Chapter 320

Fortunately, by the time she woke up, Minerva seemed to have steadied herself somewhat.

I came into the room carrying something light for her to eat, and found her already awake — staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Oh? When did you wake up?"

"……"

She turned her head slowly toward me and sat up with sluggish, careful movements.

It was a tired metaphor, but her hair really did spill down like a strip carved straight out of the night sky.

She perched on the edge of the bed and began inspecting her own body. Her clothing was in some disarray, so I instinctively turned my gaze aside and spoke to her.

"I'll step out for now. Once you've settled down a bit—"

"No."

A single word from her stopped me where I stood.

"Stay here."

I did as she asked.

Only after she'd confirmed I was seated in the chair did she begin examining her body again, taking her time about it. The care in her movements was almost like someone studying an antique work of art.

"…So it wasn't a dream."

After a long while, the words slipped out of her in a quiet murmur.

"It wasn't a dream."

She turned her head to look at the tray I'd brought.

Then, without warning, she picked up the fork — and a cold premonition shot through me. I lunged across and grabbed her wrist.

"…What do you think you're doing?"

Minerva fixed me with a savage look, my hand still clamped around her wrist.

The expression said clearly that I had no business laying a hand on her body.

She tried to wrench her arm free, then went still — her eyes widening in shock.

A faint grinding of teeth followed, and the moment I realized my mistake I let go of her hand and stepped back.

"Sorry."

She shot me one more murderous glare in answer to my apology.

Then, as if giving up, she turned her head aside and slowly began pressing the tines of the fork down into the back of her own hand.

The points of the fork punched through her skin almost instantly, blood welling up around them, and Minerva let out a hollow, defeated laugh.

"To think that something I wouldn't even call a blade can wound me…."

She muttered the words like she couldn't believe it, then flung the bloodied fork to the floor.

I bent down to pick it up — just in case — and her voice came from above me.

"…Why won't you kill me?"

"What?"

She watched me steadily as she repeated it.

"I asked why you don't kill me."

"…Why on earth would I kill you?"

"Are you really asking because you don't understand?"

A bitter smile touched her lips.

"This is a body that can hardly be more humiliated than it already is. I suppose I can dance to your tune just once."

"…What I'm asking is whether you'll truly be able to handle me, when I get my power and my true form back."

The crimson eyes fixed on me as she said it.

The slit pupils of her dragon form were gone — they were the eyes of an ordinary human now, by any measure.

"Venus and Juno have declared they will kill you. And I, too, must kill you. That is our duty. If it comes to that, you alone will be facing three Seven Calamities — each of whom can wipe out humanity by themselves. Can you even imagine it?"

A faint smile played at her mouth.

"Even I, fighting two of them at once, would have death waiting for me with open arms at the end. So what hope does a mere human like you have of weathering that trial?"

"……"

I set the fork down on the tray without saying anything.

Just in case, I shaved the tines blunt with the World Tree's Branch.

"Isn't this your golden opportunity? Right here, right now — the chance to accomplish something countless heroes and ancestors before you never managed. The brilliant feat of slaying a Seven Calamity — and not just any, but Minerva herself. And if three becomes two, you might even find some path back out of this alive."

She finished by grabbing the neck of her shirt with both hands and pulling it down hard.

…An aside, but the shirt she was wearing was Lampton's Shirt — the one I'd worn for ages.

It was sturdier than half-decent armor, repaired itself when fed mana, and as a proper piece of magical equipment, it also adjusted its size freely. The reason I'd put it on her, honestly, was simply because it was tough.

"What's the matter? Come on — with your strength, it shouldn't be hard to pierce my skin, snap my ribs, and pull my heart right out. You have my permission."

She bared the spot directly over her heart and poked at it with her finger.

I let out a sigh and walked slowly toward her.

"…!"

Minerva clenched her teeth as I drew close.

She braced herself like the death she was sure was coming would arrive any second.

I raised my hand without hesitation.

And then—

Flick!

I flicked her on the forehead.

Hard enough to sting, too.

"Ow!"

A yelp burst out of her, and she clutched her forehead, groaning. Watching her, I gave her the answer I'd held back earlier.

"If you've got nothing better than that kind of talk, eat your food and take another nap."

