Ch.73Chapter 73 – Oath (2)

As Kwak Tae-woo closed his eyes tightly, sensing his imminent death, the sword that seemed about to tear his throat apart suddenly stopped. It wasn’t due to any external factor. Kim Jae-min had halted the sword of his own accord.

‘…He stopped?’

Like a death row inmate whose execution had been temporarily postponed, Tae-woo cautiously opened his eyes and looked up at the face of his would-be executioner who had inexplicably halted the sentence. And he witnessed an expression of surprise even greater than his own.

“This energy…! Could it be-!”

Kim Jae-min’s face, gazing somewhere in the distance, was painted with shock and astonishment. His pale, contorted expression seemed to betray a hint of fear.

‘So the feeling I had a few days ago wasn’t my imagination! No, impossible! How on earth?’

Confusion and urgency were clearly visible on Kim Jae-min’s face. This was no ordinary matter. Kim Jae-min had always been full of confidence stemming from his overwhelming power, but now he was uncharacteristically losing his composure. And like someone who had lost their composure, his actions were quick and impulsive.

‘I need to confirm the owner of that presence immediately.’

Teleport- As Kim Jae-min hastily muttered, his body vanished from the abandoned factory in an instant.

Shin Jae-hyuk, unable to comprehend the situation, blinked in bewilderment.

‘What’s going on…? Did something urgent come up?’

Judging from the circumstances, it seemed Kim Jae-min had sensed something just before teleporting. Something that Shin Jae-hyuk’s abilities couldn’t detect. Wondering if a gate had opened somewhere in the distance, Jae-hyuk shifted his gaze to Kwak Tae-woo, who had just narrowly escaped death.

‘More importantly, now that Kim Jae-min is gone, Kwak Tae-woo will….’

It was natural for a spell to break when its caster disappeared from the vicinity. And it was equally natural for Kwak Tae-woo, freed from his restraints, to grab a weapon and charge at Shin Jae-hyuk.

“SHIN-JAE-HYUK-!!!”

Feeling the pressure that had been binding him disappear, Kwak Tae-woo lunged forward, seizing what he saw as his final opportunity. Shin Jae-hyuk sighed lightly at the predictable ambush.

“How do you act exactly as I predict, without the slightest deviation…?”

“Die- Argh!”

Shin Jae-hyuk subdued Kwak Tae-woo simply by swinging his spear back and forth twice. With a hole pierced through his thigh, Kwak Tae-woo fell forward with a thud.

“Why are you so desperate to kill me?”

With even his final chance meaninglessly gone, Kwak Tae-woo could only raise his head and glare at Shin Jae-hyuk with burning eyes. Shin Jae-hyuk responded with a look of incomprehension.

“Your goal is the survival of humanity, and for that, the survival of S-rank hunters, right? According to your goal, Kim Jae-min has survived, and I’ve even sworn an oath, so there’s no possibility of me killing Kim Jae-min in the future.”

A priest’s oath in the name of God is absolute. If not kept, one would lose all divine power due to divine punishment, and could even lose their life. This penalty was more severe the higher the priest’s level. If Shin Jae-hyuk were to break his oath, he would not escape immediate death. That was the weight of an oath made in God’s name.

Kwak Tae-woo remained silent. He knew that much. Intellectually, he understood.

But his heart refused to accept the reality.

The moment right after his regression continued to torment him. The lightning-fast spear, the skull pierced like tofu, the splashing blood… Kwak Tae-woo gritted his teeth. But his suppressed anger leaked through his clenched teeth.

“You, she…!”

The man before him had killed Cha Eun-kyung, his close friend, his captain, his goal. After having his life saved by her, half of Kwak Tae-woo’s world belonged to himself, but the other half was entirely hers.

That’s why Cha Eun-kyung’s death was not simple for Kwak Tae-woo. Hostility toward the one who had destroyed and trampled his world. That hatred gleamed unmistakably in Kwak Tae-woo’s eyes.

“You….”

Shin Jae-hyuk read the flame burning deep in those eyes. A sticky, hot flame. A fire that would never extinguish until it had completely incinerated either himself or his opponent.

The inferno that had captured Shin Jae-hyuk himself after being betrayed by someone he had believed to be a comrade in hell.

Shin Jae-hyuk spoke in a subdued voice.

“…You have a personal grudge against me, don’t you?”

Kwak Tae-woo did not answer. But from that silence, Shin Jae-hyuk could read affirmation.

“…Who was it?”

Again, Kwak Tae-woo kept his lips firmly sealed. But as Shin Jae-hyuk traced back through his memories, he could find the answer himself.

“Right- damn it. It’s Cha Eun-kyung. I thought it was strange how you showed excessive interest in her when we first met at the prison, despite having no prior acquaintance with her.”

