The Unforeseen Opportunity
"Mana Road appears to have contracted significantly."
"...Tsk."
A strange symptom observed during training.
Upon checking at the hospital immediately, it was found that the mana was as rigid as if it had clumped together.
This inevitably caused Mana Road to twist and Mana Hole to stiffen.
A classic case of blood stagnation. However, when the condition arises not due to the body itself but secondarily, it is almost never seen.
"For now, I'll prescribe medication. One week's worth. Please come back next week."
"...Thank you."
After receiving the diagnosis slip, I left.
The pharmacy was left untouched.
This wasn't a case of blood stagnation from the start.
The doctor had been rather arrogant to call me wrong, but for me, this phenomenon was one I had experienced before.
"...Haaaa."
At this age, wandering again?
There are no normal people among Spirit Contractors, yet I couldn't quite grasp why puberty had returned.
"Sunwoo-nim... Are you feeling better now?"
"Don't worry. Sorry for taking so long to drag things out."
The condition was the worst possible.
My stamina wasn't great either.
But even if it was, I couldn't stop here.
"...This will be the end for today."
"Now there's only one left."
The uterus.
The source of the curse and the seed of all evil.
If I could just handle that part, Narim would be able to return to his original body.
Just one step ahead.
There was no foolish person who would turn back with that step right in front of them.
With the handle firmly gripped, I headed toward Ah Young's house, putting in my strength.
"Sunwoo! Hello! And Ah Young too!"
Opening the door, what met my eyes was Narim, who seemed to have a much better complexion.
The curse had disappeared, the Mana Road had been cleaned, and the color of health had returned.
If it was now, it probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch to resume activity as an Awakener.
'But even that would only happen after handling the most important part.'
I passed by greeting Narim and headed to the inner room.
Narim followed right behind me, now familiar with the routine, and began to undress, then lay down on the floor.
"Please take good care of me....!"
"...Haaaa."
It had begun.
It had to begin.
I glanced at Ah Young and slowly extended my hand toward Narim's body.
'...Hecate.'
I called the name, but she didn't appear.
All that was felt was the act of blowing light into the Mana Hole.
I quietly pulled the light upward, gathering it at my fingertips, and brought it over Narim's body.
[──Aaaaaaaaak!!!]
"..........."
A scream that echoed in my ears.
I set aside the scream I was now familiar with and erased the curse spreading throughout the entire body with light.
Since the Mana Road hadn't yet been transferred, the curse vanished in an instant, and I treated the injured body with Ah Young's power while erasing the curse.
"Haaaa....!"
A voice mixed with pain and groaning.
Still, having experienced it several times, he endured well.
After wrapping around the body once, the proper beginning began now.
"It will hurt quite a bit, so endure it on your own."
"...Yeah!"
Trembling eyes.
Yet he smiled as if to say not to worry.
I quietly ignored that smile and placed my hand directly above the uterus, on the lower abdomen, and infused light.
[Ki──EEEEEEEEEeek!!]
"Khk....!"
The curse that had taken root in the uterus.
It was impossible to erase it as it was.
The output was also weakened, and it would put too much burden on Ah Young's body.
So first──I tore the curse apart from the inside.
[Zit, kkiyaaaaaaaak!!]
I concentrated the light in one spot and pierced through the inside.
I dug into the hard outer shell and went deeper, deeper.
The light boiling from inside began to split the curse from within and weaken its power.
"Eu....uuuuh.....!!"
"Narim-nim!"
It seemed quite painful, as Narim was sweating profusely.
I quickly went to Ah Young's side, stabilized his condition, and, believing in the recovered stamina, continued to target the curse.
[It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much!!!]
"──Kkuruk...?"
The curse fiercely resisted.
Instead, it shot the curse toward me and enveloped me as if trying to devour my body.
The rapidly oxidizing mass of light. If I continued like this, the power... was giving way?
'Talk nonsense.'
Hecate was a Supreme Spirit.
It wasn't a trivial ability to lose over just erasing a curse.
So if something was lacking here──it was my own problem. The problem that the human named Sunwoo carried.
"...Bite."
Unfortunately, it couldn't be resolved right now.
So as a last resort to avoid the worst.
Chi i i i i k!
[Kya aaaaaaaaak?!!]
"Young... Die, die, you bastard!"
I forcibly poured mana to raise the output.
The Mana Hole rapidly depleted, and I felt the pressure of Mana Road twisting, but I saw that the curse was suffering even more.
'If I maintain it like this.'
I could treat Narim.
Focusing only on that thought, when I infused mana into the light even more strongly.
[Don't torment my mother....!!]
".....!"
The sound of a fleeting moment.
A momentary gap.
Paaaaang!
"──Kek!"
"Sunwoo-nim?!!"
The curse bounced me off and crashed into the wall, leaving me sprawled.
My stomach hurt. The Mana Road felt as if it was slowly twisting.
A self-inflicted wound. But what confused me more than that was.
'Does the curse speak?'
It was impossible.
There could be instances where the thoughts dwelling in the curse were readable, but for the curse itself to speak...
'...No. No way.'
Hecate had never once called "this" a curse.
It was just that I had arbitrarily labeled it 'curse' as I saw fit.
Life blooming atop a grave.
The amorphous form of life.
"Undead."
