Episode 248
If the body of a Hwansu suffers damage beyond a certain degree, it will be forcibly returned to the Hwansu realm. This has nothing to do with the Hwansu’s intention. Even if he doesn’t want to, he will return to the Hwansu realm on his own.
In other words, if there is no damage beyond a certain degree and the person who made the contract with the recovery does not give the order to ‘go back’? The recovery had to stay in this world indefinitely.
‘You took advantage of the nature of the recovery maliciously.’
The more I learned about Princess Elanerienne, the more I shuddered at her cruelty.
If he had not been a member of the royal family, he would have been punished before committing such evil deeds, but because he was of such high status, he could commit crimes however he pleased and there was no one to stop him.
‘Even if Hwan-soo’s soul was ripped out, he would still be alive.’
Hwansu originally had no lifespan. He was a special being who did not even have death.
When the contract ends, all memories experienced during the contract period are lost, but the recovery itself simply returns to its original state.
This was the reason why Princess Elanerien insisted on using the soul of the beast.
‘Take good care of it so it doesn’t get eaten by bugs? You crazy bitch.’
It was the advice written at the end of the letter. It was a phrase that made me mad the more I thought about it.
‘Still, I can’t not check.’
Rodin burned the letter and closed his eyes. After a moment of silence, he opened his eyes.
“Brocks.”
“Master, shall we open the passage?”
“Okay. Open the passage and wait here. Charis, Jenna, Cliff, Emilia. You guys wait here too. I’ll go and come back alone.”
Finally, I made a decision. I knew that I couldn’t show this sight to the battle doll, so I decided to go alone.
“Master, isn’t it dangerous?”
“Master, I will escort you.”
“No. It’s okay. I’ll go alone.”
“Understood, Master.”
Jenna backed down without saying a word.
Rodin said twice that he would go alone. There was no use in suggesting more at a time like this.
“Tell Brocks about this and that.”
“Yes, Master. Don’t worry.”
Brox pressed down on a brick in the right wall, causing the wall to rotate halfway, opening a path inside.
Ggggggggg!
The interior was a long passageway with not a single ray of light entering. It was as gloomy as the entrance to hell.
“Light.”
Rodin floated the ball of light and entered the passage, searching around the entrance and returning the protruding bricks to their original positions.
Ggggggggg!
The back was completely closed. He was completely alone. Rodin sighed briefly and walked inside.
* * *
The passage was wide, but dark and long. No matter how long I walked, I never reached the end.
-Master, are you safe?
Perhaps it was because I had been away for too long. I heard Charis’s voice from my earring. It was a communication magic brooch that Rodin had made for me.
“Yeah, it’s safe. Don’t worry.”
-If there is danger, please contact me immediately. I will rush to you.
“Okay. If there’s any danger, I’ll call you right away.”
After finishing the call, I continued inside.
After walking for another 10 minutes, the shape of the passage changed. It became wider on both the left and right, and the ceiling was filled with magic stones engraved with magic.
‘It’s strengthening magic, defensive magic.’
I checked the magic engraved on the magic stone and walked a few more steps. I came across a curved path and turned right.
“ah!”
The scenery changed. There were cube-shaped glass boxes on the left and right, and inside them were the water beasts. There was one water beast in each glass box.
“Lower-level refund?”
As far as Rodin knew, lower-level beasts could not think like humans. They were no different from animals, capable of carrying out only a few instructions.
“As a low-level beast soul, I wouldn’t be able to act like Charis or Jenna.”
I put aside my doubts and looked at the refund more closely.
The beasts were anchored to reality, without using any magical powers.
When a Reincarnation is summoned from the Underworld, it requires the summoner’s magic power, but once summoned, it does not use magic power.
Rodin also only used his magic power when sharing senses with Zito, and never used his magic power on Zito outside of that. Even when Zito transformed into Robe, he didn’t use Rodin’s magic power.
Because of these characteristics, Rodin stayed with Jito even when he was very young and had little magical power. Even when Undyne was an Undine, he was often summoned and de-summoned due to lack of magical power, but Jiro never left his side.
The current Hwansu was in the same state. He was bound to this world, just as he was summoned.
“Is Hwan-soo still alive?”
Rodin slowly reached out to the recipient. The hard glass box touched his fingertips.
I injected some magic into the glass wall and explored the interior.
“You’re still alive.”
Although the creature wasn’t breathing, it had the typical movement of a living creature: a gurgling sound similar to a heartbeat, but a little different.
-Kueeeeeeng!
“Are you angry?”
-Kkueng.
“I’m angry too. But hold on. There’s still a lot you don’t know. If you mess with it recklessly, you never know what kind of problems might arise.”
Jito returned to the main body at some point. He looked as if he was in a bad mood, and his eyes were wide open.
I continued walking down the hallway, trying to appease Zito. I didn’t stop looking around.
There was a door at the end of the passage. The number of beasts I encountered on my way to this door was exactly 100.
Crunch!
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The door was closed, but not locked. I pulled the handle and the heavy door opened smoothly.
“Ah! It’s here.”
Beyond the door was a long passageway, and there were many toilets on both sides.
However, unlike the previous ones where all the monsters were low-level, all the monsters here were mid- to high-level. There were even monsters that I had never seen before in the Pokedex.
The water here was contained in a glass box. Rodin lightly tapped the glass box with his fingertips.
Chae-Ang!
There was a sound of iron hitting, not glass.
“As expected, it’s Cledial.”
When mixing magic stones into the glass making process, it becomes a special glass that can be engraved with magic. During the Magic Empire era, this type of glass was called Cledial.
The magic engraved in the glass was strengthening and preservation. It was made so that it would not break easily and would not weaken over time.
-Kueeeeeeng!
“My ears hurt. And why are you talking to me? I didn’t make it like this.”
