NOVEL NEXT Chapter 374:
Yu-hyun could not forget that face.
It was the person who had planted a sense of inferiority in him. He hated him more than anyone else, but he also had to admit his skills.
And that person, Choi Do-yoon, was now standing in front of him.
Yu-hyun suppressed the emotions that surged up and regained his reason.
‘That’s right. It’s not strange to meet him here all of a sudden.’
Choi Do-yoon from his previous life had returned to Earth right after the apocalypse began.
Now, the world had changed much faster than before, so it was not surprising that Choi Do-yoon had come back to Earth in the five years that he had been absent.
He felt a bit relieved when he thought that way.
Yu-hyun calmly and coolly assessed the situation.
No, it was practically certain.
Yu-hyun clenched and unclenched his fist. He felt complicated when he saw him. But if he was asked if he liked it, he would definitely say no.
Who would have expected to face that shameless face again in reality?
He was annoyed, but he did not feel like getting angry at Choi Do-yoon right now.
‘After all, he is not the Choi Do-yoon I knew.’
Choi Do-yoon from his previous life and Choi Do-yoon from now were different.
Even if they had the same name and appearance, they did not share the same memories and experiences.
He accepted that and his agitated mind calmed down a bit.
When he had just been reborn as a teller, he had not sorted out his feelings from then and had tried to find out where Choi Do-yoon was.
The proof was that he had met his mother and talked to her.
At that time, Yu-hyun had wondered what to do if he met Choi Do-yoon. Should he hit him with anger, or should he just let it go? He could not find a clue.
So he drew a line.
If he was related to his previous life, he would give him a good punch, and if not, he would just ignore him.
Logically speaking, Choi Do-yoon now was not the Choi Do-yoon he knew then, so he could be considered a stranger.
It was the same for Jamila, Gu Seoyoon, and Huang Se-eun.
They were not the people I knew. So the feelings I had then were meaningless, and if I vented my anger, I would only make myself look pathetic.
As if comforting himself, Yu-hyun sorted out his tangled emotions.
“An executor, huh? What do you want from me?”
“I got a report. The Book Pile Lord and the Black Thunder Lord have entered our Alliance’s territory, so I came right away just in case. We can’t leave dangerous people like you in the Alliance.”
“I’m not going to cause any trouble. I just came to see someone I know. Don’t worry about it.”
“How can you be sure?”
Before long, even the knights and Lord Yudarin in the city sensed this uneasy situation and came out to watch.
Yu-hyun glanced at them and met Choi Do-yoon’s eyes.
He knew that he was a completely different being from the one he knew in his previous life, but it was amazing how he looked exactly the same as then without any change.
“I don’t know what you’re so worried about, but I’ve been quiet since I came here. Isn’t that enough?”
“You never know. You might show your true colors after making us careless.”
‘Specially,’ Choi Do-yoon raised his finger and pointed at Kang Hye-rim who was clinging to Yu-hyun’s side.
“I think it’s possible for someone like her who had a bad reputation even in the mixed world.”
“That’s…”
Yu-hyun read something from Choi Do-yoon’s tone.
Choi Do-yoon had met Kang Hye-rim when she was the Black Thunder Lord.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have shown such hostility in his eyes.
Yu-hyun bit his lip slightly and immediately rebutted his words.
“She’s not the Black Thunder Lord anymore. She became dependent on me after losing to me, so she barely has any memories of before and lost her power. So there won’t be any trouble.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Then let me ask you this. What do I have to say for you to believe me? You seem to have met her when she was the Black Thunder Lord, but can you really be sure that she’s the same as the one you knew?”
“Hmm.”
That part seemed to bother Choi Do-yoon too, as his voice became even heavier.
Indeed, even with his sharp eyes, he could see that Kang Hye-rim now was completely different from the one he had seen before.
The Black Thunder Lord then was like a witch who was trapped in her own world and went mad. But she now was like an innocent child who knew nothing.
Her behavior of looking at him with a scared gaze and not leaving Yu-hyun’s side proved that.
“I know how the Alliance thinks of us. That’s why we’re keeping quiet.”
“What’s your purpose for coming to the Alliance’s territory?”
“I’m looking for someone.”
“Someone?”
Choi Do-yoon’s eyes narrowed sharply, as if he couldn’t understand that at all.
