The room felt unusually dark.
It was even more so because I hadn't left the lights on before falling asleep.
I pushed my inner qi to my eyes to brighten my vision.
Only then did the room appear a little brighter.
At the same time, cold sweat trickled down.
Thump… thump…
My startled heart refused to calm down easily and was pounding heavily in my chest.
Of course.
How could I not be surprised when I woke up to find an assassin right in front of me?
And if that assassin was supposedly the King of Assassins himself, all the more so.
No, honestly, if he had simply come to visit, I wouldn't have been this surprised.
The problem was.
"…What are you doing there…?"
The fact that the man called the Dark King was kneeling before me.
Right in front of me the moment I opened my eyes.
Knees planted rigidly, as if squared to perfect angles.
Head bowed moderately, gaze lowered slightly.
I saw the Dark King maintaining a posture close to perfect propriety.
So neat and tidy that I wondered why he was observing etiquette so strictly.
If a Hugijisu were acting like that, I might have thought, 'Wow, it had some solid home training!' But.
'I’m going crazy.'
The problem was that the one assuming such a posture was the Dark King, the lord of the night.
'Why is that bastard here causing a scene again?'
I had thought he'd been quiet lately.
I had forgotten because I'd been so swamped with matters.
'That… the Dark King is around too.'
Right, that guy was here too.
I had briefly forgotten that the Dark King was among the group, having changed his appearance while following Paejon.
'Is this place really okay?'
Looking at the Dark King, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
The value of a single Hwagyeong martial artist is tremendous.
At a time when merely reaching the pinnacle would have prestigious sword sects clamoring to recruit you, if it's Hwagyeong, the story changes entirely.
Just looking now, the fact that the elder-level figures of famous clans were all Hwagyeong.
It meant that merely reaching Hwagyeong was enough to be worthy of such a position.
'How many are there just here?'
How many Hwagyeong martial artists had gathered at the Tang Clan?
Even excluding those belonging to the Tang Clan.
Just thinking of the White Lotus Sword, Gwaeseon… and so on, there were five.
'…This is practically a den of human weapons.'
It felt like I had drawn them all in, but leaving that aside for now.
If I were to appraise the man called the Dark King among such high-level martial artists.
'A being who can kill anyone.'
That was how he could be appraised.
The King of Assassins, evaluated as capable of killing even the Three Venerables if he wished.
The master of the Iron Night Assassins, the foremost assassin guild.
He was precisely the man whose identity no one knew.
Of course…
'I don't know his true face, but I know a little.'
I don't know how many humans have seen the Dark King in person and lived.
From my position, I know a bit more than them.
'A descendant of the Yeon clan.'
Namely, that the Dark King was actually the damned descendant of Yeonilcheon.
I don't know who else might know this, but seeing as I didn't know it in my past life, it's probably not a well-known story.
'…Did he come because of that?'
Did he come to silence me because I knew that?
I knew the situation so far didn't fit that, but that's how much the thought crossed my mind.
Meanwhile, the reason I could barely believe that wasn't the case was thanks to the Dark King's actions.
'Why?'
Why was he kneeling in my room?
My head, barely awake, went cold.
I didn't sense any killing intent.
However, at the Dark King's level, he could easily hide his killing intent, so this part wasn't important.
Then let's consider something else.
'Since when.'
Since when had the Dark King been here?
I had set up a detection array so that even in sleep, I would wake if anyone approached…
Ah.
'It doesn't matter. Not even that.'
If my opponent was the Dark King, even that was useless.
Ah, this is a real pain in the ass.
'Damn it. It's fucking hard just trying to stay alive.'
No matter what measures I devised, there were too many experts who could break through.
This shitty reality dug into me for a moment.
Perhaps because of that? I felt my mind clearing a bit.
'It must mean not to let my guard down even for a moment in a comfortable situation.'
It was fortunate that I recalled a fact I had forgotten for a moment.
While I was racking my brain to gradually grasp the situation.
[It has been about one sijin.]
From within, Sin Noyage informed me.
'…Is that the time when the Dark King entered the room?'
