Chapter 235 – The Reason for Betrayal

I expected you to come.

Even with the Hero’s arrival, Im Jae-joon sat with his legs crossed, exuding a sense of leisure.

“That was quite the backstab you pulled off.”

“If you’re going to do something, do it thoroughly. What do you think? Whether it’s that world or this one, the public is always susceptible to incitement, aren’t they?”

Im Jae-joon rose from his seat.

Seeing this, Olivier flinched, but the Hero didn’t even blink.

The aura of the Demon King. His demonic energy now shimmered a deep, inky black.

Olivier was tense.

Demon King and Hero.

The rivals of a past life had once again become enemies.

Olivier had helped the Hero in his purge. The final target she located, as per the Hero’s request, was the Demon King.

Though she hadn’t wanted to, she had confirmed the Demon King’s location.

She already knew that *he* would neither run nor hide.

The Hero had swept away all the trash, just as he had declared.

Rather than adding a bucket of clean water to a dirty puddle, he chose to drain it completely.

Between the Demon King and the Hero, Olivier had chosen the latter.

Now, she could be honest with her own heart. She didn’t regret her choice. But she also didn’t want to see the man who was once her lord die before her eyes.

“Care for a drink?”

“Get lost. It’s bad for my gains.”

“That’s your problem. It’s fine to strive endlessly. It’s fine to be strict with yourself. But a taut string is bound to snap eventually.”

Ignoring the Hero’s wishes, the Demon King took out a new glass and poured a whiskey.

He then pushed it toward the Hero.

“Sometimes, you need to let go.”

“Is that your last will and testament? Seems you’ve let go of more than just that—you’ve let go of your life.”

“Perhaps. If you were going to do it, you should have used something other than the Holy Sword. That thing has seen better days.”

“Ah, is that so.”

As if to actively accept the Demon King’s opinion, the Hero drew the Holy Sword.

The bladeless Holy Sword in his hand reacted to his mana, beginning to emit light.

Seeing that brilliant light, the Demon King’s lips curved into a smile.

“If you’re going to do it, let’s get started. They’ll soon notice you’ve come here. After all, you’ve become the most vicious wanted man.”

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“I hope it’s not a childish question like, ‘Why did you betray me?’”

Whatever their relationship was in the past, the gap between the Hero and the Demon King now was overwhelming.

Olivier couldn’t understand the Demon King’s composure.

“Why did you send that Vice-Demon King after Olivier?”

At the Hero’s words, Olivier blinked.

The Vice-Demon King had been waiting in front of her house.

It was as if he knew things would turn out this way.

‘The Vice-Demon King would never betray the Demon King.’

He had claimed it was for the sake of a proper duel with the Hero, but that was a ridiculous contradiction.

“Have you ever thought about it?”

The Demon King began to speak.

“The Demon King and the Hero. Why do you think the System exists?”

“What is this, a sudden philosophy lesson?”

“No, just think about it. When a Demon King appears, a Hero can be summoned. Bearing the hopes of humanity.”

Because of the Hero, humanity can resist an absolute being like the Demon King.

The Hero is a being meant to correct an unfair balance. But the opposite is also true.

“The same goes for the Demon King. When human depravity reaches its peak, one is chosen.”

Im Jae-joon, too, had risen up against the oppression of the demonkin. And he was naturally chosen by the System.

“The East was enormous. Far bigger than I thought. Could this place even put up a proper fight against them, who conquer every dimension in their quest for hegemony?”

They would be annihilated. Humanity, just as they had done to others, would become livestock themselves.

At the hands of the Demon King’s army.

“The only soldiers we can deploy are, at best, guild hunters. But the enemy can command an army of hundreds of thousands. What kind of result do you think we’d get if a disorganized mob fought against an elite force?”

“I’ve never had an easy battlefield.”

“Let me ask you. Are these people, who abandon their faith in you over a bit of misinformation, really worth shedding your blood to protect?”

The Hero’s expression was placid. Looking at his face, Im Jae-joon felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

He had no intention of belittling his achievements and sacrifices. But if he didn’t do this, the Hero would be drawn into the vortex of another great war.

“Facing a storm head-on when you’re not prepared to weather it is just recklessness.”

