The Foreigner on the Periphery

The moment he opened the basement door, Minjun witnessed an awkward scene – an alien priest sitting on the cold floor. He was meditating while sitting cross-legged. Perhaps he was praying… 

This was a common sight so far. However, was there a priest praying with the TV on? Why was it turned on… Was it an Orc mating entertainment? It was also notorious for its violence and sensationalism. 

‘What? Is that self-discipline training?’ 

He wondered if he was doing mental training to overcome any temptation or obstruction, like archers training in archery in a ballpark full of spectators. A judge named Yuntus was in a state of trance and did not even know that Minjun had entered. He then checked to see if he was out of fluid, but luckily, the soul was well inside the body. 

Flicking one’s finger often changed the density of the air. This was because it wasn’t just a sound. He felt his concentration break naturally, and Yuntus opened his eyes. In addition to this, when he found Minjun, he began to tremble and tighten his body. Minjun asked, pointing to the screen. “Does that help with training?” 

= Yes! of course. I can’t understand the language… but look at how enthusiastic everyone is. Looking at it reminds me of the past. With a proud heart, I started praying without realizing it. It felt like I had to go back to the beginning. = 

It was an alumni response as well as an unusual confession. At the same time, on the screen, men were fighting over one beautiful Orc. Ah, among the veterans who participated in the war, she looked just like a woman who broke a marble table in order to wield it. 

Did you live like that in the past? 

‘I wasn’t a normal person.’ 

Minjun decided not to be curious about anything anymore. He then conveyed the purpose that came down while leaving the past of Yuntus buried. The high priest of Ellahu-Praga then awakened the powers of nightmares. The ability to go to the place where the original race slept and gather talents while at the same time dyeing their dreams terribly. 

Minjun then demanded that he use that power on himself, here and now. He was evidently trying some sort of sleep hypnosis therapy. 

=Of course you can.= 

“Then let’s do it right away.” 

Since Yuntus was not in a state where his divine power was on runaway mode like the Patriarch, it seemed better to try while sleeping. Minjun started a fire and disinfected the slime bed used by Ha Eun-seong. During his stay here, the scale marks were clear, indicating that he and the water were one. After he was ready, he then lay his body down. 

=Then, let’s begin.= 

The moment the light lit from the judge’s hand, Minjun plunged himself into the swamp of Suma (睡魔). 

*** 

“Sister, I’m here.” 

“Are you? Sit down and wait. I’m almost done with what I’m doing now.” 

A few days after returning to Germany, Ha Eun-seong ended up getting invited by Cathy. It was an offer that could not be refused at all, to have lunch or a simple meal together. It was because he was already suffering from withdrawal symptoms after staying abroad. 

Ha Eun-seong became happy as he smelled the scent that filled the kitchen. Cathy was cooking while holding the blessings of mankind, so as not to go against her expectations. 

“What is all that in the hallway?” He was referring to the heaps of paper piled up. Most appeared to be unopened envelopes. 

The landlord frowned and replied, “I will throw it all away. Because it is overseas mail, it is cumbersome to return it.”

A visit to the Rare of the Sea Dragon in Germany led to an unexpected situation. The Dafins, a member of the dragon family who saw a beauty capable of living on both amphibians, started sending multiple letters after that day. The contents were almost identical as if they had been copied, and ended with a sentence such as ‘I want to be your keeper.’ 

‘No… even if I say that I’m in love…’

“Okay, I think it’s done.” 

The first plate was tenderloin seasoned with mandarin sauce. Ha Eun-seong soon forgot all of the agony that had been tormenting his head these days. He immediately dug in, and Cathy went back to her fire instead of sitting next to him. The fragrant sound of boiling oil resounded like music. Today’s theme seemed to be Chinese food. 

‘Wow, that big fish goes in.’ 

Ha Eun-seong, who was watching the cooking, suddenly had a question. ‘But was that frying pan really that big?’ 

“Can I ask you something? Regarding Germany.” Ha Eun-seong was the only person invited today. Another person who could give an answer was because one was stuck at home these days and did not come out. He seemed to have forgotten what he was worried about, even sealing the frying pan, and was evidently doing well with Cathy, but he couldn’t help but worry. “What the hell happened while I was underwater in Bremanhaven?” 

As he knew, the goal of this job was to secure Jochaim’s life, but on his return home, he was not accompanied by a priest. However, that didn’t mean the mission had failed. 

