The Foreigner on the Periphery

Princess Yuria felt an ominous pain.

"Ugh!"

Ha Eunseong, who was carrying her on his back, flinched.

'What's wrong with her now?'

But he couldn't ask. They couldn't communicate in the first place.

'No!'

The princess's scales twitched. Anxiety flooded her face.

'Of all times!'

A daily hell that no one could avoid until they were granted the marriage right.

The princess recalled the stories her mother had told her when she was young. Women in the past hadn't laid eggs every day like this. Unfertilized eggs had only come once or twice a month, and they had been much smaller, posing no threat to their lives. Nobody chose death out of fear of the pain, either.

But as time passed, everything changed. It was as if someone had placed a curse on the blood of the Shutan race.

No, it was definitely a curse.

She lamented. 'If only I weren't a Shutan, I would be free from this agony!'

Moreover, today was far too early.

'The sun hasn't even come up yet!'

She guessed it was the result of her hormones running wild due to extreme tension and excitement.

Princess Yuria felt her vision blur and her head spin. She resented her own body and her fate. With a harsh grind of her teeth, her jaw muscles bulged. Her lips trembled with sheer frustration.

'At such a crucial moment!'

Laying eggs in this era was a harsh ordeal for anyone, but the royalty had it slightly better. Priests would stay by their side to prevent excessive bleeding and help manage the pain.

But Yuria had never enjoyed such benefits. Divine Power was also a Supernatural Ability. Any priest who came near her was stripped of their power. Thus, Yuria always had to suffer the full brunt of the pain like a commoner. Up until now, without fail.

That was why the terror she felt right now was no different from an ordinary woman's.

A pain difficult to endure even in a perfectly safe environment—the very hell that sent the suicide rates of Shutan women skyrocketing far beyond any other species... she had to endure that here?

Lay an egg hundreds of meters in the air, riding on a dragon's back in the wide-open sky?

...She could die!

Terrified, the Shutan cried out.

"Qwetwalkwalktwefkak!"

Uttered in her native tongue out of pure panic, the sentence sounded like steel beams being pulverized to Ha Eunseong's ears. Realizing her mistake, she spoke again, this time in the common tongue.

"Set me down on the ground for a moment!"

But the dragon didn't seem to understand. Amidst her fear, the princess felt a flicker of suspicion. Where in the world did this dragon come from that it didn't know the common tongue?

At the same time, she cursed reality once again. An ordeal striking at the very moment her goal was right before her eyes. Looking back, her life had always been like this. Unlike Princess Vermi, nothing came easily to her. The things her younger sister obtained effortlessly, Yuria had to fight tooth and nail to acquire.

Overcome with resentment, the princess ground her teeth. And she roared at the stupid dragon that couldn't understand a word she said.

   *

'There it is. Just one more corner and we're at Princess Yuria's room.'

Humans with their faces hidden behind masks had penetrated deep into the Shutan Royal Palace. Intentional gaps left by bribed Shutan soldiers dotted the security grid. Thanks to that, they advanced without hesitation.

They exchanged hand signals to assess the situation. Just as arranged, the guards in front of the princess's room were gone.

The leader of the intruders smiled in satisfaction beneath his mask. He knew how important this mission was. Their superiors wanted to drag the Shutan king down and crown Princess Yuria as the new ruler.

'Good. We're almost done.'

Now, all that was left was to escort her out safely without being spotted by other Shutans. Then, the princess would lead them to where the current king was hiding...

'=Wait a moment. Something is wrong.='

The mage sent a mental wave to the leader. He replied with a hand signal.

'What is it?'

'=Princess Yuria is a mana-condensing Supernatural Ability User, isn't she?='

'What does that have to do with... gasp!'

The leader froze mid-gesture.

That was right. Princess Yuria was definitely a Supernatural Ability User.

She wasn't just an ordinary one, either. She was a genius who radiated a suppression field that prevented other Supernatural Abilities from activating, and she projected it stronger than anyone known.

But then.

'How is this guy sending telepathy when we're this close?!'

The princess's room was right in front of them.

'Damn it, breach!'

The tightly shut door opened. Just as planned beforehand, there were no locks.

The room they stormed into was pitch-dark. And.

"...!"

It was completely empty.

The leader's mouth fell open, and a devastated voice slipped out.

"What the hell, she was supposed to be waiting here. Where did she go?"

