37. I Am A Saint (1)

Yujin reached the Pantheon, folded his arms, and studied the star of Kronos. Its light burned a shade stronger than before.

A Constellation that raises its own standing through my achievements, huh.

Rotten or not, a prize fish was still a prize fish.¹

That Kronos hadn’t simply granted a blessing but had taken something solid for himself by naming Yujin his Saint had been the right call. The blessing came out stronger, the holy spell that came with it was a win for Yujin too, and Kronos got to return as a proper Constellation, so it worked out for both of them.

Wonder what holy spell I’ll get this time.

A worthless spell.

Kronos erupted in fury. Yujin let out a long sigh before going on.

“Giant’s Strength,” really. The name alone is far too on-the-nose.

And it bore remembering. Even now that Kronos had become the overseer of undead-natured power, his essence was still that of a Titan, a word that had long since become the very byword for “giant.”

Make me a skill that’s actually useful. Who asked you to go self-indulgent?

This incompetent Constellation. Crafting something useless.

Yujin pressed hard at his temples. Even if Kronos had cast aside all his old glory, that essence hadn’t vanished along with it. A giant of the divine age. The usurper who had seized the throne by cutting away Uranus’s manhood, the great giant-god who opened the age of the Titans.

That’s why “Giant’s Strength” came popping out, no doubt.

The holy spell had been forged by mixing Kronos’s existence-force with his domain of “defying death.” Where the realms of the giant and the undying overlapped, something strange had been born: a buff that nonetheless shaved away the target’s own life force.

Asgard’s Berserk is somewhat similar, granted.

It drained life force but raised vitality. Wasn’t that just doping, plain and simple?

Kronos’s momentum collapsed at Yujin’s fierce reaction.

The life-force cost is the whole premise. I can’t even cast it on the likes of Fafnir.

What vitality would an undead have? They were corpses raised with spirit-power, the energy of the dead. However much the spell boosted physical strength, it was little use to Yujin, whose mainstay was the undead.

Hmm. Yujin fiddled with his chin and nodded.

Then again, it might be surprisingly usable.

Life Drain should be able to offset the penalty.

A holy spell that either drained life force or poured it in. If he topped up vitality with Life Drain first and cast Giant’s Strength right after, it might actually work.

A bit of a hassle, though.

Yujin swept a hand back through his hair. Casting a single buff meant leading with a healing spell first; the conditions were finicky, to say the least.

No, wait. There’s no need to limit the target to undead.

Kronos’s proxy. Becoming the Saint of the White Night had shifted his class group to Priest, too, and if the occasion ever called for him to work as a Priest rather than a Necromancer, the spell might prove useful. Unholy Blessing drew on the mana of the negative dimension, which was to say spirit-power, so cast on a Hunter it acted as a debuff.

Yeah. I take back the “useless” remark.

Yes, yes. I’m sure it was.

Giant’s Strength, huh. Yujin reflected on how narrow his view had gotten.

I should make use of the abilities I gained as a Priest, too.

This life held far more options than the last. Thanks to the physical capabilities Life Drain reinforced, he’d learned spearmanship, and now he could wield holy spells besides.

I need to widen the scope of what I notice.

The more cards in hand, the better.

House Romanov. To contend with a power mighty enough to vie for first or second even among the Seven Great Families that swayed the currents of the whole world, he had to mobilize everything he could lay hands on.

— Bzzt!

Why are you sending a signal?

The vibration in his pocket turned out to come not from the pocket watch but from his phone. The caller was the Madam. Had she already gotten her hands on a decent elixir?

She really is something, that one ability of hers.

A capable partner, just like Shin Junseok. In the shadows or in the daylight, few people were so deft with information.

“You’ve got it already?”
“Hohoho. Straight to business, just like that?”
“Should I exchange pleasantries, then?”
“I’ll pass. Picturing you going through the motions of a polite greeting isn’t a terribly pleasant image.”

What did I ever do.

While Yujin grumbled inwardly, the Madam got to the point.

“As it happens, a fine commission came in. The reward is Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng.”

A mountain ginseng shaped like a person. Of all the energies of nature it hoarded cold essence alone, which made it a high-grade elixir attuned to the power of the negative dimension.

“If Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng is the reward, this is no ordinary commission.”
“Correct. The chairman of Seongcheon Enterprise is the client.”

Seongcheon Enterprise. Not a conglomerate, but a mid-sized company with a strong foothold in mana-stone applications and chemicals.

Domestically it’s also been making a name for itself in alchemy equipment.

A commission from a company of that caliber, then.

“Let me hear the details, then.”
“The chairman’s youngest daughter has come down with Mummification Disease.”

Mummification Disease. Its formal name was Muscular Contraction Sclerosis, a disease first identified in China. Once it took hold, every trace of moisture drained from the body and the muscles withered and twisted until the patient dried out bone-dry, like a mummy. Potions and holy spells could do no more than ease the symptoms; with neither cause nor cure known, people had taken to calling it a curse of the gods.

“So I just have to cure that?”
“Hohoho. Could you manage it?”
“There’s no harm in trying. Then I’ll give it a shot.”
“I brokered this commission because you possess healing abilities, so it’s a relief you’re being so positive about it.”

She had remembered him healing her during the Galaxy Pub raid and carried it all the way to an elixir commission. The woman let not the smallest detail slip.

He took down the commission’s schedule from the Madam and ended the call.

If I didn’t know the method, I wouldn’t have taken the commission.

The cause of Mummification Disease would not be uncovered for several more years. When an ordinary person came into contact with high-density mana, an abnormality set in within the muscles; unable to adapt to the change, the body reacted to the mana in the air and purged its own moisture.

It’s a disease that appeared after the Great Cataclysm.

