Chapter 44 : Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Asha (2)
“If this is an act, I want to kill everyone, contract or not.”
“…….”
“If it’s a negotiation disguised as a favor, I’d say you’re living up to your name, and then I’d want to kill everyone.”
“…….”
“And if you say, ‘I didn’t know,’ that in itself is just fucking pathetic.”
I am pathetic.
Jiaren wondered if she should answer that way.
“The current clan? You said there are only the twins in this generation? The rest of the bastards must be war participants.”
Spot on. Simurtr remembered the twins she had casually mentioned. The other Degrates were all precious bloodkin who had survived the Doom War.
“When I stamped the contract and went to the Degrate camp. You bastards. You all scowled, you all avoided my gaze. Call them all back to the meeting hall. I’ll point out every single one of those faces.”
That meant everyone except the twins would be pointed out. Probably including her daughter. Jiaren bit her lip hard.
“Jiaren wasn’t there at the time.”
Semenu defended Jiaren.
Jiaren secretly wished she wouldn’t defend her. That would make her look pathetic.
“Where were you and what were you doing? The next in line to be the Phantasm.”
“Nurmakan sent me far away. He was going to study me to gain eternal life.”
“So he pushed away the next Phantasm?”
“Yes. Permission to return was only granted after Nurmakan’s death.”
“Because they needed a Phantasm to lead?”
“Yes. Jiaren is Nurmakan’s daughter.”
The direct descendant of a Phantasm usually inherits the position. It is the natural order. If they imprinted the same Asha, what mattered was the remaining elven blood.
Jiaren was the descendant of the Phantasm with the purest elven blood, the strongest Phantasmal Ability.
“So you were pathetic?”
“Hic.”
Simurtr looked at Jiaren. At his gaze, Jiaren’s throat reacted. She hiccuped while trying to swallow.
“No. Jiaren is kind.”
Fortunately, Semenu’s defense was not over. Jiaren’s eyes met Semenu’s. The moment her hiccups stopped.
“How can a pathetic person be kind.”
“She’s a kind pathetic person. She went easy on me a lot.”
“What was there to go easy on? You’re not Degrate, you’re Baperr.”
“Really? Still?”
When she finally saw Semenu’s smile, Jiaren realized that what Semenu had been doing was not defending her.
“Of course. You’ll always be Baperr.”
“I am Baperr. Not Simyun, but Captain Baperr.”
Jiaren was certain. Semenu just wanted to confirm.
Now that their relationship had become ambiguous after meeting again after 20 years, Semenu wanted to clarify their relationship through Exa’s own words.
“Then Captain. Let Jiaren off.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Yes. Because I’m Baperr.”
Although the defense was just a side dish, Jiaren was satisfied with it.
“Let’s go. We have to practice Phantasmal Ability now.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll help too!”
Even though Semenu was there, Jiaren decided to volunteer as the teacher.
***
“This is the Grand Training Grounds?”
“Yes.”
Entering the Grand Training Grounds, Simurtr looked around and was slightly impressed.
The snake pit’s communal training area. It was called a training ground, but it was on a different level from Mectera’s training grounds.
‘So this is the assassins’ training ground.’
Buildings of various heights, from one to five stories. Alleys piercing between the buildings. A central plaza visible in the distance.
The snake pit’s training ground was a single urban district. It looked as if a part of an imperial city had been torn out. This too was a phantasm created by the first Degrate and repeatedly repaired by successive generations.
“Where do you do things like sparring?”
Simurtr walked through the streets that felt incredibly real despite being a phantasm. Since he was here, he planned to look around most places. Since it was where Semenu lived.
“There are small training grounds, but we don’t spar much.”
“This is a training ground for bodyguards and assassinations, right?”
“Yes.”
As Simurtr passed by, he touched the outer wall of a building. He could feel the rough texture perfectly.
This scale and this level of realism. It wasn’t called a divine power for nothing. Simurtr touched his left chest.
The divine power of the phantasm that constructed this urban district was now engraved on his own heart.
‘It’s a half-baked divine power, but this district was also made by that half-measure.’
Of course, it was lacking compared to the first Degrate. He was a great man that even a Degrate with Asha could not hope to match.
“It’s here.”
The place Jiaren had prepared was the central plaza.
“Can we run into the snakes?”
