Chapter 315

"Okay, look. A month is thirty days, right? Two weeks is fifteen days. Which means we're exactly halfway through."

Perched on a chair in front of an enormous dragon, the man scribbled something on the ground with a long branch.

"A week is seven days. So even after a week from today, there's still another week left."

[...How?]

"Uh...."

Minerva fired back as though she genuinely couldn't follow how that was supposed to work.

Yu Ji-hyeok looked thrown — he clearly hadn't expected the questioning to start from there — but he kept his composure and walked through the explanation again.

Fortunately, he had some experience with this sort of thing.

He was the one who'd taught his younger sister, Yu Ji-na, everything from basic arithmetic to reading a clock to her times tables.

"Let me try this a different way... yeah, okay."

Yu Ji-hyeok used the World Tree's branches to drag over four of the smaller animals — deer and roe — out of the haul Minerva had brought as a get-well gift.

"A week is seven days. Two weeks is fifteen days, and a month is thirty days. You're with me on this part, right?"

His question drew an immediately offended grumble from Minerva.

[...You take this Minerva for some imbecile?]

"That wasn't what I meant. Sorry if it came across that way, Minerva."

[Tossing my name about again... no, never mind. Just get on with the explanation.]

She said it like the wind had gone out of her sails, watching him apologize so earnestly out of nowhere.

Yu Ji-hyeok lined up the four animals one after another.

"Rough math. Two weeks is roughly two seven-day weeks, and a month is four. So...."

[...? Why is two weeks fifteen days?]

"Uh... because two weeks is fourteen days."

[......???]

"...Bit tricky?"

Minerva didn't answer.

A dragon's face was hard to read, but Yu Ji-hyeok could tell she was deeply, deeply mortified right now.

[Ahh. Mngh...! Ngh... b-be quiet, please...! At least mull it over for a moment before you answer...!]

That much was obvious from the Minerva in his shadow, who was whimpering and making strange little noises. From her vantage point, this had to feel like watching her own dark history play out in real time.

"......"

A nostalgic memory crossed his mind, and a small smile tugged at his face. The instant the dragon caught sight of it, her eyes flooded a deep crimson.

[...So entertaining a sight am I to you?]

"What?"

[I asked whether you find this Minerva amusing.]

The chill in her voice made it instantly clear what she'd misread, and he waved his hands hurriedly in denial.

"That's not it. Why on earth would I think you're amusing?"

[Then why were you smiling?]

"Uh...."

He hesitated for a moment, then decided to just be honest.

"I have a little sister, a lot younger than me. I used to teach her like this back in the day, and it just brought back that memory."

[...Hmph, don't make excuses.]

She snapped back, but her eyes had already shifted back to scarlet.

Her instincts were sharp, sharp enough to tell whether he was lying or not.

[...Where is this sister of yours now?]

The question slipped out before she'd really thought it through.

Whether it was the embarrassment of having misread him, or just a passing whim, she herself couldn't say.

"She's dead."

Yu Ji-hyeok answered in a flat voice.

"Well, calling her dead isn't quite right, but something close to it. Juno got to her."

[......]

So that's why he was so vicious when he fought Juno.

Minerva thought it, looking down at him.

[Hm....]

Looking at him now, he almost seemed pathetic.

Had she really been the one who'd lost a horn to a human like this?

The skill he'd displayed back then now felt as distant as a midsummer dream — there wasn't a trace of fighting spirit or pressure in him at the moment. On top of that, his sheepish smile, the way he kept reading her mood for fear of upsetting her — she'd seen this same posture countless times before.

The kind who fawned and worked their tongues to feather their own nest.

Those flatterers, schemers, swindlers were the things she most despised and loathed.

And every last one of them — without a single exception — had paid the price for committing the act she despised most.

But....

[......]

For some reason, she had no urge to do that to this one.

She figured it must be because she'd be taking his life in a few days anyway, and shifted into a more comfortable lying-down posture.

[...Carry on with the earlier explanation. Why is two weeks fourteen days?]

That earned him a faint smile and a nod.

She saw him smile this time too, but she said nothing.

She simply listened, quietly, to his voice.

[Riiight... so what you're saying iss....]

