The air froze. Bewilderment colored Choi Panseok's eyes.
‘What is going on?!’
The old orc was a veteran assemblyman who had weathered countless storms.
Even so, he could not entirely hide his agitation. The man who should have been subdued by Blade by now had suddenly appeared, wielding a bizarre Sword and using completely incomprehensible means.
Only his years of experience allowed him to suppress the tremor in his voice.
“Return... What do you mean?”
Minjun's gaze pierced him.
“To be exact, I have something to return.”
Minjun was speaking down to him, but the orc did not dare protest or point it out. He waited for the next words in agonizing tension.
The Dagger twitched slightly.
“You used me quite well. Feeling safe now?”
That last remark was aimed at the daughter behind the assemblyman.
Choi Seona was trembling almost like she was having a seizure, seemingly still caught in the aftershocks of her precognition. The orc carefully shifted his body to place her behind him, shielding her from the agent's sight. He knew it was a futile gesture, but he felt compelled to do it anyway. His mind spun in chaos.
‘Could it be... was her vision wrong?’
No matter how he looked at him, the man did not appear brainwashed.
The quiet fury swirling in his eyes undeniably belonged to the agent himself.
‘The plan has been exposed.’
His blood vessels constricted, and a chill washed over his entire body. The orc abandoned any further attempt at denial.
“My daughter knows nothing of this.”
He slumped his shoulders. Then, his eyes brimming with desperation, he spoke.
“I orchestrated everything alone. Seon-a has done nothing wrong.”
Listening to the assemblyman, Minjun considered his words.
Indeed, she shared similarities with a prisoner—specifically, those criminals who had the memories of their crimes entirely erased.
However.
“Is that so?”
His voice radiated frost.
“Does erasing the memory make the crime disappear too?”
Minjun did not believe so.
He thought of the original sin he had forgotten for eight hundred years. Yet the sin Minjun recognized was not the one the Committee had used as grounds to condemn him. Minjun felt no guilt whatsoever over the act of creating Asiph-1.
To him, his true crime was inadvertently reducing his own people to the state of livestock, bled dry by parasites.
Intentional or not, the horrific outcome remained unchanged. Thus, he was a sinner.
And now, he intended to pay the price for that sin.
Minjun took a step forward. The orc, his face turning pale, shouted with all his remaining strength.
“...I had no choice! I had to save my daughter!”
He cried out desperately, appealing to empathy.
But the reaction offered him no comfort. Minjun's expression did not change. Unable to read a shred of emotion on the agent's face, the assemblyman felt his blood run cold. He had shouted intentionally, yet the hallway outside remained dead silent. He realized the hospital room had been magically sealed off, and the lives of both father and daughter hung by a thread. He racked his brain frantically.
“I apologize for deceiving you! But Seon-a foresaw that if I told you the truth, you would refuse to heal her...!”
“There is something I have never been able to stand.”
A crushing pressure filled the hospital room.
The orc felt his chest collapse inward, his airway constricting.
“I lose all patience when someone touches what belongs to me. People who trespass into my territory and make a mess of things.”
Minjun finally understood why he found this so utterly intolerable, why it fueled such immense rage within him.
It was because he had already experienced having everything stolen from him.
A phantom voice echoed in his ears.
“The people are suffering. Let us give them the gift of freedom. Let us help the potential of all races blossom, escaping the tyranny and dictatorship of those monsters who know nothing but domination and exploitation. Let us end this long winter and allow the spring of freedom to sprout.”
Minjun had only wanted to awaken his people a little earlier. That single desire had driven the entire situation toward catastrophe.
“So please, tell us. Where is the place that your people slumber?”
His people had been robbed of their most precious possession, the very blood that formed their foundation, and they were still being bled dry at this exact moment.
That was Minjun's original sin.
“But now, I have found something else I can no longer tolerate.”
Minjun's voice rang out sharply.
“Fools who try to slap a dog collar on my neck.”
The orc tried to protest.
But the blade of the Sword flying at his neck was much faster.
