Chapter 245: Chapter 244. Sudden Change (3)

Chae Nayun snatched the newspaper out of Heynckes’ hands.

[Immortal Exterminates Devil]

The headline story was about her grandfather killing a devil. As Chae Nayun had lived away from the internet for a while, she had only found out now. She widened her eyes and began to stuff the contents of the story into her mind.

[Djinns have finally summoned the root of evil. Devil ‘Plucas’ had descended on Earth through the body of a human host.]

[Chae Joochul submitted Plucas’ Horn as evidence and is currently getting his injuries from the battle treated in the Association’s hospital.]

[The Hero Association issued a sanction against Pandemonium and various Djinn groups….]

It was news that was hard to believe. Chae Nayun looked up at Heynckes, holding the newspaper tightly.

“…W-What does this mean? A devil?”

“Hm? You didn’t know?”

Heynckes found Chae Nayun’s reaction strange.

“Of course not. How would I?”

“…Then what do you think now that you know?”

“Eh? Mm… That Grandfather is amazing? Well, I’m surprised that such a thing as a devil exists.”

“Hm.”

Heynckes crossed his arms and rubbed his chin. Then, he whispered quietly, “Is she acting dumb or actually stupid….”

“Old man, I can hear you.”

Chae Nayun narrowed her eyes, and Heynckes shrugged in response.

“Haha, at least your ears are sharp.”

“…What am I supposed to think?”

“Didn’t I tell you before?”

Chae Nayun had stayed in Heynckes’ inn for a month. Naturally, she had told him everything about herself. Though Chae Nayun denied the possibly strongly, she didn’t forget to mention the theory that Chae Jinyoon might have been a Djinn.

It was to locate Kim Joongho but also to receive his advice.

“What do you mean? You never mentioned anything about a devil.”

Chae Nayun asked innocently. Her widened eyes were burning with a desire to learn.

“Haa…”

Heynckes found it hard to believe that Chae Nayun wouldn’t even try to remember but closed his mouth when he realized it was inevitable.

The theory that ‘Chae Jinyoon might have been a Djinn’ didn’t exist in her head. It wasn’t a matter of intelligence. She was rejecting the idea subconsciously.

“Kim Joongho said he had the corpse of a devil.”

As such, Heynckes explained. Chae Nayun nodded with a serious face.

“Yes, and my grandfather killed a devil.”

“….”

Chae Nayun was murmuring seriously as if she knew what was going on, but her thoughts didn’t continue beyond Chae Joochul. She was refusing to connect the dots between Kim Joongho’s devil corpse and Chae Jinyoon.

Heynckes couldn’t help but feel a little bad.

“…You can think about the rest by yourself. The sun is setting soon, so you’ll have a lot of time to think.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

Heynckes poured beer into a 1000cc cup. Then, he gave it to Chae Nayun, hoping it would serve as fuel for thinking.

“Ah, thank you. I was getting thirsty.”

“Also, we’ll be changing rules starting from tomorrow.”

While Chae Nayun was gulping down the cup of beer, Heynckes raised his index finger.

“One good strike. That’ll be enough.”

The Lord of Steel, Kryne Heynckes, had walked the path of swordsmanship for 60 years. That was 21,900 days or 525,600 hours. Two generations had passed by during this time, and a tiny country in East Asia rose to become the superpower of the world.

But even while his surroundings changed, Heynckes had only suffered one defeat in his entire life.

The fact that he made defeating him the condition for Chae Nayun’s victory… meant that he had no intention of telling her about Kim Joongho’s whereabouts.

Never disclosing a client’s personal information.

That was one of the fundamental aspects of being an innkeeper, and Heynckes wasn’t someone who would defy the fundamentals.

“Even you should be capable of doing that much.”

But the circumstances had changed. Now that the existences known as devils appeared, he couldn’t just gloss over Kim Joongho’s words.

“…Don’t regret it.”

Chae Nayun stared at Heynckes strongly and took out a cigarette from her pocket. Smoking was now a habit to Chae Nayun. Heynckes, who didn’t like smoking, spoke.

“No smoking inside the inn. Do it outside if you have to.”

“Oh, okay. Just so you know, this is how I refill my magic power.”

“…What?”

Chae Nayun snickered and explained the ‘Trait’ she obtained from the Tower of Wish. [Hard to Kill]. It had the strange ability to convert toxic substances into magic power.

“The Tower of Wish has something like that? What an interesting place.”

“Why don’t you go in? I’m sure you’ll become a rising star in no time.”

