Recalling the previous day’s events made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He hadn’t held back his strength. He’d simply yanked the arm without thinking, dazed.
Even if he hadn’t meant to use full force, he was still S-rank. A regular, non-Awakened teacher would’ve been yanked off their feet, crashed to the floor, and knocked out cold.
But this man…
Cha Eui-sung took a deep breath, barely managing to compose his face before it turned ghostly pale.
How could he have missed it? How did he fail to realize something so obvious?
The fact that he didn’t feel a difference in strength when he pulled—didn’t even realize he had pulled that hard—meant…
Moon Tae-young had matched his strength. Effortlessly, without a sound or hint, syncing his grip with that of an S-rank.
No wonder it didn’t feel off. No wonder it passed without raising any red flags.
‘Damn it!’
He knew! He knew that Cha Eui-sung was an Awakened—and not just that, but that he was S-rank!
And yet he hadn’t shown a single sign that he knew. He’d kept it all to himself, treating Cha Eui-sung like the guardian of a transfer student up until just moments ago. Even though he must’ve figured out by now that that was a lie too!
“Not feeling well?”
“……”
Moon Tae-young asked the question with a face entirely devoid of concern or surprise. Calm from beginning to end. Or rather—feigning calm. Cha Eui-sung let out a hollow chuckle before he could stop himself.
His instincts—honed over two regressions—screamed at him. The moment he realized Moon Tae-young had discovered he was an Awakened, he also realized that he knew that Moon Tae-young knew.
Unreal. He hadn’t done anything suspicious aside from that brief pause, but this guy picked up on everything like a damn bloodhound.
And it wasn’t just that. Even when Moon Tae-young had helped him up yesterday, there hadn’t been the slightest hint of surprise or discomfort. Not just anyone—Cha Eui-sung had been fooled that cleanly.
‘This bastard…’
He really was the Demon King. Not some weak, average young teacher, but the raving Demon King who laughed like a madman as the world crumbled beneath a meteor storm.
A true Demon King. What the hell was he doing here, pretending to be a teacher?
“…I’m fine.”
“That’s a relief. Your expression suddenly looked a little off.”
“Well, I did just move to a new environment. It takes time to adjust—whether it’s the surroundings or the neighbors.”
‘Like a damn Demon King for a neighbor.’
Grinding his teeth inwardly, Cha Eui-sung studied Moon Tae-young’s face with intense scrutiny. The image of him floating in the sky kept flashing through his mind.
“I see. Interesting… Not many people move out here.”
Even with full knowledge of the situation, Moon Tae-young didn’t flinch and answered smoothly. To an outsider, it sounded like a harmless comment, but what he really meant was: What’s a suspiciously strong Awakened like you doing in a backwater village like this?
He couldn’t afford to lose. Cha Eui-sung was no slouch when it came to smiling sweetly while spitting verbal knives.
But just as he was about to retort, something oddly familiar passed through his mind.
“Interesting… Not many people move out here.”
“Really? Seems like a decent place to tie up loose ends.”
What the…? That line. It sounded so familiar.
He felt like he’d heard it somewhere before. If not that, then at least like it was something he’d seen in a dream…
As that strange sensation washed over him, he stared hard at Moon Tae-young’s face.
Ping—!
Suddenly, as if on cue, his vision wavered. Like a bout of vertigo, the bespectacled face in front of him seemed to swirl just slightly.
The ominous sensation made his expression harden, and the faint smile on the other man’s lips faded as well. Alarmed, Cha Eui-sung pressed a hand to his chest.
‘What the hell is going on? Is my body losing it?’
As he berated his own body, something swelled in his throat. A heavy gulp. Something churned inside and shot up his windpipe.
“Urk— cough, cough, cough—!”
He’d obviously choked. He covered his mouth and turned his head, coughing violently.
Ever since his re-Awakening, not once had stomach acid or anything else come back up like this. What the hell was going on? Maybe facing the Demon King had stressed him out to the breaking point.
“Sorry— cough, haah…!”
A few more coughs and his palm felt damp—spit, maybe. Damn it. His first impression was already crap, and now this. Moon Tae-young probably thought he was disgusting.
Cha Eui-sung hastily wiped his hand on his pants and used the other to rub around his mouth. Then, forcing a strained smile, he turned back—
“……”
But what met him was an unexpectedly intense reaction. Moon Tae-young had frozen. Eyes wide open, stiff like a salt statue.
Was it really that big of a deal?
