“Can’t come, huh? Can’t come??”
[….Sorry, Olga.]
Yujin’s voice over the phone shrank away, crawling down into the basement.
Does he even know what he did wrong?
Clearly, Shia was just listening quietly from the side, but it felt like the real Yujin was bowing his head and trembling his shoulders at Olga’s voice.
tsk tsk tsk…
“Stop…!”
Of course, that didn’t matter. In the meantime, Yane was busy vividly licking the Mermaid Princess.
“Yujin.”
[Uh, yeah…]
At first, Olgania was like an active volcano, but soon her face was quite calm.
“Why can’t our Yujin keep the promise we made to meet just once a week?”
[……..]
“No, Yujin. It’s okay. Just tell me. I’m not that angry right now.”
No, to be precise, Olgania wasn’t calm at all; she had an expression that said, ‘Go on, make up an excuse. I just want to hear what you have to say.’
Underneath those eyes, which curved up like a smile, one side burned with a fiery red eye, while the other glowed black, a remnant of a past corruption.
[I’m sorry, Olga….]
“Yujin, can you stop saying that you’re sorry? I’m just really really curious as to why you betrayed the promise we made to meet just once a week. Did you get tired of me?”
[…Absolutely not!]
“I see. Thank goodness. I was afraid Yujin had gotten sick of me and found another girl because I was being too clingy.”
[That’s absolutely not true. Olga, I’ve never thought of you that way…]
“Really? I’m so happy! But if you don’t dislike me, then why can’t you come?”
Olgania played with the broken pieces of the wooden table in one hand.
crunch.
SQUISH!
crackle!
It was quite a spectacle to see the pieces of the hard Daesanrim platanus tree crumble and crumple like they were made of toilet paper in Olgania’s grasp.
“Yujin, I didn’t mention that I came to the human world, but it’s kind of tough.”
[……..]
“I can overlook the fact that there are human boys who keep crawling over my body every day. But I have to deal with politicians talking nonsense and those trashy creeps trying to force our kin into affiliations with a smile on their faces. They call it ‘affiliation’ but there are loads of guys desperate to traffic elves. They even tried some weird tricks on me yesterday; some guy wanted to get drunk with me and mixed in some drugs and sleeping pills! I could drink a hundred bottles of it without batting an eye, so it doesn’t matter for me, but my mood was stuck at rock bottom all day.”
[…You’ve been through a lot…]
“But, but, even after taking that stress, I held it in. Wanna know why? Because this is Yujin’s world. And from the humans’ perspective, we’re aliens. It’ll get better someday. It has to! I kept thinking that and holding on. Soon, everything will be fine! And today, I thought I could relieve my stress by meeting Yujin. I thought that next week, I could start fresh again.”
The more she spoke, the more Olgania’s voice swelled with emotion.
“But Yujin says he can’t keep the promise?”
[…………….]
“Don’t want to say? Personal matters? Or is it a very important mission? An urgent matter? What’s going on?”
[W-well, Olga… could you calm down a bit…]
“Calm down? I guess Yujin doesn’t realize how rational and calm I am right now.”
When asked for a reason, Yujin kept hesitating to answer, mumbling.
Seeing this, Shia thought, ‘It’d be better if you just say it right now…’ but Yujin’s voice just kept whining, continuously apologizing.
“Okay, so it’s personal, huh? You didn’t want to tell me the reason, did you? Alright, alright. Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright….”
[…………Olga?]
With chill eyes, Olgania gently whispered into the phone with a bright and sweet smile.
She looked like someone who wasn’t angry at all, but her voice carried a deep chill.
“You’re dead.”
[…Aah…]
“No matter how much you plead or beg, I won’t stop. You’re dead now.”
It might make quite an interesting story about an S-grade Hunter who died from dehydration in the bedroom, right?
Having added that, Olgania wore a smile that glimmered with madness.
When there was no voice coming anymore from the other side of the phone, Olgania smiled softly and laid down the smartwatch that had been hanging on her wrist onto the table.
“Haah… Shia, I’m sorry. I just embarrassed myself.”
“Uh, um… No! I think if Menelapie suddenly got a different boyfriend, I’d be angry too.”
Not that it would ever happen…
“Ugh, haha… I should go get some fresh air for a moment. If I stay here, I feel like I might break another piece of furniture…”
With that final remark, Olgania pulled at her beautiful hair nervously and stepped outside.
A moment later, there seemed to be a strange roar coming from somewhere, but Shia decided to ignore it.
