Mandragora's cry continued for a long time.
Lee Ye-Eun's eyes were tightly closed, as if she was in pain.Her hands, which had been trying to remove mine, were now rather clenched and pressed against her ears.She was trembling and almost fell over for a moment, so I quickly caught her with my body and lifted her up.
Thanks to the Banshee's necklace, I had enough room to look around.
Two of the six people who had accepted Surt's energy were long dead or had collapsed and were not moving a muscle.One was lying face down and gasping for breath, and the three, who were quick to accept the energy, were barely enduring.Lee Jae-Joon was also lying on the floor with his ears covered tightly.
The cry of instant death was equal to all.This was the same for us, too, as we were only marginally better off than they were, unable to lift a finger.
"……!"
After a while, Mandragora staggered, pretending to be coughing.He must have pushed himself too hard, because the leaves that were always glossy were hanging down and powerless.
"Heup!"
As if not wanting to miss it, one of the survivors threw a skewer-like object straight at him.I rushed forward, hurriedly throwing Yado's dagger at the skewer, deflecting it away.I quickly snatched the guy, who had literally squeezed out all his strength, and put him in my pocket.
"Thank you."
"…… ."
I felt the guy loosening his tension and drooping at my word.Without stopping running, I pulled the sword out of Henir's shadow.
The first thing that came to my mind was a swordsman, who was running wild with the sword like a yaksha.
He freely wielded a gigantic greatsword, and even though I had no knowledge of swordsmanship at the time, I could not help but notice that he was a very dynamic swordsman.
In swordsmanship, simplicity is the best, and complexity is merely a technique.As if to prove it, I went forward with the most effective and aggressive stance.
"Heup!"
I turned halfway around, dodging the first person who rushed at me as I passed.Seeing his neck almost cut in half and blood gushing out, I spread Henir's shadow on my left arm thickly, and slammed him in the side without looking.
I struck him in the middle part and the tip of the sword, which was being swung at me, wobbled.My spinning body was still spinning.I left myself to the spinning and fixed my sword.
I struck his temple with all my might with the end of the handle, and he trembled.I stretched out my left arm and grabbed the faltering guy's neck.I then placed the blade of the sword against his neck and pulled it as if to snap it.
"Eo, heueu!"
He staggered, spewing blood from his neck, and fell to the ground.While falling, his robe was peeled off and a man with a fairly decent appearance appeared.Thinking it was unexpected, I swung my sword down, crushing his face, and he fell backward.
I immediately threw myself back, and a flaming skewer pierced where I was.Instinctively, I thought that this guy would be the most dangerous, so I turned my left arm towards the one I had cut first.The shadow stretched like the claws of a beast, tearing apart the body of the one who had fallen and was choking.
Two are left.No, it seemed that the one that was lying face down had died at some point.Then there was only one left.
"Heuaa!!!"
I pulled out a spear this time, avoiding the guy rushing at me with a roar.The longer the range, the better.I smiled a little as I remembered such a natural and yet somewhat nostalgic fact.
The memory of another me, the only woman.She made up for her lack of strength with technique.In my memory, she rotated the spear as if performing her trick, skillfully using the resulting speed and force.
I quickly stabbed the rushing guy's wrist twice as if playing a prank, and backed away.The guy who was exactly pierced in the tendon dropped the skewer, followed by an arrow shot by Lee Ye-Eun breaking his head.
It happened in less than a minute at most.And Lee Jae-Joon, who was watching the process, looked at us with an expression of absurdity.
"… What, what is this?"
Ignoring him, I threw the spear into the body of the fallen guy just in case.It looked like he was really dead, not moving an inch.
"They were all active heroes, you crazy bast*rds… ."
He let out a forced laugh and muttered.Lee Ye-Eun, who came next to me, quickly pulled an arrow half way and said.
"Be careful, junior. In the past, he was one of the best spearmen in the clan... ?"
Lee Ye-Eun, who was muttering like that, seemed to have found that one of his wrists had been cut off.With her eyes wide open, she glanced at me.
