Necromancer Survival
chapter-400

[Summon all standby servants to my side.]

As she listened to the voice hovering in her ears, Kim Olim pulled her hand away from the Moon Issak clone that she had been demolishing. The moment Choi Lee-kyung had used his [Master Authority], all her attention was drawn towards him.

‘Choi Lee-kyung… Wasn’t he meeting up with Seo Dawon?’

For some reason, she couldn’t help but frown; something didn’t feel good. She looked at Woo Ragi and Bang Eunji nearby.

“What’s that?” Woo Ragi, who was clearing away the remaining stone statues, lowered his [echo blades]–he must have heard Choi Lee-kyung’s voice as well. Moreover, as soon as the voice stopped speaking, his body began to turn translucent, starting from his fingertips. It was evident that his summoning time had ended.

When Bang Eunji saw Woo Ragi’s condition, she sheathed her [GunBlade]. “Eunji guesses he’s joined up with guildmaster-nim?”

“I haven’t heard from Seo Dawon, though.”

“……”

The three of them looked at each other, but this standoff didn’t last long. A summoning circle emerged from beneath their feet, breaking their silence.

When space distorted and folded before unfurling once more, they were now relocated in a rather foul-smelling cave. The three of them were alone–no others were around.

“…Ara?”

A few seconds after they arrived, Jung Garam was also summoned–though perhaps ‘dragged in’ was a better descriptor. After blinking his confused, red eyes a few times, he glanced around; it appeared as if he had just regained his senses. He looked bewildered–as if he had just awoken from deep slumber. “Where… am I?”

As soon as Woo Ragi heard that, he frowned, “What are you talking about? Were you locked up until now?”

“…I don’t know. I…can’t remember a thing that happened after I went inside that bird cage.”

Upon hearing Jung Garam’s words, Kim Olim’s brows furrowed automatically. Moreover, the fact that there were only four servants summoned here bothered her.

She rushed to give instructions to the guild members present, “First, we should scatter and find…”

However, a cold voice cut her off before she could finish.

[There’s no need to do that.]

Seo Dawon slowly walked out from the shadows of the wall. His face was cold and expressionless.

The guild members felt an intense apprehension towards him–a strange sense of discordance. First, Seo Dawon’s hair had become quite long; furthermore, one of his pupils had turned golden.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Woo Ragi glared at Seo Dawon, “What did you do to end up like that?”

[……]

Seo Dawon only glanced at the Swordsman with indifferent eyes; it didn’t seem like he had any desire to respond. Woo Ragi frowned–their sarcastic banter was spoiled by the Mage’s arrogant attitude. He frowned before pointing his [Echoblade] at Seo Dawon as the Mage slowly approached.

Kim Olim moved to dissuade Woo Ragi, but she thought better of that and decided to observe first. After all, there was an ominous aura emanating from Seo Dawon. Bang Eunji and Jung Garam took half a step back–they had no desire to intervene.

Holding his [Echoblade], Woo Ragi asked coldly, “Also, you need to explain that disgusting smell wafting off your body.”

However, despite this tense situation, Seo Dawon remained calm.

[It seems there’s a lot you’re curious about.]

Seo Dawon murmured slowly, as if he couldn’t see the blade pointed at him.

However, Woo Ragi sensed the underlying hostility and tightened his grip on his sword handle. “Don’t change the subject. Where’s Choi Lee-kyung?”

[Can I ask a question as well?]

“What?”

[Did you drink his blood?]

Woo Ragi was flustered by that question. Seo Dawon’s words made him recall the impulsive kiss he had shared with Choi Lee-kyung.

In an instant, Seo Dawon quickly narrowed the distance between him and Woo Ragi; he quickly grabbed the other’s jaw with his black-glove clad hand.

Woo Ragi reflexively tried to push Seo Dawon away, but the Swordsman also froze at the unexpected contact. “Mm…Mmph?!”

“Omo?” Bang Eunji murmured.

Seo Dawon firmly bit down on Woo Ragi’s lower lip. Since the Swordsman was in a spiritual state, there was no blood, but the bite’s intensity was enough to tear through the lower lip–if Woo Ragi was made of flesh and bone.

Woo Ragi was rigid with shock until Seo Dawon moved his mouth away. In fact, everyone was in shock–except for Bang Eunji, who stared at them with shining eyes and flushed cheeks. Only Seo Dawon remained composed. The Mage faced his friend–who was on the verge of vomiting–with a smile on his face.

[It seems like you keep on forgetting, Ragi-yah.]

“……”

[I warned you to always maintain a ‘proper’ distance from Lee-kyung-ie.]

