The Foreigner on the Periphery

Ha Eun-seong had been depressed lately.

There were several reasons for it.

First, there was no end in sight to paying off his debt of 180,000 Talents. He had no major complaints about his current life, but the uncertainty bred an anxiety that weighed heavily on his chest.

He also worried about what would happen to him once the dragon whose body he was borrowing woke up. Would Minjun just leave him as a free-roaming ghost? The agent seemed like a normal person on a regular day, but when it came to Talents and trouble, he acted like a cold-blooded, money-grubbing demon.

Another factor making him gloomy was a shocking truth he had recently discovered. It had to do with a certain Frying Pan.

'To think I was being brainwashed all this time!'

The feeling of happiness he experienced after eating food from the Frying Pan had apparently been pure mental manipulation.

Ha Eun-seong felt dumbfounded, along with a mix of fear and emptiness.

And an unexpectedly profound sense of loss.

The joy and thrills he had felt because of the Frying Pan were all lies—the result of being controlled by a Supernatural Ability.

In reality, the dishes Cathy had cooked for him up until now were not all that great.

No, to be completely honest, they were absolutely terrible.

Ha Eun-seong had cried when he tasted Cathy's true culinary skills at the lunch meeting they resumed after the Frying Pan was confiscated. It was not a metaphor; he had actually shed tears. Even now, Ha Eun-seong could not understand it. Just what did you have to do to make scrambled eggs so spicy they felt like they were ripping your nose off?

Ha Eun-seong had been eating food like that all this time.

The trickery happening in his brain had simply transformed it into incredible cuisine.

'It was like drinking water from a skull...'

The deprivation of falling into the abyss of reality after tasting supreme cuisine that surpassed the limits of his senses was far greater than he had imagined.

Cathy and Ha Eun-seong were already suffering from withdrawal symptoms over the Frying Pan. He felt like he finally understood why people became addicted to drugs.

Ha Eun-seong thought about it quite seriously as he stared blankly at the supermarket shelves.

'What is... happiness?'

If mental manipulation could make him feel happy, he figured living in that state forever might not be such a bad thing after all.

Erasing all suffering, anxiety, depression, and worry... Even if it were a false happiness, wouldn't it be wonderful to live completely soaked in it?

Just as he was having those thoughts...

Someone caught his eye.

'Why is he bugging me so much?'

He was currently out at the supermarket with Cathy to prepare for their next lunch meeting. Cathy was burning with motivation to stand independent of the Frying Pan and serve proper food; Ha Eun-seong felt terror, but did not dare stop her. After arriving at the supermarket, the two had split up.

However, a certain man kept triggering Ha Eun-seong's senses.

Even under the effects of Polymorph, a dragon's sharp senses were not completely deadened. Ha Eun-seong felt a suspicious presence from him. The man kept lingering around Cathy, even as he turned his gaze away to feign looking elsewhere.

"..."

Ha Eun-seong quietly moved to follow the man. Hiding between the display shelves, he observed his target from the other side. He could see the man continuously shifting to match Cathy's movements.

'What is his deal?'

Right then, Cathy snapped her head up. Did she notice?

She had not.

She glanced around, spotted Ha Eun-seong over the shelves, and walked toward him. At that moment, the man turned his head to follow Cathy's path. Ha Eun-seong hurriedly lowered his head to avoid making eye contact. He reached out to the shelf, grabbed the first thing his hand touched, and pretended to inspect the packaging.

"...Are you going to buy that?"

Cathy's voice was full of suspicion as she approached. Only then did Ha Eun-seong look at what he was holding. He hurriedly placed the orc nipple cream (350ml value size, buy one get one free) back in its place. When he turned his head, the man was already gone.

"Noona, did you notice anything strange?"

Cathy shook her head.

"No? Why?"

"Let's just keep walking for now."

Ha Eun-seong pushed the cart, moving alongside Cathy. He explained what he had seen. Cathy's expression hardened.

"It might be nothing, but..."

Cathy shook her head.

"No, that body belongs to a dragon. It makes me too anxious to just ignore it. I need to tell Minjun."

The moment Cathy pulled out her phone—

His vision began to shake violently.