[Yes. I tried all sorts of efforts to wake you. You wouldn't wake even if you died.]
One sijin.
Setting aside that the Dark King had been here for that long.
'He came right after I fell asleep.'
Judging by how closely it matched the exact time I had fallen asleep, it was safe to say the Dark King had waited for me to fall asleep before coming.
Recalling that, I asked the Dark King.
"…Might you have business with me?"
Fortunately, my voice didn't tremble.
If it had gone that far, it would have been too unsightly. That was the most fortunate part.
In response to my question, the Dark King finally raised his head and looked at me.
His white hair swayed.
Even in the darkness, that hair seemed to shine strangely.
The Dark King usually wore a mask or moved about disguised.
But looking at him now, I felt that this was his true appearance.
What of the white eyes contained within?
Despite possessing an unusually white color, they felt dark, as if to ensure nothing could be felt.
A gaze that seemed as if it would suck you in somewhere.
Those eyes that had felt particularly frightening at first.
'What the hell.'
Now, strangely, they weren't very scary.
Just as I was quietly gazing into the Dark King's eyes like that.
Huuuk—!
"…!"
Suddenly, a change occurred in the Dark King's eyes.
His pupils had slit vertically.
Seeing that, goosebumps rose on my forearms.
Because it was grotesque? No.
Because it was an eye I felt I had seen somewhere.
Where had I seen it?
I didn't need to rack my brains to recall it.
Because it came to me immediately upon seeing it.
'The Blood Demon's eyes.'
The gaze I had seen at the past Orthodox Alliance conference.
The Blood Demon's blood-red pupils that had stared at me while wearing Jang Seonyeon's body were, for some reason, the same as the Dark King's eyes.
The change wasn't limited to that.
Uuung—!
The moment I saw those eyes, a vibration was felt from my body.
My blood heated up fiercely.
Was it reacting?
A heat beyond my will began to fill my body.
Eventually, it rose to my eyes as well.
I could feel it even without looking.
That my pupils were likely no different from the Dark King's eyes now.
Immediately.
-Shaaaa!
Ttoltoli, who had been hiding in the drawer, came out.
Hwareureureuk—!
In an instant, Cheongyeom coiled around my body.
Though the flames blazed up and vanished quickly, what remained after the Cheongyeom disappeared was not the body of a thin snake, but the form of a massive demonic beast.
A frame so large that the narrow room felt cramped.
Curling around me as if to protect me, Ttoltoli bared its fangs in fury.
-Grrrrr…!
Ttoltoli trembled at the corners of its mouth and unleashed hostility toward the Dark King.
The Dark King's gaze also turned to Ttoltoli.
Perhaps because of that.
Only then did the Dark King's mouth open.
"It seems it was indeed correct."
Unlike how I had tensed up, worried the Dark King might move upon seeing Ttoltoli showing aggression.
The Dark King merely nodded as if he had expected this.
What?
Next, the Dark King's gaze turned to me.
Srruk.
The moment the Dark King moved at the same time, I tried to react, thinking it might be an attack.
"Hng…?"
I had to stiffen my body at the action the Dark King took.
Because he abruptly bowed his head and paid his respects to me.
Startled, the instant I tried to ask what he was doing.
"…This protector born of the Yeon clan greets the great Dragon."
I had to freeze at the words that burst from the Dark King's mouth.
Dragon (龍).
At that word, I unknowingly found my breath choking.
A moment's hesitation.
Breaking through it, I barely asked the Dark King.
"…Sunbae-nim. Why are you doing this?"
Is this my unlucky streak these days?
Or did something get into the old folks around me? Every single one of them was giving me shit.
And right now was the scariest of all.
Seeing none other than the Dark King acting this way toward me.
'Am I already dead?'
Such an absurd delusion even flickered through my mind.
While trying to quickly lift up the Dark King who was maintaining his respects, I recalled the words he had spat out in my head.
'A Dragon (龍).'
A word that made my head run cold.
A word used as a blanket term for white-grade demonic beasts.
The appearance I had seen while fighting the form of Hyeolgi in the past. I had recalled a dragon upon seeing that form.