Snakes. A term for Degrate’s assassins. Not the Degrate clan, but the assassins under their command.
“They might come to the outskirts, but they won’t come here.”
Originally, Simurtr’s practice was not supposed to take place in the Grand Training Grounds.
It was a place chosen because Simurtr wanted to look around, and Jiaren had given prior notice to the snake pit.
“That’s a shame. I wanted to see their faces for the first time in a while.”
Jiaren smiled awkwardly. She noticed that his words were meant to intimidate her.
“What should I do now?”
Simurtr first looked at Semenu.
On the way to this plaza, the one who had shown the most enthusiasm for practice was not Simurtr, but Semenu.
“Channel your magic power.”
Simurtr operated the Star-Breaking Style. A phantasm. How much magic power would be needed for the divine power?
‘The more, the better. But I can’t put a strain on my body.’
The 4th stage of the Star-Breaking Style was still overwhelming. Especially the strong energy. The incident in Huit proved that fact.
He had sustained internal injuries in the process of killing the Jabad Knight Captain and subduing the beast with the degraded Phantasmal Ability.
The severity of the internal injuries was trivial, but the same could be said for what Simurtr had done. It was an injury sustained in the process of barely using the strong energy.
‘I can’t overuse the 4th stage. I have to save it as much as possible until my body is fully developed.’
The body is a consumable. It tears, breaks, and becomes stronger each time it regenerates, but eventually, it wears down.
“Done.”
3rd stage. The magic power pooled in his heart rotated through the circuits three times. He had to remember. The current body’s growth was more important than catching up to his past life’s achievements.
“Now, turn that into a phantasm.”
Semenu spread her fingers wide. She pointed to the white magic power shimmering in her hand.
“What?”
“Ah. They said it’s easier to think of it as coming from the shadows. A medium? A fucking starting point? Think of the shadow as the source of materialization…”
“Semenu.”
Jiaren, who was watching, cut Semenu off. She shook her head wildly as if she had seen something she couldn’t bear to watch.
“The reason we think of shadows that way is because our bloodline has developed in that direction.”
The family of assassination. Stealth, ambush; for Degrate, there was nothing as familiar as shadows. The secret techniques created by the first and added to by later generations were based on phantasms and shadows.
“Then? Is the Captain’s a sword?”
Jiaren’s sigh grew even deeper.
Semenu was ignorant. She didn't know the theory. It was because she was born from the First’s ashes. Before she could even learn the process of materialization, she was a being who could wield divine power from the moment she was born into the world.
“That’s right too. But we have to start from the beginning, right?”
Jiaren smiled at Semenu, then turned her head to Simurtr.
He was looking at the materialized magic power in his hand with a frown. It was magic power that had not been materialized as a phantasm.
“Self-realization.”
He must be listening. Jiaren thought and said. He might look like a kid, but a hero was hiding inside him.
“That’s what we call it. Because we are half-elves. The essence of Degrate is the phantasm.
Therefore, materializing a phantasm is, at last, realizing Degrate.”
But Simurtr was not a Degrate.
It was a part that made Jiaren contemplate.
How should she describe the process of Simurtr materializing the divine power? How should she explain it so he could understand easily?
“Jiaren is a good teacher.”
Semenu said.
She had noticed Jiaren’s feelings. The reason Jiaren had become so cooperative was not because she liked Simurtr, nor because she was being threatened.
“That’s enough. What’s so good, I’m pathetic. I’m the Phantasm, but I don’t know anything.”
It was purely because of Semenu.
Her younger sister, born by Nurmakan. Not only was she abused by her own father, but she was also hated by the clan and its members, a pitiful younger sister.
“Why didn’t you tell me? If you had told your older sister, I would have killed all those who looked at you like that back then… no, I would have half-killed them.”
“Why only half?”
“They’re still family……”
Her affection for her younger sister stemmed from Jiaren’s affection for her clan.
Even if it wasn’t Semenu, even if another of Nurmakan’s test subjects had existed and been bullied, Jiaren would have acted and spoken in the same way.
“Did my daughter do that too? She still doesn’t call you aunt, does she?”
“Sharen? No.”
“Really? You’re not just trying to reassure your older sister?”
“Yes. Sharen is kind too.”
That is why Jiaren is kind. It was the reason Semenu had chosen Baperr and wandered in search of Exa.
