EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school - Chapter 854 - Boundary (7)

Docheol sensed that something was wrong while he was preparing the backup plan.

Before executing it, Docheol put his hand on the furnace as he looked inside the garden, a frown making its way across his face.

Initially, he thought it was just his imagination, but the feeling of discomfort gradually grew stronger.

‘It’s cloudy inside the garden. I can’t see clearly. Are the clouds getting thicker?’

At first, he thought it was the garden’s mechanism to guard against intruders, but when he moved the clouds to change the structure of the garden, Docheol realized that he was wrong.

The garden hadn’t become more cloudy.

It just became difficult to see into the garden through the furnace.

‘It is broken? Why on earth, on a time like this…! Don’t tell me it’s because of that gaze.’

Docheol recalled Sung Gukeon’s gaze as he was caught up in the mental attack skill. 

He was still unaware that it was actually Jo Euishin’s Glare of Life and Death and not Sung Gukeon.

He still remembered the feeling of being thrown onto the line between life and death upon receiving that gaze.

Since Unsa acted as an intermediary, it was clear that the latter would be more affected by those eyes than Docheol.

‘Those eyes were strong enough to break Unsa. I’ll have to fix that as soon as this is over.’

Docheol thought that Unsa broke from the pressure, but the truth was the opposite.

Unsa, who was burning in the furnace, neither alive nor dead and losing all his strength, realized through the Glare of Life and Death that he was still alive.

Unsa regained a bit of himself, feeling more sensations other than the familiar pain.

He felt the presence of his old friend in the cloud-filled garden.

Hwangho.

Although Unsa was still tied to the furnace and wasn’t free to think or move properly, he instinctively wanted to protect his friend from Docheol.

‘There’s a place where I can’t see! Even with all my strength, the only thing I know is that there are three of them…’

Hwareeuk!

The pain increased as Docheol increased the furnace’s flames to control Unsa, but the latter did not waver.

Docheol had no idea that Unsa was desperately resisting.

From the start, the garden was being operated with a power other than his own, that’s why it’s difficult for him to grasp the full situation.

Nevertheless, since they were able to produce overwhelming power that had no trouble killing most royal lineages and humans, the Black Screen paid this no mind.

Besides, since he could just go and look at the situation himself if necessary, even Docheol didn’t consider it a major weakness.

Little did they know that their carelessness allowed a tiger to invade the garden.

‘I’ll have to go see for myself as soon as I separate those three. It’s hard to see ahead because of the clouds!’

Even with his consciousness still not returning to him, Unsa succeeded in hiding Hwangho.

Still, it was his power being used against those inside the garden.

‘It doesn’t matter if I can’t see. As long as it’s one-on-one, there’s no way I’ll lose!’

Fwijik!

Docheol released energy waves and several of the seals engraved on the furnace turned into ashes and scattered.

Now only less than half of the seals carved into the furnace were left.

Each seal symbolized the vitality left in Unsa.

‘I will separate the paths of those who dare to come after me directly, and I’ll bring down those who need to be killed.’

Docheol struggled to separate the entities who had infiltrated the garden.

He could change the garden’s structure, create another one, set up a trap, and launch an attack.

That would be the perfect method to catch the opponent off guard in a short amount of time.

But of course, Docheol was unaware that his opponent entered the garden prepared to destroy that kind of plan.

‘Should I hide Unsa somewhere? No, Sung Gukeon doesn’t know about him, he just went after me. It’ll be fine as long as I move away from the furnace.’

Docheol never thought that Sung Gukeon would come to find Unsa because there was no correlation between the two at all.

On the contrary, Sung Gukeon is known to live his life in opposition to the royal lineage.

‘He sees Unsa as a source of energy at best. What Sung Gukeon is interested in is the corpse of his relative, but he didn’t head in that direction.’

Sung Gukeon, even though he despised the royal lineage, was a good-natured man and wouldn’t just leave Unsa suffering.

However, Docheol didn’t know that about Sung Gukeon, and in the first place didn’t know that the people who were coming were not led by Sung Gukeon.

He’s clueless that Unsa was the priority right from the start.

The plans built on messy assumptions were extremely flimsy and swayed greatly by even the smallest variables.

Docheol manipulated the garden and started to move away from the furnace.

Fwaaat!

“…!”

Docheol felt a presence and quickly turned his head.

A foreign power, neither his own nor that of Unsa, was shining around the furnace.

Docheol frowned as he tried to figure out what it was.

‘Isn’t this the Jin from when Hondon’s power was used?’

At the beginning of their operation, Docheol borrowed Hondon’s senses to check the perimeters of Eungwang District.

That was the only time he borrowed Hondon’s power because he thought that he could finish the mission from then on.

He had no intention of sharing credit with the other Four Perils.

But now, Hondon’s power was staring Docheol right in the face.

He wondered whether he should feign ignorance and leave, or if he should go back and check.

It didn’t take long to decide.

‘Hondon is close to that person. This can’t be ignored.’

Docheol stretched out his hand over Hondon’s Jin.

And as soon as he touched it, he felt Hondon’s senses transmitted through his skin.

* * *

At the top floor of the only skyscraper in Eungwang District, the Hwangmyeong Tower.

