Illusion
Illusion
She had found the information thanks to the Demonkin incident over a month ago.
It had spawned a major event—the subjugation of Andromalius—and the footage itself had been shocking, after all.
The identity of that little kid at the center of the footage had already been more or less thoroughly investigated.
You couldn't dismiss the tenacity of the players.
There had been plenty of survivors from the incident, and they could also get information from the knights.
And the information gathered that way had piled up and piled up until it was all organized on the Tree Wiki.
The Tree Wiki lived up to its name. Like the Akashic Records holding every record in the universe, it even stored information about a single NPC.
Of course, most of its information was distorted and lacked credibility.
But within the game, at least, it provided trustworthy information.
That was how Im Ha-neul had drifted through the sea of information using only a single keyword—"tattoo."
It was a rather strange experience when "Demon's Blood," a keyword that had seemed completely unrelated, surfaced as a related search term.
"?"
Tilting her head, she dove straight into that related search term and reached the records on the Demonkin incident.
From a section composed of multiple lists, she immediately jumped to the information on the Demonkin.
The Demonkin who had caused that incident was said to be a fourteen-year-old boy.
A local kid from that village. His Demon's Blood had manifested when he was ten, but because the village was remote, it had been kept hidden.
And his parents had cherished their child and worked hard to keep him concealed.
Because of that, even the villagers had reportedly never known the boy possessed Demon's Blood. If only time had passed uneventfully. But tragically, disaster struck the year the kid turned fourteen.
Unable to endure the Demon's Blood, he ultimately lost his reason. That was how the incident escalated until it spread across the whole world.
What Im Ha-neul was curious about was this.
She now understood that Demon's Blood was incredibly dangerous. A mere child had nearly wiped out an entire village and had even brought about a demon's descent.
The country itself had posted recruitment notices just to catch a single demon, so she could roughly grasp how hostile the NPCs were toward Blood Manifestors.
But how did people recognize that someone's Demon's Blood had manifested?
Fortunately, the method was surprisingly simple. Without exception, a demon-related sigil appeared on the body of every Demon-Blood Manifestor.
The shape of the sigil and the location where it surfaced varied from person to person, but its appearance was a certainty.
In fact, when they examined the corpse of the boy who had become a Demonkin, a tattoo of some kind had been etched into it. An utterly ominous demon's claw.
"No way..."
Her thoughts linked together naturally.
The horn-shaped mark engraved on Yor's collarbone, and the way he tried so excessively to hide it.
He was a Demon's Blood bearer.
The moment Ha-neul realized that, a peculiar shock washed over her.
Wanting to know more, she diligently searched for information on "Demon's Blood."
But perhaps because that information had only recently been released to the players, no matter how much she searched, nothing substantial came up.
What little she could glean was that Blood bearers were profoundly malignant.
And that the people of that world executed every Demon-Blood Manifestor.
At this, Ha-neul felt a twinge of pity. In her eyes, people born with that blood were still human all the same.
They had simply been born with that blood. It was just that the world would not tolerate them.
"Then that person, too...?"
Ha-neul thought.
The reason Yor lived in such a dangerous forest was beginning to come into focus.
He was a Demon's Blood bearer. And by the logic of that world, he had been in danger of execution.
But by some unknown means, he had escaped and endured in that forest until he reached adulthood.
The dissolute past she had assumed out of prejudice—there was not a shred of truth to it.
He had simply lived each day fiercely in the forest. Thinking of that, she felt a little sorry.
"..."
Now she had two choices.
Report him to the authorities, as the people of that world had done. Or simply let it be.
"..."
Her thoughts deepened for a moment.
It didn't take very long for her to reach a decision.
*
Two days had already passed since that woman had vanished from my sight.
In the meantime, I had prepared everything I could.
First, I packed up all the baggage I could carry so I could leave the cave immediately.
Even living the life of an off-grid dweller, I had a fair amount of luggage. The storage held many things I had collected over the years.
Packing those along with a few survival items made for a considerable load.
Besides that, I strung thin ropes with bells between the trees to hear if someone entered the forest.
Of course, wild animals tripped the bells quite often, making me jumpy, but it was worth tolerating.
On top of that, I secretly set fire to the goblin village.
I felt a little sorry for them, but this would make them highly alert.
If people came looking, the goblins would raise a ruckus and alert me. Their cries were pretty distinctive.
Anyway, with that, I had done everything I could to prepare.
All that was left was to wait in the cave.