“No, I’ll be 90 if I blink a few times. Why would I go into a Tower?”

“Don’t be like that. Look, I got this longsword from the Tower.”

Chae Nayun proudly showed Heynckes her [Lv.6 Jack Churchill’s Claymore]. Then, she remembered another effective good she had.

[Invitation Letter to the Love Room]

To make sure she didn’t lose it somewhere, she reached into her pocket and took out the item she had carefully placed. Thankfully, the letter was still there.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, this…?”

“Yeah.”

“Mmm… how do I explain this….”

She had brought it with her to one day meet the person behind the friendship that started from a game. Although she left the Tower of Wish without ever seeing him, she believed they would meet eventually.

“It’s a talisman.”

“Talisman?”

“Yep.”

Chae Nayun put the letter away with a big grin on her face.

“It’ll protect me from death at least once.”

**

[Seoul, Korea – Yoo Yeonha’s Mansion]

After Yoo Yeonha’s teary confession, Yoo Jinwoong told Yoo Yeonha about the Kwang-Oh Incident. The truth Yoo Yeonha wanted to avoid was revealed in detail by the perpetrator, and Yoo Yeonha slept for two days straight.

When she woke up, her body that was exhausted from stress and lack of sleep was back to its peak condition. As such, she came back home with Yoo Jinwoong.

“…I’m sorry, Yeonha.”

In the mansion’s living room, the father and daughter sat facing each other. Yoo Jinwoong first apologized to his daughter. His past deed had come around like a boomerang and struck his daughter’s heart. The fact that his daughter was hurt pained him.

But what pained him even more was the fact that he couldn’t do anything about it as the person who caused it.

No matter how powerful Essence of the Strait got, it couldn’t resist Chae Joochul yet. Now called the ‘Devil Slayer’, Chae Joochul’s influence was unrivaled.

No one would dare to ask him to atone for his sins, and whoever did so would face grave consequences no matter what background they had.

“You don’t have to apologize to me. You know this too, Dad.”

Yoo Yeonha made a small smile. It was already too late to turn back.

Still, she had no intention of giving up. She wasn’t the type to leave something broken just because it had lost a key component. She planned to make Chae Joochul pay for his sin no matter how long it took.

“Here.”

“…?”

To achieve this goal, Yoo Yeonha gave a small USB to her father. Yoo Jinwoong tilted his head as he received it.

“It’s what Uncle found out about Chae Jinyoon’s murder.”

The USB containing the result of Yoo Jinhyuk’s investigation. It contained the truth Chae Joochul wanted to hide.

“Uncle? You mean Uncle Yoo Jinhyuk?”

Yoo Jinwoong was shocked to hear his little brother’s name.

“Yeah.”

“Mm… then I know about it too. He said he saw a ‘tattoo’, right?”

“No.”

Yoo Yeonha shook her head. Yoo Jinhyuk had also found out about Kim Hajin’s tattoo, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.

“Uncle found out something much bigger. He didn’t say anything because he was afraid Chae Joochul would kill him.”

The fact that Chae Jinyoon’s corpse was mutated, that his body was engulfed by thicker demonic energy than any Djinn, that his right arm had entirely ‘devilized’, and that Chae Shinhyuk ordered Kim Joongho to conceal the corpse to hide this from Chae Nayun.

Yoo Jinhyuk knew many secrets.

“Dad, Chae Joochul revealed that he killed a devil. After seeing that, I became certain once again.”

Yoo Jinwoong plugged the USB into his smartwatch. A holographic window popped up, and Yoo Jinwoong quickly began to read it. Soon, his eyes shot open.

“Chae Jinyoon was an incarnation of a devil.”

“….”

Yoo Jinwoong stared at Yoo Yeonha with a shocked face.

Next, Yoo Yeonha told him exactly what Kim Hajin told her in the past. That a great evil known as a ‘Devil’s Seed’ had placed itself in Chae Jinyoon’s heart, and that there was no way to remove it from his body.

“Then….”

Yoo Jinwoong muttered in a daze.

“Right, he knew about all this and killed Chae Jinyoon himself.”

“….”

As Yoo Yeonha’s father and Essence of the Strait’s leader, Yoo Jinwoong believed he was quite old. Having experienced many things in his life, he believed his experience made him intelligent, even if he wasn’t a genius.

Even so, he didn’t dare to accept what his daughter was telling him.

“…But Yeonha, Chae Joochul said even he had a hard time dealing with a devil. How can a man, who was only a cadet at the time….”

