The Foreigner on the Periphery

Minjun reached a tentative conclusion.

'First, let's assume the item inside here is a Dragon Heart.'

Attaching the 100-day condition must have been a measure expecting the Dragon Heart or its environment to change after that much time had passed. For now, all his thoughts remained in the realm of speculation.

The words of the will seemed to overlap with the Lord's voice in his memory, laced with a bit of mischief and humor.

Minjun replied to that voice in his thoughts.

'Just what did you do to your own heart?'

He kept muttering to himself. The old man had always been eccentric. But looking back on everything that had happened, he had never done anything without a reason.

"..."

Del stared at her ex-husband's thoughtful face, her eyes filled with fascination.

Back in the Gelanco dimension, covered in seething shadows, Minjun had seemed like an uncommunicable natural disaster. When she saw him regain his senses here, he wasn't quite at that extreme, but his human emotions still appeared entirely worn away.

An entity capable of lumping everyone except the primordial race together as "you people" felt closer to someone from the ancient past than the Cain or Asif-666 that Del remembered. He was a transcendent being who had endured an immensity of time that even she was afraid to fathom.

Yet right now, as he recalled the Dragon Lord...

'He's gone back to the man I knew, even if just a little.'

His slightly subdued gaze carried respect for an old acquaintance.

"So."

His voice broke through Del's thoughts. Minjun had already shifted gears.

"You made a deal with the Lord. What was the price for making this?"

The Cube was a sophisticated object that even an Endelion couldn't easily create. Since it was a deal, something must have been exchanged.

Del knew there was no longer any need to hide it.

"In exchange, I received the Dragon Lord's blood and cerebrospinal fluid."

Minjun's eyes widened slightly. The request itself was unexpected, but her words also sparked a strong sense of déjà vu.

It didn't take him long to recall the exact time and place.

On the day Del first arrived on Earth and barged into Minjun's office unannounced, she had asked him:

"Listen, don't misunderstand me, but could I get a little bit of your blood and cerebrospinal fluid?"

"Don't tell me this has to do with that 'Plan B' nonsense you talked about before?"

Her plan to set him free.

In response to his question, Del, in her human form, met his gaze firmly.

"Then and now, there's only one thing I want. To set you free."

The moment she spoke, the space beside her distorted. When the rippling stopped, the air tore open, and a figure emerged. Minjun's face stiffened.

"You...!"

Minjun's vision seemingly bled red.

The thick stench of blood seemed to well up inside his skull. For the primordial race, it was a memory hardly worth blinking at, but for Asif-666, it was an inescapable nightmare.

Minjun remembered the gruesome scene he had witnessed in the dimension called Ashtal.

Meat and blood were scattered everywhere in a space cold enough to freeze his lungs.

The sight of countless 'people' lined up and disassembled. Contained in transparent vats, impaled on hooks, spread open or piled high—countless 'people,' all either dead or dying.

In the mirage-like vision that flashed past, every single one of those faces bore the exact same features.

It was Minjun's own face.

"Don't tell me you've been...!"

Del had pulled out a soulless, empty body—manufactured to look exactly like Minjun from head to toe.

"Have you been making these all this time?"

She admitted it.

"Yes. It's a Homunculus."

He shot her a look demanding an explanation.

"Long ago, after they arrested you, the Ancient Race acquired various physical samples from you, including your blood. But they failed to decode your genetics. They said that making simple clones without understanding the blueprint yielded dismal results."

Since Minjun had an infinite lifespan anyway and didn't need a separate prosthetic body, they simply wiped his memories and threw him into penal labor. Of course, this was a measure hiding a cunning ulterior motive.

"Ultimately, all attempts to use your genetics were abandoned long ago. It was only recently that I smuggled out the remaining samples and began experimenting on my own. But I quickly hit a wall. This only mimics your outward appearance; look inside, and it's a miserable failure. I asked the Lord for those things because I wondered if the vitality in a dragon's blood could be the solution. I wanted to try it, grasping at straws."

Minjun still struggled to understand her motive.

"Why?"

"For you, of course. The way to become free without saving up severance pay is to make the Committee not need to chase you in the first place."

Del muttered as she looked at the Homunculus.

"I was trying to fake your death."

She had hatched this plan fully aware that Minjun belonged to the primordial race.

"I know you don't age and that you can instantly regenerate from most injuries. But I figured the primordial race wasn't absolutely immortal. For example, if you could regenerate even after being ground down to the molecular level, you wouldn't possess an instinct to fear death to begin with, and that would be reflected in how you fight. But what I observed was different. Furthermore..."

