126 – 2. Old Summoner (73)
#126
As a result, the seat was vacated.
It was because she was not in the mood to talk anymore and Narae Shin seemed to have got her own answer.
But it seemed that he was more curious about Echidna than that, so he volunteered to accompany Comet and Echidna to their plans.
Sarah Bright accompanied them as if they were tailing them from some distance away. Needless to say, her face remained stiff.
Ban Tae-woong, who was somewhat restless and unable to concentrate, was moved to another place as if being forcibly led by Lucia and Erika Onohara.
As the original purpose, we will look around the studio focusing on what each person needs.
The only ones left are me, Shirogane Rui, and Shirogane Tooru. It was none other than the fact that an interview with Ichiro Shirogane had been caught.
“…This way.”
Shirogane Rui’s attitude became a little more hopeful. It seems that Echidna’s power, which she showed earlier, quite liked her.
The place I arrived at was a place reminiscent of a hospital.
No, to be precise, it was more like a sterile room for one person, similar to a laboratory. Oddly enough, I found some parts that matched memories from my previous life, which made me feel uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry. A little complicated, right?”
I wonder if my feelings showed on my face, but Rui Shirogane told me with a wry smile. There was no need to hide it anyway, so I replied with a slight nod of my head.
Because there is no change in complicated things. It’s because I’ve done all the arrogance, such as going up and down again and walking down a hallway without a window.
At this point, I’m wondering what the hell that guy’s disease is. Regardless of how critical he is, this is a level that can’t be explained other than that if you don’t keep it a secret, it’s going to be a big deal.
Above all, what I am curious about is ‘preparation’.
Perhaps what Ichiro Shirogane is carrying is not a simple ‘illness’? What if you didn’t suddenly pick up on that, but you knew this would happen from before?
“…Here it is.”
The results of that question are now in front of me.
I stopped walking in front of a huge door. From the inside of the door, which looked quite thick at first glance, strong magic power flowed from the inside that could be felt even from the outside.
The emotions associated with that magical power were only gloomy things like fear, sadness, and screaming.
Above all, the faintly audible groaning sound was closer to that of a beast than that of a human.
Tiririk
Rui Shirogane sat down in front of the door with a calm face and began to lift the door to enter.
Terrible!
The unlocked door finally opened when the iris recognition was added to the fingerprint.
“Be careful. Shinwoo’s younger brother.”
Shirogane Rui quietly said those words.
What the hell? Before seeking an answer to his question, Shirogane Rui turned the knob and a crack opened in the tightly closed door, and as if the mana that had just flowed out was just a joke, an explosive torrent of mana sprang out.
It was as if a closed floodgate had been opened. In order not to be pushed back by that momentum, she held back a little by enclosing magic in her body.
But that was only for me. The other two were just there, as if nothing had happened.
No, should I say that magic didn’t reject them?
‘That’s why no one was around.’
At first, I just thought there was no pretending to be popular because people were handed over in advance. But no. It wasn’t that he bit people around, it wasn’t a situation where people couldn’t approach him.
Rui Shirogane glanced back and confirmed that I was fine, and went inside. Toru Shirogane followed suit and I headed inside as well.
The scenery inside was desolate. In what could be seen as a hospital room, only a machine that notified the heart rate and a humidifier to adjust the humidity were running.
There was almost no sign that human hands had been touched. However, it seems that things like CCTV are not completely neglected when you see that they are operating endlessly.
‘It’s more like surveillance than treatment.’
That was my impression of checking this room.
“This is my father, Ichiro Shirogane.”
Shirogane Rui pointed at a frail man lying on a bed in the middle of the room and opened his mouth. My gaze, which was looking around him, also turned to that place.
It has been less than three months since Ichiro Shirogane stopped appearing at public events. If the duration of the expedition is added, it is 4 months.
There was no big man sporting a healthy tan color that I last saw on record. The reason why he is now in bed is because he has a body that is similar to that of an undernourished child even if he is well groomed.
His skin was pale and bluish. It was as if something had come out of the structure of a man named Ichiro Shirogane.
No, in my eyes, now able to see the concept of a soul, Ichiro Shirogane’s current body was just a shell.