“That’s because the devil inside Chae Jinyoon wasn’t fully awakened. Plus, that person was a lot stronger than you think.”

“…Ho.”

Yoo Jinwoong could tell that his daughter’s trust in this man wasn’t simple.

He recalled how she said he was ‘precious’ to her.

He knew Yoo Yeonha didn’t trust people easily. What kind of feelings did they share to come to have such a relationship? For how long?

As a father, Yoo Jinwoong couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. But he quickly chided himself and shook off the thought. Then, he voiced a question he had.

“Then why didn’t he reveal the truth to anyone? …Ah.”

It was a stupid question. Realizing this in the middle, Yoo Jinwoong closed his mouth.

“Right.”

There was no proof that a Devil’s Seed was in Chae Jinyoon’s body. No one even knew what a Devil’s Seed was.

Even if he had evidence, Chae Joochul wouldn’t have accepted that his grandson became a devil. And Chae Joochul had the power to turn truth into falsehood if he so wanted.

“Still, I find it hard to believe that a single high schooler….”

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“I agree. I don’t think he did it alone. Jeronimo probably helped him.”

Hearing this, Yoo Jinwoong quickly nodded. He remembered Kim Hajin’s nickname, which was spread far across the world.

“Jeronimo’s… Fenrir.”

“Exactly.”

The world’s strongest mercenary group, having stopped a national catastrophe with only twenty or so members, estimated to reach the same level of influence as the Vast Expanse.

It was entirely possible with Jeronimo’s help.

“This is all I know.”

“…I see.”

Yoo Yeonha got up.

“You can go now, Dad. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”

“…Yeonha, why don’t you stay with me for today—”

“I’ll tell Mom.”

“….”

Yoo Jinwoong got up reluctantly. It wasn’t because he was afraid of his wife. It was because he knew what position he was in. Although he didn’t want to leave his daughter’s side, for now, he could only be thankful that he wasn’t hated by his daughter.

“I’m going to leave now. I’ll try my best, so don’t bear everything alone—”

“Stay put, Dad. Chae Joochul’s influence is unrivaled nowadays. I’m worried.”

“…I will.”

Yoo Jinwoong made a warm smile.

“See you.”

With a kind smile, he left.

Yoo Yeonha stared at her father’s back for a long time.

“…Haa.”

Now alone, she paced around the living room and sighed.

Outside the window, darkness had blanketed the world. It was silent as if even time had stopped.

Buried in this frightening silence… Yoo Yeonha thought about Kim Hajin for a long time.

Kim Hajin knew that Chae Jinyoon was a devil. But there was still something that didn’t make sense. There was no evidence that Chae Jinyoon carried a Devil’s Seed, so how did Kim Hajin know?

“…He returned from the future. That’s really the only way.”

She finally arrived at the conclusion she always hesitated to reach. It was the only plausible explanation.

Just like Shin Myungchul, Kim Hajin had been a Returner.

“Haa….”

Yoo Yeonha slowly walked into her bedroom. A large bed sat in the corner of the room. Yoo Yeonha stared at it blankly. Then, she slowly approached it and buried herself in its embrace.

The bed he gifted her was still comfortable. Although he was gone, his bed remained. Yoo Yeonha carefully sniffed the bed. The scent that once filled the bed was now faint. Kim Hajin’s scent was being erased by her own.

Saddened by this, Yoo Yeonha covered her face.

Thinking about it now, there were all sorts of hints.

He knew what food I liked. It was probably because we were close before he went back in time. Since that was the case, it makes sense that he knew my favorite food.

What kind of a person was I?

What relationship did I have with him?

How did I end up telling him the secret I was most embarrassed about?

Yoo Yeonha wanted to cast off her sorrow with such worries, but it wasn’t easy. The more she thought about him, the heavier her heart became.

Yoo Yeonha cried on her bed. Once the tears started to flow they didn’t stop. Tears resulting from regret were painful. She cried and cried as if the sky had fallen. Yoo Yeonha trembled in agonizing pain until she fell asleep from exhaustion.

**

[28F – Forest to the Demon King’s Castle]

Aileen’s party was attacked by a strange group of demons. Some didn’t die unless their ‘core’ was destroyed, some made physical attacks while looking like fog or mist, and some moved and attacked even after being killed.

“Aaak, when is this going to end!?”

After an hour-long struggle against a seemingly endless flood of monsters, Aileen shouted angrily while glaring at the demons.

Although they managed to kill 46 out of 53 demons, the remaining seven were the trickiest ones to deal with.

