Chapter 433
Chapter 433
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 433
>Chapter Title: The 31st Piece Overturns the Board
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Kang Seol had seen physical enhancement abilities countless times. They were familiar, clichéd powers.
“…It’s on another level.”
The power possessed by a dragon as a living being was overwhelmingly superior in every way—body, magic, breath, mind, and even soul.
Churrruk…
Tansia’s arm, which had grown massive, shrank back to its original size.
“Ah! What a shame!”
As it returned to her small, cute hand, Tansia pouted.
Then, as if something popped into her head, her eyes widened in awe.
“Tsupapot!”
Kang Seol and Ur, who had already approached closely, stared at Tansia’s face with identical expressions.
“…What?”
“Tsupapots! Tsupapot!”
“What’s that?”
“A big deer went ‘tsupapot!’ and flew up! Yeah!”
As Kang Seol understood her words, adventure-related messages scrolled up.
[Tansia needs an encounter with a great being to truly become a ‘dragon.’]
[An encounter with a great being might provide the key.]
Accordingly, the legend adventure information began to change in a cascade. Without checking it, Kang Seol asked Tansia.
“A deer?”
“Yeah! A big deer!”
A big deer.
A great being.
Normally, pinpointing someone on the vast Pandea continent with just those two clues would be nearly impossible, but for Kang Seol, it was easy.
‘So, it’s telling me to go to him… That makes sense.’
He lived in a place that was far if far, close if close.
“Ah! I forgot!”
Like a child, she tried to recall the image that had surfaced in her mind, but it wasn’t easy.
“It’s okay if you forget, Tansia. I think I know who it is.”
“Really? For real? Then I don’t have to do tsupapot?”
“Yeah. No need for tsupapot.”
Looking around, the fog hadn’t cleared yet. Kang Seol glanced blankly at Ur, who shrugged.
“The magic orb serving as the medium was just smashed. It’ll just take some time.”
Kang Seol narrowed his eyes and stared at Ur. A gaze demanding an explanation.
“…I know. I did it on purpose.”
Kang Seol knew Ur’s battle had ended early. And yet, he had deliberately let the situation play out.
As if telling Assiri to commit enough sins to warrant being buried.
“Why?”
“There’s a reason. Don’t you have one too?”
“What?”
“You’re the one who treated the opponent lightly, aren’t you?”
Ur spoke as if he had done nothing wrong.
“I wanted to see Tansia’s power.”
“She’s…”
“Not someone who needs protecting. That’s a major problem that could eventually bind us.”
“…”
“Are you planning to exclude her from every battle? That mindset won’t last. We’re not traveling together just to babysit Anna.”
Kang Seol partly agreed with Ur.
“But Tansia isn’t in a state to fight yet. She hasn’t even realized her own power.”
“Who decides that? You? Then when can she step onto the battlefield?”
“When she’s fully prepared.”
“…Hey, Kang Seol.”
Ur ruffled his hair.
“Don’t pour so much attention into Tansia. Why don’t you overwhelm them completely? Why do you always hold back excessively?”
Ur was right.
If he had finished off Assiri without worrying about the rear, the situation would have been better.
But Kang Seol hadn’t used his full power. Far from it—he had only focused on crushing the opponent without losses.
“You’re not her guardian, Kang Seol. If this continues, she’ll become your weakness.”
As Kang Seol and Ur continued their argument, Tansia, who had been watching, approached.
“Don’t fight… Tansia did wrong. Yeah! Right! It’s Tansia’s fault!”
“Tansia, no. That’s not…”
At that moment, someone walked out of the fog.
Thud…
Thud…
“So this is the source of the noise.”
“…Jamad?”
“It’s cleaned up. However, this side seems to need cleaning too.”
Han So-mi, Karen, and Karuna followed behind him through the fog.
Even so, the argument hadn’t ended.
In the chilly atmosphere, only Tansia, at a loss, stood out.
Since the fight was because of her, she must have felt like she was on pins and needles.
Jamad looked at Kang Seol and said.
“Sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“…Jamad.”
“Tell her everything.”
Kang Seol pondered briefly, then nodded.
He knelt down and said to Tansia.
“Tansia.”
“I did wrong…”
“No, it’s not your fault. I should have told you sooner.”
Stroke…
Tansia looked up at Kang Seol.
