Proof of Protection
Proof of Protection
"An angel...?"
'Looks like she hit her head.'
Watching Lee Ji-yeon suddenly start looking for an angel the moment she saw me, I came to that conclusion.
After all, Lee Ji-yeon was covered in wounds. She must have taken a blow to the head, too—there was dried blood matted in her hair.
So her mind was probably hazy, making her talk nonsense.
"Angel... am I gonna die...?"
'Treatment first.'
"Ah... I don't wanna die..."
'You're not dead...'
I couldn't just leave an injured person unattended, so I got out of the lake first.
Lee Ji-yeon was wrapped in the Sky Wing Feather, lifted into the air.
I carried her carefully, just in case any of her wounds reopened.
I laid Lee Ji-yeon down on the grass, which had been drenched in purification magic.
"Ah, ah...?"
Then it happened.
Lee Ji-yeon's dazed eyes sharpened.
"Wh-what..."
Staring blankly at me, Lee Ji-yeon suddenly flinched.
Her eyes trembled. She rolled them around restlessly, as if she didn't know where to look.
Then her face flushed bright red.
On top of that, she started squirming like a caterpillar.
At that escalating reaction, I furrowed my brow and gently restrained Lee Ji-yeon's flailing with the Sky Wing Feather.
"That's... no, um..."
'Hold on, stay still for a—'
"M-my clothes..."
'—moment... clothes?'
A thought struck me, and my movements froze.
Lee Ji-yeon was sneakily covering her eyes with both hands.
...Where had I just come out of?
The lake, right.
And what state had I gone into the lake in...
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, then checked with Observation.
Honestly, I didn't even need to.
Because the blowing wind was hitting my bare skin.
'Ah.'
I'm not wearing any clothes right now.
The only thing I have on is the Sky Wing Feather. No Confession Necklace, no clothes.
Scratching my head awkwardly, I went and retrieved my clothes, which were placed on a rock over there.
.
.
.
It didn't even take a minute to get dressed.
All I had to do was roughly shake the water off my body and hair and put my clothes on.
In that short time, Lee Ji-yeon seemed to have collected herself—she was fanning her face with her hand.
'......'
I have a feeling my face was just as red.
What a state to be in when meeting someone for the first time. There's making a fool of yourself, and then there's this.
On top of that, she saw my burn scars, which are hideous. What if it made her uncomfortable...
'What if my Affection tanks because of this... I still need to ask her about the Seo-yul situation, and on top of everything else...'
I was unlucky.
Why, of all places, did I have to run into her here?
[Hello]
"Ah, ah! Y-yes...! Hello! Um... Junior Lee Ha-yul?"
[Yes]
[Senior Lee Ji-yeon]
"Right... ahem! Thank you for catching me. I almost fell completely defenseless."
I smoothed over my crumpled expression and approached Lee Ji-yeon.
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been staring off at a distant mountain unable to find a place to rest her eyes, jolted in surprise and greeted me in return.
...Judging by that reaction, my first impression really is shot.
I was internally letting out another deep sigh when it happened.
"...Ah! This isn't the time...!"
Suddenly, Lee Ji-yeon's eyes flew open as she rose to her feet. At the same time, her brow furrowed slightly.
It was because some of her wounds had reopened.
[You shouldn't move so roughly]
[Your wounds opened up]
[You need to recover a little]
"No, there's no time for that!"
Despite my attempts to stop her, Lee Ji-yeon looked around with an urgent expression.
She seemed to be searching for an exit to get out of the dungeon right away.
A sense of foreboding washed over me at that sight.
Thanks to the Authority of Observation, I could accurately gauge the extent of her injuries.
Lee Ji-yeon was covered in wounds.
Injuries that burst and broke from being struck by something, and a large gash as if she'd been slashed by a greatsword. And all sorts of other carved wounds besides.
None of it was fatal. Superhumans have tougher bodies than ordinary people.
And this is Lee Ji-yeon, the Manifestor of Taesan, no less.
The earth manipulated by Taesan moves with endless changeability.
If she makes the ground surge up to block something, it becomes a sturdy barrier wall. If she wraps it around her body, it's armor of indestructibility.
If she grabs it and swings it, it's a blunt weapon. If she thickens it to block an attack, it's a shield.
And that's not all.
Soil, rock, assorted grass, plants rooted in the earth, living creatures that tread upon it, and so on...
The earth is full of vitality energy.
A Manifestor of Taesan handles the earth. They also perceive and handle the vitality energy inherent in the earth.
Vitality energy is the source of life.
If you draw it in and pack it into the body, the physical body's recovery is activated to its limit.
If you train that to the extreme and reach an expansion ability, you even attain super regeneration.
That's Taesan, with defense and recovery at that level.
And in terms of talent, Lee Ji-yeon is at a level rarely seen in the family's history.
Yet this much injury had accumulated on that Lee Ji-yeon.
Even now, she should be unconsciously drawing on the earth's vitality energy to recover, but the speed was noticeably slow.
More than anything...
'Poison?'
It wasn't just simple external wounds; a toxic energy had seeped into various parts of her body.
The moment I observed the toxic energy, the back of my neck prickled.
It was dangerous. This was no ordinary toxin.
Looking closely, the reason her wound recovery was being delayed seemed to be that the vitality energy was neutralizing the toxin.
'...Toxin?'
My instincts suddenly bristled, as if sending a warning signal.
It was unsettling.
In a corner of my mind, an imagination unfolded that must not... could not possibly happen.
"Twin-headed Poison Dragon."
An imagination that absolutely must not happen.
The name of the monster at the center of that imagination spilled from Lee Ji-yeon's lips.
"Right now outside, a Twin-headed Poison Dragon has been reborn as an undead and is rampaging."
