Chapter 328

"It's hot."

The sun beat down with a ferocity that felt like it was burning the skin right off.

Slumped beneath it, limp as anything, Minerva let the words drag out of her with no strength behind them at all.

To protect her skin, she'd bundled every part of her body except her face in layers of cloth, and the sweat was streaming off her.

"It's far, far too hot. What in the world… how do humans live, enduring heat like this? Humans are the most fragile creatures imaginable…."

Taking one look at Minerva, wilted on the ground, Han Su-yeong waved a hand silently through the air.

It was a spell to ward off heat — one she'd already cast on herself, on me, and on Minerva.

The only difference was that with Minerva, she kept having to cast it again and again.

"Mm."

She thought it over for a moment, then moved her hand again.

The sand at our feet shifted as if it were alive and rose into a shape that threw a patch of shade.

"Let's rest a bit."

Minerva was still hauling air in and out in ragged gasps, and Han Su-yeong went over to help her up.

Minerva didn't put up any real resistance, just let Han Su-yeong help her over to the shaded patch and sat down.

"Come to think of it, Minerva couldn't handle the cold all that well the first time either… so I guess her body's just way more sensitive than a regular person's. Still, I'm worried — if this is how worn out she is right at the start…."

"It's because the human body is still unfamiliar to me."

Minerva muttered the words as she caught her breath.

She yanked the layers of cloth wrapped around her loose, as though she couldn't stand them another moment.

Her sweat-soaked hair tumbled free, and the dress I'd given her as a gift was exposed underneath.

"Once I get a bit more used to it, I'll be fine. By then I won't be slowing any of you down… so…."

Mid-lament she trailed off, tipped a canteen to her lips, and gulped water down.

Han Su-yeong, watching from beside her, spoke up carefully.

"Or — do you want to change clothes? I've got some I put protective spells on…."

"I will not!"

Minerva flinched and clutched at the skirt of the dress.

Then her eyes narrowed slightly and she glared at Han Su-yeong.

"How many times have I told you, I won't."

"I get how you feel — you're just really suffering, that's all."

"…Wouldn't it be far better to just take off this scrap of cloth I've got on over it?"

Minerva muttered it like the whole thing genuinely made no sense to her.

"Even if I were to suffer a burn, the three of us here could heal it almost at once, no? And the — what was it, heatstroke? That could be cured quickly too. I think it would be better to keep my body unburdened and move faster."

"It's not."

I'd been listening to all of this, and I waved a hand.

Both of them, wrapped head to foot in cloth, turned to look at me.

"Moving like this is way faster and easier."

…I meant it.

The reason was embarrassing enough that I'd rather not say it out loud, but the truth was Su-yeong and Minerva were both exceptional beauties. The kind you might see once in a lifetime, if you were lucky.

Which was probably why, in towns and cities, we couldn't get a step before running into trouble — and every bit of it traced back to those two.

It got bad enough that even with every part of them but their eyes covered, we still kept getting pulled into one nuisance after another, which was how we'd ended up moving through the back country like this.

"Even a few days ago, that whole scene broke out while we were eating. We can never set foot in that town again, you know."

Minerva grumbled, sounding sulky.

"…The ones at fault are the wretches who, not knowing their place, dared to lay hands on me. Surely you aren't telling me it was somehow my fault?"

"No, you did the right thing. I mean it, Minerva."

A handful of men had crowded around her in the brief moment Su-yeong and I had been out of sight.

The one who'd actually been reckless enough to reach out and lay a hand on Minerva, of course, was going to spend the rest of his life as a wreck.

If anything she deserved praise for it; blaming her wasn't even on the table.

"There's a village just a little ways farther on, so let's rest up there."

"…There's no need to do that on my account. Isn't every moment supposed to count right now?"

"It actually is the fastest route."

I pulled out my canteen, tipped some water into Rauné's mouth — Rauné was panting in my pocket — and nodded.

"I said there was someone I had to meet before we went after Venus, right? That person lives in this town. And from what I know of him, if we all show up together he'll bolt — so the fastest way is for me to go meet him alone. While I'm doing that, you and Minerva can rest at the inn."

I tucked the canteen, now only half full, back into my coat.

"You're all gross from the sand and sweat anyway. It's a bigger town, so… for the first time in a while, you'll get a proper hot bath."

The word bath lit both of them up, Su-yeong and Minerva alike.

She'd never shown the faintest interest in bathing in her original form, but ever since taking a human body, she'd developed quite a taste for it.

"Mm. Then let's go, quickly. I've got some of my strength back now."

She started fumbling the layers of cloth back on over the dress.

