Vivid blue mana enveloped my upper body. Even to my eyes, it was quite a fine-looking form. Transparent mana circuits, engraved like leaf veins, efficiently transported the mana within the barrier, and whenever mana flowed, the circuits flickered blue.
It was a barrier I had formed unconsciously, yet a rather perfect one.
Kim Hyojun's face turned slightly displeased, but he soon praised it.
"........The appearance is good. Especially the clarity of the mana."
But immediately, sarcasm returned.
"But it's weak. Too weak. Everyone, do you know what the problem with such a cadet is?"
Suddenly looking at the cadets, he spoke as if lamenting.
"The form is pretty. Very pretty. As if you only care about the exterior—no, in truth, you are only focusing on the exterior."
I glanced at my barrier. It was simply something created by my stigma's mana.
"Cadet Kim Hajin!"
Suddenly, Kim Hyojun pointed a finger at me.
"You are not an entertainer. For a barrier, though its exterior may crumble a little, high rigidity and strong defense are what matter."
In that instant, a condensed ball of fire blazed up in Kim Hyojun's grip.
"The barrier you created will likely be dispersed by a single shallow spell like this."
"Ah....."
I looked at that fireball and gauged it.
Honestly, I didn't think my barrier would break.
"Cadet Hajin, are you ready?"
"Huh? Ah, yes."
"Then I shall demonstrate."
Kim Hyojun did not throw the fireball. Through mana combustion, the fireball flew on its own at quite a high speed and struck my barrier directly.
Boom!
A small explosion occurred.
But my barrier was perfectly fine, and the fireball merely touched my barrier and dissipated.
In that instant, silence settled inside.
I admired it anew.
As expected, the stigma's mana—though its quantity was small—was quite formidable in terms of quality.
"......A-ahem, it's not complete trash. But!"
Ding-dong-dang—
At that moment, the bell signaling the end of class cut off Kim Hyojun's words.
"Hoo."
Kim Hyojun, letting out a sigh, glared at me with a very displeased expression and spoke in a strained voice.
"Dismissed."
* * *
[PM 5:00]
A grand mansion located in Seoul's Gangnam, with a site area of 1,500 meters.
Rising majestically over every inch of that premium land worth hundreds of billions by land value alone, the Western-style castle was the main residence of the Yu clan, famous for the Jeongsu Strait.
Today, Yu Yeonha had come to the main residence immediately after class ended.
"Young lady. You have arrived."
As the main gate opened, the butler who had been waiting greeted her with dignity.
"It's been a while, Butler. But........ where are Mother and Father?"
Yu Yeonha asked in a nonchalant voice.
"The Master has gone on a business trip, and the Madam has attended a seminar."
"Ah, really~? That's a shame.... I came because I wanted to see them after so long."
"Shall I contact them? The Madam has not long departed."
"Huh? No. There's no need for that."
Yu Yeonha smiled contentedly and entrusted her luggage to the butler. So Mother's not here either. Unexpectedly, the situation was much better.
"Then, I'll go to the study to borrow some of Father's books to read~ Since exams are coming up soon~"
"Yes, young lady."
And she stealthily moved to her father's study.
It was to find information about the Gwang-o Incident.
"It's been a long time since I've been here."
In the study she had entered for the first time in a while, there were tens of thousands of books, including collected works, ancient texts, and magic tomes. If this study's value were calculated, it would probably be worth hundreds of billions.
However, Yu Yeonha's interest lay elsewhere. She forcefully pushed aside her father's study desk and removed the transparent carpet laid underneath.
Thereupon, a secret safe revealed itself.
"......Huh? It has a password now."
Ten years ago, it had simply been buried in a square compartment.
Yu Yeonha pondered briefly, then pressed four numbers.
0429
It was Yu Yeonha's own birthday, but it was not correct.
0816
It was her mother's birthday, but this was also not correct.
"Hmm......."
Yu Yeonha was troubled.
She did have one informant specialized in hacking among her sources, but this safe was not digitally connected, so hacking was impossible. Did that mean she had to give up this futilely.....
