HRB 117

A hand that broke through the torn space tightened its grip once more. 〈The Hero Who Doesn’t Hide His Power Part 2〉 crumpled pathetically within that grasp, as if it were made of truly fragile paper.

Eddie knew who it was. It was a being he couldn’t fail to recognize from its distinctive entrance scene the first time he saw it, and now it had revealed itself before Eddie’s eyes once again.

“Tarajiel?”

As Eddie spoke the name, the being tightened its grip on the book, as if in response to Eddie’s words.

CRUNCH

Beneath his hand, the fragile book lost its form in an instant and distorted.

CREAK-CREAK-CREAK

Then, the gears that filled the space came to a halt, trembling and emitting a strange creaking sound. It was a terrible dissonance.

“Finally.”

A familiar voice echoed from within the torn space.

“Finally, I found you.”

The voice was filled with elation.

“Finally, I found you, you damn bastard.”

At that moment, the Demon King Tarajiel tore through the space, revealing his true form entirely.

The man, with pale skin and jet-black hair, possessed a rather, no, an exceptionally flamboyant and handsome face, yet there was something strangely serpentine about him.

It was exactly as described in the novel.

“Ah, right, Eddie.”

He called Eddie’s name casually, as if he had just run into an old neighborhood friend, and gave a slight smile.

“Wait there for a moment. I’ve waited a very long time to take this bastard down.”

Saying that, he casually raised one hand.

However, the aftermath was anything but light.

CRACK-

Black light, blooming in tendrils from his fingertips, shot up as if to tear through the ceiling of the space in an instant, then split the space in half as if it were a sword itself.

With a CRACK, the gears struck by the black light shattered and broke with a loud clamor.

The crumpled book, located at the very center, was not spared either, splitting perfectly in half.

At that moment, Eddie heard a sound like someone screaming.

Tarajiel continued to destroy the space, on and on.

Until everything in that space was shattered into pieces.

The story had been shattered.

In Eddie’s vision, he saw the burning Part 2 within the destroyed space. The paper, engulfed in flames, crackled as it burned. The gears that had densely filled the ceiling, even the smaller ones, were not spared; they dangled, broken, or repeatedly tried to turn with a pathetic creak before stopping.

Things that had seemed like absolute existences to Eddie crumbled so easily at the Demon King Tarajiel’s hands.

The snake-like man, with a smiling face, tore apart the nearly burnt Part 2. The story, now just a pile of ashes, 〈The Hero Who Doesn’t Hide His Power Part 2〉, vanished completely from the space.

Then, the gears, which had been swaying forlornly with only their parts remaining, all stopped moving.

Except for the intermittent crackling of something burning, silence reigned all around.

“Now, this ‘story’ is over.”

In the broken space, only the Demon King Tarajiel laughed with a look of relief.

“No, it’s not even a story anymore.”

He brushed the ash from his hands and approached Eddie.

“This means this world is no longer under its influence.”

He declared the end of the story.

With a gentle smile, he crouched down in front of Eddie, who was still slumped on the floor. As if to match Eddie’s eye level.

The man who approached him carried a strong scent of musk. It wasn’t a scent Eddie usually liked, but perhaps due to his peculiar appearance, he didn’t feel much resistance.

Even knowing that beneath that beauty lay the Demon King who had cruelly ruled the world.

Or perhaps, setting all that aside, it was because he was the one who had saved him when he was being so pitifully tormented.

Eddie, with many questions, parted his lips, swallowed hard, and asked,

“……Do you know that this is inside a story?”

From him, who had torn through space to arrive, and who had destroyed the entire space as if he had waited a long time, an inexplicable sense of relief could be felt.

Tarajiel had known for quite some time. That this world was inside a story.

But the problem was how that was possible. If he wasn’t like Eddie, knowing this story from another world and possessing it, how could it be possible?

Logically, it would be strange for a being like the Demon King to answer Eddie’s question sincerely, but Eddie already knew that the Demon King had shown him an inexplicable favor.

Moreover, just now, it felt as if he had saved him from disappearing. Eddie harbored a faint hope.

“How could I not know?”

As expected, the Demon King answered Eddie’s question without hesitation.

“I was the first one to be expelled from that story.”

Expelled.

At that word, Eddie blinked, then let out an “Ah,” a sound of realization.

That’s right. The first ending of the story was Ketron defeating the Demon King. The one who was first driven out of that world, outside of the world, was the Demon King.

How did he re-enter this world?

Hmm,* Tarajiel looked at Eddie with a swirling smile, seemed to ponder for a moment, then finally sighed as if he had no choice.

“Curious? Shall I tell you?”

“……Of course, I am.”

How could he not be curious about this? Eddie retorted, his voice involuntarily choked with emotion, and Tarajiel laughed aloud.

“You seem so ordinary, yet you have courage in strange ways.”

“Almost no one talks to me like this,” he added, letting out a small sigh.

“Well, I used you to get in here.”

“……?”

“If it’s to you, of all people, there’s nothing I wouldn’t tell you.”

With that, he opened the prelude to the story with words Eddie couldn’t understand, pausing for a moment as if reminiscing about the past.

“I was defeated by the Hero and flung out of this world.”

The Demon King began to recount the story of that time.

“My soul was floating above a giant book. It was then that I realized I was merely a character appearing in a novel.”

His face was quite cold as he said it. Eddie knew, though he couldn’t know how he felt, that it was by no means pleasant.

No, it wasn’t just unpleasant; it must have been a horrific sensation beyond disgust. For him, who had ruled the entire world, to be defeated by a human Hero, and then to realize that his world was so small.

“I couldn’t believe it. That the world I existed in was merely a corner of a story.”

Above all else.

“That if I stayed still in that space, I would soon vanish.”

He who had reigned in the position of absolute evil was defeated by the human Hero. The one who met death was cast out of the world, and he was fated to vanish miserably upon realizing that he was merely a character in a story, not even the protagonist, but a disposable entity for the protagonist to defeat.

“At that moment, I saw you.”

However, at that moment, he saw Eddie.

More precisely, he saw Lee Jeong-hoon’s soul.

Eddie, who had been listening blankly to the Demon King’s story, pointed at himself with a finger.

“……Me?”

“More precisely, I saw you being pulled into the story.”

The Demon King saw a soul being sucked into the story from which he had been ejected. The moment he saw something, tangled like a spiderweb, pulling a single soul into the story, the Demon King realized it was his only lifeline, his only chance.

“The moment your soul was sucked in, I too tore through the closing space and re-entered, following you.”

“…….”

“I simply didn’t miss the chance to re-enter the story. Tearing through space is my specialty.”

And so, the Demon King returned to the story.

In the form of resurrection.

“Of course, it was a very quiet resurrection, so as not to alert this ‘story.’ My form wasn’t even complete.”

He slowly resurrected his body in the torn space in a pathetic state. As long as he didn’t vanish, the powerful Demon King could regain his perfect body and seize the opportunity to grow stronger.

When he had regained some strength, he quietly informed Lilzhir of his resurrection and focused solely on restoring his body step by step.

In the meantime, he couldn’t resist and went to thank the being who had given him a new lease on life.

But the being he had only managed to greet back then, lacking strength, was now fallen before his eyes. In a state where all ties had been completely severed.

“My resurrection is thanks to you.”

Tarajiel reached out and stroked Eddie’s cheek.

“Therefore, you are my benefactor.”

Eddie’s complexion, paler than usual, showed little difference in hue from the Demon King’s equally pale hand.

“That’s why I saved you.”