People cough sometimes. Sure, he almost dry-heaved at the end, but no spit had actually flown.
‘Does he have a germ phobia or something? He teaches kids who pick their noses…’
The grumbling in his head didn’t last long. Moon Tae-young, who had been staring intently at Cha Eui-sung, suddenly stood up.
He briskly walked back to his desk, opened a drawer, and quickly pulled something out.
A weapon? A gun? Maybe he had one hidden in there. Taking down an S-rank wouldn’t be easy otherwise.
For a moment, Cha Eui-sung considered dropping the act and going on guard. But then, his body jolted slightly when he saw what Moon Tae-young handed him—a blue checkered handkerchief.
“…Are you alright?”
“Huh? Y-yeah?”
Did he have a huge glob of snot or something? He didn’t feel anything like that.
But once he accepted the handkerchief, it finally hit him—what had happened to him.
His hand… was stained red.
Startled, he swallowed hard, and the stench of blood hit him, so strong it turned his stomach.
He looked down. His pants were streaked with smeared blood from where he had wiped his hand earlier.
‘What the hell…?’
This was messed up. A civilian suddenly coughing up blood would be enough to send anyone into a panic. And yet here he was, someone whose body could bend a knife rather than be pierced by it, now covered in blood.
He couldn’t make sense of it. He didn’t care about keeping up the act anymore—he wanted to bolt home and check what in the hell was happening to his invincible, healthy, fortress-like body.
But that wasn’t the priority right now. The man who had figured out he was an Awakened. The one who, for whatever reason, had kept that knowledge to himself. The one who would one day become the Demon King and end the world.
All the while, Moon Tae-young continued watching him with a gaze that was anything but ordinary, as Cha Eui-sung quietly wiped the blood from his mouth using the handkerchief.
“Haah, I’m… just gonna run to the restroom real quick.”
He needed to clean the blood off before they could have any kind of real conversation. There was only so much a dry handkerchief could do.
And he needed to be alone—just for a moment—to figure out what the hell was going on. Leaving behind the serious-faced Moon Tae-young, Cha Eui-sung rushed out into the hallway.
“…Wow.”
The reflection staring back from the mirror was straight-up grotesque. Blood stained his mouth, smeared all the way up to his cheek from where he’d wiped it. His face had gone pale, and even under his eyes had darkened in just a short span of time. He looked like someone with a terminal illness.
Lathering soap and scrubbing his face and hands, Cha Eui-sung stared blankly ahead. He was hoping something would show up in the system window—anything to explain what the hell was happening to him.
***
[Passive] Faded Photograph Fragment
—Memory of ░░░░ %%&–
—The weight of collected memories increases the burden on the laws of reality.
***
Burden. So that’s what this is… Standing in front of the mirror, eyes locked on the system window, Cha Eui-sung let out a low groan.
Best guess? This whole blood-spewing disaster just now was caused by that vague, scam-merchant-sounding skill: Faded Photograph Fragment. It had to be. Because otherwise, nothing in his current environment posed any threat or disadvantage to him.
Sure, there was a chance Moon Tae-young—the suspicious, unregistered Awakened—had poisoned him. But if that were the case, he wouldn’t have brought him into the school. He’d have taken him into the woods and handled it quietly.
Hell, if he wanted to do it right, he should’ve smashed his skull in with a hammer the second blood came up.
Unless he was some kind of psycho thrill-seeker who got off on the risk of being discovered and had buried hundreds of bodies under the school floorboards, there was no way he’d go about it this sloppily.
‘This is your doing, you piece of shit system, you son of a bitch—’
He cursed inwardly at the system window, and as if on cue—
BAAM— BAM BAM BAAM—
DIDIDING DONGDONG……
With fanfare more fitting for King Arthur’s court, a lute-like melody started playing in the background. Then, just like a cinematic narration, scrolling text began rising slowly before his eyes.
***
Episode 02: The Hero’s Journey Is Filled with Trials, and Thus Is Noble and Beautiful
Having finally confronted the Demon King and caught his attention, the [Hero]—The sword bestowed by the King was a weapon granted by the gods to stop the [Demon King], But as per the restrictions designated by @@#$, great power came with a price…
A mere human body could not withstand the divine strength, and thus the [Hero] incurred a penalty.
King: Be strong, [Hero]—!
[Shall we power up?]
[YES] [HELL YES!]
[YES (Auto-selected)]
♪BAMBAMBAM♪
***
…?
No fucking way.
