The Prophet's Child (1)
Noah gathers in the ark-like chamber of the prophesied future.
Yet their once noble purpose of salvation has twisted into a global terrorist syndicate.
Their executives sit around the round table now, discussing matters that will change everything.
Noah. Just as the ark in the myths once prepared for the disaster to come, the group that had gathered with the same meaning was now a villain organization that had become a worldwide terrorist group.
The executives of such Noah were sitting around the round table, discussing something.
"Persona. How is the matter regarding the 'Prophet's Child' going?"
Among them, the woman sitting in the center, her eyes completely covered by white bandages, wearing a black dress and a mask representing the queen of the banquet, was Persona. She was being asked that question.
"Heh~ How about guessing what I'll say based on your wonderful prophecy, Mazia~?"
"Person—"
Upon Mazia's question, Persona replied with a playful smile, telling Mazia to guess once. Just as that was the answer from such Persona, Mazia was about to say something, but the man sitting next to Mazia called out Persona's name in a low voice.
"Persona."
Just by calling out the name, the air in the room sank low, and a strange pressure was poured over Persona.
"Ha~ I understand, Ark~ Just a little bit of joking, and it's really too much~"
Persona raised both hands in surrender to the Ark's pressure that was being poured towards her.
Immediately after, the pressure that had been pouring towards Persona disappeared, and the atmosphere in the room returned to calm and cold once again.
"Anyway~ I seem to have found one of the children speculated to be the Prophet's Child~ The problem is that unlike you, Mazia, I don't have the ability to judge whether that child is the Prophet's Child or not~"
The group that had gathered to stop the disaster that would come in the future was Noah.
Mazia, the prophet of Noah, who had predicted the three children who would stop the disaster.
Even Mazia, who could see into the future, could only find out that there were only three children in the present era, and when she said that Persona had found the one speculated to be the Prophet's Child, Mazia asked in a calm voice.
"Who is that person, Persona?"
At Mazia's question, the smile on Persona's face that had appeared disappeared, and the eyes between the mask changed into a fierce beast, and she answered in a low voice.
"Lee Cheon-seong from Legna Academy. That guy."
One name that came from Persona's mouth, one of the eight executives of Noah who had gathered for salvation but had become a global terrorist group as time passed.
At Persona's words, Mazia looked at the Ark sitting next to her, and the Ark nodded his head.
"Lee Cheon-seong from Legna Academy... It seems we need to confirm once whether that person is really the Prophet's Child."
After a moment of hesitation, at Mazia's words that confirmation was needed, the faces of the executives split between joy and sorrow.
On Persona's face, cold anger. On the Ark's face, hope.
And on Mazia's face, pain lingered.
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The severed body is usually hard to treat with normal methods.
If it is cleanly cut, high-level recovery magic can be used immediately after the cut, and some rehabilitation treatment is needed, but in the end, treatment is possible.
But if a long time has passed, that is impossible, and only multiple high-level healers focusing on care or using an extreme healing potion focused on recovery can restore the severed body.
And I was trying to regenerate the left arm that had been severed by subordinates.
I was sitting in the space that only professors could use at the academy, surrounded by the academy's nurse Professor Seong Yu-ra and the academy's principal Eira.
The method I chose to regenerate my left arm was regeneration caused by the solidified potion from the sap of the World Tree, the mother of life.
The reason Seong Yu-ra was here was that no matter how much it was the sap of the World Tree, the left arm that had been cut and healed could not immediately regenerate, so Seong Yu-ra would prevent excessive bleeding that would cause my left arm to heal during regeneration.
And the reason Eira was there was exactly to cleanly cut my left arm.
Reality is different from the game.
In the game, the body that is cut and healed does not regenerate immediately even after a recovery once.
And in reality, to regenerate a severed body, the healed part must be cleanly cut again for treatment.
But as I said just before, since the severed body does not regenerate immediately, an excellent healer must be beside me to prevent excessive bleeding, and the other must cleanly cut the severed part, so it is a great cost to recover the severed body.
However, even if there is money, not everyone regenerates the severed body.