Seeing that the body of Ttoltoli, who had changed when I shed my shell, was similar to the form of Hyeolgi.
'…A dragon.'
I felt I could understand why an even more unfamiliar word didn't feel entirely unfamiliar.
'Me, a dragon?'
That unknown race.
Was the body I had transformed into truly that of a dragon?
Were the scales rising on my arm and my changed body somehow its form?
Let's say that's the case for now.
'Dragon or whatever the hell… that can wait.'
No matter what I had turned into, even if I thought about it later.
For now, I had to know why the human before me was acting this way.
Coming from that terrifying man with even his speech changed, my barely suppressed fear seemed to rise up.
"For now, Sunbae-nim… please rise…"
"I beg you upon seeing such a great being."
I tried to get past Ttoltoli and grab the Dark King to raise him up.
But the Dark King merely continued his words.
"Have mercy on this humble blood."
My hand touched his shoulder.
Suuuu…
"…!"
The moment my hand touched the Dark King's body, a change occurred in his skin.
Surprised by that sight, I withdrew my hand.
I hurriedly put distance between us, but the change that had occurred did not recede and instead spread.
His skin changed.
Just as the Dark King's pupils had changed, a transformation was occurring in his flesh as well.
It thickened.
The rugged, protruding skin was just like my right arm.
If there was a difference, it was that his color was a golden hue, unlike the blue I possessed.
As I looked at the Dark King with trembling eyes.
Huuuu—!
A change occurred in my body as well.
My heart began to beat violently.
My blood felt hot beyond comparison with before.
What should I call this?
While I was unable to define it clearly.
-It is instinct.
For some reason, the Blood Demon's words from the past came to mind.
This was what he had said when we faced each other, upon seeing me unable to come to my senses in the surging blood.
-That is how it originally is.
-An arrogant creature that does not wish for another equal existence under the same heaven.
He had definitely said that to me.
Then, is the emotion I feel toward the Dark King right now hostility?
'No.'
That was clearly not it.
This wasn't hostility.
Rather, it was a lower, colder emotion.
If I were to force it into words.
'Contempt…?'
Yes, contempt.
I was feeling contempt toward a martial artist several times stronger than me.
Why did I feel such an emotion?
A goddamn feeling that made me want to rip my insides out.
Looking at it differently, with the Blood Demon's words coming to mind now.
'He knew from the moment he saw me.'
Or rather, it meant the Blood Demon had known I would become like this.
That the Blood Demon had known I would become a dragon even before I completely shed my shell.
That is…
'Is Hyeolgi the problem?'
Seeing that my flames had changed to Hyeolgi's Cheongyeom, it clearly seemed to be the case.
But among that, the Blood Demon's words stuck with me.
-You are not my fragment; how is it that you have begun to bloom?
These words meant that my transformation was not of his own intent.
I couldn't believe all of the Blood Demon's words, so I merely kept them in mind, but.
Seeing this.
'Is the Blood Demon… also a Dragon?'
It meant that he, too, was of that unknown race called dragon.
Yes, if so, the words Hyeolgi had said were also resolved.
-I am the seed of the Dragon Emperor (龍帝).
If Hyeolgi originated from the Blood Demon, those words he spoke also made sense.
Because those words served as proof that the Blood Demon was indeed a dragon.
'…Wait. Then…'
My eyes widened at the words that were gradually connecting.
In the first place.
What were the ones that the word 'dragon' was originally attached to?
They were the white-grade demonic beasts.
In the past, people had called them dragons based on their appearance and power.
Coming to the present, the word dragon referred to beings of imagination, or those white-grade demonic beasts that had emitted such overwhelming presence in the past.
The problem was that such demonic beasts, immediately after the Blood Demon disappeared, no longer appeared in the Central Plains.
Red-grade demonic beasts had begun appearing in my past life, but white-grade ones I had never seen until the moment I died.
Though this was indeed a good direction for peace.
Could this truly be a coincidence as well?
Then why did red-grade demonic beasts appear, unlike in my past life?
Could there be a problem with this too?
The more I thought, the rougher my breathing gradually became.
The hazy matters were taking shape.
