Sin Hyeok followed I Gangyeol out of the training camp. They headed for a nearby commercial district.
They abruptly ducked into a restaurant reeking of savory pork fat.
The two sat down and ordered, not exchanging a single word until the meat arrived and the alcohol came out.
“Here. Beer and soju.”
Only after the drinks were set on the table did Sin Hyeok finally open his mouth.
“Allow me to pour you a glass, Battalion Commander.”
“Ah. Sure.”
Deftly, Sin Hyeok poured exactly to the other man’s taste, the proper ratio of beer to soju that he remembered.
“Here.”
“Give me your glass too. I’ll pour you one.”
I Gangyeol likewise took Sin Hyeok’s glass and filled it with beer.
They gripped their glasses and clinked without a word.
Clink.
Without any particular conversation, they wetted their throats with alcohol. Even afterward, neither spoke.
Silently, they passed each other meat, ate wraps, and passed the bottle.
This peculiar atmosphere was unique inside the restaurant.
Rather, the suffocating silence drew the attention of everyone around them.
Yet even until they finished the meat, they did not speak to each other.
Sin Hyeok looked at the nearly empty bottles and asked.
“Shall we order more beer?”
“No. We have to return soon, so this is enough.”
Sin Hyeok spoke first to the man who had gone quiet.
“Aren’t you going to curse me out? I cursed and swore at you on my own, begged for your help shamelessly.”
I Gangyeol poured water into his cup and said quietly.
“You’re like a son to me. After all, I’m your godfather, aren’t I?”
“…….”
That word, *godfather*, that he spoke. Those words only suffocated Sin Hyeok’s heart.
“Brigadier General. My father’s death was not your fault. Do you still regret it?”
Sin Hyeok’s father had been Brigadier General I Gangyeol’s direct subordinate. They had shared life-and-death ordeals.
“I can’t forget. That bastard died in my arms. How could I forget?”
At his voice filled with regret, Sin Hyeok sighed.
“Whew.”
“That bastard, and the many others I failed to protect—I still can’t forget any of them.”
Regret flickered in the old man’s eyes.
Watching him drink water forlornly, Sin Hyeok swallowed his words.
*I’m the one who should be cursing, the one who should be complaining. How can I say anything now?*
“Sin Hyeok.”
He called Sin Hyeok’s name in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner. That I’m only saying this after eight years.”
“It’s fine. What’s the point after all this time?”
Sin Hyeok forced himself to understand.
“I fully understand that the one I should be pouring my wrath upon is not you, Battalion Commander, but another bastard.”
He had simply been caught in the middle.
I Gangyeol looked at Sin Hyeok’s seething rage with pity.
“It’s about those bastards. There’s something you need to know.”
I Gangyeol gave Sin Hyeok a word of caution.
“Do you remember the guild you handled?”
“Are you referring to that Persona, sir?”
They were the main culprits who had intentionally facilitated a Gate Break, causing civilian casualties.
Thanks to them, Sin Hyeok’s family had disappeared without a single body ever being found.
Of course, he had recently heard that there was a hidden hand behind it all.
“The guild master is still alive.”
“Ha, damn.”
“He escaped midway and went into hiding.”
Upon hearing this, Sin Hyeok realized why Brigadier General I Gangyeol had been showing his face so often.
“So that’s why you kept coming by, looking around every night?”
“Huh? You knew?”
“Wouldn’t I be an idiot not to? Every night after drinking, someone kept leaving hangover cures behind. And it was always the exact brand I always buy.”
“Hmm, ahem.”
I Gangyeol cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Anyway, be careful. Finish up your training here and lie low for the time being.”
At the word *lie low*, Sin Hyeok’s eyes grew fierce.
“……I refuse.”
“Ahem.”
Sin Hyeok proposed the opposite instead.
“I’ll be the bait. I want to sweep them all up at once and annihilate them.”
I Gangyeol hesitated at Sin Hyeok’s strong resolve.
“It’ll be dangerous.”
“My military life has always been the same. Every moment was dangerous, and every moment I survived it.”
At Sin Hyeok’s firm determination, I Gangyeol gave a forced nod.
“It won’t be easy.”
“I’m prepared.”
“If they’re targeting you, it’ll be next week. They’ll be aiming for the training period when you enter the Gate without instructors.”
Sin Hyeok nodded his head with a firm vow.
“Understood.”
“Good. Then see you next week.”
I Gangyeol stood up, looked at Sin Hyeok for a moment, and left first.
Sin Hyeok walked alone through the dark night and returned to his base.
*I’ll kill them. I’ll definitely catch them and tear every last one of those higher-ups apart.*
Hatred surged to the top of his head. His mind was burning.
He needed a way to quell this heat right now.
*I need a weapon—at least my own equipment.*
A strong desire drove Sin Hyeok to move.
While pondering what would be best, Lucien Parel suddenly came to mind.
An alchemist just like himself who had dominated the battlefield alone.
“Let’s go.”
He decided to go to him right away.
* * *
Late at night, Sin Hyeok knocked on Instructor Lucien’s door.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and entered, and the man welcomed him.
“It is quite late. What brings you here?”
With eyes that seemed to burn, Sin Hyeok asked for his help.
“Please teach me how to fight with alchemy.”
“Heh heh.”
He flinched for a moment at Sin Hyeok’s gaze, which looked as if it would burst into flames.
“Your eyes look as though they could kill someone.”
“My current state of mind is more than capable of that.”
Lucien swung the door wide open and welcomed him in.
“Come in, first of all.”
The interior, revealed by the wide-open door, was filled with all kinds of medicines and materials.
