The crow is the symbol of the demon king Sidelentium.
Crows are treated as a bad omen in modern times, so it was a fitting symbol for the demon.
However, there are also many people who regarded crows as good luck.
The legend that a crow protects Britain and the Tower of London is a crow, and if that crow leaves, the tower and the country would collapse.
All over East Asia, stories related to the three-legged crow were prominent/
It is also believed that the bird carved on top of the sotdae, the symbol of sanctuary and guardian of the village, was a crow.
(T/N: A sotdae is a pole set up at a village’s entrance. It is a guardian deity that is believed to protect the village.)
‘Along with the magpie, it was a crow that set up the Ojakgyo Bridge between the Milky Way on Chilseok for The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to meet.’
(T/N: Chilseok is the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The Cowherd and Weaver Girl are characters in a famous Chinese folk tale.)
In those stories, the crow symbolizes a chatterbox– a noisy character.
That is completely different from Sidelentium, the demon king of silence.
It makes sense considering the origin of the crow in terms of legends.
‘There’s an anecdote that Apollo’s pet bird with a silver collar mistakenly took a bait to his mouth and hung on to the sky.’
Nevertheless, Sidelentium, the Devil King of Silence, uses a seal that embodies the beak and feathers of a crow.
The seal I found on this labyrinth-type otherworld is the same as Sidelentium’s.
Slide….!
As I approached Sidelentium’s seal, a burst of energy wave fired and it changed its shape.
At first glance, the light reflecting from the seal looked all-black, but it was actually mixed with a green gloss, just like a crow’s body.
As the energy wave became more prominent, I saw a faint shadow wearing a crow mask with the same design as the one I am using.
The entity seemed to be using a skill similar to the Butterfly Spirit (Nabiryeong), which I met in Seokcheon Lake in the past.
‘Sidelentium’s seal and the crow mask. The color of the energy wave… This is definitely Sidelentium.’
Sidelentium stared in my direction.
I don’t know his intentions, but I decided to speak to him first.
“Hello.”
— ….
Sidelentium was silent, but he smiled at my greeting.
And then he began to grin.
I thought he would communicate with me, but I didn’t think that he’d let me hear his voice.
There was no sign of enemies approaching, and the surrounding area was in complete silence.
‘His words were only shown in captions in the game. I’ll just read his lips.”
The Nation’s Failed Game PMH doesn’t feature any character’s voice.
All the lines are shown in captions, and Sidelentium did have some screen time in the game, but I never imagined that I’ll be talking with him like this.
This is what Sidelentium said.
— You do not have much reaction. You are not agitated. Did you expect this?
I expected that I’ll see him someday, but not like this.
Not in this place.
I am actually very surprised, but maybe because I’m “in the middle of fighting”, I guess it’s not obvious from my facial expressions.
I think I’m hiding my emotions well at the moment.
— Someone who uses my seal and my crow mask, of course, you’d be expecting to see me someday.
— After recognizing your existence, I have watched you through the crow mask.
— Don’t you mind being watched by the Demon King?
Sidelentium was watching me whenever I used the crow mask.
It would be a lie to say that I don’t mind, but even if I don’t wear the crow mask, I’m already being monitored by a damned old man anyway.
Rather, I was anticipating him.
But now isn’t really a good time.
‘…Are the other kids okay?’
If I get delayed here, the other kids in my class could get hurt.
Among the other kids who I saw with my eye, it was Saeum and Lena who are at great risk. Fortunately, they haven’t encountered an enemy yet.
‘I can’t show my weakness here. They need to be okay even if I’m a little late.’
I can’t do something stupid like show my weak side before I make a transaction with the devil.
“It’s alright. I’d like to suggest something instead.”
— Alright. Speak.
Inside the game, Sidelentium moves slowly and carefully.
Seeing him now, his personality seems more relaxed than I thought.
Could it be that this isn’t Sidelentium and just the agent who wears his mask?
When I didn’t answer right away, Sidelentium spoke again.
— There is a time limit to the extent and time I can keep interfering in this otherworld.
— Also, I’m too lazy to get involved with the people of royal lineage. I do not want the tiger or the dragon to know of my existence. Speak already.
I’m sure Yong Jegun sensed Sidelentium’s presence by now.
Considering Yong Jegun’s personality, things might get troublesome for Sidelentium pretty soon.
Anyway, Sidelentium was right.
I said what I wanted to say as I recalled the scenario that I had in mind.
“I need a guide to the demon world. I wish to receive help from the Demon King.”
Much has changed since this world conflicted with the other ones.
The main stage of the people of royal lineage is the current world, except for two.
The Sky Clan and the Demon Race.
There were some of them who comes down to the present world, but the majority stayed in the sky world and demon world.
The worlds in which the two exist aren’t completely fused with the present world.
There’s only a “path” between them.
‘I can go instead of Joo Soohyuk and Ahn Dain. Even if they still go, I need to go with them.’
Joo Soohyuk and Ahn Dain will need to head to the demon world for a certain scenario.
The two main characters had pure intentions when they wanted to meet the Demon Race, but they were unlucky.
— I am the guide to the demon world. Do you know what kind of place the demon world is?
“I do not know very well. That is why I need the help of a guide.”
I only know as much as what I saw in the game.
The sky world and the demon world aren’t well-known by the people of royal lineage so I can’t really ask for help from the Tiger Clan.
In order to make things more efficient, I need to get help from someone from the Demon Race, and among them, it’s only with Sidelentium that I could make a deal.
— And what will I get in exchange for being your guide?
I’ve already secured that in advance.
I took out an item card.
After seeing the unique border design and color of the UR-rank item card, Sidelentium’s jaw dropped, and stared at it with admiration.
— The Weight of Wealth and Life!
