Chapter 200: The Angel Who Dreams (5)

Episode 200: The Angel Who Dreams (5)

“Leffrey, agaaain…!”

A voice filled with complaint rings out.

The owner of that complaint was Soya, a girl wearing a robe with the Mage Tower’s emblem over her school uniform.

Soya roughly tidied her hair and then covered it with her witch’s hat.

Then, while hastily brushing her teeth, she muttered to herself.

“He goes off on his own again, never thinking about who’s left behind!”

“Hey, Soya. Hurry and come out. We don’t have time.”

Hongwol waited for Soya, lightly swishing her tail.

In Hongwol’s hand was a small note.

“You saw Leffrey’s note, right?”

“Yeah! That’s why I’m so mad! He just wrote one single line! No explanation whatsoever!”

On the note, only one sentence was written.

After reading it again, Hongwol neatly folded the note and slipped it into her pocket.

“Anyway, hurry up and come out.”

Then she murmured quietly.

“This time, things won’t go the boy’s, no, I mean Leffrey’s way.”

* * *

Leffrey ran.

He sprinted down the long, dark corridor toward the place where Mari might be.

VIP room this way, the VIP room is on the second floor, the VIP room is on the right, no, the VIP room is on the left.

And now, the VIP room is right ahead.

“Haa, haa.”

Thus, Leffrey managed to arrive at the door to the VIP room.

Right in front of the room where Yumari would be waiting for him.

“It’s not just Mari waiting for me in there, I bet.”

Beyond the cold steel door, he sensed even colder presences. Wearing a bitter smile, the boy had no choice but to slowly open the door to the VIP room.

“Senior, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“I knew it. You too.”

It was just as Leffrey had expected.

Several people were in the VIP room. Gori, who had taught Leffrey about killing intent, was sitting on a plush leather sofa, and famous superhumans who appeared on the news were also present.

“And all these people here too.”

And they were all tainted by dark karma.

“So you’re all on the Demon King’s side.”

“You should call us followers of the New Order, senior. Or perhaps those who will open the door to a new world.”

Gori’s scarred hand reached out toward Leffrey.

Suddenly, a jolt swept through his arm, and then began to fiercely tighten around Leffrey’s heart.

‘This pressure.’

Leffrey took a step back and murmured.

“So, you’re the last remaining Heavenly King.”

“Senior, isn’t ‘Heavenly King’ a bit old-fashioned? Please call me an Apostle of the Archangel.”

Hearing those words, Leffrey dragged a hand down his face.

‘I never planned to settle this with brute force in the first place.’

Now, Leffrey was a mouse fully caught in a trap. According to rumors, the last remaining Heavenly King was even stronger than Ormantor. If those rumors were true, then there was no way for Leffrey to escape.

‘No, I wasn’t planning to run anyway.’

Resolving himself, Leffrey tried to put on as mature a face as he could. Gori gave a slight smile, as if Leffrey’s expression was adorable.

“Let me meet Mari.”

“Of course.”

Gori readily made way.

Mari would be waiting for him, just ahead.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of what.”

Gori asked this question, hiding himself in the darkness

Leffrey answered his question with another question.

“What should I be afraid of.”

“Aren’t you afraid that your imagination might become reality?”

Imagination, is it.

What is Leffrey imagining right now.

Was he picturing Mari awakening fully, leaping into the gathering of people there, killing them all, and then plunging into an abyss from which she could never rise again.

Or was he picturing himself, overcome by the grudge and hatred in his heart, crying tears of blood, his hair turning black as he summons the demon king to this world.

Those were the thoughts running through Leffrey’s mind.

“Yes, I am afraid.”

And Leffrey was afraid of that future.

“Just like everyone else, I also fear the future.”

“And yet your footsteps don’t falter.”

Even so, Leffrey did not stop walking.

“There are those who keep walking even when they are afraid. Surely you also know of such people.”

“Then allow me to open the door for you.”

Gori, someone some people call the ‘doorknob’, opened the door for Leffrey. It was the door to the innermost section of the VIP room, the room with the red sofa, where a girl lay asleep.

(TL Note: Cause Mungori is doorknob in Korean and gori’s name is gori… Mun*gori*. Get it? Hahahaha.)

“Then, senior, I hope you two have a pleasant time.”

The door closed in front of the girl and behind the boy, leaving only the two of them in the room.

“As expected, everything is according to His will.”

With lips marked by many scars twisted in a slight smirk, Gori locked the door.

* * *

A single red sofa under dim lighting.

And the black wall hung with a grotesque painting depicting the gates of Hell.

Leffrey couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of thought process had led someone to design a room like this.

“This looks exactly like something the Demon King would appreciate.”

It definitely wasn’t a place meant for a sleeping child.

And yet, Mari was sound asleep.

So soundly asleep that she wouldn’t notice if someone came in, or hear any noise from outside.

“Mari, you must have been really tired.”

They were about to introduce this child, drained of all energy, as some sort of hero. And that, in just ten minutes from now.

“It must have been difficult.”

Pat pat- As Leffrey gently stroked Mari’s hair, petting it softly, he noticed it felt smooth like black silk.

Every so often, Mari’s brow furrowed, and faint tear marks remained near her eyes. He could guess what kind of dream she was having. A dark nightmare, no doubt.

A very dark nightmare.

Leffrey slowly looked up.

‘That painting is leaking a thick, dark karma.’

As he suspected, this eerie room was the demon king’s doing. And at that moment, Leffrey realized what the demon king was aiming for.

After meeting the demon king, Leffrey had a certain dream.

