The Medal
Julia was left stunned by Isabella’s words.
What… what was my purpose again?
In the past, the answer would have come easily. She had wanted to become a hero, and she had poured every effort into entering Sirius Academy. She trained without missing a single day, never letting the sword leave her hand even when her palms blistered and bruised.
But now she could no longer remember why she had done any of it.
Some people dreamed of becoming heroes after suffering a tragic accident in childhood. Others pursued the dream for the glory of their family. And there were those who simply loved saving people.
Yet she felt as though she had been pushed here by others at some point, without ever choosing it herself.
All I ever wanted was to live happily.
She had always hoped the happy days would continue forever. It was not because she was ignorant of reality. She knew society was chaotic enough that unmanned turrets had to be installed in every home, and she knew that the mere appearance of a magical beast could shatter the everyday life people relied on. Precisely because she understood that reality, she had longed for ordinary happiness.
I wanted to live with Seo-hyun in a comfortable two-story house… feeling the gentle breeze without worrying about monsters.
But now she understood: without enough power, one did not even have the right to be happy.
“I… I wanted to be recognized.”
The maids looked at her with pity. Then her next words made them all fail to hide their surprise.
“But…! Even so, that doesn’t mean I can’t become a hero!”
Seo-hyun’s words came back to her.
“Julia, climb higher.”
She must have said that because she was worried Julia would simply sit down where she was. If she settled for less, she would eventually face something like this again, and she would never know when she might collapse.
“I’m a contradictory person…”
Truly, there was not a single outstanding thing about her. Others praised her as a genius, but that was nothing more than a pretty decoration Seo-hyun had draped over her. Without her, Julia would have remained nothing more than the youngest daughter of a prestigious family.
But now I have to move forward alone.
There was no one left at her side. She would rather believe Seo-hyun was still alive. If she kept climbing toward the summit with the single-minded resolve to reunite with her someday… who could say? Perhaps she really would meet her again—the one who might still be alive.
In that moment, Julia felt as though a typhoon were raging around her.
“Huh…? This is…?”
The air felt far denser than usual. The flow she had always sensed now seemed heavier somehow. The instant she carved that resolve into her heart, the unique ability she possessed grew one layer more solid.
A few days later, Julia was told that her unique ability had changed.
“Yekaterina, could I get a phone?”
“A phone…? I don’t really have one handy, but hold on…”
Yekaterina opened a space of blood in midair and pulled a phone from inside it.
“Here.”
“Whoa. What is this? A subspace?”
“Uh… it’s complicated to explain… but yeah, roughly.”
In short, it was an inventory.
“Think I could do that too?”
“Hmm… probably not. It’s less something tied to a unique ability and more something I got from killing a demon.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Anyway, why the phone? Planning to hack something?”
“Well… something like that?”
I installed Laplace on Yekaterina’s phone. Before long, Laplace assessed the surroundings and remarked that it was fortunate I was still alive.
You were extremely fortunate. Because you went underground, there was little I could do to assist. Guiding Mr. Usa was the most I managed.
—You guided him?
Yes. Claiming to be government-affiliated worked surprisingly well.
—Thanks. I survived because of you.
It seemed Laplace had been trying hard to help in every way possible.
“Got somewhere to go? If not, want to come to my place?”
“Huh?”
Yekaterina’s words made me doubt my ears. Come to her place? Was this…?
“Ah, maybe I phrased that wrong? I’m not that used to Korean…”
“The fact that you know Korean at all is surprising. I understand English just fine…”
“I can speak pretty much any language, not just Korean.”
After reincarnating this many times, there wasn’t much left to learn besides languages.
Thinking that, Yekaterina corrected herself.
“I meant come to Leviathan’s Korean branch. It’s built legally enough, and from the outside it looks like an ordinary office, so no one will get suspicious. Perfect place to stay for a while.”
“Are you sure that’s all right…?”
“I’ll guarantee your secret identity. You’re my lifesaver—I can at least do that much. And I have a debt I want to repay.”