Just as a butterfly or a cicada sheds its skin and takes flight, the essence of Ichiro Shirogane is a situation in which he has abandoned his body and gone somewhere.
However, the connection is still not broken. It wouldn’t be strange if it broke at any moment, but I’m forcibly holding it back with my magic.
It is only natural that his body shrank like that as he ignorantly tried to solve it with magical power, even though he did not have any talent or aptitude for souls.
The cost of wielding unreasonable power is more devastating than you think.
“What exactly is the cause?”
It was Toru Shirogane who answered my question.
“…I heard that you were bitten by a bizarre snake that made your body invisible during a frontline expedition. There was nothing wrong at first, and there was no problem with poison detection afterwards, so I just thought it was okay because I resisted the poison.”
However, as time passed, abnormalities began to surface.
At first, I stopped at simply extending my sleep time. There was something particularly difficult about this expedition, so I thought it was only that the tension in my tired body was finally relieved after returning.
That increased by an hour or two, and no matter how much I fell asleep, the fatigue did not go away. Eventually, by the time I fell asleep for half a day, everyone felt puzzled and worried.
When Ichiro Shirogane fell asleep and couldn’t open his eyes anymore, his doubt became serious and his worry led to self-reproach.
“Everyone in the workshop raised their hands. I even hired a famous doctor using my connections, but it was meaningless. Then things happened.”
After two months of losing consciousness, Ichiro Shirogane’s body moved. At first, I thought I had finally come to my senses, but I wasn’t. Only his body moved, and he began to vomit mana generously toward the surroundings.
There is no way that there will be no damage from reckless attacks. Because his body is not normal.
Because of that, it became impossible to call people with mediocre skills. As the conditions become stricter, the number of people who can be saved naturally decreases.
“She decided that she would lose her job if she kept going like this, so her mother converted the secret storage she had used since her predecessors into her hospital room. She tried hard to figure out the disease as soon as possible, but the result was all bad. To be honest, I feel like grabbing at least a straw now.”
I wonder if that’s why I was able to come all this way.
It’s not my intention, but the only name I can put up publicly is Se-Rin Lee’s fiancée.
No matter how much people know, this information is known, but the results of the Exile project and the fact that the owner is me are not yet known to these companies.
Aren’t governments and countries at best everything? Furthermore, it is only a very small number of people who can exert enough influence to move the world.
These companies are concentrated enough to cling to me, a mere cadet. Or rather, it might be that he wants to gain something by showing me this kind of appearance.
‘Looks like you’re misunderstanding something…’
Unfortunately, even if you appeal to me like this, Se-Rin Lee’s movements won’t change.
If she decides to do it in earnest, it is clear that she will achieve it no matter what happens. It is certain that he has already taken the position of the majority shareholder of the Shirogane Association, just by taking a sneak peek.
Even if I solve Ichiro Shirogane’s business, Serin Lee will continue to swallow Shirogane’s business.
Thus, what I do is not for the sake of the Shirogane company, but for the sake of making the individual named Rui Shirogane my own.
In the eyes of those who don’t know what’s going on, they’ll think that everything, including my actions, is the consensus of Lee Se-rin and the Dragonia Group.
Then he gradually felt a sense of crisis, so he may have shown me this scene in a way that I don’t know why.
In this case, it wasn’t trusting me, but trusting the eyes of Rui Shirogane, who might be the next head of household.
If an article about this incident breaks out later, and the stock price of Shirogane Corporation plummets, there will be no help.
Because that is the limit of a person named Rui Shirogane.
It’s too much of a price to pay for the discernment of the next head of the household, but she may sincerely think that it’s right to collapse like this, as she entrusts her future to someone who has no hope.
‘I can’t tell if he’s cold-hearted or if he trusts his family.’
A sigh came out of my mouth when I thought of the “Head of the head” And hostess of Ichiro Shirogane, who would be watching this place from somewhere else.
I am sensitive to gaze. Since I was a child, I was continuously exposed to the gaze, so it naturally became like that.
It is not something one-dimensional, such as simply feeling sensations. It has grown to the point where I can judge the gaze itself toward me in real time and tell who it belongs to.
If it became clearer as the skill level increased, it became clearer, but not less.