“Keugh!”
Pure killing intent concentrated on a single point.
Choi Panseok shrieked at the sensation of his throat being pierced.
“...Gasp!”
Yet, he did not die.
Trickle.
Rather than severing his jugular vein, the Sword stopped, barely tearing the skin. A red stream of blood trickled down his neck. The orc froze, unable to even breathe.
At that very moment.
Choi Panseok's eyes clouded over.
“...!”
Brainwashing.
This was originally the method Blade used to enthrall people.
The instant Choi Panseok lost his reason, Minjun felt a shift. The brainwashing power that Blade had planted inside the shadow monster had vanished.
‘I see.’
Minjun mentally cataloged the abilities of the fused fragment.
Blade's brainwashing was strictly limited to two targets: the one gripping the hilt, and the one wounded by the blade. Thus, the very moment it enthralled Choi Panseok, the shadow monster had returned to normal.
He compared this mechanic to the inherent abilities of the Frying Pan. The twenty-nine assemblymen remained fully under his control. The Frying Pan required the complex prerequisite of actually cooking for and feeding its targets, and its absolute grip over their minds was weaker than that of the Sword. In exchange, however, it could control a far greater number of people at once.
And now, the Frying Pan had absorbed Blade's abilities on top of its own.
‘This should prove quite useful for the time being.’
With that thought, Minjun sifted through Choi Panseok's memories. His creation fed the assemblyman's memories directly into his mind.
Within them, Minjun witnessed a repeating cycle of hatred.
“Seon-a! Wake up... Seon-a! Is anyone there?! Help!”
The orc desperately wanted to exact revenge on the species supremacists. His entire life had been a bitter war against discrimination, and the atrocity inflicted upon his daughter had been the final straw. Regardless of his initial reasons for adopting her, his love for Choi Seona was completely genuine.
Thanks to the assistance of his daughter's enhanced abilities, he had devised a two-pronged strategy.
In the short term, he intended to turn the very representatives elected by the supremacists into his personal puppets. It was thrilling just to imagine: an orc manipulating the bigoted assemblymen that voters had sent to infect the legislature with their prejudice. It was an intoxicating prospect. He also planned to squeeze every ounce of information from them to hunt down and eliminate everyone behind the terror attacks.
In the long term, his plan focused on constructive elevation rather than self-destructive vengeance. It was a revenge built on improving the lives of his heavily marginalized people. He intended to funnel wealth into the orc communities until they rivaled any other race, ensuring no one could ever look down on them again. He wanted to slowly tilt the balance of power toward the orcs. That was the true purpose behind the redevelopment bill—it was meant to be their stepping stone.
Minjun saw the twisted hostility burning in those memories. He also confirmed that the assemblyman had intended to use him as a disposable tool for that revenge.
The agent withdrew the Sword, its tip having barely pricked the skin. The adopted daughter's gaze followed the blade. Frozen like a wax figure, only her eyes moved.
“You are a remarkably rare talent.”
In fact, her precognitive ability was potent enough that the Committee would covet it if they ever found out.
“I told you, I came here because I had something to return.”
Choi Seona could not comprehend Minjun's meaning.
“...?!”
Unlike the Ego Sword's philosophical pondering, Minjun felt no confusion regarding the standards of good and evil.
His guiding principles were far simpler.
He would simply return the exact same malice that this father and daughter had shown by trying to use him as a tool.
“From now on, you will work for me.”
He had chosen to brainwash the orc instead of Choi Seona because he knew that losing one's reasoning severely degraded the efficiency of precognitive abilities.
“.....”
She had just witnessed a horrifying future a moment ago.
Choi Seona could simulate an endless array of possibilities. In her first vision since losing her memory, every single path had led to a gruesome end for both father and daughter. She had screamed for him to run in a panic earlier, but the truth was that no escape existed. Every route ended in catastrophe. Merely glancing at the brutal futures unfolding before her mind's eye was enough to make her swoon.
Yet, hidden among those countless branching timelines, there was exactly one path where the two of them survived in a somewhat favorable state.
