“It seems the Black Flame Dragon inside me has awakened.”

“…?”

After defeating some weak villains with Jeong Ha-yul, I finally returned home late at night.

“Even though I’m not in middle school, if my middle school syndrome is this bad, how bad will it be when I actually become a middle schooler?”

As soon as Kang-woo returned from his hometown, he started roasting me.

“But today, no ribs were broken, and there were no bruises. I even caught five villains! Whether the seal in my head broke or the Black Flame Dragon awakened, one of them is definitely true.”

“Gyeoul isn’t S-Class yet, so the seal is still intact.”

“Then it must be the Black Flame Dragon!”

Suddenly becoming this strong is rare.

It feels like I was a nobody with trash-tier talent, holed up in the mountains for years, and now I’ve become the strongest. If anyone’s felt that, throw a stone at me.

“Do you know that the villains you’ve faced so far would’ve killed any ordinary hero on the spot?”

“…?”

Is… that so?

Thinking about it, even the Crown Prince’s bodyguard and Association President Jeong Ho-min, who aren’t weak heroes, couldn’t last long.

Strangely, I always end up facing strong villains.

And even those strong villains are taken down by even stronger heroes.

Unconsciously, I thought I was the only weak one.

But thinking about it…

I’ve subdued the minions villains brought with them.

When we stopped the prison break incident at the Association’s underground prison, Hayan and I held off a swarm of villains.

Of course, it was possible because Jeong Ha-yul took care of monsters like the Apostle and Fox Mask before they could act…

But that means I can easily handle villains below that level.

‘Am I… strong?’

The only Awakened Ones I can compare myself to are the students at the Academy.

Because of that, it seems I couldn’t objectively measure my combat ability.

“That’s not why I brought you out, but… it’s good you realized it now. Gyeoul, you’re not just top-tier among your peers, but in the entire hero industry.”

“Meow!”

Even Loki, who showed up after a long time, seemed to agree with Jeong Ha-yul, meowing and rubbing his face against my leg.

“…I still have one more seal. What happens if this one breaks too?”

“Maybe Gyeoul will surpass her sister?”

Me… defeating the Demon King, Jeong Ha-yul?

Does that mean… the world’s strongest hero?

Heh…

The corners of my mouth automatically curled up, and my eyes narrowed.

“Kukuku!”

“Don’t laugh like that! You look stupid.”

“So what if I’m stupid! I’m about to become the world’s strongest!”

“Yeah, not yet.”

Not yet, but soon.

Wait for it. Jeong Ha-yul, I’ll show you the taste of Gyeoul’s flick and Gyeoul’s punch.

***

Time passed, and it was Sunday.

After telling the tired Jeong Gyeoul to rest at home, I took Baek Kang-woo to the LK headquarters.

To get an explanation and apology for what happened in Gyeongju.

“But seriously, why did you do that? You knew it was your sister, and you even dragged Park Seol-hwa and the Association into it.”

“Right, maybe I’m going senile like Hwarang grandpa said.”

“Well, we’ll find out when we get there. If he goes crazy and tries to hit me, stop him.”

“He’ll get wrecked by me before that, so don’t worry.”

We arrived at the most sophisticated guild building, the LK Guild headquarters.

“Welcome… Jeong Ha-yul?”

“Yes, it’s Jeong Ha-yul.”

Before I could even finish greeting, the desk employee was shocked to see Jeong Ha-yul’s face.

“How did you get here…?”

“Uncle Jang Gil-yong wasn’t answering his phone, and when I called customer service, they told me not to impersonate, so I came in person.”

“Huh? You called customer service?”

“They hung up when I said I’d call the police…”

Jeong Ha-yul didn’t realize that her words would cause chaos at customer service, and the employee who hung up on her and their direct superior would be held accountable.

For them, it was just following the manual, so they didn’t think it was a big deal.

But for Jeong Ha-yul, the objective fact that customer service hung up on her was enough reason to get them fired.

“…I’ll take you to the guild leader’s office. He’s in right now.”

“That’s a relief. I was thinking of causing a scene here if it was a wasted trip.”

“…”

The employee, who had just started work and was already drenched in sweat, wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and guided Jeong Ha-yul.

The name “Jeong Ha-yul” was too big for a mere employee to handle.

And since her aura wasn’t friendly, the employee was having the toughest day of the year.

He wanted to assign a junior employee to Jeong Ha-yul, but…

If something went wrong, the entire desk team could be fired, so the most senior employee had to step up.

He suffered from nervous breakdowns for a while after this.

Of course, it wasn’t Jeong Ha-yul’s concern.

“Here we are. I’ll leave you here!”

“Thank you.”

The desk employee left Jeong Ha-yul in front of the guild leader’s office on the 8th floor and quickly fled.

“Jeong Ha-yul, hero. We’ve received your message. Please come in.”

“Okay.”

If they had tried to play power games by making her wait outside, she would’ve kicked the door in and started the conversation with a punch to the face.

But as if they sensed that, the secretaries moved faster than anyone else, and there was no obstruction in reaching the 8th floor and entering the guild leader’s office.

“Wow, it’s hard to see your face. Old man.”

“What brings you here, Demon King? Have a seat.”

This was the first time the Demon King had visited since breaking through the window to fight Jang Gil-yong over a trivial matter.

And she even walked in through the front door, following procedures (though many were ignored), which was quite surprising.

After guiding Jeong Ha-yul and Baek Kang-woo to the reception table, Jang Gil-yong also took a seat.

“You probably know why I’m here.”

“I have no idea.”

Jang Gil-yong, without changing his expression, feigned ignorance.

