Episode 66
Jeon left the house.
He had to walk down a whopping eighteen floors, but to Jeon, it was no big deal.
Just as he had seen from the house, many people were walking the streets.
The city that had been asleep during the day seemed to awaken as night fell.
On streets where not even a single ant could have been seen, stalls were laid out and a market had formed.
Some sold food, while others sold meat of unknown demonic beasts.
Among them were those selling cutting-edge products rarely seen in the slums. It was obvious they had all been smuggled from Neo Seoul.
In the damp alleys, people trading what appeared to be drugs could be seen as well. Jeon took in all of those sights.
Nothing had changed from eight years ago.
It seemed Jeon was the only thing that had changed.
When he left the slums, Jeon had been young and powerless. But now, the biggest difference was that he had the strength to protect himself.
The slum dwellers glanced at Jeon.
They felt a sense of alienation from his appearance, which exuded an atmosphere completely different from their own.
Instinctively, they realized Jeon was of a different class and grew wary.
Jeon noticed their gazes as well, but he paid them no mind.
He had received such looks often when he went to other colonies.
Jeon was an outsider.
No matter where he went, he was never welcomed.
It was a bit disappointing that he couldn't even be welcomed in his hometown, the slums, but it wasn't something that bothered him overmuch.
After walking for a while, a delicious smell wafted from somewhere.
It was a smell he had never encountered in the desert or in other colonies.
Jeon walked toward where the smell was coming from.
At the place he arrived, people had laid out stalls and were selling food.
Jeon sat down at one of them.
The reason he had chosen that place among so many stalls was simple.
It was giving off the most delicious smell.
An old man was grilling meat with his back turned.
Perhaps sensing a customer had arrived, the old man turned around.
Deep wrinkles, a beard, and glasses cracked on one side left such an impression that it was impossible to guess his age.
The old man spoke to Jeon.
"You here to eat?"
"..."
Without answering, Jeon stared intently at the old man.
Somehow, the old man's face felt familiar.
After a moment, Jeon remembered who the old man was.
"Could you be Elder... Clexy?"
"You know me?"
The old man glanced at Jeon, his brows furrowing slightly.
Even on this street, almost no one knew his real name.
Yet unexpectedly, a man he was seeing for the first time today had called his name.
Naturally, he couldn't help but be on guard.
"Who the hell are you to know my name?"
"I was wondering why I didn't see you at the Demon Stone Mine. So you were running a business here."
"I still haven't heard your name."
Beyond the glasses, Elder Clexy's eyes turned sharp.
It was a gaze far too sharp to belong to an old man selling food at a shabby stall.
Jeon said with a smile.
"You look the same, but it seems your memory has declined. Don't you recognize me?"
"Now that I look at it, your mug does look familiar."
Elder Clexy furrowed his brows deeply as he searched his memory.
After struggling for quite a while, Clexy finally managed to remember Jeon.
"The Demon Stone Mine? Now that you mention it, you're that kid from back then."
"So you still remember."
"You were quite the odd brat. A little kid carrying demon spirit stones, then going missing after just one day in the mine? I figured you'd kicked the bucket, but here you are, alive. What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm asking how you've been all this time."
Elder Clexy's eyes glinted with curiosity.
Jeon let out a snicker and said.
"I got by somehow."
"So I'm asking how."
"Is that important? What matters is that I'm alive and meeting you again, Elder."
"Hah! You've become quite the smooth talker. You seemed so naive back then."
"I paid expensive tuition. Thanks to that, I learned a lot."
"Enough. If you don't want to talk, then don't. Who said I was curious?"
Elder Clexy put on a sulky expression. But Jeon didn't waver.
Jeon knew very well just how sly and dangerous Elder Clexy was.
His opponent was an old man who had spent his entire life crawling through the rough Demon Stone Mine. Underestimating an old man who had dealt with rough miners and Awakened alike would only lead to regret.
"I'm hungry. Please give me something to eat."
"You have money?"
"Enough to pay for the food."
"Is that so?"
Elder Clexy placed the meat he had been grilling onto a plate.
Jeon picked up his chopsticks and said.
"Thank you for the meal."
It was the first food he had eaten since entering Neo Seoul.
Jeon put a piece of meat of unknown origin into his mouth.
The meat melted softly in his mouth.
He didn't know how it was seasoned, but flavor exploded in his mouth.
Jeon thought that food was the standard by which human civilization was divided.
Where civilization had advanced, food advanced as well, but the food of backward places could not escape a primitive level.
Most of the colonies Jeon had visited until now had been unable to escape medieval-level civilization.
They were too busy surviving the threat of demonic beasts to even think of developing civilization.
In that regard, Neo Seoul was special.
After all, one could eat delicious food even in the slums.
Jeon savored the meat piece by piece.
Watching him for a moment, Elder Clexy pulled out a bottle of alcohol.
"You gonna drink too?"
"No thanks."
"Why?"
"It just doesn't suit my palate."
"Hehe! You've only grown taller, but your taste is still a child's. A proper adult ought to know how to have a drink."
"No thanks. If alcohol is the standard, I'd rather not be an adult."
