Red pupils.
Whether I expressed my fire qi.
They were different from the red eyes my father currently possessed.
If this side shone red containing fire qi.
Jang Seon-yeon's eyes gave the feeling of shining with blood.
Even his pupils were slit wide open, evoking a bizarre feeling.
‘What the…’
The fact that Jang Seon-yeon was alive was surprising enough, but
I broke out in a sweat at the incomprehensible sense of otherness I felt from him.
The pain in my right arm was already bad enough,
but a discomfort rising from within began to take over my body.
What? What the hell is this chill?
Chiiiiii—
Even so, the pain from the area where scales had sprouted was gradually intensifying.
‘This is…’
These past few months.
I had thought I'd grown somewhat accustomed to pain while training in the Twapacheongong I learned from Paekjon,
but this was a different pain.
‘It’s as if…’
a feeling of slowly spreading. Should I say it feels like the range of the scales is increasing?
The problem was why this phenomenon had suddenly occurred.
Furthermore.
‘Even though he looks like that, no one is paying any attention.’
Setting aside the fact that Jang Seon-yeon had appeared.
His eyes had changed into such a state. The fact that no one felt anything strange.
‘Does that mean only I can see it?’
Did it mean Jang Seon-yeon's pupils were visible only to me?
Why…?
While such complicated thoughts flashed through my mind,
a familiar voice reached my ears.
—You don't look well.
My eyes widened as I looked toward the owner of the voice.
The one speaking to me was Jang Seon-yeon.
—…You bastard….
—I hadn't intended to startle you. But judging by your reaction, I like it.
The sight of Jang Seon-yeon speaking with a grin bore an atmosphere quite different from the one I knew.
Why was that?
The face and voice were definitely Jang Seon-yeon's.
A sticky sensation from his voice.
Though I couldn't smell any scent, the tip of my nose felt filled with a fishy fragrance.
This was definitely blood fragrance.
‘Blood fragrance…? The stench of blood?’
Having realized that much, I felt as though I knew what I was sensing from Jang Seon-yeon.
—Blood Demon…?
At my words, Jang Seon-yeon's smile deepened.
Seeing that, I could be certain. Why I felt a sense of otherness from him.
And why, despite being Jang Seon-yeon, he didn't feel like Jang Seon-yeon.
—You….
—You're quick-witted.
That bastard was not Jang Seon-yeon, but the Blood Demon.
—How… how are you here?
—Is it surprising that I'm here?
—Is that something to say…!
—I simply felt stifled and wished to get some fresh air. How do you like it?
—…What did you do with Jang Seon-yeon, the owner of that body?
Perhaps, just as Sin Noya had done, he might have descended by borrowing a body.
If Sin Noya could do it,
there was no reason the Blood Demon couldn't.
The Blood Demon spoke as if puzzled by my words.
—Oh dear. You burned this child to death most terribly. I wonder why you seek him from me.
—Don't talk nonsense. You didn't approach me just to crack jokes, did you?
—Tsk tsk.
At my growl, the Blood Demon merely laughed as if amused.
Meanwhile, the pain in my arm was steadily worsening.
This wasn't good.
‘Why is it suddenly acting up?’
Normally it was nothing at all.
To suddenly feel such pain….
‘Could it be… because of the Blood Demon?’
If there had been an unexpected occurrence, it was only meeting the Blood Demon. No matter how much I thought about it, that was the only one.
—You seem to be in great pain.
Though I was enduring without showing it, the Blood Demon noticed immediately somehow.
Seeing that, it seemed this pain was indeed related to the Blood Demon after all.
—…Did you do something to me?
—Tsk tsk… You would like to think so, but unfortunately, oh dear. I have no intention of doing such a thing to you.
—Nonsense! Have you forgotten how you forcibly shoved your energy into me?
—I did. And did any ill result come of it?
—What…?
Having forced it upon me, and now this bullshit.
—Surely there were times when you used my power in your time of need?
—…!
—It is a miracle I bestowed upon you directly. Did you truly not notice?
Those words meant the Blood Demon also knew I had used blood qi.
And. Even if the scales sprouting on my arm weren't the Blood Demon's doing,
I could tell that he knew about these scales as well.
—…What the hell is this?
When I asked the Blood Demon about the scales,
he looked at me with a strange expression.
In that expression, how should I put it,
I could feel an incomprehensible joy.
—As expected. Oh dear, you seem to be precisely the anomaly I had hoped for.
—Stop spouting nonsense. I'm asking what this is.
—You are clearly not one of my fragments; how ever have you begun to bloom?
—…Fragments?
And blooming?
—I myself am not entirely certain, but if that is the case, you would be the first among humans. A matter for celebration, indeed.
—Why do you keep babbling things I can't understand?
—I am saying it is something to rejoice over. Is it not wonderful? It means you are escaping the incompetent, filthy lower species and ascending above.
The Blood Demon's voice was permeated with joy.
—I eagerly await the day you quickly break your shell.
