Cho-yul felt ashamed for not noticing something that even Ramphil, the least emotional among them, knew.

Now that they had found out about the Black Magic Curse, Leona and Ramphil knew that SoSeoLan didn’t hate Cho-yul. Of course, Leona had understood it emotionally, and Ramphil had figured it out through speculation based on the amount of risk SoSeoLan was willing to take.

Although their reasoning processes were different, they had reached the same conclusion.

“I can understand. What you’ve been through since you were a child has been imprinted in your mind, so it’s understandable.”

It was possible that he could not even think of such an idea because of the days when he had been beaten and when he hadn’t been able to breathe out of fear. Sometimes, imprinted fear made it impossible for someone to see things rationally.

“That’s because… She believes that I don’t have the guts to use black magic.”

Confused, Cho-yul started rambling, but Ramphil cut him off.

“It’s a simple matter of taking the risk or not, and the choice is obvious. And as far as I can see, Asura seems like the type who doesn’t take risks.”

Ramphil guessed the emotions from the perspective of rational judgments and practical benefits. In some ways, Ramphil was making an effort to understand. Zin found this funny and laughed.

Then, he turned to Cho-yul, who was still confused, and said, “To put it simply, you’re the only risk SoSeoLan is taking.”

If he still didn’t get it, there would probably be a serious problem with his intelligence. Of course, there seemed to be a bit of a problem already, but there was no way he still could not see it.

Zin knew from the beginning that Asura didn’t hate Cho-yul.

“What would be the reason for letting the one person who could kill her anytime, anywhere, stay alive? Because you guys trained together? If she took her training that seriously, she would’ve bowed to me when we ran into each other.”

But SoSeoLan was quick to mention that she hated devil hunters.

Zin continued, “For her great mission, she is even willing to use the Death Command, which could destroy her. She’s willing to cut out or do what needs to be done, so why would she keep you alive? She doesn’t even need to use fancy magic. She could’ve just stabbed you.”

“Bu-But… She’s… She’s been keeping an eye on me…”

“Oh, man! You’re really thick-headed.”

‘Thump, thump!’

Leona thumped her chest as if to say that she had never seen such a thick-headed person. Seeing her like that, Cho-yul didn’t know how to react.

“Do you really think that was surveillance?”

“…”

Cho-yul couldn’t say anything.

“Quite simply, she probably wanted to make sure you were doing well. But you took that as her keeping an eye on you.”

Whenever SoSeoLan tried to monitor the area around Cho-yul using her sorcery, Cho-yul had been able to feel it and been afraid of it. Because he had thought his life had been in danger, he kept retreating back into his shell.

“Do you still think SoSeoLan hates you?” Zin asked again as if to say that he should really see it now.

“Come on, admit it. All of the terror and fear you feel toward her are just delusions caused by fearful memories of your childhood.”

Cho-yul could not respond. All the doubts and fears he’d been struggling with were in fact delusions caused by his trauma.

He had lived as a drunkard when there had been no need to.

“Of course, I agree that SoSeoLan is a terrible choice. I’m sure there was a lot of greed and jealousy coming from her. But I’m sure her feelings for you now are not what you think, no matter what they used to be in the past.”

“Oh…”

Cho-yul would need some time to calm down.

“So, if you decide to work for her, she’ll accept you for sure.”

In the end, Zin was trying to clear Cho-yul’s misunderstanding in order to say this to him.

“Wa-Wait… Wait a minute. Let me think this through.”

Cho-yul was silent, and the other three did not try to speak to him. Zin, however, was not very happy to clear the misunderstanding that Cho-yul had had.

Zin knew very well that clearing the misunderstanding might end up being the cruelest thing for Cho-yul.

———-

In the middle of the night, while everyone was asleep, Cho-yul was sitting alone on top the armored car, organizing his thoughts.

His teammates were right. Now that he realized that his fears were just delusions, everything fell into place.

He had thought that SoSeoLan had let him live because his acting had been perfect. As a result, he had tried to live even more like a hopeless drunk.

In fact, her feelings for him were the only plausible reason for her keeping him alive. Why would anybody with a great mission to carry out take that risk?

The magnitude of the risk that SoSeoLan was willing to face must be equivalent to the amount of feelings she had for him.

“I thought I had been trained to know many things, but I didn’t even notice that.”

It didn’t make him feel good to know that she, who had only given him painful memories, had feelings for him.

Wait, were they really all painful memories?

“My god, you idiot. If you don’t learn this, we’ll have to repeat the lesson tomorrow! Listen very carefully.”

Sometimes, when he pretended to not understand something he already knew, she would be really angry with him, but she’d teach him anyway.

More specifically during martial arts, he had thought he had only had memories of getting beat up, but that wasn’t true.

“You bastard! You can’t even do this? Watch me! Like this, like this!”

“Yes, that’s right! Yeah, yeah. Oops! It would be faster to teach a dog nunchucks than to try to teach you something.”

“Ah! Oh, it hurts!

He was hit many times, but she had never given him a fake lesson.

“Why did you make so much rice? Do we have enough to spare?”

‘Well, th-that’s…”

“I don’t want to eat this much, so you eat more.”

Now that he thought about it, he could remember the moments of delicate exchanges between them. As the veil of terror and fear lifted, Cho-yul started to see things more clearly.

