143th Episode: Misfire
“Where have you suddenly been, Jeong-yong? Miss Seseona was quite worried as well.”
“……”
“… And why do you look like that?”
Wobbling like a drunkard, I returned to the mansion, where someone was waiting for me right at the entrance.
It was Adrang. He was watching me with a concerned look.
“Master Adrang, do you have a moment?”
I realized my voice sounded unusually faint, even to my own ears.
Adrang glanced at me briefly, then looked at my face and slightly arched an eyebrow.
“Whatever is the matter, Jung Yong? You look like you’re ready to tear someone apart.”
“…Ah.”
Only then did I realize how agitated I was. Taking a deep breath while staring into the calm eyes of Adrang, I tried to calm myself.
‘Kill… I’ll kill him…’
But it was impossible to calm down. The anger spread through me silently, like the flames of hell I’d seen in my past life, and within moments it had spread through my entire body, rendering it uncontrollable.
I smiled—a grin that Hector Cassas might give—and opened my mouth to speak.
“I have something urgent to tell you. Could you spare me a moment?”
*
“Hm.”
Adrang let out a sigh as we were walking through the garden together.
I had followed Adrang’s suggestion to take a brief walk in the garden, where I recounted everything I knew to him.
Everything—down to the last detail, including the temporal regression. I told him everything I knew.
“Extremely interesting.”
At some point, Adrang muttered these words and stepped outside the mansion.
I hurried after him. Then, Adrang quickened his pace and crossed the shrine of the Silent God.
“You said the organization entrenched within the Wu Divine Order are the apostles of Cassas. They control the Resurrection Sect and plan to attack here en masse tonight. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And how do you know this… because you, being the contractee of the Undying Demon King, have died and come back to life?”
“Yes. Although it might sound unbelievable, it’s true.”
I nodded frantically in response to his concise summary. Adrang paused briefly.
At that moment, I launched into another tirade.
“The leader’s name is Hector Cassas. We need to kill this guy. He’s not worth sparing. We need to kill him…! Kill him in the most painful way possible… tear the bones from his limbs!”
I realized how agitated I was while speaking. After a false cough, I tightly shut my mouth.
I glanced up at Adrang, but his face was unreadable. His calm, emotionless gaze remained steady as he looked down at me.
“If what you said is true, then this information needs to be conveyed to the Nameless Knight as well. Let’s go together now. Show the way to her residence.”
“A… Yes!!”
Thank goodness. He understood and acted immediately.
The throbbing in my head gradually subsided as I briskly followed Adrang’s steps.
That’s how we swiftly traversed the meandering pathways of the Temple of the Silent God.
“… Master Adrang.”
After walking for how long, my face started to stiffen.
“This… it’s not in the direction of the Nameless Knight’s residence, is it?”
I vaguely remember the location of Miss Portia’s mansion. I had caught a glimpse of it when I first visited.
Now, it seemed Adrang was moving further away from that location.
‘It’s not just that…’
Since when had there been so few people around and so little light?
Before long, we found ourselves surrounded by dense bamboo groves that obscured everything from view. Was there even such a dense bamboo forest in the shrine? I’m certain I hadn’t seen it in any prominent location before.
A dry lump of saliva slid down my throat.
“Jeong-yong.”
And sure enough,
We arrived at a spacious clearing surrounded densely by bamboo. Adrang stopped in the center of the clearing and turned back toward me.
“The so-called Hero Sense of the warriors might seem versatile, but it has clear limitations, yes?”
The sound of a chilling wind blew through the bamboo clusters, tousling his unkempt white hair.
I instinctively gripped the hilt of my Vestark tightly.
“What are you talking about?”
“It can analyze the truthfulness of words but struggles to determine precise intentions. It detects homicidal intent in combat but cannot grasp any movements if there’s no murderous aura accompanying them.”
What does that mean? My mouth opened to ask.
The face of the emotionless Adrang hovered right in front of my nose.
Reacting too late, I was caught unaware.
“Guh!”
With a tearing sound, my right shoulder split apart, the muscles shredded. Briefly stunned by excruciating pain, I barely managed to spot the ethereal figure of Adrang flickering around in the shadows.
‘What…!’
I stared at him wide-eyed, trying repeatedly to focus on his figure.
“Even with enhanced perception, it’s possible to deceive it. If you truly were my disciple, as you claimed to Kern, this would’ve been the first thing I’d teach you.”
