Chapter 31
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: The Back Mountain from Childhood
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Yu Beom landed on the rock where Cheon Doun was. After laying his sister on the ground, he took the bottle Cheon Doun offered.
“Is this the Mandragora medicine you were talking about?”
The bottle contained a dark liquid. It was thick and viscous, looking more like poison.
“You can't drink it as is. You have to add this.”
Cheon Doun held out a Mandragora root he had brought separately. It was a slender root, only about three centimeters long.
Yu Beom found it strange that this insignificant-looking root was supposed to save them.
“Place the bottles on a flat surface and put one root in each. Don't shake them, just let them be. If you wait, the color will supposedly turn clear like water. The stickiness will disappear too. That's the finished medicine.”
Cheon Doun relayed what he had heard from Manager Kim.
With a tense expression, Yu Beom set the bottles on the ground. He placed a root in each bottle and carefully closed the lids.
How long would he have to wait? He sat motionless in front of the small glass bottles.
The sight of a muscular man with a bird's head squatting with his knees pulled to his chest was a spectacle in many ways.
“The alchemist who made that medicine is quite skilled, you know.”
“Is that so?”
“There's a saying that Awakeners of the alchemy class are well-versed in magic circles.”
Yu Beom just listened quietly. Having crossed the Gate at thirteen, he didn't know much about the world.
He simply listened, wondering why he was saying such things. Cheon Doun spoke while watching the medicine slowly clear up.
“An Awakener of that class might even be able to undo the spells engraved on your body.”
“What...? What did you just say...?”
“I'm saying they might be able to remove the spells engraved on you and your sister. The tracking spell is useless now, so it doesn't matter, but you need to get rid of that explosion spell, don't you?”
Yu Beom couldn't say anything. He stared blankly at Cheon Doun, then looked down at his sister.
The freedom to fly. The siblings had crossed the Gate for that one thing alone.
They no longer knew if it was their own desire or a change in their nature caused by the implanted avian cells.
One thing was certain: they had lived their lives satisfied with their current situation. No, they had deceived themselves into believing so.
[Brother. Do you remember what the world outside the Gate was like?]
Whenever his sister asked that, Yu Beom couldn't answer.
The only world outside the Gate the siblings remembered was the inside of the research institute. They had both been kidnapped so young that they had almost no memories from before.
Even so, they couldn't ignore the sense of nostalgia that lingered in a corner of their hearts.
If the explosion spell on his body was removed, could they venture outside the Gate?
“It's just speculation, so don't get your hopes up too high. Still, if you want to give it a try, give me some of your feathers or blood later. I'll have them analyzed.”
Cheon Doun said, grinning.
“I bought ten years' worth of that person's abilities, you see. Even if it's impossible now, if I put them to work for about ten years, we might get some answers, don't you think?”
Yu Beom looked at Cheon Doun and smiled.
Perhaps, in the distant future, they could attain true freedom. Just the thought of it made him smile.
“Looks like it's done.”
While they were talking, the liquid in the bottle had turned clear. The Mandragora root had completely dissolved and vanished.
Considering the possibility of side effects, he couldn't give it to his unwell sister first. Yu Beom opened the lid and drank the medicine himself.
A refreshing energy flowed down his throat. The demonic energy he had been forcibly suppressing instantly subsided.
It felt like a tangled thread being unraveled. Was this what it felt like when scattered puzzle pieces suddenly fit together?
Not expecting the effect to be so immediate, Yu Beom looked down at his own body in surprise.
Far from having side effects, he felt even better than before.
“Ha... hahaha.”
Yu Beom collapsed to the ground. The things that had bound and tormented them for so long had vanished in an instant.
Stunned by this unbelievable reality, he hurried over to his sister.
He opened the bottle and poured the medicine into his sister's mouth. He smiled again as his sister's demonic energy, which had seemed on the verge of exploding, calmed down.
This was it. Now, his sister wouldn't have to wait for death by eating fruit laced with sleeping poison. He wouldn't have to watch in despair. No more, not anymore.
“Just like old times...”
Let's fly in the sky again, just like old times. Let's spread our wings and fly together. After laughing for a while, Yu Beom looked at Cheon Doun.
“Thank you.”
There was so much he wanted to say. The words tangled in his mind, and he couldn't articulate them properly.
But it was enough. The sentiment was conveyed. Cheon Doun brushed himself off, stood up, and smiled.
“You're welcome. Let's get going. Kim Nari will be waiting.”
Cheon Doun spoke calmly and leaped over the rocks. Yu Beom couldn't take his eyes off his retreating back.
The roommate who had appeared so casually decades ago and saved them.
It was the same this time. They owed him their lives twice over.
If he could even remove the explosion spell, wouldn't that make it three times?
Yu Beom smiled and spread his wings.
The night sea of the Demon World, with its quietly rolling waves. As he glided above it, the smile never left his face.
He felt as though he and his sister were finally soaring toward true freedom.
* * *
Yu Beom's sister, Yu Jia, who was perfectly fine even after being impaled on a rock.
Unconscious, she was dreaming of her childhood. She hadn't dreamed since her mana hole became tangled, so the sensation was new to her.
*Is this... back when I was at the institute?*
Before her stood her younger self. Not yet ten, she couldn't sleep and was hanging on the window, looking outside.
[Huh? What's that?]
Yu Jia spotted a figure climbing the back mountain.
It was too far to see clearly with the naked eye, but with her avian monster cells, she could zoom in on any area like a magnifying glass.
[That looks like the roommate my brother mentioned.]
She had never spoken to him personally, so she didn't know his name. She only knew the researchers called him No. 17, or sometimes "psycho."