Her eyes were brimming with tears. To her, it was a desperate situation.
If her existence was denied, she’d be all alone.
Kang Seol, wanting to protect that, and Ur, talking about the group’s goals—neither was wrong.
Naturally, Tansia thought she was the flawed one.
“I haven’t told you much. Tansia, you’re different.”
“Sorry… I…”
“No, everyone with me is an undead.”
“…Huh?”
“All of them, except me, have faced death.”
Tansia’s birth coincided with their change into colored shadows. In other words, she didn’t know about their past when they lived fully as shadows.
How could those breathing beside her be ghosts?
“Why…”
“They received new lives through a contract with me. That’s how we became one. But… Tansia, you’re different.”
“…”
“You’re… not undead.”
“Then I’ll…”
Tansia unhesitatingly said she’d become undead.
Kang Seol stroked her head.
“You can still choose.”
“Choose?”
“Yeah. Jamad must have told you endlessly about your mother, so you remember, right?”
Jamad told Tansia about Tancred whenever he had a chance. How great she was. Her hair color, her eyes, even her purity.
“She was a star. You’re her descendant.”
“…Tansia’s not a star.”
“Every history has a ‘yet’ to it. You too.”
Kang Seol sighed and extended his finger.
“Ur’s not wrong. The situation doesn’t allow it. Protecting you can’t be the top priority.”
“What should I do?”
“You need to choose, Tansia.”
“Choose?”
“Yeah, everyone does.”
Kang Seol described the future laid out before her.
“You could leave us and one day grace the land like your mother.”
Tansia grabbed Kang Seol’s finger and shook her head.
“No… I don’t want to leave.”
“Then there’s only one other choice.”
Everyone’s expressions hardened.
“You’ll see countless corpses, justice will flip daily, and you’ll fight those who cross the line. That’s our life. It will be from now on too.”
“…”
“You have to fight. With everything on the line.”
Kang Seol resolved to stop overprotecting her.
“Tansia, I’ll ask one last time. From now on, you’ll face danger head-on. Can you do it?”
He asked again.
“Can you fight?”
“…”
Tansia nodded.
Clenching both fists tightly.
“I can! Tansia can. Even though I’m young…”
Her shining eyes turned to Jamad and the group.
“I’m a dragon!”
“…That’s good enough.”
“Yeah! Don’t fight anymore!”
“We weren’t really fighting to begin with.”
Danger was always near, and fighting to protect someone would blur the group’s purpose, so it was clearly a necessary process.
Kang Seol and Ur exchanged glances briefly and shrugged.
In the end, their quarrel had decided the path forward.
Recognizing Tansia as one of the group’s combatants. It was the consensus.
“Um… hey.”
Gian, who had removed his handcuffs with a bone key, spoke up.
“So, when do we depart?”
“Get in the carriage. We’re heading to the Shurelen Investigation Bureau.”
“I’ve been waiting for that. But… what’s this…”
The path for the carriage was littered with corpses.
Han So-mi responded to Gian’s question.
“I don’t know. While pursuing the carriage to handle the situation, they suddenly attacked…”
“You killed them all?”
“I-I didn’t kill them all! At most six or seven…”
She glanced around furtively.
The suspicious-looking twins and the overwhelmingly massive Jamad.
It was all their doing.
Before boarding the carriage, Kang Seol looked at the corpse crushed by Tansia’s strike.
“Hmm…”
“He escaped. He probably fled the moment he was crushed by the kid’s arm. No, he likely wasn’t even here in person.”
“The power of the eyes?”
“Probably. But from now on, he won’t even think of facing us. To think the child by his side was a bomb, not baggage… I wouldn’t have believed it without seeing it myself.”
“What about revenge for his disciple?”
“A guy like that has probably already forgotten. He’ll likely leak our info to the council and use training as an excuse to go into hiding for a while.”
Kang Seol rummaged through Assiri’s belongings.
Grotesque artificial eyes spilled out.
“Eyes used by the old man. Crush them. No way to use them without gouging out your own eyes anyway.”
At that moment, Kang Seol’s eyes glowed, absorbing the energies dwelling in the artificial eyes.
Whooooosh…
[Absorbing the power of the Collapse Eye.]
[Absorbing the power of the Sacrificial Eye.]
