Chapter 302

How to Not Be Consumed by Darkness (5)

Possessed.

Even if that expression isn’t entirely accurate, Jin Hyuk’s soul entered someone else’s consciousness.

With the mission of guiding him to survive.

– 【Become Erhaplah and teach him how to survive. Use any means necessary. The contract lasts until I say it’s over.】

He entered an abandoned baby and helped that baby survive alone.

No matter how frustrating it was, he never made a sound, only giving hints.

And so, he spent 300 years trapped in darkness.

“Now that you’ve regained your memories, I can ask. Why were you so quiet all those years? I thought you might’ve given up. I thought you’d been consumed by darkness.”

“I don’t know the details, but it felt like that. Later, much later… I think I was preparing for when I’d disappear. You know how they say, ‘You don’t know where you’ll end up, but you know where you’ll rest’? I think I hid my presence so he wouldn’t rely on me, so he wouldn’t be confused when I left.”

Hmm-.

Hong Ki-jun let out a deep sigh, like someone who’d been drinking.

Not only did he endure unimaginable lengths of time without going mad, but he also cared for the original owner of the body.

His legs had gone numb from sitting in one position for too long. Hong Ki-jun stretched his legs, rubbed his thighs and knees, and then crossed them again.

Jin Hyuk rested his clasped hands on his bent knee and gazed at the peaceful fields.

“When I think about it, it was a savage yet honest world.”

“Yeah. It was a world of survival of the fittest, but the strong protected the weak. Evil was punished without mercy. But you….”

Hong Ki-jun trailed off, glancing at Jin Hyuk to see if he remembered.

“Yes. I couldn’t kill. No, I stopped him from killing. His instincts were so strong that I struggled to control him.”

Jin Hyuk laughed awkwardly.

The person Jin Hyuk had entered never harmed anyone, thanks to Jin Hyuk’s strong influence.

Instead, he underwent harsh training to ensure no one could harm him.

And he protected the weak. That too was Jin Hyuk’s intention.

– 【How romantic.】

Dugu Elil’s assessment wasn’t unfounded.

It was a world of swords, shields, and unique techniques.

– 【Indeed, old man. The small world you lived in had no magic.】

When he was young and weak, he ran to survive. As his body grew stronger from running, he kept running to become even stronger.

Jin Hyuk taught him all the martial arts he knew.

Not stopping there, he combined them with the world’s combat techniques and developed them further.

He pushed him through brutal training until it became second nature.

So that even when Jin Hyuk left, even without a guiding light, he could fight against enemies.

“That’s right, that’s right. It’s been so long that it’s hazy, but it’s coming back to me now. That guy went through a lot too.”

Hong Ki-jun nodded repeatedly as he listened to Jin Hyuk’s story.

He endured the pain of bones breaking and muscles tearing every day. The person Jin Hyuk had entered. To avoid harming others and to avoid being oppressed himself, he endured hellish training under Jin Hyuk’s strong influence.

“I had no choice but to train his body.”

“Huh-, yeah. He wasn’t the brightest. I don’t know how you felt, but even watching him was frustrating.”

The two chuckled and shook their heads.

The person Jin Hyuk had possessed was as stubborn as they come.

“But he was kind… Whether it was because of me or just his nature, I don’t know.”

Haha-.

Hong Ki-jun’s shoulders shook as he laughed in disbelief.

“I knew being nice wasn’t everything, but this kid took it to another level. Everyone else could use techniques, but he just couldn’t understand. You gather your energy, visualize it in your mind, and just create it, right? No matter how much I explained and drilled it into him, he just didn’t get it. Wow-. I’ve never seen anyone so dense. Even the breathing techniques….”

Jin Hyuk’s voice rose to the point where Hong Ki-jun worried he might get too excited and lose control. It was refreshing to see the usually calm guy get worked up.

Swoosh-.

To calm his heightened emotions, Jin Hyuk focused on his breathing.

The breathing technique Jin Hyuk instinctively used when he returned was something he’d learned back then.

It was ingrained in his soul, so it came naturally, like an innate talent.

