Chapter 356:
The next morning, after spending the night camping, Yu-hyun opened his mouth.
“Tell me more about the way to Black Thunder Palace.”
Kate was not used to Yu-hyun’s polite tone towards her. He was cold and harsh when he was angry, but he smiled kindly at other times.
She couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity.
“What is your true self like?”
“What do you mean? Are you uncomfortable with me being nice to you all of a sudden?”
“To be honest… yes.”
Kate had deeply engraved in her mind how terrifying Yu-hyun was.
He subdued a whole brigade of the Liberation Army in just two steps, and easily suppressed the leader who borrowed the power of the Divine Spirit with his third gesture. She had no idea how powerful he was.
She didn’t think he was acting when he spoke with a cold voice. He was sincere in everything he did.
That’s why she couldn’t figure him out. There was too much of a gap between his appearance when he fought and when he was normal.
“Miss Kate, you seem to have a rigid way of thinking.”
“Yes, yes?”
“People can be scary when they are angry, even if they smile and act friendly normally.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“I understand. You think good people will always be good, and bad people will always be bad. That’s what image is. I don’t deny that.”
Yu-hyun was aware that he was a twisted person. He had to change like this after going through various things in his life.
“But there’s one thing. I try to be kind and nice to the people I like as much as possible.”
“Like now?”
“You still don’t seem to believe me.”
Kate didn’t answer.
To be honest, she considered the possibility that Yu-hyun might treat her badly. She volunteered to be his guide, even with that in mind, because she had to.
“Miss Kate. If you had tried to use me with a foolish intention, I would have killed you on the spot.”
“What?”
“Lo-Lord Savior?”
Kate and Jimmy asked with wide eyes.
“Of course I didn’t. Do you know why? I told you when we were in the village.”
“You said… you had faith.”
“That’s right. I really like people like that.”
Yu-hyun answered like a teacher who praised a child for solving a difficult problem.
“People who don’t waver even when they are ready to give up their lives are more dazzling than anything else.”
“…”
Kate still couldn’t understand Yu-hyun. He seemed rational and cool, like a cold person, but sometimes he spouted such unrealistic ideals.
It felt like an adult and a child coexisted in him.
His body was in reality, but his eyes were looking at a distant ideal.
She couldn’t understand.
She couldn’t understand, but strangely enough, Kate felt a soulful attraction to him.
It seemed to be the same for Jimmy, whose eyes shone brighter than the stars in the night sky when he looked at Yu-hyun.
“You’re awesome!”
“I wasn’t trying to look cool, though.”
Yu-hyun gave a bitter smile and ruffled Jimmy’s hair lightly.
“So, did you get enough answers?” freeweɓnovel.cѳm
“Yes, yes.”
“Then how do we get to Black Thunder Palace?”
“Well… if we follow this road straight ahead, we’ll come across a city. That’s where the territory of the Black Thunder Lord begins.”
“You said we have to pass three cities, right?”
“Yes. But the first city is the biggest obstacle. There’s a gate that leads to Black Thunder Palace there, called ‘Rashomon (Rashomon)’.”
“Rashomon…”
“The city with Rashomon is always shrouded in thick fog and full of incidents. The city is ruled by lords who serve the lord, and their soldiers patrol constantly.”
“You know a lot.”
“…I’m part of the Liberation Army, after all.”
Kate no longer tried to hide it. Jimmy was very surprised to learn that his sister was a rebel, but he didn’t feel betrayed or anything. Rather, he felt sorry for Kate, who had kept it a secret from him until now.
Yu-hyun didn’t bother to ask Kate why she joined the rebels, or why she hid it from Jimmy.
That wasn’t what mattered.
“How do we get through the Nasang Gate?”
“We can’t force our way through. There’s a strange power that prevents anyone who doesn’t have permission from entering.”
“What if we try to break through?”
“That might be possible. With your power, Yu-hyun… I’m not sure, but maybe you can do it. But then a signal will go off. The elite of the Legion will come right away. They’re enemies that can’t be compared to the ones who raided the village.”
And among the elite, there were also transcendents, Kate warned.
“There are transcendents among them. If they try to stop us, it will take a lot of time.”
