The moment I heard those words, I was stunned for a moment.
‘What is this guy saying right now?’
It was because the words Cheol Ji-seon had blurted out while eating were impossible to understand.
He had asked me to help him kill you.
Those were the very words that none other than Cheol Ji-seon had just spit out.
Cheol Ji-seon had invited me to a meal, of all things.
I had even broken my promise with Murong Xi to come here.
Thanks to that, it was information I hadn't expected.
And with it, a question.
‘Why?’
It wasn't that I hadn't expected this to happen.
It was the fact that Cheol Ji-seon was saying this to me.
That was what made it truly unexpected.
‘Why?’
Why on earth?
I tried to think of a reason, but nothing particularly came to mind.
That Jang Seon-yeon had approached Cheol Ji-seon while knowing about him.
I knew from the information Pae U-cheol had given me in the past.
Even if Pae U-cheol hadn't told me, it was something I had already been expecting.
That Jang Seon-yeon would pull something on me?
If you remembered your past life, it was a fact you couldn't help but know.
If there was something different.
At that time, the target hadn't been me, but Jamryong.
Compared to Jamryong, who hadn't even reacted much.
The fact that I had reacted very clearly to him.
That difference.
Pulled forward the time when the Demonic Realm transfer incident had occurred, which had originally only happened around the age of majority.
It became a possibility that could be brought to the present.
Of course, it wasn't certain whether that bastard Jang Seon-yeon would move as expected.
But judging by how he was acting now, I could predict it wouldn't be long.
And.
‘Rather, because I'm hoping for that.’
I hope.
Please, may that bastard choose the right moment and cause trouble for me.
For that to happen, it was right for Jang Seon-yeon to approach Cheol Ji-seon.
The catalyst for everything.
And the role of the dagger was in Cheol Ji-seon's hands, after all.
It was simply a question.
Even thinking through all of that.
The fact that Cheol Ji-seon was now telling me about his business with Jang Seon-yeon.
Was a situation I couldn't understand.
With that in mind, I asked.
“Why are you telling me that?”
“Because we're friends...?”
The words that flew out of Cheol Ji-seon's mouth in response to my question.
Were words that made me laugh hollowly inside.
‘Friends?’
Had I really thought of us as friends just because I called him one?
.
Ridiculous as it was, it probably wasn't mutual.
I had kept him by my side out of necessity.
Had he thought of me as a friend? That probably wasn't the case either.
“Yeah, we're friends. Friends.”
I put a side dish in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Then I looked at Cheol Ji-seon again.
Between his somehow trembling pupils, an indiscernible emotion flickered.
“But that doesn't mean you have a reason to tell me this now, does it?”
“ ”
“I feel like there's a more definite reason. What is it?”
If Jang Seon-yeon had approached Cheol Ji-seon in the same way in the past life as well.
There must have been a reason for Cheol Ji-seon to side with Jang Seon-yeon.
I didn't know what he had offered him.
But what was the reason he had abandoned that in this life and was telling me this?
Just because of a friendship that was only words?
‘It's not like I'm some fool with a flower garden in his head.’
It was a story with too many problems to believe readily.
Cheol Ji-seon's pupils shook violently at my question.
I could more or less feel how much he had agonized before bringing up those words.
But that didn't mean I could just let it slide.
Just as I was thinking of digging a little deeper.
“...You, hearing the story.”
Cheol Ji-seon fixed his trembling eyes on me and spoke.
“You didn't ask what it meant, but why I was telling it to you.”
“...Hmm?”
It was a somewhat out-of-the-blue remark.
But.
“It means you already knew this story....”
“...!”
It was a startling remark.
I slightly widened my eyes at Cheol Ji-seon's words.
It was a mistake.
The story Cheol Ji-seon mentioned was definitely my mistake.
Yet Cheol Ji-seon, who brought up that mistake now and dug into it.
Looked a little different.
‘Look at this guy?’
Had I been underestimating him too much?
“How can you be so sure?”
“I'm not certain. It's just my delusion. But....”
His trembling gaze gradually calmed.
“I'm starting to think more and more that it might not be a delusion.”
“...Oh.”
“You... hated Shin Seong. To the point of loathing.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because there's no one in this Divine Dragon Hall who doesn't know that.”
Come to think of it.
The fact that I had gone to Cheol Ji-seon's territory, made a mess, and clashed with Shin Seong was a story that had spread throughout the hall in just a few days.
Because of that.
I had been hearing all sorts of things, like how the True Dragon feels inferior to Shin Seong.
Or is jealous, and whatnot.
It was a ridiculous story. If there was any truth to it at all.
“Yeah, I hate that bastard. But what's the problem with that?”
