You Are Being Deceived

“Of course I’m serious. Why don’t you believe me?”

-It’s not that I don’t want to believe you, I can’t believe you. Put yourself in my position. If one of the demon race suddenly offered to help humans capture the Demon Lord and Four Heavenly Kings, would you be able to believe that?

“Well that…”

Yuseong was about to answer reflexively but closed his mouth.

Absolutely not believable.

He would think there must be some ulterior motive, like pretending to betray them to lead them into a trap or cause internal strife.

It wasn’t because he had a negative personality, but because any sane person would think the same way.

‘This seems blocked from the start.’

Without Serena’s help, this plan could never succeed.

After calculating in a split second, Yuseong put on a serious expression and stared at Serena.

“Sorry, but the analogy is wrong.”

-What part is wrong?

“Don’t think of it as just one of the demon race, but as a Demon Lord candidate who had their position stolen.”

Only one word had changed.

But the feeling was completely different from before.

“A Demon Lord candidate who not only had their rightful position stolen, but is also scorned by all demons and barely clinging to life by sucking up to the new Demon Lord.”

The formerly calm voice now carried a subtle anger.

His face became expressionless as if suppressing emotions, and his eyes and jaw trembled so faintly it was hard to notice without looking closely.

“A Demon Lord candidate willing to eliminate the Demon Lord even if it means borrowing human power because they can’t endure the humiliation. Isn’t that more believable?”

-…I am somewhat more inclined to trust you now. Go ahead. I’ll listen to what you have to say.

‘She’ll listen to what I have to say, huh.’

Serena still didn’t completely trust him.

It was a natural reaction, if anything.

The act just now had merely planted a seed of trust.

If trust could be quantified, it had only gone from 0 points to 1 point.

With this level of trust, the requests he could make would clearly be insignificant.

To receive proper help, he would need to build trust by showing actions like passing information about the hero’s party or helping set traps.

But Yuseong had no such intentions.

‘That way would take far too long.’

Han Jae-kyung and the other party members weren’t fools either – if enemies kept precisely targeting their weaknesses or dangerous situations kept arising, they would notice something was wrong.

Building trust without arousing suspicion would take at least several months.

Obviously, he couldn’t wait that long in a world where he didn’t even know the time ratio.

Yuseong planned to finish this quest within two weeks at most.

“I’m going to set a trap.”

-Let me tell you in advance – I don’t completely trust you yet. I don’t know what kind of trap you’re thinking of, but neither the Demon Lord nor the Four Heavenly Kings or elite forces will be involved.

“Can you send beings with intelligence?”

-That much is no problem, but…

“Then that’s enough.”

This plan didn’t need strong forces anyway.

‘The help I can get with trust level 1 is enough.’

Yuseong began explaining to the puzzled-looking Serena what she needed to do.

-…That’s all?

“That’s all.”

It was an answer filled with certainty, without a hint of hesitation.

* * *

Clang! Clang! Clash!

The pure white sword and silver greatsword crossed.

The owner of the pure white sword was Han Jae-kyung, and the silver greatsword belonged to Jenny, a beast warrior.

“Hup!”

With a short shout, Jenny’s body swelled up.

A strike launched while using Beast Form, which maximized physical abilities.

The pure white sword swung toward the greatsword carrying enough force to easily split rocks seemed pitiful in comparison.

Clang!

“Kuh!”

Surprisingly, the one sent flying wasn’t Han Jae-kyung but Jenny.

She tried using the monstrous strength of Beast Form to pull back her sword that had been deflected in a strange direction, but Han Jae-kyung was one step ahead, diving in to point his sword at her neck.

“You lose.”

“That was another good match today.”

“…Jae-kyung, are you really sure you first picked up a sword after coming to this world?”

“Hmm, you know that’s the twentieth time you’ve asked that question?”

“That just shows how amazing it is. How can you reach this level in less than a year since first holding a sword? I can hardly believe it even seeing it with my own eyes.”

“It’s not that I’m exceptional – it’s thanks to the goddess’s blessing.”

Though he said that, unmistakable pride showed on Han Jae-kyung’s face.

When he first fell into this world, he couldn’t even defeat a single low-level monster, but now he could easily win against one of the continent’s top warriors.

He could clearly feel that he was moving forward.

‘A feeling I could never experience on Earth.’

Home, school, academy.

A suffocating daily life repeating like a hamster wheel.

He didn’t want to go back to that place where he could barely breathe.

‘This is my homeland.’

Dimensional transfer to another world.

Though startled at first, he was able to accept reality without much difficulty thanks to the countless web novels he had read.

What followed were days like a dream.

He became a hero at the goddess’s request to save the world, traveled with beautiful non-human women, and received adoration from countless people.

Though he somewhat missed modern conveniences, he would rather be buried in this world as the one and only hero than return to Earth as just another ordinary high school student.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine. Check on Jenny’s condition instead of mine.”

