Requiem Of A Failed Hero

'How suspicious'

Raith curved his index finger beneath his chin as he looked down at the messages.

'Bael... a dead demon lord.'

He wondered as the sword was passed down by automation and the salesperson brought it out from the horizontal slot where it was.

"Does he really want to buy this, it is attractive at first glance but I've seen several people complain that the sword won't even open."

The receptionist whispered to Agent Jong-Su, who paid attention to her but stuck his eyes to Raith.

He then turned his gaze to the receptionist and turn to the salesperson that slipped the sword into a long box.

"It is fine. He chose it."

'I don't know what he is up to but I don't care. I should use this opportunity to ascertain his qualities. Let's take him to a rank B gate. Or is that too much, maybe a rank C... let's see if he is the one that cleared that dungeon. Even if he dies, it won't be on the association, since he signed the document.'

Agent Jong-Su brought to the sword to Raith who pulled it out of the box and walked out of the store, not caring about the box of the sword that was on the ground.

[You can form a bond with this weapon by feeding it your blood]

[Whether or not it will accept you as its master depends on it]

Rajth grabbed a pen from the receptionist's table–

stab

and stabbed it into his hand, throwing them into a short frenzy of fear.

He held the sword with his wounded hand as he walked outside the store.

[The Sword Of Bael has formed a bond with you]

[You are forever bound with the Sword Of Bael]

[It will always find you wherever you are]

[You can summon the sword by its name]

[Do you want to give the sword a new name or stick with the old name]

'Yes, I'd love to–

[You can't grant a name]

[You don't even know your name]

'Is this fucker shitting me?'

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Raith glared with a pulsating vein on his forehead.

swish

With swiftness, he removed the sword from its sheath and looked at the black blade.

'...hm, it is okay.'

He nodded and put it back into its sheath before entering the car.

Meanwhile from inside the store, the receptionist's jaw dropped, and refused to close back. Agent Jong-Su turned back to the receptionist with a smirk.

No one knew the origin of the sword, they just knew that this weird and cold-looking hunter just did what several hundreds of hunters including one S-rank hunter couldn't do.

"I can swear it wasn't supposed to work, even Mulla couldn't use it."

He muttered but no one cared.

Raith held his chest as the car drove to the location of the gate he was to hunt.

The more his darkness grew the more he felt empty within himself, caring lesser about people's feelings– and the change was drastic and noticeable.

Raith thought of what king of person he would be if his darkness grew so enormously or when he finally unlocks the attribute 'Shadow Lord'

After all, this all started after the shadow lord attribute was unlocked.

While in the midst of that thought Raith began to wonder about how to find his true name. The abyss kept insisting that he doesn't know his true name which means that he has one.

"Hunter Raith..."

Agent Jong-Su softly called out to him— helping him out of his thoughts. The car had gotten to the destination.

The large blue swirling gate with an oval shape stood right there at the entrance of the market, which was flanked by several stores but was empty.

The gate emerged three days ago during the market activity which had thrown people in utter disarray, the association immediately arrived to put things under control while waiting for one of the merchants to be free to clear the gates.

But with the number of gates they have the merchants are too busy and also some of them have other things to attend to– simply put, the association couldn't just order them around because of their strength and importance in society and to the association.

Which eventually led to the association president's suggestion of making Raith a merchant even though his rank wasn't confirmed. It didn't matter, as long as he doesn't die. The association is in need of merchants now more than ever especially if they don't want to be outdone by the guilds.

"Hmm..."

Raith looked at the gate that stood in front of him like a portal to another world.

"Hyungnim!!"

"You came."

He replied gently looking back to see the young man cladded in golden lion armor.

"What the hell is this?"

Raith looked at him with expressive unbelief, he chuckled and turned to the gate.

"My bad, I just thought–

"Hunter Min-ho, with this much armor it will be hard for you to move."

Jong-Su enlightened him.