The reason is because there is no way to anesthetize during the act of cutting the severed area.
Let's easily explain the process of the body regenerating.
If you think of the self-restoration property of metal, it is easy.
The property of metal that changes shape and returns to its original appearance due to heat is like the body's memory of the first original appearance even if the body is cut and healed many times.
Healing magic and potions correspond to that heat, but if you anesthetize due to pain, it is like tightly binding and fixing the metal so that it cannot find its original appearance.
That's why if you anesthetize, there's a high chance the regenerated body will cause deformities, so no matter how much money you have, those who don't want to feel the pain of the body being cut are reluctant to regenerate their body.
But I'm not like that.
The pain of the body being cut is something I've experienced tens or hundreds of times in my previous regression life, and above all, I can't live with just one arm because of pain.
Even though I had two arms, I protected my comrades and my life by fighting against the Celestials, but with only one arm, I can't protect everyone while fighting against the Celestials, no matter how hard I try to bring them down.
So I have to do it.
"...It's ready. Principal, please begin."
At Cheon-seong's serious words, Eira, standing behind Cheon-seong, raised mana and created an ice sword.
"I'll cut it cleanly and painlessly~"
The clean sword line that fell was the opposite of the playful ending with a trailing word.
Whoosh—!
Scang!
The healed left arm of Cheon-seong was cleanly cut by Eira's ice sword as if being sliced.
Puwhaaaaak!!
Red blood of Cheon-seong poured out like a broken faucet from the cut section, and Cheon-seong endured the pain while opening the wooden box placed in front of him and putting the solidified World Tree sap potion received from the academy's dean into his mouth.
The sap of the World Tree melted in the mouth instantly before Cheon-seong even chewed the potion, and the sap of the World Tree, the mother of life and mana, seeped into Cheon-seong's body.
'Ugh!! This is too much....'
My body had transformed similarly to the Celestials to learn the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and such a body of mine could easily absorb natural potions.
That's why, without any qi cultivation and diet, I had absorbed the vast mana of the public stone oil given by Beatrice in one go, but the World Tree was different from the public stone oil.
With too much mana and vitality, Cheon-seong frowned and released the uncontrollable life force and mana to the outside without control.
Whaaaahaaaa
Powerful mana and life force spurted out from Cheon-seong, and the dull room turned into a blue field with only the life force released by Cheon-seong.
"Yu-ra sunbae~ Then, please do your part."
"Yes, I understand. Principal."
Having done her role, Eira passed the turn to Seong Yu-ra, and the Seong Yu-ra who received the turn used blood regeneration magic towards the pale Cheon-seong whose blood was overflowing excessively in a short time.
At Seong Yu-ra's blood regeneration magic, Cheon-seong's complexion that had been pale returned.
Crack, cruuuuck!
New white bones grew from the left arm of Cheon-seong that was spurting blood.
All the life force of the World Tree went to Cheon-seong's left arm, and Yuna, who was watching the scene right next to him, could not suppress her admiration.
'She's perfectly harmonizing the vast life force of the World Tree..'
Among the potions, the natural potions' grade is determined by the time.
The higher the grade, the higher the effect of the potion, but potions require the talent of the consumer.
Depending on the consumer's talent, it can show better or worse effects than consuming a lower-grade potion.
And among them, the World Tree's sap is, of course, the highest-grade potion.
That meant Cheon-seong was moving according to his own will with such a powerful potion right now.
Even ordinary active heroes couldn't do this, and a first-year student at the academy said it.
As Cheon-seong's left arm grew with the World Tree's sap, harmonizing the energy inside his body perfectly, Yuna's curiosity towards Cheon-seong deepened.
It was not curiosity as a lover.
She wanted to know how a child of such a young age perfectly harmonized the vast life force of the World Tree, and how there was not a trace of pain on Cheon-seong's face while regenerating his arm.
That the severed body regenerates means the severed nerves along with the bone, flesh, and muscles also regenerate, so how does an academy student endure that pain.
'Who exactly are you....'
Yuna was very curious about that.
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The painful moment flows slowly.