[Absorbing the power of the Enchanting Eye.]
…
‘…What?’
[Dragon Blood Eye strengthens, stockpiling power to unlock a new ability.]
It seemed the Dragon Blood Eye’s new ability required some process to manifest.
“…No more surprises?”
Gian shook his head and walked into the carriage on his own.
Then he asked Kang Seol.
“Hey, but there are a lot of people… And they’re huge too. Some walking?”
“No need.”
As Kang Seol turned his palm upward, the surrounding shadows were sucked in.
Whooooosh…
Jamad, Karen, Karuna, and the others were drawn into his hand, and the crowded space fell silent.
Even Gian, who had been acting nonchalant, couldn’t help but gape at the sight.
“You don’t mean… No, that explains… Indeed… Hmm…”
- Culture shock.
- Wtf! It was a puppet show?
- Gian: Is this a hidden camera?
Gian shut his mouth and bit his nail with one hand.
He seemed to have something to ponder alone.
After sorting his thoughts, he smirked.
“Kh… Heh heh… Right. So you were the crow. That’s why I couldn’t find traces. A crowd, yet an individual.”
Gian’s expression relaxed.
“This’ll be fun.”
Rumble…
The carriage shook.
The coachman said quietly.
“Ran over some bodies. Sorry.”
* * *
Federal Investigation Bureau, Shurelen Branch.
Excluding those who left for body cleanup, all bureau personnel stood in a line.
“Is it true? You really caught them?”
“No doubt! I heard the Director say it.”
“Does it make sense that the Special Task Force pulled it off in one night?”
“Then wait and see! Why else would we all rush here off-duty?”
“How do you catch people without facial descriptions in that short time? Lies…”
The New Drug Special Task Force.
They were specially formed to dismantle the mysterious organization distributing the new drug ‘Home.’
The group they pursued left no traces, and rumors said all the investigators who vanished without a word had been eliminated by them.
As darkness spread through the city and everyone grew anxious, word came that the Task Force had captured someone closely linked to the case alive.
Judging truth from falsehood was on hold; everyone waited at the Shurelen headquarters.
Clop clop…
The sound of a carriage approaching.
“They’re here!”
“…Isn’t that a Silver Lion Society carriage? Not the bureau’s.”
“What… again.”
Screeech…
The Silver Lion Society carriage entered the bureau amid excessive fanfare.
The ones who disembarked were three nobles, including Mariju.
One of them whined immediately upon alighting.
“They did heat up a bit since we’re here… But standing around so casually. More importantly, did we arrive first? They’re so slow!”
Mariju and the other nobles scowled but said nothing to him.
Though he was there by his parents’ influence, everyone felt he was grating.
“They’re coming! Here it comes! The carriage!”
“Bureau emblem! It’s real!”
“Hmph! Finally surrendering?”
The excited investigators.
And the cocky young noble.
Clop…
Clop…
The carriage slowed gradually.
A faint line drawn in blood along the road following the carriage.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“Blood… blood.”
“Urk… Uwaaagh…”
“How did blood get all the way here…”
“There’s talk that blood from ‘Home’ addicts doesn’t clot…”
The carriage, its wheels stained blackish, arrived at the bureau.
Thud thud!
Thud thud thud!
A noble banging on the carriage door.
“Come out! Hurry! I came to verify truth from lie myself. You in there?”
Then, the carriage door burst open.
Puuuuff-!
“Guh…”
Someone inside kicked out as soon as it opened.
The noble sent flying by the kick tumbled messily on the ground, vomiting blood.
Click…
Screeech…
The carriage door opened again.
“Oh dear, the suspect is violent, so please don’t approach.”
“You did this…”
Kang Seol patted Gian’s shoulder as he stepped down.
Gian made an incredulous face before grinning.
“I’ve always envied you, sir. How’s my thigh strength?”
Everyone there realized the rumor that had gathered them late at night was true.
The immense aura emanating from Gian made them tremble.
“My god…”
“That’s… the guy…”
Like a wolf leaping into a flock of sheep, Gian exuded a feral energy.
Smack.
As Kang Seol grabbed his wrist, the violent aura vanished cleanly.
“…Enough.”
“You enjoyed yourself too, so let me have some fun.”
Coincidentally, Gian’s prank turned every deed the Task Force committed that night into fact.