Del knew that while Minjun had suffered severe injuries, including dismemberment, during his time as a prisoner, his head had never once been destroyed. Even in the heat of fierce combat, he frantically protected his head above all else. Even with his memories wiped.

Del also remembered what Minjun had said during the fight that ended their relationship.

"A way to perfectly kill me, when I regenerate whether cut, torn, or sliced?!"

"You seem curious, so I'll tell you. There was no need to go to such lengths experimenting! I survived having my heart pierced, but no one has cut off my head yet. No one has carved out my brain! So wouldn't that be the only way? To kill me, I mean. Here, right here. Aim precisely. Stab me in the neck! And slice it clean off!"

"..."

Del pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She continued speaking.

"The staged death had to be flawless enough to convince even the Ancient Race watching. The corpse left behind had to be perfect, too. Once the physical replication was resolved, I planned to stage the destruction of your soul, if possible."

Del rambled on about her plan, but Minjun listened silently.

He didn't want to point out that her plan bordered on delusion and had too many glaring holes—especially regarding the handling of his soul.

He was focused on something else entirely.

'Homunculus.'

Del had tried to create a perfect Homunculus. To gift Minjun a 'life' in the truest sense of the word.

That thought brought back the horrifying scene he had witnessed when he was still with his ex-wife.

The Homunculi. The dead clones scattered everywhere in far too great a number.

'Right. There were far too many.'

Did she really create so many artificial lifeforms just to find a way to kill him?

Or...

Could it actually have been to save him?

'But at that time, Del had lost her memories as a member of the Ancient Race.'

He tried to deny it, but Minjun knew. Even without memories, the ultimate direction a person strived toward didn't change easily.

Even more so for the Endelion.

'If that's the case, why did she lie?'

His thoughts deepened, and even the smallest memories floated to the surface of his mind.

The night he returned after witnessing that horrific scene, leading to an interrogation between the couple that bordered on Twenty Questions.

His ex-wife hadn't confessed her plan in clear terms; Minjun had filled in the blanks she left behind.

That day, Del had confessed.

"I just wanted to set you free. What you saw... it was all to find that method."

Minjun had guessed.

"You thought we could be together even if I died and became a soul? You believed in that superstition?"

Del hadn't answered that question.

"..."

After a moment of silence.

Minjun cut off his thoughts and returned to reality. His expression shifted in a flash.

He recited a long set of coordinates to Del in a dry tone. She understood this was their next destination. It was a clear declaration that he didn't want to discuss the subject anymore.

She complied.

The conversation ended. Del released her Polymorph and returned to her original body. Then she chanted a spell to prepare for the jump.

Meanwhile, Minjun called Ha Eunseong and Yumtus back. Thanks to Del's majestic form already blanketing the night sky, the two of them had sensed that it was time.

Ha Eunseong asked.

"Is it okay for the Princess to transform so defenselessly right now? It looks like she didn't even cast a barrier this time. What if another dragon nearby sees her and flies over, or reports it?"

Lost in inscrutable thought, Minjun only turned his head then. And, uncharacteristically, he answered a beat late.

"It's fine. There's no one around here who can see her. 'Not anymore.'"

"...?!"

Ha Eunseong recalled how Minjun had been busily going back and forth all day. And how, during all that time, the horrible stench of blood clinging to his body had never faded.

Looking back, his creditor had never actually answered his question about why he was looking for a dragon here.

Before Ha Eunseong could say anything, Yumtus cut in.

"Avatar. Actually, I have something to report as well..."

He explained the situation in his home dimension, but Minjun's face remained calm. Seeing him stay silent, Yumtus felt a bit flustered. He hadn't expected Minjun to be shaken in the first place. The priest was surprised for a different reason.

'He... has changed somehow.'

In the short time they had been apart, the avatar's aura had shifted subtly.

Figuratively speaking, the avatar of late had been cloaked in the aura of an absolute being—someone operating on an entirely different level from the rest of them, commanding spontaneous reverence and worship.

But right now, his face bore a very faint trace of the aura belonging to those who ought to bow at the feet of divine beings—meaning... the aura of those from the 'secular' realm.

Yumtus couldn't help but feel a deep sense of regret over it.

=The preparations are complete!=

Vwoom!

Del enveloped them. Immediately after, space warped around her, shooting sparks as countless blue beams of light swarmed in and danced. The entire landscape surrounding her massive tentacles repeatedly contracted and expanded. Minjun and the group felt a soaring sense of elevation, a liberating feeling as if they were escaping all the restrictions binding them.

