"Your tests are complete…there's nothing abnormal. I'd call it sheer luck."
"Is that so? I'm relieved."
"However, your joints took significant strain, so avoid overexertion for a while. Understood? And what you really need to watch is that, although not at infected levels, your blood Originium concentration is quite high. I trust you understand the implications."
A chill ran through me as the half-dwarf goddess warned me of the risks of [Oripathy].
I'd certainly been through hell at the scene. I must have been indirectly exposed to Originium.
'Better be careful.'
If I contract [Oripathy], before even facing a death sentence, my standing in Terra would hit rock bottom—plummeting so deep I'd high-five the abyss.
"By the way, how's that body of yours holding up?"
"This scar? It's fully healed, no problem. But aren't you curious what happened to the people who left this mark?"
Thanks to the mountain spirit within me, my regeneration is elevated, but it doesn't erase every scar.
The slash from Roja that cut across my torso, the gouge from my first clash with that beast, the myriad small scars I carried before joining the Sword Sect—my body is a canvas of wounds, save for a few faint marks on my face.
Still, recent injuries heal fast: the small ones vanish after a meal, the larger ones heal overnight.
'All thanks to me.'
Yeah, yeah, many thanks indeed—but why didn't it heal the old ones too?
'Because when I helped you back then…hm…my power was half siphoned and cramped into your narrow body. It was even smaller then; neither my claws nor I could get out.'
So now that my body grew, you could finally emerge?
'Strictly speaking, the vessel expanded. But your frame is still too small and pliable. Eat hearty and bulk up.'
You act like some old man. Mind your own business. Do you think I don't want to grow?
"Uh…are you okay?"
"Oh, sorry—I drifted off. Thanks for worrying about me."
"Right. Other than that, there's nothing concerning. If your guardian signs off tomorrow, you can be discharged."
'That body…at this rate, I'd crush my peers.'
With ten years as a nurse and specializing in pediatrics, I've never seen a boy with such a savage physique—lean muscle everywhere, a visible six-pack, scars as if he'd fought endless battles. And that face, still cute now but destined to grow handsome.
'Hell…he'll break hearts.'
"Hey! When will you finish?"
"Oh—just changing. Could you wait?"
"Hic, hic! I—I'll go on in first!"
"Go in first? Where? Hey! At least tell me—why the sudden mood?"
'Guess my naked scars grossed you out.'
Shut up.
It's no wonder. At his age, those scars would terrify anyone.
'Damn…he'll make the girls cry.'
cEJlcEgrWUdEajdEcFBtV2pEV3pUNXJ3Q21IcjJpNnl0K01pdlplODFORTAvZk95Y0RwZEpaSHZYbXhVdisvMw
"Room 1103…here it is. A two-bed ward? You're the other occupant?"
"What's with that reaction? Am I not supposed to be here?"
He said he'd go ahead—so he ended up in the same ward.
"Aren't you injured? They said you could be discharged tomorrow."
"Me? Worried about me?"
"If I'm not worried, what criticism will I face from civilians? Ugh."
"…that's all you're worried about?"
"Yes. That's it."
"Fine. There's nothing major wrong with me either, but my grandpa insisted on every treatment. I'll be stuck here until tomorrow."
"I see. All those rough-looking people out there—they came from your place too?"
I'd never seen black-suited guys line a corridor like an honor guard. Not even early Ironworks Guild raids looked like this.
"Yeah."
"Then they'll let the Dragon Head and Magpie and Meursault in, right? Or force their way through…"
"Who calls Magpie a 'hysterical fox,' you little—!!!"
"Ow! My temple! Stop that scalp punch! Time out! I'm a patient!!!"
"Time out? No such thing! But your crew did a remarkable job."
"Ugh…it still throbs. Feels like hell."
"Ha! Hyun can't pull rank in front of his sister!"
"Who's sister, you—no, fine, sister."
The punch hurt too much to argue. Best to stay quiet.
"Baekhyun. This mission was outstanding. I didn't expect you to annihilate that place single-handedly. Over five hundred Ironworks Guild members—and you took out roughly half."
"Two-fifty were there?"
"168 fatalities. 42 survivors, including Jang Chen. The rest escaped through the sewers."
"They got away? Then tomorrow is effectively our last chance to push hard."
"That's one approach, but boosting morale requires rewarding merit. Here—your reward. Tomorrow is leave."
"…just try not to get into scuffles again."
"Agreed! Covering that street fight with paper bags cost us enough work…"
"But seriously, use that card to buy something expensive. I know it doesn't match Miss Swaye's gift, but the Yongmun treasury is deep. Yet what'd you buy? Dumplings? Dumplings!"