Minerva muttered with her head bowed, staring intently at the drawings on the ground.

There was a large circle on the ground with the numbers 1 through 30 written inside, arranged in rows of seven. She huffed a snort through her nose and gazed steadily at the diagrams, starting from the two remaining circles at the end.

[Now it begins to make some sense.]

The truth was she was still half-lost, but at least she could recognize that she'd been wrong.

The one who knew that better than anyone was Minerva herself.

And the same went for the other her.

[...That has to be a lie.]

The Minerva in the shadow gave a small honking sniffle, her voice thick.

Having been forced to spectate every embarrassing moment of her past self's behavior up close, she was mentally exhausted in every conceivable way.

Maybe that was why.

She seemed to find it deeply unjust that she was the only one suffering like this.

[Th-this Minerva... no. The Minerva of that time cannot possibly grasp this in a single day... it took even this Minerva a week, so the Minerva of that time should likewise require some such span.]

She froze the instant the words left her, glanced sideways at Yu Ji-hyeok, then hurriedly tacked on:

[O-of course, not the current me! I'm well versed in the times tables! So don't misunderstand, mortal! I, I can recite them this very instant!]

And she did — launched straight into the twos and started rattling them off.

Normally Yu Ji-hyeok would've told her he believed her and she could stop, but he was apparently too worn out from the explanation that had now stretched on for nearly three hours to say anything.

That left Minerva to plow on through the times tables all the way up to the sevens, sounding faintly off-balance now that he wasn't stopping her — clearly a little thrown that he'd let her keep going.

[U-uh, seven times one is seven. Seven times two is fourteen. Seven times three is twenty-one. Seven times four is twenty-eight. Seven times five is... thirty-five, mm....]

Only then did Yu Ji-hyeok stop her, telling her he believed her and there was no need to prove anything.

And Minerva, as if she'd been waiting for the cue, instantly broke into a near-whining mumble — I knew you, of all people, would believe this Minerva... — when:

[...Anyway, until our agreement is fifteen days... which is two weeks...? Plus one more day... so... mm, yes. Fifteen days remain, correct?]

"Correct. And...."

Yu Ji-hyeok glanced around.

The sun was already setting.

"Today's almost over too, so it's down to fourteen."

[......Which means two weeks remain, then!]

"That's right."

Minerva nodded at his answer.

She tried not to show it, but she was clearly pleased — the tip of her tail twitched ever so slightly.

[Ahem, come to think of it, you're still recovering, and this Minerva has gone and taken your time.]

She cleared her throat as though it had only just occurred to her.

[I told you I'd grant you time to recover, and in the end I've gotten in the way of it. ...So let's count today as not having happened. I'll push our agreement back another day. Yes — to fifteen days from now.]

"If you'd do that for me, sure, I'd be grateful...."

Yu Ji-hyeok muttered the words with a tired smile.

Minerva blinked at him, looking as though she were turning something over in her mind.

After a moment, she gave a small nod to herself.

[...All right. Playing the schemer doesn't sit well with me, but holding it in doesn't sit well either.]

She lay back down from where she'd half-risen and quietly opened her mouth as she looked at him.

[Why did Juno appear at that moment, all of a sudden? Have you any idea?]

He didn't answer.

He did, however, remember clearly that she'd shouted Ahriman's name during her fight with Juno.

Minerva seemed to catch on to his thinking and let out a quiet snort of laughter.

[From the look of it, you've already worked it out. Yes — Ahriman. No doubt it was that one pulling the strings.]

She gave a low growl as she cleared her throat.

[Because that one came to this Minerva as well. Going by the situation, beyond me and Juno... yes, it must have gone to Venus too. As for the rest of the dregs — Margo, Sbeungali, Milited — whether it went to them too, even this Minerva couldn't say.]

At her words, Sbeungali, who'd been silent for some time, grumbled in offense.

[Why does that woman keep calling me a dreg, a worm... and never mind that, why is this Sbeungali being lumped in with the likes of Margo and Milited?]

Yu Ji-hyeok shushed him for a moment and turned back to Minerva.

"Mind if I ask what Ahriman said?"

