Chapter 1582: A New Normal (37) |
A loud explosion tore through the air. The explosion was so loud that it made me feel a bit disoriented. Jung Ha-Yan had cast her spells without any chanting or hand signs.
“Don’t kill him!” I shouted. I was worried that an enraged Jung Ha-Yan would instantly crumple the Holy Sword Hero into a bloody lump. Of course, what Sung Ji-Hoon had done was serious enough that even an execution wouldn’t seem excessive, but I couldn’t just let one of the heroes who had once grown into a pillar of the continent during the first life die in such a ridiculous place.
There was always the possibility that he could still be useful later on.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like Jung Ha-Yan had lost her sense of reasoning to the point that she couldn’t understand me.
In fact, perhaps it was just my imagination, but it almost felt like she understood the situation. I believed part of the reason behind that was the fact that the Holy Sword Hero had been treating me with absurd reverence, while I myself was acting as though I were protecting him.
Jung Ha-Yan also knew that she could retrieve me at any moment if she wanted to do so. To put it bluntly, Sung Ji-Hoon could struggle as hard as he could here, but escaping Jung Ha-Yan’s grasp would remain impossible.
“Huh?”
Sure enough, just moments ago, I was in Sung Ji-Hoon’s arms, but before I knew it, I was now in Jung Ha-Yan’s embrace instead. She had teleported me directly into her arms.
“O-Oppa… are you okay?” Jung Ha-Yan asked.
“O-Okay…”
The next moment, a wave of blue mana spread outward. Now that I thought about it, it had been quite a while since I saw Jung HaYan’s spells. Of course, I witnessed the miraculous feats performed by First Ha-Yan, but Second Ha-Yan’s magic was somewhat different in nature.
Hers was the type that simply tore targets apart with raw magical power. She didn’t even bother with the tedious process of converting mana into elemental forms.
Jung Ha-Yan knew better than anyone that her magic alone was already overwhelmingly destructive.
‘The problem is that she knows it too well…’
Yeah, Jung Ha-Yan knew perfectly well just how powerful her magic was. It was powerful enough to erase this entire mansion in an instant.
‘Ha-Yan’s… pissed off…’
It was painfully obvious why she had chosen such a violent method instead of an easier one. Unless I was mistaken, she clearly disliked the conversation between Han Sora and Jin Cheong earlier. Of course, Han Sora probably already mentioned the Black Tower to Jung Ha-Yan beforehand, and Ha-Yan undoubtedly understood that physical distance meant very little between them, but would that really matter to her?
In Jung Ha-Yan's eyes, the only thing that mattered was the possibility that her closest friend, who was always by her side, could leave her behind and go far away. On top of that, she disliked how well Jin Cheong and Han Sora clicked together.
She probably believed that Jin Cheong was some unpleasant playboy trying to steal Han Sora away.
It had been obvious for a while that she was barely holding back her irritation, and now, a perfect incident—no, a perfect excuse had finally fallen into her lap. Her eyes practically screamed that she had found a legitimate opportunity to ruin the relationship between Han Sora and Commander Jin while venting all the anger she had been bottling up.
KAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOM!
“Keep the damage to the mansion to a minimum…” I told her.
“I-I’ll try my best… o-oppa… b-but that person looks too much like a squirrel…” Jung Ha-Yan said.
‘No, Ha-Yan. That face says you’re absolutely not trying your best right now. If anything, you seem motivated for an entirely different reason.’
She was practically grinding her teeth. Though to be fair, Sung Ji-Hoon really did resemble a squirrel in some ways. Even while Jung Ha-Yan was controlling her strength, he was still dodging her spells and deflecting some of them with his sword.
“Give me back the Odd-eyed A-Angel!” Sung Ji-Hoon shouted.
‘Please just go away already. You’re seriously creepy!’
“YAAAAAAAHHH!”
