I felt something pressing down on my body as I was half asleep.
When I opened my eyes, I heard a faint breathing sound near me, and a strangely sweet smell tickled my nose.
“Ugh…”
Jin Ye-seul.
She was fast asleep, almost leaning on my body.
“What the hell?”
As I was about to push her aside, I smelled something sour.
It was the smell of blood.
I shook my head and looked closely. There were bloodstains on her clothes here and there.
I snapped out of it and got up quickly.
“Hmm…”
Jin Ye-seul frowned as if she was annoyed by something, and then started to breathe evenly again.
I carefully laid her down where I had been lying and examined her.
The dim dawn light came through the window and illuminated her face.
I knew that Jin Ye-seul had left to hunt down the remnants of Big Watch.
Then the blood splatters and the exhaustion on her body must have been because of that.
I cautiously reached out my hand to her body.
The branches of the World Tree came out and dug into her skin.
“Ah.”
Jin Ye-seul flinched and shivered.
Then she opened her eyes and glared at me with sleepy eyes.
She looked like she was trying to figure out if I was a friend or a foe.
Her eyes that quietly scanned me seemed to say that she would attack me if I moved. They were cold as ice.
As if responding to that, her feet that had slipped out of the bed twitched up and down.
People who saw her for the first time might find her cute, but I knew very well that her specialty was kicking, and that was a habit she had before attacking. She didn’t look cute to me at all.
After a while.
She seemed to recognize me and relaxed her eyes.
Then she muttered in a drowsy voice.
“Ji-hyuk…?”
“Yeah, it’s me. But what the hell are you doing here at this time…”
“Sleepy.”
Jin Ye-seul mumbled and buried her head in the blanket.
I had never seen her like this before, so I instinctively covered her body with the blanket.
Then Jin Ye-seul gave me a smile that looked like she had melted, and snuggled up to me.
“Warm…”
“…”
I silently covered my eyes with the hand that didn’t pull out the branches of the World Tree.
Then I sat on the bed and sent energy through the branches to help her recover.
She was very exhausted right now.
Like animals that fall into a deep sleep to heal their wounds, she curled up and slept soundly.
I first took off her shoes and coat and continued to send energy.
“What time is it…”
When I finished what I had to do and checked the time, the clock was pointing at four in the morning.
I had lost my bed, but I didn’t feel annoyed or anything. I could see how much Jin Ye-seul had suffered.
[…I’m sorry for my sister’s rudeness.]
I was startled by the sound of wings and a voice.
When I turned my head, I saw Jin Ye-jeong’s paper crane, which had been silent for a while, looking at me apologetically.
[She’s not usually this careless, especially on a patient’s bed… She said she would stay by your side no matter what, even if you told her to sleep here and go…]
“It’s okay. I’m fine, and I don’t mind.”
I gently placed the paper crane on my palm and said.
“Besides, I know what she was doing.”
She had finished what I had to do for me.
And she had obtained all the legacy of the Shadow Walker. If she was that tired… It must have been a dangerous and hard task.
[Thank you very much for saying that.]
Jin Ye-jeong murmured as if she was relieved.
Then she shivered and flapped her wings.
[By the way, we’re finally connected.]
She said as if she was glad.
I asked her quietly.
“…Didn’t you say you had something urgent and cut off the contact?”
[What? No way. I thought you had something urgent and cut off the contact.]
Jin Ye-jeong said that and added in a very businesslike and rational voice.
[Now that I think about it, I felt something like a wave that interfered with the magic connection… Do you have anything bothering you?]
“I don’t know.”
It wasn’t a casual answer. I really had nothing to worry about.
After thinking for a while, I came up with a possible hypothesis.
“Maybe it was An Ju-hyuk or one of the other Ten Powers who did something? The people from the association came and warned me to be careful.”
[Ah… That could be possible.]
Jin Ye-jeong agreed quietly.
She nodded her head in sync with the paper crane.
“So, do you have anything else to tell me?”
[Yes.]
When I first talked to her, she told me that Jin Ye-seul had left to deal with the remnants of Big Watch and that she had successfully finished and was coming back. But the connection was cut off as soon as I heard that.
I was so frustrated.
“Can you explain what she did?”
[Yes.]
The paper crane nodded.
Then it looked at Jin Ye-seul, who was sleeping soundly, and turned its head.
[I’ll start with her story.]
Jin Ye-jeong began to explain quietly.
[I’ve been tracking Big Watch’s whereabouts since that day. As you know, they were after my life, and more importantly, their goal was to free the Seven Evil Species. So I couldn’t leave them alone. But… after I became this.]
She stuttered as if she was embarrassed.
