Chapter 132 |
Having returned to the so-called 'Room 4,' Yeon-woo pulled out a Blood Pack.
"Oh, he had those lying arou--"
Before Rawi could even finish his sigh of relief, Yeon-woo--having regenerated his jaw--bit into the Blood Pack. His sharply grown Fangs alone had punctured the thick pack.
"......"
"...Hm, oh...."
Rawi stroked his chin and muttered at the peculiar sight.
"He looks like those adults taking their health tonics."
At Rawi's comparison to health tonics, Yeon-woo paused mid-swallow.
He'd thought this was a fairly grotesque scene on his end. But objectively speaking, it was no different from the image of a chronically fatigued office worker sucking on a Red Ginseng Stick through overtime-ravaged nights.
Whether or not they sensed Yeon-woo's feelings, the two continued their conversation.
"So adults on the outside take tonics like that."
"The contents are obviously different, though."
"Are you feeling any better?"
Seome approached Yeon-woo.
"Seeing that you've regenerated your face, you must have had some reserves left...."
"......"
"Hm, I guess not."
Even after drinking for a long while, Yeon-woo couldn't speak, and blood still flowed from his neck, his leg, and beneath his clothes. It seemed he'd only rushed to regenerate his jaw.
Given that he'd been covering it the whole time, perhaps he hadn't wanted to show the gruesome state.
"......"
Watching Yeon-woo silently drinking blood, Seome gently suggested.
"...You can just use the Blood Packs here, right? If you sit down, we'll bring them to you. I think you should rest. Standing must be putting strain on your body, too...."
"......"
"You can at least let us help with this much."
Yeon-woo, who had been quietly studying Seome, nodded. Then, still with the Blood Pack clamped between his teeth, he walked over and sat in a chair beside the pure white table.
Blood trickling slowly down the chair legs was painfully vivid.
"......"
"...Do we just take these out?"
"Yeah, let's grab them."
"A refrigerator...? It's pretty far back."
On their last visit, they'd only gone in and out of the living room, so they hadn't known--but there was more space deeper inside. The colors were all so similar and shadows didn't form here, making the layout hard to grasp.
Rawi muttered as he looked at the large blood storage refrigerator.
"It's just like a hospital."
"A hospital...?"
"It's all white."
"......"
Seome glanced around at those words and nodded.
"I can see that."
It was a clean, white space where even a single drop of blood would stand out vividly.
"All the reputable hospitals have this kind of interior...."
"Aren't most hospitals white?"
"There are so many illegally run hospitals in The Gaps...."
"So many it barely even counts as illegal, is that it?"
"Not many go this far with the interior."
"I think this every time, but The Gaps is definitely a dystopia."
"Still, it's not like there are no skilled doctors."
Despite all their chatter, Yeon-woo remained silent.
"......"
"...Ah, here you go."
Yeon-woo gave a light nod of acknowledgment and took the Blood Pack from Seome's hand. Then he punctured it again with a bite. His throat had regenerated enough that the bob of his throat as he swallowed was visible.
"...If you're reduced to Oral Ingestion, it really must be bad...."
"Is there a specific basis for that judgment?"
"A blood mage of Mr. Yeon-woo's caliber should be able to absorb blood remotely."
"How do you absorb blood remotely...?"
"It's magic. You can't think about it with an outsider's common sense."
Having said that, Seome caught Yeon-woo's gaze and winced.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"......"
As if to say he didn't mind them talking about him, Yeon-woo politely gestured toward the remaining chairs. It seemed to mean 'stop standing around and sit.'
'...I suppose the recovery will take some time.'
Seome sat Rawi down first, then took the seat beside him.
"......"
"......"
Rawi broke the strange silence.
"Does that taste good?"
At that, Yeon-woo stared at Rawi. Yeon-woo thought:
'It does taste good, but....'
Given Velmareth's palate, most blood tasted good. But that aside, it still turned his stomach, and right now he was drinking to survive rather than for flavor.
'Then again, he's not old enough to know the feeling of an office worker chugging an Americano at lunchtime.'
A Red Ginseng Stick was closer to the mark, though. Figuring anything he said would sound strange, Yeon-woo silently finished swallowing the blood. His lack of response made Rawi visibly awkward.
"...Uh, sorry...."
"......"
"I just wondered if becoming a blood mage changes your sense of taste too, like how humans evolved for convenience."
"......"
"Right, I see, I guess not...."
Rawi averted his eyes. Since Yeon-woo had always been the one leading the conversation, his silence made things feel a little awkward.
'Looking at it this way, the power of one's voice really is something.'
Yeon-woo's behavior hadn't changed from usual. Maybe it was because he was such a composed person. The loss of a single voice created this much distance.
'When he doesn't talk, he really doesn't seem human.'
The thought just came to him.
'There's no wasted motion in anything he does....'
Rawi, who had been draped over the table watching Yeon-woo, shifted his gaze to Seome.
"When is Mr. Yeon-woo going to be able to talk with us again?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
"It's not like I can ask Mr. Yeon-woo."
"You're not wrong and that irritates me...."
Seome snuck a glance at Yeon-woo, and when he nodded, she continued.
"...It'll vary depending on accumulated shock and fatigue, but it shouldn't take more than a day. He's skilled enough to make a body function even when injuries should make movement impossible."
This meant his ability to handle blood was delicate and exceptional.
