Vol 5 Chapter 45

[ Ahem. You, don't you have the sense to respond to a joke with a joke? I was bored since you were quiet for so long. As for the interpretation... I'll read it again, so stand up and show me the text properly. ]

Hearing Superior, a mere stick, being picky about the height of his view, Kapros began to wonder through what means he was seeing and hearing the outside world. Was he sharing Kapros's vision, similar to Aerial Servant?

While curious inside, Kapros stood up and positioned himself in front of the magic text again. After a moment, a pleasant, low voice began to read the characters more slowly than the first time.

[ Listen properly this time. If you enter the visible path, you will have the opportunity to challenge the legacy of the great iron race. If you enter the invisible path, death's... fire, crossing it, you can meet the covenant waiting for the promised one... ]

"Wait!"

Feeling a sense of discomfort while listening carefully with his eyes closed, Kapros abruptly interrupted Superior.

"Death's, fire?"

Superior had clearly shown some hesitation between the words 'death's' and 'fire'. Then, what about earlier?

As Kapros opened his eyes wide, Superior's initial decoding voice flashed through his mind like a revelation.

"[ If you enter the invisible path, death's... This part is a bit strange. Is it fire? ]"

He had shown a strange reaction only at that part earlier too!

Unable to hide his excitement at finally finding a clue, Kapros rushed right up to the magic text.

"Explain why there was hesitation between death and fire twice!"

Superior seemed a bit flustered by this unprecedented enthusiastic outburst.

[ Ah, no. It's nothing much. It's definitely 'death's fire'. It's just... ]

"Just?"

[ The part that forms the base of the character... ]

Superior, who had been speaking with an increasingly slower voice, suddenly stopped the conversation as if he had realized something. A few seconds later, what Kapros heard was a voice that had become sharp with surprise, just like his own.

[ Untie the stick and hold it right up to the text! ]

There was no need to question. As soon as Kapros quickly pulled the stick and bumped it against the magic text, a blue light burst forth as if in repulsion.

Buzz-buzz-

[ Damn it! ]

As the stick vibrated, the engraved text glowed red.

[ To think I'd fall for such a cheap trick! ]

"What on earth is it?"

Unable to contain his curiosity, Kapros asked. After the light from the stick trembled a few more times as if shaking with joy, Superior's voice rang in his ears again.

[ When characters that can be seen as ㅂ, ㅜ, and ㄹ are attached, we read it as 'fire'. But sometimes when part of a character is erased or something, we often infer it as a similar character with meaning, right? For example, if the characters ㄱ, ㅜ, ⊙ were attached to each other, how would you read it? Even though ⊙ is clearly not a letter and is just another character, wouldn't you unconsciously think of ⊙ as ㅇ and read it as 'gung'? ]

"Hmm..."

[ The activation principle of this magic text is that the magic imbued in it only starts when the characters are combined 'correctly' without a single letter being wrong. But the one who wrote this... the one presumed to be me, wrote an incomplete character that can be inferred as ㅂㅜㄹ, but isn't the correct character. It's like slightly erasing part of a properly written character with an eraser. ]

Although Kapros still didn't quite understand everything, he could at least grasp the last part. So it was a situation where just enough of the character was left to barely recognize it, but it was slightly erased.

[ It's cheap, but clever. They did this knowing full well that the magic imbued in the text wouldn't activate if it was done this way. ]

It was quite funny that Superior was ruthlessly calling it cheap and clever while presuming that he himself had written the magic text in front of them, but Kapros didn't express it outwardly. Fortunately, Superior didn't seem to notice the change in Kapros's expression as he subtly frowned trying to hold back his laughter.

"Then what should we do?"

[ It's simple. Just complete the sentence properly. Then the incomplete magic text will be completed and properly show the magic imbued in it. ]

"But I don't know how to write this."

As Kapros muttered while staring blankly at the stick, Superior burst into confident laughter.

[ Hahaha. That's why I'm here! Now, close your eyes and relax your body. ]

It was a laugh that felt a bit unsettling to trust blindly, but Kapros had no choice but to obediently close his eyes and relax his entire body. For a while after that, there was no word, making Kapros wonder what Superior was trying to do, when suddenly he felt something strange creeping from his right hand holding the stick, making his fingertips tingle.

"What... is this?"

[ Hmm, good. This level of compatibility should be enough to do it. As expected, I'm a heaven-sent genius. Hahahahah. ]

"..."

Regardless of Kapros's unpleasant expression, Superior shouted enthusiastically.

[ Now, you! Will you hand over the freedom of your right arm to me? ]

"What?"

What nonsense was this now?