“So, we have no choice but to go through the Nasang Gate with the lord’s authority.”
“Will the lord grant us permission?”
“We have to make him grant us.”
“That sounds like a lot of trouble.”
“But on the other hand, once we pass the Nasang Gate, the way to Heukroe Palace will be smooth. Otherwise, it would take more than three months, but if we pass the Nasang Gate, three days will be enough. It’s worth a try.”
To go back safely and take three months. Or to take a risk and go straight for three days.
“What will you do? The choice is yours, Yu-hyun. I’m just a guide.”
“You’re asking me something obvious.”
“Did I show my hand?”
“Very well.”
Yu-hyun nodded with a smile.
“Good. It’s best to move as fast as possible if we want to move. …I also think I need to go a little faster.”
Kate sensed a bit of urgency in Yu-hyun’s actions. This man, he didn’t try to show it, but he wanted to get to Heukroe Palace as soon as possible.
“Heukroe Lord… You said you knew Kang Hye Rim, right?”
Yu-hyun’s footsteps stopped abruptly as he walked ahead.
He soon resumed his pace and answered.
“…I did.”
“What will you do when you meet her?”
“I’ll have to see when I get there. Whether she’s the same person I knew, or if there’s something else.”
“…”
Kate had a hunch that Yu-hyun and Kang Hye Rim were not ordinary acquaintances. Were they lovers five years ago? Or was this man one of those colleagues who had scattered?
Yu-hyun didn’t even know that Kang Hye Rim was called the Demon Queen. He didn’t know how cruel the Heukroe Lord was, or how the screams of the people under her feet filled the air.
Yu-hyun was not a man who easily overlooked injustice, at least from what Kate saw. She didn’t think he had left Kang Hye Rim alone knowing her.
What choice would this man make if they met?
“There’s the city.”
As Yu-hyun said, a large city appeared in the distance.
The city was shrouded in fog, with various buildings rising high. Beyond that, there was a huge gate that was much bigger than the city.
The gate looked like it had the face of a demon beast carved into it. It was overwhelmingly huge. It was much bigger than any mountain. It looked like a giant beast was looking down on the city.
Jimmy opened his mouth without realizing it. The sight was a big shock for a 10-year-old boy who had only lived in the borderlands.
The fog was thick around the Nasang Gate, and beyond it, too.
Yu-hyun instinctively felt that the gate was extraordinary. He understood why Kate said it was hard to cross it with force. He saw it with his own eyes.
It was different from the start.
‘This is what they call a mixed world.’
The existence of such an absurd structure proved the mystery of the mixed world.
Yu-hyun, Jimmy, and Kate headed for the entrance of the city.
Kate’s face hardened as she walked to guide them.
“…There are guards at the entrance.”
“Weren’t there any before?”
“Usually they don’t guard the city like this. It seems that our rebel news has reached here. The inspection is more strict than usual.”
Kate bit her lip as if she hadn’t expected this.
There were rebel comrades inside the city. But they couldn’t ask for their help if they were blocked from the entrance.
As he was wondering what to do, Yu-hyun walked ahead nonchalantly.
“Yu, Yu-hyun?”
“From here on, I’ll take care of it.”
“What are you going to do…?”
Kate was worried that Yu-hyun might use his power to subdue them.
After all, the people she had seen with power so far had one thing in common: they solved everything with force rather than brains.
If that happened, their plan to sneak into the city would be ruined.
The legion’s soldiers would swarm in from the inside, and if a fight broke out, there was a high chance that the Black Lightning Lord’s elite soldiers, the Black Swordsmen, or other transcendents would come.
‘But how can I stop him?’
Yu-hyun was the boss of this group. She had no reason to stop him unless she could come up with an alternative that he could accept.
Soon, the three of them reached the entrance of the city. The guard at the gate saw them and reached out his hand.
“Stop! Who are you?”
“Don’t you remember? We’re your colleagues who went out for an external patrol earlier.”
“What?”
Kate asked back incredulously.
She doubted her ears at what this man was saying with such a shameless face. She had hoped that he had some method, but what Yu-hyun showed her was beyond her imagination.
