120. My Buff is a Drug
Swordsmen from the continent had learned how to keep fighting even after their limbs were severed.
The principle was similar to a mana barrier.
Before the mana could register the loss, the severed part was treated as though it were still in place.
Starting from the wound, they wove mana outward, extending the limb as if layering a shield over the body.
As long as the brain wasn't destroyed, they stayed standing, kept moving.
As long as their spine wasn't broken, they kept pouring strength into their hips and swinging their swords.
But this method became impossible once the battle ended.
The energy drain was extreme, too.
It was truly a fight that offered up everything...
You only witnessed such combat when two swordsmen met a worthy foe and poured every last drop of strength and life into it.
Over dozens of exchanges, four of Kwon Jin-ah's fingers were sliced off.
But a blue aura filled the severed spots, and she never let go of her sword.
In another few dozen exchanges, Seong Yu-ran's ankle was shredded to ribbons.
Yet the blue aura wrapped around the wound as if stitching it shut, and her stance never collapsed.
Surrounded by clashing soldiers, they cut and cut and cut each other again.
The moment anyone's timing lagged even slightly, a body part was sure to be severed.
Neither of them seemed to care about survival in the slightest.
It made me wonder if all the continent's vaunted swordsmen were lunatics who were perfectly fine with dying in a fight like that.
Dozens of exchanges, and then dozens more.
Swords and bodies alike were in tatters.
Every severed part extended by mana was filled with blood.
It wouldn't have been strange if something broke at any moment.
It wouldn't have been strange if they collapsed at any moment.
"The time has come to finish this. This time I will kill you completely, monster!"
"No, a little more. I will fight a little more!"
Ian swung to cleave through, the monster moved to block.
Clang!
The instant their blades met, Seong Yu-ran's sword shattered.
Schwick!
A single stroke carved through every central nerve from chest to flank.
As if pronouncing the end of a battle that had rushed toward nothing but death, blood burst out and her stance collapsed.
The ones who seized victory were Kwon Jin-ah and Ian, strengthened by Hye-yong's buffs.
In a way, it was only natural.
They had found an adversary that could justify that strength, and the skill gap between Seong Yu-ran and Kwon Jin-ah had been resolved by Hye-yong's buffs.
This harrowing battle felt like a final performance—a desperate thrashing once the answer had already been found.
Thud!
Seong Yu-ran collapsed, utterly spent.
"This time, I've won completely."
"How regrettable... It felt like the answer was just a little further ahead."
The Virus raised its still-intact arm toward the sky.
Even though its central nervous system was destroyed, it seemed to be sustaining its life briefly through the power of mana.
"If only you would give me one more chance, just one..."
"No. There are no more chances for you."
Ian brought the tip of his sword to the monster's chest, precisely over its heart.
"We are not meant to remain here."
"Kuh-kuh, that we aren't."
"It was good to see you again. Farewell."
"Likewise... it was a joy to fight you twice."
Shunk!
Ian snuffed out the Virus and turned, panting harshly.
His footsteps moved a few paces to the side, toward Hye-yong, who had cast a shield on himself and was watching the fight.
"Forgive me for such a brutal battle. Your companion... I fear she won't survive."
Ah, that's fine.
She'll come back perfectly fine once this is over anyway, so whatever.
"It's alright. She will... accept it."
"She was a swordsman of magnificent will. Bury her... in a sunny place... yes, under an apple tree would be good..."
On the continent, the best graves for a swordsman were beneath an apple tree, so...
Ian couldn't finish what he was saying.
Splash!
As the mana-extended limbs vanished, the blood that had pooled in them spilled onto the ground.
Kwon Jin-ah's legs were gone, and her body toppled forward, losing its balance.
She no longer moved.
It seemed she had died the moment Ian withdrew.
Or maybe Ian withdrew because Kwon Jin-ah had died.
At that moment, the cheers of the skeletal soldiers erupted.
— Victorious!
— We have won!
— We have defended our land!
The victory of the Baharf army under Ian's command.
The instant Hye-yong recognized it, the sunset shattered, and the faded midday sun of old beat down upon them.
He looked at the sky, then back at the ground, and nothing remained in that spot.
Only the sight of Seong Yu-ran and Kwon Jin-ah lying there, somehow fully restored.
"Phew."
Only then was Hye-yong able to let out a relieved sigh, his heart at ease.
'Well, that's one thing taken care of.'
Kwon Jin-ah had put in immense effort this time.
Even if Seong Yu-ran had been encroached upon by the Virus, Kwon Jin-ah's case involved possession.
She must have vividly felt the agony of having her body sliced apart.
