Chapter 87

Chapter 87

 

When Johan disappeared, Briel shuddered.

“Ugh! He feels disgusting.”

Briel made a fuss as if bugs were crawling all over her body.

Zeon let out a sigh.

“They really won’t leave me alone. Why are they all so greedy......?”

Even before Zeon had left the slums long ago, Johan had been the ruler of Dongdaemun.

Back then, Zeon had briefly crossed over into Dongdaemun, only to return completely appalled.

That was because fanatics had been swarming in the Dongdaemun ruled by Johan.

It was full of people who followed Johan and worshiped some unknown god.

Conversation did not work well with them, and living a normal life there was even harder.

Because of that, Zeon had given up on adapting to Dongdaemun and returned to Shinchon.

After that, for a while, Zeon did not even set foot near Dongdaemun.

“To think he aimed for Shinchon the moment Goran disappeared. His movements are much faster than I expected.”

In the slums, the overlords of each district kept one another in check through a delicate balance.

Goran had been one of them.

The moment he disappeared, Johan was the first to bare his teeth.

“I wonder if Eaton can stop Dongdaemun.”

Zeon shook his head slightly.

In a way, all of this had clearly happened in a chain reaction because he had eliminated Goran.

It was not that he bore no responsibility at all.

But that did not mean Zeon had to take responsibility for this situation.

The slums were originally this kind of place.

If one showed even the slightest weakness, others would tear into them and shake them apart mercilessly.

Even a child with an innocent face was no different from a beast.

To survive in a place like this, one had to throw away clumsy consideration or a sense of justice.

Briel asked,

“What kind of god do humans serve?”

“Who knows? I don’t know either. Why?”

“The eyes of the one who serves a god were full of greed......”

“Elves are the same.”

“What are you talking about? Elves are pure.”

“Among the elves I’ve met, there wasn’t a single pure one. If elves got caught by Johan, they’d probably fall just as quickly.”

“No, they wouldn’t. Elves have strong mental fortitude.”

Briel denied it firmly.

“Mental fortitude has nothing to do with it. As long as greed exists in the heart, anyone can fall at any time.”

The elves of Kurayan had crossed over to Earth in order to survive.

There was a fixed number of living beings that could exist in one world.

If living beings from another world entered, then that many living beings of this world had to decrease.

The elves knew that too.

They knew that their survival meant the deaths of Earth’s people.

Yet they crossed over to Earth anyway.

Although, unexpectedly, the side effect of Terraforming had turned Earth into a desert.

For the sake of survival, they too had become ruthless.

At that moment, greed had taken root in their hearts.

The elves currently on Earth should be seen as entirely different beings from the elves of Kurayan.

Though they themselves would deny it to the end.

Briel glared at Zeon with a sulky expression.

Whether she did or not, Zeon continued walking indifferently.

In the end, Briel followed behind Zeon as well.

***

The buildings in Dongdaemun were especially large and complex.

Like most buildings in the slums, they had grown grotesquely large after reckless extensions.

But Dongdaemun had gone too far.

Because they had tried to accommodate as many people as possible without considering the strength or stability of the buildings, their scale had become larger than the buildings in other districts.

Because of that, the people living in Dongdaemun had to live while suppressing the fear that the buildings might collapse at any time.

If one squeezed through the maze-like tangle of Dongdaemun’s buildings, an especially large and tall building appeared.

It was a building that recalled a church that had disappeared from this land long ago.

Except for the lack of a cross on the exterior, it looked exactly like a church. So people called this place the Church too.

Inside the highest steeple of the Church was a large room.

This was the residence of Johan, the ruler of Dongdaemun.

Johan stood with his hands behind his back and looked down over Dongdaemun.

Before he became the ruler of Dongdaemun, this place had been a battlefield ruled by the law of the jungle.

They were all poor people who could not enter Neo Seoul, yet they divided themselves into classes and plundered one another.

“Humans without discipline are no different from monsters. The strongest discipline is the rule set by God.”

Johan used the excuse of God’s word to reorganize the slums and create a powerful command system unique to Dongdaemun.

After that, conflict vanished.

Of course, small disputes and incidents continued to occur, but at least no major incidents where countless people died at once took place.

Johan was satisfied with that alone.

And he was certain that he was not wrong.

“We must continue creating second and third Dongdaemuns.”

By eliminating all other orders and leaving only a single powerful order, he would quiet the chaos of the world.

That was Johan’s ultimate goal.

His gaze turned toward Neo Seoul’s wall in the distance.

“Ultimately, spreading God’s word to the foolish humans beyond that wall is the very reason I live.”

“Everything will happen according to your will, Lord Johan.”

At that moment, a woman’s voice came from behind Johan.

Johan recognized the woman who had appeared without even turning his head.

“It is you, Jae-kyung. I was just about to call for you. This works out well.”

“I came because I thought you would.”

“Your cleverness pleases me.”

Johan turned around with a smile.

Then he saw a woman of plain appearance wearing a nun’s habit.

For some reason, the woman, whose eyes were slightly lowered, gave off a sacred atmosphere.

Her name was Kim Jae-kyung.

Kim Jae-kyung was an orphan.

Johan had taken her in when she had been wandering aimlessly and raised her until now.

Kim Jae-kyung had grown into a more devout believer than anyone.

Kim Jae-kyung asked carefully,

“What must I do?”

“I need you to go to Shinchon.”

“Shinchon, you say?”

“Yes. With your ability, I intend to make one unbeliever repent.”

“An unbeliever has displeased you, Lord Johan. Who is it?”

“His name is Zeon.”

“Zeon? Understood. I will meet him and persuade him.”

