Chapter 392: Debuff (2)

At Franc's side, her face gone blue with pain, I drove the Mana Sieve, gathering Phase Power to open a portal into subspace — hard enough that not a single stray thought could slip in.

Time dragged. Franc's groans deepened, and Darky went slack beside us, half out of her senses, as if the toll of having forced herself to catch me were finally flaring.

My chest tightened, but just as Franc had said, I kept my head and worked the Phase Power along, little by little. The way a brook wears a pebble smooth and round, I ground at the stiffened power, and only after two full hours did I scrape together enough TP to open a subspace portal.

I didn't stop to think. Both hands went in, I hauled out a heap of Blue Stones, shattered every last one, and strained the Mana Sieve to drag the Phase Power drifting in the empty air until I could trigger a Healing Wave.

Pssht.

"Oh, come on!!"

It had gone off with a sound like someone cutting a fart. The instant I realized the cast had failed, I snapped — and threw the Healing Wave again.

Seven failures later, it finally took. The Healing Wave spread across a world of nothing but white snow, dyeing the whole of it the color of water.

Hwaaaaa……

Blue light wrapped Franc from head to toe, and Darky's small body with her, then faded. In its wake a terrible screaming of bone rose from Franc's shoulder, her pelvis, her legs.

Crack. Crunch. Grind. Pop.

"Haaa……"

The left shoulder, caved inward, settled back where it belonged. The pelvis — smashed, black with blood-bruise — and the twisted legs found their beautiful lines again. From the sound alone I would have sworn the pain was enough to bite through a tongue, and yet Franc's face looked as pleased as if she were being given a full-body massage.

They weren't wounds from Baekcheong's attack, and that was a mercy: even a first-stage Healing Wave was enough to heal them clean. The Phase Power I'd made by shattering those Blue Stones was the last of it.

Working a skill by moving Phase Power outside the body, rather than within it, was hopelessly inefficient. I could barely gather it properly to begin with, and even when I managed, it refused to move as I willed — which was why I'd failed so many times.

Darky firmed up from her half-melted slump into that original sleek girl-shape, opened her eyes, and latched onto my neck with the look of someone who had only just decided to live.

"The creaks are all gone, Boss!"

Franc, restored to her perfectly beautiful form, pushed herself upright, felt along her shoulder, her waist, her legs, and opened her mouth with a soft smile.

"Thank you, Seoha. I am alive because of you."

"Boss~ thanks a ton!"

"I'm the one who ought to be grateful. If any one of us had been missing, we wouldn't have come through this in one piece. You did beautifully, Franc. You too, Darky. Thank you."

"If you're grateful, I formally request praise!"

"Yeah, yeah. Very good. Attagirl~."

I mimicked Yeongeun as I said it, gave Darky's backside a couple of taps, and stroked her head. She puffed her cheeks and protested.

"Don't need a joke of a compliment like that, nope! I demand a love-packed pet loaded with TP, sir!!"

"……Did you pick that up from Nuhodi?"

"Heh."

Darky hung off my neck, tugging my cheek and wheedling, and I gave her a firm, solid pet. Then I looked over at Franc, who was stretching and checking herself for any place that still hurt.

Sweat had poured off her and frozen in the cold, a rime of frost over those enormous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠breasts. I looked a moment, drew her underthings and clothes from subspace, and asked,

"Franc. How much Phase Power can you move?"

"I…… have come only a very little loose. It seems it will take a terribly long time to return to what I was."

"You're sure it isn't a permanent debuff?"

Franc took the clothes and, wiping the cold sweat from her body with snow heaped against a tree, spoke.

"Yes. I wondered whether it might be a field-type debuff spread over a given area, but the seal has held even after we crossed into the medieval era, so it must be a debuff bound to the individual. And as my Phase Power has begun to stir, if only a little, it is not a delayed-onset effect either. In short, it is the sort of seal that will undo itself with time."

"Looking at the killing intent that bitch Baekcheong showed, I'd have sworn it was a permanent seal."

"Which would mean the prayer was imperfect."

Listening to Franc's analysis, I thought of Mt. Veltical.

I didn't know what trick Baekcheong had pulled, but we had fallen for the better part of a minute through soil and sand and bedrock. The mountain had to be counted as collapsed entirely.