It seemed like a decent option. Aside from the secret research facility, I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.
“I’d be grateful if you prepared a place for me to stay.”
“Then follow me. I’ll call some people.”
Yekaterina summoned her people by phone, then left the hospital with me. I had worried the doctors and nurses might try to stop us, but when she wrapped our bodies in deep darkness, people simply walked past as if they could not even perceive our existence.
We left the hospital and walked wherever Yekaterina led. Then a sudden chill made me spin around. Yekaterina must have felt the same thing, because she was looking in the same direction.
“You are…”
There stood a young man holding an umbrella woven from rice straw. Strangely, rain fell only around him. And it was a face I had seen once before.
“Usa…?”
“The Blood Fiend of Vladivostok, is it?”
Usa walked slowly toward us and held something out.
“This is…?”
“Payment for dealing with the demon.”
In his hands were two black briefcases that clashed oddly with the hanbok he wore. When I opened the first one he handed over, it contained cash worth five hundred million.
“Regrettably, I could not prepare more. The government ordered the matter kept confidential… and with the Blood Fiend of Vladivostok involved, even greater caution was required.”
We opened the remaining second briefcase. Inside was something rather more unusual—something that looked to me like a kind of medal.
“An unofficial medal prepared by the government. There was considerable internal debate since a criminal was involved, but we could not leave those who eliminated a demon without any reward. Think of it as hush money if you like.”
“It’s useless to us.”
“It will prove useful. Since it is awarded only to those who have slain a demon, it will ensure you receive good treatment within our country.”
“Oh? Does it grant some kind of immunity?”
“…I am sorry, but no. Be content that we are not attempting to arrest you at this moment. However, so long as you commit no crimes within our borders, we are willing to look the other way to a certain extent. Only to a certain extent.”
Having said that much, Usa began explaining the medal’s other function.
“It is a force field currently being tested by the government. In a crisis it deploys automatically to protect the user from impact.”
“A new-model force field? In something this small?”
That Korea’s force-field technology was outstanding was common knowledge in this world. Yekaterina seemed rather tempted herself.
“Unfortunately, if you are thinking of reverse-engineering it for your own use, I must ask you to abandon the idea. The efficiency is quite poor. There is a reason the government decided to produce it only in limited quantities. But I am confident its performance surpasses anything currently on the market.”
With that, Usa turned away from us.
“Huh? You’re really not going to arrest us?”
“I came not to hold you accountable, but to bestow fitting compensation and to honor your achievement. Having fulfilled my assigned role, is it not only natural that I withdraw?”
And with that, Usa vanished down the road. He disappeared like the wind as always, yet the puddles left on the ground remained as proof he had been there.
What a strange person.
That thought crossed my mind unbidden.
When we entered Leviathan’s Korean branch, the staff belonging to the organization greeted us. They were all rough-looking middle-aged men, but they seemed to maintain a certain discipline, so it was not uncomfortable.
“Um, Lady Yekaterina. Who is this…?”
“My benefactor. Treat her as you would treat me.”
“Lady Yekaterina’s benefactor, you say…?”
“You’re not going to make me say it twice, are you?”
“N-no, ma’am! Boys! Open another VIP room! Double the food prep!”
The people bustled about at the news of Yekaterina’s arrival. The spot where the massive magical beast’s corpse had been rolling around earlier was cleared, and a splendid table was set in its place. The hygiene situation had looked worrying enough to turn my stomach, yet even Darwin’s heightened senses could not find a single speck of dust—surprisingly.
“Haha, you seem concerned about hygiene. But rest assured. That magical beast you just saw was a hologram.”
“…That was a hologram?”
“It is used for pre-dismantling practice stages. Technology really has advanced to an incredible degree, has it not?”
The moment I saw the hologram, some idea seemed to flicker through my mind and then vanish. But for now, hunger came first.
“Welcome to Leviathan’s Korean branch, Lucifer.”
Yekaterina watched Seo-hyun devour the food with a strangely unpleasant smile.
You’re mine forever.