Countless lives would be lost. And the Hero would die fighting to protect them.

“Don’t do anything. You are a being that brings death to others.”

Im Jae-joon said.

It was a statement that struck at the very core.

The root of the Hero’s trauma.

The people around him died, and to ensure their deaths were not in vain, he fought even more fiercely.

Dying, killing, dying, killing.

When he finally achieved victory within that endless spiral, there was nothing left around him.

He had achieved his goal and protected what he sought to protect. But he lost so much in the process.

And that became a trauma that still gnawed at the Hero’s mind.

“The choice is always yours.”

“I wondered what kind of excuse you’d make.”

The Hero scoffed.

“Yes, that’s all it is.”

The Hero walked toward the Demon King.

The Demon King didn’t avoid him. After all, if the Hero was determined, resistance was meaningless.

“Sir Hero…!”

Olivier called out to the Hero. But he didn’t even glance back at her.

The two men faced each other.

It was getting noisy outside.

The Hero downed the whiskey that was on the table.

“We walk different paths.”

“Indeed. We are alike, yet different.”

The Hero raised the Holy Sword.

* * *

The greatest hero.

The entire nation had rejoiced, saying that South Korea finally had its own superhero.

But the hero who had been a source of national pride had become the worst of villains.

It was literally a weapon of mass destruction walking among defenseless citizens.

“Chairman!”

Hearing that their leader was in danger, the guards of Hanul Guild, fully armed, burst into the chairman’s office.

“…!”

The guards, who had stormed in feeling the pressure of having to face the worst villain, stared wide-eyed at the scene inside.

“You’ve come at a good time.”

Im Jae-joon was casually sitting on a high-end sofa, savoring a drink.

“The office is a mess. Tidy it up a bit.”

“Ah, yes…. That villain… who did that to the bulletproof glass….”

In response to the guards’ questions, Im Jae-joon simply raised his glass instead of answering.

‘My friend. To protect your beliefs, sometimes you must suppress them.’

Muttering to himself, Im Jae-joon gazed in the direction the Hero had disappeared.

‘Damned brat. Couldn’t you have used the door?’

The glass window of his office was shattered as if someone had charged right through it.

The Hero no longer has anything to protect.

Lee Seo-yeon had silently returned to her own world, and to these people, Lee Hyunbin was now a villain before he was a hero.

In other words, he had nothing left to protect.

Hope is the driving force that moves people. But sometimes, cruelly, it also makes them like moths drawn to the flame of that very hope.

With the Hero present, more people would throw their lives away, drawn to that flame of hope. He would know that better than anyone.

‘Baal will not appear in this era.’

Im Jae-joon thought to himself.

The first step was taken.

The Hero’s honor was tarnished. He had no obligation to protect the people who had turned their backs on him. And the people would no longer place their hope in the Hero. Thus, he would escape the causality of the System.

He himself would no longer be forced to make a choice.

It was a problem that could solve everything.

From this day on, all news of Hyunbin ceased.

The nation was in shock over the massacre that had occurred in a single night.

-Shit, the Delivery Man is insane. He took out congressmen and everyone else?

-So fucking scary. The guy who can take down dragons is a criminal now???

-But why did the Delivery Man turn evil?

It was a huge shock to the hunter community. The fall of a hero.

Thanks to that, articles about Lee Hyunbin’s crimes dominated the headlines, capturing the entire nation’s attention.

While everyone shuddered at Hyunbin’s crimes, one newspaper published an article that went against the grain.

-The Truth About Hunter Lee Hyunbin. Was His Fall Predestined? Or Was It a Choice?

The news report investigated Lee Hyunbin’s actions over that single night.

It detailed the foreign heroes he had killed, revealing that they were a far cry from the heroes the public knew.

In fact, it had been intermittently reported that rankers belonging to the Union were involved in messy personal lives and various crimes.

Furthermore, it included information about the suspicious research at the institute Lee Hyunbin had attacked, along with the testimony of an institute guard who had exposed it.

In other words, the news report was quite detailed, even covering the young awakened ones Lee Hyunbin had killed first, but it was flooded with malicious comments and dislikes.

“Damn it.”

The reporter, who sought to convey the truth, seethed.

He had recently been fired from his broadcasting station for reporting on a forbidden story and had started his own online newspaper.

