The Foreigner on the Periphery

Tears streamed endlessly down the dragon's scaled cheeks.

Ha Eun-seong couldn't be sure. He didn't know if the tears were just the physical aftermath of emptying his stomach, a reaction to the polluted atmosphere of a planet where not a single blade of grass could grow, or if he was weeping from the sheer shock of what he had just witnessed.

On top of that...

Throb!

The pain in the back of his neck jabbed at his nerves again in sharp, rhythmic spikes. It was an agony too intense to ignore or brush off. He stared at what Minjun held in his hand.

'Did that knife trigger my trauma?'

His creditor had transformed the Frying Pan into the shape of an Elahu-Praga holy relic. Yuntus, who had traveled with them, carried one as well, but he never brandished it so openly. Thus, it had been a long time since Ha Eun-seong had actually laid eyes on such an object.

The murder weapon used by the killer whose face he could no longer remember. It was a Dagger perfectly identical in shape.

'Don't look. Just... don't look at it.'

Minjun felt a shift of his own as they approached. The Talent housed within his spirit writhed, resonating with the cathedral.

As he focused on the sensation, his ex-wife's voice reached his ears.

"Why didn't you just brainwash them?"

Minjun didn't turn his head. Del asked again.

"If you had brainwashed the entire order from the start, things would have been resolved so much more easily."

It was the exact same question the Frying Pan had asked.

Listening beside them, Ha Eun-seong thought he knew the answer.

Moments ago, after a priest had been reduced to mangled flesh, a shrieking specter had torn itself free from the corpse. The agony of his death had been enough to instantly warp the soul into a maddened spirit, unable to pass on. Minjun had snatched the screaming phantom and hurled it toward the cathedral.

The priests of the Felix Faction, having already caught wind of the situation, were amassing there. The specter served as a herald, announcing the disaster bearing down on them. It was a grim omen of imminent punishment.

Contrary to Ha Eun-seong's expectations, Minjun gave a different answer.

"There are too many of them."

They had long passed the point where brainwashing just the Grand Patriarchs would be enough.

Intuiting that his side would lose a simple majority vote, Felix had spent the last two days inciting the congregation and laying the groundwork for today's confrontation.

To brainwash every single person who doubted Minjun—just under half the priests in the order—was not only impossible at present, but an extreme waste of energy. Or so Minjun reasoned.

"So you're walking this slowly because you're waiting for them all to gather in one place, right?"

Waiting for them to converge at their destination: the Cathedral of Resurrection.

Minjun nodded.

Del still couldn't understand. The doubt gnawing at her now was much like the one she had felt during her conversation with the priest in the crocodile dimension not long ago.

Why give them the opportunity to sin in the first place?

Minjun answered her. Listening beside them, Ha Eun-seong heard a profound, crushing exhaustion and loneliness in his voice.

"As you know, we made a decision a long time ago. We wanted to create a utopia where people would not commit sins against one another. We decided to force people into a state where they couldn't even express hatred."

Ha Eun-seong thought back to an explanation Minjun had given him in the past.

A story about people who lived in the distant past.

Because they no longer grew old and died, they spent all their limitless energy hating one another, creating a living hell. Ultimately, they developed a tool to control free will.

The only difference between that past explanation and the story he was telling now was Minjun's choice of the word 'we.' Ha Eun-seong didn't find the phrasing unnatural.

"The method was to permit free will only within strict limits. A taboo was seared into the consciousness of everyone, except for a handful of controllers, administrators, and observers. Think of it like this: we drew a massive, thick line in their minds. We allowed them to do whatever they wanted inside it, but absolutely forbade them from crossing that line."

"A line of discipline?"

"Yes. It took a long time just to establish the standard for that line."

The standard for the line.

Or rather, the boundary of goodness.

"After much debate, we settled on the bare minimum of morality as our standard. In other words... the laws of our time."

They implanted a compulsion ensuring that no one could break the law.

Del asked, her voice trembling.

"Did it work?"

Minjun replied in a bone-dry voice.

"Of course, it failed."

A flicker of anguish crossed his face before vanishing.