"Why? What's wrong? And I didn't eat them alone. It was expenditure to gather intelligence."
"Intelligence…what intel was that?"
"Meursault—think it's okay if I spill? It's a bit troublesome."
"I trust your judgment."
"…Rumor from the alleys is that the Black Cloud Society is establishing a foothold in Yongmun."
"…!"
With the Ironworks Guild now effectively dismantled, they'd be the ideal enemy.
"The Black Cloud Society…seems you have history with them? This is the first time I've seen Meursault frown during a contract period."
"Well…we're basically on the brink of killing each other."
"I see…Black Cloud Society. Any estimates on their scale?"
"We haven't fully assessed them. But word is they number in the thousands and have recently made connections with Ursus. That's all we know."
"Formidable. I didn't expect such an organization in Yongmun."
"Yes, sir."
"Hyun."
"Yes, Dragon Head?"
"Ever consider staying in Yongmun?"
"…What?"
Wei Yenwu's elite squad, plus Otis and Meursault, and three evac teams—they breached with Originium cutters, evacuated civilians, then instantly assessed the fight.
"These corpses…clearly the Ironworks Guild's doing. The blade size and wound patterns differ from [National Sword]."
"Rest assured, I never harm civilians."
"…We'll move out."
Meursault didn't doubt. Odd, inscrutable personality, but not a madman who'd target innocents.
"No survivors on the second floor."
"Four bodies still breathing on the fourth floor. We'll combine them with six from the third and send them down."
"Brutal."
"Indeed."
The corridors were littered with blood, the stench of vomit, liquor, and scattered valuables. Scents that should never mingle.
"Meursault. Frankly, do you think a single person could achieve this?"
"Yes. I believe it's possible."
"Ha! Then could you process a dozen enemy combatants?"
"No. Impossible."
Genius. No word better fits this boy. He showed no mercy—like a veteran mercenary. The wounds: a neck severed cleanly, a lethal strike to the carotid, lung punctures—each blow aimed at vital points, each death swift and efficient.
'Those blunt-force wounds caused exsanguination, and that was three quick stabs with a blade.'
He even adapted his weapon to the situation: a short blade left embedded in a crossbowman's body.
'A swordmaster adept enough to handle multiple weapons flawlessly.'
If ordinary people take years to master a weapon, decades to wield it properly, and a lifetime to perfect it, this young beast was already a monster. I realized that on the eighth floor.
"What on earth…"
Everything up to then stayed within the brain's capacity to accept. But that sight…anyone watching would dub Baekhyun not a genius, but a catastrophe.
"…the child was a [Liberi], wasn't he?"
"Yes."
"Then tell me: could a young [Liberi] hurl an adult Lupo tribesman through a wall and kill him?"
"…No."
"And splitting someone in two like that?"
"That, too, defies my understanding."
"…A monster."
What defies common sense evokes a deep fear in the human psyche.
"New survivors confirmed!"
"Are they conscious?"
"They're just murmuring. I can't make out the words."
"A revenant!! The revenant has awakened!! The revenant risen from death approaches!!"
Suddenly, a man shouted in a shrill, hoarse voice into the void. It was a trumpet blow of warning about an unleashed monster—a roar that forced everyone on scene to hear his screams and anguished cries.
"From death…"
"A revenant returned…?"
"Is he referring to the Oni clan?"
"We haven't found any Oni clan among the bodies or survivors thus far."
"Or is it some folk belief…?"
"We can't rule out a psychotic episode from mental infection due to [Oripathy]."
'Revenant…somehow the term isn't unfamiliar.'
Meursault remembered the eyes of the creature he had slain when he first entered the mountain. Those eyes were not of the living.
'[Gui Tai]. The living who are not living.'
As [Behemoth] said. The revenant risen from death. And the freshly revived Magpie.
'You've brought back the utterly absurd.'
I sensed he would someday surpass me: talent, pride, precision in [Arts]. In every aspect, he had long since outpaced me at that age. He might be my equal before twenty.
'The day I pass this necklace on will come sooner than expected.'
Meanwhile, Wei Yenwu sat on his hospital bed, calmly peeling and eating dried persimmons while thinking of that scene and watching Magpie.
"Hey! Shouldn't you save some for me?"
"You told me to eat it!"
"Talk back now? Good grief!"
"Ow! I said it hurts! I yield!"
If he was the one behind that monstrous massacre, I'd never want to turn him into an enemy. Killing him would be on the table, but…
'Too precious.'
Would the world see such a treasure again—this life, or even the next? I wanted to hold on to him, even knowing he'd likely never serve Yongmun. And the answer came:
"Stay in Yongmun, you say…how long?"
He was more positive than I'd expected.