He believed he saw Lee Hyunbin more objectively than anyone else.

The Seoul Station Dragon Raid.

He was the reporter who had gotten the exclusive on that incident.

“Even if it’s 10 to 1, no, 100 to 1, the truth will prevail!”

He revised and edited his quickly buried article, preparing to upload it again.

He wasn’t the only one; there were still people who believed in Hyunbin.

The most prominent among them were the hunters who had trained under Hyunbin and discovered their talents.

-Yeomje Reclaims Number 1 Domestic Ranking.

-The Old Guard is the Best Guard!

-Hanul Guild’s Seo Hyun-ji and Kim Tae-yang Receive Heavy Penalty of Hunter License Suspension.

-Hunter Community Marred by Violence. Drastic Measures Needed!

Seo Hyun-ji’s face was grim as she scrolled through the news.

“Noona, stop looking at the news.”

Despite Kim Tae-yang’s words, Seo Hyun-ji couldn’t take her hand off her phone.

The last time she had acted like this was after her girl group disbanded, right before her first drama role.

“It’s not like anything will change just by looking at it.”

He was right.

But Seo Hyun-ji still couldn’t take her eyes off her phone.

Malicious articles about Lee Hyunbin were flooding the internet.

Seeing them, she bit her lip hard.

She didn’t know why he had done these things. But there had to be a reason.

Because the being known as the Hero, whom she had watched since she was a child, was always like that.

‘That woman…’

Seo Hyun-ji saw a photo of Lee Hyunbin escaping by shattering the window of the Hanul Group chairman’s office.

He had audaciously evaded the forces surrounding him and disappeared.

“Man, Hyunbin hyung is so tough. How many floors up was that, for him to break through the window and get out?”

Kim Tae-yang said as he pumped iron.

Hearing him, Seo Hyun-ji frowned.

She looked at the photo in the article again.

It was a picture of Hyunbin escaping while carrying a woman.

The woman had pulled her hood down low to hide her face, but for some reason, Seo Hyun-ji recognized her.

‘Manager Kim Min-ah…’

Strangely, she was constantly seen with Hyunbin.

To be taking a woman with him in such a critical situation. Seo Hyun-ji couldn’t understand Hyunbin.

In a situation like this, an S-Rank like herself would be more useful than a powerless woman.

“Noona, I told you to stop looking at the news and pump some iron.”

“Hey! How can you even think about pumping iron right now? We don’t even know where Ajeossi is!”

“What can we do? Besides, you know that even if a fighter jet bombed him, nothing would happen to Binnie hyung.”

There was virtually no one who could pose a threat to him.

For now, at least.

“Staring at the news won’t make Binnie hyung appear. If we want to help him, it’s better to build up our bodies by working out.”

For Kim Tae-yang, it was a surprisingly positive remark.

But Seo Hyun-ji’s mind was too complicated to focus on training.

There was only one reason she had wanted to become stronger.

It was because of her desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with the person whose back she had always watched.

Just then, Seo Hyun-ji unconsciously clicked on a news article.

-Humanity’s Strongest Man, Ian Kruger, Departs for France!

-France in Crisis, Receives Support from the Union.

-Will the Strongest Man, Ian, Succeed in Raiding a 6-Star Monster!

It was an article stating that Ian Kruger, the current global number 1 ranker of the Union Hunters, was heading to France.

Seeing it, Seo Hyun-ji’s brow furrowed.

-I believe that those with power must follow their duty. My strength is not mine alone, but belongs to the weak. It is the natural duty of the strong. Of course, there are those who forsake that duty.

The interview continued.

-The Korean Monster. A man who was hailed as a hero has become a villain, causing great harm to his own country. I will save France, and I will save Korea. As is the duty of the powerful.

It was a blatant diss aimed at Lee Hyunbin.

Naturally, public opinion in Korea was once again in an uproar.

He hadn’t even arrived yet, but the armchair experts were already debating who would win: the Delivery Man vs. Humanity’s Strongest.

“Jeez, every Tom, Dick, and Harry is taking a shot at him.”

Seo Hyun-ji voiced her displeasure.

And the big match that might one day come was approaching faster than expected.

But this time, the hunter had changed.