His shamelessness made Jeong Ha-yul frown.

“You really don’t know?”

“Don’t know is an understatement.”

“I’m not here to play word games.”

“I’m not playing either, state your business.”

Jang Gil-yong still seemed clueless about why Jeong Ha-yul had come.

At this point, it seemed less like acting and more like he genuinely didn’t know.

“Sigh… I demand an explanation and apology for attacking our Gyeoul in Gyeongju.”

“Explanation and apology?”

“Of course, appropriate compensation is also necessary.”

Jeong Ha-yul brought up the incident in Gyeongju.

“I have nothing to say about that. As I said, I just wanted to destroy everything about the Satan Church. But I messed up because of Kim Seo-hyun.”

BANG—

“So… why attack Gyeoul when you were supposed to be destroying the Satan Church?!”

Unable to contain her anger, Jeong Ha-yul slammed the table.

The marble table shattered into pieces in an instant.

“You’re still as violent as ever.”

“What?”

Hearing Jang Gil-yong, who had attacked Jeong Gyeoul in Gyeongju without reason, call her violent, she was speechless.

“Enough, just explain why.”

“Hmm… Could it be that you don’t know?”

Jang Gil-yong, who thought Jeong Ha-yul must know, made a complicated expression.

“Know what?”

“Jeong Gyeoul was a sacrifice for the Satan Church.”

“…?”

Unbelievable words came out of Jang Gil-yong’s mouth.

Jeong Ha-yul and Kang-woo, who were listening, widened their eyes and were speechless.

“The Satan Church’s goal is Satan’s descent to the mortal world. For that, they needed a body, and that body is Jeong Gyeoul.”

“…Stop talking nonsense.”

“That, that can’t be! Gyeoul is…!”

Jeong Ha-yul, with a face twisted in anger, and Kang-woo, looking dazed, tried to interrupt Jang Gil-yong, but he continued as if he didn’t care.

“About nine years ago, I went to Israel on a mission from the Vatican.”

“…I know, an S-Class hero suddenly disappeared for almost a year.”

“What I found there was a Satanic church. Unfortunately, I missed the Apostles and the cult leader.”

Jang Gil-yong recalled the church with a large inverted pentagram on the floor and walls covered in blood.

“The basement was horrifying. It looked like they were conducting experiments on children who couldn’t even speak. They seemed to have kidnapped children from all over the world, with all kinds of ethnicities gathered there.”

“What does that have to do with Gyeoul! Shut up!”

Jeong Ha-yul, who had a rough idea of what Jang Gil-yong was going to say, shouted for him to stop.

“Fortunately, I found out what was happening in the basement through documents left behind.”

“…”

“They were experimenting to create a body capable of handling superpowers, magic, and physical abilities. And eventually, they succeeded.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, that’s Jeong Gyeoul.”

“That’s nonsense! Gyeoul is a superpower user!”

“Judging by your expression, something seems to have clicked.”

As Jang Gil-yong said.

Jeong Gyeoul’s physical abilities had been strengthening as she grew, comparable to physical ability users.

“No, no! Even if her physical abilities are like that… she’s never used magic.”

“That’s just because she chooses not to.”

“It’s all circumstantial, there’s no evidence, it’s just your delusion.”

“You can check with the Vatican.”

“…Even if that incident happened, it’s not Gyeoul!”

Jeong Ha-yul’s voice was almost a scream as she tried to cut Jang Gil-yong off, but… she was starting to vaguely sense it herself.

“We had no choice but to dispose of all the test subjects, but ST-156, a test subject, escaped at a young age, displaying all kinds of abilities.”

“…”

“The strongest physical factor injected into ST-156 was yours, Jeong Ha-yul. The magic factor was from Grand Mage Heinz. The superpower factor wasn’t recorded, so it seems like it was self-awakened.”

“Nonsense! The genetic test showed nothing!”

“I don’t know the details either.”

“Fine, let’s say that’s true. But how can you be so sure Gyeoul is that test subject?”

Jeong Gyeoul, who escaped from the Satan Church’s underground lab in Israel, ended up growing up in a poor neighborhood in Korea?

According to Jang Gil-yong, at such a young age, she used her abilities to get past the Vatican and S-Class heroes to reach Korea.

But my first meeting with Jeong Gyeoul was when I saved her from a monster.

“ST-156, no, Jeong Gyeoul, do you think it’s normal for her to become so much like you as she grows?”

“…That can’t be, that can’t be…”

“No matter how much you deny it, Jeong Gyeoul was born to be a sacrifice for the Satan Church. The Satan Church must have realized her identity, which is why they keep sending Apostles.”

THUD—

Jeong Ha-yul collapsed into her chair.

She wanted to deny it, she wanted to punch him and tell him to stop talking nonsense.

But her intuition was telling her that Jang Gil-yong’s words were true.

For a while, there was no sound in the guild leader’s office.

After a long time, Jeong Ha-yul and Kang-woo, with serious expressions, left the office as if fleeing.

The secretaries, who saw the broken table through the slightly open door, rushed in.

“Guild leader!”

“Are you okay!”

“Don’t make a fuss, I’m fine.”

“…What happened?”

“Don’t worry about what happened, worry about what’s going to happen.”

If the Vatican finds out, they’ll move to eliminate Jeong Gyeoul.

It’s much easier to eliminate Jeong Gyeoul, who could become Satan’s vessel, than to eliminate the Satan Church’s leader.

When that time comes.

Will she go after the Satan Church to protect Jeong Gyeoul?

Or will she turn her back on the Vatican and the world to protect Jeong Gyeoul?

Depending on her steps, everything will change.