"What are you doing! What are you doing!"
"This is weird!"
"W-wait! Don't pick up the sword! No swords allowed!"
Right after the anticlimactic battle, I sat down to replenish my mana and settled for a simple meal.
The problem was these fairies — whatever was so amusing to them, they wouldn't stop chattering and kept getting in the way no matter what I did.
The moment I sat down to focus on restoring my mana, they came buzzing right up to my face, trying to poke their way in through my nostrils and lips.
Even when I glared at them in anger, they showed no sign of fear, just giggling and darting away for a moment before coming right back.
Thankfully, the mana technique I'd developed with my aunt was highly stable — if it wasn't, I might've suffered serious mana backlash thanks to their interference.
"Why are you guys even here?"
"No idea!"
"We're not gonna tell you~!"
"Hehehe!"
I quietly watched the fairies for a moment, then reached for the sword I had set down beside me — Blacknight.
"Eeep!"
"She grabbed the sword!"
"I don't know... I'm really feeling the urge to swing this thing around. Any chance you'll start talking nicely?"
The fairies, glowing with soft white light, began trembling.
"Scary human!"
"We have a contract!"
"We were so bored!"
"For a thousand years!"
"Over a thousand years!"
My brow furrowed slightly at their words.
A contract — with the fae, of all races?
And to think that contract kept them bound here for such an impossibly long time.
'Spiritual races like the fae are supposed to live in harmony with nature... How did anyone manage to form a contract with creatures that hardly even listen?'
The fae are beings shaped by nature, living alongside it — a free-spirited race.
That's exactly why spiritual races rarely form contracts — a contract is a form of bondage, something that clouds their inherently free essence.
I felt a strange pity for these fairies, who must have guarded this place for countless ages under that contract.
"That must've been hard... staying here all this time."
...
The fairies suddenly fell silent.
Then, glowing faintly, they began fluttering around me.
"Thank you."
"Hehe! She's nice as long as she doesn't pick up the sword!"
"Hey... is that even really a sword?"
They soon resumed their whispering.
I waited for their chatter to die down before asking again.
"About that contract... who exactly did you make it with?"
The fairies hesitated for a moment, then flitted away like they were about to share some big secret.
"Think we can tell her?"
"Probably? I mean, she's the one with the black sword."
"Yeah, yeah. And her hair's black, and her eyes are yellow."
Not that it mattered how far they flew — they were communicating telepathically anyway.
And if you're gonna back away, at least go far enough that I can't reach you with a hand, right? What's the point of barely moving out of reach?
"Don't go telling anyone else, okay?"
One of the fairies tugged lightly at my earlobe as it whispered.
Seriously, if you're going to use telepathy anyway, why do you keep doing this weird stuff?
"The one we made the contract with — it's the person inside there! We promised them! We were hurt... and they said if we guarded this place, they'd protect us too!"
"Hurt? Protect you? From what?"
The fairies suddenly started trembling violently.
"Something scary... really scary..."
"Something that doesn't die..."
"If you didn't have that black sword... we might've thought you were one of them."
"T-that's why we attacked you at first..."
The fairies backed away slightly.
I was puzzled by their sudden fear toward me.
"You... you have a strange smell. It's not a human smell."
For some reason, the words the mountain guardian had once said to me came floating back.
"Explain it properly."
"We don't know! It's scary!"
"Aaaaaaah!"
"Waaaaah!"
They were completely overwhelmed with fear.
There was no way I could get a proper conversation out of them like this.
Honestly, the fact I'd managed to get this much out of them already was practically a miracle — I decided not to push my luck.
I turned my gaze toward the tomb in front of me.
"...Looks like I have no choice but to go in."
Slowly, I rose to my feet and walked toward the entrance.
Unlike before, the area in front of the dark tomb was now illuminated by the light emanating from the fairies' bodies.
"You're really going in?"
"You don't have to, you know..."
"L-e-a-v-e."
"No, she has to go in!"
For the first time, the fairies seemed divided in opinion.
"If you're really going in..."
Just then, a group of fairies I had hoped would appear flew out in front of me.
—"You must prove your blood."
—"Only those granted permission may enter this place."
—"The seal remains unbroken."
—"No one can lift the seal."
—"Only blood is the key."
Hearing their words, I gave a small nod.
'So they want me to stain it with my blood?'
It was a method often used at ruins related to the ancestors of the Soongmu Clan.
I casually placed my hand on the entrance to the tomb.
Thump.
It looked like nothing more than an ordinary stone wall — yet I felt a strange resistance, and my hand was pushed away.
'So the seal is real.'
It was a seal strong enough to block even mana. Breaking through by force was far beyond my current strength.
And that only made me more curious.
Just what in the world was inside?
A contract to employ fairies as gatekeepers.
A seal placed over the entrance.
A slab that served as both map and key.
And a door that only opened when infused with mana.
I shaped Mujin into a dagger and lightly cut the tip of my finger.
Then, slowly, I pressed my blood against the wall.
As I stepped back—
Fwoosh!
Crimson geometric patterns spread like veins across the entrance of the tomb.
Thud! Rumble...!
As if reacting to my blood, the wall blocking the entrance dissolved away.
A clear, open path revealed itself — bright, as if beckoning me forward.
I briefly reaffirmed the weight of Black Night at my hip and the presence of Mujin at my fingertip.
