Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Chapter 49
When Fate Becomes Destiny (4)
'I need to say it.'
There's something I absolutely must say, but I can't.
"As expected, it's splendid."
The Witch seemed to like this area. She waved her hand, floating ice crystals in the air as she drew blueprints.
—I'm going to build a villa.
That was why she had created a teleport magic circle here.
It's called a villa, but it would essentially be a research lab.
'Just one secluded training ground!'
I'm dying to say this.
'But I can't build it myself.'
This wasn't an area where ordinary building materials would work. Even if I obtained such materials, building a house required skills.
'What laborer would do that here?'
The Witch was planning to build an ice castle in the coldest place.
The blueprint was completed quickly, and I grew anxious.
'I need to say it before she builds it.'
I initiated the conversation first.
"Um, So Iryeon would really like it here."
The Witch didn't respond.
I needed to be more proactive.
"This is a good area for External Cultivation training. If there were a proper training ground, it would be a great help to So Iryeon."
"Really?"
The Witch reacted.
"Then should I make a training ground for So Iryeon? A women-only training ground."
"Is there a need to specify women-only? What era are we living in to be dividing by gender like that?"
The Witch stopped designing and turned to look at me. I felt inexplicably guilty and avoided her gaze.
"What do you want to say?"
The Witch asked directly.
I quickly thought it over and decided it was best to just say it.
"If you make a training ground, I'll consider all past debts settled."
"I think the debt was all repaid with this job."
She wasn't wrong. I changed my words.
"If you make a training ground, I'll compensate you in some way."
Another deal.
In the end, this method is most comfortable between the Witch and me.
"Good. What structure do you want?"
Surprisingly, the Witch agreed easily.
I knew she would accept, but I didn't expect it to proceed this smoothly.
I didn't miss the opportunity and quickly explained.
Basically, the secluded room should be located a bit away from the castle, and the training room should have a high ceiling. And depending on the need, it would be good if cold air from outside could enter.
Wide-range training could be done outside, so it didn't need to be large in scale. However, the secluded room needed to have an attached storage for food and water, and it needed to be able to control the amount of cold air entering.
"Simple enough."
It didn't seem to be a problem from the Witch's perspective.
"How long will it take?"
"Once the blueprint is complete, one day."
Magic truly is a convenient technique. I felt it once again.
"You said you'd compensate in some way, right?"
Here it comes.
"Do some interior decorating."
I recalled the ice castle from my previous life.
Aside from the entire castle being made of ice, there wasn't even a common sculpture or pattern. Everything was either rectangular or circular.
"Well, you don't have any artistic sense."
The Witch's eyebrow twitched.
I closed the deal before anything else could be said.
"Leave that to me."
When it comes to drawing, I have myself, and there's also Jimun Seo-saeng.
'Cheong Ak-sal's sculptures are absolutely amazing.'
He mainly carves wood, but ice shouldn't be a problem.
"Then let's make it tomorrow."
The Witch made the decision simply.
"The design?"
"It's done."
So simple. And so the Witch and I returned home.
The next morning.
—I want to do it too!
—You'll just get in the way. Go to your schedule.
We sent So Iryeon away and climbed onto the magic circle with Cheong Ak-sal and Jimun Seo-saeng.
Jimun Seo-saeng has Internal Energy, but I was worried about how long he could endure, so the Witch cast a spell on him.
The Witch started first.
She melted the surrounding snow to create water and turned it into ice in midair.
The process of water, like a tidal wave moving simultaneously and transforming into ice, was spectacular enough to leave one's mind blank.
Water swirled in midair, then fell in rectangular shapes as if there were molds, and ice that rotated by itself became a perfect sphere and moved, leaving mouths agape.
'What a show this is.'
It literally felt like watching a spectacular show.
"There, all done."
The ice castle was completed in 20 minutes.
And the Heavenly Demon Cult members all simultaneously showed disappointed expressions.
"No matter what, what is that?"
It felt like a bunch of rectangular boxes stacked up.
The ice reflected sunlight, giving it a mysterious feeling, but that was all.
Compared to the process, the result was at a pitiful level.
"May I offer my opinion?"
Eventually, Jimun Seo-saeng stepped forward.
The Witch also acknowledged Jimun Seo-saeng and accepted without resistance.
Jimun Seo-saeng asked the Witch questions and modified the blueprint.
He asked about the Witch's living patterns, what should be in the castle, and spare space, then coordinated opinions.
After about 30 minutes of discussion, the Witch moved the ice again.
This time, too, it was just a combination of rectangles and circles, but a plausible shape emerged.
"Good, let's begin."
I drew out Strong Energy first and carved the castle's exterior. Cheong Ak-sal entered the interior of the three-story structure.
It was a long, six-hour construction.
'This is training too.'
It was quite an interesting training method.
As I stepped on ice, endured the extreme cold, and precisely deployed Strong Energy, I could feel my Internal Energy being depleted.
When the difficult construction, which revealed the limits of the second Bone and Muscle Transformation, was being completed, the transfer magic circle emitted light.
"Wow!"
It was So Iryeon.
She burst into cheers upon seeing the ice castle.
"Yuri, are you living in a house like this?"
I was so preoccupied with the construction that I didn't notice, but the Witch also had a pleased expression.
'Did the Witch have an expression like that?'
A pretty house changes even the Witch's expression.
"Cult Leader, let's finish up now."
The finishing work began.
Jimun Seo-saeng and I drew pictures on the walls inside the castle and added patterns to places that felt plain.
The homeowner, Witch just watched, but sometimes stepped forward herself to request patterns.
"Leave the floor alone. I'm going to draw magic circles."
And so the ice castle was completed.
"Everyone, stay right where you are and don't move."
