### Chapter 291 – Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (14)
—
– Cha Jinchul
—
The moment the lightning struck me, a storm of light threatened to scorch the entire world around me.
I couldn’t see a thing. It was like being hit by a flashbang, completely blinded by a violent burst of light, and I just trembled and shivered.
However, one thing was crystal clear: my mere existence right now was anything but normal.
Sure, my body fortified by the blessing of courage has superhuman durability, but come on, there’s gotta be a limit, right? No way I should still be able to think clearly while being roasted alive by lightning!
Something incomprehensible was happening to my body.
Slowly, the light began to fade. At the same time, my senses started to return.
A heavy smell invaded my nose, and my whole body vibrated up and down. The half-burned carcass of Kurta was still somehow clinging to life.
My skin had turned pitch black. Something that looked like glossy obsidian scales had completely replaced my skin. Even my eyes and ears were altered.
As I scrambled towards Kurta’s head in confusion, I heard a familiar voice.
‘… Who are you? I’m burning alive, and you’re just fine while I’m in this sorry state.’
“Kurta?”
‘Who else would I be?’
“Dude, you wouldn’t get it, but I’ve got someone else chatting with me in my head right now.”
‘…’
“Time to end this resilient life of yours.”
‘My lord of the heavens…’
In its final moment, the divine hunting dog passed away searching for its master.
As Kurta’s skull shattered, a brilliant blue light shot from its body towards the heavens. Perhaps someone up there was collecting the soul of the hound.
Of course, beyond that point, it’s really none of my business.
—
“Waaaaaaah!”
A roar that shook the heavens!
The soldiers, who had been trampled under Kurta, shrieked with joy, filling the battlefield with their ecstatic cries.
How should I even express this feeling at this moment? Joy? Satisfaction? Exhilaration?
No single word could capture it! My heart raced like never before, and an overwhelming emotion tickled my throat.
“Uaaaaaaah!”
Before I knew it, I was howling along, and the soldiers followed suit. This moment would definitely be unforgettable.
But amidst all this, a single worry crept into my mind.
—
As I returned to the command tent of the Supreme Commander, that worry became a reality.
The soldiers on the battlefield were tens to hundreds of meters away from me. They were just celebrating the death of Kurta, thinking I had pulled off some miracle.
That meant most of them hadn’t seen my actual condition. But entering the general’s tent, where I could be observed closely, the situation changed.
As soon as I stepped in, the generals who had been cheering froze, mouths half-opened in disbelief at my grotesquely transformed body.
How on earth am I supposed to explain this?
I kept thinking while coming here, but I just couldn’t find a clear answer. So I decided to play the excuse of being a corpse.
“General Cha! What on earth is that body…?”
“Kurta.”
“What?”
“Kurta cursed me. It dared to bare its fangs at the divine hound of the heavens.”
“Is that so!”
I hesitated even saying such nonsense, but surprisingly, it worked. The generals, who were eyeing me with fear, soon gathered around, assuring me that there would be a way to fix this back in the capital.
After all, to them, Kurta was just an absurd monster, a wolf the size of an elephant wielding lightning. If it had the power to curse humans, they could accept that.
As the atmosphere relaxed a bit, the Supreme Commander smiled at me.
“General Cha, come here and drink! Your body has changed, but you can still hold your liquor, right?”
… The thought of a drink made my face involuntarily flush. Of course, it was just the feeling of blushing; I wasn’t sure if my face, covered in black armor, actually turned red.
‘I’ll be back before that drink cools!’ Seriously, what kind of line was that? I must’ve been too caught up in the mood!
… But I have no regrets.
Once in a lifetime, who gets the chance to say something like this?
“Haha! Unfortunately, the drink must be cold by now. If I had come a bit earlier—”
“What do you mean? You returned before the drink got cold!”
The Supreme Commander had placed the cup over the heater. In that moment, I couldn’t help but clap my hands in admiration for the Commander’s sense.
Before long, a feast of food and drink sprang up from all directions.
Rumors of my curse from Kurta had already spread through the camp, so while the soldiers flinched at me, they didn’t act like I was some monster.
—
“Hey.”
—
“Answer me. You can talk to me, right? It’s probably about time for the ‘next scene,’ so what exactly did you do?”
Even as the scene transitioned, the existence that seemed to be a ‘witch’ hadn’t said a word to me. What on earth was she thinking?
I definitely needed to bring this up the moment I went outside.
—
As Cha Jinchul’s body grotesquely transformed, the theater audience was thrown into chaos.
“What, what is that? Did Jinchul take some stars? Wait, no way!”
While Eunsol panicked, Mookseong remained unfazed.
“Isn’t this part of the movie’s plot? Has a god descended upon the protagonist?”
Ahri exhibited a puzzled reaction.
“Suddenly? It’s coming out of nowhere. Besides, that change doesn’t look divine at all.”
When Seungyub caught sight of Cha Jinchul, completely covered in pitch-black scales, he was amazed for a different reason.
“Wow, that looks just like Black Panther from the movies! Is this some kind of similar directing?”
Moments later, when Cha Jinchul mentioned “the curse of Kurta,” the comrades were once again thrown into confusion. Not a single frame of Kurta casting a curse had been seen by them.
