“Aaaagh!!! Dire Species!! Dire Species! Dire Species have appeared!!!”
“Oh my, Mother!!!”
“Someone help!!!!”
While the party scattered in every direction.
Only two people, Chun-hyang and I, held our ground.
Dire Species?
With the Dark Moon already past, there was no way a Dire Gate had opened, and I had not heard anything about established species appearing around here.
I searched through Byeon Hak-do’s memories.
Dire Species that flowed out because a Dire Gate had not been closed in time and then settled in place were called established species. They mostly appeared in the northern regions, where there was a shortage of manpower. Thanks to that, these days, there was even a saying that established species were more terrifying than tiger attacks and smallpox.
By contrast, compared to the northern regions, the south was in relatively better condition.
Even when the area near Imsil, not far from Namwon, was devastated a few years ago by Dire Species that flowed out of a mid-grade Dire Gate, the central government had worried that the country’s finest granary region would be damaged and, as a desperate measure, dispatched the Royal Guard Special Military Unit. Thanks to that, they had been able to deal with all the Dire Species.
‘Does that mean a few of them remained?’
Well, it was not exactly impossible.
Grrrrrr—
SKREEEEE!
Before us, six Dire Species that had now fully revealed their forms bared their sharp teeth and exuded killing intent, as if they would charge at us at any moment.
Judging by their size and shape, they seemed to be at least mid-grade or higher, but—
“......As expected, I do not think they are real.”
“Pardon?”
At my absentminded mutter, Chun-hyang, who had already raised her energy to the fullest, asked back. I tilted my head toward Chun-hyang and whispered quietly.
“I said those things do not seem real.”
“!!!”
Startled by the unexpected words, Chun-hyang turned to look at me.
Meanwhile, I examined the bastards roaring as if they would rush at us at any moment once more. Their ferocious killing intent and terrifying appearance were certainly characteristic of those things, but in this brief gap, I could be certain.
‘If they were real, we would not have the time to stand around like this.’
There was no way Dire Species that had found prey, mid-grade Dire Species at that, would move this sluggishly. If those things were real, a chaotic battle should already have broken out.
‘I thought I would be lucky if I could just bring back processors for the by-products, but what a windfall this is.’
A defensive line using the natural terrain, and even illusions of mid-grade Dire Species.
There was definitely a capable illusionist at Wailing Pool.
‘I must catch them.’
I muttered inwardly.
This was an opportunity for Chun-hyang too.
I had thought we would have to wait quietly until the next Dire Gate opened, but to think we had gained a chance for practice this close to real combat.
Was this what it felt like when a lottery ticket scratched without much thought turned out to be a winner......!
I pulled down the corners of my mouth that kept trying to rise and spoke to Chun-hyang.
“I will show you an example, so you handle the rest.”
“Pardon? What did you just—”
Before the dazed girl could finish asking back, I adjusted my grip on Sword Amid the Battlefield and charged straight toward the group of Dire Species.
SKREEEEK!
WHOOOSH—
Sword Amid the Battlefield split the Dire Species straight down the crown of its head.
GRRRRRK—
The sensation of something hard being scraped traveled up the blade and spread through my hand.
‘Oh, the reproduction is excellent. It feels like I am facing the real thing.’
It had been worth deliberately lowering my output to the minimum and swinging.
An illusionist’s ability depended on how much presence they could grant to the illusions they handled.
If the things before me had been simple illusions, there would have been no resistance from that strike just now. But with the degree of presence I had felt in the collision a moment ago—
THWACK!
“Ugh.”
“My lord!!!”
Chun-hyang’s voice rang from behind me.
Taking advantage of the moment I was careless, the fist swung by a Dire Species dug into my side. I nearly flew backward, but quickly corrected my posture and charged at the bastard again.
‘Wow, if it were not for the rebound force, a few of my ribs would have broken.’
Admiring it inwardly, I poured strength into the hand gripping Sword Amid the Battlefield. Then I felt the sword in my hand resonate as if it had been waiting.
That is enough probing. Let us hurry up and deal with them, then see the owner’s face.
After briefly confirming the resonance of my beloved sword, I drove the blade into the mouth of the Dire Species roaring at me with its jaws wide open.