-Kkueng!
“I know you’re angry, but just stay still.”
Rodin walked down the hallway, checking each and every one of the items.
The mid-level demons were still alive and ‘kept’. They were soulless and showed no reaction even when Rodin came near them.
“uh?”
We reached the end of the passage. All the intermediate and advanced recovery items were added together, and there were exactly 100 of them.
But at the very end, there was another glass box. It was small enough to hold about two spans of water, but it was empty inside.
“I think there was one more refund.”
I looked closely at the glass box and saw that there was a tiny gap at the top.
“It seems like it would be difficult for the water to escape through this gap, as it is neither smoke nor water. Did it return to the realm of illusion?”
I was reminded of the unfinished child-shaped battle doll.
Emilia said that the child battle doll that resembled Princess Elanerien’s daughter originally moved a little bit. This means that the soul had taken up residence in the battle doll.
But suddenly, the movement stopped. The spirit of the beast that had been in the battle doll had left. For some reason, it was clear that it had left the body of the battle doll without any outside help.
“Hmm, what should I do?”
When the damage to the body exceeds a certain level, the body returns to the underworld. Rodin has never seen it himself, but it was written in the book that it happens like that.
“Right?”
-Khueng?
“If you get hurt badly, you’ll go back to the underworld.”
-Kkueng, kkueng.
Jito suddenly started to show off by bending his arms and legs wildly. It was a sign that he was strong and that he wouldn’t do anything like that.
“Okay. You’re done. Okay?”
-Kkueng.
“If I cut off their necks, they’ll all return to the underworld.”
If the damage is severe and the water returns to the water world, the remaining parts of the water will also disappear.
If the limbs were cut off, the limbs will slowly disperse and disappear. If the head was cut off, the head will slowly disperse and disappear.
That is, the damaged part also returns to the realm of the living.
“It seems like the soul is returning.”
When the water returns to the underworld, the soul also returns to the underworld. Princess Elanerien had clearly already confirmed this fact.
You could tell just by looking at the fact that they had gathered the recovery materials here and even placed a status preservation spell on them.
“They say that if you cut off their necks, they can all return to the underworld. Hmm.”
I wanted to kill all the beasts here and send them back to the underworld. I thought that would atone for the sins of the human named Elanerien.
“Zito, but Charis, Jenna, Cliff, Emilia, and Brox. Is this what they want?”
-Khueng?
“It’s different with you. I’m your original contractor. That’s why you’re by my side. But they don’t have contractors. If the main body is severely damaged, they have no choice but to return to the underworld.”
Only then did Jito start to worry. He kept tilting his head, and soon his expression became serious.
Zito had no complaints about the time he spent with the contractor.
It was a great experience to wander the world and see and hear many things. I also liked flying into the sky in the morning and leisurely looking around the world. I also enjoyed teasing and joking with the contractor, and spending most of the day in robes and feeling a sense of unity with the contractor was very satisfying.
The best part was that the contractor was strong. He was so strong that he was one of the strongest in the world, so it was really important that he wouldn’t have to go to the underworld unless he had to.
The underworld was a space of nothingness. I was conscious, but I could not see or hear anything. I just existed.
Then the contractor’s voice was heard.
“Forcibly extracting the soul of a phantom is a terrible thing. Not just for phantoms, but for anyone. No one would want to go through that kind of experience. But it has already happened. The soul is already in the body of a battle doll.”
-Kueeng.
“Isn’t it their choice now? Rather than me forcing them into the underworld, shouldn’t they return when they want to?”
-Kkueng. Kkueng.
Zito also understood Rodin’s intentions.
The gruesome procedure was over, and now he was happily roaming the world with his contractor.
He had no power to force it. The choice was in the soul.
Zito stretched out his long tail and gently wrapped it around Rodin’s neck. Then he returned to his robe and clung to his body.
“Thank you for understanding.”
-Kkueng.
“Let’s go. We need to seal this place with more care.”
Rodin carved a magic circle on the door that separated the lower-level recovery passage from the upper-level recovery passage. The magic circle was based on mana, so no one could easily enter.
They passed through a passage with lower-level recovery. Rodin knocked on the surrounding walls to check their durability.
-Khueng?
-Hehe?
“I’m going to tear this place down. I’m only going to tear down the entrance so people can’t get in.”
-Khueng?
“It’s easy to get back in. Since you have the coordinates, you can just use the teleporter. If that doesn’t work, you can just go through it yourself.”
I carefully examined the passage where the lower level water was and the walls and ceiling about 30 meters away. Fortunately, the floor was solid and the ceiling was soft terrain.
“Charis, are you listening?”
-Yes, Master. Shall we come in?
“No. You don’t need to come in. I’m just going to collapse the inside a little bit. I’m communicating so that you don’t come running in surprise.”
-All right.
I disconnected the communication and examined the walls of the passageway once more.
“It’ll be simple. I just have to run away. Holy dash, air drill, air drill.”
Boom! Phew! Phew!
I used three 7-circle magics in succession. The wall burst open with the magic that adjusted the range.
The walls began to shake. Dust rose from the ceiling.
“Go.”
Rodin turned and ran towards the entrance. At that moment, the ceiling collapsed and the walls began to fall inward.
Rodin checked behind him with Zito’s eyes, who shared his vision. A huge rock was falling down right behind him.
“Blink! Blink!”
I used short-distance movement magic in succession. Huge rocks fell down in a haphazard manner on the place I had been just a moment ago.
Woof woof! Kuung!
The back completely collapsed. Fortunately, no one was buried under the collapsing ceiling.
“Whew, that was close.”
-Kkueng.
-Hehehe!
“Let’s go out quickly.”
I sped up and ran towards the entrance. Seeing the walls shaking precariously, I didn’t want to stay there any longer.