"For a long time, no one committed a single crime. It seemed as though everyone had finally been liberated from evil and freed from sin. The plan seemed like a success. But our joy was short-lived."

A fatal flaw often surfaces in an unexpected form.

Minjun repeated his earlier phrasing.

"Our decree was clear: do whatever you wish within the boundaries, just do not cross the line."

That boundary was a set of rules meant to enforce mutual respect among their own kind—much like the Dragonic Code the livestock would establish in the future.

Yet, despite coding their minds with such clear parameters...

"As a long time passed... people gradually stopped making any choices of their own free will."

"..."

Minjun gritted his teeth, recalling the chilling past.

"It was like watching an emotionless Legion of robots. The change started slowly, but it never stopped. Society stagnated, progress ground to a halt, and people lost all ambition."

They had tried to liberate people from evil, but as a result, they completely castrated their freedom of thought.

"We had to find another way. Turning people into machines wasn't a solution. After endless deliberation, we changed direction. We sought a way for everyone to do good of their own volition, even without tools of coercion."

"Is that even possible?"

"Sin is born from relationships. A being that exists entirely alone cannot sin. In that isolation, neither good nor evil exists. Sin stems from resistance—from the desire to deny others and obliterate differences. In other words, the moment every person completely understands and empathizes with everyone else, evil will vanish from the world. We decided to become each other in a multitude of ways."

His last sentence sounded almost nonsensical at first. 'Become each other.' As though the subject had been repeated twice.

"Unfortunately, we halted that process midway, and we are going to wake up soon. I'm agonizing over what comes after."

"...!"

Del was profoundly shocked.

Honestly, she had been deeply worried about Minjun's future as a fugitive. She had felt a sense of despair, thinking it would only lead to a life of endless running.

Yet the man himself harbored no doubts whatsoever that his people would awaken. More than that, he was openly declaring that he was already agonizing over the next step.

As if the return of his kind was a confirmed future.

"This is a serious problem. We never anticipated this scenario when we went to sleep. My people, awakening before the process is completely finished, will witness a universe teeming with sentient species. Far more than existed in the old days. Including, of course, the dragons."

He placed heavy emphasis on that last word before adding,

"In the past, we tried to avoid interfering with other races as much as possible... with the exception of a few sinners, of course. We could do that back then. If we made up our minds, none of you could ever track us down. But will it stay that way? Some of you already possess sufficient technology. You've even obtained the power to bleed us... thanks to the sinners. When we wake up, we will no longer be able to live completely separated from you. So, when we return to this world, what kind of relationship should we build with you?"

There was one more concern agonizing Minjun.

"And inevitably, we will go back to sleep one day. But will we truly be able to surrender to slumber as safely as we did in the past?"

Del felt goosebumps rise on her skin.

"You're saying that as long as other species have grown so advanced, you won't be able to sleep in peace?"

"Exactly. We've already suffered the pain once. What if something similar happens again? If we leave them to live freely and go to sleep?"

"...!"

Walking beside them, Ha Eun-seong couldn't fully comprehend the conversation passing between them.

Even so, he felt a vivid premonition that the concepts Minjun was debating and deciding upon would eventually impact every person living in this universe. Every last one, without exception.

He felt like a being with the sheer power to enact exactly that.

Minjun muttered with crushing exhaustion.

"I am still debating it."

This was the answer to Del's question.

Why hadn't he brainwashed the entire order?

Today, this place served as a testing ground to supply the material for his future decision. In a way, it was a kind of test bed.

"Would it be right to use a tool on all of you that has already been proven a failure?"

The original tool that had become the prototype for Asiph-1. The shackles enforcing morality.

The fact that those equipped with it ended up rejecting all autonomous choices was undeniably a failure.

But what if the criteria for evaluation changed?

Losing the power to think was a fatal side effect for an intelligent species, but for livestock, it would be considered a virtue.

"Or... would it be right to protect 'us' from all of you through another method?"

Minjun murmured like a cold wind.

"I am still debating it."

He swallowed the next words without voicing them.

There are many reasons why one's deliberations lengthen before taking action, but a prime example is an avoidance mechanism.

'This is why I didn't want to do this from the beginning.'

