### Chapter 450 – Room 206, The Room of Curses – ‘The Demon King who Revives after 100 Days’ Re (15)
—
– Han Kain
Date: Day 479
Current Location: First Floor, Room 105 – Room of Rest
Sage’s Advice: 0
—
— Ssss!
Just the sound is already delightful.
“Everyone did a great job! Since we finally have a day off, let’s eat well and relax today!”
It feels like we’re having a feast. Is it really a feast?
“Hey! Old man, pork and beef shouldn’t be served together!”
“Who cares! Meat is meat! You’re not a wild boar, so why be picky about it!”
Watching Cha Jinchul and Kim Mooksung throwing witty insults at each other like old friends made me chuckle.
I grabbed a thick slice of pork belly with some shrimp sauce on a soft lettuce, added a couple of green onion salad bits, and made a big wrap.
Next up is the beef.
I took a piece of tenderloin, about two fingers thick, sprinkled a few grains of coarse salt on it, and dipped it lightly in wasabi before taking a bite.
Whoa…!
Is this not the moment humanity advanced civilization for?
It’s not the towering skyscrapers or nuclear weapons that make humans great!
It’s to savor this piece of pork and beef!
“Should we call Yu Mi too?”
“No way. We’re taking this time to relax together.”
“Uhh! But… won’t she be sad if we eat without her?”
“If you don’t say anything, she won’t know.”
“…”
Meanwhile, I overheard some amusing chatter nearby.
“Ha! Aha! Ahri, isn’t that too much?”
“Nope!”
Ahri thinks that sometimes she can put ‘other beings’ into the soul vessels if needed, believing it’s the perfect way to unleash the potential of the heritage.
So she’s wary of getting too close to Yu Mi, who can be swapped out as needed.
But isn’t that even worse?
Sister Eunsol laughed, cutting in.
“I get your point, Ahri, but isn’t it rather pointless?”
“…”
Sungyeob isn’t like Ahri.
In my view, the chances of him swapping out the soul he’s contained is nonexistent.
…
This feeling.
A mix of pork belly, sirloin steak, a bit of beer, and laughter-filled conversations with colleagues.
The disgust and hatred that had been boiling in my twisted heart slowly calmed down.
Realizing this made me chuckle without intending to.
“Ha!”
Ahri reacted to that.
“What’s up?”
“… I think I was really deep in thought earlier, but munching on pork belly and beef made me forget it all. Isn’t that a bit too animalistic?”
“That’s how it is.”
“Is that so? Do the Administration Bureau folks operate like this too?”
Ahri shrugged her shoulders in response.
“Of course. Three days ago, the King Frog swallowed 40 people, yet today, we’re eating beef to unwind.”
“I thought the Administration Bureau used some strange drugs like the Two-Deshima Atileos to handle things.”
“Two what? Is that a real drug?”
“I just threw that out there.”
“… If you keep drugging them, the agents will probably have more drugs in their veins than blood.”
Suddenly, I thought this incident felt more like an accident, just as the teacher suggested.
Losing the protection of the status window had led to losing control over the heritage.
When you think about it, it’s not only the issue with the sacred sun.
Even a grimoire can’t be used properly without a status window, and didn’t I feel that painfully in Room 203?
Of course, having experienced the dangers the sacred sun posed, I should be more careful not to let a similar incident happen again.
So…
“Excuse me, Teacher!”
“Yes, Elena? Do you have something to say?”
“Did something weird happen to me in the room? I noticed Kain was shivering when he looked at me earlier.”
“… Whoa! This sirloin is perfectly grilled. Have a slice.”
I couldn’t help but pick up on the overly sharp sense of Elena whispering to the teacher.
They swept it under the rug for everyone else, but I needed to have a serious conversation with Elena.
As we were finishing our meal, Sister Eunsol spoke up.
“As you know, tomorrow is the day off given by the hotel. So let’s plan tomorrow. After all, Kain can use his advice tomorrow, and since we’re tired today…”
She glanced at me.
Normally we’d chat a bit before heading to bed, but I think my earlier reaction made her feel we should rest.
At that moment, Ahri jumped in.
“Let’s talk about the things we’re curious about, just a few things. We can come up with a big plan tomorrow.”
“That’s doable…”
Curious things?
Sounds like Ahri has some questions for herself.
As the sister naturally moved to the whiteboard placed on the side of Room 105, Ahri said loudly.
“First question!”
“Go ahead.”
“Kain!”
Was there a question aimed at me?
If it’s about why I threw up earlier, that’s a bit too sensitive to discuss in public—
“Earlier, how did you find me?”
Oh, that’s another question.
“It’s pretty dark in the depths of Paradise with a huge underground city, so navigating can be quite tricky. And monsters pop out randomly every minute. The biggest issue is the flow of time being different from the surface.”
Everyone nodded.
We had already passed on this basic information to each other.
