The Gamer's POV-Chapter 224: Unraveling Angel

The Present...

King’s Paradise.

——

A knock on Seo-yeon’s door snapped her out of her reverie, and she slowly opened her eyes. Pushing herself up to sit, she turned toward the door, then said in a low voice, "Come in."

In response, the door creaked open, and a female Naga slithered inside.

"My lady." She lowered her head slightly. "It’s time."

Seo-yeon pressed her lips together, then after a few seconds, she replied, "Alright, we’ll leave soon."

The Naga nodded, turned, and slithered out of the room, politely closing the door behind her.

Seo-yeon sighed.

But almost immediately after, she began to cough violently. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand as black blood seeped between her fingers. It took a long while for the terrible fit to pass, after which she brought down her hand and stared at the blood.

After a few moments, she took out a handkerchief from the pocket of her hoodie. Then, as she wiped the blood from her hand, she muttered in a hoarse whisper, "I’m dying."

Her expression turned sour.

"At this rate, I won’t even last another month."

While she spoke, her form began to release faint wisps of black smoke from her fingertips. It was as if her very body was starting to unravel.

Seo-yeon immediately reached for the pendant hanging around her neck and began to fiddle with it.

It was a beautiful pendant. One part of the teardrop crystal was gold while the other was black. Depending on how the light touched it, the black color looked more like a dark green.

She held it for a moment, and then her body stabilized as the smoke retreated back into her skin.

A few seconds later, her fingers trembled slightly as she tucked it back under her shirt. Then she stood up and walked to a mirror by the wall.

The moment she looked into the glass, it wasn’t her reflection that stared back. Instead, reflected in the silver surface was a beautiful yet terrifying being that looked like an angel with six black wings.

However, the feathers of the wings kept falling away like ash. As they drifted down within the reflection, they disintegrated before hitting the ground.

Seo-yeon sighed again.

She pressed two fingers to her chest twice, then tapped her forehead twice in a steady rhythm.

"May your will be done, oh God of the good and absolute evil," she whispered.

After that, she exhaled long and hard, then turned away from the mirror. Out of habit, she fixed her large round glasses, then pulled her hood up over her head and stepped out of the room.

***

A few hours later, Seo-yeon arrived at the obsidian castle belonging to Lee Lim.

With her Naga following behind her, she walked through the silent corridors until she reached the doors of the Audience Chamber. Just before she went inside, she rubbed her chest where her pendant sat beneath her shirt.

She held it for a few seconds, exhaled, and prayed to another deity. ’God of creation and manifestation, please hide me as you have always done.’

As if in response, the golden part of the pendant brightened faintly in a way that was almost impossible to detect.

It was only then that Seo-yeon finally pushed the doors open.

It turned out she was late.

All the seats around the large table were occupied, with the exception of the leader’s throne at the head and the seat right beside it.

One of the lords, a beautiful woman with blonde hair, had her head resting on the table. When she heard the doors groan as they opened, she lifted her head and turned toward the sound. When she saw her friend, she beamed, waved, and gestured for Seo-yeon to come sit in the empty seat beside her.

Seo-yeon quickly walked over, keeping her head slightly bowed. When she got to her seat, she slid into it and greeted her friend, "Hey Hana."

"Hello." Hana seemed really happy to see her. However, her expression slowly faded into a frown as she took a closer look at Seo-yeon’s face.

"Why do you always look like you haven’t slept in days? You look even worse now. Is everything okay?"

Indeed, the dark circles under Seo-yeon’s eyes were deeper than they had always been, and her skin had a dull, grayish tint that even the hoodie’s shadow couldn’t fully mask.

Seo-yeon’s lips remained pressed as she thought of what to say, then right as they slowly parted, the doors to the hall swung open and two figures stepped into the hall.

They were Lee Lim and Eun-ji.

Seo-yeon quickly reached up to adjust her glasses again, then she muttered quickly, "I’m fine. Don’t worry so much. I’ll catch up on sleep after this is over."

Hana’s frown deepened, but she didn’t press any further as Lee Lim and Eun-ji passed by their seats on their way to theirs.

The two of them moved with a quiet authority that seemed to pull the rest of the room’s attention along with them. As they walked, the low chatter among the other seated lords died down until only the sound of their footsteps on the stone floor remained.

After taking their seats, Eun-ji scanned the faces of everyone gathered at the long table, until her gaze stopped at a little boy in a track suit who seemed engrossed in a game on his phone and he had a pair of headphones over his head.

Eun-ji stared at him for a long second before finally breaking the silence. "Put that away, Ji-hoon."

The boy raised only his eyes from the phone. Then he stared blankly at her, before clicking his tongue and slowly sliding the device into his pocket.

Eun-ji then turned to Lee Lim. And everyone also followed her lead, shifting their attention to the man at the head of the table.

He didn’t say anything and just sat with his fingers intertwined, resting them lightly against the edge of the dark wood.

Seo-yeon, who was staring at him intently, noticed something. Lee Lim’s skin was paler, and although he tried to hide it, he did look a bit sick.

Also, for someone who didn’t like wearing much, today, Lee Lim was wearing a heavy, dark overcoat and a turtleneck that covered him all the way up to the base of his jaw.

Yet despite that, Seo-yeon was sure that she could see a vein pulsing erratically on the upper side of his neck that looked like a burn mark spreading beneath the fabric of his collar.

After a few seconds, Lee Lim exhaled, smiled, and began. "Gentlemen, ladies, I’ve got both good news and bad news. Which would you guys like to hear first?"