"Don't tell me, junior… ?"
"Yes."
When I nodded, she looked perplexed for a moment.Then, she looked at me as if she had a lot of things she wanted to ask, but she gave me a look of holding back once and turned her gaze towards Lee Jae-Joon.Then she murmured, quietly grasping my collar.
"A little bit… Can you give me just a little bit of time?"
I nodded slightly at the voice of Lee Ye-Eun, who spoke as if she were ashamed, and put the sword and spear I was pulling out into the shadows again.She murmured a 'thank you' seeing that, and turned her head to look at Lee Jae-Joon.
"… There was one thing I wanted to ask you."
Lee Ye-Eun asked, lowering the arrow she was aiming.
"What do you mean?"
Lee Jae-Joon answered bluntly, holding the spear in his left hand.At that sight, I said nothing and began to stretch out Henir's shadow so that he couldn't see it.
In the original story, you have to fight him in his current state, then again against him who had let Svengali's power run wild, and finally against him who had swallowed something Svengali had given him and turned his body into thorns, for a total of three times.
‘There's no need to wait like this.'
And in the last stage, the so-called thorny state, Lee Jae-Joon, has tremendous strength.A crown made of thorns on his head, a spear made of thorns in one hand, and a bird made of thorns on his back to assist Lee Jae-Joon in the air.
In the original story, Lee Jae-Joon was so powerful in that form that the only way to defeat him was to spend time until he self-destructed.As such, there was no need to leave him alone for nothing.
"I have been thinking about it for a long time. And I don't think I'll have a chance unless it's now."
Lee Ye-Eun touched my back with her hand once as she moved forward.At her requesting attitude, I took a step back as if I understood.Of course, Henir's shadow continued to be stretched thin so as not to be noticed.
"… Why on earth did you betray the clan?"
"…… ."
"You attacked my father right in front of me when I was young, and made him unable to stand up again. Then you mocked me as a coward when you saw my back as I just ran away, unable to do anything."
"Yes, I did. And now you have grown bigger, but you are still a coward. Even though your father's enemy is in front of you and even though he's a loser with one arm cut off, you're afraid to rush at him, aren't you?"
Lee Jae-Joon shook his head slightly as if he were speechless.But Lee Ye-Eun just looked at him calmly.
"… I still have clear memories of when I was younger than that time. And in those memories, you were definitely proud of your clan and loved them more than anyone else."
Lee Jae-Joon was silent.Lee Ye-Eun asked, looking at the man, her uncle, whom she once respected and loved.
"What in the world… changed you like that, Uncle?"
"Ha."
He snorted.
"Did no one tell you? Why the hell I am doing this sh*t?"
"…… ."
"You should have called me Uncle instead of Uncle."[Note: both mean uncle, Red one - 숙부: Married;Blue one - 삼촌: Not married.]
Lee Jae-Joon muttered quietly.Meanwhile, I put my fingers in my inner pockets as I folded my arms and brought a branch of the World Tree to Mandragora.It was when there was no reaction and I was about to stop worrying.
"…… ."
I felt a rustle and movement in my inner pocket.Then, I could feel him biting it in his mouth, sucking my magic power little by little.Fortunately, he seemed to have the strength to do so.Swallowing a small sigh of relief, I continued to move the shadow.
"Since I was younger than you, I had someone who I promised to marry, and when I graduated and became an adult, we promised to get married right away."
Lee Jae-Joon muttered in a voice wet with emotion.
"Naturally, the clan members were not pleased with my decision. She was just an ordinary... No, because she wasn't a person with a powerful ability, to say the least. She was more like a civilian. But my brother was the only one who supported me and gave me strength. Since he would be the head of the family anyway, he wanted me to be able to marry the person I wanted."
Something wriggled in his left arm.I moved Henir's shadow a little faster.
"… She was so kind-hearted. That's why I thought she couldn't do anything big. She was so weak-minded that she absolutely couldn't stand seeing other people get hurt. In fact, since she was a student, she went here and there and did volunteer work."
