That’s sweet, considering you’re talking to the loser.’
‘Since when have you known us?’
‘Is that important?’
‘A couple of plans went wrong because of you… You even took advantage of us. Many times. Is it strange to wonder how long you’ve known? Who knows, who else knows?’
‘Yes, some probably do know, but does it matter? After all, you guys aren’t going to show up soon. Am I wrong… Lee Kiyoung?’
‘…’
‘…’
‘After all, you can’t.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
‘…’
‘…’
‘Now, let’s get to the point.’
‘…’
‘About the cleaning in the past. I heard that you were aware of the list of people… who agreed to the plan at the time… That b.a.s.t.a.r.d who fled to the Republic. You heard everything from that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, right?’
‘Didn’t you already know that too?’
‘I know. It’s just to double-check it properly.’
‘Is there a reason I should tell you?’
‘Don’t worry about your pride in the yard of death. Just speak and go. There are a lot of people I can ask either way.’
‘…’
‘…’
‘Charlotte of the Empire.’
‘Now we’re talking.’
‘Castle Rock’s Song Jeong-wook.’
‘I killed him.’
‘Cardinal Malen of the Holy See.’
‘I killed him too.’
‘Dawan’s…’
‘Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.’
‘Celia’s…’
‘I killed him.’
‘And…’
‘…’
‘Kim Hyunsung of Lindel.’