My reaction would depend on whether the next visitor was a simple guest or a subjugation squad with swords and bows.
If it was a subjugation squad, I would have to run straight into the Deep Layer without delay.
No matter who they were, no one could march an army into the Deep Layer.
The waiting itself was stressful.
I couldn't predict whether what came for me would be goodwill or cold steel. I couldn't help but stay on edge even at night. Naturally, I barely slept.
It was a nerve-wracking stretch of time.
The change came on the morning of the third day.
When I stepped out of the cave with half-dreaming eyes, I saw someone looking for me.
It was the wizard woman I had seen three days ago. I hadn't heard any particular noise, so it seemed Ha-neul had flown here like last time.
"Ah, finally found you."
Spotting me, her eyes widened.
I raised my guard first.
Regardless, she just slowly approached.
*
People liked reversals.
Because our genes evolved that way.
In the distant past, humanity was surrounded by the unknown, and to find answers, we had no choice but to ignite our curiosity.
That was why humans evolved to activate their peripheral nerves and secrete dopamine when they came across secrets or reversals.
Put simply, people felt drawn to the unexpected.
It was what they called "gap moe."
Someone you dismissed turned out to be remarkable.
You learned of the unhappiness of someone you had thought was only ever happy.
Or.
"...What."
Someone you thought had probably fooled around a lot turned out to be a loner with a sad past, and so on.
That was why Im Ha-neul had come back to the forest.
How long she had wandered the forest since morning just to meet this NPC.
She had thought she might not find him.
Having spotted Im Ha-neul, Yor was on high alert.
Sharp as a hedgehog raising its spines.
What should she say? Im Ha-neul thought for a moment.
Regrettably, with her lack of social skills, no good conversational opening came to mind.
After a brief hesitation, she decided to get straight to the point.
"I didn't tell anyone else, so don't worry."
Yor, standing across from her, flinched slightly.
It looked like he didn't believe her. Well, words alone were never going to convince him.
And to be honest, she couldn't produce solid proof either. As an NPC, he couldn't see their world.
But she could show him through actions, to some extent.
Enduring her embarrassment, she pointed at his right collarbone and spoke.
He was still covering it, probably to hide the mark.
"Show me that, just for a moment."
Honestly, asking to see someone's body the moment you saw them. In real life, that was the sort of line that would get you hauled off to the police station.
But the person in front of her didn't seem to care about that sort of thing, so she let it pass.
Of course, Yor was suspicious at first.
Asking to see his collarbone again out of nowhere the moment they met again—it was not a normal request.
"Ah, I won't take photos or anything, so don't worry."
"..."
But at her demand, which seemed to carry some weight, Yor decided to show her, just briefly.
She was someone he'd already seen once, after all. And if she tried to take a screenshot or something, he could react instantly with the Player's Eye.
Even if she tried, it didn't matter. He could flee into the Deep Layer without hesitation.
When he pulled down the front of his shirt slightly, she took one step closer to Yor.
Then she began to emit magical power from her hand.
"Do you know how many points I burned to learn this?"
Slowly, Yor's sigil began to fade from sight.
Not actually vanishing—it was simply being hidden from view.
It was a spell she had recently learned: Illusion Sight.
Of course, it was a skill that was difficult to use in combat and awkward in daily life.
But there was no better way to show goodwill to the other party.
Im Ha-neul didn't stop there.
"I'm Yoo Chae-rin's editor."
People like this generally preferred to weigh practical benefit over mere words.
They only relaxed when they knew there was an advantage for them.
On the surface it might seem a little cold, but she thought this was actually the better way to put him at ease.
"And you are the number-one contributor to our YouTube view counts. I have no intention of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Got it?"
Yor stared at her blankly for a moment. Im Ha-neul couldn't quite tell what he was thinking.
Whether he believed her or was still suspicious. It was even uncertain whether he understood the concept of YouTube in the first place.
"So what I mean is..."
Im Ha-neul searched for the right words for a moment.
But for someone as inarticulate as her, gathering them again was no easy task. After all, just approaching him like this had already taken immense courage.
After a long moment of fluster, she ultimately sighed and had no choice but to repeat herself.
"Anyway, I didn't tell anyone, so don't worry..."
The sun was high.
The crisp energy of spring lent a fine atmosphere even to this brutal forest.
And so for a moment, Yor simply stood there blankly and received her illusion magic.
In the silent forest, only the faint sound of her heartbeat echoed softly.