The Dok-aks who would have been waiting for me at the summit…… were dead, surely. The Sabi living along the slopes might have been wiped out in the landslide as well.

The power to bring a mountain down, and the power to seal the Phase Power of Franc, of Darky, and of me. Had the Lord of the Great Sea lent that strength in person, paid for with a life? Why? Did the Lord of the Great Sea not care if the Sabi who worshipped it were slaughtered to the last?

Langue Dran's first impression had been so overwhelming that I'd assumed every divine beast must be some numinous, holy thing. Remembering the murals in the temple on the Floating Sky Islands, the conduct of the Lord of the Great Sea, and what Baekcheong — that Lord's so-called apostle — had done, I had the uneasy sense that expecting anything human from so-called divine beasts was a grave mistake.

Langue Dran was probably just like that by nature.

I had settled one of the great grudges of my short life in the Phase World. My heart was not, for all that, entirely light.

Franc wiped the sweat from her skin with snow, dressed, and looked around. Relief and a little regret sat together on her face when she spoke.

"It is a mercy we killed Baekcheong, but a shame we could not recover the carcass."

"No. Once the seal's undone, we go back to reality, get something like an oxygen tank, and go in again. Next time we enter, we'll show up inside Baekcheong's maw anyway. Still — being able to cross from the Phase World into the medieval past was a real stroke of luck. If that hadn't worked, you and I would have died there without a chance to move."

Watching Franc in a gray V-neck and ordinary gray trousers, I turned over the need for some other means of lifting the seal debuff.

Since we'd already crossed into the medieval era, should I go see Myrddin before we left? If anyone knew how to undo a seal, it would be him.

I had a feeling Nuhodi might know a way as well, but when it came to clout, Myrddin seemed the surer bet. Even so, taking giant-form Franc to Camelot as she was now would be inviting a disaster, and I didn't much like the thought of leaving her here — unable to use Phase Power — and going on alone.

The people of this age, if they found her, would take her for some unclean, wicked-looking giant and come charging to put her down. And if it came to a fight, she would be facing the people who would one day be her own country's ancestors; I doubted she could bring herself to resist at all. On top of that, the matter of Morgan le Fay still nagged at me……

I boiled it down and told her. Franc's face went a little gloomy, and she nodded.

"There are mages in this world as well. Unable to guard my body with Phase Power, I would be better off returning to reality."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Boss. Nuhodi knows her esoteric arts real well, so wouldn't she know somethin' about the seal, yeah?"

"If we're comparing grades, I'd say Myrddin's a few ranks above Nuhodi. That's why I figured, since we're already here, we might as well drop in on him."

"Ah. Um. Roger."

"The entry restriction on the Phase World is as good as gone, so meeting Myrddin can wait. Home first."

"Yes."

Franc could no longer use her techniques for handling Phase Power, so I would have to see her home and cross back over myself.

We crossed back into reality, and ten days had passed. The great mansion was a breath away from completion.

I watched the crew putting the last finishes on, then walked the garden. The construction supplies and materials had all been cleared away, and the wooden sheds the workers had used for rest were gone entirely.

"Oh my. The garden is finished?"

Just as Franc said, flowers and lawn, a grand fountain, and the little stream running from it made a beautiful garden — enough to ease, if only a little, the unpleasantness of sitting under Baekcheong's debuff. Of course, it wasn't the whole of my land, a holding large enough for a small city, that had been tended. Only about three hundred meters around the mansion.

I had to go straight back into the Phase World, and I didn't know how long I'd be gone, so I'd need my sister to have a tent put up for Franc to stay in. Before that, though, I wanted to ask Nuhodi whether she knew how to lift the seal, so I took only Darky and headed for the Grand Blue Building.

That I had tried, out of habit, to Space Leap and nearly face-planted right in front of Franc — that was a secret.

Anyway, once I was home I looked for Nuhodi, and she was nowhere to be seen. Her dedicated weapon rack stood bleak and empty, and there was no one in the house…… I hadn't known that being unable to use Spatial Perception would feel this suffocating. How had I ever lived before?

I switched on the Certifier and tried to reach Hwayeon. A message came back.

"Gone into a subjugation and not back yet, huh."

