Ch.83. Celestial Horse Combustion Chamber (3)

And the moment I heard that voice, I knew instinctively.

‘This isn’t Soso.’

That sticky voice, so seductive it could enthrall just by hearing it. And the ominous energy I felt from the body pressed against mine.

There was no doubt. It was that Blood Demon from two years ago. The one who stood in my way during the tragedy at Ains.

‘Why is the Blood Demon back?’

I felt my heart pounding heavily in that moment.

To be precise, my trauma regarding Soso isn’t about her personally, but about this Blood Demon who is the true source.

The Blood Demon is another personality residing within Soso, the master of another evil power born with the fate of Cheonsal.

And in the original story, it never existed within Soso. It’s a cursed slaughter demon that awoke only because of me.

Instinctively, I flinched as memories of that day came flooding back.

Then Soso, no, the Blood Demon, whispered into my ear with a voice full of passion.

“Heheh… Why such a reaction when we meet after so long? Did you… did you not wish to see me? Haah…”

As if the storage room was too hot, she threw off the flight jacket she was wearing. Her provocative figure in a tank top and leggings became even more exposed.

The Blood Demon had already restrained my body. My wrists were caught in her inhuman strength, unable to move even slightly, and my entire body was pinned down by hers.

The Blood Demon’s sticky breathing and the demonic energy (yogi) she emitted was dizzying enough to be entranced by her in an instant. Soso had always been beautiful, after all.

An ordinary man would have become her slave in this moment.

‘Perhaps it’s fortunate that I have such terrible memories of this Blood Demon.’

I bit my lip tightly.

And desperately suppressing my instinctive revulsion and fear of the Blood Demon, I spoke.

“What’s going on? I’m sure I sealed you away. Why are you taking over Soso now…?”

“Isn’t it all because of you? Yeon Soso. This pathetic girl still hasn’t been able to let go of her feelings for you.”

The Blood Demon answered in a cold voice. And those words she spat out stopped my breath for a moment, like a dagger piercing my heart.

‘Soso still…’

A guilt as heavy as panic crushed me once again. But this wasn’t the time to be helplessly overwhelmed by those emotions.

After all, I had joined Flame prepared to face anything head-on.

“Hmm…? Come to think of it, your condition is truly strange. You were once a man with blood so hot you could defeat me when I released all my power. But now you’re as weak as a woman who couldn’t even wring a chicken’s neck, aren’t you?”

The Blood Demon loosened her body that had been pressing down on me. Then she placed her hand on my chest.

“Oh. All the inner power you once had is gone. No, it’s not completely gone, but sealed. Your dantian has collapsed. Is that divine object implanted in your body substituting for your dantian?”

The Blood Demon read my condition accurately. So during the brief moment her intensity slackened, I desperately thought of a way to suppress the Blood Demon that had awakened in Soso.

‘I guess that’s the only way.’

Originally, I had once destroyed this Blood Demon. So even though it had come back to life inside Soso, its control over her wouldn’t be as complete as it was during that graduation ceremony.

Even now it felt extremely threatening, but its demonic energy was weaker than the Blood Demon I met that day.

I steeled myself.

“Heheh. Well, it doesn’t matter. Rather, if you can’t resist like this, I can take and violate you to my heart’s content. And finally make you mine…”

“Yes, Soso. Do as you wish. Actually, I’ve been wanting to see you very much all this time.”

And when I called Soso’s name, the Blood Demon’s pupils trembled. Just as I thought.

‘I need to push forward with this.’

The Blood Demon responded.

“Wh-what are you saying! Such words don’t please me at all. Such insincere sweet talk!”

But the Blood Demon seemed quite flustered and hung her head low. At the same time, the demonic energy she was emitting began to subside. I continued speaking.

“I thought about you every day without fail. That day at Ains when I was with you, Soso…”

“How can you say such embarrassing things… You… How can you be so shameless…”

She was definitely wavering. It was proof that Soso’s will still remained stronger than the Blood Demon’s.

“Haah… If that’s the case. If those are truly your sincere feelings… then you should please me more… Hwup?”

When the flustered Blood Demon pulled back from me slightly, I blocked her lips with mine.

“Mmph… Hmm…”

Despite how fiercely she had been suppressing me, the Blood Demon’s malicious energy began to subside at that surprise kiss.

The Blood Demon was disappearing.

