Chapter 53
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: An Autograph in a Notebook
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Spotting Cheon Doun's house in the distance, Blue slowed its flight.
As his altitude lowered, he prepared to jump.
“When I expand the house later, I’ll make a spot for you to perch in the yard. For now, go rest wherever you’re comfortable.”
He could have had Blue land in front of the house.
But the massive creature would have to crouch as low as possible, so Cheon Doun opted to jump down alone.
From a height of about thirty meters. As Cheon Doun landed, Blue flew to a nearby cliff and settled down.
It was a cliff that overlooked Cheon Doun’s house.
‘No one’s here. Did they all go to the waterfall valley?’
Cheon Doun took out the Boss Root and placed it in the garden patch.
The root, which had been sleeping comfortably in his pocket, awoke as it sensed the energy of the rich soil.
-Hoooong?
Where am I? This land is filled with the energy of my benefactor.
The Boss Root sniffed around, wandering about the garden patch.
As if in response, the soil stirred, and the garden Mandragoras popped their heads out.
The three roots Cheon Doun had dug up when he first made the garden. They stared at the Boss Root with surprised faces.
-Hooo, hoooong!
It’s the boss. The elder root that led them has come to find us.
The three roots pulled their bodies from the ground and rushed over. They circled the Boss Root, expressing their joy.
But that was short-lived.
The roots gradually calmed down. A strange silence fell. The largest of the garden specimens was the first to step forward.
-Hoooong!
He gestured toward the smaller roots, then to the withered ones watching from afar.
-Hoong, hoong!
I am leading them. I am all grown up. His posture seemed to say, filled with a sense of dignity.
The fierce battles that had taken place in the yard flashed through the large specimen’s mind.
He also remembered patrolling all the way to the waterfall valley in search of the missing silver root.
There had been many hardships, but he had overcome them all. He had overcome them and protected the smaller specimens.
-Hoooong!
There were three at first, but now their numbers had grown to five.
The large specimen proudly spread its leaves. Seeing this, the Boss Root also spread its leaves.
-Hoong, hoong.
Little root. You have formed a new tribe of your own.
The Boss Root nodded its head. It patted the large specimen with a leaf.
Mandragoras lived in groups, but if a group grew too large, some would break away to form a new one.
The Boss Root interpreted the current situation as such.
These young roots were trying to forge their own path.
It was the duty of an elder to support them as they began to stand on their own.
The Boss Root nodded its leaf. The three roots also nodded their leaves.
Having confirmed their will, the Boss Root turned away without any lingering attachment.
Ah, is this the composure of an elder?
The Mandragoras sensed the aura of an adult in its departing figure.
The young roots seared the image of the departing boss into their minds.
The Boss Root left the garden and headed for Cheon Doun’s feet. It grabbed onto his pants and began to climb.
As the root wriggled its way up, Cheon Doun picked it up and put it in his pocket.
“That was strangely magnificent. The old-generation boss acknowledging the new generation’s tribe, or something like that?”
Nam Giseok’s voice came from the side.
When Cheon Doun turned, he saw Nam Giseok approaching, carrying a load of wet dishes.
“Ah, I was just doing some dishes in the valley.”
“Dishes? You?”
“Yes. I can put my hands in the water now.”
Nam Giseok said proudly as he set the dishes down.
“It still hurts when the fish bite, but it’s gotten to the point where they don’t tear off chunks of my flesh anymore.”
Nam Giseok, now a dishwasher, boasted of his own performance.
“I think it’s thanks to this fur coat training. I’ve even started circulating my mana hall unconsciously in my sleep. Haha. As expected, following your training methods really shows results.”
Nam Giseok preciously stroked the fur coat he was wearing. His eyes were filled with affection for the poison leather garment.
“I’m glad it’s effective.”
Choosing Nam Giseok as a substitute coat rack because there was nowhere else to put it had been a good decision.
He even purified the toxic energy by constantly circulating his mana; he was truly a top-of-the-line hanger with a built-in cleaning function.
“Try to make all the toxic energy in that fur disappear.”
“Ooh, so that’s the second stage of training. Understood. I think it will take quite some time, but I’ll give it a try!”
Nam Giseok said, clenching his fists.
At this rate, he might soon be able to tailor the fur into a doormat for the front door.
