The First Sealing
Professor Seong Chaerin looked at me and smiled.
“Are you joking right now?”
“No, of course not. How could I joke with Professor?”
Her expression instantly hardened. The only thing pink about her was her hair. Otherwise, the usually composed, scholarly Professor Seong was completely unreadable.
“Are you saying you’re going to kill yourself in front of me right now?”
She launched into a lecture that lasted for quite a while. By then it was already late afternoon, and I was her last patient. She seemed determined to use every remaining minute on me.
No, the consultation hour was already over. I simply listened in silence as she droned on.
“Releasing the seal means you’re shortening your own lifespan! So decide—release it or not?”
“I’m releasing it.”
“How many more times do I have to say it!”
The same words bounced back and forth more than ten times. Finally, Professor Seong threw both hands up.
“Hoo… I know your personality too well. You’re absurdly stubborn. Fine. Try to convince me. Tell me how reasonable a suicide method is.”
“It’s not suicide.”
Probably because of Arin. Professor Seong’s reaction was fiercer than I expected. But I already had my answer ready.
*I’m not ready to die yet.*
My death was going to come sooner or later. But not before I finished my revenge against Red Lake.
The reason I survived when my mana heart should have collapsed was the only thought I allowed myself.
I hid my true feelings and spoke with a bright tone.
“Of course I’m not releasing every seal. I still need to live. But if something like today happens again, the seal won’t be the problem— I might die to a villain first. Right?”
I explained the incident in more detail.
I may be an operator, but I’m still on the frontline for Flame. So I at least need something that can protect my body, I told her.
*In reality, operators always secure the safest position before starting a mission.*
Approaching a dangerous villain like today was never normal for an operator. Of course it had prevented a massacre, but…
Professor Seong already knew the dangers of operator work.
“That was a special case today, right? Operators usually secure a safe position and…”
“That’s not wrong, but it’s the general rule. If I were a monster or a villain, I’d hunt the best operators first and kill them.”
“Still…”
“So yeah. I need at least a way to protect my own body. Enough so I can live fully for the rest of my life.”
I kept persuading her until she finally gave in. The seal I was releasing was only the first stage.
It would shorten my lifespan a little, but since the remaining four stages were still there, it wouldn’t be fatal.
Of course, releasing even the first seal was a warning to the others. I kept emphasizing to Professor Seong that I was only removing the first one.
*If I can learn just the first method, the rest might be unlockable by myself.*
In the end, Professor Seong yielded. After all, it was my choice. And if I died to a villain first, she didn’t want that either.
“Hoo… Alright. First stage. But as a doctor, I still have to explain your condition properly. Will you listen?”
She brought up a screen in the consultation room. It was the same scan I had seen before—my mana heart footage.
“Next to it are the mana hearts of normal awakened people. And on the right is yours. Do you see how it’s different?”
Exactly as she said. My mana heart looked completely wrong. Hongok had taken its place.
“Fusion of an Ancient Gear with the body is something villains try all the time. But because of the mana immunity rejection, it’s actually impossible. The MCI would spike to maximum in a single instant.”
My unique constitution, however, had an MCI of zero. That was why Hongok could miraculously occupy the spot instead of my destroyed mana heart.
It was the mana heart that had collapsed while I was out of control trying to take down Doubtful Monster.
“Of course this is abnormal. It’s highly irregular. Think of it as a nuclear reactor that has already exploded, held back by only five seals.”
The surgery that allowed Hongok to replace the mana heart had been performed by Professor Seong herself. But she didn’t know much about the seals.
“From the beginning, this surgery was never survivable. The miracle was that this new seal born from Hongok began controlling the mana backlash and explosion, so you didn’t die. But that seal is still a mystery to me.”
In other words, without medical means to understand the seal’s nature, I couldn’t release it lightly.
“Right now the seals and the mana heart just before collapse are balanced. So the faster the seals disappear, the faster the mana heart collapse will accelerate.”
She was right.
That morning’s event had required a huge amount of mana to create Blue Flame. In the process I had tried to release the first seal somehow, but I had passed out.
*Touching the seal on my own… that might be crazy.*
It was the exploded reactor. The analogy was perfect. But I couldn’t accept it.
I had to release it by force. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to finish my revenge, and Flame would be my downfall.
*If I follow the original novel, Flame’s current power is nowhere near enough.*
Even with Yuri and Soso around, the position left by Si-woo and Min-ah had to be filled. And I was the only one who could do it.
Professor Seong seemed to read my mind.
