The Foreigner on the Periphery

Mountainous shadows surged around Minjun like waves. Their height was overwhelming—thousands, even tens of thousands of times his size. It was the contrast of an ant standing before a skyscraper.

The soaring black waves crashed down, threatening to crush him flat.

Kyaaah!

The shadow monsters commanded by ordinary practitioners of Dark Magic were all avatars of this entity. They were effectively inferior variants that had sprouted and separated from this source. Even those avatars were considered absurdly powerful summoned creatures, but the main body was on an entirely different level.

And yet, the monster could not harm a single hair on Minjun's head.

The attacks vanished the moment they drew close to him. Amid the black torrent enveloping him from all directions, a small circle formed around Minjun. The shadows could not surge past that line, as if blocked by an invisible wall.

The darkness did not give up. Harboring clear hostility, it continued to strike. Seeming to realize a broad wave was ineffective, it concentrated its power to form distinct shapes.

After that, the shadow changed shape multiple times in a single instant. It was like a shade dancing beneath a torch exposed to the wind. The monster became a dragon, a wolf, sharp claws, and a row of teeth stretching across the horizon as it attacked. It was a relentless and tenacious offensive.

But the moment it collided, the monster collapsed, scattering a spray of black droplets. It crumbled in vain, only to condense again and repeat its clawing.

Kyarrr!

The shockwaves from the collisions did not even graze Minjun. Rather, the shadow was the one taking damage. However, its self-destructive struggle did not stop. Like a beast with nothing left but instinctive murderous intent, it lunged without a single shred of reason.

Exactly like a "monster."

Minjun quietly watched her lunge at him with ghost-like persistence. Even in this chaos, not a single strand of his hair wavered.

He continued to observe her.

Then, Minjun spoke.

"That is enough."

Grrrr!

Paying him no mind, the monster transformed its body once more. This time, it formed a chillingly sharp sword. It aimed the blade as if to pierce straight through Minjun. Right before it shot forward...

Minjun spoke again.

"You don't need to try so hard to act."

Grrr...

The monster's madness-laced cry lowered, if only slightly.

The member of the primordial race spoke to his master, who had been imprisoned for near-eternity.

"I know you have already regained your reason."

There was no sarcasm or arrogance in his voice as he called out her trickery.

It was just a calm and transparent tone.

"This is a space I control. It is a prison I created, and I hold the key. The connection and severance of space follow my will alone."

That was why the monster's attacks could not reach him.

"Perhaps if you had anchored your consciousness to reality as usual, it would be different, but here, you cannot interfere with me. You cannot infect me with madness like last time. Moreover, unlike then, I am on guard now."

He asked as if to confirm.

"You already knew that, didn't you? Not through instinctive perception... but through rational judgment."

...

The monster's growling finally stopped.

And then.

Kyahaha!

Sharp laughter erupted from the monster.

Its resonance filled the world Minjun had created. It was a madness-laced burst of laughter capable of dragging even a sane ghost down into a wraith.

Minjun endured it without a hint of displeasure. No, perhaps he was even savoring it. His eyes narrowed slightly more than before, and his head tilted.

Presently, the laughter ceased.

"You!"

The monster spat out a mental wave like a stabbing blade.

It was different from the beastly resonance she had shed just moments ago.

It was a clear mass of meaning, assembled with precise reason.

"So you finally realized."

The monster began to roar with crazy laughter once more. Minjun waited with a calm expression for the guffaws to subside.

A long time passed. The shadow radiated a meaning that felt slightly exhausted.

"So, what will you do?"

She asked the warden who had locked her in here, the sinner who had ruined her.

"I have been trapped here for an impossibly long time. In that span, I became able to 'think' again. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to lock me up again when I am already imprisoned?!"

A vile hatred seeped from every grain of the wavelength. Minjun accepted it without turning away.

She had already nearly consumed him once in the Gelanco dimension. At that time, instead of fleeing from the Committee's additional forces, Minjun had focused on indiscriminate destruction in the kingdom's capital. He punished humans with black tornadoes and burning shadows. Even though the Ancient Race was already exterminated, he inflicted meaningless retribution upon the natives there.

However, since the act itself was no different from that of a monster, it had only left behind suspicion.

Compared to back then, this incident was on a completely different level. The scheme to plant false memories in Asiph-1 and send Ha Eun-seong all the way to the source. It was impossible without meticulous calculation and rational thought.

Thus, Minjun reached a conclusion.

His master, Adkiel, had regained the power to think.

Even if that mind was still tainted by "some madness."

"I figured as much. I never taught my creations the method to destroy the source, nor its meaning."

Excluding his already slumbering kin and Minjun himself, there was only one entity who knew that.

Adkiel.

Because she too was of the primordial race, holding a noble status that governed their kind.

Kyahaha!

