Impatient Demons and the Rebellious Light
'So this is martial qi!'
'It's overwhelming!'
Martial qi was a well-known ability. But only a limited number of people had ever witnessed it firsthand, or felt its weight on their own skin.
'So the rumors weren't exaggerated after all?'
The world's number one ranker had once tried to learn martial qi himself. Tales circulated that it could crush even an S-rank Awakener, that its bearer had all but cleared an S-Rank Gate alone. There had been plenty of such stories, but they had always dismissed them as embellishment. After all, once they'd obtained their demonic powers and become lieutenants of the Seven Great Demons, every other Awakener had seemed beneath them.
"Ugh—"
"Do I look like I'm playing games right now?"
At the Association President's retort, the two of them shut their mouths.
When the Sword Demon had threatened the President with demonic power, neither had moved to stop him — and so, like Grace, they were now both receiving that crushing pressure of martial qi. Grace's silence amounted to tacit approval of the Sword Demon's actions, and she was being made to pay for it.
"I have made my position abundantly clear."
"…Understood."
It was Grace who folded first. She had her pride, but dragging this out any longer risked souring the relationship altogether.
'And if that happens, the investigation stalls.'
That much, she could not allow.
Unlike Grace, Matsumoto was nothing but pride walking around in a suit. If he caved here, he'd be left with nothing — neither his dignity nor his standing.
Retreating ambiguously now would only make things worse, he judged. Grace might recover from an awkward withdrawal, but Matsumoto had already threatened the head of a foreign association. Back down in a half-measure now, and he stood to lose not just face but his position itself.
"Are you certain this third person doesn't exist?"
"I believe I told you there is no such person."
From that moment on, the Association President's face hardened into something stony — a silent declaration that he would tolerate no further insolence.
"I heard it from a Demon myself."
"Oh…?"
At Matsumoto's words, the President eased his martial qi ever so slightly — a wordless invitation to go on. Matsumoto seized the opening without hesitation.
"Some time ago, we captured a Demon in Japan. That Demon said three people were moving to attack Envy."
It was true that the Japanese association had captured a Demon. But that Demon had no lineage to speak of — a low-grade creature bound to a lesser demon. A grain of truth, wrapped in a lie. The information about three attackers had come from Lust, not from any prisoner.
'No matter how sharp that President is, there's no way he can spot it.'
With evidence this concrete, a mere association president could hardly afford to keep lying.
But what came out of the President's mouth was nothing he had anticipated.
"Then that Demon must have been lying."
The President's choice was to play dumb to the very end.
"Whew."
A straw hat and a white half-sleeve tee. Rubber gloves and rubber boots. Judging by my appearance alone, I was a farmer through and through.
"Is it really necessary to dress like that?"
"Well, you could call it a way of getting into the mood?"
It was nothing more than a mood thing, but somehow working in this outfit made me feel like I was getting better results out of the effort. So whenever I worked here, this was what I wore.
"If getting in the mood matters, then it matters."
People have always worked better when they feel good. That's why some folks sing while they work.
"So, that wraps up the morning's work, I guess."
"Shall we eat, then?"
A week had already passed since the two Demons entered Korea. In that time, I had switched careers — from regressor to farmer, right here inside the Gate.
Once in the morning, I inspected the elixirs and watered them, channeling the power of the earth to regulate the life force in the soil. Then I did it all over again in the evening.
'It's been a long week.'
At first, juggling the water levels and distributing the life energy properly, I barely slept at all. But after nights of grinding away at it, I could finally work with a little breathing room.
"Could you go check on things for me?"
"Understood."
Cheongun opened a Gate on the spot and slipped through to my room.
My family believed I was training in there, which is why my parents left every meal at my door. After a short wait, Cheongun returned through the Gate.
"What is it today?"
"Kimchi stew, it looked like, with rice and side dishes."
Just as he said, today's lunch was kimchi stew with rice and banchan. The appetizing smell tickled my nose.
"Thank you for the food."
"Thank you for the food."
Cheongun and I set the table right there and started eating. The rice you eat after a stretch of honest work tastes like nothing else on earth.
'What are those two up to, I wonder?'
Their goal was to eliminate me — or recruit me. And I, their target, hadn't set a single foot outside this Gate.
I could picture them stewing in frustration quite vividly.
'Would be nice if they just gave up and went home.'
Once they left, I'd be free to live outside again. Life in here had its pleasures, sure — but my growth had stalled badly. Breathing alone had clearly hit its limit.
'One point gained in a whole week. Enough said.'
For seven days I had focused on nothing but breathing, except when farming or eating. The increase in my total mana had been negligible. At best, breathing had given my dominion over mana a slight boost.
"Are you doing that breathing business again today?"
"No, today it's a different kind of training."
A week of breathing exercises was enough. Today, I was going to put the powers I'd been neglecting to use.
"You again, you wretch?"
"Oh my, aren't you the stalker?"
After their conversation with the Association President, the two had toured guild after guild, Gate after Gate. They had come on official business rather than as private individuals, so they couldn't exactly leave whenever they pleased.
'We should have just slipped in secretly.'