[Yes, Ye-seul controlled my whole life… It was too hard to do what I wanted. Then I was caught by Ye-seul, who found out that I was secretly investigating. But Ye-seul said she would help me get rid of Big Watch.]
The paper crane fluttered its wings weakly as if it felt guilty.
[I didn’t want to involve Ye-seul in this, but… Before I knew it, Ye-seul had become very strong. Much more than before. …So I asked her for a favor, knowing that it was irresponsible and pathetic.]
“So that’s why Ye-seul left as soon as she got a call from Jin Ye-jeong. She found out where they were.”
[Yes, that’s right.]
Jin Ye-jeong nodded.
[And Ye-seul did a perfect job. She killed all the remaining officers of Big Watch, except for Isaac Macdowell, and cut off the lifelines of the key figures. She even inflicted a fatal wound on one of the officers of the Militated’s Children.]
Jin Ye-jeong quietly added that she had killed the last two officers of Big Watch and their main members, and also got hold of the ankle of a vampire affiliated with the Militated’s Children.
[And this ankle is currently under investigation. …We plan to examine it with Jelly, no, Evangeline soon and ask Laura Hartman to purify it.]
“Huh…”
As she listened to her words in awe, she coughed softly.
[Also, we learned some important information, such as the fact that Big Watch was actually absorbed by the Militated’s Children, their purpose, their plan, etc.]
At her words, I pulled up the blanket that Ye-seul was covering and covered her neck carefully.
Ye-seul muttered something softly and hugged the blanket I gave her, breathing evenly again.
[Can I explain it to you?]
“Yes, I’m all ears.”
[Then…]
She calmly began to explain about Big Watch and the Militated’s Children.
There were some things I already knew in her explanation, but there were also some stories I heard for the first time.
In short, ‘Big Watch’ and ‘the Militated’s Children’ were in conflict and confrontation, but they were dramatically absorbed by the Militated’s Children when Isaac Macdowell became their new officer.
In the meantime, the majority of Big Watch, who were intelligent monsters, rebelled, and there was a commotion to clean and suppress them.
In the midst of that, Ye-seul broke in and swept away the remaining minority who followed Isaac Macdowell in the chaos.
As a result, Isaac lost his power and drifted away, and his relationship with the Militated’s Children worsened.
[…Do you remember the disappearance of the academy graduates a few days ago?]
“Are you talking about the incident that targeted the magicians with special skills or talents?”
[Yes.]
“Don’t tell me…”
[The culprit of that incident was also the Militated’s Children.]
Jin Ye-jeong continued in a calm voice.
[According to the memory that Ye-seul shared, the Militated’s Children were killing those magicians and extracting their hearts.]
“Their hearts?”
[After all, the hearts of the magicians are the source and everything of their magic. It may sound like nonsense now, but until a few hundred years ago, there was a widespread folk belief that eating the heart of a magician raw would give you his power and ability.]
“…”
At her words, I remembered what Beluna had warned me and couldn’t help but shut my mouth.
That day, I ate Minerva’s heart and smeared her blood all over my body.
And Beluna said that Militated had long coveted Minerva’s heart.
“…What do they want?”
At my blunt words, Jin Ye-jeong looked thoughtful for a moment.
[Well… This is also something I heard in passing, but.]
She said to me with a tremulous look.
[Isaac Macdowell, he was obsessed with immortality.]
“Immortality?”
[Yes.]
Jin Ye-jeong whispered quietly.
The original purpose of alchemy is to make the imperfect perfect and to lead humans to a godlike existence.
[And as I said before, ‘making the imperfect perfect’… At the end of that path, there are the philosopher’s stone and immortality.]
“…”
I felt that her words gradually made sense.
In the original work, Isaac Macdowell tried to awaken Militated for the trivial purpose of seeing the end of alchemy.
But if his original goal was immortality, it would make sense why he joined hands with the Militated’s Children.
Militated was also a near-immortal being and the best alchemist in the ‘Clouds of the Horizon’.
And unlike the original work, his power was reduced and his plans were frustrated, so he probably looked for a more moderate way.
And for the Militated’s Children, I had both the pendant and Minerva’s heart that Militated was known to want, so they had more than enough reason to target me.
“So, both Isaac Macdowell and the Militated’s Children are after me.”
[…Yes. Maybe that’s why Ye-seul wanted to break their power as soon as possible.]
Jin Ye-jeong cautiously agreed with my words and nodded.
I quietly looked at Ye-seul, who had fallen asleep exhausted.
She was still breathing evenly and sleeping, and for some reason, she looked especially pale today.
“Jin Ye-jeong.”
[Yes.]
“From now on… If something like this happens, will you please tell me in advance?”