Adkiel poured out mockery and maniacal laughter. Even though this plan had failed, she felt a thrilling rush.

That sinner could no longer uproot the sprout of reason that had blossomed within her. In other words, Adkiel could devise as many different methods as she wanted in the future.

For the sake of revenge.

This time, too, she had pushed it right up until that devil was on the verge of ruin. Though she failed, she could surely inflict another trauma upon the sinner.

He would feel tremendous anxiety from now on. The anxiety that his lifelong wish—on which he had staked his very existence—might crumble because of her at any moment.

Betting everything on the resurrection of his race and despising variables that could affect it above all else, he would ultimately have no choice but to give up on Adkiel...

...?!

The monster froze.

"...You?!"

She shuddered in disbelief. Becoming the darkness that filled this prison, she stared at Minjun.

The sinner was smiling.

Very brightly, at that.

His calm expression was nowhere to be found. Her former disciple smiled as if he couldn't contain how delightful this situation was. Joy seeped from the corners of his eyes, and his cheeks seemed to glow with happiness.

Adkiel could swear to it. Even when she was alive, back when she had taught that sinner, she had never seen him look so overjoyed.

Minjun was rejoicing with his entire body, mobilizing all his concentration, with all his might. It was such an overwhelming euphoria that he smiled without even making a sound.

Seeing that sight, the shadow monster lost her words.

And the moment Minjun opened his mouth, the monster felt a chilling terror.

"...Finally!"

Minjun's mental wave was drenched in burning excitement.

"You can finally think again. Across an unfathomable span of time, you have regained the ability to think like a person. With this, you have become closer to a person than a monster!"

Minjun revealed unsurpassable satisfaction.

At that sight, the monster felt despair and disgust.

Plunged into shock, Adkiel fell silent. Minjun stared at the deep darkness spread before him and spoke.

"Since when was it? That fragments of your reason began to return? Let me guess. Compared to the time you've been trapped here, it must be from a timeframe one could call recent. It was more than a thousand years ago, but two thousand years have not yet passed."

He was perfectly accurate.

There was a reason Minjun could pinpoint the timing so precisely.

"You really worked hard. You put in a lot of effort, didn't you? To regain your intellect. But just as much as you... I put in effort too."

The period when Adkiel began to regain her ability to think roughly coincided with the time Minjun had awakened again.

To be exact, it was from the time the existence of Dark Magic became known to the races living in the modern era.

"I have been waiting for today. The day you break free from being a monster and return as a person!"

What is the yardstick that distinguishes a monster from a person?

What is the condition for a person to be recognized as a person, and what are their qualifications based on?

Minjun seemed to view it as the ability to communicate. An intellectual capacity sufficient to hold a conversation.

And Adkiel had finally succeeded in recovering her reason to that level. Even if that communication took a horribly one-sided form.

In other words, he had absolutely no intention of giving up on Adkiel. The shadow saw that stubbornness and resolve amid her terrible despair.

"Now, I can converse with you!"

He added with a voice thoroughly soaked in anticipation.

"I have endured an incredibly long time, just as much as you. But now, never again will I fall asleep 'all alone' in that place cut off from my people."

In that moment, Adkiel broke down.

Kyarrr!

The darkness boiled over like magma.

The shadow, Adkiel—who could no longer be considered a mere monster—attacked as if to crush Minjun once again. This time, it was no act.

Even a person with the ability to think could lose their reason in an instant. Despite clearly witnessing such a scene, Minjun did not despair. There was a vast difference between remaining a mindless monster and becoming a person who could recover again even after breaking down.

Having become a black storm, she refused any further conversation. But this too was what Minjun had aimed for. He muttered to himself.

"It seems your mind has recovered quite significantly."

Though she still retained the madness to annihilate her own kin just to ruin Minjun, that vivid hatred would serve as her incentive to continue thinking and reasoning. The process of desperately weaving schemes would become the crutch preventing her from degenerating back into a monster.

He would attempt conversation again once her anger cooled. After all, his master would have no choice but to respond, if only to lay a trap for him.

From within the shadow swept up in rage, uncontrollable clusters of meaning kept bursting out. Minjun glared at them with cold eyes. The intoxicated laughter was already gone. He cooled down frostily, as if he had never been excited in the first place.

A mind left defenseless while captive to rage could not avoid his observation. Minjun began to rifle through Adkiel's memories.

"Everything was perfect except for one variable. Your plan, and mine."

Namely, the existence of Ha Eun-seong.

If not for that ghost, even if she had regained her reason, Adkiel's plan wouldn't have been so fatal. The conspiracy to destroy the source was dangerous enough to make even Minjun dizzy. Given the circumstances, it was clear she had fortunately failed.

Furthermore, Minjun was certain. Ha Eun-seong had not been obliterated.

