episode_0196

“There’s only one way.”

Lucretia brushed her pure white, first-snow-like hair behind her ear and lightly nudged the demon, sealed within a barrier, with her fist.

“To incinerate its body from head to toe with the divine power I possess.”

“……”

“There’s no other way to annihilate a demon of this magnitude. With conventional methods, no matter how many times you kill it, new entities will just keep emerging.”

Lee Hyunjin frowned and looked back at the barrier. A reddish demon, bound by cold energy and divine power, along with other magics, unable to move a muscle.

Indeed, from their experience killing it several times with Eileen, its regeneration, like a matryoshka doll, seemed endless.

‘So, conventional attacks are useless.’

Given that these were the words of the Saintess, who possessed senses superior to any other Awakener when facing demons, it was unlikely to be mere empty talk.

In fact, the more they killed it, the smaller it became…

What if it shrank to a size that was difficult to track with the naked eye?

And what if, in that state, it started rampaging, evading them?

Its speed didn’t seem slow at all, so it would likely weave through threatening enemies, accumulating damage.

Lee Hyunjin casually placed his hand on the barrier, injecting more cold energy into it as he thought.

As she said, if there truly was no other way, relying on the power of the great Saintess might not be a bad idea.

To struggle so much against a single demon, serving as a vanguard or spearhead, made him wonder how they would stop the ‘true’ annihilation.

Still, he needed to focus on the present moment.

Lee Hyunjin licked his lips and spoke.

“Then there’s no need to delay any further. We’ve fortunately bound it, so can’t we just purify it right now with that divine power or whatever it is?”

He gestured with his eyes towards the demon, which was twitching faintly as it was immersed in cold energy.

After all, it was currently incapacitated, so shouldn’t they just finish it off immediately?

Lee Hyunjin thought so, but.

“……Well……”

Lucretia wore an embarrassed expression, as if at a loss for words regarding that point.

She quickly hid herself among her surrounding comrades, the French Awakeners.

“……?”

Before Lee Hyunjin could express his bewilderment and question, Eileen stepped forward.

“My refusal of that woman’s proposal is in the same vein. Divine power is certainly the most suitable force for eradicating demons, but……”

She glared at Lucretia with a rather cynical expression.

“To put it bluntly, it’s the Saintess’s lack of capacity. Even if she exerted her full power, she wouldn’t have enough to obliterate this demon.”

“What?”

Lee Hyunjin’s expression became even more absurd than before as he looked back at Lucretia.

Flinching even more under his gaze, she burrowed in as if to hide behind the cloak of a woman who appeared a few years older than herself.

Lee Hyunjin’s expression crumpled at the sight, but he didn’t add any further words.

Indeed, things couldn’t be that simple. In the end, it was a matter of insufficient output, wasn’t it?

“Rather than relying on an anomalous power with uncertain results… Lee Hyunjin, wouldn’t it be a much more definitive method for you to simply kill it with me until it truly dies?”

“……”

At Eileen’s subtly coaxing words, Lee Hyunjin quietly turned over the idea in his mind.

Because he remembered something.

-No matter how different our stances are on the disposal of the core, why don’t you understand that splitting the demon like this will ultimately harm everyone? Eileen Lewis.

When Lucretia first appeared, she had hurled those words at Eileen.

‘Core,’ he thought. Lee Hyunjin pondered the word, rolling it on his tongue.

In context, it seemed that ‘core’ was embedded within the demon, and Eileen probably intended to take it.

He couldn’t be certain, but he had already suspected they had other objectives from the start.

Lee Hyunjin glared at both Eileen and Lucretia with displeased eyes.

Then he lowered his gaze again, calmly observing the demon, which remained frozen.

First, he could somehow buy time by expanding the cold energy and the barrier. At least, there was no immediate sign of the demon escaping.

Still, it would be better to make a quick decision…

‘Hmm.’

Lee Hyunjin briefly raised his head and scanned those standing around him.

Cheon Soyul, Baek Ayun, and Gwon Hwang.

Strictly speaking, they were allies beyond doubt in this situation.

And Lucretia and Eileen were trying to draw him in.

Given how the situation had unfolded, his inclination would surely lean towards the side he empowered.

‘My heart is leaning more towards killing it definitively, though.’

Just in case, Lee Hyunjin, who had even mobilized plant stems to create a lightning-prison-like enclosure around the demon, let out a short hum of thought.

Still, wouldn’t it be better to cooperate with Eileen than with Lucretia, whom he was meeting for the first time?

But then again, Eileen was a villain, and Lucretia was clearly on the Awakeners’ side.

How… As he agonized, his thoughts were gradually leaning towards Eileen, when suddenly.

