Once again, seeds had germinated.
And in two cities joined right up against each other, no less.
Every hour counted.
“Seriously, this is amazing!”
Even in the middle of that, Cale had to do what needed to be done.
“I think it’s amazing too!”
When Hong chimed in, Raon spoke even more confidently, his tone full of certainty.
“They are all hurt, but they are looking at each other with pathetic eyes!”
“!”
“......!”
“!!”
Cale.
Choi Jung Soo.
Sui Khan.
The three of them flinched at Raon’s words.
Regardless, only one person remained gentle. Raon noticed that too.
“Of course, Clopeh Sekka is different!”
Raon did not explain what was different. He simply edged away from Clopeh, who was tightly clutching a recording orb in both hands while gazing at Cale with burning eyes.
“.......”
“.......”
“.......”
Cale, Choi Jung Soo, and Sui Khan were silent for a moment.
Click.
Just then, the door opened, and Ron entered, pulling in a tray with a teapot and teacups.
Pour—
Ron poured lemon tea into the cup placed before Cale. Cale glanced at him without thinking, then froze. Something was strange about this terrifying old man’s eyes.
The moment he realized it—
“Young master.”
Ron spoke with a benevolent smile.
“I know your heart must be greatly distressed by the wounds suffered by your young master’s old friends, but since we have little time, should you not wrap this up quickly and move to the other city?”
“!”
Cale’s shoulders flinched hard.
His pupils trembled faintly.
“.......”
Cale said nothing, and Ron smiled gently before leaving the room.
“Cale.”
Sui Khan, wearing an odd expression, tossed out a remark.
“You didn’t tell him?”
“.......”
Cale stayed silent, and Choi Jung Soo looked at him, then tossed out another remark.
“Looks like he figured it all out?”
His whole body was covered in small wounds, yet the way the corners of his mouth curled up made it obvious he was teasing Cale.
Your young master’s old friends.
Cale, who had twitched at those words, glanced sideways at Clopeh.
“Heh heh.”
This bastard was smiling too.
Smiling like Ron.
“.......”
Cale suddenly felt thoroughly annoyed.
“...Damn it.”
He was simply irritated.
I was going to handle some work first, then talk things through when I was calm.
There were too many sharp-eyed people around him. At this rate, they were going to figure everything out even if he never said a word.
Is this even okay?
Cale wondered, but for now, it was right to follow the terrifying old man’s advice.
“Choi Jung Soo and Team Leader, stay behind and recover.”
“I’m fine, though?”
Although the scabs over his small wounds were still clearly visible, Choi Jung Soo smiled brightly and said that in his good-natured way. Cale, naturally, ignored him.
“Cale-nim, what about me?”
At Clopeh’s question, Cale answered as though it were obvious.
“You’re coming.”
“Yes.”
Clopeh’s body was wounded in several places from fighting the Order of the God of Chaos, but he had recovered quite a bit.
Though he was not in normal condition.
“Heh heh. I suppose I will be useful.”
That was true.
What Cale had felt while working with Clopeh this time was that this bastard was useful in all sorts of ways.
Cale clicked his tongue once as he looked at the wound on Clopeh’s arm that had not yet healed, but he did not order him to rest.
Choi Jung Soo, who had been quietly watching this, smiled and said,
“Clopeh and I are in about the same state of recovery. I wonder why I can’t go with you right now?”
His smile vanished, and his face hardened as he spoke.
“Because I’m a Wanderer, right?”
“.......”
Cale did not answer.
“Are you worried those bastards under the Three Emperors might recognize me because they’re Wanderers?”
Choi Jung Soo spoke with a stiff expression.
However—
Pfft.
Cale let out a laugh.
Choi Jung Soo froze at that laugh.
Instead, Sui Khan opened his mouth.
“Jung Soo.”
His languid tone held a firmness that drew people’s ears.
“Go look in a mirror.”
Questioning confusion appeared on Choi Jung Soo’s face, and Sui Khan answered calmly.
“Your eyes are still gone.”
“......!”
Choi Jung Soo had suffered a tremendous amount of mental attack through the divine relic used by Hitelis of the Order of the God of Chaos.
The greatest pain, the moment of death—he had been forced to recall and feel it far too many times.
That was larger than any wound on his body.
“Cale. I’ll take care of Jung Soo properly and bring him along.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
Choi Jung Soo watched Sui Khan and Cale speak calmly, then dragged one hand down his face. The truth was, whenever he fell asleep, he was still suffering through the moment of death he had been forced to experience dozens of times because of Hitelis, over and over again, as nightmares.