“Haa… so annoying.”

Aileen, who went all out on the frontlines, seemed a bit exhausted.

“Are you okay, Suho?”

Jin Seyeon asked Kim Suho.

“Yes, I’m okay.”

Kim Suho, who busily cut down what couldn’t be physically cut, had the right to be tired, but he was completely fine. Jin Seyeon felt like she knew why.

The holy sword in Kim Suho’s hand.

Every time Kim Suho cut down a demon, the holy sword absorbed its power, purified it, and redirected it back into Kim Suho.

In a way, he was infinitely recycling his power.

“But those guys will probably be a bit tricky.”

Kim Suho said as he pointed his sword at the six remaining demons.

They were all high-class demons blessed with the Demon King’s Authority. Because Authorities existed above the realm of Gifts, Kim Suho’s Sword Saint Gift did not work on them. As such, he had to face them with pure swordsmanship.

—You humans are stronger than we thought.

—But we’re bored now. There will be no more playing around.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I think I’ll lose.”

Kim Suho smiled and began to gather his magic power to use his ultimate skill.

Using Misteltein as a catalyst, a secret technique capable of toppling a mountain was starting…

No, it was about to start.

Before the golden magic power Kim Suho was emitting took shape, starlight began to flash in the sky.

Chwaaaa….

Dozens of streaks of light fell, like shooting stars flying through the sky.

“W-What?”

“…?”

“Wow….”

Kim Suho canceled his ultimate skill, Jin Seyeon and Aileen looked up at the beautiful scenery in a daze, and Yi Yongha took out a camera and began taking pictures.

The demons only stared at it with disdain.

Soon, the shooting stars touched the ground. The targets of the starlights were obviously demons. However, the demons stood in place without much thought. They were confident in being able to withstand this attack.

—Hah?

Then, a short death throe escaped one demon’s mouth.

That was it.

Kim Hajin’s Authority, [Punish and Discipline], turned ordinary magic bullets into light-attribute bullets with 4.5 streaks of Stigma, piercing the six demons’ bodies and burning their souls directly.

“…What?”

The shooting stars appeared to close the curtains to a long play. The forest turned silent in a minute.

While everyone else was standing in a daze, Kim Suho shouted.

“Hajin!”

Hearing this, Aileen, Jin Seyeon, and Yi Yongha turned around. A man in a black robe stood atop a tall demon tree.

He jumped down lightly and began to walk over with a bright smile. His steps were full of confidence.

“…Hello.”

Fenrir, Kim Hajin.

Other than Kim Suho, everyone was shocked by the strength of his bullets.

“Y-You… How…?”

Kim Hajin smiled at Aileen, who pointed her finger at him in shock.

Meanwhile, Kim Suho skipped over and grabbed Kim Hajin’s shoulder.

“Ah~ I knew you were here. How did you get through the Colosseum?”

“Colosseum? I don’t know, I’ve never been there. I just sneaked my way here.”

Kim Suho fell for Kim Hajin’s innocent lie completely.

“Ah, that makes sense. You’re good at hiding. Anyways, it’s great seeing you here, Hajin.”

After sharing a warm hug, Kim Hajin looked at Aileen.

“I came because it was noisy. You guys are going to the Demon King’s castle, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

Aileen nodded. Kim Hajin spoke.

“Then let’s go together.”

“…Huu.”

Aileen sighed, then suddenly plopped down on the ground.

“I don’t know… we’re all exhausted. I’m going to go home for a while. I have magic power exhaustion.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Kim Hajin took out a card with a confident smile.

“…What’s that?”

This time, Jin Seyeon showed keen interest. She stealthily walked up to him and stared at the card in his hand.

“It’s an 8-star card I got from the Card Kingdom.”

“W-What? 8, 8-star?!”

“R-Really?!”

Aileen and Jin Seyeon’s eyes widened. The best card they had obtained was 5-star, even after spending tons of money.

“Yep, this will wash away your exhaustion.”

Kim Hajin shook the card.

[Miraculous Teahouse that Suddenly Appeared One Day] [Space Summoning] [8-star]＊Effective Good＊

○ A mysterious teahouse that can never be found when looking for it, appearing only when one is not. The tea it sells has miraculous effects.

●Summons the mysterious teahouse to a place of your choice

●The tea sold in this teahouse has special effects.

●Can be summoned 3 times

===

Kim Hajin snapped his fingers with the 8-star card in hand.

Snap—!

In an instant, golden light shot out of the card, and a small teahouse appeared in the Demon Realm’s forest.

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