At that moment, someone shouted.

"Over there!"

Minjun's group had reached the plaza in front of the Cathedral of Resurrection.

"He's here! The fake avatar!"

As if the news had already spread, the priests of the Felix Faction were swarming the area to stop Minjun from laying a hand on the Talent!

Throb!

The back of Ha Eun-seong's neck burned with tearing agony. Yet, even as he suffered through the pain, the dragon wanted to scream at the priests.

You idiots, stop!

Once again, the native of the Orc community couldn't fully comprehend the conversation between the divorced couple. He only grasped Minjun's intentions on the level of intuition and premonition.

The people gathered here seemed likely to become the basis supporting whatever choice Minjun would make in the future.

A truly terrifying choice.

"Halt, you sinner impersonating the avatar!"

A taut tension could be felt in the air.

The only man among them plunged into quiet agony rather than a sense of crisis opened his mouth.

With a profoundly weary gaze.

"Step aside."

Despite Minjun's demand, the priests showed no sign of moving.

Standing firmly at their center, Felix ground his teeth.

"You shameless fraud!"

Minjun calmly closed his eyes, then opened them.

In that instant.

Flash!

Voices of sheer shock erupted from the crowd.

"N-No!"

"That's...!"

"Divine Blood! It's Divine Blood!"

The most beautiful radiance in the universe flowed from Minjun's body.

Ha Eun-seong staggered, feeling a pain like sparking fire in the back of his neck. Swish! A single tentacle erupted from Del's spine, wrapping around his body to support him.

Watching the dragon's distorted face, she turned her gaze back to her ex-husband. The most brilliant light she knew was enshrouding Minjun in a holy aura.

'Talent!'

The overwhelming luminescence devoured the surrounding space.

Del knew that Minjun had already embraced millions of Talent within his soul. That was after it had burned and melted away the memory-erasing compulsion planted by the Ancient Race. Yet even after all that, the unconsumed, overpowering radiance continued to ripple outward.

The priests couldn't possibly fail to recognize the Talent. These were the ones who had spent their long lives traveling back and forth to Elahu-Praga, stealing the Talent little by little.

There was a reason they only stole small amounts at a time. Storing too much in a soul would cause it to rampage out of control. Thus, until now, no one had ever witnessed such a sight.

A being whose soul was saturated in so much Divine Blood!

"It's a miracle!"

"How can one person hold so much Divine Blood?!"

"It's impossible for an ordinary mortal! Not even the greatest cleric could achieve such a thing!"

"No, if that's the case, he must really be...!"

Several voices rang out, the faith of the skeptics appearing to waver.

Felix felt his heart tighten at the sound. This couldn't be allowed. That wicked being was clouding the bishops' minds. At this rate, everyone would accept the fraud as a true god!

Felix shouted.

"How dare a vile devil like you lay your hands on the Divine Blood!"

Minjun cast a serene gaze over them before speaking.

"I acknowledge your contributions."

"What?!"

An arrogant and shameless attitude.

Felix was on the verge of losing his mind from fury.

"For a long time, you have collected blood behind the beasts' backs. I know that many lives were sacrificed in the process. However, your labor does not grant you the right to refuse a legitimate demand. I am simply demanding the return of what is ours, as its owner."

The priests' expressions wavered.

A man declaring his sovereignty while standing amidst the blazing flames of unimaginable Talent.

He truly looked like an incarnate deity.

Felix grew frantic.

"Close your ears to the devil's whispers!"

He bellowed.

"Attack! Attack him!"

Flash!

Bang! Bang!

Ultimately, some of the priests unleashed their attacks. Golden rays tore through the air.

In that moment, several more tentacles exploded from Del's back. She wrapped them around her ex-husband and the dragon, shouting.

"Cain!"

The thick strands of tentacle deflected the priests' attacks. Seeing this, Felix exchanged a look with one of the Grand Patriarchs. The man, named Gruet, was the most active supporter of Felix among the high priests.

Gruet screamed.

"False avatar, I will punish your sins!"

Once again, a sin was finalized on the tip of his tongue.

Gruet raged at the passive priests still hesitating to attack the devil.

