I opened the final boss with my own hands
Chapter 26
“Th-that.”
“I’ll be going now! I’ll come back tomorrow!”
Goodbye, everyone!
Yeon-hwa dragged Jin Byeol-rim out to find some peace.
“Yeon-hwa, wait a second….”
“Unnie, let’s go quickly.”
“Yeah.”
And the room fell silent.
“Wait! It’s past midnight!”
It would have stayed that way, had it not been for Yeon-hwa, who returned a moment later clutching a pile of clothes she had bought.
“You need to change. Give me your wrists.”
A request remarkably casual for someone addressing the Heavenly Demon.
Hwayangseon held out his wrists without resistance.
In her hand, a key was already jingling…
[Unlock]
As she inserted the key into his wrist and turned it, a cluster of blue light flared for a moment.
The moment Hwayangseon’s arms were free, Yeon-hwa shoved the armful of clothes she had brought into his chest.
Hwayangseon hesitated for a moment, expecting his Dantian to be unsealed next, but—
“If you want to change, wear those!”
Yeon-hwa said only what she needed to say and hurried away.
*Click.* Once the door closed, it felt as if a storm had passed through.
“…It seems the power dynamic isn’t as clear-cut as I had anticipated.”
Choi Gyu-yul muttered blankly, his expression one of sudden realization.
“…….”
Hwayangseon could not offer a reply.
He couldn’t exactly admit that he was the one being dragged around.
* * *
On the way home.
Jin Byeol-rim gripped the steering wheel tightly and thought.
‘I didn’t mishear that.’
A Hunter with sharp hearing—and among them, Jin Byeol-rim’s ears were top-tier—could not be deceived.
When Yeon-hwa said she had no ulterior motives, no such thing at all.
Someone’s heartbeat had subtly skipped a beat. It was only for a fleeting moment, but it happened.
‘Even Yeon-hwa, who said it, seemed perfectly fine.’
Mr. Hwayangseon, why are you the one reacting?
As if you’d heard something you weren’t supposed to.
Regardless of how complicated her heart felt.
It was past midnight, and the night roads were quite empty.
The orange SUV, custom-built to Jin Byeol-rim’s tastes, was gliding smoothly along the asphalt.
“Want a drink?”
As Jin Byeol-rim pressed a button, a clicking sound came from beside Yeon-hwa, who was sitting in the right rear seat.
The backrest of the middle seat popped forward.
It was a small refrigerator stocked with orange juice, cola, and even wine.
“There’s a refrigerator in the car?”
Yeon-hwa’s eyes widened, having never seen such a thing.
It was no wonder. The vehicle Yeon-hwa was currently riding in was a one-of-a-kind special car, built exactly to Jin Byeol-rim’s specifications.
Once you reached the level of a Double Hunter, you were treated like a VIP anywhere in the world.
As for Triple Hunters, there were fewer than ten in the entire world, even including the recently integrated Hwayangseon, so that went without saying.
“If you like it, should I buy you one?”
“Haha, no thank you.”
Yeon-hwa laughed it off as a joke and took out an orange juice. The refrigerator slid back into place.
“Thanks for the drink. Aren’t you having one, Unnie?”
“I’m fine. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Okay.”
Yeon-hwa nodded and brought the bottle of orange juice to her lips.
With the heated seats, it was the perfect environment to drift off.
*Zzz….*
Before long, she was dozing off.
She clutched the empty juice bottle tightly, her eyelids growing heavy until they finally closed.
Jin Byeol-rim saw this in the rearview mirror and smiled faintly.
“She’s really comfortable.”
She had felt it since they first met.
Even though Yeon-hwa had been nervous about her Hidden Powerhouse status being discovered, she hadn’t acted as if she were particularly conscious of Jin Byeol-rim as a person.
That was why she liked it.
Jin Byeol-rim had been starving for such an uncomplicated relationship.
Even before her awakening, she was famous for her strong personality.
Because she always spoke her mind, adults avoided her, calling her too headstrong and arrogant.
She had a few friends, but after her awakening, they gradually drifted away.
Half of it was because they left out of jealousy, and the other half was because Jin Byeol-rim pushed them away herself.
Even the friends who remained couldn’t help but constantly signal, “You’re on a different level than us.”
The eyes that couldn’t meet hers, the cautious hand gestures as if they were afraid of touching her the wrong way, and even when deciding on lunch, their pulses would race if they offered a slightly different opinion. The constant, subtle walking on eggshells.
It reached a point where she couldn’t tell if they were her friends or uncomfortable subordinates. Her heightened senses after her awakening only made it more poisonous and unbearable.
Later, she gained fans, but the admiration they sent her was far from equality, and there were few Hunters in the industry at her level, so it was much the same.
