There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 123

When I turned my head, a blue glint, deeper and darker than the clear blue sky, shone darkly as if to swallow me whole.

I smiled brightly at Ryuseong.

“You’re here? Did you want to take a walk too? Or did you miss me?”

“For now, step back. I need to interrogate them.”

Ryuseong took a step forward, his face terrifyingly heavy and sunken.

At that moment, Dietrich and Capone felt the killing intent and flinched.

“What the…!”

Capone might be different, but Dietrich was probably experiencing this kind of killing intent for the first time.

Since he was a young master whose life had been a bit more convenient.

Perhaps that was why Capone quickly prepared a magic circle to defend herself, but Dietrich still looked dazed.

“Lee Hyang, Hae Yuna. Shin Myohan. The formation of heaven, earth, and human.”

“Roger.”

Shin Myohan was smiling playfully, but Hae Yuna, unlike her usual self, switched to a combat stance with both fists, her expression serious.

Lee Hyang, who stood in the ‘human’ position, the most important in the heaven, earth, and human three-person combat formation, seemed indifferent but stared at me with exceptionally sharp and sensitive eyes before taking a long drag from his smoking pipe and exhaling smoke.

“Hooooo…”

A fierce telepathic message cut through the air, unheard. From that moment, Hae Yuna’s kick came crashing down in front of Capone, who was trying to escape. No, it fell. Or rather, it exploded.

It had that much power. An explosion of that magnitude was erupting from just a single one of her stomps.

Capone barely managed to block the direct hit by a paper-thin margin, but the pressure from the qi-infused wind alone must have churned her insides.

If her condition was serious, that one blow might have even twisted her mana circle.

“…You, just because I go easy on you for being cute…”

“You keep messing around? Right. I hear that a lot. But you’ve never gone easy on me.”

Hae Yuna assumed the opening stance of the Haenam Sect. Then she aimed her fist at Capone.

“I was always the one going easy on you. You.”

“…!”

And so, Capone’s pride was wounded like crazy. Because Hae Yuna’s claim that she had been going easy on Capone Yones was by no means wrong.

During the duel when the two groups ran into each other in the hallway while trying to steal the exam papers. Hae Yuna had definitely gone easy on Capone back then.

‘She broke the hammer without hitting me. By changing the attack trajectory so simply…’

Capone Yones felt her breath catch in her throat.

Capone Yones can’t do something like that. Changing the strike point of a fist mid-motion is an act of twisting the direction of one’s bones and muscles by one’s own power. There’s no way that’s possible.

It’s a wall of skill. Not only is there a deep gulf between them, but there is also a difference in the level of their skills.

But at the same time, Capone is a person who doesn’t give up, no matter what wall stands before her.

Because for Capone, even living quietly was impossible. The fact that a girl who had been forced to give up on living had survived until now is proof that she had screamed and fought, refusing to give up. She is fighting against resignation just by living. That is her life.

But Dietrich had lived his life giving up at appropriate times. His life had always been like that. His life was to wander around moderately and then live moderately as his family wanted.

‘It’s because I have nothing to lose even if I live lazily. I, you see. Because I’m a coward…’

As always, it wouldn’t change. This cowardly nature, absolutely not.

Though it was an act utterly devoid of a martial artist’s pride, under the excuse of pursuing practical benefits, he decided to choose the easy path.

So Dietrich struck the back of Capone’s neck as she was about to charge at Hae Yuna, knocking her down.

Thwack!

It made a tremendous sound. And Dietrich Winkel, who had promptly dropped to both knees, raised both arms high and began to beg for his life.

“Please spare me. Hehe…”

But it was a complete misjudgment. It might have worked with Cassis de Millang, but Ryuseong’s gaze didn’t change one bit.

Ryuseong glared at them as if he would tear them to shreds and opened his mouth.

“You sons of bitches.”

And from that moment, Cassis de Millang began to pull out popcorn.

Crunch crunch. Crispy crispy.

Everyone’s gaze, except for Ryuseong’s, briefly turned to him.

‘Wow. Starting with “sons of bitches” right off the bat?’

Wow, look at that word choice. It was no joke from the very beginning. Ryuseong isn’t a guy like me who cusses a lot. He must be really angry.

I watched the scene with great interest and thought I’d like to eat some popcorn.

But on second thought, I did have popcorn. I had stuffed some leftovers into my subspace a while ago. Even vacuum-sealed it.

‘Cheers to my past self!’

Crunch crunch. Crispy crispy.

I immediately took out the popcorn from my subspace and started tossing it into my mouth. Although the other kids looked at me like I was a psycho, well.