A moment later, I carefully caught Soso as she was about to collapse unconscious, worried she might get hurt.

***

“Haah… Haah…”

I sat with my back against a cabinet in the storage room. And to suppress the panic that wouldn’t subside for once, I took out a pill bottle.

After hurriedly swallowing a pill and waiting a short while, the medicine began to take effect. I gained a little composure.

I picked up the flight jacket the Blood Demon had thrown aside and covered Soso, who was sleeping against the cabinet.

With her gentle breathing as she slept, her face looked so innocent it was hard to believe she had been the Blood Demon just moments ago.

A beautiful face that revealed her kind personality, almost foolishly so. It was exactly like the old Soso, my closest friend at Ains.

‘Friend… huh.’

That word “friend” weighed on my chest more heavily than the panic from earlier. And the Blood Demon’s words came back to me.

– Yeon Soso. This pathetic girl still hasn’t been able to let go of her feelings for you.

The Blood Demon is clearly a different personality from Soso, but they share each other’s subconscious from within. What the Blood Demon said wasn’t a lie.

‘Was the reason Soso’s limit dropped so low… really because of me?’

Memories of Soso suddenly come to mind.

Yeon Soso. She was the first friend I made after being possessed into this novel at the beginning of my second year.

Back then, Soso’s appearance was so messy it obscured the beautiful looks she has now.

Bushy hair that completely covered her eyes. An academy uniform that looked two sizes too big. And Soso’s gloomy, unconfident personality matched well with me, who had been possessed into a minor character in this novel.

We were even in the same lowest-ranked class due to our poor grades at Ains.

Of course, unlike me who was just a minor character, Soso was the successor and heir to the Cheonma Sect, a massive martial arts sect in the Mu Kingdom.

And according to the original story, in the first semester of the third year, Soso was supposed to accept her destiny and finally awaken as a Cheonma. It was a significant episode in the original work.

‘But Soso…’

However, Soso awakened as a Cheonma in the second semester of the second year, earlier than scheduled. And the cause was entirely because of me.

‘I needed Soso’s help.’

The special advanced training scheduled for the winter break of the second year.

It was an important training, almost like actual combat, gathering the most academically excellent students at Ains.

At that time, I had already raised my student rank considerably by monopolizing opportunities through the advance information I knew from Akahunter.

But because of my rock-bottom grades from the first year, my overall student rank wasn’t enough to meet the cutoff for participating in the special advanced training.

The special winter training was an important episode in the original work too. The rewards that could be gained through that training were immense.

‘I was… desperate in my own way back then.’

But there was a good opportunity to raise that insufficient rank at once.

The pair duels for the final exams. If we achieved high scores in those duels where students paired up, I could cross that precarious cutoff line.

But I was still in the lower class due to those first-year grades. Pairs could only be formed with students from the same class.

‘It was impossible to get good scores with a pair from the lower class.’

To raise my insufficient rank in one go, I needed to defeat students from the upper classes in those duels that all students participated in.

Fortunately, there was a gem in that mud pit. Yeon Soso. If she could awaken as a Cheonma, I was confident we could win against pairs from S-Class where Siwoo and Yuri belonged.

‘So I formed a pair with Soso.’

Knowing the conditions for awakening as a Cheonma through the original work, I paired with her and stuck close to her for a while, conducting special training.

The result was a huge success. With Soso who had awakened as a Cheonma a semester early, we achieved tremendous results in the final exam pair duels.

‘Soso was really happy then too.’

She had finally awakened as a Cheonma. On top of that, she achieved scores that couldn’t be attained in the lower class. It was natural for Soso to be happy.

And that thought was a selfish misunderstanding that only considered myself.

Soso had simply decided to awaken as a Cheonma for my sake. She was happy only because I was happy. After all, Soso had already liked me before that.

That Soso, who was only ever a friend to me.

***

“Mmm… The cafeteria… our academy’s cafeteria… the sausage bread on the second floor of the annex is better…”

Soso’s sleep-talking briefly interrupted my reminiscence. I couldn’t help but smile.

‘Why is her sleep-talking like that?’

She seemed to be having a good dream. Soso always loved food, and it seems that hasn’t changed.

‘She was quite chubby back then.’

I unconsciously looked at Soso’s face. Though I already knew her face, she had become much prettier than the one I remembered.

No, come to think of it, I had already seen this appearance two years ago.