Yet she had held firm, standing and fighting to the very end.
He called it a concept, but as the one in charge, he felt proud.
Hye-yong approached and checked Kwon Jin-ah's condition.
'The MVP this time is you, Kwon Jin-ah.'
He resolved to praise her until she was sick of it once she woke up.
"Urgh, ngh...!"
Seong Yu-ran twitched, let out a groan, and soon clutched her head as she pushed her upper body up.
'Looks like her head's splitting.'
Hye-yong approached and asked, partly to probe a few things.
"...Seong Yu-ran sunbae."
"You..."
Seong Yu-ran turned her head, still slumped on the ground.
Her eyes, fixed on Hye-yong, wavered slightly.
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
Soon Seong Yu-ran hung her head low, staring at the ground.
She seemed to be thinking intensely about something.
"Yeah... I remember everything... With my own hands, I cut down at least dozens."
Seong Yu-ran's eyes held the look of someone who had given up on everything.
'Uh-oh. She remembers everything. This isn't good.'
If she only remembered bits and pieces like Kwon Jin-ah, he could have spun some bullshit and tried to work with her, but his plan was smashed from the start.
At this point, there was no choice but to use a straightforward approach instead of tricks.
"Bring me an instructor. I'll surrender quietly."
Surrender quietly, she said.
Seeing how she acted, Seong Yu-ran seemed fundamentally different from Kwon Jin-ah, who had been scared of what she'd done and tried to hide and run.
The scale was different, but even if she'd only had the memory of killing a single person, Hye-yong suspected she would have turned herself in anyway.
'Even if I can't get deeply entangled with her, I should at least be able to earn some trust.'
Despite her composed appearance, Seong Yu-ran was trembling faintly.
She was probably anticipating a lifetime rotting in prison for what she had done.
At a young age, with far more years to live than to die, accepting that your life was plunging into darkness was no easy thing.
He ought to apply a Comfortable Feeling buff and put her at ease.
"Don't worry, sunbae. Everything you did has been undone."
"What?"
"When that girl over there defeated you."
Seong Yu-ran's gaze instantly shot to where Hye-yong's finger was pointing.
Seeing Kwon Jin-ah's face, whom Hye-yong had laid neatly on the ground, Seong Yu-ran practically jumped out of her skin.
She seemed to remember all the way up to the final battle.
"How is this...?"
"First, shall we talk somewhere quiet?"
Seong Yu-ran, still seated on the ground, silently nodded.
-
The hospital.
Using the excuse that she had collapsed during sparring, they brought Kwon Jin-ah to a bed, laid her down, and continued the conversation with Seong Yu-ran.
"Then you mean everything I experienced was in a dream?"
"More precisely, we created it as a dream. If we'd been late, it would've turned into reality."
"Such an absurd thing..."
"You experienced it firsthand, didn't you?"
The reason you became strange is because of an entity called an Aberration!
Aberrations have the ability to turn things that happen in dreams into reality.
Those Aberration bastards need to be strictly punished, but unless you're a member of the Secret Society, you have no means to sanction them!
But rest assured, for I and my subordinate have eliminated that Aberration!
That was the summary of Hye-yong's story.
Without employing any tricks, he had spoken carefully, sticking to what Seong Yu-ran had experienced, aiming only to earn her trust.
"I definitely can't deny it..."
Seong Yu-ran nodded along to Hye-yong's words, but her eyes, still anxious, sent him a pleading look.
"Can you explain in a bit more detail? There are so many things I don't understand..."
"It's natural that you don't understand, sunbae. You've been hearing strange voices for a while now. During a light sparring match, you momentarily lost control of your body and cut a junior. That was the trigger for the Aberration's encroachment. Not a single element, from start to finish, was realistic."
"Yes, which is why I'm asking you to tell me the full story—or about the identities of you and this girl."
"I'm sorry, sunbae, but this is all you're allowed to know. If you learn any more than this, I'll have no choice but to fulfill my duty and erase your memories. Ah, the same goes if you go around telling anyone about this. Though I doubt anyone would believe you..."
"M-memory erasure..."
Perhaps because the deception worked, Seong Yu-ran's tail curled up like a dog's at the mention of memory erasure.
'Whew. I was worried about what to do if she asked to have her memories erased regardless, but it looks like things worked out.'
As he sat there, satisfied, Seong Yu-ran asked again.
"Alright, then I'll ask as I please, and you can just answer what you can."
"Even that is difficult..."
"If it crosses a line, you can just cut me off."
"Fine."