"You've really become cheeky. Just what have you been through?"
Elder Clexy scrutinized Jeon's entire body as if dissecting it. But there was nothing he could learn from merely looking.
Jeon truly ate the meat deliciously.
He ate so deliciously that even Elder Clexy, the one who had cooked it, felt his own appetite stir.
"When did you get to the slums?"
"I came in during the day today."
"You got a place to stay?"
"Fortunately, my old house is still there."
"Is that so? That's quite something. Empty houses absolutely cannot exist here; that's the way of things."
"I suppose I'm just lucky."
"Share some of that luck with me."
"Why? Did something bad happen?"
"It's not that luck is only needed when something bad happens. At this age, you just end up hoping for it. To live longer, to earn more money."
"You've already lived so long, yet you want to live longer?"
At Jeon's words, Elder Clexy burst into a wide grin. With that, his few remaining teeth were revealed.
"You rascal! The longer you live, the more you want to keep on living. If they could, people would make a deal with dragons to obtain eternal life. That's human nature."
"Do dragons grant eternal life too?"
"Who knows? Drink their blood, and you might live forever. Maybe that's why those beyond the wall are so obsessed."
Elder Clexy's gaze turned toward the distant wall.
It was the wall that divided Neo Seoul and the slums.
That single wall separated citizens from the poor.
Those inside enjoyed all the benefits of civilization, while those outside were exposed to all manner of dangers, barely surviving each day.
All of it was divided by just that one wall.
That was why some called it the Wall of Despair.
A wall that ordinary people could never cross no matter how hard they tried their entire lives.
Only a select few could cross that wall through an extremely rare chance.
Jeon asked.
"Do they covet dragon's blood as well?"
"As if it's only them? Hehe!"
"Tch!"
Jeon clicked his tongue.
Dragons were living beings too.
The very idea that the blood of a mere living being could grant eternal life was laughable.
Elder Clexy's eyes suddenly gleamed.
"That robe looks quite nice. Where did you get it?"
"I just got it by chance."
"By chance?"
"Yes!"
"And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Didn't I tell you? I'm quite lucky."
"Hmph!"
"I should be going now. Thank you for the meal. How much is it?"
"Forget it. It's on the house since we met after so long."
"I'll pass on that. This should be enough, right?"
Jeon took out money from his pocket and placed it on the table.
For a moment, an incredulous expression crossed Elder Clexy's face.
The amount Jeon had put down was exactly ten sol.
It was the exact amount Elder Clexy had taken from Jeon at the Demon Stone Mine.
Having placed down the ten sol, Jeon rose without hesitation.
"You?"
"I've settled the score, so don't try to change your tune later."
Jeon smiled and left.
Elder Clexy stared blankly at Jeon's retreating figure.
It felt like being struck on the head with an iron hammer.
It had truly been a long time since he had felt this way.
"Does this mean he hasn't forgotten that day? He's a more vindictive fellow than I thought."
A smile formed at his lips.
Elder Clexy stepped away from his stall and spoke.
"Let's call it a day. Pack up the stall."
"Yes, sir!"
The large merchants who had been selling right beside him approached his side.
They packed up Elder Clexy's stall and followed behind him. At that, the people in the street made way in droves.
Elder Clexy spoke quietly.
"Put a tail on him."
"Is he worth it?"
"Worth."
The wrinkles on Elder Clexy's face deepened further.
He was smiling.
"He went missing the day he entered the Demon Stone Mine. I thought everyone had died. But he came back alive. That alone makes him valuable enough."
The Demon Stone Mine was no different from a maze.
If you took the wrong path, you lost your sense of direction, wandered, and starved to death.
Even in such cases, bodies were discovered.
But Jeon's body had never been found. So Clexy had thought it strange, but soon forgot.
At the time, Jeon had been an unremarkable boy, and Clexy hadn't been so idle as to care about the death of such a child.
But the situation had changed.
The boy everyone thought had died had returned safely. And after a whopping eight years, at that.
He was madly curious about the boy's whereabouts over those eight years. But Elder Clexy knew better than anyone that finding out was impossible.
What happened outside Neo Seoul and the Demon Stone Mine was beyond his power to know.
There was no way to learn what happened in the desert. But he had the skill to know what happened in the slums as if reading the lines of his own palm.
"He's definitely Awakened. Find out everything—what his skill is, why he returned to Neo Seoul. Leave nothing out."
"Understood."
The merchant disappeared with his answer.
Elder Clexy looked at his palm.
In his hand were the ten sol Jeon had left behind.
"Well, well! An interesting fellow has rolled in."
***
Jeon muttered.
"As expected, he's no ordinary old man."
The hidden gazes he had felt the moment he sat at Elder Clexy's stall.
It was as if the entire market was focused on him.
They were clearly followers of Elder Clexy.
Most were ordinary people, but among them were definitely some who gave off a special feeling.
Jeon knew that only Awakened gave off such a feeling.
Having Awakened under his command meant that Elder Clexy was a big shot.
Though he didn't know why such a big shot was selling food in a market.
Quite interesting things were happening from his very first day back in Neo Seoul.
"Interesting!"