Then, suddenly.
04290816.
The numbers combining both her mother's and her own birthdays.
It was bingo.
Slide, the safe opened.
"Let's see."
Inside was one old, thick diary.
Her father's diary, which he had written for 20 years. Yu Yeonha turned the pages, searching for the word "Gwang-o."
Gwang-o. Gwang-o. Gwang-o.......
"Ah, here it is."
[Today, I heard news regarding Gwang-o. ]
With a pleased face, Yu Yeonha read on.
End
[Today, I heard news regarding Gwang-o.]
At the same time as reading the first words of the diary, her informants sent information. It was compelling information that, immediately after the Gwang-o incident, Kim Hajin had been admitted to an orphanage near the Gwang-o shelter.
Disappointed that she had no potato chips, Yu Yeonha slowly turned the diary page.
By now, she had smoothly learned even the Chinese characters her father often used.
[The newspapers and news named last night's incident the "Gwang-o Shelter Demon Attack Incident," fragmented its progression, and delivered it. It spoke of the sudden rapid advance of a monster, and of citizens who had evacuated to the shelter along with nine heroes being massacred by a single demon.......]
.....What happened in Gwang-o that day, I would probably never forget for the rest of my life.
At first, it was simply content describing the "Gwang-o Shelter Demon Attack" incident calmly.
But starting from the very next paragraph, the atmosphere of the writing changed.
[.....Daetongnyeok Kim Seokho concluded that Jin Yeong-hwan, who had been bothering him, was a demon spy. Jin Yeong-hwan was an honest man. He was too honest for his own good, and perhaps Kim Seokho merely wished for his own flaws not to be exposed outside.
But Chae Jucheol agreed with the fact that he was a demon. Chae Jucheol also wished for Jin Yeong-hwan's death. However, Jin Yeong-hwan was a man of deep popularity with many subordinates who followed him. If he were assassinated alone, suspicion would be inevitable. Thus Chae Jucheol declared a massacre, hired a sharp blade, and entrusted me with the execution of that matter.]
"......?"
Yu Yeonha looked at the previous page, then the next page.
It was content she could not understand even with her eyes wide open. Wondering if she had perhaps misinterpreted the Chinese characters, she pulled up a dictionary on her smartwatch. However, the content was exactly the same, and Yu Yeonha read on through her father's ominous confession amidst confusion.
[That day. I received Jin Yeong-hwan's radio transmission. Jin Yeong-hwan's voice was urgent. However, that monster's rapid advance was something I had manipulated. Feigning that the rescue of human lives was the priority, I drove him and his subordinates into a deathtrap.
Gwang-o Shelter.
Jin Yeong-hwan had wished to protect the citizens there.]
The neat handwriting, clearly written by her father, seemed to pierce her eyeballs. Yu Yeonha felt pain around her eyes. A strange pain, as if her head were growing numb, was agonizing.
But she could not stop here.
[September 8th. 8 PM. The assassin hired by Chae Jucheol infiltrated the shelter.
He thoroughly massacred Jin Yeong-hwan and his colleagues.
They died just like that.
I had wished to bury that matter in my heart.
But the very next day, I received a report regarding that matter. It was a report that among Jin Yeong-hwan's subordinates, there had been a man with a heavily pregnant wife.]
A heavily pregnant wife. Yu Yeonha stopped at that passage for quite some time.
Full term.
They had said that Kim Hajin was admitted to the orphanage the very next day after the Gwang-o incident.
[The report contained one more interesting fact. It was that the placenta and umbilical cord had been discovered.
Even in a situation with death looming before her, the mother had protected her child and finally given birth.
And the corpse of that newborn infant was nowhere to be found.]
Having reached that sentence, the inside story became clear.
There was no physical evidence, but her heart was screaming loudly.
Even so, Yu Yeonha clutched her aching heart, hoping that that newborn infant was not Kim Hajin.
[The child was fated to die that day. Even if it prolonged its life a little, there would be no future for that child. Therefore, I sought to find that newborn infant and kill it.]
