Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 271 : Decisive Battle (4)

Decisive Battle (4)

Even now, when I close my eyes, it comes to me vividly.

Being sucked into the rift, the day I first opened my eyes in another world.

And, the days when I was dragged away by unknown people and subjected to horrific experiments.

I thought it would be better to die.

But I couldn't die.

I was unable to die.

No matter what they did, I didn't die, and in the end, I survived.

Perhaps even those who conducted those experiments on me could not have expected that outcome.

Thanks to that, I was able to gain strength, and I barely managed to escape that hellish place.

Together with the Saintess who was locked in that darkness.

"There was no need for you to do that."

At the very last moment, truly at the end, Estella said to me desperately.

"You didn't need to do it."

She seemed as if she was crying.

No, she was crying.

Estella was pressing both her hands firmly against my chest.

The chest pierced by the Demon King's heart, blood flowing.

What was exposed for a moment looked like a red jewel, as red as a ruby.

A jewel so beautiful that it was unimaginable to think it had ever been inside the heart of a living creature.

With this fist, I had pierced his heart and was able to grasp it in my hand.

"No, after all, this is the only way."

I looked at Estella, who was crying, and then looked up at the sky.

A sky that had cracked.

Of course, the sky couldn't really shatter; that was the rift.

Now, with the imbalance of demonic energy and magic power caused by the Demon King's heart embedded in my chest, a great rift had formed.

Only now.

This was my only chance to return.

"Estella, you said it once."

She always suggested to me.

Don't you want to go back?

As if she knew something, Estella always spoke that way.

"You said if I opened the rift, you could send me back to my original world."

"That's...!"

"I don't know what you still haven't told me."

Her power was of wishes, but that power could not reach me.

Estella never bothered to tell me the reason why.

"But at least it wasn't a lie."

Estella could send me back.

That much was certain.

"That's why I'm doing this."

"... Why? You don't even know if you'll suffer forever at the hands of the demon in that heart."

"I already killed him once, so what? If anything, becoming stronger is better."

If left like this, the Demon King's heart would vanish.

If that happened, the scattered power would likely return to some demon or someone with the Demon King's blood.

Until the present Demon King was born, the Demon King's power had always been passed down like that.

The heart in which the powers of the Demon Kings had accumulated through the generations.

And if this heart, combined with the power of the previous Demon King, was inherited by the demons, then killing the Demon King would be meaningless.

"That's why I'll inherit this heart myself. And if I leave for another world, the demons won't be able to chase after me."

"... There's no need to go this far for a crappy world like this."

At her words, which were laced with contempt, I hurriedly looked around.

Fortunately, after the fierce battle with the Demon King, the only ones left standing on two feet were me and Estella.

To think that everyone else had lost consciousness turned out to be such a relief.

With a sigh of relief, I spoke again.

"Don't say things you don't mean."

"That's not true."

"No, I know you."

Estella had always said she was a selfish person.

Unlike those who praised her as noble, she declared herself deeply ordinary and selfish, even the worst person.

But, having watched her all this time, I knew.

"Perhaps, I know you better than you know yourself."

"......"

At those words, Estella bit her lower lip and turned away, as if she didn't want to show me her face. Taking a breath after a silence, she looked up at the sky.

The rift's gap slowly widening.

"... Still, if you leave, one thing is fortunate."

"What is?"

"I won't have to show you my last moments."

The Demon King was dead.

So the world would change, and its values would also change.

A world that had only wished for miracles would now dream of something else.

Since Estella had a lifespan far beyond that of a normal human, the day she lost her power as a Saintess would be her last.

"Therefore, I'll let you go back."

As I silently gazed at Estella's back, she said with a voice tinged with a bit of tears, though she tried hard to conceal it.

"Estella, I..."

And as I took a step closer to her—

Estella turned around, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward her.

Before I could even say anything, as her face came quickly close, my eyes widened.

Just before her lips could reach mine—

"There was something I wanted to say once everything was over."

At a distance where we could feel each other's breath, she spoke.

"But, I guess now isn't the time."

My face was reflected in her eyes, filling them completely.

Since if even one of us moved, our lips would meet, I could only freeze in place for a moment.

Perhaps finding this amusing, Estella smiled a little and pressed her palm to my chest.

"If this golden thread entwining your heart were mine, wouldn't that have been wonderful?"

"Are you talking about the wish? But that's your—"

"Yes, it's mine. Because it's mine... it becomes complicated. This thread, and because I can see right through your heart, too."

Estella's hands gently brushed my hair, wrapping it softly.

When she lightly pulled my head toward her, our foreheads touched gently.

"I promise."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

From our touching foreheads, warmth spread, and the world started to slowly dye itself in white.

A fierce storm rose, and I felt the broken rift slowly widen.

Although it was a precursor to calamity, between her and me, it was just calm.

"This time, since you came for me first..."

Slowly, my body floated into the air.