"Ah..."

Not like he didn't know before, he was just over-prepared due to his first time finally entering a gate. He loosened some part of the armor leaving only the vambraces, shoulder guard, breastplate, and golden boots.

"Hunter Raith. You don't need anything else."

"It is fine. I'm good."

'He is going to enter a gate without armor?'

Agent Jong-Su glanced at his face, expecting even a tiny thread of nervousness but he found none. There were no emotions of any sort on his face. Just a focused gaze that was looking into the gate.

"Momo."

"Hyungnim it's Min-ho"

"It's Momo from now on. The moment we enter this gate, everything you see stays between us."

Raith tilted his head backward to look at Min-ho.

"Tell anyone and I'll slit your throat."

He made it clear with narrowed eyes that plunged spears into Min-ho who got flustered immediately.

"Hiek.. gotten sir."

Min-ho stole glances at him.

'Since the day before yesterday, hyungnim has changed. Did something happen? He doesn't seem angry or sad but he doesn't seem happy too. Maybe it is because of his world.'

"I have made necessary preparations..."

Agent Jong-Su said as he walked closer to Raith and Min-ho.

"...are you sure you want to enter this gate alone?"

He asked looking at Raith's face.

"It's fine. We'll be good."

Raith replied to him, tapping Min-ho, and the next– picked him up completely from the floor and threw him into the gate, and walked in gently afterward.

Several minutes passed and agent Jong-Su couldn't still believe what he saw.

'He conveniently picked up a human being. I know it is possible but that would be in the case of tankers that have a large build and enormous strength. But in the case of hunter Raith, he is thin although he seems to have a good physique, still, it makes no sense...'

GRRIIZZZZZTT

While he was contemplating, the gate suddenly began a disturbance.

WHOOOSH

Pulling in the breezes, and almost sweeping agent Jong-Su with it.

"What is going on?!"

Agent Jong-Su shouted to the monitoring agent who was behind him.

"We have no idea, sir!!"

They raised their voices but it was still lost in the turbulent wave of air.

GRIIZZTT

The gate began to throw sparks and began to change colors. From blue, it went to purple.

The agent's eyes widened.

"NO- - - WAY."

A gate changing color was a rare occurrence and is often called. A disguise gate.

It is not called a disguise gate because it is hiding its strength but rather because it contains two distant kinds of monsters but the gate magic energy is measured according to only the weaker one.

"Contact the association immediately, fast!!"

Agent Jong-Su shouted. Even though he had meant to test out Raith's abilities this was too much for him.

'Shit, he can't survive a disguise gate...'

Agent Jong-Su's lips trembled as he looked at the purple gate that seemed to have grown larger.

Meanwhile.

"Hyungnim! The gate entrance is gone."

Min-ho looked back but where the gate should be standing was nothing– but the view of trees. They stood amidst a dark and foreboding forest, filled with twisted trees and thorny underbrush. The air—thick with the smell of damp earth and decaying leaves, and the only sounds are the occasional hoot of an owl or the scurry of small animals in the undergrowth.

"Hyungnim what are we going to do?"

"Let's clear the gate first."

Raith finally replied to him after several disturbances.

As Raith and Min-ho ventured deeper into the forest, the first thing they noticed was the wooden structures– crude rough hewn as if they were jacked from the trees themselves.

Raith paused.

The place they were at seemed empty but there was no doubt about it. This was the beginning of their area.

Raith did not know much about gate according to first-hand experience but he could still process some thoughts based on the conversations he would often hear at the store when he was at Cavanaugh.

"Hyungnim, aren't these wooden houses."

Min-ho muttered his question as he found it hard to navigate his vision through the forest which wasn't the same for Raith.

"Step back and watch."

Raith said to him, pulling his jacket for him to hold and also rolling up his sleeve.

"How about you come outside and let's just make this easy for both of us."

Raith shouted– his voice piercing into the dark forest and all around it.