Chapter 546: One Hajin Guards the Bed

The five routes turned toward the protected room, and Hajin divided the Rings before the first black line reached the door.

He stood beside the bed with six halos open, while the child watched him from beneath her hood and Cessy remained against the wall.

Vella’s gold held the safe branches inside Cessy’s material body, though the deeper punishment commands continued moving beneath the skin.

Juna, Didi, and Loccy waited outside as the broken square fell behind them, with the damaged route between their feet beneath the audit.

"I am making one clone," Hajin said. "The original follows Didi to the exposed route, while the clone stays here."

The child looked from his face toward the empty floor beside him, then pulled her blanket closer around her shoulders.

Hajin lowered himself until his eyes met the shadow beneath her hood, keeping both hands open beside his knees beneath the room’s pressure.

"The clone will guard the bed, the room, and the people already inside it. It will not move you without permission."

The child gave no spoken answer, though Elina placed one hand on the blanket where the girl could see it.

"That is enough warning," Elina said. "The room heard you."

Hajin turned toward Juna, who had already checked the left side of his body for the old burn marks that distinguished him.

"The clone needs one Ring, so I keep five. The prepared signal is three knocks against the door."

Juna nodded, then touched his left shoulder beneath the route pressure pulling through the foundation while the bed shook beneath them.

"The original stays on the left. Your old burns remain there, and I am not guessing through another crisis."

Hajin placed his original body beside the bed’s left side, while gold gathered on the floor to his right beneath the black light.

The second body rose from the gold with the same face, clothes, scars, and one Ring already turning around its forearm.

[ Ring Division: 5 Rings Original / 1 Ring Clone ]

[ Clone Mission: Protect the Room ]

[ Clone Priority: Child Choice, Cessy Treatment, Family Survival ]

[ Clone Boundary: Bed Chamber and Outer Door ]

[ Clone Equipment: None ]

[ Divine Refusal: Original Body Only ]

The panels crossed Hajin’s vision, and the clone turned its head toward him without waiting for live direction from the original.

"State the retreat condition," the clone said, while its one Ring tested the approaching black line.

"Three knocks from the original body. If the room cannot hold, retreat to the marked archive stair."

The clone nodded once, then kept its attention on the threshold rather than on Hajin’s departing back beneath the black pressure.

"The objective stays protection, and local choices remain mine inside that boundary."

"Correct."

The clone looked at the child, then lowered both hands where she could see every finger beneath the dim one-Ring light.

"I will guard the door. I will not guard your decisions."

The child watched him for a long breath, then kept the blanket drawn around her horns and knees beneath the route’s pressure.

Vella adjusted her position between Cessy and the clone, leaving the healing space open beside her hand beneath the punishment lines.

"No artifact can pass through division," she said. "The original must carry every tool needed outside."

Hajin checked his empty hands, then stored the last visible remains of the Chain inside inventory before the route reached the doorway.

"The clone carries no Chain, no Grasp, or weapon."

The clone raised one palm toward the approaching audit line, and its single Ring caught the first pressure beneath the bed.

The black line struck the room’s threshold, cracking the stone beneath the clone’s feet while the Sanctuary remained untouched inside the bed.

Hajin felt the impact as a distant pull through one soul, though the clone solved the local problem without waiting for him.

It turned the pressure into the outer wall, leaving the bed’s floor clear while a second line searched along the ceiling.

Aria displayed the remaining limit across the original body’s vision, and the new number gave the room a real boundary.

[ Clone Duration: 8 Minutes Maximum ]

[ Voluntary Return Delay: 30 Seconds ]

[ Current Clone State: Stable ]

Hajin felt the duration as a quiet edge around the divided Ring, while the clone kept one shoulder against the doorway.

The clone would not last forever, and the room could not wait for a heroic mistake to teach that lesson.

Vella kept her gold around Cessy’s safest branches while punishment lines searched the outer wall for another entry into the room.

"The clone is spending one Ring to keep the route outside the Sanctuary," Vella said. "It cannot heal Cessy’s deeper commands."

Cessy lifted her chin toward the second Hajin, with the black route reflected across her damaged face beneath the doorway.

