Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Another Choice, Another Path, Another Name (3)
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The dawn market was full of watchful eyes.
Busy merchants, food stalls preparing for the morning trade, porters hauling goods...
Seti and Soedung-guri skirted around the market to avoid their gazes, heading for Jangman's tavern.
Thanks to that, the two arrived at the tavern closer to morning than dawn.
"You're late."
An unfamiliar man stood at the tavern entrance.
He had short hair and wore a neatly tailored military uniform, with a pistol holstered at his waist. He looked every bit the soldier.
"Do you even know how much the appointed time has passed? Not an hour—a whole day. A day! Do you people have no concept of time?"
As if already acquainted with Seti, he glared at her.
It was blatant intimidation. Soedung-guri gripped the dagger in his bosom, but Seti stopped him. Without so much as twitching an eyelid, she replied in a sunken voice.
"What do you want me to do about it."
"...What?"
"Did I tell you to wait? You're the one who said you'd be here waiting."
Unlike when speaking with Soedung-guri, Seti's voice was utterly chilling.
"If it bothers you that much, draw your gun."
"...."
"Nothing to say? Then stop blocking the door and move."
The man glared back and forth between Seti and Soedung-guri without a word. After a moment of silence, he clicked his tongue and stepped aside from the door.
"...This better be worth the wasted time."
"That's for Grandma to decide."
Leaving the man in his military uniform with one last retort, the two entered the tavern.
The tavern interior was no different from when Soedung-guri had left. The sunken floor and broken ceiling remained the same. At least there were a few chairs and one table—that was fortunate.
"You're here?"
At the table sat Jangman tilting his liquor glass and a gaunt white-haired old woman, but upon closer inspection, the old woman wasn't sitting on a chair but...
'A wheelchair?'
Soedung-guri subtly furrowed his brow. Wheels without a speck of dust.
As he smoothed his expression and looked up, his eyes met the old woman in the wheelchair head-on.
Her face was covered in dark age spots, with prominent cheekbones and a long hooked nose. She looked just like a witch from a fairy tale.
"Seti, is that the one you mentioned?"
"Yes, that's him. What do you think, Grandma?"
"...Intriguing. His mana is as pristine as an elf's."
Her cool, serpentine gaze scanned Soedung-guri from head to toe.
"How can a human body achieve this? Most peculiar. I nearly regretted not coming myself."
With that, the old woman pulled out a few sheets of paper and a glasses case from beside her wheelchair.
"Don't just stand there—come sit."
Without hesitation, Soedung-guri pulled a chair up to the table and sat. Seti stood on tiptoes behind him.
"Shall we start with business?"
"Yes, please."
"Good, then first..."
The hooked-nose old woman, now wearing her glasses, spread out the papers as she spoke.
"Let's settle on a name. Do you have an alias in mind?"
Soedung-guri glanced at Seti's expression, then looked back at the hooked-nose old woman and answered.
"Yeomyeong. If I'm changing identities, I'd like to use Yeomyeong."
"...Yeomyeong? Not a bad name. And the family name?"
This time, the answer came from Soedung-guri's side.
"Cheon. If you're giving this guy a surname, Cheon is best. Cheon Yeomyeong. Nice ring to it."
All eyes turned to Jangman, who had been sipping his liquor.
A brief silence fell, and the hooked-nose old woman gave Soedung-guri a look that said, 'Is he right?'
Soedung-guri nodded in response. He had no choice. Cheon was no other than... the workshop foreman's surname.
"Cheon Yeomyeong. Not bad at all. I may not know fortune-telling, but I can tell it's better than Soedung-guri."
"...."
...That much?
Soedung-guri searched for a rebuttal, then shut his mouth upon recalling that everyone who'd heard his name lately had reacted similarly.
"Shall we move on? Yeomyeong, what do you plan to do with this fake identity?"
"Do I have to tell you that much?"
"Of course. I'll be your guarantor."
Guarantor? Hearing the unfamiliar term, Soedung-guri looked puzzled as he turned to Seti again.
But Seti's expression was no different.
"...Grandma? What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? Exactly what I said. I'll be this child's guarantor. Even the government won't dare dig into his background then."
"Wait a minute. That's...!"