“……I, too, am not without a plan.”

Lucretia timidly began to speak in a small voice. All eyes in the room turned towards her.

“Y-you. Your name is Lee Hyunjin, right? The Ice Empress’s disciple, you said…”

Lucretia Hael carefully looked up at Lee Hyunjin, stammering.

She gathered a little courage and stepped forward.

“I remember seeing you on broadcast. You were certainly that student who made it to the finals during the Academy Festival, right?”

Lee Hyunjin nodded silently in affirmation, feeling a strange sensation inside at the fact that his appearance during the Cheongsong Festival had spread even overseas.

Regardless, Lucretia continued speaking with a more serious demeanor.

“……You’re supposed to be an ice mage of the Ice affinity, aren’t you? Just now, and during the broadcast too. You uniquely used a variety of abilities.”

“……”

“When thinking normally, most pureblood mages can’t even properly handle a single attribute. Why are you the exception to that rule?”

She continued speaking with eyes and a tone like a detective deducing cause and effect.

Lee Hyunjin felt slightly as if he were looking at a child, but he didn’t show it.

“Shall I tell you what I’ve deduced? Your magical abilities are certainly unique, but… *Ahem*, there are plenty of Awakeners with all sorts of characteristics in this world, after all.”

In any case, even though Lee Hyunjin didn’t answer, Lucretia boldly wove her deduction into words.

Her strangely triumphant expression didn’t quite please him. Lee Hyunjin narrowed his eyes.

“*Ahem*. Yes, you must possess a characteristic that allows you to mimic the magic of other Awakeners, correct?”

Lucretia, her chest puffed out, pointed at him with the tip of her index finger.

And that conjecture was, in fact, very close to the truth.

It might not have been a difficult guess given the abilities he had shown so far.

Lee Hyunjin didn’t say it directly, but tacitly affirmed her words.

Lucretia, seemingly emboldened by his reaction, gave Eileen a disdainful look.

“……What I’m proposing is nothing else, Hyunjin. Don’t fall for that villain’s cunning tongue; mimic my abilities and cooperate with me to eliminate the demon.”

Eileen’s expression stiffened ever so slightly, and Lee Hyunjin blinked foolishly.

In the former case, it was likely a change in expression brought on by the thought that she might not be able to properly carry out Haru’s instructions…

“……Uh, um.”

The latter was something with a slightly different feeling. Lee Hyunjin remained awkwardly silent.

The reactions of the two girls nearby were no different.

“……Honestly……”

Cheon Soyul gazed intently at Lucretia, wearing an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Does she even know what she just said?’

Baek Ayun blushed slightly and gently rested her forehead against Lee Hyunjin’s shoulder.

Lee Hyunjin repeatedly opened and closed his lips with a difficult-to-describe, extremely burdensome expression, struggling to speak.

How was he supposed to explain this? As he was blocked at that point, unable to voice a word, Lucretia became even more assertive.

“Come on, quickly, Hyunjin. Are there any specific conditions? I’ll cooperate with anything, so let’s join forces. With two people’s magic, we can surely eliminate this demon.”

“……”

“I’ll help you adjust to anything you’re not used to, so… quickly, alright? The situation is like this now, but ordinarily, cooperation between Awakeners is the right path.”

Lucretia said this, even glaring displeasedly at Eileen.

Lee Hyunjin scratched his cheek, then after a brief pause, looked back at Cheon Soyul.

And he asked with his eyes.

‘Can I?’

Cheon Soyul chuckled and replied.

‘Looks like you want to? Look at your face.’

‘No, it’s not necessarily that, but…’

‘Why, are you starting to wonder how soft the famous Saintess-nim’s body is?’

Cheon Soyul’s lips curled into a crooked smile, and Lee Hyunjin hastily cleared his throat.

“……*Ahem*.”

“Haa.”

Soon, Cheon Soyul sighed and returned her expression to normal. Then, she turned her head coyly and mumbled softly.

“……Just do it once and be done with it.”

She uttered words of permission.

Lee Hyunjin flinched greatly and rolled his eyes, and the atmosphere around the two began to loosen up, becoming warmer.

“……Finish what?”

And Lucretia tilted her head with an utterly innocent expression.

Before long, called out separately and informed of the truth of his characteristic, she froze completely.

“W-wha-what, wha-what……”

Lucretia’s small face turned completely red in contrast to her white hair, and she let out a bewildered voice, while Lee Hyunjin awkwardly scratched his cheek.

“Are you really going to do it?”

“……”

Lucretia’s face crumpled into a tearful expression, and she tightly clutched her chest with both arms.

Her expression was one of distress, but she couldn’t bring herself to utter a word of refusal.