The thought running through both their heads at that moment was nearly identical. They had come under the banner of an official visit for the sake of wielding the authority of their names — but for all that, Korea's Association President had done nothing but play dumb.
And even a covert approach was off the table. An Awakener who had been so conspicuously active had suddenly vanished from public view.
'This is infuriating — why does this woman keep crossing my path?'
Perhaps because they'd arrived at the same time, their schedules overlapped completely. Matsumoto couldn't stand it.
"If anything, you're the one trailing after me."
"Excuse me?"
His mission unaccomplished, he kept running into a woman as incompatible with him as water and oil. The irritation could only pile up.
And that irritation had exactly one outcome.
"Have you hurt your head, perhaps?"
"Excuse me?"
A fight. They were both thinking the exact same thing.
I'm going to wipe that face off the map right now.
THUD! THUD!
Two S-rank Demons unleashed their mana at the same instant. Had it been demonic energy instead, the entire district would have been swept away — which meant, put another way, that a sliver of reason still remained in them, enough to hold that back.
"Shall we settle this here and now, then?"
"I'll tear off your head and hurl it at your master's feet."
Tee-tee-tee!
The Gate-breach sensors nearby reacted to the sudden release of mana, blaring alarms and scrambling a response.
"Kyaagh!"
"A gate breach!"
"Run!"
Civilians going about their day scattered in blind panic.
VWOOOM!
Their colliding mana shattered every fragile thing around them — glass windows bursting outward in sheets.
"Please, stop right there."
A man stepped between them.
The moment he wedged himself into their midst, the mana the two had been pouring out simply vanished.
"Woo Sang-shik…"
"You bastard…"
Team Leader Woo Sang-shik massaged his arm gently. Blocking the mana had been the right call, but the recoil of using a skill against two S-ranks was worse than he'd expected.
"If you're going to fight, fight with me as the target."
"Oh my?"
Grace was genuinely startled. He had all but sanctioned the very clash the two of them had assumed he'd come to prevent.
"If you both agree, I'll arrange a facility for you."
"I'm fine with that."
"I have no objections."
The two withdrew at Team Leader Woo Sang-shik's suggestion without protest. If he was going to the trouble of providing a venue, why refuse? Brawling here and now would do nothing but wreck their public image.
"Then tomorrow it is, and the venue will be the sparring hall at the Association."
Hearing this, the two immediately turned their backs and walked off in opposite directions.
"Whew…"
Only after both had vanished from sight did Team Leader Woo Sang-shik let out the breath he'd been holding.
'I thought I was a dead man.'
The A-rank closest to S. Closest to S, but still nothing more than an A. Stepping between two S-rankers above level 500 required nerve most people simply did not possess.
'I handled it exactly as the President instructed, but…'
Unsure of what might happen, Team Leader Woo Sang-shik had been on constant standby near the two Demons. His standing orders were to intervene in precisely this manner if conflict ever broke out between them.
'I've done everything I can do.'
The cleanup would be the Association President's burden to bear now.
Team Leader Woo Sang-shik said just one more thing under his breath as he watched them go.
"Hope your stomachs rot."
"And what on earth is that power supposed to be?"
Cheongun, hovering at my side, asked with undisguised disbelief. Honestly, the reaction was fair. I was currently glowing like a lantern from head to toe.
"It's harder to control than I thought."
"Well then, do something about that light. My eyes hurt."
With that, Cheongun produced a pair of sunglasses from who knew where and put them on.
"Hmm…"
I turned my senses inward, contemplating the flow of power within me. A golden energy that obeyed none of my commands, moving entirely of its own accord.
Divine power. Perhaps because it resembled the divine itself, it moved however it pleased. It passed through my heart and surged down my right arm. It crossed my mind and shot into my left leg.
'How am I supposed to control this?'
Even when I tried to circulate it in the same direction as my mana, it flatly refused to listen. However I coaxed and soothed, once the divine power started moving, it knew no brakes.
'Maybe I should flow my mana along with it?'
Perhaps it would blend with my dominion over mana and start obeying me. But that hope, well-founded as it seemed, missed by a mile.
'Now even my mana has stopped listening to me.'
In the beginning, my mana had suppressed the divine power on command — but as time passed, it broke loose alongside it, slipping free of my control entirely.
"How long is this going to take?"
"No idea."
Cheongun grumbled and complained, but he seemed to like what he was seeing, because he kept fighting back a smile as he said it. Something about that expression made my blood boil.
"I will control it somehow before the day is out."
"I'll pray you succeed."
But Cheongun's eyes were silently pleading, 'please, just stay exactly like this forever.' That gaze, piercing even through the sunglasses, was more pressure than I needed.
Still, staying like this was not an option. Too many problems were piling up.
'Sorry, Cheongun, but I'm mastering this thing today no matter what.'
By the time I'd made that resolution, ten hours had already slipped by. Dinner hour had come and gone long ago, and I'd delegated the care of the elixir farm entirely to Cheongun.
"Listen to me for once, damn it!"
Finally, out of patience, I roared at it.
And at that outburst, the divine power that had been running wild through my body — stopped.