Transmigrated into the Gacha Game I Abandoned for 10 Years

“Loria, about yesterday…it wasn’t a dream, right?”

[If you're talking about the Absolute Ruler of Darkness invading the territory, then it wasn't a dream]

Upon hearing Loria’s words, Kim Hyunwoo made a very peculiar expression.

Of course, he clearly understood that what happened yesterday was real, but no matter how much he thought about it, the situation was just too strange.

‘And the last part…ended with quite a misunderstanding.’

Kim Hyunwoo recalled the scene he witnessed last night.

Right after confirming that his ‘bodily function’ (?) had not manifested, he had a shocked expression as if he realized something, and then he saw Rin run away.

‘…It seems like she really misunderstood something.’

Of course, he couldn’t precisely figure out how she misunderstood, but it was obvious to anyone that she had definitely misunderstood something.

Actually, clearing up the misunderstanding with the Absolute Ruler of Darkness would have been surprisingly easy.

If only the person involved hadn’t run away yesterday, they could have had a proper conversation and enough time to explain this mental issue.

Even now, there was a way to clear up the misunderstanding.

Since she was originally affiliated with the Calan Kingdom, he could visit the Calan Kingdom and talk to her to resolve the misunderstanding.

The problem was whether he should really go there to resolve the misunderstanding.

If this was a very significant misunderstanding, Kim Hyunwoo would have seriously considered it.

But the misunderstanding between Rin and Kim Hyunwoo was too subtle to warrant going all the way to the Calan Kingdom to clear it up.

‘…Going to the Calan Kingdom to explain my bodily function issue, that seems a bit much, doesn’t it.’

Kim Hyunwoo imagined it.

Going to the Calan Kingdom and carefully explaining to the Absolute Ruler of Darkness why his bodily function didn’t manifest when she secretly visited him at night a few days ago.

“…As I thought.”

In the end, Kim Hyunwoo concluded that not doing anything would be much better for both Rin and himself. He soon recalled what she had said.

[Isn’t that obvious?]

[Obvious… thing?]

[To be honest, it’s too embarrassing, so I’d prefer if you didn’t ask anymore…and-]

[Doesn’t this answer your question?]

When Kim Hyunwoo asked the question, the sight of the Absolute Ruler of Darkness blushing as she spoke made her look like a girl in love, no matter who it was that saw it.

In other words, just by those words alone, it seemed like the Absolute Ruler of Darkness liked him.

However, instead of believing those words outright, Kim Hyunwoo still had some doubts about whether Rin genuinely liked him.

The reason was the heart-shaped pupils in Rin’s eyes.

‘That’s definitely an effect that appears when someone is under a Charm spell.’

Kim Hyunwoo knew that the red heart shapes in Rin’s eyes was an external factor that appeared when someone was under the influence of a Charm effect.

And when under a Charm effect, one can be attracted to the opposite sex, even if it’s not someone they actually like.

…Of course, he had no idea why Rin, who should have been in the Calan Kingdom, ended up in such a charmed state and came all the way to the Lord’s castle.

‘Rin liking me…as for that part…I don’t know.’

In fact, if Kim Hyunwoo had removed his limit, he would probably have been so happy that he would do three consecutive somersaults on his office desk right there and then, but the current him didn’t feel much of anything.

It felt more like he was listening to someone else’s experience that he wasn’t interested in, rather than his own feelings.

‘Well, this part will be resolved soon enough.’

Kim Hyunwoo shrugged lightly, thinking that the problem would be resolved once Adria and Shadra returned.

After all, this issue would be fully understood the moment his limit was removed.

“Hoo-”

With a light sigh, Kim Hyunwoo decided to focus on something else and looked at his resource window.

[Red Stones: 5,200]

[Blue Stones: 232]

[Gold Coins: 395,422]

[Magic Stones: 382,222]

In the resource window Kim Hyunwoo was looking at, aside from the Blue Stones, the Gold Coins and Magic Stones were fluctuating in real time.

The problem was that while the Magic Stones were rapidly increasing, the Gold Coins were no longer rising as sharply as before and were slowly declining.

Of course, this phenomenon could be seen as a good thing.

Basically, most of Lartania’s Gold Coins were currently being used to exchange for Magic Stones.

