Hyunsoo’s luck was especially bad that day.
His charger broke, so his phone had not charged.
He considered visiting his father at the hospital in the Jersis Chairman Lee Taesung had given him as a gift, but his driving was still clumsy, so he waited for the bus instead.
The bus moved slowly because of several protests and accidents.
It was only a little over two hours.
And only after he met his father and came back did he hear the news.
The first report he received said that Sword Emperor Bolond, Absolute Shield Peya, and a man named Wang Hao had tried to assassinate the people of the nation of Hyun with two thousand elite assassins.
The nation of Hyun had entered emergency status, and Hyunsoo hurried home by taxi.
The moment he logged in, he received the second report.
“A messenger bird from His Highness Barad has arrived. Another one from Sir Prak has arrived too.”
“......?”
Hyunsoo could not understand.
Because Nell’s face was steeped in sorrow.
They looked as if they might burst into tears at any moment as they continued.
“Old Man Ben......”
Hyunsoo had never once experienced parting.
He hurriedly rode Firebird to the Papal Palace.
There, he saw Ben slowly scattering away while unconscious.
Even as Ben scattered, he held the Divine Step he had written against his chest.
“......It seems he prepared it alone. Something did feel strange. It may have been because of Sword Emperor Bolond and those people, but......”
Prak, sobbing, collapsed.
Hyunsoo looked at Aria with an expression of disbelief.
She shook her head.
“It looks as though he had been preparing for this for a long time. I think he meant to shoulder it alone and leave that way.”
He was a foolish old man.
After hearing that, Hyunsoo looked around.
He could not understand what part of this was alone.
Prak kept bursting into tears.
“You must not go like this, Your Majesty. I am still— I am still far too lacking!”
Then there were the children who had loved picture books.
Verian, the girl who had loved being held in Ben’s arms while listening to him read, came here as their representative with a single flower in her hands.
The girl sobbed.
“Grandpa......? You said you would read us another picture book next week......”
Antro, who had only recently become his dear friend, simply lowered his head.
And Barad, his eyes red, silently watched him scatter into ash.
“Farewell...... my dear friend.”
The people of the Prime Kingdom, who had been near the Papal Palace and heard the news, also rushed over and wailed.
“Your Majestyyyyyy!”
“No!”
“King Ben!”
“How could you leave us like this!”
Everyone who had been crying stepped aside when Hyunsoo appeared.
Hyunsoo walked down the path that opened for him.
Old Man Ben......
There was not much he could do.
He simply set Ben’s head on his lap and held him as tightly as he could.
You were trying to leave all alone, weren’t you? What part of this looks alone?
Hyunsoo was inexperienced with parting from someone precious.
Ben was the second friend he had made after starting Ares, and he was someone extremely precious to him.
He had liked Ben’s hearty laugh.
He had liked watching him bicker with Barad.
And now all of Ben’s feet had scattered away, and his chest was slowly turning pale and dissolving too.
When Ben slowly opened his eyes, Hyunsoo began to cry.
Inside, he screamed, Please don’t leave me behind. Not yet, Old Man Ben.
But Hyunsoo knew those words would hurt Ben’s heart.
The moment Ben opened his eyes and saw him, he smiled brightly.
Hyunsoo felt the strength of Ben’s arms wrapping around his entire body.
He felt Ben’s trembling, fear-stricken body {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} calm down.
Ben, who had been afraid, was no longer afraid.
He was smiling.
The two looked at each other without words, crying and smiling at the same time.
SHAAAAAAA—
And just like that, Ben completely vanished in Hyun’s arms.
Hyunsoo hugged the last ash left in his embrace even tighter.
CLUTCH—
Only then did the emotion that had been swelling inside him burst out, and Hyunsoo broke down crying.
“Sniff, hngh, hngh......”
Starting with Sword King Barad’s silent bow, everyone standing there bowed their heads in silence for Ben, who had closed his eyes with a smile.
As Ben tried to leave his side completely with a single handful of wind, Hyunsoo reached out and screamed.