As I rose little by little toward the rift in the sky, Estella's hand, which had touched my head, slipped away.

"Next time, I'll be the one to find you first."

With those words, my body entered the rift.

At that moment, I saw the golden thread entangled around me.

And I saw the rift gradually closing.

Another golden thread moved as if stitching the broken space, slowly sewing it closed.

"Definitely."

Though the two threads were different, they were also the same.

Back then, I didn't know why.

But now, I think I understand.

***

"Jin Su-hyuk."

I addressed the man walking toward me with an aura like that of a god.

He responded not with words, but swung his fist at me.

With a ripping sound, as if tearing through space, his fist instantly approached my right cheek.

I raised my hand and deflected it, taking a step forward.

"You're exactly like me in the past."

If a human who wasn't an Awakener suddenly gained power without any proper training, what would happen?

Of course, they would not be able to control it fully.

Kuuuuung!!

As I closed in on him and drove my fist into his side, Jin Su-hyuk's neck twitched slightly, accompanied by a sound like beating leather.

Yes, only slightly.

Even though I had used the force of his own attack against him, that was the extent of the damage he received.

"You're just an ordinary person with great strength."

Jin Su-hyuk's frame was nearly two meters tall.

And what about his body?

Even before he gained his power from the God, his entire body had been coated with muscle like a suit of armor.

Now, with the power he held, his size and physique made him resemble a giant.

But that was all.

"It sounds as if you're saying you're different now."

As our fists and legs collided midair, the whole dark star trembled.

If this place had been mere earth or a building, it would have collapsed countless times already.

His attacks grazed my head and body, but my fists kept pounding his body.

It felt like hitting a wall.

As if he was wearing an armor made of muscle, Jin Su-hyuk's body did not budge in the slightest.

"I am different."

I ducked to avoid his punch aiming for my face.

With another step in, I kept drilling punches into his chest and abdomen, and only then did his body finally stagger and retreat.

"I can't help but be different."

Three years.

It's not a long time by any measure, but during that time, I had to fight constantly.

To return, to save the world.

Frankly, I think I overdid it a bit.

Just as Estella said, I didn't really have any reason to save that world.

All I had were reasons for revenge.

But I couldn't help it.

Because I wanted to free Estella.

"The martial art I'm using now, I learned in another world."

There was someone who taught me how to use my fists, someone who recognized my lack of talent with weapons.

He was a master of hand-to-hand combat, one of the warriors that fought guerrilla battles against the demons.

He wasn't a famous hero, but he taught me how to use my fists.

Of course, he was soon killed by demons, but his technique still remains with me.

"It's not just my fists. I learned so much."

Magic, the skill to craft artifacts, various forms of alchemy.

From the demons I captured, blood magic, and far more—I learned countless things, and I never stopped moving forward.

Because of all that, I never reached the so-called 'pinnacle'.

What the true masters attained by dedicating themselves to a single path—I could never hope to reach that end.

That's why I didn't have a Conceptualization Technique.

With the power I'd already gained, I could push past the 'wall' that even humans who had reached the 'realm' couldn't overcome, so I had no reason to obsess over it.

"But now, it's different."

I looked at Jin Su-hyuk.

His pitch-black eyes, reminiscent of the abyss, burned with flames.

Obsession.

Only endless desire was moving Jin Su-hyuk.

In a way, maybe it was pure.

In the end, Jin Su-hyuk merely used every method he could for the sake of his dream.

"It's time to go beyond the wall."

I focused, watching his incoming punch.

I gathered all my senses into the heart that had been warming up, correcting my posture.

I didn't dodge.

I only thought of everything I could use, filling my entire body with power.

Kwaaang!!!

When Jin Su-hyuk's fist struck my forehead directly, the entire dark star shook for a moment.

But I simply stared at his fist resting on my forehead, not moving an inch.

I only focused inwardly.

I calmly collected the power of the "king" sitting on the throne.

'Estella.'

Through Jin Su-hyuk's fist, I sensed the wishes.

An immense divinity.

Even for me, it was a familiar feeling.

As I accepted that power into my body and looked at him, I saw Jin Su-hyuk's eyes widen.

"You said you wanted to become a singularity yourself."

I grabbed his wrist, the one touching my forehead, and slowly pushed it back.

He tried with all his might to resist, but it was of no use.

"That will never happen."

What Jin Su-hyuk desired was a simple dream that anyone might have.

To become the center of the world.

He was just trying to achieve it through destruction.

Despite the grand words, in the end, he was nothing but a slaughterer.

"You will die here."

Even Alencia's broadcasts didn't reach this place.

Our fight would be known by no one.

"Achieving nothing, and known by none."

We fought behind the stage, where it would never be seen.

"As the ordinary human, Jin Su-hyuk."

That is—

The role of a manager.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Oh, manager vs manager.

A fight no one will see.

Good shit.

10 chapters to go.

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