How was he outside the institute in the middle of the night? Was he trying to escape? She thought so, but Cheon Doun's steps were too leisurely for someone fleeing.
Dragging a large bag, he looked less like an escapee and more like...
*W-wait a minute. That's not a bag. That's... that's a researcher!*
The identity of the white bag, partially hidden by the trees. It wasn't a bag, but an unconscious researcher.
Where Cheon Doun arrived, there was a hole that looked like it had been dug in advance.
Cheon Doun pushed the researcher into it.
After he gathered and covered it with dirt, the researcher was buried in the ground with only his neck sticking out.
He woke up and struggled midway, but each time, Cheon Doun slapped the back of the researcher's head.
It wasn't a hard slap. But it wasn't a light one either. It was just the right amount of force to be utterly infuriating.
Cheon Doun buried the researcher and went down the mountain.
[Ah, that researcher... he's the one who made a scene at this morning's meeting.]
Yu Jia recognized the researcher's face.
-No. 17 is a once-in-a-lifetime test subject. We must dissect him quickly and make a specimen before any side effects appear!
The researcher who had strongly advocated for Cheon Doun's dissection. He was now buried on the back mountain of the institute with only his head exposed.
She was bewildered, but she understood. Anyone would want to do that after hearing someone suggest dissecting them.
*Isn't this justified retaliation?* Just as she thought that, Cheon Doun returned. In his hands was something the size of a soccer ball.
Cheon Doun threw it at the researcher's face.
She was startled, thinking he had thrown a rock, but the object shattered easily upon hitting the researcher's head.
Dark things poured out from inside. With her excellent eyesight, Yu Jia immediately recognized what they were.
*B-bees...!*
What Cheon Doun had brought was a beehive the size of a soccer ball.
The bees, their hive destroyed, began to attack the researcher's exposed face.
[Ugh, ughhh...]
Even though it wasn't happening to her, Yu Jia brushed at her own face.
Meanwhile, Cheon Doun descended the mountain with a light step. He stopped on his way down and turned to look directly where Yu Jia was.
*Shhh.* Cheon Doun brought a finger to his lips. A gesture to keep quiet.
Then, he drew a thumb across his neck. A gesture that said, *if you talk, you're next*.
[Hiek!]
Startled, she leaped into her bed and pulled the covers over her head.
[I-I won't tell. What he did to that researcher... it's a little satisfying.]
she muttered to herself.
[Good. Just keep your mouth shut. That's all you have to do.]
A voice replied from outside the window. *No way. It must be an auditory hallucination. There's no way I could hear his voice from the back mountain. Besides, this is the fifth floor.*
With creaky, robotic movements, she turned to look back.
The fifth-floor window with its iron bars. Clinging to it was Cheon Doun, who was supposed to be on the back mountain.
[Hiiieee!]
Yu Jia fainted with a bizarre scream.
*Is this what the main character in a horror movie feels like when they're being chased by a killer?* That was her last thought before losing consciousness.
The next day, daily life at the institute was the same as usual.
If she hadn't heard that one of the researchers had taken an unauthorized absence, she might have thought last night's events were just a dream.
Three days later. The researcher buried on the back mountain was discovered. His face was swollen and his body was completely dried out as he was carried down on a stretcher.
Cheon Doun was also among the children who had gathered, murmuring.
He saw the researcher being carried away on the stretcher and got a look on his face like he'd just remembered something.
[Oh, right. I did bury him.]
Yu Jia, who was nearby, heard him. The researcher being carried away on the stretcher heard him too.
[Ughhh... ughuughh!]
The researcher let out a strange groan and pointed a finger at Cheon Doun. His lips were too swollen to form proper sounds.
The researcher who had wanted to dissect Cheon Doun quit as if fleeing for his life after that day.
A person who buries someone and then forgets about it.
A person who throws a beehive at someone's face and then acts like it's none of their business.
A person who was on the distant back mountain one moment and then clinging to her fifth-floor window the next, as if by teleportation.
*He's... a psycho.*
She felt a sense of satisfaction, but separate from that, he was somehow terrifying. Yu Jia stealthily backed away from Cheon Doun.
She felt like she finally understood why her brother kept complaining about wanting to change rooms.
* * *
Why had she suddenly dreamed of something from so long ago? Yu Jia awoke to the crackling sound of a campfire.
As she tried to sit up, she let out a strange groan, "Ugh," and collapsed back down.
*Wh-what is this? It feels like my body's been beaten with a hammer.*
A pain like her entire body had been struck with a sledgehammer. Yu Jia had felt this kind of pain before when she was younger.
Back in her clumsy adolescent flying days. This was the pain she felt after practicing high-speed flight, colliding with a monster, and being sent flying.
The pain from being flung into a cliff and embedded like a large nail was similar to what she felt now.
“That's strange. Why is this pain suddenly...”
As she massaged her limbs and tilted her head in confusion, she heard laughter from outside the house.
It wasn't her brother's voice. It was the voice of a young girl and a man she'd never heard before.
Had their home been taken over by Hunters? Had something happened to her brother?
Yu Jia's expression turned cold. She extended her hook-like claws and rushed outside.
“Brother, are you okay...?! Huh...?”
What she saw were three people sitting in front of a campfire.
“You're awake? Come sit with us.”
Her brother saw her and waved with a cheerful laugh. At this, Yu Jia's eyes widened.
*My brother is smiling.*
A smile she hadn't seen since her mana hole became tangled.
Her brother had never been one to smile much in the first place. If anything, his personality was closer to gloomy.
Anyone would develop such a personality if they grew up being mistaken for a monster by Hunters and threatened with death.
And yet, there her brother was, grilling clams and smiling like a fool.
Who in the world were these people? With a look of surprise, Yu Jia scanned the people there.