The Bomb Explodes

Mae Young-ryeong, who entered the inn, felt she could find where the sick were without anyone guiding her.

A familiar, if troubling, scent, the stench of death, wafted strongly from the inner room.

Mae Young-ryeong hurried briskly into the room, frowning slightly at the foul smell.

The patients were practically abandoned, five people simply lying on five beds.

Their conditions worsened from right to left; the patient on the far left seemed moments from death.

“Healing.”

Confronted with such dire conditions, Mae Young-ryeong wasted no time and unleashed a power of restoration.

A warm light, like a sight that alone could heal, filled the room and then faded.

The patients’ breathing eased, but Mae Young-ryeong’s expression only hardened.

She rushed to the beds and began examining them in order from the leftmost patient, using inspection, auscultation, and palpation.

If a patient were conscious, she could perform an interview-style inquiry, but that was not possible here.

She assessed complexion and condition by sight, and by hearing she carefully listened to each patient’s breathing, moans, and even faint delirious mutterings.

By palpation she checked pulse changes and pressed over bodies with cold hands and abnormally high temperatures to examine them.

Plague.

Though a plague implies contagion, Mae Young-ryeong showed no hesitation in touching such bodies; she only sought to identify the cause.

Finally came qi-diagnosis only possible for those with divine power: she infused divine power into the pulse points to sense internal changes and the root cause.

This side of Mae Young-ryeong was completely different from the earlier commotion; the priests waiting outside in full vigil for surveillance could not approach or speak to her.

“Sigh, this won’t be easy. First of all…“

Her small, soothing voice echoed in the tense room, and the priests waiting behind, startled as if awakened from hypnosis, resumed watching her.

She rose, looked around, and slowly released her divine power.

After confirming the radiating divinity extended beyond the patients’ room into the corridor and nearby areas, her full lips parted and a strange, potent voice flowed out.

“Purify. Maintain state. Summon secret Scorpius. Open. Spatial barrier.”

Tat-tat-tak— tat-tak— tat-tak—

A sound like wood crackling in a fire rang out repeatedly and faded away.

The air in the patients’ room immediately shifted. Moments later the door vanished and the space became enclosed on all sides by walls.

Only then did Mae Young-ryeong smile in satisfaction and take from her magic pouch several clean white cloths, needles, and herbal pills, arranging them neatly.

‘First, the biggest problem is the rapidly diminishing life force. And the unsettling qi taking its place.’

While organizing her thoughts, she continued to set out her tools carefully, each with reverence, as if performing a ritual.

‘Then I’ll boost the innate life qi first.’

She unwrapped a dark herbal pill wrapped in foil, put it in a bowl and poured a potion, mixing them carefully with all her care.

Inside the bowl the potion and pill combined into a muddy, thick liquid, the color of puddled earth after rain.

Despite the odd color, Mae Young-ryeong was pleased, carefully spooning the liquid into each patient’s mouth little by little.

This Mae Young-ryeong was not the one Kim Han had scolded before.

She radiated the aura of a master physician, as if someone nearby would be watching to wipe the sweat from her brow.

‘Now again sight and hearing, then…’

Mae Young-ryeong began to scrutinize each patient’s condition visually and through listening and smelling.

‘Move to palpation, finish with qi-diagnosis.’

She pressed various spots on the body, gauged temperatures, then circulated her divine power into the patients, observing each change.

How much time passed like that?

A fierce light burst from Mae Young-ryeong’s focused eyes.

‘Got it!’

She spun her hand and snatched up a long needle with the deftness of a seasoned expert.

Starting from the lower abdomen, she unhesitatingly placed palm-length needles into spots that, in a way, amounted to dangerous bloodletting points.

If anyone had seen those long needles inserted more than halfway into places that could cause death if struck wrongly, they might have screamed.

Only after placing about forty-eight needles did Mae Young-ryeong exhale a long breath.

‘Now we must wait.’

Her lips pressed firmly, she listened for the slightest change; her face was solemn and serious. If Arun had seen her, he might have asked, “Who are you?”

Her eyes opened after placing her hands on the pulse points and infusing divine power to monitor change, and she began withdrawing the forty-eight needles at once.

She had been decisive placing them, and she was equally decisive withdrawing them.

After removing every needle, she slowly gave each patient a potion from her bosom, sighed deeply, and collapsed onto the floor.

‘Done…’

A smile of fulfillment spread across Mae Young-ryeong’s face as she sank to the floor.

