Chapter 170 – 170. The Real Mastermind (5)
“Ugh… Ugh!”
What Lana felt the most heterogeneous was that the high-density magic power that was strangling her was not an ordinary one.
She creeps into her own head and is horrified by her strange sensation tickling her head.
This is because she realized that Erin had been forcibly erasing her feelings of insecurity and aggression.
‘This… Magic?’
Wrong.
On the continent of Arcena, there is no magic that controls the human mind and emotions.
The ability to touch a person’s head is only non-human beings of higher dimensions.
To Lana, who did not know detailed information about her demons or divine beasts, Erin’s appearance, which was displaying abilities impossible for humans, did not look human at all.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
The hostility in Lana’s eyes faded, and her fear of Erin began to sprout.
Her whole body starts to tremble and her eyes sway, and the process in which she loses her ability to resist as the strength of her body is released is proof that her reason is thoroughly destroyed.
‘I was successful, but… I feel a bit like that, too.’
It was good that she subdued her Lana without a fight, but as she watched Lana’s reaction shudder as if she were facing a monster her little one could never match, she felt a little uneasy. .
Erin’s nine-tailed fox’s magical power has fundamentally different characteristics from normal human magical power.
A Shinsoo with the characteristic of absorbing human body and mind and absorbing energy within the body. The characteristic was obviously similar to that of a succubus, which belongs to a lower species among demons, but a being with clearly upward compatible characteristics with a succubus is the one. It’s a gumiho.
‘This is the first time I’ve actually used this on someone else.’
The nine-tailed fox’s magic is not in the realm of humans, but in the realm of magical beings called gods.
As much as this, I couldn’t ask for advice on how to make Eunhyeon grow.
It was only a magic trick that he was able to use through countless trials and errors and constant practice, through the careless and insincere advice of Miho, the remaining will of the Shinsoo dormant inside his body.
Due to Erin’s position that she could not reveal the secret of Shinsoo, she could not practice using dangerous magic that manipulates emotions even for others, so the target of the practice was naturally limited to Eunhyeon.
‘Hyun didn’t show any reaction, she just said that she was doing well…’
Unable to resist the strange power that manipulated her own reason and emotions, which was different from her other normal magical powers, Lana’s strength slowly drained from her own body, which she had been fiercely resisting.
‘Why didn’t this happen to Hyuni… ?’
From Erin’s point of view, who doesn’t know that Eun-hyeon is protecting her spirit to some extent with the protection of her goddess, under the guise of her practice, the fact that the selfish fascination she bet on Eun-hyeon didn’t work at all is quite a shock. Was
[Hmph, there’s no way that guy would fall for the flimsy charm of a young gore like you.]
“…”
Every time she heard the voice of a gumiho snorting and sarcastic at herself like this, Erin got a fever for no reason.
But even if she says something back on this side, she will only say what she has to say and disappear back into her own deep consciousness. Her attitude makes her Erin even more angry.
Eun-hyeon introduces Mi-ho as a magical and wonderful being, but whenever she forgets, she starts a fight with Erin.
I think that talents that say things that discourage people, such as ‘Can’t you do this too?’, ‘Isn’t it too much even if you don’t have talent’, ‘Just give up’, etc., Are not magical beings? Makes you hear
“Eww… Ugh!”
The muscles of the whole body relaxed, and the state where the whole body fell limp on the floor was in a state where there was no more strength left to resist Emilia’s restraint.
Emilia, who judged that her danger itself was gone, soon loosened Lana’s restraints.
“Emilia, take me out. Prevent anyone from entering.”
“I accept your order.”
Emilia heard Erin’s words, nodded her head, and left her office, dragging Lana’s limp legs.
“That… What the hell… ?”
“I will not answer.”
Feeling that the situation would drag on too much, she had no choice but to use the nine-tailed fox’s power, but Eun-hyeon had requested it, so Erin had no intention of revealing the nine-tailed fox’s power.
“… I get it. I don’t even ask And I’m sorry. Lana is so…”
“Don’t tell me.”
Erin frowned and interrupted Runan.
“…”
“I just want to think of you as bad people who kill and kidnap people for money. I don’t want to hear every detail.”
Here she felt that if she heard such words, her own heart would weaken again, so Erin cut off her Runan.
No matter what the reasons and stories are presented, the act itself does not change that they were instigated by Ashton to kill Erwin and tried to harm themselves.
