CHAPTER 25

'Until then, he had the image of a dungeon closing machine, or the strongest man in mankind…'

Suddenly, the humanity that didn't exist springs up. Wouldn't he be like that? Meyer is drinking.

I thought he was a human weapon with a strong body and heart from birth, but I felt sorry for the fact that he was also a human being.

Surely. That is the weak side of the strongest man in the world.

At this moment, it was only for me.

On the other hand, it was funny.

If that man I sympathize with grabs my neck and gives strength in his hands, I'll leave this world directly. Who feels sorry for whom.

Isn't it like a mouse thinking of a tiger?

At the absurdity, I smiled and muttered alone.

"Don't worry too much."

"How can I not care."

Meyer stared at me with an expressionless face.

Is it my delusion?

The golden eyes with fever shone as if they were longing for an answer to something.

With my fingertips, I gently touched the entrance of the glass and smiled.

The scent of red wine stuck in the glass was sweet, but it was also reminiscent of the blood puddles that had been seen countless times.

"Dungeons are, frankly, too harsh for a normal human being to endure, aren't they? I don't know what kind of person Wipera was in the first place, but it's not strange that he went back."

It was not uncommon for expedition members who could not stand in and out of the dungeons to change like the Wipera.

It is easy to belittle people's lives when they go around the dungeon.

Although the death rate is low, you have to keep walking through the danger of dying if you let your guard down.

A place where people who were close, colleagues, die without knowing.

It also took me a long time to get used to such a place.

Perhaps, he had managed to withstand the world of the game as a defense mechanism.

Treating people with the sense of playing games, entering dungeons, killing monsters, killing people…

'Thinking so, I'm in danger too, right? I have to be careful.'

The most important thing is not to cross the line.

The temptation of the devil always appears in front of humans, but that does not mean that everyone holds that hand.

I said it in a snap.

"Of course it's not weird, not that it's right. That's what you said. He can't be forgiven for doing that. That's right. Not everyone takes the easy way out of the sacrifice of others. That he made that choice is…"

I paused for a moment.

My mind was fine, but my tongue took it away from me as if I had enough alcohol.

"Because he's a weak man without convictions. Yes. It's because he's not a strong man after all."

Whatever the end of the first round was like, it would never have been good.

The ability to raise it like that is bound to betray you at the crucial moment.

I glanced at Meyer's large, rough, scarred hand on the table.

The clenched fist was about to clench too much.

Did I feel sorry for that? I reached for Meyer's hand without realizing it.

I comforted him by patting his scarred hand, which was much bigger than mine.

"Your Excellency doesn't have to pay attention to the circumstances of those who are not strong. Forget it."

After everything is over and Meyer, who killed the Demon King, becomes the emperor, he has to look at the people, so all the weak should be looked at, but now it is a long way off.

To be exact, there is no room or room for that. He's a man who has to focus on being stronger than anyone else.

Meyer glanced at my hand over the back of his.

After so little silence, Meyer suddenly opened his mouth.

"What if."

He covered the back of my hand with his other hand.

I was embarrassed to see the warm heat in my ears and the distance that he had suddenly moved closer to.

But what made me even more confused was the uneasy heart of Meyer Knox that I faced for the first time in my life.

"If I am not as strong as you think I am… What would you do if I were not as strong as you expected?"

"What?"

"You'll be disappointed, won't you?"

Meyer lowered his head and grinned.

"You've chosen me because I'm a strong person. You might want to go back to Fabian."

Meyer's golden eyes, which said so, shone like an animal aiming for its opponent's weakness.

Before that, the loose mind soared as if it had poured cold water at that moment.

I was wondering what he was saying… In the end, he was trying to see if I had any lingering feelings for Fabian.

Come to think of it, Meyer and I need to be business-friendly. However, we were not close enough to reveal each other's weaknesses.

'You're a wicked man…'

At first, I thought it was just drinking, but he might have created this situation to talk about it on purpose.

