Chapter 689
Episode 176: Fate for Two (3)

“It’s not that it didn’t happen—it simply couldn’t happen.”

“You seemed strong enough, though.”

“Sir Siron didn’t just say it—he truly didn’t consider me human. How could a non-human become a knight?”

“I imagine your father could have easily kept you close and taught you to be human.”

“You don’t really think my father is the kind to try taming someone, do you? Especially a beast.”

“That’s true. If your father hadn’t personally recruited you, the Black Knights wouldn’t have tried so hard to sway you either.”

“I never really wanted to be under Sir Siron’s command. I only craved to reach the realm he had touched. The Black Knights’ provocations were the strongest stimulus, so from that time on, attacking Siron and his knights became my most important daily routine. But it wasn’t one-on-one anymore—I was often easily overwhelmed by several at once.”

“Even if they didn’t recruit you, there was no reason to push too hard against someone they didn’t want to kill. And by your own words, you were even… cute to them.”

“And whenever I was subdued, I always ended up eating with the Black Knights at their camp. Even if I tried to run, they’d catch me, bind me, and force-feed me.”

“Why go that far? Was there an order to eat together whenever they encountered you?”

—If you kill him, so be it. But this is nonsense.
—It’s the lord’s order. Feed him.

“That’s what I heard.”

At that moment, Jin fell into thought.

Why on earth would Siron give such an order? The question nagged at him.

He wanted to figure it out himself rather than hear it directly from Hedo.

“Sharing a meal… he must have thought it was a good way for you to regain your humanity. And it probably helped the Black Knights’ spirits too. The Black Sea is a dreadful place.”

“I think so too, Twelve. It was only possible because I was a beast.”

Though neither of them knew it, Hedo’s role back then was similar to Ozdok’s in the current expedition.

For a long time, Hedo spent moments like these with Siron’s knights—eating together, sitting quietly by the campfire, then parting ways.

Sometimes they talked; sometimes Hedo would be eating and suddenly attack, only to be subdued; sometimes the knights gave him advice on swordsmanship.

They were becoming something like friends.

“Ah, in that case, I guess I should have just become Runkandel back then. How did I end up wandering all the way back after falling into Ziplo?”

“Because it wasn’t fate.”

At first, it seemed that if things continued like that, Hedo might soon blend in with the Black Knights.

Both Hedo and the Black Knights thought so.

But that time was brief.

“I was a beast, and Siron and his knights were human. But in the end, we were all becoming monsters. My desire to resemble Siron’s sword faded. Madness was overtaking my motivation.”

The Black Knights fought against the Black Sea, while Hedo was wasting away from an increasingly severe, unexplained madness.

Siron was no different. The unique demonic nature of Changseong kept isolating him from others, and the once frequent, cozy meals became fewer and fewer.

Siron’s orders certainly helped those growing dry inside, but it was only a temporary reprieve.

“The Black Sea is a place where you can’t survive without abandoning your humanity, and Changseong is a realm you can’t control without stepping beyond being human.”

The timing and place—Hedo and Runkandel’s meeting—were all wrong.

Without exception, from the moment they stopped sharing meals, Hedo and the knights drew their swords only to kill each other again.

“By then, the Black Knights, Siron, and I had all reached middle age. Every time we met, we saw the hollow traces of time etched on each other’s faces—it was like looking in a mirror. They must have felt the same when they looked at me.”

Siron’s Runkandel and Hedo’s past was far longer and darker than Jin had imagined.

“And I thought about challenging Siron one last time.”

“Judging by how this story’s going, it wasn’t out of fighting spirit or pride.”

“No. I intended to die. Just as I learned humiliation and revenge through Vanessa, it was only at that age that I first understood what emptiness truly meant. It had always filled me—I just didn’t realize it.”

Hedo’s gaze remained fixed on the sky.

That emptiness was the root of his madness.

“As soon as I realized it, an overwhelming urge to die surged through me. All the years spent studying the sword and merely surviving suddenly felt meaningless.”

At least the knights, though becoming monsters, had clear goals and loyalty, so they had no reason to give up on life. But Hedo did.

He was a man who truly had nothing.

“I met Siron again and drew my sword. Until then, whenever I pointed my blade at Siron, other knights would step in. But this time, no one intervened. Instead, Siron drew Barisada—the same way he silently cut down past challengers.”