However, he needed to know the ghost's exact identity to judge whether he could rescue him and ponder the method to do so. Minjun suspected the answer might lie in his master's memories.

Harboring suspicions, he rummaged through Adkiel's mental world. He could now access the knowledge stored in tightly sealed boxes and the memories that, until now, had been scattered everywhere like brain cells stripped of their synapses.

It was an overwhelmingly vast repository of memories, and a significant portion was tainted by the madness and despair of her days as a monster, so he felt the need to save time. He cast a few keywords, and guided by them, the appropriate memories coalesced.

Ironically, the memory that reacted first to the keyword "Ha Eun-seong" was a scene he had recalled just before entering this place.

"You are a child who will be loved, transcending the limits of your species."

Minjun submerged into Adkiel's memories.

"...!"

In a flash, the surrounding scenery changed.

The shadow storm was no longer visible. Traces of a civilization that had vanished in the modern era unfolded. It was the interior of a building familiar to him.

Minjun sank into a heavy yet electrifying sentiment. A scene from the distant past, where he had long given up counting the years, lay right here.

It was the facility where he had been raised before his master took him in.

"Hello."

Minjun viewed the world through his master's perspective and vision from that era.

Adkiel offered a greeting to the child in front of her.

A face alternating between vigilance and curiosity. A black-haired boy returning a sharp and cautious gaze to her.

"You will do nicely."

He tried hard to act calm, but Adkiel did not miss the slight tremor in the child's expression. She explained that the boy had been chosen as the successor to the most noble among the dragon herders.

It was the memory of the day Minjun first met Adkiel.

It was a rare opportunity to appreciate a moment vividly carved into his own mind through her memories. However, Minjun was bewildered by an unexpected detail.

'What is this?'

Had Adkiel been viewing the world through these eyes?

Within her memories, Minjun retraced his own memory. A single remark Dell had once whispered to him.

"You were shining."

The prisoner Minjun had understood his ex-wife's words as a metaphor. But now, the thought struck him that perhaps she had meant it literally.

A soft light was flowing out from the young Minjun seen by Adkiel.

And that color was incredibly familiar.

'...Talent?!'

It was far too similar to the holy light that captivated all beings, that divine radiance...

'But that's impossible. This era is before Talent was ever developed.'

Moreover, why would such a memory surface from the keyword "Ha Eun-seong"?

The moment he harbored that doubt, the scene shifted.

'Where is this?'

It seemed a few years had passed. It was after Adkiel had brought Minjun to her planet.

Beneath the vision overlapping with Adkiel's, the young Minjun was fast asleep. However, the place he was lying on was not a bed.

Minjun knew where this was.

'Adkiel's old laboratory!'

It was the restricted area his master had absolutely forbidden him from entering. He had checked it after her death, but it was a place where no equipment or data remained.

'Why am I here?'

It seemed Adkiel had moved him while the boy in the memory was sleeping. Naturally, it was a scene that had left zero trace in Minjun's own memory.

'Did this happen often back then?'

Once he grew older and his abilities strengthened, she wouldn't have been able to attempt it.

While he was plunged into confusion by these unexpected memories.

"Inducing non-awakened out-of-body projection."

Hearing the artificial intelligence's voice, Minjun's mind froze solid.

What did it just say?

The ensuing situation proved he had not misheard.

Ssss!

A spiritual body separated from the sleeping Minjun's physical form. Since his body's life signs remained normal, it was a living spirit state, not a ghost or wraith. Just as the priests of Elahu-Praga often did.

The only difference was that even in an out-of-body state, the young Minjun was unaware of the fact.

As an observer transcending vast amounts of time, Minjun was plunged into chaos.

'Adkiel. Why do this to me?'

Because he was viewing the world through Adkiel's eyes, Minjun could not see her expression. With her face unseen, she gave several instructions to the AI in a calm voice. Accordingly, various stimuli were applied to Minjun's spiritual body. Neither his physical body nor his spiritual body regained consciousness during the process. Thus, it was inevitable that he had grown up completely oblivious to this fact.

"What?!"

Minjun's train of thought was cut off mid-way.

Adkiel, who had been focused on the experiment without losing her composure, suddenly gasped in shock.

"My god!"

Minjun followed Adkiel's gaze.

Several layers of meaning were applied to the scene she witnessed, and Minjun interpreted them.

'...!'

The young Minjun's spiritual body had been repelled to a spot far away from where it had just been. Still in an unawakened state.

The cause of Adkiel's shock lay right next to the spiritual body.

She spoke in the memory.

"How did it break through there?"

After that, her field of vision shifted rapidly several times. She was looking back and forth between two locations.

The place where Minjun's physical body slept was enveloped by a barrier, set up to ensure there was no chance of losing his spiritual body.

That fence binding spiritual entities...

"This makes no sense!"

Just a moment ago, the young Minjun's soul had passed through it without any resistance.

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