Chapter 235

Hell kind of reminds me of Seoul.

Especially in moments like this, when I’m riding on Ggoming’s back and flying through the sky.

‘Activate [Underground Scanning].’

[Starting scan.]

Lloyd’s gaze dropped downward.

Beyond Ggoming’s fully spread wings, the ground came into view.

“……”

Of course, it wasn’t Seoul.

Active volcanoes erupting everywhere.

Lava gushing out of volcano slopes like ketchup.

Heat saturating everything.

At a glance, there wasn’t a single thing that looked like Seoul.

‘Still, there’s one thing that’s similar: it’s a pain in the ass to breathe.’

Volcanic ash drifted everywhere.

It reminded him of Seoul’s fine dust.

The pungent sulfur stench felt like car exhaust.

Granted, this place was far more—like, five trillion five hundred million times—deadlier and nastier than Seoul.

‘Still, it’s kind of making me homesick.’

I wonder how the lady at the Kimbap Heaven on the first floor of that tiny rooming house is doing.

I wonder if the manager, who used to side-eye me sometimes but still took care of what needed taking care of, is still grinding away at the civil service exam.

‘No. Don’t think about it.’

If he kept thinking, he’d start feeling weird.

Why the hell was he reminiscing about a place he didn’t even like, like it was a fond memory? It made him wonder if he’d lost it.

Lloyd pulled himself together and focused on surveying.

‘Still, aside from the lava, the terrain is surprisingly not that rough. That’s a relief.’

The plain of Hell he was surveying right now was unexpectedly mild(?) terrain.

There weren’t any excessively tall or rugged mountains.

Cliffs or basins were hard to find too.

Instead, the most common landscape was flat plains buried in volcanic ash.

‘Because volcanic activity is so intense.’

There’s no time for mountains to get tall.

Volcanoes?

The moment they look like they’re getting taller, they erupt and collapse.

Basins and valleys?

Even if they form, they get filled up with lava and ash soon enough.

That was why Hell’s overall terrain was flat, flat, flat.

Thanks to that, construction should be a lot easier.

‘I won’t need to carve tunnels through mountains or build bridges over valleys just to lay tracks.’

All he had to do was lay straight track across the plains.

And the hundreds of lava ponds scattered all over?

‘Just weave around them.’

That was how Lloyd surveyed the plains of Hell from end to end.

He didn’t forget to examine down to five meters underground, either.

Places where ash had piled up less.

Places lava wouldn’t flow into.

He identified them carefully.

Linked them into a single route.

That route extended. Lengthened. Continued without stopping—spanning from the far edge of Hell all the way to Hell Castle, a total of 110 kilometers.

Only then did Lloyd return to the far edge of Hell.

He landed at the camp where they were holding the enslaved satans.

‘Hoo.’

Lloyd shook his head as he climbed down from Ggoming’s back.

He’d gone three full days without sleep.

The entire time, he’d held on with the Asrahan Heart Technique, forcing his eyes open and focusing on surveying nonstop.

He’d managed to survey the entire route and extract all the needed data, but in exchange his eyes felt so dry and heavy it was like they’d been embedded in cement.

“Welcome back.”

“Yeah. Water.”

“Here.”

He gulped down the cooled hot spring water Javier handed him.

Then a question hit him.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“You weren’t just waiting around here for me the whole time, were you?”

“What a creepy thing to say. Of course not.”

“Then how’d you know I’d be back right now?”

“I could just feel it.”

“Feel it?”

“Yes. About five minutes ago.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“That ‘don’t tell me’ is correct. I heard Sir Ggoming’s wingbeats.”

“…….”

“So I knew you were coming back, and I came out to greet you.”

“…….”

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“…….”

“Lloyd-nim?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing? You’re just staring at me without saying anything.”

“Ah, you didn’t hear me?”

“Pardon?”

“I was muttering really quietly. Inside my mouth. Talking trash about you.”

“…….”

“You don’t know what I said, right?”

“I don’t particularly want to know. But—”

“But?”

“I think I can tell that the core of that trash talk contained your envy toward me.”

“…What?”

“I’m taller, too.”

“…….”

“And it goes without saying my face is better.”

“…….”

“Swordsmanship, well…”

“…….”

“And I even sing better than you.”

“Hold on! You’ve never sung even once!”

“Even if my vocal cords disappeared, even if I had to sing with my claws, I’m confident I’d still be better than your singing.”

“…….”

“Hmph.”

“…….”

What is this feeling?

It’s like I flicked a BB pellet and got a cannonball to the face in return. Where am I supposed to complain about this injustice?

Lloyd shook off the self-loathing bubbling up like bone broth, forcing a bitter smile.