KREEEEEEEEE—!
When I stabbed the sword deep into its mouth, the Dire Species that had been thrashing wildly vanished without a trace in an instant.
Thud.
The strange cry of the Dire Species, which had rung out as if tearing my eardrums apart, cut off. What rolled across the ground in its place was a clay doll about the size of an adult’s fist.
“I really like this.”
I picked up the clay doll that had rolled onto the ground and examined it this way and that. At a glance, it looked roughly made, yet it captured the distinctive traits of a Dire Species properly.
Not just illusion art, but illusion art using objects......
Was this why the presence felt so outstanding?
While I picked up the clay doll and studied it, the remaining bastards all roared at me at once.
At their threatening momentum, as if they would charge at any moment, Chun-hyang shouted in an urgent voice.
“My lord, danger—!”
WHOOOSH—
When I raised my energy, the bastards that had been about to charge at me were blocked by an invisible curtain and began flailing, unable to advance any farther.
Materializing the body’s internal rebound force outside the body was one of the defensive techniques that only those at Fifth Bloom or higher could acquire. When that was developed further and one reached Full Bloom, one became a rebound body that could not be wounded by most attacks even without intentionally raising mana.
‘Well, in the end, the one who let his guard down is at fault.’
Suddenly, I recalled the moment in the Mirror of Safety and Peril’s future sight when that bastard Mong-ryong’s sword pierced my heart.
Was it my mistake that I had been so used to my Full Bloom body that I had not wrapped myself in a rebound barrier?
No, depending on Mong-ryong’s achievement, even wrapping myself in a rebound barrier might have been useless......
As if shaking off the chain of thoughts that kept following one after another, I shook my head shortly and spoke to Chun-hyang, who was staring at me with round eyes.
“What are you doing? Are you not going to save me?”
“Pardon!?”
“Are you going to leave me like this?”
GROOOOOOAR!!!
SKREEEEE!!!!!!
KRA-KRA-KRAK!
KRA-KRAK!
Even in the meantime, the Dire Species were struggling with all their might to break through the rebound barrier I had wrapped around myself.
As Chun-hyang looked over the situation again, a flash of hesitation crossed her face.
No, wait.
You cannot possibly......
At the thought that came to mind when I saw that face, I asked her,
“Do not tell me you are going to use this chance to stand by and watch me die here?”
“!!!!”
A caught-off-guard expression flashed across Chun-hyang’s face.
......It seemed I had struck the mark.
Wow, this is absurd. Were you really timing when to quietly get rid of me?
No matter what, I am your lifesaver.
I deliberately hardened my face and spoke seriously.
“Even if it looks as if everyone has run away, the six offices are watching this way with their eyes lit. It will not happen, of course, but if by any chance you stand by and let me die here, neither you nor your mother will be able to live comfortably.”
When I said it with a stern face, I saw Chun-hyang furrow her brows hard and reluctantly nod.
“......I shall obey your command.”
And sure enough, the petals of the Mindscape Flower began to wither.
‘Look at that narrow heart. You hate it that much just because I said something true?’
I grumbled inwardly, and then I felt Chun-hyang raise her energy.
SHRAK-KRAK-KRAK—
Thud, thud.
SKREEEEE!!!
For an instant, Chun-hyang’s figure blurred before my eyes. Among the group of Dire Species surrounding my rebound barrier, two of them—no, to be precise, one of them and the remaining half of another—returned to clay dolls.
Dear me.
I furrowed my brows hard. Then, as I drove Sword Amid the Battlefield into the remaining half that had not been cut properly and was thrashing because it had not returned to a clay doll, I muttered loudly enough for her to hear.
“To think you cannot even cut two properly at once. Rain, you say? This drought is a drought like no other.”
Chun-hyang turned to look at me with a face full of irritation, then stiffened white as she belatedly understood the hidden meaning of my words.
“......!!!!! H-how did you know that?”
Ignoring that, I retrieved Sword Amid the Battlefield and grumbled.
“Good grief. Even the light drizzle that falls briefly at dawn would be better than that. Cut the rest all at once. Otherwise, I will reduce your pay.”