[Ishia. I know you’re there.]
“Oh?”
At that moment, Olgania’s smartwatch, which was placed on the table, rang.
What is it? Did Olgania get mad and didn’t hang up?
Shia picked up Olgania’s smartwatch.
“What is it? Are you confessing something to me, fake hero? I can’t do anything about Olgania’s issues!”
[That’s not it. I’m sorry things have turned out this way, but I need you in Busan right now.]
“Work? What work? If you need help, you should just tell Olgania, right? Why are you telling me?”
[………]
At those words, Yujin maintained silence for a long time, and then, with determination, he took a deep breath and continued.
[I can only say this to you.]
“What…?”
Wait, a sudden confession…?
Feeling the atmosphere grow a bit awkward, Shia was worried that Olgania might be watching this call.
If she misread the situation, Olgania could erupt like a volcano and unleash her anger onto Shia.
[The truth is….]
○○○○○
– Three hours ago –
Sinyeo Unpo Port in Busan was an artificial reclaimed area built on the sea where the land had completely vanished since the Great Rift occurred.
Originally, it served as a forward base for Hunters to fend off monsters washed in from the sea, but after the Second Great Rift, the monsters invading from the sea nearly became extinct. Now, it had transformed into a place housing various research facilities, Hunter equipment development zones, and the government’s comprehensive science and technology complex.
On that western coastal cliff of Sinyeo Unpo Port, where there were few people, a strange barrier was spread out.
The orange hexagonal pieces seemed to suggest a beautiful sculpture when viewed from a distance, but it was a barrier used by the Hunter Association to block access for safety, indicating that something unusual was happening there.
Normally, covering the entrance of a dungeon would require a small-scale barrier that might cover a couple of five-story buildings, but this time, the barrier gathered attention from kilometers away, glowing like a street lamp lit in the middle of the night.
As a result, the agents dispatched by the Hunter Association had to work overtime, creating extensive civilian no-access zones, unable to leave their shifts.
“Yujin, the no-access settings for the surrounding areas are complete.”
Inside the barrier, Yujin gazed at the towering black castle.
Some called it the Shadow Palace.
Others called it the Coffin of Races.
Another had said that when one saw the towering dark spire, they shouldn’t run but simply pray for a painless death.
Some called it the Demon King’s Castle.
‘If there’s a Demon King, there should be a Demon King’s castle, but… if the castle has appeared, then the Demon King must exist too…?’
The Demon King’s Castle is conceptually tied to the Demon King and is a massive manifestation of darkness.
It isn’t something that can just be built or obliterated casually.
Every brick, column, floor, and window is made up not of reality but of phantoms and abstract concepts.
Naturally, the Demon King’s Castle can only be constructed when the Demon King descends in his ‘complete form.’
‘But the Demon King on Earth hasn’t transcended the fragment stage yet… Could it be that a complete Demon King has been born somewhere? No, if that were true, then it wouldn’t make sense that Shia wouldn’t feel anything.’
“By the way, from how it looks, it seems like just a simple black castle. Is it really that dangerous, Yujin?”
“I’m not sure.”
Yujin had fought against the Demon King in the previous world and had seen the Demon King’s Castle, so he knew this was indeed the Demon King’s Castle, but to the agents sent by the association, it merely looked like a well-constructed building.
However, the Demon King’s Castle is not merely a physical being of the castle’s concept.
It’s akin to a seed for the Demon King to annihilate the world, transforming in various forms, moving as if alive, and the castle carries a tremendous malice within its own existence, a hub of mutated viruses, biological weapons, and a space filled with taboos.
As the castle serves its master, the appearance itself is a massive headache.
“What I saw at the Demon King’s Castle before had corridors made from human tongues, and the spines of victims served as the pillars supporting it.”
“……”
“I think the coloring was done with blood and brains. But since it’s been a while, my memory is a bit hazy. Once it settled in, even without the Demon King’s direct control, the mutated evils would contaminate the surrounding vegetation, leading to trees eating humans and sending their blood and corpses back to the Demon King’s Castle through their roots.”
“……….I see.”
That was only a trivial anomaly caused by the Demon King’s Castle.
The Demon King’s Castle poisons the land, spirits, and mana with malice centered around the location it’s rooted.
Ordinary trees turn into man-eating trees, and nature-loving fairies awaken to the taste of human flesh, becoming flesh-eating fairies.
