Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 88

The Three Kings’ Disciple (89)

088

Jincheon.

‘The True Heaven.’

It was an umbrella that sheltered them from the swamp they were struggling in, and a shade that protected them from the hot sunlight.

That’s why it was called Jincheon.

Hao Clan.

Woo-oong!

Jincheon was the being they had to worship and wait for.

“I am Jincheon.”

Lee Ro-woon’s words were like a declaration.

Kwa-kwang!

At that moment, a black lightning bolt struck the top of Jincheon Tower once again.

Whirrrrr!

The sight of Jincheon Tower burning, struck by lightning, was similar to a sacred fire in another sense.

Swaaaa.

A downpour.

When Lee Ro-woon closed his eyes.

-That cannot be!

A scene he had never seen before began to appear like a lingering image.

‘Beautiful.’

A woman who seemed like she would be the embodiment of that word.

The woman was kneeling on both knees, wailing.

-How can you betray the heavens!

She cried and cried again.

-I can never do that!

Despite her pleas, a cold voice continued.

“I did not become your heaven because I wanted to.”

The voice came from Lee Ro-woon’s mouth.

“You made me your heaven, you made me a god.”

-Jincheon!

“So now, you must pay the price.”

Lee Ro-woon spoke to the wailing woman without a change in expression.

“Ha Jin.”

Her name.

“Take everything from the Demonic Cult.”

-Jincheon!

“Since it was not what I desired or wanted, you who created that position, take it.”

-Please!

Lee Ro-woon said.

“And….”

Gather all the forces of Eun.

“Plot against me.”

With those words, he felt the lingering image of the woman called Ha Jin and her surroundings disappear.

Swoosh.

Lee Ro-woon opened his eyes.

He had not been summoned to a strange place, nor had he fallen asleep.

It was raining in the street of the Hao Clan where Lee Ro-woon was standing.

“M-Master.”

At that moment, Ha Se-min, with trembling pupils, stood up, unable to hide his confusion.

Ha Se-min ran over, holding an umbrella he had pulled out from somewhere.

He was holding the umbrella over the head of a young girl.

“Jincheon.”

The girl.

It was not clear whether she was a boy or a girl.

But Lee Ro-woon knew instinctively.

“Ha Jin.”

That she was the woman in the lingering image, Ha Jin.

A drop of water, whether from the rain or something else, trickled down her eyes.

***

Lee Ro-woon knew instinctively.

That the girl before his eyes was the master of the Hao Clan, and the woman who had appeared in the lingering image, Ha Jin.

How she had survived for so long.

How she came to be in that form, he did not know.

Throb.

Just by looking at her, a strange, sharp pain was felt from his chest.

‘What the hell.’

These memories, and these emotions.

There was no way he wouldn’t realize what they were.

‘Master.’

Shin Yeo-wool’s memories.

Before he knew it, the Hao Clan members had gathered in the street.

They knelt and bowed their heads, paying their respects to their master, Ha Jin.

‘God.’

Their appearance was like that of believers worshiping a god.

“There was no other way.”

Ha Jin said in a hollow voice.

“I had to pass on Jincheon’s teachings to everyone, but as a betrayer, I could not use Jincheon’s name.”

Ha Jin had betrayed Mu Wang.

But thinking of Mu Wang, she wanted to leave everything he had taught to future generations.

However, as a betrayer, she could not use the name of Shinma [Demon God], Jincheon.

“Inevitably, their faith turned towards me.”

That’s why she tried to become a god herself.

On this very day.

“But everything belongs to Jincheon.”

It was to give everything she had built back to the reappeared Jincheon.

Ha Se-min bit his lip.

The expressionless Hao Clan members.

To them, she was a god.

Believers who would follow anything their god said.

“You….”

Lee Ro-woon said with eyes filled with deep regret.

“You are repeating the same mistake.”

“……!”

She had thought and judged alone, creating a religion.

‘It was the same in the past.’

The birth of the Demonic Cult, which dominated all of Eun, was not what Shin Yeo-wool had wanted either.

“I just….”

A throbbing head.

‘It’s rushing in.’

His master’s memories were rushing in all at once.

Why was this happening all of a sudden?

‘Chaos….’

His masters and he were connected.

The chaos that had been sealed within him was being shared by his masters, creating a bond that could not be severed.

Through that bond, his master’s memories were flowing in.

‘Ha Jin.’

And emotions.

“Jincheon!”

Lee Ro-woon closed his eyes, leaving Ha Jin, who was shouting at him, behind.

He didn’t bother to block the memories flowing in.

However, he only thought of one thing amidst all of this.

‘Me.’

Who he was.

What was the master.

Swoosh.

When Lee Ro-woon opened his eyes again.

He saw Ha Jin kneeling gracefully, paying her respects.

“For a long time, I have been unable to sleep properly due to the guilt of betrayal.”

Ha Jin’s voice.

“Please, end this long wait and atone for the price of betrayal.”

What she wanted seemed very clear.

“You want me to kill you?”

Her death.

It was for Jincheon to punish her.

* * *

In Lee Ro-woon’s eyes, she was a monster.

A monster of Eun.

A different kind of monster from the Gwigokju [Ghost Valley Lord] created over a long time.

She was no longer in the form of a young girl.

“Please.”

She had returned to the beautiful woman he had seen in the lingering image.

“Let me pay the price for my betrayal.”

Betrayal.

She had betrayed Mu Wang.

Clear memories in his mind proved it.

-Kill me.

Shin Yeo-wool’s command.