At that point, rather than focusing on Cha Jinchul’s transformation, Kain grew annoyed regarding the movie’s pacing.
“Seriously! Just when I thought we were getting to the conclusion, here we go again! Did this hotel inject drugs into the plot?”
—
— Bump!
The sound of a metal cart rolling over a stone.
— Clank!
The narrow cart struggled to move, clanking against the iron around me.
—
What on earth just happened to me?
If I were to summarize the explosive development in that movie shortly before the banquet came to an end, I blinked, and suddenly a considerable time had passed. A servant in a scarlet robe appeared before me, shouting.
“Criminal, Cha Jinchul! I command you! Oh, how outrageous! You’ve been exposed for colluding with nomads of the prairie to deceive the people! Your wickedness has finally shown itself in your flesh!”
In short, I was being accused of conspiring with the nomadic tribes to bring peril to the empire. The emperor’s attendants, along with soldiers, had come to haul me off to the capital while locking me in a mobile prison.
Normally, no emperor would feasibly pull something like this.
The problem is…
I slightly turned my head to see my reflection in the iron ceiling. A peculiar appearance, certainly not human, greeted me—Like a villain from the special effects shows I used to watch as a kid.
“Pretty cool, I guess.”
It’s true, it looked kinda cool to me. But what would people from this world think about it?
Just thinking about it made the answer pop up. Given my current state, even if the emperor randomly babbled some nonsense and slapped a crime on me, it would totally hold up as evidence. My very body would be proof enough.
The generals who fought alongside me believed—I mean, they were practically worshiping me, ever since I shared that experience. They’d believe my excuse about Kurta’s curse.
But how about the emperor and his attendants, who hadn’t shared that experience with me?
Right now, I’m a ‘war hero,’ and people would want to keep me in check for even the most trivial of reasons. Now that there’s this ‘appropriate justification,’ there’s no way they’d let me off the hook.
I had no idea what to do in this situation.
“Take a quick break!”
—
When the procession stopped, the rattling metal cart came to a halt. At that moment, loud noises began to emanate from outside!
“Waaaaah!”
What the heck is going on?
Being cooped up in this mobile prison, I couldn’t see what was happening outside. The sounds of soldiers clashing swords and spears were all I could hear!
What’s going on? Isn’t the one transporting me an attendant of the emperor? Attacking the emperor’s attendants openly on the way to the capital? Even I’m not well-versed in history, but I know that’s a guaranteed treasonous act!
Should I just bust this prison down?
Honestly, I believe I could smash this pathetic cage with one arm. I could leisurely contemplate this because that’s how confident I felt.
I could escape any time I wanted.
But before I could open the prison door, someone came in.
“Whoa, whoa!”
“What’s with the shock?”
A familiar old man, the Supreme Commander.
“No, am I not a major criminal right now? Can you just come barging in like this?”
“Are you scared just because I opened a door? Isn’t that a security issue?”
The old man chuckled and rolled something round towards me. It was the head of someone who had been mocking me earlier, sent by the emperor.
“Be honest now. If you really set your mind to it, would you have been able to smash those bars any time you wanted?”
“…”
“I’ve seen you fight countless times; I’d know if you couldn’t. The fools from the capital can’t possibly think you’re really trapped. I was observing you to see when you’d finally make your move, but since you weren’t coming out, I came here myself.”
“…”
“Why the hell were you just sitting there like an idiot? Were you planning to stay like that?”
“What am I supposed to do then?”
“Just do whatever! Well, if you were gonna sit there with a heart full of loyalty waiting to die, I’m not going to stop you.”
“…”
“Let me tell you something you don’t know.”
“What is it that I don’t know…?”
“Did you know there were three attempts on your life through poisoning in the last few months?”
“Wasn’t it two?”
“It was three. One time, it was discovered by attendants when you weren’t around. Regardless, who do you think is behind all this?”
“I’m curious about that too—”
“Why are you so clueless? Did you think it was the evil nomads of the prairie? They were so desperate they jumped into boiling oil, trying to summon wolves. Do you really think they could so easily interfere with the food of the imperial generals?”
It was a refreshing realization.
In the midst of the crisis facing the empire, the war hero ascending amidst chaos. Isn’t this straight out of a pile of movies? What’s the core ingredient that always gets thrown in?
‘The Emperor’s Resentment.’
How could that not be a factor!
“You annoying old man!”
“Old man?”
“… Never mind. Thank you for letting me know, Commander. But why are you helping me?”
The old man seemed to space out for a moment before muttering.
“I’ve dedicated my life to protecting the walls. In the summer, I fend off raiders who come to steal crops, and in winter, I prevent abductions. And yet, the one sitting on the throne is busy spilling weird stuff in food every time a capable general appears.”
Hearing the behind-the-scenes story of how the emperor was allegedly poisoning competent generals left me momentarily speechless. This guy is someone three times worse than that old man.
Finally, clarity returned to my mind.
Just as Songyi had an instinct about the ending in the first movie, I too realized the destination I needed to reach.
… Just because the one on the throne is an ancestor doesn’t mean I need to be an Admiral Yi Sun-sin.
Sorry, but it’s time for the reversal at the Weehan Path from now on.
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