Player who Returned 10,000 years Later
chapter-173

"W-wait. What does that mean?"

His vision blurred, his ears heated up, and his head started swimming.

Words he couldn’t even imagine he’d hear…

"Lilith is already on Earth?"

[That's right. She went around proudly saying that the Demon King finally called her…]

Balrog frowned aggressively.

Balrog already looked scary, so his scowl made him look like a character from a horror movie.

He anxiously bit his lip and kept talking.

[Ugh. That damn girl who acts all high and mighty while just believing in her own looks… Demon King, you mustn't fall for her temptations.] He said with a voice that showed sincere concern.

The reply that came back was chilly.

[Yes?]

"Shut up for a moment."

KangWoo trembled while grabbing his hair.

'No…'

Slip.

The sound of dozens of tentacles wiggling went through his head.

A sticky mucus flowed down from the tentacles, and thousands of suckers licked his skin.

Eighteen eyes and a long tongue similar to a snake's licked his lips.

'Fuck.'

They were memories of the past…

They were his trauma…

A stigma that was imprinted in his mind.

They were memories, emotions, and feelings he couldn't forget or free himself from.

'ShiHoon, I'm sorry for calling you stupid.'

He’d thought ShiHoon was stupid for suffering from past trauma…

But what about him?

'Save me.'

He saw a dark room in his mind…

There wasn't anything soft in Hell. It had cost him a lot of effort, but he'd successfully managed to create a bed and was about to get some sleep when…

Tentacles went through the blanket. When he desperately lifted it, he saw 18 red eyes looking at him.

Wet hands lifted his clothes, and mucus dripped over him and trickled down his body.

As he opened his mouth to shout, a long tongue entered his mouth.

- My king, I love you.

'AAGGHH.'

Just like a student that had met his bully…

Like a prey that had found a predator…

He felt chills, and his body started to tremble.

"Li-Lilith… Is… On Earth?"

Fear took control of his body.

Memories of the dark nights haunted him.

One could say that if he hated her so much, he should’ve stopped her from entering his room, but it wasn't that simple.

Sleeping with Lilith was not only useful because of the 'alliance', but although it was just a formality, she was his 'wife', so it was hard for him to refuse.

For example, the citizens would be concerned in a country where the king didn’t sleep with the queen at all.

…Especially if most people in that country loved and praised the queen a lot.

KangWoo was already struggling to face the forces of the seven archdukes, and he couldn't let division appear within his army, so he had no other choice but to sleep with her.

"Ugh."

He wanted to throw up.

He covered his mouth with his hands.

Maybe it was hard to believe from how he had reacted, but it wasn't that he hated Lilith.

After all, she was loyal to him.

'That was the biggest problem.'

If she were an enemy, he would've killed her with one attack.

But she was a part of his forces—she was one of the top five important figures within the army of the Demon King.

Not only that, she loved him so much that she’d probably even rip her own heart out to gift to him if he wanted it.

Politically and sentimentally, it was hard for him to reject her completely.

'Yeah, fuck. It's my problem for being a sucker.'

He thought about Balrog and Lilith.

If someone asked him if they were important or not, the answer was that they were obviously important.

They'd spent over a thousand years together and had gone through all sorts of things.

If he had even a tiny bit of humanity left, it was obvious he would end up appreciating them after so much time.

[Is there something wrong?]

"Haa, it's nothing. Don't worry."

He sighed and shook his head.

He'd spent a lot of time with Lilith for numerous reasons, and that had given him trauma.

"But…"

* * *

He narrowed his eyes.

'If she came, it was probably back then.'

He remembered what had happened in Japan—how he'd been able to stop Lilith from being summoned.

The battle with Akiyama, the crazy member of the Demon Cult, and what happened next…

Lilith's body hadn't appeared from the fissure, so there was a chance her soul had entered Kurosaki Yurie's body.

"Ah."

A short exclamation left his mouth.

Kurosaki Yurie… He was finally starting to understand her weird actions.

KangWoo's expression paled.

'Yes. That's why she did that.'

Why the granddaughter of the Emperor stood by his side instead of Fujimoto Ryoma’s…

How easily she listened to his requests…

Everything could be explained if Lilith was inside Kurosaki Yurie's body.

"Ah, wait."

A question mark appeared in his head.

KangWoo's eyes widened.

'Isn't this better?'

He hated Lilith because of her appearance.

He felt bad judging someone based on her appearance, but in Lilith’s case, it was too much.

'I spent a thousand years stuck with her. Let's see if you could stay calm after such a long time with her.'

It was as if a giant squid said it loved you.

KangWoo stood up and clenched his fists.

'If Lilith is inside Kurosaki Yurie…!'

The core problem with her would be solved.

Kurosaki Yurie was a girl so beautiful that she could be compared to Han Seol-ah.

'Well, it's not like I want to do something with Lilith…'

He remembered Han Seol-ah's face.

KangWoo nodded while licking his lips.

'Anyway, this is good news.'

He wasn't sure how strong Lilith was after having entered a human’s body…

But the source of a demon's power was in its soul.

Lucifer had recovered his previous strength thanks to his soul and Hell's equipment, so there was a chance she'd have recovered her old strength.

Balrog and then Lilith…

'I hope I'm not creating the Demon King's army on Earth.'

He began feeling a bit uneasy, but the situation was overall okay.

KangWoo took out a smartphone, searched for Kurosaki Yurie's number, and called her.

Ring-

"Hmm."

It didn't matter how much he waited, no one answered.

He tried to call a few more times.

"She isn't answering."

He frowned.

'Well, I guess there's nothing I can do about it.'