   *

"What the hell, they said she'd be hiding here. Where did she go?"

Following the Frying Pan's guidance, Min-jun tilted his head.

The corridor inside the Sanctuary was empty. Not a single crocodile scale was in sight.

According to the memories from the royal secret society, the Shutan king had been hiding out here for months. Ever since the day the news of Princess Vermi's death arrived.

As a result, rumors ran wild throughout the kingdom. Rumors that she had lost her sanity along with her most cherished youngest daughter. People said she had locked herself in here, clinging to the delusion that Princess Vermi was still alive, to pray to the royal ancestor gods to save her daughter's life.

"It's so quiet even after all that chaos from earlier..."

Breaking down the Sanctuary's barrier had generated a massive shockwave. If she were inside, there was no way she could have missed it.

"Will I find something if I go a little deeper?"

He kept moving in the direction the Frying Pan pointed.

With every step he took, Asiph-1's joy-filled mental waves transmitted through the handle. It was so boisterous that the back of his head throbbed. This was the most intense reaction since Min-jun had personally deep-fried food back on Earth.

"...There aren't any traps, either."

After breaking through the initial ward, there were no Shutans, no extra barriers, and no traps to hinder him whatsoever.

'=Over there, that way!='

Like holding the leash of a large dog that excitedly ignored its owner and dashed off on its own, Min-jun followed the Frying Pan as it pulled at his palm.

And what he faced at the end of the corridor was...

"..."

A massive door.

"So she's really not here, even after I've come all this way."

It was one of two possibilities.

Either the king was never here to begin with, or she had noticed Min-jun's intrusion and hidden away in a separate location.

While Min-jun stood there thinking for a moment.

'=It's beyond there! I can feel it intensely! Right there! There's no mistaking it! It's electrifying!='

He opened the door without further hesitation.

'=Ah!='

The scene unfolding beyond the door wasn't exactly what Asiph-1 had been anxiously waiting for, but it was a spectacle breathtaking enough to make its soul marvel.

Even though it had been practically vibrating with excitement just a moment ago, the Frying Pan suddenly cut its telepathy and went dead silent.

The Magic Tool's senses vividly swept over what was spread out inside the room. Min-jun also examined the contents, his gaze swimming with a complicated mix of emotions.

A moment later.

Breaking the silence, the Frying Pan muttered.

'=Could all of that really be... that?='

Min-jun nodded.

"Yeah."

He did a quick visual estimate.

"Looks to be roughly two million Talents."

Inside the second room beyond the door, the most breathtaking radiance overflowed.

Min-jun's calm gaze lingered over the sight.

Boxes made of a transparent, crystal-like material were lined up along the walls, their surfaces gleaming like lenses capturing the sunlight. This was because the auspicious flashes of light sealed inside had solidified, preserving their distinct texture. It looked exactly as if pure light had been frozen, carved into neat little cubes, and methodically stacked away.

Min-jun knew those boxes well.

They were a safeguard he had prepared and left behind a very long time ago.

"They moved everything from those rural ruins over to here."

'=Then all of this originally belongs to you, Agent...?='

"Yeah."

Min-jun had used the word 'treasure' to describe what he left behind in the ruins.

And from this man's perspective, the most valuable treasure possible was, without a doubt, Talents.

"But it's a little strange. Compared to when I originally hid them, they've barely used any."

He'd heard that the Shutan Royal Family's finances were so strictly monitored that they had been desperately trying to build a secret slush fund.

They claimed to be suffering from severe poverty, yet they had just quietly stored this massive pile of Talents the whole time, barely touching it?

"Did they really lack the ability to liquidate physical Talents into regular currency?"

His curiosity was only brief.

Min-jun simply opened his mind.

Flash!

Asiph-1 stared blankly at the scene that followed.

Light poured down.

The transparent boxes lining the walls simultaneously spat out the seeds of light they held inside. Every single droplet gathered to form a torrential rain of light, pouring directly into Min-jun's body.

Flash!

Following a fleeting flash, the crystal boxes all reverted into ordinary, lightless storage containers. The Talents that had once condensed inside them were completely gone.

Having absorbed it all into himself, Min-jun opened his eyes, intoxicated by the sensation.

"...Good."

Seeing that, Asiph-1 felt doubt once again.

'Why on earth did he do it in the first place?'