"...?!"

Rumble!

The ground heaved violently.

"Kyaaah!"

"Earthquake!"

The tremors were so intense that shelves toppled and products spilled everywhere. His vision shook wildly up, down, and side to side. Ha Eun-seong swept Cathy up into his arms and moved to a place that looked relatively safe. While other people struggled to even move, he strode forward without hesitation, relying on the dragon's sense of balance and motor skills.

The earthquake dragged on for a long time before finally coming to a halt. Only then did Ha Eun-seong set down the woman he was carrying. Cries, sighs, and screams rang out from the crowd. People with minor injuries were popping up everywhere.

"Seriously, what is the Meteorological Administration doing? There was nothing about this in today's prophecy!"

Complaints erupted. Weather prophecies included disaster conditions for the day, and major events like earthquakes were naturally foreseen and announced at precise times in advance. However, errors like this did occur on rare occasions.

Grumbling broke out left and right—people complained that the skills of Korea's weather prophets were garbage, and that they needed to scout talents from other countries.

Ha Eun-seong realized that he could not find a single trace of the man anywhere. Cathy was staring down at her phone with a serious look on her face.

"Noona, what's wrong? Let's get outside first."

After a brief silence, she spoke.

She was still staring at a message someone had sent her.

"That earthquake just now... I don't think it was natural."

"Then what was it?"

Cathy was reading an automated message generated and broadcast by the Immigration Office.

-[Media Embargo] Earthquake occurred at 17:36 on X/X/2020 with the epicenter near Jagok-dong, Seoul. Presumed to be a Magic phenomenon. Agents in the area are requested to verify extraterrestrial involvement and report to the Immigration Office...

Cathy's eyes darkened.

That was exactly where Minjun was right now.

   *

Minjun was more than a little flustered.

He stared at the scene unfolding before his eyes. The safehouse in Jagok-dong, Seoul, bordered a greenbelt zone. That land, which had been dense with trees and grass just moments ago, was now choked with dirt and dust. When the airborne sediment slowly settled, the revealed landscape was overwhelming.

It looked as though a colossal creature had writhed on the ground and bulldozed its way through.

A desolate, fan-shaped plain stretched out, looking as though it had always been a barren wasteland without a single tree.

'Fortunately, it doesn't look like anyone was caught up in it and killed.'

That was only because the angle and direction had been masterfully deflected away from populated areas. The people present just gaped at the sight before them. No one dared to speak up or approach.

'This is a bit much. It's not like I did anything.'

He had merely blocked.

To parry Blade's piercing thrust, he had raised the Orichalcum Frying Pan given to him by his ex-wife. He had angled the flat surface like a shield to protect his body. He was just trying to buy a brief moment to cast a spell. Given the material, and the fact that it was crafted using Endelion technology, he had judged it would be able to block at least one attack.

But once again, it was complete overkill.

The items those Endelion guys made always had a tendency for that... But this was a product infused with Dell's sheer obsessiveness on top of it.

Vwoom! Vwoooom!

The Sword dropped on the ground hummed.

There was no sign of its host. The body had likely disintegrated into fine particles and scattered into the air.

No matter how outstanding an Ego Sword was, it could not budge an inch without someone to wield it.

The fight was Minjun's victory. However, the method by which he won was vastly different from what he had expected.

He muttered his ex-wife's name.

'Dell...'

The moment the Sword and the Frying Pan collided just now, a deafening roar had echoed as if the world were collapsing. Simultaneously, the ground had shaken like crazy. Minjun knew exactly what had happened. The repulsive force meant for him had been channeled into the earth like a lightning rod. Naturally, he had not taken a single scratch of damage in the process.

There was no way Blade's thrust carried that much power. The Frying Pan had rebounded it dozens, perhaps hundreds of times over. A bizarre waveform had coiled around the attack aimed at Minjun, amplified it to the extreme, and violently deflected it back. All without feeding a single ounce of recoil back to the owner holding the Frying Pan.

Minjun stared blankly down at the Silver Frying Pan and repeated a phrase he had lost track of saying.

'Dell, you always go... way too far.'

Still, he could not deny that it made wrapping up the situation much easier.

