Chapter 223
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 223
Chapter Title: I'll Kill You!
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Yuna Kyung swallowed a gasp.
She had just spotted the translucent head of a girl peeking out from the Heartblack Violin, which had been lying quietly until now.
'She's out!'
Like a frog with only its eyes above the water's surface.
Or like a child cautiously peeking through a slightly ajar door at a suspicious cake left on the doorstep.
For a moment, Yuna nearly cheered aloud at the sight of the girl's ghost, who had hidden her body inside the Heartblack Violin and was peeking out just up to her nose to listen to the performance.
But Yuna forced her beak shut.
That posture alone told her the ghost was still brimming with wariness.
'Not yet, not yet.'
Yuna held back her urge to speak right away.
Instead, with the mindset of a hawk eyeing its prey, she observed the ghost girl's every move.
Fortunately, the ghost paid not the slightest attention to Yuna's gaze.
She was too busy warily stealing glances at Rimon.
But that lasted only at first.
As Rimon's performance and Aynsha's singing continued, the ghost gradually revealed more of herself from the violin.
First, just up to her nose.
Then, up to her shoulders.
And soon, all the way to her chest.
Her initial wariness was nowhere to be seen.
Like a fan sneaking into her favorite singer's concert, the ghost was now fully immersed in the show, her entire upper body out as she watched intently. Yuna inwardly clicked her tongue.
'No wonder the team leader said he felt like someone was watching every time he performed...'
Should she marvel at the Sword Master's senses, which could detect even a ghost's gaze?
Or at the ghost girl, who had sneaked in to eavesdrop without being noticed by those senses?
Feeling conflicted inside, Yuna sensed the time was right and slowly crept closer to the ghost.
After a brief hesitation, she cautiously opened her beak.
"Um..., hello?"
The ghost jolted in surprise!
"No, wait! Don't run away! Look, I'm just a baby bird, right? Super weak and harmless?"
Her worries about whether the flame item effect would work on a ghost proved unfounded. The startled ghost was trying to dive back into the violin.
To stop her, Yuna hurriedly called out.
Thankfully, her plea worked.
The ghost, who had fled in haste, peeked out just her head to glance at Yuna.
"Uh, so, I'm Yu... no, Parang..."
Yuna broke into a cold sweat.
Even for her, who was chatty enough to earn Rimon's approval, this was her first time trying to talk to a ghost.
As if sensing her nervousness,
the ghost, who had raised her guard again and was slinking back into the violin like a submarine, was stopped by Yuna's hasty outburst.
"M-music!"
The ghost flinched.
"This performance! Isn't it amazing? Actually, the one playing the violin over there... we're acquaintances..."
Her strategy of broaching the topic through the ghost's interest worked.
As soon as music came up, the ghost gradually lowered her guard and started paying attention to Yuna's words.
And Yuna wore a strange expression.
The more she talked to the ghost, the more familiar it felt.
Like the kids she sometimes saw at the orphanage during volunteer work—new arrivals full of distrust toward humanity, abandoned by the world.
Their wary looks overlapped with the ghost's guarded demeanor.
'...Come to think of it, our kids were like this at first too.'
Recalling that,
Yuna forgot her original purpose in talking to the ghost.
She simply focused on sharing her own stories with the girl, just like she did with the orphanage kids, and listening to the girl's tales.
Perhaps because she approached with genuine sincerity, relaxing her tension,
the ghost finally began to open up little by little, as Yuna had hoped.
"Ah, our team leader scared you? Yeah, he has quite the temper. Super intimidating face too."
"I screamed first and startled you, huh. Sorry. I was shocked too."
"Right, the perfection of art is muscles."
"Um, um, um..."
And so,
a long time passed.
Rimon opened his mouth as calmly as possible.
"...Parang."
"Yes."
Yuna responded seriously.
"Didn't I tell you to persuade that saint's ghost properly and get her to talk about the Seven Arcs?"
"You did."
"And instead, you chattered away with her the whole time I was performing."
"Hey, 'whole time' is an exaggeration. It was just a few hours at most."
Watching Yuna quibble, Rimon stopped beating around the bush.
He cut straight to the point.
"So, what have you found out so far?"
"Plenty. Her name in life was Shera, she likes stuff with honey in it, pretty things..."
"About the Seven Arcs?"
"She doesn't know."
Rimon nearly reflexively flicked her forehead.
If Aynsha, who had foreseen the future, hadn't grabbed his wrist, Yuna would have spun five glorious somersaults like a slingshot-hit pigeon before collapsing.
The ghost girl would have freaked out and fled back into the violin too.
Instead, seeing Rimon's furrowed brow,
Yuna spotted Shera, the ghost hiding behind her, flinch in fear. She snapped indignantly.
"Hey, why scare our kid like that! She says she's been asleep almost nonstop since getting trapped here—she might not know!"
"...Since when is she 'our kid'?"
"From now on!"
"You're not even one year old yet, and you want to adopt a hundreds-year-old ghost?"
"What's wrong with that?"
At this point, her shamelessness was almost admirable.
Aynsha calmed Rimon, who was clicking his tongue at the sight of this pet-like creature who lost her mind around kids, whether in her past or present life.
"Don't get worked up. It's within expectations."
"I know."
"Then don't do it!"
Rimon clicked his tongue.
It was a result he had already braced for.
Whether turned into a malevolent spirit or a lost soul from madness, there was little chance of getting a proper answer from a ghost in an abnormal state.
But knowing it was coming didn't make zero results any less frustrating.
Especially after hours of performing just to soothe a ghost who knew nothing.