Brushing the sand off Minerva's clothes for her, Han Su-yeong glanced over at me with a come to think of it look.

"Ji-hyeok, who exactly is it that you're going to meet? Anyone I know?"

It wasn't something I needed to hide, so I nodded readily and answered.

"The person who made your shield."

The one I was going to meet.

It was the Smith of Yado.

To seal away a Seven Calamity, at least two conditions had to be met.

First, to keep them perfectly pinned down for the duration of the sealing so they couldn't put up a proper resistance.

Second, to have a technique, a method, or a tool capable of sealing something on the level of a Seven Calamity prepared in advance.

The first condition was absurd enough on its own, but the second wasn't any easier to meet.

There was no chance I could pull off something as advanced as a sealing technique myself, and Su-yeong — far past the range of any ordinary person though she was — didn't have the kind of ability needed to seal a Seven Calamity either.

I'd held out faint hope that Minerva, being a Seven Calamity herself, might be of some use, but as she put it quietly from inside my shadow — that whole area wasn't her field, and she wouldn't be much help.

It was Sbeungali — unlike Minerva, who had essentially sealed herself, he'd been sealed by another — who finally spoke up, displeasure clear in his voice.

[The world tells it this way: that this body of mine was brought down and sealed by the very first priestess of the World Tree. As I said before, that's half-right and half-wrong. I was in the middle of fighting the woman who had called down the World Tree's priestess — the very first priestess, to be precise — and had her channel through her, when Ahriman slipped in and pulled something on me from the side.]

I remembered it clearly.

He had told me before that the one who'd sealed him, Juno, and Venus was Ahriman.

[At any rate, that's how this body wound up sealed inside the World Tree. As for that Margo… they pinned him down with a magic circle they built by sacrificing seven of their highest-ranking holy knights, didn't they?]

The World Tree.

Or seven holy knights of the highest order, sacrificed.

Neither was something you could just put together on short notice.

…And in the middle of mulling it over for so long.

That night, as if it had seen straight through what was eating at me, Ahriman had let one piece of information slip on its way out.

The Smith of Yado was hiding out in this very town.

And with his abilities, it said, he could more than easily forge a tool capable of sealing both Venus and Juno.

"This is the place."

Once I'd reached the city, I traced the trail of his energy and went looking for him.

Before long I came to a stop in front of a shabby smithy, then stepped carefully inside.

Inside, a young man was hammering away in a steady rhythm.

"Excuse me."

At the greeting he glanced sidelong at me, then set the hammer down.

He picked up the iron bar he'd been pounding — still red-hot — with his bare hand and set it aside.

"Strange."

He murmured it quietly.

"It's a face I've never seen, an energy I've never come across before — and yet why is my mark on you?"

The Smith of Yado muttered on, looking me over for a long while.

"…There's no fooling me on this. It's mine; I'm sure of it. My mark is on you, no question. And it's the kind that means I owe you a debt, at that. Two of them, even…? I suppose I should be grateful one's already been spent."

In the past, since I'd paid him more than the going rate, he'd promised to grant me two favors.

I'd spent one of them having the black coffin made, but one favor was still on the books.

"Has the axis of time been twisted, or has there been some break in cause and effect I'm unaware of… Either way, it doesn't matter to me."

He sat down across from me and held my gaze.

His pupils flickered like flames.

"I'm a smith, and a smith's job is to forge whatever the one who has paid the price has coming to him. …And given you've come all the way here, I take it there's something you want to ask of me?"

"Exactly right."

"Then say it. I don't know when this debt was incurred, but my rule is to give back as much as I've been paid."

"Before that…."

I held up a hand to stop him for a moment and reached into my coat.

I pitched my voice as friendly as I could manage.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd be straight with me."

"About what?"

"Honestly — really honestly — you aren't thrilled about making me anything, are you?"

"……"

He fell silent for a moment.

A good while passed before he spoke, his eyes narrowing slightly, as if his guard had gone up.

"My feelings have nothing to do with it. If I've been paid, I hand over goods to match the payment. Where in that is there any room for my preferences?"

He'd dressed it up, but what he'd said came down to: no, he wasn't thrilled.

Which made sense — from his end, a stranger he didn't remember had appeared out of nowhere flashing an IOU and saying he'd come to collect.

"So — how about a wager between us?"

"A wager?"

"Yeah. A wager."

What I pulled out was nothing fancy — a deck of playing cards.

"If I win, you forge me two items. If I lose, the one I was already owed is paid in full. How's that sound?"

Most people would never take a deal like that.

But I was almost completely sure he'd accept.