It was past four in the afternoon, and the whole building felt strangely quiet. From the balcony I looked over at the office wing. Most of the lights were off…… Thinking there weren't many people around at all, I turned on the TV, and a Lunar New Year special was playing.

"……Well. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What do I do with this."

"Whassamatter, Boss?"

Darky, tucked in the inner pocket of my jacket, heard me mutter and poked her head out to ask.

"Holiday starts today. Looks like everyone's off."

"Holiday! Ya mean Lunar New Year?"

"Yeah."

I switched the Certifier on again and called my sister. A hologram window opened, and her face appeared, bright with excitement.

"Just now. The penthouse at the Building. Caught Baekcheong, yeah. Nowhere hurt."

I answered the pile of questions in clipped little pieces, and she stuck her lip out and gave me a sidelong glare.

"That's why I tell you to ask one at a time, and you still dump them all on me. Where are you?"

She turned the screen as she said it, and showed me the house, busy laying out the New Year offering table. Mom and Dad were at the fryer, turning fritters and savory pancakes, and Grandmother was pinching dumplings alongside Miho.

The moment our eyes met, Miho had flung down the dumpling in her hands and tried to bolt this way. Grandmother caught her by the tail. She flailed, took a knuckle to the skull, and drooped.

"I can't. I called because I've got a favor to ask of you. I'll explain this, and then I have to go straight into the Phase World."

Grandmother had been smiling behind my sister, sure I was on my way, and at that her face fell. I felt oddly sorry, and hurried to explain that there was an urgent matter I had to settle right now and I couldn't come. She smiled and waved.

"It's not an excuse. It's important, so step aside for a minute."

She'd been studying my face with a sharp look, and she must have seen it wasn't a lie. Her expression went strange. She slipped into the inner room, shut the door, and asked again.

"Baekcheong cursed me, Franc, and Darky. Our Phase Power has frozen solid."

Her face had gone utterly blank. Before I knew what I was doing, I used the Certifier's capture function to snap a photo of it, then opened my mouth again.

"I can work the curse off little by little with the Mana Sieve, but Darky and Franc can't. So I'm going back in to find a way to fix it."

Her face was tight with worry, her voice full of it, as she looked me over.

"I can barely move about a hundred-thousandth of my Phase Power. And even that, I can hardly use for a skill. The amount I can draw keeps growing, little by little, but Franc and Darky can't use their abilities at all. So there's something I need you to do right now."

"Put up a tent at the Shinchon-dong mansion where Franc can rest. And I need a place to dump Aberrant carcasses."

"When you cross from reality into the Phase World, no cooldown starts, right?"

"Crossing from the Phase World into the medieval era doesn't start one either. And I confirmed this time that coming back from there to reality doesn't either."

"Yeah. It's a cheat. Also, I need to buy a few portable oxygen respirators. Know where they sell them?"

"Got it. Thanks."

I'd said what I needed to say and was about to hang up when she blew up at me, fierce enough to sting.

I had no choice. I called Grandmother and my parents separately and paid my respects.

"Yes, Grandmother. I'm eating properly, so please don't worry. I'll come pay my respects when I get back."

"Yeah."

Ugh. Talking to Grandmother and Mom had burned a whole hour. Dad was done in three words — 'Yeah.' 'Yeah?' 'Yeah.' — but Grandmother had pulled Mom onto the video call with her, and time poured away without end while I hummed agreement and answered. I couldn't even remember what we'd talked about; it was that small and that scattered, and sitting through it was an ordeal. And me, in a screaming hurry.

The note my sister sent mid-call had the byproduct plant's address and a map link. I tapped the link, and an arrow was pinned just past Mt. Daemo, south of the company.

First I stopped by the mart and bought several portable oxygen respirators — a mask with a little aluminum cylinder attached — and stowed them in subspace. Then I took the private car my sister had sent around and headed for the processing plant.

I checked my abilities again on the way. Even in this state, Physical Reinforcement seemed to be performing at about C- to D-Class. At that level, I wouldn't need an escort.

"……This is the processing plant? It's a factory."