"As long as he's supplied with sufficient blood, reconstructing damaged tissue shouldn't be a problem."
"You know, now that I think about it."
Rawi straightened up and asked.
"Sunbae-nim, you know a lot about Blood Magic. I heard it used to be a relatively mainstream form of magic, but still, I'm impressed."
"I had personal connections that taught me things...."
"You had a blood mage friend in this day and age?"
"Obviously not."
The perception of blood mages had shifted drastically long before now.
Over a long period, The Foundation had committed too many atrocities using Blood Magic. The number of people who actually studied it was infinitesimal, and the blood mages still remaining were all either monsters or madmen on par with them.
Of course, the 'connection' Seome mentioned was something else entirely.
"...Someone who helped me, once...."
"Ah, the passerby?"
"...Yes, that person."
Seome spoke, once again gauging Yeon-woo's reaction.
"He'd come from a Vigilante Corps that collapsed fighting The Foundation."
A so-called 'remnant.'
***
Order of Azure.
"So that's where you were from?"
"Formal speech."
"Awfully sensitive about honorifics for a foreigner."
"I'm a naturalized foreigner."
He shrugged.
"The Order of Azure was a large knight order with branches worldwide. They were well coordinated with each other and operated with government backing, so... they were quite solid."
"......"
"Of course, everyone who survived is nothing more than a 'remnant' like me now."
"That...."
Back when she was still learning swordsmanship from him, Seome had many questions.
"Why are you called that?"
The Hero she'd seen was strong. He seemed to have plenty of flaws in character, but at his core he was good, and competent enough to help others.
But the word 'remnant' that had spread throughout The Gaps was unmistakably a slur no matter how many times she heard it.
"You're strong."
"Formal speech."
"An order that was supposedly so great in the past, now scattered to pieces--and the survivors being called 'remnants' as a slur. I don't understand it."
"The Gaps has always been that kind of society...."
How satisfying it must have been to watch those who'd pretended at nobility fall to the very bottom.
"For a reason as petty as that?"
"You don't need a grand reason to make someone a target of scorn."
"But...."
"Of course, there was a cause."
He neither drank nor smoked, surprisingly. Perhaps because of that, his voice--neither large nor small--always reached Seome's untrained ears clearly.
"There was a traitor."
"A traitor...?"
"It wasn't my branch, but there was a truly deranged bastard. Hid behind a mask of goodness and justice, then finally betrayed everyone and blew things up spectacularly."
"That's, well...."
"Some say he was a Foundation operative from the very start."
"But is that reason enough for a slur?"
"Whatever the case, that's where it started."
He said "it wasn't such a grand beginning."
"That's just how it goes with organizations that have long histories and large memberships--they accumulate plenty of corruption and bad habits. There were already problems from within, and that traitor just exploited the cracks."
"...That still doesn't sound like the decisive reason...."
"Think of it as a Jenga tower that was already teetering, and someone pulled one block and the whole thing came crashing down. Someone like me, stationed in a distant branch... I can't say exactly where it all started."
Just.
"We crumbled in the most pathetic way."
If only the people had been as noble as the name.
"......"
"...Was this traitor really so formidable that they could reduce you all to this?"
"Formidable enough, yes--he toppled a painstakingly stacked tower with a single gesture."
"Were there many people like that in The Foundation?"
"You must have heard things while traveling with me."
He asked this:
"'Major Arcana.'"
People chosen by the tarot cards of fate.
"That bastard was one of its members."
"Which number?"
"#15, The Devil."
The symbol of humanity's 'uncontrolled desire.'
"Impressive, isn't it?"
***
"......"
"I've heard he's dead now, though...."
Seome said, fidgeting with her hair.
"Who knows--no one claims to have seen the body."
"The way you put it, it sounds like a ghost story."
"I was told quite a few Arcana members are ghost story-level people. Being chosen by a card of fate means you've deviated significantly from human common sense."
"I'm actually curious about something."
Rawi propped his chin on his hand.
"What exactly is this 'Major Arcana'?"
"You... know what tarot cards are?"
"Of course, they're used for fortune-telling."
"They're artifacts created even before The Clock I mentioned before."
Seome drew a circle in the air with her finger and continued.
"Numbers 0 through 6 represent 'beginning and ignorance,' 7 through 14 represent 'will and socialization,' and 15 through 21 represent 'transformation and enlightenment'..."
"So The Devil card is the first step of that final stage?"
"You could see it that way."
"You said they 'choose' someone--what's the mechanism?"
"I don't know the mechanism myself, but my understanding is that the person on Earth whose fate most closely aligns with a given card receives it."
Rawi rolled his eyes and asked.
"If the person holding a card dies...?"
"Ah, death is a separate matter. Even before an Arcana member dies, if someone with a closer matching fate appears, the card simply moves to that person."
"That sounds a bit complicated."
"I only picked bits and pieces up while doing mercenary work...."
Seome made a troubled expression.
"Anyway, since the card represents that person's 'fate,' certain numbered members are known internationally as dangerous individuals. The Devil, belonging to #15, is one such case."
She added with an "Ah."
"I believe Korea has an officially registered Arcana member."
"Oh, really?"
"#12, I think...?"
"What's that one called?"
"No, I didn't memorize that far."
"Aw...."
And then.
"......"
Yeon-woo, who had been replenishing blood while listening to their conversation, thought:
"......?"
...The Devil?
Don't I have that card?