Chapter 240. To Advance Pt. 7  

“There really seems to be no end to them?” Jeong In-Chang said as if he was appalled.

There were so many people bustling about that even the subtle sounds of their breathing sounded like collective thunder.

“Just how many people are there?” Jeong In-Chang continued to ask Lee Jun-Kyeong, who stood quietly.

In the end, Jeong In-Chang muttered again to himself, “I mean, there’s no way we can know, right?”

He turned to watch the procession once again. It was so vast it was worthy of the word incredible. Countless people were following along, led in front by Sangun and Fenrir.

As they endlessly trudged forward, each person represented a survivor of Korea who was saved from hiding.

“I think it’s over a million,” Lee Jun-Kyeong finally said.

Jeong In-Chang nodded in response as the number was reasonable, considering the masses of people before them.

No, it was more than reasonable.

“It could be even more than that,” he said in awe.

As the endless procession continued forward, they walked forward to the gate opened by Lee Jun-Kyeong. Fenrir and Sangun now stood on both sides like gatekeepers guarding the gate as the survivors entered the gate between them.

“I guess Lady Ungnyeo really is amazing,” Jeong In-Chang commented.

Lee Jun-Kyeong thought for a moment—the Hunter was right.

“How are they following along so quietly even after being told to enter a gate?”

The number of Hunters in the procession was small, so the majority of them were ordinary people. But, these ordinary people had been told to go through a gate as soon as they had arrived in Gyeonggi-Do.

Although they had definitely expected and assumed that these people would have been terrified and required some persuasion, the reality was completely different from what they had expected.

The survivors that Ungnyeo had rescued were all heading toward the gate without any questions, walking forward and following the path ahead, even though it may have been a path to their doom.

“Based on what the people are saying…” Lee Jun-Kyeong said. “It seems as though they are calling her a priestess, a saint, a witch, etc.”

He could hear the voices of the people whispering quite clearly. They were praising Ungnyeo and giving her titles. He wondered what could have happened.

However, beyond it all, one thing was certain.

“Regardless, what’s important is that they completely believe and follow Ungnyeo.”

“That’s true… I had been worrying about the time we would have had to waste on persuading people when we’re about to advance, but it really is a relief.”

Jeong In-Chang shook his head and looked ahead.

Then, a voice called out, “Prin–cess!”[1]

The princess in Jeong In-Chang's arms suddenly popped her head out. She had been quiet for a while, expressing that she needed to sleep.

Now that she woke up, she no longer looked like a small ogre doll. No, now, she was a cute little doll instead.

Or…

”She sort of feels like a spirit now?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he caressed the princess's cheek with his fingers.

“Don’t touch me.”

“...!”

“Only In-Chang can touch me!”

Even her pronunciation had become completely clear.

“Um…princess, let's… um…”

Jeong In-Chang hugged the princess with an awkward smile.

As Jeong In-Chang grew stronger, the princess was also influenced. Thus, it could be said that her current form and demeanor were also something that was influenced by Jeong In-Chang.

“Sorry,” Lee Jun-Kyeong apologized to the princess. The princess crossed her arms and turned her head to the side.

“Hmpf.”

Thud!

Then, she quickly jumped out of Jeong In-Chang’s arms and looked up at the two of them.

“Princess, do you want to go somewhere?”

“Yeah!”

"Where?"

"I…!”

The princess, hopping in place, pointed over to the procession of people.

“I want to go see the wolf!”

They knew without asking that it was the princess' nickname for Fenrir.

Lee Jun-Kyeong realized it.

That was right. Fenrir and Princess had spent quite a bit of time together.

As if she was happy to be able to see Fenrir once again after such a long time, before they knew it, the princess was running toward him with a bounce in her step.

“You must be having a hard time,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said jokingly.

“Yes…it feels like I’m raising a daughter…” Jeong In-Chang answered sincerely.

***

“Will it be okay for you to leave your place?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked with a warm gaze.

How long had it been since he had last seen her face to face?

She didn’t know how long it had been for him.

‘Because it’s been more than ten years for me.’

He had entered Andlangr, and in the fleeting moment she had spent out here, he had spent several years alone there.

Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t said anything about it to anyone, but while he was in Andlangr, what he had wanted to see the most in that terrible hell of loneliness was her.“Because everyone is being nice to me,” Ungnyeo said, turning her head as if she were embarrassed.

