The Modern Founding Chronicles of the Returned Demon King

Episode 52: The Demon King of Pride (3)

Lee Seo-jun looked up at me and said.

“I don’t die by anyone’s will. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it will be.”

I choked up as I watched Lee Seo-jun speak slowly.

Lee Seo-jun snapped his fingers once and approached me, looking even more pristine.

“Even if you were the descendant of a cursed human, it wouldn’t matter. Your curse is far too insignificant to reach a being like me.”

“……”

“The curse you speak of is nothing more than an illusion created by your memories and your worries.”

Lee Seo-jun stopped at a certain distance as he always did.

A distance neither close nor far. Despite our intertwined fates, there remained a gap of mutual incomprehension.

In that void, I glared and acted petulant for no reason.

“But Seo-jun… you don’t know…”

“True, I’ve glimpsed your memories, but I still don’t know much about you. Understanding is a different realm altogether.”

“See…”

“But Jeong Ye-rin, let me ask you this. Have you ever killed someone with those hands? Have you ever harmed anyone with those hands? Have you ever once held malice in those hands?”

I swear I never had.

Rather, I had always wanted to feel that warmth, but they had lost that warmth due to something other than me.

“Jeong Ye-rin, you have never killed anyone with those hands.”

That’s what Lee Seo-jun said.

“That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it will be.”

Perhaps I had wanted to hear those words from someone. That their deaths were not my fault.

But while everyone shouted about the witch’s hands, not a single person had ever said such words to me until now.

“Instead, you’ve been saving lives by making potions with those hands.”

I looked down at my bare hands, clearly visible.

They were the hands that had been making potions until I was captured here.

“Don’t you find it strange? If those hands of yours were truly cursed, others wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about your potions. But they want your potions, they want those hands of yours.”

I had forgotten. The fact that someone was surviving thanks to the potions made by these cursed hands.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean those scars of yours will completely disappear. They’ll resurface when you least expect it, and each time it will be deeply painful.”

As he said, I could still see their final moments when I closed my eyes.

“But don’t you think there’s no reason to hide them anymore? There are too many people relying on those hands for you to keep hiding them.”

I clenched and unclenched my fragile bare hands. Though nothing was grasped, that meant anything could be grasped.

I slowly raised my head to look up at Lee Seo-jun. A smile like warm sunlight hung on his lips.

“I’ve told you before. Miracles don’t come twice.”

One of his arms slowly rose. As that arm reached towards me, his clenched hand gently opened.

Unlike before, there was no light held within. But it was shining more brilliantly than ever.

“Take it, Jeong Ye-rin.”

Like a miraculous halo of light.

I looked at that light, then at my bare hands. Hands emanating an endlessly ominous aura.

…If I grasped that light, wouldn’t this darkness disappear? Just once more, couldn’t I be selfish?

Before I knew it, I found myself thinking that way.

As if steeling myself for something, I tightly clenched my dry hand. My gaze turned to Lee Seo-jun’s outstretched hand.

At some point, my hand was gently resting on his.

“…I’m in your care.”

It was the first time I felt Lee Seo-jun’s warm touch.

===

**

===

Has Jeong Ye-rin’s trauma disappeared with this? No, it probably hasn’t disappeared.

She’s just no longer hiding it.

In fact, her hands were no longer covered by leather gloves.

“…But if I hadn’t taken your hand, would you really have left me behind?”

Jeong Ye-rin asked me as we walked through the underground cave.

“Well, I might have.”

“Tch, you really can’t tell a white lie.”

It would have been better not to be so honest. I couldn’t exactly say ‘If you hadn’t taken my hand, I was planning to knock you out and take you with me.’

I’m just glad things worked out well in many ways.

“But where on earth are we? This doesn’t look like any terrain on Earth…”

According to the information I learned from the doppelganger using [Lezie’s Insight], this place should be Lucifer’s ‘Underground Cave Hubris’.