But entirely separate from their physical sensations, heavy thoughts lingered in their minds, gripping their consciousness. The Princess felt anxious about her ex-husband's future; the priest felt regret over the avatar's subtle change; and the debtor felt confused by the relationship between his creditor and a race he thoroughly despised.

While the group was lost in their respective worries...

Flash!

A burst of light exploded, and they all vanished.

*

Dimension #77-102.

An emergency meeting of the Elahu-Praga Order Council was held here, in Yumtus's home world. It was convened at the urgent request of the priest who had spoken with him through astral projection, the moment that priest had regained his senses.

Yumtus was preparing to return with a staggering bounty of 1 million Talents on his head. According to him, it wouldn't be long before the fugitives arrived here.

Yumtus had expected the headquarters to have finished all their preparations, but they were so frantic that they had hastily convened another meeting today. They still hadn't reached an agreement on the crucial points.

They no longer had the luxury of stalling. The head of the Council—the decision-making body of the highest-ranking clerics—and the priest serving as the order's 'Deputy Pope' made a declaration. Infusing his voice with solemnity, a fierce light burned in his two eyes, excluding the one on his forehead.

"...By the majority vote of the priests gathered here, the order will suspend its decision regarding the 'avatar's' demands."

Some of the priests in the meeting hall nodded as if it were the obvious outcome, while others grimaced as if it were hard to accept. But no one raised their voice or protested the settled matter.

Among them, however, was one person who let out a particularly heavy sigh of dejection. It was the inquisitor who had been dispatched to Earth alongside Yumtus.

'To think there are this many who doubt the testimony I swore upon my faith!'

It was an expected problem.

To summarize the current situation simply: an alien encountered in another world was demanding that the order hand over all the Divine Blood they had prepared in anticipation of the Day of Revelation.

It was a difficult story to swallow, and the priests' opinions were split.

One side argued that a testimony sworn upon faith couldn't be a lie, so he really was the avatar, and they should offer up the Talents as he demanded. The other side argued that since the avatar's demands contradicted the Prophet's revelations in the scriptures, verification was necessary.

Amidst all this, neither the side doubting the avatar nor the side fervently worshipping him... had lost their Divine Power. That was what made the situation even more complicated.

The Deputy Pope continued.

"Based on the testimonies of those dispatched to the otherworld, the order partially revised its past decrees to recognize the existence of the avatar, but it did not recognize the avatar as equal to God. However, from what we have observed so far, the avatar is bound not to the divine realm, but to this world we live in, and his demands directly contradict the Prophet's prophecy."

Taking all the Talents prepared to awaken the gods for the fast-approaching Day of Revelation?

The Prophet described in the 'Book of Asif' had never made such a prophecy.

"Therefore, as agreed today, we shall make the decree more concrete. Regarding the avatar, we will proceed with verification at the order level, as requested by several priests."

The inquisitor felt no small amount of fury.

Priests verifying the avatar—what a blasphemous act!

It even opened up the possibility that the avatar's status could be permanently revoked depending on the results of that verification.

Someone then asked the Deputy Pope. It was the high priest in charge of the order's protocols.

"Then when he arrives here, what standard should the welcoming rites follow?"

This was a very sensitive issue. Minjun's standing within the order had become ambiguous. They hadn't fully recognized him as the avatar, nor had they denied him.

The Deputy Pope answered.

"Until the verification is complete, let us treat him as a secular being—a guest visiting our order."

"Then by what name is it proper to address him?"

Since he might not be the avatar, calling him the avatar was tricky, but calling him an avatar candidate to his face risked drawing his ire.

The Deputy Pope provided a simple answer.

"I heard he already gave himself a secular name and allowed himself to be addressed by it? We simply need to follow suit. Until the verification is over."

Then he asked the inquisitor who had been dispatched to Earth.

"What was his secular name?"

Having always referred to him as 'Avatar' until now, the inquisitor recited a name he had never once pronounced. He did so feeling the bitter remorse of having committed terrible blasphemy.

The avatar's name was reproduced with a somewhat alien sound adapted to the oral structure of their people, the Repatam Tribe. The final syllable's affricate was de-aspirated, and the ending nasal consonant was pronounced closer to the root of the tongue than a Korean speaker would.

The Deputy Pope rolled the name from an unfamiliar world around in his mouth.

"Ye... min... choong... A difficult name to pronounce."

Caught in a web of complex thoughts, he stared out the window.

Whether the avatar candidate they were waiting for was real or fake, it seemed certain that he would bring a storm of change to the order.

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