A dream where the exhausted Leffrey fell asleep, and darkness, under the name of sleepwalking, raised him up again. They say that in that dream, Leffrey had forgotten who he was, forgetting his friends and all those precious to him, and only revenge remained in his heart.

A painfully sad dream.

For Leffrey, that dream still felt all too vivid.

‘Mari must be having the same dream.’

And soon, she would be given sleepwalking as a gift, and she’ll open her eyes again while still asleep. And what would happen next wasn’t hard to imagine.

‘Her revenge will begin. Revenge on the Seocheon Yu, revenge on those who ignored her, and revenge on the masses who created this kind of world.’

And then Mari will fall into despair.

Mari, who was so kind that she left this world before her fall to avoid hurting people, could not possibly endure such a dream.

And so Mari would be trapped in an eternal nightmare.

“I’m reminded of the day you ran away from Mariana Camp.”

Leffrey, before he became ‘Leffrey’, had watched that scene on TV and resented Mari a lot. Even after he became Leffrey, he often treated Mari coldly.

Though that changed soon after.

“I didn’t have the slightest clue what was in your heart at the time.”

But now he knew.

He finally understood why Mari had run away.

“But I know now.”

Leffrey gently caressed Mari’s cheek.

It was soft and warm, just like back then.

‘Angel-nim, she’s finally asleep.’

A mother was holding her child in her arms. The child, perhaps plagued by nightmares, cried miserably and fussed, but once she felt her mother’s touch, she fell back into a deep sleep.

Leffrey stared at the sleeping child intently.

‘Look at this. Doesn’t a sleeping child truly resemble an angel? Ah, perhaps that was inappropriate to say in front of a real Angel-nim.’

Seeing the child’s mother joking like that made Leffrey smile for the first time in his life. After all, compared to himself, who had erased countless living beings following the flow of karma, this child was far more angelic.

Leffrey could only nod silently.

“That’s right.”

Leffrey spoke while stroking Yumari’s cheek. There was still a single tear that hadn’t dried yet, trickling down her cheek.

“I’ve never seen a child as angelic as you.”

To soothe the weeping child, Leffrey wrapped her firmly in his arms. Though the child was taller than he was, she was still within his embrace.

‘Would you like to hold her?’

‘To comfort a child, support their head with your hand and hold them while thinking how incredibly lovable this child is.’

Such a lovely child.

Warmth welled up inside him, and Leffrey felt tears prickle at his eyes

‘Your sacrifice to save the child is not salvation either. In a few months, the Seocheon Yu will come for this child. Do you really believe in that family, the descendants of a past hero, those who deserve to be judged?’

‘They’ll use her as a test subject. A plaything, a pet, and a tool to be sold to those who hold a grudge against dragons. If it’s them, that’s what they’ll do. Even if she survives such darkness, all that awaits is a world in ruins. A hell with nothing but despair.’

Back then, Lumari gave some sort of answer.

An answer that Leffriel, that Leffrey, couldn’t believe.

‘…I believe.’

‘In what?’

‘That this child will surely find happiness. That she’ll say she’s glad to be alive.’

The Lumari in his memory and the present-day Leffrey spoke in unison.

“I believe in that.”

Yes, Leffrey believed in that.

No, Leffrey could now believe in that.

“Yes, now I believe that too. Because…”

Mari would now find happiness. She would no longer be tormented by adults, and she would no longer face those painful events that blur the lines between dreams and reality.

She would no longer suffer nightmares.

Leffrey believed in that and could proudly say this.

“I’ll make sure of it. Because I am your…”

Squeeze—He held Yumari close, as though comforting a crying child, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

“Guardian angel…”

And then Leffrey became darkness.

In other words, he became a being known as the demon king.

Yes. They say there exists a being called the demon king in this world. The demon king is said to be the pinnacle of dark karma, able to claim all the darkness in the world as their own.

That was why Leffrey could absorb the girl’s darkness.

Feeling himself being filled with loneliness and sadness comparable to, no, surpassing his own, pain that shouldn’t simply be called mere resentment, Leffrey fought the drowsiness that came with it.

Thus, he slowly turned his gaze to Mari.

Her once-furrowed brow relaxed, and her eyes took on a gentler look. Was it because her pain was subsiding, or was the nightmare drawing to a close.

Yet her tears did not stop flowing.

Her eyes, full of moisture, slowly opened.

“Le, ffrey.”

But even in that moment, Leffrey did not stop absorbing Mari’s karma. Before he knew it, his hair had grown so black it resembled pure pitch darkness.

Seeing Leffrey like that, Mari trailed off.

Was this, too, this whole scene, just another fragment of a nightmare not yet ended?

But Mari felt certain, though she couldn’t put it into words, that this situation was not some dreamlike illusion.

Because Leffrey’s light was holding her gently, enveloping her

“Leffrey, how did you get here…”

“Mari.”

With the last of his Angelic Power, Leffrey offered it to the child he so desperately wished to protect, the child whose sleeping face was so incredibly angelic

“You must be happy, no matter what.”

“Leffrey, Leffrey…”

“You must.”

Light and darkness cannot coexist. It’s impossible for Leffrey, who was like a demon king, no, who was the demon king himself, and Mari, who had become a hero after accepting the karma of light, to be together.

Thus, Leffrey let Mari go.

“I’m sleepy.”

And the boy climbed onto the red sofa, lying down in front of the painting of Hell’s gate. The inescapable loneliness weighed down on his eyelids, slowly closing them.

And so the boy fell asleep.