Dozens—no, hundreds of flashes of light streaked across the mansion and flew toward Sung Ji-Hoon, creating a truly spectacular sight. More accurately, they drilled holes straight through the walls and decorations as they charged forward, reducing priceless works of art to garbage in an instant.
While Jung Ha-Yan’s spells were flying toward Sung Ji-Hoon, it was suddenly blocked by a barrier. Jin Cheong had intercepted her spells, then…
BOOM!
From out of nowhere, Commander Jin appeared and launched the idiot away with a full-powered kick.
“…”
“…”
“You really must’ve thought very little of me…” Commander Jin said.
“…”
“I’ll deal with the intruder myself,” he added.
‘Ji-Hoon… he’s not dead from that, is he?’
Even Kim Hyun-Sung muttered in disbelief, “The Holy Sword… Hero?”
Since Commander Jin had practically launched Sung Ji-Hoon away with a full force kick, I was genuinely worried that the Holy Sword Hero had died on the spot, but…
“AAAAH!”
Soon enough, Sung Ji-Hoon staggered back to his feet and ran in the opposite direction again. Naturally, Jung Ha-Yan’s disappointed face brightened up the moment she realized that things weren’t over yet.
Once again, hundreds of beams of light and hundreds of mana spheres erupted at once.
“Wait! I said I would handle this!” Commander Jin shouted.
“EEEEEEEK!”
Soon, a full-blown magical battle between two of the continent’s strongest monsters erupted inside the damned mansion. Naturally, this was far beyond what was necessary to capture a rookie hero. Anyone could see that the spells being unleashed were filled with the intent to reduce this entire place to ruins, forcing Commander Jin himself to hurriedly wave his hands in response.
His mana manifested, blocking those beams of light and mana spheres with hundreds of barriers.
Crackle! Boom!
“Y-You lunatics!”
“EEEEEEEEEEK!”
“M-Miss Jung Hayan! P-Please stop!” Han Sora shouted.
“Stop her immediately, Lee Ki-Young!” Commander Jin shouted.
A pointless clash of pride with no discernible goal behind it; it was a grand collision of archmagic powerful enough to make anyone's heart tremble. Of course, it looked like both sides were holding back to some extent, but strictly speaking, there was no way Commander Jin could overwhelm Jung Ha-Yan through magic alone.
He clearly wanted to minimize the damage to the mansion, but the mana exploding wildly in every direction was rendering all of those efforts meaningless. From the outside, it probably looked like some kind of dam laser show or fireworks festival was happening inside Commander Jin’s mansion.
BOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOM!
Drip! Drip!
“You bastard… I told you to stop her!” Commander Jin shouted.
“Catch Sung Ji-Hoon first! Catch him first!” I shouted.
“Mr. Ki-Young? What exactly is happening right now? Why in the world is the Holy Sword Hero—”
“Mr. Hyun-Sung! Catch Sung Ji-Hoon! Sung Ji-Hoon!” I cut him off.
“Pardon?!”
“I said catch Sung Ji-Hoon first!” I repeated.
“Ah… understood!”
“AAAAAAAHHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHH!”
In the middle of all that chaos, the once proud and dignified Sung Ji-Hoon now looked completely consumed by terror. Honestly, it made sense. His mental state had shattered the moment he got kicked by Commander Jin earlier, and now, a horrifying magical war had erupted around him.
There was no way he could stay calm. Spells powerful enough to erase him instantly if they even grazed him were flying everywhere. Hell, even Kim Hyun-Sung himself looked unsure about how he was supposed to approach that battlefield.
Why else would he keep staring at me like that? I felt like this idiot secretly wanted to see the collapse of Commander Jin’s mansion. Perhaps he and Jung Ha-Yan struck some sort of secret deal.
‘Damn it! Regressor Instruction Manual! Regressor Instruction Manual!’
Using the Regressor Instruction Manual for something like this felt absurd, but otherwise, it genuinely seemed impossible to get Kim Hyun-Sung to where Sung Ji-Hoon and Oksana were in such a short time.