He then asked Minjun, but he kept his mouth shut saying he would tell him later, and Ha Eun-seong, who was found to be complicated because of the thought of a murderer, also declined to comment. “Ah, that’s it…” 

Ha Eun-seong didn’t even have the confidence to explain what he had seen and heard there, and he knew that it shouldn’t be. This was because Minjun emphasized secrecy. To be honest, he didn’t even understand all the conversations between the priests and Minjun. 

However, the word “committee” was clearly understood. It was an organization that was quite difficult to know even if one was not interested in the world outside the Earth. He then found himself bewildered. No, wasn’t that person an agent hired in Korea? 

However, why were they talking about working for aliens? Ha Eun-seong’s astonishment did not stop there. For some reason, the judges, who were in the midst of arguing and fighting, suddenly appeared to worship Minjun like a god.

‘I thought he wasn’t an ordinary person, but…’ 

Come to think of it, he didn’t know anything about Minjun’s background. And so, he felt even more anxious. Not only was he in touch with the alien alliance, but the fearsome person who instantly turned the clergy who had been fighting fiercely a while ago into followers… 

The reality was that he treated himself as a slave. Ha Eun-seong answered the question with another question. “Hey… You’re quite rich, aren’t you?” 

Cathy avoided an immediate answer. “Why are you asking that?” 

“Is that the secret to doing other jobs besides being a contract agent? Like a two-job or a three-job.” 

After all, the attitude of civilized people in the 21st century to naturally treat people like slaves was also strange. The boldness of declaring someone to be private property, leaving the race, felt like the words and deeds of a person who had been repeating the same thing for many years. However, if one were to say that it was a place where such pre-modern acts took place in modern Korea… 

“Isn’t it like being engaged in salt farm slavery as a side job?” 

“Ah, Minjun-san, I hate that kind of thing.” 

“Yeah… It’s strange.”

Ha Eun-seong, who had turned away, suffered from Cathy’s persistence. In the end, he couldn’t stand it and began to tell an adapted version of the story. 

“What. So… in the end, you’re saying that the priest Minjun was aiming for died on the spot, right? Didn’t he find the patriarch’s body?” Minjun had asked Cathy to share only the stories that would be known to the public. Knowing too much could put her at risk. After all, he didn’t know now where the source of that threat could be. 

As she recounted her story, Cathy tilted her head. “It’s kind of weird that such a high priest would die with only his arm cut off… Would that be excessive bleeding?” 

Even if it was impossible for her to regenerate or reattach according to her common sense, her wounds should have healed right away. 

= She probably lost faith. = The frying pan she was holding interrupted the conversation. 

“What do you mean?” 

Knowing that he had started a conversation with the blessing of mankind, Ha Eun-seong concentrated on food again, all while thinking that the government should distribute one of those treasures per household. 

= I don’t know what happened in Germany, but my belief in a divine existence was shaken or unsettled. There are many cases of priests losing their divine power because of that. = 

Cathy found this surprising. “Okay? It’s not that I’m actually a convert or insulting God… If I just change my mind, do I lose my ability?” 

= This is the singularity of divine power. It is also the basis for claiming that that power is not God’s grace. Scholars who think so believe that the secret of divine power lies in the brain, not in the gods. Thinking (思考) determines power, that is, the brain determines it. = 

“Have I said something similar before?” 

= Yes. In the human example, remember that religious thinking is associated with the brain regions responsible for the pleasure response? It is the story of that school that the emotion stimulated then affects the divine power. If you are interested in this topic, I have a book to recommend. Please read Faith and Divinity: A Brain Science Perspective, by Norche O’Mara, religious scholar and biologist of Dimension #91-565. The content is quite substantial, but I don’t know if it has been translated to Earth. In any case, they claim, the moment one loses faith, the corresponding opposite would happen in their brain. And so, one would lose divine power. = 

Cathy tilted her head. “But people don’t think religiously 24 hours a day. Just because I don’t think of God doesn’t mean I lose this ability.” 

=What they pay attention to is not when they don’t think about God, but on the brain activity that occurs when they stop believing in God. I remember an interesting part of the book I read. To take the human example again, when they feel distrust, the forebrain insula is activated on both sides. But the process is said to be very similar to the reaction when you feel a certain emotion. = 

“What is that feeling?” 

The frying pan answered shortly. =Hate.=

 *** 

“So… that slender woman fell down right after Kwak Do-chul attacked? Is this the story?” 

“Yes, that’s right.” 

