Ch.14348. Glass of Suspicion (3)

The night at the garrison was quiet.

Hiroshima City had already been cleared of villains. It was quite far from eastern Japan, the stronghold of Seomun Yeom.

That’s why security at the garrison wasn’t particularly strict. I was assigned to share a room with the male guild members of Flame, but no one cared if I stepped out for a while.

After all, I was now part of Flame’s elite Team 1, the deputy leader of their top-tier raid team.

I carefully made my way to the separate building assigned to guild leaders within the garrison. Yuri, in particular, had been given special accommodation due to her status and position.

“It’s me. Minsu.”

I spoke quietly toward the doorbell of her quarters. The door opened immediately.

Yuri was standing right in front of the open door. She must have been waiting there for me to arrive.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been standing here waiting for a long time? Oof…”

Before I could even ask about it, Yuri’s arms wrapped around my neck.

The two of us shared a natural kiss, just like we had been doing since coming to Japan.

“Haa… haa… Minsu, I missed you so much… I couldn’t bear it even for a moment.”

When our lips parted moments later, Yuri’s eyes were filled with ecstasy. She took my hand and led me to the bed.

We naturally sat down on the bed. Yuri took my hand and placed it against her upper body.

“If you want to go further… that’s okay.”

But I shook my head. Yuri’s expression immediately turned pale.

“D-don’t tell me it’s because of your panic attacks?”

I shook my head again. I no longer had panic attacks when alone with Yuri.

While my trauma had been somewhat overcome, the truth was that the Archangel’s Holy Water was suppressing even those attacks.

‘Not much Holy Water left.’

Over the past two weeks, although there hadn’t been any large-scale battles that could be called all-out warfare, there had been plenty of localized conflicts.

Every time I used a flame spell in those battles, I felt pain in my mana road incomparable to what I’d felt before.

Since it wasn’t a full-scale war, I could have used spells sparingly, but the truth was I couldn’t.

Seohwa had completed the release of the fourth seal. Now my flame spells had evolved beyond blue flame to use the divine fire of the Vermilion Bird.

In terms of ritual magic theory, it was fire with power exceeding at least 6th-tier spells. And since it wasn’t yet stabilized, I had self-classified it as 6th-tier.

The power contained in that fire alone was comparable to 7th-tier attack spells. The 7th tier was a realm that even the grand elders of magic towers, who had dedicated their entire lives to magic, couldn’t easily reach.

I deliberately continued using spells to stabilize this fire. As a result, the consumption of Holy Water increased exponentially.

‘Well, it should last until I die anyway.’

When not using spells, I wasn’t using the Holy Water. The severe withdrawal symptoms and burning pain were agonizing enough to make me want to die.

But it actually helped me see more clearly what I needed to do. So I accepted the pain willingly. Still, to hide my condition from Yuri, I had used the Holy Water briefly.

After finishing this brief thought, I spoke to Yuri.

“No, I’m fine. I don’t have panic attacks when I’m with you anymore.”

“Then why… Could it be that I’m not attractive as a woman?”

“That’s not it at all. We made a promise, remember? So not yet.”

I embraced the sulking Yuri. She nestled into my arms.

“Then… is it because you like Soso more? You must have met with Soso before coming here! Have you… already slept with her?”

In that moment, Yuri’s blue eyes gleamed. Unlike when she had briefly revealed it before, now Yuri had the complete gaze of a snow woman.

That true form of Yuri, not another personality. As her emotions were stirred, the room quickly turned cold. Her expression grew icy.

I hurriedly silenced her with my lips.

“Mmph, hmm… mmm…”

Yuri immediately calmed down.

After confirming her state, I pulled my lips away. The kiss seemed to have satisfied her. She was now calm.

But still somewhat dissatisfied, Yuri acted coquettishly like a girlfriend.

“Even if you need Soso’s power… and I know you’re just pretending to be interested in her. I still hate my boyfriend spending time with another woman!”

“You don’t need to worry. It’s all just an act anyway.”

Yuri’s expression softened immediately at those words.

“I… I see. I’ll believe you because it’s you saying it, Minsu. Just as you promised me. In my mother’s hometown village. There, the two of us will surely become one…”

Saying this, Yuri’s face turned bright red. Embarrassed, she interlaced her fingers with mine.

“Being alone with you like this… it feels like we’ve gone back to when we participated in the exchange tournament as a pair.”

Yuri smiled happily. Since coming to Japan, she often talked about memories from Aince like this.

As she said, I too felt like I had returned to those days at Aince.

Just like that time when Yuri was beginning to notice my one-sided love for her and was gradually opening her heart to me.

Back then, my mind was truly filled with thoughts of only Yuri.

Of course, what’s different now is that I, who was so sincere toward Yuri at Aince, am now acting for both our sakes.

Our brief secret meeting ended as I held her in my arms.

