Chapter 535: Sword Demon (5)

Kim Woo-Joong and Son Chae-Won first met when they were in kindergarten.

"Hello, are you drawing something?"

"..." The little boy nodded.

He was on the floor and was quietly drawing something by himself.

The other children at the kindergarten were afraid of the boy's indifferent demeanor, but the little girl was different.

"What are you drawing?"

"...A tiger."

"Can I see?"

Son Chae-Won looked at the drawing for a moment before giving an honest review.

"You're really bad at drawing. And this is a lion, by the way. It has a mane."

"No, it's not. It's a tiger with a scarf."

"Then, where are the stripes?"

The little boy was visibly perplexed.

He avoided Son Chae-Won's gaze and murmured, "...I was just about to draw it."

It wasn't a remarkable first meeting, but they became friends afterward. Son Chae-Won needed a friend because she just moved to the city, and the little boy seemed to be in need of a friend as well.

"Hey. Do you want to be my friend?"

"My mom told me to always turn down any offers from strangers."

"Then, let's be friends starting from tomorrow on. It will be our second meeting, so it should be fine, right?"

'Is it fine?' The little boy contemplated for a very long time before eventually going home by himself that day.

The next day, Son Chae-Won was surprised to find the little boy in front of her.

"I asked my mom."

"What did you ask her?"

"...She said I can be friends with someone I met at the kindergarten even if it's our first meeting."

"Wow, does that mean we're friends now?"

The little boy nodded timidly at Son Chae-Won's smiling face.

"Come to think of it, I haven't heard your name. What's your name?"

"...Kim Woo-Joong."

From that day on, the two stuck to each other like glue.

"Hey, Woo-Joong. What do you like? A tiger with a scarf?"

Kim Woo-Joog shook his head, which was very rare.

He retrieved a sketchbook from his backpack.

"This..."

"What is that?"

Son Chae-Won had never seen the sketchbook before.

Kim Woo-Joong shyly handed over the sketchbook to Son Chae-Won.

"...It's a sketchbook of the 5 Heroes."

"Oh." Son Chae-Won knew the 5 Heroes as well. After all, the 5 Heroes were the most respected players in the entire world.

'His drawing is much worse than usual. Is it because he drew humans?'

Son Chae-Won smirked and flipped the pages. She thought that it was only natural for Kim Woo-Joong to be bad at drawing humans since he couldn't even properly draw a tiger.

The sketchbook was filled with drawings of the 5 Heroes. Son Chae-Won was just a little girl, but even she could see the sincerity and passion in Kim Woo-Joong's drawings.

"You must be a huge fan of them, Woo-Joong."

"I am. They're really cool," Kim Woo-Joong shyly confessed with sparkling eyes.

It was Son Chae-Won's first time seeing that look on him.

"I really like the Players..." said Kim Woo-Joong.

It had been twenty years since then, but Son Chae-Won could still remember those scenes as clear as day, and they would occasionally pop up in her mind as well.

"Kill the players..."

Therefore, Son Chae-Won couldn't believe Kim Woo-Joong's hatred toward Players.

"...This isn't real, right? Something's wrong..."

Son Chae-Won's face was beyond pallid as she staggered toward Kim Woo-Joong.

'He just looks like Woo-Joong. There's no way they're the same person.'

"It's dangerous."

"Let me go..."

Son Chae-Won shook off Baek Geon-Woo's hand and approached the kneeling fiend.

Son Chae-Won found it difficult to breathe as the distance between her and the kneeling fiend narrowed. Her eyes were starting to fill with tears.

"No, no..."

There was no way Son Chae-Won couldn't recognize Kim Woo-Joong when they had spent decades together. Kim Woo-Joong was the most valuable person that Son Chae-Won had in her life, and it was the same for Kim Woo-Joong.

"Ugh, Heugh..."

Son Chae-Won sobbed upon confirming that the kneeling fiend was indeed Kim Woo-Joong. The rest of the party couldn't even dare to comfort her as the grief she had to be feeling right now had to be beyond their reckoning.