“Old Man Ben, don’t go. Stay with me! Don’t leave like this...... please......!”
Barad embraced him and comforted him.
“......He left in peace. The skillbook he prepared for you was completed splendidly, and before he left, he saw you one last time. He fell into rest in the greatest peace he could have had.”
As if proving he had existed, a single skillbook lay where Ben had been just moments before.
But Hyunsoo could not feel that Ben had truly left.
He wanted to deny it.
Yet the notification cruelly forced him to understand.
[The king of the Prime Kingdom. Azure Heaven Ben has passed away.]
[Azure Heaven Ben was the father of all spearmen.]
[He created the fundamentals of spearmanship for the spearmen of the entire continent and was a king respected by all.]
[Please honor him for a moment.]
The ringing notification made him realize that Ben had truly left this world.
After Ben left that way.
An unnamed painter placed a single painting in front of the castle where Ben had stayed.
The funeral was held quietly within the Prime Kingdom.
Hyunsoo saw the funeral portrait Ben had prepared and could not hold back. He cried even harder as he joined the procession.
The painting he carried made its way through every part of the Prime Kingdom.
“Your Majesty!!!”
“King Bennnn!”
“No. No. Your Majesty!”
Every citizen of the Prime Kingdom wailed and screamed toward that painting.
And.
Within the funeral portrait.
The painting of Ben smiling faintly gave one last gift even before he left.
[You have viewed Magnum Opus. Old Man Ben.]
[Vitality increases by 60%, all stats increase by 15, and all skill levels increase by 1.]
[EXP acquisition rate and artifact drop rate increase by 45%.]
[Duration is 5 days.]
The people of the Prime Kingdom cried even harder at the final gift their departing king had left behind.
His funeral portrait was then hung on the Small World Tree.
SHAAAAAAAAA—
A wind blew in a place where there was no wind, shaking the leaves of the Small World Tree.
The Small World Tree, too, was missing its departed dear friend.
Hyunsoo was left alone.
Looking at Ben in the funeral portrait, smiling at him, Hyunsoo burst into tears once more.
[You have viewed Magnum Opus. Old Man Ben.]
[It is even more special only for user Hyunsoo.]
[The probability of creating better artifacts increases by 100%.]
The line saying it was even more special only for him made Hyunsoo even sadder.
“I never did anything for you, Old Man Ben......”
This painting was the same.
So was the Divine Step he had left behind.
[Mythic-grade. Divine Step.]
[This is a bound skill for user Hyunsoo.]
Ben had only ever given things to Hyunsoo.
Then Hyunsoo found a wooden box set off to one side.
Prak had told him there was a gift Ben had prepared in front of the Small World Tree.
CLICK—
When he opened the box, the Small World Tree material Ben had collected all this time was inside.
[You have acquired Legendary-grade. Small World Tree 2 kg.]
It was an incredible amount.
Hyunsoo found a line carved into the carefully trimmed Small World Tree wood.
—To my dear friend Hyun......
When Hyunsoo saw it, a laugh escaped him.
He stroked the clumsily carved words.
Then he hugged it tighter and cried.
Hyunsoo did not have a grandfather.
But if he had, he thought that grandfather would have been exactly like Ben.
Why, why......
Hyunsoo hated himself.
After Ben realized he was going to die, he had begun visiting more often than before.
“Hoho. I am bored. It is not as if I have friends or anything.”
Ben had smiled awkwardly like that, and Hyunsoo had avoided him under the excuse that he was busy.
Maybe he had ignored and run away from Ben’s voice asking for help.
“I miss you......”
For the first time, Hyunsoo learned how painful it was to miss someone and still be unable to see him.
Hyunsoo continued missing him there.
Nell, Bark, and everyone else in the nation of Hyun.
“It would be better to wait until he overcomes the grief and comes out on his own.”
“......The one most saddened by Ben’s death must be Lord Hyunsoo.”
Everyone desperately hoped Hyunsoo would overcome it himself and stand again.
But Hyunsoo was still young.
He was only twenty-one years old.
He was not used to someone’s death, and parting hurt his heart.
