Yigyul slowly turned his head to look at Seong Yohan.
He had to clench his jaw to keep his voice from trembling.
“……What did you say?”
Kang Yeongeum.
There was no way he could ever forget that name.
“Kang Yeongwon is her younger brother. That is why…… he has no need to Awaken. No, he must not.”
Yohan continued, looking down, unaware of Yigyul’s internal turmoil.
“Her legacy and the massive government subsidies fall straight into Yeongwon’s hands. Why would he need to do the grueling work of a hunter? It was her wish as well—for him to live a normal life.”
“……Yeongeum’s… brother?”
Yigyul asked, his voice shaking.
Yohan curled his lips into a self-deprecating smile.
He was smiling, but it didn’t look like he was happy.
“Yes, it’s a famous fact. He’s the sole blood relative of a hero.”
Only then did Yohan turn his head toward Yigyul.
“That’s why so many people target him. Hyenas crawl all over him, trying to get close to him for Yeongeum’s inheritance. You…… aren’t you one of them?”
Yohan’s eyes flashed with suspicion once again.
But Yigyul couldn’t talk back.
No, he couldn’t even hear the man’s words anymore.
Yigyul bit his lip hard—hard enough to draw blood.
‘Kang Yeongwon.’
‘Kang Yeongeum.’
Even though they shared the same surname, even though they both had ‘Yeong’ in their names, why hadn’t he even considered it?
Nine years ago, beyond the hellish Gate of Reverse Heaven.
‘I have a brother about your age. That’s why I’m looking out for you.’
‘Don’t make me laugh! Who’s your brother!’
‘You brat, talking back again!’
‘Fight me! Let’s settle this!’
‘A shrimp like you would get knocked out in one hit!’
The woman who used to sweep away the demons of the Abyss with a brutal battle-axe that was as tall as she was.
The woman who claimed her job was ‘Healer’ but was much better at wielding an axe than casting heals.
A boisterous, rough woman.
Her blood-stained face, laughing, flickered before his eyes.
The person who had bickered with him while always having his back.
‘Live, Yigyul. You have to live.’
‘Noona, Noona, you can’t.’
‘Live and…….’
Amidst the flames, in that dark Abyss where volcanoes erupted, she had been crying while looking up at the ashen sky. It wasn’t because of the pain.
It was because she was worried about Yigyul, who would be left alone, and because she missed the brother she had left behind.
Yigyul stared blankly at the floor.
Beneath his hoodie, he felt the cold touch of metal against his chest.
The name tags he had collected one by one every time a comrade died.
Their heavy weight felt like it was strangling him.
‘If you live and meet my brother, please tell him.’
Her final words echoed in his ears like a hallucination.
‘That his sister loved him very much.’
Yigyul bowed his head.
An unspeakable pain seemed to well up from deep within his chest.
Seong Yohan peered at the man walking beside him.
The man who, until moments ago, had been annoying, bothersome, and prickly with every breath had suddenly gone quiet.
It wasn’t just that he stopped talking; the very air around him had grown heavy.
Slumped shoulders.
A gaze fixed on the ground. And lips reddened from being bitten so hard.
‘Why is he acting like that all of a sudden?’
Yohan felt a sense of wonder.
It started right after he mentioned Kang Yeongeum.
What he read in Yigyul’s trembling pupils wasn’t just surprise. It was clear sorrow—and guilt.
Yohan stole a glance at Yigyul’s profile and spoke.
“What is your name?”
“……Why do you want to know.”
The answer came after a long pause.
It was still prickly, but the energy was gone from it.
“I need to know so I can look you up later. You’re unidentified, aren’t you?”
“Why would you look me up? Are you a stalker?”
“Since you’re an unregistered hunter, I have to make sure you get registered. Talent management is essential at the Association level.”
“I’ve told you a dozen times, I’m a C-class harvesting hunter. Are your ears clogged?”
“I know that’s a lie.”
Yohan said firmly.
“My Ears of Truth have been ringing so loudly every time you open your mouth that I’m nearly deaf.”
“……What do you even know, acting like you know everything.”
Yigyul snapped back irritably and turned his head away.
Normally, he would have barked back with “Do you have proof?”, but right now, he didn’t even have the energy for that.
The two walked down the long corridor in silence.
The hallway, lined with old carpet, seemed endless, and the candelabras on the walls flickered with eerie, swaying blue flames.
Yigyul was anxious.
‘Where the hell did that brat Kang Yeongwon go?’
As they passed through the corridor, they saw no monster corpses, let alone traces of humans.
That meant there was only one place left.
