Creeeeeak— Thud!
The heavy castle gates slammed shut, sealing them inside Hesse’s Castle.
As the gates closed, the noises from outside were cut off, leaving the interior eerily silent.
The atmosphere was ghostly, and the scent of sulfur grew even more pungent.
It felt as if they had stepped into another dimension.
Despite the dread, Yigyul moved forward without hesitation.
Seong Yohan stole glances at him.
The boss room was open, and the dungeon had clearly been upgraded to B-class, yet this man showed no fear.
From his brisk stride to the way he carried himself without a single weapon—everything about him was peculiar.
Yohan narrowed his eyes, scanning Yigyul before speaking in a low voice.
“You’re an unregistered hunter, aren’t you?”
“Nope. I’m a C-class harvesting hunter.”
Yigyul retorted bluntly, not even bothered to look back.
“Liar.”
“I told you, I’m not. Check the association records if you want. Want to see my license?”
“Then how are you so fine right now? The contaminated energy here is this strong.”
“Maybe I’m enduring it because I’m a ‘Curse User,’ just like you said.”
“You spout nonsense like it’s a daily habit.”
“Ha! How do you know if I’m talking nonsense or not?”
“I know when I hear it. Whether it’s a lie or the truth.”
There was a strange conviction in Yohan’s voice.
Yigyul let out a short laugh and stopped walking. He tilted his head sideways to meet Yohan’s gaze.
“What, do you have a skill or something? No matter how holy or Saint-like you are, you shouldn’t be able to read people’s lies. Are you using telepathy?”
“I have it. The skill.”
“……What?”
“[Ears of Truth and Consent].”
Yohan answered clearly, his face expressionless.
“When someone tells a lie, I hear static in my ears. Very loud static.”
“……”
Yigyul promptly shut his mouth.
‘Damn it, that’s a real thing?!’
A lie detector skill—he had never heard of such a broken, cheat-like ability existing.
But Yohan’s expression wasn’t that of someone making a joke.
‘…What kind of guy is this?’
He couldn’t even lie properly now.
Yigyul pouted and whipped his body back around.
If he kept arguing, he’d only end up losing more ground.
Yigyul marched through the corridors.
The interior of the old stone building was chilling.
Sticky, unidentifiable liquids were smeared on the walls, and marks where monsters had gnawed on the structure were visible everywhere.
The smell of sulfur was thickening.
Following the scent, they arrived at a room decorated entirely with glass, connected to the castle’s central hall.
“……This is.”
Yigyul’s brow furrowed as he entered.
The once-magnificent stained glass was shattered, scattered across the floor, and ominous bloodstains were dotted across the glass shards.
At the end of that trail of blood, beneath a corner pillar, a familiar object lay abandoned.
A black school backpack.
Yohan moved quickly to pick it up.
The straps were torn and frayed.
“……It belongs to that boy.”
Yohan’s voice turned hard as stone.
“Kang Yeongwon….”
Yigyul also scowled.
It was indeed the bag of the brat he had saved in the alleyway.
He’d saved him, only for the kid to crawl into a dungeon and cause this mess.
He knew the boy was bold, but this was beyond reckless.
“Was I not right? He entered the dungeon.”
Yohan gripped the bag tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
“We have to find him. Now.”
“Wait, wait. Calm down.”
Yigyul raised a hand to restrain him.
“The boss room is open. Monsters are pouring out. How are we supposed to find him by just running blindly? Stay calm.”
“Is this the time to be calm?!”
Yohan barked. His usual cool-headed composure was nowhere to be found.
“That boy is only 16. He’s a civilian who hasn’t even Awakened!”
“Hey! I know that! Who doesn’t know?”
“You knew, and yet you let him come here?”
“Hey, did I send him? Did I know he’d come to a dungeon? I only met the kid today for the first time! You’re too worked up.”
“You should have caught him!”
Yigyul shouted back, his voice rising in frustration.
The agitated Seong Yohan began to leak divine power.
Yigyul winced.
The way the man was closing in, step by step, was threatening.
“I should be getting a bow of gratitude for saving him, but instead you’re taking your anger out on me?”
“You should have caught him then! You should have stopped a kid heading toward a dangerous place right then!”
“Listen here, I’ve been patient, but you—”
Yohan’s eyes shimmered with a blue light.
His excitement was causing his divine power to spiral out of control.
Wuuu— wuuuuu—
The air vibrated heavily.
A faint white light, like a heat haze, rose around Yohan.
To a normal person, it might have been just a brilliant light, but to Yigyul, who harbored demonic energy, it was no different from pure poison.
“Ugh…!”