And he could vividly feel the creator's philosophy in it. The intent to grind anyone who dared touch the wielder down to the molecular level until not even bone dust remained, paired with the absolute resolve to protect the owner without letting a single hair be harmed.

"..."

Minjun approached the Sword resting on the ground. It was a relief the host had not been a particularly impressive ability user. If he had been a renowned Tier 1 Weapon Master, it was hard to even guess just how strong the attack would have been.

He put the silver pan away and pulled out the black pan. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he was desperately avoiding holding both pans in his hands at the same time. He felt like he would be overcome with a profound sense of shame.

He asked the ego frying pan.

'How is it? Getting a read on it?'

Minjun was surprised once again.

Because the normally chatterbox ego frying pan was displaying the virtue of silence.

Instead of answering immediately, it took its time, as if in deep thought, before finally replying.

=Hmm, could you get just a little bit closer?=

Minjun had no intention of actually grabbing the Sword himself, just in case something went wrong.

Vwoom! Vwoooom!

Meanwhile, the Ego Sword hummed desperately as it watched the agent approach. It felt a deep sense of frustration.

The opponent surely knew its true identity.

Choi Seona had foreseen as much.

Therefore, the chances of that agent randomly grabbing its hilt were incredibly low.

The Sword lamented. This was its limitation as an object possessing an ego rather than a living creature. Would it be locked up and abandoned once again? Was it about to repeat those dark years spent in the evidence locker of a police station in Mexico... right here?

A terrible despair welled up inside it.

The Sword asked itself.

'Could it be... that Choi Seona foresaw this situation too?'

The Ego Sword's mind drifted to the past.

   *

After concluding that he needed a Prophet, Blade had charmed various prophetic ability users and conducted a multitude of experiments.

However, not a single one met his standards. The moment he brainwashed them, their precognitive abilities became practically useless, and upon looking through their memories, he found that none were truly exceptional users. It was a deeply unsatisfactory result.

So, though he did not announce it, Blade even compiled a list of individuals suspected of either being prophetic ability users themselves or receiving aid from one. He had reasoned there were definitely capable users hiding due to various circumstances.

When he received the hit on Kwak Do-chul, Blade had taken the job personally because he suspected Assemblyman Choi Panseok was exactly that kind of person.

He held a deep interest in this orc assemblyman. Analyzing his past actions, the man had repeatedly made choices that would be impossible to make without knowing the future, and thanks to that, he had risen to his current position.

There were quite a few candidates worldwide who met those conditions, pushing the assemblyman down the priority list, but Blade decided to take this opportunity to dig through his memories.

Just as he picked a suitable host and headed toward the assemblyman's office...

"...!"

An unexpected voice rang out from beyond the closed door.

"Come on in. I've been waiting."

The orc welcomed the assassin.

And he was not even alone.

The woman sitting next to him was the wife Kwak Do-chul had commissioned the hit on... Choi Seona.

Blade painted an impassive expression onto his host's fleshy face. He looked back and forth between the two of them.

"There's no way information leaked. Yet you knew I would come here."

Headquarters never disclosed a contractor's identity to the client. Moreover, a contractor personally seeking out a client was something that was never supposed to happen.

But if they had foreseen all of this...

"The prophetic ability user isn't you."

He turned his head and looked at the daughter sitting next to him.

He could not think of any other reason why she would need to be present here of all places.

"It's her?"

Choi Seona nodded quietly.

"Instead of just cutting us down right away, please listen to what we have to say."

Of course, Blade had no intention of killing someone he had not deemed a villain.

Instead of saying that, however, he feigned indifference and threw the question back.

"Why should I?"

Choi Seona smiled.

"Because you want me alive. And this is the only way to save me. Even if you brainwash me, my precognition won't work properly. We need to join hands."

Blade stared at the face of the woman speaking to him.

A pale, sickly face. The contractor was well aware that she was in such poor health that she spent half the year in the hospital.

To the outside world, she was merely known as frail, but...

Blade shared the host's senses, which he had pushed to near-superhuman levels. A strange fragrance was drifting from her body.

"Poisoning?"

She nodded as she spoke.

"As things stand, I'm destined to die in less than a year."

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