I thought I hid it.
Choi Han and Choi Jung Gun did not seem to know.
So why did Team Leader and Kim Rok Soo always end up finding him out?
Pfft.
Strangely, a laugh slipped out of Choi Jung Soo, and he felt his stiff shoulders loosen a little.
He leaned back in his chair.
He realized why the busy Cale Henituse had made this space.
It had not been for Team Leader Sui Khan, whose treatment would soon begin.
“Whew.”
Choi Jung Soo exhaled, then said calmly,
“I really can’t hide anything.”
With a comfortable smile on his face, Choi Jung Soo removed the hand covering his face as a fresh surge of camaraderie rose within him, and looked at his two comrades and family.
“!”
Then he flinched.
Cale and Sui Khan.
Neither of them was looking at Choi Jung Soo in the slightest.
He was not even in their consideration.
“Team Leader.”
The two were having a conversation all their own.
“Yeah.”
“You were provoked, weren’t you?”
Cale looked at Team Leader Sui Khan in a rather insolent tone.
Grin.
Sui Khan raised one corner of his mouth and did not deny it.
“Cale.”
“Yes.”
“Leave Beacrox behind.”
A strange smile formed on Cale’s face.
Team Leader Sui Khan.
No, Lee Soo Hyuk.
This man was the first “strong person” Cale had ever seen in his life.
He did not call him strong simply because he possessed great power.
In many ways, he was a strong person.
“Cale.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
For the first time in a long while, Cale faced Sui Khan with the heart of employee Kim Rok Soo.
“This individuality thing.”
A strange light lingered in Clopeh Sekka’s eyes as he listened silently.
“Doesn’t it seem similar to our abilities?”
The ability users who had appeared on Kim Rok Soo’s Earth.
The powers they possessed.
Kim Rok Soo had possessed the power of Record and Instant.
“I’m not sure.”
But Cale did not affirm his words.
“Well, if you look at it that way, magic and aura are no different from abilities either.”
Powers that only a few, a minority, could possess.
Magic, aura, abilities, ancient powers.
“Hmm.”
Sui Khan looked at the ceiling, then tossed out a thought.
“It feels like individuality is a power that sits above all of them.”
He calmly conveyed his thoughts.
“Should I say it looks like a power where a human goes beyond being human?”
Team Leader Sui Khan had realized it while being with Cale in the Demon World this time.
“I need to get stronger.”
He was not the Heavenly Demon, nor was he Choi Han.
But he had his own power, and he had found a clue to make that power stronger.
While lagging behind because he was injured and could not immediately join them in Telia, Sui Khan had thought it over.
And he had reached a conclusion.
“That top-tier holy knight. I can do whatever I want with him, right?”
The smile at Cale’s lips deepened.
Team Leader has made up his mind properly.
He possessed an ability that could cut anything.
And the top-tier holy knight who had wounded Sui Khan. Cale had not even seen that captive’s face or properly seen his ability. But that man possessed the power to keep wounds from healing.
Whether that was the power of the God of Chaos or something else, Cale did not know.
They’re compatible.
Sui Khan’s ability and that power were a good match.
If Sui Khan obtained that power, Cale could not know how he would grow.
“Please take good care of Beacrox.”
“Yeah.”
On top of that, Sui Khan wanted to keep Beacrox at his side.
It seemed Team Leader intended to pass his ability on to Beacrox—no, make it bloom. Most likely, Team Leader had seen the “seed” in Beacrox that could inherit his sword.
Right.
Cale acknowledged reality.
Everyone needs to get stronger.
This was a time when everyone needed to become stronger.
That was why Sui Khan’s thinking pleased him quite a bit.
Cale did not say much.
“I trust you.”
“Yeah.”
Choi Jung Soo watched them with a comfortable expression. Clopeh, on the other hand, watched Sui Khan and Cale with a hardened gaze.
At this rate, I may fall behind.
Cale-nim did not abandon his companions.
But if Clopeh lacked the ability to follow him, then he would not be able to stay closest to Cale-nim.
Clopeh could never allow such a situation.
The gaze of Clopeh, who looked only at one thing once he had a goal, burned fiercely.
“.......”
“.......”
Sui Khan and Cale stared at Clopeh with uneasy faces. That was why they did not know. They did not know that under the table, Choi Jung Soo’s two hands had clenched into tight fists.
Choi Jung Soo had no intention of falling behind either.
“Hmm.”
Raon watched this sight and thought for a moment.
“Human.”