To Semenu’s experience, there was only one person who cared for her solely as Semenu, not as a Degrate.
“Jiaren, explain.”
At Semenu’s words, Jiaren was startled and turned her gaze. Fortunately, Simurtr was still focused on his magic power.
“I think it will be similar to when you were first initiated into mana.”
After imprinting Asha, Jiaren brought out the answer she had deduced on her own.
“Mana constitutes the world, but it’s a concept that doesn’t resonate with humans.”
Mana constitutes the world. But until they perceive mana, humans do not realize it.
Asha, the divine power of the phantasm, was imprinted on Simurtr’s heart. But Simurtr did not yet perceive it.
“I think it’s similar to accepting mana and internalizing it as magic power.”
Whether the vessel was the heart or the dantian.
If one accepted and harbored mana, it would become magic power within the body. It was called transformed mana to those who had reached it.
It was the part where the individual’s unique characteristics were revealed. Even with the same mana, each vessel was different. The black magic power of the Mectera bloodline was an example.
“By any chance, how long did it take you? To manifest magic power.”
“…….”
Simurtr did not answer. His narrowed eyes had widened at some point, but he was still engrossed in his magic power.
“They said it took 9 years. But there were circumstances.”
Semenu answered for him.
In his past life, Exa was adopted and then expelled from Mectera. Adding the year he spent as a mercenary, it was 9 years. During that time, Simurtr couldn't even grasp a trace of mana.
“Ah.”
Did I step on a landmine? Jiaren’s face paled for a moment. She let out a secret sigh of relief at Simurtr’s lack of reaction.
Nine years of powerlessness. It was one of the reasons why the hero Exa Baperr was so relatable to the soldiers.
Unlike other heroes, he was expelled and started from the bottom, overcoming hardships and adversities to become a great general. To those who were not nobles, he was truly a legendary figure.
“But then, how did he learn it?”
“It’s a secret.”
He met a master, went to the dragons, and had the Star-Breaking Style imprinted on his soul.
“There was something like a curse. He broke it after 9 years.”
Semenu gave the answer they had agreed on someday. It was the answer they usually gave when someone showed doubt. Because there were so many people asking.
“A curse? He had something like that?”
Curiosity welled up in Jiaren’s eyes. It was the anecdote of a hero who had died young, leaving only numerous rumors. Even the squad members who were closest to him had started to keep their mouths shut at some point.
Semenu, too, was usually tight-lipped on the subject of Exa, but now the person himself was in front of her.
“Yes.”
It wasn't entirely wrong either.
A physical, and such a serious, defect could be called a curse.
“Then. After he broke it? How long did it take?”
“Immediately.”
“Huh?”
“He knew right after he broke it.”
“Mana?”
“Yes.”
As proof, he had internalized magic power as soon as the Star-Breaking Style was imprinted on his soul.
“How?”
Immediately? Not even a day?
Jiaren couldn't believe Semenu’s words.
“Ah. It worked.”
If it weren’t for Simurtr, who suddenly opened his mouth. Surely.
When Jiaren turned her head and looked at Simurtr.
Her eyes widened beyond measure. From Simurtr’s shadow, something like a heat haze was shimmering.
“Huh?”
Not the green light of Degrate, but a white phantasm crafted by the Star-Breaking Style.
“What is that.”
Her widened eyes curved thinly. Jiaren let out a hollow laugh. Looking closely, its presence was so intense, unlike a phantasm.
“It’s just magic power.”
Jiaren thought Simurtr was playing a prank.
No matter how she looked at it, that was not a phenomenon a phantasm could show. It was not a phantasm, but Simurtr’s pure magic power.
“So this is how it is. Is it because imprinting is all the same?”
A white streak that suddenly shot up brushed past Jiaren. Jiaren reacted immediately.
“Huh?”
But her swift reaction was in vain, as the white magic power passed through the green scythe Jiaren had created from her Unique Phantasmal Realm.
It brushed past Jiaren’s body, but she didn't even feel a touch.
A phenomenon that could not be seen with magic power, a phenomenon that only a phantasm without physical force, which had not constructed a Unique Phantasmal Realm, could show.
“But do I have to use the shadow? It feels really awkward.”
Immediately.
Jiaren realized what Semenu meant by immediately.