"It does not need to heal me. It needs to stop the order from reaching her."

The child looked toward Cessy, then at the clone’s hands while the audit line pressed against the open doorway beside the bed.

The clone lowered both palms to the floor and waited without asking the girl to trust it beneath the approaching route.

"I can hold the wall for several minutes," it said. "I cannot promise the route will stop trying."

The child pulled one knee beneath the blanket, then pointed toward the outer door where the corridor remained visible beyond the black line.

The clone looked at the doorway, understood the local objective, and moved one step aside beneath the fading pressure beside the bed.

It left the door open enough for the child to see the corridor without leaving the bed exposed to the black line.

Elina’s eyes softened, though her hand remained on the blanket instead of reaching for the girl beneath the open doorway.

"That was a useful answer," she told the child. "No one needed to guess for you."

The first route struck the doorway again, forcing the clone backward by half a step while its one Ring dimmed.

The clone did not call Hajin, and it did not send the prepared correction before the local boundary required it.

It placed one foot against the bed’s stone leg, accepted the load, then shifted the foreign pressure into the empty corridor.

The move saved the Sanctuary without spending the prepared correction, while the black line recoiled toward the outer wall beside the bed.

Aria did not translate the clone’s thoughts into Hajin’s mind, and the absence kept the mission honest beneath the shared soul.

Juna entered the room just far enough to touch the original Hajin’s cheek, while Didi waited beside the widening route outside.

"You are the left one," Juna said, brushing the old burn beneath his eye. "Do not let the right one steal my goodbyes."

The clone looked toward her, and its mouth tilted with the same crooked humor Hajin would have used beneath the danger.

"I can return the goodbyes if you prefer equal treatment."

Juna smiled despite the route, then turned her attention toward the bed while the clone held the threshold against the black pressure.

"You can keep the room warm. He owes me the return."

Hajin caught her hand before she stepped away, while the five external routes pulled toward Didi’s frozen line outside the doorway.

She leaned in and kissed him once, quick enough to remain a promise instead of a distraction beneath the shaking roof.

"Five Rings come back with you," she said against his mouth. "The rest of you follows the same rule."

The Stream caught the kiss, then lost it beneath the warning comments and the black lines moving across the square.

[ JunaFanClub: ] left body confirmed and the goodbye kiss is legally ours too

[ ShadowMage44: ] one hajin at the bed one hajin in the crater is emotional damage

[ ashley (Mod): ] clone carries no artifact, and the original remains the strategic authority

Didi called from the square, with Crowned Frost holding the scar left by the severed Collector limb beneath the broken street.

"The exposed route is widening, and I need the five-Ring body now."

Hajin released Juna’s hand, then faced the clone while the first black line struck the doorway again beneath the bed.

"Hold the room. Protect Cessy. Protect the child’s choice. Use the three-knock signal if the boundary fails."

"The boundary remains under my control," the clone replied. "Return before the last safe line closes."

Hajin left through the door with five Rings open, while the original body felt lighter beneath the clone’s one-Ring burden.

He did not steer the clone from the corridor, since the divided body had its own objective inside its declared boundary.

Behind him, the clone turned back toward the bed as the route attacked from two directions at once through the doorway.

The one-Ring body braced one shoulder against the pressure, redirected it into the empty wall, while keeping the blanket untouched.

Hajin heard the impact through stone rather than command, then kept walking toward Didi’s exposed scar beneath the five routes.

’The room has its own defender now, and I have to trust the boundary I gave it before the route tests us both.’

Didi waited at the black scar with five Shards turning above her arms, while frost held the route’s edge above the crater.

"The scar recognizes my blood," she said. "It is trying to close around the refusal."

Hajin raised his bare left palm, where Collector’s Grasp waited beneath the skin after the first route sample and the damaged crossing.

"Then we use that recognition before the court sends another hand."

The five-Ring original stepped beside Didi, while the damaged route pulled toward the protected bed behind him beneath the black scar.

Behind the crater, one Ring defended the child while five Rings faced the Underworld beneath the city and its waiting routes.