Chatper 704 – The Right to Know (4)

It dawned on them—

‘Was that… really something to feel relieved about?’

The boy with black hair.
For a fleeting moment, they’d felt relief simply because his hair wasn’t silver—
because he wasn’t the Hoyeol they knew.
But the scene unfolding before them stirred a deeper unease.

‘Not knowing makes it all the more dangerous.’

Once the shock passed, they began to notice their surroundings—
the land, the forests, the cities.
All in ruins, yet still unmistakably part of the Arcana Continent.
And the fact that Eunaxus had appeared, leading his kin—
by the logic of Arcana’s Chronicle, that could only mean one thing.

‘This is the kind of event you’d only see in the final chapter.’

And at the center of it all, an unknown boy suddenly appeared.

“I shall witness your so-called blessing with my own eyes!”

He stood against a horde of dragons radiating murderous intent.
Had he not yet grasped his situation?
A guild member called out anxiously,

“Boss, shouldn’t we help that kid?”

Their training was paying off—that was the right attitude for a player.
A lone boy facing a flight of dragons—anyone could see who the underdog was.
There was even a hint of Arcana-style reasoning in his words.

“Maybe helping him’s the key to this quest—like, a condition to escape this place! Why else would we be shown something like this?”

But Nam Taemin shook his head.

“Help? Who’s helping who?”
“Huh? Obviously—”
“You’re not saying we should help the dragons, right?”

And he wasn’t the only one to hesitate.

Shahin. Garmond.
Leonie, Mary, the Descendants of Twilight.
Even the senior mages of the Magic Tower.

No one dared to speak rashly.

“Something’s off about him,”

Mary murmured.

The boy’s very presence felt wrong—not merely powerful, but unnatural.

Then the dragons unleashed their breath.

Goooooo—!

The boy raised his hand, weaving a magic to counter it—but the attempt failed.
Vangrit, sensing the flow of mana, muttered,

“His mana reserves are astonishing, but his control’s rough. Stronger than me, of course… but against dragons? It’s hopeless.”

The lesson of the Dragon Mage War.
No matter how great the mage, a human could never match a dragon.
The Magic Tower had paid dearly to learn that truth.

Mary’s voice carried weight as she added,

“His mana is fading.”

And that blast—it wasn’t from a single dragon.
The dragons clearly knew the outcome, yet none withdrew their breath.
Not even Eunaxus.

Leonie frowned.

“…Isn’t that overkill?”

Yes, the boy was strange, his aura unsettling—but watching a relentless barrage like that made her scowl.

It didn’t take long to understand why.

“So… you refuse to fall after all.”

Eunaxus’s words echoed through the scorched air.
The breath that could have melted bedrock deep beneath Arcana’s soil—and yet, Taemin whispered, almost involuntarily,

“…Refuse to fall?”

That meant—he was alive.

The acrid smoke began to clear.
Taemin couldn’t believe Eunaxus’s words.
The boy’s mana should have been consumed long ago—as Leoni said, a “confirmation kill” should’ve been unnecessary.

Yet—

Through the thinning smoke, a silhouette emerged.

He was still standing.
Completely unharmed.

How?

Everyone interpreted it through their own knowledge.
Players imagined some ultra-rare item.
Shahin thought of ancient shamanic rites lost to Arcana.
The mages recalled mythical, forbidden magics.

But Bellier alone grasped the truth.
Her eyes, attuned to the flow of life, saw it clearly.

His life force definitely vanished.
He had died.
And yet—he lived.

No one else could imagine it, but Bellier knew the word for what she was witnessing.

‘Resurrection.’

The miracle of revival that adventurers once performed—
before the Great Cataclysm.

The dragons spoke, confirming her suspicion.

“Why is it that you alone have not lost the blessing?”

The reason the players didn’t immediately think of “resurrection” was simple— the moment Arcana became reality, that word had vanished.
What the Arcanians had called “blessing” was nothing more than the resurrection system from a game.

So confusion was natural.

“What do they mean, not lost?”
“He must have some crazy item.”
“If we figure it out, we could use it too, right?”

But Bellier’s expression darkened.

‘No… it can’t be.’

She remembered that day—when Chief Marcelo’s terminal illness had been miraculously cured.
The day Chief Lee set foot on the Arcana Continent.

She’d seen it then—
the traces of death carved into his body.