But why Jin Hyuk’s power was different, why he couldn’t use it actively, would forever remain a mystery. Even Dugu Elil didn’t know the reason.

“But his body was strong. So I thought, ‘Alright, let’s focus on what he’s good at’… Selection and concentration.”

Jin Hyuk smiled bitterly and wiped his face.

The kid was kind but too dumb.

Thanks to Jin Hyuk’s efforts and rote learning, he quickly learned to read and excelled in the world’s academics.

“If I were you, I’d have been so frustrated I’d have snapped at him.”

“He’s human.”

Hong Ki-jun raised an eyebrow, as if to ask what he meant.

“Rather than forcing my will, I wanted to let him live as he was and give him a chance to see the world. One moment this, the next moment that. Struggling, conflicted, never quite finding his footing, inconsistent. That’s what being human is. How many people in history have lived their entire lives with one clear goal, perfectly straight? Struggling, tempted, swayed—that’s being human.”

“Yeah, even religious people probably aren’t like that.”

“Even I have different thoughts in the morning and evening. That’s the natural state of an ordinary person. When I came back, I was sometimes flustered in middle school. During puberty, I felt like wandering too. Then I thought, how boring must it be to live with just one goal? Such people probably only exist in fiction. It made me feel at ease. Like, ‘Ah, I’m finally becoming human.’ You know what I mean?”

Right, that makes sense. Hong Ki-jun couldn’t stop nodding.

Hong Ki-jun, who supported Jin Hyuk’s daily life to let him experience the seasons he’d missed, felt proud as the adult who’d backed and sponsored him.

“Even at work, when I saw other employees, they’d have serious meetings, but during breaks, they’d chat about random things and share personal stories. At school, break times with friends seemed more fulfilling than the actual lessons. Those casual conversations stick in your memory, and those little chats enrich life, don’t they?”

It was a piece of life’s puzzle that Jin Hyuk had been missing.

Fragments he hadn’t been able to gather in the past due to his narrow vision from loss.

Those fragments come together to form the long story of life.

So, you gave him the chance to collect the stories you never had. Hong Ki-jun’s expression turned solemn.

“Is that it? No more memories?”

Hmph-!

Hong Ki-jun let out a short, sharp cough.

“Well…”

Sighing, Jin Hyuk scratched his head until it made a scratching sound.

His face turned red in an instant, and his cheeks puffed up.

“There’s more. At some point, his ego went wild, and from then on, he rejected my influence.”

“Ah…”

Hong Ki-jun lowered his head and scratched his forehead, as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.

His forehead turned red, like he’d been bitten by a mosquito.

“Oh no… I can’t believe you remembered that.”

“Don’t be embarrassed. I’m innocent. It wasn’t me.”

“I believe you.”

It all started with an incident where the friends he’d protected since childhood were massacred.

The enemy was too strong.

Just one enemy.

Only one, but so powerful it was hard to believe such a thing could exist.

After witnessing his friends’ gruesome deaths, he charged at the enemy without regard for his own life. The ego that had been under Jin Hyuk’s control for over 20 years broke free like a wild horse.

He rejected the shadowy figure of Son Jin-hyeok, who had been lurking unseen and unheard in the darkness.

If Jin Hyuk hadn’t desperately found the enemy’s weakness and devised a countermeasure when his life was on the line, he would have died too.

“That incident made me gradually let go. It was time for him to live on his own. I only helped in dangerous situations and let him live as he pleased otherwise.”

“I thought as much…”

Ahem-.

Hong Ki-jun coughed and looked toward the distant horizon, scratching his beard.

Once his control was lifted, he transformed from a righteous young man into a reckless playboy.

He didn’t maintain order properly, so when a child was hit by a carriage, he went to the guards and beat them all up, even incapacitating the army sent to capture him. Bare-handed. Even then, Jin Hyuk didn’t intervene.

He drank hard liquor like water and became a chain-smoker who always had a cigarette in his mouth except when sleeping.

Wherever he went, he slept with women, unleashing the instincts he’d suppressed. He even had strange habits, like only sleeping with a woman exactly five times.

Yet, he always had a woman by his side. His partner changed daily.