That path was this.
The air froze. Bewilderment colored Choi Panseok's eyes.
‘What is going on?!’
The old orc was a veteran assemblyman who had weathered countless storms.
Even so, he could not entirely hide his agitation. The man who should have been subdued by Blade by now had suddenly appeared, holding a bizarre Sword and moving through completely incomprehensible means.
Only his years of experience allowed him to suppress the tremor in his voice.
“Return...? What do you mean?”
Minjun's gaze pierced him.
“To be exact, I have something to return.”
Minjun was speaking down to him naturally, but the orc did not dare protest or point it out. He waited for the next words in agonizing tension.
Flick.
The Dagger twitched slightly.
“You used me quite well. Feeling safe now?”
That last remark was aimed at the daughter standing behind the assemblyman.
Choi Seona trembled as if having a seizure, still caught in the aftershocks of her precognition. The orc carefully shifted his body to hide her behind him, shielding her from the agent's sight. He knew it was a futile gesture, but he felt compelled to do it anyway. His mind spun in chaos.
‘Could it be... was her vision wrong?’
No matter how he looked at him, the man did not appear brainwashed.
The quiet fury swirling in his eyes undeniably belonged to the agent himself.
‘The plan has been exposed.’
His blood vessels constricted, and a chill washed over his entire body. The orc abandoned any further attempt at denial.
“My daughter knows nothing of this.”
He slumped his shoulders. Then, his eyes brimming with desperation, he spoke.
“I orchestrated everything alone. Seon-a has done nothing wrong.”
Minjun considered the assemblyman's words.
Indeed, she shared similarities with a prisoner—specifically, those criminals who had the memories of their crimes entirely erased.
However.
“Is that so?”
His voice practically radiated frost.
“Does erasing the memory make the crime disappear too?”
Minjun did not believe so.
He thought of the original sin he had forgotten for eight hundred years. Yet the sin Minjun recognized was not the one the Committee had used as grounds to condemn him. Minjun felt no guilt whatsoever for the act of creating Asiph-1.
To him, his true crime was inadvertently reducing his own people to the state of livestock, bled dry.
Intentional or not, the horrific outcome remained unchanged. Thus, he was a sinner.
And now, he intended to pay the price for that sin.
Minjun took a step forward. The orc, his face turning pale, shouted with all his remaining strength.
“...I had no choice! I had to save my daughter!”
He cried out desperately, appealing to empathy.
But the reaction offered him no comfort. Minjun's expression remained perfectly still. Unable to read a shred of emotion on the agent's face, the assemblyman felt his blood run cold. He had shouted intentionally, yet the hallway outside remained dead silent. He realized the hospital room had been sealed off by Magic, and the lives of both father and daughter hung by a thread. He racked his brain frantically.
“I apologize for deceiving you! But Seon-a foresaw that if I told you the truth, you would refuse to heal her...!”
“There is something I have never been able to stand.”
A crushing pressure filled the hospital room.
The orc felt his chest collapse inward, his airway constricting.
“I lose all patience when someone touches what belongs to me. People who trespass into my territory and make a mess of things.”
Minjun finally understood why he found this so utterly intolerable, why it fueled such immense rage within him.
It was because he had already experienced having everything stolen from him.
A phantom voice echoed in his ears.
—The people are suffering. Let us give them the gift of freedom. Let us help the potential of all races blossom, escaping the tyranny and dictatorship of those monsters who know nothing but domination and exploitation. Let us end this long winter and allow the spring of freedom to sprout.
Minjun had only wanted to awaken his people a little earlier. That single desire had driven the entire situation toward catastrophe.
—So please, tell us. Where is the place that your people slumber?
His people had been robbed of their most precious possession, the very blood that formed their foundation, and they were still being bled dry at this exact moment.
That was Minjun's original sin.
“But now, I have found something else I can no longer tolerate.”
Minjun's voice rang out, sharp as a blade.
“Fools who try to slap a dog collar on my neck.”