This place was probably under restrictions like the ‘Canaan Floating Island’, but had landed on Earth. It’s just that being underground, it went unnoticed.

Of course, I couldn’t understand how Jeong Ye-rin had been able to come here while those restrictions were still in place.

“Mr. Seo-jun, if we keep going this way, will we reach the exit?”

“Yes.”

Right now, I couldn’t use [Magic Path]. It seemed like I had forcibly opened the space before the restrictions had fully lifted.

That’s why Jeong Ye-rin hadn’t been in front of the portal.

‘I should have made sure to kill the doppelganger first before using it.’

But even so, there wasn’t much of a setback.

And even if I could have used [Magic Path], we would have searched for the exit on foot since a battle was taking place above the underground cave.

The conditions for using [Magic Path] weren’t met as I didn’t know where the place above was, nor could I see it with my eyes.

“By the way, Mr. Seo-jun, how did you know about my past? Did you hear it from a high school classmate?”

I gave her a rough explanation about that. That I was able to glimpse her memories by drinking her blood.

“I see… But wasn’t I cute when I was little?”

I thought she would find it creepy, but Jeong Ye-rin surprisingly responded with a playful smile.

I answered with a slight chuckle.

“You were ugly.”

“What! You didn’t look properly, did you?! I was so cute when I was little!”

I ignored her and kept walking.

She was cute, actually. But what human isn’t cute when they’re young? I must have been cute too.

…Probably.

As we were walking like that, I froze at the sight of a scene inside a space.

“Stop.”

“…Why?”

“It’s better not to look.”

Corpses piled up in the darkness. Among them, I saw a familiar face.

‘…Ahn Seo-jin.’

It was the person I had provided security for during the magic lecture, and also the original body of the first doppelganger I had killed.

That guy was quite a sinful human too. Targeted by both Greed and Pride.

Although those two sins have a lot in common originally, that guy was exceptional even considering that.

‘The ones buried underneath must be the original bodies of the doppelgangers too.’

Looking at this, I was glad Jeong Ye-rin had survived. If she hadn’t been a descendant of Eve, she might have been wedged in there by now.

“Um…”

At Jeong Ye-rin’s voice, I turned my gaze.

A hand resting on her shoulder. It was a hand that had reflexively gone up to stop her.

I quickly removed my hand.

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, if it’s you, Mr. Seo-jun.”

Jeong Ye-rin smiled softly, raising her plump cheeks.

It seemed her condition had improved a lot.

“But what’s going on that you’re acting like this?”

“It’s nothing good to see.”

“…Hmm, that just makes me more curious.”

“I won’t stop you.”

Jeong Ye-rin thought for a moment, then took two steps forward and peeked beyond the wall.

At that moment, a crease formed between Jeong Ye-rin’s eyebrows.

“…Ugh. I should have listened.”

“See, what did I tell you?”

“But what can I do about my curiosity?”

“Sometimes it’s better not to know.”

“Tch…”

Jeong Ye-rin pouted her lips. Then, as if something occurred to her, she asked me.

“But why didn’t I end up like these people? A few weeks ago, a black window appeared saying ‘Descendant of the cursed human Eve’, could it be related to that?”

“…A black window, you say?”

“Yes, at first it was that sentence, and the second time it was ‘Are you going to kill others with your hands again this time?'”

“Then why didn’t you tell me anything about it?”

“Oh come on, I thought it was a hallucination. It disappeared in less than a second.”

That much I could understand. If it had been a blue window, she might have felt suspicious, but with an unfamiliar black window, it couldn’t be helped.

Still, I never imagined they would send that window to Jeong Ye-rin. It’s not strange since the Seven Deadly Sins Church receives ‘oracles’ in that way too…

But how did they know something that even I hadn’t noticed? Or is it that only Lucifer knows?

“Um… Mr. Seo-jun, do you know anything about that?”

I stared at her questioning look for a moment before opening my mouth.

“Sometimes it’s better not to know.”

“But I’m curious. And at least I should know why I was targeted so I won’t feel unfairly treated, right?”