The Witch stopped all activity and increased the strength of the ice with magical energy. Then, beyond transparent, the ice itself contained a subtle blue light.
"Wow, I want to live in a house like this, too."
So Iryeon kept exclaiming in admiration.
Even from my perspective, the ice castle was flawless enough to be called a work of art.
The outer wall that had looked like stacked boxes became majestic through my hands. The interior was delicate and sharp thanks to Cheong Ak-sal, and eight ice sculptures faced the entrance.
The wide stairs leading to the second and third floors were made with curves, making the refraction of light even more beautiful, and the pictures drawn in lines inside changed the atmosphere depending on the viewing angle.
The Witch seemed satisfied as she examined the castle several times.
Finally, I checked the training ground and secluded room. The training ground was built on the third floor of the castle, and the secluded room was completely separated from the castle.
It was exactly the structure I wanted, so I felt proud.
"But won't this be too conspicuous?"
As soon as my words ended, a massive snowstorm arose and created an ice barrier that enveloped the entire ice castle and secluded room. And snow piled on top of it, completely hiding the castle.
"Good enough?"
As expected, simple.
The Witch's villa was completed like this.
Spring at sixteen years old.
The Witch had completely recovered during winter, and the Heavenly Demon Cult members had become accustomed to training at the ice villa.
During winter, strangely, no incidents occurred.
The calm before the storm.
That peace was broken on the day March began.
"This is going too far."
"Well, we did the same thing."
"But not like this."
The Witch and I were watching footage of an incident that occurred last night.
Not just us, but the entire world was focused on this footage.
News outlets worldwide broadcast breaking news, and emergency debates were held about the authenticity of this footage.
The background of the footage was the Seim River bank, 40 kilometers from Kursk City, Russia.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia.
A ball of fire fell on the peaceful nuclear power plant. Soon after, a rain of fire poured down, and lava surged from the ground.
As the nuclear power plant twisted grotesquely, pillars of fire rose from various parts of the plant, spiraling upward like whirlpools.
The flames spreading from the ends of the fire pillars turned the nuclear power plant into a sea of fire, and the footage ended there.
The footage we had seen so far was from CCTV.
But the second one was filmed by an individual, and the shaky footage captured something.
Something was floating in the sky a little away from the plant. The footage didn't capture the target clearly, but it appeared to be in human form.
'Rena.'
The Witch and I recognized the opponent at once.
"Is there a reason to go that far?"
"She just enjoys the suffering of humans. Demons have nothing to lose."
"What exactly is a demon?"
The word demon was too insubstantial to understand, so I asked in detail.
"To be precise, it's a high-ranking Demon Race. The one Rena contracted with is Roisedeur, one of the 52 Lords. That creature has nothing to lose even if it dies doing that. The one who dies is Rena, and the demon's soul returns to the Demon Realm."
Since there's no risk of death, it enjoys freely.
"So it's just for amusement?"
"Right. That's why from human's perspective, it becomes a demon."
Something felt unpleasant.
"This is my land, how dare—"
The Witch immediately responded to my words.
"It's my land."
"Let's see who claims it first."
"Anytime."
While we played verbal territorial claims among ourselves, the media focused intensively on two issues.
The first was damage and countermeasures from radioactive leakage.
The second was the cause of the accident.
Since it happened at dawn, no conclusion had been reached yet, and the footage filmed on smartphones was also considered fake.
"When the accident investigation results come out, it'll get noisier than now."
"It seems like it's time to start moving."
It was time to settle things with Rena, too.
"I won't miss her this time."
Unfortunately, teleport wasn't connected to Russia. Ultimately, there was no choice but to use an airplane.
But even if we arrived, there was no guarantee Rena would still be there.
I sought Jimun Seo-saeng's opinion on this matter.
Jimun Seo-saeng was also meticulously examining materials about this incident.
"Cult Leader, how about waiting a few days?"
"Why?"
"First, as you said, there's no guarantee that the magic user is still in Russia. And second, this is both a crisis and an opportunity. Timing is important for opportunities."
"What opportunity are you talking about?"
"Someone who willingly plays the villain has appeared. And it will become noisy about reincarnators. The person who handles such a villain becomes a hero."
I listened to his explanation a bit more.
"When the perception of a villain is strong, the hero also becomes strong. If the perception is planted that there are good sides among reincarnators, too, two phenomena will occur. One is that a fandom toward reincarnators will form, and the second is that sides will be divided. Good and bad sides depending on each country's situation, like how in Murim, Orthodox and Unorthodox Factions are divided."
"So you're saying to stand at the center of the heroic side?"
"Correct. At that time, the dissolution of Barrier will also receive great support."
"What preparation is needed for that?"
"I'll have everything prepared. Cult Leader just needs to catch that person."
Jimun Seo-saeng's eyes sparkled with an expression like he was solving an interesting problem. It's an expression that appears when things are going well.
When this happens, it usually leads to good results.
"I just need to meet that person."
"Yuri would know that well."
After that, I calmly waited for the opportunity.
The atmosphere flowed in the direction Jimun Seo-saeng had mentioned.
The first announcement by the Russian investigation team was ‘cause unknown’ and it was concluded that the weather phenomenon that engulfed the nuclear power plant was impossible with modern technology.
And decisively, the smartphone-filmed footage analyzed by dozens of countries was concluded to be authentic, not fake.
And these results awakened one conspiracy theory that had been dormant until now.
Reincarnators.
Although it had become a topic several times, incidents that had been immediately dismissed as fake, like the truth about UFOs surfaced.
The battle over truth continued endlessly.
People who believed in reincarnators and those who didn't engaged in fierce debates, even reaching a situation where religious values were brought up.
But regardless of which side one argued, one fact couldn't be refuted.
The incident actually occurred.
This was a truth no one could deny.