The Foreigner on the Periphery

His gaze remained fixed on her face.

Choi Seona spoke. Her ability had not been this incredible from the start. She had experienced the same difficulties many precognitives faced.

"It was impossible to control properly, and I saw a lot of futures I didn't want to see. There was so much useless information. Seeing only fragmented scenes often made it difficult to interpret their meaning."

"My role was to sift through that and extract whatever was meaningful," Choi Panseok added. "Of course, that alone provided me with immense opportunities and profit. She truly is a treasure."

The turning point that completely changed her was the terrorist attack a few years ago.

Human supremacists had relentlessly attacked the father and daughter from the very beginning. The fact that a human had been adopted by an orc—and an orc who wielded wealth and power, no less—wounded their pride. A supposedly inferior orc was living a better life than the human majority and was even providing for a human.

Then, a few years ago, another reason was added.

Because of all people, she had married Kwak Do-chul.

The acclaimed actor Kwak Do-chul was famous for playing gangsters, corrupt politicians, and local thugs... and he was an orc.

"My father was my hero. I couldn't help being drawn to a man who resembled him," Choi Seona said. "Though... the contents beneath that shell turned out to be absolute garbage."

Her father had tried to stop her, but she had forced the marriage through on her own.

An unforeseen choice—the end of that mistaken marriage was disastrous.

Choi Seona let out a hollow laugh.

"Even before I got married and suffered the attack, my abilities were excellent, but they weren't at the level they are now. I could prophesy national-scale incidents, but I failed to foresee the most important events in my own life."

The fewer people aware of an incident in the future, the harder it was to foresee.

And the weaker the ability, the harsher that penalty became.

"I didn't foresee that the man I was marrying was a cruel idiot, nor did I predict that marrying him would provoke those racists into poisoning me with Magic Poison. That's the flaw of this ability. You can't see what's right under your nose."

She had barely escaped with her life, but the aftereffects were devastating.

"Seon-a already had a weak constitution, and she was left poisoned for far too long. We received a diagnosis that modern medicine couldn't cure her, and that only a highest-ranking priest could save her."

Such clerics could not be mobilized by anyone short of a Dragon-level power broker. Even the status of a Korean assemblyman wasn't enough.

"Faced with a mortal crisis, I grew desperate too. I searched for any possible way to survive."

Perhaps it was because her life hung by a thread?

Whether triggered by the sheer exhaustion of her desperate instincts or not, her precognitive abilities surged by several levels. It was a frequently reported phenomenon that the abilities of those facing a life-threatening crisis would spike. Thanks to this, she reached a realm she could never have touched in the past.

"Thanks to that, I saw the completed puzzle. The future where I survive, after getting involved with a certain person."

To simulate that process, she had repeated her precognitions hundreds, thousands of times.

"Only he can cure me."

Blade's eyebrows twitched.

"Are you saying he's a pope-level priest?"

"I'm not certain whether he possesses that kind of Divine Power himself, or if he can mobilize someone who does. The information I saw in my visions was limited... Also, strangely, prophecies about him are much blurrier and more uncertain than those about anyone else. The only thing I'm certain of is this: I have to make him take an interest in me. Only then will he save me."

The orc chimed in.

"We need your help for this process."

"We need to expose your existence, that 'Sword,' to the public."

Blade remained silent for a moment.

The precognitive before him had accurately seen through his true identity.

In truth, his known traits could have been obtained through Choi Panseok's intelligence network: that he had the ability to brainwash people and primarily used a sword.

However, deducing that his true identity was the Sword was the result of combining that existing knowledge with the information gained from precognition.

"Why?"

"My body needs to completely break down. That man has to feel the need to cure me, revive me, and extract the information from my head."

"What if you just speak honestly and beg him to cure you?"

"He won't move if I approach him like that. He seems to harbor a very important secret, and he wants to keep it hidden."

This was a certainty she had gained after countless simulations using her evolved abilities.

"I don't know the exact details, but he's trying to avoid any risk of that secret being exposed, so it would be impossible even if I promised him billions. He wouldn't take a risk just to save a stranger like me."

Therefore, they had to use a different method.

"If I appear holding you in my hand, cause a massive uproar, and then fall into a coma, he will absolutely grow curious about me."