But she had not kept it.

The price was terrible, truly terrible.

The name of Shinma was erased, and those who remembered Mu Wang were gone.

“That price….”

Ha Jin had been living with that guilt.

Unable to trust Mu Wang, she had led the world to ruin.

To wash away that sin, she had struggled to grow the Hao Clan.

She was crying with the rain.

The world that had been assimilated with her for a long time was representing her emotions.

“I will pay it.”

Her voice was heard along with the lingering image.

-Please kill me.

Her true feelings, her desire to find peace in this endless life.

“You… you know.”

Lee Ro-woon said to her in a heavy voice.

“That I am not the person you have been waiting for.”

Lee Ro-woon had clearly said that he was Jincheon.

Shinma.

A person with the qualifications of the king of Eun.

But what she had been waiting for was not someone with the qualifications.

‘Shin Yeo-wool.’

She had been waiting for him himself.

Swaaaa.

The rain was falling, and her emotions were being swept away by the rain.

‘You’re not coming back, are you?’

She thought that because his successor had appeared, the Jincheon she had truly been waiting for, Shin Yeo-wool, would not appear.

So she thought that waiting any longer was meaningless.

She wanted to leave the end to Lee Ro-woon, the successor of Jincheon.

“…….”

Ha Jin closed her eyes and said nothing.

That was telling him that what Lee Ro-woon had said was correct.

“It’s not me.”

Lee Ro-woon said.

“The person you’ve been waiting for.”

That it wasn’t him.

“That doesn’t matter. It is certain that you have succeeded Jincheon.”

“That’s right. But.”

Lee Ro-woon said, reaching out his hand towards her, who was kneeling.

“The person you’ve been waiting for has also returned.”

“……!”

From Lee Ro-woon’s perspective, Ha Jin was someone who could be described in one word.

‘A crazy bitch.’

A person trapped in her own sins, unable to escape.

That’s why she had changed the Hao Clan into a religious form, creating a fanatical faith.

But still.

“I don’t hate it.”

Lee Ro-woon didn’t hate the human being called Ha Jin.

Her actions were clearly something that could be criticized, something that could be stoned as a villain of the world.

But what did that matter?

“You didn’t betray Master.”

The mark of a betrayer.

But that was also out of her heart for her master.

She had disobeyed her master’s command to kill herself, and became a betrayer to protect her master.

Her long wait.

That was also done out of her heart for her master.

He could never condemn her for enduring this hellish life as an atonement for her master.

“If you have to be punished.”

Lee Ro-woon said.

“The person who should punish you is not me.”

It would be his master.

“R-Really… that person….”

“Master has returned. You must have seen the proof.”

The reason why the Assembly could control the Hao Clan.

The reason why Ha Jin, who would never hand over the rights to the Hao Clan because it belonged to Mu Wang, had to hand them over.

“Shin…ma Token.”

She had seen her master’s token.

Even if it wasn’t certain, it was proof that she couldn’t help but have hope for.

And in front of her, even more certain proof, he had appeared.

“Master is in someone’s grasp. Or, it could be Master’s will.”

He didn’t know.

“But I’m going to get Master back.”

Even if that was what Master wanted.

-If we meet again, we will have to fight each other to the death.

Remembering Mu Wang’s voice, Lee Ro-woon reached out his hand further towards Ha Jin.

“Will you join me?”

The rain was gradually stopping.

Her emotions that had been melting into the rain.

It made Lee Ro-woon smile bitterly.

‘Love.’

Love that had been maintained for thousands of years, or perhaps even longer.

Perhaps that was the true madness.

Clench.

Ha Jin grasped Lee Ro-woon’s hand.

Ha Jin stood up.

Their eyes were fixed on one place.

Towards the man with hollow eyes, Ha Se-min.

* * *

A normal child of the Hao Clan.

A child who had never thought about fate.

That child.

‘Your name from today will be Ha Se-min.’

The day he was chosen and given a name.

Light seeped into his empty eyes.

‘From now on, you must live in the darkness. Are you still okay with that?’

Of course, he was okay with it.

Because she was his light, and the darkness was his salvation.

‘I am the Black Lion King.’

Ha Se-min had devoted everything to the Hao Clan and the Black Lion.

My god.

‘Ha Jin.’

For the master.

He didn’t even have any greed.

He was just proud of the fact that he was working for the Hao Clan and the Black Lion.

Even the numerous favors and gifts that poured in from all sides were only accepted for the sake of the Hao Clan after thorough calculation.

He did nothing for his own personal gain.

‘It’s a gift.’

He only wore the suit she had given him, and he didn’t touch the numerous riches he could have used.

That was Ha Se-min.

But now, that world was being taken away from him before his eyes.

“…….”

It was futile.

‘I….’

He thought he had no greed.

He thought he was just satisfied with everything he was given.

“You wanted it, didn’t you?”

But it was clear that the desire to have the Hao Clan was also growing within him.

Only now, as he was having everything taken away by that man, Lee Ro-woon, could he admit that feeling.

The light was gone, and his eyes were empty.

Now, nothing mattered.

The darkness that he thought was his light was just becoming darkness.

“I won’t give it to you.”

A hand reached out towards him.

“The Hao Clan is mine.”

“Are you… mocking me?”

“No.”

Lee Ro-woon said, reaching out his hand.

“You are the one who will rule the Hao Clan.”

Light returned to his empty pupils.

‘Jincheon.’

The heaven that becomes an umbrella and a shade.

“Will you hold on?”

He said.

‘Shall I tell you how to live?’