Chapter 700 – Different Front and Back (3)

Agares’s authority—Eternal Suggestion.
As Agares himself had declared, its effect remained in Seoul even after he fell into hell.
Only the target had changed.

“…Feels like my spirit’s been dampened.”

Was this a hotel, or a hospital?

Nam Cheolmin stepped into the VIP ward of Sinhwa Hospital, owned by the Sinhwa Group.
The rows of player-turned bodyguards gave him pause—there was definitely something to learn from how they operated.

Not every player can afford to stake their life, after all.

The guards murmured their greetings as he passed.

“As a fellow player, I respect you, Mr. Nam Cheolmin.”
“Respect is a bit much…”
“We’ll keep cheering for you!”

Receiving first-class treatment, Nam Cheolmin entered the ward.
And waiting inside the lavish, almost ostentatious room was none other than Baek YYiseol, guild master of Sinhwa.

“You came.”
“Glad to see you’re in one piece.”
“Do I really look fine?”
“…Aren’t you?”
“Forget it.”

Nam Cheolmin, typical as always.
Baek YYiseol took the fruit basket he’d brought, set it down carelessly, and continued.

“Even if I look fine, the polite thing would’ve been to at least ask with some concern. How can someone so sharp at analyzing Arcana be so dull at reading people?”
“…What, did something stress you out?”
“At least you’re not totally clueless.”

As anyone could see, Baek Yiseol was not in the best mood.

“My mouth’s running, so obviously I’m fine. Hospitalized? My ass. If it were up to me, I’d already be cleaning up the mess in Seoul. But that man… says this is his last wish.”

That man.
Nam Cheolmin, perceptive enough, asked cautiously.

“How’s Chairman Baek holding up?”

Baek Yiseol’s lips twisted.

“How do you think? A lifetime of booze and cigarettes. And now I find out he’s been into things he should never have touched. He lived like that… so of course neither modern medicine nor Arcana’s magic can save him.”

The news of Sinhwa Group’s chairman—leader of Korea’s financial world—being gravely ill had already made headlines.
Nam Cheolmin sat down in a chair beside the bed.

“So Chairman Baek is just being stubborn.”

Baek Yiseol gave a bitter laugh.

“Yeah. Looks like when death comes knocking, he suddenly wants to stack up some virtue. Or maybe… he only now decided to acknowledge me as his own child. Either way, it’s disgusting.”
“…Ha ha.”

Nam Cheolmin let the laugh trail off. He had no wish to meddle in family matters.
Neither did Baek Yiseol.

“They say even the wishes of the dead should be honored—so how could I refuse a living corpse? I’ll be back at the guild this afternoon, won’t miss the Holy War meetings either. So if you came rushing for a hospital visit, you must have your reasons.”

Baek Yiseol stared hard at him.

“…Thought so.”

Nam Cheolmin gave a quick nod.

“Sharp as ever. Yeah, I figured you’d understand, Yiseol.”
“Hoo…”
“What’s with the sigh before we’ve even started?”
“Nothing. Just say it. What is it?”

Her cold prompt left no room to stall.
Nam Cheolmin went straight to the point.
This was something he could only share with Baek Yiseol—someone who, like him, had gone through [Exorcism Ritual].

“I think something’s been… switched.”
“Switched?”
“Yiseol, you knew it too, right? That everything happened inside a consciousness.”

When she nodded, he added—

“Since you can enter the ‘Social Hall of Time and Space,’ you probably understand it better than me. I only heard about it from Taemin, but I’ve got the gist.”

Consciousness.
What happened within it didn’t vanish.
The moment the ritual ended, it all came rushing back.

Baek Yiseol nodded.

“If everything just got erased, there’d be no reason to forbid battles between transcendents in the Social Hall. So what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Just… hear me out. It’s more of an unease.”
“Unease?”

Nam Cheolmin forced a smile.

“Call it an occupational hazard. Analyst’s paranoia.”

And in summary, that paranoia boiled down to one thought:

“Agares’s authority… must have been diverted.”

The battle between Hoyeol and Agares.
Cheolmin had feared it, even if Hoyeol won.

“With Agares’s authority, Seoul should be cursing Hoyeol. They should see him as the Tyrant who slew their lord and stole the throne—should be terrified of him. But instead…”

The fear had shifted.
Nam Cheolmin stood and walked to the window.
He drew back the curtain, revealing what hung outside.

“…Why is Seoul afraid of that?”

His finger pointed toward the silver Evil Eye.

Clench.

“The Source of All Evil.”

His hand balled into a fist.

“Yiseol, you and I know. The one who possessed Hoyeol’s body is the owner of that eye. And thanks to that possession, we’re immune to its influence.”

The world was buzzing—

-Shocking! Was Agares not the real enemy? The true identity of the Silver Evil Eye…

-Player Lee Hoyeol, threatened by the Evil Eye immediately after defeating Agares…

-AAU: ‘We’re keeping all options open and watching closely.’

Put in Arcana terms—

“All the negative emotions are flowing into that Eye.”

Even the fear that should have been directed at Hoyeol through Agares’s authority.
Normally, this would have been good news.
The backlash of that authority was exactly why Cheolmin had hated Agares so bitterly.

Baek Yiseol nodded.

“From our perspective—knowing the connection between Hoyeol and that so-called source of evil—there’s only one reason this could happen.”