His gaze seemed to try to discern whether that was true or false.
No, he was actually using a skill that could detect that.
“What a cheap trick.”
Yu-hyun lightly raised his energy and destroyed the skill that detected lies.
“I can’t help but get angry if you try to read my mind, no matter how suspicious you are.”
“…You act as if you knew I would do this.”
“Do you think you’re the only one who can tell someone’s lies?”
He was like that in his previous life too.
He didn’t trust anyone and judged the truth with his skill, and if he found out they were lying, he killed them mercilessly.
As he saw the resemblance between him then and now, Yu-hyun naturally became irritated.
“How rude. You’ve been provoking us since a while ago, do you want to fight? Or is that how all the alliance’s enforcers are?”
“Of course not. But it’s right to be wary of you. No matter how much you’ve changed, you’re both lord-level beings who stick together. How can I not be?”
From Yu-hyun’s perspective, Choi Do-yoon was annoying and frustrating, but from Choi Do-yoon’s perspective, Yu-hyun and Kang Hye-rim were like walking time bombs.
They were quiet now, but how could he be sure they wouldn’t suddenly go berserk and cause trouble in the alliance’s territory?
More than anything, their records made Choi Do-yoon more alert.
Kang Hye-rim was called the Black Thunder Lord who ruled the mixed world until recently.
And what about the Book Pile Lord? After defeating the Black Thunder Lord, he fought countless battles with those who came to recruit him, and fewer of them came back alive.
From the enforcer’s point of view, leaving them alone was rather dereliction of duty.
But it wasn’t good to provoke them too much either, so Choi Do-yoon was a bit troubled.
‘He’s weighing the situation. Yeah. He was like that back then too.’
Yu-hyun sensed that the conversation wouldn’t go well like this.
He understood Choi Do-yoon’s position, but it wasn’t easy for him to suppress his emotions either.
He had suffered from a kind of PTSD since he had to kill Kang Hye-rim with his own hands. Because of that, his personality became sharper than usual, and it was natural for him to feel emotional when he met his old enemy in this situation.
“…Forget it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me anyway.”
If he continued the conversation like this, his pace would collapse.
Yu-hyun wanted to leave this place with Kang Hye-rim.
He didn’t want to get involved with them any longer. He had no time to waste here when he had to find his old comrades as soon as possible.
“You’re just going to leave?”
“Why? Are you going to stop me by force?”
Yu-hyun shot a warning glance at Choi Do-yoon.
He didn’t want to see his face anymore.
Kang Hye-rim instinctively felt Yu-hyun’s discomfort and looked at him with a worried expression.
‘It’s okay, Hye-rim.’
Yu-hyun smiled at her without saying anything and urged her to walk.
‘Let’s get away from here. Let’s go far away so we don’t run into him again.’
That was what he thought as he moved his steps.
“Is that so.”
That was before Choi Do-yoon’s words reached him from behind.
“But I thought you changed a bit, but you’re still the same as before.”
“…”
Thud.
Yu-hyun’s footsteps stopped.
[Huh?]
Baekryeon, who was watching the situation, blurted out without knowing it.
The situation started to go weirdly.
Yu-hyun stood still without turning around and asked Choi Do-yoon.
“…Before? Now? What do you mean by that?”
“Are you really saying that because you don’t know? Or are you pretending not to know?”
“So…”
“You may have improved your skills since before, but in the end your value was limited to that.”
Value.
The moment that word echoed in his ears, Yu-hyun’s surrounding temperature dropped sharply.
The air around him sank heavily and Kang Hye-rim’s face turned pale.
It was the same for Baekryeon.
“Hye-rim. Step back for a moment.”
“Ah, ugh…”
“Come on.”
Kang Hye-rim couldn’t refuse his words.
When Yu-hyun saw that Kang Hye-rim had moved far away, he let out a loud sigh of relief.
His sigh contained countless emotions.
And, at the moment he composed himself.
The aura that flowed from Yu-hyun became explosively strong.
“If you didn’t know anything, I would have just let it go. I had too many things to do in this place to waste time on a pointless argument.”
He thought that there was no need to bring up the past, even if Choi Do-yoon was his nemesis.
It was better that way.
There was no need to spend unnecessary emotions, he thought.