The number of survivors that she had rescued was so large, so the procession was still continuing.

The one who had been leading them through the gate had been Ungnyeo. But that woman was now sitting in front of Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“There won’t be any issues. Everyone knows where they have to go if they want to survive.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded.

“Weren’t there quite a few people who had said that they would rather stay?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said jokingly.

There were also Hunters in the procession that were heading to Japan through the gate. They were those who had awakened in the midst of the cataclysm and had recently become Hunters.

Although it could be said that they had grown at a rapid pace, none of them would have been of much help in the fight to come.

Thus, those people were also going to Japan, intermixed with ordinary humans.

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong had heard that some of them were making a fuss about wanting to stay behind anyway.

“I heard it’s because they wanted to help you?”

“You don’t have to worry about it.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong wondered about the path Ungnyeo had walked and what actions she had taken. In any case, regardless of the name that they had chosen for her, she was revered by all of the survivors as a true leader.

They trusted her so much they were willing to remain behind in this limbo, not knowing when they would die.

“How have you been doing?" Lee Jun-Kyeong said after making meaningless small talk for quite some time.

Ungnyeo smiled silently.

“I’m sorry, I asked an obvious question. It must have been so hard. Why don’t you go get some rest?” he said to the woman who had come all this way to find him.

Either way, Won-Hwa had said that they had handled all of the discussions about the next steps anyway.

He had seen her face with his own two eyes now. That was enough.

Ungnyeo spoke to Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was about to turn around.

“Are you really planning on going in alone?”

She was referring to Gehenna. She, too, would have heard about the purposes of the Sponsors and what remained at the end by now.

“Yes,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded without looking back.

Although he thought that she would have tried to stop him, all she responded with was a simple answer, “Okay.”

His steps continued, each made with difficulty. In the end, Lee Jun-Kyeong left without looking back.

Clench.

Left behind, alone, Ungnyeo clenched her fists.

“I’ll believe in you.”

The work that she had done for the survivors as she had roamed the country—she hadn’t spoken about what had happened, but it hadn’t been easy, and a lot of things had happened.

With several encounters with Rulers, there had been more than a few instances where she had almost died. As she defeated them and defeated them, the truth became visible little by little.

There had been something strange about each time that Fenrir would suddenly grow or receive support. As she saw the Familiar grow, she could see it too.

“You really are carrying too much of a burden.”

There was a large, invisible burden on Lee Jun-Kyeong’s back.

***

As dawn broke the next day, Lee Jun-Kyeong opened his eyes in bed.

“…”

It was quiet. The sound of the over a million people that had gathered had disappeared.

Lee Jun-Kyeong walked over to the window with unsteady steps. As he opened the window, everything was quiet.

“...”

Everyone had already left through the open gate.

He hadn’t expected everyone to move through it all in one day, but it seemed as though Ungnyeo’s influence was greater than he had thought.

Or, if that wasn’t the reason for it, then perhaps they wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.

Of course, the reasoning was simple.

‘What did she say again? That this place was going to become an even more terrifying hell?’

Ungnyeo hadn’t said much to the people, just expressing that she had never told a lie and that this place was going to turn into hell: a hell worse than what they had all just gone through to survive.

She was right.

This place—no, Korea, would become a battlefield.

This was their destiny.

It was a fight for the world or for something even greater than that.

Lee Jun-Kyeong put on his coat.

There was frost outside, and it looked like it was going to snow soon.

Before they had realized it, it had become winter.

Although Lee Jun-Kyeong could have made it so that he didn’t feel the chill in the air, he didn’t bother. Instead, he came out as he let the chilly breeze wash over him.

In front of the door was Jeong In-Chang.

“We waited for you.”

He looked completely different from Lee Jun-Kyeong, wearing sturdy armor forged by the siblings, Park Jae-Hyun and Park Yu-Jin.

What could be considered their masterpiece was draped over him as his huge sword hung behind him.

Although the sword had been created previously by Lee Jun-Kyeong’s request to Park Jae-Hyun, the sword had changed quite considerably by this point.

“Mr. Park had created it for me. Although he said that this was a secret…”Jeong In-Chang said as if he was embarrassed, “He said that he had added some of the remaining ingredients that had been left behind while strengthening Muspel’s Spear…”

“Pfft.”

At the sight of the Hunter speaking quietly as if he had committed a crime, Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t hold in his laughter.

