Chapter 174
Chapter 174
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: Friendship??
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1.
Even a monstrous lifeform like that apparently had its head as a weak point.
I formed a lance as long as one used in jousting and plunged it straight into the center of its brow—or whatever you’d call that spot—and the monster twitched without so much as a scream before dropping dead.
The moment the light faded from its remaining eight eyeballs, the flesh began to melt away.
Its body, which had glistened black like tar, turned almost entirely liquid and seeped into the cracks of the building rubble.
That was when I spotted something sparkling amid the black liquid.
It was the eyeballs embedded in the mother homunculus’s body—the crystals.
“Uh...! Uh! Uh!”
“Sharon! Hurry and grab them!”
Sharon, who had been glued to my side fearing the homunculus might make one last desperate struggle, suddenly cried out.
She scooped up the crystals one by one in a panic, and I rushed over to help collect them.
It wasn’t so much that they were precious like gold; these crystals were worth more than gold. I didn’t want to lose even one to the building crevices.
It reminded me of a scene from that Spirited Away movie.
Siwoo and Sharon spent a good long while frantically gathering the crystals.
Easier said than done—we resorted to my clumsy telekinesis and spent a full two hours on it. The haul came to:
Homunculus crystals: 4,091 in total.
Total weight (per Sharon): 5.4 kg.
Bounty from Location Point: 5.4 billion won.
“F-F-Five... five point four billion...”
Sharon staggered with her mouth agape after confirming the final count.
I’d expected her to jump for joy, but the sheer amount left her frozen stiff instead.
She nearly toppled over, so I steadied her by the waist.
“To earn five point four billion... that’s six hundred thousand hours at a convenience store gig...”
“Hey, hey, snap out of it.”
“This is insane. I’m too happy... what do I do...”
This alone was like hitting the lottery, but I spotted something extra.
Near where the homunculus’s heart had been, there was a heart-shaped chunk.
Everything else besides the crystals had melted away, but this piece retained its form.
As I watched Sharon teetering on the edge of fainting from joy, I stared at the heart in my hand with a dubious expression.
It was only about the size of my fist, but it looked utterly grotesque.
Grimy enough that you could plop it in a glass case right now and it’d pass for a formalin-preserved specimen.
“Sharon, what do you think this is?”
“I... I don’t know... Ehe... ehehehe... five point four billion... five point four billion...”
Before long, Sharon was giggling like she was high on morphine and leaning into me.
It wasn’t quite excessive skinship, but her tight embrace rubbed her soft breasts against my arm.
“Good grief.”
Seeing her so happy made me smile involuntarily.
Truth be told, Sharon was the type who deserved a little reward now and then.
As that thought crossed my mind, Sharon’s mollusk-like limp form suddenly went rigid.
“Ah...!”
She had remembered something she’d completely forgotten until now.
Della.
Sharon had lost to Della and gotten her hunting ground stolen.
In other words, if they dawdled here, Della might saunter over and claim today’s spoils.
“N-No, that can’t happen...”
Siwoo eyed her curiously as she began trembling like a squirrel whose winter acorn stash was about to be raided.
“Let’s head back. As fast as possible.”
“What’s wrong?”
Sharon bit her tongue.
If she said it was because of Della, it’d expose how she’d seen through my lie to Siwoo.
So she straightened up and played it cool.
“Ah, just super tired, that’s all. Let’s go home, watch a movie, and have some late-night snacks.”
“Didn’t you say you’re buying today?”
“Tell me whatever you want to eat! Big sis is treating! Also, I kinda wanna wash up.”
Sharon spread her arms wide, showing off her state.
Soot from the fire, dust from head to toe—she was gray all over.
Siwoo was no better, so they both chuckled at each other’s grimy appearances.
Anyway, today’s ordeal was over.
With the shadow realm gradually contracting and vanishing behind them, Siwoo and Sharon headed home together.
2.
On the way home, they picked up dinner.
Half-and-half pig’s feet and buckwheat noodles from that popular joint, tteokbokki since just greasy stuff gets boring, a plate of tuna sashimi to refresh after all the hot and spicy—the menu grew one item at a time.
Ice cream for dessert to cap it off.
Sitting across from each other at the table, chatting and sharing bites, Siwoo brought up splitting the bounty.
“No way, how could I take it all myself...”
“What’s wrong with that? I told you, I’m good just getting better at magic.”
Naturally, Siwoo planned to hand over full ownership of the crystals to Sharon.
With the black card from Count Gemernai, money troubles weren’t an issue for him anyway.
And Siwoo wasn’t the type with a huge appetite for wealth to begin with.
“If it’s money I can live with or without, it’s better off with someone who needs it more. What am I gonna do piling up more? We’re already living comfortably.”
“But you did all the hard work... It doesn’t feel right for me to just take it all, Siwoo... Let’s rethink this.”