The tragedy at Ains. It was exactly the same face as when she, as the Blood Demon, blocked me after I barely escaped from Yuri’s eternal barrier.

Soso as the Blood Demon was beautiful.

So beautiful that I couldn’t recognize her at that moment. And dangerous. Especially since the Blood Demon didn’t exist in Soso from the original work.

Even now, I can’t forget what Soso, no, the Blood Demon said at that time.

‘Lee Minsu. By what right do you try to stop me! Yeon Soso, this pathetic girl, has known all along that you liked that snow woman. Yet she never resented you. This girl!’

Only then did I acknowledge the true intentions behind my desperate desire to participate in the special advanced training in the winter of the second year.

‘I simply didn’t want to be apart from Yuri during the winter break.’

It wasn’t entirely a lie that I wanted to grow stronger, but that was my true heart. Thanks to participating in that special advanced training, I became stronger and made many memories with Yuri.

However, I didn’t know at that time how Soso, who participated in that training with me, felt.

Even though Soso had known from the previous pair training that I liked Yuri.

‘Yet Soso became a Cheonma for my sake.’

And after that, until the graduation ceremony came.

Only now could I barely guess that the kind-hearted Soso had suffered enough to awaken the Blood Demon hidden in the Cheonma bloodline with the Cheonsal nature.

An intense sense of guilt washed over me. And deep regret too.

If I hadn’t created the Blood Demon. If I hadn’t spent so much time and energy fighting the Blood Demon.

Then Siwoo and Mina wouldn’t have died. And countless students at Ains.

As I was lost in such deep contemplation, Soso’s sleep-talking was heard again.

“… Sorry… Minsu… I’m sorry… I… I created the Blood Demon…”

And as if having a nightmare, tears formed in Soso’s closed eyes.

Those tears streamed down like the weight of my sin. I wiped them away with my thumb.

‘I won’t let the Blood Demon act as it pleases.’

Now that I know the Blood Demon is inside her, I have no intention of being caught off guard by it again.

Fortunately, the nightmare seemed brief, as Soso soon smiled. That smile made me more aware of my original sin.

Five years of remaining time. And a terminal life that would shorten even more if I used mana. But I don’t think that gives me absolution.

‘The judgment for that sin will begin after I put all the villains of the Red Lake on the execution stand.’

I stayed by Soso’s side for a while until she woke up.

***

A few days later. The first week after joining Flame passed without any notable incidents.

It was just time to learn about the company called Flame and the people belonging to the Flame Guild.

“That’s the guideline for the association’s intern program. In other words, don’t push them from the start. So, well, I don’t plan to give the interns any special tasks until this week is over.”

That’s what Team Leader Seo Duho said. The interns had entered the field team’s office.

The raid team and information team were separated by partitions, but since they were both part of the field team, movement between them was free.

And the interns were each assigned their own seats.

“Our guild uses the Hunter Association’s standard computer system, so it might be a bit inconvenient. Public systems are terribly inadequate wherever you go. At times like this, I miss being at Manseong.”

Of course, the standards of an information analyst like him and us interns were different. Especially Uncle Donghyuk, who was surprised by the enhanced access rights.

“Do guild certified by the association get this kind of dungeon information for free? When I was in a private guild, I had to spend my own money to buy it. It was damn expensive.”

As Uncle Donghyuk said, the system accessible at Flame was high-level. We could easily access information about gates and dungeons generated worldwide, and even information about villains.

At that time, Team Leader Seo tipped me off.

“But there are limitations with just the association’s computer system. That’s why we have an information team.”

Team Leader Seo was right. With just the access rights provided by the association, I couldn’t see any useful information about the Red Lake.

“Get familiar with Flame quickly. Information about the Red Lake is confidential even within Flame. Originally, it shouldn’t be shared with interns right away, but the Guild Leader has different expectations for you.”

It felt like I was getting special treatment, but that wasn’t a bad thing. As I sat in front of the monitor looking at the hunter-exclusive web, a message came through the company messenger.

┗ Yuri Tarkovskaya: Mr. Lee Minsu. Are you busy right now?

Unexpectedly, it was Yuri.

Glancing at the other interns’ monitors, I saw the message was only sent to me. And Arin noticed the notification that appeared in the corner of my monitor.

“Oh my. I wonder what business the Guild Leader has with you, senior?”