Chapter 364
Rain fell.
Wei Jeong-han quietly looked up at the sky.
Wei Jeong-han liked rain.
When he was young, he liked the sensation of the world becoming cool when it rained. As he grew a bit older, he enjoyed immersing himself in the emotions that rain conveyed.
But after stepping onto the battlefield, rain had taken on a slightly different meaning for him. He hoped that the thick stench of blood and terrible deaths would be washed away, even just a little, through this rain.
And…
Since meeting him, it had taken on yet another meaning.
When he first met Jeokan-u, a drizzle was falling.
He would probably never forget the sight of Jeokan-u drinking from a bottle in the rain for the rest of his life.
It was from that day.
That was when rain and Jeokan-u began to overlap for Wei Jeong-han. And Jeokan-u, knowing this, would come to find him whenever it rained.
Though it was the same world, when it rained, it became a different world. For Wei Jeong-han, those moments of meeting Jeokan-u were when the world changed.
Yes, today as well.
Today, too, it rains.
And Jeokan-u had come to find him.
Perhaps nothing different, something he had experienced many times before.
But it was different.
Wei Jeong-han stared blankly at Jeokan-u.
"…I don't know what to say."
Jeokan-u gave no answer.
He just gazed quietly at Wei Jeong-han with somewhat sunken eyes.
"I knew."
Wei Jeong-han's voice was low and heavy.
"I knew that you weren't an ordinary person. Yes, I'll admit it honestly. I knew. I knew that you might possibly be a Demonic Cult bastard."
What did it matter?
In this place where humans became beasts and fought, what importance was there in the first kindred spirit he'd met being an enemy?
Righteousness? Morality?
Wei Jeong-han laughed.
There was no righteousness in this place.
Nothing would be more ridiculous than seeking righteousness on a battlefield.
He knew.
He knew, but…
"But this is going too far."
Wei Jeong-han looked around.
Nothing.
Not a single living thing could be found anywhere. What remained were only corpses, blood, and death.
Everyone had died at Jeokan-u' hands.
Among those who had come out with him, only he himself remained alive. No matter how little affection he had given them, could he be pleased to see those who could at least be bound together under the name of 'comrades' fall with blood spilled?
They had come too far to wrap this up under the name of friendship.
Unlike his confused mind, his hand gripping the sword was tightly clenched around the sword hilt.
Jeokan-u and Wei Jeong-han's gazes met in midair.
A ridiculous play.
The time had come for the curtain to fall on this strange and absurd play where they didn't ask about each other and received comfort from each other on the battlefield.
Wei Jeong-han raised his sword and aimed it at Jeokan-u.
But Jeokan-u still only looked at him.
Those eyes irritated Wei Jeong-han. Those eyes that showed not a trace of hostility even though the situation had reached this point.
"Am I not worth dealing with?"
Only after hearing those words did Jeokan-u' eyes twitch.
Jeokan-u, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, opened his mouth.
"I know well that I cannot be understood."
"…"
"But at least I wasn't trying to toy with you. You won't believe it, though."
"Ha, haha…"
Wei Jeong-han laughed emptily.
"You weren't trying to toy with me?"
Perhaps those were words he could believe. If what he had seen and heard wasn't true, that is.
Wouldn't that be right?
It would be too harsh to say that friendship couldn't be shared just because they were enemies. Even if the time came when they would have to kill each other someday, at this moment they were just enjoying the comfort of being together.
"I would have believed it."
Wei Jeong-han's voice was bitter beyond measure.
"If you hadn't been the Great Demon Emperor."
Jeokan-u made no excuses.
Great Demon Emperor.
The leader of the Demonic Cult who led the current Demonic Cult and invaded the martial world.
That exalted name had been spoken here and now.
Jeokan-u neither denied nor affirmed it. What came from his mouth was just a lonely sigh.
"Great Demon Emperor…"
Jeokan-u slowly shook his head.
"I am merely a puppet."
"Hahahaha."
Wei Jeong-han's face contorted.
"Cut it out, you damn bastard. If the Great Demon Emperor is a puppet, then who is that great person who moves you? Is it heaven itself?"
"Heaven… Yes, perhaps that word suits that person best."
Wei Jeong-han couldn't understand what his words meant. What he could understand was only that Jeokan-u' words now contained regret that he could never comprehend.
"You…"
"You said it yourself."
Jeokan-u looked quietly at Wei Jeong-han and said.
"That ultimately, to escape being a puppet, you must cut off not the strings but the hand holding the strings."
"…"
"It was a story I already knew. Of course I knew that was right. But I only tried to cut the strings. Because I was afraid. Because I wanted to live."
Wei Jeong-han's face contorted.
The man before his eyes was the Great Demon Emperor.
He was a mythical figure who had instantly united the scattered forces of the Demonic Cult and was trampling the martial world. From their perspective, he might be no different from a demon, but from the Demonic Cult's perspective, he was a hero and a god-like existence.
Such a person was now saying he was afraid.
Saying he wanted to live.