"Seti."
The air between them grew icy cold. The hooked-nose old woman glared at Seti with raised eyes.
"Where were you planning to send this child? The academy? The Special Management Bureau? Neither, I presume."
"...."
"At best, mercenary work or hunter duties? Am I wrong?"
Perhaps she'd hit the mark, as Seti's face visibly twisted.
"...So what?"
"It's pathetic. Utterly pathetic."
"You know my plan?"
"No need to hear it. It'll be crude and dangerous anyway."
With that, a harsh silence filled the space between them.
Unable to bear the mood, Jangman grabbed his glass and fled the table.
Suddenly stuck alone between them, Soedung-guri—no, Yeomyeong—subtly pulled his chair back. Putting some distance from the table, he looked at both of them.
"May I ask a question?"
As Yeomyeong spoke, two pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"What exactly are you two talking about?"
"...Nothing worth mentioning. Grandma's just being nosy."
"Nosy?"
"Grandma's an incredible person. If she vouches for you, certain governments would come begging to take you in—that incredible."
"So that means..."
"She wants to bring you... no, Yeomyeong under her wing. What else?"
The hooked-nose old woman said nothing, merely listening to Seti.
Only after Seti finished did she slowly open her mouth.
"Yeomyeong. I don't know what she's promised you, but you'd do well not to follow her."
"...."
"This is sincere advice. Walk the bright path. Following her will only waste your talent."
It was a declaration brimming with conviction. Seti glared at the old woman with a look of disbelief. And Yeomyeong, who had witnessed it all, recalled Seti's backstory and asked.
"...Are you two actually blood-related grandparents?"
"Blood connects us. That's why I don't stop her from calling me Grandma."
The old woman's voice carried a contempt for her bloodline so deep it was hard to believe.
"...Blood connects us."
Dad's a junkie, Mom's a whore.
Yeomyeong recalled how Seti had described her parents. The words "blood connects us" felt different now.
As he fell silent, the old woman spoke again.
"Yeomyeong. Do you know? That this child is a meat puppet made by the Korean government?"
"...Meat puppet?"
"Grandma!!"
Seti shouted, but the old woman ignored her and smirked wickedly.
"Born in a lab without love, no different from a lump of meat. Bound by prohibitions, unable to rebel against the government—no different from a puppet."
"...."
"Is there any reason to entrust your future to her? Your youth and talent would be wasted."
The old woman extended her hand to Yeomyeong. As if feeling a kinship, a mana similar to Wave Yang Art rippled from her hand.
"Take my hand. I'll guide you to the bright path."
Yeomyeong stared at the old woman's hand. Then he turned to confirm Seti's trembling face, before looking back at the hand.
"Elder, may I have your name?"
"People call me Siri."
"...Siri."
Yeomyeong paused for a moment, then grasped Siri's hand.
"I knew you'd make the right choi—"
In the next instant, he drew his dagger from his bosom and swung it.
He'd aimed to sever her throat, but it only made a long gash. His unfamiliar left-handed swordsmanship was to blame.
'Just as I thought—a fake.'
From the split throat flowed not blood, but blue powder. Mana powder.
"...You do know magic after all?"
Seti blinked at Siri's body crumbling away.
"No, I don't."
"Then how did you spot the illusion magic?"
Yeomyeong pondered how to answer as he looked at her face.
From the conversation with the soldier at the entrance, something had felt off.
The wheels on the old woman's wheelchair were pristine, like new.
Above all, the mana emanating from her body was strange... Instead of listing it all out, he summed it up in one word.
"Instinct."
In that moment, the tavern door burst open as the soldier stormed in.
"Instinct? Instinct? You spotted my magic by instinct!"
The soldier looked at Yeomyeong with an expression no different from Seti's.
He strode up to Yeomyeong and seized his wrist.
Channeling his mana, he tried injecting it into Yeomyeong's wrist, but the superhuman body rejected the external mana, repelling it.
Something only a superhuman body could do. The soldier's face twisted.
"...You're really not a mage?"
"...."
"Sis, what is this guy? Like us?"
"...Sis?"
The moment Yeomyeong echoed her, the soldier's body began crumbling away.
* * *