“Nah, it’s fine, I said. Without your elemental magic lessons, I’d have ended up dog food today.”
This was true.
Imbuing the Law of Shadows with mass via fusion wouldn’t have been possible without Sharon either.
“It’s just too much...”
When he’d offered crystals worth just over 100 million from the department store hunt, she’d been grateful and apologetic but accepted it as feasible.
But 5.4 billion?
5.4 billion.
A lump sum that could wipe out a tenth of Sharon’s total debt.
Sharon wasn’t brazen enough to accept such generosity outright.
Sharon kept voicing her unease, while Siwoo repeated that it was fine and just pocket it.
Their brotherly back-and-forth finally ended in Sharon’s tears.
“Fine, what burden? I’m serious, it’s okay. Whoa, don’t cry. Why are you crying?”
“...You’re... such a good guy... Sniff... Thank you... Thank you so much...”
“Yeah, yeah. If you’re thankful, make me a wrap.”
“Okay... I’ll make one...”
Even as she sniffled through joyful tears, Sharon crafted a perfect wrap: pig’s feet on lettuce and perilla leaves, topped with buckwheat noodles and raw garlic.
This is...
A bit embarrassing, but seeing her so overjoyed brought a warm glow to my chest.
“Ah... Ah... Delicious... Sniff...”
Siwoo stuffed the wrap Sharon handed him into his mouth and froze.
Sharon had stood up and wrapped her arms around his head from behind.
Her soft breasts cushioned his occiput like pillows. Tilting his head up, he saw Sharon’s teary eyes, her tears plinking onto his forehead.
“Thank you, Siwoo... Really.”
Her beaming smile was a sight to behold.
3.
After dinner, Siwoo roughly cleared the table and placed the heart on it.
The flesh glowed with a faint red light, vivid as if freshly excised from a living body, yet it emitted no smell or motion.
“What is this thing?”
Siwoo had initially assumed it was a relic.
Sharon fiddled with the heart for a good while but couldn’t pinpoint its nature.
“Doesn’t seem like a Gnosis egg... No, it might not even be a relic to begin with.”
Typical homunculus relics were obviously identifiable at a glance.
Rare potion? It looked like one. Artifact? Artifact. Gnosis egg? Egg. Research tome? Tome.
But this defied categorization, no matter how you sliced it.
“Should we dissect it?”
“We can just cut it open like that?”
“It’s not useful as is anyway.”
After huddling and pondering, they decided to slice it open.
Siwoo drew out a sliver of shadow, shaped it into a scalpel, and cut into the heart.
Unlike its appearance, it was incredibly tough—more stone than flesh—so it took real effort before it split.
“Uh...”
And when he halved the heart, something appeared.
“It’s a crystal?”
A homunculus crystal.
A big one too, about 5 cm in diameter.
Not the grand revelation they’d hoped for—just a plain old crystal.
“All that buildup for nothing.”
“.........”
But Sharon propped her chin, turning the extracted crystal this way and that in the light.
Her expression was grave.
“What? Find something off?”
“Yeah, totally weird.”
“How so?”
“Homunculi usually dissolve after death, leaving only relics and crystals. We saw it today, right?”
“Yeah?”
Sharon set down the crystal and held up the bisected heart.
“But this stuck around. And it’s not a crystal or anything.”
Siwoo, lacking broad magical knowledge, struggled to grasp her point.
Sharon spoke gravely.
“Someone tampered with it.”
“Tampered?”
“Yeah. Don’t know who, but they applied magic to this crystal. External interference, so it didn’t vanish when the homunculus died.”
“So, like... that heart was controlling the homunculus?”
“Not sure about that far. Could be reinforcement, control, or something else we don’t know... The crystal wrapped inside suggests... probably ritual strengthening via human sacrifice...”
Sharon began dissecting the heart bit by bit.
Siwoo’s eyes widened at a term he couldn’t gloss over.
“Human sacrifice?”
“Yeah, so... it’s probably the work of a public enemy. Looks like a human heart to anyone.”
“Never saw that coming.”
The now-bisected heart suddenly looked grotesque.
No wonder it seemed too small for that massive monster—it was a freaking human heart?
“No need to overthink it. Just report it to Location Point with the crystals tomorrow.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Leave the rest to me and get some real rest today. You earned it.”
She was right.
Mentally and physically drained, he had no bandwidth for miscellaneous worries.
After today’s heroics, one good night’s sleep without overthinking was deserved.
“Wanna watch a movie together again?”
“Sure.”
“Cool, I’ll shower first. Dying for a hot soak to unwind.”
“Go for it. Pick a movie?”
“After a hectic day, something chill sounds good. You?”
“Same here.”
With a movie settled on, Sharon headed to the bathroom for her shower, while Siwoo lounged on the sofa, sipping a cool beer.