“Are you really sure he made it with the leftovers?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said, a smile appearing on his face as he spoke nonsense.

He then walked forward again without saying a word, with Jeong In-Chang following behind him with the princess held in his arms.

“Huh? You’ve come, too?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

As they passed through the hallway, they ran into Won-Hwa. At the sight of him tying his shoelaces and checking his needle holder, Lee Jun-Kyeong greeted him and helped Won-Hwa up.

“Let’s go,” Won-Hwa answered in clear Korean, having become completely fluent by now.

Lee Jun-Kyeong walked forward again, with Jeong In-Chang and Won-Hwa in step behind.

“Hey.”

As they were about to leave the building, he heard a familiar voice.

It was a grumpy voice, speaking English, not Korean.

“We waited, too,” Heracles said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Odysseus also stood next to him.

“The guild leader and Athena have already gone,” he said as he walked forward to stand behind Lee Jun-Kyeong.

Although he was clearly a member of Olympus, something as inconsequential as his affiliation wasn’t what was important at this moment. As Lee Jun-Kyeong continued forward, before he knew it, his little group had grown. When he had reached closer to the road to Seoul, the force of a massive exhale mixed in with the chilly wind, enveloping Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“Whew.”

Although the morning was bright, it had suddenly seemed as if night had descended upon them because of the being standing in front of them.

“Thjazi went first and took the giants with him.”

It was Thrymr, his massive body clearly different from that of a human.

Lee Jun-Kyeong remembered meeting him in China. Although he and Thjazi hadn’t been on good terms with the exiles called the Nar that Thrymr had led, all of the problems had been resolved in the end when they aided Thjazi in becoming the new king of Utgard.

Standing next to him were two brothers who, while much smaller than Thrymr, were exceedingly large for humans.

“We are here, too.”

Moreover, with the two brothers, as always, stood a man with big ears.

They were the three brothers, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu, who had gathered to try to revive fallen China.

A smile bloomed on Lee Jun-Kyeong’s face as he greeted them with a nod, and as if it was natural, they locked step behind him as well as they continued forward.

Shhh.

Two beings suddenly appeared on either side of Lee Jun-Kyeong as he walked forward, Hel and Hyeon-Mu.

Although they had materialized without his permission, Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t say anything as they continued walking.

Before he knew it, his entourage was getting longer and longer.

“I was planning on going ahead.”

Then, she appeared before his eyes.

Ungnyeo looked a little tired, as if she hadn’t slept at all.

Ring.

As she shook the bronze bell in her hand, her face visibly became refreshed.

Woosh.

The sound emanating from the bell enveloped everyone.

“How is it so refreshing?”

The others were amazed as they felt the exhaustion wash from their bones. She came forward to stand next to Lee Jun-KYeong.

“It’s good, right?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded in response. Eventually, they arrived at their destination.

“…”

There was a long procession behind Lee Jun-Kyeong as there were countless people in front of him, all gazes pointed toward him.

Zeus, Horus, Athena, and all of the countless Heroes and Hunters were there.

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked beyond them, toward the blue veil.

“I will pierce through the veil.”

Right now, at this very moment, their advance would begin.

“Saeynkaed,” Lee Jun-Kyeong called out to the former Ruler.

She, too, was also following behind Lee Jun-Kyeong. The dragon came up and stood next to him.

Ungnyeo glanced over at her as she walked forward, but quickly turned her gaze back forward with a blank expression.

“Did you call for me?” she said in a polite tone of voice.

“You said you wanted something, right?”

There had been something that she had asked him for. Saeynkaed listened to Lee Jun-Kyeong’s question and nodded. After receiving her answer, the Hunter moved forward.

Zeus and Horus didn’t say a single word as he walked forward, just moving to the left and right to clear the path forward.

Eventually, Lee Jun-Kyeong found himself standing in front of the tent.

It was now time for Saeynkaed’s request.

“Saeynkaed,” Lee Jun-Kyeong called out to her again, his hand on the veil.

Originally, opening the veil had taken several hours and involved an immense amount of agony.

Sssss.

However, now, with a single gesture, the veil had just disappeared.

The swirling storm of mana entered Lee Jun-Kyeong through his fingertips and was captured and stored away.

Then, before the veil had fully disappeared, showing what was hidden behind it, Lee Jun-Kyeong gave a single command.

“Burn it all.”

. For the first time, the princess is actually saying princess properly. ☜