‘Two… No, three.’
One is Serin Lee, and the other is something wriggling inside Ichiro Shirogane. Then what about the rest? The answer is fixed I raised my head towards the CCTV and met their eyes.
Giying
It was clearly visible that the camera was working accordingly. It is proof that you enlarged yourself by moving the screen. If you’re worried enough to watch like that, you can come out and see for yourself. She’s a really foolish woman.
For a moment, I didn’t like Simbo who dared to re-enter me, so I thought about filling this place with shadows, but she gave up.
It won’t be long before the company is in Lee Se-rin’s hands. In other words, it means that it becomes one of the means that I can use.
I don’t know when it will be, but I might have something to face at that time, but I didn’t want to create something else that would cause resentment or blush.
Dealing with the feelings of others you don’t care about is more tiring and troublesome than you can imagine.
“I get it roughly.”
“…Please. Shinwoo’s younger brother.”
I pretended to hear what she said and let it go, then closed my eyes once and let out a long breath. To be honest, it was because I was afraid.
‘As if I knew it would happen like this, I got the strength just right.’
[The agony of Arsang].
From noble mtl dot com
It’s an opportunity for me to gain spiritual power, and it seems to be someone’s trick. How far did the being who gave this to me read and handed it to me?
Humans have a fear of the unknown. I was afraid of what I didn’t know. Does Se-Rin Lee know about this? I don’t know. If she was her, she might know. Maybe she doesn’t know
She didn’t know about the [Summoning Book] Either. No, maybe she’s even acting.
Her head was spinning tight. Suspicion after doubt bit her tail, and it seemed that she had been neglected in the midst of all sorts of intriguing tricks. It is best to struggle hard without knowing anything.
If even that stopped, I would fall right in the middle and drown.
Annoyance covers eyes and ears. It seemed that the tightness was clamping down on her throat and gripping her heart, forcing her to stop beating. My stomach was nauseous and irritable.
So I moved my magic. I forcibly removed this troublesome mana that was determined to suppress me. Rather, I chewed it up, swallowed it, and made it my own.
[The Harvester]’S basic inclination lies in reaping what is mine.
The skills within it have been used that way until now, and there will be no change to them. This is a slightly different concept from usurpation.
I hold the world as my center and regard everything else as something I deserve. It is an incomparably arrogant skill. But it is also the power I wield.
That’s why I do what I have to do.
Just like wielding a scythe to harvest wheat, I wield power to make that thing mine.
I engrave mine naturally into the mana overflowing around me. It gradually erodes the surroundings from the inserted magic power and changes everything to mine.
Normally, I would resist this.
But the owner of this magical power is unconscious right now. Exactly, it is located somewhere other than here.
Isn’t there a way that I can’t have the magical power that radiates from my subconscious, not from facing me head on?
Quad Deuk!
The shadow eats up mana. When I slowly opened my eyes, I saw a landscape that was much less bright than before.
This is proof that my magical powers made Ichiro Shirogane’s magical powers my own by completely pausing the surroundings.
“Turn off…uuu!!!!!”
Ichiro Shirogane can also be seen in bed as soon as the mana that had been protecting his body disappeared.
At the same time, my eyes saw something different.
The figure of an illegal resident aiming for an empty shell began to appear separated as if noise were occurring around Ichiro Shirogane’s glowing body.
To be honest, it was very insignificant.
Perhaps because it was created for the sole purpose of weakening the power of the bowl, it was a simple and violent guy. Rather than a concept related to erosion, should we call it the beast itself that covets its place?
Perhaps the existence that removed Ichiro Shirogane’s soul from his body injected it in order to completely separate the connection between the body and soul.
In other words, Shirogane Ichiro means that even after being separated from his body, he is still struggling to return to his body.
The proof is that he subconsciously used mana to protect himself.
Actually, as soon as I ate his mana, the parasite started to move and moved wildly, as if to harm itself.
I reached out and grabbed it. And then, very naturally, I pulled it out.
Ppu deuk, ppu deuk
[Kieee…?!]
“uuu…”
Then, the guy who couldn’t accept the fact that he was caught belatedly struggled in astonishment.