Yigyul instinctively stepped back.
It stung. No, it hurt. It felt like his skin was sizzling.
The high-concentration divine power Yohan emitted reacted with the demonic energy inside Yigyul’s body, absorbing it directly.
Then, they collided violently.
Zzap, zzap!
The pain, like an electric current flowing through his veins, turned Yigyul’s face pale in an instant.
‘This, this crazy bastard…!’
Yigyul broke into a cold sweat, backing away.
However, Yohan didn’t seem to see Yigyul’s condition.
He was losing his reason to fury and worry for the missing child.
“I will ask one more time.”
Unaware of Yigyul’s state, Yohan took another step closer.
“Are you an unregistered hunter?”
“Ugh— Hey, I told you I’m not…!”
“You…!”
“…Don’t come any closer…!”
Yigyul retreated as if fleeing until his back hit a cold glass wall.
There was nowhere left to run.
Yohan reached out—a simple action intended to catch Yigyul and stop him from running.
“I said don’t—!”
Yohan’s hand firmly gripped Yigyul’s right forearm.
At that moment—
Fwaaaa—!
“Hh-ugh…!”
A suppressed groan escaped Yigyul’s lips.
It felt as if he had grabbed a high-voltage wire with his bare hands.
No, it was like having lava injected into his veins.
The massive amount of divine power that had overfilled Yohan due to his agitation was sucked into Yigyul’s body through Yohan’s hand.
Conversely, Yohan’s eyes flew wide.
‘……!?’
The splitting headache, the uncontrollable waves of divine power, the overloaded state that had felt like it was on the verge of exploding—it all vanished like a lie the moment he touched this man’s arm.
It was like plunging a red-hot iron into freezing ice water.
Sshhhhhh—
The blue, flame-like aura surrounding Yohan’s body was instantly sucked into Yigyul.
The divine power that had risen so high it sparked in his eyes calmed down rapidly.
Yohan felt an immense sense of pleasure.
The feeling of being stabilized so suddenly was… overwhelming.
“Heugh…. Haa….”
The strength left Yigyul’s legs, and he slumped to the floor.
“Ah… ugh….”
He felt like he was dying.
The divine power that had rushed in all at once was indiscriminately burning, purifying, and stirring the demonic energy within him.
The pain of his insides twisting brought tears to his eyes.
[Warning! An excessive amount of high-concentration divine power has been injected!]
[Collision with internal demonic energy.]
[………The Fragment is squirming.]
[Curse Alleviated]
[Curse Alleviated]
[Curse Alleviated]
The system windows flashed frantically before his eyes.
‘Alleviation or whatever… I’m actually going to die….’
Yigyul panted heavily, bracing himself against the floor with trembling hands.
The pain was horrific, but ironically, his body was becoming lighter.
It felt like his rotting flesh was being forcibly resuscitated.
Was this torture or a cure?
Meanwhile, Yohan was staring blankly at his own hand.
Then, he gazed down at Yigyul, who was huffing on the floor.
That just now was not an illusion.
This man had absorbed his excess divine power in a single breath, without any side effects (at least from Yohan’s perspective).
It was an amount that would have caused a normal person to explode.
No one had ever been able to handle it.
Yet this man was fine… or rather, he looked a bit pained, but he was alive.
He was the ‘one’ he had been searching for so desperately.
The only vessel capable of accepting his cursed blessing—this uncontrollable power.
“Ha……”
A breathy laugh escaped Yohan’s lips.
Yigyul looked up at Yohan through blurred vision. His eyes were rimmed with red from holding back tears.
‘This crazy bastard….’
Yohan was smiling.
Despite having just half-killed the person in front of him and leaving him collapsed. He was smiling brilliantly.
With a gaze that was beyond holy—so beautiful it was chilling—but also clearly a little unhinged.
“It seems….”
Yohan slowly knelt down, bringing his eyes level with Yigyul’s.
“That something is connected between you and me.”
Yigyul glared at him, swallowing the curses that had risen to the tip of his tongue.
“Don’t you think we need to confirm what it is?”
Yohan’s eyes shone with obsession.
‘This lunatic…’
Yigyul screamed internally.
‘Confirm my foot!’
He wanted to tell him to just screw off and leave him alone.
But all that came out was a raspy groan.
“……Go away, you psycho.”
In the midst of all this, the tactless system windows continued to chime cheerfully.
Ding!
[Curse Alleviated]
[Curse Alleviated]
[Physical Condition Recovering]
Yigyul wheezed, feeling like he wanted to bite his own tongue.
‘Damn it, you bastard. It hurts like hell, but the effect is amazing.’