Then, I stepped inside.
***
Meanwhile, Valerie had been writhing in boredom ever since Lee Chul left at dawn.
"Ugh... I have so much research left to do, so why am I like this?"
He'd only been here for a few weeks — but those weeks had been so much fun that everything else now felt painfully dull.
Translating ancient texts, researching the Evil Eye, sparring with him...
For someone like her — who'd spent so much time in quiet study, focused on sorcery, magic, and perfecting her own unique spell — the days with Lee Chul had been thrillingly stimulating.
"Ah, forget it. Today's a lost cause. I'm just gonna order chicken."
Muttering to herself, Valerie lit a cigarette and reached for her phone.
Tick.
And then — in that moment — she blinked at the sudden noise that reached her ears.
"...What was that? Did I mishear? Sounded like the detector going off?"
Valerie had set up a detection device in her workshop — one that could sense magical anomalies around Gyeongju.
It was how she'd found Lee Chul in the first place — the device picked up the unique mana wavelength only an Evil Eye possessed.
"Hmm..."
She turned toward the detector.
A light shimmered on the map of Gyeongju — a color she hadn't seen before.
'Red? Is this a malfunction?'
Red signified a Gate.
But in a place like Gyeongju — where the balance of spiritual and magical forces had been artificially stabilized — Gates couldn't form.
Tick!
Just as she thought that, another light appeared.
And it didn't stop there.
One.
Then another.
Tap!
The cigarette slipped from her lips and fell to the floor.
Valerie's eyes widened in shock.
Five.
Five Gates had opened in the heart of Gyeongju.
'...Don't tell me — is this because of him?'
Panicked, she poured all her mana into the detector, raising its sensitivity to the limit.
No.
The mountain's mana was unchanged.
This wasn't Lee Chul's doing.
'Good... No — this isn't good. I need to hurry.'
Valerie snatched up her fallen cigarette, quickly equipped her combat artifacts, and sprinted out of the workshop.
Even if Gyeongju didn't have a large civilian population, there was no telling what might happen with five Gates opening simultaneously.
Noblesse oblige.
Those with power bore responsibility.
And Valerie intended to uphold that responsibility.
BOOM!
No sooner had she stepped out of her workshop than a thunderous explosion rang out in the distance.
Biting her lip hard, she launched herself into the air with magic — without so much as glancing back.
Meanwhile — elsewhere.
Inside the workshop laboratory she had just left, the detector placed deep within the room flashed once again with an unfamiliar light.
Tick!
That light suddenly appeared at the entrance of Toham Mountain, where Lee Cheol was located.
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
And in the blink of an eye, that single light multiplied — as if replicating itself — into dozens of lights.
Those lights simply gathered together, motionless, standing at the base of the mountain.
Then, in an instant — they began to move.
At a speed no human eye could possibly follow.
From the entrance to the mid-slope, from the mid-slope to somewhere unknown.
And the direction in which that swarm of lights was headed — was none other than the entrance to the tomb Lee Cheol had entered.
***
Once I passed through the entrance, what greeted me was a spacious chamber.
The faint glow illuminating the room came from processed mana stones embedded in the concave walls.
I turned my head and slowly scanned the room.
Against one wall stood a piece of furniture resembling a bookshelf.
Resting on top of it was a scroll made of bamboo strips, neatly rolled up.
Heug-ya-rok.
The Black Night Record.
I had found it.
The Black Night Record.
The very reason I had sought out this tomb.
Even though my eldest brother had failed to be chosen by Heugya — the Black Night — he was still able to obtain information related to it because of this record.
'From what I recall through the Black Energy's vision, the founder tried to conceal Heugya. But my eldest brother managed to uncover this record here. There must be secrets written here that even the memories of Heugya couldn't reveal.'
Though this was clearly an important artifact, I set the scroll down and turned away.
'Even if I read it, now's not the time.'
This wasn't the burial chamber.
This place was merely a storage room — a place to house the deceased's cherished belongings — or perhaps just a passage leading toward the real tomb.
On the wall opposite from where I had entered — there was another arched doorway, just like the entrance I had come through.
Wooooong...
As I approached it, a faint wind leaked out, making a sound like the wailing of ghosts.
The light from this chamber didn't reach the room beyond.
Even though only a single doorway separated me from what lay ahead, it felt as distant and unreachable as the boundary between life and death.
"..."
I could feel it instinctively.
On the other side of this entrance — shrouded in darkness — something was waiting.
Thump-thump!
My heart began to race.
But the meaning behind this quickening heartbeat wasn't fear or anxiety.
It was exhilaration. Joy. Ecstasy.
As though I was about to meet something — or someone — I had long awaited.
'Heug-gi...'
It wasn't my emotion.
It was the feeling of Heug-gi — the Black Energy — slumbering within my heart.
Before I knew it, my feet were already moving.
Leaving behind the world of light, I stepped into a world swallowed by darkness.
Shaak—
It felt as if I had passed through a thin, transparent veil.
Another chamber within the tomb.
This was the resting place of the second-generation clan leader, Lee Hyang-seon.
There wasn't even a single mana stone here to emit light.
Slowly, guided by Heug-gi, I advanced.
And then—
"...!"
There — a person was sitting.
Seated on the floor, cradling a sword in their arms — their eyes met mine.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]