Unaware of Cheon Doun’s thoughts, Nam Giseok stroked the poison leather coat with a tender touch.
“Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”
“Nope!”
“What about Kim Nari and the kids?”
“They’re playing in the waterfall valley. I made them some curry with the leftover ingredients. They really scarfed it down.”
“Good job. Next time, try making something other than curry. I’m curious what else there might be.”
Nam Giseok’s shoulders twitched. The list of things he needed to learn when he went to the human world to purify his demonic energy had just grown longer.
“S-so, where did you go? I saw you flying away on the poison parrot from a distance.”
A question to steer away from the topic of cooking. The purpose was to change the subject, but now that he asked, he was genuinely curious.
“I went to the snowy mountain for a bit. The work isn’t finished, so Manager Kim and the siblings are still there.”
Cheon Doun briefly explained what had happened on the snowy mountain.
The longer he spoke, the stiffer Nam Giseok’s expression became.
“They used ability amplification on a kid who just awakened? There were over a hundred people, and not a single one of them tried to stop it?”
“Not one. They all pretended not to see.”
“Hah… They’re insane. Isn’t that a total psycho-fest?”
Forced ability amplification.
Depending on the situation, it could be a saving grace.
In fact, there were quite a few tales of Hunters who had survived perilous situations after having their abilities amplified.
It might shorten their lifespan, but it was better than dying on the spot.
It was literally a last resort. A method to be used only when it was a matter of life and death.
Using it in such a manner was unheard of.
“That kid, O Bongsu… is he dead?”
“No. He can be saved. I can’t tell you how, but his life isn’t in danger.”
At Cheon Doun’s words, Nam Giseok’s face relaxed with relief.
He didn’t even know the boy’s face, but he was glad to hear he had survived.
“Then the problem is what to do with those Hunters. They’ve seen your face, and they know about the kid O Bongsu’s ability… It’ll definitely be dangerous if we just let them go.”
He had heard that their mana halls would be destroyed to downgrade their power.
To be precise, their mana halls would be converted into life force and extracted, but Cheon Doun had no intention of telling Nam Giseok that he planned to erase Manager Kim’s memories as well.
“It’s not just one or two, it’s 150 A-rankers. If a loss of power on that scale occurs, the Association will launch an investigation.”
Even if they were silenced by threats for now, it was obvious that one or two would eventually talk about what happened here.
“How about erasing all their memories, like you did before?”
“I’ll leave their memories. This time, they were just too vile. They need to remember what they did so they can live with the consequences and regret it for the rest of their lives.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Besides, if 150 people lose their memories all at once, the Association will get involved anyway.”
Unlike before, these people had teleported directly to the snowy mountain.
The snowy mountain was far from the cliff area where the flowers of oblivion bloomed.
If a group of victims with memory loss appeared in a place like this, an investigation would be launched all the same.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I’ll carve a silencing spell on them. It’s a good thing Manager Kim is here.”
Placing spells on people was a specialty of alchemists.
The explosion spell that had prevented the siblings from leaving the Gate was one such type.
“The activation condition for the spell will be deciding to speak about what happened here. The moment they do, cardiac arrest. That’s the condition I’m thinking of setting.”
“N-no, you can’t!”
Nam Giseok turned pale and waved his hands frantically.
“That’s dangerous! Silencing spells have been used so much since Awakeners first appeared. There are a ton of ways to break them!”
He knew Manager Kim was a skilled alchemist.
But if the Association brought in hundreds of alchemists to break the spell, it was bound to be broken.
“There’s a way to make it unbreakable, though.”
“There is?”
“That’s what I know. Am I wrong? Has that method been broken too? About 60 years ago, it was known to be absolutely unbreakable. Has that been broken as well?”
Cheon Doun tilted his head as if searching his memory.
“That’s strange. There’s no way it could be broken.”
What kind of method was he so confident about? Was there a silencing spell that was truly unbreakable?
Nam Giseok’s eyes darted around. As he searched his memory, a piece of knowledge he learned when he first became a Hunter came to mind.
[This may look like an ordinary spell, but it remains the only one that hasn't been broken for decades. The spell itself is ordinary. The formula, for an old one, was well-documented, making it easy to solve. However, on top of that spell…]
On top of it was a ridiculously powerful mana wall.
A situation where applying any counter-spell to break it was impossible.