Her smile was so beautiful it was almost a pity no one could see it.

It had taken an hour to treat one person.

Though the patient was critical and it was her first time, it was clearly no short span.

But Mae Young-ryeong didn’t rest; she moved on to treat the next patient.

After about two more hours — three hours in total of unbroken focus — she had treated every patient and sat on the floor smiling brightly.

“Ugh, ugh…”

“Oh? Are you coming to your senses?”

“…How am I… alive?”

“Yes. The illness has been treated. You only need to regain your strength now.”

“…Ah. Th-thank you.”

Even though the patient who was relatively better was treated last, they regained consciousness first and spoke with Mae Young-ryeong.

As the other patients came to, Mae Young-ryeong enjoyed a sense of accomplishment and dispelled the spatial barrier.

“Close. Spatial barrier. Cancel summon. Secret Scorpius.”

Wooooo—!

The barrier was sucked into a scorpion-shaped card, and the surroundings returned to the shabby room Mae Young-ryeong had entered.

The moment the barrier vanished, she felt sharp divine power strike her, not the reaction she had expected.

Fortunately, she reflexively avoided it from nearly a year of training; unfortunately, the patient who had just awakened took the attack she dodged.

“…Huh?”

“Oh, dodged, huh? Hmm, I heard she was a mage type?”

A man wearing a strange mask pointed a sword at Mae Young-ryeong.

She paid him no mind; her gaze was fixed on the patient on the bed, chest split and spurting blood.

Blood gushed, soaking the bed and beginning to flow onto the floor.

Blood, blood, blood, blood.

“…Huh? Huh?”

Like a puppet with cut strings, like a broken robot, Mae Young-ryeong kept repeating the same words.

“What? This one isn’t in her right mind already?”

At the strange man’s voice behind the mask, Mae Young-ryeong slowly turned her head.

The man stepped back involuntarily when their eyes met.

“W-what kind of look is that…”

Her gaze seemed to devour light, a look of oppressive despair and emptiness…

A bottomless abyss that would suck you in and strip your very soul. Complete nothingness.

It made the look all the more chilling.

“Hey, hey! Cast sleep magic! Now!”

The man, terrified despite Mae Young-ryeong’s inaction, began shouting toward the outside.

But Mae Young-ryeong’s high divine power, a sanctified power specialized in healing, resisted every attempt at sleep magic.

As Mae Young-ryeong slowly approached, the man backed away even faster.

The masked man, retreating step by step and suddenly feeling a cold wall behind him, began to shout even louder.

“If sleep magic won’t work, pour in sleep gas or something — do anything! Now!!”

Perhaps in answer to his desperation, glass bottles flew into the inn room and began to shatter.

As the potent sleep gas burst out, the breathing of the patients they’d barely saved slowed.

To Mae Young-ryeong’s divinity-honed ears, the sound of the patients’ breaths ceasing boomed like thunder.

When the last patient’s frantic inhalation was followed by a stopped heart and no breath, Mae Young-ryeong seemed to mirror them, closed her eyes, and collapsed to the side.

As consciousness faded, the man’s grumbling voice sounded faintly.

“Damn, what kind of woman is this. Is she really a representative with the same power?”

“Mae, Mae Young-ryeong… has been kidnapped!”

My first thought wasn’t shock but whether that was even possible.

Could a representative be kidnapped during training time? Unless they rendered them combat-ineffective before bringing them into Exorsus.

Moreover, the Mae Young-ryeong I’d seen training recently wasn’t someone who could be easily abducted; she could have beaten Arun’s pre-transformation level.

And Mae Young-ryeong should have been waiting in front of the Garden of Gods. How could they abduct her in the middle of the square, evading the gardener’s notice?

“…Is that even possible?”

“Well… she went to treat plague patients in the eastern district, so…”

“…What? Where — what — how did she go there?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Boom — the bomb went off.

Not even an hour after I voiced concern and worry. Kidnapped? Worse than that…

“Plague? You mean she treated that plague that’s only recently appeared? Mae Young-ryeong?”

“…Uh? Yes. It took three hours to treat five people, though.”

“…Ha.”

Amazing. As Genesis said, she really treated it in place with medicine.

If she treated the plague here, Benialis wouldn’t stand idly by.

Everything Lee Hyo-ju and I had planned and prepared was about to be derailed.

“I have to go out!”

“Wait.”

