The Foreigner on the Periphery

Just as the mind dictates action, action likewise shapes much of the mind.

Ha Eunseong's courage to finally ask Minjun a question stemmed from this very phenomenon. It was his first time flying with someone on his back. Ha Eunseong felt an inexplicable sense of solidarity with the master—no, the creditor—riding him.

It was a strange shift, considering how terrified he had been of the man until now. To the ghost, Minjun had always been a frightening figure who coldly demanded his due. Naturally, he had kept his emotional distance.

But now his fear had vanished. With his psychological barriers lowered, he could finally speak up.

He remained blissfully unaware that this mental state was not much different from the bond a horse feels toward its rider.

Regardless, the body he currently inhabited was that of a dragon. Its genetics were heavily influencing his psychology.

"Um... excuse me, Agent."

"Hmm?"

Ha Eunseong's voice rang out clearly, piercing through the sound of flapping wings and rushing wind.

It was pure curiosity.

What was this man's plan, and what was his ultimate goal?

He knew Minjun was on the run from the Committee. Since Ha Eunseong himself was involved, it was naturally an issue he needed to care about. Even so, he hadn't dared to ask until now. It was a question that felt long overdue.

The creditor's goal was incredibly important, so much so that the man seemed desperate to achieve it. What was it that he desired so fiercely?

Completely shaking off the Committee's pursuit? Achieving total freedom?

Looking at the current situation, that seemed impossible through normal means. Surely he wasn't trying to overthrow the entire dimensional system.

Regardless, that goal had to be deeply connected to the item Minjun was looking for right now.

"..."

Minjun didn't answer right away. Ha Eunseong regretted asking an unnecessary question, but he didn't feel the extreme anxiety he would have in the past. Strangely, he felt comfortable. It was ridiculous—to think he felt at ease flying with a quarter elf on his back. Actually, what if the guy wasn't even a quarter elf?

Just as his thoughts reached that point, Minjun broke the silence.

"It's a very important item."

Because they were speaking Korean, the princess couldn't understand. Since the dragon had been brought in from another world, she didn't suspect a thing, assuming it was natural for them to communicate in an alien language.

Minjun intended to tell a slightly longer story instead of the sharp, brief answer Ha Eunseong had expected. He decided to do so for a reason similar to his debtor's change of heart.

Riding a dragon for the first time in a long while had filled him with nostalgia. Fond memories have a way of softening a person's heart.

The story that followed defied Ha Eunseong's expectations once again.

"A long time ago, people fell into a deep dilemma."

Ha Eunseong was puzzled.

A long time ago? Was this a story from a few hundred years back?

But "people"? Which race? He had a feeling they weren't people from Earth.

"It was because of a problem that couldn't be easily answered. A difficult topic. A question that fiercely divided opinions."

"What was the question?"

Minjun spoke in a flat tone.

"Is free will truly an indispensable element of happiness?"

Huh?

The sentence sounded far more academic than he had expected. Suddenly, Ha Eunseong remembered his school days, when his shoulders and arms ached from sleeping half the day away on a cold, creaky wooden desk. The question sounded like a high school ethics class, and his years of mandatory education could be summarized in two words: uncomfortable naps.

Why bring up something like that out of nowhere?

Harboring his doubts, he just listened quietly for now.

"In the beginning, the very concept of free will was up for debate. There were arguments that free will was an illusion because a person's mind was determined by genetic and environmental factors. The scientists' claim that the brain had already made a decision even before a person recognized making it sounded plausible. But eventually, the existence of the soul was proven, and they concluded that free will was indeed real."

Ha Eunseong only understood the last sentence of Minjun's explanation.

Free will exists.

"And then?"

"This discovery had a massive impact on penal theory. If free will exists, it means committing a crime is one's own choice. They chose the wrong path despite being capable of acting righteously. Thanks to that, people were able to break away from a deterministic worldview. There is no such thing as predetermined fate; the future changes based on individual choices."

In physics, personal choices are interpreted as classical mechanical events, but in the futures seen by precogs, they are considered quantum events.

"Sinners ruined those futures themselves. If they were allowed to continue committing crimes, it would ultimately destroy the happiness of both the individual and society."

Ha Eunseong didn't understand most of what was said. He just waited quietly for the next part.