The orc tried to protest.
But the blade of the Sword flying at his neck was much faster.
“Keugh!”
Pure killing intent concentrated on a single point.
Choi Panseok shrieked at the sensation of his throat being pierced.
“...Hrk!”
Yet, he did not die.
Trickle.
Rather than severing his jugular vein, the Sword stopped, barely tearing the skin. A thin red stream of blood trickled down his neck. The orc froze, unable to even breathe.
At that very moment.
Choi Panseok's eyes clouded over.
“...!”
Brainwashing.
This was originally the method Blade used to enthrall people.
The instant Choi Panseok lost his reason, Minjun felt a shift. The brainwashing power that Blade had planted inside the shadow monster vanished.
‘I see.’
Minjun mentally cataloged the abilities of the fused fragment.
Blade's brainwashing was strictly limited to two targets: the one gripping the hilt, and the one wounded by the Sword. Thus, the very moment it enthralled Choi Panseok, the shadow monster had returned to normal.
He compared this mechanic to the inherent abilities of the Frying Pan. The twenty-nine assemblymen remained fully under his control. The Frying Pan required the complex prerequisite of actually cooking for and feeding its targets, and its grip over their minds was weaker than that of the Sword. In exchange, however, it could control a far greater number of people at once.
And now, the Frying Pan had absorbed Blade's abilities on top of its own.
‘This should prove quite useful for the time being.’
With that thought, Minjun sifted through Choi Panseok's memories. His creation fed the assemblyman's memories directly into his mind.
Within them, Minjun witnessed a repeating cycle of hatred.
—Seon-a! Wake up... Seon-a! Is anyone there?! Help!
The orc desperately wanted to exact revenge on the species supremacists. His entire life had been a bitter war against discrimination, and the atrocity inflicted upon his daughter had been the final straw. Regardless of his initial reasons for adopting her, his love for Choi Seona was completely genuine.
Thanks to the assistance of his daughter's enhanced abilities, two strategies had been derived.
In the short term, he intended to turn the very representatives elected by the supremacists into an orc's personal puppets. It was thrilling just to imagine. An orc manipulating the bigoted assemblymen that voters had sent to infect the legislature with their prejudice. He could not help but be excited. He also planned to squeeze every ounce of information from them to hunt down and eliminate everyone behind the terror attacks.
In the long term, he planned a self-constructive revenge rather than a self-destructive one. It was a revenge built on improving the lives of his heavily marginalized people. He intended to funnel wealth into the orc communities until they rivaled any other race, ensuring no one could ever look down on them again. He wanted to slowly tilt the balance of power toward the orcs. That was the true purpose behind the redevelopment bill he had prepared—it was meant to be their stepping stone.
Minjun saw the twisted hostility burning in those memories. He also confirmed the assemblyman's intent to use him as a tool for that revenge.
The agent withdrew the Sword, its tip having barely pricked the skin. The adopted daughter's gaze followed it. Frozen like a wax figure, only her eyes moved.
“You are a remarkably rare talent.”
In fact, her precognitive ability was potent enough that the Committee would covet it if they ever found out.
“I told you, I came here because I had something to return.”
Choi Seona could not comprehend Minjun's meaning.
“...?!”
Unlike the Ego Sword's philosophical pondering, Minjun felt no confusion regarding the standards of good and evil.
His guiding principles were far simpler.
He would simply return the exact same malice that this father and daughter had shown by trying to use him as a tool.
“From now on, you will work for me.”
He had chosen to brainwash the orc instead of Choi Seona because he knew that losing one's reasoning severely degraded the efficiency of precognitive abilities.
“.....”
She had just witnessed a horrifying future a moment ago.
Choi Seona could simulate an endless array of possibilities. In her first vision since losing her memory, every single path led to a gruesome end for both father and daughter. She had screamed for him to run in a panic earlier, but the truth was that no escape existed. Every route ended in catastrophe. Merely glancing at the brutal futures unfolding before her mind's eye was enough to make her swoon.