No, maybe that’s what he wished for himself.
He wanted to just move on like strangers, without interfering with each other.
He thought that was better.
“But, if you know the past…”
Then the story changes.
As he said that, he looked at Choi Do-yoon with a cold expression that he had never shown before.
It didn’t matter how Choi Do-yoon remembered the past life.
The moment he confirmed that the man in front of him was the same enemy as before.
There was only one action Yu-hyun could take.
“Draw your sword.”
Yu-hyun lifted his sword and pointed it at Choi Do-yoon.
“Or you’ll die by my hand right now.”
“Finally, you have a decent face.”
He was the man who had overcome the trial of the end, which no one else could have done, as the strongest returnee in his previous life.
He was stronger than before, not weaker.
He was one of the executioners who even the second-generation Divine Spirits couldn’t mess with.
“Yeah. We don’t need to talk to each other.”
Choi Do-yoon drew his sword from the scabbard on his waist.
The sword made a clear sound as it was pulled out and shone brightly in the sunlight.
“Huh, what?”
Yoo Darin, who was watching the scene from afar, was startled when she saw the two men who were about to part ways suddenly point their swords at each other.
“What, what’s going on? Why are they fighting? I thought they were going to end it peacefully?”
She couldn’t hear their conversation, so she didn’t know how the situation had changed.
No, even if she had heard it properly, she probably wouldn’t have understood or followed it.
“My lord. Shouldn’t we stop them?”
“Me? Me? How?”
Yoo Darin asked back with a frown at her subordinate’s words.
She didn’t want to stop them, but how could she intervene between the executioner and the book pile lord who looked like they were going to swing their swords at any moment?
She felt suffocated just by seeing their auras clash from a distance. What would happen if she stood in the middle of them?
That couldn’t be stopped.
As soon as she thought that, Yu-hyun and Choi Do-yoon collided with each other.
Their figures disappeared from their places and reappeared in the center of the distance between them, exchanging their swords.
Kwaang!
The space tore and an explosion sound engulfed the area.
Yoo Darin shouted urgently.
“Hey! Send a warning to the citizens! Tell them to stay in their homes and never come out!”
If they got involved in that fight, even if they were lords of the same rank, they wouldn’t succeed.
Yoo Darin was sure of that.
***
A traveler walked on a desolate desert.
The traveler wore a ragged robe that covered her face and body.
She couldn’t see her appearance clearly, and she could only vaguely tell that she was a woman.
She walked endlessly on the sand that was scorched by the hot light.
She had to find him. She had to find his traces somehow.
With that obsession, she had been wandering around for five years without staying in one place.
She believed that he wasn’t dead. Otherwise, this fragment of power that was given to her wouldn’t still remain.
[Miss Kwon Jia.]
Behind the traveler, a figure in black clothes and a strange mask appeared like a phantom.
“Laplace. What’s going on?”
[A trace has disappeared a while ago.]
“A trace? What trace?”
[I can’t sense the energy of Descartes, who was staying in the Black Thunder Palace.]
“What did you say?”
Kwon Jia’s eyes widened at that. Descartes was the power that Kang Hye-rim possessed.
It was a well-known fact that the demons that Yu-hyun left behind were given to one person each.
It was rare for such a trace of Descartes to disappear. Unless someone had completely collected the fragments.
Kwon Jia asked with a hint of doubt.
“Who did it?”
[I don’t know the details. I don’t even know who took Descartes away. But, it’s certain that something happened to Miss Kang Hye-rim.]
“…”
Kwon Jia’s expression darkened as Kang Hye-rim’s name flowed from Laplace.
She knew very well that she was called the Black Thunder Lord.
She also felt guilty for how she had fallen apart.
But she knew that she couldn’t change Kang Hye-rim no matter what she did, so Kwon Jia searched for Yu-hyun more desperately.
But, something happened to Kang Hye-rim.
“Did someone kill her?”
[That’s hard to be sure. It’s strange that Descartes’ power disappeared as if it was cut off. Maybe…]
“…He came back?”
[That’s just one of the possibilities.]
“What do you think?”
[Hmm. I don’t know. I can’t see all the futures.]
“I see. But… it’s not impossible.”
Kwon Jia changed her direction right away.
“Then let’s go. To the Black Thunder Palace.”