At that time, Hedo’s skill was only a few steps behind what it is now.

After decades of training in the Black Sea, combined with advice and frequent sparring with the Black Knights, his achievements had finally begun to explode.

Still, the fight never even got off the ground.

Siron was a wall that couldn’t be crossed, and by then, he had long been perfected.

“When I came to my senses, Siron was looking down at me, fallen. I told him to kill me. What do you think Siron said?”

“Hmm…”

Jin tried to imagine Siron’s response.

Nothing came to mind, so he simply said what he would have said in that situation.

“I think he asked why you never tried to leave the Black Sea.”

Hedo’s eyes widened.

“Indeed… you’re his son.”

—Why are you still lingering in the Black Sea?

“Thinking back, it was the first time I’d ever heard that question, despite all the times I’d charged at them. The Black Knights never said that to me. It’s like not asking a wild animal why it lives where it does.”

In other words, it was only then that Siron began to see Hedo not as a beast, but as a person.

—Go out and live a human life. Don’t chase us anymore.

“When I heard that… I felt like I was going mad. I screamed at him to just kill me instead. When Siron and the knights suddenly left, I tried to stop them, but my broken body wouldn’t obey. They had their duties, but I had none.”

Hedo collapsed there and stayed still for three days.

He couldn’t move, but he hoped monsters would attack and devour him as usual.

Yet, like beasts avoiding the scent of a predator, the monsters stayed away because of Siron’s lingering presence until Hedo finally got up.

“And then I left. I was exiled from the Black Sea by Siron. I didn’t know the way back, but I just wandered blindly—and I was already in Inse. Not once was I attacked by monsters on that path. It felt like they were following Siron’s will.”

Leaving at fifteen and returning in middle age, Inse was nothing short of hell for Hedo.

Because he had nowhere to go.

“Twelve, I always said the Black Sea was a refuge.”

“I see.”

“You can’t grow at all in a refuge. When I came out to Inse again, I was no different from when I left the Black Sea at fifteen. I had become a warrior close to ten stars, but inside, I was still like the day I killed the orphanage director.”

The same situation repeated before and after going to the Black Sea.

The only difference was that no one dared to underestimate or challenge Hedo recklessly.

His size was about the same as now, with wild hair and a huge greatsword, and an eerie, hollow, gloomy aura that kept ordinary troublemakers away.

Also, except for a few times he lost his way, Hedo avoided populated areas altogether.

He mostly spent his time dazed in mountains, by the sea, or on uninhabited islands.

“Did you ever think about going to the Garden of Swords?”

“I was a wreck. You probably never experienced that.”

Jin recalled that before meeting Valeria, after being exiled from his family before the regression, he too had been a wreck.

“That makes sense. Then… Ziplo must have come looking for you around that time. The tower keeper said Sandra had served the family since she was very young. That fits the timeline.”

“That’s right. Suddenly, Baekya came to me when I was on a deserted island.”

“Why did Baekya come for you?”

“Apparently, some of the unlucky challengers I killed in the Black Sea were from Ziplo. I heard one who survived and returned to the family reported my existence. Since then, they’d been waiting for me to leave the Black Sea.”

Even if it wasn’t Hedo, Ziplo always planted people near the Black Sea.

That way, they could monitor the Runkandels coming and going.

When Hedo left Inse, he was bound to be noticed and pursued.

Hedo was starving for days but easily wiped out Baekya.

However, he couldn’t avoid the phantoms that attacked him afterward.

“I was captured instead of killed. I thought if I stayed still, they’d eventually stop trying to recruit me and just kill me. But I was already dead inside, only my body alive. So all the conditions the family set were meaningless.”

Of course, Ziplo never killed Hedo in the end.

Losing a few White Nights was nothing if it meant gaining a superhuman without any allegiance—it was practically a steal.

Besides, Ziphl was already researching mind control magic back then.

If he couldn’t recruit Heddo right away, he could just wait until the magic advanced and use it later.

Heddo didn’t know about this plan, but even if he had, he probably wouldn’t have acted any differently.

“How did Sandra manage to move your heart when you were in such a state?”

At those words, Heddo turned and leaned against the railing, gazing past the dining hall at Sandra.

She was laughing even louder than before, clearly finding something immensely amusing.