The Confucian Girl (3)
Klaus felt that Thirin's words—I owe you one—sounded strangely like something a dishonest person might say instead of an apology they couldn't bring themselves to give.
The tension drained from Klaus's body the moment he heard her. At the same time, the price of using the Brand in rapid succession crashed over him all at once. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest, and his vision blurred and spun.
With a heavy thud, Klaus's legs finally gave out and he collapsed right where he stood.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Unlike moments ago, Thirin's voice now carried a subtle awkwardness instead of its usual sharpness.
Klaus gasped for breath, barely managing to answer.
“...The burden of using the Brand consecutively. I just... need a little time.”
It stung his pride, but this wasn't the moment to worry about that. For the sake of completing the mission, he had to accurately report his condition to his companion.
“Tsk.”
Thirin clicked her tongue.
“Can you stand? Let’s at least get over to my backpack.”
Her chin jerked toward the shabby bag lying beneath a nearby tree.
Using his sword as a cane, Klaus staggered to his feet with great effort.
Grrrrr...
A grotesque sound came from behind them—the corpse of the werewolf that had been lying on the ground. When they turned, the severed head was writhing and reattaching itself to the neck. Torn flesh sought out its counterparts, knitting together in an instant as the wound healed completely.
“This... goddamn...”
Klaus was horrified, but Thirin's reaction was entirely different. She muttered with clear interest.
“Right. Of course there’s a Phase 2. It’s a boss fight, after all. Or should I count it as Phase 3 if we include his human form?”
“...What are you even talking about?”
At Klaus’s question, Thirin let out a small snort of laughter.
“There’s just something like that. Anyway, the important thing is that we have to skip the repeat section.”
Thirin raised her sword.
Fighting the same boss three times is boring. Twice is more than enough.
With those words, Thirin kicked the werewolf’s head clean off its shoulders. The head bounced with a few hollow thumps before rolling straight into the campfire.
The sight that should have been grotesque somehow looked almost cheerful.
“This way he won’t be able to resurrect, right?”
“...Fire is the most basic form of purification. I believe so.”
Once she had discarded her hesitation, Thirin was terrifyingly strong. She had blown the werewolf’s head off in a single strike.
Klaus still couldn’t understand why she had gone through all that trouble during their first fight. But trying to understand a madwoman would only hurt him in the end.
Thirin clicked her tongue in clear disappointment as she watched the head burn in the flames. Klaus quickly turned his gaze away from her face. No matter what, he didn’t want to believe she was actually hoping to eat the werewolf’s head meat… but with this woman, he couldn’t completely rule it out.
“Tsk. You gonna get up, Stick Man? Who told you to go showing off your strength like that?”
Thirin clicked her tongue again and walked over to him. Without giving him any chance to refuse, she smoothly draped his arm over her shoulder in a natural supporting hold.
“...I’m in your debt,” Klaus forced out.
The warmth of her body so close to his and the faint, clean scent like soap felt incredibly awkward. Or rather… did she simply not have any scent at all?
“Just to my backpack. That’s all we need to reach.”
Leaning on her for support, Klaus staggered forward. When they reached the shabby leather bag tossed carelessly beneath the tree, Thirin propped him against the trunk and began rummaging through it.
“Here.”
What she held out was a small glass vial. Inside was a fluorescent yellow liquid that glowed strangely under the moonlight—an artificial hue that was clearly not a product of nature.
Klaus instinctively frowned. Even if it wasn’t poison but medicine, that ominous color didn’t look like anything good for the body.
“What is this?”
“Bacchus.”
“...Bac… what?”
Klaus furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar word. Thirin explained in an annoyed tone.
“Yellow-capped mushroom. Ever heard of it? It grows here and there in the forest. Excellent for recovering stamina.”
“...You’re telling me you picked mushrooms from the forest and ate them? Do you have a death wish?”
Klaus had undergone survival training in the Imperial Army. According to their education, it was better to starve to death than eat wild mushrooms from the forest. He had once watched a rabbit convulse and die right in front of him.
Thirin simply shrugged.
“I extracted the poison and refined it. It’s safe, so just drink it.”
Her explanation only amplified Klaus’s suspicion. The leftover residue after removing the poison? Was this woman seriously recommending he drink the byproduct of a toxic substance?
An image flashed through Klaus’s mind—Thirin gazing fondly at her collection of assassination tools. Maybe this was one of them.
Thirin stared at him with sparkling, expectant eyes. She was quite the experimentalist at heart.
Her Poison Core only absorbed potent toxins. So what about the efficacy of the remaining residue?
Thirin had chewed on various mushrooms and poisonous herbs that contained both toxic and medicinal properties, then collected the leftover residue after absorption and tested it on animals. The results had been quite successful. This was simply the first time she was testing it on a person.
Looking into those sparkling eyes, Klaus cursed inwardly.
…Goddamn it.
Those eyes were obnoxiously bright. Maybe the bandits had been mesmerized by that very gaze and let their guard down so completely?
