Chapter 84

No Yeon-hwa had come down to Daegu on the Gyeongbu Line, following the Archduke Extermination Unit.

They had confirmed that no seeds of disaster—those that appeared when the Archduke manifested—remained in Daegu. But the purpose of this investigation was slightly different.

It was to find out what had caused Flauros’s sudden disappearance.

When the train stopped, Kang Cho-won looked around before speaking to the person behind him.

“This area is still hot! Be careful, Self-Made Immortal.”

“Thanks, Cho-won.”

The one who disembarked under escort was the Special Unit Commander, Seona.

From her wheelchair, she looked down at a massive crater that seemed to boil with fury.

The surrounding area had been completely flattened by the clash of immense power.

Measurements taken with equipment borrowed from the Magic Tower had even detected waves that appeared when the Gate collapsed.

Perhaps thanks to the occasional pillar of fire bursting through the ground, the site had become a must-visit spot for Seoul citizens traveling to Busan.

Seona placed her hand on the ground, closed the only open eye for a moment in thought, then straightened up.

“Hm, it’s fine.”

“Fine? This?”

“It’s a threat, but I sense no malice.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Fire only burns; it doesn’t have a goal. As long as you don’t get too close, you won’t get hurt.”

“Ah, I see!”

“Do you really understand?”

Kang Cho-won nodded, and No Yeon-hwa looked at him with suspicion.

But he soon helped Seona settle back into her wheelchair, accepting the assessment.

“Well, if you say it’s fine, I guess it is.”

The Self-Made Immortal’s ability came from a contract with an Outer God—an enforced pact.

By paying the price, one could temporarily borrow the power of that Outer God.

One of the possible uses was to borrow the power of the “Outer God of Revelation” to foresee the future.

Though the Archduke of Fire, Flauros, could reappear in the future, it would pose no threat to humanity.

When Seona said it was “fine,” that was what she meant.

“Are you sure it’s fine?”

“It’s safer to watch out more toward China than domestically. The Thirteen Palaces of the Void are slowly moving toward the Korean Peninsula… Shall we head back?”

“What price did you pay?”

“Explaining that would be neither cool nor sexy!”

No one laughed at Seona’s joke.

Seeing the cold atmosphere, she pouted.

“Oh, don’t you know? A famous politician in Japan once said that…”

“I don’t know! That’s ancient history!”

“I always feel like what you say, Commander, is from a completely different era than ours. Last time, you called the streaming site that appeared ‘Twitchy,’ then asked us to show you how to rewatch the videos, uh… what was it?”

“Floppy disk?”

“Right! You even looked for a floppy disk?”

“You’re too much…! Floppy disks are still in use, you know?”

Just as Division 1 boarded the train to head back to Seoul, No Yeon-hwa noticed blood dripping from the tip of Seona’s finger.

“Uh, your nail… it’s broken?”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“Could that be the price you paid?”

“No, this… Yeon-hwa, come here for a moment.”

“Why?”

Unless it was a memory, no one could be unaware of the price they had personally paid.

Seona looked down at her hand and cautiously called No Yeon-hwa aside.

“It’s better if you leave early today.”

“Me? Why?”

“The damage to my body is a kind of ‘warning.’ It signals the Special Unit in advance if the organization is at risk of shaking.”

Between the train cars, Seona wrapped a bandage around her broken fingernail and said,

“The person who notices the injury first is highly likely to be connected to this incident.”

“…….”

“Do you have any idea who it might be?”

And her words turned out to be chillingly accurate.

Returning home in a grim mood, Yeon-hwa found an unexpected visitor waiting for her at Hayan’s place.

“Open sesame.”

After a quick wash and a basic makeup routine like yesterday, she stepped into the hallway.

She headed toward the next-door apartment, which she had handed over to Hayan—but this time, the door lock didn’t open with her spell.

“Sesame?”

She tried a few more times in panic, and eventually, the door opened.

But it had been opened from the inside.

It was Cheon So-baek, commander of the Firepower Support Unit.

“Oh my, why are you so late? I was about to get a stiff neck waiting for you.”

She always wore a smile, but her eyes didn’t smile at all.

Seeing Hayan trembling behind the door, No Yeon-hwa finally understood what Seona’s warning had meant.

Yeon-hwa scowled, fiddling with the small megaphone in her pocket.

Cheon So-baek smiled, preparing to form a seal beneath her robe.

Caught between the two of them, I recalled words an old childhood friend had once told me:

“Actually, Santa doesn’t exist, Hayan.”

“What?”

“Santa is really just the parents of children. You and I don’t have both parents, right? So we can’t ever steal from Santa’s sack. Only from each other.”

“……!!!?”

No, that wasn’t it.

It was just the first memory that came rushing back—a traumatic story that had shattered my childhood world.

That friend had said more, advice meant for moments exactly like this.

“You tend to let emotions from others tilt too far into the negative. Maybe it’s because you got hit too much as a kid—you’re painfully oblivious.”

“I’m not oblivious. I’m just trying to avoid getting hit now because you look like you might strike.”

“Shut up and listen. I guarantee that if women fight in front of you. No matter the situation, it’s always your fault.”

Sometimes they’d scold me for no reason, but this one stuck—especially unfair, because I had always prided myself on my ability to read others’ emotions, being from Ground Zero.

Everyone had shortcomings, whether awakened or ordinary.