However, since more than half of them had already been pulled out in the first round, Ichiro Shirogane’s body only let out a bizarre groan as if his soul was being drained, and did not move his body.
Toduk!
Ichiro Shirogane’s body stretched out as he completely ripped out something that looked more like a parasite than a snake.
If the previous one was at least close to that of a sleeping person, now he couldn’t really die and was as pale as a living corpse.
This is natural. Because what should have originally been located inside the body has escaped from the body. Rather, being alive so far is nothing short of a miracle.
If left unattended, this body will die within 7 days at the latest, or less than a day at the earliest.
Until now, this parasite had been playing the bare minimum necessary to occupy this body, but it was unable to function properly due to its escape.
No matter how much the soul endures, it loses its meaning if the body to return to dies.
There is a high probability that Shirogane Ichiro’s soul will be used for the will of the person who is playing tricks on him. It is self-evident that the end will not be good.
‘It’s not like that.’
Then Shirogane Rui will have a useless burden on her back. Instead of a single sword, the weight of the human ‘Shirogane Rui’ will increase.
Her chances of me being able to use her are also slim. That’s not what you want.
As it is, Ichiro Shirogane gets up, leads the group, buys time, and in the meantime makes Rui Shirogane completely mine.
Even if I take over the company, I make it to the extent that I can use it for myself, not for the company.
This is the cornerstone for that.
Gathers mana in his fingers and flicks them. What comes to mind is the guide of the dead. The leader of the dead wandering the Nine Heavens.
“Siege.”
Perfect!
The shadows at my feet stretched at the echo of magic, and lanterns and black cloth with the sparkle of hellfire took their place. Looking at Hon through the eyes, Shizu’s appearance also looked a little different.
Until now, Shizu’s appearance was of cloth and lanterns floating in the air, but now it is a translucent woman wearing black cloth like her wings and holding her lantern.
It seemed like there was a little more to understand about this power.
You’ll be busy again for a while after work. It was necessary, so I couldn’t even sigh, but I couldn’t help but lose my mind.
As if ignoring the grim reality, I handed over the parasite in her hand to Shizu and at the same time took over the piece of soul.
Whoop
When the transparent shards that shone brightly in the form of unpolished gemstones were refined with the power of the [Harvester], They were compressed in an instant and became the size of a bite-size piece of candy. I added my mana to it.
I use the power of [Engraving] On something coated in black. It is the system that gives. It allows the body to function properly even when the soul is detached, just as that parasite did.
It’s a temporary measure, but it’s better than dying right now.
It was a skill that was possible because he grasped all the structure of the parasite while removing it.
To be precise, the moment the [Reaper] And [Book of Life] Were activated at the same time to tear it apart, the information about its existence and function was dug up in an instant, and it felt like that information was forcibly imprinted in my mind.
There is no pain. As if something I forgot came to mind naturally, I knew and understood it very naturally.
So I was able to create this as naturally as flowing water.
If you build a system like a computer, you can move as it is, and let’s name it
Artificial Spirit. I used [Engraving] To imbue Ichiro Shirogane’s body with it.
I added [Pae-Gi] To be fixed in the same form as a shield so that no more nonsense can be done on a trial basis.
You can’t enjoy the exact same effect as the [Paegi] I use. There are some impromptu weaving, but this man is a perfect stranger unlike my summons, so the effect will be reduced even more.
You won’t be able to enjoy even the 10% effect. But the body will no longer die here. Rather, I would like to return to my original body.
Because it is a place of union, he engraved his mark in the form of a tattoo that yakuza who saw in his previous life would do with a sense of feeling.
From the starting point of the black bead on his forehead, a shadow spread over Ichiro Shirogane’s body.
“…Sue…”
Soon after the synthetic spirits were fully established, Ichiro Shirogane’s complexion noticeably relaxed. Should I say that there was nothing strange about dying right away, but now it has changed to look like a living person?
Rui Shirogane and Tooru Shirogane, who had been watching this with bated breath, could not stand it and approached.
“…How is your father?”
“There is no immediate deterioration.”
“There is no ‘worse’…”
I nodded in response to Rui Shirogane’s words, who immediately caught on to the important points of my words. Yes, no further deterioration, but no improvement either.