Kwak Tae-woo couldn’t hide his agitation as his secret was exposed in an instant despite not saying a word. From the violently trembling eyes, Shin Jae-hyuk gained certainty.

“Haa…. So I killed both Kim Jae-min and Cha Eun-kyung with my own hands?”

Shin Jae-hyuk sighed and ran both hands over his face. What on earth had happened to his counterpart in that timeline?

No answer came to his emptily posed question. Only the regressor before him held traces of a future that would never come again.

Shin Jae-hyuk approached Kwak Tae-woo with a hardened expression. When Shin Jae-hyuk pulled out the spearhead embedded in his thigh, Kwak Tae-woo thought he was going to finish what Kim Jae-min had started.

‘Is this the end…?’

Unable to save humanity, let alone Cha Eun-kyung, is everything ending here? For the first time since returning to the past, Kwak Tae-woo felt a darkness descend before his eyes. He lowered his gaze, feeling an acute sense of powerlessness, expecting the cold metal to pierce his neck at any moment.

But Shin Jae-hyuk did something Kwak Tae-woo hadn’t expected.

“I swear in the name of my Lord, Eloah… I, Shin Jae-hyuk, declare that I will never cause any harm to Cha Eun-kyung.”

The second oath made in a single day. The sacred and powerful spell tightly bound Shin Jae-hyuk’s soul. Shin Jae-hyuk inadvertently groaned at the painful binding that came with such power.

Kwak Tae-woo’s eyes widened at the unexpected act. Seeing that comically surprised expression, Shin Jae-hyuk managed a smile despite his pain.

“What, you still don’t trust me? I’m sorry, but I can’t swear not to kill you… After all, I need to be able to defend myself if you keep attacking me, right?”

“Wh-what are you doing… Why would you…!”

Kwak Tae-woo stammered, unable to hide his bewilderment. It was an incomprehensible action to him.

Shin Jae-hyuk gladly answered.

“I have no way of knowing why my counterpart in your timeline betrayed my God and fell, but one thing is certain.”

Shin Jae-hyuk paused briefly to steady his breathing, then spoke with a voice full of conviction and sincerity.

“That version of me definitely deserved to die.”

“…What?”

“All apprentice holy knights make their first oath in the Lord’s name when they become official holy knights. An oath never to betray the Lord, never to fall.”

Although it’s essentially a formal oath with no real restraining effect since the power of the evil god Rohim neutralizes Eloah’s divine punishment the moment a priest decides to fall, an oath is still an oath.

Despite it being a vastly different timeline from the present, Shin Jae-hyuk felt immense shame and disgrace at even the slightest possibility of his own fall.

“The dark knight you refer to is probably me. After my past life, I suffered from extreme stress and depression, and those negative emotions must have burst out all at once due to some trigger, breaking my spirit.”

Shin Jae-hyuk recalled the time when he was taking antidepressants and living as a hikikomori. During that time, he was like a corpse just waiting for death, living only because he couldn’t bring himself to commit suicide.

Ironically, what gave such a Shin Jae-hyuk the will to live was the appearance of demons. Will, spirit. The holy knight who had burned everything within himself to a pure white had dragged his body, now nothing but ashes, and stood up once more. Solely to kill demons.

“However, the current me and that person are clearly different beings. According to your testimony, the me who should already be active as a fallen one by now has become an S-rank hunter. That’s the proof. And my purpose as both a hunter and a holy knight is singular: to protect humanity.”

“…So what are you trying to say?”

“Our goals align. And so do our interests. I need your knowledge of the future, and you need my power. So-“

Shin Jae-hyuk met Kwak Tae-woo’s eyes.

“Become my comrade.”

“…!”

Kwak Tae-woo couldn’t easily speak. Shin Jae-hyuk, as if understanding his distrust, lightly added:

“If you still can’t trust me despite my oath, think of it as you watching over me from my side. To ensure I don’t fall. If you see even the slightest sign of my falling, you can stab a knife in my neck. I won’t resent you.”

Shin Jae-hyuk extended his hand toward the fallen Kwak Tae-woo.

“There’s a saying: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, right?”

***

‘Become his comrade?’

Kwak Tae-woo hesitated.

Comrade. The word felt awkward as he rolled it around in his mouth.

‘Comrade….’

For some time now, he had been fighting alone.

After his regression, Kwak Tae-woo had always continued a solitary battle. Dropped into the past without a single acquaintance, he had no one to lean on.

The Cha Eun-kyung in this regressed world wasn’t the Cha Eun-kyung he knew—his close friend and the captain of humanity’s last stand. She was merely a novice hunter and police officer.