Since Kim Hyunwoo had postponed the construction of additional buildings after the completion of the Magical Engineering Institute.

In other words, the decline in Gold Coins was purely due to the overwhelming increase in the number of mercenaries, causing the demand for Magic Stones to surpass the supply of Gold Coins.

This meant that Lartania was growing well as a Labyrinth City, but since it was also a time when the territory’s development needed to be advanced, it wasn’t a particularly positive sign.

‘…In other words, it’s about time to introduce the Enhancement system.’

Kim Hyunwoo murmured to himself and then smiled lightly as he spoke.

“Loria.”

[Yes, My Lord]

“Are the items being made well in the basement?”

[Yes, the Skeleton Scrolls provided additionally by the Tienus Merchant Group are doing their job]

“That’s a relief.”

[Are you thinking of starting soon?]

At Loria’s question, Kim Hyunwoo nodded and replied.

“It’s about time to start. Plus, it’s time to start developing too…and I’ll think about using the Red Stones elsewhere.”

Kim Hyunwoo smiled as he looked at the gathered Red Stones.

Norba Kingdom.

Or rather, what was once the Norba Kingdom. Except for the outer perimeter of the crumbling castle walls, only a black membrane remained, and no one was there.

Even the Holy Kingdom had left, knowing that the black membrane was a binding formation that even they couldn’t touch, one that would last for over ten years.

The lords of Norba, led by Rania of the Tesnoka territory, who were recovering their lost territories, had no interest in the current state of the Norba Kingdom.

Thus, inside the black membrane where no one remained.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

The Hero King was quietly breathing.

Although the sun was shining brightly outside the black membrane, inside, everything appeared hazy, as if a sandstorm had arisen.

The sun, which warmly illuminated all things in the world, appeared as a foreboding red light, signaling doom within the black membrane, at least to the Hero King’s eyes.

In such a place, she was struggling to breathe alone.

“……”

Her body was not in a normal state.

After using more power than necessary to kill the legion commander, her battle with Kelva had resulted in the permanent loss of most of her strength, leaving her body in a state weakened beyond imagination.

“Kkugh-”

In fact, it was almost a miracle that she hadn’t died yet.

While her limbs were still intact, the inside of her body was in a terrible state from killing Kelva.

Yet, the reason she couldn’t easily let go of life was because of Kelva’s last words.

‘Do you think I’d let you see the Outsider?! No way! Even if I have to lose some of my power, I’ll make sure you never see the Outsider!!’

Those words were not pleasant for her to hear.

In the end, Kelva had disappeared from the Middle Realm after trapping her in this binding formation with those words.

Yet, she didn’t find Kelva’s words entirely bad.

After all, his words hinted to the Hero King that he had indeed returned to this place.

For the Hero King, the fact that she had a reason to live despite the constant, horrific pain was more than enough.

In fact, Kelva’s single statement had breathed new life into her.

Just like now.

“Hoo…!”

The Hero King pulled out one of the five remaining weapons from her personal space, a dagger.

The dagger was called “Gourmand’s Feast”, an artifact that had the ability to convert slashed magic into mana and deliver it to the user.

But naturally, Gourmand’s Feast came with a penalty.

The penalty was the user’s pain.

The mana absorbed by Gourmand’s Feast could certainly be reused, but the pain felt during absorption was so immense that it negated the benefits.

Some heroes had even died from shock due to mishandling Gourmand’s Feast.

But the Hero King did not hesitate to plunge the dagger into the binding formation.

And that wasn’t enough – she amplified the dagger’s power more than tenfold with her own ability.

She judged that this was the only way to quickly absorb even a portion of Kelva’s overwhelming mana to heal her body and destroy the binding formation.

“Kkaaaaaaaah-!”

The moment she drove the dagger into the binding formation, the Hero King let out a scream, overwhelmed by unimaginable pain.

Though she suppressed the penalty with her ability, the amplified effects still brought about excruciating pain.

Yet, she did not stop absorbing the mana.

No, she gritted her teeth and held the dagger even tighter.

She had no intention of staying in this place for ten years.

She would recover her body quickly.

Escape from this place.

She had to meet him.

Definitely.

She had to meet him.

“Absolutely…”

The Hero King stared straight ahead with bloodshot eyes, and then shut her eyes tightly.