So was Ashton, and so were the two boys who tried to rape themselves in her lungs.
Neither status, power, situation at the time, nor story is the basis for one to forgive them.
For Erin, one of her goals in life is to make them pay what they deserve.
The restraint of Count Orba’s family, who tried to kidnap and rape her, and the fact that Eun-hyeon did not exterminate her socially but only warned her were one of the meanings of making Erin pay the price herself.
Those goals are now the driving force that makes her Erin hold herself up in her intense training.
“I despise you. And I can’t stand myself because I’m so pitiful that I have no choice but to come to hear from you guys. I don’t even know what Hyuni is thinking about holding hands with you guys. But if Hyun-i left you alone, there must be a reason.”
Even if she feels sorry for Eun-hyeon, in the end, Erin knows that Eun-hyeon always made the right and efficient judgment.
That’s why she holds back her own feelings.
If others had seen Erin’s face, they would have thought that Eunhyeon and Erin were similar in this respect.
Erin made her own conclusions, and she told her the true story of her coming here.
“Please talk. Who is the ‘he’ who is said to have a connection with the demon that attacked Pernin?”
“… I get it. Don’t let that happen.”
Runaan nodded at her with her hard face before opening her mouth again.
“There is no other basis for us to think he is connected to the devil. It was because of the magic that man used.”
“Is it magic?”
“The same black magic that deals with shadows as your brother used.”
“… Awesome!”
Erin’s shoulders tremble and she lets out a moan.
“That… Did you see it yourself?”
“I saw it. That man came to this building, Information Guild, and offered me a request. Then Lana attacked the man from behind, just like you did before, and the man’s shadow came out and blocked Lana’s blade cleanly.”
“…”
“He didn’t move, he just stood still and laughed at us. The black shadow that blocks all of Lana’s attacks…”
Runan continued, frowning her face as if he had seen something unpleasant.
“It was like seeing a living creature.”
“…”
“I don’t think that people who can commonly use shadow-managing magic are that common. Would you too?”
“Yes.”
Erin nodded her head, frowning as if in a bad mood.
In hindsight, when she thought about it now, she had some doubts.
The book of black magic that Elvin learned was written by a human, not a book written by Lyra, the succubus who attacked Pernin.
If so, the succubus should have thought about where and how he got this book.
“Are you saying that the original owner of the black magic book that came into my brother’s hands is that person?”
“I guess. Besides, the man who taught you had doubts about this.”
“Hyeoni too…”
Maybe she even knew Illyana, who was fluent in magic.
“What kind of requests have you been doing?”
“I don’t know yet. I didn’t even accept the request, but I threw the advance payment and left, and after telling the place and time, the man left the building. He accepted that if he came, he would accept it, and then he said he would tell me the contents of the request along with the additional money.”
“Where is that place?”
“Are you planning to go?”
“I don’t know yet. But there’s a place and a time, so there’s nothing wrong with knowing it.”
“… Tonight at 8 o’clock, in the abandoned warehouse of Gleor. I really want to talk about it, but I don’t recommend going alone.”
“… Do you care about me? Wasn’t it comfortable for you to disappear like that woman who attacked me?”
Erin asked with a suspicious expression.
Erin, who had already been beaten badly by Ashton once, did not let her guard down.
“As I said before, if you die at this point, then I will be killed by your master.”
“… ?”
Erin gave her a look that she couldn’t understand.
Why is this man so afraid of Eun-hyeon?
Thinking she had all the information she needed, Erin turned her head and left her room.
“Are you going?”
“Yes. I heard everything.”
“Someday… I hope the day will come when we can talk properly and apologize.”
“… I don’t know if that day will ever come.”
After leaving her office, Emilia followed Erin as she walked down the hallway with a complicated expression on her face.
“…”
Erin walked down the hallway without speaking for a long time.
Perhaps it was because she had met one of the objects that tried to harm her, her face and her complicated thoughts about meeting people with whom she was in fact her enemies kept coming back to her mind.
“Ahaha!”
“Uh?”
As she walked down her hallway with her troubled face on, Erin stopped her steps when she heard a bright chuckle from somewhere.
“Ahaha! Catch me!”
“Hey! Even if you don’t go out! Ah…”
A young prisoner girl, who came out with her to catch a little child who jumped out of the narrow room, met Erin’s eyes and flinched.
