Chapter 60
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 60
"......So this is Taehak."
His startled look lasted only a moment before Roberto picked up his wine glass again as if nothing had happened.
He brought it to his lips, held a sip in his mouth, rolled it around with a swish, then swallowed.
Wearing a satisfied smile, he turned his body toward the entrance of the hall.
"That Demonkin bastard's got some nerve......."
It was so absurd that I muttered without realizing it.......
Then, the moment Roberto's gaze turned this way, I hastily ducked down.
"......."
Roberto, who had tilted his head, turned his attention back to his wine and looked toward the front of the hall.
Hoo.
I swept a hand down my chest in relief.
As expected, the bastard's senses, amplified to the max by the Demonic Space Canvas, were considerably sharp.
Sharp enough that even from quite a distance, I had to be careful about every word, every little movement.......
I'd better be careful.
I hunched down as small as I could and steeled myself.
Right now I might look as pathetic as a mouse hiding on the roof, but hadn't someone once said it?
That you kneel only to gain momentum.
I was enduring and enduring again for the hidden move I would unleash the moment that bastard let his guard down in relief. It was absolutely not because I was afraid of his Allure.
.......
Anyway, I poked my head out again and looked at my teammate, who was fighting desperately.
Cheon Seo-yoon was sprinting at full speed down the long corridor leading to the main building.
It was a frantic dash, urgent enough that I could feel it even from here, but it was no easy advance.
Because all sorts of mechanisms activated to stop intruders were spewing fire.
The onslaught of blades shooting from all directions, hidden in the darkness, was both stealthy and vicious.
But Cheon Seo-yoon, as if focused solely on advancing, plunged straight ahead instead.
She ignored the small ones entirely and deflected only the substantial ones. Her scratches multiplied, but her charge didn't stop until she came face-to-face with the massive door connected to the hall.
From afar, my clairvoyant vision let me observe it all.
Joo A-rin and Roberto standing off with the door between them, the invisible battle of wills unfolding as each recognized the other's presence.......
Cheon Seo-yoon soon drew in a deep breath and let it out.
Fierce mana coiled around her raised sword, and she brought it down in one stroke.
Crack—
The door split in two on the spot and toppled backward.
With a boom, thick dust rose, and as the view gradually cleared, Cheon Seo-yoon's expression twisted viciously.
"You're Roberto?"
Cheon Seo-yoon, having spotted Joo A-rin, muttered as if grinding the words between her teeth.
Roberto wore a wordless, oily smile.......
"The little shit looks X—ing greasy."
As her unfiltered words rang out, he finally opened his mouth.
"For a lovely young lady, your language is quite......."
"Just come at me, dipshit. Stop running your mouth."
But the conversation ended in just a few seconds.
"......I suppose I'll have to teach you some manners first."
Roberto clicked his tongue a few times, then muttered with a flash of reddish light in his eyes.
"Rise."
Rumble.
The space trembled faintly.
The statues lined up to the left and right let out grating screeches as they stepped out one by one and blocked Cheon Seo-yoon's path.
A knight raising a menacing iron mace, a knight leveling a ghastly axe blade, a knight aiming a sword, and so on.
It was a one-versus-many situation that unfolded in an instant, but Cheon Seo-yoon wasn't cowed.
"Yeah, this is more like a Demonkin bastard."
With a sneer stretched across her face, she kicked off the ground.
She charged without hesitation and swung her greatsword, which had surged to three meters, in a horizontal arc.
It was the signal flare for the start of battle.
Knights 1 and 2 at the front were sent flying by that single blow, and whether they were down or not, Knight 3 came running over the corpses(?) of its comrades and swung its hammer.
Cheon Seo-yoon twisted her body to evade, then used the centrifugal force to cut down the lower body of Knight 4, which had been charging in as well.
Next, she kicked Knight 5 away, and in that instant, she swung her sword at Knight 6, which was thrusting its blade at her.