Yet, hidden among those countless branching timelines, there was exactly one path where the two of them survived in a somewhat favorable state.
That path was this.
“Wha... Whatever...”
She barely managed to string a sentence together through her trembling lips.
“...Whatever you order me to do, I will do it.”
Her brainwashed adoptive father was now a hostage. At a single word of command, he would hurl himself out the building's window without a moment's hesitation. Choi Panseok's life rested entirely in the agent's hands.
Choi Seona realized she was caught in an inescapable trap. She also understood that the precognitive powers she had previously wielded for Choi Panseok would, from this day forward, belong solely to the man standing before her.
Minjun gazed with icy eyes at the father and daughter who had schemed to turn him into their servant, only to end up as his slaves instead.
*
=Could you explain things in a little more detail? Earlier today you said... that you created me?=
Because the situation had escalated into such a massive mess, it took over half the day to tie up all the loose ends.
Once they returned home, the Frying Pan reverted to its original form without even being asked. Although it had absorbed Blade's abilities and memories, the personality at the forefront was still the Ego Frying Pan's consciousness—the same one that had developed over eight hundred years. At its core, its identity was still closely tied to being a cooking utensil.
Minjun was in a similar state. Though he was actively recovering fragments of his lost memories, he remained fundamentally himself. However, his long-forgotten identity was slowly beginning to mix and bleed into his current sense of self.
“So, it goes like this.”
Minjun explained what he had learned.
Once he finished his story, the Magic Tool fell completely silent for a long time, apparently in a state of deep shock.
Finally, it transmitted a mental wave.
=...Um, well, if I summarize all that, it means I am a tool you created to awaken your people?=
Its tone was colored with doubt, but it quickly seemed to reach its own conclusion.
=And perhaps, by doing so, you believed you could save everyone and guide them to true happiness? Otherwise, I cannot explain why I was imbued with such a deep sense of purpose.=
The Kavite seemed to interpret this mission as the apocalypse, but Minjun saw no reason to mention that part. That narrative was undeniably just a convenient excuse conjured up to justify hunting down and suppressing Asiph-1. They were beasts built upon lies from the very beginning. There was no need to assign meaning to every piece of their wicked nonsense.
As he pondered this, the Frying Pan added another remark.
=Um, come to think of it, I always found it strangely difficult to call you 'Brother.' Was it because of this?=
Minjun suddenly remembered that the pan would address any man holding its handle as “Brother” and any woman as “Sister,” regardless of their age, yet it had never once addressed its new owner with such casual titles.
Well, it was likely just a coincidence.
=If that is the case.=
A profound seriousness suddenly colored the Frying Pan's telepathic waves.
=At this point, shouldn't we formally redefine the relationship between us?=
Minjun's eyebrow twitched.
“What are you talking about?”
=Um... well.=
After a brief silence, the Frying Pan struggled immensely before rolling out a single, heavily loaded concept.
=...Dad?=
“....”
Feeling the air instantly freeze over, the Frying Pan firmly resolved to postpone this relationship redefinition until a much later date.
Still, the sheer fact that Minjun had not immediately hurled it at the floor like during their first encounter was a tremendous improvement in their relationship. Feeling a bizarre mixture of disappointment and joy at that realization, the Frying Pan moved on to a far more important question.
=So, what exactly do you plan to do from now on?=
“I need more Talents, and I need more fragments.”
Ultimately, his dream was to resurrect the grand plan he had set in motion when he first created Asiph-1. It was absolutely necessary to awaken his people, but also...
“Because I have something to return to the bastards on the Committee.”
Of course, he had absolutely no intention of obediently handing over his people's blood or Asiph-1's fragments.
From this day forward, Minjun's goals had fundamentally shifted.
=Return what?=
It would not be easy, and it would take a great deal of time. The road ahead was undeniably long. However, Minjun engraved his unyielding resolve to pay back the Ancient Race for exactly what he had received from them.
Spanning an eight-hundred-year gap, the survivor of the primordial race made his vow.
“Shock and terror.”
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