I feel no hostility from Adrang.
None at all. It’s as though he’s completely disrupting even the most primal sense of presence.
“Too bad your Hero Sense isn’t more omnipotent.”
This is not like any invisibility or stealth skills I’ve encountered before.
On the contrary, he’s perfectly visible to the naked eye, which makes the mind question the reality of what it sees.
That’s because my brain is sure that there’s no way Adrang could be where he is positioned.
“I cannot see any intent from your savage eyes, so I have to rely on brute force, don’t I?”
When I came to my senses, Adrang’s voice was whispering close to my ear. He was directly behind me.
His tone sounded genuinely regretful, making it all the more hair-raising.
“Gah!”
In a panic, I swung my sword backward, but Adrang merely ducked his head slightly to evade it effortlessly.
No, it wasn’t that he evaded it; it was that my aim was simply off. I nearly dropped my sword due to my confusion.
‘Dangerous…!’
Of course, the missed attack created a massive opening, and into this Adrang’s armored gauntlet shot swiftly.
With a sickening crunch, the armored gauntlet hit my ribs. The impact resonated through me.
I couldn’t breathe. Twisting internal organs filled me with agony, yet I clenched my teeth and forced myself to move in order to survive.
“G… Ahhh!”
I struck down with Espada in my other hand.
A white bone sword shot down like a guillotine toward Adrang’s arm. Unable to activate his File Bunker ability, Adrang had to withdraw his hand and quickly stepped back.
“Looks like you’re still the man I acknowledged. It’s good you’ve done this much.”
Adrang muttered under his breath while grinning like a beast.
By now, two magic swords crackling with azure sparks were embedded in his left leg.
These were the openings created by my Espada as I had cast the spell.
“G… Uh…!”
Just one blow, and yet my chest ached as though it would collapse. Clutching it, I glared at Adrang.
A flood of conflicting emotions swept through me, and the memory of Adrang’s indifferent words from my past life resurfaced.
“If not for what we’ve shared today, I might have answered your silence with a fist not so long ago.”
‘Damn…’
Too hasty. I should have taken those words more seriously.
Maybe my recent success in manipulating people with my smooth talk had made me overconfident.
‘I’ve been too complacent!!’
I shouldn’t have rushed to spill the beans about everything I knew.
Not to someone who clearly didn’t fully trust me. To reveal words that would merely sow seeds of doubt.
No matter how desperate I felt, this was unacceptable, Park Jeong-yong. Not that you’re changing people after all, but X.
“Do you… not believe in me as well?”
I whispered, laughing like a maniac.
“That guy believed me. Actually, he even asked me. He asked if I was a prophet. X!”
“… What are you talking about?”
“But why don’t you believe me, all of you? Why do the very people I want to trust me… X, none of them seem to believe me, damn it! X…”
The repressed rant spilled forth.
Adrang, who was watching silently, coldly retorted.
“I still believe you’re being sincere. That is why I’m acting this way.”
“What?”
“I can see it. The eyes you’ve shown me. The overbearing killing intent they carried is absolutely real. But I don’t yet understand why you’ve changed so drastically. Hence, my behavior.”
“…”
“I want to hear so much more. Now, I will confront the Asura hiding within you directly.”
Guuuuuuu!
Adrang’s aura changed. From being almost ghostly a moment ago, he now radiated the force of a natural disaster.
The chill running down my spine sent me staggering back a step. I gritted my teeth.
‘Why…?’
I sank into real confusion.
Of course, my stats are weaker than Adrang’s. But it’s nighttime now. My stats enhanced by Holy Seal should have surpassed Adrang’s by a great margin.
‘Damn it. Then why…!’
Why am I trembling before this old man?
This isn’t out of rationality, but from instinct. My Hero Sense is telling me. There’s something different about him. Something beyond ordinary. It’s loudly insisting that I can’t win.
“You son of a bitch!”
I resisted my instincts, gripping the sweat-slickened hilt of Vestark firmly.
With overwhelming hostility and vigor, an awe-inspiring presence that seemed to make the air itself quiver, Adrang revealed his teeth in a beastly grin.
“All witches must be eliminated. I swear this by the name of Adrang, hunter of witches.”
The familiar phrase rang in the air.
After swallowing all the Ether I could, I bit my teeth and slammed my feet against the ground.
It felt like a mouse jumping into a storm.