“Goddammit! Lee Ki-Young! What the hell are you doing?!” Commander Jin yelled out.
“…”
“Dammit! Y-You lunatic… damn it… I-I must be insane… goddammit!” he screamed.
“Thirty seconds! Just thirty seconds! Ha-Yan! Stop! Stop! Mr. Hyun-Sung! Go! Go!” I ordered.
“…”
“Mr. Hyun-Sung! Go! Go already! Right now! Move!” I told him.
Kim Hyun-Sung smiled as he spread his wings. The light of sunset engulfed the surroundings in an instant, but compared to all the absurd, flashy spells flying around, even that light seemed dull.
The moment Kim Hyun-Sung moved toward the battlefield, spells immediately rained down on him from all sides.
Of course, none of those posed any threat to him. Every route was already calculated inside his head. Twisting in midair, he lowered his head and sliced spells apart with his sword. Honestly, as exaggerated as it sounded, it looked like someone effortlessly weaving through falling rain.
However, he added unnecessary movements and ended up slightly scorching his hair, but the idiot somehow looked pleased even by that.
“Haa…”
‘Don’t smile so happily, you idiot…’
Seeing someone as large as Kim Hyun-Sung moving freely through such a cramped space looked utterly unreal, but what I was seeing right now was undeniably reality. It felt like it had been a very long time since I last activated the Regressor Instruction Manual.
Of course, there was still no sense of discomfort whatsoever. In fact, I could feel that I was connected to him in a way that was even more perfect than before.
A primal sense of exhilaration went down my spine. It felt like playing an incredibly polished shooting game as he perfectly dodged every barrage flying toward him from all directions.
Honestly, I thought it would take at least thirty seconds, but Kim Hyun-Sung reached them in barely ten seconds.
“I got them, Mr. Ki-Young,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
Hanging limply from Kim Hyun-Sung’s hand were Sung Ji-Hoon and Oksana.
“…”
“…”
Afterward, silence descended. The mansion suddenly became quiet as if the massive magical battle had never happened at all. The only sound left was the occasional crumble of dust falling from above.
Jung Ha-Yan casually patted her chest and said, “Ah… you caught them… th-thank goodness.”
Meanwhile, Han Sora nervously observed Commander Jin’s expression.
‘But why can I see the sky?’
It seemed like only Commander Jin and I were thinking the same thing. Just minutes ago, this had been a refined room filled with elegant music and tea, yet now both of us revealed dumbfounded faces, suggesting that we couldn’t even process what had happened in the past few seconds.
He looked so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even get angry anymore. The silence dragged on for several minutes, broken only by the completely oblivious Kim Hyun-Sung speaking with a satisfied face. “I think it went rather well, Mr. Ki-Young. It has been a while, so… I was a little out of practice at first. But honestly… maybe we should do this more often under normal circumstances as well…”
“Ah… right,” I muttered.
“Oh… that sounded rather misleading, didn’t it? Y-you were perfect, Mr. Ki-Young. It wasn’t that there was any problem with you… it's all my fault…” he mumbled.
“Ah, right. I understand…” I said.
“Y-you truly were perfect. I’m not just saying that. M-My hair got slightly singed, but that was entirely my own mistake… Mr. Ki-Young… There wasn’t a single flaw… You were perfect. Really,” he said, repeating it.
“Yeah… I get it…” I said.
“And though only slightly, I felt that our connection was firmer than usual… Maybe it’s because our souls have merged. I think it would be worth investigating further. It definitely felt different from before, Mr. Ki-Young. There could be a higher level of connection beyond this,” he suggested.
“Yeah…”
“It was remarkable. The feeling of our souls and minds linking together… Mr. Ki-Young… did you feel it as well?” he asked excitedly. No matter how I looked at it, this wasn’t a situation where I could possibly respond to him.