The moment she heard those words, Chun-hyang’s eyes changed. The clearly flustered look vanished, and what glared back at me were the calmly settled eyes of an assassin.
A pay cut.
As expected, it was truly a magic phrase that could draw out an office worker’s potential to the limit.
In any case, the remaining Dire Species illusions, belatedly recognizing that there was another threatening existence besides me, charged toward her.
And at the same time, Chun-hyang’s figure blurred once more.
SSSSSS—
Thud, thud.
Thud.
This time, three heads properly rolled at the same time.
‘As expected, the effect of a pay cut...... Hm?’
It felt as if something had scratched my rebound barrier just now.
No way. I looked toward where Chun-hyang was, and the girl spoke with a prim face.
“I did it properly this time, did I not?”
I narrowed my eyes and spoke to her.
“It seems you failed to cut what you truly wanted to cut.”
“That must be your imagination.”
After glaring at her for a moment, I picked up the clay dolls.
These were the work of the same person as the one from earlier.
While I was carefully examining them, the party members realized the situation had calmed to some degree and began approaching one by one. The Revenue Clerk and the Rites Clerk dragged over the personal attendant who had served as our guide, forced him to kneel, and shouted at him.
“You bastard, you damned bastard! Were you trying to drive us all into a death trap?”
“If not for the Magistrate, disaster would have struck! You wretched bastard, whose orders were you following!! Huh!!?”
“Oh my lords, no. Truly, this lowly one knows nothing. It is the truth, oh myyy.”
The personal attendant cried out while banging his head against the ground. Perhaps because he had rushed out of hiding, the Personnel Clerk, covered all over in weeds and wearing a ridiculously crooked hat, shouted as if refusing to lose.
“Look at this wicked bastard! How dare you speak lies!! You are one of them too, are you not? Are you not!!”
Watching the Personnel Clerk grab the attendant’s shaggy hair and shake him wildly while threatening him made irritation surge up inside me for no reason.
No, why were these bastards tormenting an innocent man when I had not even ordered them to?
“Enough.”
“My lord, however.”
“I said enough. The one who recommended him to me because he had a good sense of direction was the Personnel Clerk. Then is the Personnel Clerk one of them too?”
“No! No, my lord!! Absolutely not!!! That is an utterly unjust thing to say!”
“Then stop saying useless things and just be quiet. Do not seize the wrong person.”
I cut off the Personnel Clerk, approached the personal attendant, and pulled him to his feet. The attendant was quite literally trembling from head to toe.
“It is done. There is no need to become servile before a crime you did not commit.”
“Huhuhuuh. My loooord......”
Only then did the tension seem to leave him, and the personal attendant’s shoulders slumped as he burst into tears like a child. I roughly soothed him and turned my gaze, only to meet that bastard Yu-bong’s eyes as he looked this way. He was staring at me as if he had seen something fascinating.
‘......Ahem.’
Yu-bong’s gaze felt burdensome, so I turned away. Then I heard the Personnel Clerk’s voice beside me.
“My lord, however.”
“However this, however that. Thanks to this man, did we not arrive properly?”
“Arrive properly? What do you mean......?”
The Personnel Clerk and the others tilted their heads and looked this way.
I looked over them once, then began walking ahead.
“Follow me.”
As soon as we crossed the ridge where the half-burned zelkova tree stood, a cluster of huts appeared, just as I had expected. Then, the personal attendant walking behind me shouted.
“That is it!! Oh my, that is right. There it is, my lords. That place is exactly— Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!”
The moment the attendant’s shout turned into a scream of shock—
GROOOOOOOOOAR—!!!!!
A house-sized tiger charged at me.
It was a white tiger so perfect it seemed painted, the kind that would appear only in folktales.
While the people scattered yet again in terror, I reached out without hesitation toward the tiger, which had its mouth wide open, full of sharp teeth.
CRUNCH!
Kihiiiiing—
When I applied a little strength to the hand gripping the scruff of its neck, the beast struggled in pain.
Facing the blue light in the white tiger’s eyes, full of killing intent and resentment, I grinned.
‘You bastard, consider yourself blessed. If not for the Mirror of Safety and Peril—’
My thoughts stopped.