“Hoo… look at that face. If you just keep refusing, you might do something even more insane. First stage… there is a way. Want me to tell you?”
I listened intently.
***
Yuri Tarkovskaya was still at headquarters.
Overwork from the long months couldn’t disappear in a few days, so she had decided to rest one more raid. For the next few days she would stay at HQ and mentor the interns.
It was a pity she couldn’t join the high-reward raid herself, but Soso had returned to the field, so she could finally relax.
*A-rank dungeon.*
Today Flame’s raid team was heading into an A-rank dungeon. The members were Soso, Father Stefano, and Maria.
The intelligence team had also gone with them, so even without her, the three of them would be fine.
*Not even an A+ dungeon.*
She could set aside her worries about the raid team for now. Soso’s skill was reliable. But Yuri, the guild master and CEO, still had a mountain of work to do.
*Next quarter’s budget might be a little tight.*
She had already introduced a lot of equipment, especially for the new interns. New gear would be needed again soon.
The bright side was that an A-rank dungeon still brought decent profits. A few days ago she had personally captured two villains.
The stalker villain was just a wanted suspect, but capturing A-rank Rex was a huge harvest. A world-class terrorist who had committed every crime imaginable. The bounty was significant.
*All thanks to Minsu.*
The fact that she could respond immediately to the stalker, and that she had captured Rex, was all thanks to his swift and precise instructions.
Minsu was still Minsu. In Academy, his flame magic was brilliant, but his cold tactical judgment in battle had shone brightest.
Especially with Rex. If Minsu hadn’t detected that hidden villain in advance, the idol concert venue would have turned into a slaughterhouse full of citizens.
*But… compared to that…*
She had felt relief at stopping the massacre. But the moment before, when she checked the signal Minsu had sent, her heart had dropped.
Minsu, who couldn’t use mana properly, had been with an A-rank villain.
If the villain had hurt him…
Yuri remembered the feeling of the sky collapsing when Minsu passed out right after Rex’s arrest.
*Just a little mana use…*
Minsu had casually said it was nothing, but she had used flame magic to hold down Rex. Even a small spell had knocked him unconscious.
He used to be the brightest flame mage in Academy. Now he looked so fragile.
*Returning to the hunter world like this is a miracle.*
Minsu had been happy to return to Flame. He had been happy to see her operator skills. He hadn’t flinched against A-rank Rex. He was still the same Minsu she knew.
But that joy was now mixed with sharp regret. The one who had ruined that promising future was herself.
A few days ago, behind the security stage at the event, when Minsu’s massive body had collapsed and lost consciousness for twenty minutes.
Those twenty minutes had felt like two years. Like the two years she had waited for him to wake up.
And when she had wrapped him in her own mana, Yuri remembered the tears that didn’t suit the name Snow Maiden streaming endlessly. Of course the tears had frozen instantly and disappeared as ice shards.
*Thank goodness Minsu didn’t see that.*
If he had, the crocodile tears might have looked fake. No, she didn’t want him to see her actual sobbing, ugly face right in front of him.
After all, any woman with a man she loved would reach for the relationship guide on the table again.
“Hoo… what a mess I’ve made.”
But now she remembered it was work hours. If it was for Minsu, she had to hide the fact that she didn’t deserve his affection and focus on Flame’s tasks. She knew that.
The Yuri he needed now was not the one from Academy.
Yuri Tarkovskaya, guild master and S-rank hunter of Flame. If she couldn’t become that Yuri, she had no value to Minsu.
*Don’t forget that. My feelings, my thoughts about Minsu…*
At least the small amount of mana she had used a few days ago had slightly calmed Minsu’s high fever.
She had forced herself to stop reaching for the guide and resumed her work.
Hunter Association. A few days ago at the event, a message had arrived from Choi Shinwoo, the hunter who had helped Flame.
*A-rank villain, Rex report?*
In reality, Minsu and Yuri had captured Rex.
It was standard procedure to provide the arrest and interrogation results. Flame was an Association-certified guild.
She read the report and froze for a moment.
*Rex… connected to Red Lake?*
That would make this arrest an unimaginable harvest. She had been chasing Red Lake’s traces for two years, but those bastards were impossible to catch.
She skimmed the report, then moved to the next page, the one provided by the intelligence team before Soso’s raid team left.
[Regarding the provision of private equipment to intern Seon Arin]
Her eyes stopped on the page that mentioned Minsu.
*Ancient Gear artificer…? And Minsu personally requested to accompany Soso…*
Yuri began to read the page in detail.
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[Regarding the provision of private equipment to intern Seon Arin]