Due to various circumstances, the only person she was close to was Seo Jang-gyeong. And even then, she didn’t feel like they had completely opened up to each other.
Even if they seemed to get along, he always appeared to be keeping secrets.
The only female friend who truly understood her was Yeon Myeong, but she had passed away.
And yet.
‘We met again.’
As it turned out, they had met again.
She wanted to treat her well, with all her heart.
It wasn’t just because she was a friend’s daughter.
So.
“You cannot live together.”
The conclusion sounded strange.
“…Pardon?”
Yeon-hwa’s sleep vanished at the sudden restriction.
“Oh, you heard that?”
“We can’t live together…?”
“You did hear it. Since it’s out, I might as well say it.”
Actually, she hadn’t intended to bring it up just yet, and she had muttered it without realizing Yeon-hwa would hear.
“Do you know how your parents got married?”
Since the topic was already out, she decided to go through with it.
“My parents… *ahem*.”
Yeon-hwa, her voice raspy from sleep, cleared her throat, and the refrigerator popped out from the side again.
“There’s water, too. Drink some.”
“Thank you.”
Yeon-hwa took out the water and took a sip.
“What do you mean, how they got married?”
Surely it wasn’t something that happened at the wedding hall….
Yeon-hwa couldn’t grasp what Jin Byeol-rim was asking about.
“Actually, your parents got married quite quickly, didn’t they?”
“I suppose so.”
They married around the age of twenty, so it was indeed a rushed marriage, as if they were being chased by something.
Even if they were alive today, they would have been barely around forty.
“They said they had thoughts of marriage, but they were supposed to wait until after graduating college. So, in the end, it didn’t go according to plan.”
It didn’t go according to plan? Why?
Yeon-hwa couldn’t answer because she was drinking water, but she focused on the story.
Jin Byeol-rim pressed the accelerator, increasing the car’s speed as she continued.
“They were living together, and then there was an accident….”
“*Cough!*”
Yeon-hwa choked on her water inside the swaying car.
‘It was because of me….’
That was it.
It was speeding.
* * *
Meanwhile, just as Yeon-hwa was losing her mind over the secret of her birth that she hadn’t particularly wanted to know.
The two men beside Ramji, who was scratching his belly in his sleep, were bickering noisily.
“I said I’m sleeping at Yeon-hwa’s house.”
“You must stay here.”
Choi Gyu-yul was blocking Hwayangseon, who was asking what the problem was since there was no one else there anyway.
“Why, exactly?”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“Are you afraid I’ll run away?”
“Yes.”
What is with these people?
Why are they so desperate to keep the Heavenly Demon under house arrest?
In truth, he was being detained precisely because he was the Heavenly Demon, but Hwayangseon still felt uneasy because they didn’t even pretend to be afraid of him.
“My Dantian is still sealed, too.”
Hwayangseon furrowed his brow.
“What do you mean, your Dantian is sealed?”
“It’s no different from my wrists.”
Hwayangseon said that his Dantian was also locked with a key.
Of course, he vaguely brushed it off as a form of cultivation.
This time, it was Choi Gyu-yul’s turn to frown.
“If you are in a state where you cannot use your magic, then how did you knock me unconscious?”
“With brute force.”
“…….”
Whether he knew that Choi Gyu-yul’s wariness had increased fivefold or not, Hwayangseon simply lay down on the bed.
Then, he stared quietly at the ceiling. He said nothing.
Choi Gyu-yul quietly spread out a blanket on the floor and lay down there.
Since a guest was a guest, he had intended to yield the comfortable spot to Hwayangseon from the start, so he didn’t bother asking him to move.
“Have you eaten?”
“At this hour?”
“If you’re starving, it’s better to eat now.”
“I can go without food for a few months.”
That was the kind of body he had. One that had long since transcended humanity.
Even that was only because he had weakened while crossing over to this world.
Besides, Hwayangseon didn’t usually eat food given by others.
There was no need to accept food when he didn’t know what might be in it.
“Have you never thought that you are too strong?”
“I am still far from enough.”
He was still far from achieving what he desired.
“At the same time, you are excessive.”
He also harbored the contradictory desire to become powerless.
‘If only I had been a little weaker.’
He would never have become the Heavenly Demon.
He would never have had to behead the brother he grew up with….
“It was excessive, indeed.”
Choi Gyu-yul said, closing his eyes.
“My throat still stings.”
“…….”
Hwayangseon was slightly flustered, as if his thoughts had been read, but after thinking about it a bit more, it was a completely unrelated matter.
“You were the one who trespassed, so I won’t apologize.”
“That is not what I was hoping for.”
Hwayangseon looked down to the side, waiting for what would follow.
He couldn’t see Choi Gyu-yul lying on the floor, but it was an unconscious action.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
At that moment, Choi Gyu-yul uttered an unexpected remark.
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