Yong Jegun and Kim Shinrok chose to remain silent for the time being, knowing that Hwangho wasn’t in a good condition.

It was Sung Gukeon who opened the door to conversation.

“What happened?”

Hwangho, who was in the body of Hwang Jiho, didn’t respond right away.

He raised his hand low, a gesture for them to wait as if there was something more important for him to attend to.

After some time, Hwangho finally said,

“Jo Euishin lost his left eye. I just finished stopping the bleeding.”

The air suddenly felt several times heavier.

Kim Shinrok gaped, his face losing all color while Yong Jegun’s squinted eyes opened wide.

Sung Gukeon’s expression did not break, but he secretly clenched his fists tightly.

No one dared to ask what happened or how he got hurt.

They could roughly guess the situation just by the look on Hwangho’s face.

What they were more concerned about was Jo Euishin’s condition.

Sung Gukeon asked,

“Is Euishin okay?”

“He said he was fine.”

“Didn’t you say he lost his left eye? He didn’t just hurt it?”

“That’s right.”

Hwangho’s voice was calm compared to the tense atmosphere.

Things weren’t simple.

“Maybe I am the one who’s not okay.”

Seeing that Hwangho couldn’t bring himself to talk about Jo Euishin, it seemed like they were still in the garden.

And it didn’t seem like they were ready to head out.

Sung Gukeon felt a fire ignite inside his core.

Jo Euishin was still borrowing his appearance.

Although several events were intertwined leading to this, the main reason Jo Euishin borrowed his appearance was to prevent his assassination.

And he lost his left eye in the process.

‘I sacrificed my junior’s eye to survive. What is the point of that?’

Sung Gukeon criticized himself for being impressed by his junior’s plans and encouraging him.

Jo Euishin was more reckless and self-deprecating than he had thought.

He wanted to gouge out his left eye right there and then, but there was nothing that he could do now.

‘Does that mean he has to go fight the opponent holding Unsa without his left eye?’

Sung Gukeon felt miserable, but he knew that nothing would change even if he expressed it, so he held back his word.

Kim Shinrok then asked about Jo Euishin’s condition, but he received a disappointing answer.

He knew that Jo Euishin would keep mum about the pain he is currently in.

The reserved Yong Jegun’s expression changed after hearing about Jo Euishin’s injury.

“Something like that happened even with Hwangho-ssi beside him? I hope you don’t forget that Euishin is the Dragon Clan’s benefactor.”

His attitude was so sharp that it startled even Sung Gukeon.

Yong Jegun spoke in his usual tone, but in this situation, his words did not sound light.

He blamed Hwangho and said that if the Tiger Clan couldn’t protect Jo Euishin, the Dragon Clan would take charge.

Although Yong Jegun is known to be the Dragon of Mischief, his words weren’t lies.

The fact that he said that to the leader of the Tiger Clan also seemed to mean that the Dragon Clan would really take custody of Jo Euishin if the situation escalated.

‘Euishin is also the Dragon Clan’s benefactor? That means he’s the benefactor of both the Tiger Clan and the Dragon Clan.’

Kim Shinrok looked flustered at Yong Jegun’s words, but he did not refute them.

Seeing that even Hwangho and Kim Shinrok stood silent, it seemed like it was the truth.

Sung Gukeon recalled the Dragon Clan’s situation he had seen in the Replay.

Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of differences between the Dragon Clan here and in the Replay.

There were some things with clear causality, such as Yong Jegun’s survival after Christmas Eve, but there were also things for which the reasons were unclear.

‘There was something strange about Hwangryong in the Replay. It was odd that he invited Soohyuk and Dain to the Dragon Palace.’

Sung Gukeon checked it out and discovered that the Dragon King’s shaman ceremony was held without a hitch.

There were no apparent problems other than a large-scale change among the Dragon King’s shamans.

Other than that, the unfortunate events that happened in the Replay did not occur in this world.

He knew that Jo Euishin had something to do with it in some way, but it touched his heart that two esteemed royal lineages both claimed Jo Euishin to be their benefactor.

‘I guess it’s safe to say that it’s all related to Jo Euishin.’

Seeing Yong Jegun’s attitude, Sung Gukeon became confident.

He’s now sure that it’s related to the Dragon Palace incident.

His junior who lost his left eye while borrowing his appearance seemed to be accomplishing something greater than Sung Gukeon initially thought.

“I have no intention of evading responsibility. There is no room for the Dragon Clan to intervene in the case of the Tiger Clan’s benefactor.”

Hwangho replied firmly.

Before Yong Jegun could say anything else, Kim Shinrok said,

“Are we ready for regenerative treatment?”

“I prepared the Hwangmyeong Eungwang Hospital. But there’s something that bothers me.”

Hwangho’s words trailed off.

“I looked at where Jo Euishin’s left eye was. Judging from the entangled clouds, it seemed like the area was affected by Unsa’s power.”

“From what I’m hearing, it seems like a normal regenerative procedure won’t restore his eye?”

Yong Jegun continued speaking, the corners of his mouth pointing up but he wasn’t smiling.

“Are you sure there’s no room for the Dragon Clan to intervene?”