[ Ah, don't give any other answer first. If you want to get out of here, just agree unconditionally for now. Got it? I'll ask one more time, so answer properly. You, Kapros. Do you have the will to share the freedom of that right arm with me? ]

Share the freedom of the right arm. That had a very unpleasant ring to it. Kapros expressed his futile resistance with a few minutes of silence, but in the end, he had no choice but to answer.

"...Alright. Fine, do it."

Flash!

The moment he finished speaking, an intense light burst forth, piercing clearly even through his closed eyelids. His hair and robe flaps fluttered as if they were about to be pulled back.

[ Great! It's working! ]

Superior's cheer erupted, and before Kapros could ask if he could open his eyes now, an indescribable pressure sucked in from the tips of his right hand to his wrist, forearm, elbow, and shoulder, as if a beast was biting into it.

"Ugh!"

Surprised by the unexpected situation, Kapros let out a small groan, but the pressure that felt like his entire arm had been swept into an intense whirlpool didn't easily subside. How long did that intense pressure swirl as if it would tear off his right arm? He barely felt the pressure subsiding. Along with it, the light piercing his eyelids also darkened.

[ ...Alright. Now open your eyes. ]

At Superior's gently whispering voice, Kapros opened his eyes to find himself still standing in the same place.

"What on earth..."

The rest of his words, about to ask what had changed, were suddenly suppressed by an unknown feeling caressing his cheek. He immediately turned to the side, ready to cast a spell, but there was no one there.

Instead, what he could see was...

"My arm...?"

It was the fact that his right arm, which until just a moment ago he could move completely according to his will, was now moving on its own like someone else's, touching his face. While Kapros blinked in surprise a few times, his right hand moved from his cheek to his eyes, nose, and then lips, leisurely rubbing them with his fingertips. The arm moving in elegant curves that Kapros had never moved like that before seemed so strange it was like seeing a ghost.

Even though it was his own hand touching his lips, he simultaneously felt a strange discomfort and surprise as if a completely different person was touching him. After tracing his lower lip for a while, the index finger tried to penetrate inside where his lips were slightly parted.

"Is this... what you meant by handing over the freedom of my right arm to you?"

As Kapros asked while turning his head, the Superior stick slightly wedged between his fingers flickered with red light.

[ That's right. You're smart indeed. Right now, I'm moving your right arm. ]

It's fascinating. Of course it's fascinating, but...

"It's unpleasant, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop touching my face with my hand. Just get on with what you need to do."

As Kapros cut in, feeling ticklish from the hand that kept touching his cheeks, neck, and earlobes without giving up, a low laugh was heard.

[ You're so cold. I'm not a pervert. I've only thought about the theory, this is the first time I've succeeded, so I just want to feel a bit. Right now, we're even sharing sensations, so I can feel everything you touch. It's my first sensation in 500 years, so it's natural to be curious, right? Make a little sacrifice. ]

Who's demanding sacrifice from whom while borrowing someone else's arm?

Kapros didn't hold back and immediately slapped his right arm away from his face with his left hand. If someone had seen it, it would have been a scene beyond funny, bordering on bizarre or horrifying, but since he was alone anyway, there was nothing to be concerned about. Of course, Superior groaned and whined as if he was dying.

[ Ow ow ow ow ow. Did you really hit it? Is it okay to hit your own arm that hard? You'll feel the same pain anyway, so aren't you the one at a disadvantage? ]

Of course, Kapros felt the same pain since he had hit it mercilessly. But still, those who deserve to be hit should be hit.

"If you utter one more useless word, you'll see me stomping on my own hand. I don't have much time."

As Kapros spoke slowly so that Superior could hear clearly, the red light emanating from Superior's stick was seen trembling.

[ Alright, you're really harsh, harsh indeed. Well, anyway, I've touched enough, so shall we get on with what we need to do? ]

What do you mean you've touched enough?

Kapros's face frowned involuntarily, but his right arm moved on its own, adjusting its grip on Superior's stick to hold it like a pencil. Although it was difficult to hold it like a writing instrument since the stick was shaped like a large ruler, he could manage to hold it somewhat similarly. In that state, his arm lifted into the air, moving elegantly once as if about to write, and then plunged towards the wall.

The red light that had only been flickering along the pattern until now was enveloping the entire stick. Kapros could feel the Superior stick, surrounded by red light in his hand, smoothly penetrating the stone wall as if cutting through tofu.

[ It won't take long. ]

As Superior whispered at that moment, everything was over in less than five minutes. Just before his right arm, which had delicately burrowed into the wall to meticulously and perfectly engrave new characters as if correcting the writing, carefully detached from the wall, Superior gave a warning.

[ The moment this is detached, the magic will activate. Get ready! ]

And the moment Kapros felt his hand completely detach, he turned around like lightning and chanted a spell.

"Blink!"

Boom!