Besides, I also drank a lot.

It is clear that he was going to let me talk about my feelings with a drunkenness.

Whether I will betray him, or not.

It was a waste of my heart's calories that I felt sorry for him for a while.

'What a merit to be frozen to death.'

But I also understood that Meyer kept looking at me.

Although I might have been betrayed, I was Fabian's dog.

No matter what I was inside, I couldn't be as loyal to Fabian as I looked on the outside, and it was natural that Meyer could not trust me easily because I would have seemed blind to Fabian until just before I joined the Black Knights.

In addition, Meyer was hiding the grave fact that he was the Demon King's core.

As he had a secret that cannot be easily shared with anyone, he will have to be cautious about having close aides.

'Cause he's found out I'm useful, and he's measuring how far he can trust me…'

Then I had to buy his trust more actively.

Only when he confides to me that he has magic power can he pursue his future strategy.

After organizing my thoughts, I sighed.

Then I opened my eyes and raised my voice annoyingly.

"As the leader always says, if I lie, everything appears on my face, so I'll just tell you openly. Are you kidding me now?"

Meyer's eyes widened, as if he didn't know I would get angry. I struck him with momentum.

"Disappointed? Back to Fabian? Just because I changed the expedition once, you're branding me as an ungodly human being?"

"I don't think so."

"If not, you wouldn't have asked me that question in the first place. You asked me that question because I was Fabian's dog? Because dogs don't change owners?"

"Jun."

"Did I tell you that? I hated being called that."

"…"

"I just did my best as an expedition member, but I don't know why everyone was so mistaken."

Meyer's mouth shut.

I knew it. In this case, flippers, or angry strategies work better.

If it were the usual Meyer, he would have noticed that I was excessively angry, but he was confused at an unexpected state whether alcohol had entered or not, and he only sweat.

"… I'm so sorry I told you that when I first met you."

"I'm generous unlike you, so I accept that apology."

"…"

"Then why did you ask that question all of a sudden? Did you do anything? Did you sacrifice your expedition members like the Wipera? Is that why you're playing like a player?"

"It's not… That."

"Then that's enough."

"Enough?"

"Of course, the leader first made the proposal, but in the end I also considered it and accepted it. I chose it because the leader met my conditions."

I leaned against the back of the chair and said softly.

Still, one hand was held by Meyer.

"We've already got on a boat. The leader must defeat the Demon King anyway. It's useless to make a weak sound. If the leader was not as strong as I thought…"

I made eye contact with Meyer and said clearly.

"I can make him strong."

Meyer stared blankly at me as if he had never heard it before.

"Are you…? Me?"

"Why. You don't think I can do it?"

I grinned and asked provocatively.

His physical specs don't matter because I'm looking at them blankly, and if it's a problem, it's the mental part…..

I chose Meyer, knowing that he was a time bomb that emerged as the Demon King.

As far as I'm assuming the worst, there wasn't much that could make Meyer upset me.

"I always do my best as a member of the expedition. The best thing is to support the leader perfectly. So even if the leader suddenly says that he doesn't want to fight the Demon King, I'll kick the leader's ass and send him to Uranus, so don't worry. I'm losing and roasting like this here because of the back."

Meyer still couldn't believe my nonchalant attitude.

He only fiddled with my hand as if it were a flower. How much he fiddled with it, my hands were worn out, and I thought they would be uneven.

I kept my hand still and dampened my throat with a glass of wine.

My mouth was dry as if it was because of the continuous shooting.

I sipped my liquor and glanced sideways at Meyer, who was much softer than before.

Doing something wicked about drinking and talking about people. To keep people's hearts clean.

'Let's drink together again…'

However, the liquor in my mouth was so sweet to say that, and Meyer's handsome face sitting face to face was not bad with a sense of comfort.

'… I can drink with you again at least once.'

I changed my mind like flipping my palm. If I could drink a few bottles of this kind of liquor for free, it was tolerable.