At my words tinged with faint anger, Jin Ye-jeong quietly said yes, and also apologized again.
I looked at Ye-seul’s face without a word.
“Why…”
Why did you do that for me?
I swallowed the words I couldn’t say out loud and quietly looked at her.
That’s why I didn’t notice.
[…]
The shadow of Henir at my feet was quietly, very quietly bubbling like boiling water.
The glass shattered with a loud noise.
He didn’t care about the white wallpaper stained with pumpkin-colored liquid, and Choi Jun-hyung threw himself roughly on the sofa.
“I’m an idiot for trusting those bastards.”
He was already drunk, his face flushed.
He clenched his teeth and grumbled as he recalled what had happened in the morning.
“Training is bullshit, they should have worked hard if they brought them from the streets and gave them decent names, they really think they’re something, those fucking idiots…!”
He was beaten by a mere academy student, and even though he launched a surprise attack, he fell miserably, Hailey.
And Xiao Jie, who couldn’t heal a broken arm wound and whined.
The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t control his anger, and he tilted the bottle of liquor.
“Ughhhh!”
In the meantime, he couldn’t stand his anger and threw the bottle away.
Another sharp noise rang out, and he grabbed his throbbing head and muttered quietly.
“No, no… If I keep going like this…”
Even in the pain that felt like his throat was burning, his only concern was one thing.
Securing Yu Ji-hyuk’s new recruit.
And I had to hand him over to that horrible creature…
“You were so confident, but it looks like you failed.”
At the sound of the voice, Choi Jun-hyung felt the alcohol wear off in an instant.
He jumped up in surprise and saw a man sitting next to him, covered from head to toe in an old and worn robe.
“How did you get in here…?”
“Why, did I come somewhere I shouldn’t have?”
He raised his hand and waved it slowly.
Thanks to that, part of the robe that was covering his body slid down, and his bony and grotesque hand was revealed.
He picked up one of the glasses on the table.
And then he threw it over his shoulder with a careless attitude, as if it was a joke.
“Of course not. I just…”
Choi Jun-hyung stopped his excuse and spat out a curse.
He realized too late that he must have known everything by now.
“…I’m thinking of changing the plan a bit.”
“Oh, how?”
“It seems a bit hard to do it by the book, since he has more power than I thought.”
It was a reflexive answer, but it was somewhat true.
The power that supported Yu Ji-hyuk was more than he had imagined.
The Ten Powers.
The Tribe of the World Tree.
The Hunt family and some other influential families that rose as new nobles.
Abel Grossman, who was famous in the association.
And for some reason, even the Ewon Group was secretly siding with him.
He had tried to sway public opinion in a clumsy way, but it had backfired.
In that situation, Choi Jun-hyung quickly took action, but that was also mocked and blocked.
“Do you have any interesting ideas?”
“Yeah. If the fangs don’t work, I’ll use the molars.”
On Choi Jun-hyung’s table, there were several documents scattered, and on top of them was a document about Nyle Sung, the father of Nyle Jun.
That wasn’t all.
Lee Yoon-sung, who had once dreamed of being the leader of the Tribe of the World Tree, but had lost all his power after being disgraced.
Academy students who were known to have a conflict with Yu Ji-hyuk over disciplinary issues.
The information of the people who had some kind of grudge with Yu Ji-hyuk was gathered without fail.
He glanced at the documents and glared at the man in the robe, pretending to be arrogant.
“I’ll secure his new recruit no matter what. And then I’ll hand him over to you and take care of the aftermath. That’s all our contract is, right?”
“That’s right… As long as you do your job properly, the contract is over.”
He nodded and got up from his seat.
“I came here just in case, but it seems like I underestimated you too much. I don’t know how you’re going to handle it, but good luck.”
As he got up from his seat as if he didn’t care, Choi Jun-hyung shouted in a hurry, as if his previous appearance was a lie.
“Hey, wait!”
“…Why, do you need my help by any chance?”
“No, that’s not it. I just…”
He paused and caught his breath.
“Are you really going to keep your promise if I catch him and hand him over?”
“…Sigh.”
The man sighed at Choi Jun-hyung’s question.
And then he lifted his robe and showed his horrible appearance, which was nothing but bones.
“My master… He made me this immortal-like body with just your unstable power.”
Choi Jun-hyung nodded quietly.
“When my master regains all his power and wakes up, we will receive his true grace…”
The monster, known as the king of the undead, a lich, pointed at Choi Jun-hyung with his finger that was nothing but bone and said.
“He will also gladly reward you who cooperated with his will. He is a very merciful person.”
“That means…”
“Yeah…”
The lich agreed in a hollow voice.
“You too, like us, will become immortal.”
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