Soul Orchid Bloom (3)
"What in the world is this lately..."
The corridor leading to the training grounds felt unusually cold for some reason.
It was surely the same temperature as always.
Is this... loneliness?
She placed a hand on her chest.
A faint tremor emanated from where there should have been nothing but emptiness.
But that can't be. I shouldn't have emotions like that anymore.
The only emotion Baekseol currently allowed herself was sympathy.
That was why she pitied the girl named Ria and was helping her.
But what was this feeling?
She had lived by acting the part of her pre-emotionless self, but acting was just acting.
She had never faltered before...
Why?
Why did those brief days spent with Astra keep resurfacing?
Why did his face, the way he looked at her, remain so vividly etched in her mind?
"I really don't know..."
Her own voice echoing down the corridor sounded unfamiliar.
No matter how long she had lived, it had been far too long since she last felt even a fragment of emotion like this—she truly had no idea.
As she pushed open the door to the training grounds, a familiar sight greeted her.
Ria had activated her Demon Eye, her pupils dyed purple as she stared intently at something floating in the air.
It was the remnants of black magic Astra had left behind.
The girl was delicately manipulating not her own magic, but the scattered traces of Astra's black magic in the space around her.
As if weaving them together with invisible threads.
In short, she was gathering and controlling the residual mana that anyone left behind after using magic, making it her own.
To already interfere with someone else's magic using her Demon Eye—no matter how you looked at it, it was astonishing talent.
"You've improved a lot, Ria."
At the sound of Baekseol's voice, Ria turned her head.
Her purple pupils slowly returned to their original color as the girl looked up at Baekseol.
"Sister!"
Ria rushed over and threw herself into Baekseol's arms.
The moment that small body heat transferred over, Baekseol tensed slightly before slowly stroking Ria's hair.
"What are you curious about?"
"It's not curiosity so much as... a request."
"A request?"
Ria pulled back slightly from Baekseol's embrace and looked up.
Her eyes held firm resolve.
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"Is there a prison here or something where they lock up criminals and bad people?"
Baekseol's pupils trembled faintly.
"...Why that place?"
Ria took a moment to steady her breath before speaking with a serious expression.
"I've succeeded in interfering with the black magic Lord Astra left behind. So now... I want to train to use negative emotions as my own power, just like he said."
Baekseol gazed at Ria.
Interfering with negative emotions—if it were possible, it would be the most powerful force, granting superiority in any battle.
But should she really take this child, who could see negative emotions, to that prison?
At that thought, Baekseol startled herself.
...What was that just now?
What Astra had asked was simply to help with Ria's training.
He had never said anything about worrying over her mental state.
Is this... really just sympathy?
The desire to show only good things to this child. The wish for her not to suffer. Was this really just an act?
Baekseol unconsciously placed a hand on her chest again.
Thump. Thump.
Her heart beat steadily, without the slightest agitation.
Yet for some reason, that regular rhythm felt unfamiliar.
This... has to be sympathy.
Yes, surely it was.
Ria was striving to overcome her fate with her own strength, and that image resembled Baekseol's own past.
Perhaps she was sympathizing not with Ria now, but with her younger self?
Baekseol pushed down her confused feelings and slowly opened her mouth.
"Yes, in our Frostheim, there is a place where we lock up bad people."
Ria's eyes sparkled, but Baekseol raised a hand to continue.
"But can you handle it, Ria? That place is probably..."
Baekseol paused, peering into Ria's eyes.
Confirming the clear resolve reflected there, she quietly warned her.
"Far stickier and more terrifying than the emotions you glimpsed before coming here. Hatred, resentment, despair... layers upon layers, rotting away."
Despite Baekseol's warning, Ria didn't waver.
Her gaze only grew firmer as she replied.
"It's okay, Sister. Lord Astra told me—if I want to grow strong, I mustn't fear."
At those words, Baekseol felt another faint tremor in a corner of her chest.
This unfamiliar sensation that arose every time Astra's name was mentioned—what was it?
And why did she wish Ria wouldn't go there?
I really don't know.
Baekseol let out a small sigh and gently stroked Ria's hair.
The child's warmth felt strangely comforting against her cold fingertips.
"Alright. Then tomorrow morning, I'll take you. Rest well today and prepare your heart."
Ria nodded with a bright smile.
Seeing that pure smile, Baekseol felt another faint ache in her chest.
Mother...
Baekseol's pupils shook at the name that surfaced after so long.
Is this desire to protect her also sympathy? Or... is it the same as the feelings Mother showed back then?
"As expected, something's off. The air is thick with dead souls."
Ascaros's low voice echoed through the cave.
His blackened skeletal jaw clacked as it moved.
Right now, Ascaros walked beside me in his materialized form, not as a shadow.
This was also on Seolhwa's advice.
