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Chapter 188: Memory Pt. 2
Chapter 188: Memory Pt. 2
Chapter 188: Memory Pt. 2
They were giving him an education, or at least, that’s what they called it.
Smack!
When he, a human being, had acted like a human being, they would severely beat him, saying that it was an action that didn’t fit him. Other than having to stand on two feet and being able to speak in a human tongue, his identity was clear.
“You are not human.”
He wasn’t allowed to take any action that even hinted at him being human. Lee Jun-Kyeong had been forced to sleep in a little house in the yard and had to eat on the floor while his owners were at the table.
“Hehe. How cute.”
Above all, he had to become the toy of children who were even younger than he had been.
“How far does your arm move?”
“Is he as strong as we are?”
“No way! Not this thing!”
They would thoroughly play with the younger Lee Jun-Kyeong. He wasn’t allowed to protest at all. Even when he had tried to run to his death, resistance was impossible. They would simply break his arms and make him crawl on all fours.
‘They broke my will.’
Fortunately, the wife of the Hunter couple that had bought him was a healer. Though, even at this age, he wasn’t sure if that had been a good thing.
Either way, Lee Jun-Kyeong survived and endured each day, where the only time he would have for himself was reading his book at dawn while everyone else was asleep.
‘I was obsessed with books.’
He had considered his books like his parents, his only friend. And that wasn’t a lie, either. To be honest, the only thing he really had that could be considered any such type of being was the Book of the Demon King.
It was the only thing he had.
Thus, time passed by for him, day by day, until it reached a point where it felt like it was natural to be beaten and live like an animal.
Ding-dong.
Then, one day, someone came to the house. From the point that Lee Jun-Kyeong had arrived at this house, he had never seen the Hunters more flustered as they moved quickly and handled Lee Jun-Kyeong. Although they had tried to move him, treating him as a burden, eventually, they gave up.
“I guess we won’t be able to.”
“Just leave him. Let’s go.”
As if they were being chased by something, they haphazardly threw Lee Jun-Kyeong away and abandoned their home. To be honest, it had all been absurd to him. How could his new hell have disappeared so easily? The younger Lee Jun-Kyeong had waited for the guest in the house, left all alone.
‘...’
At this moment, Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was looking down on his past unfolding before him, swallowed dryly. He didn’t remember this. It would be impossible for someone to remember everything from childhood, but he thought that something like this would surely have been a turning point in life, something to remember. However, there wasn’t anything like that in his memory.
Step.
Then, he heard footsteps, and he watched his younger self waiting for the guest like a dog. Someone came in, approaching like a storm.
“Where did they go?” that person asked.
He made a face as he asked the younger Lee Jun-Kyeong a question.
“...How awful.”
The man clicked his tongue at the sight of Lee Jun-Kyeong. Among Hunters, it was fashionable to keep ordinary people as pets, often making something similar to a leash and forcing their pets to wear them.
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The Hunter couple who had bought him were sensitive to fashion and had his younger self wear various things. By the time the guest had seen him, Lee Jun-Kyeong had devolved into something that couldn’t ever be called a human.
“This…”
The man slowly approached and hugged his younger self.
“Do you hate them?”
It was the first time the words spoken to him had any warmth. The younger Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded his head involuntarily.
Drip.
Then, the tears that hadn’t been shed since he had left the orphanage fell once more as the guest spoke again.
“Let’s go.”
Then, the man took his younger self and left the mansion. At this point, Lee Jun-Kyeong remembered it.
‘Ah…’
He sighed, wondering why he had forgotten that. When they left the mansion, it was an incredibly clear and sunny day.
‘Hyung…’
The sunlight that fell down reflected on the bald head of Yeo Seong-Gu, glimmering with a brilliant light. Lee Jun-Kyeong laughed involuntarily, and in this terrifying memory, Yeo Seong-Gu had become his hope.
***
When he was younger, had there been any point at which Lee Jun-Kyeong had thought of revenge? Did he ever imagine stabbing a knife into the extraordinary scum that had forced upon him such a hellish life?
No, he hadn’t.
“You…”
However, Yeo Seong-Gu seemed to have felt something from him immediately after having met him for the first time.
Lee Jun-Kyeong had asked Yeo Seong-Gu a question, who had been about to leave.
“You… what a coincidence…”
His book had been taken out of his living space, resembled a doghouse, and it was a book that hadn’t been recognized by anyone or cared for. Yet, Yeo Seong-Gu had recognized the Book of the Demon King.
To his younger self, it was something that was incredibly astonishing. It was as if he had finally met someone who could recognize an imaginary friend that no one else had ever seen before. At that time, the younger Lee Jun-Kyeong was flustered but delighted.
“...”
Yeo Seong-Gu had stared at his younger self for a long time.
“Do you want revenge?” he asked, offering a chance at revenge.
However, his younger self had responded confidently, “Oh, no.”
Yeo Seong-Gu opened his eyes a little and asked why.
‘I hadn’t been able to explain for some reason.’
It was frustrating for Lee Jun-Kyeong, to have to see it all now.
His current self wanted to tear the adoptive parents who had forced upon him memories that were difficult for him to overcome from his childhood, and he also wanted to rip the director and teachers of the orphanage into pieces.
However, his younger self had just responded that he didn’t want to take revenge.
‘...’
“Good.” Yeo Seong-Gu smiled brilliantly, and thus, their departure began.
His younger self, not knowing when he was headed, continued to travel in the arms of Yeo Seong-Gu. The landscape passed by quickly. He saw many people, many things.
“Wow…”
It was a different world. Having been confined to the orphanage, the old playground, or the mansion, his younger self had no idea that the world was this wide. The two of them continued to travel in that manner, eventually arriving somewhere else.