I pondered as I looked at Jeong Ye-rin’s determined eyes.

…Certainly, it would be better than not knowing.

“Alright.”

I explained to Jeong Ye-rin about ‘Eve’.

The story of how long ago, in the Garden of Eden, there was a fruit called the fruit of knowledge that bestowed supreme power, and a human woman named Eve ate it.

“Hmm, I see…”

As the brief explanation ended, Jeong Ye-rin let out a thoughtful sound.

The story of Eden, Eve, and the fruit of knowledge was something I had heard from Robert about 100 years ago.

At that time, Robert had suddenly asked, ‘My Lord, since you’re human, you must know about Eve, right?’ And I was more surprised by the fact that Robert knew I was ‘human’ than by the story itself…

After all, I had been hiding the fact that I was human from them all this time.

When I pointed that out, Robert smiled and said, ‘Huhut, did you think you could hide it even from this Robert?’

I just gave him a good smack for that.

I thought for a moment and then asked.

“Come to think of it, how much magic power do you have?”

If Jeong Ye-rin really is a descendant of Eve, she should have high magic power due to the blood of the fruit of knowledge. In fact, the effect of [Midas’ Hand] had been excellent on her.

Jeong Ye-rin glanced at the air once and answered lightly.

“Um, it’s 1421.”

The next moment, a heavy silence fell in the cave.

“…What did you say?”

“1421. Is that high?”

What, is that high? No, this is ridiculous.

1421 is higher than my magi right after returning. It’s only a few hundred difference from my current level.

“Don’t you watch TV or anything?”

“I didn’t have a place to put a TV?”

“…I see.”

Should I apologize for this? This is troublesome.

“But is it high?”

To Jeong Ye-rin’s innocent question, I answered with a shallow sigh.

“It’s not exact, but the average magic power of an S-rank hunter is 100.”

“Whaaat?!”

Jeong Ye-rin’s eyes grew even wider.

Moreover, it’s not just a simple 14 times difference. It’s not like 14 newborns gathered together could defeat an adult.

I knew it would be somewhat high, but to this extent…

Quickly regaining her composure, Jeong Ye-rin placed her hand on her chin and nodded her head.

“Certainly… I was wondering why it was so much higher than other figures. But the status window appeared when I was in high school, and after that, I had no one to ask about it…”

The status window appears at the age of 15. That’s why they call it the age of destiny.

Jeong Ye-rin raised her head to look up at me.

“Then, could I become a hunter too?”

“If you have the ability, it would be possible.”

“I see…”

However, Jeong Ye-rin’s physical abilities are lower than an average person’s, so if she were to be deployed in combat right away, it would be difficult for her to survive.

Although physical abilities do stem from magic power, it’s not the case for everyone. It’s not for nothing that magicians with high magic power don’t use their physical abilities.

Still, given that Jeong Ye-rin’s magic power is such an exceptional figure, she should be fine with training.

“Let’s talk about that later, for now, let’s move.”

“Okay.”

I headed towards the exit again.

After walking for a while, Jeong Ye-rin turned to look at me.

“But when will we see the exit?”

“……”

“…Mr. Seo-jun?”

To be honest, I don’t know either.

Normally, I would find the way using my energy sense, but here, the flow of energy is distorted, making it difficult to find the path.

No wonder this place is called not just the ‘Underground Cave’ but also the ‘Underground Maze’.

As the silence continued, I gave a vague answer.

“We’ll be out soon.”

“…That sounds just like what Mr. Huide used to say every time we went hiking.”

Huide would occasionally go hiking with Jeong Ye-rin to train her physical endurance. It seemed that Jeong Ye-rin was reminded of those memories.

Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.

Of course, I’m not just walking aimlessly either. According to the information I heard from Asmodeus, this place has another alias besides ‘Underground Maze’.

It’s the ‘Underground Prison’.

– If you get lost there, find a guard.

I will find that ‘snake’ here.

(To be continued in the next part)