It might be best to bring the lich along, just in case. His lineage seems to be necromancy.
Even in the darkness, Ascaros's skeletal form in its black robe faintly glowed.
Red light flickered in his empty eye sockets as he scanned the surroundings.
I nodded at his words.
Black magic had many branches, and Ascaros's path was necromancy.
In other words, the classic necromancer we all knew.
That was why he could see the souls of the dead and communicate with them.
And through sharing his vision, I could see it too.
The horrific sight that unfolded the moment we entered the cave.
Tens of thousands of dead souls floated in the air.
Each one twisted in agony.
Some screamed, others wailed, and still others stared blankly into the void with empty eyes.
"Ah... aaa..."
"Save... me..."
"Help... me..."
Faint groans echoed from all directions.
And those souls were slowly being drawn toward the depths of the cave, as if pulled by an invisible force.
"Lord Astra, if we follow them, we should reach the Soul Orchid Bloom."
Ascaros's black skeletal jaw clacked again.
"Yes."
As we followed the drifting souls deeper into the cave, their numbers grew denser.
Sparse at first, now they densely filled the air.
The cave air grew colder, the aura of death piercing the skin like needles.
That was when it happened.
"Kieeeek!!!"
Suddenly, a ear-shattering screech erupted from the cave depths.
"What the hell?"
As I muttered, Seolhwa's flustered voice rang out.
There shouldn't be any living things here... Don't tell me it's that guy's remnant?
Tension laced Seolhwa's voice, unlike her usual calm.
Ascaros's red glow intensified.
"Lord Astra, that sound..."
Before he could finish, the screech rang out again.
"Kiiiiiik! Kraaaak!"
This time, much closer.
With the sound, the drifting souls were sucked deeper into the cave even faster.
Beril, a mere ordinary demon and herb gatherer in Darkteria, left the territory as usual today to collect herbs in the forest.
"I need to find something decent today..."
He sighed and muttered to himself.
He had a five-year-old daughter.
Weak in combat himself, and with his wife having passed while giving birth, he sustained their life solely through herb gathering.
But lately, he hadn't found any worthwhile herbs.
Common ones weren't nearly enough to support him and his daughter.
Sorry, May. Dad will definitely find something today...
In his endless search for profitable herbs, he had ventured deeper than usual when a massive waterfall roar snapped him back to reality.
"This is... Black Rock Canyon? Have I come this far?"
One of Darkteria's famous spots, said to be home to the legendary flower, the Soul Orchid.
Legendary or not, it wouldn't fetch an insane price at market.
But that amount could feed him and his daughter for years.
Should I... go in? For May's sake...
After hesitating, Beril stepped into the canyon.
The waterfall's roar grew nearer.
That was when it happened.
Come here... come this way...
A sweet whisper suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Wh-what?"
Beril shook his head, but the voice grew clearer.
Come... this way... May is waiting...
"May?"
It was his dead wife's voice.
Beril's vision blurred. His legs moved on their own.
Yes... this way... we can be together...
Reaching the waterfall's edge, Beril peered down.
A faint purple light shimmered in the unfathomable darkness below.
"Is May... really down there?"
Yes... jump... our family will be together forever...
Beril's body slowly tilted forward.
His eyes lost focus, a happy smile spreading across his lips.
"May... Daddy's coming..."
And so Beril fell.
If he were an ordinary demon, he'd have died on impact from that height, but Beril had a hidden Supernatural Ability.
A recovery ability—not strong, but not weak either.
The drawback was it only healed himself, and slowly at that—a power he considered useless.
Thanks to it, though, Beril regained consciousness after the fall.
"Ugh... what is this place..."
His head was a bloody mess, left leg twisted grotesquely.
Bone protruded from his right arm, but he was still alive.
His recovery ability slowly stemmed the bleeding.
Beril painfully turned his head.
And what he saw—
"Ah... aaack... what the hell..."
Dozens—no, hundreds of corpses littered the surroundings.
All appeared to have fallen like him.
Some were mere bones, others still rotting.
As terror-stricken Beril tried to close his eyes—
This way... deeper... May is waiting...
The voice returned.
"No... no..."
Beril resisted, but his consciousness blurred again.
Your loved one... together forever...
"Ah... no..."
With both legs broken and arms useless.
Beril dragged his jaw along the ground, crawling like a worm.
Poke—poke—
Each drag tore his flesh on the rocky floor.
Blood trailed in a long streak as he pressed deeper into the cave.
"May... May..."
Bloody saliva dripped between his broken teeth.
In a corner of his mind, his daughter May's face flashed, but his body was already under something else's control.
A purple light pulsed from the cave depths.
Beril crawled relentlessly toward it.
Gasp—gasp—
With wretched groans, his form vanished into the darkness.