Perhaps it was worse for someone like them, who resorted to violence at the slightest provocation.

The law was distant, and fists were close, so I had no choice but to ask what to do next to avoid getting beaten.

“Then what should I do?”

“I’ll handle everything from beside you, so don’t worry.”

“And if you’re not there?”

“That’ll never happen, but if by some miracle it does, just accept fate and die. Yes, dying would be best. If I’m not there, what use would it be?”

“I don’t want to die…”

“Then stick with the strongest. As long as you live, I’ll find you even at the ends of hell. So don’t die.”

In the end, they had broken that promise.

They couldn’t find me at the ends of hell, couldn’t stay by my side in a situation like this, and in the end, had died.

Yet their presence remained, guiding me, showing me how to act in moments like these.

Following the advice of my childhood friend who had now become a star, I carefully gauged the strengths of the two before me.

On one side was a woman once called one of the “Wings” of the Wings of the Blue Sky.

Now, she belonged to the Special Unit’s most secretive and powerful unit, the Archduke Extermination Unit. She wielded one of the rarest abilities among the awakened—Word-Spirit.

“Your hands are a bit rough, aren’t they? And him… no, this is my house that I lent to him. Do you have permission to just barge in? Shouldn’t a commander be more careful about their conduct?”

On the other side was the heir to the Red Tower.

A disciple of Cheon-seon, one of the Seven Immortals, and a prodigy who, at a young age, already commanded the Firepower Support Unit, ranking among the top five supreme mages in South Korea.

“What are you talking about? Someone else’s house?”

“What?”

“This building—belongs to me. I bought it earlier. I got the agreement of all residents except for you, including the couple who went to Busan.”

“…….”

Needless to say, she was extremely wealthy.

“And I clearly warned you before: if you cast Word-Spirit on Hayan, I’ll get mad.”

“I didn’t cast anything.”

“Oh really? Then why was Hayan preparing dinner? Someone who’s only ever made weird seafood dishes suddenly cooked braised short ribs?”

“Well… maybe he just wanted to serve someone. Not a sudden guest, but a neighbor living next door.”

Objectively comparing their power, Cheon So-baek seemed to have the upper hand against No Yeon-hwa, who was still middle level.

Yeon-hwa’s Word-Spirit had incredible potential, but neither her resources nor her skill were enough to confront Cheon So-baek head-on.

Yet superiority wasn’t determined by strength alone.

At some point, Yeon-hwa’s tone returned to formal speech toward Cheon So-baek, and she let out a light, playful laugh.

“Oh~ feeling jealous?”

“Jealous? Me?”

“Well, it’s understandable. When Hayan had nowhere to sleep, the only person he could turn to was me. Did you see the bed in that room? If you did, you’d know what happened last night.”

“Did… something happen between us?”

“You… just shut up…!”

When I peeked my head in to ask, Yeon-hwa suddenly put on a mask, glaring angrily.

But Cheon So-baek’s smile disappeared.

For some reason, what mattered more seemed to be who shared a deeper connection with me.

After a moment’s thought, she began talking about a classified mission that wasn’t supposed to be revealed.

“This scratches a bit, but you know why Hayan wasn’t there when Division 3 fell into the demons’ trap?”

“……?”

“You don’t, of course—not because you didn’t see, but because he and I were in Busan~. Just the two of us at a hotel, even wearing swimsuits…”

“Swimsuits? I didn’t see that.”

“Wh-what, would you mind keeping that to yourself…?”

Every time I tried to intervene, both stopped talking and turned their heads, but the tension only thickened.

Ikseon and Cheon-seon.

Coincidentally, both deeply connected to one of the Seven Immortals, stepped forward simultaneously without hesitation.

Yeon-hwa lowered her mask, glaring; Cheon So-baek lifted her chin, hands on her hips.

Their powers, Word-Spirit and Magic, cut through the space between them, making the air tingle.

“Hayan, come here.”

“No, stay behind me.”

“I said come! Step over and stand beside me. Then link arms.”

“Doo~n’t~ liiisten~ to~ heeer~.”

『Mala-nim, please do something!』

『Not. Not. Not.』

I frantically called for Mala-nim’s aid, but only a strange voice emerged from fluttering sleeves, breaking my name into fragmented syllables: “Ha… yan, Ha… yan, Ha… yan.”

Before I could decide whom to side with, the building itself threatened to collapse.

Resolving to save myself at least, I prepared to break a window and jump.

From within Cheon So-baek’s robe, a calm blue light seeped out.

“Huh? Wait a second. Hello?”

Unlike the smartwatch, the Magic Crystal was a communication device mostly used at the Magic Tower.

This time, it seemed to be connected to the lobby, and the contact appeared to be the building’s security team—the same ones seen yesterday.

“I told you, don’t let anyone in. Didn’t you hear me before?”

“What? Sword Princess? Isn’t she… in charge of the Old Gods’ Wound right now? How could she even know…?”

Cheon So-baek’s expression hardened as she realized her plan was failing, having learned that someone from the first-floor security team was trying to ascend.

But… who was Sword Princess?

If it’s Sword Immortal, then I know.

The title Sword Princess means ‘the princess who wields a sword.’

At that moment, I had a strong feeling that it might be someone I actually knew.

『F…e…a…r…』

This time, Mala-nim clearly pronounced my name with an extra syllable:

“Sae… Hayan.”