“Did you track me through the status window? Like, did it say something like ‘7km Northwest from Room 203’? Did you locate me and fly over using the sacred sun?”
Listening to Ahri’s hypothesis made me bite back a laugh.
“Wow! That could certainly work.”
“Eh?”
“That’s not how I did it, though.”
How would the position info of my companions show up in the depths of Paradise?
I had no clue.
There was barely time to spare, so I didn’t even have a second to open the status window, let alone locate anyone!
My colleagues looked at me with question marks floating over their heads.
“So how did you find me?”
I pulled out a drawing and showed it to everyone.
“Tada!”
“That’s the drawing we received before!”
Yep, this one.
The “Dream Kingdom” painting from the artist as a reward for the noble lineage!
This amazing painting had a secret that I realized only ‘yesterday.’
“Let me explain. It’s a bit long, so listen well—”
At that moment, Sister Eunsol interrupted.
“It’s already interesting, but let’s gather questions first so it’s easier to have a conversation. Anyone else curious about anything?”
The next question came from the doctor.
“As you all know, my identity in Room 206 is that of a secret agent infiltrating the Demon King’s cult. Thanks to this, I have some questions formed from observing the cult for a long time. Aren’t you curious about the relationship between the cult and the Demon King?”
Sister Eunsol tilted her head.
“Could you elaborate a bit more?”
“According to the Order’s analysis, the Demon King is an existence that cannot communicate normally. Even what Kain, who fought with him once, thought was similar. He’s more of a cosmic natural disaster than a personal god.”
I share the same opinion.
“The cult worships such a disaster-like existence and even gains superpowers from it.”
“That’s certainly odd. Let’s explore that part further. Next?”
This time, it was Songee.
“I was hiding in the shelter established by the first Order at the end?”
“I heard.”
“But neither the Cadilof family nor anyone else knew about the related facilities.”
“Oh! Did the first Order hide it from the Cadilof family when creating it?”
“The first Order seems to have some hidden strengths up its sleeve.”
“That could be true.”
Hearing them out makes sense.
While the cult in the depths of Paradise treated the first Order merely as a middle manager, considering the time gap, it’s surprising if there was nothing accumulated over such a long span.
While the owner was fiddling with time in the depths, the first Order spent nearly 120 years in Paradise.
If nothing was amassed during that considerable time, that’s just odd.
After a brief silence, Miro finally raised his hand last.
“Me! Me! Everyone, think about it! Why was I sealed?”
I glanced at the list of questions.
1. How I found Ahri in the depths of Paradise.
2. The relationship between the Demon King’s cult and the Demon King.
3. The hidden strengths of the first Order.
4. The reason Miro was sealed.
The reason Miro was sealed?
I thought the answer to this was clear.
“Maybe because the time dilation is a cheat?”
Everyone nodded at Ahri’s remark.
Honestly, isn’t that something everyone has considered at least once?
The biggest disadvantage of the time dilation is that there’s no way to directly control the summoned entity, but the greatest strength of our party is trust amongst each other.
In other words, no matter whom Miro summons, there wouldn’t be any attacking.
At this point, the biggest weakness of the time dilation had disappeared, leaving only the cheating aspect.
To put it harshly, even the most powerful heritage would struggle to outclass the time dilation.
The time dilation can just summon that heritage, after all.
Moreover, of course, though it’s unlikely, even if a situation arises where we fight among ourselves, the time dilation remains the strongest.
If Miro shoots the summoned entity the moment it’s summoned, it’ll end with Miro’s victory instantly.
The more I think about it, the crazier it gets!
“Wait wait! I was thinking of a different reason…”
Miro’s unique ‘ding’ pronunciation was strangely cute.
Besides that, Ahri tilted her head at hearing the remark that there might be another reason.
“What is it?”
“Earlier, Ahri woke me up, right? I couldn’t break the seal, though.”
“Yeah.”
“When Ahri was checking the owner’s memories, I peeked outside.”
“Remember.”
“And while looking outside, Ahri also slowly—”
“… Wait a second!”
Ahri gasped in shock, stopping Miro mid-sentence as she panicked and rambled.
“Everything was slow?! Wait, what’s happening in the depths? It’s a place where time has slowed down tremendously! Even if decades pass normally in the outside world, only a few days go by in the depths—”
To those experiencing the depths, everything felt terribly slow compared to outside!
Miro felt everything ‘slow’ from a particular moment in the depths.
In other words…
“Whoa! Hold up! Is the Immutable Blessing resisting changes in time? So, it’s like being able to think and move at normal speed in a place where time is moving slow?!”
I was also sincerely amazed along with my stunned colleagues.
Suddenly, Ahri burst out laughing in disbelief.
“Wow! Our mom is totally amazing!”
“Is that so?”
“The heritage is cheating as it is, but the blessing is like some cheat as well! It feels so protagonist-like!”
At that moment, the old man seemed dumbfounded.
“Is the hotel picking favorites? Should I start a strike?”
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