Since she remembered everything about the Aberration incident—even if not to the same extent as Kwon Jin-ah—she seemed to have accepted Hye-yong's story, absorbed in the concept.
"So, truly, all the things I did... they all become something that never happened? How?"
"From the junior you first cut to the dozens of people struck by your sword, everything goes back to how it was. Before they were cut, before the chaos started, as if nothing ever happened. We erased all the memories on our end."
"Is such a thing possible...?"
"Even you were a complete wreck except for your right arm, but look at you now, completely fine."
"Right, that's true. I can't keep denying what I've directly seen and experienced."
The exact method was like recalling a saved world.
According to what Mina had told him before, the Virus spreads its inner world enough to enable world manipulation at the very moment a host encroached by the Virus is about to kill the characters!
Then time stops there in reality.
Once the Virus is dealt with, the inner world lifts, and time flows again.
But because the Virus's host remains here, no one dies.
Memories vanish, and people who were interacting with the host might go, "Huh? What was I doing?" in confusion, but that's all.
The only ones who remembered everything were Hye-yong, those who had once been hosts of the Virus, and people whose Seeds of Cognition had fully bloomed.
"Do these 'Aberrations' keep appearing?"
"Yes. The very reason I enrolled here in the first place was to hunt them down."
"Could this girl also..."
"Yes. I saved her after she was encroached upon by an Aberration, just like you. She's been following me ever since."
"I see. I suddenly feel like I've started living in a different world..."
Seong Yu-ran nodded with a resolute expression, as if she had made up her mind.
"Alright, I won't ask any more. I don't want these memories erased."
"A wise choice."
"And... if you ever need my help, feel free to call on me anytime. I was saved by you people, wasn't I? I'm not such an ungrateful person that I'd take such a favor for granted."
Good.
One person I can put to work: acquired.
This was a fairly satisfying result.
"Mmm..."
It was only after they'd been talking for a while that Kwon Jin-ah stirred, shifting her body as if about to wake up.
Seong Yu-ran flinched in shock, unable to tear her eyes away from Kwon Jin-ah's face.
"B-boss..."
Even before she was fully conscious, the person Kwon Jin-ah looked for was Hye-yong.
"Yeah, Jin-ah. I'm here."
At his words, Kwon Jin-ah opened her eyes.
Once toward Hye-yong.
Once toward Seong Yu-ran.
"Ah, Seong Yu-ran sunbae-nim..."
"Y-yes. N-nice to meet you... junior..."
Seeing the strange tension hanging between them, Hye-yong thought:
She dropped the formalities with me but uses honorifics with Kwon Jin-ah?
And for some reason, her face looked subtly flushed, too.
Could it be...
"Th-thank you. I was told that you, junior, rescued me when I was controlled by the Aberration."
"Ah, no. More than me, th-that person..."
"I'm also fully grateful to junior Choi Hye-yong. And this is... a personal feeling, but..."
Seong Yu-ran took Kwon Jin-ah's left hand in both of hers.
It was visibly clear that Kwon Jin-ah was flustered.
"At the end, when we were crossing swords... I felt my heart pounding fiercely. Each time we clashed, it was like realizing something I hadn't known before, if that makes sense. It was the first time—the very first time—I'd ever felt such a sensation."
"I-is that so."
"I believe I've come to respect you, junior, as a fellow swordsman. Please, please impart new teachings to me. Won't you spar with me frequently from now on?"
For a moment I wondered if she'd fallen for Kwon Jin-ah or started harboring some kind of romantic feelings, but looking at her now, I didn't think so.
What shone in those sparkling eyes was pure passion and admiration.
The word Seong Yu-ran herself had used—respect—was the most fitting.
"Ah, well, that's, I'm f-flattered, but... I'm not the amazing person you think I am. I'm just an ordinary C-rank swordsman...! Me teaching you, sunbae, it's impossible!"
"It's fine, junior. If it's simply a matter of lacking current skill, then I will devote myself wholeheartedly to training you. Even now, I feel tremendous potential from you, junior! I'm certain it won't be long before you surpass my rank and begin to teach me!"
"No, that's, well..."
Kwon Jin-ah shot Hye-yong a quiet S.O.S. with her eyes.
Boss, please do something about this person!
But Hye-yong just shrugged his shoulders once and chuckled softly.
'Are sword-wielding folk the type to think of the sword first even after going through something like that? Impressive.'
Even that monster from Kanasen had been thoroughly, completely insane about the sword.
Birds of a feather flock together. Looking at Seong Yu-ran sending that intense gaze toward Kwon Jin-ah, I could believe a sword-crazed evil spirit would attach itself to someone like her.