A curse. But it was not merely a curse.
A gathering of countless souls, the form created by infants who had died before they could even be born.
Its nature and characteristics were close to a curse, but even more intense and abominable than a curse.
"Ah....Aaaaaak! Kya aaaaaaaaak!!!"
"Narim-nim! Wait a moment, please wait just a little!"
The light disappeared, and darkness rushed in again.
The darkness that had extended from Narim's uterus began to dye Narim's body once more with darkness.
Originally, I would have stopped it.
I would have stopped it and then poured light again.
But because of the aftereffects from earlier, even for a moment, as the one connected to 'darkness,' I knew.
[The bad guy tormenting my mother will be killed by us!!]
"......."
It wasn't to kill.
It had been dyed to protect.
The reason Narim's body had survived until now.
Despite being in a state that would cause death for a normal person soaked in drugs and bacteria.
It was the child in the womb. The already dead child had been protecting Narim.
Even though it was dead,
Yet to protect the mother.
Rather than, rather than hating or being angry, to protect the mother more thoroughly than anyone else.
"Stop."
[───!]
A little. A sense of relief came over me.
"I won't kill. I won't do anything painful. I won't do anything bad."
[...Are we voices being heard?]
"Probably. It might be for just a moment."
[.........]
The tangled darkness settled down.
I slowly raised my body and approached Narim.
"Uuugh....hup....aahugh....!"
Sweating profusely, he grimaced in pain.
Ah Young approached from the side, wiping the sweat and caring for him.
I simply remained still, looking down at Narim, and asked.
"What do you want to do?"
"Wh-what?"
"That thing inside the belly. Do you want it removed?"
"Of course that's what people would say─"
"If you remove that thing, you won't be able to live like before."
"......?"
A bewildered look.
I said to Narim again.
"Drinking, taking medicine, and hanging out with guys beating each other up."
"!,....I won't do that anymore! What do you think I'm like!"
"The girl who threatens her old friends by saying she'll sell her body to a man."
"........"
"Sorry. The words were too harsh."
'This' being connected to that made the words hard to hold back.
Still, for some reason, the relief in my chest was strangely deeper.
'Strange.'
A strange feeling.
But it wasn't bad.
I was a little worried about how Narim would think, but I felt a relief beyond that.
"Ang... you're angry?"
"I'm not angry. I'm just disgusted."
"Disg...?"
"Doctors who perform abortion surgeries have hearts like this. It's a bit. The feeling is very dirty."
".........."
Narim closed his mouth.
It seemed he was struggling to catch up with the situation.
It was fine. He didn't have to catch up.
I was simply doing what I had to do.
"'This.' What do you want to do with it?"
"........."
The uterus.
I asked, pointing to the clumped, twisting mass.
To this, Narim answered.
"...Remove it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Remove it. Right now."
"......."
A faint tremor rising from the fingertips.
It wasn't Narim's body vibrating.
Inside it, the children in the womb were trembling.
"Otherwise, why would the kids go through all this to protect you?"
"...I don't understand what you're saying."
"The men who tormented you. The people who torment you. Those who made you suffer. They protected you from that."
"So you're killing people? If there's only one person like me, are you indiscriminately killing everyone?"
"In the end, yes."
"Don't talk nonsense."
I got angry.
I clenched my fists, my whole body shivering.
"I.... I lost everything because of that thing. My life as a woman, and my life as an Awakener!"
"But you survived."
"In that case, rather than living that way, I should have died!"
"...That's what you say."
It was normal not to understand.
A woman suddenly saying such things, with a dramatic family reunion saying 'Sorry, kids,' how many would there be?
So there was nothing to be disappointed about. Only the role.
[Mom....]
It lost meaning.
It lost its purpose in life.
The black, cloudy mass began to scatter listlessly from its spot.
I had given my body solely for the mother, for Narim, but Narim hadn't wanted it in the first place.
'Good child.'
In fact, even in death, he would have fought with venom to save the mother.
So.
Yes.
That's it.
I....
"Come here."
[.....?]
"You don't want to die."
[........]
'That' didn't move.
But it also didn't disappear like before.
As if asking to tell me why it had to live.
Just looking at the child who had stayed in that place, I whispered softly.
"Have you ever eaten mint chocolate?"
[....?]
"Let's go eat that."
[....Yeah]
Even though the reason was unbelievable,
Sometimes, even for just such a reason, the purpose of survival arises.
By the way.
"It's cured, so go take the room on your own."
"Eh....?"
The treatment was over.
So I had to go.
"How long are you going to stay leeching off Ah Young's house?"
"That's true, but... Can you give me just a little more time?"
"That's something to ask Ah Young, not me. And Ah Young, you too, are going back to your own house."
"Neeeee...??"
Both were bewildered.
It was only natural.
Rather, this was the right thing to do.
"Wait a minute! I don't even know if my body is fully recovered!"
"It's recovered. Even if not, I have to go. Rather than borrowing a loan and using that money to rent a motel, how about that?"
"...If I leave like this, I might end up selling my body again."
"If you do, then sell it."
"Eh?"
A blank expression.
I said to Narim again.
"Is it your body or my body?"
"..........."
I went outside.
Quietly, I placed my hand on the heart, on the Mana Hole.
"...Wow."
A part of the Mana Hole was dyed with 'darkness.'