But it couldn't ask, because Min-jun had already started walking. He crossed the room and approached another door. This one led in the opposite direction from the entrance. The pulse that Asiph-1 had been feeling all along—the wave pulling at it—was right beyond that door.

Once again, the door opened.

Min-jun asked in a relaxed voice.

"Is that it?"

The one who had been the first sinner captured in the prisoner system felt a shudder course through its soul.

'=Yes, that is correct.='

Resting on the altar in this room was a single crystal box, similar to the ones outside.

But what sat inside the transparent casing wasn't a Talent. It didn't shine with breathtaking beauty like a Talent, nor could it be described as some peculiar concept wedged halfway between a physical object and a spiritual body. It was someone's soul.

More precisely, a fragment left behind from a shattered soul.

"The work of a Shutan ancestor. They recycled one of the boxes I originally used to seal the Talents. They captured the soul fragment at the altar in the ruins and moved it all the way here without breaking the seal. Did they think this place was safer than the ruins?"

However, the demeanor of the Frying Pan as it listened to Min-jun was strange.

Asiph-1 kept silent for a moment.

'=Agent.='

It called out abruptly.

'=No, I suppose there is no longer any point to this roleplay.='

A strange resonance mixed into its mental wave.

At this moment, Asiph-1's soul was resonating with the soul fragment on the altar.

The ego residing within the Magic Tool reflected on the spectacle it had just witnessed, and the altar they had found in the ruins. It thought back on every action its owner had taken so far, and the vast traces he had left across the universe. It chewed over the true meaning of it all.

And then it spoke.

Armed with a solemnity and reverence it had never once shown before.

'=My Creator.='

A completely changed tone of voice.

Min-jun shot it a look, sizing up its intent.

Asiph-1 brought up a long-standing question.

'=You once said you were a noble existence, even among the primordial race. A special being, entirely distinct from your kin.='

Min-jun nodded. It wasn't a lie.

'=I remember you speaking those words before I was fragmented. What makes a person noble? Where does the standard that distinguishes people, the scale that measures true integrity, ultimately lie? You said you were the one who knew the answer to those questions, and the one who actually put it into practice.='

Asiph-1 continued to recite what it remembered and what it had realized.

'=At any rate, thinking back on it now, it is clear that you are a special existence. Because you alone are awake in this era when all your kin are asleep. Because you alone have not stopped thinking and acting. Because you alone are enduring and overcoming trials and suffering. And...='

A brief hesitation.

'=Your blood.='

"..."

'=Yes, your blood. The very thing the followers of Elahu-Praga call Divine Blood.='

Asiph-1 verbalized age-old memories and concepts.

'=You said that Talents were the blood shed by the primordial race. Treasures existing on the very boundary between spiritual bodies and physical objects, constantly boiling over and scattering in their natural state... a treasure that would evaporate into the spirit realm if mishandled. That is why you sealed them away in barriers shaped like small boxes. However.='

Asiph-1 recalled a scene it had witnessed several times by now.

Min-jun, deliberately carving into his own flesh with the ritual dagger to draw bright, vivid blood.

The crimson lifeblood flowing down his skin.

By any measurable standard, it looked exactly like ordinary human blood.

'=Did you not say that this body is your original flesh? Then why is your blood not a Talent? The Talents from the ruins you just absorbed, the Talents stolen by the archbishop of Elahu-Praga, and the Talents stolen from Changcheon's vault—where did they all go?='

The questions didn't stop.

'=When you took me in my dagger form and stabbed yourself in the nape. When you pierced and shattered the mental suggestion placed upon you by driving a new suggestion over it. What spurted from the back of your neck was neither ordinary human blood, nor a Talent giving off a brilliant flash. It was a thick, dense... darkness. Why do you bleed darkness instead of light?='

And the final question.

'=And you... why on earth...='

A few days ago, down in the underground altar beneath Solada's mansion, Asiph-1 had been utterly horrified. It was a question it hadn't been able to ask Min-jun, instead burying it deep inside.

Its contents were as follows.

'Why and how did you—someone who planned things this far ahead—ever let yourself get caught?'

Seeing this room overflowing with Talents today, Asiph-1's doubt blossomed into certainty.

'=My Creator. Why on earth...='

Because of that, it slightly altered the question when it finally asked.

'=Why on earth did you let yourself be caught?='

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