Epilogue Chapter 28 - Outing to Hell (5)

“Phew, it’s been a while since we’ve fully enjoyed ourselves like that! All my stress was blown away!”

Cha Yeon-Joo snickered as she stretched under the crimson sky that was getting dark.

“You don’t even have anything to get stressed over,” Oh Kang-Woo retorted.

“Do you have any idea how much responsibility comes with being a guildmaster?”

“Okay, okay.”

Kang-Woo cut Yeon-Joo off as she was about to boast about being a guildmaster and turned to Han Seol-Ah following them from a distance. She was blankly looking up at the darkening crimson sky.

“What’s wrong, Darling?”

“Nothing. I was just... thinking how quickly the day flew by.”

After they enjoyed the blood-red hot spring, they climbed a mountain made of a colossal demonic beast’s bones and visited a swamp covered in mysterious purple fog that was apparently poisonous. Each of them was more like a restricted area than a tourist spot but Seol-Ah did not care about such trivial things because she was with Kang-Woo.

“I’m glad. There’s not much to see in Hell so I was worried you’d be bored.”

Seol-Ah hugged Kang-Woo’s arm and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Fufu. I’m more than happy just being with you, honey.”

“There you guys go again.” Yeon-Joo shook her head exasperatedly. “Are we going back to the castle now?”

“There’s one more place I want to visit.”

“Isn’t it getting a bit dark to go sightseeing?”

“It's okay. It’s not for sightseeing.”

“Eh? It’s not? Then why are we going there?”

“Well...” Kang-Woo slurred and smiled bitterly. “You’ll see once we’re there.”

“What...?”

Kang-Woo walked past Yeon-Joo tilting her head in wonder. They walked for about ten minutes and arrived at a cave where the ground was split and covered in broken rocks. No, it was more exact to say that it was the remains of a cave. The cave’s entrance was half-destroyed and the other half was damaged to the point that it might crumble with just a touch.

“What is this place...?”

Although the Ninth Hell was arid and ruined, this was on another level.

Yeon-Joo looked around with a frown. “Was there a war here or something?”

If the ground was merely split and covered in broken rocks, Yeon-Joo would have thought it was simply an earthquake but there was a reason why she didn’t.

“Did... people used to live here?”

Most of it was worn down but there were definitive traces of people living in this cave— not one or two demons but enough to form a village.

“Oh...”

“This... must be the place.”

Seol-Ah and Yeon-Joo had peeked into Kang-Woo’s dream through Lilith’s ability long ago. It was of Kang-Woo’s days before he became the Demon King— specifically when the princes of Hell destroyed the village of the Halves who lived in seclusion from the demons. They recalled seeing Kang-Woo wailing as he watched the Halves being killed.

“Yeah, it is.” Kang-Woo smiled bitterly and nodded. “I couldn’t visit because the last time I came to Hell was on my wedding anniversary with Lilith.”

He did not want to come to a place like this on his lovey-dovey outing with his wives.

‘But that girl would be sad if I didn’t visit this time.’

“Let’s see... Oh, here it is.”

Kang-Woo looked around in search of something and pulled out a plant growing from the crumbling rock wall. It was the bloodlight plant commonly found anywhere in Hell.

“I’m sorry for not coming often, Fel,” said Kang-Woo as he placed the bloodlight plant in front of the cave entrance.

The cave had been left unattended long enough that most of the village’s traces were worn down but Kang-Woo could remember the girl’s name as clear as day.

“Kang-Woo...”

Seol-Ah softly bit her lip as she stared at Kang-Woo paying tribute with his eyes closed.

“It’s where my love survived for ten millennia.”

She recalled what Lilith had said.

‘Unnie said it’s... where he survived. Not where he lived.’

Seol-Ah could easily tell the difference from the sorrow on Kang-Woo’s face.

‘I want to console him.’

She wanted to bury his face in her breasts and pat his head until his sorrow subsided. She wanted to kiss and hug him.

‘But...’

She wondered if it was okay to disturb his tribute. She spent moments in thought and clenched her fists.

‘Yeah, I’m going to console Kang-Woo!’

She stepped forward and took a step full of determination. Just then, Yeon-Joo pulled out a bloodlight plant from a nearby rock wall and placed it next to Kang-Woo’s.

“This is a bloodlight plant, right?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve never seen nor spoken to her, but...”

Consoling her husband by paying tribute together for a girl who was no longer with them was not asking for much.

“Thanks, wife.”

“This is nothing. Right, then. Stop being such a downer and keep your back straight, dammit.”

Yeon-Joo walked behind Kang-Woo and squeezed his shoulders with all her might.

“Ack! Y-You’re gonna break them, woman!”