The card that I took out was the Weight of Wealth and Life, a card given to me by the Sad Bear Goddess.
It’s an item that erases the many uncertainties of a person’s life in exchange for the user’s wealth and longevity.
The Sad Bear Goddess handed me three of these.
I used one on April Fool’s day to save Park Seunghyun and expel illegal entrants from the world of players.
And now, I’m going to use one of the remaining two.
— Instead of giving me permission to recreate the original coin, I asked the Sad Bear Goddess to teach me how to make that kind of item.
— I couldn’t use the item that I made because it wasn’t touched by an upper being close to the heavens. I wanted to have an original, but the Sad Bear Goddess wouldn’t give me one.
Sidelentium once told this story in the game too.
When Joo Soohyuk broke into the Hwanmong Auction to save Saeum of April, this story was mentioned with the appearance of the coins.
— Alright. I accept the deal. However, I have some conditions.
“Please, go ahead.”
I still have one more piece of this card in my inventory.
I don’t plan on using it if I don’t have to.
It crossed my mind to take it out, but I decided to resolve this situation in a different way even if that’s more difficult.
I need to succeed in getting a guide to the demon world.
— I do not understand the motive and principles behind your actions, so I want to confirm something.
Motive? Principle?
I wonder how he’s going to confirm that.
— I want you to clear this labyrinth right now and you have to be the biggest contributor to that.
With that, I understood Sidelentium’s intention.
Sidelentium was wearing a mask, and only his mouth was visible.
I can see the corners of his mouth stretch into a smirk.
— This road leads to the next floor where the boss enemy awaits, while this one leads to the location of the most vulnerable ones in this labyrinth.
— What are you going to do?
After they entered the otherworld.
Saeum of April and Kwon Lena were left on their own.
Although they were surprised by the sudden decrease in the number of people in their party, the two actually managed to stay calm.
“…Didn’t they say that this was an R-rank difficulty otherworld? The shape of the labyrinth is different from what we saw during the briefing.”
“It seems like the difficulty level has evolved! I’ll try calling the others first.”
However, the device cannot connect to the outside world, nor to the others inside this labyrinth.
They did learn through textbooks what to do in case they cannot communicate with each other, but they never imagined that they’d experience it in their first practice.
They both have knowledge of each other’s abilities and powers through their experiences in the first semester.
In their class, no, in the whole Eungwang High School, the two people belong in the lower ranks in terms of attack power.
Still, the first emotion that they felt was worry for their other classmates.
“Oh no. There might be other kids who are left on their own.”
“Let’s go join them as fast as we can!”
The two stood back and forth and advanced as they watched each other’s backs.
Because the labyrinth-type otherworld has a low ceiling, Saeum can’t use his flight skills inside.
They have no choice but to navigate the labyrinth with insight skills, detection skills, and memory.
“I’m glad that you’re here, Saeum. If I were alone, I would’ve been stuck around the entrance.”
“Me too…! I can’t use my flight skills, and I don’t have detection skills like you. I would probably be lost by now if we weren’t together.”
Kwon Lena was usually in charge of guarding their 6 o’clock when they practice with the otherworld simulator.
Kwon Lena’s combat skill is a “whipping technique”, and so she’s capable of a long-range attack with a whip that can adjust length through energy wave.
But today, she held a whip shorter than usual, and she stood in front of Saeum.
This is to protect Saeum as she was the one who has the “enemy detection” skill, and her “wind technique” is disadvantageous in offensive battles.
Perhaps because it was her first time leading the way, her hand holding the whip was shaking slightly.
“Hey, Lena… why did you choose the whip as your weapon?”
Saeum of April tried to ease Kwon Lena’s nervousness through conversation.
“It actually looks difficult to handle a whip. I only know a handful of people who use it too…”
Saeum of April tried to speak more, but he turned silent a few moments later.
It seemed that what he said to try to ease Kwon Lena’s nervousness was rather demoralizing.
Whipping required much more muscle and strength than people think.
It was difficult to control, and yet its damage to enemies is much lower than the physical energy consumed by the user.
Instead of changing the topic of the conversation, Kwon Lena replied in a soft tone.
“… Don’t you need at least one combat skill to enter Eungwang High? But, I have no talent for bare-handed combat, unlike Hyodon or Hani. I wasn’t born with natural combat skills like Saeum. That’s why I have to deal with this energy weapon.”
“Aha, so you learned it so you can enter Eungwang High. Did you have a teacher that uses a whip when you were in middle school?”
“Hahaha, that’s not it. Well, you see…”
Kwon Lena was speaking in a comfortable tone, but it seemed to be difficult for her to speak about this topic.
Saeum recognized it right away and thought that he made a mistake, so he tried to apologize.
However, Kwon Lena continued speaking.
“My parents said it was difficult to get me an energy weapon… I was about to give up, but my sister gave this to me with all the money she saved from her part-time job.”
Kwon Lena briefly explained the backstory.
Unlike Kwon Lena, who is a player, her older sister was a civilian.
Whips aren’t a popular weapon so it was relatively easier to obtain and cheaper than other weapons.
Still, it wasn’t easy for an ordinary person to find an energy weapon like this, but Kwon Lena’s older sister managed anyway.
“I only taught myself how to use the whip, but I can use it to do enough damage to an enemy. I’ve been using it ever since.”
Kwon Lena smiled a completely comfortable smile.
She vividly remembers her awkward older sister giving her the gift with a straight face.
Kwon Lena wanted to talk more about her sister, but….
Fwaaa!
A burst of energy wave spawned around Kwon Lena and disappeared.
It was the effect of her enemy detection skill that was triggered consecutively.
Saeum also felt the energy wave and looked nervous.
“It’s enemies. There are… Four of them.”