No matter what counter was attempted, it couldn’t penetrate the mana wall.
The Integrated Awakener Association had sent hundreds of Awakeners to try and break that mana wall, but it remained unbroken to this day, becoming a legend.
It had already been 57 years.
When the silenced person died of old age, the government even got permission from the family to preserve the body separately.
“There is one silencing spell that can’t be broken… but it’s known to be an impossible method to replicate.”
“Impossible to replicate? Why?”
“Because there’s no one who can erect a mana wall of that magnitude.”
Nam Giseok shared the knowledge he had.
“It probably wasn’t mana placed by a person. The most plausible theory is that when a naturally occurring Gate opened, the mana that flowed out happened to condense on the spell formation, creating that phenomenon.”
At Nam Giseok’s words, Cheon Doun’s expression became peculiar.
“You’re talking about the silencing spell cast on a man in his 40s, right?”
“Yes. That’s right. I believe that was his age when the spell was first cast.”
“He has a diagonal scar across his face. Right?”
“That’s right. I’ve seen a picture of it; it was such a unique scar that I remember it.”
Cheon Doun nodded.
“That’s the one. I did it.”
“What…?”
“That unbreakable silencing spell you mentioned. I’m the one who covered it in mana.”
Nam Giseok’s face went slack. His thoughts froze for a moment at the unexpected words.
What had he just heard?
His eyes widened. His jaw dropped. Every possible expression of shock was etched onto his face.
“Th-that was you… Huh? But that was… well over 50 years ago…”
“Sounds about right. I did it when I was in my early twenties.”
Back when his mind wasn’t completely broken. Around the time his memories started becoming hazy.
Cheon Doun inwardly recalled the past. Nam Giseok held his breath at Cheon Doun’s words.
Awakeners had longer lifespans than ordinary people.
The more they developed their abilities, the more the activation of mana slowed cellular aging.
There were even records of people becoming younger, not just aging slower.
Considering that, it wouldn’t be strange for Cheon Doun to be the protagonist of a 50-year-old incident.
Considering the absurd amount of mana he possessed, it was also understandable.
But, even so, even if all that was true.
‘He’s… the one who covered that spell formation with mana?’
Just how much of this was he supposed to believe? Nam Giseok unconsciously took a couple of steps back.
He ran into the house, rummaged through his bag, and came out with a notebook and a pen.
He held them out and bowed.
“P-please, your autograph!”
“How random. Why all of a sudden?”
“I want to have it as a memento. There isn’t an Awakener who doesn’t know about that incident! As expected of you, Boss!”
Cheon Doun looked at Nam Giseok with a strange expression. Was that something worth asking for an autograph over?
‘This guy’s a bit strange, when you think about it.’
He thought so, but he took the pen. There was no reason not to when the guy’s eyes were sparkling like that.
“I don’t really have a signature. Is it okay if I just write my name?”
“Yes! Ah, and it would be even better if you could write 「To my dear and only disciple, Nam Giseok」 in small letters next to it.”
Cheon Doun’s hand paused. As he stared, Nam Giseok cleared his throat.
“I-I am your disciple, am I not? You’re training me directly. You even passed down this fur coat to me.”
He was planning to have it tailored into a doormat once the demonic energy was purified. Cheon Doun swallowed those words.
He had served as a cleaning machine, so he might as well write that much. Cheon Doun wrote the phrase Nam Giseok wanted.
“Ah! And the date underneath, please. Today is…”
He wrote the date as requested.
“A-and below that! Please write ‘Become an A-rank this year’… so I can take some of your energy with me to the test…!”
He was striving to become an A-rank cleaner, so he wrote that down too.
“And just one more thing, ‘Keep growing well’… Aah, please don’t write ‘your hair’… You wrote it.”
He sure wanted a lot. He scribbled out the part about the hair.
After getting all the phrases he wanted, Nam Giseok received the notebook with both hands.
He would have to put it in a frame and hang it up when he got home. He exhaled through his nose with an excited expression.
‘Oh… but if you’re casting a silencing spell on 150 people…’
A mana wall would have to be placed over all those spells. But the one doing it was Cheon Doun. That part wasn’t a concern. There was someone else to worry about.
‘Will Manager Kim be okay?’
Manager Kim, who had to cast spells on 150 people.
Nam Giseok could almost see him shriveling up and collapsing like a dried squid.