“Anyway. While I was gone, the satans?”

“They were relatively well-behaved.”

“Yeah?”

That was unexpected.

Thinking that, Lloyd snickered.

“I figured those guys would try every trick in the book to escape.”

“Of course they did, on the first day you left to survey.”

“They did?”

“Yes. Some tried to slip out of the camp, and others tried to incite a riot by stirring up the rest.”

“So? You suppressed them all?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t kill them, right?”

“No. But—”

A faint smile touched Javier’s lips.

“I played with them a little.”

“Played with them?”

“Yes. I was curious what the mainstream swordsmanship trend in Hell might be like.”

“…….”

“I was very curious. I’m not anymore.”

“…….”

A terrifying, vicious bastard.

In his heart, Lloyd held a brief moment of mourning for the satans who’d become Javier’s sparring partners and got rolled into the dirt forever.

Then he gave Javier a sincere request.

“Good. Then roll them more.”

“Are you serious?”

“Of course. This is the perfect chance to really straighten them out.”

“Until when?”

“Until I finish the design and we start construction.”

“Understood.”

From that day on, Lloyd devoted himself to design, and Javier devoted himself to rolling satans.

Day by day, Lloyd’s design skill page filled up with railway drawings.

Day by day, with Javier’s commands, the satans rolled in misery.

So the satans prayed from the depths of their souls.

‘Hoo… hooo! Hngh! Please, please, finish that design already!’

Forward roll on Javier’s command.

Backward roll on Javier’s command.

And if they messed up, they got called out for a fulfilling(?) swordsmanship spar with a Grand Master.

While the satans underwent special forces training they never asked for, sweating buckets, Lloyd’s design finally sprinted toward completion.

He drafted the overall longitudinal profile and plan view.

He conducted on-site inspections based on the track bed plan.

He produced the longitudinal profile and plan view at a 1/50,000 scale, then cut the route at 50-meter intervals to create track cross-sections.

Finally, he carried out the final confirmation survey.

And he produced the longitudinal profile and plan view at a 1/1,000 scale.

That was the rough design process.

Since there were no stations where the train needed to stop along the way, it was a relatively simple design.

‘Done.’

Organizing the track cross-sections he’d created and printed at 20-meter intervals, Lloyd smiled with satisfaction.

At last, the design was finished.

But there was no time to celebrate.

Now that the design was done, it was time to stop dragging his feet and move into construction.

Without a moment’s rest, full-scale railway construction began.

And Lloyd’s ruthless boss instincts shone.

“You there! Work Crew 11! I can see your shovel! Crew 13! I told you to carve a new lava bypass by today! Crew 14! Who said you could take a break without my permission?”

The roadbed construction began at the far edge of Hell.

The roadbed was a dedicated corridor built for the railway.

Anyone had seen it at least once.

Most railways weren’t built directly on flat ground, but on a slightly raised embankment.

Simply put, that was the roadbed.

‘The roadbed matters. It’s the foundation of the entire railway. If you build it right, the tracks won’t flood or sink and stay stable.’

Most roadbeds used the embankment method.

Given Hell’s environment, where lava was everywhere, it was an unavoidable choice.

‘Of course. You never know when lava will overflow wherever it wants.’

The centipede shell materials he’d secured for the tracks wouldn’t melt in lava.

But what about the ground beneath?

That was a different issue.

‘Basically, this place is like a swamp. Not water—lava, much stickier lava—but the concept’s the same.’

If flowing lava swallowed the tracks?

The lateral pressure of the flow could wash away rails and sleepers.

Even if you got lucky and that didn’t happen, the lava covering the tracks could harden.

Either way, it would be a disaster: trains wouldn’t be able to run properly.

‘That’s why. I have to raise the roadbed high. No compromises.’

So that even if lava flowed through, it wouldn’t affect the tracks.

Lloyd raised the roadbed as high as possible.

Luckily, there was no shortage of material for the roadbed.

Volcanic ash, piled and spread everywhere nearby.

“Hey! Everyone! I can see your shovels! When I’m compacting volcanic ash with a shovel, what did I tell you to do?”

“Sprinkle hot spring water, make it sticky, then bam bam!”

The satans at the construction site shouted in unison.

“Bam it down until you can’t see the shovels, sir!”

“That’s right! Bam bam!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Then why the hell can I see your shovels!”

“…….”

“Bam it down until you can’t see them! Bam bam until your eyebrows and nose hairs are flying! Hit and compact until your shoulders fall off!”

“Yes, sir!”

The satans screamed their reply.

Everyone was dying of exhaustion.