However, the outline of the story I had so wanted to know was somehow appearing much larger than I had thought.
At the moment my mind began to flash as the pieces gradually fit together.
"…I beg you."
The Dark King's dry voice was heard.
Only then did my eyes stop thinking and look at the Dark King.
Looking at him, my brow furrowed involuntarily.
This was not because of his grotesque appearance.
I simply couldn't understand.
The heroes had saved the world.
Though they couldn't kill the Blood Demon, they had barely sealed him away and saved the world.
Leaving aside that he had seen me as a calamity, I had respected his achievements in their own right.
The man who had tried to save the world even by turning back time.
That was clearly the perception of Yeonilcheon.
'Why.'
Why on earth.
"Please lift the curse bound to my blood…"
Had the descendant of Yeonilcheon, who had stood at the very forefront, ended up in this state?
For some reason, that felt incredibly filthy.
Sin is inherited through blood and passed down to descendants.
These were words the Dark King had heard from his father in his youth.
The words that the sins of ancestors had accumulated as karma upon them.
The words the Dark King heard most from his father were apologies.
[I am sorry for giving birth to you.]
[I should never have given birth to you.]
Bitter words in a way, but the Dark King understood as he listened.
It was a situation that couldn't be helped.
A monster who had wanted to be human gave birth to a monster.
The child born had wished to be human, but could not because the blood was too thick.
This was the father's wish.
Apart from his regrets, the reason the Dark King was born as a monster was the father's wish.
About twenty years after giving birth to the Dark King.
His father breathed his last.
His dying appearance, offering apologies to the Dark King as always.
For some reason, he wore a happy smile.
The Dark King, who had sat down before his tombstone, was the opposite—expressionless.
It wasn't that he wasn't sad.
He felt emotion, but it wasn't large enough to contort his expression.
Only then did the Dark King realize he was indeed a monster.
And he felt he understood why his father had left with such a smile.
"Are you happy to have passed it on?"
These were words he directed at the tombstone.
This curse of blood is cruel.
It crushes emotions, and sometimes one's features change grotesquely.
Though his physical abilities were outstanding as if proving he was a monster, he was merely a monster.
His father had called this curse the Curse of Dragon Blood (龍血).
They say it is a curse bestowed by a dragon.
Possessing the blood of a dragon, yet falling into ugliness because one cannot become a dragon.
He wasn't afraid of such things. It meant he didn't care if he didn't become a dragon or whatever.
The problem with this curse was one.
Being unable to become a dragon, it both longed for it and howled wanting to live as a human.
Yet at the same time.
It was a curse that made one loathe and look down upon humans.
A power that drove one to rampage, containing all manner of contradictions.
That was the essence of Dragon Blood.
Moreover, when this blood awakens, a voice begins to echo in one's head.
-Serve the Dragon.
Someone unknown constantly brought forth these words.
You who failed to become a dragon, serve the dragon.
A wretched voice heard every day.
An echo that never disappeared no matter how exhausted one became or how much one wailed.
There is but one method to escape this curse.
That is to bear a child and be freed from the curse.
The cruel blood that prevented one from even dying by one's own hand would not let go unless one gave birth to someone to take one's place.
The Dark King's father had given birth to the Dark King to escape it.
One bears a child to pass on the curse.
Only then can one be liberated and die. It could only be an incredibly cruel curse.
His mother who bore him died.
His father did not speak of the Dark King's mother until the moment of death.
The father who had passed on the curse of Dragon Blood closed his eyes in the year the Dark King turned twenty.
That person who had offered only apologies, saying he was sorry, wore the happiest smile in the world at the moment of death.
What remained now was the life of the Dark King, who had turned twenty and whose blood had awakened.
Before his father's tombstone, the Dark King swore.
To unravel this curse.
To not pass it to future generations like his father, but to greet death by himself.
He lived like that.
-Serve the Dragon.
He endured, living through the sound echoing in his ears.
-Kill that insignificant lower species.
His emotions were dried up and twisted.
Perhaps having become a monster, his gaze toward humans was endlessly cold.
The same applied to dealing with this, so killing was done without hesitation.