Chapter 117: The Sword That Severs the Yoke 3
Chapter 117: The Sword That Severs the Yoke 3
It looked difficult, but doable.
Seeing The Sword That Severs the Yoke—who at a single word was ready to kneel and bow—felt outright insane.
Just how brilliant was that female disciple's talent, to make the continent's top Constellation grovel so desperately?
To be honest, even if she'd just shown up with a pile of money and demanded "Fix her," I would have done it.
Considering how many monsters The Sword That Severs the Yoke had slain,
how many lives she'd saved for the continent, and the devotion she'd shown over the years,
she'd earned the right to throw a tantrum and demand her disciple be treated first, skipping over other scheduled patients.
The Academy staff helping out probably thought the same.
'She's more down-to-earth than I expected.'
Even so, she bowed her head to me.
The continent's top Constellation bowing her head, and her disciples on their knees.
Both Lee Ha-rin and Kim Ha-eun were at a loss, completely flustered by the sight.
Ha-eun, sure. But Ha-rin was a fanatical Constellation devotee.
Watching a Constellation beg in front of an Incarnation had her wringing her hands, completely out of her element.
After that, things moved at lightning speed.
Why would the Academy drag its feet when the continent's greatest Constellation had descended in person?
For a normal patient, just having Kim Ha-eun wrap them in a mana veil would have sufficed.
But this was no ordinary patient.
"What shall we use for the burnt offering?"
"Bring three golden sheep with white horns, and three black hens that have never laid eggs."
"I've retrieved the obsidian dagger from Storage 14!"
People bustled around just like the day of my own Descent Ritual.
Occasionally, Academy staff would approach looking flustered, needing items not in storage,
but The Sword That Severs the Yoke would vanish like the wind and reappear with the goods, solving the problem.
She might be a Constellation without a single Incarnation and short on Points,
but the title of "Continent's Strongest" wasn't for show—rare-looking items kept appearing out of thin air the moment her name was mentioned.
'Still, this feels like even more of a production than when it was me.'
Well, it made sense. A rookie Constellation not even two years in
couldn't compare to someone the Continent's Strongest had personally trained and nurtured for over a decade.
If anything, this commotion felt perfectly justified.
If the cost of using a magic circle were low,
ritual magic wouldn't have remained a niche field.
It helps you achieve things beyond your ability, but burns through resources with terrible inefficiency.
That's just the nature of magic circles and ritual magic today.
Still, there were many differences from my own Descent Ritual.
There were no helpers for the ritual, and in the center of the magic circle was the female disciple, cleaned up and freed of her restraints.
At first, I was worried she might rampage once the restraints were removed,
but while her restraints were taken off and her companions washed her,
The Sword That Severs the Yoke stood with a hand resting on her sword hilt, glaring.
Like a puppy being licked by a tiger,
even in her madness from Qi Deviation, the female disciple trembled in terror.
The ghastly figure that had been weeping blood and gnawing its gag was nowhere to be seen.
Cowering as her long, wet hair was dried, she looked profoundly pitiful.
"Then, I'll begin."
Lee Ha-rin gulped, raised the jet-black dagger, and sliced open the gleaming golden fleece.
Golden blood, not red, spurted upward bizarrely as the black hens were engulfed in flame and vanished.
Simultaneously, the magic circle drawn on the floor lit up, and Kim Ha-eun's purple hair whipped around despite the absence of any wind.
At that same instant, a purple veil appeared—no, an archway made of the veil.
As I instinctively stepped inside, my vision wavered.
The world shimmered like a monitor glitching out from in-game special effects.
A bizarre sensation, my field of view shrinking and expanding at random.
The feeling of concave and convex mirrors being shaken arbitrarily before my eyes never got easier to handle.
After shaking my head a few times, I saw a grand Eastern-style mansion.
A landscape like a haphazard fusion of Asian countries, typical of the Eastern Continent.
It was hard for a non-expert like me to pinpoint the specific country, but it was definitely a grand mansion straight out of a historical drama.
"Master, did you cough?"
The sliding door rumbled open.
Inside the room, lying in the bedding, was The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
So the woman sitting upright and waiting patiently in the hallway must be her disciple.
Was this her before the Qi Deviation?
Looking at her hair neatly pinned up and her crisp martial uniform,
it was impossible to associate her with the maniac who'd been chewing her rag, tears of blood streaming down her face.
Maybe because it was the female disciple's memory, thankfully no one noticed me.
I remembered how startled I'd been when The Incinerating Tyrant had spoken to me inside his own memories.
"What shall we do today?"
"Let us cross swords for a while, then go out to the market."
The scene unfolding before me was nothing but peaceful.
So much so I wondered, "Is this really a Nightmare?" and almost suspected I'd accidentally entered The Sword That Severs the Yoke's memories instead.
Master and disciple set the table neatly, exercised, learned swordsmanship, and occasionally went to the city to buy groceries.
Forget nightmares—there wasn't even a hint of negative emotions like fear or anger.