“Sin, sorry! Come on over!”
Her puppy, her ear pricked up, the beast girl hurriedly squeezed her toddler’s hand and pulled her towards herself, bowed her head, and gave her Erin out of her way.
Erin couldn’t hide her bewildered expression as if she were dealing with a very scary person, and she slowly moved her steps back to the room where her two children were.
“Oh, nothing. Stay in your room and don’t come out.”
Hearing the voice of the beast girl, the young children who poked her head out one by one from her room met Erin.
“Wow, very pretty sister…”
“Customer? Are you a guest?”
“It is very pretty. Are you a noble?”
“No, I am…”
“I’m sorry! Interrupting and taking up time! Hurry! Let’s go into the room!”
Erin feels strange when the beast girl reacts as if she has taken on her fear.
“… Do you live here?”
“Yes? Ah yes.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
“That, that…”
In response to Erin’s direct question, the Suin girl, who hesitated because she couldn’t meet Erin’s eyes, finally opened her mouth.
“Lana sister… A very scary person is here, so don’t go outside… Par, with his arm bent backwards, he forced me to take care of the children…”
“…”
Erin hardened her expression.
Surely the sight might be a bit cruel to show her child, thought Erin.
It was quite unexpected that her hostility toward Erin was completely dampened by her emotional distortion, but her concern for her children remained as she moved with the support of her colleagues to heal her wounds.
“What kind of person is that woman to you?”
“Yes? What is that… ?”
“Are you a good person? Or is she a bad person?”
“Joe, you are a good person… Mom and Dad accept kids who have nowhere to go, like me and my kids, always earn money to feed us, bring us clothes, play with us often, and…”
“Stop, it’s okay. It’s enough if you just tell me that.”
Erin interrupted her prisoner girl and took her steps again.
“… What’s this.”
Trying to think she was the bad guys and she did.
So she cut him off, deliberately not wanting to hear what she was trying to do in her defense of Runan Rana.
However, when confronted with her children, she couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked the beast girl what kind of person Lana was.
Even though she expected it, she didn’t want to hear the answer, but she asked, and she felt sorry for herself.
She said, “I was going to eat heartily…”
Erin recalled a conversation she had with Eunhyeon one day.
– Some people may be evil to you, but they may be valuable to others.
– What do you mean? A bad person is a bad person, right?
At Erin’s question with her questionable expression, Eunhyun smiled wryly at her and stroked her hair.
– What kind of person am I to Erin?
– You, you? Um, so… Joe, what a good man!
– But to someone else, I’m a very bad person.
– Huh? Is it Hyun?
Erin asked back, widening her eyes.
– It can’t be. Hyun is my hero.
The conviction and belief that Eun-hyeon, who saved herself and suggested a way forward, could not be an evil person contained the various feelings that Erin had for her Eun-hyeon.
– Someday… The day will come when you will understand the meaning of my words.
– Yes… ? I do not know.
– And you will be put at a crossroads of some choice. Whatever choice you make, I will respect your choice. Only… Please don’t make a choice that will leave you with only regrets. Just as you believe in me, I will always believe in you.
Just as Erin thinks of her Eunhyeon as her own hero, Erin doesn’t know that Eunhyeon believes that her Erin will grow as the seed of her hero that she nurtures.
That’s why Eun-hyeon doesn’t even know that she wants Erin to come up with an answer to her own troubles and act.
‘… Did that mean this? Hyuna… ?’
Ever since Erin saw her little children, who were her orphans, she felt uncomfortable because she couldn’t relieve her uneasy feelings that were starting to build up in her heart.
When she woke up and was alone, her family itself collapsed due to her father’s corruption, and she was left alone, overlapping for some reason with her own self at the time.
‘Perhaps, if Hyeoni hadn’t taken it, I might have been expelled from Aether before long, and I might have wandered from place to place like those kids.’
There is no change in the fact that Lana and other members of the Heilangdan, an information guild, do not only sell information, but also engage in contract killings for money.
She knows very well that she is exonerated by saying that the money raised by taking the lives of others is used to help young children.
However, she imagines what will happen to the orphans who live day by day with shabby clothes and meager meals, if she or Eun-hyeon destroys or punishes Heilangdan by any means.
“It’s annoying…”
The more she thought, pondered, and hesitated, the more uncomfortable feelings were swelling in Erin’s heart like a balloon.