KangWoo turned his body.

[Demon King?]

"I have somewhere I have to go, so wait for me."

[If there's something you have to do, I'll follow you,] Balrog said, motivated.

"No, it's okay. It isn't like it's something that needs a lot of people. Not only that, but if we go with your current body, it would just cause a commotion."

[Hngh.]

"I’ll call you if something happens, so keep this in your ear."

KangWoo handed him a communication device that fit Balrog's ears.

Balrog accepted the communication device politely.

[I'll do as you say.]

He didn't say anything else and walked out of the building.

KangWoo used the Authority of Sky and rose into the air.

'Kurosaki Yurie is in Tokyo, right?'

He heard that she was living in the Emperor’s castle.

He stomped in the air, and his body flew at an incredibly fast speed.

* * *

A luxurious castle…

KangWoo reached Tokyo in less than an hour and was standing atop the castle.

He searched for the door and tried to enter.

"Wh-who are you?!"

The bodyguards protecting the castle from the inside quickly surrounded him.

KangWoo took out a white mask.

"I'm a member of Guardian. I came here because there's something I wanted to tell Ms. Kurosaki Yurie."

"Guardian…?"

"Ah, wait."

Guardian was a secret organization that wasn't publicly known.

…But most of the head states knew about them and were collaborating with Guardian, so it was obvious that the bodyguards that were protecting Kurosaki Yurie knew about them.

"Please, move."

At that moment, a young man appeared from behind the bodyguards.

"C-captain Ito."

"I know that person. He's a Guardian, so everyone can return."

"Yes!"

He was a young man that looked calm and had snake eyes.

KangWoo remembered seeing that young man in photos.

"Are you Ito Shinji?"

Ito Shinji…

A Guardian and one of the people that was chosen by Gaia.

"Yes, Mr. KangWoo, this is my first time meeting you. I heard a lot about you from Ms. Gaia."

"There's something I must say to Ms. Kurosaki Yurie."

They didn't have time to make formal introductions.

KangWoo told him his reason for being there.

Ito Shinji's expression darkened.

"Can you follow me?"

He followed Ito Shinji, and they entered a room that gave a plain impression.

There were no traces of someone being inside.

"Here…"

"Is Ms. Kurosaki Yurie's room."

"Is she outside?"

"No."

Ito Shinji shook his head with a grim expression.

KangWoo frowned.

'Wait, this…'

"Ms. Kurosaki Yurie disappeared about a month ago."

'Oh, fuck.'

His uneasy feeling was right.

'Where did she go?'

If it was about a month ago, it was while he was trying to gather the Fissure Seeds.

"Do you know where she went?"

"No. We've searched throughout the entire country, but…"

Ito Shinji sighed.

He went to Ms. Kurosaki Yurie's drawer and took out a white envelope.

"It's a letter that Ms. Kurosaki Yurie told me to give to Mr. Oh KangWoo if you ever came here."

"What does it say…?"

There was no way they hadn't read it.

Someone who was like the leader of the country had suddenly disappeared, so he was sure they had already checked the letter.

Ito Shinji shook his head while smiling bitterly.

"It's written in a way we can't read. It was probably made so that only you could understand it."

"Why didn't you contact me first?"

"She said that, if we contacted you first, the letter would burn down and disappear. I'm not sure how she'd do that, but we couldn't carelessly move."

"Hmm."

KangWoo grabbed the letter.

'What is she planning to do?'

He ripped away the envelope and took out the letter.

As he touched the paper, black letters started to move.

The letter was written in Korean.

'When did she learn Korean?'

Leaving his doubts behind, he started to read the letter.

[Dear Demon King.

Since you’re reading this letter, you probably noticed my identity. If you hadn't, you would have no reason to come and look for 'Kurosaki Yurie.']

'How perceptive.'

She was completely different from Balrog in that sense.

KangWoo nodded and started to read the following paragraph.

[First, I want to say sorry for having hidden my identity after coming to Earth by borrowing the body of this human.]

'Oh yeah. Now that I think about it, why did she hide her identity?'

[I didn't have the courage to stand in front of Demon King… with this filthy appearance.]

"What?"

He couldn't help but curse.

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

Filthy?

Kurosaki Yurie was a beautiful girl by all standards.

[I'm searching for ways to get out of this filthy appearance to return to the one Demon King used to like.]

"No."

[Thus, I have come upon a way.]

"No, fuck."

He couldn't say anything but ‘no’.

[Fufufu. Aren't you already excited? My dear Demon King, Lilith is already excited about reuniting with you.]

"No, but why…? Why? Fuck…"

[There are quite a few humans familiar with demonic energy. They're going to help me recover my original appearance.]

"Wh-what?"

[Now that I think about it, Demon King, you said that the Demon Cult thought of and served Satan as the Demon King. Right? Fufu. I'm going to take this opportunity and make sure they learn who the real Demon King is.]

"Ah…"

His mouth hung open in surprise.

[I'm going to infiltrate the Demon Cult and ensure they learn about the real Demon King. And once I recover my original appearance, I'll meet you again.]

His hands trembled. He felt like he was about to cry.

[My dear Demon King, wait a bit longer.]

[Your Lilith. Chu ❤]

When he saw the last heart, he couldn't resist anymore.

Rip-! Rip!

"AAGGHH!"

He ripped the letter apart and shouted.

"WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!!"

"Wh-what happened?!"

He extended his hand and grabbed Ito Shinji's collar.

"Fuck! What did I do wrong?!!"

"Wh-what?"

"Why me?! Why me? Fuck!! What did I do wrong?!!"

Why am I the only one who can’t be happy?!!