It looked as though both would be cut, but Cheon Seo-yoon subtly twisted her upper body and let it slide past. Knight 6 could not.
With a crunching sound, Knight 6 was sent flying.
The brief opening was immediately filled by the axe of Knight 7, which came charging in.
Cheon Seo-yoon dodged with only a tilt of her head, then drove her sword into Knight 7's side.
She closed in on Knight 8, which was raising an iron club to strike, and grabbed it by the collar.
Using the thing's body as a shield, she advanced. And advanced again, pushing toward Roberto.
After about ten minutes, the distance that had seemed unreachable had already closed by more than half.
It was ultra-close-quarters combat I couldn't even dare to imagine, the pinnacle of innate battle sense.
"A wildflower with thorns, is it?"
Unlike me, whose mouth hung open, Roberto still wore a leisurely expression as he stroked his chin.
But I did not miss the flash in Cheon Seo-yoon's eyes at that moment.
Cheon Seo-yoon gauged the distance little by little with sidelong glances, then, as if making up her mind, took a short, deep breath and gathered her mana.
She faked as if turning back, then spun her body again and kicked off the ground.
She stomped down hard enough to dent the floor and shot toward Roberto like a fired bullet.
She closed the distance to his face in an instant and thrust her greatsword, which had surged to nearly four meters.
"It's over, you bastard."
It was a surprise attack meant to catch him off guard, and the sword’s unusual length added another variable, so she seemed certain it would succeed.
"......!"
But just one inch.
Cheon Seo-yoon's sword stopped just one inch from Roberto's face.
Because Roberto's Demonic Energy, amplified even further, had burrowed into Cheon Seo-yoon's mind without any preparatory process whatsoever.
"That was almost a disaster."
"You son of a......."
"Unfortunately, playtime ends here."
Cheon Seo-yoon resisted until the veins bulged at her temples, but soon collapsed.
Emptiness settled into her rage-filled eyes, and her once-steady legs lost strength and staggered.
The Eternal Dream.
She had been sucked into Roberto's illusion.
.......
Watching any further was meaningless, so I withdrew my gaze.
I quietly stood up and stretched.
I loosened my stiff body and readied myself for the counterattack that would soon come.
It wasn't that I was indifferent. It was that I trusted them that much.
Cheon Seo-yoon, whose life was marked by hardship and adversity but who would break before she ever bent, and the properties of the Star Flower.......
I had gained inspiration at the hunting ground, but I hadn't had enough time to refine it. Still, it was a strike that absolutely had to succeed. I activated Manifestation for it.
[Activating trait, Manifestation.]
A sorcery formula I hadn't drawn in a very long time.
A 32-stroke, 1-star Fire-Style Sorcery, Flame Bullet.
A 32-stroke, 1-star Water-Style Sorcery, Ring of Water.
As the two formulas embroidered the dark night sky, I merged them into one without hesitation.
Then red pigment seeped into a blue base.
The sorcery array, which had been chaotically distorted, began to realign according to rules.
And what was born was the sorcery with the most powerful destructive force among the sorceries I knew.
A 64-stroke Attribute Combination Art, Latent Heat.
Up to this point, it had flowed as naturally as water.
But the important part started now.
The final goal was not simple manifestation, but union with an Armament.
Just as I had infused fire attribute when facing the Goeogong, I was going to graft the Latent Heat formula onto First Sword.
Because I lacked SP, I had to complete it entirely with my own power, but I believed in the knowledge I had accumulated through Appraisal all this time.
I would definitely succeed, and when Cheon Seo-yoon opened her eyes again, when that bastard was frantically pressing the attack—
I would take flight as one with First Sword and pierce his heart without a sound.
I closed my eyes for a moment and focused my mind.
* * *
Meanwhile, Cheon Seo-yoon was curled up inside fragments of old memories, memories whose very shapes had now grown faint.
The date was May 13, 2002. Her tenth birthday.