Not opportunism. Not a ploy.

“He took it upon himself. He bore Agares’s authority.”

Seoul’s hatred.

“….”

Silence stretched between them.
Neither found it awkward.
They didn’t need to speak to know why the other was quiet.

“So what are we supposed to do?”

Baek Yiseol muttered.

‘…They’re really the same, both of them.’

Hoyeol and the demon who possessed him.
Neither of their true intentions could be grasped.
It was like a wall existed around them alone.

But one thing was certain now.

“At least we can be sure of one thing.”
“Which is?”
“That he’s not the kind of demon we think we know.”

The Source of All Evil.
He wasn’t a demon who simply reveled in malice.
He’d shouldered all the negative emotions in place of Hoyeol.
Perhaps… he was a demon better than the worst of men.

Baek Yiseol put that thought into words.

“…Could be.”

Nam Cheolmin replied plainly.

‘What must Hoyeol be thinking right now?’

He, who understood the intentions of that so-called source of all evil far more clearly than anyone else.
If what the demon showed was kindness, Hoyeol would have recognized it from the very start.

And perhaps that was why Cheolmin couldn’t even begin to guess at his feelings.

-“I will hunt. Because it is our pride.”

Those were his words.

And yet, the analyst’s mind whispered a question—
Would that being called the source of all evil really bestow mercy so equally on everyone?

Suddenly, Nam Cheolmin muttered—

“…I wonder if Taemin’s side is safe.”

*

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read only on pindangscans

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Favoritism.

“Hmm.”
“For a barbarian, you sure think a lot. That’s unpleasant.”
“What’s your problem now?”

Nam Taemin scowled, mulling over the word that the Akshan demon hunter had uttered.
Instead of answering seriously, Leonie simply raised her twin blades.

“Stop slacking off.”

The demon world—collapsing and reversing again and again.
Because of that, the overlapping timelines had filled the demon world with all manner of threats.
Of course, none of them were truly dangerous.
Even if the Holy War Alliance forces were split between hardliners and moderates, their current strength was the greatest in history.

Nam Taemin lifted his greatsword and looked over his allies.

‘Just having the Dune Clan and the descendants of Twilight is reassuring enough.’

Not to mention the support from the Diamond Merchant—
Powerhouses considered some of the most influential across the Arcana continent.

His greatsword split through a high-ranked undead monster—a Death Knight.

Crack.

“But still…”

While everyone was doing their part—

“What are those guys doing?”

By “those guys,” he meant the Akshan demon hunters who had returned from hell yet were not joining the battle.

Nod, nod.

What the hell are they nodding about?
Why have they been standing there with their arms crossed since earlier?
And that pose—they looked way too smug.

“My illusion of them is slowly falling apart.”

The class, [Demon Hunter].

“They’re nothing like Hoyeol, are they?”

From posture to presence—everything about them looked impressive at first glance,
yet if you really thought about it, they weren’t so different from Hoyeol.
It was just something Nam Taemin couldn’t recognize himself.

When the battle ended, Nam Taemin whispered to Leonie—he had to lower his voice quite a bit to do so.

“Am I the only one who finds those guys hard to trust?”
“Why are you whining again?”
“They just don’t feel dependable. Not like Hoyeol.”

Who in the world was more dependable than that man?

“Try comparing something actually comparable, will you…”

Leonie wanted to retort but trailed off.
Because, well, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

The Akshan demon hunters had been muttering incomprehensible things all this time.
Listening closely didn’t help.

“I think I’m starting to remember now.”

Only now? So it was all blurry before?

‘And vaguely at that?!’

Hearing the so-called guides of the demon world muttering nonsense was enough to create anxiety where there had been none.
And their words kept echoing in his head—

-“He has returned to the demon world.”
-“The one who is infinitely merciful, yet infinitely unmerciful.”
-“Will we be granted his favoritism?”

Leonie wanted to snap right then and there.

‘A demon bastard is still a demon bastard.’

Mercy? Favoritism? Those were far too noble for a demon.
Thinking of her comrades who’d suffered at their hands made it impossible not to seethe.

But at the same time, she knew—
that no one hated demons more than demon hunters themselves.

Back when Hoyeol appeared on Arcana Today and revealed his class—

-“Wow, I’ve never seen you read before, sis. I’m moved.”
-“Our big sister’s gonna fry her brain at this rate.”
-“Both of you, shut it.”
-“What? Reading together’s nice. We’re looking for the same thing, right?”
-“I said shut up!!”

Leonie had gone and read every bit of material about Akshan she could find—
hoping that something, anything, might help her understand Hoyeol better.

And that’s when she naturally learned—

-“Akshan… they’re completely insane.”

To hunt demons even after falling into hell—
that’s how deeply they hated them.

Maybe that’s why her head was spinning now.

‘Just… who could “he” be?’

Were they really saying that Akshan themselves rated someone that highly?

Fortunately, her question didn’t last long.
One of the demon hunters suddenly spoke—

“What a shame.”

Still in that same cryptic Akshan tone.

“It seems we still haven’t earned our junior’s affection.”
“Junior? Affection? Can you speak so people can—!”
“Forget that, sis! Look—over there!”

And then—
he appeared before the Holy War Alliance forces.

.

.

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[Head of the Great House of Claudi]
[Source of All Evil]
[True Eternal]