The fact that humanity’s future rested solely in his hands naturally became a burden. He was literally carrying the fate of the entire human race on his shoulders. That weight was not something even a superhuman could bear.

Kwak Tae-woo was afraid. Originally, it should have been Cha Eun-kyung who regressed, not him. What if he couldn’t change the future due to his lack of ability? What if he couldn’t prevent humanity’s extinction? Fear bred obsession. An obsession with the one thing he had and could be certain of: knowledge of the future.

Kwak Tae-woo believed that future events would definitely occur. What was meant to happen would happen, and those destined to become villains would become villains. He believed this with an almost compulsive certainty. But the not-so-bright Kwak Tae-woo couldn’t figure out how to prevent the terrible events of the future. He lacked both the charisma to gather comrades and the intelligence to rise to a high position.

So Kwak Tae-woo decided to commit terrible acts himself to prevent terrible things from happening.

He killed all the potential criminals he remembered with his own hands. He stole their qi. He extorted their abilities and artifacts. He leveled up.

Physical labor and not having to use his head actually gave Kwak Tae-woo comfort. Yes, this suits me better. But in a corner of his heart, Kwak Tae-woo felt discomfort. Cha Eun-kyung wouldn’t have done this.

Whenever such thoughts arose, Kwak Tae-woo became even more obsessed with his knowledge. Whenever doubt crept in, he would stare at the corpse of the criminal he had just killed and repeatedly tell himself: They would become heinous criminals in the future, so they’re no different from criminals now.

And now, the worst criminal he knew was standing right in front of him. And this guy was asking him to become his comrade.

The proposal was incredibly tempting. Through his battle with the S-rank hunter, Kwak Tae-woo had realized the limits of his growth, and he desperately needed power to save the future. If he became comrades with him, he could level up much more easily than before and prepare for the Four Heavenly Kings. Moreover, Shin Jae-hyuk had guaranteed the safety of Kim Jae-min and Cha Eun-kyung, and didn’t seem to have any intention of harming him. An alliance with him was clearly a rational choice…

However, useless stubbornness and obsession gripped Kwak Tae-woo’s ankles like a ghost in a swamp.

No. He’s going to become a dark knight. Are you going to take the hand of your enemy?

The knowledge of the future he possessed, that certainty, continuously whispered doubts like a demon. It was the whisper of a mental demon created by Kwak Tae-woo himself.

He killed Cha Eun-kyung. Look at that face. That innocent-looking facade hiding evil.

That voice came from the deepest part of Kwak Tae-woo, temptingly scratching his most sensitive spots. That voice knew Kwak Tae-woo’s dark desires better than anyone. After all, it was his own voice.

This is your chance. Slap away his hand and stab a knife right into his unguarded face. Isn’t that easier? It’s the way you’ve always chosen…

‘Yes. If I just kill him now while he’s off guard,’

Wouldn’t that make things easier?

Kwak Tae-woo is irrational, impulsive, and stupid. When the mental demon took away his farsightedness, the compass in Kwak Tae-woo’s heart pointed to the impulse before him, urging him to cross a river of no return.

‘Last, chance…’

Just as Kwak Tae-woo was about to slap away Shin Jae-hyuk’s hand, following the guidance of the dark voice:

“Believe.”

It was Shin Jae-hyuk’s word.

Unlike any merchant or con artist, Shin Jae-hyuk didn’t elaborate on why he should be trusted. He simply uttered a single word, almost like a command: “Believe.” Yet that seemingly forceful single word gave a strange sense of trust that was impossible to resist.

Kwak Tae-woo paused mid-reach and looked at Shin Jae-hyuk, trying to find the source of that trust.

“I am a holy knight.”

Kwak Tae-woo looked into Shin Jae-hyuk’s eyes. And he froze.

A sense of justice, vengeance, holiness, a certain indescribable sorrow in his gaze… And above all, a strong will that shone intensely.

There was a firmness like an old tree rooted in the earth. Even Kwak Tae-woo’s mental demon couldn’t shake that will. Amidst Kwak Tae-woo’s conflict and confusion, Shin Jae-hyuk simply extended his hand quietly.

Suddenly, Kwak Tae-woo felt a sense of déjà vu.

‘Those eyes…’

He had seen them somewhere before. Kwak Tae-woo projected someone onto those eyes. Someone he knew best. The eyes of the police officer who had saved him on the day the gate opened. The eyes of the person he trusted most. People called them the eyes of a hero.

After realizing this, Kwak Tae-woo’s hand moved unconsciously. An involuntary action. For the first time since his regression, Kwak Tae-woo moved in the exact opposite direction of what his stubbornness and certainty pointed to.

As if entranced, Kwak Tae-woo grasped the holy knight’s hand.