Chapter 259: Blessing (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 259: Blessing (2)
It was the day before my discharge.
The hospital room, which had been off-limits to everyone except family (?) for security reasons, was finally opened—only to the people I personally permitted.
The reason was simple. Staring out the window all alone had become pure torture.
When a couple of early winter leaves drifted down, I felt like the protagonist of a tragic drama. How should I put it... like I was expected to close my eyes forever the moment that last leaf fell.
Besides, my body was almost completely healed by now. There was no real need to obsess over security.
Unless someone had guts the size of a watermelon, who would dare break into my room? If any 'intruders' came visiting, I planned to shower them with Daixo sashimi knives as a gift.
Anyway.
And so, the quiet hospital room quickly turned into a madhouse. The kids from the Heaven Class stormed in all at once.
Weapon and Chloe were the morning shift, while Rachel and Hontail were the afternoon shift. They visited the hospital room in pairs like that.
“Whooooaa-! Great work, Heavenly Demon!”
Honestly, I felt a slight twinge of regret the moment Weapon arrived. Words poured out of him like a traveling peddler unpacking his bag, instantly rattling my mind and my eardrums.
“…You did great.”
Chloe was relatively quiet. She sniffled in the corner, letting out a sigh of relief.
Weapon constantly gave me news updates about myself, showing off fan sites and web portals. Since I had been too lazy to check them myself, I just sat back and listened like it was the radio.
“Geomma, your fan site has already surpassed two hundred million members! Just with this, your influence rivals more than ten heads of state! And look at this article too: ‘From Heavenly Sword to Heavenly Demon: His Devotees Continue to Multiply.’ They’re even founding a whole religion worshipping you!”
How on earth is the name of the religion the Heavenly Demon Cult...
In a world where demons clearly existed, that was an extraordinarily dangerous and bizarre name for an organization. Back on Earth, a cult like that would have been mobbed and beaten. It was a miracle this world guaranteed absolute freedom of religion. Talk about the ultimate pseudo-cult.
Hero worship.
Weapon said this phenomenon wasn't entirely common, but it wasn't unheard of either. Which made sense, considering this was a world where the gods had been wiped out, so people didn't have deep religious faith to begin with.
Among the religions, the largest force was an organization called the Outer God Church, but they had strong esoteric inclinations and desperately avoided public exposure.
Incidentally, that was where Yoo Se-in served as a (heretical) Saintess.
Looking at it this way, that church doesn't seem too reliable either.
Regardless of scripture or doctrine, image was everything for a religion. Case in point: the fact that Yoo Se-in was their Saintess already plummeted their credibility, so what was this nonsense about a cult worshipping me as its leader?
A sigh slipped out.
Still, if they can subjugate an S-rank Magical Beast using only their campus order of knights...
The status of the Outer God Church couldn't be entirely wicked. I wasn't just viewing them positively because I got a free magic stone out of it. That would be far too materialistic. Even if I was a K-Gamer.
“……”
Anyway, moving on.
Leaving behind Weapon and Chloe, who had chatted up a storm, the afternoon shift—Rachel and Hontail—arrived with a modest gift (a Hanwoo beef set) to celebrate my discharge.
An unexpected combination.
Though I didn't show it, I was a bit surprised by their visit. They seemed remarkably close. From what I heard, Rachel had helped Hontail adjust to academy life quite a bit while I was away.
Of course, Rachel had no idea Hontail was a dragon.
A faint smile naturally spread across my lips.
On the other hand, I was curious. How had the two built a friendship that transcended species? Even between humans, building a bond usually took a long time.
“Greens are a disgrace to muscle growth! The foundation of mind, spirit, and body comes from meat!”
Hontail raised her arms high.
“The human body only needs water and protein! I’d rather starve than eat vegetables! The heart of a beast comes from meat!”
Beside her, Rachel crossed her arms and nodded proudly.
“Hear, hear!”