Skaya quietly approached Seo Jun-Ho and asked, "Jun-Ho. Can you do something about this... I mean, with Watchguard of Darkness?"

"No..." If Kim Woo-Joong was an ordinary citizen, Seo Jun-Ho was confident that he could turn him back to human somehow. After all, he did have experience treating the orphans of Paradise, who were forced to drink the diluted blood of demons.

'But...'

Kim Woo-Joong was a Player. As far as Seo Jun-Ho knew, there had never been a case of a Player becoming human once more after becoming a fiend.

Frost Queen clenched her fists tightly and trembled in fury. "Ugh, I hate that Heavenly Demon!"

Skaya sighed and asked, "Then... what are we supposed to do now?"

Skaya was the most knowledgeable of the Players here, but even she had no idea what to do as she stared at Kim Woo-Joong with complicated eyes. It couldn't be helped because the so-called Sword Demon turned out to be the well-respected Sword Saint.

Furthermore, he had even taken the lives of many Players.

"..." Seo Jun-Ho wordlessly bit his lips. The thought of killing Kim Woo-Joong because he was a fiend and the thought of turning Kim Woo-Joong back to human by any means necessary collided in his head.

Seo Jun-Ho contemplated for a long time before making a decision.

"For now, let's bring him back. We'll decide what we're going to do with him later."

Seo Jun-Ho decided to put off making the final decision for the time being because he didn't know what to do either.

***

The party was welcomed with a round of applause upon returning to the ice castle with the survivors.

"I knew it! A fiend is no match for Specter-nim."

"The Sword Demon killed thirteen Players. I hope he's rotting in hell."

The Sword Demon had already been subdued, so the Players' fear was vanquished as well.

The Players could finally resume their regular activities.

"Are you okay, Specter-nim? You don't look good," Cha Si-Eun asked worriedly..

"...No, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired," said Seo Jun-Ho with a shake of his head.

Seo Jun-Ho headed to his training ground.

He made sure to look around before sighing and walking inside.

Clank, clank, clank!

"Player..."

Kim Woo-Joong muttered in a corner of the training ground. He couldn't move because Skaya's magic was restraining his limbs.

Seo Jun-Ho still hadn't revealed Kim Woo-Joong's condition to the other Players.

'How am I supposed to tell them about this?'

A Player would immediately become the enemy of mankind as soon as they turned into a fiend. The Players had been educated that way as well, and that was how they were supposed to behave toward the fiends.

"...And it's because of me..."

Seo Jun-Ho was the one who taught the Players how to treat the fiends.

Therefore, his feelings got even more complicated.

'Let's say that I managed to treat him, what am I supposed to do about the Players who died by his hands while he was still the Sword Demon?' thought Seo Jun-Ho with a sigh.

"Watchguard of Darkness." Seo Jun-Ho snapped his fingers, and the training ground became engulfed in ink-like darkness as wolves made out of darkness emerged from the floor. "Consume every demonic energy in him."

The wolves of darkness rushed toward Kim Woo-Joong.

"Keugh! Aaaaarghhh!" Kim Woo-Joong screamed miserably.

Seo Jun-Ho bit his lips as if he could also feel Kim Woo-Joong's pain.

"Aaargggghhhh!"

"Stop." Seo Jun-Ho stopped the wolves. He could see that Kim Woo-Joong would die without becoming human once more if the wolves were to consume any more demonic energy from him.

'Extracting only the demonic energy in him won't work, but what if I rewind his time?'

Seo Jun-Ho pulled out a little dagger and apologized in advance. "I'm sorry."

With that, he made a small slit in Kim Woo-Joong's arm.

After thirty minutes, he made another slit.

Seo Jun-Ho wounded Kim Woo-Joong every thirty minutes.

Six hours later, Seo Jun-Ho finally snapped his fingers.

"Rewind."