In the future, they made a dedicated treatment capsule.

The capsule forced an artificial mana-vacuum and had the body absorb, over its whole surface, a concentrated extract distilled from a particular elixir. It cost a fortune, but it cured the disease without fail.

I’ll just have to imitate it somehow.

Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng.

I was just thinking of raising Fafnir’s level — this is perfect.

To boost the total mana capacity of the Draconian corpse, what could beat an elixir steeped in cold essence? Yujin licked his lips.

A country house near Suwon.

“This way, please.”

They followed the guard across the garden to the drawing room. Beside Yujin, Shin Junseok kept scanning the surroundings with an uneasy look, while the Madam who had brokered the meeting smiled serenely, as if she found the whole thing amusing.

“You needn’t be so frightened.”
“Y-yes, yes.”
“Since this is a connection of fate too, shall we exchange business cards?”

The Madam extended her right hand, naturally drawing Shin Junseok’s attention.

“Ah….”

Shin Junseok’s mouth fell open. A rare beauty was addressing him kindly, smiling with her eyes, and he went utterly slack-jawed. And to think he’d been a bundle of nerves at the mere thought of meeting a mid-sized company’s chairman.

Ugh. Pathetic fool.

Yujin swallowed a sigh inwardly.

“Y-you, you. What’s your relationship with Yujin?”
“Business partners. I’ve heard much about you, Alchemist Shin Junseok.”
“About me?”
“Hoho. They tell me you’re the nation’s foremost potion developer, with a most outstanding talent for alchemy.”
“Ha, hahahaha. There’s some exaggeration in that, but it’s true!”

Good grief. Red in the face on top of everything, he made quite a sight. Left to his own devices, he looked ready to blurt out the Mid-grade Potion recipe and all the rest of it.

Yujin clicked his tongue at how pitiful it all was, and the Madam, catching it, winked at him.

“I thought you’d just toss me the commission and never show.”
“That would be no courtesy to the chairman of Seongcheon Group. I’m vouching for the two of them, after all.”
“You’ve got some connection with them, I take it?”
“A little, yes.”

Seongcheon Enterprise was no corner shop. Daughter’s cure or not, there was no chance the man would let any random riffraff through his door. The Arahan Guild had its eye on Yujin, true, but the sparring match held inside the guild a few weeks back had stayed secret from the outside world, so that was a special case.

Didn’t realize the Madam had a connection to Seongcheon Enterprise.

Regression isn’t all-powerful. It’s not as if I see through everything.

Take the Mirror Hunters and their companion, for one. Or, come to think of it, the absurd lengths to which Madam Oh Hyeonjeong had kept her own past buried. The old man tending her bar was another. A 6th-Rank powerhouse mixing cocktails in a pub? Even the head of the Red Spider, said to hold a third of Ground Zero, currently stood at 6th Rank himself.

Their digging into Shin Junseok doesn’t sit well with me, though.

This was a job to cure a mid-sized company chairman’s youngest daughter. Since the Madam had vouched for the commission, going so far as to disclose a past connection, he’d play ignorant about the background check.

He was sipping the tea they’d brought to the drawing room.

— Click!

The doors on either side swung wide, and a middle-aged man in a suit stepped through. A black tuxedo. White gloves stitched with a pentagram on each hand, a strong wave of mana rolling off them. From the instant he entered the drawing room, a heavy pressure settled over everyone’s shoulders.

A 7th-Rank mage really is different.

Jin Seonghyeon, who served as chairman of Seongcheon Enterprise, was also one of the few 7th-Rank magic-line Hunters in the country.

Yujin jabbed Shin Junseok lightly in the side.

“Hic.”

Not crying out loud earned him some credit, at least.

“Chairman. Thank you for sparing us your precious time.”

Letting the 7th-Rank mage’s aura wash past her, the Madam bowed gracefully at the waist.

“I’m Cheon Yujin.”
“I-I’m Shin Junseok.”

The middle-aged man, who’d half-ignored the two of them, soon shifted his gaze to the Madam.

“It’s been a while.”
“Yes. Have you been well, Chairman?”
“You may still call me ‘Mister,’ as before.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to save the private chat for later?”
“Ah. Where’s my head.”

The man cleared his throat with a short “ahem.”

“Jin Seonghyeon, I’m called.”
“May I take your agreeing to meet us as meaning you’ll entrust the commission to us?”
“You may not know this, but a fair number of people have approached me under the pretext of a cure.”

Jin Seonghyeon’s face twisted hard. A disease so obscure it had been named only recently. A connection to Seongcheon Enterprise. Or simply the swarm chasing the reward itself, enough of them to fill a truck.

“Every one of them was all talk.”

The aura coming off Jin Seonghyeon thickened by a shade. The cure for Mummification Disease lay several years off yet, and his face was that of a man whose dearest hope had collapsed more times than he could count.

“I don’t want to see my daughter suffer any further.”
“If the treatment succeeds, that’s exactly what will happen.”
“Confident, aren’t you. May I trust you and proceed with the treatment?”
“If there’s no alternative, you’ll have to trust me.”

Threatening us won’t change anything, Mister.

Even with the Madam’s guarantee, what did it mean to summon two people of no renown for the sake of a cure?

He’d want to clutch at any straw.

He looked ready to lash out if the cure failed, but nothing of the sort would happen. There was no cause for worry. Yujin had the cure for Mummification Disease committed to memory, down to the last detail.

At Yujin’s unshaken composure, Jin Seonghyeon heaved a great sigh.

“…I’m counting on you.”

With that, his hard-line stance broke, and he bent at the waist a full ninety degrees.

“Please show us to the patient.”
“Follow me.”

Yujin’s party fell in behind Jin Seonghyeon, deeper into the country house.