“You look thirsty – drink if you want, or don’t.”

“Haha, thanks.”

Han Jae-kyung’s smiling face subtly hardened.

It was because of Abel entering his field of vision.

‘A guy I don’t like.’

The human who was originally meant to be the hero.

Though it was because Abel wasn’t chosen as hero that he could become hero instead, he didn’t feel the slightest gratitude toward Abel.

The reason was simple.

It was because Abel looked similar to the bully who had tormented him.

He knew that Abel and the bully were different people.

However, whenever he saw Abel, memories of Earth that he wanted to forget surfaced, causing his mood to sharply deteriorate which led to bullying Abel.

‘I’m actually doing Abel a favor. They say he’d die if he left the party, so making him do errands in exchange for keeping him alive is fair, right?’

After finishing his self-justification, Han Jae-kyung was about to call Abel’s name.

But just before opening his mouth, he felt an alien sensation.

A dark, sticky aura that repelled holy power.

A monster.

“Abel, a monster has appeared. Go take care of it.”

“…Which way should I go?”

“Tch. You can’t even sense that? And you were supposed to be a Hero Candidate?”

“…”

“Go that way. You’re so useless.”

Abel said nothing and leaped into the forest.

Though at first glance it seemed he felt nothing, Han Jae-kyung had noticed Abel’s fists trembling faintly and smiled triumphantly.

He wanted to do more than just verbal abuse and recreate exactly what had been done to him, but held back considering the other party members.

‘But looking at how they usually act, they don’t seem to like Abel much either. Maybe I could be a bit harsher?’

His mood that had sunk from seeing Abel improved slightly at the thought of how to torment him further.

While chatting intimately with the three women, Han Jae-kyung clicked his tongue briefly as he sensed an approaching presence.

Just when he thought he wouldn’t have to see that irritating face for a while, it seemed Abel had finished quickly since it was just an insignificant monster.

Soon after, Abel appeared.

“…I took care of it.”

“Good work. Go rest.”

“Before that, there’s something I want to show you.”

“Something to show me?”

It was extremely rare for Abel to speak first.

Han Jae-kyung tilted his head and made an even more puzzled expression when he received what Abel held out.

A crumpled paper covered in blood.

“What is this?”

“I don’t know either. It seems to be some kind of letter, but I can’t read it since it’s written in characters I’ve never seen before.”

“Why are you giving this to me? Give it to Sasha.”

“The monster carrying this letter called your name.”

“…What?”

Han Jae-kyung made a blank expression at the unexpected answer.

As if not wanting to miss this opening, Abel continued speaking without pause.

“It didn’t just call your name. It said it had to deliver this letter to you.”

“Is that true?”

“I heard it clearly with my own ears.”

“Where is the one who said that?”

“…I accidentally killed it.”

Han Jae-kyung, who had been looking at Abel with contemptuous eyes, unfolded the crumpled letter.

And froze.

“These are characters I’ve never seen before. Are they demon script?”

“It’s not demon language. Hmm, I’ve never seen these characters before. Maybe it’s writing used by a minority race?”

He could hear Jenny and Sasha chattering beside him.

Normally he would have wrestled to separate the two who were clinging together, but right now Han Jae-kyung didn’t have the presence of mind for that.

The severely crumpled and blood-stained paper.

The issue was the identity of the characters written on it.

‘Hangul?!’

Characters he hadn’t seen once since coming to this world.

He wondered if they might be different characters that just looked similar to Hangul, but that definitely wasn’t the case.

[Continental Year 21x. To the new x x Han Jae-kyung, the Demon Lord of xx…]

Though incomplete due to blood stains, the characters written in the letter clearly followed Hangul grammar, and even included Arabic numerals different from those used in this world.

“Hero? What’s wrong? Ah! Could there be a curse in the letter?!”

“No, it’s nothing. Sorry, but could you give me a moment?”

Seeing Han Jae-kyung’s unusually serious expression, the party members backed away in confusion.

Han Jae-kyung wasn’t satisfied with just that and went deep into the forest before unfolding the letter.

A trace of Earth he thought he’d never see again.

Han Jae-kyung began reading the letter with half anticipation and half fear.

Though more than half the content was obscured by blood, the remaining portions were enough to grasp the general meaning.

The letter started with ordinary greetings.

Simple content saying they were a Demon Lord, stating their name and that they wanted to have a conversation.

His heart that had somewhat calmed began pounding fiercely again the moment he read the final line.

[…You x being deceived. If xxx continues, you will be xxx by the sinister x’s plot, be wary and suspicious xx. Trust no one xxx. More details xxx next xxx.]

“…I’m being deceived?”

Han Jae-kyung’s expression twisted.

And at that moment, Yuseong was wearing a bright smile.