Master of Illusions.
The characters wavering above the ferociously growling white tiger’s head, along with four flower buds, flared up and swallowed my vision whole.
‘......This is.’
Realization spread through my head, even though no one had taught me.
The scene before my eyes was...... the other person’s past sight reflected by the Mirror of Safety and Peril.
***
The inside of the village was full of screams.
Former Special Military Officers leading ruffians were dragging people out at random. Those who tried to flee had their legs cut off. Some had their ears cut, and others had their tongues cut out.
It was because they thought that as long as their eyes and hands remained intact, they could still work.
To them, the people of this village seemed no more and no less than livestock working for their sake.
His mother’s voice was heard.
“Dam, Dam. Run quickly with your brother. When you reach the valley beyond the mountain, find Uncle Jang. You must go quickly before the others find you.”
“Mom, Mom......”
“Hurry. You remember what we practiced with Mom, right? If you turn into a roaring tiger, you can run faster. Once you enter the forest, carry your brother and run.”
Mom, Mom......
“You are a good boy, my baby. Do not worry about Mom. Mom will scold all those bastards, so my baby does not need to worry.”
A resolute light flashed in the eyes of the mother, who pressed her lips together.
Mom......
Another child pulled the tear-soaked child along. The two children circled around the back path of the shabby dugout hut and hid in the bushes.
At that moment, the former Special Military Officers and ruffians burst in. There came the sounds of a struggle and shouts, and then the entire hut began burning in flames.
The child covered his mouth with both hands and desperately tried to hold it in, but sobs inevitably leaked out.
***
My vision suddenly opened wide.
Before me, the white tiger with eyes exactly like those of the child who had been crying sorrowfully at parting from his mother a moment ago was growling while I held it by the scruff of the neck.
“You—”
“Stop!!! Stop it!!!!”
Just as I was about to open my mouth, someone’s urgent voice came from ahead. The one who burst out of the bushes was a child who looked barely ten years old.
‘That is......’
The moment I confirmed the child’s appearance, my concentration wavered, and the white tiger in my hand thrashed.
“Ah, wait.”
Kek—
At the beast’s movement, strength entered the hand gripping its neck before I realized it.
“!!!!!!”
The people who had been watching me and the white tiger from a distance drew in their breath all at once in shock.
“A child?”
“Dam!!!!!”
The white tiger before me vanished as if it had never been there, revealing a small child.
Instead of the thick hide of a furred beast, what I felt in my hand was the soft skin of a child who had not yet fully grown. When I loosened my grip and set the child down, the boy who had burst out of the bushes a moment ago hurriedly ran toward the child collapsed on the ground.
“Dam, are you all right? Hm? Dam!”
“Brotheeer—”
The two children, who seemed to be brothers, looked so alike that it was hard to tell who was who.
“H-huh. This is enough to make a ghost weep.”
“I feel like I have been possessed by a ghost.”
“It must be a fox’s trick. All of us were bewitched.”
I heard the party murmuring behind me.
I slowly approached the children, who were clinging to each other and looking this way.
Master of Illusions.
Master of Image-Creation.
The ability names floating side by side above the children’s heads, and the eight Mindscape Flowers blooming freshly there, looked so alike one could not deny they were twins.
......Good grief.
I looked down at the two children with complicated feelings.
They looked barely ten years old.
The hardship of an era harsher to the weak was mercilessly pressing down even on the shoulders of those young children.
A sigh escaped me.
Though it had not been my own will, I had, after all, been the corrupt official representing the Korean people until only a few days ago. I had no intention of suddenly holding up grand things like patriotism or love for the people now.
However, one thing was certain. Children young enough that they should still be searching for their mother’s arms must not be made to spend their whole lives hiding away in a mountain like this, with nothing at all.
I had been frowning and lost in thought for a moment, but at a sudden thought, I slowly smoothed the deep crease between my brows.
‘But putting that aside.’
Two Fourth Bloom ability users had rolled in with the vines. What a windfall.
Good grief.
“This is excellent.”
When I muttered the exclamation that came out on its own and grinned, for some reason, the air around us froze even colder.