The cause of Ichiro Shirogane’s collapse now lies in the subtitle of the soul. The only way to solve this is to retrieve Ichiro Shirogane’s soul.
Also, since the parasite has already loosened the connection between body and soul, the connection will weaken over time. When the connection with the body is weakened, the soul suffers as much.
Even with the mental strength of an S-class superhuman, there are clearly limits. No, this man is already close to his limit.
If the body is a vessel, the soul is like water in that vessel. It can be seen that his current condition is that he forcibly scooped out water from a bowl.
The bowl desperately stands up to block it as it does. Water lost in the process does not return.
Perhaps, but even if the soul were lucky enough to return to the body, some of the memories would still be lost.
Important things such as habits and beliefs will remain implicitly, but starting with the most useless things, things with low priority, such as things you want to forget, will naturally be deleted from your memory and you will not be able to recall them even if you want to recall them.
It can be seen that while recognizing the fact that there is a gap in memory, like a sponge with holes in it, it is impossible to know what it is and why it is there.
Such incongruity and incongruity will eat away at this man’s spirit and slowly make him uneasy. Maybe his personality will be a little different from before. Humans are creatures that rely heavily on memories and emotions.
It is up to those who remain by his side to do something about it.
“So how about putting this knife away?”
I pointed my cold eyes at the woman who had been sitting next to me and pointed the tip of a small dagger at my vital point.
“…There is no blur in that word, right?”
Instead of replying, I moved her chin towards Ichiro Shirogane. Seeing his more comfortable complexion, the point of the knife pointed at me swayed slightly.
Ever since he was talking to me, his eyes kept on going to Ichiro Shirogane, so I just laid a board to make it easier to see.
Because the evidence of sharpened nerves was evident in his facial expression, as if he had suffered a lot in the meantime.
It’s obvious that I ran out of breath a little bit, and I was surprised when Ichiro Shirogane had her seizures following my gamble.
“…I gave up because no one could fix it…”
Where did the poisonousness go when he turned to me, and the mixture of worry and relief left behind was the very image of someone concerned about the health of a loved one.
A woman so white that one could immediately tell where the white hair of Rui Shirogane and Tooru Shirogane came from.
Her sharp eyes and cold tone were so cold that the word snow woman comes to mind. It was an image as if she had sharpened her knife using the hardest and coldest snow.
Shirogane Hanabi. Older surname: Hanabi Yashiro.
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She is the wife of Ichiro Shirogane, and she is a woman who is so talented that she was chosen as the candidate for the next head of Yashiro (八代), who is in charge of the number 8 among the most influential families in Japan.
Her talent is mainly focused on ‘assassination’ and ‘guarding’ to stop him.
Originally, she was only in charge of ‘guard’, but in order to prevent assassination, it was the first Yashiro’s idea that it was necessary to fully understand them, and she entered into a marriage pact with the assassination family, which was in charge of the darkest darkness of that era, to become the current Yashiro. Has become
Assassination requires making various weapons suitable for the situation, and at the same time, it is necessary to combine tricky poisons.
For security, you need solid armor that can stand up and block even sharp blades, weapons to fight against, and medicine to recover if injured.
The agreement of interests between the two families led to the natural development of metallurgy and medical technology.
In other words, the secret story of the colorfulness unique to Shirogane Kobo can be seen as the result of Yashiro’s past, where the righteous and private paths walked together, melted intact.
Yes. Shirogane is Yashiro’s subcontractor and branch family, and Toru Shirogane and Hanabi Shirogane are cousins on paper.
There is no problem with Japanese law. Even if it’s a cousin, if it’s at the level of a branch family, it’s been a long time since someone else’s blood has been mixed.
I tried to call her hive, taking advantage of the shaking of the tip of Hanabi Shirogane’s sword, but someone jumped out faster than that.
Ting!
“Mom!!!”
The one who stood in the way of her actions was none other than Rui Shirogane.
Hanabi Shirogane narrowed her eyes at the sight of her cutting off the blade with her hand and at the same time blocking it as if to protect me, as she held her dagger in her arms.
“…I think we need a long story, so let’s move.”
No one could argue with that. I just wanted to be freed from this troublesome job as soon as possible.