‘…The guardian spirit hasn’t returned yet.’
So soon?
It was much earlier than he had imagined.
…It would be better to warn the boy before he got scared. He tried to speak naturally.
“I’m going to start coughing blood now, so…”
“……?!”
Ah, too late.
“Khaj… cough, cough!”
Blood splattered on the ground.
Raven, tilting his head as he spat blood, tried to straighten up by putting strength into his legs, but he lost balance. Dan, with a face full of concern, reached out to support him, but someone beat him to it.
“[…Now that I think about it, you also hurt your leg, right?]”
“Cough… ah, ancestor.”
“[I’m not your ancestor, I’m your hyung.]”
“Yeah, yeah, hyung.”
When the guardian spirit responded to Raven’s call and appeared, it was already too late—the monster’s fangs had reached his leg. Even if he cut it immediately, the wound was inevitable. Besides the leg, his body was covered with scratches from sharp teeth.
Seeing that pitiful state, the spirit’s green eyes darkened.
‘If only I had been summoned a little earlier…’
At least he would have prevented those unnecessary wounds.
Although he knew there was a big difference between being summoned directly and intervening on his own without a call, he had still been too late. How frustrating.
Not without reason. It wasn’t a careless mistake…
‘…Had he gone back to being defensive? Or was he just being annoying?’
His sharp eyes scanned Raven.
Meanwhile, Raven, unaware of all that, kept coughing blood while leaning on the guardian spirit’s arm. Then he raised his head.
With a hint of embarrassment and urgency in his gray eyes, he groped toward where Dan should be.
“I wanted to warn you so you wouldn’t get scared, but… I was too late.”
“……”
“It’s nothing, you don’t have to worry.”
…But it was hard to believe with blood dripping from his chin.
Dan watched him silently, then wrote the word “chin” in his palm.
“Chin…? Ah, sorry. That must have been unpleasant.”
Raven wiped his chin and the corner of his lips as if it were nothing. Unlike Dan, whose eyes trembled with anxiety, he was calm.
Of course, because it wasn’t a common illness or injury, but the price of allowing the guardian spirit’s physical manifestation. The timing wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t unusual.
To reassure Dan, Raven lightly patted the spirit’s arm.
“Did you finish clearing everything?”
“[Yes. No monsters left nearby.]”
The arm that was supporting his staggering body withdrew gently. But the spirit’s hand went straight to his leg.
Kneeling beside him, he checked the most damaged area.
“[And the elf herbs?]”
“Hmm…?”
He thought it didn’t hurt badly enough for that. Was it really necessary to look for herbs?
He lowered his hand and touched the wound. His fingers quickly soaked in moist liquid. It wasn’t a minor wound.
Without seeing it, he could imagine the spirit’s fierce glare directed at Dan. Raven let out a laugh.
“Certainly, it’s not a wound I can ignore if I want to move around normally, right?”
“[…Kid, I’m not exactly worried about that—]”
“I know, I know.”
Since he couldn’t see, he replied absentmindedly while tapping the injured foot on the ground a few times. The pain he felt with each movement made the severity of the damage clear. Ignoring the spirit’s piercing gaze, he started thinking.
‘At least it’s an area that doesn’t draw too much attention…’
But if he planned to keep walking like this, he would have to change the bandage frequently. If he left it too long, the blood would seep through to the clothes. He couldn’t afford to be lazy. What a hassle.
‘That’s why I wanted the elf herbs.’
Indeed, those herbs cultivated by the world’s most allied people, and delivered with their leader’s power, could even work on bodies where time had stopped.
But so what?
He shrugged.
“I ran out of them a long time ago.”
“[…Then, once you finish the ‘job,’ it’s best to visit the elf territory.]”
The spirit’s soft touch examined the wound.
Feeling the clear excess of concern, Raven slightly pulled his injured leg back and changed the subject.
“Before that, we have to help this kid.”
“[…Who are you calling kid?]”
“I get that you don’t like him, but don’t be like that. To me, he’s a kid. Just like you see me as one.”
“[I’m not your ancestor…]”
“Yeah, yeah, hyung.”
He was getting used to him hating that title.
Well, if he had died in his twenties and hadn’t even reached thirty, it was understandable that he didn’t like titles like “ancestor.”
Raven smiled while giving Dan a light pat on the shoulder.
“Then, can you lend me your eyes again?”
“[You’re going to move already?]”
“There’s nothing else to do here. Besides, this kid seems to be in an urgent situation.”
“[You’d better rest a little first.]”
The spirit, as if to make it clear, extended his hand and wiped the drop of blood hanging from Raven’s chin. Raven smiled wryly at that silent question of “Didn’t you just cough blood?”
“You already know perfectly well what I’m going to say, so don’t act surprised. Come on, lend me your eyes.”
“[…Alright. I had been outside too long anyway.]”
Being an out-of-body soul only accumulated karma by the second. It was better to return and lend him the eyes to minimize the impact.
‘Anyway, I can’t beat you when you get stubborn.’
And with that, the brief exchange ended.
As soon as the conversation closed, the light and color disappeared from the guardian spirit’s eyes. At the same time, Raven’s gray eyes shone with an intense green light, as if igniting.
The spirit, whose own eyes now lacked color and life, gently touched the edge of Raven’s eyes and showed a bitter smile.