Even Jimmy, who believed whatever Yu-hyun said, seemed to have a hard time understanding this and sent him a worried look.
Kate closed her eyes tightly. She thought it was over when they got caught from the start.
But the gatekeepers’ reaction was strange.
“Huh? Oh, right. You did. Was there anything weird outside?”
“Nothing much.”
“Really? Well, be careful and go in. The lord is in a bad mood these days because of those rebels.”
The gatekeepers let the three of them in without any trouble. Kate and Jimmy couldn’t believe what they saw.
“Did you know them from before?”
“Of course not. I haven’t met anyone in five years.”
“Ha, but they…they just let us pass.”
“There’s a way for everything. It’s a trade secret.”
What Yu-hyun used was nothing special. He just used Descartes’ power to show the gatekeeper an illusion.
No one but a transcendent could resist Descartes’ power.
Kate felt like she was dreaming as she entered the city. Jimmy’s eyes sparkled at the result that Yu-hyun showed him.
“We made it in.”
The city felt gloomy even from the outside, but the atmosphere itself was very depressing. It looked like London filled with smog. The faint mist that spread everywhere had a magic of its own that made people feel low.
Everyone walked around with weak steps, and the legion’s soldiers in black armor moved in pairs of two and patrolled.
Above all, Naseong Moon’s fierce face looked down on the whole city.
“That is…”
There was a gallows in the center of what could be called the city square. There, corpses hung by their necks swayed back and forth.
People passed by that sight naturally or spat at the corpses.
Kate glared at the gallows with a fiery gaze.
“They executed those who rebelled against the Black Lightning Lord as an example. They kill them like that if they’re even slightly suspicious.”
“…”
Yu-hyun couldn’t take his eyes off the corpses in the square for a while.
Kate quickly led Yu-hyun and Jimmy to a back alley.
“Do you know the way?”
“It’s hard to get in, but once you’re in, it’s easy. There’s a hideout that the liberation army uses inside. I memorized all the locations, so you just have to follow me.”
As they entered the alley, the eyes of the vagrants wandering around turned to them.
The vagrants looked at the three of them and estimated what they could rob from them.
A healthy man with a big beard and a ten-year-old kid. And a half-breed woman. It was strange that she had a large backpack on her back alone, but what did it matter?
As the vagrants approached stealthily, Kate frowned. Then Yu-hyun stepped forward.
“Get lost.”
That was enough. The force in his voice shook the vagrants’ brains in an instant.
The vagrants scattered like a pack of frightened dogs.
Yu-hyun had to chase them away three more times with his intimidating aura.
“…This is serious.”
The inner city was a mess. The security was dire and the starving vagrants attacked and robbed each other of food and money.
The wounded people were left on the ground, bleeding. The smell of rotting corpses wafted from the piles of garbage.
Jimmy clutched Kate’s arm tightly at the horrible sight. Yu-hyun felt the same way.
“Was it always like this?”
“It’s been like this ever since the Black Thunder Lord took over.”
“…”
Yu-hyun wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.
He had heard the news that Kang Hye-rim had changed. But he thought there was some misunderstanding.
He couldn’t believe that she, who used to smile so innocently, would kill people indiscriminately and spread the infamous name of the Demon Queen.
‘No. Maybe I just wanted to believe that.’
He thought that the people he knew would never change.
But that was his wishful thinking and stubbornness. People change over time.
Yu-hyun felt uneasy.
‘Can I undo all this, as if it never happened?’
Would he be able to fix everything by talking to her?
He felt the rumors surrounding Kang Hye-rim becoming more and more real.
How did she end up like this? What made her do this?
He had so many questions, but the person who could answer them was not in front of him. She was in the Black Thunder Palace.
Yu-hyun felt suffocated. It felt like a lump was pressing down on his heart.
People died. Many people lay on the streets like trash, forgotten and decaying.
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He couldn’t help but think that the situation in other cities would be no different from this one.
Was Kang Hye-rim still the same person he knew?
Yu-hyun doubted his own thoughts for the first time.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yes, let’s go.”
Yu-hyun decided to postpone his answer for now.
His priority was to cross the Nasa Gate and find the lord of this city.
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