Ranker's Return

Chapter 809

“Help you? Me? Why?” Hyeonu asked back.

“Let’s see... Wouldn’t it be good for you as well if I am sane?” Edward asked back while staring at Hyeonu.

‘That’s right.’ Hyeonu managed to stop his head that almost nodded instinctively. He couldn’t give a straight answer right here, even if Edward was right. He had to get something more through the right amount of push and pull.

“Why is it good for me?” Hyeonu questioned bluntly.

“Are you seriously asking?” Edward asked with a stiff expression.

Hyeonu’s expression also stiffened like Edward and asked back, “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“You are an adventurer, so you don’t know anything about this. The fragments of the demon god are literally fragments of the demon god. I’m sane now, but what if I’m eaten by the demon god? The demon god will be resurrected.” Edward felt it instinctively. Over time, the demon god would wake up, and he would disappear. There was a limit to how long he could hold out. He added, “There isn’t much time left. Even now, I can’t stay sane for a long time every day. That time is getting shorter and shorter.”

The erosion was becoming more severe. No, in a way, he was lucky to have maintained his sanity until now.

‘Didn’t he say that it was sleeping? What happened?’

Hyeonu had clearly been told by Liru that the demon god was asleep. Moreover, it had been defeated by the Larenix.

‘Is it timing the awakening through the fragments? No, it is taking Edward’s body.’

Hyeonu immediately grasped what was happening. Edward’s words and the information he heard from Liru—these two things were enough for him to figure it out.

‘Then I’m sure Edward will be better than the demon god...’

No matter what Edward did, Edward wouldn’t be as bad as the demon god. This was even if Edward pretended not to know him.

‘Honestly, Edward has trouble with the emperor... The demon god...’

The demon god was different. For Hyeonu, all his ties to the giants remained intact. He had told Liru that he would inherit everything from the giants, so he had to take on the debt and grudges of the giants as well. The demon god was involved in the fall of the Luos Empire, so anything that would benefit the demon god had to be prevented.

“What can you do for me if I decide to help you?” Hyeonu asked subtly. His decision had been made, but he didn’t stop the push and pull.

“Hmm... What can I do for you? What do you want?” Edward wondered.

“I don’t really want anything. It doesn’t seem like there is much you can give me.” Hyeonu scanned Edward with sharp eyes.

“Then let’s do this. Later, I will grant you three favors when you need my help. It is in a way that isn’t unreasonable.” Edward offered the best terms he could give.

‘It is good, but... He won’t pretend not to know later, will he?’ Hyeonu really liked Edward’s offer. However, this was just a verbal promise. If Edward acted like it didn’t exist, the promise would disappear like smoke.

“How can I believe that?” Hyeonu questioned with a suspicious expression on his face.

Edward’s expression stiffened before he declared in a firm tone, “The imperial family doesn’t tell lies.”

This was the pride of the imperial family. Edward was born this way, learned this way, and lived this way.

‘It’s genuine.’ Hyeonu felt the sincerity in Edward’s words. It was clearly evident in Edward’s expression and voice.

‘Let’s think about it as doing two things at the same time.’

From Hyeonu’s point of view, he had to help Edward anyway. He couldn’t just watch as the demon god was resurrected. He just wanted to get more rewards, even if it was a formality.

“Then the way I can help... It is to get rid of the fragments of the demon god in your body, right?” Hyeonu said.

Edward nodded.

“Do you know how to get rid of it?” Hyeonu asked.

This time, Edward shook his head. There was no way he could know.

“I’ll ask you something else. How do the fragments of the demon god increase their strength?”

“Every time my subordinates kill a creature, the magic power will seep into me little by little. That is what the fragments of the demon god will absorb.”

The way that the fragments of the demon god grew was simple—kill living things and absorb their magic power.

“What about when you kill adventurers?”

“It is a meaningless act right now. However, if the fragments of the demon god become a bit bigger... They will be able to absorb magic power even after killing magic power.”

Hyeonu felt a sense of urgency sprout in his heart. If the fragments could grow even by killing players… the problem would become even bigger from then on.

“Then let’s do this. First, advance the undead to the north of the empire.”

“To the north? Won’t the fragments of the demon god grow faster? Right now, I am trying to control it as much as I can but...” Edward asked with an expression of confusion.

“The problem is when you send out the undead little by little as you are doing now. Thus, the fragments will continue to grow. We need to get the adventurers who don’t help the fragments grow to handle the undead army. To do that, sending a bunch of undead is the most efficient way to quickly rally adventurers,” Hyeonu explained the reason.

The reason why the fragments of the demon god grew smoothly was that the undead would kill NPCs and other monsters rather than players to absorb the magic power. If they had run into the players where the magic power couldn’t be absorbed at the moment, it didn’t matter which side killed more or died more. They would’ve never grown as they had now.

“At first, the fragments will grow faster than they are doing now... But the speed will almost stop growing after some time. Meanwhile, I’ll figure out myself how to get rid of the fragments.”

Hyeonu gave up on getting Edward’s help altogether. Edward obviously wouldn’t be of any help.

‘Go to the demon world... I need to meet Lebron and Duke Blake.’