"You — y-you bastard…!"

"…More importantly, are you really the Minerva I know?"

"What did you just say?"

I held her gaze — quietly, while she was still cradling her forehead and trembling.

"You give up that easily over something this small, and then carry on with all that 'kill me, leave me to die' melodrama? And this is the same person who put on all those airs about being strong and untouchable? The world trembled in front of someone like you? Looking at you right now, I can't believe a word of it."

"What — what would you know about it…?!"

"I don't. That's exactly why I'm this furious looking at how pathetic you are."

"What's that supposed to—"

And it was the truth, with not an ounce of exaggeration.

I didn't understand what had made her so pitifully fragile.

I didn't understand what shift in her had caused her to throw everything away.

I didn't understand why she was saying any of this to me.

…But I knew exactly why I was this angry.

She had been a pillar for me. A support I leaned on.

The being who had once made me think I cannot win this — who had made me consider giving up for the very first time — had ended up teaching me more than I could count.

And then she'd thrown everything she had into me without a moment's hesitation, sacrificing herself to do it.

That wasn't even all. Inside me, she and Sbeungali had been the two who'd kept my mind from coming apart, time and time again.

Honestly, if it weren't for her, the person I was now would already be unraveling — in one way or another.

That was the kind of presence she was.

And yet now, Minerva — no, the one in front of me — I wasn't even sure was the Minerva I knew.

The one thing I was certain of was this: putting my feelings plainly, the person sitting in front of me felt like she was rejecting and tarnishing the Minerva I'd known.

That, more than anything, was sitting badly with me.

"You were the strongest and most untouchable being I'd ever met. …And I don't just mean in raw power. Even setting that aside, you were still the strongest — that part doesn't change."

The words came out half-bitten, like I was almost threatening her.

She just stared back at me, blank.

"So if you're going to go and act like this, where does that leave me — someone who set you as the goal he was chasing? More than that, you were the one who told me. After two weeks, we'd finish the duel we were interrupted in. You and I made that promise. So how can the person who said all that turn around now and talk to me like this?"

"……"

The longer I went on, the harder Minerva bit down on her lip, head bowed.

I was on the verge of letting more frustration spill out when something made me flinch.

The World Tree branches I'd scattered earlier had caught onto something.

Not just one — multiple presences, deliberately masking themselves, closing in on the cabin in what was clearly a surrounding formation.

No matter how you read it, nothing about it was friendly.

"…Sorry for losing my temper."

She didn't answer.

I hadn't expected one.

"And what I said about wanting to help you — none of that was a lie."

I told her to rest and quietly shut the door behind me.

Out in the hall, Sbeungali let out a low, idle whistle.

[Hear that, Minerva? How are we feeling about all this?]

The shadow didn't so much as twitch.

She stayed silent.

A single line.

[…I suggest you shut your mouth while you have the chance….]

That was all.

Honoring her wishes, I pulled mana from Sbeungali and crushed him flat without so much as a warning.

Leaving his scream behind — the first I'd heard from him in a while — I burst outside.

I was going to deal with the intruders myself, but someone had beaten me to it.

"Hm? Ji-hyeok, why'd you come out?"

It was Han Su-yeong.

She was making small gestures toward a crystalline orb and a buckler spinning in the air around her, and every time her fingers moved, the presences closing in on the cabin winked out one after another.

"I've got this on my own."

"…Yeah. Looks like you do."

A light flick of her hand erased the last presence, and I quietly slid the sword I'd drawn back into my shadow.

"Good morning, by the way. So — how's Minerva?"

She offered the greeting with a casual smile, and I returned a wry one.

"Pretty much exactly like you said. I thought she was getting better, but she wasn't."

"See? Told you. Sometimes it's best to just let her have her space for a while."

She shrugged and laughed.

The brightness of that laugh made me stare at her for a moment.

…She didn't look at all like someone who'd told me what she'd told me last night.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that? You're gonna burn a hole through my face."

I cleared my throat and looked away.

She let out another peal of laughter.

"You know, thinking about it now, it's still kind of unbelievable."

"What is?"

"I mean — well — everything that's happened since I met you, Ji-hyeok."

Her eyes carried a kind of quiet reflection.