"Huh? What?"
Shera, who had been flustered watching Yuna argue with the scowling Rimon, suddenly whispered something to her.
Yuna turned to Shera with curiosity.
Rimon narrowed his eyes as Yuna's eyes gradually widened.
"What did she tell you?"
"Um..., she doesn't know what the Seven Arcs are. But she does have a really memorable event."
"Memorable? For a lost soul?"
Rimon wore a strange expression.
A lost soul was a being that had lost the spiritual 'po' (魄) of the soul's hunpo (魂魄), left only with the ethereal 'hun' (魂).
Thus, they had diminished cognitive abilities and mostly repeated meaningless actions based on lifetime habits.
In other words, a dazed spirit.
One with severe amnesia, at that.
For such a lost soul to remember something clearly meant it was either a deep lingering attachment or a profoundly shocking event.
"What memory?"
"Not sure if I heard right..."
Yuna glanced at Shera for confirmation.
Seeing the ghost nod, she continued with a deeply dubious look.
"She got hit by a star?"
"...What do you mean?"
"While she was sleeping in the violin here, a meteor shower suddenly poured down like rain, and one hit the violin."
"The impact shocked her so much she hid deep inside and didn't wake up for a long time..."
Yuna watched Rimon's reaction as she spoke.
If it had truly been directly hit by a meteor, no divine relic like the Heartblack Violin could have survived intact.
Even to her, it sounded like the ravings of a truly dazed ghost.
"Saw a meteor shower pouring like rain?"
"Yes."
"In this underground labyrinth?"
"......"
Yuna shrank her wingtips at words that grew more absurd the more she heard.
But Rimon, rather than scoffing, wore a peculiar expression.
"When?"
"Huh?"
"How many years ago was it?"
"Uh, she says it wasn't even a hundred years ago."
True to not being some centuries-old lost soul, Yuna looked even more cowed relaying Shera's absurd answer.
Meanwhile, Rimon crossed his arms.
He pondered deeply for a long moment before nodding slowly.
"...Indeed, so that's what it was."
As Yuna tilted her head at the unexpected response,
Aynsha, who seemed to have realized something belatedly, nodded along with Rimon and said flatly,
"Bad Sword Master and good Sword Master. Excellent role division. As expected of Ri."
"Wasn't intentional."
"Anyway, got the answer. Good questioning."
"Excuse me? Sorry, but what was 'that,' and what answer did you get? Can I know too?"
Yuna, feeling left out by their private exchange, cut in with a pout.
Rimon gave her an incredulous look.
"You really don't know after hearing all that? Clues and all?"
"What clues? What do you...?"
Her confusion didn't last.
As realization dawned late, Yuna clamped her beak shut, rolled her eyes, then widened them round.
"Ah!"
"Finally caught on?"
Rimon clicked his tongue at her.
Gazing at the Heartblack Violin behind Yuna, where Shera's ghost was half-hidden, he continued softly.
"Now I understand exactly when and how the Seven Arcs came to be."
A passage shrouded in thick darkness.
Labyrinth, the Liberation Brigade's rank 4 wraith, muttered discontentedly as he strolled leisurely along it.
"Always acting so superior."
He had only one reason for his displeasure.
He had to take orders from Mezion until today's discussion concluded.
Of course, given the Liberation Brigade's strict hierarchy, obeying a higher rank was natural.
But that was that, and this was this.
As one of the top ranks among the 12 Wraiths, Labyrinth, who viewed Mezion as a rival, found it irksome.
Especially now that he knew Mezion was recruiting a new wraith for the vacant top position.
"Hmph, just watch. Your seat will be mine in the end."
Labyrinth gripped the blood-red gem.
Though stuck at rank 4, that was solely due to his unique skill's drawback.
The toy he had prepared was to overcome that flaw.
If completed as planned, no matter who joined as the new wraith, rank 3 would be his.
With luck, even higher.
'Rank 1..., utterly impossible.'
Labyrinth shuddered.
He had confidence against even the Monarch, but not 'that one.'
The 12 Wraiths, each unique, strictly upheld hierarchy precisely because they feared 'that one' more than the stars' power.
'But rank 2 is possible!'
"Come forth, my toys."
He called his toys with even fiercer ambition for promotion.
He had pre-strengthened them using the gem's power, so they'd gain greater strength upon completion later.
"...?"
But moments later,
Labyrinth couldn't help but feel puzzled.
His cute toys, which should have rushed to him at his call, didn't appear no matter how long he waited.
"...What the hell?"
Perplexed, he activated his unique skill—and unwittingly hardened his face.
And the next instant,
His body was no longer in the passage.
Instead, he stood in the center of a cavity riddled with battle scars, gazing down at the scattered remains on the floor.
Severed goat head and blades.
Burnt feathers and snake scales.
Shattered doll and chain fragments.
After a moment of frozen shock at his toys' ruins—not a single intact piece left,
Recalling the years and vast resources spent finding, subjugating, and raising these six toys, Labyrinth trembled.
He clenched his fist so hard blood welled up, his eyes bloodshot as he roared.
"Kraaaah! I'll kill you! Whoever it is, when I find them, I'll kill them for sure!"
"Hmm, my ears are feeling itchy for some reason."
"Lie on my lap. I'll clean them. Lap pillow service. Affinity up."
"You saying that with experience cleaning other people's ears?"
"It's fine. Experience is experience. And Tata heard that in man-woman relations, only the first time hurts."
"...Tell your nanny. Next time, let's have a parent-teacher conference about your education."