On second thought, I wasn't curious anymore.
...Hon.
I looked at Hontail with pitiful eyes.
When we first met, she would smile brightly at a simple piece of bread. How had she fallen so far? Though calling it 'falling' felt a bit ambiguous when talking about a Majin.
Choi Seol-ah will probably handle her re-education.
Otherwise, her wallet was going to be completely bled dry. To plug the hole in her bank account, proper discipline seemed urgently needed.
Still, this is nice.
Hospitals weren't particularly fond places for me. I always felt they were like turnstiles where the living and the dead constantly passed each other by. Yet now, this hospital room was lively and noisy. The stench of death faded away, replaced by full vitality. Since it was a VIP room, there was no need to worry about disturbing others either.
After the morning and afternoon shifts swept through the room, night fell.
Ahead of my discharge the following morning, I tidied up my bedding. I opened the window to let in fresh air and bathed in the moonlight. Just then—
Clack.
The door to the hospital room opened. The evening shift—Abel and Ryozo—had arrived.
“You’re here?”
Following the morning and afternoon visits, I greeted them naturally.
As I welcomed them, Abel and Ryozo gave hesitant nods in greeting. The atmosphere was strange. It wasn't that they felt uncomfortable around me; rather, things between the two of them were extremely awkward.
“How’s your body feeling? Are you okay?” asked Ryozo, who walked in first.
Abel quietly closed the door behind her and chimed in, “I heard from my grandfather. You passed out right after the Permush subjugation. Were you severely injured somewhere?”
“I go through this all the time,” I replied, stacking my pillow on top of the blanket. “It was like that during the class placement exam, the midterms, and the final exams too. Once my Blessing activates and passes a certain time limit, it knocks out the wielder.”
Hearing my words, Abel and Ryozo instantly froze with stunned expressions.
Implicitly, people in this world did not speak to others about their Blessings. Why do something as foolish as revealing your own weaknesses with your own mouth?
Even if the main enemy was the demons, there were enemies on the inside as well. The world was crawling with people hiding daggers in their hearts, ready to draw them at any moment. In high society, it was a dime a dozen for yesterday's acquaintance to turn into tomorrow's enemy and bared their blades.
Therefore, people did not ask one another about the abilities or limitations of their Blessings. Revealing such things was reserved strictly for extremely close ties—family, a spouse, or a fiancé. At most, a trusted friend with whom one had braved life and death together. That was the absolute line.
Yet here I was, casually letting slip the limitation of my Blessing. Naturally, their reactions were far from ordinary.
But I was a gamer who played Miracle Blessing M.
Abel von Nibelung, Saki Ryozo.
Hardly anyone knew the intimate details of their true characters as thoroughly as I did.
Well, except maybe Yoo Se-in, who revealed herself to be a 'reincarnator.'
Since I still didn't know the circumstances of how Yoo Se-in came to this world, it was fair to say no one else knew them like I did. And it wasn't just Ryozo and Abel; all the kids who came to visit today possessed noble, selfless characters. After all, willingness to throw oneself on the line for humanity was no ordinary feat.
That was why I told them.
“You’re so shocked it’s making me embarrassed for mentioning it.”
Because I trusted them, I wanted to share a little bit about myself. While I had to bury the secret of being a 'possessor' deep in my heart, I wanted to show them that I trusted them enough to expose my weakness. That was my intention.
However, the problem arose right here.
“……”
Ryozo and Abel looked at each other in total silence.
Then, sharply, they turned their heads toward me.
Their eyes—one pair containing the sky, the other holding the moon—shone with an icy chill.
“G-Girls...”
Sweat poured down my forehead like rain.
I had no idea—no idea whatsoever—that the two of them would take that single statement in a completely different way...
I could only blame my own complacency, stemming from not having been born in this world.
* * *
“Bwahahaha!”
Hearing my situation, Wieland, the blacksmith of Joaquin Academy, clutched his belly and doubled over with laughter. Whatever he found so amusing, tiny tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.