But she’d ignored them.
No—she’d been too overjoyed by Marcelo’s recovery to think deeply.

And now, Akshan’s words returned to her.

-“Can you truly understand Lee Hoyeol?”

Bellier realized it then. That black-haired boy—was Hoyeol himself.

Her thoughts grew chaotic.

‘Why are the dragons hostile toward him? Why does he look like that? Why is the Arcana Continent itself in such a state?’

The cursed Arcana was a land of death—void of life, like a world consumed by the Demon World.

The dragons answered her unspoken question.

“Behold the deeds your indomitable will has wrought. You overcame death itself—and in doing so, you destroyed our home, the Mother’s land. What drove you to such corruption?”

Everyone was struck silent. Even without knowing Hoyeol’s identity, the accusation was shocking.

‘He… destroyed the Arcana Continent? And not in ignorance, but through countless deaths overcome?’

Garmond spoke in his usual pragmatic tone.

“I doubt the old dragon would lie, but the claim makes no sense. Every action has a motive, after all. What purpose could he have had in bringing Arcana to ruin?”

‘Indeed—what reason could he have?’

Bellier couldn’t think of one.
Hadn’t she seen with her own eyes how Chief Lee fought tirelessly to protect Arcana, more than even his own homeland?

She pressed her lips together tightly.

Surely, this was a misunderstanding.

Eunaxus’s voice rumbled once more.

“And yet, it was something that had to be done.”

Something that had to be done.
Anyone with intuition could sense it—
Hoyeol had refused to accept that “necessary act.”

Bellier could guess what Eunaxus meant.

‘Perhaps it was the will of the entire Arcana Continent itself.’

“No one knows this better than you,” said Eunaxus.

And Bellier understood the implication.

‘The demon hunters.’

The Arcana factions would never unite under one cause—except against demons.
Since the Cataclysm, demons had become the world’s common enemy.

The Empire, the Magic Tower, even beings from other worlds—
they’d all joined the Holy War Alliance to fight demons.

Bellier’s understanding deepened.

“Of course, it tormented us as well,”

Eunaxus continued.
“Once we realized the true nature of the fear carved into us, we could never forgive ourselves. We regretted that day endlessly.”

Dragons—from the moment they revealed themselves, they had sworn allegiance to Hoyeol.
Bellier had always found that strange.
Why would such proud beings, who even the Magic Tower had to bow to, humble themselves before a mortal adventurer?

But now she knew.

‘It was fear.’

More precisely—fear of the demons.

At last, the pieces fell into place.

If… Chief Lee had been possessed by a demon—
Then the entire curse made sense.
Even Akshan’s question became clear.

-“Can you truly understand Lee Hoyeol?”

‘Arcana was hunting him.’

The demon that had possessed him.

And that demon’s name was most likely—

‘Claudi.’

Yes, that was why the dragons never called him by name.
They had addressed him with formal reverence—Claudi.

Everything that once made no sense now clicked into place, piece by piece.

His actions, his choices—they were all starting to make sense.

But could Claudi truly be called a mere demon?

If Claudi had possessed Chief Lee, why had Lee Hoyeol never once shown any trace of demonic behavior?

Some might argue that was simply part of the act.
But Bellier wanted to ask—if everything were just an act, and he never once acted like a demon…was he even one to begin with?

She bit her lip hard.

‘If it were me, I might have done the same.’

She glared toward Eunaxus.

In the end, it was Arcana that betrayed him—out of fear.

The reason Hoyeol turned the entire world against him was now clear.
It clashed with the pride he always spoke of—and yet, Eunaxus said:

“Even so, you still possess the power to undo it all.”

He was referring to Hoyeol’s reversal magic.
Perhaps he wasn’t wrong—but would Hoyeol ever accept such a plea?

“It is not too late, even now.”

Bellier whispered under her breath,

“…He never would.”

And as if to answer her—

“You’ve made a grave mistake, old dragon.”

The voice echoed—not from the distant boy, but from the Akshan demon hunters themselves.

Strangely, their words no longer sounded like nonsense.
It was simple—they were natural enemies of demons.
If anyone knew the truth, it was them.

“Only demon hunters can slay demons.”

Akshan spoke bitterly.

“So that’s how it is… Repeating the same tale again and again, are you?”

As the Infinitely Deep Darkness rose behind Hoyeol—

“There is no curse more cruel than the one that binds us to each other.”

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