‘Since Ryuseong is only looking at Dietrich and Capone anyway, it should be fine, right?’

That’s what I thought until just now. But…

“…You all, please look at him properly. He’s just a stupid and foolish guy.”

“What is this? Are you crazy? Are you desperate to prove you’re a son of a bitch, you?”

I was so dumbfounded by the sudden provocation that I retorted, but this was the reply I got.

“Look at that. The person who wastes so many syllables just to ask why I’m provoking him is Cassis de Millang. Every single word is filled with backhanded insults.”

“Just because I love you doesn’t mean I have a reason to spare your life. If you want to be taxidermied, why don’t you just ask?”

Just as I was sarcastically retorting, Ryuseong looked at me. My heart felt like it had dropped with a thud, so I fixed my gaze on my feet. His eyes looked so sad. So much so that I couldn’t bear to keep looking.

Why is Ryuseong feeling sorrow right now?

Why is he so sadly…

“…Cassis de Millang is someone who has never once been able to speak his honest feelings openly and unguardedly. This guy also has the life of a single person, not just the cold and cruel monarch who sits on the throne of de Millang and looks down upon you all.”

I found myself wishing you could find a love that wasn’t sad.

If I were to die.

‘Of course, I don’t want to die either.’

If, for some reason, I had to die, from now on, I wanted to willingly die for you. I would even pray for your happiness afterward. For you to meet someone new, and for that love not to be too painful, just a little less than now… for you to love healthily. Because that’s not something that can happen with me. Right? With me, it’s not possible.

See, it’s not working…

“You all know how immense of an influence the de Millang faction has on this world. Right now, this guy is fighting alone, having turned all of them into his enemies.”

“So what about it.”

Capone challenged. Dietrich’s expression wasn’t pleasant either.

Still, Ryuseong didn’t stop talking.

“I told you to look properly. To look properly at Cassis de Millang. Don’t trap a person inside the accident you’ve created. Does telling you to see a human as a human sound like a joke?”

“…”

“You can’t even fathom it. Cassis de Millang has almost died countless times. Because of bastards like you.”

“Why is that my fault? I didn’t even give any particularly important information.”

As Dietrich scratched his head and tried to evade, Capone, who at least acknowledged what she had done, sneered at Ryuseong.

“You must have forgotten while lounging around comfortably in the Halla Sect, but the world is about the survival of the fittest. If you see a weakness, you bite it, and if you can’t, you have to sell it out to survive. What’s wrong with that? I just followed the rules of the world.”

At that, Ryuseong spoke strongly, putting force into his words.

“Do you think a group lynching can be explained away by calling it survival of the fittest?”

“No…”

“Forget all that, can you even win if you fought Cassis de Millang one-on-one?”

“…”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re just a pack of hyenas. Tens of billions of hyenas ganging up on Cassis de Millang. It’s repeating the act of biting him without giving him a moment’s rest, taking turns. For his entire life until he turned twenty. Is this really survival of the fittest? No. You’re wrong.”

A heavy silence followed his words. A terrible stillness where not even the wind blew.

“Your logic is not survival of the fittest. It’s one-sided abuse, assault, and violence.”

Ryuseong spoke, piercing through the silence.

“You are despicable and cunning traitors.”

And then, a breeze finally began to blow under the scorching sun…

It was a pleasantly cool breeze. The leaves rustled against each other, scattering soft, crisp sounds, and the tree branches swayed gracefully. And in my eyes, this might sound really strange, but the leaves were glowing. The leaves, catching the sunlight and glittering gold…

‘As if, they were welcoming me…’

When I cautiously looked around, the world had been shining brightly from the very beginning.

Ah, perhaps Cassis de Millang had been welcomed from the very start.

At that thought, I felt like I was about to cry. Me.

Ryuseong saw Cassis de Millang looking around as if he were witnessing a new world. Like a person who had realized for the first time that this world was beautiful, he… looked as if he might disappear at any moment, yet in a way, he also seemed to have finally taken form.

‘You.’

Like a floating castle that didn’t know its way, setting foot on this earth for the very first time, he was like that…

‘Like a person accepting for the first time that this world is the world you are to live in…’

Someone ignorant of life, with empty eyes that didn’t even know his own worth, yet gazing at, appreciating, and praising all the sparkling aspects of the world, suddenly looked at Ryuseong.

In that moment, Cassis de Millang’s shell was shed. And Jeong Ian’s expression…

‘For the first time, I saw it.’

He smiled.

‘So this is how you smile when you’re being sincere.’