“You son of a bitch…” Woo Ragi, belatedly rising up with his surging anger, grabbed Seo Dawon by the collar. In the end, though, he only swore and pushed Dawon away roughly. Just looking at the goosebumps on his back of the hand made it clear that the recent contact had left him deeply traumatized.

Kim Olim looked at Seo Dawon like she was fed-up with his antics, “…That was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen this year.”

She momentarily paled, as if she had just imagined touching lips with Seo Dawon. Meanwhile, Woo Ragi, still unable to calm down, kicked a nearby piece of glass.

On the other hand, Jung Garam looked around before lowering his voice and whispering to Seo Dawon, “Dawon-hyung… but, you know… I think Choi Lee-kyung will throw a fit if he finds out about this.”

Bang Eunji also murmured, pressing at her pounding heart with both hands, “B…BL… That might be okay too…”

Seo Dawon, the culprit of all this unexpected pandemonium, just stood there with a smile.

Soon, he raised his gloved hand into the air and drew a vertical line. A black hole–the entrance to his inventory–began to open midair alongside the movement of his hand.

“Blegh… That really makes me nauseous.”

“…What the hell are you carrying around?”

A terrible odor leaked out of that open gap; the stench was difficult to endure, even for Vengeful Spirits. Instead of answering, Seo Dawon plunged his arm deep into his inventory.

“Guuuuuhhhhghhh…”

Soon, Seo Dawon’s hands firmly gripped a swollen blue-ish lump of flesh and began to pull it out. Surprisingly, though, the flesh wriggled as if it were alive.

But, as soon as the head popped out, the frowns caused by the stench soon straightened; everyone made different expressions.

Bang Eunji was the first to move. She got close to what was presumably ‘Moon Issak’ and slightly lifted up the gag in his mouth. “…He has a few teeth missing.”

Seo Dawon nodded and dropped Moon Issak onto the floor. Plop–! The limbless body slammed straight into the ground. Bang Eunji pursed her lips as she watched Moon Issak’s torso struggle. “I was thinking more of a bleached-white doll…” ¹

[It’s possible to dye him.]

“Isn’t he an undead?”

[He’s half undead, but you should still be able to bleach him white.]

Upon hearing this, Bang Eunji kicked Moon Isak with her heeled foot. Accompanied by a scream, his body, which had been flipped over, faced upwards.

Meanwhile, with a cruel grin on his face, Jung Garam approached quietly like a cat and looked down at the Investigator. The young assassin’s face was flushed. “How did you strike this balance? Amazing.”

Afterwards, sounds of Bang Eunji and Jung Garam’s cheerful play with “Moon Issak” echoed through the silent cave. Kim Olim watched the scene with a blank expression before approaching Seo Dawon. “Where is Choi Lee-kyung?”

After a brief silence, Seo Dawon responded with a smile–

[I put him to sleep.]

“You used a skill?”

Only after that question did Seo Dawon turn to look at Kim Olim. Kim Olim, on the other hand, felt the terrible weight of his silence. She couldn’t hold back any longer and criticized, “I remember you said that you would no longer go back on your word. That you wouldn’t do anything irreversible.”

[I have no intention of hurting Lee-kyung-ie.]

While his tone was placid, his words contained a warning against crossing any more lines. Of course Kim Olim, as a faithful friend, ignored his warning. “Your protection borders on confinement. Protecting Choi Lee-kyung without his consent is imprisoning him, Seo Dawon.”

Her words were meant to return him to his senses–a metaphorical jolt to his head…But, instead, Seo Dawon laughed.

[Even if you’re sick of it, we have no choice.]

“…….”

[To be honest, I can understand what Moon Issak was thinking.]

“……”

[Maybe, fundamentally, we’re the same kind of person.]

Kim Olim looked at Seo Dawon with sad pity in her eyes, unable to deny. Shadows fluctuated violently under their feet, but Kim Olim was oblivious.

—-

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TL: Snaps for Kim Olim–everything she said just speaks to me (and I think to what the readers are anxious about for Lee-kyung. Eunji and Garam are naively gleeful at Moon Issak’s death (?), but Kim Olim (and to a lesser extent Woo Ragi) , as long time friends of Seo Dawon and older perhaps more mature members of the guild, sense a crisis. There’s a moral line that’s crossed here.

Stuff like this is why I don’t think the author just writes toxic relationships–she’s not glorifying Seo Dawon but rather showing how flawed he is. And, as a flawed character, he’s interesting. His own comparisons of himself to Moon Issak shows how vile he knows his actions are. Honestly, Moon Issak is such an interesting foil to Seo Dawon.