That was because Belluna had once mentioned, offhand, that he had a soft spot for gambling and games of chance.

"…The terms don't quite balance out, though."

Sure enough, he was reacting to my offer — slowly nodding.

"As they stand, the terms are too lopsided against me, far too much loss on my side. Right… in that case, how about we do it like this."

He ran a finger along his chin and laid out his counter.

"First, instead of the cards you brought, we play with mine. Not that I don't trust you — I just want to be sure. And you'll wear a bracelet that seals your mana, and a blindfold on top of that."

Sbeungali summed it up in one line.

[The bastard's a swindler.]

Any more conditions and he's going to ask you to hold your cards face-up too.

While Sbeungali muttered, the Smith of Yado quietly extended a hand toward me.

"Still want to do it? Those are the terms I'd need to accept your offer."

I nodded without hesitation.

The Smith of Yado broke into a grin and handed me a bracelet along with a black cloth blindfold.

"All right then…."

As he said it, he produced a battered old deck of cards from somewhere.

When Sbeungali grumbled that the deck was bound to be marked and that I should drop the whole thing, I asked him what he was worried about.

Neither side said anything about not cheating or playing tricks, did we? As long as you don't get caught, it's fine.

[But with your mana sealed and your eyes covered, what on earth are you going to—]

Sbeungali cut himself off mid-sentence, finally catching on, and shut his mouth.

He'd just realized, it seemed, that sealing my mana made no difference at all to Minerva, who'd swallowed Henir's Shadow, or to Sbeungali himself, lodged inside my body like a parasite.

Get it now?

Watching Minerva quietly extend the shadow at my feet, I slipped the bracelet on and tied the cloth over my eyes.

The Smith of Yado gave a low laugh and started dealing the cards.

"Don't come crying about it later."

I just smiled in answer.

In my ears, Minerva was already whispering what cards he held and what was lying on the table, and Sbeungali — who, as it turned out, knew this kind of thing inside and out — was muttering to himself, running the odds.

And, more than anything else, one more thing.

For all his love of gambling and games of chance, the Smith of Yado was dismally bad at them.

That, too, was something Belluna had taken pride in mentioning.

"So."

Perched on the edge of a boat slapping against the waves, Han Su-yeong swung her legs and asked me:

"You're telling me you won this boat too off that Smith of Yado guy, in a bet?"

"That's what I said."

For some reason she fixed me with an unhappy look, then shook her head.

When I asked what was wrong, she chewed her lip before answering.

"…Ji-hyeok, you aren't going to develop a taste for this kind of thing and end up gambling later on, are you?"

"Oh, come on, Su-yeong. What kind of thing is that to say?"

Gambling was one of the things I hated most in the world.

Only once she saw the expression that put on my face did she seem to relax.

"So — what's your plan now?"

Minerva, perched the same way and staring out at the slapping sea, finally spoke.

"You said the preparations to seal Venus would be ready in three days. But if we can't find Venus, all of that is wasted effort."

She spread her hand toward the vast sea, as if to say take a look for yourself.

Where the great river met the sea, more boats than I could count were drifting around besides ours.

And yet, around our boat, not a single one was anywhere to be seen.

It wasn't that anyone had worked a technique to drive them off — the sea was simply that wide.

"I have no way of knowing whether Venus is even in this strait… but supposing she is, how do you plan to draw her out?"

"For now, we have to head a little farther out. Calling her up right here would mean serious trouble."

"So you're saying we'll fight in the middle of the sea — in the place that's most to Venus's advantage?"

"What's there to worry about, Minerva? With the two of us? If anything, fighting out in the middle of the sea means Juno can't butt in, so isn't that better?"

"Wh—"

Minerva caught her breath, the word dying in her throat.

She put on a faintly affronted expression for show.

"…You still haven't answered my question. I asked how you intend to draw the creature out."

I smiled and made a small flicking motion with my fingers.

"Obvious, isn't it — to land something that lives in the water, you go fishing."

Openly incredulous, she fired the question back at me.

"Fishing? You're seriously telling me you plan to lure out Venus — one of the Seven Calamities — by fishing?"

"Yep."

"What in the world…."

A moment later she pressed a hand to her forehead, like a headache was coming on.

Then she launched into a muttering lament — what on earth did I see in a human like this… — and on it went.

"Fishing? For a whale…?"

"That's right."

"With what? How do you even plan to land it?"

Su-yeong, it seemed, was just as unconvinced.

With both of them looking at me like that, I gave in and pulled out what I'd been keeping tucked inside my coat.

"With this."

In my hand was the head of a harpoon.