“No problem at all. It's just a story that helps with the choice I'm making right now.”
Choice. That's what Cheol Ji-seon said.
“Just because I hate that bastard doesn't mean it's a reason for you to tell me this.”
“Seolbong.”
At the word he brought out as if answering my words.
My ears perked up.
“Dokbong.... Geom Muhui, Jamryong, Geomryong....”
“What are you doing right now....”
“The successor of the Sword Lord, who's already a hot topic.... and even Turyong.”
Between Cheol Ji-seon's fidgeting fingertips.
There was an incomprehensible chill.
“They're the people around you. Any one of them is an unbelievable figure to get involved with. And at the center of it is you.”
I wondered if he had done a background check, but he was merely reciting what was visible.
But why was he spitting it out in front of me right now?
That was what mattered.
Cheol Ji-seon's eyes had stopped trembling at some point.
“The rumors about you are all terrifying. Nothing but frightening things. Not to mention your face, too.”
“Hey, why does my face come up there? You wanna die?”
“...Sorry.”
I had been listening fine, but I felt a sudden surge of emotion.
“Even in such a situation, strangely enough, the people around you are all clean and incredible people....”
“So what? My rumors are dogshit, so it's strange that the people around me are clean?”
“Yes. Very.”
“Then what do you want me to do about it....”
“Even though such figures are gathered around you, the fact that only such rumors keep spreading is very strange.”
There was an alien feel to the fingertip tapping the table and the gaze directed at me.
“Conversely, rumors about Shin Seong become strangely severe when tied to you.”
The more he spoke, the more Cheol Ji-seon gradually became a different person.
One could say he was cold.
Or stiff would also fit.
“The other biggest reason is... the fact that you keep me by your side.”
At Cheol Ji-seon's words, I crossed my arms and leaned back against the chair.
“Why's that.”
“...When we took the entrance exam, too. And even now. You keep trying to keep me by your side.”
Interesting.
I had thought he was just a pathetic guy with power.
Just how long had he been seeing all this?
“Shin Seong is wary of you, and asked me to help kill you. In such a situation, you kept trying to keep me by your side. To you, I must have value worth that.”
“Since when? Since when did you think this?”
“From the moment Shin Seong... uttered those words to me.”
That meant it hadn't even been a few days.
Cheol Ji-seon seemed to be a much smarter bastard than I'd expected.
It was something one could know to some extent by looking at the situation.
But thinking through it and being certain rather than predicting was another story altogether.
“You need me.”
Cheol Ji-seon said.
“That's right, I need you.”
I didn't deny Cheol Ji-seon's words.
Because there was no need to.
I needed Cheol Ji-seon.
More precisely, it wasn't Cheol Ji-seon I needed, but the power he possessed.
‘So.’
Thinking of that.
I asked Cheol Ji-seon something else.
“The reason you're telling me all this?”
“...Because you asked me to tell you why I told you about my conversation with Shin Seong.”
“Those deductions are interesting, but they aren't the reason you told me about that Jang bastard. There's a slightly different reason, isn't there?”
What Cheol Ji-seon had said was, in the end, merely that my relationship with that Jang bastard was bad, and that I needed him.
That wasn't reason enough to tell me about the scheme Jang Seon-yeon was plotting.
Jang Seon-yeon needed Cheol Ji-seon just as much.
He would have said he'd listen to and grant whatever Cheol Ji-seon needed and wanted.
Even after hearing that, there was no reason to change course and come to my side.
I didn't even know what he wanted.
And even if I did, I hadn't intended to grant it.
Hearing my question, Cheol Ji-seon made a face as if agonizing for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“...Shin Seong gave me a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling?”
“Yeah.... There was something ominous about him.”
A bad feeling?
It was the simplest, most convenient reason for making an emotional choice.
If he were the Cheol Ji-seon I had known until just now.
He might have chosen such a foolish option.
But the Cheol Ji-seon I was looking at now looked a little different.
“And.”
So I asked again, as if telling him to give me another reason.
“...And.”
The trembling of Cheol Ji-seon, which had barely stopped.
Began shaking again little by little, for some reason.
Starting from his shoulders.
His pupils trembled faintly.
It wasn't the tension from before.
A strange sense of fear seeped through.
Why that reaction?
“Shin Seong's words came with a threat. But you....”
“Me?”
To my question asked while crossing my arms and looking at Cheol Ji-seon.
Cheol Ji-seon closed his eyes and spoke.
As if he couldn't bear to look me in the eye for long.
And he said.
“...I felt like you would kill me.”
In the bustling restaurant.
A somewhat chilling remark flowed out.