“You must be careful. His mental fortitude seems quite firm.”

“You know, do you not? No matter how strong one’s mental fortitude may be, they become helpless before me.”

Kim Jae-kyung smiled softly.

At the sight of her blushing as she smiled like a shy girl, Johan nodded.

Because he had taken her in and raised her since childhood, he knew Kim Jae-kyung’s ability better than anyone.

If it was her, she would carry out the task entrusted to her splendidly.

“Go carefully.”

“Yes!”

With that answer, Kim Jae-kyung went outside.

Left alone, Johan knelt and murmured,

“Everything will be done according to Your will.”

***

On the way home, a strong wind suddenly blew.

Briel frowned and pressed down on her pointed hat with both hands.

“Ugh! This damned sandstorm. I’m so sick of it.”

The desert wind inevitably carried sand with it.

Fine sand, too small to see clearly with the naked eye, was mixed into the wind.

Because of that, even when a wind blew to cool the heat, it was not very welcome.

Briel lowered her head deeply to avoid the sandstorm as much as possible.

On the other hand, Zeon held his head high and faced the sandstorm directly.

It was an unwelcome sandstorm to others, but to him, it felt as warm as the touch of a mother he could not even remember.

The sand did not harm him.

Rather, it circled around him and gently caressed him.

Zeon enjoyed the sand with a faint smile on his lips.

In a way, it looked as if the sand was acting spoiled toward him. But because Briel had lowered her head, she failed to see that scene.

A short while later, the wind stopped, and the sand flew far away and vanished.

Only then did Briel raise her head and shake the sand piled on her pointed hat.

“Ugh! I really hate sand.”

At the sight of Briel shuddering, Zeon smiled slightly and started walking.

Briel, who was following after Zeon, tilted her head.

“But why isn’t there any sand on your shoulders, Zeon? Did you already shake it off?”

“Yes.”

“You’re faster than you look. Well, I guess you must hate sand too, right?”

“No. I like sand.”

“Well, since you handle sand, I guess that makes sense......”

“Shh!”

“Huh? Why?”

“Words spoken by day are heard by birds, and words spoken by night are heard by mice.”

“What?”

“It means watch your mouth. You swore because of that, remember......”

“Ah!”

Only then did Briel remember that Zeon controlled sand.

If Zeon was a Sand Mage, then of course the sand would not make him uncomfortable.

Zeon said to Briel,

“You go in first.”

“What about you, Zeon?”

“There’s somewhere I need to stop by.”

“Where? The Goblin Market?”

“No!”

“Then where?”

“Stop talking back and just go in, kid!”

“Tch!”

Briel clicked her tongue.

Knowing that he would not tell her even if she pestered him more, she gave up cleanly and headed home alone.

Zeon watched her for a moment, then moved on.

The place he headed to was the desert region outside the slums.

Briel had not noticed it, but Zeon had caught a scent mixed in with the sandstorm.

It was a foreign scent that was difficult to detect in the slums.

Only Zeon, who had awakened as a Sand Mage, could smell it. Other Awakened could never have detected it.

Leaving the slums was not particularly difficult.

They were surrounded by walls like Neo Seoul, but the walls were not very tall, and no one guarded them separately.

The anti-magic force hanging over Neo Seoul made monsters reluctant to approach, and in fact, not a single monster had come near this area for the past several decades.

Because of that, not only Neo Seoul, but even the people of the slums, did not worry about monsters approaching.

What people worried about and feared were other humans, not monsters.

Awakened encountered monsters often because they regularly went outside to subjugate them, but ordinary people could go their entire lives without meeting a single monster.

Leaving the walls behind, Zeon used Sand Walk.

Srrrk!

The sand moved and sent Zeon forward.

“I’m sure it was around here......”

Zeon stood a few kilometers away from Neo Seoul and looked around.

Everything he could see was sand.

Zeon raised his control. Then he sensed something moving deep underground.

“Hmm!”

After frowning briefly, Zeon waved his hand. Then the sand beneath his feet began spreading in every direction like waves.

In an instant, a large pit formed beneath Zeon’s feet.

It was a massive pit no less than thirty meters deep.

Kieee!

In the middle of the pit, a larva the size of an adult was writhing.

On the surface of the larva was a pattern resembling a ghost.

Zeon frowned and murmured,

“As expected, it was a Ghost Dragonfly larva. Why is this thing here?”

The Ghost Dragonfly was a flying monster.

For a monster, its combat power was not high, so it was not very threatening.

Of course, that was only true for an Awakened of Zeon’s level. To ordinary people, it was no different from a disaster.

The problem was that the Ghost Dragonfly’s habitat was not here.

They mainly lived in terrain hundreds of kilometers away from Neo Seoul.

In particular, the larvae, which were the young of those creatures, were sensitive to external energy, so they did not go anywhere near places with strong anti-magic force like Neo Seoul.

If Neo Seoul’s anti-magic force had been intact, this creature would not have dared approach this place.

“It does seem certain that something has gone wrong with Neo Seoul’s anti-magic force.”

Kieee!

The larva exposed to the outside thrashed about. Then a foul stench stabbed Zeon’s nose.

The smell Zeon had caught in the slums was the smell of the Ghost Dragonfly larva.

Their scent was so foul and thick that once someone smelled it, it could not be forgotten.

SPLATTER!

The larva spat acidic saliva at Zeon.

It was an extremely poisonous substance that would melt anything in an instant if even a single drop touched the body.

“Tch!”

Zeon clicked his tongue and waved his hand. Then crimson flames rose and instantly burned the larva along with the saliva.

WHOOSH!

Zeon silently watched the larva turn to ash and disappear in an instant.