But Lloyd didn’t give a damn about their circumstances.

No—if anything, the more they wheezed and sagged from fatigue, the harder he pushed them.

Naturally, there was no clocking out.

“Hngh… hngh! S-save me…”

“Ugh… I’m thirsty… I just want one cup of strawberry-flavored lava juice…”

“When did we even start working?”

“Feels like… ten days…”

“Then we really haven’t rested even once? Is that real?”

“Real… I think…”

“Damn it, I wish he’d just kill me.”

“Damn it… I wish you’d die.”

“What’d you say?”

The satans sometimes lamented their misery,

sometimes hurled stress-relief insults at each other,

and still worked obediently under Lloyd’s orders.

The reason was simple.

“Hoo… still, that Lloyd Frontera bastard—don’t you think the more you see him, the more his viciousness is kind of… oddly attractive?”

“What? Are you insane?”

“No, it’s true. Who knew a human would work us this hard?”

“Yeah, that part is true, but…”

“That’s why you aren’t even trying to run anymore.”

“Hey! I tried bolting at first, got caught, and almost died!”

“So what—are you the type to stop trying just because you almost died once?”

“…….”

“See? You’ve got your eye on him too.”

“My eye on him? Me? On that human?”

“Yeah.”

“Eye on what?”

“His viciousness and his cheap, underhanded tricks. You want to learn them, like I do.”

“…….”

“Tsk. Hoo. Honestly, I hate this. Damn it—I’m a satan, for fuck’s sake. I don’t want to admire a human’s viciousness and pettiness and think I should learn from it. But—”

The one-horned satan digging let out a deep sigh and grumbled.

“I still have to learn. If you’re a proper satan, aren’t you supposed to always have a learner’s mindset?”

“Hoo, for an excuse, your tongue’s long.”

“My tongue can be long. If it means I can become a satan who commits filthier, less shameful acts of unfilial behavior.”

“…….”

“Why am I even saying this. Just dig. Damn it.”

“Damn it.”

…Like that, most of the satans were admitting it inside.

That Lloyd was more petty, more cheap, more vicious, and more persistent than they were.

And so everyone thought the same thing.

Learn from him, while we have the chance.

Stay near him as long as possible while working.

Watch what he does, study it, chew on it, and imitate it.

Become even more vicious satans.

They lit a fire under their self-improvement(?) drive.

And poured themselves into digging.

“Hey! If you’ve got energy to chatter, then dig harder!”

With Lloyd’s nagging as their “motivation,”

with Javier’s surveillance making them hunch their shoulders,

they piled the roadbed, compacted it, then piled it again.

And about three months passed.

From the far edge of Hell, a solid roadbed was formed across a 110-kilometer stretch.

With as few curved sections as possible.

With the route’s gradient minimized.

So that a single train wouldn’t be forced across three or more different grades at once.

So that the length of any single, uniform grade would be kept under three kilometers.

All along the route Lloyd had carefully and meticulously set in advance.

‘Good.’

Looking down from the sky at the 110-kilometer roadbed now clearly showing its overall silhouette, Lloyd clenched his fist.

Construction was progressing far more smoothly than he’d expected.

Because the thirty thousand satans were working with hardly any slacking.

Strangely, the more brutally and viciously he rolled them, the more cooperative they became.

‘Bunch of perverts.’

With a bitter smile, Lloyd landed Ggoming.

Then he began a full inspection of the roadbed built today.

The more he checked, the more pleased his smile became.

‘Not a single thing to nitpick.’

It was close to perfect.

It met exact standards and strength requirements.

‘If we keep this up, we’re good. Once the roadbed work is finished, all that’s left is to lay the track.’

And then this job would be nearly done.

After that?

He’d teach Hellkaros how to operate and maintain the railway and collect his payment.

He’d get the ancient dragon’s soul back and free it.

‘Then I’ll have Dragon King Verkis’s patronage.’

Unlimited Bone Dragon access.

Unlimited wealth access.

And a bonus +1 life on top.

A perfectly rich and tidy life setup for maximum honey-sucking efficiency.

‘So from here on out, stay sharp and sprint to the finish.’

Forcing down the thumping in his chest, Lloyd continued finishing his roadbed inspection.

And because of that, he failed to notice.

Near this plain—the place where the first railway in Hell’s history was being laid—

there was a lost wraith with a hollow face.

Staring this way in shock.

‘What… is that? That’s… me?’

A lost wraith.

A young man who had once been the notorious thug of the Frontera Barony.

A man whose body had been stolen one day without warning.

A dead man who became a resident of Hell in an instant.

Lloyd Frontera’s wraith widened his eyes as he stared at Lloyd.