What I'd arrived at was a vast factory, something over twenty-five acres by a rough guess. Seven corrugated buildings stood there, each more than a hundred meters wide and four hundred long, and countless slightly smaller warehouses besides. A factory. The place was far too enormous to go by the name of a processing plant.

The equipment inside was fully automated, and clean, and the interior was lit bright while people worked — the conditions looked good. And yet it was Lunar New Year, pushing five in the afternoon, and heavy trailers for hauling byproduct were still coming and going, people still working at a clip inside.

Don't tell me our raid team was a sweatshop. I swallowed hard…… and then, seeing that every face on the floor was bright, figured they probably weren't being forced. Right?

My sister had said she'd called ahead, and I was looking around for where to go when a man in his forties, dressed in a sharp suit, caught my eye, lingering at the main gate where the guards stood watch. He didn't look, at a glance, like someone who worked the guardhouse. I approached, and the guards and the man in the suit flinched and stared. Then he startled and immediately bent at the waist.

"Good day, Chairman! I'm Han Yunsu, in charge of the Segok-dong Byproduct Processing Plant!"

Has my face gotten around that much? He knew me on sight.

"Hello. I'm in a rush — could you show me to a warehouse right away?"

"This way!"

Stiff as a board, he led me to a warehouse ten meters by fifty, fifteen high…… It wouldn't hold even half the carcasses in my subspace.

"It's tight. I'll need four spaces this size."

As I spoke I hauled out every upper-tier and high-tier variant Aberrant corpse and filled the warehouse in a blink, and Han Yunsu's glasses slid down to perch on the bridge of his nose. Babbling, he hurriedly showed me another warehouse. I followed along behind him, scraping together Phase Power to open portals, until all four warehouses were packed with Aberrant corpses — and with fine timing, a call came in from my sister.

"Yeah. There's a Toxin Black Alligator in there, and plenty of venomous ones besides, so tell them to be careful when they sort it."

"……All four of them?"

It was less irritation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than pleasure on her face as she scolded me, and hauling in four warehouses' worth of high-tier variant carcasses seemed to have been worth it after all. I scratched the back of my head and told her I'd sort them next time. She laughed, bright and easy, told me to leave the rest to her, and patted the chest that had filled out nearly to a C cup.

"Oh, that's fast. Thanks."

"No idea. And if it's possible, I'd like Miho kept with Franc. Would that be all right?"

"Yeah. Physical Reinforcement is still working."

I didn't have to draw it out. She caught every word as it came, which made her easy to talk to.

Last, I called Yeongeun. She reacted much like my sister, her face lighting up at once — and then, when I told her what had happened in the Phase World, it went hard. Her pretty, ever-changing face was entertaining to watch, and she blushed and opened her mouth with a look that was a little regretful.

"Yeah. I'm going to meet Myrddin. The medieval one."

She seemed to be furrowing her brow over whether to say something, so I leaned a little closer to the screen.

"What? Something you want to say?"

At my question she had lifted a brow, and she shook her head as if it truly were nothing.

A strange rumor. I was curious what it was, but since she wasn't telling me, it was probably still closer to rumor than fact. Once it was certain, she'd say so without my pushing, so I folded the curiosity away for now.

"All right. But where are you now? I went by the house earlier and you weren't there."

"All right. I'll be back, then."

"You work hard too, Yeongeun."

I ended the call with Yeongeun, who was smiling and waving, dug in, and sprang toward where Franc would be waiting.

When I got back, sure enough, just as my sister had said — in less than an hour, a teepee sized to Franc's body was going up in the middle of a wide clearing. Shaped like the lodges in old Westerns, the teepee looked almost…… exactly like an ordinary triangular tent.

"Are your preparations all finished?"

I had gone over to Franc, who was nearby helping raise the tent, and she broke into a bright smile at the sight of me.

"Yeah. I'll be back before you know it, so take care. I've called Miho, so if anyone picks a fight or comes at you, don't just take it. The two of you put them down."

"My physical ability is as it was, so nothing ill should come of it…… but I will."

Darky had her head poked out of the inner pocket, gawking at the teepee. I pushed it back in. Then I asked Franc to lift me, brushed a kiss against her lips, and said,

"I'll be back soon."

Franc, her face flushed pink, smiled and waved.

"Go carefully. And please give Myrddin my regards."

"Yeah."