“Don’t be such a baby.” Yeon-Joo snickered and hugged him from behind. “Well... I’m sure you went through tons of hardships in Hell, but wouldn’t you say your life turned out alright since you have a pretty wife like me now?”

“Wow, are you consoling me?”

“Why? You disapprove?”

“Of course not. I would die if I were any happier.”

“Hehe. You’d better be.”

Yeon-Joo smiled as she turned Kang-Woo around. She brought his head to her chest to gently caress his head like a baby.

“Y-Yeon-Joo... this is...!”

“What? Are you about to cry from joy?”

“It’s so flat and hard...!”

“Motherfucker.”

“I’m joking.”

Kang-Woo smiled and pulled himself out of Yeon-Joo’s embrace. His somber mood from thinking about the past had been blown away thanks to his wife.

“I love you, my wife,” he said as he yanked Yeon-Joo toward him and kissed her.

Yeon-Joo gently pushed Kang-Woo away and coughed, “A-Ahem. I told you not to kiss me when we’re outside.”

She turned around to hide her red cheeks and noticed Seol-Ah standing still from a distance.

“Th-That aside, what are you doing over there, Seol-Ah?” she asked.

“...rst.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“I wanted to console him first... I wanted to console him first... I... I... I...”

Seol-Ah bit her nails as she stared at Yeon-Joo with lifeless eyes.

“S-Seol-Ah?”

“Why is Yeon-Joo there instead of me...? Ahh, that’s right. I wanted to console him first, but Yeon-Joo cut in line...”

“H-Hey! Oh Kang-Woo! Mayday! Mayday!!!”

Yeon-Joo quickly turned to the cave entrance in pallor but all that was there were two bloodlight plants. Kang-Woo was nowhere in sight.

“Where the fuck did he go?!”

“Yeon-Joo... Why did you do that...?”

“KYAAAAAAHHH! S-STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!”

A woman’s screams, horrible as one would expect to hear in Hell, filled the night sky.

***

“Huuu, that was close.”

Kang-Woo noticed Seol-Ah’s obsession manifesting one step before Yeon-Joo and ran away without looking back.

“My dear wife... I hope you find happiness on the other side.”

Kang-Woo turned to the direction of the cave and paid tribute to Yeon-Joo.

‘Right, I’ll wait for them at the castle.’

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Kang-Woo sent Seol-Ah a message and the location of the Demon King’s castle to her communication orb so that she would notice it once she calmed down and headed straight to the castle.

“Let’s see... I wonder if Kang-Hyun is training well?”

He had assured his wives there was nothing to worry about but couldn’t help but worry as a father.

“Hmm.”

Kang-Woo had not planned to check up on Kang-Hyun since he did not want to interrupt the training.

“But... delivering food should be okay, right?”

Kang-Hyun was being trained by Balrog of all people; forget meals in between, Kang-Hyun was likely going through brutal training with no breaks.

“A kid should eat at least three meals a day.”

Kang-Woo touched his shadow, satisfied by the excuse he had made to check up on his son during his training.

Wriggle.

A large ice box popped out of his shadow. He pulled out a lunch box from inside it and went down to the castle basement to look for his son.

“The training room should be around h—”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Kang-Woo heard his son’s screams from afar. He could sense intense fear from it, indicating the severity of the training.

“Balrog, that son of a bitch... isn’t he going a bit too far?”

Kang-Hyun wanted this but he wasn’t even ten years old yet.

“I should give him a piece of my mind.”

Kang-Woo frowned and entered the training room where the screams were echoing from. There, he saw

them

.

“DO NOT LOOK AWAY! CONFRONT YOUR FEARS!”

“C-Confront... Urgh. HYAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

“HEY! I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK AWAY!”

Kang-Hyun was trembling before squirming tentacles and Balrog was scolding him for it.

‘What the fuck? What the hell is going on?’

“Ah...! F-Father!”

Kang-Hyun ran toward Kang-Woo after noticing him. It was rare to see the mature Kang-Hyun act this way but Kang-Woo had no leeway to think about that.

Squelch.

Because the tentacles standing before Kang-Hyun began to chase him.

“S-STAY AWAY!”

“F-Father...?”

“NO, NOT YOU, KANG-HYUN! BEHIND YOU!”

“Behind me...?

Gasp!

” Kang-Hyun belatedly noticed the tentacles chasing after him and jumped into Kang-Woo’s embrace in shock. “F-FATHER! I’M SO SCARED!”

“I’M SCARED TOO!!!”

Kang-Woo and Kang-Hyun hugged each other in pallor as the hideous tentacles engulfed them.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

“HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Fearful screams, horrible as one would expect to hear in a Demon King’s castle, echoed throughout the training room.