“[Good thing it was after closing the portal.]”
If it had been earlier, everything would have been complicated.
Even so, he couldn’t help but worry about a boy who threw himself into danger without thinking, and although he knew it wouldn’t help, the spirit murmured the same words as always.
“[Do what you want…]”
“……”
“[…But don’t hurt yourself.]”
“……”
Raven, now able to see again, raised his head without saying anything and looked at his guardian spirit.
Those dull gray eyes, without a trace of light or color, didn’t seem to belong to someone real. They were just a shadow of his existence, as if only the memory of his presence remained.
Although he knew well the original color of those eyes from mirror reflections, realizing that he had never seen them directly in the spirit himself gave him a strange feeling. Raven watched him silently for a moment and then slightly lifted the corners of his mouth with a faint smile, waving his hand.
“I get it, you can go now. You’ve worked too much because of me. Go back and rest.”
“[…I don’t remember working that much, but fine.]”
After all, every second he stayed outside only accumulated more karma. The guardian spirit disappeared without saying more.
‘Alright then…’
Once he confirmed that his figure had vanished, Raven calmly stepped away from Dan. And just then, a new bloody cough shook him.
“Cough, cough…”
Fortunately, it wasn’t too much blood.
‘Maybe because there was an emergency adjustment in the middle of the process.’
Normally, the price for physically manifesting the guardian spirit was paid all at once at the end, when he returned. But if the body couldn’t withstand it, the adjustment was done partially in between, and this had been one of those cases.
‘In the past, I could’ve handled it all at once without a problem…’
Looks like ten years of rest had weakened him.
Since his body remained frozen in time, it had to be a matter of his mind. And mental strength directly affects soul endurance.
‘…At least it’s a relief that external karma can be healed.’
The spirit was part of Raven, but also a separate being. In principle, the karma for physical interference should fall on the spirit himself, but for some reason, being an extension of Raven, the price fell on him.
That’s why, every time he used his help, Raven ended up coughing blood and with his stomach wrecked, but since it was external karma, he could recover. And that was enough for him.
In fact, even if he couldn’t heal, he wouldn’t mind much either.
Anyway.
Pffft. He spat out the blood accumulated in his mouth, wiped himself carelessly, and drew a faint smile. Then, he noticed a fixed gaze on him.
Wow… those wide eyes.
“Don’t worry. This isn’t a contagious disease.”
“…….”
That wasn’t it. What was unsettling was how calm he looked, spitting blood and wiping himself as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The way he simply ignored the possibility that someone might worry about him was unsettling. Was I being too sensitive?
Who the hell was that man? If it wasn’t a disease, was it some chronic illness? Dan wanted to say so many things that his fingers trembled. But Raven, unaware of his confusion, spoke with a painted smile.
“Well, it’s time to keep my promise to you, right?”
“……”
“Tell me everything.”
***
No one had noticed, but someone was watching him from afar.
“…At last.”
A man who had witnessed every scene since Raven closed the portal, saved that miserable human, and stood in front of him, slightly curved his lips.
He had been bored after wandering around looking for his master, until he heard a rumor about an illegal slave trader nearby. Out of mere curiosity, he went there and came across a slave escaping, which caught his attention. He never imagined it would lead him to such a stroke of luck.
‘And when we searched so much for him, he never showed up.’
Nothing has changed.
Apparently, the “brothers” who used to argue because of him now even collaborated together. But he didn’t even know there was a bounty on his head; he just kept wandering around so carefree. Even now, did he know that there was more than one gaze following him?
He thought for a moment whether he should kill them all to make sure no one talked. But noticing that the main focus of that other gaze was the miserable human, he stopped worrying about that and focused all his attention back on the being he missed so much.
‘Ten years already?’
His fixed gaze followed Raven’s every movement with obsession. Not for a second did he look away, and he murmured in a voice dark as dried blood.
“I found you, father.”
Ah, perhaps now he would hate being called that.
Then… master. Either would enrage him.
Smiling shamelessly, he murmured those names that Raven hated so much.
***
There was no time for long conversations. Dan took off running first and began to explain while moving.
In reality, there wasn’t much to explain. Raven had already deduced almost everything, so a simple request was enough.
Dan wrote on his palm:
— Please save my sister.
“…Understood.”
The phrase was brief and without context, but Raven understood the situation immediately.
It was one of the possibilities he had already considered. After bandaging his wounds so the blood wouldn’t cause unnecessary problems, he followed Dan without much hurry.
…But it wasn’t long before he frowned.
“This direction…?”
“?”
“No, nothing.”
It must be a coincidence.
Raven shook his head and urged Dan to hurry.
Dan glanced at him sideways while running toward the place where his sister was.
Truthfully, the one who was more desperate was himself, which is why he had asked for help without thinking too much.
‘…It’s strange.’
That Raven was too strange.
He had black hair falling down to his waist, green eyes with a strange glow, and skin so pale it seemed made of snow.
Observing his entire figure, he looked like he was barely in his twenties at best.
‘It’s very suspicious.’
Too young and beautiful to be hunting monsters alone. But his aura was that of someone who had lived for centuries.
Although the time he had observed him was brief, there was a clear sense that something didn’t fit.
‘And that mysterious guy who appeared out of nowhere too…’
Dan slightly furrowed his brows.
‘Could it be… he’s not human?’