"In the midst of that, people invented a near-revolutionary technology. The backdrop to its creation was their drastically increased lifespans. Since living absurdly long lives in misery would be a tragedy, they developed an endless spring of happiness."

A technology that induced feelings of happiness whenever they wanted.

Ha Eunseong, flying as he chased a butterfly, tilted his head.

"So, did they just erase all unhappy feelings? Sadness or depression, too? Then... they wouldn't really be human anymore."

"It wasn't like that. It gave them the strength to overcome bad emotions when they arose. It rapidly replaced negative feelings."

A technology that tampered with emotions inevitably had to affect free will as well.

Because inducing emotions and inducing thoughts cannot be perfectly separated.

"It wasn't their intention, but they ended up developing a technology that could manipulate the human mind."

"..."

Only then did Ha Eunseong begin to guess where this story was leading.

"However, they hesitated to intervene in people's minds beyond providing small sparks of happiness. They couldn't easily answer whether it was right to sacrifice more free will for the sake of greater happiness."

Minjun reiterated his first question.

Is free will indispensable for happiness?

"But the technology itself was incredibly tempting. So, they conducted more in-depth experiments on beasts instead of people."

The results were a massive success.

"The livestock never strayed beyond a certain range from their barns. When it was feeding time, they followed their guides back. They caused almost no trouble."

"But that's possible just by taming them normally, isn't it?"

"It was a much more surefire method than training. It prevented them from even harboring the thought of disobeying commands in the first place. It completely blocked the possibility at its source."

Minjun emphasized it once more.

The experiments were successful.

"The beasts were even extremely happy in that state. Brainwave analyses don't lie."

"..."

"But that technology, despite being fully verified on livestock, wasn't applied to people. For a very long time, it was only used within the passive scope of supplying happiness like before. However... the situation changed a bit later on."

"Why?"

"I told you, didn't I? For a very long time. That was the problem. Too much time had passed."

'And to make matters worse,' Minjun bitterly continued.

"Over those long years, the number of people who died was remarkably low compared to the population. Because other technologies also advanced, everyone's lifespan increased exponentially."

"So what was the problem?"

"People became immune to happiness."

Happiness hadn't dried up, but the people drowning in it no longer considered their current state to be happy.

Brains and souls that had maintained continuous consciousness for far too long became desensitized to specific emotions.

Their minds simply weren't suited for such long lives.

Perhaps no living creature was designed for it.

"Their societal system was already tailored for happy, satisfied people. In that state, people seeking nothing but stimulation began to pour out, committing crimes. The longer they lived, the worse it got. It caused immense chaos."

That era was practically a living hell.

"Death cleans up more things than you'd think. Since people weren't dying of old age, grudges and conflicts rarely died either. People who were no longer happy began to hate and despise one another."

And hatred put into action led to sin.

A gruesome era.

They fell into a dilemma once again.

As a result, they began to tinker with the technology they had developed long ago.

"So what happened?"

"In the end, they made it. A tool to manipulate the human mind. A weapon capable of deeply suppressing their free will and controlling them so they wouldn't commit crimes."

Ironically, the people realized that a tool capable of manipulating free will had to possess free will of its own.

"That tool wasn't a physical substance. They used a soul as the material to make it."

A soul capable of dominating the human mind.

"The finished product looked like a savior that would answer their dilemmas and questions. Could utopia be resurrected? Could people stop hating one another? Could the disgust one group aimed at another be stopped forever?"

"...Did that happen?"

Minjun nodded.

"It did."

*

The two temporarily stopped their conversation. For a while, only the sound of the dragon's wings cutting through the wind echoed around them.

The dragon flew along, following the leading artifact just as before. He pondered the story in his mind.

It was Minjun who broke the silence again.

His reminiscence suddenly leaped across a massive span of time.

"But recently, someone restored their old technology. Using a soul as the material in the exact same way, they created one of those tools."

"...And then what?"

"To the group that rules the universe in the current timeline, that tool was highly dangerous. So they tried to destroy it. But the attempt was only half successful, and the tool's soul shattered and scattered across the dimensions. One of those fragments possessed the Frying Pan I carry around."

There was no need to ask whether he meant the black one or the silver one.

"...My god."

It was such an astonishing story that it took time to digest in his head.

A moment later, a single question naturally surfaced in Ha Eunseong's mind. There was a massive omission in Minjun's story.