Though Jin Hyuk had enjoyed drinking occasionally, he was far from the other two vices.

When he returned to the past, he finally understood why cigarettes felt familiar and why women didn’t feel strange.

“He was so pitiful… That’s why I let him be.”

The pain of losing the friends he’d protected, cherished, and grown up with overnight resonated deeply with Jin Hyuk, so he couldn’t bring himself to scold him.

After defeating the enemy, he tore down a stone wall to create a grave for his friends and knelt before it, crying tears of blood. Jin Hyuk cried with him, comforting him as best he could. It was all he could do.

His deviations weren’t against social norms, so no one criticized him.

With the strongest body in that world and a handsome, impressive appearance, women flocked to him endlessly, even if he found it annoying. He was a playboy who sought them out even when they didn’t come to him. A stallion in heat would’ve been more dignified.

He seduced the daughter of a local lord he met during an adventure, responded to the advances of a noblewoman, and even flirted with a revered saint.

Some days, he’d sleep with over ten… Ah, never mind.

He continued living as a reckless playboy.

‘I keep thinking about it, and it’s making me dizzy.’

That’s when it started.

Jin Hyuk completely severed his connection with him and curled up in the darkness.

He fell into a long, deep sleep.

He didn’t wake up until a life-threatening enemy appeared, triggering an unconscious alarm.

‘I… shouldn’t go into detail about the naughty stuff.’

I better keep my mouth shut.

Ahem-.

Jin Hyuk subtly avoided Hong Ki-jun’s gaze.

Cough-.

Ahem-.

For a moment, an awkward atmosphere hung between them.

Glancing at Hong Ki-jun, he asked, “So… did you see everything?”

“No, I mean… It’s my duty and mission to watch over you, but since I knew you were there, I couldn’t not see. I didn’t see everything, but yeah. Did you not see?”

…He’s really good at this, isn’t he? Hong Ki-jun muttered like a ventriloquist.

“I closed my eyes. It was his privacy.”

“I see…”

The flat tone made it seem like he didn’t believe him.

His eyes seemed to narrow too.

“Really.”

“Uh-huh. I believe you. Who else would believe you as much as I do…”

I said I believe you, what’s he so guilty about… Hong Ki-jun glanced at the cloudless sky.

That’s when it happened.

A strange head popped up over their shoulders.

“What are you looking at? What are you doing so well?”

“Ahh-!”

“Oh no!”

It was Yoo Jin.

She had a colander on her head with grass and leaves stuck in it, disguised like a soldier from a war movie.

She held a toy gun and had pine cones hanging from her chest.

“You-you-you—when did you get here?”

Yoo Jin must’ve crawled here, as her elbows and knees were covered in grass stains.

Jin Hyuk, usually so sensitive, hadn’t noticed her approach, likely because he was focused on the conversation with Hong Ki-jun.

“I just got here~. What were you doing so well, Uncle? But I only saw Uncle, not Oppa~.”

Thankfully, she didn’t say the key word out loud.

If sharp-eared Yoo Jin had heard and asked for an explanation, he’d have been sweating bullets.

“Just talking with Uncle and Oppa. Yoo Jin, go play. Over there, Mi-kyung and the others are all together.”

“Okay~, hehe~. Bang bang! Whoosh~! Boom~! Follow me!”

Yoo Jin fired one-sided shots toward Choi Mi-kyung, who was relaxing by the waterway in the distance. She even threw pine cone grenades.

She gradually moved away.

“Does Yoo Jin… play like that often?”

Hong Ki-jun, pale from the surprise attack, pointed at Yoo Jin crawling away with his chin.

To Hong Ki-jun, a little girl playing war games alone was quite shocking.

“No…”

“Ah, that’s a relief-.”

“…She does it every day.”

Ahh-.

Your mom must have it tough. Hong Ki-jun closed his eyes and shook his head.

With the troublemaker gone, they had to continue their conversation.

There was still more to learn from Jin Hyuk.

“What I really want to ask is, how did you endure all that time?”

Hong Ki-jun’s eyes were both earnest and pitiful as he asked.