SL:R

Chapter 5

Sooho looked at Beru with a perplexed expression. “You said goodbye so vaguely, and now you say you can’t go back?”

[In truth, the journey to Earth was long and treacherous. Many enemies tried to stop me along the way, but I had to tear through them all to make it here… Ahem.]

Beru explained with an embarrassed look.

[If my liege were by my side, my power would have been charged instantly, but I didn’t expect to be unable to recharge because he’s so far away from here.]

“…” Sooho stared at Beru in silence for a moment.

Beru had said his strength was depleted, and compared to when he had appeared grandly at the art museum, he seemed so small now, almost like a stuffed doll.

‘He looks like a claw machine prize.’

Sooho picked up Beru with one hand.

[Kiek?]

And he dangled from his hand like a plush toy. The lightness of it all made him seem like a reward from a claw machine.
Beru continued chatting while hanging from Sooho’s hand, flapping his wings.

[I don’t know if your memory has returned, but you are the sole heir of the great and almighty Shadow Monarch, my little king.]

“Shadow Monarch? Who’s that?”

[Sung Jinwoo. It is what your father used to be called.]

“My father?”

[Yes, the very same!]

Sooho doubted his ears for a moment. “My father? You’re talking about my father, who left home?”

[He didn’t just leave home, he went to space.]

“…?” Suddenly, the scale of the situation seemed to shift to outer space?

Not knowing how to react, Sooho hesitated, and Beru suddenly spread his arms solemnly.

[Let me explain briefly.]

Swoosh!

[There is a great war in the universe right now.]

From Beru’s hand, made of black energy, shadows flickered and created illusions. The shadow illusions turned into numerous soldiers the size of a fingernail, and hordes of monsters charged at them with even larger numbers. And at the center of it all was a man radiating an exceptionally powerful aura, still the size of a fingernail, of course.

[Your great father, Sung Jinwoo, is now commanding this war.]

With those words, Beru pointed his hand toward the enemies that ‘Sung Jinwoo’ was blocking.

[And these guys are the lackeys of ‘Itarim’ who came to devour our world whole.]

“Itarim?”

[Itarim are the gods of outer space far away from Earth.]

Beru continued talking solemnly about how vicious and tenacious these guys called Itarim were. Most of them were just insults, but to sum it up, they were enemies who came to invade Earth.

“So, the monsters pouring out of the gates for the past two years were all because of Itarim?” As Sooho listened to the explanation, he felt a strange feeling.

Both of Sooho’s parents were missing. He had reported their disappearance a long time ago, but the police couldn’t find any clues at all. It was as if they had evaporated from this world, and Sooho had given up on finding them and was living half-heartedly.