Then, after an unknowable amount of time had passed.
Hyunsoo, who had been sunk in grief and unaware of everything else, thought of one thing he could not understand.
Why did Old Man Ben turn into ash and scatter......?
An NPC who died of natural causes did not turn to ash.
Most of them left corpses behind.
Of course, there were occasional exceptions.
But most of the bodies of those who entered the ranks of super-Named NPCs remained.
There was one more question.
One ordinary human begins walking the path of a Demigod.
That was the notification that had rung out as a World Message.
It said he began walking it. Not that he became one.
At a glance, it sounded as if it simply meant he had become a Demigod.
But that was not the answer.
Ben had died in a human body.
He had not died because of Sword Emperor Bolond or people like him.
He had simply died because his lifespan had ended.
But what if he had become a Demigod?
At the very least, even if he is only a Demigod, he should gain semi-eternal life.
It meant he would not be limited by age.
And yet the notification had clearly said he “walks.”
Prak had also said this.
“His Majesty seemed to know that fact already. He had not come out of the training grounds for several months.”
At a glance, that could be taken to mean Ben had been training to pass it down to him.
Of course, it might be possible to think only that.
But.
Old Man Ben knew that reaching the end of Ghost Step would raise him to Demigodhood. And yet he still prepared his funeral. Why?
Of course, it might have been because he thought he might not be able to complete Divine Step.
But there were far too many strange points to simply think that.
“......”
Hyunsoo had not learned the Myth. Divine Step until now.
Because he had not wanted to use what Ben had left behind.
To Hyunsoo, it felt like a crumpled ten-thousand-won bill his grandfather had pressed into his hand before leaving.
But it was clearly written in Divine Step.
“Something special will happen only for one person.”
It meant something special would happen only to him.
[Will you learn Mythic-grade. Divine Step?]
“Yes.”
Hyunsoo chose to learn it.
Then.
[You have learned Mythic-grade. Divine Step.]
[You are the bound user.]
[Sage Arte’s Voice Parchment has been applied to Mythic-grade. Divine Step.]
Sage Arte’s Voice Parchment.
It was a consumable item that could store and insert the voice of a certain being.
Hyunsoo, too, had once seen Arte make such a parchment in the past.
Then.
A voice he missed drifted in with the rustling wind.
—Hyun.
Tears flowed from Hyunsoo’s eyes.
The voice continued.
—For a very long time, I followed the story of the Spear God, and I learned that one who perfectly uses the Spear God’s Step can challenge the Spear God.
Challenge?
Hyunsoo found one clue.
Walking the path of a Demigod.
As Hyunsoo had wondered, it did not mean becoming a Demigod.
It meant entering a path of some kind of trial.
In other words, Ben had died while holding the chance to challenge it.
—I knew that with a body already at its end, I could not challenge the Spear God. So I had this thought. He, too, is one who died in the past, so what if I met him in Abyssal Hell, where the strong and the guilty are said to be imprisoned, and took the test there?
—Of course, his test will never be easy. It will be a test no human could dare endure. However.
—I will overcome it. I will return for you. Hoho. Who am I? I am Azure Heaven. I may not look it, but I am incredibly strong. Do you think the bastards of Hell could ever be a match for me?
Hyunsoo laughed despite himself.
“This old man. Bragging again......”
At the sound of Ben’s confident voice, Hyunsoo let out a small laugh.
But then......
—However, I do not think I will become the Spear God. It is true that I wish to take his test and gain the Spear God’s power. But after gaining that power, I intend to become a different god.
A different god......? What does that mean?
—That god will be a god who lives for only one person. When that person is struggling, when that person is hurting, when that person is troubled by something, when that person wants an answer to something, when that person has fallen into enormous sorrow, that god will run to him in a single step.
—That god will always be on his side. Sometimes, that god will comfort him. Even if everyone points fingers at him, that god alone will be the only one on his side.
Hyunsoo’s eyes shook.
—The name of that god is......
Hyunsoo burst into even louder tears.
—Guardian Deity.
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