It would be more accurate to call it a researcher’s laboratory.
“I have not finished organizing yet, so it is a bit messy. Sit in that chair.”
Sin Hyeok sat in the chair and looked at him.
“How to fight with alchemy, you say……”
“I need that method right now. I wish to find a better path than the one I am on.”
He pondered briefly at words that sounded like a vow.
“Well, there are many methods. However, alchemy is inherently a backline position.”
“I know that much.”
The so-called skills of alchemy amounted to nothing more than making potions and synthesizing materials. That was all.
Of course, he possessed a few more as sub-skills.
“Still, what I can boast is that an alchemist with financial leeway is not easily defeated.”
Sin Hyeok listened intently to his words.
“While others diligently train in swordsmanship and magic, we simply mix this and that, make a potion, and we are done.”
“So I just have to throw them?”
“*Cough*, exactly. And as it happens, I am at the very forefront of that.”
Seeing him tout himself so strongly, Sin Hyeok smiled faintly.
“I suppose this is what you would be curious about. You may or may not remember it.”
He smirked and took out that dangerous potion Sin Hyeok had seen before.
“This is it. One of my masterpieces, the Explosion Potion, which you may have seen.”
A small black stone floated inside the crimson-swirling potion.
Its shape and color were familiar.
*That’s it.*
Before entering the Dragon Soul Corridor, Lucien had poured exactly that onto the ground.
“This is one of my specialties. I materialized magic and contained it within.”
At Lucien’s boasting, Sin Hyeok roughly guessed what technique had been used on the potion.
*The technique of crystallizing mana with magic stones.*
“Did you use that crystallizing technique in this?”
“Precisely. Then you, too, would know how to fight, would you not?”
He understood the intention behind Lucien’s subtle gaze.
“If it were me, I could simply make it?”
“You would likely be able to. However, there is a saying among alchemists.”
Lucien spoke with a serious expression.
“Alchemy is also called the study of creation. Therefore, creativity and unique insight are paramount. That is to say, even when making the same thing, it is your own individuality and point of differentiation that matter.”
Sin Hyeok listened quietly to his earnest advice and took it to heart.
“Therefore, if you are going to do it, try making your own unique combat potion—or rather, your own alchemical creation.”
“Very well.”
Sin Hyeok accepted his teaching.
“Just in case, I shall provide you with some materials. You will still need a bit of magic stone. It is quite useful to have.”
He rummaged about and offered materials, asking just in case.
“Asking just in case, but do you know how to use magic? Surely you are not unable to use it. After all, magic is essential for combat potions.”
Sin Hyeok smiled awkwardly.
“I cannot.”
“…….”
Parel’s face hardened at Sin Hyeok’s serious expression.
“Are you serious?”
Nod, nod.
Parel’s expression turned gloomy.
“Is it impossible altogether? Is it a problem with your Circle? Or an issue with manifesting magic?”
“It was both. In the past, I could not do it.”
Lucien urged him impatiently, pitying the mention of the past.
“Aah. How unfortunate. Just in case, try again.”
He hurriedly approached with an anxious expression.
Sin Hyeok tensed slightly at the sight of him gently placing a hand over his heart.
“Calm your mind for a moment. I shall guide you.”
Lucien directly guided mana toward the heart.
He flinched upon seeing a rather unique heart.
“Hm? What do you have attached to your heart?”
“Ah! That is a Mana Heart…… or so I have been told, at least.”
“What?!”
He gasped at the words that there was a Mana Heart in Sin Hyeok’s heart.
“Why is that there?”
“Um…… It appeared.”
“Hmm, yet you say you cannot use magic despite having it?”
At his words, Sin Hyeok attempted magic with a sense of disbelief.
“My apologies, but could you show me a 1st Circle magic tome just once? I have forgotten the runic language.”
“Ah! Here, look at this.”
In truth, when Sin Hyeok had been receiving instruction from Brigadier General I Gangyeol in the past, he had arduously engraved magic into his body just in case he might need it.
*Of course, it didn’t work.*
He could not overcome his constitution.
Still, what he had gained was the knowledge of magic.
Even if he could not use it.
“Hwooo. Fire.”
Hum.
The Mana Heart nestled in his heart emitted a strange vibration.
[You have cast magic without anyone’s help. The sub-skill 1st Circle Magic has been added.]
Sin Hyeok ignored the system notification and focused on the magic.
Runes of flame and intricate formulas blossomed in the air.
At his peerless proficiency, Parel watched in anticipation.
“Oh! It seems to be going well, does it not?”
“Huh? So it does work.”
However, the room was silent.
Parel turned his head and asked Sin Hyeok.
“No, where did you cast the spell? I cannot see it. You memorized the incantation perfectly.”
Sin Hyeok himself looked around before, with a sense of disbelief, looking at his finger.
At its tip, a red crystal had formed.
“Found it.”
“Heh heh, it seems the magic unraveled according to your constitution?”
“Yes.”
Confirming the crystal formed at his fingertip, he let out a hollow laugh.
“Fascinating. Does the mana released from within your body also turn into crystals?”
Nod, nod.
“Well now, this is a good turn of events.”
At his praise, Sin Hyeok looked at the result he had created.
“Would this not be more convenient for alchemy? It does not seem like a bad idea to give it a try.”
At his rather positive outlook, Sin Hyeok thought it was not bad.
“Then I shall show you the results before long.”
“Take your time making it. Something that is uniquely yours.”
At Instructor Lucien’s suggestion, Sin Hyeok fell into deep thought.
“What would be good……”
*I wish I had a weapon of my own.*