The time reversal was limited only to Kim Woo-Joong's time rather than the whole world.

Swoosh.

'One, two...'

The wounds healed one by one, but Seo Jun-Ho was devastated.

'It's... too slow.'

Seo Jun-Ho cast Rewind three times, but only six wounds disappeared.

In other words, he could only rewind an hour per Rewind.

'The Sword Demon first appeared five days ago...'

The Battle of Gulat was ten days ago, so Seo Jun-Ho had to rewind time for approximately two hundred and forty hours.

Seo Jun-Ho's expression grew grim as he made calculations in his head.

'This is also impossible.'

Seo Jun-Ho's magic and mental strength couldn't handle that consumption.

In other words, Seo Jun-Ho would never be able to turn Kim Woo-Joong back to human using the Time Reversal method, even if he were to spend an entire year increasing his skill proficiency.

"Should I just kill him...?" Seo Jun-Ho stared at Kim Woo-Joong with a complex look.

Meanwhile, Son Chae-Won entered the training ground.

"Is it possible?" she asked nervously. It couldn't be helped. If Seo Jun-Ho judged that he couldn't turn Kim Woo-Joong back to human, then Kim Woo-Joong would have to die.

"...No, I don't think it's possible."

"B-but...!" Son Chae-Won hastily spoke. She grew urgent and desperate at Seo Jun-Ho's words. "H-he has gotten less aggressive, isn't he? He's not attacking us anymore."

"That's because we're restraining him with magic, and fiends also get exhausted without food."

"It's not like that!" Son Chae-Won's voice was trembling as she shouted, "Woo-Joong is less aggressive when you're around!"

'That's probably because of Demon's Bane effect...'

Seo Jun-Ho stared deeply at Son Chae-Won. "Ms. Son Chae-Won. You're still calling him Woo-Joong."

"That's because... he's Woo-Joong." Son Chae-Won's nails dug deep into her palm, but she couldn't even feel the pain as she said, "Please... please give him a bit more time. We have to try everything, right?"

Drip, drip.

"..." Seo Jun-Ho wordlessly looked at the blood dripping down her hand before walking past her.

"Go to the infirmary once you're done here," said Seo Jun-Ho as he walked out of the training ground.

When the doors to the training ground were closed, Son Chae-Won finally collapsed.

"..."

Seo Jun-Ho seemed to have made a decision to some extent. Son Chae-Won wasn't really blaming him because Seo Jun-Ho had been trying his best to turn Kim Woo-Joong back into a human being over the past few days.

"But I'm not ready. I-I..."

'I don't think I'll be ready for the rest of my life.'

Son Chae-Won sat on the ground and cried for a very long time.

However, Kim Woo-Joong only growled at her.

***

"Skaya." Seo Jun-Ho muttered.

He looked out the window for quite a while before asking, "Am I too cruel?"

"No," said Skaya without any hesitation. She stared at Seo Jun-Ho before adding, "Do you still remember our promise? About what we would do if one of us became a fiend?"

"..." Seo Jun-Ho could still remember it. "Yes, I still remember."

'If one of us a fiend...'

"We would kill them with no mercy."

"We've never asked Kim Woo-Joong about it, but I think he'll give the same answer."

'Because he is also a Hero...'

Kim Woo-Joong hated fiends more than anyone else.

"Yes. I suppose so." Seo Jun-Ho nodded with difficulty, and he barely managed to speak after making up his mind. "W-we'll cut the Sword Demon down tomorrow."

***

Seo Jun-Ho felt as if his body was made out of lead the moment he woke up in the morning. However, it wasn't really strange because he knew that he would have to kill his friend today.

"...Damn it."

The weather looked gloomy as well.

'Wait, it looks like a huge shadow has been cast on us rather than a dense cloud...'

"Wait, what? A shadow?" Seo Jun-Ho narrowed his eyes.

Boom!

There was a loud explosion as it started raining transformed, giant Overminds.