Ranker’s Return

Chapter 821

Hyeonu hid his flustered emotions and answered slowly, “Huh? What do you mean…?”

“What are you up to now?” Raccoon’s expression was very serious.

“I will talk about that later,” Hyeonu said with a stiff expression.

“Then let’s go now. The festival has ended anyway.” Raccoon couldn’t withstand his curiosity. He was ready to continue his conversation with Hyeonu right away.

“Okay, let’s go.” Hyeonu nodded meekly. He didn’t reject Raccoon’s suggestion.

‘He doesn’t have the personality to take issue with it.’

Hyeonu had also made his own judgment. Unlike the others, Raccoon wouldn’t be too upset if he heard Hyeonu’s plan. This was a conviction Hyeonu had rather than a guess.

Hyeonu didn’t forget to look around as he left the battlefield with Raccoon. ‘There he is.’

Hyeonu found Yeongchan who was fighting the undead on one side and immediately approached Yeongchan.

“This is a gift.” Hyeonu placed a tree branch in Yeongchan’s arms. In a way, this was the most important thing. The greatest achievement in today’s battle was this branch.

“You have collected a lot.” Yeongchan gave Hyeonu a surprised look after seeing the branch full of leaves. He hadn’t expected this number of leaves at all. There truly were many.

“Don’t forget what you have promised. Understood?” Hyeonu patted Yeongchan’s shoulder and moved on.

“I understand, thank you,” Yeongchan replied to Hyeonu’s back as the latter moved away.

After waving to Yeongchan, Hyeonu continued moving. He left with Raccoon to a quiet forest where there was no one else around.

“Tell me now. What are you thinking?” Raccoon asked a question the moment he stopped walking.

“Where should I start talking? Give me a moment to think.” Hyeonu stretched out his palm to Raccoon. It was a gesture asking for time.

‘I have to be honest.’

Hyeonu was going to speak honestly. He didn’t have the intention of covering it up with improvisation.

“Raccoon, do you know the human being who was on the bone dragon earlier?”

“Are you asking because you think I’ll know?” Raccoon replied with an absurd expression. He had no interest in who that human being was. It was just beneficial for him to be able to swing his axe once more at that time.

“Of course, I thought you wouldn’t know. That human’s name is Edward. He is the only younger brother of the emperor who leads the Yusma Empire.”

“The emperor’s younger brother? That family has a strange bloodline. None of them are ordinary people.” Raccoon clicked his tongue.

Hyeonu ignored Raccoon’s exclamation and continued to speak, “As you know, Edward embraced the fragments of the demon god without knowing what they were.”

“He is stupid. Strength is gained through training.” Raccoon, however, didn’t stop talking. He added a sentence every time Hyeonu talked.

In the end, Hyeonu couldn’t stand it and expressed his dissatisfaction: “Raccoon, you keep interrupting me so I can’t talk.”

This was the wrong reaction. Racoon should listen when someone was talking.

“Go ahead and talk,” Raccoon said. He seemed like he was going to keep talking despite Hyeonu’s words though. He didn’t give in.

“Therefore, I was promised a small price and offered to remove the fragments of the demon god. This war is an extension of that.” Hyeonu finally revealed the reason for the undead war. It wasn’t an easy thing to say to anyone. Originally, only Hyeonu and Edward knew, but now there was Raccoon too. It was a secret that only the three of them knew.

“It is a planned war… Was our support also planned?” Raccoon asked with a blank face. He wanted to know to what extent Hyeonu had planned things. Since when had he started planning this situation?

“No, that wasn’t it. The fragments of the demon god in Edward were stronger than expected. I thought Edward would be able to endure it sufficiently. The result showed this wasn’t the case.”

In fact, Hyeonu had thought that Edward would be able to control the undead in moderation. This was why he made that suggestion. However, the result was different. The undead captured the cities easily. It didn’t take long at all.

‘The slow movements or intermittent retreat. Every now and then, Edward would awaken.’

Of course, Edward hadn’t completely lost his mind. Clearly, there was a time when he overwhelmed the fragments of the demon god.

“Isn’t that your fault? You are the one who didn’t understand the other person properly.”

“Yes, I was wrong. I took the fragments of the demon god too lightly.” Hyeonu nodded gently this time. A misjudgment was a misjudgment.

Raccoon asked softly, “What are you going to do from now on? The erosion of the fragments will surely get worse.”

Hyeonu felt uneasy about Raccoon’s attitude. He seemed to know the dark heart Raccoon harbored.

Hyeonu firmly shook his head. “Haven’t you heard? There will be no resurrection of the demon god. An operation is being prepared in the demon world to remove the fragments. Edward will be fine soon. Then the war will be over.”

It was obvious what Raccoon was thinking. He wanted to sacrifice Edward, resurrect the demon god, and then fight the resurrected demon god. Anybody who knew Raccoon would be able to come up with such a conjecture.