And those words didn't sound like deception or self-pity at all.
'What on earth is happening?'
In places he couldn't see.
"I never expected to hear such words from the Great Demon Emperor's mouth."
"What's visible isn't everything."
"…"
Wei Jeong-han's gaze turned to Jeokan-u' feet.
Following the rainwater flowing down his body, red blood was spreading.
He didn't know what had happened, but he was already injured before arriving here.
'Injured… '
It was absurd.
That he was injured.
That monster who appeared as if he had dropped from the sky and slaughtered everyone except him with a single strike was injured.
Even if the leaders of the Nine Great Sects, including the Martial Alliance Leader, attacked together, could they really injure that person?
Then from whom did Jeokan-u—no, the Great Demon Emperor—receive these injuries?
"I can't understand it."
Wei Jeong-han shook his head.
"From beginning to end, I can't understand any of it."
Jeokan-u smiled palely.
"Is understanding necessary?"
"…"
"That's not it, Jeong-han. I'm not asking for your understanding. Friendship needs no reason."
Wei Jeong-han laughed emptily.
"Do you still think of me as a friend?"
Jeokan-u slowly nodded.
But Wei Jeong-han couldn't simply be pleased with that fact.
"A friend… Should I consider it an honor? That the Great Demon Emperor of the world considers me a friend."
A strange emotion flowed between the two who faced each other in silence.
Wei Jeong-han knew it.
There was no going back now.
From the moment he learned Jeokan-u' identity, the two could never return to those days when they drank together without asking questions.
Rain fell.
Wei Jeong-han liked rainy days.
Because rain washed everything away.
But Wei Jeong-han realized today that there were things that even today's rain couldn't wash away.
The wall of distrust that had formed between him and Jeokan-u could never be washed away by anything.
"I have one question."
He didn't answer.
Even exchanging words felt sinful.
"Do you… do you still think of me as a friend?"
Wei Jeong-han ended up laughing.
What a foolish question.
If the world knew that the Great Demon Emperor had asked such a stupid question, the entire world would mock him.
He was a warrior affiliated with the Righteous Martial Alliance. They were currently at war with the Demonic Cult, and the Great Demon Emperor was the head of that Demonic Cult. A righteous warrior sharing friendship with the leader of the Demonic Cult—that was a ridiculous story that wouldn't even appear in comedy.
"That's the most foolish question I've ever heard."
"…"
Wei Jeong-han spoke with derision.
"The world is vast and there are countless people, but in all the world, there is only one person I can call friend."
Jeokan-u' pupils shook.
But only for a moment.
Soon he wore a bright smile.
A brilliantly bright smile that didn't match the terrible epithet of Great Demon Emperor at all. Like the kind of laugh a child might make.
"I thought you would say that."
"Foolish indeed."
Wei Jeong-han sighed.
Yes, foolish.
It was utterly foolish.
But it couldn't be helped. He was human. The reason humans could be human was that they could brazenly commit acts that anyone would see as foolish.
"Now draw your weapon."
"…"
"I won't hold any resentment. We have no choice but to be in this kind of relationship. I must kill you, and you must kill me. Now that we can no longer hide it, it's better not to leave any lingering attachments."
"Listen, Jeong-han."
"Speak."
"I have never…"
Jeokan-u raised his head to look at the sky.
"Not once have I lived by my own will. From the moment I was born, my life was already decided. I never had doubts. I… no, even 'I' is a strange word. I was never once myself."
"…"
"Then after meeting you, I learned. That I too could be myself. That I could live not as the Demonic Cult's Great Demon Emperor, but as the human Jeokan-u. That's right. I am the Great Demon Emperor. And thanks to being the Great Demon Emperor, I must now fight to the death with my one and only friend, the first and only friend I've ever had in my life. I'm going to stop this now."
Wei Jeong-han had to feel it.
The desperation melted into Jeokan-u' inner heart as he spoke seemingly calmly.
That desperate sorrow that words couldn't fully contain.
"Perhaps… perhaps I won't succeed. But even that has meaning. While resisting this fate, I won't be the Great Demon Emperor but Jeokan-u. I'll be able to die as Jeokan-u."
"You…"
Jeokan-u smiled palely.
"I came because I have a favor to ask."
"…"
"Don't refuse. It will be my last request. And… it will be the first request I've made since being born into this world. If you refuse this request, I will be too sad."
"Damn bastard."
Wei Jeong-han gritted his teeth.
What is this?
What the hell is this?
Jeokan-u had deceived him. He had approached him brazenly while hiding his identity. The sense of betrayal toward him hadn't even faded yet, so how could he speak so shamelessly?
Making it impossible to even refuse.
"Say it."
Wei Jeong-han had no choice but to nod in the end.
He knew.
That Jeokan-u was trying to do something now.
And that it involved hardships greater than Wei Jeong-han could even imagine.
But how could he refuse?
He was someone he had once called a close friend, after all.
At Wei Jeong-han's answer, Jeokan-u smiled lowly and slowly opened his mouth.
"My request is…"