A voice stopped me as I tried to leave — Spatium. The goddess who’d exuded the most divine dignity all along.

“Ludicer’s representative, Kim Han. Calm down.“

“…Calm?”

“There’s a question I’ve wanted to ask you that relates to the situation. Kim Han, why are you so impatient?”

“…?

“Your high standards, your expectations from the representatives and members of legion. Why do you move like someone is chasing after you.“

“… huh?“

A chill ran from my head down my spine as if dunked in cold water; I shivered without meaning to.

“You’re not the only one, Kim Han. All of the representatives gathered here and from other gods have only just begun their second year. It’s only been one full year since they entered the Battlefield of the Gods. With your help they have grown stronger faster, and will only continue to grow. Of course, some representatives like Mors’s or Genesis’s have issues beyond strength… Kim Han, you seem to worry about more than that.”

“Hmm…”

“Of course, I don’t mean to tell you to be careless — carelessness means death in the Battlefield of the Gods. But even amid a hail of attacks, you must keep composure to see more broadly.”

“Hmm… All right, I understand. Thanks for the advice.”

“Hm?”

Spatium was surprised I said thanks. Everyone except Aetas and Ludicer looked at me astonished.

“What? Why are you all looking at me like I’m some oddity for saying thanks?”

“…Ah, never mind. Anyway, take good care of our Hazel. Hazel’s comes, Kim Han.”

At Spatium’s last words, I thought I saw a flash of hostility rise and then fall from Ludicer and Aetas.

“Then let’s finalize. Genesis, confirm where your representative ultimately disappeared to. Have you sent out all your representatives?”

“Yes.”

“Of course. Time…”

“Mm.”

“I’m not done yet.”

Good. Someone still has a representative not sent out. If I tell them to have the party go to the manor and explain the situation in detail…

“Damn! Mors of all people!”

“…What’s with your mouth!”

Of all people, the remaining representative is Naruan. Whether Mors is hopping about or not, why Naruan?

“Ah! Genesis, isn’t it training period? Isn’t it an excuse to manifest like a Three-God Incarnation?”

“…The kidnappers are representatives. Two of them.”

That’s more like it.

This is the unlucky, suffering-icon Kim Han.

“Mors, don’t pull any stunts — relay my words exactly, not a word different, don’t embellish. Understand?”

“…Hmph!”

“Say this: ‘Naruan, leave the Garden of Gods and find Lee Hyo-ju. From the manor, wait without meeting anyone until I arrive. Tell her the alert level is maximum.’”

“I’ve heard enough, you brat. What do you take the gods for! I told Naruan exactly as you said. She’s already off, bounding to deliver your message.”

“Good. Make sure Naruan receives it exactly as is — not a syllable off. No, Mors, use a visual crystal. Yes, use a visual crystal to deliver my words verbatim.”

After hearing that Mors had given Naruan a visual crystal, the six goddesses and I waited in the Garden of Gods for the kidnappers’ party to reach their final destination.

The goddesses took seats where they pleased.

Ludicer, naturally, came to my side.

“Mr. Kim Han.”

“…Hm?”

Ludicer spoke softly. With an awkward gesture she handed me something, a somewhat large box.

“What’s this…?”

[You have obtained a 2nd-year reward box.]

“And, Mr. Kim Han, it seems this matter was ordered by Benialis.”

“Probably.”

“Inside the Garden of Gods you cannot spy on the two beings, but once you leave you can confirm. Keep watch on him and act according to the situation. And as Spatium said, keep composure. You are strong enough, Kim Han.”

“Okay.”

As Ludicer said, entering the Garden of Gods prevents spying on Violentia and Benialis, but once outside, continued observation should yield clues.

“They’ve arrived!”

“…Where?”

“Ah! Damn…!”

“Where are they?!”

“They’re in the Archbishop’s office at the Amor temple of Exorsus…”

Damn! Annoying, but at least we know where they’ve been detained. Now it’s time to go and adjust our disrupted plan.

“Understood. I’ll go. Anyone else have requests or words? Any god?”

Silence. Only Genesis looked at me with a desolate gaze.

“Then we’ll meet in a year. And Genesis, sorry to say, but we might not be able to rescue Mae Young-ryeong immediately.”

“Yes. Please — just save her. And Mr. Kim Han…”

Putting Genesis’s ominous warning aside, I finally left the Garden of Gods about eight hours later.

I took the parcel the gardener handed me, called a carriage, and hurried to the manor.