“Ahh!”
They had arrived at a place where his adoptive parents and their children, who had treated him like a dog, were hiding. It was another mansion. Yeo Seong-Gu had arrived at their hiding spot.
“You…! You son of a bitch!”
They pointed at him with eyes blazing as if they thought that he had revealed their location.
‘Even though I didn’t say a single word.’
It was ridiculous. The look of his frightened adoptive parents was a fresh shock to his younger self.
“Even if you don’t want to…” Yeo Seong-Gu said to his younger self in a small whisper. “They are the ones I must kill.”
Having said that, a brilliant sword that his younger self had never seen before appeared in Yeo Seong-Gu’s hands. He slowly approached them.
His adoptive parents were trembling as if they had seen their grim reaper. Of course, not all of the memories he was watching weren’t his own.
Squelch.
They were slowly cut. Like the pieces of ham that they had fed him, the two adults died in front of his younger self.
It all seemed futile—to the extent that it was hard for him to think of what had just unfolded before him as the deaths of the demons who had created his hell. The second mansion they had arrived at had become a sea of blood.
“Because you didn’t want to get revenge…”
There, Yeo Seong-Gu had made a decision.
“I’ll have to erase the difficult memories.”
He had erased some of the younger Lee Jun-Kyeong’s memories.
‘Ah…’
Finally, Lee Jun-Kyeong realized why he only had vague memories of those days. Yeo Seong-Gu had acted in consideration for him, making sure his younger self wouldn’t fall onto an evil path so that he would be able to live in the world ahead of him for the first time.
“But remember the pain that you had.”
However, Yeo Seong-Gu hadn’t erased his hellish experience, just the sweet revenge that had taken place.
“That is the price you must pay for holding the book.”
***
"Master!" Hyeon-Mu screamed as he shook Lee Jun-Kyeong’s body.
Muninn had disappeared. Before Lee Jun-Kyeong had been attacked by Muninn, Muspel’s Spear had stabbed the raven precisely in the heart, and the raven had been destroyed where it stood. Even so, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t waking up.
–Master…!
There was a soft green light enveloping Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Muninn may have died, but it was clear that the power that it had exhibited at the last moment was continuing to encroach on Lee Jun-Kyeong. His face changed at every moment, losing his sanity as he shifted between tears, anger, and other various emotions.
“We have to move!”
Hyeon-Mu put Lee Jun-Kyeong on his back, taking care of his master directly rather than entrusting the Hunter to his subordinates.
–...
Hel looked behind the two of them, watching the broken veil restore itself.
–It’s different.
"What are you talking about?" asked Hyeon-Mu
-Something… is different…
Unlike Hyeon-Mu, Hel had pierced through the veil and entered into Gyeonggi-Do alongside Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Whether it was the process of breaking the veil or how the veil recovered itself, there was something different about it all.
–The way the veil is recovering is different from before…
The veil had healed the first time by condensing into a storm that raged to the point where it completely consumed everything around it. However, now, as if something had caught hold of the opening, the veil was struggling to bring itself back together.
Crack! Crack!
Through the torn veil, they could see Seoul, which had an appearance that exuded an ominous feeling.
“We don’t have time for this.”
However, for Hyeon-Mu, the most important thing was Lee Jun-Kyeong’s safety.
“Break through.”
Muninn may have died, but the two wolves were still alive. They were slowly approaching them, wiping out the skeleton soldiers, eyes blazing. Hyeon-Mu gestured with both hands while carrying Lee Jun-Kyeong on his back.
Swish.
A massive amount of mana started to tremble.
“I really wanted to show this to the Master, but…”
It was a power that he hadn’t been able to show Lee Jun-Kyeong as it hadn’t been completed yet. That said, it wasn’t possible for him to wait for Lee Jun-Kyeong to wake up by this point.
Each time Hyeon-Mu gestured and released mana, the skeleton soldiers moved.
Rattle. Rattle.
They were coming together, fusing and changing their appearance.
“Ugh…”
Hyeon-Mu let out a stifled moan. He was using a move that hadn’t been completed yet, so using it despite its incomplete state meant an accompanying massive burden. The Familiar felt a tearing pain run through its body.
“Hehe…”
However, Hyeon-Mu just laughed. He was always ready to give up his life to protect the master. At that moment, Hel came forward.
–I will help.
It seemed as though it had figured out what Hyeon-Mu was trying to do.
“My sibling…”
The two were siblings, able to read each other’s thoughts and help each other. The skeleton soldiers and Hel’s soul united together, fusing into a completely grotesque figure. The wolves did everything they could to break the fusing soldiers apart, but soon realizing that it was impossible, they quickly turned around and changed tactics.
–Grrr!
–Growl!!
The best way to destroy a spell was to destroy the caster wielding it. The wolves started to rush in, facing a horde of skeleton soldiers that hadn’t yet fused into the grotesque figure. But, in that gap before the wolves had reached Hyeon-Mu, the Familiar’s voice whispered into the air, “It’s finished.”
The spell had been completed, and with Hel’s aid, there had been no need for him to risk his life to complete it.
“You really are my true sibling… thank you.”
Hel had the one piece of the puzzle Hyeon-Mu had lacked for the spell to be completed: an incredible soul power. It had brought the power to move the summons that he had created.
“Leviathan!”[1]
A huge shadow fell over the wolves as the bright sunlight disappeared.
Drip. Drip. Dripdripdripdripdrip.
It started to rain, and something began to tear through space and descend over the heads of the wolves.
Oooanggg!!
1. Funnily enough, this is the first Christian mythos reference since the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the book and is a break from the Norse Mythos that Lee Jun-Kyeong and the other Korean Hunters seem to have focused on. ?