But at the cruel declaration that followed immediately from her father, Yu Yeonha felt something within herself shatter—as if a glass window were breaking.
Fragments of events from sometime in the past grazed sharply through her head.
—Just close your eyes for a moment, and it'll all be over.
The sight of him driving away the demonic armies to protect me was revived before her eyes.
He had risked his life to save me.
But my father had driven his parents to their deaths, and had tried to kill him.
[At that time, April 29th suddenly came to mind. I thought of my daughter, who had newly gained life. A mysterious blood relation who could do nothing on her own, yet whose very existence alone made me joyful.
I called the assassin and asked. The assassin said he had abandoned the child without killing it.]
Yu Yeonha bowed her head and clenched her shaking hands, which felt as if they were not her own, tightly.
In that instant, an unfamiliar voice reverberated in her ears.
—You know. Don't you think we could become pretty good comrades?
That was probably my voice.
Comrade.
The voice of me, who had never once had a comrade in my life, sent to him.
A worthless voice repaying the grace of having my life saved.
[In the end, I omitted the report regarding that child. However, I had driven the child's parents into a deathtrap and killed them, and I had not saved the child either. Perhaps even now, the child might be slowly dying on the cold ground.
I have no intention of denying that.]
—Don't you know? Buddy means comrade.
The not-so-distant past.
His voice, which had acknowledged me as a comrade, became a painful blade and seeped into her heart.
Yu Yeonha's fingertips trembled. She felt she could no longer turn the diary's pages.
Her heartbeat was rough.
From deep within her heart, emotions of unknown identity burned hot.
Guilt, resentment, grief, and shame...... She could not think of anything, nor did she wish to think of anything.
Cold sweat gathered on her feverish forehead. Her vision grew hazy, and a sense of lethargy, as if the entire world were contracting, swept over her whole body.
[But it was already a life lived to the fullest in cowardice. Even if further filth were to stain it, they were things only I would know, things that would never be revealed.
Thus I decided to forget.
For my daughter, for my household.
......Even so, is the fact that I am leaving this diary behind now the deed of a handful of conscience, or is it a cowardly heart trying to console myself? Or perhaps, if not that, is it a lingering grudge toward Chae Jucheol?
I cannot distinguish that.]
Kim Hajin's face and her father's confession gathered together to form the shape of a monster.
Yu Yeonha could not endure that monster.
Kim Hajin, Kim Hajin, Kim Hajin...... Those three syllables of his name hovered like an auditory hallucination.
Her throat was choked, her heart ached.
It was a tidal wave of emotion that she could scarcely endure.
* * *
[Seoho Memorial Park]
On a night where darkness had heavily settled, the crescent moon scattered cold light.
Tomer stood beneath that pale light.
She had settled all her affairs and come here.
She could no longer gauge the days ahead.
The reason she had lived was solely for revenge; yet since that revenge had crumbled without being achieved, she might tear her final will to shreds and take her own life.
Screech—
Tomer roughly flung open the door of the quiet, serene memorial park and searched for the name Agus Benhamin.
She could immediately find the cabinet where his remains rested. It stood out particularly among all the other cabinets.
[Agus Benhamin]
Inside the small, neatly square cabinet, the urn bore the Spanish name 'Agus Benhamin' engraved upon it.
However, several flower bouquets seemed to wrap around it, so it did not look lonely.
"What is this."
Flower bouquets that seemed to fill it as if offered every year.
Feeling incredulous, Tomer grasped and wrenched open the cabinet. And she grabbed the bouquets.
Attached to the flower bouquets were cards with the offerer's name and a simple message written on them.
April 2024: Kim Hajin.
August 2024: Kim Hajin.
April 2025: Kim Hajin.
August 2025: Kim Hajin.
All of them, Kim Hajin.
They had even been uselessly processed with mana, so they hadn’t withered.
“......Damn it.”
Tomer muttered a curse and threw all the flowers aside.
Then, a yellow envelope that had been carefully placed inside came clearly into view.
Tomer cautiously picked it up.
On the outside, in Spanish, were the words “To my daughter.”