“That is a bit disappointing. I wanted to meet him because he is said to be one of the best geniuses…” Raccoon made a statement that implicitly acknowledged Hyeonu’s guess.

“By the way, Raccoon. You looked very excited today… Has anything bad been happening these days?”

“Something bad? What can happen? It is just frustrating to teach the boring ones.”

“Is that so? I thought something else was going on… I’m glad you’re okay,” Hyeonu concluded the conversation roughly. There was no time to continue talking. Someone was waiting for him.

***

Hyeonu separated from Raccoon and headed straight to the waterfall where he had promised to meet Edward. In the first place, it wasn’t far from the forest where Raccoon brought him. Huge bones appeared one by one as he approached the waterfall.

‘A bone dragon…’

It was a bone dragon. Now there were only three of them left.

“Edward!” Hyeonu shouted first before revealing himself. He did that because Edward might’ve been consumed by the fragments of the demon god.

“Don’t shout and come out. I’m still fine,” Edward’s answer came back.

‘He doesn’t seem very good…’

However, Hyeonu didn’t show up unguarded. Edward’s voice seemed unusual. It went beyond a grating sound and he almost sounded like a hospital patient.

‘At least he is still sane…’

Hyeonu approached very carefully. “You look worse than I thought… Are the fragments that persistent?”

Edward leaned against the bone dragon and half-closed his eyes as he stared into Hyeonu’s eyes. Looking at Hyeonu, Edward answered, “The energy has grown too quickly. The level of the adventurers was too low compared to what I expected.”

“It was a problem I didn’t think about. First of all, the number of adventurers was too small. In addition, it has been too long since you’ve been eroded by the fragments of the demon god.” Hyeonu started talking in a political manner to Edward. He brought up that there was something wrong with his plan, but there were also things that Edward didn’t do well.

“Didn’t you say it? It is because the adventurers are weak that their energy is growing so quickly.” Edward refuted Hyeonu’s words.

However, Hyeonu ignored Edward’s words and continued with what he had to say: “As mentioned here, there is a plan to kill the demon god in the demon world. In 10 days… the power of the fragments will disappear.”

Hyeonu talked big. There was Callioraks. Lebron and John Blake were also participating. The plan couldn’t fail.

“10 days? 10 days… That’s short enough for me to hold on. I poured out my energy in the battle today.”

Edward released a lot of magic power in today’s battle. He consumed a considerable amount of magic power to revive the lost undead and use the Breath of the bone dragons. It was all magic power that came from the fragments of the demon god. The consumed magic power meant that the influence of the demon god on Edward was diminished.

“I have one last thing to say.” Hyeonu’s expression became very serious. It was a rare sight.

“What do you mean?” Edward straightened his posture at Hyeonu’s attitude.

“Be careful,” Hyeonu offered a short piece of advice. They were words with no context.

Edward naturally asked Hyeonu in return, “Be careful? What should I be careful about? If it is the fragments… I can endure it long enough.”

“That’s not it. The one you should watch out for is His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Alexander….?” Edward’s white face became whiter. The emperor was Edward’s one and only older brother. He was also a tyrant and one of the greatest emperors in the history of the empire.

“Are you saying that Alexander is coming to visit me?”

“I can’t be sure he will come, but it isn’t an impossibility.”

“It shouldn’t be easy to leave the imperial palace, right?” Edward asked with an expression of disbelief. Edward was well aware of the life of an emperor. It looked very good, but the more he found out, the more he felt it wasn’t that good. The nobles ruled over one territory. Meanwhile, the emperor ruled over the nobles who ruled those territories. There was too much work to be done. It wasn’t for nothing that the emperor couldn’t leave the great hall all day.

“It has been a while since it has been like that. Recently, he even spent several months in the demon world.”

Unlike Edward, Hyeonu knew exactly how the emperor lived. Even so, he knew it would be hard for the emperor to escape the imperial palace.

‘I guess it is because of the nobles.’

The nobles always looked for a chance to do something.

Hyeonu guessed so.

“You mean he left his seat that often…?” Edward reacted seriously to Hyeonu’s words. The fact that the emperor could leave meant that he had less work to do. It was either because the empire was stable or the nobles bowed down on their own.

“In addition, the emperor is stronger than you remember. Don’t mess around based on your old memories. It is just fleeting ill-advised bravery,” Hyeonu warned again. There was an insurmountable wall between Edward and the emperor. The emperor was that strong.

“I will take your advice. I understand well what you mean by those words.”

Edward didn’t express his thanks. It was because he knew why Hyeonu had given this advice.

‘It is because of the reward I promised.’

Due to that, Hyeonu’s advice was more reliable. He knew very well that people like Hyeonu wouldn’t betray him if they were given a definite reward.

‘I need to absorb the magic power of the fragments.’

This advice from Hyeonu also revived the willpower that had been sleeping inside Edward. He regained his former appearance from when he was fighting for the emperor’s position.