Episode 19: A Gift Sent by an Ordinary Person

-Bang!

“Demon Sword-nim? What brings you here so sudde—”

“Everyone except me, leave this room immediately.”

At the abrupt demand, the doctor protested.

“What nonsense is this? The young lady’s condition is deteriorating in real time—”

“I’ll count to three. If you’re still here by then… words won’t be necessary.”

-Grrrr…!!!

“Eeek?!”

-Click-clack!

“…Have I gone senile, releasing killing intent against ordinary people?”

But if one saw the tumbler in his hand, his actions would make perfect sense.

“I can save my disciple, whom I consider like my own daughter… they said.”

At first, he thought it was just empty boasting.

His disciple had collapsed and was dying in real time, and modern medicine could only slow the progression—not cure the severe curse afflicting her. This fact was widely known.

Most heroes knew this situation arose from Cheonma’s own greed and a miscalculation of the Gate’s difficulty.

She was a young girl barely rescued from a civilian home set ablaze by a criminal organization.

In his reckless determination to save people, he had entered the Gate, only for his identity as the Demon Sword’s son to be exposed. The group that had always disliked him deliberately abandoned him, leaving him to die alone in the depths of the dungeon. The girl resembled his own child too much.

Seeing his son in her, Cheonma decided to raise her.

But there was a problem.

At the time, Cheonma was a comrade of Kang Jinmyeong, the Sword Saint, and a member of the Myeonggeom Guild.

Taking in this child would mean he couldn’t devote his full attention to the guild, potentially burdening his longtime comrade.

So, he declared he would leave the Sword Saint’s guild to take her in, vowing to raise her strong enough to never fall to anything.

Fortunately, the Sword Saint understood his feelings and told him to reach out if he needed help. With peace of mind, Cheonma returned to his hometown.

With the help of top-tier potions and healers, the girl’s body was fully restored—except for one critical issue.

The doctor’s shocking diagnosis: the young girl’s eyes had lost their color due to the thick smoke and toxic gas.

But the girl possessed an eerie, genius-level talent for the sword—so much so that even the Sword Saint was left speechless.

As if born to wield a blade, she could roughly sense a sword’s position despite her blindness. With just verbal instruction, she could perfectly execute techniques as if she had wielded a sword for over a decade.

However, she had one critical flaw: she couldn’t detect terrain or obstacles beyond her sword. So, he first taught her Qi Sensing Technique, commonly used by the blind.

Luckily, a former guildmate from his old guild was blind, and the Sword Saint immediately sent that member as her instructor. Soon, she could sense terrain within a 50-meter radius.

Watching the girl absorb knowledge like a sponge, Cheonma grew harsher, believing she might surpass him one day.

But the young girl never once showed signs of struggle.

Thinking, “She truly is a genius,” he took her to a mid-to-low-rank Gate—one even most B-rank heroes would find difficult to clear.

For him, it was simple enough to kill the boss monster in a single strike, but few could do that—himself included, as an S-rank Hunter.

Curious how far her talent would take her, he proceeded with half a plan.

-Slash!

“Kyaaaah!”

The young girl carved through low-rank monsters like tofu.

Cheonma was hopeful.

The only person who had cleared a B-rank Gate in their teens was Thomas Andrea, the so-called “World’s Strongest Shield” from America.

Even Thomas Andrea had cleared a B-rank Gate at 19. If this girl succeeded, she’d shatter that record at just 14.

Moreover, since he barely intervened, she’d become the first teenager to solo-clear a B-rank Gate.

But perhaps his joy made him careless.

Cheonma couldn’t react in time.

A high-rank A-grade monster—a High Lich—darted past him, heading straight for the girl.

The boss monster was supposed to be low B-rank, but inexplicably, the High Lich lunged at her. Cheonma desperately swung his sword, bisecting the lich—

-Thud!

The young girl was impaled by the lich’s scythe.

High Liches carried their life source, a Life Vessel—but the one he bisected didn’t have one.

Seeing the girl slump lifelessly, Cheonma blacked out.

When he came to, he saw the lich fading away, unable to regenerate without its Life Vessel, and the girl in his arms slowly dying.

The moment they exited the Gate, Cheonma flew to his comrade Kang Jinmyeong’s guild, begging them to save her.

Naturally, Kang Jinmyeong, his closest comrade, spared no expense—deploying the nation’s top healers and even the rarest high-grade potions, produced only once a year by the Yuseong Group.

But instead of improving, her condition worsened.

The reason was simple.

She had been enduring the strain on her body, pretending it didn’t hurt.

Her body, already pushed to the brink, was further ravaged by the cursed scythe that had pierced her abdomen.

Four years passed, with Cheonma watching over her, spending 20 billion won annually on medical care, clinging to the faint hope she’d wake up.

As her condition worsened, Cheonma grew weary.

Then, he received a request for aid from Eve Maitner, his former academy chairman and comrade. Rushing to the dungeon, he met a girl.

A girl who painted dazzling constellations, obliterated a powerful demon that had incapacitated even S-rank hero Eve Maitner, then collapsed.

She looked just like his disciple. Determined to save her this time, he moved faster than ever.

She survived, but when she began vomiting black masses, Cheonma felt his expression twist into something inhuman.

Thankfully, she woke up. Learning she’d embedded a fragment of the “Demon King”—a mysterious monster the demon had sought—into her eye made his heart sink, but seeing no major side effects eased his worry.

After gathering intel on the magic that erased the demon, he prepared to leave—but what she showed him next was shocking.

She drew something in the air, and the hospital ceiling darkened into a starry night sky.

A beautiful constellation took the shape of a water bearer, and rainbow-hued liquid poured into the tumbler she handed him. He thought it was repayment for saving her—

“I heard you have a disciple you consider like a daughter. If she drinks this, her condition will improve significantly.”

Hearing that, he had no time to question side effects or how the liquid could break the curse.

He smashed through windows, racing to his disciple’s room. A text mid-flight made him move even faster.

[Old Man]

[The potion’s efficacy is guaranteed—Insight confirmed it. And Se-ah said you must administer the entire contents for it to work. Maybe to prevent partial use for research… Anyway, contact me if her condition improves.]

-Gulp…

He slowly poured the liquid into the girl’s mouth.

She should’ve been a second-year at Raon Academy by now, but her body had grown while she lay comatose.

“………Seo-yun-ah.”

-Gulp!

As she drank the last drop, Lee Seo-yun’s body began to glow.

The ominous marks branding her skin vanished, and color returned to her complexion.

Cheonma, torn between hope and guilt, clenched his eyes shut—until a voice reached his ears.

“……….Master? Why are you covering your eyes?”

Her voice, once thin and childlike, had matured—but he knew it was hers.

“………”

-Thud, thump!

“M-Master?!”

“…Forgive me. I…”

A reunion that wouldn’t have happened without someone’s help.

Bright light streamed through the open window, curtains fluttering as Lee Seo-yun scratched her head awkwardly—

It was nothing short of a “miracle.”