It might have been just that she was awkward. She might have been greedy and jealous. But undoubtedly, humans were complex, and some acted aggressively when a lot of emotions were mixed up.

It was probably because she was young.

By the time they grew up, she was probably set in her ways because she’d been used to them, but she probably regretted acting like that. People acted in ways they didn’t want to, all the time.

Cho-yul knew that his fate was bound up with hers. He had cried about that without understanding exactly what it was.

He had felt a deep sorrow, without knowing where it was coming from, but he was beginning to understand it now.

If SoSeoLan’s feelings toward him weren’t hate nor loathing, but something more affectionate…

And if he had to do something.

Some day, he would have to kill her with his own hands and take away everything she had built. So, what Zin had told him was the cruelest truth.

SoSeoLan would lose her mind, and he would have to kill her. In order to do so, he would have to join the Group. He either needed to learn the Death Command or join the Group, the outcome was clear.

“Why couldn’t you have been nicer to me?” Looking up into the night sky feeling sorrow, Cho-yul spoke to someone who couldn’t hear him, “Sister…”

Just like SoSeoLan couldn’t help herself while hating him, Cho-yul couldn’t help but feel sorry for her while being afraid of her.

And he knew better than anyone that the compassion he felt for her resembled another feeling. At the end of the day, they had only had each other in that lonely, cruel world.

Cho-yul felt sorrow for many things. Among them, the cruel fate granted to him was the saddest of all.

————–

“I’ll stay here,” Cho-yul told his teammates the next day. Since he did not ask Zin for the location of the Death Command Book, he was essentially saying that he was joining the Group.

“OK.”

Now that they had the Sealed Orb, they did not need Cho-yul’s power anymore. It was better that he stayed and stayed with SoSeoLan.

Cho-yul wasn’t simply joining the Group, but he was also agreeing to everything he needed to do after joining the Group, which included his intention to take matters into his own hands, no matter what happened in the future.

Of course, terror and fear would not disappear easily.

“Are you sure you can handle it?”

“I’m not confident, but I must.”

They had breakfast together for the last time.

“I’m sorry that this is the last C-ration I’m going to have.”

Cho-yul laughed lightly, thinking it could be his last proper meal.

“When the Group takes over one of the Fortresses, you’ll have a feast.”

As Zin said that, Leona’s face soured.

“… I think you forget sometimes, but I’m with Wargrave,” Ramphil gave Zin a side-eye and grumbled, wondering whether the hunter needed to say such things.

Zin grinned back at him.

“Aren’t you still very loyal? I thought you had switched over to hunting.”

“No way. I’m a soldier,” Ramphil muttered resignedly, and Leona breathed a sigh of relief.

In actuality, Ramphil didn’t belong anywhere. He knew this, and that was why he grumbled instead of arguing strongly with Zin.

After the meal, Cho-yul packed up his things to leave. If you wait in Shane, Asura will come, and then, you can join the Group.

Their short time together was ending. Cho-yul’s fate had changed drastically by meeting Zin, and although he wasn’t traveling with them anymore, Cho-yul was a changed man.

“We’d better not see each other again.”

“That’s too bad. I was hoping we could meet again.”

“Tell you what, I’ll see you if you come alone.”

The shorter the goodbye, the better.

“Feels like something’s missing…” Leona smiled awkwardly as if disappointed to leave one of her teammates. The expression on her face, neither crying or smiling, was that of a child not fully grown.

“Take care of yourself,” she said, and Cho-yul smiled back.

“Leona.”

“Yes”

“Be happy. Please.”

“I’m OK.” Normally Leona would’ve complained that it was corny, but she smiled wide, showing her teeth and added, “I’m already happy.”

Cho-yul smiled back.

————

Cho-yul said goodbye and watched the armored vehicle leave. The members were back down to three from four.

In Zin’s opinion, Cho-yul was destined for high-level work, not for their short journey; plus, there was a limited number of things he could do. Therefore, him staying with the Group as a kind of security measure was the right decision to prevent greater sacrifices.

In the rocky armored car, Leona asked Zin with sad face, “Do you think we’ll ever see him again?”

“It’s possible if the Group takes all of Asia and goes south.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you mean that it’s not likely.”

“Yes.”

Zin nodded. Even if they took over all of Asia, the direction Zin was heading to was the arena of struggle among the world’s powers.

This time, Ramphil, who was driving, asked, “Hunter, in your opinion, where does the Group’s power stand when compared to the Wargrave’s?”

“Well… In the past, I would’ve bet that Wargrave’s was superior…”

If the Group had been simply an organization of Reavers, the difference between the Group and the Wargrave would have been huge, but the story changed when Asura’s Death Command was considered. Plus, now that they had one more high-level sorcerer in the mix, it was safe to say that their powers had been upgraded.

Fighting in a war in which the dead rise again to become your enemy was difficult to imagine unless one had experience. In situations like that, when a single ally died, you didn’t just lose one ally, but you gained a new enemy.

“I am not sure.”

Nevertheless, the Wargrave had an overwhelming advantage in weaponry, so it was hard to say that the Group was superior.

However, it was a bad sign that another powerful organization appeared on the scene when they were only expecting war from the Wargrave.

Asia becoming a sea of flames was a surety, but there was a growing possibility that the war would be between three organizations.

Leona became depressed when she thought of the possibility that Cho-yul would play a central role in the war. Although it had been a short journey, she had grown attached to him.