The chief, who rushed to the scene, sighed in disbelief. Park Jeongpal looked at him with a calm expression. Orc detectives and vigilantes, who witnessed the murder of the person being protected in front of them about ten minutes ago, immediately responded with fire and tried to subdue the criminal. 

However, it turned out that there was no need. The wife, who brutally murdered her husband, fell to the ground in a picturesque and elegant pose. Right after that… 

– Aaaaaaaaaah! 

The mournful screams continued. The woman dropped her sword to the floor and screamed frantically as she looked at her well-drained blood and her husband’s body. It was a bizarre scene in which she screamed in horror, even though she was the one who had committed the crime in the first place. 

– Whoops! 

Like a marionette with a broken thread, the woman fell. Jeongpal, who immediately ran and handcuffed her, witnessed an even more bizarre situation. “Her arm and her leg bones were completely broken.” 

“I heard the story.” 

“Her exposed skin turned purple and puffy. It was like internal bleeding.” 

Jeongpal began to point out one more thing. “By the way, that movement before she fell, it wasn’t something an ordinary person could see. More than any other weapon master I’ve ever seen…” 

The chief laughed bitterly. According to the documents, she was not a person who was supposed to be born with this ability, However, because she was born with a weak body, she was often in and out of the hospital.  

Pointing out that part, the chief scoffed at him. “You have to inflate in moderation for fear that you haven’t done your job properly.” 

Kwak Do-chul died while Jeongpal had been protecting him. It meant that it was a ploy to avoid pointing out work negligence by overestimating the criminal. Anyway, if one were to look at the black box and CCTV, it would all be revealed. 

If one were to get angry here, he would have to risk his position. However, Jeongpal did not fall for the trick. It was to avoid such bullshit. The perpetrator had been taken to the hospital under police supervision, but the most important evidence to take first ended up getting thrown away. 

The sword that fell to the ground made a sound. 

Whoa! Whoa! Of course, a healthy sword did not resonate alone. 

“When is the agent coming?” Cutting a person’s neck cleanly was a more difficult task than one might think. He didn’t know if it was a subtle move like Jeongpal’s testimony, but it was not unusual for an ordinary individual to do such a thing anyway. Due to this line of thinking, they decided not to touch the sword. 

After all, they didn’t know if there was any curse on it. For example, in the kind where the person holding it was engulfed in madness and then self-destructed. For that reason, he was waiting for a contract agent of the National Police Agency to appear. 

“Chief, you have arrived now.”

The wizard who finally appeared on the scene looked at the sword and said: “What, did you just call me in the middle of the night just for this? I also knew that someone was going to die right away. I have a lot of fears.” 

At this, he grumbled and swore some more. “Looking at it, it’s not a sealed soul, it’s a low-quality product with cheap artificial intelligence embedded in it, right? There is no reaction to my spirit detection magic.” 

“Then what about a curse?” 

“No, there’s nothing like that. At the very least, nothing has a basic secondary magic applied on it.” 

The chief nodded. “I’m just saying that the knife wasn’t the reason we were looking for.”

Only then did the forensics team come to collect the evidence. The chief looked away from there and looked at reporters competing for coverage outside the police line. He frowned. “Look at them bustling around like a flock of dogs.” 

It was not uncommon to hear gunshots and screams echoing through residential neighborhoods in the middle of the night. There was no way that so many people would come just because of that, and it was clear that information had gotten leaked in the middle. 

The media must have been anxious when such an incident occurred in the meantime. The chief frowned at Jeongpal. “Pray that your girlfriend has been cursed badly in order to cover the mistake that had blown the famous actor right in front of your eyes. Let the media smell it.”

The chief was dissatisfied with Jeongpal, who was an Orc, and refused to obey him. Jeongpal decided to chew instead of putting it on fire. Then the boss tried to throw another word… Whoops! 

“···Huh?” 

The chief didn’t say anything more. The murmur over the police line also ceased for a moment. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the wizard who had been judging the sword. 

He then looked down with a bewildered expression. A sharp blade had suddenly pierced through his abdomen. Crazy! As if the protective amulet hidden under his clothes had been pierced through as well, sparks flew around the blade and blue flames flew out. 

“Ahhhhhhh!”

A brief shriek broke out among the reporters but was soon drowned out by the sound of a flashlight. Each one clearly captured the event that had just happened with a camera and eyes. 

“Hey, that’s crazy… Get that bastard!” The forensic team investigator who pulled out the long sword with one swooping motion merely smiled faintly.