He hadn't said what had happened to those people from the past who had reclaimed their utopia.

Just as Ha Eunseong was about to ask...

"We're here."

In the distance, the butterfly had stopped in midair.

Minjun observed the spot and nodded.

"They disguised it quite meticulously."

It looked like an empty, vacant space, but hidden there was a kind of 'floating base' masked by a barrier. It was high-level Magic. It was clear that the Shutan Kingdom of the past had poured all its resources into building it.

This time, instead of tapping the back of the dragon's neck, Minjun gave a verbal command.

"Up."

Ha Eunseong rapidly increased his altitude until Minjun told him to stop. The princess grew excited, knowing the entrance to the Sanctuary was right in front of them.

"Why are we moving away again? It's fine if the butterfly loses its power now. If I get close, the barrier will break."

"There is a high probability that the interior space of the Sanctuary itself is constructed of Magic. If that's the case, the problem is that you getting close won't just break the barrier; it will also affect the durability of the Sanctuary. It'd be like demolishing the house just to open the door."

The princess let out a low groan.

If that were true, she would never be able to enter the Sanctuary through normal means for the rest of her life.

Only then did she understand the intent of the king, who had never once permitted her to visit the Sanctuary.

However, understanding it and accepting it were two different things. Anger swiftly clouded her mind.

'A royal treasure trove I can never visit in my lifetime? Something like that... might as well disappear!'

But since she couldn't collapse it before extracting the treasures inside, the Shutan suppressed her impulses.

"Princess, wait here with the dragon. I'll breach the barrier and enter alone."

"What? Then you're giving up the combat power of a dragon."

The princess remembered that when she had asked if the dragon was both a means of transport and a military force, the man in front of her had neither confirmed nor denied it.

Could he have prepared the dragon purely for transportation from the very beginning?

While she was confused, Minjun contemplated what to do with the princess. He had no restraints that could withstand a Shutan's strength, and any magical means would lose their power once he moved far away.

'I'll have to leave the surveillance to Ha Eunseong. It's better to let her keep misunderstanding.'

He secretly sent a telepathic wave to Ha Eunseong.

'If the princess catches on and goes wild, drop her first, then grab her right before she hits the ground. The change in air pressure will knock her out.'

After giving that instruction, he turned his back.

"I'll be right back."

"There's no telling what traps are laid out inside. Without the dragon's power—!"

"It's fine."

Growing tired of dealing with the princess any longer, Minjun replied half-heartedly without even turning his head.

"Because I can pull the weight of more than one dragon myself."

"No, what do you mean by—!"

Before the princess could finish her protest, Minjun threw himself into the empty air.

Whoosh!

The startled princess screamed, but Minjun's gaze remained unwavering as he plummeted rapidly.

Gravity pulled him down swiftly. In freefall, Minjun stared fixedly at the spot where the butterfly had stopped.

The hidden barrier.

Pah!

The Frying Pan was summoned into Minjun's right hand. Emitting a silver light, he swung it forcefully into the empty air.

Crash!

Even though the Frying Pan didn't touch the barrier directly, an intense shockwave rippled out along the trajectory of his swing. It collided with the barrier's entrance where the butterfly had stopped.

With a tremendous roar, the sky tore open. He had cleanly stripped away the barrier alone. The interior of a building that shouldn't exist in the empty sky hundreds of meters above sea level was visible through the rift. Falling at his current velocity, Minjun slipped his body smoothly right through the gap.

"...!"

Riding on the dragon, the princess could only watch the scene with her mouth hanging wide open.

*

Entering the Sanctuary of Shutan, Minjun put away the silver pan and gripped the black one.

He asked Asiph-1.

"How is it? Can you feel..."

Before he could even finish his sentence—

"...!"

Minjun felt a strange recoil from the handle.

It felt as if an invisible someone had grabbed the end of the pan and was pulling it.

"You...?!"

The Frying Pan originally had the ability to change its shape, and after absorbing Blade, it became radically capable of transforming into a Sword.

But it had no ability to move on its own. Until now, that is.

Minjun loosened his grip on the handle. Then.

Swish!

Like a highly elastic spring, the Frying Pan surged in one direction. Still holding the handle, Minjun turned his body that way.

Acting like a compass pointing the way, the Magic Tool cried out with an excited telepathic wave.

=That way! It's over there!=

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