Divine Power, when channeled under the perfect control of a high-ranking priest, could return a ruined body to a healthy state.

During that process, it wouldn't just reset shattered bones and torn muscles; it would completely purify the Magic Poison contaminating her body.

As if nothing had ever happened.

"One more thing."

She had already planned out the massive uproar that would serve as the catalyst.

Choi Seona had people she needed to kill.

"I was attacked simply for marrying my husband. I ended up with a terminal diagnosis. I know it was my choice, but that man cheated on me while I was left in this state."

A husband who abandoned his dying wife to sleep with another woman.

"He did it over and over again. And eventually, he even put out an assassination request to have me killed."

The goals she explained to Blade were twofold.

To kill Kwak Do-chul and his mistress, and to draw the attention of the person who could cure her.

Through her precognition, she had found a way to accomplish both simultaneously.

However, Blade harbored a doubt.

'Kwak Do-chul must have submitted the request to headquarters after Choi Seona was already poisoned with Magic Poison. Did she still fail to foresee that? Or did she know in advance and yet...'

If she knew he was going to commit a crime anyway, if she knew he harbored an evil enough nature to do so... had she deliberately let him be until he actually committed the sin?

'Because if he's destined to commit a sin worthy of death, it's only right to kill him?'

He couldn't be certain, but he had a feeling that was exactly the case.

While he was lost in thought, Choi Seona spoke firmly.

"To draw attention with a crime of passion while simultaneously clearing myself of the murder charges, you have to be exposed."

It was a connection of contradictory concepts, but Choi Seona knew the method. The assemblyman chimed in.

"The police need to know about the existence of a mind-controlling Sword. And it needs to be proven. I think the best method would be for you to brainwash someone else right there on the spot. We make them realize that Seon-a killing those two bastards was done while under your mind control, clearing her of all charges."

After much deliberation, Blade agreed. He would participate in the plan to save Choi Seona.

For one, there was no doubt that she was an outstanding precognitive.

He only agreed after warning them that if they betrayed him, he—considered Earth's greatest assassin—would chase them to the ends of the Earth to execute them. They shouldn't entertain any foolish thoughts.

Then, Choi Panseok spoke.

"Now then, let's discuss the next agenda. The other reason you had to come to this country. Regarding the other request."

Blade flinched. Aside from Kwak Do-chul, he had come here to assassinate a single assemblyman. The client's identity had been shrouded in secrecy, but...

"Don't tell me?"

Choi Panseok laughed.

"That's right. I submitted that request too."

It wasn't simple bait. A precognitive's arrangements connected countless dots so that a single action could achieve multiple outcomes.

"While you're killing one, won't you kill the remaining twenty-nine as well?"

The father and daughter explained why Blade had to do so.

*

The earthquake stopped.

Choi Panseok looked down at his daughter in her hospital bed with a worried expression.

"How is your body feeling?"

Choi Seona forced a smile and replied.

"I was a bit startled, but I'm fine. As I said earlier, this is the best my body has ever felt in my life."

"Is it that good?"

"Yes. It's much better now than even before I was poisoned."

She was still admitted to the university hospital owned by the Red Dragon. The watertight security Minjun had requested from the Immigration Office was still in place.

However, it wasn't at the absurd level it had been initially. Upon returning to Korea, Jenkinson realized his strictly by-the-book secretary had taken excessive measures and readjusted the security personnel. Even at this current level, Choi Panseok was satisfied.

Even if they were the world's top hitman syndicate, they wouldn't be able to breach a security net of this caliber to threaten his daughter's life.

"Let's stay here for the time being. There's no place safer than this."

"But..."

Choi Seona's expression rapidly darkened.

"What's wrong?"

She looked up at her adoptive father and spoke in a hesitant voice.

"Are you really... not going to tell me anything?"

Choi Panseok shook his head with a stiff expression.

"I'm sorry, Seon-a. I cannot tell you."

This current situation was the result of a consensus reached by his daughter before she lost her memories, Blade, and himself.

Regarding "that man" who held the key to curing her, Choi Seona had only repeatedly produced strangely uncertain and hazy prophecies.