"It's only been a few months, right? Who could've guessed all this would happen? If you'd told the me from a few months ago, she absolutely wouldn't have believed you."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"…Yeah. That's all. The thought just kind of hit me."

Then she suddenly blinked, eyes widening, before settling into a small smile.

"Heh, what do you know — you got there first, Ji-hyeok."

She gestured behind me with a tilt of her chin.

I didn't need to look to know what was there.

Minerva was standing behind me.

"…Please."

She spoke quietly, but the pleading in her voice was unmistakable.

"Help me get my power back. My true form. All of it."

"You — no."

"If you help me, perhaps it really is possible."

"So I'm asking sincerely. Please, help me."

I turned my head slowly to look at her.

This — this was the Minerva I knew.

Eyes proud, eyes noble.

Those eyes met mine without flinching.

"I do not forget a debt. If you help me, I swear I will return what you've given me — without fail."

"…How exactly?"

She answered with a gravity I couldn't doubt.

"With every last shred of my strength — I will keep the promise I made with you."

The two-week promise.

A small laugh slipped out of me at that.

…From the start, there had only ever been one possible reply to a request like hers.

Day one.

The day passed without incident.

I tried every method I could think of, but Minerva didn't respond to any of them.

She didn't show it, but I could see her spirits sinking.

Day two.

For whatever reason, she asked me to teach her how to fight in a human body.

Swords, spears, bows, daggers, blunt weapons — I taught her everything I knew, and she absorbed it all almost instantly. The catch was that her body was so frail it visibly couldn't keep up.

Still, some of her confidence seemed to have come back, which was a relief.

Day three.

She'd pushed herself too hard. A sudden fever hit her.

She spent the whole day flat on her back in bed.

Day four.

She still hadn't fully recovered — you could see it on her.

Instead of letting her move around, I tried to finish teaching her the multiplication tables we'd left off on, but she clutched her head and started groaning, so I gave up on that fast.

…Halfway through, Su-yeong stepped in and offered to teach her songs, and I somehow got dragged into it too, ending up singing alongside them.

Minerva's blistering critique sent Su-yeong into hysterical laughter.

Day five.

Minerva asked me whether I'd ever ingested a dragon's heart or blood at some point.

I hesitated for a second, then answered honestly that I had — and she nodded, murmuring I knew it.

There still wasn't so much as a trace of mana inside her body.

Day six.

Out of nowhere, she demanded my blood.

She tacked on that since my body carried a dragon's power, hers might respond to it.

…The thought that she might catch on to my Minerva — the one I carried with me — made me refuse. So with a perfectly straight face, she said if blood bothered me that much, saliva or anything else would do.

…After Minerva and Sbeungali gave the green light, I drew some blood right there on the spot and handed it to her.

She sniffed at it, then drank it down without hesitation.

Day seven.

…Astonishingly, mana could be sensed inside her.

The amount was nothing compared to her original strength, but the fact that it could be sensed at all was what mattered.

For the first time, I saw her smile — really smile.

After that, she started demanding my blood at every conceivable hour.

Day eight.

At her sincere insistence, we tried a variety of methods — her biting into me directly to drink, drawing blood from places like the neck or arm, the works.

The takeaway was that her sinking her teeth into my neck directly was the most efficient option.

When Su-yeong heard the news, her face soured a bit, but she nodded along with a quiet nothing for it, I guess.

Day nine.

…I was starting to think she'd mistaken me for some kind of dessert.

The instant she woke up in the morning, after every meal, in the middle of training, at any random hour in between — Minerva would come to me asking for blood.

And of course the method involved her biting my neck and opening the wound herself.

The shadow inside me roiled hard during it, but I just barely managed to soothe her down.

Rauné got upset too, and I had to promise it a spirit stone once we got back before it would forgive me.

Predawn, day ten.

I woke to a flood of presences closing in.

Su-yeong and Minerva both stirred too, but I told them it might be a trap and to stay in the cabin, then bolted out alone. Whatever this was, it was me they were after.

The ones moving on the cabin were subordinates of Venus and Juno. There were plenty of them, but nothing too dangerous about it on its own — and the moment I thought that, Juno itself appeared.

I'd been expecting it from the start, so I was actually able to put it on the back foot.

Morning, day ten.

My heart was pierced clean through.