Chapter 713 — At the End of Romance (3)

Whoosh.

“I knew it.”

Lee Yerim grabbed her chopsticks in both hands like twin swords and glared at Lee Jiyoon with narrowed eyes.
Yeah. My instincts weren’t wrong.

“You demon! Ever since you treated my only sister like a mouse to be caught…!”
“Don’t start shit while we’re eating.”
“Okay.”

She quickly adjusted her grip on the chopsticks and started chewing again.

“I’m already anxious enough as it is.”

Yerim knew how her sister felt.
She’d tried to brush it off as a joke… but she didn’t let Jiyoon’s words slide.

-“Maybe I really was a demon in my past life.”

The silver Evil Eye.

That had to be what was bothering her.
Yerim wasn’t any different.
No—she was worse.
Because she had opened Hoyeol’s notebook.

Her chopsticks froze midair.

‘Grandfell Claudi… that must be his name.’

The long, full name didn’t matter.
What mattered was that the owner of the silver eye floating over Seoul was clearly connected to the name written in Hoyeol’s notes.

‘Maybe… this is a good thing.’

Maybe it would be better if I were the crazy one.

Yerim was the one who had spoken the name ‘Grandfell’ during the exorcism ritual with Hoyeol.
She barely understood anything about the Arcana Continent Chronicles, but…

‘I’m not that dense.’

She discreetly looked around.

After saying something that crazy right to Hoyeol’s face—
no one recognized her.

‘That too… completely disappeared from reality.’

Like a midsummer night’s dream.

-Hey, Hoyeol, what are you doing?

-Ignoring me?

-Are you serious? ㅡㅡ

She’d even texted him in a half-hope that he might remember.
No reply.

That was why she had no choice but to grab onto her older sister, Jiyoon.

‘At least I’m not the only crazy one… right?’

Her sister definitely felt something was off too.

‘Could Grandfell be connected to us as well?’

While Yerim sat there frozen with a serious face, chopsticks stalled midair,
Jiyoon was the first to worry.

Jiyoon spoke with a horrified expression.

“Yerim, if nothing else, you did the right thing. You’re talking about things that never happened, zoning out in front of food you never even used to get to eat… If you’d kept going to work like that, it really would’ve been dangerous. Quitting was the right call.”
“What? You knew I resigned?!”
“Did you think I wouldn’t? Dad knows too.”
“You could’ve told me sooner!”
“Look in a mirror. You looked like a corpse—was I supposed to start lecturing you?”
“I wasted all that effort acting normal…”

Munch.

When Yerim finally shut up, unable to argue, Jiyoon smiled at last.

Of the three siblings, Yerim was the one who knew Hoyeol best.

‘Of course you’d be the most shaken.’

Jiyoon thought that much, at least.

‘…What are you tangled up in now, Hoyeol?’

She didn’t know anything yet.

But one thing was certain—

Her attention kept getting drawn to the silver eye.

She shouldn’t say things like this, but…

‘Is it because it’s the same silver as your hair?’

Every time she saw that eye, she thought of Hoyeol.

No—more precisely—

Just like she worried about him,
she found herself worrying about that silver eye too.

‘I want to ask you directly, Hoyeol…’

If anyone would know, it’d be a demon hunter like him.

Maybe she really had been a demon in her past life.
Otherwise, how could she feel this way about a demon who owns the evil eye?

Softly, Jiyoon murmured:

“Why do they hate it so much?”
“Huh?”
“I just… can’t figure out what it did so wrong.”

The world was screaming:

The mastermind behind the Agares incident.
The one that pushed Seoul to the brink of collapse—
The silver Evil Eye.

The Source of All Evil.

Jiyoon drove straight to the point.

“If you think about it, its only ‘crime’ was appearing, wasn’t it?”

Yerim’s shoulders flinched.

‘…Does she know something too?!’

Had she secretly read the notebook?
Yerim felt like she’d found an ally.

But this wasn’t the place to say the name Grandfell Claudi-whatever out loud.
So she just nodded.

“Yeah. We’re not crazy.”
“Crazy? Out of nowhere?”
“Yeah. It’s not us. It’s Seoul that’s crazy.”

*

Magic Tower — Top Floor

“It seems the Holy War Alliance forces have completed their deployment preparations.”

Tower Master Marcelo and the senior mages returned to their positions.
Which meant only one thing—

They had understood the mana reversal caused by Hoyeol’s Reversal Magic.

“What do you intend to do?”

At Mathis’ question, Marcelo asked back:

“And what do you think, Senior Mathis?”

Mathis immediately understood the meaning behind the question.

“Thanks to the Reversal Magic lectures Chief Lee personally gave us… all of us senior mages have been able to step one foot deeper into the realm of the anomaly.”

Mathis’ eyes shone firmly.

“At the very least, I’m confident we won’t be a hindrance to Chief Lee anymore.”

As expected…

‘What happened in that brief instant, my lord?’

They had been safe from Grandfell’s ritual manipulation because they were inside the isolated Magic Tower.

That was why they found it strange—
why the adventurers’ world hated the silver eye so intensely.

Mathis voiced his opinion:

“Agares was a powerful demon of the Ten Thrones. Even in death, his authority might still be influencing things. There may be clues in the Demon Realm.”

He added another point they couldn’t ignore:

“We also must not forget tracking the Third Throne Demon King, Vassago.”

But Marcelo didn’t respond right away.

‘Is that really it?’

If the hatred covering Seoul was Agares’ authority, then the target was disastrously wrong.

He recalled the words of the Demon Hunter, so often repeated:

-“Negative emotions are power to demons.”

And that negativity was finite.

-“That is proof pride does not exist for demons.”