She had regressed from 21-year-old Cheon Seo-yoon to 10-year-old Cheon Seo-yoon, but she simply sat there calmly, letting him tend her hair, while behind her stood the only person she loved.
The head of the Cheon Family, Cheon Woo-young, was brushing her hair and speaking to her in a gentle, admonishing tone.
The topic of conversation was the classmate-beating incident that had happened the day before yesterday.
Since Cheon Seo-yoon had been the one doing the hitting, she had no room to complain even if she got chewed out.......
"Daughter, I'm disappointed. Two hits? Two hits? You should've hit at least three more."
"Hmph, it's not over yet. I'm going to teach her another lesson at the sparring evaluation soon."
"Oh? There was a good opportunity like that?"
The conversation between the two Cheon Family members strayed far outside the bounds of normalcy.
Because the one who got hit had mocked Cheon Seo-yoon for being a child without a mother.
"You know not to touch the face, right?"
"Of course."
Cheon Seo-yoon and Cheon Woo-young looked at each other and smiled meaningfully.
As if proving they were father and daughter, even the upturned corners of their mouths looked exactly alike, creating a warm atmosphere.
"But hey, daughter."
"Hm?"
"This written exam....... You were dead last in the whole school?"
But it only lasted a moment.
Cheon Seo-yoon, noticing that Cheon Woo-young's condition was unusual, quickly pulled away and shouted as if it were unfair.
"Seriously, do you have to do this even on my birthday?"
"Heh heh, birthday? Birrrthday? Since when did dead-last-in-the-school get a birthday?"
Cheon Woo-young, who had been laughing in disbelief, soon spread his arms wide as if herding a rabbit.
"Why is it my fault I'm bad at studying? It's your fault, Dad. You were terrible at it too."
"Still, I wasn't dead last in the whole school. I'm so embarrassed in front of the other family heads, I swear."
The impromptu game of tag ended only after a neat knock sounded and the door swung open.
"Dinner is ready, Family Head."
"Oh yeah!"
Cheon Woo-young scratched the back of his head awkwardly, and Cheon Seo-yoon, who had been cornered, scurried over to the table as if nothing had happened.
Soon, lidded silver trays were placed on the pink table.
One in front of Cheon Seo-yoon, one in front of Cheon Woo-young.
It was a modest spread for the birthday table of the treasured daughter of the Cheon Family, but special food was still special food.
"I prepared it as you requested. Enjoy your meal, miss."
"Wow!"
Cheon Seo-yoon opened the lid with an expectant expression, then could not hide her delight at the strong, savory smell of fast food.
The identity of the food on the tray was none other than a hamburger.
It was from a common franchise, but that made it all the more special.
Because it was food forbidden in the Cheon Family on the grounds that it was bad for the body.
"It's a new menu item. Do you like it?"
"Yeah, it's huge."
"The name's super long too. Quattro Supreme Cheese Double Patty......."
Cheon Woo-young recited the name he had painstakingly memorized.
But Cheon Seo-yoon couldn't wait and opened her mouth wide to take a big bite.
After tasting it, she flinched in surprise and trembled, then began wolfing it down.
"You got it all over yourself. Come here, I'll wipe it off."
"Dad, hurry up and eat too. It's really good."
"It's still cheap junk....... Nom nom. Huh? What is this, nom nom. Why is it so good?"
When Cheon Woo-young took a bite and his eyes went wide, Cheon Seo-yoon giggled.
A truly joyful day.
Right now, in this moment, a full happiness with nothing more to wish for filled the pink smile.
But Cheon Seo-yoon did not know.
Her swollen emotions, the larger they grew, only brought closer the moment when she would have to face the truth.......
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a light flashed at the edge of her vision, and Cheon Seo-yoon opened her eyes wide.
It wasn't reflected light, and it wasn't a lamp. It burned unusually bright, and she found it curious.
But that question, right after—
Someone's voice flickered through her mind, and it quickly faded.
If the light ......s, then it's a lie...... so ...... don't.
Suddenly, her head hurt as if it would shatter.