In any case, Klaus had no choice. Every muscle in his body was screaming from the aftermath of using the Brand. In this state, he wouldn’t be able to handle the journey ahead.
He squeezed his eyes shut, uncorked the vial, and downed the fluorescent liquid in one gulp.
“......”
Surprisingly, the medicine wasn’t bitter at all. If anything, it was overly sweet, as if someone had dumped an entire jar of honey into it. It seemed Thirin had shown consideration in an unexpected area.
And then something astonishing happened.
The crushing fatigue that had weighed down his entire body vanished like a lie. He felt a surge of fresh vitality rising from deep within his muscles. Like rain falling on parched earth, his depleted energy rapidly replenished itself.
“This is…!”
Klaus couldn’t hide his astonishment. If they had something like this, the efficiency of the Imperial Army’s long-distance marches and field operations would skyrocket.
“How on earth did you make this? If we had this technology, it would be a tremendous help to the Empire! The manufacturing method—”
At that moment, Thirin’s expression—which had been watching him with curious eyes just seconds ago—froze into an icy mask.
“Why do you keep trying to dig into a woman’s secrets?”
Her voice was cold. Klaus felt a chill run down his spine.
“Just because I told you the color of my socks once, you’ve gotten all full of yourself? You think if you keep prying into every little thing, the latch on my heart will slowly open? You think I’ll tell you anything else?”
“Stop, stop! I was wrong! Stop!”
Klaus shouted desperately. Just what kind of logic circuit did this woman’s brain run on?
Thirin turned away with an angry huff.
“Hmph. Well, at least it works.”
She muttered in satisfaction. At her words, Klaus blankly looked down at his own hands. The exhaustion that had been crushing him moments ago had truly disappeared like a lie.
Without thinking, he opened his mouth.
“......Bounty hunter.”
“What is it, Stick Man?”
“Just… what kind of person are you?”
“Huh?”
Klaus blurted out the questions rising in his mind without any order.
“You say criminals should be given a chance at rehabilitation and spare their lives, yet you also seem to enjoy their suffering. You risk yourself to save children, but show no mercy to those you encounter along the way.”
“......”
“I… cannot understand you. What exactly is your standard for ‘mercy’? Did those people not deserve any?”
Klaus pointed at the torn corpses of the gang leader and his men.
He remembered how Thirin had previously brought criminals alive from the checkpoint. But this time, she didn’t seem to care whether they lived or died. Klaus was curious about that difference.
Thirin scoffed.
“I’m the same now as I was then.”
“What?”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something. Did you think I came all this way to show mercy? I came here to swing my sword.”
Thirin nodded firmly.
“Mercy is only for humans who can be reformed. Beasts don’t need mercy.”
Those who engaged in human trafficking had abandoned the way of humanity. It was the act of barbarians—choosing the path of beasts rather than people. According to the Kill the Barbarians Philosophy, barbarians and beasts were not subjects for reform. They could not be reformed. Therefore, they must be killed.
Thirin had perfectly grasped the core of Eastern philosophy. She was the spiritual successor of Master Song. She was the Confucian Girl, and a Westerner.
“......”
Klaus couldn’t understand the meaning behind Thirin’s words. The only thing he could understand was the throbbing headache of the Security Force captain.
Looking at him, Thirin said,
“Anyway, that’s enough. If you’ve recovered, get up. We don’t have time to waste.”
At her words, Klaus nodded. The two of them headed toward the edge of the forest where the carriage had last disappeared.
On the surface, it was nothing more than an ordinary forest boundary densely packed with trees. Thirin pulled out the round glass bottle filled with sand she had taken from Zakar.
“What did he say again? ‘Scatter it,’ was it?”
“Better not scatter all of it. Just in case.”
“Right.”
The moment Thirin uncorked the bottle and scattered the sand into the air, something bizarre happened. The grains didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, they began to glow and burn in midair as if they had struck an invisible massive wall.
Hssssss—
With the sound of burning air, the forest before their eyes warped like a heat haze. The shapes of the lush trees melted away and vanished, revealing an entirely different landscape in their place. A sandy path, everything weathered by time, now stretched between the forest trails.
“......”
Klaus was rendered speechless by the unreal sight before him.
Thirin muttered in disbelief.
“These thieving bastards…”
She spoke as if she already knew what this was. Klaus reflexively asked,
“Thieves? Do you know who these people are?”
“Don’t you know what kind of thieves they are?”
Thirin answered casually.
“All the sand disappearing from the beaches is because of bastards like these. The ones who steal beach sand to build buildings and do interior decorating. Now they’ve even paved a road through the forest.”
“......”
“Illegal aggregate extractors. We need to round them all up and throw them in jail.”
Thirin nodded, seemingly satisfied with her own conclusion.
“They deserve the death penalty.”
“....”
Klaus couldn’t understand her at all. He looked up at the sky. The Heavenly Hall felt truly resentful right now.