It was the opposite of when the mind is concentrated on one place and there is no time to pay attention to surroundings, so time passes quickly.
You must not faint.
You must not stop even for a moment.
One second is one minute.
One minute is one hour.
One hour is like a day.
The cold that seemed to freeze the whole body just because half of the regenerating bone was exposed in the air came rushing.
And the nerves regenerating together felt like burning and tearing apart like meeting air.
All consciousness was devoted to harmonizing the life force and mana of the World Tree, and because of that, the pain of the regenerating left arm disturbed that consciousness.
How long had it been?
According to the sensation, it seemed like ten hours had passed, but how long had it actually passed?
One minute? Ten minutes? Or one hour? I don't know.
I don't know, but let's not worry about it.
There is no spirit left there to worry about.
Despite having released the bottomless vast life force and mana of the World Tree, it still overflows and fills the whole body.
Even without that, the spirit is rapidly depleted like eating up the leaves of a tree with endless overflowing mana and life force, so what does time have to do with it.
I just want to regenerate my left arm quickly, to embrace with two arms the beloved lover and the lovely daughter I am waiting for at home.
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Recently, my steps have been so light that I could almost fly after a long time.
"Ha! Why is an extra acting like a big shot."
After regressing into a novel, the annoying half-baked Lee Cheon-seong who had stolen my heroine Yuna and always irritated the protagonist me by getting too close to the hero candidates.
After the dungeon infiltration incident where I lost an arm, that half-baked guy.
Originally, in the story, no one is trapped in the corrosive dungeon and the boss monster is already dead when found, so it's a case with few victims, but the incident where Yuna, speculated to be a heroine, got hurt.
Honestly, it's a bit regrettable that that half-baked guy didn't die inside and came back alive, but still, being a one-armed bastard is somewhere.
"That half-baked guy won't have money to treat, and he'll live as a one-armed bastard for the rest of his life."
Considering the events to come, that half-baked guy may not survive even if he flies, so living as a one-armed person for life is impossible, but.
"Just die quickly, Yuna—"
Bang!
When Yuna was walking with a light step, smiling brightly, a man came out from the corner of the academy corridor and collided with Yuna.
"Ouch..! Who is it? Look ahead a bit..."
When Yuna touched her painful face and looked up to check the face of the person she collided with, Yuna's two eyes widened in disbelief.
"Oh, sorry. It's too small so it wasn't visible."
While walking the corridor, the person I had been chewing on and the person I hated most after regression.
Black hair that flowed smoothly like it had sheen, and the bad black eyes looking down at me.
Even though my height was small at 180, a tall man whose head I had to look up to see.
And
"From now on, I'll be careful."
Tap tap.
A disgusting hand that dares to pat my shoulder with a clearly missing left arm.
"H, how...?"
"Um? Ah, the left arm. That's because it's the one I treated just now."
Tap!
The disgusting left arm on my shoulder pressed down on it, and the half-baked guy lowered his head and said.
"Then I have to go see Yuna. See you in class tomorrow?"
Tap tap
Yuna's name mentioned to mock me again, and that annoying half-baked Lee Cheon-seong patted my shoulder again.
Passing by Yuna whose body was stiff, and as Cheon-seong's footsteps moved away and no longer heard by Yuna's ears, Yuna, who had been dazed, raised her hand to her shoulder that was tapped by Cheon-seong last time.
On my shoulder, it felt like a lot of dirty filth had stuck.
The emotion of Yuna that had been elevated by Cheon-seong's tap-tap on the shoulder dropped to the bottom of the abyss.
And the hand raised to the shoulder became strongly clenched.
Crack!!!
'Lee Cheon-seong Lee Cheon-seong Lee Cheon-seong Lee Cheon-seong Lee Cheon-seong………'
Repeating the name of Cheon-seong in my head and engraving it, the strongly clenched hand broke through the clothes even though it had sleeves and left a wound on Yuna's bare skin, blood flowing.
Tick... tick
Tick
Yuna's stopped feet started moving again, and golden threads scattered in the place where Yuna had passed.