Most living beings, including humans who consume the contaminated water and air, gradually morph into demons over time, becoming subordinates of the Demon King, while the land and rocks lose their color and turn into decaying land, becoming suitable for the roots of the Demon King’s Castle.
Though there seemed to be no immediate effect, had the Demon King’s Castle been left here for just a week, it would likely have turned the southern seas, including Busan and Ulsan, into a land of demons.
And Yujin…
“How about the reporters?”
“The association’s agents are handling them appropriately. However, it appears that there are a few reporters crossing the boundary and trying to sneak in, so there’s also a risk, like last time with the parasite dungeon incident, that they might get infected.”
While it wasn’t surprising that agents of the Hunter Association were rushing to the entrance of the opaque barrier, it was natural that reporters, sensing a scoop, flocked here since rumors had spread that an S-grade Hunter and returnee Yujin had entered.
Even without special scoops, Yujin was popular as a professional Hunter broadcaster and a hero who had long protected this land.
Yujin sighed and stood up.
Normally, a Hunter would prepare equipment at a temporary base and strategize for a dungeon raid, but as an S-grade Hunter, a fake hero who had come to destroy the Demon King’s Castle, he needed neither equipment nor companions.
In fact, the presence of companions in the Demon King’s Castle, where anything could happen, would only act as shackles, preventing Yujin from fully unleashing his abilities.
‘Anything inside must be destroyed. If there are living beings, they must be exterminated, regardless of their type.’
So Yujin ordered his close associates, including Tia, to surround the Demon King’s Castle, and with the objective of complete destruction to ensure nothing remained that could help the Demon King from inside, he charged into the castle.
○○○○
“But what’s the problem? It’s surprising the Demon King hasn’t reached full form yet, but the castle has appeared…”
[Surprising, yes, but not entirely impossible.]
Even upon hearing that the Demon King’s Castle had appeared, Shia wasn’t shocked.
Since arriving on Earth, Shia had already destroyed more than five fragments of the Demon King with her own hands.
When facing the complete form of the Demon King, she’d have to fight with everything she had, but if it’s just a fragment, there was no need for concern.
The issue was how those mere fragments of the Demon King summoned the Demon King’s Castle.
‘Well, I can think about that later.’
“By the way, Yujin. You said you were going in for complete destruction, so why are you calling me? Did someone get injured?”
[No…]
“Then what is it?”
[Inside the Demon King’s Castle is complicated and filled with traps. Of course, it wasn’t that difficult, and strangely enough, the goal of the traps seemed more about preventing access than killing people.]
However, no matter how sophisticated and abundant the traps were, Yujin’s abilities were just right for countering them.
Turning falsehoods into truths, he did not activate the traps, and even if a trap was triggered, his ability could manipulate reality to make the falsehood of “nothing happened” into the truth.
Thanks to this, Yujin continued to breach the inner sanctum of the Demon King’s Castle without facing any real obstacles.
[…And now I’m trapped.]
“What?”
Wait, Yujin is trapped?
[To be precise… I lost.]
“……Pfft!!!!”
Shia often teased Yujin, saying she couldn’t recognize him as a hero compared to Menelapie, but she actually rated Yujin’s skills quite highly.
But he said he lost? And he’s trapped?
Wait, if he’s lost, how did he save his life?
Did he really lose in a fight?
If that’s the case, is he trying to send an SOS right now?
“Oh, really~? Is that right? So you’re too embarrassed to ask Olgania for help and want to casually shift the burden to me?”
[…….Ahem.]
Acknowledging how much of that was true, Yujin coughed awkwardly.
Well, it makes sense that it’d be super embarrassing to admit that he lost.
“But by the way, someone like you ended up being careless in the Demon King’s Castle? It doesn’t add up.”
[That’s because…]
Yujin paused, as if selecting his words.
It seemed he found the situation absurd himself. He couldn’t quite understand how he lost inside the Demon King’s Castle, and if he truly lost, how he managed to save his life remained a mystery.
Actually, Shia was confused about whether Yujin’s words were the truth or a mere fib.
[…]
“Hey, why did you stop talking? For Koreans, there are two things that make us upset: the first is when someone stops speaking mid-sentence, and the second is…”
[It was you.]
“Umm…….?”
At Yujin’s words, Shia tilted her head in confusion.
She had to think long and hard about what he meant.
Me? What does that mean?
[The appearance of the Demon King is you, Ishia.]
“………”
At that, Shia’s face paled.