To devour that limited negativity,
demons inevitably turned their malice on each other.

And in that sense—

Agares’ actions didn’t make sense.

“Everyone fears the source of all evil.”

In other words…

They were only benefiting the silver eye.

Mathis seemed to reach a similar conclusion.

“Something clearly went wrong in their plan.”

Either Agares’ malice,
or Vassago’s…

Or—

Marcelo murmured:

“The silver eye itself made it go wrong.”

The solitary silver eye floating in the sky—

It forced him to think of him.

And yet, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

‘A demon hunter… and a demon?’

Two existences that could never coexist.

“Hearing your thoughts, Senior Mathis, I can’t stay idle.”

There was no way to confirm the truth without moving.

“I grant permission for all senior mages to leave the tower.”

Their destination was obvious.

“We will join the Holy War Alliance forces immediately.”
“Please entrust them to us.”
“We will see you in the Demon Realm, Tower Master.”

The moderate faction of the Holy War Alliance.

With Agares hunted down and Vassago vanished,
they were preparing to follow the hardliners into the Demon Realm.

Through the Magic Tower’s window,
Marcelo looked down over Seoul.

The question rose again.

“If all of this really is solely due to Agares’ authority…”

Then maybe that’d be a relief.

But if not?

If this was something the so-called source of all evil had intended all along—

“What decision must I make, my lord…?”

For the first time, Marcelo realized—

He was starting to care.

About Lord Hoyeol.

Just as much as about
the one called the Source of All Evil.

The owner of the silver evil eye.

*

*

*

A hollow laugh escaped me.

‘So what version of me do you want to see, Grandfell?’

Considering your obsession with cleanliness—so extreme you’d hate even a speck of dust—
it couldn’t be that you wanted to watch me actually vomit after holding back dry heaves.

‘The fact that I can joke means I can still move.’

Pull yourself together, Hoyeol.
Like I said, I’m the only one who can resolve a collapsing curse.

Then—voices reached my ears.

“Unfortunately, our compatibility is poor.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? More importantly, who are you, young man?”
“Romantic explorer… do you truly not recognize me?”

Lorenzik shot Axenheights a displeased look.

“I’ve wandered the Arcana Continent without dying, met all kinds of people… and I’ve never seen you. Especially someone that arrogant. I wouldn’t forget someone with a reputation that pathetic—”
“That’s far enough.”

Akshan—only impressive on the outside.
Their only named NPC was Gabriel.
It seemed their former leader, Axenheights, wasn’t an exception.

When the topic turned unfavorable, Axenheights changed the subject.

“What matters now is how we repel the curse in front of us.”

As expected, his conclusions weren’t any different.

“That is why curses are so dangerous. If one manages to manifest a curse that doesn’t provoke the predator–prey relationship, demons could freely toy with demon hunters.”

That much was true.

What poured out of the collapsed curse wasn’t demons.
That was why I couldn’t completely hate Axenheights.

Like I’d said—
those were my sins.

‘I just want to know your intent.’

Why did you manifest and collapse the curse, Grandfell?

‘What do you want?’

If you want me to offer up my life as payment for my sins, I can understand that.

But if…
you want me to kill my own sins with my own hands again…

That’s just too cruel, Grandfell.

Lorenzik’s voice turned sharper.

“You, big nameless brute—and you, Commander! Get a grip!”

The reason his words shortened was simple.

The sins that had poured out were slowly approaching me.

More precisely—

“…Found you.”

They had started to recognize me.

The worlds I had trampled by repeatedly casting incomplete reversal magic
were now approaching me as original sins.

Now I finally understood
why my Karma value had risen at a speed no one could comprehend.

‘Because these are sins that can never be washed away.’

No matter how much I reversed time— it would never change.

To others, they might have looked like horrors.

But not to me.

Yeah… those were the ‘everyone’ I had crushed in previous cycles.

And because of that—

I could no longer think.

I don’t have the right to.

‘It’s time to accept it.’

I couldn’t aim anything at them.
I couldn’t do anything.

I could only accept the price.

“Commander…!!”

From beyond the thick wall of curses surrounding me,
Lorenzik’s voice reached me faintly.

Soon, the original sins began to whisper.

Ever since recovering the preparations,
those voices and hallucinations had tormented me endlessly.

And now—

this was so terrible it almost made me miss them.

“You abandoned us. All of us.”
“You betrayed us.”
“How could you…?!”

Their furious breath brushed against my skin.
Crushed my body.
Made me stagger.

‘…Damn it.’

Should I be honest?

‘Even if only because I don’t understand it.’

I tried to grit my teeth and endure.

But I couldn’t anymore.

When I didn’t know, maybe I could have— but now that I understood…

‘This is too much.’

I felt like I might collapse.

Like it’d be easier to just close my eyes like this.

If not for my promise to you,
I would’ve given up everything long ago.

‘I would’ve stopped.’

In that moment, I desperately felt Grandfell’s absence.

If you were here… could I have worn that shameless expression?

Could I have stood proudly even before my sins?

I don’t know anymore.

My vision blurred.
My senses dulled.
My heart beat so slowly it felt like it would stop.

I was breaking.

Just as I was about to abandon everything— a breath brushed against me.

“What…? That’s not right…”

The sins that had been choking me
began to thin and fade.

“The one who committed such acts couldn’t possibly be this weak.”

Only then did I understand your intent, Grandfell.

“Ah… so it was all that bastard’s doing.”

.
.
.

[The Original Sins that were crushing you retreat.]
[The Original Sins that can never disappear transfer to someone else.]
[Someone else fully accepts your Original Sins.]

.
.
.

For the first time—

…stagger.

Grandfell’s integrity wavered.