In the Name of God - vanish into fiction

A menacing aura emanated from Seong Do‑wan.

“I told you to go home.”

Just facing him made my shoulders feel crushed, and my legs almost wobbled.

‘As expected, a third-rank is different.’

Even from just his gaze, I could tell that Seong Do‑wan was on a different level from ordinary awakeners.

But so what? What am I supposed to do?

After all, this guy was still too much of a pushover to lift a finger against Seong Do‑yoon.

I lifted one corner of my mouth.

“I already said I don’t want to.”

“Stop playing with words.”

Seong Do‑wan furrowed his brows at my response and his voice hardened further.

“Just because you became an awakener doesn’t mean you should get cocky. Go back right now and behave…….”

“Hey, hyung.”

I cut him off coldly before he could finish.

“You want me to spend my whole life locked in a room and quietly die? Like a useless cripple who can’t do anything?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Nonsense? Do I look like I’m talking nonsense?”

I flared my eyes and raised my eyebrows, my eyes trembling slightly as if in anger.

It felt a bit awkward trying to act like a stranger after so long, but luckily it seemed only I felt that way. A flicker of unease passed through Seong Do‑wan’s pupils.

So, it’s the first time I’ve talked back to Seong Do‑wan, huh?

“You made trouble wherever I went to work and drove me out, didn’t you?”

Seong Do‑wan’s pupils shifted slightly.

Thanks to Echo’s help in investigating, I knew that Seong Do‑yoon had been unlucky on top of being weak.

Every place he tried to work, every place he set foot in, every place he followed a friend to—it was all abnormal.

Companies that forced him to work overtime constantly while ignoring basic pay, shops that treated part-timers like slaves, multi-level schemes exploiting others—he stumbled into all of them.

It was a crazy collaboration of Seong Do‑yoon’s soft nature, those who sought to take advantage of him, and pure misfortune.

Seong Do‑wan had quietly interfered for his pitiful younger brother. He applied various pressures at the places Seong Do‑yoon was involved, forcing them to drive him out on their own.

Unfortunately, Seong Do‑yoon only later guessed that his older brother had interfered, but he never knew the true intentions.

I knew, but I pretended not to.

At that moment, I was acting like the clueless Seong Do‑yoon, unaware of Seong Do‑wan’s real intentions.

Seong Do‑wan remained silent, making no excuses.

‘As expected, Seong Do‑wan has no intention of revealing this properly.’

There was a heavy aura, as if he did not care even if he were treated like a villain. Even if slow-witted Seong Do‑yoon couldn’t notice, I could sense it.

“Seong Do‑wan is more timid than he seems. That’s why he has worked from a distance or secretly observed.”

Knowing Seong Do‑wan’s rigid personality, he would rather take the blame himself than make excuses to Seong Do‑yoon. He knew that would only make Seong Do‑yoon feel more miserable.

So even if I tried to close the distance by saying, “I know what hyung did for me,” he would flatly deny it and respond even more strictly.

‘He thinks that if he doesn’t keep his distance, Seong Do‑yoon will be in danger.’

Seong Do‑wan was one of the main figures behind Horizon, now known as a dangerous outlaw group.

He had done everything to raise Horizon to the position of a fourth-generation clan. He ruthlessly crushed interfering factions and personally destroyed or manipulated threatening awakeners so that they could never rise again.

Naturally, Seong Do‑wan accumulated many enemies.

Around that time, he distanced himself from his cherished younger brother and acted as if he despised him, to prevent anyone from using Seong Do‑yoon as leverage or harming him because of Seong Do‑wan.

From Seong Do‑yoon’s perspective, his older brother obstructed his path at every turn and treated him like a worthless burden, leaving him physically and mentally exhausted day by day.

‘The clueless Seong Do‑yoon would naturally resent and feel bitter toward hyung.’

I straightened my voice, imagining the emotions Seong Do‑yoon must have felt. I raised my tone slightly to sound agitated without revealing the act.

“Why did you do that? Did you hate seeing me live like a human being? Was it satisfying to see me rot away in a ruined place like trash?”

After being repeatedly expelled from jobs and drowning in debt, Seong Do‑yoon now lived in a ruined house and had recently been contacted by an insurance company.

Decades ago, his parents had died suddenly in a dungeon incident, and he had discovered only now that the insurance payout had been overlooked.