Then he carefully called Cale. And Cale answered automatically, as though it were obvious.
Because it was plain to see what this little black dragon was thinking.
“A seven-year-old just needs to eat well, sleep well, and play well.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
“Heehee!”
Watching Raon giggle brightly, Cale gave Clopeh a look.
“Let’s go.”
Click.
He opened the door, and General Mol, who had been waiting in the corridor, approached with an urgent face.
“Guide us.”
Cale headed toward the twin cities of Midi and Mika.
Very covertly.
*****
“That bastard, the third Emperor, is a lunatic!”
Cale had asked General Mol how this situation had happened while moving toward Midi, one of the two cities, Midi and Mika.
Mol’s voice rose.
“I don’t know if you know this, but Midi and Mika are historically famous cities. They’ve existed since ancient times.”
“I know. There’s an ancient site sacred to the demon god, right?”
“That’s right. Midi and Mika. The ancient site lies between them.”
Midi and Mika were cities that had existed for a long time, and they had also maintained upper-middle standing in many fields, including population, commerce, culture, and so on.
Of course, if each city were considered separately, neither was that large, but the two cities had grown together and exchanged so actively that they were called brother cities and treated together.
“I don’t know why that madman, the third Emperor, tried to go to that ancient site.”
Cale responded to Mol’s words, which came out with a sigh.
“But I understand why the Order of the God of Chaos planted seeds there.”
“Exactly. It contains an ancient site where traces of the demon god remain, after all.”
General Mol, and Strategist Ed as well.
When they received the map of seed locations from Cale, they immediately understood once they saw Midi and Mika, and sent demons there.
But the third Emperor’s group had already arrived there and was rummaging through everything, saying they would find Cale and the Order of the God of Chaos.
“There is a clan that guards the ancient site of the demon god. They manage important and minor affairs related to the site and are charged with protecting it.”
“Mm.”
Cale let out a low hum at the words that there was a clan guarding the ancient site of the demon god.
I can already see the picture forming.
For some reason, he felt the scent of a cliché.
Mol continued.
“The third Emperor tried to enter the ancient site, and the clan stopped him. But apparently, one child in the clan was a seed.”
“...Damn.”
Cale let out a groan.
“And that clan has someone who takes on the role of priest generation after generation.”
Cale asked without thinking at Mol’s words.
“Is that child a candidate for the next priest?”
“!”
Mol looked at Cale in surprise.
“How did you—”
“Mm.”
Instead of answering, Cale stared off toward a distant mountain.
His prediction had been right.
But—
This is irritating.
He felt foul.
Why did it have to be a child?
No, why was that bastard the third Emperor rummaging through someone else’s ancient site? And one with a long history in another country, no less. Why was he touching that?
“We don’t know what the third Emperor did to the child carrying the seed. But the seed germinated, and because of that, it’s assumed that a large portion of that clan, along with many demons who had come to tour the ancient site, were infected.”
Mol’s expression gradually hardened.
“And the two cities fell into chaos.”
The Demon King’s side had been late by a hair’s breadth, and tried to settle the situation even belatedly.
But Midi and Mika were filled with extreme chaos.
“...Because—”
He let out a sigh.
“There is a legend passed down that the moment the Demon World’s destruction begins is the moment that ancient site collapses.”
And now the clan that had guarded that ancient site for generations was on the verge of collapse.
It was only natural that chaos would come to the two cities, which had regarded the ancient site as their pride and sanctuary.
“And apparently, several demons they failed to isolate went to the two cities.”
While trying to calm the third Emperor, who was causing a riot, they had failed to stop several demons from returning to their hometowns, the two cities.
Because of that—
“The demons ended up seeing the true nature of gray sickness.”
The few demons who arrived in the two cities soon manifested gray sickness and lost consciousness.
Then, as soon as night fell, they woke and revealed their ferocity.
“Right now, that place is in an uproar, saying a ‘gray curse’ that will destroy the Demon World has appeared.”
With those words, Mol moved Cale’s wheelchair onto the magic circle.
Flaaaash—!
With a bright light, Cale, Mol, and the others headed for Midi.
*****
That light soon faded, and Cale could see the being who had come to greet him in Midi.
“Cale Henituse.”
The Demon King spoke calmly.
“From this moment on, I intend to go meet the third Emperor.”
Because he had to drive the third Emperor, Dragon King, out of the ancient site.
“Will you come with me?”
Toss.
The Demon King threw a robe, and it settled softly over Cale’s knees as he sat in the wheelchair.
“It’s a robe that conceals your aura.”