There were many people coming and going around us.
But no one would have heard it.
The moment Cheol Ji-seon was about to tell me about his business with that Jang bastard.
He had already spread a qi barrier.
Hearing those words, I replayed what Cheol Ji-seon had spit out in my mind.
‘Because I felt like you would kill me.’
Why had he thought that?
I had treated him pretty well, you know.
Cheol Ji-seon's words were a shock to me.
Not in the sense of how could he think I would kill him.
‘How did he know?’
That I had intended to erase Cheol Ji-seon together with Jang Seon-yeon.
The fact that he had realized it was the shock.
I had thought I hid it well.
How did he notice?
‘...Interesting.’
I had thought he was tactless, pathetic.
Weak.
It seemed there was quite a lot more in his head than I'd expected.
“Why did you think that? I have no intention of killing you.”
I said with a grin.
Cheol Ji-seon didn't look like he believed me much.
It wasn't as if I hadn't killed anyone in this life.
But it wasn't like I went around killing someone with such intense killing intent that it flared with every breath.
How had he really known?
Did he intend not to answer this?
“Fine, okay. Let's say I intend to kill you.”
*Creak,*
“But friend.”
*Screech.*
I pulled myself up slightly and changed my posture.
“If I plan to kill you, do you think I won't just because you switch sides now?”
“If it's the me you imagine, I don't think you'd do that.”
Cheol Ji-seon's power had plenty of value to be exploited.
But there was just as much danger.
Because it was a superhuman power beyond the framework of martial arts.
It was something troublesome to deal with.
For now, I had to make use of it too.
And it was a power I needed considerably, so I said that.
But it was true that I had placed Cheol Ji-seon among the targets to be eliminated.
Because that would be more convenient going forward.
“And if you think I have such intentions, why don't you think Jang Seon-yeon feels the same?”
“...Because Shin Seong plans to use me until the very end.”
“And I'm not?”
“...No.”
“That's contradictory. Then you should have stuck with Jang Seon-yeon instead. That way your chances of survival are higher.”
If he's going to use you until the end, you'd be better off sticking by his side like that.
What kind of sense does it make to come to me, who might kill you?
To my question asked with a scoffing laugh.
Cheol Ji-seon grabbed his trembling hands and spoke.
“If you defeat Shin Seong, it becomes a meaningless act.”
“Friend, why do you keep talking like I'm going to kill everyone? It's scary.”
I hadn't expected Cheol Ji-seon to come at me like this.
Why is he so smart? I had thought he was incompetent.
‘Could it be because the comparison was inevitably with Zhuge Hyeok?’
Was it because I had compared him to that guy called the brain of the Demonic Cult?
Could it be that this bastard was actually smart from the start?
So it had become a bit bothersome.
Because I hadn't known Cheol Ji-seon would come out like this.
In other words, not that Jang bastard.
You think I'll win.
And on top of that, you think I'll kill you, so you're saying you'd rather truly come to my side.
“Why should I accept that?”
“Because I have value to exploit.”
“You think pretty highly of yourself.”
He certainly had value to exploit.
The problem was how to make use of it.
As I looked at Cheol Ji-seon, I suddenly asked something else.
Because it seemed like I'd be able to see how he'd act in other situations now that things had come to this.
“There's something I don't understand.”
“...What is it?”
“Jang Seon-yeon asked you to help him kill me.”
The fact that that Jang bastard asked Cheol Ji-seon for help meant.
“How exactly can you help?”
If he helped him, Jang Seon-yeon would be able to kill me without difficulty.
This meant that Cheol Ji-seon's power was that great.
“He didn't tell me to kill you directly....”
At my words, Cheol Ji-seon changed his words as if flustered.
But it wasn't much different.
If it matched Jang Seon-yeon's nature, it amounted to the same thing.
I knew what Cheol Ji-seon's power was.
I had experienced it directly.
And I had seen it from afar.
“So, you're saying you have that much power?”
*Creak,*
“What is it?”
I asked because I knew.
Because now that it had come to this, I wondered if Cheol Ji-seon would actually tell me that fact.
If Cheol Ji-seon were to reveal that power to me.
What would I do?
I didn't know yet. I'd have to think about that after hearing it.
“That's....”
The fidgeting fingertip was irksome.
Because I didn't know what he would do with that fingertip. I kept watching it.
Cheol Ji-seon pondered for a while.
But I could wait for now.
Because the value of this silence was considerable in its own way.
As I kept waiting like that.
Cheol Ji-seon clenched his hand, which had been moving anxiously, into a fist, then spoke to me.
“...I. I can open the Demonic Realm Gate.”
It was the answer I had been waiting for.