In that instant, a hot flame surged up from her heart.
She tore the envelope open as if ripping it apart and began to read the letter.
She was only curious what kind of excuses this man had spewed.
[My daughter.
As I write this letter, I find myself in a complicated state of mind. Part of me hopes you never read it, and part of me hopes you do. And I wonder what you will feel when you read this......]
Tomer read it in fragments.
Part of the reason was that it had been a long time since she had seen Spanish, and it was hard to adjust.
[My wife could not resist temptation and sold her soul to a Djinn.]
[The fact that your mother had become a Djinn could not be allowed to become known.]
[In that mad society where witch hunts and guilt by association ran rampant, I wanted you to be safe.]
But there were many sentences she could not understand.
Even when she did understand them, most of their contents were things she did not want to accept.
What Tomer felt was anger rather than acceptance.
So this man was defending only himself until the very end, while dishonoring her mother.
[I wanted you to go to Korea. I wanted you to live a stable life in a place that was a little more stable. But when I came to Korea, you were not there. I had clearly entrusted you to my friend, giving him everything I had.
At that time, it felt as though the whole world had betrayed me, and I tried to end this worthless life......]
Tomer crumpled the letter without reading it to the end.
Thinking it was all nonsense, she was about to tear it apart.
However, two objects fell out of the envelope with a clink.
A rusted brooch.
A gift my father had given me on my birthday when I was young.
And a small character watch.
A gift I had bought with saved-up allowance and given to my father.
Tomer stared blankly at them.
Suddenly, she felt the foundation within her body tremble.
Leaning against the wall for a moment, she looked at the letter again.
Gathering herself once more, she slowly began to read it.
* * *
Busan’s finest hotel, “Yeonhwagwan.” A presidential room in a place where even an ordinary standard room cost upward of 500,000 won per night.
On the balcony of a 4,900-square-foot suite I never could have dreamed of when I was on Earth, I was tilting a glass of wine.
They said places like this usually couldn’t be reserved even if you had the money because there were no vacancies, but just as I was about to make a reservation, someone canceled, so I managed to book it cheaply. Though even “cheap” still meant the insane price of 8 million won per night.
Like this, luck made me comfortable starting from the most ordinary parts of life.
“......Nice night view.”
Sitting on the balcony, I gazed out at the distant horizon.
The beach came clearly into view, and the scene of the festival eve was dazzling.
We had arrived at five in the evening and enjoyed the eve until nine at night.
A water gun festival, fireworks, and even a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
I took pictures of Evandel and Hayang running around. The best shot among them was Evandel’s ecstatic expression when she tasted three-star food for the first time.
It had been a day like a vacation, one where I rested pleasantly for the first time in a long while.
[Thank you.]
And this was the text Tomer had just sent me.
This, too, made me happy.
Along with our creditor-debtor relationship, the “mana contract” still remained, so our connection had not been severed yet.
Tomer would no longer go astray and would become my ally.
“Waaah~ Hayang, look at this. Evandel and Hayang are inside this paper~!”
Evandel’s voice came from the living room. The photo I had just printed seemed fascinating to her.
At that innocence, a smile escaped me on its own.
Just as I felt the clear breeze and took a satisfied sip of wine—
Another text arrived on my smartwatch.
[Um, Hajin-ssi. Could I perhaps receive some instruction on how to handle mana?]
The sender was Rachel.
There wasn’t just one text.
[Actually, I was impressed when I saw the barrier you showed in class, Hajin-ssi. Lately, I feel like my skills have been stagnating too...... (?ㅜ?ㅜ?)]
The text was cute, but unfortunately, there was nothing I could do for her. I didn’t know anything, and Stigma’s mana had done it on its own.
More importantly, stagnating?
Was the bracelet not working?
I hadn’t been able to test whether it was functioning properly or not.
[I can pay you generously for the lessons too! (ㆁ?ㆁ?)!]
Just as I was about to send a reply refusing the second text, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Stagnation of skill.
In truth, without any particular effort required, if only the spirit powder imbued in the bracelet activated