“I should head back now. If I return too late, the guild members in my quarters might get suspicious.”

“Mmm… it’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”

Yuri followed me to her door. She hugged me tightly once more before seeing me off.

I carefully closed her door and left her quarters.

***

“Haa… haa…”

On my way back to the garrison, though not far from Yuri’s quarters, I found it difficult to take even a single step due to the terrible pain.

The effect of the Holy Water had worn off quickly. Now that I needed to conserve it, I had to endure these withdrawal symptoms and pain.

‘Hang in there… This body should have died already. Since I’m still… alive, there are things I must do…’

I grabbed a nearby tree to catch my breath. Then I recalled the promise I made to Yuri.

In her mother’s hometown village, I had promised to form a marital bond with Yuri. And that promise was the only way to keep Yuri, whose mind was breaking because of me, from falling apart completely.

‘I didn’t know… Yuri would be this devastated.’

Perhaps learning about my terminal condition had been an enormous shock to her.

The Yuri I saw in the temporary office in Busan was in no state to perform her duties as the Sage of the East.

And with that unstable mental state, the snow woman’s blood within Yuri was awakening.

Completely different from Soso’s blood demon, it was Yuri’s true nature. And from the snow woman legend I had heard from Director Maria…

Snow women were more passionate and obsessive about their mates than any other beings. But the spouses who were enchanted by a snow woman’s beauty and formed a bond with her rarely lived long.

And when a snow woman’s mate died, she would cause terrible disasters in the region.

For months, she would bring endless snowstorms to her village.

‘Even though it’s a legend from Earth… before the dimensional fusion…’

Unlike Ailetan, who bestowed powers upon his creations, Earth, where Ayel was the presiding deity, had almost no supernatural beings or special abilities.

But since Ayel was undeniably a transcendent being, even if he didn’t directly grant powers, occasionally beings like snow women would emerge from his shadow.

‘Most were just stories that didn’t actually exist, but…’

However, seeing Yuri, I was convinced. The snow woman legend was real. And somehow, I needed to take Yuri to her mother’s hometown, where that legend existed.

The Yuri I saw that day in the temporary office was half-insane.

Learning that I, whom she loved, was terminally ill, she was uncontrollably releasing freezing mana beyond her own control.

If left like that, Yuri might have become a villain or a demon contractor. After all, villains are awakened ones completely dominated by desire-driven thoughts.

‘If it meant not losing me…’

So I lied to Yuri, who had the cold, dead eyes like the snow woman from the legend.

‘The reason I left for Muguk these past few days was to find a way to heal my body.’

Of course, Yuri didn’t believe me at first.

But I had the Archangel’s Holy Water in my inventory.

I let Yuri check my body herself. Since the Holy Water temporarily calmed my distorted mana road, I could deceive her.

‘It’s just a temporary treatment for now, but if we can defeat the Red Lake and the Evil God, we can redraw the future beyond that. So please believe me…’

The normally cool-headed Yuri would have doubted my words, but she eventually fell for my lie.

Perhaps my lie sounded sweeter than anything else Yuri could have heard that day.

And as the Colorless Key, I had a duty to help Yuri awaken as the Sage of the East.

For that duty, I added one more lie.

Snow women, being extremely possessive of their mates, value the formation of marital bonds above all else.

Having learned this from Director Maria, I told Yuri what she most wanted to hear, to prevent her mind from breaking further.

‘In that snow woman’s village, I will form a bond with you, Yuri.’

That was more effective than any other words. With new hope, Yuri sincerely believed my lie and was now more composed than ever before.

It seemed she no longer even took anti-anxiety medication.

As my breathing steadied, the pain subsided a bit. I resumed walking toward my quarters.

‘A marital… bond, huh.’

And over the past two weeks, I too had become captivated by the lie I had told Yuri.

Perhaps because the time I spent with Yuri at Aince was the brightest moment of my life. Those feelings I had deliberately closed off from Yuri…

During these two weeks of pretending to be lovers, they were now shaking my mind, my heart.

Yet I was also maintaining my relationship with Soso. Ironically, the Holy Water’s withdrawal symptoms and intense pain helped me endure this deceptive behavior.

At that moment, another headache struck. The scenery of the snow woman’s village, a place I had never visited, flashed through my mind. Along with Yuri’s bright smile directed at me.

I bit my lip hard and returned to my quarters.

Another week passed.

The allied forces had swept through to recapture Osaka. As expected, Seomun Yeom’s villain army had completed their concentration in Nagoya.

A full-scale battle between the two sides was imminent. If the allied forces recaptured Nagoya, the remaining Red Lake forces in Japan would be pushed back to Tokyo, their last stronghold.

‘Then the path to Niigata Prefecture will open.’

Meaning we could go to that snow woman’s village, Yuri’s mother’s hometown. Finally, the battle for Nagoya began.