[Oh you fucking piece of shit]
"Huh?"
[Mistake]
Lee Ji-yeon blinked vacantly, her earlier desperate searching of the area paling in comparison.
She looked like she doubted her own ears.
"Did you just..."
[More importantly, let's go outside quickly]
"Uh... yes, we should."
Though Lee Ji-yeon tilted her head as if something was odd, she got up from her spot.
If what she told me was true, this was no ordinary serious situation right now.
This wasn't the time to be leisurely bathing.
I had to get outside quickly and grasp the situation.
"I definitely fell from the sky..."
She tilted her head back and looked up at the sky.
She was probably looking for an exit, but unfortunately, there wasn't one.
The entrance and exit of the Lake of Mana opened randomly. The interval was roughly three or four days.
I had just heard Lee Ji-yeon's circumstances. She said she'd been chased by the Twin-headed Poison Dragon and jumped into a gorge that looked like a dungeon entrance.
Putting aside the incredible guts that took, the question was how she'd managed to enter the Lake of Mana.
'...The entrance opened for a moment.'
Because I held the Authority of Space, I could read space... or rather, dungeons, which are a type of subspace.
The dungeon entrance had opened just moments ago.
Through it, Lee Ji-yeon had been spat out and fallen.
And immediately after, the entrance had closed.
Thinking about it that way, one question remained.
According to Lee Ji-yeon, the Twin-headed Poison Dragon had followed her, so why hadn't that bastard entered the dungeon?
Did it assume she died when it saw her throw herself into the gorge?
Or maybe it followed right behind her, but... by a stroke of luck, the entrance closed and it couldn't get in...
The moment I thought that, my face went pale.
The Twin-headed Poison Dragon could easily have fallen from the sky right after Lee Ji-yeon.
If that had happened... I didn't even want to imagine it.
[I know where the exit is]
[Follow me]
At my words, Lee Ji-yeon's face brightened.
Since I could open the exit, it wasn't a lie.
I turned around and started walking. Lee Ji-yeon followed behind me.
The destination was the cave behind the waterfall.
'Even if we're leaving, I should take the Proof of Protection with me.'
I circled the lake and arrived near the waterfall.
Thanks to the waterfall's gentle flow, it didn't spray droplets very much.
But to pass through there, I'd have no choice but to get hit by the waterfall.
I was going to use wind magic... - Wooooong...! [Oh...] [Thanks] ...Before I could cast the wind magic, a water spirit moved and diverted the trajectory of the water stream.
A large hole opened up in the waterfall, revealing the cave inside clearly.
The water spirit hovered near my fingertip. At the cute intent it conveyed, I let out a soft laugh and gently stroked its tip with my finger.
A moment later, the water spirit sent a sense of satisfaction and vanished with a poof.
I leaped lightly and entered the cave.
"That's...?"
Lee Ji-yeon tilted her head at the object sitting conspicuously inside.
Inside there was a stone altar.
It was an altar with geometric patterns on its surface, and atop it sat a cube.
The material was transparent like glass.
Warm yellow light was held in abundance inside it, as if light itself had been trapped within.
It was the unawakened Proof of Protection, one of the main objectives of this outing.
I made a strange expression at it.
'...Will it awaken?'
It was 'the unawakened Proof of Protection.'
I'd acquired it, but whether I could use it was a separate issue.
The Proof of Protection chose its owner.
The artifact itself judged and acknowledged the user. If you weren't acknowledged? From that moment on, it wasn't an artifact but a collector's art piece, or pie in the sky.
From what I remembered, the condition was alignment.
I recalled the Status Window description stating that it acknowledged its user through a fairly strict screening among beings belonging to good.
In the original work, the first iteration to obtain the Proof of Protection was the 9th Iteration, 'Hungry Ghost.'
That iteration was one where I tossed good aside and splendidly pioneered a villain route.
Naturally, I hadn't been able to use the Proof of Protection, which selected for a good alignment, even a little. So in that iteration, I'd just sold it off on the black market.
'Will it... work for me?'
I wasn't confident.
I'd only read that it selected for good alignment; I didn't know if it actually accepted you, or what degree of good alignment was required.
More than anything, I wondered if I even belonged to good.
Honestly, I wasn't a kind person.
I wasn't like truly kind people, able to step forward for others without a moment's hesitation and without thinking about my own losses.
'...Let's just take it for now.'
Whatever the case, acquisition was acquisition.
With a complicated expression, I strode over and picked up the cube.
'If I can't use it... I'll regenerate my arm once I'm back, dispose of it at the auction house... or give it to someone els—'
- Woom!
The moment I picked it up.
The cube vibrated faintly.
'What the.'
Suddenly, my thoughts shifted. The past flashed through my head like a panorama.
It was as if something was peering into those memories.
Childhood, fire, orphanage, bullying, fire, discharge, society, convenience store, car accident, legs...
Hmm...
This world, curses, Siyoram, growth, precious people.
Mm...?
Sipnaha, Aerus, civilians, denial, resolve, action, death, relief...
...Uh oh...
- Click
A sound like a lock opening rang out.
It wasn't a sound. I just got that kind of feeling.
The moment I sensed that, the cube began to melt.
The cube became countless particles of light.
The yellow particles swarmed down and clung to my empty left shoulder.
The light cluster attached to my shoulder gradually lengthened downward.
It was as if countless fireflies had stuck to my left arm.
Soon the light particles scattered.
In their place, a sensation was felt.
Something was attached to the previously void space.
A prosthetic arm with a stark white, roughly textured body, like snow...
'...Did it really just awaken?'
That simply?
Dumbfounded, I tapped the prosthetic arm now attached where my left arm should have been.