[Hm, normally this Minerva would never do something like this... but those creatures abandoned the great cause first, so I don't see why I shouldn't. And if I had no intention of telling you, I wouldn't have brought it up to begin with.]

She growled, apparently picturing Ahriman and Juno.

[It said that whatever happened to you didn't matter, but the red-haired wench was to be kept alive at all costs.]

"...Su-yeong?"

[It added that if anyone wanted to kill you, it wouldn't stop them, but at the very least your corpse had to be left identifiable. Said all the items you carried needed to be intact.]

[And in exchange for doing so, it promised to grant any request within its power.]

"......"

Yu Ji-hyeok said nothing.

Minerva watched him in silence, then huffed deliberately through her nose.

[I refused its offer.]

[When this Minerva fights, only my will matters — no one else's can enter into it. ...But Venus and Juno would be a different story.]

[Those two had things they wanted from Ahriman. That's why Juno — the wretch I'd grind down and drink dry if I could — dared pull the stunt it did. Venus, on the other hand, has neither a sea nor a lake anywhere near that spot, so it couldn't even crawl out.]

"I see."

Yu Ji-hyeok nodded.

He met Minerva's gaze and said:

"Thanks for the warning."

[Tch. Don't get the wrong idea.]

Minerva snorted again, this time excessively, and went on.

[You are this Minerva's prey. I'm hardly going to hand you over to anyone else — least of all Juno or Venus, those two miserable creatures. So until I come to claim your life in two weeks, take every possible care.]

With that, Minerva slowly rose to her feet.

She'd just spread her enormous wings halfway open with a heavy whoosh when she paused, brow furrowing as though something occurred to her.

[...Since I've already played the schemer, I'll tell you one more thing.]

"Mm?"

[Don't put too much trust in Milited.]

She said it in dead earnest.

[I know you've joined hands with that thing for reasons of your own... but it isn't the sort one can stand shoulder to shoulder with, not for an instant. The moment you let your guard down, you'll find a knife buried in your back.]

[Better to throw your lot in with Margo or Sbeungali than that one.]

[You're well aware its lackey was spying on us from the start, are you not?]

"Yeah."

He nodded readily.

It wasn't a hollow agreement.

Landschi had been watching while he and Minerva fought.

He'd briefly aimed at Yu Ji-hyeok's back as Han Su-yeong was helping him stagger away.

He'd collected Juno's fragments and slipped off once everything was over.

Yu Ji-hyeok knew all of it.

He'd known all of it, and he'd simply pretended not to.

Because he still needed Milited alive.

"I'll keep it in mind. So you don't need to worry about that."

[Tch....]

Minerva clicked her tongue in displeasure.

Then, as though she truly had nothing more to say, she spread her wings without hesitation and started off toward the mountains she'd claimed as her new nest.

"......"

Yu Ji-hyeok sat there and watched her retreating shape for a long while.

By all rights Minerva should've vanished in an instant, but her silhouette lingered up in the sky for far longer than it should have.

"...Hm. What to do with this."

Milited muttered the words as it studied the fragment of Juno that Landschi had retrieved.

Under normal circumstances it would have grafted the piece into its own body to push its abilities up a notch, but one wrong move and Juno would devour it whole — so it had been hesitating.

"Or maybe I could use this to make a restraint of some kind."

From what it had heard, even that Yu Ji-hyeok had been pinned down by Juno's crystals, unable to move a muscle.

That was a significant payoff, and it was exactly why Milited was sitting here turning the fragment of Juno over in its mind.

Because somewhere down the line, Milited would have to kill Yu Ji-hyeok.

The problem was his strength — overwhelming enough that, as Milited stood now, there was no method at all by which he could be killed.

"What to do, what to do...."

It had been pondering for some time when:

In an instant, Milited felt the presence of someone and its face twisted into a scowl.

"Who dares come into this one's workshop?"

"......"

The intruder revealed itself without resistance.

A figure draped head to toe in black rags, one Milited had never seen before.

No — it wasn't the first time.

A vivid sense of déjà vu swept through Milited in that moment.

"You're...?"

Milited muttered, puzzled, and the thing slowly opened its mouth.

"It's been a while, Milited."

The thing — Ahriman — spoke.

"There's something I need you to do for me."