I watched Wieland with unamused eyes.
Wiping the corners of his eyes with his thumb, he asked, a smirk still plastered across his face. “So, after saying that to two girls, you couldn't give them an answer, so you ran away here? Lord Heavenly Sword?”
“Is someone else's misery really that funny to you? I seriously thought I was going to die back there. The way they looked at me...”
Wieland chided me instead, his voice dripping with mischief. “Hey now, you brat! Do you even realize what you said to them?!”
“What did I say? I just explained a bit about why I was hospitalized.”
“Ugh, you clueless fool.”
Wieland swirled a bowl of yellowish makgeolli before gulping it down. Whew. Breathing out a breath heavy with alcohol, he continued. “Lord Heavenly Sword, what you said to those girls was practically a marriage proposal! The absolute mildest interpretation would be an official confession!”
“What I said was that big of a deal?”
Wieland tapped his bowl against the corner of his chair to shake off the remaining drops. “Both of those girls are nobles, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Nibelung and Saki.”
“If it’s Nibelung, she’s a descendant of Aaron Nibelung, the Sword Saint. If it’s Saki, she’s a descendant of Saki Yoichi, the Bright Bow. They’re daughters from giant families among giants!”
Wieland let out a deep sigh. Straightening his posture, he raised an index finger to emphasize his point. “Listen carefully. You were a commoner until recently, so you wouldn't know, but noble society has its own etiquette. Even a casual phrase like 'Let's grab a bite sometime' gets interpreted differently by nobles. Do you understand so far?”
“Yes.”
“And among all things, nobles consider discussing their Blessings to be the most delicate matter of all. It’s the root and foundation of their family lineage. That’s why they receive strict education and etiquette training regarding Blessings.”
“…I see.”
I was in no position to talk about educating Hon. I had my own fire to put out.
“Now, picture this. You go up to those noble maidens and say, ‘My Blessing works like this and that.’ How do you think they’re going to interpret it? Isn't it obvious as day?”
“I understand up to that point.” Even so, I attempted to argue back. “But those girls aren't steeped in noble culture like that. If anything, they're the opposite. That's why I'm even more bewildered. They never act like that normally, but suddenly they changed expressions completely and demanded answers. What did they say again...? They told me to pick a partner for the upcoming Festival ball. That felt so foreign, too. There’s definitely something going on here.”
“Heavenly Sword... no, Kang Geomma.”
Wieland set the brass bowl down on the side table.
“Don't try to analyze human emotions with logic.” He spoke with a stern face devoid of laughter. “Those girls didn't say that to you because they were ignorant. They said it fully aware, putting aside all their pride. They held back and held back until they finally snapped because you're always so indecisive.”
“……”
“When you look at their feelings and say things like ‘there must be something behind this,’ you’re tearing their sincerity to shreds. When someone casts aside their pride and comes at you with genuine heart, answering them with equal sincerity is basic human decency.”
As he spoke, Wieland gently shook his head. Pushing the brass bowl far away, he swept back his hair. “The alcohol must be getting to me. No reason to get all serious with a kid. Anyway, here's my point: don't be rude to those ladies. I know you're blind when it comes to women, but show some basic courtesy.”
I stared blankly at Wieland.
“Old man.”
“What, brat?”
“Why are you single?”
A cross-shaped vein popped on his cinnamon-colored temple. Wieland’s hand twitched toward his hammer before redirecting to his glass of makgeolli instead.
“Forget it, forget it. I finished enhancing that armament you entrusted to me over there, so take it and get out. Just being around you feels like it's drying up my own emotions.”
“Ah.”
My lips curved into a soft arc. At this, Wieland clicked his tongue in displeasure.
“What good is being strong when you're lacking as a human being?”
Today, the alcohol seemed particularly bitter to the blacksmith, who knitted his thick brows together excessively.