Sometimes, when The Sword That Severs the Yoke returned to her Sanctum, the female disciple would worry about something,
but it never felt serious.
'Just too peaceful.'
As if mocking my sentiment, the story suddenly lurched forward.
"Soon, it will be time for you to swing a real sword, too."
The Sword That Severs the Yoke, having finished her meal, addressed her disciple.
The female disciple's hands, which had been clearing dishes, paused briefly.
"Truly, Master?"
"Yes. How could a warrior who learns the sword to protect lives fear staining her hands with blood?"
I'd just been thinking I could sit on the wooden porch and watch the tranquil daily life flow by, but the mood shifted in an instant.
A transport helicopter, completely out of place, began to descend in front of the traditional mountain mansion.
Soldiers in combat fatigues disembarked from the helicopter.
They carried guns reeking of gunpowder, as if fresh from the battlefield.
The two naturally boarded the helicopter, and it rose, disturbing the garden.
I figured since it was a dream, I could just fly after them, and took a step forward.
'What's this?'
Thud. An invisible, transparent wall blocked me.
The owner of these memories was flying far away with her Constellation,
while I was trapped in this mountain valley mansion.
"Oh, shit. What now?"
I pounded the empty air with my fists,
tried drawing out my mana into thin, long strands to pick at the barrier like a lock,
imagined cars and motorcycles to ride out,
tried breaking through with excavators and power drills—all failures.
Everyone was gone, and I was left alone in the empty mansion.
Flabbergasted, I stared blankly at the sky, only then noticing it was cracked and black.
"Once is not enough, huh?"
My vision spun again.
What I saw before me wasn't the wrecked bumper of a car, the flat tire of a motorcycle,
the ruined drill bit, or the excavator missing its shovel.
It was three women looking down at me with concern.
Kim Ha-eun, Lee Ha-rin, and The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
"Constellation, are you alrigh—"
"Ho-how was it?!"
Her booming voice made me instinctively cover my ears and wince.
That deafening shout completely buried Lee Ha-rin's worried voice and clamped shut Kim Ha-eun's mouth just as it was opening.
She had the slender figure and graceful features of a refined, demure actress,
yet when she opened her mouth, it felt like a thunderstorm crashing down.
At this rate, they really ought to rename her something like "The Sword That Swallowed Thunder."
"M-my apologies. My heart was in haste, and I've committed rudeness once more."
Startled, perhaps by Kim Ha-eun's pained groan, The Sword That Severs the Yoke hastily stepped back.
She looked small and slight, a delicate woman. But whether it was the killing intent etched into her body or the aura unconsciously seeping from her,
I felt like a chick before a tiger.
If she so much as nudged me, I felt like I'd go from "Dream Demon" to "Dream Demon Was."
If her body and mind weren't steady, I'd be less a Constellation and more a corpse.
"Reading the memories... was a success, but..."
Thinking these thoughts, I bowed my head low in shame.
I had to take things slow. Otherwise, she'd get excited and start shouting again.
I slowly paced my speech, mixing in gentle gestures as I explained. To my relief, she listened quietly.
'I really feel like a beast tamer.'
I'd successfully entered her memories.
Compared to other patients, the overall state looked healthy.
But I couldn't find the root cause of the Qi Deviation.
I couldn't move freely within the female disciple's mindscape.
That meant I'd need multiple attempts.
After seeing the sheer value of offerings burned in a single ritual, the thought of needing several made me genuinely sorry just to say it out loud.
To be honest, it felt like I'd burned down not just someone's annual salary, but their actual house.
Not to mention the rare animals I didn't even know the names of, like Golden Sheep and Black Flame Chickens.
Plus, the cost of the gems ground up to draw the magic circle was nothing to sneeze at.
"Of course it would be difficult! What reputable physician can cure an illness with a single needle? Simply confirming that there is hope is—!"
The Sword That Severs the Yoke cut herself off mid-sentence.
She'd probably tried to say something like "I, Kim Whatever," and had been blocked.
Even a Constellation who ruled the world with a single sword couldn't speak her own name?
The Unfading Giant Tree had gotten stuck the exact same way when we'd spoken before.
"Th-this mere swordswoman will raise her blade for you."
As The Sword That Severs the Yoke continued, I heard another sharp gasp.
Come to think of it, I was lying on the magic circle.
As I tried to get up, three hands reached out to me.
Still, it was probably proper to take The Sword That Severs the Yoke's hand.
If I took one of my Incarnations' hands, the other would be deeply embarrassed.
Contrary to her elegant impression and slender figure,
her palm felt like carved marble.
Smooth, but the moment she applied strength to pull me up, it felt harder than anything in the world.
"I swear on my sword."
Even after I'd stood up, The Sword That Severs the Yoke didn't let go of my hand and kept speaking.
"If you can completely drive out my disciple's Qi Deviation—"
Behind me, a duet of hiccups broke out. Apparently, Kim Ha-eun had been just as startled as Lee Ha-rin by what The Sword That Severs the Yoke was saying.
"—I will personally behead one of your enemies."
I, for one, didn't quite grasp what she meant.