The Boss Room.
Yigyul bit his lip again.
The metallic taste of blood spread in his mouth.
If he was Kang Yeongeum’s brother, he was someone Yigyul had to look after now.
He wasn’t just a passing acquaintance.
He was the sole blood relative of a comrade he had shared life and death with in the Gate of Reverse Heaven.
And that kid was now in the middle of a dungeon crawling with demons, all by himself.
‘Damn it, how did I get stuck in this…’
Yigyul ran a hand roughly through his messy hair in frustration.
His chest felt like it was burning.
If something happened to Yeongwon, how could he ever look Kang Yeongeum in the face in the afterlife?
“Why the sudden change?”
Yohan’s voice broke in.
“You look pale. Are you… nervous about facing a ‘family internal struggle’?”
“……”
“You must be feeling a pang of conscience at the thought of having to kill a demon.”
“I told you to stop with the bullshit….”
Yohan smirked.
A laugh escaped him involuntarily, and he tried to suppress the rising corner of his mouth as he spoke.
“Ahem… well, we’ve finally reached the boss room. If Yeongwon is inside, it’s a big problem.”
“Of course it’s a problem, dammit… this whole thing is a mess.”
“If anything happens to that boy, I will hold you responsible.”
Yigyul shouted as if it were unfair.
“Hey! What did I even do to have you dump the responsibility on me? Did I push him? Did I open the dungeon door for him?”
“Is it something to be proud of, leading a child astray? As an adult, you have a responsibility for failing to stop him.”
“Who said I’m proud? My only crime is saving him!”
“You should have stopped him then.”
“Haa…… let’s just stop talking.”
Yigyul shut his mouth. Yohan wasn’t entirely wrong.
Yigyul felt an underlying sense of guilt.
If only he had realized sooner—if only he had known he was Yeongeum’s brother a bit earlier—he could have prevented this.
He wouldn’t have let him go in that alleyway in the first place.
“……We’ve arrived.”
Yohan stopped.
At the end of the corridor, a massive door that seemed to reach the ceiling looked down on them.
The blood-red wooden door was embossed with the grotesque figures of demons.
A dark, murky mana seeped through the cracks of the door.
Along with it, a pungent, piercing smell of sulfur spread.
—Kik, kik-kik…… kirik…
A scratchy laughter could be heard from beyond the door.
“It smells foul.”
Yohan’s expression turned cold.
He habitually reached into the air and summoned his Chains of Judgment.
The clank of the chains cutting through the silence echoed.
“Get ready. It’s B-class, or maybe even higher.”
Yigyul frowned and looked ahead.
Thanks to the brilliant divine power Yohan was emitting, the evil demonic aura leaking from the door vanished before it could reach Yigyul.
While his body was comfortable, the ‘fragment’ inside him felt different.
Thump, thump, thump.
His heart beat wildly. The thing inside was no mere mob. It was a real ‘demon.’
—Ahhh…….
It was then.
A slimy whisper reached Yigyul’s ears.
—This energy….
Yigyul’s footsteps stopped dead. Yohan seemed unbothered, as if he hadn’t heard it, but the voice was crystal clear to Yigyul.
—Lord Beelzebub?
Creeeeeeeak—
The massive doors opened on their own.
The rusted hinges screamed as they swung open to the left and right.
A pale hand shot out from the darkness.
Soon, a boy in a school uniform began to walk out slowly with a staggering gait.
“Kang Yeongwon!”
Yohan shouted urgently. But the boy did not answer.
Empty eyes.
Pupils that had lost focus and were glazed over.
And a smile that was twisted grotesquely at the corners.
Anyone could see he wasn’t in his right mind. He was completely possessed by a demon.
—Kik-kik… kik-kik…….
A disgusting laughter that didn’t belong to a boy leaked from Yeongwon’s mouth.
—Lord Beelzebub, you’ve brought such a wonderful prey. Is this a gift for me?
The demon’s voice came from the deep darkness behind Kang Yeongwon.
Yigyul’s eyes narrowed.
‘Prey? Gift?’
The creature was mistaken.
It had sensed the aura of Beelzebub emanating from Yigyul’s body and clearly misunderstood him to be the incarnation of its superior—the ‘Demon King Beelzebub.’
Then what about Seong Yohan beside him?
‘…Was it so blinded by the fragment that it didn’t sense the divine power? It’s not an aura you could miss… well, fine by me.’
It seemed it hadn’t sensed the divine power.
That’s why it was whispering about bringing prey.
Having assessed the situation, Yigyul’s mind began to race.