With a voice seething as if intoxicated,
and words spat out as if elated, my head spun.
The more he spoke, the more severe the intense pain in my arm became.
At this rate, I felt I wouldn't be able to hold back a scream for much longer.
The Blood Demon, watching this, spoke filled with mirth.
—You seem to be in much pain. Oh dear. I shall bestow mercy upon you once again.
—What…?
—This also carries the meaning of congratulations, so do not forget it.
The moment the Blood Demon spat out those incomprehensible words,
the blood qi I had planted in my dantian suddenly surged up with a whoosh!
Violently so.
As if obeying someone's command, it churned powerfully.
Though I didn't feel pain, the energy moving of its own accord was the problem.
I tried to suppress it somehow, but the rampaging blood qi gushed from my dantian and devoured my body.
‘Damn it!’
It took merely seconds for the blood qi to permeate my entire body.
The problem was,
‘What…?’
that the pain I had felt until then subsided in an instant.
Could it be an aftereffect of the blood qi?
Then did the blood qi put the pain to sleep?
I checked my throbbing arm.
I couldn't very well roll up my sleeve here, but the pain had definitely disappeared.
No matter how I looked at it, it was difficult to see the current situation as unrelated to the Blood Demon.
—Tsk tsk….
Even in this situation, the Blood Demon was busy flashing a smile at me.
—That child seems to quite dislike me.
—…Dislike you?
—Oh dear, the pain you felt arose from hostility directed at me.
At the Blood Demon's words, I had to furrow my brow.
Didn't that mean the scales sprouting on my arm were something extraordinary as well?
To feel hostility toward the Blood Demon?
What the hell was this?
—It is instinct. That is how it is. An arrogant creature that does not wish for another equal being in the same world.
What was so enjoyable about that, that tone of satisfaction.
That grinning expression.
Even that sense of anticipation.
I couldn't understand any of it.
Above all,
—Why are you telling me this?
I had to know why the Blood Demon was doing this to me.
I knew he was showing me kindness.
Whether this was truly kindness, or a calculated act, I didn't know.
But at least, this meant there was no reason for the Blood Demon to act this way toward me right now.
—What the hell do you want from me?
—Nothing. I want nothing from you.
—You appear before me looking like that, and that's all you have to say?
It was absurd. You want nothing?
While showing so clearly that you wanted something?
—If I must find something I desire, it is that you become capable of doing far more than you can now.
—You still say things I can't understand. Disgusting.
—Oh dear, the day you understand these words is not far off. If you come to know it someday, you will come to find me of your own accord. I simply await that day.
—You think a day will come when I seek out a calamity like you? Should I take that to mean you look forward to me coming to kill you?
The moment I uttered the word ‘calamity,’ the Blood Demon's smile deepened.
—It seems you've found out quite a lot faster than expected. Not bad.
—…Speak clearly. What's your goal? Why are you doing this to me?
—My goal.
The Blood Demon paused briefly. He seemed lost in thought,
but soon spoke again.
—Breaking free from the predetermined. If that is a goal, then that is my goal.
—What is that—
—Originally, I had planned to move to seek the fragments a little sooner. But seeing you who has begun to bloom, I believe I may change my mind.
Blooming.
I could only furrow my brow at words whose meaning I couldn't understand.
His words about changing his mind meant he had intended to do something from the start.
I didn't know how, but what had donned Jang Seon-yeon's skin was unmistakably the Blood Demon.
Did that mean it intended to commit something using Jang Seon-yeon's appearance?
‘…Then, as I suspected, the reason no trace of Jang Seon-yeon could be found even after returning from the demonic realm.’
Was that also the Blood Demon's doing?
How on earth?
I still couldn't easily guess the Blood Demon's intentions or what kind of being he was.
By nothing more than the words he spat out,
I could only tell that at least the Blood Demon was not human.
No, I had known from the start. I had simply become more certain.
—I shall move a little more slowly. So that you may gradually come to realize.
—Who decided that, what are you going to do—!
Vwom—!
The instant I tried to speak to the Blood Demon,
I felt my consciousness grow distant.
Dizzy.
—Do not worry. It is the backlash from suppressing the hostility.
—…What did you do to me this time…
—As I said before, I have not done anything crooked to you. Look. Even the master of the abyss within your body is not staying still.
As the Blood Demon said, the beastly bastard that would always bare its fangs and growl
was showing no reaction for once this time.
Ever since I harbored the divine sword within my body, Sin Noya was a given, but even the beastly bastard had rarely shown itself—thinking of that, I wondered if that was the reason, but
now was not the time to quibble over such things.
—Today, I truly came only to greet you.
—However, apart from that, this is quite a harvest for me. For I have been able to see a clear path.
—I eagerly await the day you come to find me on your own two feet.
As the Blood Demon's voice continued, my consciousness gradually faded.
I tried to hold on somehow,
but in the end, I couldn't endure, and the cord snapped just like that.
And.
By the time I regained consciousness,
the Orthodox Alliance meeting had already ended.