Hyeonu had a place to investigate the fragments of the demon god. It was the demon world. Just like one had to go to a tiger’s den to catch a tiger, he needed to go to the demon world to get information about the demon god.

“Move as I said. I’ll send the adventurers over there. In addition... The next time I come, I will know how to get rid of the fragments.” Hyeonu left with these words and tore a return scroll from his inventory.

Hyeonu’s figure disappeared in an instant.

“Please don’t be late...” Edward sighed. Even at this moment, his armor was becoming a bit darker.

‘I am Edward, the second prince of the Yusma Empire. Edward.’

***

Hyeonu disappeared from the glacier and appeared in the imperial capital of Yusma. He had seen Edward’s appearance, so he was going to visit the emperor to complete the quest.

Hyeonu stopped in front of the great hall and called out to the emperor, “Your Majesty, can I come in?”

“Come in.”

The moment that the emperor gave permission, Hyeonu entered the great hall with confidence. This time, there was no need to be intimidated because he had done nothing wrong.

“Your Majesty, I have been to the north as you have ordered.” Hyeonu approached the throne where the emperor was sitting and reached into his inventory. He drew out the video bead and politely held it out with both hands toward the emperor.

“You’ve been there already? It is faster than I thought.” The emperor looked at Hyeonu with a slightly surprised expression and reached out. Then the bead in Hyeonu’s hands was sucked into the emperor’s hand.

[Deliver the video bead to the emperor 1/1.]

It was the moment when Hyeonu satisfied the second condition of the quest. The emperor immediately played the video when he received the bead from Hyeonu. Then the video was displayed on one wall of the great hall. The video was from when the bone dragon appeared. It showed Edward, who was riding on top of the bone dragon. It only played until the moment when he took off his helmet and approached Hyeonu. Nothing happened after that because Hyeonu cut it off.

“He really was alive. Edward.” The emperor only had brief thoughts after watching all the videos. He showed no particular emotion; he just looked like he didn’t care. The emperor continued, “Yes, it is clear that he has something to do with the undead that have appeared in the north.”

On the contrary, he even felt cold. It was only seen when the blocked acupuncture point was pierced.

“That’s right, Your Majesty. Edward is the leader of the undead.”

“By the way... there is something I don’t understand. Edward never learned magic. How did he create and control the undead? Aren’t you curious?” the emperor leaned forward and extended his head toward Hyeonu.

Hyeonu was overcome with the illusion that the emperor was right in front of him.

“Based on what I found, it isn’t that the undead are ruled by some artifact or magic. Rather, it seems that something has changed since he was revived.” Hyeonu glossed over it roughly.

He didn’t explain the details of the situation.

“You are hiding something right now. What is it? Marquis, what are you hiding?”

However, the emperor was like a ghost. He noticed that Hyeonu had something to hide.

“Your Majesty, what can I hide? No matter what it is, how can I hide it from Your Majesty?” Hyeonu stepped back and tried to make an excuse.

The emperor’s lips curved up slightly before he asked another question, “Really? Then I will ask something else. Where is it? This person?”

This time, it was a different question. The emperor didn’t ask twice.

“Huh?”

“Where were you? Looking at it roughly, this doesn’t seem to be the snowy mountains.”

Hyeonu hid his bewildered expression and mentioned where he met Edward: “Ah, yes. We met in the depths of the glacier zone beyond the snowy mountains. The adventurers who first met Edward said they met him on an iceberg in the glacier zone. This time, I was able to meet him at a location that wasn’t as deep.”

“Glacier... Iceberg... I understand. I’ll go and see him in person,” the emperor once again uttered a bombshell remark.

Hyeonu couldn’t manage his expression properly and wondered with a dazed face, “You want to meet him in person...? No, Your Majesty. If Your Majesty goes to such a dangerous place...”

He reflexively opposed the emperor’s words.

“Marquis, you are saying something that I’ve heard a lot before. Dangerous? Why is it dangerous when it is a place that you have casually traveled to?” The emperor frowned at Hyeonu.

“Of course, I am well aware of Your Majesty’s strength, but... If even the smallest possibility exists, it is your subject’s responsibility to stop it...”

The emperor roughly waved his hand. “No, your job isn’t to stop me here but to reduce the chances of endangering me through detailed information.”

Hyeonu quickly shut his mouth at the emperor’s words.

“Do you have anything more to say?” the emperor asked.

Hyeonu no longer tried to stop the emperor. He knew the emperor would do whatever he wanted anyway.

“I think we should drive the adventurers to the north, Your Majesty.” Hyeonu subtly asked the emperor for a favor.

“The north? Aren’t the adventurers already defending it on their own?”

The emperor couldn’t properly understand what Hyeonu was saying, so he questioned it. The place beyond the snowy mountain was an area beyond the reach of the emperor’s eyes and ears.

“That isn’t enough. I went directly this time and saw that the number of undead is too large. It is expected that they will descend the snowy mountain soon.” Hyeonu gave a plausible reason.

“What is hard about dealing with this? I’ll remember.” The emperor waved his hand like he was annoyed.

The emperor’s attention was already focused on Edward—his younger brother who died and survived. He couldn’t help being interested.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Hyeonu bowed deeply.