Consequently, they knew she had to do this to survive, but they didn't clearly know his identity, and there were gaping holes throughout the flow of events. They didn't even know why the man would be interested in the Sword.

Because her mind had only been scattered with incomplete fragments of future information, pieced together bit by bit, the father and daughter had put their heads together to connect them.

Choi Panseok thought to himself.

'To think that agent was actually the man from her visions.'

He had been bewildered at first, but after learning about his background, he could understand it.

Whatever the reason they were connected, he was a man the Red Dragon Jenkinson acknowledged as a close friend.

Before losing her memories, Choi Seona had stated firmly through her precognition: she needed to have all her memories completely erased before encountering that man. Every timeline where she didn't do so ended in catastrophe.

Following those words, Blade wiped clean all the memories containing sensitive information right before completely breaking down her body.

"But... I'm so anxious. I blacked out and woke up to find Do-chul dead, and what's more... that I killed him with my own hands...!"

Tears welled up in her eyes.

Stroking his adopted daughter's hair, Choi Panseok firmly resolved himself to something.

'This is for the best.'

He spoke in a comforting tone.

"I'll say it again, this was all set up by someone. You were simply bewitched by a wicked artifact, and the real murderer is that Sword. You are just a victim caught up in this situation."

Even as he reassured her, he thought to himself.

'This is how your sins are forgiven.'

Choi Seona had forgotten everything she had personally planned and committed in the past. Furthermore, when she killed Kwak Do-chul and the half-elf, even though she had struck their necks with her own hands, her mind had been under Blade's control.

Therefore, in this very moment, Choi Seona's soul was innocent and pure.

Could anyone punish her, when she had no memory of committing the crime and had acted without conscious intent?

Choi Panseok was absolutely certain.

'This is actually for the best. You don't need to remember all those things. You don't need to tremble with useless guilt.'

Choi Seona's mind would remain in the innocent state it was in before the crime was committed.

Choi Panseok would bear the memories instead.

There was a chance his daughter might reconstruct the past based on future information. Even so, it was a gambit worth attempting.

"Now then, if your body feels well enough... may I ask you a favor?"

It was his first request since she had woken up.

Choi Seona wiped away her tears and nodded.

"Yes."

According to the simulations she ran before suffering her severe injuries and falling into a coma, the furthest point she could see in "the future where she survives" was this exact moment.

Around the time the earthquake struck Seoul.

'Everything turned out well in the end. Seon-a has perfectly recovered and will be cleared of all charges, and she's being safely protected under the Red Dragon's influence. Kwak Do-chul and his mistress are dead, and the one piece of trash from the Human Center Party who absolutely had to die is dead.'

The one individual identified as being connected to the group that attacked and poisoned Choi Seona absolutely had to be killed.

As for the remaining twenty-nine... according to the prophecy, they should have become "that man's" loyal servants by now.

'In the prophecy, it said he eventually grasped Blade's hilt. The problem is that we couldn't see what unfolded after that.'

If Blade brainwashed the agent, and that agent in turn controlled those twenty-nine, there could be no better happy ending.

Slaughtering all thirty assemblymen would make the National Assembly very smooth sailing this year, but the problem was the year after. By-elections would be held anyway, and the vacancies would be filled.

So, the far better option was to put gags in their mouths.

However, no matter how hard Choi Seona tried before losing her memories, it had been impossible to foresee what would happen after the man grabbed the hilt.

Now that her physical condition had recovered and enough time had passed, things might be different.

Choi Panseok waited in eager anticipation.

And when Choi Seona finally opened her eyes again...

"...?!"

Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind, and cold sweat poured down her forehead. Choi Panseok panicked.

"S-Seon-a. What's wrong?"

His adopted daughter's face had turned pale blue.

She wore an expression as if she had just experienced a horrifying nightmare.

*

Minjun stood in silence for a moment before the Sword. Frying Pan was still completely failing to grasp the situation.

'What is it? You don't feel anything?'

=I'm truly sorry. I thought I would feel something if I saw another 'fragment'... but right now, nothing is coming to me.=

Minjun felt a surge of irritation. Had this all been a wild goose chase?

He pondered for a brief moment.

"Wait."

A sudden thought flashed through his mind.

"...!"

Minjun reached his hand downward.

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