"What are you all doing? Just as Bishop Felix said, strike down this wicked devuh... blurgh..."

The words collapsed and the sentence crumbled.

The Grand Patriarch felt an intense, stimulating taste flood his mouth.

The next person to sense the anomaly was the bewildered dragon. A dragon's unique senses allowed him to taste the air even with his mouth closed.

Ha Eun-seong's eyes widened.

'...Salty?'

Seeing the Grand Patriarch who supported him suddenly trembling, Felix asked in a panic.

"Bishop Gruet! Why are you suddenly..."

Crumble!

Gruet's mouth fell open, and a cascade of white powder poured out.

"Mmph!"

What he vomited was powder, clumped in places where it had mixed with the moisture of his saliva. Watching it spill to his feet, the dragon recognized what it was.

'Salt!'

Bishop Gruet, his entire tongue having turned to salt, soon stared down at his left hand and screamed.

"Uh... urk... AHHH!"

The scream was terribly muffled. His salinized tongue had already crumbled to dust inside his mouth.

He stared at his fingers with bloodshot eyes. His hand, protruding from his sleeve, was dyed an unusually pale color. A white stain slowly spread from the tips of his fingers, merging until it hardened into a solid crystal.

"AHHH!"

He urgently grabbed his left hand with his intact right hand.

Crunch!

The five thin pillars of salt the size of fingers snapped and crumbled futilely. Coarse powder cascaded down the bishop's arm. Soon, even his right hand began to turn into a white crystal. The crystallization spread rapidly, even up to the parts hidden by his clothing.

A moment later, a human-shaped pillar of salt dressed in bishop's robes stood exactly where the priests' gazes were fixed.

Gruet had become salt while still alive.

"A-ahhh!"

Rapidly, similar screams followed among the priests. Every single one was a muffled shriek.

"Ah, aah... aaahhhh!"

They instantly knew that the disaster had begun with Minjun.

Their extremities already turning into salt crystals, the priests scrambled backward, desperate to get even an inch farther away from Minjun. The plaza in front of the cathedral descended into pandemonium. As someone fled, they shoved the fully salinized Priest Gruet. The robed statue toppled over, crashing against the floor. Crash! Shatter! It dissolved into a heap of meaningless white powder.

"Th-this is...!"

Felix couldn't believe the sight before his eyes.

Was this a nightmare?

Not a nightmare dreamed by the gods, but was he trapped in another layer of a dream within that dream?

"You... demon!"

At that moment, the demon wearing human skin shifted his gaze in another direction.

Then.

"Ugh... urk! It's hot... it's hot!"

One of the priests surrounding the demon's rear stumbled, his face flushing crimson red, and then—

Fwoosh!

Soon, blood-red flames erupted from his entire body.

"GAAAAAAAH!"

A horrifying shriek.

Felix felt his hair stand on end.

The nightmare was not over. The fire covered the priest and burned fiercely, using his blood and organs as fuel. The flames began to spread among the people like a wildfire running across a dry field. Flickering their hot tongues, the flames moved like living creatures, encircling the cathedral. So that no one could escape.

Felix realized they were trapped.

Trembling violently, he stared at Minjun. The man holding a Dagger perfectly identical to the Holy Sword.

=I understand now.=

A conversation incomprehensible to the priests passed between Asiph-1 and Minjun.

=Punishment carries the effects of exhibition and deterrence. You intend to make an example of them by handing down punishment. So that this group can walk the right path even without brainwashing them all. So they can distance themselves from sin by their own choice.=

The Frying Pan understood the symbolism of their deaths.

=I see. They will be vastly more useful dead than alive.=

The fire spread among the priests who had turned into pillars of salt. The statues, frozen in the exact poses they had taken while fleeing or struggling, touched the fire and were baked into an even more solid form.

The survivors lost the will to resist. Now, the punishment descended regardless of direction or order. Someone nearby would suddenly turn to salt and solidify, or abruptly get caught in the flames and burn. None of them could predict who would turn to salt first, or who would burst into flames. The disaster danced like a blind blade.

Thud!

Amidst the salt dolls baked as hard as porcelain, the priests began to drop to their knees, one by one.

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