I should have stopped her then.He muttered quietly.And he added in a voice full of hate.
"And she was killed."
He gritted his teeth so hard that a crackling sound could be heard and then he screamed as if scraping it out from his inside.
"She went to volunteer in a place that had been damaged by the villains, and it turned out that she was an alumnus of the villains, and because of that she got caught by the victims, and she was so cruelly and horribly killed that even the shape couldn't be recognized!"
He looked at Lee Ye-Eun and screamed out.
"And there was a clan behind all that!"
Lee Ye-Eun closed her eyes slightly.She has already seen too much to shout that the clan couldn't do that.
"Everything, everything was planned by them! From notifying that she was an alumnus of those guys to instigating the victims, everything! It was the work of my clan, whom I loved and so damn proud of!"
He was now glaring at her Lee Ye-Eun with gleaming eyes.Every time I look at her, I think of that man.Lee Jae-Joon couldn't stand that fact.
"Do you know what your father who said he would support me said? He told me to forget about such a woman and find a better woman, and said he was glad I didn't get married in advance. That f*cker! That girl was the one I spent half my life with! She was like that, how could he say such a thing about her who died because of him, and to me who lost her!"
Lee Jae-Joon stopped shouting and coughed roughly.
"Yes… I was too stupid. Your father, my brother. I should have known just how cruel that man was. He was the only one I trusted. You know how I felt when I found out that the only person I trusted knew all that, and yet he kept quiet about it for the sake of the clan... ."
Lee Jae-Joon, who had been muttering like that, grinned and looked at Lee Ye-Eun's side, that is, me.Then, for some reason, Lee Ye-Eun turned blue and immediately raised her bow and aimed at him.
"Be quiet."
"Looking at you, it seems that my prediction is correct. Hey, hey. Yoo Ji-Hyuk."
"I told you to be quiet! He has nothing to do with our work!"
Shouting, she fired an arrow, but Lee Jae-Jun easily deflected it.
"I don't care, there's no way."
He burst into laughter.Lee Ye-Eun quickly tried to shoot another arrow, but she flinched with a small groan.It seemed that there were still aftereffects of the wound.
"I heard you're an orphan without parents, what a pity, right? How hard it must have been for you... But you know what? When I sent the guys under me to investigate, strangely enough, there was not a single record of your past."
Lee Jae-Joon said so and glanced at Lee Ye-Eun.
"As if someone had intentionally erased the record."
"Shut up, I told you to shut up!!!"
Lee Ye-Eun stepped forward and glared at him terrifyingly.
"So what the hell are you trying to say, what is it, I actually had a real pitiful backstory too. Are you trying to say something like this? Screw you, you piece of trash!"
She was now showing fierce hostility toward him.But it was the kind of hostility that only someone with a weakness could unleash.I couldn't forget it as much as I had seen it before.
"Revenge for a loved one? So do you think your actions are justified? Wake up, you are nothing but a disgrace to your clan and the leader of a criminal gang that the whole world hates. What on earth do you think that person you loved will be thinking when she sees you in the afterlife!"
"I know, too. My lovely niece, Ye-Eun. That I am a piece of trash."
At the sight of her screaming as if she was struggling, Lee Jae-Joon chuckled and shook his head.She looked the exact opposite of what she did before.
"I know it too. But do you think you are different? What about your father, who was a hypocrite? Huh? Answer me."
"Kritt… ."
Lee Ye-Eun gritted her teeth as if she was enraged at the words.Seeing her like that, Lee Jae-Joon spoke to her in a rather invidious manner.
"And would you be able to say the same words if you were in my shoes? Even when you see your loved one die, thrown in the gutter, and hanging from a rope? Yes… for example."
He stretched out his finger and pointed at me.And even before Lee Ye-Eun, who was freaked out, could say anything, he said with a smile of satisfaction.
"Can you say the same thing when your brother, that child, dies like that?"
… Huh?
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